Cain and Trudy REALLY try to keep it together (and not kiss!) until Abel FINALLY prances in... you can hear cameraman Kellen laughing, and of course, my howling at the end :)
From "Cain and Abel: The Naked Truth"
Book by Myrna Emata, Music by Madley Katarungan, Lyrics by Kellen Blair.
I admit it: I will NEVER get tired of doing this show. EVER, EVER, EVER. Of course, I miss the two songs we cut -- but if you and your organization are looking to do a short (20 minutes for the complete version) and fun take on this Biblical story with great songs and guaranteed laughs -- you just contact me, you hear?
In the meantime, here are some photos Myrna took of closing night. If it looks like we're outside -- we are! Our "backstage" waiting area was actually out in the frickin' parking lot... ugh! As someone dear on our team said about our fab group -- it's like we had taken THOROUGHBREDS to a dog and pony show... (I'm still really perturbed at what happened there, but don't want to speak to it yet...) so I'll just hold my tongue and celebrate "all the good bits"!
Feel free to click on each picture for a little more commentary. Enjoy! :)
Headshots in the lobby
The Writers
The TEAM -- w/ Myrna and Kellen, less Michele :(
Stephen Van Dorn as CAIN
John David Wallis as ABEL
Rachel Payne as TRUDY
Kelly Lester as EVE
Adam LeBow as GOD
Me in an Abel-and-Cain sandwich
It's been awhile since I've written a "substantial" blog sometimes I wonder if I'm even capable of doing it anymore! Or maybe life has been so rich lately I don't want to stop to record it for fear of this wild ride disappearing... Well, que sera sera...
So many things:
* Got to meet four of the five Filipino actors of The Romance of Magno Rubio: Bernardo Bernardo, Ramon de Ocampo, Jojo Gonzalez and Paolo Montalban (yes, THAT Paolo) and Arthur Acuna was terrifc too. More later.
* This weekend our mini-musical Cain and Abel: The Naked Truth had a three-day run at Actoberfest with John David Wallis and Rachel Payne reprising their roles as Abel and Trudy; Stephen Van Dorn as Cain, Kelly Lester as Eve and Adam LeBow as God. Michele Spears came back to direct and Myrna Emata was the music director. This is a whole post in itself -- the performances were top-notch, the team was great! That's all I'll say for now and will have photos to share soon.
But what inspires the title of this post?
I'm in the middle of breaking out an outline for my next musical, Sailors and Nurses. First of all, I'm so grateful to have two fabulous lyricists to collaborate with -- ANMT-trained and YES, FILIPINAS! Thank you for signing on Allison Johnson and Maureen Borillo... it's gonna be a TRIP... if the bookwriter can get her proverbial sh*t together. Oh wait, that's me!
My classmate, Terri, asked me how it was going -- and I all I could say was "I'm crying a lot. I can't stop crying."
But don't fell sorry for me... I've finally figured out this is my process! It's what happened when I wrote Carabao Bookends and Light Filipino Brown -- and it's when I know I'm telling the truth and writing of my heart. [As I've told many people: I'm like Dorothy Parker:
"I hate writing, I like having written"
-- because a story has to be told. So I wallow in the process, as messy and inconsistent as it is...]
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And today, Stephen, the new fellow who played (our third!) Cain so wonderfully this weekend, found out how crazy I am about these songs that are OPM = Original Pilipino Music, like Ikaw. We're backstage this weekend waiting for their curtain call and he starts singing this song, Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang, in pure, beautiful Tagalog... a song his co-star, Carol Banawa (a famous TV star/singer in the Philippines) taught him while they were in a biblical extravaganza of a musical in Singapore called Judah Ben-Hur.
Oh dear. Talk about completely melting. More watery eyeballs. And to hear this fabulous voiced white boy sing it... good grief, I'm on another planet.
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We find out last night we didn't make the finals... it's a long, long night. But I woke up: and there's a beautiful serenade of Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang on my voicemail from my new friend Stephen, singing the duet with his friend, Mel.
