Stage Whisper
Whisper in the WIngs Episode 569
(upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome back in to Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. We have a fabulous show to be sharing with you today. And to do that, we are joined by the book writers, composers, lyricists, and producers of not only the show, but this original concept recording, Laura Good and Linda Goode. They are here to talk to us about their show, "Ladieship the Musical" and its original concept recording, which is available digitally everywhere on Friday, July 12th and is available for pre-order right now. You can get more information by visiting ladieshipmusical.com. We love the opportunity to get to not only learn about, but share a great new musical. And this certainly lives up to these standards and then some. So let us go ahead and welcome on our guests, Laura, Linda, welcome into Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. - Hi there. - Hi, hello. - I'm so excited to have you here with us today. I can't wait to jump into this great show that the two of you have created and now you've laid it down so we can all hear this wonderful music. "Ladieship the Musical." Laura, can I start with you and have you tell us a little bit about what this show is about? - Thanks, Andrew. The show is about the first ship of female convicts that were forced to go from England to Australia in the 1700s. So a lot of us are familiar with the story of Australia being founded with a bunch of male convicts, but few know the story, the role that the women played. And so we focus on two Irish sisters that are forced unjustly convicted and they're forced to go from England to Australia and serve their sentence for seven years. And they have to fight oppression, patriarchy, and politics in order to survive. And the reason why we called it "Ladieship" was because we focus on the boat journey from when they leave from right after they're convicted in England and sent to Australia. And it was a 10-month or sometimes longer, very harrowing journey that you often would not even survive the boat journey to make it to Australia. - Wow, wow, what a story to be telling. So Linda, coming to you, how did the two of you come up with the idea to pretend that's a what inspired you? - Well, we had been, I mean, we are daughters of the musical theater, even though we've had a pop band for, since the '90s, we grew up doing musicals. Certainly we did Godspell twice. I mean, we are children of the musical theater, the person for most. And we know that we had been wanting to write a musical for a long time and we were searching for something that was a compelling story. And we wanted to find inspiration in something that was true. We're big history buffs and angle files. And we had been researching our Irish ancestry. And then we came across some stories of women that were the way that the courts handled women and convictions at the time, which as you can imagine, we're very skewed and not exactly fair. And I came across the story of the true story of three sisters that had sort of like a mini crime ring. It was like a petty crime just for a little history lesson here. The male convicts that were convicted and transported to Australia were pretty much murderers and had high crimes. But the women that were convicted, it was small crimes of survival, such as stealing a loaf of bread, stealing a spoon to feed your family or to pay the doctor. So there were three sisters that were convicted and put on a boat from England to Australia. And once they arrived, they were separated and they never saw each other again. And that just really hit me of like what, you're never gonna see your sister, you're in this terrible, this foreign land, et cetera. So once we started digging in further, for some reason, I really was focusing on the boat journey because I would hear stories of like women giving birth on board and they'd be next depends of the animals that were shipped there. And I couldn't imagine surviving this, much less giving birth on the ship. So the further we dug, we just found out more true stories. And then Laura actually happened to live in Australia a while ago while her husband was getting his grad degree. So Laura, why don't you tell some stories of your time there? - I mean, on one hand, if you would have told me when I lived there that years later, I would co-write a musical that would debut off Broadway and bring us to, I would have said, you're nuts. It just wasn't, I mean, we, everybody we met there and you go to the convict museum, it's just sort of part, it's not a big part of their history. I mean, people don't talk about it from there, but like everybody has those roots if you're white. And so one of the friends we made looked up her relative. You can go to the Sydney convict museum and look up to see where what your convict was convicted for. You can even read the court case. And she said her relative was a woman who stole a loaf of bread. And then she just sort of set it offhand. And I was like, well, you've got your murderers and your rapists, the men, but like a woman steals a loaf of bread. Like how does that, how does that happen where they get sent to never come home again? So you can look up these court cases and once Linda and I started reading about how they wrote these, about these women, how they were so, they would just say, oh, she looked guilty. Oh, she's poor. So she must have done something wrong. I mean, it's all in the court cases and you can look up online. So we also have three other sisters. So we have five sisters in our family. So we really, we started really thinking about what it was like for these women to not only, and most of them were teenagers, they're of childbearing age. And the youngest was 11, I wanna add. And we grew up with a single mom. So we really, we would just really delve for hours about what it physically was like on this boat journey. How did they survive and not kill each other or get killed or get attacked? So we used a lot of those real court cases and we combined a lot of the facts and came up with this story that focused on two Irish sisters. - That is amazing. So I'm curious to know with the recording that is just about to come out, what has it been like developing this whole piece? And Laura, why don't I start first with you on