The lowdown on Up With People

Kimberley McGee

Tuesday, Aug. 10, 1999 | 9:36 a.m.

All roads lead somewhere.

And the purpose of Up With People is to inspire the audience to join it on the path of peace in its new musical, aptly titled "Roads," which will be performed at the Sunset Station hotel-casino on Saturday.

"It's a positive, hopeful show about the future," says Ken Ashby, producing director and vice president of performing arts for UWP. "We hope (the audience) carries away hope for the future."

"Roads" takes place on a fictional international college campus. Throughout the two-hour show, more than 100 UWP members from around the world take part in the moral musical, which attempts to show the audience that despite differences -- whether economic, social, political or chronological -- -- the power of people working together can overcome any obstacle in the road of life.

"It has enduring themes and an international scope because the students come from all over world," Ashby says, adding that 40 percent of the cast is from the United States. "There are plenty of chances for all of us to be depressed with the way things are going in the world so we try to lead by example."

Up With People interviews candidates for a year-long tour in one of its five constantly running shows performed around the world. New members are given a six-week orientation, during which they learn the show they will perform week in and week out for the next year, as well as what is expected from them as an ambassador of goodwill.

"They are taught how to be hospitable (to a foreign host family)," Ashby says. "If the family wants to talk we teach them that it is important to communicate with them; let them know where you are going and when; to be respectful, understand that people are different; how to work through language difficulties."

The organization's premise is that the more familiar that people are with other cultures and the more tolerant they are of differences, the more a network of kindness will stretch around the world because, basically, we are all the same.

Ashby joined the group in the early 1970s at the age of 19.

"It's a great training ground," the successful writer/director/producer says. "(At the time) I knew I was interested in music but Up With People gave me the opportunity to see other sides of the entertainment business."

He learned to write music and produce shows, among other business and creative skills, which led him to the path he happily walks today.

The cheery group has been portrayed, not too kindly, in skits on "Saturday Night Live" and "In Living Color" as an out-of-touch happy cult. "There are misconceptions that we are a cult or religious or something because we are a big group and we are visible, so we come into contact with those sort of (comments)," he says.

That aside, he says that once in the group, most members do stay in contact because the bonds are so strong from the intense program -- working, living and playing together for a solid year.

"I've lived with families all over the world," he says. "I've lived with families that had dirt floors and families that were royalty, literally, but there are a lot of similarities in the people."

He, as have many members, has kept in contact over the years with some of his host families.

"We were traveling in Panama and I had learned the show in Spanish, but that's the only Spanish I knew, the songs," Ashby says. His host family didn't speak English. "I thought, 'What am I going to say?' and so I used the songs to communicate. I started piecing together a vocabulary from the songs."