MUSIC THEATRE SCENES

Now that I have caught up to all the theatre shows I did prior to starting this blog I would like to talk about music theatre scenes. Music theatre scenes or MTS was a music theatre class at SSU that I took five times. It was an elective class for anyone on campus, no matter their major or singing experience, and even community members. While I was taking Lynne Morrow’s vocal methods class, she brought us in to watch a rehearsal of that semester’s show. I decided to take it the following semester. Class times were always the same, Mondays and Fridays 1-3:40 with show dates always the Thursday and Saturday before finals week.

Lynne was the instructor of this class and Yvonne Wormer was always the accompanist.

SOPHOMORE YEAR, SPRING 2009

My first semester in music theatre scenes was different than how it was normally done. Usually the class would pick songs and then write an original show around those songs. But this semester, since many in the class were seniors about to graduate, Lynne did something new. We would pick songs, but sing as one would in a cabaret in order to gain performance experience. This allowed for more songs to be in the show, with some people getting many, with a few duets, group songs and a trio. I selected two songs: “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Spamalot. I also wanted to do “As Long as Your Mine,” from Wicked, but it didn’t happen.

The class was the largest that it ever was in all the times I took the class. It included Katie Foster, Ted Smith, John Browning, Meghan Howard, Chris Gonzalez, Xen Chen, Elise Siegel, Kelsey Mielle, Daniel Corpus, and Samantha Connelly, Kelly Dixon, and three others whose names I can’t remember.

The set for this show was the piano would be in the center with two chairs on either side. We would come out in groups of four and three and sit waiting for our songs. In group songs the group would come out alone and sing. The theme of this show was “Anything Goes” and that was the first song we sang in the show.

Over the course of about two months we were given a coaching session with Lynne and Yvonne. In one of my coaching sessions I came in after getting a head injury early that morning. As a result I was low energy that day. But I got through it. When the coaching sessions ended, we ran through the show every rehearsal until opening. With the song line-up, I had one song in both acts and both were fairly early in it.

I did not speak much to anyone else in the class. At the time I was still a shy, quiet person and I kept to myself. Yvonne would later recall that when she first met me no one could get two words out of me. In all honesty, I was even shier because I felt intimidated by the others in the class, virtually all of whose talents, experience and stage presence far exceeded my own. I was probably the least experienced there.

Opening night was memorable because it was the first time I sang with my parents listening. They were amazed that I was actually singing. My friend Christine, whom I would later meet in Fall of 2009, recalled later that she knew everyone in the show, except me. She thought "Here's this new guy and he's not too bad."

When I watched the performance later, I thought I sounded weird, and I felt that my two songs were mistakes. “Some Enchanted Evening” should really only be sung by someone with a classical voice and I felt I didn’t have the right type of voice for “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Other than that, there’s not much to tell other than that this was my first experience with performing in front of an audience.

For years afterward, my mother liked to tell the story of the first time she saw this. Specific details she could recall were the blue spotlight, the song "Some Enchanted Evening," and the feeling of amazement that I could sing.

JUNIOR YEAR, SPRING 2010

My second semester in the class was the first time I did any acting in the class. This semester we would be taking songs and the scenes from the show they were from and perform them. I think this was an excellent idea because this way you’d be the star of your scene and could support other scenes. I only got one song “I’m an Ordinary Man” from my favorite musical, My Fair Lady and I also did some singing in “No One is Alone” from Into the Woods. I also wanted to sing “If Ever I Would Leave You” from Camelot, but Lynne decided not to do it. Looking back, I don’t think I was ready for that yet. I do not remember what the theme of the show was.

The class included Katie Foster, Xen Chen, Kirsten Torkildson, Kelsey Mielle, Rio Nagle, Grace Evans and one other guy whose name I can’t remember.

I played a number of roles in various scenes, mostly “cute” roles including John in Peter Pan, a role in Pal Joey, and Jack in Into the Woods. My favorite scene was the Peter Pan scene because in that scene my costume was a set of comfy pajamas. I got the role in Pal Joey merely stepping in. The scene was with Kirsten who sang “Bewitched” and she was originally paired with Rio. Rio was absent one day and I stepped in to run the scene. Lynne liked how I did the role so much she gave it to me.

In my own scene I played chess with the person playing Colonel Pickering. I took great care to set up the board every night even making a diagram of all the moves, resulting in my win. I took the queen at the end of the song holding it up as I sang “I shall never let a woman in my life.” I never liked the scene from Into the Woods mostly because I don't particularly like that musical.

"I'm an Ordinary Man"

That semester was the last time the class was ever performed in Ives 119. In all future classes performances were across the hall in Warren Auditorium and rehearsals were in the new Green Music Center. The reason was because before the GMC was built the music and theatre departments shared Ives Hall, but with the GMC ready for classes, the theatre department took over Ives completely, converting 119 from a perfect concert space with acoustics to a rehearsal space for theatre shows.

