Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 624
(upbeat music) - Welcome back in everyone to a fabulous new Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. We have a fun show in store for you today, especially calling all our jazz lovers out there. This is the show you've been waiting for. I know I'm excited to dive all into this. Today we are joined by two amazing artists, the performer Madeline Dalton and the music director, Adam Dorfman. They're here to talk about their upcoming show, "I Feel the Earth Swing." It's happening September 13th at 9.30 p.m. at Green Room 42. And you can get your tickets and more information by visiting thegreenroom42.venutics.com. We love a great jazz show. We love a great jazz show when it accompanies a wonderful artist like the one referred to in the title. And so I don't want to waste any more time. I want to learn more about this. I want to share more about this with you all. So let's go ahead and welcome on our guests. Madeline and Adam, welcome into Whisper in the Wings. Woo! - Thank you so much for having us. I'm so excited to have you two here. I'm so excited about the show. I feel the earth swing. Madeline, I know you reached out to me about this show and you had me sold at the title. I was like, I don't care what you're selling, I'm buying with that title. So Madeline, why don't I start with you first and have you tell us a little bit about what this show is and is about? - Sure. So I feel the earth swing is more of a concert. There's no acting or storytelling to it. It's a whole bunch of Carol King classics. I'm sure you know most of them, if not all of them. And we've taken those songs and rearranged them in various jazz styles. So every arrangement's a little bit different. Adam and I co-arrange everything together and it's gonna be a really fun time. I am the star of the show, which feels a little odd to call myself a star, but it is what it is. And I have lots of guest performers joining me throughout. We have seven different singers who will be joining me on stage throughout the show. And then we are gonna be backed by a six piece jazz band, which includes Adam on the keys. - It is incredible. See, I told you listeners, this is an incredible show you're not gonna wanna miss. I love this concept of taking these wonderful songs by the legendary Carol King and throwing that jazz twist to it. So Adam, let me come to you 'cause you're the music director. And as Madeline said, you're the co-arranger, if you will. How did you two come up with the idea for this show? - Yeah, totally. Well, Madeline came to me about, you know, a bit over a year ago with the idea to do a show like this with Sara Bareilles songs. And we did that one towards the beginning of this year, and it took, you know, a good, better part of six months to get that show together, just 'cause it was brand new from the ground up. She came to me with a lot of the arrangements already, a lot of the ideas, and I sort of fleshed them out, made them, you know, a bit more authentic to the style 'cause I'm really studied in jazz, went to school for it. - That's what I do. - Yeah, I went to school for musical theater. So I definitely have training. I have a lot of music, and I understand music theory. But in terms of jazz training specifically, I don't really have any. I just like it, and so that's why I reached out to Adam is because he can fill in the gaps in my knowledge or the places where I get really stuck while I'm creating a jazz chart specifically. To give a little bit more background about myself, I am an acapella music arranger. That was how I came into this work. I like led my high school acapella group, and back then, no one in my group knew how to read sheet music except me. So I would create the parts for them and like the voice, no section of my iPhone, or like using the acapella app, which is such a blast from the past. And then in college, then I was actually able to start giving people like real sheet music. And then from there, I just started to explore instrumental vocal arranging. But you know, for pop, I absolutely, you know, whole charts me, but when it comes to jazz, I need a little bit more help in that regard. So that's where Adam comes in. - Yeah, so she gave to me, and we kind of hit the ground running on that Sarah show. That went super great. We had a great turnout. We did the same set twice again. We did it in New Jersey, up in North Jersey, and we did it at Chelsea Stage. And so now we're putting together this carol set, and we have some more ideas for some other artists. We want to work on shows kind of celebrating. - Yeah, but the goal is always female singer-songwriters. I love lifting up other women. - We love women, we love the girls. - And there are not a lot of women in jazz. And so, you know, obviously we're always trying to do what we can reasonably within the people that we already know and can pull from, to include women in our shows, but also to be able to highlight the music of women in a new jazz context, I think is a nice way to bring more women into jazz. - I love that, love that idea. So at the time of this recording, we are T minus 10 days away from