“Nothing happens if you just give in” The Chaz Chronicles Part V

Welcome back, everyone!

Courtesy of Giphy.com

Long time no see. Today, we dive into the fifth installment of The Chaz Chronicles, documenting my journey with the musical Newsies and my unexpected friendship with touring cast member Chaz Wolcott. (Read Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV to catch up).

Close to four years have passed since the events of Part IV. Chaz has since relocated to Pennsylvania to teach at Pennsylvania State University. (Though he has since accepted a new position at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music CCM), How I envy all the students who get to have his in-person mentorship and lessons. And if you want to fill in the gaps of what all happened between then and now in my life, I suggest poking around this and my other blog, debdeclamations.wordpress.com. Spoiler alert: it involves a lot of Twilight as it became my primary obsession.

Now that’s not to say my Newsies obsession ever truly went away. It just wasn’t the obsession I spent the most time and energy on anymore since falling headfirst back into the world of sparkling vampires. But heaven help anyone who had to chat with me this past year because unhinged fansie rose up like a phoenix to combine with unhinged Twi-hard to create a mutant fangirl.

What brought about this change you may ask? Well…I was cast to play Katherine Plumber in a local production of Newsies.

courtesy of giphy.com

The Magic of Theatre Going-A Brief Essay

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

courtesy of giphy.com

If you know me in real life, you know I’m going through a bit of a rough patch right now so I don’t have the time or energy to commit to any new content on ye old blog…but I discovered something older I had written that wasn’t half bad so I decided to take a mental health break and share it with my small but mighty readership. Essentially, it’s just some musings on just how magical theatre going is.

“Gonna be a bright, sunshiney day” That time I met Lorna Luft!

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

(Courtesy of giphy.com_

I know it’s been a while, but thanks for returning and/or checking out my theatre blog for the first time.. (Hi, Mom).

Over the last few months I’ve primarily been writing on my freeform blog, Deb Declamations. I’m sure at some point I’ll get to writing on this one more consistently, but I’ve been working on some original plays that have occupied most of my writing time. However, I had a magnificent theatrical adventure recently that was just too cool not to blog about. I may be blogging about it a month and a half after it happened but better late than never, right?

In short…I saw and met Lorna Luft!!

Role Call! A Walk Through My Resume

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

courtesy of wifflegif.com

It’s been a hot second, and I don’t know if/when I’ll be posting regularly again on this blog, but I was feeling inspired so here we go. I have been doing quite of bit of other writing, most notably on my new freeform blog, Deb Declamations. (Including my never-ending posts about the Twilight/Forks trip).

I was going down a rabbit hole of re-watching Broadway.com videos (one of my go-to sites for Broadway news, behind the scenes vlogs, and general awesome content) and re-discovered a series called Role Call, where notable Broadway folk are asked to pick roles from their careers/resume to match with a prompt. (Examples here). And outside of Broadway.com one of my favorite theatre-centric YouTubers Katherine Steele also did this on her channel. (And speaking of Broadway, can we just take a moment to collectively scream/celebrate that BROADWAY IS BACK!?!?)

Anyway I thought Roll Call it looked like fun so I decided I’d do it for my theatrical “career” thus far. I decided for each prompt I would choose no more than one role, and I could only use each role once. But do know that several shows could fit more than one category, and vice versa. I’ve been very blessed in terms of the shows I’ve done and what I got to do in them and it would be impossible to include everything. (I’m quickly approaching the milestones of 90 productions participated in, and 20 years of involvement in theatre).

“How do you measure, measure a year?” A musical for every time of year!

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

cortesfy of giphy.com

Happy new year everyone, hope y’all are staying sane and safe despite…you know…the state of the world.

courtesy of giphy.com

But with a new year set out before us, I thought it would be fun to lay out for my readers some shows/cast albums to listen to that coincide with (almost) every month and time of year. We’ll look at shows that mention specific dates, specific seasons, holidays, etc to get you in the mood for whatever is going on in the year time wise.

Bonus Becoming Blanche: Louisiana

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

Courtesy of giphy.com

We’ve made it to the end of 2020! I hope everyone reading is having a safe and happy holiday season.

Aside from living through the chaos of a pandemic, this year for me was largely definied by the extreme privilege of playing Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde, so I decided I’d take you through a bonus segement of “Becoming Blanche”. Yes, I finished playing Blanche back in June, but the fascination with all things Bonnie and Clyde/The Barrow Gang lives on.

As it so happens, my parents moved down South to Arkansas, so for Thanksgiving I decided it was time to spend some time with them in their new home. (There were only three of us, so still within CDC guidelines). Since I was down south anyway, I figured I may as well travel down to Louisiana for more Bonnie and Clyde related sight seeing.

“Just like that…” Comfort musicals for the times

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid

Courtesy of giphy.com

It’s been a heck of a year. Whether it be the election, COVID-19, or any of the other plagues, I’m willing to be anyone out there could use some catharsis. And what better place to find that than musicals? (Big shoutout to my friend Tulley Beard for suggesting this one!)

If you need a cast album or two to settle your nerves and give you some hope in humanity, I present you ten shows that can provide some humor, some uplifting songs, and generally good feels without being cloying, as well as a selection from said show to put you in a good mood. This is by no means meant to be comphrehensive list, but maybe a step in the right direction for anybody needing catharsis.

Courtesy of giphy.com

Judy Journey: Deb finally goes to Minnesota (And vlogs about it)

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

Courtesy of Giphy.com

Hope y’alls spooky season is going well despite….well, everything.

Courtesy of Giphy.com

But hey…Aaron Tveit is now a Tony nominee!!!!!!!!! (Took the Tony voters long enough!)

Longtime readers/friends etc. may remember that I had planned a trip to Minnesota to visit family, Judy Garland’s home in Grand Rapids, and more. Initially scheduled June 2019, that trip was put off due to living through a tornado. I had reschduled for earlier this year, but once again I had to put of the trip to to COVID-19. (A big part of this trip was visiting my Grandma, who lives in a nursing home and for a while she was not permitted visitors due to COVID-19).

But the first week in October I finally made the journey, so via my vlogs I took along the way and a selection of pictures, we’ll bring you along on the adventures.

“What comes next?” What to watch on Disney+ post-Hamilton

Wecome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

Courtesy of Giphy.com

If you’re anything like me, maybe you got Disney+ for the sole reason of watching the proshot of Hamilton when it dropped this past July. (Perfectly valid reasoning if I do say so myself).

Courtesy of Giphy.com

But maybe, just maybe, it’s occurred to you to check out what else Disney+ has to offer. So I offer you suggestions for theatre-minded people to watch next. (Until the new Once on This Island movie drops, of course).

“Something next to normal would be okay” The new “normal” of live theatre during COVID-19

My gif-courtesy of giphy.com

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

Courtesy of giphy.com

If you’re reading this, the good news is that you’ve (so far) survived this madhouse that is 2020.

The bad news….Broadway is still shut down and…well, you know.

Courtesy of giphy.com

But fear not. If you’ve been around Memoirs of a Theatre Kid, then you know how my home theatre company, Capital City Productions, was able to reopen in May with our production of Bonnie and Clyde. So I decided (with some help from friend of the blog, Josh Lehto) to take a look at other theatre companies around the United States (and the rest of the world) that have reopened their doors for live shows, and how they’ve managed to safely do so.