CONVERSATIONS André Ward - Moulin Rouge! The Musical - Broadway in Chicago

ANDRÉ WARD – FEELS LIKE HOME!
by Ed Tracy

Moulin Rouge! The Musical, winner of 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical, opens the inaugural 2022 North American tour at Broadway in Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre on April 6. With book by John Logan and musical supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Justin Levine, Moulin Rouge is directed by Alex Timbers, choreographed by Somya Tayehis and features an all-star cast including Courtney Reed as Satine, Conor Ryan as Christian, Austin Durant as Harold Zidler and André Ward as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.

André Ward, who has played at the Nederlander in multiple touring productions dating back to 1998’s Ragtime, joined the CONVERSATION by telephone before a two-show preview on Wednesday to talk about playing Toulouse-Lautrec and the exhilarating reception from preview audiences for the highly anticipated show set in 1899 that infuses a tender love story with original and pop songs, all within the spectacle of the iconic Paris nightclub.

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Ed Tracy: How long have you been in Chicago?

André Ward: We got to Chicago on February 27th. This is our second week of previews.

ET: And this is the launch of the first national tour, which has been put off for several years due to the pandemic. Have you been on board for awhile?

AW: I have. Since April 2020. We were delayed and I'm so lucky and blessed to be launching the show here in Chicago. This is my fifth time playing this theater in Chicago and I'm so excited to be here with Moulin Rouge! The Musical. It's like a full circle moment for me. I was in the cast of Ragtime that reopened the Nederlander (formerly The Ford Center) in 1998. Then I came back with Cinderella starring Eartha Kitt, The Producers and then I was here in 2018 with Escape to Margaritaville Jimmy Buffett Musical. So it feels like being home again.

ET: Ragtime is a show that has played a lot here in Chicago recently. All terrific productions, every single one of them. I imagine the 1998 tour was a highlight.

AW: It was absolutely a highlight! For me, Ragtime was one of those shows I watched on Broadway and then got the opportunity to be in it. Just thrilling. And I can say that Moulin Rouge! The Musical is the same for me. When I saw the show, I was immersed in this amazing theatrical experience. I was thrilled. It has comedy, operatic tragedy… and when we started rehearsals and performances, I was like, this is the same.

ET: So, you had seen the show before you were cast?

AW: I saw Moulin Rouge back in 2019 before I was even auditioning for it. I had some friends in it and I fell in love with it, never thinking that I would ever be in it.

ET: So take us through how that all happened back in April 2020.

AW: I started auditioning after my agent got a call saying that they are auditioning for all of the productions of Moulin Rouge. This could be for the tour. It could be for Broadway. It could be for the UK. It could be for Australia. Auditioning for all of the roles. And they wanted me to come in for Toulouse-Lautrec. And I thought, how wonderful. I went through several rounds of auditions and then got the call that I was being offered the role and it went from there.

ET: The show was pushed back a bit and twisted around in the schedule somewhat. But it seems like things are back on track for everybody right now.

AW: And isn't that fantastic! Yes. I was not prepared for how overwhelmed I'd be with the energy coming from the audiences in Chicago. As a company, we are absolutely cohesive. It's one of the most beautiful companies I've had the pleasure to be a part of. Audiences are ready to be entertained… to be enveloped in theater again. And we certainly felt that from the downbeat of the show. It's been marvelous here in Chicago, just marvelous.

ET: So let's turn to the show. The through line of Moulin Rouge incorporates original songs and a lot of pop songs and medleys in the dynamic atmosphere of the club. Give us an idea of how your character Toulouse-Lautrec fits into the musical story.

AW: The pop tunes are absolutely amazing. They are brilliant. The audience is not prepared for when they come and that's the beautiful surprise. It's set in 1899 in this indulgent, beautiful, extravagant world that is Paris at that time. Toulouse-Lautrec is a starving artist who brings together Satine, the muse of the Moulin Rouge, and Christian, an artist and songwriter from America… their love story. Toulouse-Lautrec has unrequited love for the Satine that he's never really told her about.

ET: You have, in my mind, one of the most beautiful songs in the show. Talk about “Nature Boy.”

AW: I first heard the song years ago, a version by Nat King Cole. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful songs. When I got the chance to sing it, I felt it was like a gift to me. In the context of the show, Toulouse-Lautrec sings it to Christian. It’s a bit about Satine. A bit about himself. A bit about Christian. It's sort of a memory... a little pause in the show… all the pop tunes have come at you and then there's this lovely little nugget of a song to say this is where Toulouse-Lautrec’s heart lies.

ET: Tell us something about the Toulouse-Lautrec, the person himself, that we might not know.

AW: He was a starving artist but had come from an aristocratic family. Toulouse-Lautrec broke one of his legs at 13 and one of his legs at 14 and they stopped growing. He was five-foot, five-foot one, maybe. A short man. He wasn't a little person. That's a common misconception. He fits into the show as this Bohemian artist that travels to Paris as a boy. He finds Santiago his best pal—the greatest tango dancer in all of Paris—and they need the last piece to their puzzle in writing the show. That is where Christian comes in. Christian is this wide-eyed, lovely American man who believes love can conquer all. He helps them write the show, Bohemian Rapsody.

ET: So, they've taken this multiple Tony award-winning production, which transformed the entire theater in New York, and are moving it to venues across the country with Chicago’s Nederlander Theatre as the launch of the national tour.

AW: The Nederlander is a theater that fits a lot of people, but it's so intimate. You still feel when you're sitting in the audience like you're involved in the production. Especially our production. The set is absolutely gorgeous! And you feel like you are in it and it's so perfectly well-suited for this huge spectacle, the extravaganza that is Moulin Rouge: The Musical.

ET: In terms of entertainment set at the turn of the century and recreating that for a new audience, it must feel very fulfilling to be in the middle of that excitement, enthusiasm and music that is blending the original concept of Moulin Rouge with this hip, upbeat pop culture.

AW: Most definitely. The costumes and the sets are so colorful and so of that time, but you fill in with pop music and the language and it's for a modern audience. It is the perfect blend.

 ET: Do you think that the story is driving the music, or the music is driving the story?

AW: What an amazing question. I have done a lot of catalog shows and it's really unbelievable and uncanny how the script of Moulin Rouge fits with the music. Even when I was learning the show, I would start to sing a song that came out of a scene and I couldn't believe how well-crafted it is.

ET: Hopefully sometime during the run of the show, or very soon, all of this business will be behind us and you will be able to see faces and hear laughter out loud as the audience enjoys Moulin Rouge! The Musical Rouge.

AW: Thank you so much. The audiences have been so fantastic! To hear the laughter from the house has been so fulfilling. I will say that we need theater! We need the live theater and I'm so grateful to be back in Chicago.

Comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical plays at the James M. Nederlander Theatre through May 14, 2022.
2 hours 35 minutes with an intermission
For a complete tour schedule visit: Moulin Rouge Tour

Broadway in Chicago
presents
2022 National Tour
MOULIN ROUGE! The Musical
James M. Nederlander Theatre

WEBSITE

TICKETS

MOULIN ROUGE! The Musical
James M. Nederlander Theatre
24 W. Randolph

2022 National Tour Creative Team
John Logan|Book
Alex Timbers|Director
Justin Levine|Musical Supervision|Orchestrations|Arrangements
Somya Tayehis|Choreography
Derek McLane|Set Design
Catherine Zuber|Costume Design
Justin Townsend|Lighting Design
Peter Hylenski|Sound Design
David Brian Brown|Wig and Hair Design
Sarah Cimino|Makeup Design

2022 National Tour Cast
Courtney Reed (Satine)
Conor Ryan (Christian)
Austin Durant (Harold Zidler)
André Ward (Toulouse-Lautrec)
David Harris (The Duke of Monroth)
Gabe Martínez (Santiago)
Libby Lloyd (Nini) 
Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer (Satine Alternate)
with Nicci Claspell, Harper Miles, Andres Quintero, Adrienne Balducci, Andrew Brewer, Jack Cahill-Lemme, Sam J. Cahn, Darius Crenshaw, Alexander Cruz, Alexa De Barr, Tamrin Goldberg, Alexis Hasbrouck, Jordan Fife Hunt, Justin Keats, Tyler Logan, Tanisha Moore, Brayden Newby, Kent Overshown, Amy Quanbeck, Adéa Michelle Sessoms, Jenn Stafford, Denzel Tsopnang, Travis Ward-Osborne, Sharrod Williams, Jennifer Wolfe and Ricardo Zayas.
Special Thanks Damara Anderson|Broadway in Chicago

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CONVERSATIONS Kelly O'Sullivan - The Play That Goes Wrong

Kelly O’Sullivan — Maintaining A Sense of Optimism
The Play That Goes Wrong

Take a look at the cast list for “The Play That Goes Wrong,” opening this week at the Broadway Playhouse, and you will see many familiar names including Matt Mueller, Colton Adams, Jonah D. Winston and Kelly O’Sullivan who are among the Chicago-based company.

You may have seen O’Sullivan at productions on the Goodman and Steppenwolf stages in recent years, however, before and during the shutdown, she had turned attention to writing and performing in film, most recently “St. Francis,” an award-winning production whose truth emanates from her own experiences. It’s all part of a career path that has led the talented actor to broaden her skill set into writing, directing and producing her own work.

O’Sullivan’s first love remains ensemble theater and being cast in “The Play That Goes Wrong” is a dream come true. As we discovered in our conversation, the show includes an unlikely additional “character”: the Tony Award winning set, designed by Nigel Hook, that is so essential to the show the cast rehearsed in New York on the Off-Broadway version.

The show itself is a tightly choreographed farce about an amateur theater troupe’s opening night performance that starts off well enough, but then rapidly disintegrates into chaos, mayhem and uproarious physical comedy. According to O’Sullivan, in order to play it all for laughs requires the cast to maintain a sense of optimism while performing the play within the play. That sounded to me like good advice for our time, to be sure.

There’s much more from Kelly O’Sullivan, who learned at an early age growing up in North Little Rock, Arkansas that theater would play a significant role in her life.

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Kelly O’Sullivan: My kindergarten teacher told my mom she thought I would really enjoy doing theater. I was a very energetic playful kid. And so she and my mom took me to audition at a local children's theater called the Arkansas Children's Theater and I loved it. I took to it from the time that I was six years old. I continued doing theater until I was ready to graduate from high school and then went to Northwestern University and majored in theater. There is actually a very thriving group scene in Arkansas and I was very lucky to grow up inside of it.

Ed Tracy: And getting accepted into the theater program at Northwestern is no small accomplishment.

KO: I loved it there and was lucky to have gotten to train with the people that I did there.

ET: When did you attend Northwestern?

KO: Well, I would be revealing my age, so I'll just say it was about a million years ago. Okay?

ET: That's fine. I'll go with that. Were you in the WAMU show?

KO: No, no, no. That's a musical and I am very much a non-musical actor.

ET: So you are an actor. Do you dance?

KO: I do. I was part of a dance group at Northwestern called “Boomshaka” which was hip hop and drumming. So I can dance to a certain level, but not musical level dancing.

ET: I get it. I was an “upper body” dancer growing up. That was the most important half. This show—“The Play That Goes Wrong”—would you call it a farce?

KO: It definitely feels like a farce. There are all of the telltale signs of a farce, lots of people coming in and out of doors and mishaps. From the inside it definitely feels like a farce.

ET: And yet, in this kind of show, I imagine you have to learn it all the right way first in order to make the comedy work.

KO: That's right. For our very first rehearsal, we read a version of the play that goes right so that we would always be able to refer back to it and say: “Okay, if things were not going devastatingly wrong at this moment, how would we be playing this scene?” So even though it is ridiculous, we all have that foundation of truth underneath it. And then everything still starts to fall apart.

ET: The writers are Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields. Have they been involved?

KO: Not in our production, although there is the clear lineage of our director, Matt DeCarlo, who worked very, very closely with them and was the original production stage manager. We feel like we're doing a very faithful production of it.

ET: So tell us, about “The Play That Goes Wrong.” It's a play within a play—“The Murder at Haversham Manor”—and it's presented by the Cornley University Drama Society.

KO: It's opening night of the latest show and they are all very proud of it. They're all very nervous. I would say they are an amateur troupe. When lights come on and the play starts, they are all incredibly optimistic and then slowly but surely some really common mistakes that happen in any theater start to happen. Their mistakes are more extreme than you might find in other theaters.

ET: The set plays a key role in this show.

KO: Yes. It's Nigel Hook’s Tony award-winning set design and when people see the play they will see why. The set acts as a part of the ensemble; it really is a character in the piece. Sometimes the set really helps out the players and sometimes the set sort of sabotages the players. So it's really fun to walk in when you sit in the audience. You just take in how gorgeous this set is. And then over the course of the show, it becomes less gorgeous and more treacherous.

ET: So when you were in New York for a month you did a lot of rehearsing on the set?

KO: The entire time we rehearsed on the set, except for a couple of hours here and there or when the actual show needed to be performed and then we would go to a rehearsal space, but that's the reason they brought all of us out to New York because it's really impossible to rehearse this play in a room without any set pieces. We needed to be on a physical set, rehearsing with all the mechanics of what happens because it is such a crucial part of the plot.

ET: How long were those rehearsals each day? How did they work with respect to the other show?

KO: They were from 9 am to 4:30 pm and then the Off Broadway company would come in and the crew would set up and do the show at night. It was really fun. It felt like a timeshare in a way that we would have it during the day and they would have it at night.

ET: That's a fascinating way to develop the show. I can't think of another show offhand that would have all rehearsals on a set already in production.

KO: Very few shows require that kind of rehearsal with the set, but ours really does.

ET:  And then you arrived last week into the Broadway Playhouse and there's your set.

KO: That's right. With tiny little differences. The window may be a couple of inches higher or we have slightly more space in the Off Broadway house, but it was like showing up and seeing an old friend because we had just been with it for a whole month.

ET: And you can make those adjustments rather quickly and then amp the show up to production speed.

KO: Yes. It's not a typical show where we could come in and just do tech on the set. It would have been a total nightmare, so I'm really glad they did it this way.

ET: You play the part of Sandra. Tell us about her role in the show.

KO:  Sandra likes things a certain way. She wants to be a star in this ensemble piece. And so she uses every opportunity to take focus and take up space. I think if she had her way she would be the director of the piece, a trait many of the characters actually have in common. And so she's playing the role of Florence Colleymoore in the show who is a real sophisticated lady. She is awesome to play because Florence Colleymoore is the character, but Sandra has such ambition and drive and a sort of greediness underneath her that’s fun.