the show starting. - Damn right, my spread for India. (laughing) So as you two have been working together, I'm curious to know, what has it been like developing the show, putting it all together, you know, as you've mentioned, you've been selecting certain pieces and jazzifying, if you will. So what has that all been like developing? And Madeline, why don't we start first with you on that? - Sure, yeah. Well, the idea is actually to start with me, so great place to start. I am the one who picked the artist and the concept for everything. And usually what I'll do is take about a month after I've kind of selected which artist I want to pursue in this context to really listen to her whole discography and like figure out what are the deep cuts, what are the hits, what do people need to hear, what do I just want to do because I love it, I love all of them. But you know, sometimes I'd be like, okay, this is the hit I have to include, but then this deep cut I love, so I'm going to put that in the set too. And I listened to that alongside listening to all different types of jazz. So I'll kind of identify different genres that we haven't covered yet, or genres that I need to learn more about. And I will just alternate between those things. And I have a million private spotify playlist where I like sort out all of my ideas. And eventually that helps me kind of cool together a set of multiple songs. And I say, hey Adam, we're going to do this as this. Occasionally I'll come to you with a song where I'm like, I don't know what genre I want, or like here's the genre, here are three options, and then he'll like kind of help me fill that out. But for the most part, it's all from me. And then also for the most part, I will put together just the initial chart with just like the vocal line, any random horn parts I think of, all the harmonies, all the vocal stuff tends to be me. And then I'll bring him to him, and then we'll do a session together where we'll work on the reharm. For people who don't know what reharm means, that means to reharmonize. So that means to redo the chords. And usually that means making them more complex and adding more chords in this context of this. - Or just like making it more stylistic of that specific kind of subgenre that we want to cover and pay homage to. That's what's great about this process is that the arranging, like when Madeleine said we're co-arrangers, it truly is that. Like she said, makes the kind of bare bones chart of it, makes the sheet music, and then brings it to me. And then we meet and work through it together in person. We play through it, I throw out ideas for like, hey, what if this chord was this other chord? What if the form was slightly different? What if we can add a solo section here? And a lot of that has to do with what singers we want to use. So like, we know what vocalists we like working with and we know what they like singing, we know what keys they like, we know who can solo, and we know their kind of voice ranges. And on my end, I know what musicians I want to hire, I know what kind of band I want, and I know what they like playing. And so I like to, whatever project I'm working on, whether it's something for theater, something for jazz, something for pop, I want it to be a fun show for the audience, but also for our musicians and our performers. So that's kind of a big thing for us is making it just kind of a joyous music making occasion and yeah, making it just like a fun thing to play. - Say we've succeeded at that. - Oh yeah, our band loves playing these shows with us. - Yeah, not to turn. But also I had, sorry. - They're hip arrangements, yeah, proud of them. - Also giving Dan Mackie a shout out here. We brought the show to Rosen Performing Arts Center in New Jersey a few days ago, and Dan, who's one of our performers, brought his mom to come see the show, and I met her backstage. And Dan had never told me this, but his mom told me she was like, you know, Dan has just like so appreciated having this as a creative outlet, like to keep himself occupied while like between gigs. And I was like, Dan, you didn't tell me that. That's so sweet. So it's really nice to know that our other like featured guest performers love this as much as we do. Even though it serves a different function in their life than it does in hours, but it's nice to see that we're able to create that space for everyone. - I love that, it's so wonderful. I love that collaboration. Everything is just gelling. That makes everything go so much easier, so much. - And that chemistry is not there with everybody. And me and Madeline, when we started working together, we just had, you know, I could tell that she has a really developed like sense of musical form and like you have really good instincts, you really know the styles really well. And that was really like satisfying for me to work with 'cause I've worked with, you know, lead vocalists, lead singers that like, you know, sometimes it's kind of a bit of a push and pull trying to get things to feel right. But with Madeline, it's pretty natural. - That is so wonderful. Now, I wanna ask the two of you. You know, Madeline, you mentioned this isn't