A final note of thanks.

I've been putting off writing my last post on this blog because it means that the experience is actually over.  Today marks one full month since our final performance in Weston.  I'm (mostly) back in the swing of New York - 9-to-5-ing, dodging smelly subway cars, sighing loudly behind people texting while they walk - and (mostly) over my cheese withdrawal.  I've seen a number of my wonderful colleagues over the past few weeks (congrats to Lauren on her amazing concert that brought most of us back together!)

But before closing up shop on the blog, I have to thank a whole bunch of people for making this entire amazing experience possible.  Everyone - cast, creative team, staff, musicians, technicians - made their mark on our work in amazing ways.  So in no particular order (other than alphabetical, obviously), my heartfelt thanks go to:

Kate Absher, Krystina Alabado, Twan Baker, Renata Brewington, Heather Brown, Jacki Brown, Joe Calarco, Jen Caprio, Lindsey Carlson, Ed Chapman, Andrew Cooper, Evan DelGaudio, Alek Deva, Katrina Dideriksen, Stuart Duke, Malcolm Ewen, Emeline Finckel, Tim Fort, Rachel Fraley, Travis Gilmore, Jessica Gouker, Sean Hagerty, Debora Harry-Spencer, Jeff Human, Sarah Ishu, Jess Johnston, Caitlin Kinnunen, Tim Mackabee, Lauren Marcus, Sydney Maresca, Kaylin Martin, Elizabeth McLinn, Jacqueline Mullen, Meghan O'Brien, Aidan O'Reilly, Jakob Plummer, Jed Resnick, Ro Rowan, Anthony Rubbo, Peryn Schmitt, Elizabeth Schurra, Margo Seibert, Joel Shier, Molly Shoemaker, Rich Silverstein, Erik Skovgaard, Dana Steingold, Steve Stettler, Bridget Sullivan, Kelsey Tippins, Carolyn Voss, Bekah Wachenfeld, Andrew Wellons, Lorenzo Wolff, and Jeremy Yaddaw.



We don't know where this show will take us next, but we do know that every person above took it to places we never could have imagined and gave it a full and beautiful life for six weeks.

I always try to imagine what my career will be like.  I like to daydream about the places that art can take me and all of the things that I might be able to accomplish.  In my secret imaginary timeline, though, I don't think I planned on my first professional production being quite so monumental and emotional.  It was easy to imagine the fun we'd have and the kudos and the work we'd do - and, yes, those were great.  But the warmth and openness and heart that I brought back with me from Weston (and will carry with me and with the show) left the kind of imprint that you can't expect.  And beyond being proud or humble or sad or happy, I am grateful.

Thanks for following this leg of Pregnancy Pact's journey.  The birth is over in Vermont, but I can't wait until we get to knock up the rest of the world!

Closing night.

It was amazing to be back in Weston, even just for 19 hours.  And it was beyond amazing to get to see this production of the show one last time.

Just as we suspected, it had all settled beautifully.  No one was running on adrenaline anymore - not the cast, not the band, not the crew behind the bathroom mechanism - so the energy relaxed where it needed to and things were happening organically on stage.  Everyone was in really great voice and some songs sounded better than ever.  All in all, it was a great way to leave Weston!

And beyond what was happening onstage, the audience had settled in beautifully, as well.  The audience was responsive, vocal, and fully engaged.  It's amazing that in one short week we were able to build an audience for our show.  All along, the Weston community was engaged and open but after a few performances it also became a known quantity.  By the final performances, much of the audience came in ready for the show and were able to lead the rest of the audience through the sometimes rough emotional terrain.  The laughs were harder and easier.  The gasps were more audible.  The tension was more palpable.  Friday night's performance even included our first full standing ovation!

Our final talkback was with Branden Huldeen, the New Works Director at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre.  Steve and the whole cast joined us onstage for one last discussion about the future of musical theatre and were Pregnancy Pact might fit into that.

There were so many hugs and so many thanks that night.  It was a perfect way to bring a pretty perfect experience to a close.

Welcome back to Weston.

Upon returning to Weston this afternoon, I found this on the front porch of the actor's house.  Lauren was playing some of her original songs, backed by Sean, Ro, Jeremy, Lorenzo, and Krystina, Caitlin & Margo on vocals.

I've only been back for two hours and I'm already going to miss it all over again.

Until then, we've got one last performance to go!

The student matinee.

Friday morning, Pregnancy Pact had its long-awaited and much-discussed student matinee performance.  I am so disappointed to have missed the chance to be in the theater full of real, live teenagers, but I did get some really great reports from everyone who was there.  Roughly 120 students saw the show and participated in a wonderful talkback afterwards with the cast, Laura May Ackley, and two teen mothers who work with Laura's Lund Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.  They were a great and vocal audience during the show and they had what sounds like a meaningful post-show discussion.

One of the participating schools was the Austine School for the Deaf in Brattleboro, VT.  The show was performed with two sign interpreters, Christopher and Aimee Robinson (pictured below with the cast.)  If there was any performance I was heartbroken to miss, it was this one.  They came to the show on opening night and I got to hear a little bit about their interpreting process - it sounds fascinating.  Between the two of them, they covered all eight roles with different postures for each character.  They provide a full performance of their own at the side of the stage to compliment what's happening in the scene.  I can only hope that Chris and Aimee join us in the future so I can see them in action!