that? - Well, the music really came in first. Linda and I are first and foremost composers and songwriters. We've released a ton of CDs with our band, The Twigs. And it's to process whatever is going on in our current lives through music is something that's very natural to us. To then think of it from the point of view of a character, it actually seemed even easier. It was weird, we had so much music, so many songs that would just, you know, just come through. And so that process was, I think that the, it almost felt a little magical in a way, but also so fun and so, so emotional as well. I mean, when you really think about what these women went through, so developing it in terms of after the show, first debuted, and then it's been performed a few times, there were, of course, like any musical, there was a lot of development and rewriting and changing of a plot. And so this would warrant a new song here and there or different editing. So we had so much momentum after it first debuted. It just was, it just looked, was just going great, you know, to be picked, to be off-Broadway on a festival, have all this momentum and then COVID. But we just kept going and one thing we really, we do know how to do is make records. So we grew up listening to Jesus Christ Superstar on like constant, constant. Whatever older sisters is a dancer and choreographer. So we had full-on living room productions of Jesus Christ Superstar. And so we thought, regardless of when this is going to next be on stage, we can make a record and we can have a tell a story just if you listen to the music. And that's what we did. - That is amazing. I love that. Linda, let me ask you, with this powerful story, what truly, I feel like this unknown story, you know, is there a message or a thought you hope that audiences and listeners take away from your work? - Yes, well, the challenge of adding a narrative to "Just Plain Songs" was something that we felt ready for, it was the next challenge. And to have other people tell that story through the songs was incredibly thrilling. And the message of the story really, I think is really about strength and community. And we hope that people come away with the sense that you're stronger than you think you are, no matter what situation that you're in. And I couldn't even imagine being in that situation over 250 years ago, giving birth or surviving what they had to survive. And then not only surviving this harrowing boat journey, but then also when they get to this new land where they have to basically help create a new society because what a lot of people also don't know is that the colony was failing. It was a combination of the government and private business. And when the men went there, the weather was not there. They met with the indigenous people there. It just wasn't going well. And then they decided, well, we need women to actually create a true society with family. The church religion certainly had a big hand in it too. And it would have failed really without the women's input. So interestingly, once the women did arrive there, they did not have the laws of patriarchy, so much as they did in Europe. They could own their own money once they served their sentences. They could own land. They could keep their inheritance, whatever it was, or if they married, et cetera. So I think it's about-- And they could get divorced. Oh, yes, true. Yeah, that was a big one. So I think it's really just about inner strength and also the support of community and taking a situation and not backing down and really just about survival. And one of our earliest themes and one of the lyrics is survival is not a crime. And especially at the time, the thought of women going beyond what the patriarchy had laid out for them was considered to be a crime. So it really touches on a lot of more wider themes than just surviving from day to day. So that's what we hope people take away from it. That is so wonderful. I love all of that. Well, we wanted to also show it through just through a modern lens about what-- because at the time, people would actually-- I had some of the stuff that we had researched said, oh, these women were just prostitutes. They were just sort of disposable members of society. And at the time, prostitution was actually not illegal. And most of the women were actually just people that worked on farms that wanted to come to the city because the Industrial Revolution had actually taken away their jobs. So the backstory is actually very complex. But the main story is just people wanted a better life and they had to really dig deep to make a new life for themselves. I love it. Laura, I'm going to come to you for my final question in this first part. I want to know, who do you hope have access to both this show leadership as well as the recording? Well, everybody, Andrew, of course. I want-- I really believe in the music. But also, during COVID, we hadn't even really-- we hadn't put the show out there except for the first debut. And a high school wanted to do it. And so they said, can you do a ride a high school edition? And so we did that. So the high school edition went extremely well because those are the ages of the women, of most of the women. So to see these high schoolers not only just embrace the show, but also unknown to us, they partnered with a human rights organization in Texas to let people know about the history of human trafficking. And it made me so full of hope. And it also showed us with the show, which is it can have as many women and men as possible because you have all of the extras. You have the men who work on the boat and then the women. So you have a mainly female cast. But you can have as many people in it as your theater program has. And so I think the cast in Texas was almost close to 50. So I think that alone, not only as an art form, no matter whether it's Broadway or wherever, this show can reach the hearts of, I would say, everybody. I just also want to add and enter that high school theater. I mean, it's so pure. It's just it's so the love of it. And certainly my best memories from high school were just on stage. I mean, I remember being, we did God's spell and there's the scene on the willows there and everyone was laying down. And the direction was to sort of fall asleep singing. And I felt so safe, even though the whole school was watching. It