Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 658
(upbeat music) - Welcome back in everyone to a fantastic new whisper in the wings from stage whisper. We have got a fun, fantastic show in store for you today and joining us, we've got two incredible artists who are behind this piece. Joining us, we have the director and creator, Denny Lawrence and the producer and creator, Clarion Evans. They're here to talk to us about their show, Honeyland, which is playing October 13th through November 2nd at the Triad Theater. You can get your tickets and more information by visiting instantseats.com. We're very excited, I mean, I should say, I'm very excited about this show. This is my kind of show. So I don't wanna waste any more time. I wanna bring in the best people who could tell us more about this and welcome on. Denny, Clarion, welcome in to Whisper and the Wings from stage whisper. - Thank you. - Well, thanks, Andrew. - I appreciate you two taking the time to be here because you've got this great show and just the little bit of blurb that I got from the PR person, I'm sold. I'm so excited about this. This is a great, great fall show. So, Denny, why don't we start with you and have you tell us a little bit about what Honeyland is about? - Okay, yeah, Honeyland said in the 1960s, it's about a group of college kids who will get together and get involved with protests and moratorium and putting on agitprop theater and so on and covers a whole span of that era historically, including, of course, Vietnam and the anti-Vietnam protests. And one of our characters ends up being drafted and going off to Vietnam, in fact. So, it's very much about the societal history of that era. - Wow, wow, I have to say, I feel like that's a very relevant show for the now. So, I love all that. Chloe, let me come to you and ask, how is it that you two came up with the piece, with the idea for the piece? - Well, really, the roots were in a show we did in Brisbane, which Australia, which was ran for five months, and it was called Baby Boom. And from there, well, look, we thought, we tried this as a production company, we tried to get productions on over the years, and this is a good one, we thought, let's go with this. But we had a production team, the twice product producers, they're part of our gang, and they advised us, listen, that what works in Australia does not necessarily work in New York, which, and so we changed it from an Australian show and an Australian story, and we've changed it to a Boston story and a call of commercialism, but calling it, trying to make it relevant. And so it's a universal story, really, but now it's set in Boston. That's the genesis and the stage we're at now. - That is a great idea and a fantastic point. So, Denny, coming back to you, I know that at the time of this recording, we're just under a month before the opening at the Triad Theatre, and as Clarrie mentioned here, you have tweaked a few things for an American audience, so what has it been like developing this current iteration of "Honeyland"? - Oh, it's been great, I mean, we've added songs, rewritten songs, but quite a few of the numbers were universal, as Clarrie said, because the history of Australia and America in that era were very much linked, you know. Australia went off to Vietnam with America, et cetera. For myself, I've spent many years working in New York. I was teaching at NYU and doing theatre in New York, and also I've worked up in Boston. We just decided this was the place to set it, but our characters travel a bit around the States anyway, and it was just fun making all those changes of geographic place and references and cultural references into the American era, which for Australia is not so hard. We've been so colonized culturally by America for many, many decades that it's a second nature thing for us. - That is fantastic, that is a great idea. Now I do, I'm curious to know, and I might have egg on my face from this question, but this is a musical, right? - Yes. - So when it comes to the style of the music, Clara, I wanna ask you, how did you go back selecting or creating the musical numbers that you've got in this piece? - Well, the style really is eternal, it's eternal style, but I think, I hate to say it, but I think I came out of the '60s and have a '60s, a natural '60s style, and it's, so it's '60s music, but it's also, you know, we've been putting on shows for, you know, we've been writing shows for many years, but the, you know, but we keep ourselves up to date with writing, with musical styles, but it wasn't hard to revert back to a '60s style, I think, I think that's a pretty fair description. - Mm, yeah, it's quite a, there's some sort of really pastiche '60s kind of stuff, but some of the other numbers are very standard, like, absolutely now, you know, straight down the middle music theater. - I love that, that is, like I said, that is my jam, you are speaking mine. Good, it was great. So, Clara, coming back to you for the first part of this question, I'd love to know, is there a message or a thought you're hoping audiences take away from this piece? - You know, my degree is in history, and I think that I'd be happy if it just spills a little bit of information to an audience on the historical aspects of the late 1960s and where it came from and where the ideas came from. And I think that's a motivation for me. I'm sure Danny's got a different motivation. - Well, no, I think, the thing is that we feel our audiences hopefully quite broad. So, we hope we know we'll get baby boomers who've lived through this era, who will come and look at the show, we've had that experience. But we're hoping young people will come, and we're working now, I'm directing, I'm in rehearsal now with a little group of actors, and they know nothing about that period, of course. It's ancient in history. So, it's been fascinating going through that with them, and they're saying what you said a bit ago, which is that they're saying, "Wow, this is so relevant to now." Because here we are, wars in the Middle East, protesting about what's happening societally, the ecology, 'cause we touch on the first Earth day, way back in 