After the show, Lauren ran into a group of students at the Country Store and had a chance to talk with them off-the-record, without the pressure of the talkback.  She sent Julia and me a list of highlights from that discussion, including:

"You were a bitch, but then you weren't...you guys took a turn!" 

"We didn't want to come, but then we did and we actually had fun." 

"These gummy bears are really good." 

"YOU'RE GOING STRAIGHT TO BROADWAY!"

While we never intended the show to be used as a teaching tool - and we certainly didn't write it with an easy lesson at the end - we are so honored that Weston saw the opportunity to show students something that isn't easy and isn't pretty.  I've never wanted to speak for teenagers with my writing, but it means so much to hear from them that they connect with the material and see what's onstage as an honest depiction of life (albeit with characters making extreme decisions.)

All hats must go off to Weston for being brave and daring enough to present the show - wholly unedited - to these schools.  And all hats must be put back on and go off again to the schools, administrators, and teachers who gave our show a chance to reach this audience.  We are beyond humbled.

Pregnancy Pact: The Rite of....

Joe's hard-hitting expose on the things actors do to keep themselves occupied during tech.

The show must go on...

Julia and I may have had to return to the city (and our day jobs), but the show is still going strong in Weston. We're loving the reports we're getting of the performances both officially and on Facebook.  My favorite quote so far was overheard by our drummer, Jeremy Yaddaw - a woman left the theater saying "I surprised myself by really liking it!"

The amazing talkbacks have continued, with Steve and the cast jumping up on stage to continue the discussions with the audiences.  Over the past three performances the guests have included Steve Trombley, (President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England), Jon Bliss (minister of Weston's Old Parish Church and a former educator and mental health worker), Stephen Stearns (Artistic Director of the New England Youth Theatre), and Psychotherapist & Family Counselor Jim Carew.

Tomorrow morning is our student matinee, complete with a sign interpretation, and our penultimate performance.  I can't wait to get back for the closing night on Saturday!

Steve, members of the cast, and Old Parish Church Minister Jon Bliss

Steve, members of the cast, and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England President & CEO Steve Trombley

Steve, members of the cast, Stephen Stearns & Jim Carew

Thanks to our extraordinary cellist/photographer/all-around-wonder Ro Rowan for capturing these talks!

A star is reborn!

Our very own Twan Baker is headlining a photo exclusive on Playbill this week!  Take a peek behind the scenes at Pregnancy Pact to see just what Twan and the rest of the cast were up to while performances began.

Twan giving notes to Julia & me...

One weekend down.

Performances are well under way!  As you can see from the production photos, the show is looking phenomenal - and you'll have to trust me that it's sounding and feeling just as wonderful as it looks.  I truly could not have asked for a better result to my four weeks up here (or better people to share it with.)  And it's only getting better and better with each performance.

So far we've had about 700 people see the show.  The experience of sitting in an audience as a writer and being relatively anonymous is pretty amazing.  You truly can feel the pulse of the room as the show goes on.  Each audience is different - Thursday night's preview had a pretty guarded feeling, while Friday's opening was very vocal, and this afternoon's matinee was incredibly attentive and invested.  At intermission you hear so many things - some unsolicited praise, some private scrutiny, some big questions - that you never get to hear when the audience is made up of mostly friends and family.  It's hard to notice empty seats at intermission (although not wholly unexpected given the challenging subject matter and language.)  But it's even harder not to glow when you feel the audience getting it - when you hear the knowing laughter at the beginning of "This Is It" and the gasps at the end of "Let Me" and the shock at Maddie and Brynn's confrontation.  That thrill matches the intensity of all of the other wonderful milestones we've had during this process in Weston.

And that thrill wouldn't be possible without the eager, brave, and thoughtful audiences here in Weston. I'm so thrilled that the Playhouse staff decided to put a talkback after every performance.  We've been lucky enough to participate in all of them so far, and each has included a wonderful guest.  Ralph Remington, the Director of Theater and Musical Theater with the National Endowment for the Arts (which awarded Weston with a $60K grant for this production), was the opening night guest and discussed where Pregnancy Pact fits into the world of contemporary theater.  After the Saturday matinee Julia and my professors from the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Program, Sarah Schlesinger and Mel Marvin, were on hand to talk about the development process and what kind of life a new musical can have in store (and how wonderful it is that Weston is devoting itself to new work.)  Saturday night's guest was playwright Dana Yeaton, who is on the faculty at Middlebury.  This afternoon we were lucky enough to have five of Weston Playhouse's student ambassadors - area high school students who develop a relationship with the Playhouse over the course of the season - and a local high school guidance counselor on hand to discuss the show's real-life implications.

The talkbacks themselves have been rich with the personal stories and honest reactions of audience members - from an obstetrics nurse turned midwife to social workers and mental health experts and teachers and, of course, parents.  Everyone agrees that the subject of the show is not the most comfortable to watch or think about (and we certainly knew that as we wrote it - it's one of the things that attracted us to it.)  But we've had healthy groups of 30-40 people staying for the talkbacks who really want to discuss the issues the show raises.  Apart from compliments and questions about the writing process, the talkbacks have been incredibly personal.  The parents in the audience have wondered what they can do to be better parents.  The community members in the audience have wondered how they can continue to discuss what's raised in the show.  People have shared their own hardships and experiences and teen parents and parents of teen parents.  And while people might wish that we could tie the story up a little more tidily in the end, so many have recognized that this is a story that both sings and doesn't end easily or definitively.  They've recognized that this isn't a show that's just about teen pregnancy - this is about the adolescent feelings of loneliness and the need for love, family and identity.  Yes, our story follows girls who take those feelings and translate them into extreme actions, but having an audience that allows themselves to see past the salaciousness and into the emotions of these characters has let us feel like we're doing something right.

