#this is basically his backstory in nutshell technically

[rubytale-chapter2]

This is peak cinema right here.🍿😎 W Hacker.

Meanwhile on Planet 003….

[leffee]

Your favorite anon wants to hear about the other crazy vinnie! Please don’t be shy I’ll give you somemore hesdcannons? Sound fair? 👀make it as long as possible I’m listening..

Well, you asked for this anon, and I shall do it. We'll see how long it ends up being because I honestly have no idea. There are SO MANY threads I could mention here and since you said to make it as long as possible I just might. But first obligatory read more

Okay, so the most fair thing would be to probably start from the beginning. The backstory for this absolute behemoth, and yes it exists. Technically in a modified version I also give it regular Vinnie, but that is itself is extremely complicated, so I'll just proceed with this one (and it's not the only one possible). So basically I headcanon that Vinnie only lives with his mother. His dad is a good guy I promise, but unfortunately his mother is not and "she took the kids!" So anyway, she's horrible. In a nutshell, her like main goal in life was to have a child that would be the absolute best child ever, the one that she would show to everyone and brag about their achievements. That's why Vinnie's actual name is Vincent, that sounds extremely fitting for that kind of person, right? So long story short, Vinnie or Vincent back there didn't live up to her expectations. At first he tried, but he hit rebellion against all that quite fast and was not at all willing to do what she wanted him to do and be. But he of course still had to live with her, and after all that she was absolutely awful to him. Fast forward and Vinnie is absolutely fucking miserable and he's like what, 8? And so the suicide thoughts come that ultimately transform into plans. So one day he's standing close to the edge of a cliff or something, at least that's how I imagined it always. He's just standing, thinking about everything, getting himself ready. And that's where Sunil comes in. He and his parents have recently moved to America and he was just walking around near his house and all so he was alone, Vinnie's age. They haven't known each other, so Sunil basically just saw some other kid's back who was standing a bit too close to the edge. Now, Sunil was shy and awkward but he felt that something was wrong. Something was... not right. So he hesitantly but with determination run to that stranger and not knowing what else to do awkwardly introduced himself and struck up a casual conversation. Now, that wasn't anything extraordinary in itself, but that was enough to stop Vinnie's train of resigning thoughts. He was still shaken up so he simply turned around to Sunil and merely listened, barely talking at all. However, seeing that sure, this other kid is eyeing him rather weirdly, but that's all really, Sunil continued, talking about whatever came to his head rather erratically but with a purpose. Once he finished Vinnie wasn't anymore as set on the whole jumping idea, that simple conversation filled space in his mind with something else besides desperation. And so he didn't. He returned home and life continued, but he knew one thing. That Sunil person has probably saved him.

Approximately a year passed and Vinnie's appearance changed quite a bit. His hair grew to his shoulders and he would not let it cut, he dyed it green (actually his sister dyed it for him, but she is a whole other story herself, that I guess is all in all not that relevant here), more freckles came with age on his face too. And one day, while he was in his elementary school, he sees him - Sunil. He doesn't know that at this point but as I mentioned, Sunil moved to America more than a year ago. He attended a different school before but after a while his parents transferred him to a different school, so that's why Sunil's there only one. And naturally, Vinnie is immediately drawn to him, though he really hopes Sunil doesn't recognise him. And Sunil doesn't. As I said, Vinnie's appearance has changed quite a bit in this time, plus during their first meeting he didn't exactly talk much, heck, he didn't even introduce himself by name, so Sunil didn't recognize him by voice or anything else. But Vinnie recognized him and feeling natural liking towards him basically rushed to introduce himself hoping to be friends. And from Sunil's perspective Vinnie was very fucking quaint. I mean, some kid he sees for the first time in his life, seemingly out-of-nowhere is on a mission to be his friend. But since Vinnie was very driven to achieve friendship with Sunil plus Sunil was at that point rather lonely they did eventually become friends and then best friends. Through elementary school and middle school they met the rest of what I call main seven and with time their group as a whole became more and more tight-knit, but still, Sunil and Vinnie became best friends growing closer and closer.

As Vinnie got older and older at some point he recognized that his feelings towards Sunil aren't exactly platonic. At first it was a simple, regular crush: thoughts of kissing, cuddling, going on cute dates, just your standard falling in love stuff. But as this feeling and desires continued he also recognized that he really REALLY didn't like the thought of Sunil getting with anyone else, especially romantically. Because they were all getting older, and especially Zoe was talking a lot about dating and romance, all of their minds began opening up more and more to those ideas. Basically they were going through the process of recognizing romance, seeing people around them becoming couples, maybe feeling pressure of getting romantically involved with someone too. Hey, we've all been there one way or another. What is important for this story is that Vinnie was afraid Sunil might date someone, someone that was not him. That's when the spiral started. He doesn't want Sunil to fall in love with anyone but himself! But how can he realistically prevent that? Of course, he can try his best that Sunil spends as much time with him as possible, not anyone else, that way Sunil won't even have a chance to fall for anyone else. Additionally though, he's not too worried about anyone in their friends group. Sunil have known everyone there for a long time, surely if he was to fall for one of their closest friends he would have already? And so he needs to just diminish outside influence, sounds easy enough! After all, he IS his best friend. And so he becomes gradually pushy. He insists that they hang out more, he stays in Sunil's house more and more and longer, and if he's not physically there he will try to keep contact via Internet or just phone in general. So yeah, he's pushy.

But there's one problem. With time Sunil became more social, less anxious around people and that's not very favourable for Vinnie. One one hand he's genuinely overjoyed that Sunil is thriving, but on the other that means someone might fall in love with him, even worse! He might fall in love with them too! Sunil's a handsome fella after all, tall and dark (lol, I mean, he is), charming personality, unique talent and hobby. He is by all means very lovable. And the thing is, Vinnie doesn't mind if people adore Sunil one way or another, in fact, they absolutely should, he's awesome! As far as Vinnie's concerned he deserves the world and more and it's everyone else that should provide that, Vinnie included, of course. But anyway, Vinnie is still more sociable out of the two, he can talk to anyone no problem, he barely has any shame about anything, because at the end of the day it's Sunil's reputation and well-being that is most important, and if he is to be harmed for that in one way or another then Vinnie's fine with that and he in fact prefers that. He derives sort of masochistic pleasure from helping Sunil in any way possible, even if he's left in pain or laughed at. It's alright! He has been taking insults his whole life at this point from everyone, that really doesn't do much to him anymore. Sunil on the other hand should be protected, not because he's completely helpless or anything, oh no, but because he doesn't deserve that one bit.

In fact, Sunil's existence alone is his biggest happiness. Sunil is just... the best at everything. His looks are not good because they are just good in general (but they also are), his looks are good because they are HIS. It doesn't matter to Vinnie if he suddenly grew 2o inches taller or shrunk as much, it doesn't matter if he got paper-thing or obese or if he changed genders. All of that is perfect not because it is on its own, but because it is Sunil's, and everything that is Sunil's is ideal: looks, personality, talents, hobbies, his handwriting and everything else. And Vinnie completely understand why anyone else would want that, want him for themselves. In fact, he's surprised there exist people who would prefer someone else over Sunil. But still, he most of all wants Sunil for himself. He makes him feel happy, light, not care about any of his own worries, his world revolves around Sunil because he makes him feel completely good. And the thought of being with him, living with him as feeling that happiness all the time is absolutely intoxicating.

But you see, the thing is, even above that there is something more important, and that is Sunil's happiness. So yes, he will do everything in his power to keep Sunil to himself and make him fall in love with him. How? He can't control much, he knows, he tries to be logical, but besides trying his best to eliminate any competition, which is almost everyone, he can be as useful and helpful to Sunil as possible. Slowly doing more and more for him. If Sunil's too stressed to talk to someone about something, Vinnie will do it for him, and if that's impossible, he will at least accompany him and keep close eye on whoever that other person is and if they're not wronging Sunil in any way. He will come to Sunil's house and do his chores, whatever those might be. He will save money and get so many extra jobs it leaves him exhausted and not sleeping just to buy Sunil that expensive thing he mentioned once. He will do Sunil's homework, and he will do it well. Vinnie is not a good student, because he doesn't care enough for that. But he does care about Sunil, so just in case Sunil's not in school or something, Vinnie studies a shit ton, rivalling Russell, to get all that in his head and takes perfect notes for him.

Besides all of that and his need for Sunil's utter contentment there are things that Vinnie can't stop himself from doing. The classic taking way too many pictures of his love interest when he's not looking and collecting them as his most precious items? Yup. Taking Sunil's hair from his hairbrush? Mhm. When he is at Sunil's brushing his teeth with Sunil's toothbrush? One of his favourites! Taking small, insignificant things that belong to Sunil like pens? Yes, along with rummaging through his trash of course too. Practicing Sunil's handwriting so he can write just like him? Happiness guaranteed! Standing close to Sunil's house whole night long deriving enjoyment from being close to his beloved? Oh hell yeah. Stuff like that, stuff that are harmless in his eyes. After all, he's happy and Sunil's too because he doesn't know about all those things Vinnie does. Somewhere at the back of his mind Vinnie knows what he's doing is not really good, but Sunil just makes him feel SO good!

But, but nothing to stop that ever growing obsession, and worse yet, it makes him actively happy, it consumes him more and more. He barely satisfy his own basic needs, while everything higher than that is completely neglected. And why wouldn't it be? Sunil as all he needs to feel satisfied and happy with his life. That's his mindset but of course realistically he looks and really is an emotional and physical mess, plus he is ready to throw hands at any moment at anyone who rubs him the wrong way. He can and he will. The thing is, he's not physically strong, he really isn't, but he has unpredictability on his side and disregard for most things. He will bite, throw things, kick a person in his balls, welp.

Basically he's almost batshit crazy and gets to the point when he needs to be around Sunil so so much and desperate needs call for desperate actions. He manages to make himself a copy of Sunil's key to enter his house when Sunil's not there simply to be able to be around things that Suni touches, interacts with on a daily basis, especially his clothes. Vinnie LOVES Sunil's clothes. And once that's not enough and he's got enough of sleeping on a nearby bench during the night he will get into Sunil's house when he is there but at night to stand there like a creep and literally watching Sunil sleep. But of course one of those nights Sunil woke up and just saw Vinnie standing there in the darkness, staring at him almost unblinkingly and he was of course scared shitless, but as he tries to wrap his head around wth is going on and if he sees what he thinks he does, Vinnie just stands there still staring in the same position, not providing answers to the erratic questions. Finally as Sunil's momentary fear turns to frustration and anger Vinnie just says "Sunil, I love you." as simple as that. And then everything clicks for Sunil, because obviously he wasn't blind to all that, the only reason he didn't realize sooner is because Vinnie was just that good at hiding it all most of the time and suddenly the whole image appears of what is really going on here. Despite Vinnie's hopes of course this doesn't end well as he'd like to and Sunil's absolutely weirded out and tells him to simply get out of his house. But Vinnie doesn't want to and not taking any hints simply asks if Sunil feels the same which he doesn't and never did. He loves Vinnie as a friend but not like that, and even if he did, after that he wouldn't. And at first Vinnie just nods and does indeed get out.