1970, and that's an ongoing problem. And I won't even touch on the American election, but they mentioned that every day. That was the first thing that hit in my head, where I was like, we had the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, hotly contested election. I'm sorry, what year are we gonna get? - Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. - Well, Danny, I'm gonna start with you from my final question of this first part. I'd love to know, who are you hoping to have access to Honeyland? - Well, as I said, I'd love to see a broad theater going audience. In New York, it's probably very focused, as in there are a lot of younger people when you go to the theater, which is very exciting. But I think universally, I've worked a lot in the UK, as well as in Australia and America. And the audience there tends to be a little more mature for theater, and that's fine, because they're thinking people, you know? And we want, it's not a, it's not light entertainment. I hope it's entertaining, but it's something that, as Kerry said, I think the audience, we wanna send them away thinking and reliving that era and going back and checking on what happened back then. And so we want an audience that are thinking people. - I love that answer. That is a fabulous answer. Clary, what about you? Who are you hoping to have access? - Well, mine can't be as esoteric as Danny's. Mine is now, as a producer, I feel as though we need a tour in the USA. I feel as though we need to expand, get the American producers to our show, who can give us a, you know, to be able to take the show further, to do summer tours and get licensed and become part of the American scene. So I think we have, you know, big plans, but every producer on earth has big plans, but half of the plans never reach fruition. But I'm really confident that the reaction from our people who have seen it, Americans who have got no reason to exaggerate, they think it's a great show. So I think it may well sell to the producers around the, around the US side. (upbeat music) - For the second part of our interviews, 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 Danny, I'm gonna start with you on my first question, which is what or who inspires you? What playwrights, composers or shows have inspired you in the past, or are just some of your favorites? - Okay, wow, that's a big one. I grew up as a boy, I did some performing in music theater and went for a lot of music theater. And it was always the, you know, conventional stuff of the day, which is initially starting with people like Roger's "Hammerstein" and "Lerner Lo" and then progressing through to people like "Brickerson" Newellie, and of course, Stephen Sondheim. And Sondheim in particular has to be everybody's inspiration. I think people still working in the theater now. What an amazing, powerful force he was for change and for, you know, really intelligent theater. So I'm always looking to that kind of stuff. I mean, I have nothing against all the other wonderful adaptations of, you know, animated movies and all those things 'cause there's some wonderful music in those things, but I'm very big on story and character. And the music that I loved will always those ones. I mean, "Lerner and Lo" for instance, you know, "Lerner" adapted some amazing books and stories. And I love that kind of thing. Or if you take "Assassin's" or something by Sondheim or Sweeney Todd, you know, he's dealing with history, but he's doing it in a very vital contemporary kind of way. And so those things inspire me. I love that answer. Some great, great names there. Clary, what about you? What are who inspires you? - I think I came like him. I suppose we all had that, the same influences as Danny in many ways, but I came from a rock-box background and, you know, did the music bit in the '60s or the late '60s and right through the '70s and then branched out into theater and found that it was a very satisfying genre to, you know, to jump onto. So I think my influences are, you know, rock. All the great rock performers who have been around for many, many years, not just in the '60s, '70s and onwards, you know, from the '50s and right through. Hey, one thing I should have mentioned, Andrew, though, is that the show itself, this is actually, we're doing like shortened versions. Like, we're not shortened versions, but shorter shows. So which aren't, they don't go 120 to 150 minutes. We go 70 to 80 minutes and it's in, have a great time, sell our message or whatever. And then people go home satisfied, hopefully, because I think, I mean, I think that people are not as interested in full-length shows as much as these days, and just getting in there, 80 minutes seems like a really, really nice time. That's what we've been working on. That's what we've devised over the years, last three or four years, is that 80 minute concept, 70 to 80. Also, we like, I'm always glad that people drink during the day and that's when we're at the triad and there's alcohol on sale and I think, ah, just, we see, when I say pub theater, that doesn't mean it's a pub, it means public theater. We really are pub theater, anyways. That doesn't, please don't think we're not a serious, it's still a serious theater beat, but at the same time, it's just a presentation of the piece. - Well, as we know, you know, in Shakespeare's day, the audience were, you know, the groundlings were down there eating and throwing their shelves on the stage and doing all of that. There might have been some nobility upstairs, but basically everything was going on, life was going on and so theater's very exciting when it's like that. - I'm looking forward to your piece, this is great. - Well, we look forward to seeing you there. - All right, I want to start my next question with you and I'd love to know, you mentioned that you, you know, you're a history major. So your theater is not necessarily in the front of mind, if you will, but what is your favorite part about working in the theater? - Here, I mean, New York, it's the theater is foremost in my mind, we're running a show. So my favorite part of working in theater is just the fulfillment of it all, of ideas and