And just when we hit the heights - it's time to leave.  I've got to head back to my day job this week, though I'm counting the hours until I can come back for the closing performance on Saturday, September 8 at 7:30pm.  And I've asked the cast to send me reports for the blog all week - especially after Friday morning's student matinee performance.

You've got 5 more chances to see the show.  It's really good, but I know I'm biased.  Come see for yourself!

A few production photos...

"Prologue"

On the phone

In the bathroom. 

"All of Us"

At the movies

"Something To Prove (That We're In Love)"

"This Is It"

"Hummingbird Heart"

"Let Me In"

End of Act I

"Nobody Knows"

"Secrets"

"Leave Me Behind"

"Let Me"

"I Got This Instead"

Everybody in the pact!

Knockin' Up the Radio

Julia and I had two radio interviews in the days leading up to opening night.

First, we spoke with Susan Keese of Vermont Public Radio (you can listen here.)  In addition to some interview clips with Julia and me, you can hear a little bit of the script along with excerpts of Margo singing "Hummingbird Heart" and Caitlin singing "Love Me Better."

We also had a live interview on Friday with Edgar B. Herwick III on Boston's public radio, WGBH.  Live radio was new for us...  and you can listen to that interview here!

So now, it's like, this is it.

It's opening night!  After a quick transition-through of the show this afternoon (with things we learned during our preview), we are ready for our first official performance.

I am officially excited (and still officially exhausted.)  From here on out I get to sit back and enjoy...

Well, that and participate in the talkbacks that are held after every show...  Tonight's special guest is Ralph Remington, the Director of Theater for the National Endowment for the Arts.  We're looking forward to discussing the show with him and with the audience after the performance.

To everyone involved:

Break water!

A sneak peak...

Playbill.com published a few of our production photos this afternoon.  Take a look at the show here.  (More photos will follow soon!)

Pregnancy Props

Only at Pregnancy Pact would the prop table include a retainer case, a can of tuna, lipgloss, and pregnancy tests.

Day Twenty-One

The time has come!  We had our dress rehearsal this afternoon.  The cues are mostly written and the transitions are mostly worked out.  We've still got time to rehearse some tomorrow to put whatever finishing touches we need before the official opening night.  But as of tonight, people are paying to see Pregnancy Pact.

People are going to start to come into town tomorrow and I'm going to be a host and be social and all that.  But before that happens, I'm going to enjoy having one last night with just me and my show.  Actually, I'm going to enjoy having one last night with just Julia, Joe, Rich, Andrew, Jess, Molly, Jakob, Krystina, Katrina, Caitlin, Lauren, Jed, Margo, Dana, Tim, Jen, Joel, Ed, Meghan, Sydney, Jeremy, Lorenzo, Anthony, Ro, Sean, Steve, Mal, Tim, Stuart, Bridget, Aidan, Peryn, Kaylin, Kelsey, everyone...  and OUR show.

Break water, everyone!

Day Twenty

Tech has come and gone.  We had another really productive day - working up to the finale of the show.  It continues to look wonderful and Joe is a master at figuring things out on their feet as they differ from the rehearsal room.  The steady focus of everyone involved kept us moving through the show.  It was amazing to see some of my very favorite moments in the show in their full theatrical glory tonight - sequences like "I Can't Wait" and "Leave Me Behind" that go beyond the realism in a lot of the script and can only live on a stage.  I can't wait to see it all the way through at our 2:00 dress rehearsal tomorrow!

And then, of course, there's that little fact that tomorrow night at 7:30pm, Pregnancy Pact gets its first paying audience.  It's a little overwhelming to even begin to think about.  There's a huge part of me that is thrilled and proud to show off the work that all these amazing people have done.

Then there's the part of me that wants to run and hide at the thought of opening it up to the world.  I know it's what every writer dreams of, but I never thought I'd have so much anxiety heading into the big day.  In a weird way, I almost feel like I'm losing a little bit of myself by putting it out there for the world to see.  It's almost like a line from "Hummingbird Heart" - "She's like a tiny secret that nobody gets to see, but I can feel her little hummingbird heart and I'll keep her from the world so it's only her and me."  There's something so private about my relationship to this show and it's scary to think that it's no longer just mine.

Baby analogies come easily with musicals (and have always been a part of the way we talk about this show.)  So when I got home from tech the first thing I did was check to see if "birth anxiety" was a thing and there it was, clear as day.  Message boards abound with postings from soon-to-be mothers talking about their fears and nerves - knowing that it's what you've planned for all along but scared that it's actually about to really happen.  I think Jaimek000's June post on the community board of babycenter.com just about sums up what I'm feeling right now:

Any others out there that are FTMs that are starting to get nervous? Obvs, I have known all along that I will have to deliver, but now that the time is fast approaching, I am starting to get nervous, worried, anxious...when, where, HOW??? LOL. The anticipation is both exciting and nerve-racking not knowing how its all going to pan out. I have the standard concerns of will my birth go smoothly?; will my baby be so big that I will need a c-section?; will everything be OK with baby? etc, etc, etc...ANY COPING STRATEGIES? I am starting to have butterflies over it daily!