But after a few days it hammers into his head that he is not getting with Sunil and in fact Sunil probably doesn't want to be friends anymore. And so he once again rushes to Sunil's house, this time not in the middle of the night thank goodness, and not letting Sunil say a word, practically begs him not to leave him, that he is his everything and that he's done everything for Sunil's sake and that he loves him. At first Sunil's heart breaks a little but as they talk more and more he realizes that Vinnie has been doing even worse things than he thought and as hard as it was at the beginning at the end it's not at all and he very firmly tells him to go away and never talk to him again and that this isn't how normal people act no matter what. So yeah, Vinnie basically clings to him and pleads all while looking like a maniac but Sunil is still taller and stronger than him and he basically physically throws him out.

At this point it's evening and Vinnie is completely at loss of what to do because it feels like his life has lost all purpose. And so, lost and miserable he just walks around the park for the whole night. At one point he's assaulted under the cover of the night by a man that is by all means bigger than he is, but at that moment Vinnie is so frenzied with anger and misery and has absolutely no control, let alone fear and is basically a ticking bomb and so as soon as he is touched he loses all control and in the moment of completely unbridled emotions absolutely destroys that man. He doesn't care if he wanted to rob him, just beat him up or anything else, he does it all completely automatically and yes, gets a bit bloodied. It's not his blood.

What happens next you ask? Many possibilities of course as depending on my mood it can go any way. One of them, he kills himself of course. He can go back to Sunil, or even better all of his friends and with a twisted pleasure shows them what he has been up to during the night, more realistically he's taken to jail or/and later to a psychological facility. If not he continues harassing Sunil to no end with less control than ever until he is. Is good ending on the table? Well, it's possible. He could rethink his actions and while he doesn't exactly regret them Sunil's happiness is still his priority and if his full happiness doesn't lay within them being in a romantic relationship than so be it, Vinnie will leave him be and continue living in misery.

This man is delusional! Why am I all sweaty? Hopefully that was satisfying. I didn't include every single thing, and I probably forgot some stuff or contradicted myself at some point but I think it's understandable. That's all for today, my dear anon :] praying this wasn't in vain xoxo

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

8 Questions With...Toby Stephens

(By Mark Peikert | Last Updated: December 17, 2020.)

The British actor can be seen as Captain Flint in the second season of Starz’s pirate drama “Black Sails,” debuting Jan. 24. He talks to Backstage about the arduous filming, the strange business of acting, and his worst survival jobs.

1. Tell us about “Black Sails.”

In a nutshell, it’s a pirate show, but it tries to steer away from the more camp aspects of piracy. It’s not a fantasy; it’s trying to be much more gritty and historically accurate. Some of the characters are from “Treasure Island,” my character included, but most of the characters are real-life pirates. So it’s a strange mixture of fictive and historical.

2. How do you typically prepare for an audition?

The best thing is to just prepare whatever I have and then forget about the pressure of it. It’s all about confidence a lot of the time. I used to remember feeling I have to impress people, and now—it’s not really arrogance, it’s just me going, “I don’t really need to prove myself, it’s just whether I’m right for the part.”

And also knowing where you’re being unrealistic or your agent is being unrealistic. Some times you’re asked to come in and it’s just not going to work. It’s knowing when to draw the line, and that gets easier the more you know who you are and what you want to achieve.

3. What do you wish you’d known before you started acting?

There are many things I’ve gleaned from working that you go, “Oh God, I wish I’d known about that before I started!” I think most of it is about the business, really. The business itself is such a strange business. If any of my children wanted to get into it I would impress on them how ephemeral and how difficult it is. It’s a very fickle world, our business. And one has to be ready for that and really know that.

4. On whom do you have an acting crush?

I think Gene Hackman. I have a huge acting crush on Gene Hackman. I just love watching him. I find him very intelligent, but at the same time his choices are very real as well. I admire him a lot.

5. What was your worst survival job?

There was a chemical fire on a building site, and I and a bunch of friends got a job having to clean up. Basically we had to scrub all of the metal parts of this building site to get all of these corrosive chemicals off from this fire. It paid quite well, I seem to remember. They couldn’t get anyone else to do it!

6. What have you learned about your craft from “Black Sails”?

I’ve learned a lot about filming. I’ve come up mostly doing stage work. I’ve done bouts of filming, but they’ve normally been sporadic and quite short-lived. This is extended periods of filming, so it’s been a really, really great experience for me in terms of my craft. It’s very technical and it’s great to just absorb all of that and learn.

7. What is your worst audition story?

I remember auditioning for Neil LaBute. He was doing a film and it was quite a long time ago, when not many British actors were working in the States. And [the casting director] had this thing where Neil [said] he doesn’t like working with British actors in American roles. But she said, “I think that’s ridiculous. I want you to pretend when you meet him that you’re American. So just walk in, pretend you’re American, and do that. I want to prove a point.”

And I remember going away and having to learn the scene and fretting endlessly that if he asked me where I was from I’d have to come up with some sort of backstory. So I put together this totally bogus story about coming from Minneapolis. And I did this audition and he seemed totally unimpressed and it was just awful. And then as a sort of mad moment at the end, the casting director said, “And Toby’s English!” Like, “Ta-da!” It was so embarrassing. Years later I worked with him and I reminded him of this audition, and the thing was he’d known who I was. He’d seen me in a play in London. So this whole charade was ridiculous and totally embarrassing.

8. Which of your performances has left a lasting mark on you?

I think the one that really changed me the most or had the most impact on me creatively was years ago at Royal Shakespeare Company; I was cast as Troilus [in Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida”]. And I was only 25 at the time.

They deliberately wanted to cast a young man; it’s usually someone in their mid-40s. I’d only been out of drama school for about three years, and if you were gonna do Shakespeare, that was the place to do it. So there was enormous pressure on me to not make a total idiot of myself. It ended up being a very successful production and being very successful for me, but it wasn’t so much that. It was really about how much I learned on the job.

Drama school is really a forum for making a fool of yourself. You can’t learn how to act; you can only really learn it through experience and practice and really finding what your voice is and what you want to be as an actor. And that was the most formative thing for me, playing that part and what I learned and took away from that experience.

Source: Backstage

[marshmallowprotection]

Above picture is purely stylistic because the appearance Sapphire has in the above is the appearance she takes on after she dies and decides to go to the Heavenly Plane, and Marie only haunts her when she was alive.

In case you cant read the text:

“A ghost of a young girl”

“She’s been by my side since the day I was born”

“But she refuses to answer my questions about who she is”

“I have my suspicions, however…”

“Perhaps, she is one of my ancestors?”

“Or perhaps she is a demon?”

“Or…maybe she is simply scheming to take over my body, the little brat.”

Well, this is the bio of Guardian of The Heavenly Plane. So, hope you like it uwu

Name: Sapphire Elise Vesper

 Aliases (If Any): Saph (Nickname)

Guardian of The Heavenly Plane (Title/Alias)

Stygian Jewel (Nickname Given To Her By The Heavenly Plane Residents)

 Age: 28 (On Death, Physically)

3,000 (Chronologically)

 Date of Birth/Birthday: ???, 1483 B.T.C. (Aka 1,483 Years Before The Creation of Thedian Calendar, And 3028 Years Before 1545 T.C.) [Died 1455 B.T.C.]

 Zodiac: ???

 Status: Deceased (As Human)

Alive (As Spirit)

 Species: Spirit (Currently)

Humans (Previously)

 Magic: ???

 Height: 5’5 Feet (165 Centimeters/1.65 Meters/64 Inches)

 Ethnicity: Vesperian

 Relatives: Oversimplification Because She Has So Many Fucking Relatives Because House Vesper Is Huge, Elisabet Arabella Vesper, Solace von Mariah, The Hallow Sisters, House Diode, And House Vesper, Are All Her Descendants.

She also had three younger brothers and one younger sister. Her eldest younger brother took her title as heir to the throne upon his birth.

 Birth Place: Vesper Empire, Theda

 Nationality/Current Residence: The Heavenly Plane

 Religion (Which Goddess Do they Worship?): Nymeria (Formerly) 

Atheist 

 Occupation: Former Heir Presumptive of The Vesper Empire (When She Was Alive)

Princess of The Vesper Empire (When She Was Alive)

Guardian of The Heavenly Plane

 Affiliations: Vesper Empire (Formerly)

House Vesper (Formerly)

Heavenly Plane

Personality: Stoic, Calm, Dismissive, Stubborn, Distant, But Really Stupidly Powerful, No Seriously, Sometimes Just Crazy, She Does A Lot of Ridiculous Things Even Though She Knows It’s A Huge Freakin Risk, So Reckless, Hates Bright Lights (Which is Basically The Heavenly Plane In a Nutshell ._.)

 Marital Status: Married (Formerly)

Single

 Sexuality: Pansexual

 Likes: The Cold, Snow, Ice Skating, Reading, Quiet Places

 Dislikes: Bright Lights, Hot Climates, People Disturbing Her, Politics

 Role: Secondary Character

Debut: TBA

 Random Facts:

Sapphire’s current appearance is not the appearance she had when she was alive- it is the appearance of one of her previous reincarnations, Auralia, who was her 29th of 50 reincarnations, and lived about 9,000 years ago before 1545, being born in 7545 B.T.C., before even the First Great Theda Civil War.

Sapphire’s first reincarnation goes all the way back to about 200,000 years before the Thedian Calendar was created, being born around 199,999 B.T.C. (yes, seriously)

Sapphire is the direct ancestor of the Hallow Sisters, and indirect ancestor of Elisabet Arabella Vesper and many of her relatives. 

Sapphire had recessive albinism which is actually the cause of why Cora Hallow has albinism- somehow, the gene remained dormant in her descendants until Evadne Hallow (the Hallow Sisters’ mother) married Gabriel Hallow, who also had recessive albinism, and it ended up being the cause of Cora Hallow’s albinism. It is likely several of her descendants married people who also had recessive albinism unknowingly, but it didn’t present itself dominantly in any of her descendants until Cora Hallow.

If her name didn’t already suggest it, Sapphire had blue hair and eyes when she was alive in her 50th reincarnation.

Sapphire is NOT the first inhabitant of the Heavenly Plane- there were several Guardians of The Heavenly Plane before her, she is actually the 21st as the Heavenly Plane was created upon the world’s creation and the first Guardian of The Heavenly Yard was the first person who did not want to go through reincarnation again. Before that, the Heavenly Plane was just empty.

Sapphire is the youngest of all of the Guardians. The oldest is the Guardian of The Spiritual Plane. This is of course if you only acknowledge her age after she died as Sapphire, and not if you count all the years since her very first reincarnation was born. She’s still the youngest Guardian regardless because the others have lived for at least a billion years.

I know I should have put this in Hina’s bio, but in the Twelfth World time passes a lot faster than it does in Cela’s world, hence why Hina is billions of years old in the Twelfth World, but in Cela’s world, she would technically only be a year old even though she lived on for billions of years in the Twelfth World.

Sapphire and The Guardian of The Spiritual Plane know each other, as to be expected since Sapphire has had so many reincarnations. Sapphire tolerates “Spira” (as Sapphire calls her) since she’s fairly calm, but they’re not really “friends”. 

