MOVING DAY!

Hello world!!

Today we moved into our new theatre and it was both exhausting and exciting! Cameisha (Heather Duke) and I decided to wake up at the crack of dawn to get donuts and then drove (a very long time, as we live far away) to the new theatre!

Let me tell you - it was extremely exciting to drive up to the theatre. The building just FEELS new. It's being shared with a dance company and a late night talk show, but we get to be the first show performed in it. EVER. I just think that is so cool. Cameisha and I got there early (#foreverearly) so we kind of explored a little on our own, as much as we could while not knowing where the light switches were. The space is just beautiful. I can't wait until the lobby is actually full of people and there is an audience sitting in the chairs (on the risers we set up today, just saying).

The space was definitely smaller than I expected it to be. But I guess maybe I shouldn't have had expectations of it being too big since it is a blackbox. It will definitely be interesting moving into this space and putting the show in there. Going from the basement of a church to the actual space will help immensely, I"m sure - and I'm certainly glad that we have so many rehearsals in the actual theatre. Sight lines are definitely going to be a challenge for me. The stage is set up as a triangle shape, so you have to make sure that all sides are being talked to, even the people in the very corner! I just gotta keep reminding myself of that.

But needless to say - we are very excited. I'm looking forward to this next week of being in the Marcelle and polishing this show even further! This is not an event to be missed folks, and tickets are ON SALE NOW! Go to http://metrotix.com/event.php?eventId=6870 to get tickets TODAY!

(fun fact, Colin is hiding a donut in this picture)

Hope to see you in the halls of Westerberg!

Grace

Blocking: check! Let the countdown to opening night begin...

Can I just say that the past month has FLOWN by? It does not seem like it has been an entire month since we first started working on this show. It is both terrifying and exciting that opening night is less than a month away - terrifying because there's so much work to be done, but exciting because the show does feel like it's coming together.

We have officially blocked the entire show. Next week we have two days of running each act, then we start doing full runs. I'm slightly (okay, more than slightly) nervous about putting this all together. It's probably mainly the Type A personality in me who wants the runs of the show to be as perfect as possible from my end. I missed the first time the cast ran through Act 1 (out of town) so I have this fear that we will get to running it and I will be super far behind! Going to spend a good portion of this weekend working on lines, perfecting harmonies, and reviewing blocking. I do believe that getting on my feet and running through all of this will help me get everything straight in my head. But I want to be as comfortable as I can be once we start doing runs.

The process has been really enjoyable for me thus far. Maybe it's because I love this cast and I love this show, so it would be hard to hate life when you're surrounded by cool people working on one of your favorite shows. But in all reality - this is probably one of the best, if not THE best, rehearsal experiences I've had so far. It hasn't been without some frustration (I will repeat - the music in this show is hard in places) but overall I feel like I've spent the majority of the time at rehearsals extremely happy.

Spoilers ahead if you don't know the show -

I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about the moment that pushes Martha to want to commit suicide. Mike and I were talking this last night - we have changed the blocking from the original to where now Martha hears Duke and JD talking about her at the pep rally. This certainly doesn't help her state of mind, but I think the inciting moment is when Veronica tells Martha that she is the one who forged Ram's love note that happens in the beginning of the show. As Mike said, people constantly are taking things from Martha. They take her dignity, her hope, her happiness... but they had never taken her best friend away, until that moment. Veronica and Martha's friendship started at a very early age ("Martha Dunnstock. My best friend since diapers"). Veronica has been her ride-or-die friend. Whenever Martha has a moment of self-doubt, Veronica is there to lift her back up. When Martha gets excited, Veronica hypes it up. When Martha is happy, Veronica will celebrate with her. When Martha needs a dose of reality, Veronica will more often than not give it to her - in a nice manner. Martha talks to Veronica about everything. Now, Veronica and Martha have already been drifting throughout the show, but I think Martha still sees Veronica as her best friend who would do anything for her, leading Martha to ask Veronica to help her get into JD's locker. Martha's social life has been pretty horrible, but she hangs on to the one hope and light in her life that Veronica will always be her friend. When she learns that her best friend has betrayed her, that light goes out - bringing her to her state of mind for Kindergarten Boyfriend. Without Veronica, Martha truly believes that she is in the world by herself. And if no one cares about her in this world, she wants to go to the next where maybe someone will. 