Now I first had to realize that FTM in this case has nothing to do with the trans community and instead means "first time mother."  Then I read responses and the one idea that stuck out was that no matter what concerns you may have, you must remember that women have been doing this since the beginning of time.  Everyone worries, but it's part of life.

Now I'm thankful that what I'm going to experience tomorrow won't include any pain or require an epidural (hopefully), but I can't help but feel some of the same things.  And recognizing that this is part of the life of a writer is so important.  Yes, I'll probably mourn a little bit while I celebrate how amazing the production is.  But it just means that it's real!

The Commons

The Pregnancy Pact article in The Commons, Windham County's independent newspaper, has been published!  You can read it here.

Thanks to Weston's marketing intern Alek Deva for getting us such great word of mouth in the area!

Where to stay in Weston [REPOST]

So say you've already gotten your tickets and you know how you're getting to Vermont.  Now where do you stay?

The Inn at Weston

If you're looking to stay in Weston itself, the beautiful Inn at Weston is just down the road (walking distance) from the Playhouse and has beautiful rooms, a fancy restaurant, and swanky breakfasts and teas for their guests.  The Apple Knoll Inn is at the other end of Main Street (still walking distance) and is a bit less expensive.  The Colonial House is just a little bit further away (and still even a bit less expensive) but just as accessible!  You can make reservations online for all three!

If you're game for staying a little bit further away, you can look at the Best Western Colonial or the Governor's Inn in Ludlow (just to the north of Weston), the Motel in the Meadow and Stone Hearth Inn & Tavern in Chester (just to the east of Weston) or the Swiss Inn in Londonderry (just south of Weston.)

As if a musical is not enough to do in Southern Vermont, there is also a cool farm with a petting zoo, artisanal cheese, apple orchards and berry picking all within an hour's drive.  The theatre is also right next to the amazing Vermont Country Store (where you can eat your weight in cheese samples!)

Getting to Weston [REPOST]

So you've gotten your tickets to come up to see the show.  Now how do you get here?

The easiest way to get to Weston is to drive.  If you're coming from NYC, the drive takes just under 5 hours going up I-87 through New York or up I-91 through Connecticut and Massachusetts.

(Find out for yourself by entering the Playhouse's address: 12 Park Street, Weston, VT 05161.)

When it comes to public transportation, there are a few good options.  If you don't want to drive yourself the whole way, either Megabus or various airlines can take you to Albany (about a 90 minute drive to Weston).  Amtrak trains run daily to Rutland, VT (about 45 minutes away.)  And Dartmouth College runs a bus service between NYC and Lebanon/Hanover, NH (about an hour away.)

Day Nineteen

Tech began today.  This is my first time really tech-ing a show as a writer (and I haven't been involved in a real tech in any capacity since college) and these 10 out of 12 hour days are exhausting!

The big takeaway of the day?  My goodness we are so lucky to be surrounded by the people working on this show.  I've spent weeks singing the praises of Joe and Rich and the 7 actors and 3 stage managers (Jess, Molly & Jakob) who've been in the rehearsal room all along.  And they're all still immensely praise-worthy - the work they've been doing is on full display here.  But when you add in the work of the designers and their crews it becomes a fully realized show.  You've read about Tim, Joel, Jen, and Ed.  The work they have all done is fantastic from the start.  From the hyper-real bathroom set to the washes of beautiful color in the lights to the parade of pitch-perfect hoodies and the full sound coming out of the pit, they've found a way to illuminate this story that goes so far beyond my wildest imaginings.  And they're supported by such a wonderful group of people, working literally around the clock under the supervision of Production Manager-extraordinaire Bridget Sullivan, to realize this world.  I can't wait to see the rest tomorrow!

I wrote a whole long description of everything I saw today - the amazing popcorn counter, the pink glow of "This Is It," Kaylee's incredible red jeans (to name a few) - but there is no way to truly get across how wonderful it is to see this all come to life.  I feel like a fountain of gratitude - trying to say "Thank you" as much as I possibly can.  Even that can't really be enough, though.  I know that this is what they all do, they're professionals, and they aren't just doing this for me and Julia.  But I can't help but look at the proof for the program and see all of the names and feel humbled that what was a couple of new songs three years ago is now no longer just mine.  And while that was a pretty scary thought a month ago, I couldn't be more excited to share this with everyone in that theater.

We've got another 10 out of 12 tomorrow, so look for another late-night update then!

New England Cable News story

New England Cable News did a piece on Weston's recovery from Irene that included some rehearsal footage of Pregnancy Pact.  Check out the video featuring our wonderful stage manager, Jess Johnston, and the Playhouse's Managing Director Stuart Duke - along with Rich and the cast.

Irene: One Year Later

I distinctly remember logging onto Facebook a year ago today.  I had been at a friend's wedding just outside the city the night before that was certainly soggy, but the great fear of Irene tearing through the New York area had subsided and it seemed like little damage had been done.  So by the time I got back to the city (by cab, since public transportation was still shut down) I was shocked the see the first photos coming out of Weston.  Every photo was more startling than the last.  At this point, I had only spent a week up here in the middle of the winter, but even without knowing the full, green lay of the land it was obvious that something major was happening.  And all we could do from New York was keep on watching the photos as they were posted and send all the positive energy we could muster northward.