so much as the show is more of like a concert. This is a cabaret style show. But is there a message or a thought you're hoping audiences take away from this, particularly, you know, with the pieces that you selected to perform? - And Adam, can I start first with you on that, please? - Yeah, totally. I think in jazz specifically, like jazz as a genre, everybody has a specific kind of like, everybody conceives of it differently. Everybody has their own, what they think jazz is. And obviously it's like, it comes from black America, it's a black art form. And it's really important for me to like, keep the authenticity of that intact. So I like hiring black musicians as much as I can. Obviously, you know, people are available and you gotta do what you gotta do. But I like honoring the canon of jazz music because it comes from all over. And there's a lot of history there. And with a lot of other like, oh, you know, theater, jazz, like it's often it's kind of, to me at least, can be one-dimensional, cannot exactly sort of honor the standards, the canon. Like, I like to have really specific references for all the arrangements we do. And I like quoting things. You know, I like quoting standards. I like, you know, forms that are really stylistic to different styles of jazz, you know, historically. So that's kind of one thing that like, I hope sets us apart from other acts. And I think does and you know how much I talk about that. - Yeah, absolutely. I'm gonna piggyback off of what Adam said. And then I also have another answer to this question. - Piggyback. - When it comes to the form thing, this is such an interesting conversation 'cause each artist kind of leads to different jazz forms. With Sara Bareilles, she has a very specific song form that is pop. And I came in being like, I want to keep that intact. And we did, but we found other styles of music that were more amenable to that so that we weren't sacrificing the authenticity of the jazz. And with Carol, if you look at her song form, it's actually like basically the same as a jazz standard in so many ways. She hardly does a bridge. She'll just do like a playoff as a bridge most of the time. - It's a lot of AABA. - Yeah, you have a lot of AABA, which means that it feels so much more like a standard. So this particular set is gonna feel way more jazz than Sara's set did. We did a lot more like mid-century pop in that one. - Yeah, we had a Jersey Boys number. - Jersey Boys number. - Yeah, we had a Judy and Liza type number, which we kind of have in this one too. - We had like a kind of falling in love, like Elvis kind of thing. - Yeah, so we did a lot more of that. And for Carol, it didn't feel, also she's so close to that anyway, 'cause early 70s that it didn't feel right to do that. So we had like a truly like jazz at this time, which was really, really cool. - Also like us working together more. Like the longer we work together, the more we're kind of kind of blend. Like with the Sara set, I don't know how much it changed from what you pitched to me. Like you came to me and you were like, oh, this is what the set list is. And I was like, all right, let's do it. - Yeah, but with this one, we had a lot more like, I had a song that I wanted to do in the style of, if you've ever heard of it, listeners at home, Rachel and Villarie, they're a jazz duo. The lead singer is the lead singer of Lake Street Dive as well, one of my favorite bands. But they write original music that sounds like it came out of Toon Pan Alley in the 1940s. And I thought it'd be really fun to do "Bin to Canan" by Carol King in that style. And it just never felt right. And I kept expressing that to Adam. And then he was like, dude, let's not even do that. Let's just make it a samba. And then it worked. And now it's like so locked in as a samba. It makes so much more sense. - It's so hip. It's so cool. These arrangements we're really proud of. - Yeah, yeah. To answer your question, sorry. - We love the show so much, guys. - I do so much to say. We're yappers, so yeah. So to answer your question about the message, I personally think that this show is really inspiring to other artists about just like create things that you think are cool and create things because you love them. That was something that I actually had a few friends share as takeaways from Swinging with Sarah. They were like, your show was a great reminder to me to just like pursue my own projects. And the love that we have for our work and our creativity, I think is very palpable on stage. And so even though there's no like no one is alone, you will be found type of message in a new show. I think that we are able to inspire people in other ways. And then that is something that can hopefully propel other people to pursue their own projects and put up their own shows at the Green Room 42 or write music or whatever their thing is. - Yeah. - That we give them the confidence that they can and should do that. - It's so weird being a theater artist because it's so, it's like so difficult in terms of the work, but it's also such a joyous industry. And it's so creatively fulfilling at so many times that like often I feel like it's easy to lose