Taking it for a spin...

On 11/19-20, I got to hear Yeltsin in Texas! the Musical for the first time since reworking it at #Blueprint.

I flew in on 11/17 and worked with students from Centenary College in Louisiana under the guidance and direction of Dr. Janani Sridhar. Dr. Corey Wikan conducted the chorale as the ensemble and the cast of talented college students, both from opera and theatre played the lead roles.

It was wild to witness wet ink come to life for the first time. By design, we were there to listen and work with the student on what we created. We didn’t make any changes to content (again, that’s for AFTER this process) and hear what we made. Christopher Mirto and Joshua McGuire were there as well. We had the luxury of watching our work and again ask our selves questions to fine tun and tweak what we did.

It was quite a relief on how much WORKED SO WELL! I kept saying to Chris and Josh, “we have to fix a few tiles, add some grout, cult some caulk with a scalpel. We don’t need to add any load-bearing walls”

Then the true test (both of the piece and our fortitude) was to present it to an audience.

They…went…BANANAS, Guffawing in parts and I could sit back and see people wiping tears from their eyes because of the laughter!! On social media, posts about the show: “What a great show and terrific experience for our students! We laughed so hard! Wish we could have seen it both nights.”

Yes, there is work to be done and we will do that in the coming days. The three of us will get together and go line by line weighing on what needs fixing, what more can be added to enhance, and what needs to go.

Now, the piece needs to be in a live-workshop setting with a cast and creators. Time for us to make changes, tweak, enhance with actors in the room—almost like a sitcom and get real-time feedback from the actors. This next step seems like a #Blueprint for success!