SENIOR YEAR, FALL 2010

My senior year of college was the only time I did the class both semesters. 

This class included Stephanie Halbert, Heather Steffen, Grace Evans, Kirsten Torkildson, Katie Foster, Moe Capik, Emily Somple and Ted Smith.

This semester we did the same format as the previous one. The theme for the show was “Who am I? Who do I Appear to be?” I got two songs, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face” from My Fair Lady and “I Am What I Am” from La Cage Aux Folles. I like to think of this semester as my villain semester because I played some very despicable characters in other people’s scenes including Judge Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Foreman in Les Miserables, Curtis in Dreamgirls, and Professor Callahan in Legally Blonde the Musical. I was really good at playing them too, if I do say so myself.

“I Am What I Am” was my most challenging song up to then. It had my highest note yet (E above middle C), and I did wonderfully. However, my performance in that song was a little stiff, but I had fixed the scene so that I was not playing the character who actually sang it in the show.

"I Am What I Am"

There were a couple memorable moments in this show, though I don’t remember if they happened on the same night. The first moment was someone came onstage too early. I had just finished “I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face” and exited stage right. I had two scenes before going on again and all I had to do was change jackets and clip-on ties. So I went to the bathroom, came back and put on my next costume as the first song was ending. What was supposed to happen next was a song from Katie, but Moe, who had the song after that, walked on stage and began her pacing around. Offstage we all panicked and wondered what we were gonna do for a few moments until they told me to just go on. We did that scene and then, as if someone had telepathically contacted Yvonne, we did Katie’s song next.

The second memorable moment was at the end of Act 1 one night. The song was “I Dreamed a Dream” and Kirsten was singing it. We had all been onstage and left. A moment later we heard coughing. We didn’t know what was going on. Then it stopped and the music sounded a bit different which I thought odd, but I didn’t think too much of it. It turned out that Yvonne had a coughing fit in the middle of the song. Lynne snuck over and took over first playing with one hand while Yvonne played with the other, then slid in as Yvonne got up, without missing a beat or pausing. I think only my parents saw it, but no one noticed at all. In fact, if I didn’t notice a slight change in the sound (Lynne played differently, a bit harder) I wouldn’t have noticed either.

This semester was the last time I ever did the various scenes format. Honestly, I preferred this method because you could sing anything and not have to worry about if it would fit into a story and you were guaranteed a spotlight of your own.

Opening song for Fall 2010, "Facade" from Jekyll and Hyde

SENIOR YEAR, SPRING 2011

It was in this semester that I first got a chance to do the usual method which is taking songs and writing an original show around them. The first day we threw out ideas for setting and all that. Then we sang some random songs to fish around. I suggested a few ideas for the show and one of mine was chosen: a mental hospital and group therapy. We would all create our characters, what they’d want and their story. I chose to be the doctor.

The class included Katie Foster, Ted Smith, Heather Steffen, Sara Cofiell, Nathan Hatch, Jon Ostlund, Sarah Standring and a couple other girls I can not remember.

My character was a lonely workaholic doctor who was unlucky with women. I had four songs: “Together Again” from Young Frankenstein, a duet with Ted, “Lonely Room” from Oklahoma, “Carried Again” from On the Town, a duet with Katie, and “Cool” from West Side Story.

"Together Again"

I chose “Lonely Room” because Oklahoma would be the musical for the season next year and I wanted to play Jud. So just in case, I wanted to start preparing. I had to fight to get “Cool” Lynne felt it was too famous and that everyone would recognize it immediately. I argued that was absurd because we had songs far more famous in this show and I felt not many would know where “Cool” was from. She did not let up. Finally I conducted a survey on Facebook, asking people which song came to mind first when they heard the title West Side Story. Only one person said “Cool.” When I showed it to Lynne, she laughed and relented. She was also confused because “Cool” is her favorite song. She relented. I chose to do the two duets because Katie and Ted would be studying abroad in Germany next year and I wanted to do a song with them before they left.

Scene before "Lonely Room"

The plot of this show was the lives of patients in a mental hospital, overseen by the doctor and nurse (Katie). One had an imaginary friend (Jon), two suffered from depression (Nathan and one girl), one thought she was an Egyptian princess (Heather), one was schizophrenic (Sarah), one had carried around a puppet acting as though it were real was a medication addict (Ted), one was placed in there because her sister died and the family didn’t want to see her (Sara), and one was very obsessive (one other girl). The doctor is waiting for new medication which has not arrived, only to find a storm delayed it and their current supply of medication was out. This caused a little chaos in the hospital and one person even died. Once the new medication arrived all was resolved.

We all worked on our own monologues and dialogue, though I also wrote much of Katie’s lines. My scene before “Together Again” mirrored the scene from Young Frankenstein where that is (The scene where the doctor meets Igor). In the scene where “Cool” was done, I did it as giving the new medication to patients. In the scene I sang it while restraining Jon with Katie helping and administered the drug. Jon would later call the scene creepy because he was struggling, Katie and I were restraining him and I had a needle.