 Backstory: Sapphire was born the eldest child of the Emperor and Empress of the Vesper Empire in the year 1483 B.T.C. 

The Vesper Empire was in civil war for the third time within that century, and because of that Sapphire lived a life of being sheltered away from the world due to the chaos that raged throughout the entire country. While she never liked the company of people very much, she even admitted she grew lonely with her parents almost never paying much attention to her, unless they were berating her for being born a girl, and instead focused their time on ruling, ending the civil war, and bearing a son.

Sapphire most often than not spent her time reading and studying, and she became almost entirely ignored by her parents when her younger brother was born when she 5, another brother 2 years later, a sister 1 year later, and a final brother another year later. While she was arranged to marry a foreign duke from a whole other continent to marry for an alliance, she didn’t seem to mind, not at all caring for her future husband.

It may be time to mention that Sapphire had been followed around by the ghost of a 10ish-year-old girl, who called herself “Marie”. She refused to tell Sapphire who she was, thought Sapphire had many suspicions, such as the idea that maybe Marie was one of her ancestors due to her very fishy resemblance to one of the previous empresses of the Vesper Empire, Empress Ophelia II, who lived about a thousand years ago and had the exact same hair and eye color as Marie and similar facial features, and so Sapphire began to believe that Marie might be the deceased daughter of Empress Ophelia II, though she couldn’t be sure because most the records of Empress Ophelia II were lost in a fire three centuries ago. She also began to search and find the diaries of some of the previous residents of the palace, aka her ancestors, and found many mentioned a girl following them around, though whether this is Marie or some other girl, Sapphire was unable to tell due to the diaries all being in poor condition.

When Sapphire turned 15, the legal age of maturity at the time, she was married to the foreign duke she had been arranged to marry years earlier. Several years later Sapphire would birth twins at age 28: A daughter and a son she named “Luna” and “Glen”. 

However, she would die several months after their birth due to the civil war that was still raging, being killed in an attack on the palace along with one of her younger brothers, sacrificing herself in order to make sure her twin children escaped with their father, who would flee to his home country until the civil war was over.

During the attack Sapphire finally learned the identity of Marie- she was, indeed, the daughter of Empress Ophelia II, and had remained in the Mortal Plane as a spirit because she wanted revenge against her killers: her own family. Apparently, she had been outcasted by her family due to being born “insane” as her family labeled her- in reality, she suffered from schizophrenia, constantly hallucinating and seeing things that weren’t there, causing people to label her as crazy and become outcasted, which she, unfortunately, ended up developing due to genes on her father’s side causing it to run in his family. Eventually, Empress Ophelia ordered her killing because she was apparently an “Embarrassment to House Vesper, and deserves to die so she doesn’t end up snapping on us all. Better she dies than put my only son in danger due to his own older sister.” And so Marie swore revenge, haunting her mother for the rest of her days, and then customarily began to haunt at least of the current generation of House Vesper’s offspring as “revenge”. 

Sapphire would then be stabbed to death by one of the rebels, her last words being “Traitor! You have betrayed your country! I-” before being stabbed in the head.

Sapphire then returned to the Spirit Plane with all the memories of her past reincarnations, meeting yet again “Spira”, aka Guardian of The Spiritual Plane, and deciding she was done with reincarnating, asking her to allow her to go to the Heavenly Plane. Spira agreed only if Sapphire would become the new Guardian of The Heavenly Plane due to the last one “retiring” (read: killed himself after so long of being “alive”, uh, it happens? It was a one-off thing, totally…totally a one-off thing that hasn’t happened several times because it’s not just the goddesses who eventually go crazy from living for so long…totally…) and Sapphire agreed.

Sapphire went to the Heavenly Plane, and now resides on top of a tall mountain on the outskirts of the (now city) that was built there by the residents of the Heavenly Plane. 

She really hates people coming up to the mountain to bug her, and basically shuts out anyone who does decide to climb the mountain to talk to her for whatever reason. She sometimes leave the mountain to talk to people if she’s been alone for too long but overall prefers being by herself, reading, painting, and listening to nature overall. 

(And thinking about how her children are doing, and what happened to them after the battle which she perished in because she really doesn’t know that she has A LOT of descendants).

— Submission 

Okay, but, I really love the flat colors and posing that you did here. It really addss to the personality and flavor of the character. I can already feel what she’s like just from the way that she holds herself, and the way that she looks directly at the viewer. You can see how withdrawn she must feel from others. It’s a kind of attitude that you can’t miss once you see it, if that makes any sense, haha! 

And I mean, being alone can be the best thing for some people, and for others, it may not be the most idea situation. Well, it was an easy out... or an easy-in, if that’s how you want to see it. She clearly has a lot on her mind but not many people wants to talk it through with. 

[mipops]

MIPoPS x Andrew Weaver!

We’re kicking off a series of profiles on the people behind the scenes who help MIPoPS do what we do with a conversation with Andrew Weaver, MIPoPS consultant-at-large!

There are a few things that Andrew Weaver knows better than anybody: the best spots in Seattle to enjoy a cold beer and watch the sun go down; what niche Seattle band played where, with who, and when; and how to take a very complicated idea and make it easy to understand. Lucky for us here at MIPoPS, Andrew has dedicated himself to issues of audiovisual preservation, and he has graciously shared his knowledge with us. Andrew currently works at Washington State University as the Digital Infrastructure and Preservation Librarian, and before that was a National Digital Stewardship Resident at CUNY TV (under the tutelage of Dave Rice), and before THAT was honing his skills at the University of Washington Libraries’ Media Center, where he worked on all stages of media preservation and archiving. One of his favorite experiences in the AV preservation field has been reformatting - and simultaneously grooving out to -  the Kearney Barton Collection. Nobody cares more deeply for native PNW moving history than this guy - nobody!

Andrew troubleshooting some equipment at the KEXP Pop-Up Music Memory Digitization Day, put on by KEXP, Seattle Public Library, University of Washington, MIPoPS, and Washington State University. Photo taken for KEXP by Caroline Anne. 

Ari Lavigne (AL): Who are you and what do you do? What‘s your AV backstory? Where did you learn everything you know?

Andrew Weaver (AW): Hi! I’m Andrew and I am the Digital Infrastructure and Preservation Librarian at Washington State University! Hmm, regarding my A/V backstory...I have always liked things A/V be it playing/recording music or obsessively watching movies. In my first quarter of Library School at UW we had to do a project where we picked an information organization to do a pretend assessment for. I pitched using Scarecrow Video to my group, which was a ton of fun because Scarecrow is one of my favorite places in all of Seattle. One of the people in my class remembered that I liked film/video and when she saw that there were volunteer opportunities at UW Special Collections to work with film collections she brought it to my attention and the rest is history!

As a student, I worked in UW Special Colletions and the UW Media Center, and then post graduation was able to keep working in the Media Center before being accepted as a National Digital Stewardship Resident at the CUNY Television Archive. I learned everything I know from being able to work in these amazing spaces with amazing people!

AL: How did you get involved with MIPoPS (and when)?

AW: I first met Hannah and Libby working with the aforementioned film collections at UW, and Libby and I have been pretty frequent collaborators since, so I kind of naturally fell in to helping out a bit.

I got involved with MIPoPS officially around the summer of 2017. I love the Pacific Northwest, and all its history/peoples and working to preserve its audiovisual heritage is what I want to to devote my work to! Additionally, I am pretty focused on advocacy and education as  I really believe that with the organizations and collections we have out here, the PNW could really be a special place in terms of a community of practice built around A/V preservation. Since training, advocacy and preservation is essentially MIPoPS in a nutshell, It was very important to me to be able to support you guys!

The MIPoPS crew celebrating a successful digitization day with KEXP! Photo by Libby Hopfauf.

AL: Can you tell us about some of the open source tools we use at MIPoPS, and how you've helped us develop those and tailor them to what we do? VIDEOAIP, VRecord, etc.

AW: Totally! Foremost, MIPoPS’s digitization is built around the tool vrecord which I help maintain on the AMIA Open Source Github page. It was conceived of by Dave Rice at CUNY, and is a great tool for creating archivally minded video transfers in terms of files and metadata while facilitating a LOT of quality control through built in integrations with mediaconch and virtual broadcast scopes.

At MIPoPS we also rely on a lot of other tools such as Media Info, FFmpeg and Bagit which are all controlled through scripts and microservices like VIDEOAIP (which you mentioned). VIDEOAIP creates archival packages containing technical and preservation metadata as well as facilitating the creation of derivatives and preservation file syncing across storage. Basically I tried to make a tool that would automate a lot of the daily-grind preservation activities to free you guys up to focus on all the other million things you do!

AL: We're getting ready to revamp our storage and backup situation and you have been an instrumental part of planning for that. Can you tell us a little about what we discussed in terms of that? Using automation to remove the potential for human error, saving time, increasing safety.

AW: As you said, when it comes to a lot of the post-digitization steps, by removing the need for you and Libby to be involved at every level, such as backing up files to a second location, it eliminates a lot of variables that could potentially cause preservation issues (like a drive getting dropped when you are moving it) as well as can frees up your time for doing more involved work, like all the amazing outreach you do! There are only so many hours in the day, and the more we can make the system work for you as opposed to you having to work with the system, the more you can focus on the more hands-on aspects of your work!

AL: As a fledgling AV archivist, I have benefited immensely from your tutelage. Can you talk a little about your philosophy on knowledge sharing and your teaching philosophy? You are always able to take complicated concepts and break them down into actionable pieces. What inspires you to be able to do that?

AW: Aww, it is always a pleasure to work with you! I think my philosophy on knowledge sharing really comes from the fact that I have been SO lucky to have such amazing mentors in this field, and seeing how much they support new professionals has been inspiring. Also - I am a Librarian! I got into this because I wanted to share knowledge! Teaching is always a give and take as well, and there are a ton of things that I learn from you folks at MIPoPS, so I am happy that we can help each other!

In terms of breaking down concepts into smaller pieces, I think that probably comes from my background as an ESL teacher in my pre-libraries life. I worked a lot with elementary school children, and it really makes you put a lot of thought into how you present things and construct explanations because they will let you know VERY quickly if you are losing their interest!

AL: Is there an av or digital preservation software / project / idea that you're excited to explore?

AW: I am excited for continuing to chip away at a fully cross-platform release of my audio digitization tool ‘audiorecorder’. I have recently started collaborating with Ashley Blewer on a new stage of the project where we are trying to build it out into a fully packaged application using the Electron framework. This would in theory allow us to package all the things that sit under the hood into a more usable format and break down some of the barriers to using tools like this!

AL: Huskys or cougs?

AW: Oh man, don’t make me say that! I’m in Pullman right now! But, considering I grew up a fifteen minute walk from UW, and then got two degrees there...well  - let’s just say I am not too popular around the office during Apple Cup time.

AL: Any neat little tid-bits you’d like to share with us? Maybe that weird shark gif and the he-man countdown?

AW: The weird shark thing is a legacy from when I was teaching myself css and lives attached to my website.

The He-man GIF is from my webinar on how to use FFmpeg - so if you follow the instructions, you too can have the power!

