“Urinetown”, The Apartment Search, Goodspeed Locals, Joni.

What a whirlwind since closing night of “Urinetown”. But how could it be any other way really? And of course, now for a mass catch-up.

Middlebury College’s production of “Urinetown the Musical” was an absolute joy to be a part of. Now, I was worried about going back and how people would respond to my return. What would people say? “Is he just bumming around because he has nothing better to do? What actually has he done since graduating?” Luckily though, it wasn’t too strange. Sure, that first week was a constant explanation, making sure all knew that I wasn’t just lollygaging around for JTerm, but rather I was hired to come back and choreograph the musical. Once people started seeing me regularly, word seemed to spread and the Middlebury community welcomed me back with loving and warm arms. 

One thing people kept asking was where was I staying while there. Doug Anderson, the director of “Urinetown” set up two wonderful host families for me. For my first week, I was with Professor Robert Schine at the picturesque Brainerd Commons House. For the rest of my stay I was at the Hewatt/Joselson family’s beautiful, cozy, and loving home. I am so grateful for their generosity and willingness to bring me into their homes for such a long period of time. My ability to have places so close to campus as well as the Town Hall Theatre made my time choreographing so perfect and easy during this very snowy month. I literally would not have been able to be there without their help, and I am so grateful.

“Urinetown”, I was realizing, is the fourth musical that I have choreographed in one year. Out of those four, “Urinetown” was the first production where I wasn’t performing in the show itself as well, and I loved it. It was an amazing experience to be completely on the outside, looking into this piece as a whole and seeing how movement and dance truly influence the flow of the show. I could bring my full focus to the task of making the production’s movement a primary entity to highlight this hilarious and smartly written musical of musicals. This outside placement allowed me to play with the craft of choreography in a way I had never been able to before. Previous productions I always had to be thinking about where I would be onstage, my own lines, my own songs, as well as the complete choreography. Sure, there were definitely moments when my “performer self” was jealous and wanted to be up there singing and dancing with everyone in “Urinetown”, but overall I was so happy not to be up there and to occupy this new seat I had filled. 

After opening night, my two friends Kelly and Max said the exact same thing to me about my choreography: “It’s so you.” 

........

What was “me”? Kelly, Max and I were all in Middlebury’s production of Lippa’s “The Wild Party” in which Kelly was the mute dancer Jackie, Max played Black, and I was Burrs as well as the choreographer. From this production they had an insider’s look on how I worked and what I liked to create with dance. Kelly was also in the piece that I choreographed to Kesha’s Tik Tok for our dance troupe last spring as well as having the opportunity to come and see the production of “Finian’s Rainbow” that I was in and choreographed this summer, so she has seen and been a part of A LOT of my work. But still, what was “me”? Finally my mom got to see the production, and I asked her what she thought, knowing that I would get a truly honest answer from her about what “me” concerning my choreography was. Her first response almost killed me:

“It’s like cheerleading.”

I was on the verge of tears. Now, I have nothing against cheerleading, but that is not what I want people to see my choreography as, not to mention I don’t want my choreography to exude only that peppy, sparkly, gushing of energy all the time type of performance. Seeing/hearing my despair in this remark, Mom reworded her response to explain that in my choreography I make sure I can make all of the actors, whether dancers or not, come together with capable movements that are sharp, precise, and together. Also, instead of using a lot of jumps and kicks that the non trained dancers (the majority of my cast) wouldn’t be able to do, I instead bring in a lot of formations and upper-body work, combined with a need for knowing where the focus needs to be at all times for everyone from the leads to the chorus. It’s like “unified precision”. This made me feel MUCH better, BUT I do want to make sure that I can expand my own style, whatever that means... How do I do that? 

I hope an answer will come soon.

I love choreographing, and I do hope to do more in the future and see where it can bring me. Working with Doug and Carol is always a joy, and my actors were absolutely phenomenal and so fun. They committed to my ideas and moves with such dedication, bringing all my visions to enlightened life. 

Since Middlebury, I have been doing the whole New York City apartment search. To put it frankly, it sucks.... Not only am I moving into one of the most expensive places ever, but finding a place that works for both myself and my real-person, banker roommate Peter is just the silliest and craziest. I’ve been using Craigslist, which is just so crafty and tricky at times, but I am definitely getting closer to my actual move in. What’s so awful is that I am constantly back and forth, in and out of the city seemingly every other day, and it’s getting pretty exhausting. I’m going in tomorrow to chat with a broker about some apartments that I really like on the Upper West Side near Columbia and try my best to get the fees taken down a bit so Peter and I can afford them. 

I just can’t wait to be there. I want to get started. I want to be able to begin my life there. I want a place to live. 

Today I had my audition for Goodspeed Opera House’s 2011 summer season for local non-equity members. And it was interesting to say the least. We were asked to bring an up tempo and a ballad. For my up tempo, I have the great “All I Need is the Girl” from Gypsy. But I was having trouble finding a ballad until last night I came across South Pacific’s “Younger than Springtime”. I had sung it once before with Carol at school and knew it would be the perfect song for Goodspeed. So I worked it last night in my room till I felt really solid with all my choices.

Come the audition, I sing the wrong verse for my “Younger than Springtime” 16 bars screwing up the ending and creating an awkward pause before the final high G’s... I felt like an absolute idiot. I knew the words, I did! But there I was singing the wrong ones. I did my best to cover them, and I think it was okay, but still noticeable obviously cause it’s a flippin’ classic that everyone knows... Ugh... At least I hit the G’s...

I sang my next song and was still a little shaken from the first, so my focus was kind of all over the place. I totally had a Cathy moment from “The Last 5 Years”, having an out of body experience seeing myself auditioning and being like, “What am I doing?” 

Overall I felt really great vocally despite the lyric slip. So we’ll see. I got back into the car and screamed out my frustration and then started my drive back home. As I was steaming, all I wanted to do was try again and be better. I want to get better at auditioning, and this flub up of one made me want to go out and do just that and not give up. I luckily have some leads on places for auditioning classes, and I will definitely be looking into those when I get into the city. Cause frankly, I’m not going to act if I can’t audition...

I feel I’m looking for a lot of answers right now, way more than could ever be put into one blog post. I know in these times when I feel the need to search tirelessly, I actually need to sit back and just listen, and that is when the answers come, in that peacefulness. 

I was once told, “Joni. Joni is the key to whatever you need unlocked. I promise.” So now every night as I’m falling asleep, I listen to Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” album as I drift away, hoping for these doors to be unlocked.