The photos on the second day, though, were inspirational.  We got to witness an entire community come together - the volunteer fire department were pumping out the remaining water, Weston residents showed up with tractors to help clear out all the debris, the entire cast and staff of Saint Ex broke out their galoshes and started shoveling mud.  Over 100 members of the community showed up to help.  For every heartbreaking photo of a baby grand piano over-turned in the orchestra pit, there were ten photos of the Weston family working together and unearthing treasures and turning everything around in short order.  Within five days, Saint Ex had been re-staged (without an orchestra pit) and re-opened for the remainder of its scheduled run.

And that's what is so magical about the Weston Playhouse to me.  It isn't only a regional theater, it isn't only an artistic home - it is a full-fledged community.  My time here has been made so much more special and the work we've done here has been that much more rewarding because of that.  I can walk to rehearsal on Sunday morning and run into someone coming out of the church next door who asks how the show is going.  The cast can call up the Klonskys and request some quiet time with their dogs over a home-cooked meal.  You get to know the guy at the candy register at the Country Store and you can invite your waitress at the Bryant House to the show.

What I've always valued most about working in musical theater is the collaboration and the community.  It's what inspires me and what gives me the most joy - finding more in yourself because of those who surround you.  And I'm so grateful for the year-and-a-half I've spent getting to know everyone up here at Weston, because this is a community in the truest sense.

Thanks to the Playhouse community in Weston and everywhere across the country, a full and exciting season is wrapping up with Pregnancy Pact.  Yesterday I took a walk around town to take some photos to show you just how different it was up here one year ago today.  The first photos in each set were taken by Producing Artistic Director Malcolm Ewen on the day of the flood - I tried to re-capture each photo this year.

The dam behind the Playhouse flooding.

The same view today.

More photos after the jump!

Jeanelle

We're in!

The banner hanging in front of the Playhouse.

The Playhouse is officially knocked up.

Everyone has been working so incredibly hard for the last two days getting Fiddler moved out of the theater and Pregnancy Pact moved in.  And I just stopped by to check it out and I honestly couldn't believe how amazing everything looks.

Now I had seen the model set and renderings and we've been talking about everything during rehearsal, but seeing it all being built and finished in person is an overwhelming feeling.  Just like watching the actors bring to life everything that's always been in my heart for these characters, seeing the world come to life is both exciting and a little bit of a shock to the system (just in realizing how real it all is.)  It's the wide-eyed naif talking again, but I don't think I ever could have imagined this for myself and for this show.  I am beyond humbled and grateful to see it all come to life.  And it just makes me all the more excited for you all to get to see it beginning Thursday!

Day Eighteen

Our third week of rehearsal is done!  The time has flown by up here and I'm trying not to think about having to return to regular life in a week...

Rehearsal began with one final run of the show in the rehearsal room.  Knowing that we had our sitzprobe a few hours later, there was some vocal marking going on - but nothing else was held back.  Now that we're a few runs in, the show has really settled into a larger arc that was exciting to watch.  The wonderful moments that were already there get more specific and more amazing each time we pass them by.  There were some designers and assistants there watching the run to prepare for tech - trying to track the moving set pieces and figure out the quick changes and all those things that are about to be thrown into the mix.  I'm so happy that the show is on such solid footing and can easily withstand everything new that's on its way!

We moved our rehearsal to the Playhouse living room to sing through the score with the full band for the first time.  The musicians are wonderful and have jumped in feet first over this weekend.  It was exciting for me to get to hear the score all the way through again - including a few new moments that were written for this incarnation that I've never heard with full orchestration.  It makes me re-appreciate just how wonderful Julia is all the more in situations like that!  I think (I hope) it was just as exciting for the cast to get the full effect of the score for the first time.  I can't wait for the music to color all of the amazing work they've already been doing when we move into the theater!

The girls singing a nice open vowel...

Cello, violin & bass!

As the sitz went on, we got to peek in on all the work they're doing in the theater.  So far we've only seen the portals in the set design, but it's already beyond exciting.  I can't wait to stop by on our day off to keep checking it out!

Next time you read a rehearsal report, tech will be in full-swing...  Crazy.

Movin' on up...

Goodbye Lloyd Rehearsal hall...

Hello Playhouse!  Load-in has begun...

Day Seventeen

The band has arrived!  Julia and Rich spent the morning rehearsing with them.  I stopped by just long enough to hear the second half of "Love Me Better" - and they sound amazing already!  They are: Jeremy Yaddaw on drums, Anthony Rubbo on guitar, Lorenzo Wolff on bass, Sean Hagerty on violin and Ro Rowan on cello.  (Hard at work in the photo at left.)

Our rehearsal was more of the same wonderfulness - we worked on a few scenes before doing another run, followed by working through a few notes from the run.  It's fascinating to watch Joe and actors adjust things based on the larger picture.  I've never been a part of a production that had that kind of luxury of time before, but since everyone's been at the top of their game all along we actually have time before tech to work through the overarching trajectory of the show.  In a show with emotions this high this often, it's interesting to see actors work through emotional pacing the same way they might work through their vocal trajectory once they know the show as a whole.  I guess this is another "Duh, you wrote it" moment, but that pacing can be intense - in a show that aims to lead the audience such a specific emotional journey we don't want to peak too soon or else we might lose them.  And watching the actors and Joe and Rich work through this, I just can't get over how good everyone is at their jobs and how lucky we are to have them all (still and always, I guess.)