Now I'm just a bowl of jelly. I've never received a song that way before, EVER. And of course, it's just opening up more and more STUFF for me to write about...
Thank you, Stephen. You don't know how magical that was. Sailors and Nurses will be all the more truthful because of that gesture, you have no idea.
Here's a YouTube duet version of it and an English translation -- yeah, you better believe I'm gonna learn this one!
Enjoy.
Why only now...
Why only is it now that my heart needs?
It now has found out...
I wish that I'd found out
That you would come into my life
Then I would have waited
Pre-chorus:
You were supposed to have been the one for me to hug
Your hand always for me to hold instead of hers
Chorus:
Why only now....
Is it that you arrive in my life
I'm forcing to open my closed heart
You are the only one for me
Even though I want to forget you
I want to know...why is is now that you arrive in my life?
Myrna sent this clip to me -- wow! Not only do I LOVE anything "West Side Story" -- the fact that there are so many TALENTED kids making such terrific music together and having fun... it really reminded me so much of high school band! Four years of that with your bestest friends -- and when you're ON...
GEEZ, THERE'S NOTHING LIKE IT!
Parents -- get your kids in playing with a group! (IMHO, there are too many soloists and piano players who have NO CLUE how to keep up a tempo because they don't have to play with anyone else...) Not only will they learn how to respect authority, learn to play together for the highest good... they will develop life long friends and have an appreciation for ensemble music like no other.
Needless to say, I cried like a baby watching this.
And here's the whole WWS Dance Suite with the kids in concert black:
Well... my NAME is anyhow. Enjoy!
Cain and Abel: The Naked Truth
Book by Myrna Emata
Music by Madley Katarungan
Lyrics by Kellen Blair
(Songs are sung in order)
"New Eden" (Amy Reiss, John David Wallis)
"Every Time You Fall" (Leighton Grampp, John David Wallis)
"One Button at a Time" (Rachel Payne, John David Wallis)
"See the Light" (Brent Schindele, Rachel Payne)
It's an unbelievable process to have your material interpreted by actors. Musicals don't exist on paper... they have to be brought to life by folks as talented as these "Red Team" actors are!
I'm so grateful we had such a great group... damn, the life of an actor is really difficult, yet they're so willing to share of themselves like this... Thanks forever, guys!
(All photos by Myrna Emata)
Second Assessment (May 12, 2007): John David Wallis, Amy Reiss, Leighton Grampp, Rachel Payne and Christopher Carothers (our original Cain).
Rehearsal (June 13, 2007): Amy Reiss, Leighton Grampp, Rachel Payne and Brent Schindele in In the Nick of Time by Hillary Rollins, Tara Redepenning and Darin Goulet.
Cain and Abel: The Naked Truth with Rachel Payne (Trudy), Amy Reiss (Eve), John David Wallis (Abel) and Brent Schindele (our new Cain) doing "New Eden."
John David Wallis (Abel) and Leighton Grampp (God) in "Every Time You Fall."
Rachel Payne (Trudy) looks on as Brent Schindele (Cain) sings "See the Light."
Leighton Grampp
Brent Schindele
Amy Reiss
John David Wallis
Rachel Payne
It's amazing when you live in a big town like Los Angeles what you can do for absolutely NOTHING. And mind you, lately, that's exactly what my budget has been: absolutely ZIP, ZERO, NADA, ZILCH.
Yet, in wonderful downtown Burbank, I went to a FREE big band concert outside in the evening in front of the AMC Plaza -- a cool group called the Royal Crown Revue that played big band, swing and blues (7-9 pm) and had a big dance floor in the front... I can't tell you how happy it made me... just cheery! Old people, kids, swing dancers dressed up, non-dancers learning how to do it (there's a free dance class an hour before by Francisco and Stacey too, but I missed it this time). Unfortunately now I have a class on Thursday nights, but if you get a chance to wander on over, have an Cold Stone Ice Cream or Ben and Jerry's... it's Thursdays until the end of August, from 6-7 (dance lesson), 7-9 pm (live band, different ones each week) at Palm/San Fernando.
