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

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

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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!

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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).

“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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“At the Moment We Start Weeping, That’s When We Should Smile” Full Circles and Farewells

Picture it: January 12, 2012. Jefferson City, Missouri.

It was a happy day in the life of Deb for numerous reasons. For one, it was opening day of one of my all-time favorite musicals and one of my favorite productions I’ve done to date: Man of La Mancha. It was also the very first show I would do with a group then known as Capital City Players, now called Capital City Productions at Shikles Auditorium in Jefferson City, MO.

(I’m the one in the donkey head. It was quite the time!)

“And One Day, I’ll Shine For You…” The Chaz Chronicles Part IV

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid, and the fourth installment of “The Chaz Chronicles”. (Be sure to read Part I, Part II, and Part III if you have not already done so, for the full story of my unexpected and life-changing friendship with actor Chaz Wolcott.

When last seen, Chaz had just finished competing on So You Think You Can Dance, and I was a fresh college grad trying to find her place in the real world.

“Pack up your suitcase, check your worries at the gate” Theatrical Travels Part III (International!)

Welcome back everybody!

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Today on Memoirs of a Theatre Kid, we continue with our theatrical travels series. Up until this point I’d kept our locations of interests within the continental United States. But given how many historical events and figures from around the world have been immortalized onstage, I decided to expland our scope to other countries.

For the sake of simplicity, I kept criteria pretty minimal. All locations/historical sites featured here directly pertainin to real-life people and/or events that have been dramatized into a full-length stage show and/or movie musical. From there I tried to feature a place from every continent, sans Africa and Antarctica. (If there are, in fact, any musicals with historical connectiosn to Africa or Antarctica, please let me know!)

“And soon they’ll all know my name I’ll have fortune and fame…” A-Listers with Theatrical Roots

Welcome back to the blog!

 

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For this installment of Memoirs of a Theatre Kid, I decided to share the spotlight of the stage with the more “mainstream” entertainment. (Movies, TV, Top 40, etc).

It’s probably not surprising that so many of our entertainers in the world of Broadway and beyond grew up doing school plays, singing in church choir, etc. But I decided to take a look at some individuals who are not primarily known as Broadway/theatre people in their adult careers, but had at least one professional theatre gig onstage as a child.

I suppose part of me wants to prove once and for all that theatre kids are, in fact, cool. (Maybe it’s a lost cause…but hey, worth shot, right?)

“The Costumes, The Scenery, The Makeup, The Props…” Theatrical Travels Part II

Welcome back to Memoirs of a Theatre Kid!

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I apologize for the month gap in posts. For those of you who know me personally (which I’m guessing is my entire readership) you can probably guess the reason behind this gap…namely an F-3 tornado that hit my apartment complex and had my roommate and myself (as well as our fur babies) displaced for a month.

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I’m happy to report all animals and humans are healthy and well, and we’re moved into a new place and are slowly but surely getting our lives back together and reestablishing a sense of normalcy. For me, part of that is getting back to writing. But since I am still in the middle of a thousand boxes that need to be unpacked and a massive to-do list, I’m keeping it simple this month by continuing with my theatrical travels series. (Should you care to hear more about us getting our lives together after the tornado, check out this video interview we did with KMIZ on the fourth of July, and this interview I did with News Tribune about being separated and reunited with my kitty Gavin in the after math of the tornado).

For this post I decided I’d focus on places where theatre enthusiasts can travel to view props, costumes, and other notable memorabilia from Broadway musicals and plays, as well as well as their film adaptations and other movie musicals.

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(I should probably clarify the difference I mean between adaptations of musicals/plays verses movie movie musicals. I would classify adaptations as any works that began as a stage show that was than adapted for the screen, such as Hello Dolly, The Crucible etc. But when I refer to “movie musicals”, I mean any musical that was initially created in cinema such as La La Land, Singin’ in the Rain, etc.)

This didn’t leave me quite as wide a berth as my first post in the theatrical travels series, so I didn’t follow quite such a strict set of criteria this time around. While costumes, props, and filming locations were the primary focus for this post, if any of the selected locations also had items/features that tied in to a musical/play based upon historical events, I decided to include those as a historical bonus if you’re like me and can’t get enough of those real life tie-ins between the stage and real life.

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