May 18, 2012
Category: friday funtimes | No Comments
May 16, 2012
My friend Daphne created an answer to my previous question. Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is a Zac Efron cloth:
Category: randomness | No Comments
May 16, 2012
Here are some of the ways people found my site!!!! I really truly sincerely hope if you were searching for these things that you were thrilled to make your way to TheAmySpalding.com!
Hey, dudes, that is NOT how my name is spelled. There is no “U”. Get it? One of my best friends insists that “Spaulding” and “Spalding” are pronounced differently, and anyone should know from how I say “Spalding” how it’s spelled. As much as I wish this was true, I’m pretty sure it’s not. But I do know how my name is spelled, guys. I promise.
Actually, I’m sorry. You probably were NOT looking for me. You probably WERE looking for Amy SpaUlding. I bet she’s some kind of shadow self.
Oh the other hand, this one I’ve got!
Is there any OTHER way??
Hey, if you find this, let me know.
JUST A COUPL’A HEARTTHROBS, AM I RIGHT?
…yes?
Oh, if only I had one. IF ONLY. THE ADVENTURES WE’D HAVE!
Glad my hobbies made it onto the list.
I’m pretty sure these speak for themselves. Actually, no. What is a Zac Efron cloth? Can you use it to wipe up spills?
Category: site biz | 7 Comments
May 15, 2012
Here’s a short film I made about my dog’s subconscious!
Category: randomness | 2 Comments
May 14, 2012
I am thrilled to welcome this week’s guest bloggist, Meghan Deans.
MEGHAN DEANS: So, I like Titanic. The musical, oh my god! Not the movie, obviously not the movie. Not the ship itself, that thing was a bastard. But the musical, the thing opened on Broadway in 1997 and actually, did you even know this? Won the Tony for Best Musical! That is true! And it’s crazy for a number of reasons, including, do you know what should never ever have worked? Is a musical about the Titanic. I mean sure, sometimes you see a musical and there’s a little tragedy, right, Fantine kicks it or whatever. But a tragedy on the scale of the Titanic–1,514 people lost, and for terrible reasons–isn’t a natural fit for a song-and-dance show. Plus: everybody knows how it’s going to end.
Titanic was written by Maury Yeston (music/lyrics) and Peter Stone (book). In order to present a story that you already know, the two chose a few themes (progress, class, love) and shuffled them throughout the ship. The musical is a series of vignettes, glimpses into the lives of the passengers and crew. By the end of Act I you’ve met a huge cast of characters, and while you may not know a lot about each one, you know just enough to get your heart seized when the iceberg comes along. Structurally, it’s a little bit brilliant. The rising action of the thing is going to happen no matter what and the audience needs very little to clock the sinking ship. By focusing on the characters, Stone and Yeston gave themselves room for songs. And the songs are very good.
It’s hard to pick a favorite but if I’m going to pick a favorite I am going to pick “The Proposal”/”The Night Was Alive,” which is a really super-unexpected duet that is sung by, are you ready: Barrett, the ship’s stoker, and Bride, the ship’s radioman. That’s right, another duet between a stoker and a radioman, GIVE ME A BREAK MUSICAL THEATER. J/K, what is this thing? It is crazy. It is beautiful, also. Barrett’s sending a telegram back to his girl. Bride loves his job. I don’t even want to talk about it anymore, I want you to watch it. This clip is from The Rosie O’Donnell Show (I KNOW), it is not quite the full song but it’s damn pretty anyway.
Possibly you have watched the above clip and thought to yourself, hey that stoker looks familiar, didn’t I see that guy punching another guy on Smash recently, the answer is yes, you did, and what a great segue you have given me to talk about how wonderful was the original Broadway cast of Titanic. Brian d’Arcy James played Barrett. I love Brian d’Arcy James, you guys. I love him so, so much. Actually when Amy asked me to contribute something for this series I picked Titanic primarily so I would have an excuse to look at a ton of Brian d’Arcy James videos, and that has paid off great.