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Wonderland Fuzz -- Casting Call! Part 1

All right, I gave you an overview and a few details on the AU last week -- this week, I’m giving you some of my initial ideas on who plays what in this AU, and a couple of notes as to why! This is “Part 1″ because I’m still debating over who in the fandoms fits certain roles best. Got most of them, though! For spoiler and length reasons, everyone past our main two is going under a readmore.

Alice Liddell as Nicholas Angel -- Determined, takes no shit, surprisingly good with weaponry, perhaps tries a little too hard to prove herself sometimes, will not stop when it comes to bringing evil to justice? Alice in a nutshell, baby. And as I stated before, the idea of her as the super-serious super-cop who eventually finds friendship/love and learns how to calm down a bit appeals to me.

Victor Van Dort as Danny Butterman -- Okay, admittedly Danny is pretty much NOTHING like Victor, but hot-gluing a few of his traits onto my boy -- namely his love of action movies -- amuses me. Plus I do headcanon my Victors as the sort who would appreciate having a bit of adventure in their lives (at least before the CB incident), which goes well with Danny's want to experience "real action and shit." Hot Fuzz also doesn't officially have a romance, but -- well. Nicholas was going to have a female love interest (named Victoria, of all things), but she ended up cut -- and her lines given to Danny. With minimal editing, from what I understand. So yeah, everyone (including Pegg, Frost, and Wright) just accepts Nick and Danny enter a relationship at some point. With this being a Valice AU, of course Victor has to be in the "love interest" spot.

Sandford Police Service

William Van Dort as Frank Butterman -- As I said in the first post, the idea of kindly William turning out to be evil just tickles me. He also fits Frank pretty well personality-wise -- they're both fairly affable, make their fair share of dumb jokes, and are inspired largely by their wives' wants (Frank does what he does because his wife so desperately wanted to win Village of the Year that, when Sandford lost at the last minute thanks to some traveling Rromani, she killed herself driving her car off a cliff -- Nell of course will do the same in the backstory of this AU).

The March Hare and the Dormouse (humanized into Marchand Hare and Dormand Mouse) as detectives Andy Wainright and Andy Cartwright (the Andys) -- Duo who are pretty much never seen apart, are clearly best friends with each other against the world, are kind of lazy but capable of good work, can be rude and abrasive but also helpful to the main character? Sounds like March and Dormy to me! The best part is their humanized names keeps both the "March and Dormy" nicknames we're familiar with from Alice stuff, plus the "Andys" nickname from the original movie.

The Hatter (Richard Hatter) as Tony Fisher -- Again, a largely-incompetent fellow who believes himself to be better than he is, but is capable of moments of competence, even genius? Sounds good for Hatter! And Tony regularly begging Nick for help during police work in the movie does kind of remind me of Hatter demanding Alice's help in finding his limbs in A:MR.

Emily (Cartwell) & Victoria Everglot as Doris Thatcher -- Okay, TECHNICALLY only Emily is playing Doris, as she's the one I can see cracking Doris's dirty jokes. The reason Victoria's "sharing" the role is that I wanted her to be part of the station set, but there isn't another woman officer in Sandford, and she's not appropriate for Bob Walker. So Victoria is a new character who patrols with Emily and who everyone just assumes is Emily's best friend. Only Victor (and later Alice) know the truth that they're actually dating. (Yes, Victor did actually date both of them in the past -- William still bugs him to get back together with Victoria.)

Scraps as Saxon -- Saxon's a pretty minor role as the local police dog in Sandford, and as the Alice games have no major dog characters. . .besides, a sleepy town doesn't need a big police dog, now do they? :p

Generals (Bill) Bonesaparte and (Bailey) Wellington as Desk Sergeants Turner -- This one sadly destroys a joke (namely, that there are two Desk Sergeants Turner -- Bill Bailey plays both, and we only see them together at the very end, right before the climax), but it's a minor role, and it seems suited enough to this double-act of general friends. I figure Bonesaparte, being the chattier of the two, would be the Night Sergeant (who's neater and talks more), and Wellington would be the Day.

Neighborhood Watch Alliance

Barkis Bittern as Simon Skinner -- Cripes, this was simple. Skinner is set up as basically Obviously Evil from the word "go," and since Barkis comes off the same way. . . They share the same smarmy "charm" and vaguely threatening air. Plus Barkis getting a model church spire through the chin is pretty easy with the size of his. XD (I BRIEFLY considered making Bumby Skinner early on, but then decided to keep him in Alice's backstory. Skinner is supposed to be kind of funny too, and that's easier with Barkis than it is with Bumby.)

Finis and Maudeline Everglot as Joyce and Bernard Cooper -- There's two main married couples in the movie, and I felt the Everglots fit this pair better. The Coopers run the hotel Nick stays at for the majority of the movie -- I could see slightly-less-snooty (or more desperate) Everglots converting their mansion into a hotel for the cash. And Maudeline well fits the "fascist"/"hag" gag that pops up between Joyce and Nick (she's doing a crossword when they first meet -- "facist" and "hag" are answers in it). I might have to switch their roles in the big finale, though -- Joyce uses a gun and Bernard a sword, but it makes more sense for gun-loving Finis to shoot at Alice.

Paul and Ms. Plum (Paul and Jane Plum) as Roy and Mary Porter -- This is the other main married couple -- as they run a bar, The Crown, I figured using some of the staff of the Ball & Socket would be appropriate. Paul's the character most associated with serving drinks in CB, and Plum the main female character of the B&S, so there you go! ...Actually, thinking about it, given that Roy is taken out during the climax via a bear trap to the head -- yeah, definitely has to be Paul. XD

Pastor (Christopher) Galswells as Reverend Philip Shooter -- Just fitting the two religious figures together here. Galswells is a sterner figure than Shooter, but that should just make him shouting "Fuck off, grasshopper" and pulling guns in the final battle all the more hilarious. XD

Murder Victims

Carpenter (Bruno Carpenter) as Martin Blower -- This was easy -- Martin is an absolutely awful actor (the version of Romeo & Juliet he stages is PRICELESS), so there was no competition for this role. Though somehow I think Carpenter is going to be an even bigger ham than he was. At least Martin never made up words. XD

Walrus (Walter Russo) as Eve Draper -- Eve's no great shakes as a thespian herself, which is a decent fit for Walrus -- as is her general annoying personality (she specifically has an awful laugh, which I'll probably give Walter). Eve and Martin are also in a relationship in the movie, so this is a great way to keep the Walrus and the Carpenter together.

The Town Crier (Tom Crier) as Tim Messenger -- I was stuck for a while as to who should be the town's local reporter -- then FINALLY I realized "oh hey, there's a character in Corpse Bride who's only role is to SPREAD THE NEWS." So that works! I even have the built-in quirk of him ALWAYS SPEAKING AT TOP VOLUME.

The Queen of Hearts/Red Queen (Rose Queen) as Leslie Tiller -- I was also stuck on this role for a bit -- Leslie is a local, super-skilled florist, and has a minor but important role of telling Nick some crucial information before she's killed. After some thought, I decided the Queen was a good fit for three reasons:

A) Both the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen (of which the game Queen is an algamation) are associated with gardening/flowers (the famous "painting the roses red" bit, and the Looking Glass garden where the Red Queen first appears)

B) The Queen's big bit in A:MR is giving Alice some crucial information (her domain's big memory confirms it was Bumby who killed Alice's family, and she encourages Alice to look more at what's around her, which probably helps her realize how Bumby's been abusing the children)

C) Leslie's also a NWA member, and the Queen is the main villain in AMA. Leslie is murdered for wanting to move (they didn't want another village getting her skills), while the Queen is eclipsed by the bigger evil of Bumby's Dollmaker. Pretty damn good fit in the end!

Other

Charlie, The Insane Children, Skeleton Boy, and Skeleton Girl as The Hoodies -- The Hoodies are actually teenagers/tweens, so they'd have to be aged up a bit, but I figured this was a good place to stick most of the children from both the Alice games and Corpse Bride. The Insane Children and Skeleton Boy and Girl certainly seem up for the mischief they perpetrate, and for helping Alice out in the end. Charlie, being the only one of the lot with a canonical name, might have the pleasure of being the Hoodie Leader (aka Gabriel Weaver -- the subplot about him being the grandson of NWA member Tom Weaver was cut, but anything can happen in an AU).

Solemn Village Boy as Aaron A. Aaronson -- I almost gave this role to Charlie, but then I realized I could keep the joke with Aaron's name if I made him the unnamed Solemn Village boy from Corpse Bride instead. And as the joke (and being Skinner's brief hostage before biting the jerk) is really Aaron's only point to being in the movie...

The Houndsditch Children as the Underage Bar Patrons -- Again, aged up to teenagers. It seemed like overkill to stick the Houndsditch kids in with the Hoodies, and the bratty responses most of the patrons give suit the bratty nature of the Houndsditch lot. Also the fact that something horrible happens to them in the end (the kids start misbehaving when Angel ejects them from the bar, and the NWA kills ANYONE who makes the town look bad...).

Emil as Tina -- Once again replacing a woman with a man, but this is a minor role focused on being a helper (Tina is Skinner's secretary, who spends most of her time lounging at his desk), and we all know Emil the super-butler is good at that. We'd just have to take out the part where he's also a dancer at a club. (Or we could leave it in and have everyone be weirded out.) This also has the amusing consequence of him being taken out at least partially by his canonical employers' daughter. XD

Maggot and Black Widow (Enn Maggon and Betty Black) as Greg and Sheree Prosser -- These are background characters noted as being better actors than Martin and Eve; might as well fill their roles with some of Emily's comic relief friends, right? They're also minor NWA members, so that helps keeps the ranks appropriately Burtony.

Nan Sharpe as Janine -- Sort of -- Nan is not Alice's former girlfriend, as Janine was for Nick! Instead, Nan retains her role as Alice's old nanny, who she goes to talk to after gets she gets promoted/transferred. Nan's the one who tells her she needs to find someone who helps her "switch off," thus setting up the eventual Alice/Victor romance. It's a minor role, but it seems well-suited for Nan (especially since I've already cast the other role she could have -- dirty-minded Doris).

Tim Burton, Mike Johnson, and American McGee as The Met's Sergeant, Inspector, and Chief Inspector Kenneth -- These characters have the minor but important role of sending Nick to Sandford in the original film (for making everyone else look bad), so I just thought it would be funny I used the directors of CB and the mind behind the Alice games for them.

[rougedraconteur]

Oh, you guys. I am ancient, and have been plenty busy with work and family, and I can name and separate all the JOBROS, plus the basics on their backstories. I also have watched The Voice for many moons now, so I can give you the deets on that, at least the ones I know. I guess I really am strange, an infogeek, a pop news nerd. Add creep and weirdo, I guess. Especially since the main reason they were ever on my radar was because of their close connection with D, who sometimes calls himself “The Bonus Jonas.” Yes, somebody has receipts, I am not that technically talented, only my brain is (a card catalog of indexed info, it’s like a parlor trick that has served me well.) THAT was enough to make me plenty curious.

While D has an attachment to boy bands in general, (Hanson and N’Sync come immediately to mind), he does seem to be particularly close with these guys. They had a Dis/ney Channel show, and started being shipped with the other Dis/ney stars early on, such as De/mi Lo/vato and Mi/ley Cy/rus and Se/lena Go/mez. It was sort of a Baby Brat Pack. Their backstory was their dad was a minister, and they all wore purity rings and pledged to stay virgins. They still get play off that old story.