to see your ideas and your music and just being seen by others. That's my motivation. Could say as well that starting new concepts is we, you know, we, with our new concepts of theater, I'm not saying it's, you know, overly revolutionary, but it's certainly new. And, you know, we've been, we've been developing it over four or five years and it's a good concept and people like the idea of 70 to 80 minute theater. So to see that reaching fruition is, I feel as though it's, you know, I, that's what's satisfying and that's how I get my thrills. - I love it. Denny, what about you? What is your favorite part about working in the theater? - I, well, I'm, I guess I would describe it as a compulsive communicator. So I started as a performer. That connection with the audience is very exciting to be able to reach out to people and hear their responses and feel their responses. I've done a lot of film and television as well as a director, but you don't have your audience there. And so being in a venue with a live audience with that kind of feedback is terrifically exciting. And from the directing point of view, what's exciting about that for me is, firstly, feeling their reaction, being in the auditorium and, and feeling, hopefully, feeling them enjoying themselves, hearing them laugh if it's meant to be funny, all that stuff. And of course I'm preserved, I'm safe from any program, from directly from the audience, 'cause I'm not up there on the stage, it's those more actors. But I also love what I love almost more than anything is just being in a room with actors. What I'm doing right now is developing the show and seeing performers bring those characters and those songs and those dialogue scenes to life, you know? That's really, actors are wonderful creatures. That is fantastic. Well, now we've arrived at my favorite question to ask guests. And that, of course, is what is your favorite theater memory? I should go back because it provides some context and it's so hard to think of another one yet, 'cause there are so many great experiences of particular shows like, you know, I was at the very first preview of Parade. I was at the very first preview of Into the Woods. I was at the very first preview of a play called Pravda in London. Those moments are very exciting. But going even further back to name drop now, Clara and I reacquainted rather than met, but we reacquainted at a big music theater forum that we held down in Australia in Sydney back in the '70s. And we brought to Australia Alan J. Lerner, Tim Rice, Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prudence, and Leslie Brickis. All of those guys were in the same room and I got to hear them and speak to them and learn so much and be inspired by them. So that's a theater experience for me. I love that, that is wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. Clara, what about you? What is yours? I think my favorite theater experience was when I was told that a show that I wrote with Judy Stevens in Brisbane just broke the attendance record for the performing arts theater in Brisbane. I think that was, I thought, wow, geez, people actually like what we're doing. That's, would you like that appeal? No, I love that as a fantastic memory as well. I think a very relatable one when you finally just go, oh, thank God, someone gets it, you know? Yeah, yeah. I love those though. Thank you so much for sharing those. Well, thank you. As we wrap things up, I would love to know, do either of you have any other projects or productions coming down the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you? Oh, can I answer this first? Can I answer first because we're in New York and we've just set up a company, theater really incorporated, and we're intending to do ongoingness with what we're doing. So from where we're doing one show now, we're hoping to do three shows per year starting at the beginning of next year. So that's the ongoing project. And so we're set up, we've got the legal's right, we've got everything in place and we're ready to go. That is wonderful. Well, that all leads to my final question, which is if our listeners would like more information about Honeyland or about either of you, maybe they'd like to reach out to you. How can they do so? - All right, the theater room incorporated. I'm trying to think of the best way, just give our email address. It's bookings@theatreoo.com. The spelling of theater room will be different and it's different to the American spellings, T-H-E-A-T-R-E, R-O-O. So if any of you ever want to send an email to us, we'll respond, of course. Yeah, have a look at the Honeyland website, it's honeyland.musical.com. - Yep, yeah, people put that in online, they'll find it. - honeyland.musical.com. And then it comes up and our publicity team is doing a pretty amazing job. So I think everybody will hear about it, who's interested. - Wonderful. Well, Danny, Clara, thank you so, so much for taking the time to speak with me today, for sharing your amazing new work. I am so excited about this. I'm so glad this is here in New York and that you are on the company making this happen. So thank you most so much for your time today. - Thank you, Andrew. - Yeah, thank you. - Thank you for the best. - Thank you. Cheers, bye bye. - Cheers. - My guests today have been two incredible artists, the director and creator, Denny Lawrence and the producer and creator, Clara Evans, who have a great new show coming to New York or being done here in New York, I should say, it's called "Honeyland" and it's playing October 13th through November 2nd at the Triad Theater. You can get your tickets and more information by visiting instantseats.com. 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 head over to instantseats.com or even better, head to honeylandhemusical.com, get your tickets now for this fabulous new work. It's timely, it's wonderful, some great music, it's a great atmosphere, check it out. It's "Honeyland" playing October 13th through November 2nd. And we wanna 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 and 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. 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