Here’s one where he sings the phone book:
Here’s one where he plays a singing cop on Letterman.
Here’s one where he uses that Barrett accent to do a voiceover for a Jameson commercial.
I COULD DO THIS ALL DAY DON’T TEST ME
But wait there’s more. Michael Cerveris as Mr. Andrews, the guy who designed the ship. David Costabile AKA GALE FROM BREAKING BAD as 1st Officer Murdoch. The brilliant and lovely Martin Moran as our radioman. The brilliant and lovely Victoria Clark as Alice Beane. William Youmans! Alma Cuervo! Larry Keith! David Garrison! BECKY ANN BAKER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. It’s an embarrassment of riches and everyone gets a moment, everyone gets a bit of a song. For instance!
“Lady’s Maid,” in which three 3rd class passengers, all named Kate, talk about the lives they hope to lead in America.
“No Moon,” in which the lookout looks out, Mr. and Mrs. Straus are adorable, one of the Kates flirts, and Mrs. Cardoza busts into the smoking lounge.
There’s even a chilling eleven o’clock number, “Mr. Andrews’ Vision”: as the Titanic sinks, her designer goes over blueprints, desperately looking for a way that he could have made it better.
I should say that I did not like Titanic immediately. I was not first on the scene, at all. When the musical opened on Broadway I was only vaguely aware of it–I was in high school, living five hours away from New York City and although I was already well on my way to being a musical theater nerd, a musical theater nerd who didn’t live near the city had to wait for cast recordings to come out before she could really decide if she liked the show. There was an advantage to this, with Titanic. When the show began previews on Broadway, it was beleaguered by technical difficulties that made EVERYONE LAUGH SO HARD because HA HA IT’S TITANIC GET IT. It was basically the Spider-Man of its time, I think I can say that. But I missed all that, and when I came to the cast recording I was blissfully ignorant of all of the reasons I shouldn’t have liked it. Consider that, for a second, I mean, these days! How many times do you get to try to like something without knowing what other people think, first? As hard as you try, something gets in, some measure of critical reception before you’ve had time to critically receive.
So when I loved Titanic I did it with my whole heart, defending it against anyone who thought it was just like the movie WHICH IT WASN’T or poorly written WHY DO YOU SAY THAT DO YOU NOT HAVE FEELINGS. I saw the show twice, but late, nearly two years after it opened. The second performance I saw was the last performance on Broadway. I got up at 3am, took a bus into the city, met friends, got a rush ticket, saw the show, and felt a lot of feelings. I wrote at length about that day in my Internet Journal, fangirlishly recounting the specifics of each number (“You’re not going to believe this, but I’m choking up just thinking about it”) and the scene at the stage door after the show. “I don’t quite know how to sum the whole thing up, or even to end it,” I wrote. “I regret every performance of this show that I did not see.”
Which I know looks like terrifying hyperbole, which it was, but which it wasn’t. Because that is what it is, to love musical theater. To love theater at all. Musicals are unique to theater in that musicals often have recordings, or clips from The Rosie O’Donnell Show. But the recordings are just records. They are not the things themselves. The show lives in the room and is taken away in memory only. Those who love musicals carry shadows with us, all the time, shadows of witness: the best performances and the unexpected understudies and the songs that sounded better than we ever could have thought. So I like Titanic, a show that never should have ever, but did, all the same.
Meghan Deans writes plays and lives in New York City.
Category: musical theatre mondays | No Comments
May 11, 2012
Category: friday funtimes | No Comments
May 9, 2012
Considering I won’t have any books out until next year there’s no real reason to take my writing advice. But I’m gonna give it anyway!
Category: writing | 9 Comments
May 7, 2012
I’m really REALLY excited to launch the guest bloggist component to Musical Theatre Monday. There is an amazing and varied group of people who will be blogging here about musicals that changed them, inspired them, made them laugh/cry/etc.
The inaugural guest bloggist for Musical Theatre Monday is Kayla Cagan.
