REB+VoDKa+ME

This past weekend we got to return to the world of REB+VoDKa+ME after far too long for a quick two day workshop in the Manhattan School of Music Musical Theatre Lab Series with a few new songs and brand new group of amazing actors!

The workshop featured Lucy Ames, Hallie August, Timothy Bevens, Cory Brooks, Maithili Ginde, Carina Gravante, Callie Anna Henrysen, Ayla Gittelman Ipek, Gigi Mechetti, Teyla McAdoo, Sammi Pillow, Kenneth Sweeney, and Yoyo Zhou, directed by the wonderful Madsie Flynn with music direction, as always, by Rich Silverstein.

Thanks to Aaron Riccardi and Liza Gennaro for this opportunity to revisit this project. I’m hopeful that we’ll be back in this world again soon!

We were lucky enough to spend the fall working on REB+VoDKa+ME with the senior class of Penn State’s Musical Theatre program over Zoom. Led by director John Simpkins and music director Jennifer Peacock, it was an exciting chance to dive deep into the show. It was lovely to hear the songs sung again, but it was also an amazing opportunity to talk through the story and the characters as we approach some new rewrites, especially without the pressure of polishing the work for a presentation. It’s so rare to get to listen and think and talk in these settings (29 hours doesn’t allow for much more than music learning on musicals) and it was such a gift to have the chance to do so with actors Aidan Cole, Amanda Drewes, Jasmine Forsberg, Elexa Hanner, Will Jewett, Jake Pedersen, Caitlin Stebelman, Becca Suskauer, and Kate Wild. I’m hopeful that someday we’ll get to be in the same room as all of these folks!