Saturday night at the California Plaza downtown, I went to a FREE concert of my favorite cabaret duo (and Oxy-ites), Karen Benjamin and Alan Chapman, with special guest, the fab and expressive bassist Jennifer Leitham. There's a mini-amphitheater there, surrounded by beautiful waterworks, and Myrna happened to be working that until 6:00 pm that evening a block away -- talk about blowing my mind. A full show, outside in the beautiful evening -- my favorite piece was a merging of two Irving Berlin songs, "Sayonara" and "What'll I Do." It was so clean and clear... the tears bypassed the heart and fell straight out of my eyes. Geez, that was good! And I haven't even really said "Goodbye" to anyone lately...no, sorry, not true (sort of, yes, I'm being cagey)... or was it just such a universal feeling delivered straight up that got me? Delicious.
(What else was fun -- I ran into a fellow Oxy classmate that I used sing with in Glee Club, Amy Fogerson, who sings with the LA Master Chorale... how cool was that, since we haven't seen each other for 25 years? Yikes. And BTW, Jeffrey, Karen wishes you well and says you should call her for those lessons!!!)
Then of course, my favorite past time lately: YouTube!
My poor collaborators -- when we were in driving on our way to Palm Springs for our writing weekend (and yes, that's Kellen filming me/us at the timeshare for the ANMT documentary... more on that later!), Kellen had made a CD for us that had the kind of feel for what we were trying to write -- and here was this cool-ass song from "City of Angels" called "You're Nothing Without Me."
OMG, I fell in love with it! Probably because it's big band, that always reminds me of high school jazz band. It's a writer, Stine (in browns), singing with/to/about a character he wrote, Stone (in black and white -- get it?!) -- and how they're nothing without each other! So clever, happy, syncopated... and I made poor Myrna play it over and over again in the car! Couldn't stop snapping my fingers!
And of course, good old YouTube has a sweet high school version of it -- pretty good for my money, even though they did tame down the lyric of "Your broads in bed are bored" (!) Though I do love the line: "Your pen is no match for my sword"! And the enthusiasm from the crowd -- isn't that just the best?!
STINE:
You are some gumshoe
You just don't think well
Get this, dumb gumshoe,
You come from my inkwell
Is your mouth lonely
With one foot in there
Stone, your brain only
Holds thoughts I put in there
Just what you are I'll spell out
You are a novel pain
One speck of lint that fell out
The last time that I picked my brain
STONE:
You are so jealous
Of my track record
Tolstoy, do tell us
Your feeble hack record
Your weak knees brand you
Soft and unstable
One small threat and you
Fold like a card table
You drool at my adventures
Your broads in bed are bored
Go home and soak your dentures
Your pen is no match for my sword
BOTH:
You're nothing without me
A "no one" who'd go undefined
You wouldn't exist
You'd never be missed
STINE:
I tell you you're out of my mind
BOTH:
A show off, a blowhard
You're equal parts hot air and gall
And no one would doubt me
Without me you're nothing at all
STINE:
You're in my plot
I'm still your creator
I call each shot
I'm your private dictator
STONE:
You are so thick, you
Eat, breathe, sleep fiction
I'm your meal ticket
Knee-deep in cheap fiction
STINE:
You gloating ignoramus
You haven't any shame
STONE:
Hey, I'm a famous Seamus
And most people don't know your name
BOTH:
You're nothing without me
Without me you'd just disappear
Right into thin air
And no one would care
Or notice you ever were there
A puppet, an upstart
A loser who's destined to fall
I'm everything you always wanted to be
Let's deal with the issue:
You wish you were me
You're nothing without me
Without me you're nothing ...
(To prove his dominance over STONE, STINE resumes typing,
reactivating MUNOZ, who steps back into the light)
MUNOZ:
(Spoken, to STONE)
Let's go!
