On Jean Valjean, Willie Wonka, Joseph and Tony

I absolutely love live music.  I especially love acoustic guitar, singer/songwriters and theater solos.  Yes, I said theater solos!  :)  There is something about standing in the spotlight and singing your heart out in front of a live audience that strips away any barriers you might put up most of the time.  It's kind of like kicking the winning field goal, or making the last second basket, or maybe striking out the hitter with the bases loaded in the 9th inning when you are up by one run.  You are so vulnerable and exposed when you are on stage in the spotlight with no one to back you up.
I have had the pleasure to work with many, many actors and actresses in my 6 years in theater.  Some are remarkably talented and some are just fun to be around.  Others maybe don't belong.  But that's true every where you go in life.  I want to tell a few stories about 4 of my favorites.
Jaise Allen:  I first met Jaise when he was a senior at Mahomet High School.  All four of the actors I'll talk about come from exceptional families, who balance respect for elders with encouragement for developing talent.  Jaise was cast as Jean Valjean from Les Miserables when we first met.  This was my first "back stage" assignment for the Champaign Urbana Theater Company.  I was a little in awe of everyone and everything those weeks.  I had never moved sets or organized the back stage before.  And every night Jaise would come out and literally bring the audience out of their seats when he sang "Bring 'em Home."  I was simply amazed an 18 year old could hold an audience in his hand for 3 hours every night.  But Jaise did it.
A year later I would co-produce Disney's Beauty and the Beast.  We cast Jaise as the Beast after a long staff debate about whether it would be easier to coach an actor who was kind and gentle into a mean SOB, or an SOB into a gentle beast.  We decided to cast Jaise as the Beast and the other as Gaston.  It was the right decision.  
Jaise is someone who's roots are deeply planted in his faith.  He and I had several discussions during rehearsal about the difficulty he had in finding the Beast's character.  While he was a great singer, delivering spoken lines was a relatively new experience.  Jaise drew deeply on his faith to find the right "attitude" and in the end, his performance of "If I can't have her" is one of my all time favorites.  That moment in the show when he "softens" his beastliness was so difficult, but perfect for him. 
I had the pleasure to work with Jaise three more times, first as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , then in Annie Get your Gun, and finally as Ren in Footloose.   All three times I was backstage, so I only enjoyed the performance and didn't help in any way to stage it.  Although in Footloose I was managing the microphones back stage and it was a nightly battle to get him connected.  Footloose features LOTS of dancing and Jaise would sweat through whatever protection we arranged for the mics.  I changed his mic, his mic pack, his batteries, whatever I could to make it work.  I even had a hair dryer in the dressing room to dry out the pack at intermission to "make it right."  And yet throughout it all, Jaise was calm, respectful and supportive.  Many actors would blow a gasket in similar situations.  Not Jaise.  Patient, respectful, talented and rooted in faith best describes this young man.
Jacob Lambert:
Until the summer of 2009 Jacob was the perennial "ensemble" actor.  Jacob walks with a noticeable limp.  Directors consistently cast him in roles where dancing wasn't overly dramatic as a result of the limp.  He was born with a form of palsy, leaving his body to grow faster than his muscles.  As a result his lower body strength has suffered.  And yet the strength of his character far exceeds the strength in his legs.  In the summer of 2008 he was cast as one of the brothers in Joseph.  This role required him to dance around the stage and jump on tables.  And it required him to sing.  Jacob has a rich singing voice, and he delivers every note in perfect pitch.  His performance in Joseph led the directors of the second version of CUTC's Les Mis to select him for the role of Jean Valjean. 
I can remember the staff let the actors who had been called back leave before the cast was selected.  As the discussion centered around Valjean, the music director realized he hadn't asked Jacob to sing the "high C" required for "Bring 'em home."  I quickly dialed Jacob's number, put him on speaker and said "Jacob, sing us a high c."  He did and he got the part.
As the rehearsing moved forward it became apparent Jacob was struggling lifting and carrying Marius (David Kessler) across the stage in a dramatic moment when he saves the young man's life.  Jacob could certainly carry David in his arms, but picking him up was a huge strain on Jacob's lower body.  Serving as technical director for the show, I consulted with our staff and determined we would have David lay on a large trunk instead of the floor so the lift wasn't quite as far.  After two days of working with the amended lift Jacob came to me and said "I prefer to lift him from the floor, the scene loses it's dramatic affect if we use the crate."  We did as he asked.  For the remaining days of rehearsal and each of the performances Jacob lifted and carried David across the stage without a hint of strain.  It was mind over matter, and he willed his legs to be at full strength for the shows. 