touch with that. So I think that just the joy we have creating these shows and feel from our performers and I feel from my band, just the fun we have rehearsing, the fun we have putting it together makes it really worth it. And just wanna remember that, you know? - I love that. Yes, at the end of the day, remember it's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be enjoyable. Well, this all leads to my final question for the first part. I'm really interested to know, who are you hoping have access to? I feel the earth sweet. - Honestly, anyone and everyone, I think that music is really universal. And I think that whoever resonates with it, we just want to give it back to them. So, you know, obviously you might have certain ideas of who likes jazz and who doesn't. And I would hope that I can get more young people and our audience is not just the stereotype of older people. But I think that that's the beauty of creating something that is taking pop songs or artists that people know and turning them into jazz. So we hope that over time, as we cover various different female singer songwriters, that they each hit on different like age, we're just general demographics and that all of those people, anyone who resonates will kind of come to our work. And also the Green Room 42 is a really accessible venue. I think it's the most accessible cabaret venue in New York City, which we're really thankful for. So tickets are way cheaper. There's no fruit or drink minimum. So I think that really helps us make sure that this work can access as many people as possible. - Adam, anything you'd like to add to that? - Yeah, I mean, I think you hit it right there with, you know, we like the idea of bringing jazz to a younger audience, especially because what we're doing is what jazz is. We're taking pop songs and doing arrangements of it. That is what jazz is, you know, if you think about it in the 20th century, all these, you know, all these recordings that Miles was doing, that Coltrane was doing. My favorite things, you know, theater was pop. And jazz was taking the pop songs of the day and doing them, you know, in your own style with your own voice. And we're just carrying on that tradition. And especially with so many great pop jazz artists. - Yeah, like Levis. - Today, you know, Levis is a great one, you know, they're, you know, kids are listening to jazz. Jazz is not dead. It bothers me when people say jazz is dead. - It's literally not. - It bothers me so much because it's just warped. It's just in a different shape. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - On the second part of our interviews, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better. Pick your brains, if you will. And I would love to know, what are who inspires you? What playwrights, composers, or shows have inspired you in the past or just some of your favorites. And Adam, let's kick the second half off with you. - Oh, okay, hell yeah. Okay, so I, like a lot of the work I do is as a theater musician. So like I love theater composers. I love Jason Robert Brown. I love like Alex Locke more. I love theater orchestrators and arrangers. That's my work, you know, one of our big, you know, we have a lot of colleagues in this like, arrangement, genre bending space. Big one is The Apic Big Band, Charlie Rosen, my man, love you bro. And one of the more up and coming ones that's really successful right now is third reprise. - And they've also been really helpful in like giving us some advice too. - Yeah, we met with Dan Reuden and asked him what I'd like to do this. And as, you know, we're doing our live shows, we're also producing music videos and going into the studio and recording. And our first one as of recording this came out. - On Friday, yeah. - On this past Friday. Yeah, so definitely check that out. It's too late. - Thank you, okay. - Back here, okay. But yeah, other than that, in the jazz space, I mean, for me it's like, I mean, my big one is Jacob Collier. Plus up, love Jacob Collier. But man, I love Roy Hargrove. I love Hyattis Coyote. I love Corey Henry and Snarky Puppy. I mean, these are more contemporary. But yeah, I mean, I just love hip stuff. I love exciting hip stuff, new stuff. - And Adam is the reason the word hip is now in my book habit. (both laughing) - Yeah, I love altered seventh chords. That's my, that's me. Love altered dominance. - He sure does. (both laughing) - That is a great list there, though. I love that some artists as well, then I'm a fan of. That's some great, great inspirations, so thank you. Madam, and what about you? What, who inspires you? - Sure, well, let's start with musical theater, which obviously doesn't necessarily pertain to our show, but I am an actor at Theater Kid at Heart. My favorite musical of all time is falsetos. I know Adam and I did this one. - No, no, no, no, no. I like falsetos. It's fine. I love falsetos. - You gotta dox me like that. - Yeah, I mean, I know. - I know, I know. - I love legally blondes. Like, ironically, legally blondes are one of the best musicals of all time. - That's correct. - And Elle Woods, I have played Elle Woods, I would say one and a half times, 'cause I