KAYLA CAGAN: I was a late-bloomer when I allowed musicals into my life. I was a theater kid who grew up on “straight” plays (and by straight, I mean kitchen-sink dramas and well-made comedies, not straight as in heterosexual, though there are some mighty fine heterosexual plays out there.)
I detested musicals in high school for a few reasons:
I was drawn to the dark side of the theater arts department (where the props are), so I’d be willing to operacize as needed, but I stayed away from musicals and the music department at all costs. If it wasn’t The Crucible, it didn’t stand a chance with me.
In my early 20s, I interned in New York, which lead to me moving there in my mid-20s, which lead to me seeing a lot of theater, including musicals, for eleven years. The first musical I saw in New York was Carousel at Lincoln Center. Though it received amazing reviews, I hated it. It didn’t make sense to me yet. People were singing cheerfully under bright lights about an abusive man and I was supposed to be happy? sad? I didn’t know what the hell was going on. Not a good match, on stage or in my seat. It was a free ticket, so I didn’t complain too bitterly to the patron. I just made a vow that I wouldn’t try another musical, which is pretty damn hard to do when you live in New York City and work in the theater.
Another free ticket and another musical happened: Showboat on Broadway starring John McMartin. I had front row center seats. (Being an intern at that time had its perks.) I brought an editor friend with me, my first friend in New York, and told her “if we hate it, we can always leave.” Well, I was kind of in shock. There was the rich orchestra and the oversized set and the committed actors and the storyline… about race and interracial marriage and America’s recent history. And by intermission, something started clicking. Here was story. Here were characters. (And they were singing because they were so damn sad, they didn’t have an alternative.) Here was mood and tension. The production’s heavy, thoughtful design was having an influence on me. I understood the context of tone and emotion all of the elements were conveying to me – perhaps because it was the first time I saw a musical created and directed with such nuance and care. I didn’t know musicals could make me all shivery and teary and toe-tapping at the same time. I was hooked and I blamed Showboat for being my gateway Strum-Und-Drang musical.
I saw many exciting and boring musicals after that. I still do. Way too many to name. But there are two to this day that I would recommend to the most hesitant of audiences – to those who really hate musicals and/or the idea of being stuck in a theater all night long: Chicago and Cabaret, separately or as a pairing.
Chicago and Cabaret, both created by the creative team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, are the perfect musicals for non-musical people. These shows are for history buffs and political science students and tabloid lovers and current events voyeurs. These are musicals that feel like they were written yesterday. Chicago is set in 1926 and premiered on Broadway in 1975. Cabaret was based on a novel set in 1939, and premiered on Broadway in 1966. Why do they still hold up?
They hold up because they still hold a mirror to our world’s daily events and politics. Without spoiling the shows for you, here’s a taste: Cabaret’s story involves alcoholism, nationalism, homosexuality, women’s rights, and social morals. Chicago’s story lives in jail with sleazy, tabloid-ready lawyers, adulterers, murder, jealousy, and baby bumps. And just like a lot of us, the audience members, the characters don’t want to deal with their sucky lots in life either.
So what do the characters do? They sing. They dance. From their jail cells. From dark night clubs. From each other’s bedrooms. From the underbelly of their sorrows. Their songs makes sense, because they have no where else to turn but to music. There stories aren’t to be spoken, but shouted, whispered, and cried. And you’ll never see a set and/or lighting designer worth her salt fight the dark-places that Kander and Ebb have created. A great designer will work with the intense, moody worlds that were born from the visionary lyricist and book writer.
“Maybe This Time” from Cabaret (Sorry, the clip won’t embed!)
One of the greatest love songs ever written, because it’s about the possibility of love – it’s about the MAYBE, not the love. It’s about the dark determination to make love happen. And as you might guess, it doesn’t end in love for these two. When Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles sings “All the odds are in my favor…” I can feel my stomach drop.
“Tomorrow Belongs to Me” from Cabaret (No embedding here either!)