Tomorrow is a big day - we have a run first thing and our sitzprobe (sing-through of the score with the full cast and band) after our dinner break.  It's also the day we bid farewell to the Lloyd Rehearsal Hall. But that means we're just one step closer to tech - and one step closer to letting all of you see what we've been up to!

The Boston Globe

We're just all over regional media this week!  Our interview with Andrew Doerfler of The Boston Globe was in today's edition of the paper.  And so you don't have to purchase a digital subscription, the text is copied below!  We're really happy with the article, though we do laugh at the GIANT photo in the print edition.  (It was the only high-res photo we have of the two of us - from publicity for our Ars Nova Uncharted concert - and we sent it in a little last minute, not knowing it would take up half the page!)

The article continues after the jump...

G FORCE
‘PREGNANCY PACT,’ THE MUSICAL
AUGUST 24, 2012

“Pregnancy Pact” is the first professionally produced musical by composer Julia Meinwald and bookwriter-lyricist Gordon Leary. It’s inspired by the headline-grabbing 2008 story of a group of teenage girls at Gloucester High School who made an agreement to get pregnant and raise their children together. The tale of the pact, which their principal outlined to Time magazine, was swiftly debunked — but for artists, the appeal of the narrative has lingered. “Pregnancy Pact” runs Thursday through Sept. 8 at the Weston Playhouse in Weston, Vt. Information is at 802-824-5288 andwww.westonplayhouse.org.

Q. The pregnancy pact story has been adapted into a Lifetime movie, an off-Broadway show [by Medford playwright Kirsten Greenidge] called “Milk Like Sugar,” and now a musical. What about this story compels so many people to dramatize it?

Meinwald: The thing that is most interesting to us about the story is the psychology of the girls who made the pact. Whether or not it actually happened, people seem to believe it could happen, so we wondered what could have been going through a girl’s head.

Leary: What lends it to be a musical [is that], within that psychology, there are a lot of high emotions. They have a need for love and family that they don’t get from their parents. That’s what makes it sing.

Sansanee

Rutland Herald article

Our article in the Rutland Herald came out on Thursday, and we couldn't be happier with it!  It's always interesting to see how a 30-minute conversation becomes an article, and I think (aside from sounding like the wide-eyed new writers we sometimes sound like) the nice conversation we had with Jim Lowe turned out well.  And hopefully it will warm some local people up to the show who might have been scared away by the warnings about language and sexual content...

Read it below!  (It continues after the jump...)

‘Pregnancy Pact’: Weston premiering timely and poignant musical

By Jim Lowe
August 23,2012

In 2008, Time magazine reported that after a rash of pregnancies at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts, nearly half of the girls admitted to a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. But is this the stuff of musicals?

Next week, Weston Playhouse Theatre Company will open the world premiere production of “Pregnancy Pact.” With book and lyrics by Gordon Leary and music by Julia Meinwald, the new musical will run Aug. 30-Sept. 8 at the Weston Playhouse.

“Pregnancy Pact” follows six teen girls, and a couple of their boyfriends, as they attempt to find a solution to their loneliness and fear. Their contemporary rock-style songs represent their feelings.

“Because the phrase ‘pregnancy pact’ kind of stuck in the collective consciousness,” Leary said, “we were interested in going beyond that term and really thinking about what would motivate the teenage girls to do that.”

West River Farmer's Market

For the last two Saturdays I've heard stories about the magical farmer's market in Londonderry (right next to Weston.)  The actors have gone and raved about it but I hadn't had a chance to go.  Until today. And it didn't disappoint.

There was everything you could ever want - amazing produce with some of the most beautiful tomatoes you'll ever see, fresh baked bread and fresh made donuts, hand-made quilts and hand-knitted scarves, pottery, potted flowers...  I made it out with some bread, some fresh hummus, a handmade pizza (pictured at the bottom), a pack of Carrot-Curry-Flax gardenburgers, and a fresh-squeeze lemonade.

It's so nice to take an hour out of our musical-theater tunnel vision to take in just how amazing Vermont is.  So why not plan your trip up to see one of our Saturday performances and stop by the market yourself?

Photos after the jump...

The Black Suits

We just got back from a field trip down to see the workshop production of The Black Suits at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA.  The show, with an amazing score by fellow NYU-alum Joe Iconis and book by Joe and Robert Maddock, is truly, honestly sensational.  It follows four high-school-aged friends who have a garage band one summer as they face growing up and apart in a life with limited choices.  It was amazing to see a show with such amazing emotion and honesty about adolescence while we work on Pregnancy Pact.  It felt like a total kindred theatrical spirit at times (I should be so lucky) and was inspiring to those of us who made the journey down!

The cast is amazing - Jason Hite, Ben Platt, Harrison Chad, and Will Roland make up The Black Suits, with Sarah Cetrulo as the girlfriend and the always amazing Annie Golden as a rock and roll mentor.  Director John Simpkins and MD James Sampliner brought the show to such a fully realized form - it's hard to believe that it's a workshop!  The story is heart-breaking and heart-warming AND it has one of the most exciting and natural scores I've heard from a new musical in a long time.  I've been hearing about it for years and it basically surpassed ALL of the hype and talking up that it's gotten.

Lucky for you, The Black Suits and Pregnancy Pact BOTH have performances all next weekend.  Plus, Pittsfield is less than a two hour drive from Weston.  Which means that those of you in NYC should definitely make a full weekend of New England theater going out of it!