Shortly after the final performance Suzanne Aldridge and I were presenting "Encore: A Tribute to Kathy Murphy."  Our close friend Kathy had passed earlier in the year after a long and valiant battle against cancer.  In tribute to Kathy, her friends organized a scholarship to be awarded to high school seniors who had participated in theater.  Sue, John Stuff and several others, put together a collection of Kathy's favorite songs and had actors from the past and present perform them in her honor.  Sue had a vision of Jaise Allen and Jacob singing a sort of "dueling Valjeans" presenting one of Kathy's favorites, Bring 'em Home. 
Jacob was a bit intimidated as he had been one of the Les Miz children in the first performance and greatly admired Jaise as Valjean.  Singing beside him and with him was frightful.  A 3 minute ovation after the number was evidence he held his own.  By the way, Jacob was the first winner of the Kathy Murphy Scholarship.  She would have been proud!
Cullyn Murphy:
I first met Cullyn backstage at Oliver in the fall of 2006.  He was one of the street urchins in Fagan's gang.  I mentioned Kathy Murphy earlier and Cullyn is one of Kathy's nephews.  The Murphy family is a bit odd to say the least.  At least odd from the perspective they all love to be on stage and entertain.  Cullyn is no exception. 
Cullyn Murphy has a smile stretching literally ear to ear and bright white teeth to fill in the gaps.  He seemingly never has a bad day and makes everyone feel a little bit better just because he lives his life as if today might be his last.  As an actor and singer he reminds you a bit of Dick Van Dyke and perhaps Steve Martin.  Slapstick comes naturally to him.  And he has another wonderful voice making you realize he is not just a funny guy, but a talented actor.  Over the past 6 years I may have seen every show he has performed in at least once.  I have never been disappointed. 
In 2010 he was selected to play the role of Wille Wonka.  This was his first major lead role in community theater.  Yet he was perfectly prepared to take on the task.  While he may never be cast as a romantic leading man, Cullyn can mold a role with even the slightest bit of humor into a perfected sculpted masterpiece.  The rehearsals and performances of Willie Wonka were all made brighter by the fact Cullyn was there every day to make us laugh at the story, the characters and even ourselves.
CUTC performs their shows over a two week period, taking Monday through Wednesday off in the middle of 8 or 9 performances from the stage.  However many directors call the actors back in on Wednesday to brush up the lines and dance moves. 
There is a scene in Willie Wonka when Willie reaches into a small tv to grab Mike Teavee who has been shrunk by Willie's TV transporter and "transported" to the tv.   For the performance the director had placed a GI Joe with Mike's imitated costume into a small tv looking box for Willie to reach in and grab.  On the Wednesday walk through, unbeknownst to Cullyn, I had striped the doll of it's clothes and placed it in the box.  Cullyn got to that point of the show, reached into the box and said "and here we have Mike Teavee, magically transported into the tv and he's perfectly normal except he's......NAKED!!!"  The cast and crew broke up and he moved right along with the scene as if it were planned all along.. 
Kathy loved all her nieces and nephews, but I think she loved Cullyn just a little more.  He loves the theater almost as much as she did.  And it loves him back.
David Kessler:
A lot of people think David Kessler sings like an angel.  I disagree.  I think David Kessler is an angel sent by God to remind us of the wonderful gifts he has given each of us and the obligation we all have to develop those gifts.   In the six years I have been involved in theater David is the simply the best pure singer I have worked with. 
I first met David in that same Les Miz cast 6 years ago.  He, like Jacob, was one of the street children.  Three years later he would play the part of Marius.  In between he was cast as Hugo in Bye Bye Birdie.  As Hugo he was just another talented student with a decent voice and a bright smile.  Yet he had a certain quality in his voice that made me think he might be special someday. 
I have seen David in 10 or 15 roles.  He never misses a line, a note or a cue.  A true professional every minute he is on the stage. 
This summer CUTC is presenting West Side Story.  David's dream role is Tony. I can't imagine anyone else playing it.  When Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein wrote West Side Story they must have certainly had a voice like David's in mind.  I won't say I have never seen David upset, but I have never seen him upset for long.  He brings a sense of dignity, grace and commitment to each and every moment he is in a room or on a stage.  And....his voice...is well..... angelic.