GODSPELL! (again:-)

This morning, I embark on the first day of the second chapter of what was one of the coolest experiences of my life.  It's Day One of rehearsals for the musical GODSPELL which I had the blissful pleasure of performing in last summer with (almost) the same cast of awesome human beings.  Last time around, we did this show for a few weeks at Victoria Playhouse in Petrolia, which might be the sweetest small town I've ever been to. Think the town of "Charming" in the TV show Sons of Anarchy, but without the sexy motorcycle gang.

Well this year, our cast of 10 was invited to re-live this vibrant telling of the Gospel of Matthew in another small town called St. Jacobs (Waterloo, Ontario). Godspell is an amazing piece of work composed by Stephen Schwartz (Pippin, Wicked, The Prince of Egypt) so the show's success since it's conception in 1971 until now is not surprising.  In 1972, it played at the Royal Alexandra Theatre and starred Victor Garber as Jesus, and also Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner & Martin Short.  Yeah.


Since then, Godspell has been staged in countless high school productions, community theatres, multiple stints on Broadway(right up until last year) and now... it's here, with us :-).  And this makes me SO happy!  Because in addition to our love for the story and the work, we had this crazy-cool-bond-y-connection-y thing going on that no one wanted to let go of - the cast, the crew, the band... everybody got caught up, at least a little.  So... by the time our six weeks together had flown by in Petrolia and the show was coming to a close, we were all praying for some sort of remount, swearing that we would all remain friends forever no matter what happens, and exchanging necklaces with viles of eachother's blood as pendants.

Ok, maybe we didn't get into bio hazardous risks, but you hear what I'm saying. The show was undeniably special and we knew it. We FELT it! So imagine the spaz we all had when we got the news that it WAS going to be remounted! Drayton Entertainment, a prominent fixture in the Canadian theatre landscape, had picked it up and was taking us all with it!

So here we are, 2013, doing it again - praying hard and about to work even harder to make it as inexplicably awesome as we did before.

By now, you must be dying to see show, right?  I really think you should.  Godspell runs from October 2nd to 20th at St. Jacobs Playhouse in Waterloo, Ontario. There's a variety of show dates and times between there, so break out your smartphone calendar and get your tickets before it sells out... again ;-)  .

TICKETS & info: www.draytonentertainment.com
Directed by: David Hogan
Musical Director: Mark Payne
Choreographer: Adele Mackenzie


xoxox

Dear Erykah Badu...

“What good do your words do, if they can’t understand you? Don’t go talking that shit, Badu…” – Erykah Badu in the aptly titled song, "... & On?". (Not to be confused with her first major release "On & On".)
 

I love that lyric because I’ve often wondered exactly that when it came to the beloved Miss Badu and her music. And I know I'm not the only one, because it's as if she released this track on her second album (Mama's Gun in 2000) specifically to address a selection of her oft-perplexed fans/devotees. 

Since her first major release “On &On",  it was clear from the start that she had something to say. Her music is jazzy, funky, soulful, sexy and sometimes odd - and I like that. But once in a while, I'd feel like I was missing a certain point she was trying to make or a poignant message she was trying to spread. Be it a peculiar lyric (usually a peculiar lyric), a political statement, or a straight-up weird music video, every so often she would drop a body of work that I didn't fully "get". And I always wanted to get it because I revere her so much as a pioneer of the musical genre that changed my life as an artist and a human being: Neo-Soul. 

So... my adoration for her music and divinity has always been mixed with a teensy droplet of frustration.  Sometimes I wonder if by the time I get around to deciphering one of her beautifully melodic riddles, my opportunity to implement the wisdom will have long passed me by.

Geeze... I'm so dramatic, eh? It's really not that serious and more often than not, I do get her (I think). So I still love her to death. And it’s also quite possible that I’m putting wayyyyy too much responsibility on a person that I’ve never met, to tell me something about who I am (understatement-much?). I just always thought, you know… that that’s what she was trying to do.