That all sounds so depressing, but it's been on my mind a lot recently as we have worked on Act 2. Martha's got a tough life in many ways but I remain positive that she's got the biggest heart in the show and that if I went to Westerberg in 1989 she would be my first choice as a friend. I'm looking forward to getting this show off book and creating more relationships with the rest of the characters onstage. I can't wait to move forward to opening night with this show!

Grace

Some Thoughts about Martha

We have officially moved into week three of rehearsals, and I can't help but sit here and kind of wonder how it is already week three. The time seems to be going so fast! Last night we had our read through/sing through and it was kind of sort of... mind blowing. I'm fully able to admit that I still have a lot of work to do in perfecting the harmonies in the chorus parts (they are HARD) but it was so cool to listen to everyone sing and hear the show come together with the lines in between. EVERYONE IS SO FREAKISHLY TALENTED. I don't think I've ever been a show like this with this many people who seriously kick butt. It's both terrifying and awesome at the same time.

So before this week, I wasn't called a whole lot - I haven't had to go to some of the dance rehearsals, and we had a couple days off, so I had a lot of time to think about Martha and her backstory.

When I first got cast in this show and would explain to my family and friends who I was playing (the awkward, unpopular, "loser" best friend) a lot of people's initial reactions were something along the lines of "Do you think you can play this part without getting depressed/upset all the time?" I like to think of myself as a generally positive and happy person, so when everyone began asking me this I wasn't too surprised but it kind of caught me off guard. I hadn't necessarily thought about it being difficult. I found myself looking through the show and really finding places in the show that Martha does get picked on. They are plentiful, let me tell you. I mean heck, the other kids in the show refer to her as "Martha Dumptruck". She's not exactly at the top of the popular list. Yet, I find so many things about Martha so redeeming. It would be easy to play her a stereotypical "nerd" or "loser", if you will, but she's more than that.

In the opening number, Veronica refers to Martha as having a "huge heart". I think that's truly one of her defining characteristics. She is resilient. She is able to consistently see the positives in her life, even when she is getting picked on by her peers. She has been enduring torture from her classmates for years, yet still manages to get excited about certain things (being at her first party, movies with happy endings, etc). I would like to think that cliques don't start at a young age, but let's be honest - they totally do. I think elementary school kids can be mean! I definitely got in trouble as a child for calling another girl's pants ugly (I promise I don't do that anymore) - something that is so simple, yet at the same time, what was my nine year old brain thinking? In Sherwood, Ohio, these kids became mean fast. I like to think of it as everyone else realized what was considered "popular" and Martha was just always one step behind to the point where she eventually gave up and decided to do her own thing.

Kindergarten was the last time that Martha truly felt happy with who she was. Back in kindergarten, no one was judging based off of appearances. Heck, I would imagine that she even was a little popular because she was smart. Yet in first grade, everything changed and all of the sudden she shot to the bottom of the totem pole, where she's stayed ever since. She stays there because she refuses to conform to all the pressures that are put on her (and her classmates) to be popular. If she really committed to buying the right clothes and being mean, maybe she could rise a few notches. But she doesn't. I think maybe it could possibly be due to her family circumstances, but I also think that she chooses not to. She also meets Veronica early in her life, and as long as she has one friend who accepts her for who she is, she's happy.

A big question in my mind was "Why does Martha continuously chase after a boy who gave her one kiss twelve or so years ago and has been mean to her ever since?" It doesn't necessarily make sense to me just watching the show. But, after reading Omega's blog, I realized that he was right that Ram truly never says anything terrible to her. I think that's partially why she is able to keep her hope alive. It is the kind of thing where he never tells her flat out that it's never going to happen, so in her head she truly believes that she will end up with her in the end. I like to think that when Ram makes some not-so-nice-although-not-directly-mean comments to her, he's mainly doing it for the crowd. He knows that Martha is an easy target and everyone picks on her, so he does it to keep up and not stick out. Maybe sometimes when he passes her in the hall he will flash her a smile. Maybe sometimes he's not that big of a jerk - which Martha would take as meaning that he still loves her. She truly believes that someday he is going to see that they are supposed to be together. It's sad, but it speaks to her character that she is persistently hopeful about life.

When working "Kindergarten Boyfriend" with Jeffrey and Scott, they talked about having her go to a "happy place". I think Martha has created a happy place that she goes to often when life seems to get her down. She realizes that the world she lives in is absolutely ugly; she's created a world in her mind that is an escape from everything horrible and sucky. It's a place that's beautiful. It's a world where Ram still loves her, Heather Duke is still her best friend, and everyone else gets along. It's an extreme fantasy - but it helps her remain hopeful in her day to day life. I like to think that when life gets really, really bad for her she can close her eyes and escape there for a few seconds, minutes, or maybe even hours in extreme cases - and it gives her the push to keep going. It's definitely something I'm looking to explore as we continue on in the show.