ET: It's a physical role. How do you balance that acting requirement with the physicality that you need to have?

KO: It's a lot of multitasking. I will say this play is the most multitasking I have ever, ever done as an actor, because you are playing Sandra who plays Florence Colleymoore and you are doing a play within a play, you are having to remember all of this very intense physical choreography that is incredibly technical, and you are trying to be responsive to your fellow ensemble members and the audience. And so it's like trying to keep 25 plates in the air all at once. I think that's the challenge of it and that's the joy of it as an actor—trying to do it all at once.

ET: Is there an element of improv in all of this? Things going wrong even if they are planned to go wrong?

KO: You know the show is so tightly choreographed, we have had certain moments already of there being something spontaneously that goes wrong, that we weren't expecting. For safety reasons, the show is incredibly precise. Something that the audience feels is spontaneous to them takes a lot of skill on the writer, the director and the actor’s part to make it feel that way while all of us should hopefully know exactly what we're doing. So there's less improv than you might think.

ET: Well, the challenge is always not to play the end, right? So, you know the bit is coming and you want to keep it going.

KO: Yes and we talk about it as maintaining a sense of optimism the entire time after the first thing goes wrong and they think everything else is going to go right. And so it's maintaining that sense of optimism rather than giving into the feeling of defeatism.

ET: This is a long sit down here. Seven weeks. It is going to be a great opportunity at the Broadway Playhouse to spread your wings. What does it feel like to be in the middle of this right now?

KO: It feels really exciting. I have worked at the Goodman and Steppenwolf, but the Broadway Playhouse feels different. It is really exciting to be downtown during the holidays and to be working in a new venue.

ET: And it isn't necessarily a holiday show, although it's perfect for the holidays. Perfect for the whole family.

KO: That's right, yes. We say from age eight to 98 there's something for everybody. It is sort of that old world British murder mystery that always makes me think of the holidays. Family fun and a lot of joy.

ET: When I saw the show in New York there was audience interaction. I won't say a lot, but it was certainly important to the play. How is that aspect being handled at this point? 

KO: We are still figuring it out. We are about to go into previews and we keep saying in rehearsals that the audience will tell us. And so it's almost like we are waiting now for our other scene partner to show up. And I think that first preview is going to be incredibly informative for some actors more than others. Matt Mueller has a prolonged section where he's talking to the audience. And so I know that we're all very eager to see what that's actually going be like.

ET: You have a lot of interests. You are a writer, a producer and you have done some film acting work. Where does the fire really lie?

KO: Everywhere. The older I get the more I want to play a larger role in the kinds of stories that I'm telling. When you are a young actor you just sort of take the jobs that are given to you. I think the fire for me lies in: Do I believe in the work? Do I believe in the story? and so that takes a lot of different roads for me. I love writing and I love directing and it certainly gives me more agency. I also love being part of the ensemble. There are more and more people who are not sort of sectioning themselves off to just one path anymore. There are more multi-hyphenate people who are acting, writing and directing and doing all of it. And so I want to be really active in doing whatever excites me most at the moment.

ET: You have a new film project underway. Anything you can let us know about that.

KO: The goal is for us to shoot it this summer, it's called “Mouse” and hopefully the next step in my evolution as a filmmaker. I wrote and starred in “St. Francis.” I wrote “Mouse,” and will co-direct. It will be shot in Arkansas which will be really exciting to go back to my home and tell a story from there.

ET: “St. Francis” was somewhat autobiographical, is that true?

KO: There were components of it there that were taken from real life. It is one of those things that you start from your seeds of truth in your own life and then fictionalize from there. So components of it.

ET: So is “Mouse” in the same vein?

KO: Not as much, it's more using real with settings that I know from Arkansas. It's definitely more fictionalized than “St. Francis”.

ET: Well, I have to admit, I don't talk to a lot of actors who have such a broad understanding of the film and television aspect of their lives and are making their art themselves. That does seem to be a trend that you are in the forefront. It is important that actors across the board have multiple projects working all at the same time. I hear it from a lot of very successful actors that they have a kit bag of all of these projects and pivot when necessary.

KO: That's right. I think it is a way to stay engaged. A way to not get rusty or to feel bored. And you want to exercise different muscles because after awhile, at least for me being an actor, people want to pigeonhole you, or they think: “Well, they've done this before, so let's just have them do it again.” It's really up to the individual to say: “Well, I'm tired of that. And I want to do something else. Something that I have more say in.”

ET: We are about four days away from the opening of “The Play That Goes Wrong”. Any final thoughts about coming back home to Chicago?

KO: As we were rehearsing in New York, we kept saying that we can't wait to get home and show this to our friends and families and have people who come visit Chicago see it. It's such a blast. It's so wild. It's so funny and we are excited to bring it to our hometown.

ET: I really hope—and this comes from my heart, Kelly—that everything goes wrong. I hope it goes wrong every single night.

KO: I think it will.

Comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

PHOTO: Jeremy Daniel

BROADWAY IN CHICAGO
presents
THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG
The Broadway Playhouse
Water Tower Place

December 14, 2021 through January 30, 2022

WEBSITE

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PicksInSix Q & A - BRENDA DIDIER - PARAMOUNT THEATRE presents "CINDERELLA"

PicksInSix® Q & A - Brenda Didier – Paramount Theatre presents “CINDERELLA”

The rags to riches story of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s CINDERELLA is timeless. For many of us of a certain age, it evokes memories of Julie Andrews and Lesley Ann Warren in the title role, which, thanks to broadcast television, expanded the audience to upwards of 60 million viewers at the time—one report had Andrews live viewership at nearly 110 million in 1957!—connecting the new medium of television with live performance. Warren’s 1965 version was rebroadcast annually for eight consecutive years.

Fast forward to the 1997 revival co-produced by Whitney Houston, that had equally staggering numbers of viewers. That production, with a teleplay by Robert L. Freedman with Whoopi Goldberg, was adapted for the stage by Tom Briggs in 1999 and toured with the likes of Brandy, Houston, Bernadette Peters and Eartha Kitt. It is a vastly different story line than the original and decades ahead of its time.

On the eve of the official opening of Paramount Theatre’s production of CINDERELLA, as Mikayla Renfrow makes her Paramount Theatre debut in the title role, we asked director Brenda Didier six questions about the process of putting the show together for Paramount Theatre’s holiday season. The multi-Jeff Award-winning Didier—who has received over thirty Jeff nominations and counting—has a long and distinguished career as a director, choreographer, actor and dancer. She is also the founder and principal of the Lincolnshire Academy of Dance, teaching the next generation of dance students and theatre artists.

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Ed Tracy: The Paramount revival of CINDERELLA feels both inspired and daunting, given the unique times in which we live.

What is it about this particular adaptation that drew you to it?

Brenda Didier: I was drawn to this particular adaptation after seeing the Brandy/Whitney Houston version on TV starring Whoopi Goldberg- who also produced this version. I like the humor, heart and honesty. It also has a more contemporary feel to the script. It feels fresh and full of heart. I like the 2013 revival, but the script did not speak to me. The political subplot in that production took me away from the Cinderella story a bit. This is Paramount's big holiday slot. Families make a holiday outing and with that in mind, this version felt appropriate for their holiday audiences. It also moves along nicely.

ET: Paramount productions attract top national and regional talent and “CINDERELLA” has a superstar company.

Talk about the casting process, what you were initially looking for and what you found. Any surprises along the way?