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Kaylee

Day Sixteen

After such a wonderful run yesterday, everyone was pretty exhuastedly pleased.  The cast has been giving their all and wound up with tired voices and a few back spasms so we forwent (that's a word, right?) a run to do some focused work on what we saw yesterday.  Rich got some time to clean up a few musical loose ends and allow the cast to review any material they needed.

Twan trying not to rub it in...

Joe took another look at the Act Two opener, a dream lullaby in which the girls revel in their future lives with their babies.  There was some question about how clear it was that we were in a dream, and Joe's solution is all at once simple, theatrical, and really really beautiful.  It goes hand in hand with Julia's gorgeous music for the scene.

The only collateral damage was the elimination of our infant ensemble.  Twan will still make appearances in other parts of the show, but the rest of the babies aren't as lucky.  As you can see, they didn't take the news all that well - especially the one with the pink swaddle...  Twan gave them all a pep-talk, though, so hopefully they'll keep their dreams alive.

We ended the day doing some final staging for the finale, including a discussion about the tone of the end of the show.  It's a tricky thing to pull off - seeing these girls off into the rest of their lives - but it was immensely helpful to get to discuss it with the cast and hear their thoughts, as well as all of Joe's insights.  It's a really powerful thing to watch!

I was also busy making a full, updated script for the designers for our run-through tomorrow.  It's completely crazy to think that we've only got two more rehearsals until tech starts - and only one week until we are officially open!  Tomorrow is another run (after a morning trip to the local farmer's market to boost all of our energy...)

Paging Mariah...

The cast likes to think about what life would be like for a swing in Pregnancy Pact.  With a score like this, you've got to be a musical savant who has a three or four octave range who can hold tight 6-part harmonies.  Experience with babies preferred.  Acting experience optional.  Age unimportant.

So who can it be?  Besides a unicorn.  There is only one...  (After the jump, obviously.)

#followfriday

See what the girls of Pregnancy Pact are up to on Twitter:

@DontBeMaddie123
@brynnifer99
@NotOKaylee
@jeanelleybeanz
@Sansaneener
@2NsinJENN

And while you're at it, follow the Weston Playhouse @westonplayhouse!

Julia and I had a Bad Date

Susan Haefner in Bad Dates

We got to run over to Weston's Other Stages space (at the Weston Rod & Gun Club) to catch tonight's performance of Bad Dates, starring Susan Haefner.

We've been fans of Susan's since we worked with her in 2008 on our musical Disappeared, and it was so wonderful to get to see her in full-force in this sweet one-woman show by Theresa Rebeck about a divorced mother putting her life back together through a series of disastrous dates (and quite a few pairs of shoes.)  She gave such a charming and dynamic performance, and it had the audience almost literally rolling on the ground.  (There were truly a few women I thought might fall out of their chairs at a few points.)

Aside from the joy of watching Susan for almost 2 hours, we also got to see the truly magnificent set designed by our housemate up here in Weston, Jim Sandefur.  The combination of Roy Lichtenstein paintings and a seemingly endless parade of shoes (mostly red) painted on the walls, on the shelves, and even in chair form were really, truly delightful.  We miss him at Goodwin house!

You're still able to catch Bad Dates through September 9th.  As I said before on here, you can catch a double header of it with Pregnancy Pact on the Wednesday or Saturdays of our run!

(Side note:  We heard a story about a group of people who left the show at intermission a few nights ago because they thought it was too risque...  Let's hope they heed the warning of strong language and sexual content and steer clear of our show!)

Day Fifteen

Today we ran the show.  For the first time.  All the way through.  The whole thing.

We started by staging the last few scenes, which continue on our emotional rollercoaster of the last few days.  Some things are incredibly hard to watch and hear and feel (over and over) so it was almost refreshing to get to the run and get to see the big picture.  There's an adjustment in remembering where all the characters begin after working so hard for the last few rehearsals on where they wind up.

We had some of our friends from the cast of Fiddler on the Roof sit in on our run to check out what we've been up to.  (Their show closes on Saturday - only three more chances to see it!)  It was so interesting to have new people in the room.  I was afraid it would put some undue pressure on the cast to feel the need to "perform" for their first time running through the whole show, but I think it was an educational experience - especially with the unknown quantity of a brand new musical - to hear some reactions.  It certainly didn't jeopardize any of them - they were as on point as they always are.  The run was officially called a "stumble through," but there was no stumbling going on in the Lloyd Rehearsal Hall.

It was a lot to watch.  The second act is especially difficult for me, straddling this world between author and audience, because my reactions are still so emotional.  Not that I want to separate the two - I'm proud to have written something that hopefully gives actors the room to really move people, and I don't want to be cold and calculated about it.  But it can be hard to feel that kind of punch in the gut every day since it doesn't get any easier with each viewing.  I've vowed to just give myself over to it every night from here on out (mostly because I don't have any other choice!)

Basically, everyone left tonight exhausted and happy (and ready for bed.)  On to another run tomorrow!

Take it to the bridge...

Thanks to Krystina for the photo!

One of the big things about being in Weston is not having consistent cell phone reception.  (And by not consistent, I mean maybe once a day you get one bar long enough to know you have a voicemail before it slips away again.)  The town is located between two mountains that block it out for the most part.