played her in high school and then I played her at 54 below. So, you know, not a full fledged production, but did do it more recently. And she has been honestly such like an inspiration to me as a person and like me being someone who just like is not afraid to go after her dreams and be incredibly intelligent and just like be there for everyone to take in and appreciate. So, my other favorite musicals, I also love Jason Robert Brown. So, the last five years is one of my absolute favorite musicals of all time. Huge Sondheim Nerd, Love Bill Finn in general, not just falsetos, spelling bees, incredible. - So good, no, I love spelling bees. - Oh, you do, okay, 'cause sometimes we have, we have discussions about Bill Finn. Docksing you again. - I like Bill Finn a lot. - Okay, okay. - I say on a podcast that we're recording. - Outside of musical theater, I love Soul Pop. That's my favorite genre to listen to, which I know would kind of surprise people because I'm not pursuing that professionally at all and pursuing jazz. - It was, we flirted with it. We were gonna do a whole Soul Pop show. And then we didn't end up doing it. That's a whole other conversation about why we chose not to do it. But I love Lawrence. If you've never heard of Lawrence, they are a sibling duo, Clyde and Gracie Lawrence, they're from right here in New York. And they have a band full of their friends from middle school, high school and college. And they've been together, same people for over 10 years. Super sick band, amazing horn parts. They really harken back to the traditions of the '70s, 'cause I love '70s music and bring it in a more modern context. Gracie can sing. She has the most incredible voice. Clyde sounds kind of like a mix between Ray Charles and Randy Newman. - Man. - They're just insane. So please check them out. I've been a fan of-- - And their shows are transformative. - Oh my God. - Listen, that's the concept I've ever been to was seeing them at Brooklyn Steel two years ago. Like, and they brought up Ritchie Kanata who played the original sax solo on New York State of Mind by Bill and-- - You saw the New York show, right? You saw the one that Tiny Haven told you. - Yeah, for more context, they had a different theme every night. It was like a mini festival of just them. And they had a different night. So I could not afford to go to all three nights. So I went to the last night, which was New York, New York, aimed. And they brought out like, Darren Chris, he did a 20 minute Broadway medley and my inner glee was like jumping out. I was like, not well. And they brought out someone who was in Hamilton. They brought up Ritchie Kanata. They brought out Mrs. Met, the Met's mascot. Like, it was wild. It was the best concert I've ever been to. So, highly recommend Lawrence. They're playing Radio City, although they did sell out. So I can't tell you to go see them. I'm seeing them in Boston though. So I'm good to go there. Anyway, sorry, I get to talk about Lawrence all day because I really love them so much. - She can, and she has. - Yeah. (laughs) - Sara Bareilles is obviously an inspiration of mine 'cause we started this whole thing with her. I could also talk about her literally all day. I've been a fan of her since I was 10 years old. And I think that she's like, truly the only interest I've had besides like theater and performing. Since age 10, that has never left me. And while we were working on the show, I was just so struck by like how so many of her lyrics finally made sense to me as an adult that I had been singing like for literally decades. And I finally understood like, oh, that's what many of the Miles is about. And that reflects my current life experience. And so I just feel like Sara will always be meaningful to me and that she, there will always be something about her that will connect with me in different moments in different ways. And I also find her as a person to be really inspiring. I think she's a really great role model for young women. She talks a lot about body acceptance and accepting aging and that she's like one of the few celebrities who like refuses to get any work done and that she's going to age naturally, which I think is sadly very a brave choice to be making. And she's just so vulnerable and wrong with her writing. So I absolutely love her. - That is also such a fantastic list of inspirations. We all got to just hang out like we are in the same. - It's true. - I can't wait to see what your shuffle playlist looks like 'cause absolutely, you can have the aux cord in the car. That's fabulous. - Okay, truly the highest honor, thank you. I do pride myself on at least thinking I have good taste. - Let me ask the two of you, you know, what is your favorite part about working in the theater? And Michelle, I want to kick that off with you if I may. - My favorite part of working in the theater is the camaraderie between people. I think that it's a very strange but like fun environment in how strange it is and that it feels kind of like summer camp. Like it's such an intense process and you get to know people so quickly and so deeply during that short amount of time. And I have made so many wonderful close