BD: Trent Stork, Paramount's amazing casting director, started the casting process in March of 2020. When Covid shut down theatres, we canceled in-person auditions and Trent sent us many self-tapes. This entire show was cast between May-July 2020 via video submissions. Tiffany Krause, our co-choreographer, Kory Danielson, our music director, and I viewed the submissions, wrote notes and met via zoom meetings to do the best we could with this cast. The challenges were not being able to read actors with each other during callbacks to answer questions like: Do they have the right chemistry? What is their energy like in the room, etc? Tiffany also recorded herself teaching two dance combinations for the ensemble dancers to learn via video. They would then film themselves in various locations—apartments, rooftops, garages, parks—anywhere they could dance safely and have space and then submit their videos to Trent. We could not teach any partnering in this scenario, but we did the best we could. The cast was put on hold until we knew when CINDERELLA would actually happen. We did lose about 8-9 cast members, including principals, when we were back up and running. Some actors changed careers during the pandemic, moved out of town, started families, or had conflicts. We recast their roles via more video submissions. On our first day of rehearsal—October 12—we finally met everyone in person after nineteen months off. Remarkably, the cast bonded and the chemistry started. It has been quite a process and I cannot express my gratitude enough to Trent and the entire Paramount team!

ET: Do you have a sense that you are directing the show differently than you would have before the shutdown? If you can, speak to some of the specific challenges you and the creative team had to overcome to maintain the momentum.

BD:I definitely directed this show differently than I would have before the shutdown. The creative team only met one time in person. Zoom meetings were helpful, but we did lose momentum and connection during the long shutdown. It took me a while to get my director footing again. This is also my first show directing at the Paramount and a musical of this scale. I have directed at larger venues, but they were either live events or commercial/concert projects. I was feeling the isolation we were all feeling. We talked about it during our table work. Within every fairytale, there is a world with real people, real situations and real conflict and wants. The cast also came back from the shutdown with many emotions. I was extra sensitive to their process, especially to the actors I had just met.

ET: This is a creative industry that thrives on collaboration. What are the essential qualities you look for in establishing a creative team? 

BD: Establishing a creative team that is on the same page and trusts one another is so important. I had choreographed The Producers with the amazing Jim Corti directing, so I had collaborated as a choreographer with the brilliant Paramount designers before—Jesse Gaffney (Props), Katie Cordts (Wigs and Make-up) and Adam Rosenthal (Sound Design), so there was already a familiarity with them. I have collaborated with both Angie Weber Miller (Set Design) and Theresa Ham (Costume Design). They are also brilliant and special collaborators. Vicki Bain, our lighting designer, was new to me. She had designed Newsies for Paramount, so she was very familiar with the space. We hit it off immediately. This is a huge show with many moving parts technically and full of magic. During our tech process, many adjustments were made over and over again when the team realized what did not work. We quickly brainstormed about plans B, C, D. This is live theatre and things come up unexpectedly. Amber Mak and Paul Jordan Jansen, our artistic leads on the show, have been so valuable as they have experience on and off the Paramount stage. I learned so much from them and throughout this process. 

ET: You have had an enormously successful career as a performer, choreographer and then as director/choreographer at theaters of all sizes across Chicagoland in addition to teaching the next generation of dancers.

What advice would you give to help others find balance of their personal and professional lives?

BD: Finding work/life balance is challenging in any career, but particularly in the performing arts. The hours can be very long. I was often at the theatre from 11am-12am. We work six days a week for six weeks and do not have much time for family or friends. I am very lucky to have such a supportive family and friends. I have a wonderful executive director at my dance academy, Lincolnshire Academy of Dance, to handle things while I am away. It is important to take time to connect with your loved ones, take time for yourself, so you don't burn out. The emails come fast and can be overwhelming at times, but you learn to breathe, remember the "Why" we are in this line of work and practice daily gratitude. I am more grateful to create again after experiencing theater and the world shut down for so long. 

ET: Can you share a Fairy Godmother moment in your life?

BD:I feel like I have many Fairy Godmother moments in my life. Throughout my life, many important women had such an influence on me and believed in me. One moment that stands out to me is when one of my dearest childhood friends, Gabrielle Smillie, flew in with her husband in 2009. I was a week away from starting my chemotherapy treatments for Grade 3 breast cancer. They flew in and stayed at the hotel where our competition dancers were performing/competing that weekend. I will never forget it. It was the push I needed to begin the treatment process and, I am happy to say, get on with my life.

PARAMOUNT THEATRE
presents
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN’S
CINDERELLA
through January 9, 2022

23 East Galena Boulevard
Aurora, Illinois

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(630) 896–6666

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READ THE “CINDERELLA” PicksInSix® Review

ARCHIVE - 2017 CONVERSATION with BRENDA DIDIER

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ALL HAIL THE CAESAR! TEATRO ZINZANNI RETURNS!

All Hail The Caesar! Teatro ZinZanni Returns! 

The house band is back together on the 14th floor of the Cambria Hotel where on July 8th Teatro ZinZanni will mark its return to nightly performances in the 100 year-old Speigeltent ZaZou. The return of live theatre is courtesy of co-producers Broadway in Chicago and Randolph Entertainment, LLC, a giant leap forward for the performing arts in Chicago, offering the perfect combination of cocktails, a four-course menu conceived by Debbie Sharpe’s The Goddess and The Grocer and an international cast of featured performers and vocalists served up with a special brand of comic mayhem from impresario and host Frank Ferrante in the character of The Caesar.

It was Ferrante as The Caesar who led the charge in his chariot the first time around in August 2019. The show, created and directed by Norman Langill, is a glistening, non-stop, immersive entertainment extravaganza including the trapeze act, Duo 19, singers Cunio and Storm Marrero, aerialist Lea Hinz, hula-hoop contortionist Vita Radinova, and dancer Mickael Bajazet. And the comic mayhem includes Ferrante and the comic mastermind Joe De Paul who returns to the show and to share directing credit with Dreya Weber and Langill.

I caught up with Ferrante (and his alter-ego The Caesar) in a phone interview during a break in rehearsals to talk about the new show, how The Caesar character came to be and what the moment was like when he heard that Teatro ZinZanni was returning to Chicago this summer.

Frank Ferrante: It's been a process to accept it and to fully embrace the possibility… I think I will really believe it when I walk on the stage on July 8th… There were certainly moments of feeling despondent over how things were going. There were also great, wonderful, beautiful moments that occurred during the last year and a half. … I really was excited about working again with my colleagues, my peers, being around creative people, funny people, performers who are literally risking their lives and that kind of passion that I'd missed… It has been a heck of ride and this past week of rehearsal has been just thrilling.

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ET: From the outside looking in during the pandemic, we saw you being cavalier. A lot of online stuff. Your Groucho show at a drive-in. You were pumping people with energy, enthusiasm and optimism. I can't think of anything better than to have The Caesar and Teatro ZinZanni opening the Chicago season.

FF: You default to what you know and I don't believe in quitting. When someone asks me “What's your motto?” it's really: Never say die. … I was weaned on the laughmakers. I love the great comics of the past. I love the great comics of today. I grew up watching Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Martin and Lewis and Laurel and Hardy and made a study out of it from the time I was a kid. So it's really in me. It's in my blood. I love the tradition and Teatro ZinZanni is very much of that tradition. It has a vaudeville vibe to it. An elegant variety. And it's got that same kind of rhythm and pulse of this American form of entertainment. Chicago is a great town for it because there was so much of this going on in Chicago in terms of comedy and touring shows, shows that originated in Chicago and so many great comedians come from Chicago. So it seems like the perfect place to come out of this pandemic. I always feel welcomed here—from audiences, to friends in the media, to the friends I made while I was here. My brother lives here so there is very much a feeling of home here. And I'm a theatre guy first and foremost and this is a theatre town. That's not lost on me.

