Since we first looked to the stars, folks around the globe have wondered if there’s life outside our own planet. Patrick Pesek-Herriges’ new musical, YOLUS: Aliens on Artok, grapples with the idea that life on another planet doesn’t look too different from ours. It opens at the Menomonie Theatre Guild July 26.  

The musical follows “aliens” on a spaceship called the Nautilus as they arrive on Yolus – “the planet of the wind” – where they find “aliens” who look human, though they have slight differences, said Kiara Carlson, who plays the character Lilla. 

“Both of them – let’s call them races – are human,” said Kory Stuemke, who plays Votrahn in the performance. “They call each other aliens because to both sides, they are.” 

“A reading/concert presentation asks the audience to imagine what the stage, set, costumes, blocking, and choreography might be. It’s an interactive process, inviting and engaging the imagination
of the audience.” – Patrick Pesek-Herriges, creator of YOLUS: Aliens on Artok

The musical features love, tragedy, and a thought-provoking storyline, and Menomonie-based playwright Patrick Pesek-Herriges said it’s the first time it will be staged. It will be performed in a reading/concert presentation, which means there are no costumes or fancy sets, and actors can have their scripts out. 

“A reading/concert presentation asks the audience to imagine what the stage set, costumes, blocking, and choreography might be,” Pesek-Herriges said. “It’s an interactive process, inviting and engaging the imagination of the audience.” 

It’s certainly no Star Wars or Star Trek, Stuemke said. The musical is intended to be mysterious and thought-provoking. 

Around the late ’90s and early 2000s, Pesek-Herriges started seriously working on what would become YOLUS. He wrote the music and the entire script, including around 28-29 songs, though he rewrote a few songs written by his sons, Greg and Chris Herriges. 

As a member of the Take 2 Quartet, a four-piece jazz ensemble, Pesek-Herriges has experience with composition. In addition to writing songs for the musical, Pesek-Herriges said he did his fair share of research on various topics that influenced the writing of the musical. He invented an Artok language “on the fly,” as he has picked up on generic sounds from around the world that have the same meaning. At the end of the script, he even added a bibliography for all of the sources that influenced the creation of the musical. 

Pesek-Herriges asked experienced members of the Menomonie Theater Guild to help him put on the performance, since they would only have the month of June to learn their parts and the month of July to piece the performance together. 

“He’s trying to introduce it so it can become a bigger thing,” Carlson said. “It’s like a rough draft stage of someone’s development.” 

Stuemke said many of the performers in YOLUS are members of the Menomonie Theater Guild’s Hall of Fame. One of the requirements to be in the Hall of Fame is to be in at least 25 productions. 

Pesek-Herriges recommends the musical to those in middle school and above, he said, as there are some “science-based factoids,” and it asks audiences to consider complex ideas.  

Tickets for YOLUS: Aliens on Artok are available for purchase online at menomonietheaterguild.org. The performance is at 7pm on Friday, July 26. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors (over 55), students, and people in the military.