I don't know about you, but I like Martha. She is true to herself, she keeps hope alive, she wears what she wants to... she sounds like my kind of girl. Tomorrow we start blocking and I can't wait to get everyone on their feet and start discovering even more about Martha and building relationships onstage with this amazing cast. I have a great feeling about this show!!

Grace

Talent Crushes. Everywhere.

HI WORLD! I'm so excited to be writing this. If you would have told me six months ago that I would be sitting in my bed writing a blog about the experience of being in my favorite show in my first professional theatre experience, I probably would've laughed in your face and gone back to stressing out about my daily college student struggles. But that's all done now - and here I am. BLOGGING. About being in a professional show!

Hey. My name is Grace Seidel and I'm going to be playing the role of Martha in New Line's upcoming production of Heathers. I enjoy good food, the color pink, taking pictures, dogs (especially my dogs, Lulu and Tess), and theatre. It's extremely hard for me to find a theatrical experience in which I don't find some joy in. It's brought me most of my best friends and some of my absolute favorite memories. I am truly grateful for everything it has been for me in my life.

A background of my relationship with Heathers

So let's start at the beginning. My love for this musical began in winter break 2014. I was driving in the car with my best friend (s/o Matt Redmond) and he was telling me all about this new musical that the Legally Blonde peeps (my guilty pleasure show) had written. He was giving me an intricate plot description and I was quite honestly kind of zoning out but then I started actually listening to the music and became more interested. He gave me his copy of the CD and I listened to it on repeat for six hours as I drove back to school (University of Tulsa) from winter break. I basically forced anyone who rode in my car that semester to listen to it and managed to turn quite a few of my theatre friends into fans as well. So much so that when Broadway World announced that the regional premiere would take place in STL, we jokingly started planning our road trip to go see it.

At that time though, I wasn't sure what my plan was after college graduation. I thought that I might stay in Tulsa. I'm getting married in November (s/o Connor - you rock) so I had this awkward period of six months where I was kind of up in the air until I figured out where Connor and I would ultimately settle. In the end, I decided to move home and live with my parents for six months and take advantage of that free food and free housing for a little bit longer. I had completely forgotten that Heathers was happening in STL though.

So fast forward to May. Matt and I are driving back from visiting our friend in Columbia and somehow we got on the subject of the Heathers auditions. After much persuasion and reassurance from him, I decided to go for it. You never know what could happen, right? I struggled for ages over what song to sing, but ultimately decided to go with "Breathe" from In the Heights. It's one of my favorite songs to sing, and I thought it tied to Martha well while showing off range. 

I printed off the sheet music, did my hair, put on a dress (two, actually - my first one ripped as I was walking out of the door lol thanks dress) and headed to Clayton to audition. Most of the people there I had never met before, but it was fun to chat with some new people and make some friends (acquaintances?). I'm pretty sure I couldn't feel my legs after doing the dance combination so many times, but I left the night feeling good about what I had done to the point where whatever the outcome, I knew I had done my best.

The next day at work I pretty much (illegally, as we aren't supposed to look at our phones at school - sorry work peeps if you're reading this) checked my phone every 10 minutes. I checked Facebook. I checked my email. I checked my call log. I died a little every time I checked. Four minutes before I clocked out, I got a missed call and voicemail from Scott. I FREAKED and called him back immediately when I clocked out, where he told me they wanted to offer me the role of Martha. I tried to keep it cool on the phone but I definitely got off the phone and cried the entire way home out of happiness.

Fast forward an agonizing month and a half and we have officially started rehearsals! Have you ever heard of the phrase "talent crush"? To me, it's basically when you see/hear someone do something really really cool and you're like "wow I really need to meet them and/or be their friend". Well y'all - I'm pretty sure I've got a serious talent crush on this cast. It was pretty amazing to sit in a room with so many talented people and think "Wow. I'm a part of this." Everyone sounds stunning and fits their characters so well. I can't wait to hear more singing and move into the character development and build relationships with these people on and off stage. It's going to be one amazing ride, and I'm tickled pink to be a part of it! I hope you'll join me on my journey back to the halls of high school.

Till next time! -Grace