ET: And you've created this over-the-top character “The Caesar.” How did The Caesar and Teatro ZinZanni get together?

FF: There's nothing quite like Teatro ZinZanni.  I had never seen anything like it. It started in 1998 by Norman Langill who is here in Chicago directing the show along with two other directors. There is a team that work on it. There are so many different components. He saw a tent in Spain during one of the Olympics in the early 90s, I believe—(as ‘The Caesar’) It could have been midnight, maybe ‘96 or ‘92. Someone can correct me—but he saw this incredible Belgian Spiegeltent which is really a character in the show. It has beautiful burgundy fabric, hand-carved wood and stained glass. (The stage area) is in the round and was used for parties, Octoberfest and dances. Norman Langill brought one to Seattle and came up with his own version of the show thinking it would last a matter of weeks. It played for 20 years in Seattle (and later) in San Francisco. Chicago is (currently) the only one representing the Teatro ZinZanni name. It's immersive theatre in that you don't know who the maître d is or if the waitstaff are really performers.

There is a wonderful actor by the name of Kevin Kent, who was the first comic host. He did drag and he's a brilliant interactive improvisational performer and played three different characters. They flew me out to watch him in action and I was blown away. Kevin was here in Chicago right before the pandemic and will be back in January. I was just completely transfixed by this gentleman. I thought: “Why do they want me to do drag? What do they want me to do?” The answer was they wanted me to come up with my own stuff. I had never really done that. I've directed. And I acted. I have a one-man show about Groucho Marx, but I’d never really done sketch interactive comedy within a variety show that features acts from all over the world, contortionists, jugglers, foot jugglers, singers Joan Baez, and Liliane Montevecchi and acts from a variety of countries and different disciplines.

Stuart Gordon saw me do my one-man Groucho Marx show in California. (as ‘The Caesar’) And I was particularly hot that night. I was on fire! There were four hundred people in the audience! It was sold out. And I remember being angry before the performance, having to move the piano around and feeling like: “Come on! Someone help me out here!” Anger is sometimes good for a comic, particularly for playing Groucho Marx. I just started going wild with the improv and making fun of everything and everyone. I got huge laughs and a standing ovation. It was very satisfying. I was able to vent and, in a way, that was healthy and paid off for the audience.

Stuart called his friend Norman Langill and said: “You should see this guy. You should use him. He would be a great host for your show.” And so I was approached, they flew me out to see Kevin Kent in San Francisco, and Teatro ZinZanni with all these great performers and said: “No, we don't want you to do his material. We don't want you to play his role. We want you to come up with your own material.”

And so I met with the director, Stefan Haves, and we started brainstorming. Initially I was doing a little Groucho on the show, which really didn't work that well, in my opinion, because it was circus within a circus. Groucho needs to be in a more formal setting. He needs to break the fourth wall. He needs to tear down the walls in a circus that is already wild. So there was no contrast. I have always fantasized about making fun of show business characters, egocentric people, macho types… those kinds of characters. It's been done – the so-called ‘Latin Lover’–but I thought I might be able to put my own spin on it. I drew him. I sketched him out. I gave him the big pompadour and a beauty mark, a little mustache, a little thin pen, pencil, mustache, sideburns, rosy cheeks and lounge suit. I showed it to the great costume designer Beaver Bauer and she put together these beautiful costumes for me. And that was the beginning.

The question was then how far can I go? Do I wear a crazy outfit and underplay it? Or do I go over the top with him, as you mentioned. Once I saw the costume, there was only one way to play him – over the top and unfiltered. And the fun thing about him is that he says what he wants to say and he does what he wants to do. He has huge appetites and, in a way, he's me exploded. What is within me. It's what I try to keep from being seen.

ET: It seems to me that there are a lot of those comedians you mentioned within the framework of ‘The Caesar,’ you find them in what you're doing and how you're communicating with people. One of the highlights of your performance is how you relate to the people in the audience. You look at someone and you immediately sense how they are going to react to you and what you have to say to get them to laugh. Where does that particular skill come from?

 FF: I think it has to do with at-bats. I have had a lot of opportunity from the time I was a kid to working in the theatre professionally since I was 22. I'm 58 now so a lot of it is due to the work I spent doing the Groucho role, a great deal of interaction and judging an audience, feeling the energy of an audience, knowing how far I can go figuring out when I should pull back, because ultimately, I don't want to hurt anyone. You want to uplift someone. I like brash humor and teasing humor. Not everyone does. I love it. I love that type of humor. I love Groucho. I love David Letterman. There's a lot of comedians of that ilk that I admire, but I think that has to do with just being around people.

I think I am a fairly sensitive person and that is in play. I want people to get their money's worth. I want people to have fun, but you learn and you make mistakes, too. Early on it wasn't perfect and it took months and years to get to a point where I can do this and feel comfortable with it. It's been hundreds and hundreds of performances within this role—probably over 1500—and all kinds of different people and children are in the audience, seniors, people from different backgrounds. You name it. It has to do with the privilege of having so many opportunities and not everyone gets that. I have been one of the really fortunate performers on the planet. I've worked consistently up until the pandemic, month after month in different areas and different countries. Your instincts take over. I learned to rely on my instincts. And there is a lot to be said for practice. I've had a lot of practice.

ET: It's a glorious set up. The magnificent Speigeltent ZaZou within the building, the band elevated behind the stage and the show occurs throughout the space. A lot goes on in there.

FF: You would never know that this remarkable tent sits like a jewel in this building. You're on Randolph. At the Cambria Hotel. You go up to the 14th floor and would never know once you get off that elevator the world that is awaiting you. It's beautiful art decor, chandelier's, mirrors and brick. It looks like it's been hidden there for a hundred years.

ET: Any final thoughts from ‘The Caesar?’

FF: (as ‘The Caesar’) Hello Everybody! I love you all. You cannot go wrong with Teatro ZinZanni and The Caesar. We hope to see you. You will have the best time of your life!

Teatro ZinZanni kicks off the summer season in Chicago’s Loop on July 8th. The show runs Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:00 PM. with a Sunday brunch option as well. For more information about individual, group sales and booking special events, visit the website.

Comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Teatro ZinZanni
Performances begin July 8, 2021
Open Run
Spiegeltent ZaZou
Cambria Hotel
32 W Randolph St. Chicago

WEBSITE

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(312) 488-0900

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The New Works Virtual Festival

Kevin Pollack has been really busy in the days of COVID-19. There is the hit music video ”Holiday” on his YouTube channel that has been receiving significant recognition for both content and pure enjoyment.

With Thomas Eliot Squires, Pollack hosts the popular series Zooming the Movies on Facebook. Tonight’s offering is Miracle on 34th Street, a live benefit for the Actors Fund starring John Ruebenstein and featuring Megan Cavanaugh, David Girolmo and many others. The Grinch, A Christmas Story and Love Actually are in the works for the weeks ahead.

