Readings Archives - Gordon Leary

Back to Flint!

After a three year delay, The Magnificent Seven will receive its world premiere at Flint Repertory Theatre from March 31-April 16, 2023!

I can’t wait to be back at Flint Rep (in the heart of gymnastics country) for the next incarnation of The Magnificent Seven. The theater (and the people who make it) have been so supportive and stuck with us through, you know, a global pandemic, and it means so much to go back to the place that heard it first. FULL CIRCLE!

Also full circle… It means so much to be working with director Catie Davis on this project. We were with her in the rehearsal room for Pregnancy Pact in the first week of March 2020 when we all realized just what was going on… And since that production never made it out of the rehearsal room it feels good and correct to be back together to see this one through!

Check out the full team below, and visit flintrep.org/the-magnificent-seven/ for more info and tickets.

Director: Catie Davis
Choreographer: Duane Lee Holland, Jr.
Music Director: Jeremy Robin Lyons
Scenic Design: Ann Beyersdorfer
Costume Design: Adam M. Dill
Lighting Design: Jake DeGroot
Sound Design: Matt Otto
Props Design: Miranda Sue Hartman
Stage Manager: Melissa A. Nathan
Assistant Stage Manager: Rebecca MacCreery

Something Blue in Ithaca

Readings Something Blue

Walking on Water Productions’ New Original Works Festival included readings of Something Blue! I’m so glad that we had the chance to return to this project for the first time since 2020 so that we could do some long-awaited rewriting.

It was lovely to get to present our work in Julia’s hometown of Ithaca, NY, and was especially lovely to work with some wonderful new friends and collaborators: director Sarah Plotkin, music director Jeremy Pletter, stage manager Quin Frederich, and actors Hannah Avery (Joelle), Seamus Buxton (Geoff), and Paul Morgan (Casey).

The show was presented November 6, 12 & 18 at the Cherry Artspace. The festival included readings of Extended Stay by Jenny Stafford & Scotty Arnold and Onward and Upward by Charlie Romano & Will Wegner.

Thanks to Priscilla Hummel for including our work in WoW’s festival!

REB+VoDKa+ZOOM

Readings REB+VoDKa+ME

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!

Something Blue at Diversionary

Readings Something Blue

I had a wonderful week back at San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre working on a reading of Something Blue! Julia and I were so happy to return to the theatre that produced the world premiere of The Loneliest Girl in the World and to have the opportunity to work with Artistic Director Matt Morrow and music director Patrick Marion once again.

It was a productive and intensely rewarding week thanks to the three stellar actors in the cast – Bryan Banville, Michael Cusimano, and Natasha Harris – who brought so much heart and pathos and humor to such a quick process.

We were also incredibly lucky to have set designer Justin Humphries consulting on the project, as well, giving us the chance to imagine how the musical lives in the space of a few cars and a few hotel rooms (and a lot of beds.)

Thanks to NAMT’s Frank Young Fund for New Musicals grant for making this wonderful week possible! We can’t wait to come back to Diversionary again soon.

HAVISHAM: An Annie Lennox Playlist

Readings

Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I know the exact day that I came up with an idea for the only jukebox musical I’d ever want to write:

And it’s only taken about six years, but I finally made the dream come true (only with a title change.) And thanks to the overwhelming talent and unmatched kindness of Karl Saint Lucy, Victoria Huston-Elem, Sam Heldt, and Ally Bonino I got to hear HAVISHAM: An Annie Lennox Playlist aloud for the first time this weekend!

The show is a through-sung 90 minutes that is purely Annie Lennox songs, with no dialogue and not a single word changed. It tracks Miss Havisham’s heartbreak and scheming to break Pip’s heart by using Estella, and in the end is a story of cycles of hurt and the power of forgiveness.

I have no idea what the next step could be – short of Annie herself loving the idea and giving me permission to use her catalogue, I don’t know how it works – but I’m very excited to have discovered what feels like a perfect match of songbook to story, and looking forward to seeing where this may lead!