In a nutshell: Ke/vin is the oldest, married at the youngest age, had kids the earliest, and has no real solo work to speak of. He also sings lead the least, if ever. He is generally considered to be clos/eted on lots of gossip sites, and the most interesting thing about him is why they did that so early. Neither he nor his wife seem to have done much else, or be known for much else, adding to the mystery. D and Ke/vin have had their photo made together, alone, just the two of them, once that I know of, at what I believe was a Gram/my event early on in D’s Gl/ee career. They look like they are in a library. They actually look somewhat similar in size and build, and they have the same curly hair. It is an interesting photo, especially their expressions, if anyone has it.

Joe is the lead vocalist, and middle brother, doesn’t seem to play instruments as he works the mike, and generally was the first one shipped with all the girls. He was an early Tay/lor Swi/ft love interest, that says a lot right there. He is darker in hair, eyes, complexion than his brothers, more similar to D in coloring, and has been the most celebrity-focused with his P.R. He was generally treated as the de facto leader of the group. He mostly sings lead. His P.R. Has publicly connected him to many pop culture princesses. He is now married to Sop/hie Tur/ner, of the famous Game of Thrones Stark Family saga. They got together when her show was ending, people hated the last season, and she had moved on to playing one of the main characters in the newer version of X-Men, which also did not hold up very well under increased scrutiny of director Bry/an Sin/ger and comparisons to the originals. Joe had another band for a time, a hit song on top-40 radio (Cake by the Ocean) that was talked about purely because it was a strange song, but catchy, and focused on making it with this band. He and Sop/hie planned a wedding at a French Chateau, which got postponed, I don’t remember why, then had a quickie Elvis themed kitschy wedding in Vegas at one of the Little Chapels there, THEN had the lux wedding later at the French Chateau. Apparently hints were that they were expecting, thus the first wedding. Sophie appeared in public pregnant to verify the rumors. They now have a child, so the story goes. She is “besties” with Hailee Stanfield, (whom D has been connected to multiple times, which is a whole other story), although there is a “group of girlfriends” that includes the sis-in-laws and her sister from Game of Thrones, with whom she still seems close both personally and professionally. D and Jo/e had an infamous heavy ship by fans and gossip sites during one period of time, with an apparently early photoshopped image of the two holding hands leaving a theater. This is kind of when everyone learned about Photoshop, this photo. They have interacted in public, though, the most recently I recall being in Australia when D last visited. Apparently they went to a public sports event together while there for their respective press junkets, and tweeted it for the Aussie fans. They have both been seen wearing the same hideous yellow floral matching shirt and shorts high fashion, Armani, I think, but not at the same time and place. Joe seems content to be a celebrity and show up when the band needs him. Soph/ie towers over him, but they do seem to really care about each other and fit that same celeb cooler than you vibe. Real? I doubt it. But it seems to work for them so far.

Nick is the baby of the group, (although there is a younger brother, I think) is a diabetic type 1, very health conscious, works out, and is the most ambitious of the three. He seems to be the one with the most talent, and the one most determined to make it really big. He is also rumored to be the reason the band broke up. He wanted to go solo, and also to act more. He has done some star turns in Les Mis, as well as H2$, after D, but for a much longer run. He has starred in a number of movies and tv series, has performed as a solo with his own backup band, writing and performing his own music, and plays a number of instruments. He has range, much like D, tons of energy and a strong work ethic. This industry loves attractive, multi-talented young hustlers. They give great return on the investment. His audience and D’s audience are very similar. He “married” Pri/anka Cho/pra, who came to America after her career blew up in In/dia. She is known for her beauty (I think she was a Miss World winner or runner-up) and her ravenous ambition, and not for talent or charm. But again, she hustles, and is a quick study. She is more than a decade older than Ni/ck, and is clearly The Boss in this P.R. Relationship. These two had the most elaborate wedding, with photoshoots, in recent P.R. History, a traditional multi-day Indian wedding, and a smaller but comparable wedding here in the U.S. she has since moved on from a failed tv show to a part in the next Matrix movie and her own production company; she has put out some actual quality work recently that she starred in, that may get some mild awards buzz. She is keeping the idea of a baby alive for public consumption. She is also a big player in the sister-in-laws club, and she and So/phie really helped spice up the JoBros music videos.

Ni/ck is the one most seen with D. He dropped in for a performance at Elsiefest, where they sang a Broadway tune from H2$, and took a backstage photo with Be/n Stil/ler, which I thought odd, frankly; and they both appeared in the movie Midway together. He is younger than D, but more willing to take on some tricky P.R. Moves to jump a few rungs on the ladder. He recently landed The Voice gig and has proven very popular and successful at it so far. While Cho/pra still has deep ties to folks with money back in her native land, Ni/ck hangs out with his rumored bestie, one Cho/rd Over/street. They have been seen in one strange photoshoot together on a vacation with Nic/k’s wife and family. D and Nick have been photographed together often, for legit P.R. With joint projects, and they could also legit be groomed by Joh/n Leg/end for EGOT status, D and Ni/ck both are triple-threats. However, both have also been accused of blatant bearding, constantly playing the straight card while playing gay for pay (Ni/ck played gay in a tv series about MMA fighters, apparently) and of worse, gay-bating in their P.R. Ni/ck has had some very suggestive photoshoots much like D had with OUT magazine. D has also been seen with Pri/anka both before and after the marriage. And as we noted, D seems sympathetic to Ni/ck’s awkward baby interviews. I expect them both to do well, be quite articulate and helpful (Ni/ck is quite intelligent, like D) and make a great impression together. It is an excellent showcase for D, and he would be a great judge to fill in, a nice payday and a semi-steady gig that doesn’t take up the whole year and even allows for sitting out seasons, when other work takes precidence, IF he gets a big fan reception while on the show. This show has made household names of all its stars, and they all get Sexiest Man status nowadays, too. The Duels are my favorite part of the show, When contestants sing a single song together, head to head, with the Coach choosing one to continue on his or her team after, and the other gone or up for grabs, and that is what D is helping Ni/ck with. Each coach wants to do the very best job they can here, because if your team contestants shine here, even the ones you cut end up stolen by another Coach. I think Ni/ck and D, while the youngest overall, will do best here, although Clark/son and Le/gend are both amazing, I am huge fans of these two. Shel/ton has his limits, but he has a huge fanbase, and lots of connections, including talking about his new show-connected boo, “fiancee” Gw/en Ste/fani, every 15 minutes, and that is what gets him so many wins from voters at home. He more than carries the weight of the show, getting his more conservative and older skewing fanbase to keep the show high in the ratings, while the others compete against him and his team, mainly. I see it for what it is, but I really enjoy it.

I used to watch Idol, I actually like competition shows, but I don’t like humiliation, either. Respectful and honest criticism is something else, as long as you are actively seeking to both improve someone and point out their strengths, as well. Give people hope, and a path to self-awareness and improvement. I am even a self-improvement book junkie, although I think it’s hopeless at this point.

AI was one of the worst with Si/mon Co/well, he was intentionally cruel, and I despise him for a number of damn good reasons and refuse to support anything he does. I also won’t watch anything with Sea/crest OUT (hahaha I find that funny ironic that’s his trademarked line).

This is more than any of you ever wanted to know about this, but it should serve as a base for fans of D as he ventures onto The Voi/ce this season.

Anyone else watching The V/oice? I hadn’t watch it since the first season but I turned it on last week to prepare for d. I have to appreciate the house band is still led by Paul Mirko/vich, who led the house band for my fav reality show of all time Rock Star INXS (I think I mentioned Michael H/utchence was my teenage dream, and yes the show was looking for his replacement, but in a very reverent way) and the band is still comprised of many of the same musicians.

And I’m finding myself rooting for Team N/ick to get the most talented musicians. Which is funny to me as I’m not really a fan of his band, I agree they have talent, but I’m not even close to the target audience and beyond his rumored fake nuptials, I never paid attention. So naturally i’d root for K/elly as I have vivid memories of my first years living in the city watching AI religiously with my best friends, or team J/ohn as not only is he insanely talented but we went to college together and I saw him perform way back when.

But nope, it’s Nic/k all the way as I want to see d work with the best talent!

[dlamp-dictator]

Your Dictator’s Works: Kyo-Annie

Okay, finally getting down to writing these Dictator’s Works posts. Originally, I was going to talk about both Kyo and Reyna, but Kyo’s stuff turned out a little beefier in text than I thought, so I’ll just talk about Kyo for the entire thing and talk about Reyna... eh, later. 

Oh yeah, since it’s been about... over a year since I’ve done this kind of post here’s a quick summary. Your Dictator’s Works is a analysis/breakdown of my own creation, ranging from characters, to stories, and so on. Basically, a big info dump where I gush over whatever thing I’m talking about. When it comes to OCs, I’ll try and keep it to their design, but no promises.

So without further ado, here’s a Dictator’s Works on Kyoko-Annabelle Mushi, or Kyo-Annie for short... or just Kyo.

Summary, Origins, and Inspirations

In a nutshell, Kyo is a kung fu demon girl, and that’s where most of her character starts and ends. Unlike Claudia, I don’t have a 3-year-old RP blog to reference, and a lot of characters I creator from drawings rarely have a higher purpose other than what concept I had for them, but Kyo’s origins are pretty interesting. I was on a discord server and the mods decided to have a sort of Art Jam where the theme was to make a kung fu girl. I technically already had a kung fu girl, Reyna, but I wanted to make something more original. So after awhile of scribbling, Kyo came out. 

And boy did this little demon girl go through a butt load of redesign. after about 2 years of doodling her. I literally just pulled up some older pictures from my art tag and... Lord Alive, the difference in design is staggering.

Speaking of...

Design

So, like I said before, Kyo was a product of an art jam. I didn’t have a real idea for her other than “make kung fu girl that wasn’t Reyna.”

This is the oldest sketch I could find of her. For all that’s change, not much really has. The basic ideas are still present. Chinese-styles sleeveless shirt, biker shorts/spats, and bangles. Color scheme aside, the only thing that’s changed is that she wears shoes now.

And much like I said in my Dictator’s Works, I tend to give my characters a very specific kind of fray in their hair for the sake of the silhouette looking unique, so Kyo has a bit of cowlick sticking out of her hair. Canonically, Kyo’s cowlick is purposely done up with hairspray to hide her horn, but I didn’t come up with that until later.

The emblem she wears is... well...

Yeah, remember when her name was Kyo-Annie? Canonically, that’s short for Kyoko-Annabelle, as her Japanese mom and Western-demon father kept argue on what her first name should be before settling for both their ideas. Out-of-Universe, Allen X is extremely lazy when it comes to his characters and was watching some K-On reruns when thinking this character up.

And that’s really it for design. Kyo’s a pretty simple character, both in design and concept, so there’s not much to go over. The only thing I can add is that Kyo is now blond so that her original dark hair doesn’t blend into her gray skin. Canonically, she dyes it blond to be rebellious, but it’s more for design reasons than in-universe ones. Other than that, I think her design explains itself pretty well. Though... this’ll be a pretty short Dictator’s Works if I end this here, so...

