Sheldon Sands emailed me in the spring of 2019: "Meg, check out this audition: It's a show that has Klezmer music in it and they are looking for a clarinetist!" I auditioned and got the part and began the journey with top notch Equity actors from New York and Los Angeles, as well as dear musical colleagues Ben Cohen, and Erik Fellenstein.
The staff at DCPA is incredible -- I am very proud to be a small part of this very important play by Paula Vogel directed by Nancy Keystone, with John Plumpis as Lemml.
Quotes:
Lemml: "Every night we tell this story - but somehow I can never remember the end."
"...your play, it changed my life!"
"Rome is burning and you want to put on a play? .."Rome is always burning!"
DCPA Photography: Adams VisCom.
All other images from my phone.
Personal Notes:
This was the hardest production I had been in to date: there is zero deviation for each evening: the cast was able to deliver the exact same performance over and over. I got on the wrong foot with the stage manager during early rehearsals -- we were spending all of our time for the first six weeks of rehearsal studying cultural context and training dialect, working on dance choreography for the seven actors, drilling the spoken dialog and NOT rehearsing the music together with the trio of Ben Cohen, Erik Fellenstein, and myself. I forgot the score in those weeks. We were at the DCPA for eight hours a day, in our seats, doing 'table work' cultural context, which was indeed fascinating, however, we had to have the score memorized. I nearly got fired! Also, Ben and Erik had already memorized their score parts and Ben really would rather jam Gypsy Jazz during our dressing room prep time, so I got to hear Ben and Erik in the men's dressing room every night before we stepped on stage playing different music from the production, with out me. Ben also refused to run the two pieces that had tricky bass lines on the bass clarinet. The wonderful music director Angela Steiner came in early to run those two pieces on piano, but we never gelled as a trio, Ben Erik and I. I'm amazed that Erik could play Gypsy Jazz tunes with Ben then go out and nail that fist violin solo. I'll never forgive Ben for this. We could have had a much more cohesive experience, but he was in it for himself.
Another dreadful experience under the stage manager is he took us all aside and yelled at us because one of us was rude to one of the stage or costume staff. I'll never know. It was the most vehement, swear laden tirade I've ever heard. However, after that the cast splintered into factions. I was already lowest on the totem pole in the ladies dressing room. First one in last one out, so had to listen to our lead process out loud.
Never joke with the stage manager. They will hate you. Never give them any problems to solve whatsoever. They will hate you. Never give them feedback even when they ask for it. They will hate you.
I'll never do a theater production like this again, however, next time I am involved with a cast situation like this, I'll be sure to have my own recording of the actual score in my headphones so I can run the show mentally before we step on stage, and so I can drown out other people's mental and actual noise.
On the other hand, every single night we played, it was an incredible experience. The score is amazing. If I hadn't been lugging around a huge amount of existential read and self doubt, I might have bonded better with the cast. I did make a good friend with one of the sound crew. I'd flee the ladies' dressing room as soon as I could and hang outside ready for our entrance and small talk with him. I'm sure that made the ladies feel I didn't like them, but actually it was just that I couldn't stand myself. I am a big gal, and they were all twiggy dancers. I had to wear body shaping undergarments to fit my costume. I needed desperately to have quiet and one of them needed to chat constantly. They thought I was a lesbian until the end of the run when I brought my boyfriend to the cast party. Just loads of misunderstanding.
I really enjoyed getting a costume made for myself -- the costume shop is incredible at DCPA. The dress was extremely comfortable and very flattering. And had POCKETS!
I'm very glad I pulled it off. There are so many ways I could have made a better showing for myself and the cast recording especially, however to have been a part of this production, especially right before Covid struck, is a seminal experience in my life.