About "Rock On, Genghis Khan"

I wrote most of the lyrics for "Rock On, Genghis Khan" the summer of 2006, sitting on the beach at Grafton Lake in upstate, NY.  Even earlier, iin Seattle circa 2004, I had drafted the initial ideas, and some of the libretto, as I prepared to spend a month in Kazan, Russia that winter. My head had been filled with noise from immersing myself in Tatar history and culture, as I would be hosted by Tatar artists and composers during my work abroad. Arranging my thoughts into a form I had never worked in -- a rock opera - somehow made sense. But I wouldn't return to working on it again until two years later, when I was living on the east coast. By the end of 2006, the first act was workshopped a couple of times, with large-scale puppets and dancers, and one of the performances also included a five-piece band. My partner Tim Castellani and I had, over a period of just 3 months, put my lyrics to music, created staging and puppets specific for those performances, worked with a dancer/choreographer, recorded demo-versions of the songs in our home studio, and put together a band. While a second act had never been formalized, I was, for all purposes at the time, done with that project. Yet, two years later, in 2008, "Rock On" resurfaced.  While it had been staged with puppets, I had always felt it had other possibilities, including illustration as a comic book.  In yet another increment of 2 years, at this writing, we are pleased to present what has come of this project - a chapter/montage of this tale, illustrated by Daniel Harlow during an internship with Status Hat Productions in 2009.  We offer you on this site, the illustrated version of "Rock On...", the original soundtrack, the lyrics, and some additional background materials to this project, including additional artists, musicians and others who have worked on this project with us since it's earlier form(s).

- Carli Castellani, June 28, 2010