Here’s a tricky little song (that’s in both the musical and the movie) that Kander and Ebb did so well. Doesn’t this sound cheerful? Doesn’t it seem like some presidential candidate would use this for their slogan? It’s a bright little ditty until you realize it’s a rally for Hitler and his youth army. Just because it’s awfully blonde and sunny doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous as hell.
Admission: I included this promo because David Hasselhoff is in it, but also to show you how appetizing this production is – the sexy costumes, the dark lighting, the sassy-come-hither dance numbers. Crime kind of pays, right?
Don’t you always want to know why the bastard gets shot? Well, there’s the truth and there’s the spin. And Kander and Ebb cleverly show you how it’s done. Tell me if this scene doesn’t hold up today. Change out the costumes, cast Mary Sunshine (Christine Baranski) as Harvey from TMZ in drag, and you’ve got yourself a show, Sister.
Chicago and Cabaret taught me how to have a point of view as a director and writer, about keeping a play’s world in it’s natural home and tone, and how to make sure that all of the characters struggle to win, even if they end up losing. That may just be their lots in their lives.
And those are stories that deserves to be told, too.
*Chicago and Cabaret been made into movies, so if you have no access to theater or won’t get to see these musicals on stage anytime soon, at least consider renting the movies–though I fully endorse seeing live productions whenever possible.
Cabaret Movie Trailer (starring Liza with a Z and Mr. Joel Grey!)
Chicago Movie Trailer (2002 Best Movie!)
**Gossipy note of interest: I saw Jennifer Jason Leigh play Cabaret‘s Sally Bowles on Broadway. She was sick with a temperature of 105 degrees. I think it added a layer of total insanity and I loved every minute of it. I’m also really glad she’s still alive.
Kayla Cagan is a playwright and dramaturg living in California. She’s currently writing a play that has music and dancing in it, but isn’t a musical.
Category: musical theatre mondays | 1 Comment
May 4, 2012
Category: friday funtimes | No Comments
May 3, 2012
Today I have a lovely guest bloggist, Brandy Colbert, who has a different but also awesome writing group. I could tell you WHY and HOW and WHAT but you should just read what she has to say instead!
BRANDY COLBERT: If you’d told me a year ago that I would be a member of an in-person critique group, I would have laughed. I would have laughed even harder if you’d told me that I would look forward to the meetings and actually miss them when we have to postpone for a few weeks.
When I first began writing for publication in 2006, I was terrified of showing my work to other people. Which is rather counterproductive to the process, as other people reading your work is the most basic concept of being published. I gradually started to get over myself because a) you really need other people to critique your work if you’re serious about being published, and b) I WANTED TO BE PUBLISHED.
Like anything else, critiquing is all about the right fit. I’ve had great luck with critique partners in the past, but have also had a few situations where it didn’t work out. Just because you get along smashingly with someone, that doesn’t mean you are the best person to critique their writing and vice versa. And sometimes you just stop exchanging work for various reasons or no reason at all.
But then I joined Write Club this past February (yes, we seriously call it Write Club, no I’m NOT supposed to be talking about it, why do you ask?). The very Amy Spalding whose blog you are reading is the person to thank for this. She knew all of the members of the group and when she heard they were looking for a fourth member, she suggested me as a candidate. I had just moved back to Los Angeles from Chicago a few months prior, with a brand-new book contract and a need to connect with some other writers, as most of my friends who live here work in entertainment.
Here’s why Write Club works for me:
If you’re on the fence about joining an in-person writing group or even frightened of the prospect like I once was, I highly advise stepping out of your comfort zone to give it a try. I am lucky enough to have critique partners outside of my writing group, but just three months in, it’s hard to imagine life without my Write Club.
Brandy Colbert was born and raised in the Ozarks, and currently lives in Los Angeles where she works as a freelance magazine copy editor, tap dances, and generally watches too much television. Her debut novel, A Point So Delicate, will be published in fall 2013 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers.
Category: Uncategorized | 7 Comments
