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

Welcome back, everyone!

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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.

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Role Call! A Walk Through My Resume

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

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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!

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

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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.

“Just like that…” Comfort musicals for the times

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid

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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.

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

Wecome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

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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).

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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).

“The waiting, the waiting, the waiting…” Online resources to get theatre people through quarantine

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Welcome back, everyone!

I hope you’re all staying safe, wherever you are. For me I’m physically safe, but living through such a tumultuous time is taking it’s toll, but I’m managing.

Though in the grand scheme of everything in the world, I can acknowledge that Broadway being dark and the fact that very little live theatre is happening (and rightly so, for the sake of public safety) is, as the kids might say, a big sad.

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I wish I had some sweeping words of wisdom, but the best I can offer are some little digital joys I’ve found to keep me going, that I can hope add a little sparkle to the rest of my theatre-loving folk.

“What you call a dream…” Becoming Blanche Part III (Finally performing after living through a pandemic)

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid, and Part III of “Becoming Blanche”. (My series documenting my time researching, traveling and diving into history to play Blanche Barrow. If you haven’t already read/watched Part I and Part II of “Becoming Blanche” there they are). I hope you’re all staying safe.

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We finally made it to the opening of Bonnie and Clyde at Capital City Productions…an event that was supposed to occur the weekend after Easter but was pushed back to to COVID-19. I can heartily say I’ve never been more elated to open a show than I was with this one…cause around the time I posted Part II of “Becoming Blanche” COVID-19 forced lockdowns and the world went to heck.

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“I Know Things Now…” Advice to my younger self

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Hey everybody! I hope you’re all staying safe and healthy while social distancing.

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I myself am struggling to an extent, mainly because my productions of Bonnie and Clyde and possibly Evita have been pushed back (but thankfully not cancelled) and all of this is bringing back the trauma from last year big time.

But I’m still here, still writing, doing what I can. And I needed to write/think about something that wasn’t COVID-19. So here we go! (Big thank you to my dear friend Josh Lehto for this suggesting this months’ topic. We’ve done many a show together, most recently Gomez to my Grandma in The Addams Family).

More than once I wished I could tell my younger self about all the unbelievable adventures I’ve had growing up in the theatre. But for the purposes of this post, I’m going to pass on five pieces of advise I would give eight-year old me first starting out, ready to make her debut in One Man’s Dream. (What, you’ve never heard of it? It was written specifically for the bicentenntial of the Lewis and Clark expedition celebration in Jefferson City, performed by ACTPAC, the first kid’s theatre program where I got my feet wet and never looked back).

Me and my sister Carolyn, who actually played Merriweather Lewis, getting ready to perform, summer of 2003.

“The street’s a little kinder when you’re home…” Theatrical Travels Part IV

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

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I hope all of you are off to a great start this year. If not…well, consider January to be your trial month. In any case you’ve found my blog, so you’ve got that going for you.

I decided to jump back into the Theatrical Travels series. This time, we’re going to take a look at places within the United States that are directly tied to notable figures in the theatre world that are open to the public. Think childhood homes, birthplaces, and the like.

Most artists featured this will consist of playwrights and composers, but there may be a few surprises along the way.

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“The Last Five, no scratch that, Ten Years” A Revisit with the Tony-Winning “Best Musicals” of the Decade

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid for the final post of the year, but also the decade.

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Navigating through the social medias this month, I couldn’t help but notice a trend of reviewing/reminiscing through the two thousand tens, aka the first decade where I was old enough to be cognizant of the world and its goings on from start to finish. I thought to myself, “What theatre-related thing of the past ten years can I write about on Memoirs of a Theatre Kid?”

Eventually, I decided I’d dive into the ten winners of the highly sought-after “Best Musical” Tony award from 2010-2019, and what the original cast and creative team of each show has gone on to do since their respective wins. (Obviously it would be impossible to chart ever accomplishment and accolade from every individual who mounted these musicals, but I tried to squeeze in the bigger ones with a somewhat logical and well-transitioned narrative).

So travel back to me to the start of the decade…when your humble author was an underclassman in high school, Obama was in his first term of office, and Toy Story 3 was released.