was just there's something about telling someone else's story that touches on your own life. And we certainly saw that in the high school production. MUSIC Well, on the second part of our show, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better. Pull the curtain back, if you will. And I want to start with our regular first question, which is, what or who inspires you? What playwrights, composers, or shows have inspired you in the past or just some of your favorites? And Linda, can I start first with you on this? Sure. Well, I would just say my personal go to always was Stephen Schwartz. I mean, for whatever reason, the songs were reflected, especially at the time in the '70s and certainly in through the '80s, there was just something about it that maybe because it was referencing the style of popular music at the time and then also the way it was told. And at that time, sort of a more modern lens. I mean, we grew up listening to our mom had lots of like Oklahoma and records and the soundtracks and things like that, but I would definitely say 100% Stephen Schwartz. I listened to a lot of different styles. I mean, I play classical piano as well as jazz piano. And I mean, it was just-- it was growing up because we had a single mom who was always working to support the family. Lauren, I just gravitated towards the piano. And in fact, we used to physically fight over who got to play the piano over dinner and whoever ran fastest to the piano would get to play it first. True story. But I would say just the popular music of the time also, I'm a big Joni Mitchell fan. I mean, I don't have any sort of reference. Just whatever is good, which I know sounds kind of general, but yeah, that's what inspires me. I love that list. It's a fabulous list. Laura, what are who inspires you? Oh, well, of course, we are twins. So I mean, I'm going to start off with Stephen Schwartz, of course. And we got to meet him a few years ago, and it really-- I felt like a little kid. And we're like, we're riding a show, and it's called "Ladieship." And he goes, oh, that sounds interesting. Tell me about it. So it was just such a great moment. So certainly, as far as musical theater, but I remember my mom would-- she would play late at night. She still plays, but she would play the song "Summertime." And she wasn't just doing it from-- she was doing it for her soul to kind of let something out. And so all of the classics growing up, as we had mentioned before, but as Linda and I learned our instruments because there were a bunch of instruments around the house. So if she could play something on piano, I had to learn how to play it. If I could play something on guitar, then she would have to learn how to play it. So there was kind of a competitiveness, but in a good way. And then, of course, the middle sister, who was all about dance. So we would put on these productions, both original and redoze. So the music of the '70s and the '80s, so much of just taking the instrument and singing your heart out, like Joni Mitchell. I was really into Jackson Brown for a while as a kid. And I didn't even know what he was singing about, but it was one of the first records I bought with my own money. So I would say-- and a lot of that-- this was before the days it was streaming-- what was on the radio was while on the radio, and that's what was available to you. So whether you were in a car and you would wait to hear your favorite song. And like that clock radio, I had the same one since we were like tiny kids to college. It kind of was like this-- someone out there was deciding what to play, but then that's what I was connecting with. So definitely, I would say that rock singer-songwriter, as you mentioned before, Fleetwood Mac-- Love the Beatles. The Beatles, of course. But then there was, I know hearing in the '80s, a friend of mine got a copy of some dance '80s song. And I remember thinking like, this is a new world, this is a new world, the whole rhythm of it was different. And it just made me want to dance and express myself in a different way. So yeah, I can't be more specific than that, but-- I love those. Those are absolutely wonderful. We have now arrived at my favorite question to ask this. And that, of course, is what is your favorite theater memory? Well, I would say, I know I had mentioned this before, and being in God's bell in the choir, and feeling really safe. We had a good theater program at our high school, and then we did some shakes, some straight plays too. And I don't know, just feeling really safe, which I know to some people may sound counter-intuitive, of like, I'm not going to get up on stage and expose myself and all these things, but there's something about the lights where you can't see the audience. And so you're in an essence surrounded by light, and you're surrounded by other people with the same goal, which is to tell the story. And it's like someone else's story, but usually if it's made it on stage, it has universal themes, and it just touches on many different things. So I would say it would be, yeah, doing that. Being on stage, I mean, telling a great story with great music. Can I start with my least favorite memory? And I'll end with mine. Yeah. Only because it was the first time I got a lead in a school play, and it was the real inspector hound. And I was like so psyched. I was like, I am the lead. And our director, who, oh, we loved our, he was such an influence in our life, our high school director, Jay Kriesch, who's no longer with us. So he cast the exchange student from Belgium, for some reason, who really, he couldn't speak English very well, but he cast them. And I don't remember even what role he played, but I had to kiss him on stage. And it was like this whole thing. And you're in high school, and you're like, everybody's like whispering like, it's going to be a real kiss. Is it a stage kiss? Like, are you going to practice it? Like, you know, it was this whole thing. And I remember he was like 15. And he smoked the exchange student from Belgium. And I was like, oh my god, I have to kiss this guy. And it smokes. And it became, unfortunately, this overwhelming thing about the spring play, like is Laura going to actually going to be committed to her craft and really do the kiss or not. And so let's just say, Andrew, I was not one of my finer moments on