Hi, all:
Figured I would throw in my few cents about the evening tonight at Ars Nova --- was taking notes for an article/potential doc project/scene, so I grabbed some choice quotes:
BTW --- I heart the Ars Nova space in a big way & was reminded of that tonight.
The evening started out with questions about the show's creation and how the cast related to their characters/their high school experiences. First nifty fact of the night: Damon wrote all the music before the lyrics. I found that intriguing, anyway. He hesitated to call the show autobiographical, though definitely saw elements of himself in it, as he imagined all storytellers do.
Each of the cast then shared little anecdotes about H.S. & their upbringing...each one also mentioned how they related quite often to Nadia the most when looking back at H.S. (Damon, espeially), which was nifty, and led to a great quote from Natalie: "We've all had those moments, 'I'm 30 pounds overweight', 'my nose is too big', 'I'm not black enough', the last point prompting a sheepish hand raise from Michael.
Jenna then touched some more on the fact that people equate her with Ivy offstage sometimes, a testament perhaps to how great she does the part, even though she is in reality (proven tonight, as well as from many I've spoken to) that she really is a doll in person.
Then came what, IMO, proved to be the most interesting part of the evening, where they talked about the differences between doing the show in LA and NY. From the long discussion that followed, one really got a sense of just how tremendous and personal the experience of the show has been for Damon and Kristin, as they talked about all the chaos of the early LA work, actually painting and cleaning the theatre it would run in, and how LA theatre is a bit more experimental and creative in nature, as it's not as tremendous a part of the economy as NY, making for more creativity potential amongst the groups of actors who work there. Jenna also mentioned how they were paid $12 a performance (!), illustrating the point that people who do theatre out there really do it b/c they love it. Some really terrific stuff.
Natalie then talked about her cyst & the surgery she had on it, and told a horribly funny anecdote about how she had Adam Fleming slam a huge prop Bible on it during the spring in an effort to make it go away...needless to say, all it did was cause tremendous pain and screaming, prompting another quotable quote from Michael: "That's all we do backstage at 'Bare'. Hit each other with books."
They then chatted a bit about some changes & the new opening number, which Damon said was quite 'cinematic' in nature, and he's quite excited about it...Natalie pointed out her roommate in the audience and delightfully embarrassed her by telling how she makes her play 'Role of a Lifetime' many times and sing along, b/c she adores Michael and his voice (it was a great moment)...drawing a bit of a blank for now, will look over notes for more, because I think there were a few other things of note...lots of interesting tech talk for people interested in how the music happens in the show, which I'll post about later.
All in all, a really terrific evening (and a nice, lighthearted follow up to the show I saw earlier that day, 'Guantanamo', which I'm putting another thread about soon...if you haven't seen it and are curious at all, GO! It's very draining, though).
Hope you enjoyed.
-Joe T.
Laughing is a tonic. So forget crying. Cry, and you cry alone. Laugh and you...cry alone later. And remember --- always breathe. Even if I stop, you keep breathing out there, alright?
