Grimm Week #7

 When You're Not A Triple Threat, But You Pretend

    The musical this year is looking quite different than in recent years. No live pit or audience to motivate us "actors" into character. I know that's what really pushes me over the top. My middle school director always said I never gave a true performance until the days of the shows. I hope this year I can manage without, like all us "actors" will have too.

    Production has been unpredictable and unstable since we started. Our co-director who manages most of the musical and choreographic stuff is suffering from post Covid-19 symptoms. She's such a great teacher and director, she doesn't deserve the constant interfering pain, well, no one does. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers please.

    From what we've accomplished so far I can say truthfully I'm excited. The show will be so unique and oddly professional for the times. Each cast member, individually, will be recorded at Nazareth High School. Months of editing later and we'll have ourselves two amazing shows because yes, we all perform different roles in 2 takes of the same show. This does add an extra layer of confusion and stress on top of the already mess of scheduling, however it's worth it to show off our casts amazing multifaceted talents.

    The show is perfectly designed for our team, surprisingly. Our directors could only choose from a small number of shows that allowed recordings to be made. The show "Theory of Relativity" is incorrectly defined as a song cycle by some. It does contain many solos back to back, yes, but also group numbers and dialogues are included.

    My favorite experience so far was learning how to analyze a song for blocking. I've been working on my seven minute long solo "Footprint" for a few weeks now. I'm only half way through with figuring out the feelings my character must feel during each phrase and paragraph. The song calls for authenticity before anything else, I have to convince the audience the story I tell is truly mine. It's crazy difficult to associate every little detail with something I can relate to from a personal experience or have a strong enough understanding about. AP Language has really helped me get into that intense analysis mind set, now I can, although it's challenging, pull my song apart to create a raw emotion filled performance.

    I can't wait to perform. Except I can, because I need the time to practice. When recording I must remember vocal technique and specific notes about breath placement as well as each specific thought that goes along with the memorized lyrics. I'm overall so appreciative I got the roles that I did and I'm going to stick with the production through all it's sadly inevitable hiccups. ("Hiccup" is my new favorite word, right next to "squirrel")

Ben Platt Triple Threat-ing in Dear Evan Hansen