Pollack’s new album, The Other Side, will be available soon on Spotify. It’s a vigorous blend of 80’s retro and pop that should be on everyone’s Christmas download list.

But, Pollack’s roots are in the theatre and it is that artistic platform that is home for one of the most ambitious – and genuinely groundbreaking – virtual ventures of our sequestered time. The New Works Virtual Festival, founded by Pollack with actors Bart Shatto and Jim Auld, is running nightly through December 25, benefits The Actors Fund and showcases established and rising playwrights who receive a first-class virtual reading by an A-list roster of actors. The series has Chaz Ebert among its’ producers.

The Festival began in earnest on December 5 with “Oscar and Walt,” by Donald Steven Olson, a play about the meeting of Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman. Readings in recent weeks included “Secret Hour” by Jenny Stafford, “We the People” by Harrison Zeiberg.

Coming up tonight: “The Wickham Way” by Rachel Rubin Ladutke with songs by Lisa Brigantino that is set at a Vermont bed and breakfast during a paralyzing snowstorm with a mix of fascinating characters gathered together for the memorial of an influential and socially-forward mentor.

If you happen to be in Vermont in a paralyzing snowstorm—which most of Vermont is right now—or anywhere else for that matter, you should certainly tune in to this or any of the other free readings in the series. While you are there, support the effort of these creatives with a generous gift to The Actors Fund. For a complete list of plays and times, visit the Facebook live page.

The New Works Virtual Festival The twenty selected works, chosen from over 700 submissions, cover a broad spectrum of themes. Each reading includes a scrolling copy of the script in the lower third of the screen so the viewer can read along for themselves. The use of a narrator for stage directions varies from play to play. These are zoom readings of projects in various stages of development that are performed and presented extremely well.

Like and subscribe to The New Works Virtual Festival on Facebook and YouTube as well as: @newworksvirtualfestival on Instagram and @NWVfestival on Twitter for announcements and information. Use the hashtags #NWVFest and #NewWorksVirtualFestival for all related content. The Festival continues through December 25, 2020.

Read More: Jonathan Mandell Feature 12|5|2020

Support the Actors Fund by visiting: www.actorsfund.org/nwvfest

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The Beautiful City Project/Season of Concern—Project Mistletoe

#PicksInSix — Innovation. Humility. Fidelity. Tender Unwavering Commitment.

When you ask the multi-talented David Fiorello what six words come to his mind about the collaboration of The Beautiful City Project and Season of Concern, expect a thoughtful and earnest analysis of how much these two organizations have done, particularly in recent months, to amplify the voices of creative artists, vocalists and the multitude of community organizations who are keeping hope alive for everyone touched by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Beautiful City Project is an innovative organization that partnered with Season of Concern on March 19, 2020 to produce one of the first virtual benefits in the country for theatre artists. Fiorello told me he is grateful and in awe of the enormously gifted artists and industry professionals who are examples of humility and fidelity in their unified actions to help people in need, realizing that supporting the arts is everyone’s responsibility—a higher calling to provide emotional, transformative and financial relief.

Season of Concern’s early beginnings approached head-on the difficult and tragic consequences of the AIDS crisis with a tender, unwavering commitment—a guiding principle that has expanded to serve the evolving needs of the artist community year after year since 1987.

On Tuesday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. Central, it is your chance to give back. Seventy-five talented friends of Chicago music theatre combine their enormous energy and talent in The Beautiful City/Season of Concern Benefit Project Mistletoe to support their vitally important work. The Facebook Live concert is free but donations will be gratefully accepted. All donations will be met with a small gift.

For more information, visit: The Beautiful City Project or Season of Concern.

The Beautiful City Project/
Season of Concern Benefit
Project Mistletoe
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
7:00 p.m.
Facebook Live

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JEFF SHAARA - To Wake The Giant

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JEFF SHAARA
TO WAKE THE GIANT
A Novel of Pearl Harbor

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TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2020

New York Times bestselling author Jeff Shaara discusses his newest historical fiction work, TO WAKE THE GIANT: A Novel of Pearl Harbor, with CONVERSATIONS host Ed Tracy.

The Crowdcast Virtual Event is part of an exciting new virtual author series sponsored and hosted by The Doylestown Bookshop, Lahaska, PA. Register for the event or purchase a copy of TO WAKE THE GIANT from The Doylestown Bookshop, HERE.

JEFF SHAARA and ED TRACY discuss TO WAKE THE GIANT in a CROWDCAST VIRTUAL EVENT, Tuesday, May 26, 2020 at 7 p.m. Eastern (6:00 p.m. Central) REGISTER

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEFF SHAARA is the New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen Hours, The Fateful Lightning, The Smoke at Dawn, A Chain of Thunder, A Blaze of Glory, The Final Storm, No Less Than Victory, The Steel Wave, The Rising Tide, To the Last Man, The Glorious Cause, Rise to Rebellion, and Gone for Soldiers, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure—two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic, The Killer Angels. Shaara was born into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University. He lives in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. JEFFSHAARA.COM

DOYLESTOWN BOOKSHOP
16 S Main Street
Doylestown, PA  18901
(215) 230-7610
mail@doylestownbookshop.com

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SSG DAVID G. BELLAVIA Medal of Honor Recipient at Norwich University

This special program, posted today for the first time in recognition of National Medal of Honor Day, March 25, 2020, was recorded live at Norwich University on September 25, 2019. et

I first met Staff Sargent David Bellavia in March 2008 following the publication of his gripping combat memoir House To House, the story of his service in Iraq and the fierce fighting during the Second Battle for Fallujah in November 2004. Those actions were first documented a few weeks later in a Time magazine feature article written by Michael Ware. Bellavia would receive a Silver Star for his service and a recommendation for the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor in combat.

Fast-forward to 2014 and the release of Only the Dead, Ware’s HBO documentary about combat in Iraq that includes chilling footage of Bellavia re-entering the insurgent stronghold with Ware after an ambush had severely decimated his squad.

The events that followed—supported by witness statements, Ware’s graphic footage and forensic examinations—would be the basis for the award to Bellavia of the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the White House on June 25, 2019.

On September 25, 2019, SSG David Bellavia joined me for a one-on-one conversation at Norwich University, the nation’s oldest private military college, in Northfield, Vermont. The Norwich Corps of Cadets, civilian students and special guests—an audience of more than 1,600—mustered at 6 am in historic Plumley Armory for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the first living Medal of Honor recipient from Iraq, Staff Sargent David Bellavia.

PHOTOS:
Mark Collier, Norwich University
Ed Tracy

PODCAST

DAVID BELLAVIA WEBSITE

BUY THE BOOK - HOUSE TO HOUSE

DUTY 1ST WEBSITE

NORWICH UNIVERSITY WEBSITE

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TRENT JAMES: Pure Lies - The Chicago Magic Lounge

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Making Magic on North Clark—Trent James: Pure Lies

The Chicago Magic Lounge is a sleek, glistening nightclub dedicated to the craft of magic. From the moment you pass through its nondescript entrance, the captivating retro-whimsical atmosphere in the Performance Bar (a.k.a. David’s Bar) and adjoining Chicago Round Table Magic Library provide reason enough to check out the club at 5050 N. Clark Street on any evening. On the other side on a recent Wednesday awaits the Harry Blackstone Cabaret Theater and the fresh, exuberant talent of Trent James, whose arresting charm is every bit as appealing as his deft technique.