friends. And even if some of us, you know, we through the goings on of daily life, we kind of fall out of touch with each other on a more regular basis. When we come back together, it's like no time has passed. - That's also being an adult though. I feel like when you get older, it's just like, hey, what are you doing in three weeks? And can we hang out then? - Like that's what just adult friendships are like. - Yeah, and that's very New York too. But I find that like my theater friends, there's just like a different type of connection that we have when we pick things back up that I don't have with like my other friends who are not in the arts. There's a little bit more of that like awkward, whatever. But there's just something really special about going through that shared experience of like living together in housing and going through tech and all that kind of stuff. And sometimes, you know, there are some less than ideal experiences that can bring you closer together with people. So not don't love the less than ideal aspect of it, but always knowing that we have like wonderful people like bringing us through those tough times is really inspiring to me. Yeah, honestly, I think that's my favorite part. I also think that like storytelling through music because I love music so much and using that particularly as a medium to embody a character and to tell a story to an audience is really exciting too. That is a stellar answer, I love that. Adam, what about you? Tell me what, what is your favorite part about working in the theater? Man, I mean, it's sort of a similar answer where it's just like the connections, the camaraderie. The way that it manifests being a theater musician is like, I mean, you hear about the theater industry being competitive, but I feel like when you're actually in it, there isn't really time, like it's not worth it to be competitive for the amount of gigs that there are, which is so many. Like there's so many projects happening at any given time and everybody's at the top of their game. And so I found more than it being a competitive environment, it's like a, we're all kind of in this together, we're helping each other out, like we're recommending each other for stuff, we go to each other's shows, you know, we grab coffee when we're in town, you know, we get dinner in between two show days with folks that like, so I'm a Broadway sub and so like, I just like see other folks working on Broadway all the time where I'll be like going to work and I just like get to see all my friends. It's like rare that I'm on the subway and I don't see somebody I know. And as somebody that's so extroverted, like we're both really extroverted. Clearly, I'm just on. It's just so rewarding to get that energy handed right back to you, man, it's just, you know, there have been a lot of times where I'm just like, on the subway coming home from a gig like one in the morning with like my friends and I'm like, that's sick that we get to like make a living and do what we love for work. Like it just hits you sometimes or it's like, oh man, you know, I get to play, I get to play, I get to make sound for living. I get to play music and, you know, it comes to this ups and downs. I certainly have times where it's like, oh man, I suck. Yeah, what we all do. - It really never does. - No, but I do. No, shut up. You know what I mean though? Like, it's a hard thing to navigate, but that's what makes it exciting. And it's just thrilling. It's just so, I get, you know, to be in the same room with your idols and like working with them and like having them respect you. And there's just this mutual respect that I feel like in other industries, there's this like, you got to climb the ladder, you got to work up, you got to grind. And like, yeah, New York City's a grind, but I feel like there's this baseline level of, we're all doing the same stuff. Like, we're all on the same playing field. You know, if you're in a room together, you deserve the respect, just like anybody else. It's a big lesson I've had to learn, calling people for gigs, 'cause for a while, like, I'm really nervous, calling folks, like I'm calling musicians that I'm like, fans of or that I idolize and wanna work with. Like, I feel weird sometimes being the one to like, hey, can you do this good with me? Like, it's not for a lot of money. But like, people say yes. Like, people say yes to gigs. Musicians wanna play. That's the greatest thing about it. And so, don't like, if you're listening and you're like, I don't know, you know, I don't know if I deserve to, no. Call that person for a gig. Ask that person to hang out, 'cause people want to do that. If you're cool and if your music is good, you know? So, that's the other cool thing, is like being the music director to a room full of your idols. Like, it's scary, but it really makes you level up and it's thrilling. That was kind of a winding answer, but. - I love it though. That is such a great answer. And that all leads to my favorite question to ask guests. And that of course is, what is your favorite theater memory? - I do it one. This is weirdly enough, my favorite theater memory is from when I was 15 years old. We haven't