Updates

10 posts

Twenty twenty.

Updates

This certainly wasn’t the year that I was planning! But it was still a year of returns (Pregnancy Pact! Diversionary Theatre! Weston Playhouse!) and new beginnings (Havisham! Lots of video and animation! These Familiar Spirits! Zoom…) In the midst of all of the anxiety and loss and upheaval and stasis, I count myself as incredibly lucky.

And I am especially lucky to have spent the year working with so many of my forever favorite people and brand new favorite people: Bryan Banville, Ally Bonino, Nancy Renée Braun, Aidan Cole, Michael Cusamano, Jennifer Daly, Catie Davis, Sarah DeMarino, Amanda Drewes, Maddie Dyer, Mark Evans, Hannah Ford, Jasmine Forsberg, Josie Gerk, Natasha Harris, Elexa Hanner, Sam Heldt, Victoria Huston-Elem, Mary Jardine, Will Jewett, Tiana Monique Jung, MinJi Kim, Kylie Lavrenchik, Adam Lawrence, Patrick Marion, Ryan Mazer, David Merino, Chanel Morehead, Matt Morrow, Elexis Morton, Alannah O’Hagan, Jennifer Peacock, Jake Pedersen, Cuinlan Pedretti, Jeanna Phillips, Caroline Reinstadtler, Karl Saint Lucy, Scottie Schwefel, John Simpkins, Caitlin Stebelman, Gabrielle Stravelli, Becca Suskauer, Annie Tippe, Emily Walton, Tatiana Wechsler, Kate Wild, Ruby Zinner, and Andy Zinsmeister.

I’m looking forward to the moment in 2021 when I can finally sit in a room with other people. I can’t wait to hear live voices. I can’t wait to laugh with my collaborators. I can’t wait to have a moment of realization or inspiration or catharsis in a room with those who inspire it. Here’s to hope!

REB+VoDKa+ME+STRINGS

REB+VoDKa+ME Updates

The final piece of Julia’s Discovery Grant from OPERA America for REB+VoDKa+ME was the funding to record both the newest material written for the show and to record Julia’s beautiful new string orchestrations. I’m so excited to share this updated demo, especially on the fifth anniversary of the crazy day that inspired our show.

Thanks to engineer Chris Gilroy, violinist Saki Uetsuhara, cellist Brian Sanders and the phenomenal singers we’ve worked with over the past 3 years: Delaney Amatrudo, Matthew Berzon, Ally Bonino, Jack Brinsmaid, Jackie Colquitt, Jessica Fisher, Holly Gould, Hanako Greensmith, Sam Heldt, Angelina Kelly, Kelsey Lake, Adam Lawrence, Lily Lester, Allison Lian, Evan Maltby, Lauren Marcus, Elexis Morton, Matthew Oster, Sam Paley, Angela Pardini-Gomez, Jeanna Phillips, Allison Posner, Katie Rodgers, Daniel Saulle, Libby Servais, Rich Silverstein, and Emily Walton.

A magnificent first table reading!

Readings The Magnificent Seven Updates

We have a full draft!

And Julia and I gathered a wonderful group of friends and collaborators together to hear the entirety of The Magnificent Seven for the first time.

Thanks to Shaleah Adkisson, Renee Albulario, Delaney Amatrudo, Ian Axness, Ally Bonino, David Friedlander, Holly Gould, Brandon Michael Lowden, Ellen Macy, Lynne Marie Rosenberg, Keith Rubin, and Hana Slevin for a great read and a great discussion.

I’m so excited to get down to work based on the wonderful feedback I already did some rewriting… (And USA Gymnastics is certainly trying hard to keep the sport in the collective consciousness.)

For now, though, it was the perfect way to cap off a creative summer!

A Decade of Collaboration

Other Stuff Updates

Ten years ago today, I sent Julia an email.

We’d written a few songs together at warp speed after grad school that we both liked. So when my friend Jeremy Gold Kronenberg told me he was looking for a short musical to direct for Prospect Theater Company but only had 6 weeks to develop it, I asked Julia if she might want to apply our speed songwriting skills to a full project. We cranked out a 35 minute musical and loved what we wrote together. So when I read an article the next month about a group of high school girls in Gloucester, Massachusetts who were rumored to have made a pact to get pregnant together, I asked Julia if she thought it might be our first full-length musical.

Now we’re getting ready to start our seventh full-length musical next month while we’re out of town rehearsing for the world premiere of another show. And in the intervening decade we’ve been lucky enough to build a network of actors, singers, musicians, directors, designers, and friends to help us explore limitless empathy, terrible decision-making, building legacies, and growing up.

Here’s to what’s to come in the next 10 years of our collaboration!