Hello Beautiful People,
Lucky Disaster Volume 4 is two weeks from now.
TWO WEEKS.
And I’m not even sure where to begin with this behind the scenes feature – there’s just so much to say. And I’m trying to spare you all from a novel here.
Let’s start with this – Lucky Disaster Volume 4 is at The Cutting Room. This is the first time we’re not having it at Don’t Tell Mama – which is all sorts of weird and wonderful at the same time. Weird because I absolutely adore Don’t Tell Mama – the place, the staff, the management, the history – it has been, and continues to be like a home to me. Wonderful because it’s exciting to be working at a place like The Cutting Room. It’s big. It’s all sorts of fancy. And it’s just different.
Volume 4 features the vocal talents of Kerri George, Kasie Gasparini, Melissa Rose Hirsch, Blake Joseph, T.J. Newton, Angelo McDonough, Olivia Polci, Jacob Samuels, Taylor Sorice, Stephanie Turci, Gabe Violett, and Jessica Vosk. My music director is a gift from the musical theater heavens, and his name is Nat Zegree, and his band mates are Mike Rosengarten and Tristan Marzeski. And my writing partner in crime is the unbelievably talented Anna Ty Bergman. These people alone make my heart explode with all sorts of happiness because they are just the type of artists that every director and every producer dreams of working with – they love the art. They work hard. They perform like Derek Jeter did in every single baseball game of his career – fiercely. Strongly. Brilliantly.
The music of this particular volume features my friend and colleague, Ryan Scott Oliver.
I’m not sure what to say about our friendship, or his music, but…I’m going to try.
There’s a complexity to Ryan’s music that just speaks to the innermost workings of my core. It demands dedication and excellence from those who dare to work on it. It asks the artists – the singers, the musicians, the actors, the directors, and the producers to bring their A game. To rise to a level of artistic capability that everyone strives for.
It’s dark – and yet, I find it simultaneously uplifting.
One of the songs in Lucky Disaster Volume 4 is entitled Map of Scars, from the show We Foxes. And for me, it encapsulates everything I love about Ryan and his music.
There is a particular lyric within this song that just echoes in my brain over and over and over again: the voiceless girl has found a tounge to speak.
See, that’s what theater does. It gives a voice to the voiceless. It lets stories that have lingered in the dark break their way into the light. Theater inspires – both the audiences and the artists, providing a platform in which we are able to shed the inhibitions and scars that have weighed us down.
I sure hope to see you all on October 13th.
There’s nothing I would love more to share this music, these talents, and this night with you all!
Live, Love, Learn,