Story Background

I don’t feel comfortable talking about Violacous Storm yet since I’m kind of redoing the story, and I really don’t want to talk about the made typings known as that story, so I’ll just talk about Kyo’s background and bio instead. 

Kyo is a half-demon, specifically a Cambion, a half-human, half-succubus. The gray skin Kyo has is a product of her father that didn’t show up until she turned 12. Being half-succubus, Kyo is aluring and attractive on a super natural level, but she hates it. The bangles she wears around her wrists are actually enchanted to heavily hinder her succubus abilities. To most people she just looks like a dark elf until you see her fangs, but without the bangles normal humans would be entranced by her appearance and flock to her. Kyo found this extremely annoying once she realized the attention got was due to her sucubbus abilities and not for her as a person, so she did her best to hide that fact. Wearing tomboyish and rebellious clothes, dying her hair a wild yellow, taking on a more punk-ish persona, and taking her martial arts lessons more seriously as a way to literally push away people advancing on her.

Oh yeah, I should probably explain why such a kung fu girl in the first place.

For a bit of backstory, Kyo’s human mother is a Japanese Shrine Maiden, Yoko Mushi. Yoko... got knocked up as a teenager by a really hot incubus she was suppose to seal away or kill, but fell for his charms and had Kyo at age 15. After failing in her task (and getting knocked up at that), she was reprimanded and nearly banished from the family if not for the mercy of her mother. Yoko promised to raise the child as the next shrine maiden in her stead, one that would bring honor, glory, and worshippers to their shrine. And as a show of her determination, she immediately banished Kyo’s father to the demon realm a few months later after tracking him down. Kyo herself has no clue about this aside from her father being an incubus that was banished, but does want to be a shrine maiden to both help her mother out and out of honest religous faith, though worship at the Mushi Shrine is... odd. 

Kyo’s shrine worships a god of war, so martial arts is strict practice. All shrine maidens have to go through some brutal combat training to be viable, and the last test includes defeating their teacher via knockout or death. Well, death in the old days, but modern times have made the Mushi family lighten up on the tradition. Kyo herself is versed in karate and judo, though not on an expert level. Given that she wants to beat her mom and earn the title of heir she decides learn kung fu as a way to diversify her techniques as a martial artist, along with thinking that karate and judo were boring due to their family’s style being more for practicality, self-defense, and worship rather than modern-day competitions. 

And... she happens to be a huge fan of kung fu movies, but that’s beside the point. 

Kyo and her mom had a pretty big fight about her switching styles, and Kyo walked out the room in a huff before trying to apply at a shaolin academy for girls. It tooks some effort, but she was accepted on a scholarship after holding her own against one of their top students, Reyna. The two have been bitter rivals ever since. 

Personality-wise, Kyo is hard-working, determined, and tomboyish, but also has a pension for pranks and mischief. She can come across as a bully with all the fights she picks, but thankfully only picks fights with people that she either knows can take her on, or are annoying her to the point of violence... though it’s pretty easy to rile her up to that point. This is a product of her background as a shrine maiden in training. Worshipping a god of war tends to leave you pretty excited for a fight to show off your skills not only to others, but to God watching you kick butt in his name.

And as stated before, she’s half-succubus, but hates that half of her. Despite the kung fu girl aesthetic she’s a very religious and faithful girl, and while sexual purity isn’t as heavily looked at nowdays for shrine maidens, at least at her shrine, Kyo herself wants to remain sexually pure until she takes over the shrine, marries a priest and has a daughter of her own to continue running the shrine. To that end, the bangles she wears holds back her demonic abilities, namely her hypnosis and alluring aura. Mostly out of the loathing she has for her demon-half, but also because she can’t control her abilities yet. Like I said, she hates her half-demon side because it heavily clashes with her tomboy martial artist side. One of her hopes is that becoming a full-fledged shrine maiden will help purify her and get her humanity back. 

And despite that heavy paragraph above I never talk about that side of her in the story. It’s something she keeps to herself, and you’ll mostly just see a tomboyish martial arts demon. This is namely because she’s more a rival to Reyna, who’s the main character in Violacous Storm, but I might make a one-shot or two focusing on Kyo in the future, who knows?

Conclusion

Anyway, I think that’ll be it for this Dictator’s Works. That... took long than I though it would. Next time I’ll talk a bit about Reyna, so look forward to that.

[13mtm80]

For those who requested my transcript of DWSA’s ‘Broadway Backstory’ podcast transcript:

File link is: [X]

Transcript:

[Patrick Hinds (intro)] Hey ‘Broadway Backstory’ listeners, Patrick here, just a quick reminder that if you are loving ‘Broadway Backstory’ there are a couple of easy ways that you can support our show. We would be thrilled if you would take one minute to rate and review us on iTunes. It really, really does help other people find our show.

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And of course, I wanna say a few words about our pals at ‘TodayTix’, the people that make the podcast possible. You guys, you can get last minute theater tickets with ‘TodayTix’. Pay the best prices available whether it’s discount rush tickets, or premium orchestra seats. ‘TodayTix’ is bringing the theater going experience into the 21st century. And we’re now available in more than 10 global cities. Including New York, London, Philadelphia, and Boston. You can discover new musicals, plays, comedies, operas, ballets, and dramas in your city at the best prices.

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Okay, now to our show.

♫ [Intro music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Patrick] From ‘TodayTix’ and ‘Theater People’ this is ‘Broadway Backstory’. The podcast that finds out how shows develop from an idea to a full Broadway production. I’m your host, Patrick Hinds.

Today we’re getting the backstory of the Deaf West Production of ‘Spring Awakening’. Through conversations with the show's original creators, director, producer, and stars. We’ll find out how this little show that could, developed from a 10-day workshop to a black box production on L.A.’s skid row. To a famed regional theater house in Beverly Hills. And untimely became a critically acclaimed, and Tony-nominated beloved Broadway revival.

[Music: ‘Touch Me’] ♫ Where I go // When I go there // No more memory anymore // Only drifting on some ship ♫

[Patrick] What you’re hearing here is a clip of the Broadway cast of Deaf West’s ‘Spring Awakening’ performing on ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’. There is no cast album for this production. So, in order to experience the show, you have to search the internet for video clips like this.

But it occurs to me now having just watched the clip that this seems right. That the glory of this production is the way the Deaf and hearing actors communicate with each other and the audience. Through the combination of sign language and song. It’s something you have to see to really get. And I know now after interviewing just about everyone involved with this production, that it’s technical. But it looks magical.

[Music: ‘Touch Me’] ♫ Where I go // When I go there // No more shadows anymore // Only you there in the kiss // Nothing missing as you’re drifting to shore // Where I go // When I go there ♫

[Patrick] Let’s start at the beginning. ‘Spring Awakening’ with music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater is based on the 1891 play by the same name written by Frank Wedekind.

Plot-wise there’s a lot going on in the show. But in a nutshell, it’s about teenagers grappling with authority and sexuality and trying to understand their place in the world. For the Deaf West production, many of the main roles were played by Deaf actors who communicated with sign language. But also, had a counterpart who would simultaneously speak or sing what the Deaf actor was signing.

We’ll start with the artistic director of Deaf West Theater. A man named David Kurs who goes by DJ. He’ll give us some background on the theater company.

DJ is Deaf so we communicated via email. I emailed a list of questions, he wrote out his responses and emailed them back. With the understanding that we need audio, DJ asked me find somebody that had been involved with the production to voice his responses. So, throughout the episode, DJ’s words will be voiced by actor Alex Wyse, who played Georg in the production.

[DJ Kurs] Deaf West Theater was founded in 1991 by Ed Waterstreet, an actor who had just left the National Theater of the Deaf. He was surprised there wasn’t a local theater for the Deaf community. And along with his N.T.D. counterparts who just moved to L.A., he founded Deaf West Theater.

We’ve been performing in Los Angeles for more than 25 years. Our mission statement is as follows: “Founded in Los Angeles in 1991, Deaf West Theater engages artists and audiences in unparallel theater experiences inspired by Deaf culture and the expressive power of sign language. Committed to innovation, collaboration, and training Deaf West Theater is the artistic bridge between the Deaf and hearing worlds.”

[Patrick] There’s one other piece to the work that Deaf West creates that isn’t spelled out in its mission statement. Actor Andy Mientus, who is intimately involved with this production, articulated that really, well in our interview.

[Andy Mientus] Deaf West’s mission is not to create theater for the Deaf, it’s to create theater for Deaf and hearing audiences together.

[Patrick] Meaning that Deaf West creates shows where Deaf actors are front and center, but the shows are meant to be enjoyed equally by Deaf and hearing audiences.

They have had a lot of success with this model. In addition to producing critically acclaimed productions for the Greater Los Angeles area at their home space in North Hollywood. In 2003 their production of ‘Big River’ transferred to Broadway where it was nominated for two Tony awards. And in 2009 they mounted a critically acclaimed production of ‘Pippin’ at the prestigious ‘Mark Taper Forum’.

One thing that both those productions have in common was the actor Michael Arden in leading roles. Actor Andy Mientus, who I should mention is also Michael Arden’s husband, had toured with ‘Spring Awakening’. And while on tour had seen Deaf West’s production of ‘Pippin’.

And so, a few years later when Deaf West began to think about mounting another big musical and it happened to coincide with Andy and Michael looking for a project to direct. Andy had an idea.

Here’s Andy and then DJ Kurs.

Just to note, I interviewed actors Andy Mientus, Krysta Rodriguez, and Alex Boniello together. So sometimes there’s some overlap.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Andy] When I was doing ‘Spring Awakening’ I always thought it would be the ideal show for Deaf West. And I feel like the seed of that idea came from when I was doing it at the Ahmanson, they were doing 'Pippin' in the Mark Taper, and our cast went and sat in on rehearsal. And I feel like that's gotta be where it came from. And so, we, you know, just brainstormed on that idea for like a day and a half. And just sort of figured out all the different ways that it could work, and why it would be special, and so we pitched it to DJ Kurs, the Artistic Director of Deaf West at 'Intelligentsia Coffee' on Sunset Boulevard.

[Patrick laughs]

[Krysta Rodriguez] Where all good things happen-

[Andy] Where all good things happen.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[DJ] I had seen the show on Broadway and at the Ahmanson in L.A. When Michael Arden and Andy Mientus brought the idea to me at 'Intelligentsia Coffee' in Silver Lake in 2013, I was skeptical. “Didn’t the tour just close a couple of years ago”. But when they brought up the opening scene where a mother attempts to explain the birds and the bees to her daughter, everything clicked. I thought to myself that’s a classic experience that nearly every Deaf person goes through. I mean, 90 percent of Deaf people are born into hearing families. And there’s a disconnect that begins at birth.

[Andy] DJ committed to a 10-day workshop where we were gonna work on like three different scenes from it, just to see if the idea could stick.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Patrick] One of the first people to join the creative team for that workshop was Spencer Liff. An actor who’d come from Broadway to Los Angeles and found success as a choreographer on the hit Fox series, ‘So You Think You Can Dance?’.