STONE:
Manny, wait!
MUNOZ:
I said, keep my name out of your mouth!
(MUNOZ punches STONE hard, in the stomach, sending STONE to his knees.
STONE stares at STINE, a character betrayed)
STONE:
You bastard!
(STINE, ignoring him, types four letters)
STINE:
"Fade..."
(Types three more letters)
"Out."
(And the LIGHTS do just that, on MUNOZ and STONE. Then:)
STINE:
(Sings, triumphantly)
You're nothing without me
Without me you're nothing at all.
Happy Days!
FYI, that's a fun song from the musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"! (In high school I got to play Lucy :)
My cousin sent me these photos from the opening night party at PF Changs:
The writers of "Cain and Abel: The Naked Truth" -- Myrna Emata (book), Kellen Blair (lyrics), Madley Katarungan (music).
Kellen's 6'1"... we're not. Kellen's 23... we're not that either.
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(Edited 7/17 to add these second night photos)
The directors of the Academy will be singing/reading the Red Team's final draft tonight for time (we have to be at 15 minutes - last night we timed at 22-23 ourselves) -- holy shit, I AM EXHAUSTED. [But at least all the copies are made, we'll be there on time, and we have one last chance to make our final changes before script is locked this Thursday (May 24)].
WOW -- Not a lot of sleep, completely obsessed about this show and everything it entails -- from getting tickets, to writing every night, to getting gas money to go out to Santa Monica, to being fed all the time by our wonderful host, Myrna, to show night guests, to what the hell am I wearing, to Actors Nightmare dreams, to wondering if our new Cain will be able to sing a high Bb well, and wondering what the old Cain is... no, that's stopping right now.
And what May 23rd means: NO MORE LA-LA LAND FOR ME NOW. Time to grow up.
Tomorrow is our lyricist Kellen's birthday -- he shares it with Ilia, and May 23rd has always been a big marker for me too. So it's completely appropros that I'm priviledged to meet and work with such a wunderkind as Kellen -- oh yes, did I mention that's he's brilliant, clever, kind, and incredibly funny? Life is good -- talk about a breath of fresh air.
The pictures are from our Palm Springs working (and mostly moving) weekend -- check out our working setup! Myrna was behind the camera most of the time -- avoiding get her pic taken!
First of all, here's the poster/info for the show(s). Don't let the spider or the foot scare you -- just CLICK ON PHOTO to read!
Wow, what a wild week it's been.
My collaborators and I went to Palm Springs to stay at Myrna's timeshare -- but she could only get into on Sunday. So we got there Saturday night, stayed in a hotel with our desktop PC, electronic keyboard and midi set-up, printer, one lap top, one roll-up piano, two beds and a lot of snacks. Then after what we jokingly call "sleeping together and snoring together" (of course the snoring was just ME), we checked out, had lunch, then finally got to the beautiful timeshare (that IMHO had way too many kids at it).
We set up all our gear again, as Myrna says: "At least we get to look outside AT the pool." At one point I felt like I was in college again: we were all in the same room, but working on all our separate chores. Kellen was on the couch on his laptop with the lyrics, Myrna was on the PC fixing the book, and I was sitting at the coffee table with a pair of headsets on and the roll-up piano trying to use a miserable motif all the composers had to use. (Gb-Ab-Bb-E-Db-G -- yikes!) But it was cool to work like that... at any time we could ask our collaborator a question and not call a meeting or a email or dial them up. Just holler. :)
[In any case, I highly recommend going off somewhere with your collaborators early in the process. No distractions, and there's nothing like a shared obsession to bond writing partners together like this! Although we all get away from each other if we needed it (especially Kellen had to get away from us yakkety girls), it was a great experience. I will almost demand it next time I start up another musical (ooh, did I just say that?!?)...]
