What's New: songwriting, screenwriting, community activism!

My name is Zorah Staar, and I'm a SONGWRITER who makes RADICALLY UPLIFTING MULTI-SPIRIT MUSIC (honouring many paths to the same Greater Spirit - MP3 MUSIC SAMPLES BELOW).

A big "What's New" for me is a new level of ACTIVISM, as I coordinate a group to help my community take meaningful action on peak oil, climate change, and other worldwide challenges.

But art can help change the world too, so I'm also a SCREENWRITER and winner of the 2009 "Spirit of Moondance" award for Best Musical Feature Screenplay (from the Moondance International Film Festival of Boulder, Colorado).

The name of this wild new spiritual musical is "THE GODDESS BUBBLE". First came the successful live theatre show (see poster at right/above), then a soundtrack CD, and now the screenplay for a movie-to-be. What's the story?

It's like "Avatar" meets "Mama Mia", but in real life! and on a freaky rainforest island in the Pacific Northwest. A desperate city woman (called "V") washes up in this magically-real world, and if she survives her deadly pursuers, she'll help her new friends save the earth.

Who's waiting for V...? on a luminous green island of giant trees (now on the razor's edge of devastation, like our entire climate). V's tough edges bump up hard against this community of young/old, freaky/quirky islanders (also fierce singers and dancers - it's a musical after all). Then Conrado (a tree-loving forester, originally from Ecuador) stumbles into V. So begins the dance of these two deeply wounded spirits, along with Conrado's journey of conscience. There's another even more damaged man (nicknamed "J.J."), an environmentalist? but from the same dirty streets as V. His tormented pursuit of her began long ago, and now he's on the island too, much closer to exploding than giving up.

Yet magic is everywhere... stormy ocean, midnight beach, even at the mini-mall or rundown pub of this loving community. Ancient nature ones, intertwined He/She/Spirits of all that is... pull V into a mystically healing, BUBBLE universe... and MUSIC (chanting, soaring, radically uplifting pop and rock) is leading her home. But no home is safe, when you're also fighting deadly spirit shadows of your past, AND the machines of some psychopaths who would blindly use up every resource on earth. Here it's the TRUFOR logging corporation... desperately faced down by a tiny band of island warriors, in one of the fiercest onscreen battles for nature since "Avatar" (albeit a small-budget one, with mere humans involved).

Against such insane worldwide odds, where is the courage, and the LOVE... big enough to help V, or Conrado, or any of us? How do we transition beyond a global nightmare of resources running out, climate change, and systems crashing down into chaos? SPIRIT. Nature, Human, and Greater Spirits... all connected. When the people in "The Goddess Bubble" act from THAT - from their biggest-loving-connected self, their REAL avatar - THEN they have the fire and the resilience, to help transform their community and our world.

Anyone wanting more info about my screenplay can contact me at (250) 629-3825 or email cmzs(at)shaw.ca (replace "at" with @). And as for the music, here are some excerpts...

MP3's OF SONG EXERPTS FROM
"THE GODDESS BUBBLE" MUSICAL & CD:
"Isis, Astarte, Buddha, Jesus" - radical, many-spirit, chanting dance-pop (also from Oliver Swain & others),
"Pagan and Proud" - a bit of bouncier "pagan pop",
"The Goddess Blew A Bubble" - from the soaring, symphonic finale,
"Just a Tree" - a save-the-earth rocker (wait for it), and
"Jesus Bids Us Shine" - Jesus welcomed into the world of the musical!

All five of these songs are on my latest 20-song "THE GODDESS BUBBLE" CD (available at Buy a CD). My earlier "pagan pop" CD is also still available for sample listening or purchase.

Blessed be to all you sparks out there, busy loving and transforming our world, with special thanks to those who played a role in the creation of "The Goddess Bubble" CD and/or live show! (listed below)

CD CREDITS: Please note that in addition to Zorah Staar's work, the "Goddess Bubble" CD also includes the amazing talents of Oliver Swain, Dana McConchie, Alan Neil, Tracey Gillespie, Serena Van Bakel and Charlie Knowles, as well as (with permission) versions of the well-known "Isis, Asarte/She Changes Everything" chants written by spiritual inspirations, Deena Metzger, Caitlin McMullin, and Starhawk (the unearthly singing above the chants is by Oliver Swain).

LIVE SHOW CREDITS: Here (with a little "over the credits" song dedicated to them, "Forget What You Were"), are the people who volunteered so much time and energy to help workshop and/or create the 2006 live theatre version of the musical (called "The Goddess Blew a Bubble") - most importantly first Director and Editor Bronwen Merle, and also the following: Jeff Hyslop, Pam Connolly, Mo Cordes, Jamie Church, Robert Dill, Kelly Dine, Jane Dix, Megan Fisher, Allie George, Colleen Fitz-Gerald, Maureen Glazer, Tracey Gillespie, Loralee Gower, Colin Hamilton, Petra Hartt, Julie Johnston, Mary-Ellen Kroetsch, Sophia Keim, Mani Lang, Jacquie Main, Leslie McBain, Kathy McIntyre, Yvonne MacKenzie, Rick McMullen, Dana McConchie, Kathy Newcomb, Greg Nicholls, Jaime Nicholson, Bev O'Sullivan, Michael Pelletier, Ursula Poepel, Al Powelson, Jay Raichura, Gordon Resvick, Kathleen Resvick, Tania Schissler, Fay Schwartz, Mo Searle, Ethan Smith, Wendy Soares, Coo Souten, Drennan Trelford, Susan Trice, Serena Van Bakel, Keith Watt, Lynne Wells, Alan White, the Pender Solstice Theatre Society, the Victoria Foundation, and Spirit/Goddess/God, co-creator of all!