If you have heard about this spot before, you know the first test for newcomers is to find your way inside through the small faux-laundromat entryway. Like the magic to come, you’ll have to be perceptive to join the mayhem behind Washer I. (If all else fails, read the sign and ring the bell.) The cozy reception area, jammed in advance of the main-stage performance of “Trent James: Pure Lies,” has magic of its own in the specialty drinks and the menu choices available for every taste.

When the house opens, guests are escorted in small groups to the richly appointed, two-story vaulted Blackstone with its multi-tiered array of club tables, banquets and counter bars which provide every guest with an unobstructed view of the small stage. For the lucky dozen or so in the front row, there is a high probability that you will become part of the show.  

A team of tip-worthy magicians perform pre-show tableside effects while circulating in and among the guests. (Jan Rose and Luis Carreon stopped by our table.) By the time the lights go down, the house was filled to capacity for the fast-paced and clever James, who works alone, except when his pint-sized former partner tries to steal the show midway through.

Given the title, nothing is as it appears to be. There’s a nifty disappearing flute, an artful picking of the pocket of an audience member—this time it was “Michael” whose energetic yoga entourage cheered him on—and the mind-reading of a pug-lover. James’s youthful enthusiasm and self-effacing style clearly won over even the most die-hard pessimists, turning lemons into lemonade for all to see.

David’s Bar was still thriving an hour later—proof that the Chicago Magic Lounge is the kind of place that makes you wish you had stuck to those childhood dreams of making magical things happen and reminds you that it is never too late to begin. 

TRENT JAMES: Pure Lies
Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. through March 25, 2020
Tickets:
$35 (Main Floor)
$45 (Front Row)

THE CHICAGO MAGIC LOUNGE
5050 N. Clark Street

WEBSITE
(312) 366-4500

TRENT JAMES WEBSITE

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CAGE SEBASTIAN PIERRE - Daggers Rule in 'Romeo and Juliet' at Chicago Shakespeare

Things have come full circle at Chicago Shakespeare Theater for Cage Sebastian Pierre. His first Chicago role was Balthazar in the 2017 Marti Lyons directed Romeo and Juliet at Shakes, a production in which he served as dance captain. It did not take long to realize that his fight training at the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program and certification from Dueling Arts International would be an asset to the production and others that have followed.  

Which all of course leads naturally to the upcoming Barbara Gaines production of Romeo and Juliet, set in 2020 Verona, that begins previews on October 31st. Cage plays Benvolio and serves as the Associate Fight Choreographer to Fight Choreographer Rick Sordelet, arguably the top fight director in the business with over 70 Broadway credits and counting. In this creative capacity, Pierre works alongside Sordelet in the staging process and is the show’s Fight Captain, responsible for maintaining the safety and blocking of the stage violence throughout the run.

When we caught up with him during a break in rehearsal, the engaging Pierre addressed the challenges of staging fights with daggers versus rapiers for this production, the creative and rehearsal process that requires every move in a fight to tell a meaningful story and the process that is followed in advance of every performance.   

Earlier this year, the multi-talented actor played Tony Carter in the brilliant TimeLine production of Too Heavy For Your Pocket directed by Ron OJ Parson, a show about the enormous courage and sacrifice by Freedom Rider activists in the early 1960s that Pierre says changed his life. He appeared in the Chicago Shakespeare production of Macbeth, the Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, has been in the company of Q Brothers Christmas Carol for two seasons and appeared on television in Empire. 

There is much more ahead in our thoughtful CONVERSATION with one of Chicago’s top young actors and fight choreographers, Cage Sebastian Pierre. PODCAST

Early influencers… “If I had to pick someone who was instrumental into my learning, I'd probably say Marcela Lorca. She has this technique that she created called ‘Lorca Movement’ that really connects body to text because Shakespeare can get insanely heady if you let it. So, her grounding it back in lived experience helped connect the bridge between language, the body and to create the product of story. … And then the most pivotal person who I will add to the ‘Marcela Lorca’ list is Annie Enneking. She was my fight choreographer teacher. She taught us all about fight choreography. She pulled me to the side and said, ‘Hey, you are really special at this. I would like to train you, get you certified and send you to get more training at a different program.’ She lifted me up in that way and from there I've just sort of been running with it.” 

Fight choreography certification… “I got certified originally under Dueling Arts International (DAI) in unarmed, which is essentially hand-to-hand, broad sword and rapier, and contemporary violence, specifically in the unarmed section. So that covers a lot of Shakespeare, realism, (and) a lot of your more classical plays.”  

Contemporary violence?… “that has to do deal with found objects because so much of contemporary violence happens in domestic settings or workplace settings. If someone needs to be thrown onto a table, and then hit with the phone, then we have to take the time to talk. What is this object? Does it need to be fake? Can we hide it? Where do we find the noise or what we call a ‘knap,’ the sound that we hear when someone is being hit. Is this object dangerous? …contemporary violence is using found objects in our current century to tell that story.”

Following the text… “the dream is always that as soon as we touch these weapons in Shakespeare, everything we do comes strictly from the text. Romeo and Juliet has a prime example. We hear all this language about how Tybalt is a measured fighter. So he is not a person waving a blade. He is not a person who taught himself. He has been to school for it. He has a form and a technique. Whereas Mercutio we hear likes to fight for days and days and his language lends us to believe that maybe Mercutio is a bit more of a free-form fighter. If I am looking at the fight between the two, I take every single movement I can off the language. If he says, ‘Will you walk?’ then we might not necessarily be walking, but that might be an indication of an en garde or an indication of a blade being drawn…. once we understand this story, and we find every single point of indication, we then go back over that indicated timeline and fill in those moments with justified action. Then from there we do everything at the slowest speed possible so that people know exactly where my point is going. The intention of this. Am I evading or am I attacking? So on and so forth, until we slowly work that up to speed. We add vocals. We add blood.” 

Fight Captain responsibilities… “Making sure everybody is safe. Everybody is keeping the integrity of the fight and that the story is still being upheld. Every day, half hour to an hour, depending on how many fights and the intricacy of those fights, we do everything once at a very, very slow pace that we call ‘mudspeed.’ And then we do the whole thing again at the speed it will be for the show. So, every time you see a show, and if there are two shows in a day, we ran that fight two times before you see it.”

Romeo and Juliet. …“What I think that this production is trying to challenge or what my personal goal in this production to challenge is that the opposite of love is not hate. That they actually only exist in tandem and that one is necessary for the other. But how we go about manifesting those things I think is the question. And to challenge that the opposite of hate is not love, but in fact, creation. I won't ruin the ending for those who want to come see it, but in our production we challenge the ending of this play and really ask the question, ‘What are we truly creating?’ We can create a facade. We can create an image. We can create, let's say, a monument—an ode—to our past mistakes. But what is creating that breed for our future? I think this production calls for the creation of action in a very immediate way, not that all theatre is immediate and not all issues are immediate, but I think this production holds true to that. I think this production asks us, ‘What hate are we holding on to in spite of creation? When there is an opportunity to create something, say a bond, an opportunity for peace or collaboration, how are we negating that by clinging on to our hate?’”

