REB+VoDKa+ME

29 posts

OPERA America

My wonderful collaborator Julia was one of eight composers award a Discovery Grant for Female Composers by OPERA America to support further development of REB+VoDKa+ME! We are so excited and honored that our show has been recognized in the opera world, especially in the company of friends and colleagues. We can’t wait to dive back into our theatrical Tumblr over the next year! Check back here for more updates as planning gets underway…

Read a little bit more about both the organization and the grant:

OPERA America draws on resources and expertise from within and beyond the opera field to advance a mutually beneficial agenda that serves and strengthens the field through programs in the following categories: creation, presentation and enjoyment. The association provides members with an array of publications and online resources, regional workshops, an annual conference and network-specific services such as conference calls, listservs and direct contact with staff with expertise in opera production, administration and education. OPERA America provides members with tools to maximize the effectiveness of financial and human resources, expand the scope of repertoire and programs, and extend their reach to new and diverse audiences. Founded in 1970, OPERA America has an international membership that includes nearly 150 Professional Company Members, 300 Associate and Business Members, 2,000 Individual Members and over 16,000 subscribers to its electronic news service.

OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program provides financial assistance to identify, support, and help develop the work of female composers writing for the operatic medium, raising their visibility and promoting awareness of their compositions to the field. Funding for this program is provided by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Program for Commissioning Women in the Performing Arts.

While you wait for more information, you can always tide yourself over by listening to the new complete demo!

REB+VoDKa+DEMO, part 2!

The entirety of (the current draft of) REB+VoDKa+ME is now recorded. Give it a listen!

This combines our two sessions with 24 amazing singers:

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, Allison Posner, Katie Rodgers, Daniel Saulle, Libby Servais, Rich Silverstein, and Emily Walton…

Plus our two amazing engineers, Chris Gilroy and Andrew Zinsmeister!

A peek at REB+VoDKa+ME!

If you didn’t get to see the NYU workshop of REB+VoDKa+ME in person, take a look at the wonderful production photos by Sub/Urban Photography.

The Perfect Day
Holly Gould
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Back in the studio!

Holly Gould & Allison Lian

Julia and I went back into the studio with the cast of our REB+VoDKa+ME NYU workshop over the last few weeks to record the rest of the score! It was great to extend our time with these amazing students, and we’re so excited to have the whole score recorded. Thanks to Chris Gilroy and Mighty Toad Studios for having us back in Brooklyn. And thanks to Rich Silverstein for guiding us all through this epic score, as always. Be on the lookout for mixed tracks sometime in early 2018!

REB+VoDKa+LOVE!

Back row: Cast members Lily Lester, Jackie Colquitt, Adam Lawrence & Jack Brinsmaid, Lighting Designer Charlotte Seelig, Me, Dramaturg Megan McClain, Director Ben Kamine; Middle row: Cast members Sam Paley, Katie Rodgers, Jessica Fisher, Danny Saulle & Angelina Kelly, and Composer Julia Meinwald; Front row: Choreographer Tara Forseth, Cast members Allie Lian & Holly Gould, Music Director Rich Silverstein; Not pictured: Cast member Angela Pardini-Gomez, Set Designer BP Houle, Costume Designer Lux Haac, Stage Manager Lindsay Kipnis, ASM Tara King, Sound Designer Neal Goleta, and Production Coordinator Brandon Anderson.

The workshop of REB+VoDKa+ME at NYU that performed this past weekend was one of the most intensely rewarding experiences I’ve had as a writer.

It’s been a little over 3 years since I sent Julia links to these two related articles and was like “Don’t think I’m a scary person but could this be our next musical?” and she basically said “You’re not scary and yes.” Two years ago, we started writing the show with director Ben Kamine in R&D Group, led by dramaturg-extraordinaire Megan McClain. A year-and-a-half ago Rich Silverstein came on board when we shared our first 16 songs from the show in public. And five months ago we finished a first draft of the script.

And this weekend the show was given a fully designed and produced workshop staging with a cast of amazing juniors and seniors from the New Studio on Broadway at NYU/Tisch. To call this opportunity a gift is an understatement – we wrote a show that doesn’t exist in a physical space and by not being bound by music stands we were able to learn more than we ever could have imagined about our work.

Much credit for that goes to our amazing creative and design team (partially pictured here) for helping us to develop our own world and our own physical language to make the 90-minutes of the show a complete thought.

And we could never have seen our work as fully as we were able to without the willingness, openness, depth, and hard work of the twelve students in the cast. They navigated this technically, musically, and emotionally complex piece with the kind of grace and heart we couldn’t have imagined when we first had the idea three years ago.

Immense thanks are due to Kent Gash, Sarah Schlesinger, and Brandon Anderson for inviting us into this collaborative process. Be on the lookout for some production photos in the near future!