been able to top it since then. It's been a while. Guess how old I am, I'm just kidding. Yeah, so I was in spring awakening in high school, which is very like taboo. Most people have very strong reactions when I tell them this. I hate parents and the audience. - Shout out to You Theater Northwest in Marcera Island, Washington. That is where I did theater growing up. Such a wonderful place for kids to grow truly so lucky that I got to do theater there. They have been really honestly ahead of their time for a long time. They're very progressive. And so in 2014, you know, we did bring awakening and with a whole bunch of high schoolers. - Do the math. That's how old that'll it is. - Thank you so much. But yeah, it was, you know, I was a sophomore in high school, but they were so, they took such good care of us. The way that their teen program works is that you start off with a conservatory. So once a week you go to like class for the show, before they've even cast it, most of the time. I think we did, in the case of spring awakening in particular because of the subject matter, they did cast it off the bat. And but normally they wouldn't cast it until after conservatory was over. And they tailor the classes to the show and the needs of the show and what the kids need to learn. So when we did Avenue Q, we did the school edition for that one. - Yeah, even still. - We learned puppetry during those classes. But for spring awakening, it was a little different. We had sex educators come in and talk to us about safe sex and consent in a way that was age appropriate, but very honest with a bunch of high schoolers. We did text analysis together. We talked a lot about the themes in the show that weren't about sex such as like suicide and other like really tough topics. And my favorite memory in particular was towards like, I think it was tech week or like middle of the run or something, we had like a big cast sleepover at this one girl's house. And we like somehow, I don't remember whether it was like, oh, we're gonna play truth or dare or like what it was. But we got to this point where we're all like sitting in a circle in her basement. And like everyone was sharing like really vulnerable things about their life and like trauma that they had been through. But we all felt so close to each other and we're like sobbing and like there, it's that same like camaraderie thing that, you know, I don't keep in touch with the majority of those people anymore but to know that we were able to have that experience together and get so deep with each other because of a text that we were working on, because of a show that we did together was just like really, really special. And I remember that was like one of the first times in my teen life that I really internalized the message that like you have no idea what somebody's going through. And that is why you should always be kind to be empathetic and have an open mind. Because sometimes like things that people would say, I just had no idea that they would have ever gone through that and I would have never made that assumption about them. And so it really rocked my world to be like, oh wow, these people who I spent all this time with didn't know they had been through this thing. And now I like know this crazy information about them. And that just like makes me think of them in such a new way 'cause how strong they are to have gone through all of that stuff. So I think that's honestly my favorite experience. And I've obviously had a lot of wonderful theatrical experiences that were very impactful since then. But that I think happening at such a formative age in my life will never leave me. - That is such a wonderful memory. Thanks for sharing that. - Thanks. - Adam, what about you? - I think I have to say my first Broadway date. I think I have to say that. - Yeah, I was there. He he he. - So I'm a sub on Outsiders Currently playing piano. And that was just such a culmination of it was May 11th. Was the first, so if you were at May 11th, if you had the May 11th performance of Outsiders on Broadway, then you saw, you heard me play piano. And I've been there, you know, on and off, you know, since then a bunch. And such a great group of musicians over there and oh boy, it was just so overwhelming 'cause it's just... And the beginning of that show is so exposed. It's just piano. And that, as an audience member, not to like step on your mind and make this about me, but like being, I didn't know the show at all going into it. I obviously read the book in like middle school, but I didn't know that the opening of the show is literally just ponyboy on the piano. And it took me a few seconds to then be like, wait, oh my God, like I'm just listening to Adam. And that was the reason I'm here. And that just like made me very emotional. And then at the end, if you've seen the Outsiders, you know that they drop the projector down and they put up, they have cameras in the pit. And so you can see all the different pit members on the projector playing the playoff. And we didn't know that was gonna be happening either. And so then Adam was on screen and I pull out my phone and the guy trying to exit the row was