The Future… “Fight choreography is something I enjoy. Telling stories through movement and allowing people to excise violence in a way that hopefully suppresses it in the real world—excise it on stage to suppress it in the real world. As far as what I see for myself, I am interested in pursuing more film and television, but I am also interested in devising work because the more choreography I do, the more I realize that I work at a lot of places where the connection from language to body is not as strong. And I would like to build a work where those two things do not exist without each other and to question and challenge traditional storytelling. So, we'll see. We'll see how that manifests in the next few years.” PODCAST

Comments have been edited for length and clarity.
CST PHOTOS | Liz Lauren
TimeLine PHOTO | Lara Goetsch

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER
presents
ROMEO AND JULIET
Courtyard Theater
Navy Pier
through December 22, 2019
WEBSITE
TICKETS
(312) 595-5600

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HEIDI KETTENRING - Chicago Celebrates Sondheim!

There are more than a few things you need to know about Heidi Kettenring, the accomplished Jeff Award-winning actor and vocalist that you may have seen on stages all across Chicagoland.

In addition to the Artists Lounge Live Karen Carpenter concert performance that is gearing up for the holidays at Mercury’s Venus Cabaret and a flurry of roles that will keep her busy on stage well into next summer, Kettenring will be appearing at the Auditorium Theatre in ‘Chicago Celebrates Sondheim!’ on November 16th with the Chicago Philharmonic under the direction of Rich Daniels. The concert, directed and produced by Joan Curto, features Paul Marinaro, Beckie Menzie, Johnny Rodgers, Robert Sims with Tom Michael, Sophie Grimm, David Edelfelt, Rodrick Dixon, Susan Werner, Laura Freeman, Marianne Murphy Orland and Jaymes Osborne in a 90th birthday musical salute to Steven Sondheim.

In balancing a busy career and personal life with actor/husband David Girolmo, Kettenring expects that they will be separated often. In our recent CONVERSATION about the concert, Kettenring recalled staying in touch daily during the summer run in Mary Zimmerman’s The Music Man at the Goodman Theater while David was out of town playing the Lion in the Wizard of Oz at the Maine State Music Theatre.

That sparked a delightful story about a memorable performance that does not appear among the over 40 shows on her resume as Dorothy in a high school production of The Wizard of Oz in Nashville.

There’s much more about her career in Chicago, the Sondheim concert, and what will make the holidays a little brighter in a touching and memorable conversation with the superbly talented, Heidi Kettenring. PODCAST

Northwestern theatre and Mary Zimmerman… “I went to Northwestern. (Mary Zimmerman) was teaching there at the time and I couldn't get into her class the whole four years that I was there. There was the Theatre major and then there was also something called ‘Performance Studies’ major…a lot of people transferred out of the theatre program into performance studies because you could not get into her class or Frank Galati’s class. They just filled up so quickly. And truth be told, I've never even had the opportunity to audition for her until this year because I've been busy every time one of her shows has come through. It was a 25-year dream sort of realized, which was wonderful.”

The Music Man at Goodman… “Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn wore one of the most magnificent red, white and blue costumes that I've ever seen. I saw the rendering of it and I think I even said out loud, “Do I actually get to wear that?” It was quite patriotic and oddly comfortable…. It was thrilling for me. Similar to working with her, I've never worked at the Goodman. They tend to cast their shows a little bit later and so often I've already been working when their auditions have rolled around. And I've also auditioned for some things that were not quite the right fit... So, it was a dream come true kind of all the way around to finally get to work there, to finally get to work with Mary, to do The Music Man for the first time. I had never been in The Music Man. I actually had not even seen The Music Man until about seven years ago when my friend Bernie (Yvon) did it at the Marriott Lincolnshire beautifully. … It was a great time of year to do it. … being downtown in the summertime, because I live in Evanston, so getting to spend just active time downtown, was fun. And that theater. They treat everyone really, really well. It was a truly special experience.”

Balancing careers with husband David Girolmo… “It's interesting. People ask me that a lot and the first thing I say is I don't know any different. I don't know what it's like to be with somebody who is not in the business, so I can't compare in that way. But what I do know is that he's the most important thing to me. He's a bit older than I am. So, when we met, he immediately said, ‘You know. Look… Listen… This is what I do. This is what I do for a living. This is how I do it.” Meaning ‘I might have to go out of town to work. The hours are different from a 9 to 5 job. I have to work on holidays often.’ And that is just how this business works. And obviously there is always room for negotiating, but for the most part, that's the way that it is.…The thing that keeps it from being difficult is that he's the person. He's my favorite person. And, honestly, technology has helped immeasurably. When we first met it was a lot harder getting into contact with each other when he was out of town. You know, you have to make a date. ‘I'm going to be by the rotary telephone at a certain time.’ We don't have to do that anymore. And, honestly, we almost communicate more when we are out of town because we text constantly. We both want yours as the first voice that I hear. Yours is the last voice that I want to hear. We probably speak on the telephone four or five times a day. We text all day, so it's hard because obviously we are not in the same place. But it's not hard because it's like breathing.”

CHICAGO CELEBRATES SONDHEIM!
AUDITORIUM THEATRE
NOVEMBER 16, 2019 8PM
Chicago Philharmonic
under direction of Rich Daniels featuring:
Joan Curto, Johnny Rodgers, Beckie Menzie,
Paul Marinaro, Heidi Kettenring and Robert Sims
TICKETS or CALL: (312) 341-2310

Chicago Celebrates Sondheim!… “For this concert, I'm not sure if I'm at liberty, so I'm not going to say because I want people to be surprised by what I'm singing. My two songs are vastly different. One of them I could sing without thinking about it. The other one I know that my knees are going to be knocking together right before I sing it. And a lot of that is because it's very wordy and I'm going to be standing backstage running through those lyrics up until I walk out on stage. But, that said, it's so much fun and I've never performed it in front of people. So that's going to be really fun to see what it's like to actually hear the audience's response to the song because that's part of it, too. …There are truly songs that, the second I hear them, I think, ‘Oh, I'm going to sing that.’ And there are times that people asked me to sing something and I take a big swallow and go, ‘Whoa. Really? Okay.’ … (the Sondheim) catalog is so vast and so wonderful. Honestly, quite complicated to sort of turn into singular events. I'm really excited to see how some of these songs are plucked out and turned into performances.”

Chicago Philharmonic at the Auditorium Theatre… “Singing with the Philharmonic. There is nothing like that. It almost feels like you're being buoyed on this wave of music behind you. It's so thrilling. I really cannot wait to see what it feels like to sing songs that already feel great.”

Next Up… “Karen Carpenter concert. We're putting together a Christmas version at the Mercury’s Venus Cabaret. …Then, in the new year, I'm doing a new musical at Paramount Theater in Aurora called “Secret of My Success.” And then after that I will be doing “As You Like It” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Something special for Christmas from David? — Listen to the PODCAST to find out. et

Comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Production Photos
All My Sons, Court Theatre | The Music Man, Goodman Theatre - Liz Lauren
Wicked - Joan Marcus

November 16, 2019
CHICAGO CELEBRATES SONDHEIM
2019 Annual Fall Gala, honoring Patti Eylar and Charlie Gardner
Auditorium Theatre
TICKETS

Sarah Siddons Society Gala
Supporting scholarships to theatre students at
top drama departments across Chicagoland.

December 20-29, 2019
Mercury Theater and Artists Lounge Live
present
MERRY CHRISTMAS DARLING
Heidi Kettenring Sings Karen Carpenter
Venus Cabaret | Mercury Theater
TICKETS

ARTISTS LOUNGE LIVE - HEIDI KETTENRING VIDEO

PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts, Libsyn, Stitcher, IHeartRadio and Radio.com App
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