stage. I kind of tried to turn my head at the last minute. So that was my least one. But my favorite one, well, it's really one of my first ones, was our fourth grade music teacher. Her name was Mrs. Bimon. She played guitar. And she taught music in a way. One of those teachers where it's just like so inspiring. Which is made everybody could not wait for music class. And so in the summer, that same teacher starred in the local community theater production of Sound of Music. And I remember my mom had the record with Julie Andros carrying the guitar on the cover of the record. And we'd look at the record and play the record. And then to see our favorite music teacher star in a production of it, I just thought, she's come to life. And it just made me want to just be a part of it so, so much. And so then I think the next year Linda and I were in the king and I can't remember. But just so, I mean, like Linda, I can say, any time I've been in a show, I just feel at home. And there were times that I would just be in the pit band because we both were in orchestra growing up as well. So I'd be kind of like, oh, I'd rather be on stage. But I'm still part of it. I still get to go to the cast party, still, you know, get to enjoy the whole community. Oh, those were amazing. Both of you, thank you so much for those incredible memories. I love them. Well, as we wrap things up, I would love to know, do either of you have any other projects or productions coming on the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you? Well, we have concerning ladyship. We have a theater up in Northern California, main stage theater, that's going to be doing a concert version of ladyship. And that's coming up the first weekend of August. And that's in Eureka, California. Yeah, in Humboldt County. And then we're going to be releasing sheet music from the show ladyship as well as backing tracks. And then we're also going to be doing like audition piece length, we've had some requests for that, audition, backing tracks from the show. And we've got a best of the twigs record that we're going to release later on. We've got, we've written a couple new songs for that, which we're very excited to get back into the studio in that respect. And then trying to find a compelling story for the next musical that we'll write together, which I hope is a sung through musical with lots of tap dancing. That's my goal. Yes. Yes. That's, that's, that's TBD on the tap dancing. But we've also, there's been a couple other shows that have asked us to submit song, like a couple of songs, you know, for shows that maybe have several writers. So, so that's exciting. And we're always working on new stuff. So. That is very exciting. I'm looking forward to these upcoming productions. I wish I had a private plane so I could jet around and see this. But I really am looking forward to what's next for both of you, especially whether it be with the twigs or with the show. And that is a great lead in to my final question, which of course is if our listeners would like more information about "Ladieship" than musical or about either of you, perhaps they'd like to reach out to you. How can they do so? They can go to the website, ladyshipmusical.com. They can go to Instagram with, we're a "Ladieship" musical. We each have our own Instagrams as well, which you can find out. And Laura, what else did you want to add to that? Well, the umbrella for everything we do is under twigs.com. So, T-W-I-G-S.com. And that is the portal to all of our projects. I mean, there's a way to contact us from that as well. So, twigs.com or ladyshipmusical.com. Wonderful. Well, Laura, Linda, thank you both so much for taking the time to speak with me today. For sharing this incredible work you've created, this is absolutely amazing. I cannot wait to see where it goes next. I know it's got legs, so it's going to keep running and keep getting mounted. You have a beautiful show that you've created. So, thank you so much today for your time. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you so much, Andrew. It was a pleasure. It was a pleasure. My guests today have been the book writers, composers, lyricists, producers, incredible artists. Linda and Laura, good. They joined us to talk about their newest work, "Ladieship the Musical," and its original concept recording, which is available digitally everywhere on Friday, July 12th, and is available for pre-order right now. You can get more information about the show by visiting ladyshipmusical.com. We also have some contact information about our guests that we'll be posting in our episode description as well as in our social media posts, but make sure you head to ladyshipmusical.com now. Get your copy of this incredible music. I cannot wait for July 12th because I'm going to be sitting here streaming it over and over. I'm so excited to hear the music, to hear the story being told. It really is fantastic. And you're going to want to keep tabs on both Laura and Linda because they're going to continue to conquer the world. And so you want to make sure you're the first to know about what they're doing next. But right now, again, head to ladyshipmusical.com to get your recording of "Ladyship the Musical," the original concept recording. So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez, reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrap your candies. And keep talking about the theater in a stage whisper. Thank you. (upbeat music) - If you like what you hear, please leave a five star review, like and subscribe. - You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at stagewhisperpod. - And feel free to reach out to us with your comments and personal stories at stagewhisperpod@gmail.com. - And be sure to check out our website for all things stage whisper and theater. You'll be able to find merchandise, tours, tickets and more. Simply visit stagewhisperpod.com. Our theme song is "Maniac" by Jazzar. Other music on this episode provided by Jazzar and Billy Murray. You can also become a patron of our show by logging on to patreon.com/stagewhisperpod. There you will find all the information about our backstage pass as well as our tip jar. Thank you so much for your generosity. We could not do this show without you. ♪ If the parrows where I don't care ♪ ♪ Anywhere will your town make me there? ♪