Then we had to leave at 1:00 pm, no matter what, for the two-hour drive back to LA. Kellen drove, Myrna and he yakked, I snored some more. Then we hauled all that stuff back upstairs, Kell left because he had to work in the a.m. Myrna and I worked more until about 5:00 when we both napped, and then I drove her downtown to work at 7:00 am.
And we still had to get our 12 copies of the script/music in by 10:30 pm that night! Yikes! Our goal was to have a full, complete script with all the music (no lyrics standing alone), even if the songs themselves weren't completely realized (accompaniment done) but at least there would be a melody. So we reached that goal. But it nearly killed us -- all 94 pages worth -- and nearly gave Kellen a heart attack. Poor guy! And he had to film us (as he did the whole weekend) for the darn documentary -- I dropped Myrna off and he shot video of her running into the ANMT door at 10:21 pm. UGH. If we didn't get it in, we would have lost this whole next rehearsal period and had to wait for our final draft assessment... that would have been terrible.
I know we're going to be long for Saturday's assessment -- unfortunate too, because Kell and I weren't able to read the book before we got published. Drat. Oh well, next assessment. And then I made some dumb mistakes in not changing some dialogue and lyrics in the score... oh, the formatting tedious is so sometimes, I just want scream.
Oh wait, I did that -- scream. A lot. And swore a lot too and got pretty dang testy (at myself). Hopefully you won't see my bleeped-out ass all over that docu, but who knows...
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In any case, last night we went to the first rehearsal we (the writers) were allowed to go to... and some songs were a joy to hear being sung. My favorite new one is "See the Light" that's still not finished (we'll be hear a lot of melody being plunked out on Saturday)...
Today I was feeling a bit melancholy as I knew it was time to let our "baby" go live in the actors. Which is great -- as I've said before, I'm tired of hearing myself hum this stuff. It so strange, we were sitting there, and I THINK they knew we were the "Naked Truth" writers... but we were barely acknowledged as such by them. That was really weird! I'm not used to that... when I'm in production, I want to say hello to everyone and know who the hell everyone is there and what they do and thank them for it. But it wasn't the case last night and it felt awkward not to be even the slightest noticed.
I can't say I didn't try though... except for one actress who slipped away before I could say hello, I did connect with all them for a moment. But I don't know if they know that I'm the composer and Myrna's the book writer. Because one girl asked me all the book questions, and Myrna was pointing out a few "key signature" mistakes to the music director... hey, two Filipino women yakking about different things, who's to know which "M" does music and which "M" does book.
In any case, I'll keep smiling and saying hello. Maybe at the end they'll notice that our work for them was good. I hope so.
BTW, I forgot how much energy it takes to be in production... and I find it's just as crazy when I'm on this side of it -- the writing side. I sleep and dream this 15-minute musical -- music/dialogue/lyrics run through me all day and night... and it's exhausting. And even though we've not reached our peak yet (we still have one more final draft) or gone into final rehearsals -- I'm already sad about it all ending. This collaboration process has been one of the biggest learning processes of my life... and I can't believe this particular one, with my main man, Kellen, and our "Keys Emata"... I can't believe it's gonna be over soon.
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I will say it's been great yakking with my friends about coming to the show(s). I'm so proud of our little work, and so many folks are coming to see it. I'm not used to the idea yet that they're going to spend $25 a ticket to see anything I did... but I'm sure I'll get used to it! Jeff Marx is a big draw (the co-creator of the Tony award-winning "Avenue Q" -- he's a very funny and humble guy!) -- and although most of my friends and family don't know him or the show (yet!), they certainly know what a "Tony award-winner" is!
And then there's this documentary. Oh boy. It's following the young lyricist, Kellen -- and since I'm on his team, me and my Big Self (are in it a lot). Unfortunately, Little/Slim Self has not been seen for awhile, so I'm just going to have to eat it on this particular show (excuse the analogy!)....
In any case, if you're planning to come, do buy your tickets quickly as it always sells out and next week all kinds of PR is going out.
Oh, just got a bit of the nerves again!...