We even had a gurney in the show for the person who died. We had to practice picking up this person and putting her on the gurney every rehearsal.

The Gurney

I felt that this show was a success and very popular. Many in the audience loved it and we had an eclectic choice of songs ranging from new to old and famous to obscure. I was only sad that we never got a recording of the show.

SUPER SENIOR YEAR, SPRING 2012

This was my final semester taking MTS. I would graduate a week later. I would’ve done the class the previous semester, but I couldn’t do it because I had other commitments. I had been planning this semester even since the previous semester. I had been talking to Moe Capik about the show. We were going to try to push for a villain show with villain songs. I had also been talking to my friend Nora Summers, who would also be taking the class. We decided we were going to do the song “Unworthy of Your Love” from Assassins. I also found another song to do, on an “Essential Bernstein” CD that I found in a Goodwill store, called “Some Other Time” from On the Town. I felt it perfect to be my last song.

When the semester began people raised doubts about a villain show and not everyone was on board. The idea of villain songs however, did not die, but the show itself evolved into taking place in Purgatory. I got one additional song to the other two previously mentioned, “Don’t Break the Rules” from the musical Catch Me if You Can.

"Don't Break the Rules"

The class included Stephanie Halbert, Hayley Sa, Moe Capik, Benjamin DeShazo-Couchot, Lisa Cronomiz, Kevin Ockelmann, Sarah Durham, Ashley Jarrett, Nora Summers and one other person.

We did a number of songs though not all necessarily for villainous characters. They included “Red Shoes Blues,” “Miss Baltimore Crabs," “Hellfire,” “In the Dark of the Night,” “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” “My Lullaby,” “Me,” “The Mob Song,” and “Mother Knows Best.” I would’ve liked to have done the song “Be Prepared” from The Lion King, which I was very good at, but it never happened.

My character in this show was a cop named Joe who was shot in the line of duty in a standoff. He threw his partner, Jodie, out of the way and died for her. Then the man who shot him escaped and Joe was angry at that and that he never told Jodie his love for her. That was the reason he couldn’t move on. I wrote a monologue detailing all of this, one of the finest I’ve ever written, and I designed my costume myself. This was the monologue:

"The name's Joe. I...was a detective in the force. It's a hard life down at the station. The long hours, the coffee, the steak outs. My partner Jodie and I, we caught the bad guys, most of the time. It was always worth it whenever we bagged one and booked him. Criminals. They disgust me. Thinking they can break the law and get away with it. (Chuckle) Wrong. Not on my watch. One day I was finally gonna catch these two drug dealers. I'd been chasing them for months, but I could never bust 'em. But that day we got a valuable tip. Jodie and I went in first. It was dark. They were hiding. Then all of a sudden, the lights went on and that's when it happened. They started shootin' and we shot back. They flung a table knockin' us both back. They aimed right at Jodie, but I shoved her outta the way and I was hit. Again and again. Pain and then nothing. Then here I was. I can't believe this. As far as I'm concerned my job ain't finished and I won't rest in peace until that punk is dead or behind bars."

"Unworthy of Your Love"

The show took place in Purgatory where a number of people were placed in there because they could not move on for one reason or another. The person who ran Purgatory was Death (Stephanie) and she sent the Grim Reaper (Moe), who was really Genghis Khan in a woman’s body, to fetch the deceased. Then trouble first begins when Westley (Kevin) arrives and puts the moves on Death only to be rejected. Then a woman split into twins (good and evil) arrives, causing an overpopulation problem and a person allowed to move on somehow returns. A character named Mother saw it as an opportunity to take over. She convinces Westley to help her defeat Death. They steal the scythe of the Grim Reaper, but then Mother’s daughter steals it back. Inexplicably Death falls for Westley. Death sorts out the problem and allows people to move on or stay if they haven’t resolved their problems. She informs me the person who killed me died and I can move on.

There were generally no problems with this show. We all worked together on the script while Lynne did her coaching sessions. Lynne came to like this because it caused more progress in making a script. It was done in a fairly short time. However, even after having a full script we had to move some songs around to make more sense.

EPILOGUE

Looking back, I was generally pleased with my time there. It provided me with vocal training and acting practice. I got to play a wide variety of roles from cute, to villainous, to callous, to serious. I wish I could’ve done the class every semester, but I had other things I had or wanted to do instead. I have only one complaint and that’s this class did not teach you how to move when performing. It was a lot of sitting and standing around while singing.

My one main regret is that there are so many songs I wanted to sing, but never got to do such as “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd, “Seventy-Six Trombones” from The Music Man, “If Ever I Would Leave You,” from Camelot, “Mister Cellophane” from Chicago, “I Wanna Be a Producer” from The Producers and most of all “Gee Officer Krupke” from West Side Story. Two of these I would subsequently watch other people perform. I never got to perform “Gee Officer Krupke” because we never had enough men to do it.