mad at us. And my other friend is like, shh, it's his Broadway debut. And that like, it was just so special to see my friend up there. - Yeah, and I didn't tell my family either. And they were all, they were all a mess when they were there. But yeah, that was crazy. That was a really good memory. And I say that because it's just interesting, and I've said this before, but I love arranging an orchestration. Like that's like music directing, getting the charts on the page. Like, I love like getting the music, like interpreting the composers music and getting in the hands of the orchestra and working it with them and getting the chart to like really fully realize, you know, the arranging, orchestrating. That's what I like doing. That's like my main thing, I think of myself as. But after that, I played and I was like, man, this could just be it for me. Like that was sick. This is awesome. There's something so rewarding about playing because you're such a, like on such a base level, just such a part of the music making in the moment. And it's something that's like nothing else in the world. Like even recording, like, I'm so less interested in that than live music making. There's just something so magical about it. - Yeah. - I love, I love both of those. Those are so fantastic, incredible memories. Thank you both for sharing those. - You're a very, very excitable dude. I like this, I like your energy. - Thank you, thank you. As we wrap things up, I would love to know, do either of you have any other projects or productions coming on the pipeline, we might be able to plug for you? - So dude, 913, Green Room 42, come see it. Check out, I mean, subscribe to Madeline on YouTube 'cause we're putting some stuff out over there. We've got it's too late. We've got another one that we recorded. That's when it works that we're not gonna say what it is already. - Yeah, my son it is. No, I don't think so. It'll be out in like November-ish. It is a Sara Bareilles song, I'll say that. - Okay, yeah, it's from our first set. It's from our first set. - It might be like a November. - It was the first song we ever arranged together. - Yeah, which is really special. - And it sounds so good, you guys. - It's also the fan fave. Everyone who comes to see our shows always is like, that's my favorite. One is that one coming out. So it's been really nice to be able to tell them like it's coming out soon. So yeah, follow me at Madeline Dalton Music. My name is spelled M-A-D-E-L-A-N-E-D-A-L-T-O-A. I'm on Instagram TikTok and YouTube with that handle and check out the Green Room 42.venutics.com for tickets to I feel the earth swing. - Well, that is fantastic. And you led in perfectly to my final question, which is if our listeners would like more information about, I feel the earth swing or about either of you, maybe they'd like to reach out to you. How can they do so? Madeline, I know you just mentioned your Instagram handle at Madeline Dalton Music. Any other handles or websites or anything? - My website is Madeline Dalton.com. I think I've covered all my social bases with you. - I'm Adam J. Dorfman Music, pretty much on everything. Adamjdorfman.com is my website. If you wanna just like see what I do, check out my stuff. I've got videos and cerebellas on my website and just like kind of other stuff that I do. But yeah, that's kind of that. - Perfect. Well, Madeline, Adam, thank you both so much for taking the time to stop by and share this incredible upcoming show in a wonderful venue. This has been such a blast. So thank you so, so much. - Thank you. - You're rock. - This is really fun. - Thank you. - My guests today have been two incredible artists, the performer Madeline Dalton and the incredible music director Adam Dorfman, who joined us to talk about their upcoming show, I Feel the Earth Swing. It's happening September 13th at 9.30 p.m. @greenroom42 and you can get your tickets while they last, as well as information by visiting thegreenroom42.venutics.com. We also want to mention the show is live streaming. So if you can't get a ticket to see it in person, you can check it out and do the live streaming thing. We also have some contact information for our guests, which we've been posting in our episode description, as well as on our social media posts, but this is such a fantastic show. This is a beautiful fusion of an iconic female artist and a wonderful American art form. And it's being done brilliantly by these two incredible artists. So check out, I Feel the Earth Swing, September 13th at 9.30 p.m. And we want to add for our American listeners that election day is November 5th. Make sure you are registered to vote, have a plan to cast your ballot and do your democratic duty. You can find out how and where you can register to vote by visiting vote.gov. The future demands that we fight for it now. 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 Stage Whisper Pod. - 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 Jazar. Other music on this episode provided by Jazar 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. ♪ There's a broad way from there ♪ ♪ I don't care anywhere near your town ♪ ♪ Makes me there ♪ [BLANK_AUDIO]