[Spencer Liff] Michael Arden and I had known each other for years in New York, we had been friends. And I knew how special he was, and how special his mind was. And he moved out to L.A. around the same time that I did. And there’s, you know, not- There’s theater in L.A. but there’s not a ton. You sort of have to make your own theater there. Especially if you want to do something new.

So, he came to me and he had worked with Deaf West, I had not, and he basically said, “Do you want to do something really scary and crazy?” And of course, I was like, “Yes”.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Patrick] I have asked a lot of what I feel like are silly questions over the course of the interviews that I did for this episode. I wasn’t even sure that that I was supposed to use the word ‘deaf’. Although, I have been assured that is the proper term. So, I was nervous to ask about the process about auditioning Deaf actors for that original workshop, but I was curious and so I figured our listeners would be too. I had to ask.

Here’s Michael Arden, who was very kind. And who was also speaking very softly because we did this interview in a rehearsal studio during his lunch break from a new show he’s directing. Anyway, auditioning Deaf actors.

[Michael Arden] Well, it’s a great question. So, usually, you invite the Deaf actor in. I have an interpreter with me or I sign for myself. But I prefer to have an interpreter just in case I, you know, miss something. And it’s just helpful to have an interpreter on hand.

And then, with the Deaf actors I had another Deaf actor, reader. But I would just watch them act. And you know, acting is acting. It was- It’s a really, exciting process because it’s listening to someone singing or listening to their voice. You’re really seeing how they really connect with another actor. And how they physicalize and how they chose to interpret the dialog. ‘Cause sign language isn’t an exact language. It’s not like there’s an exact translation from English. So, a lot of times you can get insight to an actor from how they chose to try translate the English into the sign language. And so, that often times sort of clues me into how they think.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Patrick] I was curious to hear about from a Deaf actor’s perspective. So, I reached out to Daniel Durant. Daniel was cast as Moritz, one of the teenagers at the center of ‘Spring Awakening’, for that original workshop. And stayed with the show all the way through the Broadway run.

I interviewed him via Skype and through an interpreter who spoke Daniel’s answers to my questions as signed them. Here’s what the audition process was like from his perspective.

[Daniel Durant] We all kind of sat around with the script. We had lines that we had to memorize, you know, and we would just try to sign those lines in a way that that matched the music. I was a little overwhelmed because it was- It’s a musical and I’m a strongly Deaf person and music has never been a huge part of my life. And so, I didn’t really have any idea how that would work. I was really, nervous, at first.

[Patrick] It sounds incredibly naive to say this now, but it became clear to me just in that moment that, at least at that point, Daniel didn’t really know what music was. And here he was auditioning for a musical. I had to ask him about that.

[Patrick] When people talk about music to you, what is music to you? Or, what was music to you before you started working on this production?

[Daniel] It’s funny you ask that question, because now I can finally answer that. Before I couldn’t even give you an answer as to what music meant. Before ‘Spring Awakening’ I’d really didn’t have a sense of music. Now I enjoy vibrations and feeling bass and music, and I like that. But in terms of what music sounds like and what hearing people get out of music, and all the ways music connects with hearing people. That part I didn’t understand. But going through this experience with ‘Spring Awakening’ I have picked up a more understanding of that.

[Patrick] So then I had to know how do you direct a musical with actors who not only can’t hear the music, but also don’t really know what music is. Here’s Michael Arden, again. And then, choreographer Spencer Liff.

[Michael] You have to think about, “what is music”, and it’s math.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Michael] You know, “Okay, so you don’t know music is, alright”. “Here’s a piece of music”. So, we look at some, and start explaining theory to them. There’s this many beats, you know, and (tap sound) tap (tap sound) their (tap sound) chest. It stays the same speed, you know, so if you take this many steps you’ll get that far across the stage. And if you take them faster that’s the tempo. And you start to explain music. I mean yeah, it’s- It was slow.

[Michael and Patrick laugh]

[Michael] It was a slow process, but you know, what’s nice is when you have to slow down is that it forces you to re-examine things you don’t- You sort of think you know (laughs). It was a lot of fun.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Spencer] We thought we were gonna get six songs done, and then all these scenes. And you know, we ended up getting two songs done and barely getting through anything and it was the hardest- It was the hardest experience I’ve ever had in a rehearsal room, and the most I had just no idea how to- How to work in the process of working with the interpreters and it was so new, and- But there was these moments of beauty that were created in those first workshops that made every excited. And made everyone pushing forward.

[Patrick] The next significant step for the production came in the fall of 2014. After the success of the original workshop, Deaf West funded a full production to be mounted in Downtown L.A. in the 99-seat theater at a facility called ‘Inner-City Arts’.

By this point, Andy Mientus, who had co-direct the workshop, had been cast in the Broadway revival of Les Mis (‘Les Misérables’) in the role of Marius. And so, Michael became the sole director. Here’s what Michael said when I asked him about the trajectory of the show at that point.

[Michael] It was just to do a small production, 99-seat production in L.A. And share this story through this lens. And you know, we never had our eyes set on Broadway or anything like that. It was sort of for this thing for our mind. Which is probably why we did such the work we did. That it was really, just about telling this story in the time and place we were in.

[Patrick] As I mentioned, the show centers around a group of adolescent school kids in Germany in the 1890’s. For Michael’s production, many of the school kids would be Deaf and so as rehearsals began Michael began to research what education for Deaf students was like at the time that the show takes place.

What he uncovered was startling. And we’ll get to that in just a second. But to fully understand what Michael learned and how it shaped the show you need to know about something called the Milan Conference that happened in 1880.

So, here’s Deaf West’s artistic director DJ Kurs. And then Michael Arden.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[DJ] I think above all humanity is afraid of the other. Deviations from the norm. And that is why Deaf people suffered during the place and time that ‘Spring Awakening’ takes place in. It takes place during a dark time in Deaf history. That is the aftermath of the Milan Conference from 1880 in which hearing educators of the Deaf got together and decided that Deaf students should be taught orally. And that sign language should be banned. It is the desire to normalize Deaf people that proved destructive to the Deaf individual then and still does today.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Patrick] And here’s what Michael found.

[Michael] I started to uncover all this information about the Milan Conference and how Deaf students were taught and not taught. And for those who don’t know, oralism was adopted as the only acceptable way of educating Deaf kids at that time. Which meant that no was sign language, so Deaf kids were forced to speak and read lips. And for many Deaf kids, I mean we know this know, in spades that that’s just a completely untangible expectation.

And so, so many kids were deemed “oral failures” and they were sent to asylums. Deaf individuals were sterilized at the time. Mostly women were sterilized. ‘Cause, they want to sort of- It was- Deafness was seen as a sickness that needed to be sort of cured or sort of eradicated. As apposed to, you know, we now know and see it as a culture and a strong beautiful culture. I wanted to somehow tell that story that no one really knows. I mean it’s this incredibly dark chapter in Deaf history and world history and sort of the history of education.

And it’s sort of, I mean, I would like to say it was like from the get go what I had in mind, but it wasn’t really. It sort of came to the process while we were in rehearsals. And made changes based on that. So initially, like in the school room, the teacher, there was a Deaf teacher. And then, I said, “No, this isn’t working. Let’s try this”. And Okay, well what if you aren’t allowed to sign what if this is all about signing in secret. And this other story began to emerge that I think was really, exciting and we haven’t seen before.

[Patrick] I’m sure that Michael is right that most hearing people don’t know the dark history, I certainly didn’t. But I wondered about the Deaf community. Did they know? So, I asked Daniel Durant, the actor you heard from earlier who played Moritz in the show.

[Daniel] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It’s part of our culture. This history is part of who we are. As every Deaf individual knows this of our struggle to be recognized and to have our language recognized. This is something we still struggle for today.

[Patrick] Another thing to emerge in that production in that tiny theater in downtown L.A. was the significance and importance of the choreography, because of the fact that, it needed to incorporate sign language.

Duncan Sheik, who wrote the music for the show, pointed this out to me when I asked him about seeing that first incarnation of the Deaf West production.

[Duncan Sheik] Just from the movement standpoint you had the sign language itself became another kind of layer of choreography. And that just added so much too, because of Bill T. Jones the original choreography was amazing. But, you know what Spencer did plus the signing, it kind of made the show much more about movement than it ever had been before. And that was kind of a revelation. And really a lovely one, in fact.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Spencer] Sign language was my goal and concern and everything stemmed from that.

[Patrick] This, again, is Spencer Liff, the choreographer. I asked him about the challenges of choreographing for a largely deaf company and if he was intimidated by the mantle of Bill T. Jones’ iconic and Tony-winning choreography for the original production.

[Spencer] So I can honestly say that I never once really thought about what was done originally because it just wasn’t in the realm of where my head needed to be. So, I just sort of did what I wanted to do, what needed to be done for the show. I guess I had in the back of my head that, if anything aligned with what was originally done, and I came to that on my own terms, then that’s what was meant to be, but I don’t know. I just wasn’t scared of it. I had way too much other stuff to think about to worry about what he did and what I did. But everything he did was very gesture based. Obviously, that’s what we had to work with, as well, so, I think that’s where the similarities came from.

[Patrick] Daniel Durant spoke very passionately to me about the power of incorporating sign language into the choreography at that very early stage and the response it seemed to elicit from people.

[Daniel] Though we can’t necessarily hear the music, we can tell a story through music. People were in awe of it. People would say they would want to see more ASL integrated into theater, because it’s a more three-dimensional language. It has emotional impact on people. The emotions stick with people for longer periods of time once they see the emotions in three dimensions. You get emotions from hearing songs, too. But it is only in that one dimension. So, it’s a little bit reduced, I think, the story you can tell. I really like that we’re using this three-dimensional language to express things in a different way.

[Music: ‘The Bitch of Living’] ♫ God, I dreamed there was an Angel // Who could hear me through the wall // As I cried out like in Latin // This is so not life at all ♫

[Patrick] The downtown LA production officially opened in early September, 2014, to rave reviews. The LA Times said, if rippling goosebumps are any indication of emotional involvement, this show delivers. It’s hard to enumerate all the ways in which Deaf West’s ‘Spring Awakening’ is so very, very good. With the reviews came the news that, within months, the show would be transferring to a much larger theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. Because that production would be a remount, they were allotted only a two-week rehearsal period. And, as commonly happens, not all of the actors from the downtown production were available for it. Enter Alex Wyse, Andy Mientus, Krysta Rodriguez, and Alex Boniello. Here’s Andy Mientus, who would be taking over the role of Hanschen.

[Andy] So Michael called me in this deep panic, saying, oh my god, who are we going to find somebody that can learn the part, let alone the part and the ASL. I was like, well, if you can’t find anybody else, and if it doesn’t look absolutely, ridiculous that I’m still playing a teenager, then I’ll do it. Because it was only going to be a three-week run, just really, as a victory lap for that production from the 99-seat theater. So, it was very low stakes.

[Patrick] Krysta Rodriguez, who had been an understudy in the original Broadway production of ‘Spring Awakening’, was at that time battling breast cancer when she received a similar call.

[Krysta] In that weird, nebulous time, it was like, if you can’t find anybody else we need whoever we can find. That’s where Alex and I joined on as well, because it was the same. The people that were playing our parts had gotten other jobs, and everybody was obviously going to take an opportunity that was the next step, instead of a lateral move with this show.

