This is a demo of one of my favorite projects I ever directed- A one woman show called SHIFT HAPPENS: A (PIECE OF) WORK IN PROGRESS- It was an incredibly satisfying experience, not only because it was extremely well received...we had several runs of it, all over the city, but because it was very difficult subject matter that was transformed into a tremendously hopeful, feel good show. i met Juliette through my long time friend Denise Delish Fraser- they had been childhood friends. Juliette was, as you can see, stunningly beautiful, but also a brilliant comic mind- very celebrated in story telling circles. When we got together, she had never sung a note in public (even though she had been a professional dancer in her 20s....Most Iconically as one of the sisters in the great horrible classic XANADU). We got together to work on a spoken word show, but the more we talked, I felt strongly that it should have music, so we got my longtime friend and frequent collaborator Mitch Kaplan, and the three of us began writing..... stories and songs. Juliette was about a year out of an extremely difficult divorce...and the challenges were to tell the truth, but not be hurtful to anyone else involved with one sided stories, and to only share what would be enriching for an audience to hear....no self pity....no blame....no taking sides. Easier said than done, but Im really proud to say that I think we did all of that....Even though she was a very inexperienced singer, I think she pulled off all of the music with great charisma and charm....and pathos...which is all I ever really need from a singer anyway... And to know that what she was singing came from what she had lived really made it an important piece to me. Forever grateful. Forever proud.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 00:52:03 +0000
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