I'm playing guitar in the politically-themed "Second Lady", so I decided to paint it!

During my fifth semester at Brown, I took a class called “Musical Theater Songwriting”, where every student in the class worked with new musicians to write original songs on a weekly basis. Two songs I wrote that semester, “Second Lady” with Carolina Barry and Phoebe Nir, and “To Build a Den” with Alex Yuly, were produced as full-fledged mini-musicals this weekend!

Here’s an article in the Brown Daily Herald about these musicals!

I could not have been happier with the two casts that my fellow writers and I were able to entice into this strange set of musicals.

To the cast of Second Lady:

As the musical director for “Second Lady” and only given two weeks to prepare a fresh group of singers to perform the entire musical, I found that there was not enough time to instruct another guitarist to take my place, so I resolved to perform the show. It was this turn of events that gave me the chance to really get to know the cast, to hear their full vocal abilities, and to rework the music to emphasize their best ranges. Michael Gale, a freshman who made an unforgettable debut performance at Brown with “Second Lady”; Katie Jennings, an awesome senior who surprisingly has done more than one tango-related minimusical at Brown; Elsa Obus, a sophomore who gracefully transformed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” into a romantic ballad; and Zack McKenzie, a freshmen whose never acted before yet his single line stole the show; all of these wonderfully talented and attractive (see picture below) actors and actresses were so much fun to work with, and I couldn’t have asked for better people to play the parts! Mike, Elsa, Katie, and Zack, you all are wonderful and this has been one of my best experiences in composing and performing music! I want to give a special thanks to Jon Cox for making the tango scene and the debate scene so much fun for me to play and for the cast to dance to by bringing his talented trombone skills to the musical!

While I focused on the chords, notes, and rhythms of the songs, our director Emily Kassie was able to transform the sheet music into an entire visual experience, complete with an all-out tango scene, coordinated dances throughout the musical, and acting cues that really brought the words to life. Emily was responsible not only for bringing the work to life on the stage, but she also displayed strong leadership and united the whole cast starting from day one with unique, fun, and productive warm-ups (i.e. DIDDLY DA, zip zap zop, be a buddah) and an unstoppable positive attitude that helped us keep the energy strong through every rehearsal and every performance. Emily worked so hard to make this play go off without a hitch, and I believe she did a fantastic job!

From left to right, Zack McKenzie, Emily Kassie, Elsia Obus, Katie Jennings, Michael Gale. I'm in front.

To the cast of Grizzly Man: The Musical

Casting Caroline Martin as Timothy Treadwell could not have been a better choice; on top of the humor of casting an African American girl as the white male bear wrangler, Caroline is a talented comedic improviser who brought a completely new set of hilarious lines to each performance, as well as a very talented singer. Natalie Kleeman, playing Timothy’s girlfriend Amy, is also a talented singer and actress; seeing her perform the song I wrote with Alex Yuly last semester “To Build a Den” with Caroline was a blast and I am honored to have two such amazing people perform that original work. Of course, our lively cast of animals was what truly brought the performance right into the audience’s laps; Annie, Will, Isaac, Jenny, and Alexis, you all are great and I can’t thank you enough for giving every single performance your all and being the beariest bears (and foxiest foxes, Alexis) ever!

Sam Koplewicz directed Grizzly Man: The Musical, and I was so impressed at how well he incorporated his vision of the multimedia experience combining actual footage from the “Grizzly Man” documentary with the songs and dialogue we had written. He was able to tap into the energy and passion of his cast and create an awesome live performance experience!

To Alex Yuly, Phoebe Nir, and Carolina Barry-Laso:

What an adventure this has been! It is amazing how much our musicals progressed from the first day they were accepted by the BrownBrokers board. I can’t tell you all enough how happy it has made me to work with you, our creative energies combined to make some really kick-ass productions this weekend. Carolina, thank you for pushing us to get the applications for both musicals in – I can’t imagine one without the other! And don’t worry, we’ll find a way to incorporate the cut song “Time to Mate” (featuring Timothy mating with a bear) into a future production! Alex, thank you for taking charge of the musical direction and guitar accompaniment for Grizzly Man, writing songs with you and Carolina was awesome! Phoebe, thank you for being determined for the ending of “Second Lady” to be Straight turning gay with the addition of Staffer Paul and, at the same time, being flexible in changing the ending script which allowed the musical to become the powerhouse we presented!