But among other magical things that happen here (ie Country Stores), there is a small bridge just beyond the Playhouse where most people magically get full reception.  You'll often see the cast there in the morning...

It's a good thing to keep in mind as you plan your trip up!

(I happen to revel in the fact that I can't communicate too much with the outside world.  If you don't choose to go to the bridge, you get a real, honest-to-goodness getaway!)

Cory

Day Fourteen

I'm happy to say that today wasn't quite as hard to get through.  That's not to say that the material we tackled today was any easier - we actually hit the two hardest-to-watch scenes - but I at least got to wear my writer hat a little more than I have recently.  After a few hours of music review to start the day, we staged two more scenes in Act Two.

I am still reveling in the seven actors in our show.  Their willingness to follow these characters into the crazy depths of the story is amazing to watch.  Early on in the process, Joe said (I'm knowingly paraphrasing) that it may be hard for them to understand the logic of why these girls (and boys) choose to do what they do, but understanding and committing to the emotional journey can illuminate who the girls (and boys) are.  And what I saw them giving today (and yesterday, when the reckoning in the story began) was pure emotion.  All raw and ugly and injured and happy and pained.  It's just so rewarding to see the game of my story raised consistently.

Speaking of raising the game of this show, I don't know if I've ever quite adequately covered just what incredible work Joe is doing.  As I wrote the show, I didn't force myself to set limits when it comes to production. There's no unit set (we skip around to various locations throughout), there are some feats of staging to accomplish in a few songs, there's a male actors playing different characters (sometimes within the same scene [in a "realistic" tone])...  But Joe has not only taken everything in stride and made it work, he's taken it to a new level of theatricality and ease and intelligence.  He's finding all the beauty and the love and the humanity in the world of the show to convey everything we've written in ways we never imagined.  We trust him so wholly with our work, and it's clear in the rehearsal room (and in my rehearsal reports) just how wholly the actors trust him with theirs.

And once you make your way to Weston to see the show, you'll know just what I'm talking about!

(Sometimes I wish it wasn't late at night by the time I write these, but with a 12-8pm rehearsal schedule I always find myself trying to be coherent while battling end-of-day exhaustion.  Imagine how much gushing I could do with full brain power!)

Sneak Peek Trailer

Joe's done such a wonderful job filming and editing these trailers.  I don't know how he runs an 8 hour rehearsal day and sits in on fittings and production meetings and everything he does up here AND finds time to make these amazing trailers.  But however he does it, I'm in awe!

More character teasers to come...

Media Blitz, Part Two!

Julia and I had two more back-to-back interviews this morning.

First, we spoke with The Boston Globe's Andrew Doerfler about the show.  He had a lot of questions about the relationship between our show and the original Gloucester story, naturally, and we talked a lot about fictionalizing the debunked story and the audience's expectations.  We got to talking a bit about the educational component of the run, as well.  His column should be published this weekend.

Next we spoke with Richard Henke of The Commons, and independent newspaper in Windham County, VT.  We talked about our great relationship with Weston and the development process, along with the state of musical theatre today.

I'll provide links to both articles (and the previously mentioned media coverage) as they are published!

Brynn

Day Thirteen

Today was a difficult day.

Rehearsal continued to be spectacular.  The actors are, as always, gamely tackling new staging while growing old scenes in leaps and bounds as we run the show.  I've gotten so accustomed to the joy of seeing the characters in new ways and getting re-acquainted with them out of my head - in effect becoming my own audience member.

Not to give anything away, but today we reached a scene where all of the joy the characters experience catches up with them in a very big way.  I sat there watching Joe stage it and felt such an overwhelming sadness for these characters.  I feel silly even letting myself think that - I mean, I am the one who invented these girls and their story and actively put them through the wringer (after all, I could have chosen for them to all just be easily happy in the end).  I've always thought that good writers love their characters enough to hurt them.  And I seem to have gone out of my way to do that here.  Because watching this scene, which is held together by some of Julia's most beautiful music that is so masterfully sung by Katrina, I had a visceral physical reaction.  My stomach was twisted in knots and I just wanted to jump up and say "Give me two days and I'll write a new script to make all the pain go away!"  It has been hard to come back from that feeling at the beginning of the day, and I have to say I don't think I've fully recovered.

So many things have surprised me about this process, but none more than this odd shifting in my role as writer.  I'm so grateful that we have such amazing people surrounding us who I trust so completely that I'm able to take a step back and really watch the show for the first time.  The rest of the show doesn't get any easier, so I think I'm in for a rough few days emotionally.  Maybe it's just masochistic, but at least I can take comfort knowing that I'm doing my job in moving at least this one audience member!

Meet the Designers, Part Two

We're excited to have Sydney Maresca join the pact as our Assistant Costume Designer!  I first worked with Sydney in 2008 at NYU on a production of Cheer Wars - so she is well-versed in my second act opening dream sequences.

In New York, Sydney has designed Hand To God (Ensemble Studio Theater), The Lapsburgh Layover (Ars Nova), The Yellow Brick Road (Lucille Lortel/TheatreworksUSA), and a number of shows with The Debate Society including Buddy Cop 2, You're Welcome, and Cape Disappointment.  Her work has been seen in touring productions for TheatreworksUSA and The Debate Society, along with opera and dance, and circus pieces nationally.  She's also designed for the short films Robin's Big Date  and Robin's Big Speed Date along with music videos for her ukulele band The Hazzards.