[Andy] There was absolutely-

[Krysta] No indication-

[Andy] -No plan for this to come to Broadway at all.

[Krysta] Yes. The Beverly Hills run was literally the six weeks in between my last chemo treatment and my surgery. He was like, “what’s your treatment schedule like”. And I was like “I don’t know, what are the dates”. And he gave them to me. He was like, “do you want to play Ilse”. And I was like, “uh, yeah”.

[Patrick] Alex Boniello’s story of being cast as the Voice of Moritz, the counterpart to the role that Daniel Durant had been playing since the workshop, is especially amazing.

[Alex Boniello] I’ve told it a whole bunch of times in various interviews during the run of the show, but I’ve never done it with Andy here. So, I kind of want-

[Andy] Do you want me to hold your hand?

[Alex] Don’t- Please don’t touch me. I want to hear his perspective. I was sitting in my apartment. I had just finished doing ‘Brooklynite’, which was an Off-Broadway show. I was literally getting dressed to go cater ‘The King and I’ reception for their opening night at Lincoln Center. I was just sitting there getting into my little vest that I had to wear. He followed me on Twitter. When someone who has many followers follows you, you get notified. I was like, “Oh, I guess it’s not that weird. We know a lot of the same people, whatever”. Then five seconds later he sent me a direct message. And he just said, “Hey, number one, Matt Doyle says we should be friends; number two, what are you doing in the next couple weeks”. I was like, “Nothing, what’s up?”

He was sending these quick and- “Deaf West is doing ‘Spring Awakening’, need Voice of Moritz. Also, plays guitar. Are you available? It’s going to be in LA. Could you get to L.A. in-” I was like, “Yes, I would love to do that”. I Skyped with Michael, I think the next day, and just played guitar for him and sang for him. He was like, “Great, thank you so much. Okay, we’ll be in touch soon”. Then the Skype call ends. Fourteen seconds later he texts me. He’s like, “Hey, so, we want you to do it. What’s going on?” I’m like, “You tell me what’s going on”. So, it was like three days later, I was on a plane.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Patrick] The new actors had a lot of catching up to do and not a lot of time. One of the biggest obstacles, of course, was learning how to communicate with their deaf cast mates. Here are Alex and Daniel.

[Alex] The first day of rehearsal, there was this ASL workshop type thing. I was taking an Uber there with Andy. He was like, just so you know, this is going to be really, interesting for you. Because I’d never met a Deaf person, ever, until this.

[Patrick] Oh, wow.

[Alex] So I was like, what do you mean; and he’s like, you’re going to see. Just walk in. It’s going to be fine. So, I walked in the room. I’ll never forget it as-long-as I live, walking into a room that, theoretically, would be so loud and bustling with communication that I understand.

It was a room full of these kids who were so excited to see each other again. And it was dead silent. They were all fully conversing with each other with hand movements that I didn’t understand a single one of. I walked in there, and I was like, oh my god, this is wild. But Daniel knew that was the case.

[Daniel] The first time we met each other, I was told he would be my voice actor. I remember that he knew no ASL. So, we exchanged phone numbers and got to know each other through texting.

[Alex] The first thing that we did- He gave me a big hug. We sat down. He pulled out his cell phone, and he started typing things and showing things to me. A fascinating thing about Daniel, too, is, there are so many different levels of Deafness. Daniel had never heard- Ever, ever, ever. So, sound does not exist in his world, period. So, he thinks in concepts. He thinks in pictures in a way that we think in words and language. So, when he was typing to me, English is his second language, so that’s pretty clear. That was fascinating for me to learn. Right away, I was like, “Oh, wow”. It’s similar to, if someone’s first language is Spanish, and they’re typing English to you. You’ll notice things like that.

[Daniel] We decided to finally sit together and go through the script, and I would sign it. And we would talk about what we thought the lines meant. That was a way for us to start building some chemistry around the character.

[Alex] Watching him do the signs, trying to approximate what I thought his version of the character was feeling while also putting- It’s impossible for you not to put your own thing to it. But your job is to make sure his is the forefront. But yes, that’s kind of what it was. It was very, very slow. And we had two weeks to do it.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Patrick] I wondered what the social dynamic was like in the rehearsal room between the groups of hearing and Deaf actors. This was how I posed the question to Andy Mientus.

It sounds like the hearing actors maybe were working around the Deaf- It was their playing field that you guys were coming onto. Was that how it felt?

[Andy] Absolutely, because it’s a rare opportunity for them to be the focus. So, it was staged very deliberately to make sure that the signing was the focus. That the Deaf actor was the focus. Because that’s something that audiences don’t get an opportunity to see a whole lot. It’s something those actors don’t get to do, sadly, a whole lot. So of course, they should be the focus of it. It’s what made it special and different from that original.

[Patrick] Here’s what Daniel Durant had to say.

[Daniel] Well, I think it was a half and half situation. We were learning about music and the rhythm of music, why sounds are made in certain ways to cause emotion. They were learning similar things about sign language. So, you could see it becoming, instead of two groups, becoming one group where there was mutual learning between each group. Both in sign language and in music. I give a lot of credit to Michael Arden, because of the process.

I’ll never forget the first rehearsal back in Los Angeles. And it really was a place where we bonded together, and we got to know each other personally in terms of our backgrounds. We became sort of a family there. He’s really, adept at that, creating that sort of bond. I think Michael Arden really needs to be credited for being one of the top directors around.

[Patrick] Here’s Michael Arden.

[Michael] None of our hearing actors, with the exception of one, who knew a little bit, knew any sign language before we started. It was like, here, meet this person who you’re going to be spending every moment with, and learning how to communicate with. It was so exciting to watch these all these young actors. For some it was their first play. Theater is, ultimately, communication. They were having to relearn that on a basic level. It really stripped everyone of any ego, so it just cleared out all this space for this amazing work and growth to take place.

[Music: ‘Song of Purple Summer’] ♫ And heaven waits // So close it seems // To show her child the wonders // Of a world beyond her dreams // The earth will wave- ♫

[Patrick] The work, of course, paid off. The show opened at the Wallis in May of 2015; again, to rave reviews. This time, Charles McNulty, in the L.A. Times, called the production stunning, enthralling, and a rousing success.

[Music: ‘Song of Purple Summer’] ♫ And mares will neigh // With stallions that they mate // Foals they've borne // And all shall know the wonder // Of purple summer ♫

[Ken Davenport] I’ve had a man crush on Michael Arden forever, and a talent crush.

[Patrick] This is producer Ken Davenport. He would, ultimately, become the show’s lead producer for Broadway.

[Ken] I’ve been a fan of Deaf West for years, and then I heard the were doing ‘Spring Awakening’. I knew some folks that were involved with the production, and I had done a little bit of- I’d given them some advice on things about developing the show, from a business perspective. Then I went to see it on a lark. I had actually read the review from Charles McNulty, who is a very tough critic. And when he went crazy for it, I said, wow, there really must be something going on here. I just happened to be in Los Angeles for a wedding their final weekend. I said, “Meh, I’ll go check it out” and I went and was unbelievable moved. I remember thinking, “I have to get this to Broadway”.

[Patrick] Wow. Was there anything in particular you remember from that performance that made your producer Spidey senses just go off?

[Ken] Yes. It happened within the first 15 seconds. ‘Spring Awakening’ has this beautiful, beautiful beginning. This haunting Duncan Sheik melody. Wendla comes forward and starts to sing “Mama Who Bore Me”. In the Deaf West production, she came forward and then there was this great duality, for those of you who have seen it. The duality of the staging and the guitar. She came forward, and she started to sign it. My heart broke for her.

[Music: ‘Mama Who Bore Me’] ♫ Mama who bore me // Mama who gave me // No way to handle things // Who made me so sad // Mama, the weeping ♫

[Ken] All of a sudden this effort, this desire in the actress- Of course, she was so wonderful the desire to communicate her innermost thoughts and emotions just seemed so much more passionate when told through sign. This effort of, “I so want to talk to someone. I so want someone to talk to me. And I’m just looking for a way for someone to listen and for someone to hear me”. It was just so much more powerful through sign language. I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh, thousands, and thousands, and thousands more people have to see this”.

[Patrick] Here’s how Deaf West artistic director, DJ Kurs, remembers meeting Ken Davenport that day. The Cody he’s talking about is Cody Lassen, another of the show’s producers.

[DJ] During intermission, Ken comes out and starts talking to Cody. I remember him seeming very interested, and my interpreter attempted to eavesdrop their conversation. But they were speaking in low tones. My instinct as a Deaf person tells me to hang low in these situations. And I guess in this case, the work spoke for itself.

[Ken] DJ Kurs came up to me after, and I was just so moved. I was like, this is amazing; this is incredible. I hadn’t really said, I’m going to move it to Broadway yet. DJ said, “We hope you’ll help us figure out a life for it after”. I remember just kind of saying- And what was amazing for me is, it was probably the first ever conversation I’ve had with a Deaf person.

[Patrick] I was going to ask you: How did you communicate with him?

[Ken] We had an interpreter there. I have never had a conversation. I’ve certainly said “hello” or spoken to someone very quickly, a brief greeting. But I’d never had a discussion, especially something as serious as this. The interpreter came over, and of course, this is one of the reasons I wanted to do the show. Everyone’s first experience: “Oh, you’re nervous. What do I say? Who do I look at?” These are things that we don’t know. What I hope and pray is that our production of ‘Spring Awakening’ helped educate people on some of those issues. I remember having this conversation and looking at the interpreter. He said, “I hope you’ll help us get-” and I was like, “Yes. No, no, we’ve got to get this to New York”. I just remember saying that. Once I say something, I’m just a guy that has to figure out how to do it.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Patrick] So, when you’re sitting in a theater, and you decide, this has to go to Broadway, what do you do then?

[Ken] The next step in this specific case was me calling a theater owner; because I analyzed- Actually, the list is right over there. Those are all the theaters that are on Broadway and the shows that are coming in, and also what I think is coming in on top of them.

[Patrick] Your guess, educated guess?

[Ken] Yes, and you know, my nose to the gossip mills, if you will. That analogy made no sense, but you get it. So, I had a feeling I knew what was coming in, and I thought there might be a slot available at the Brooks (Atkinson). So, I called the Nederlanders and said, I think you may have a window, and I have the show for you. Thankfully the Nederlanders- I couldn’t get half the pitch out of my mouth, of, “It’s the Deaf West production of ‘Spring Awakening’”. They were like, “We’re very interested in the show. Give me five minutes to figure this out. We’ll talk to you some more”. They did. They came back. “Yes, we have a slot. We just need to hear some more about the show”. Very quickly, they said, “We would love to have you in our theater”.

[Patrick] Wow. How did you raise the money? I don’t even know- Did you need to raise money, and how did you do it?

[Ken] Oh, yeah. We had to raise four and a half million dollars in 86 days. So, it was 86 days from the day that I saw it to the first preview. At this point I had given no thought to not only how I would raise it, but also how much it would even cost. What I think should drive all art and all production of anything is, “I must do this. I have to do this”. And then you figure- “Okay, now we have to figure out how we’re going to make it all happen”. I just trusted, also, that anything this powerful- People would raise their hands and say, “I want to support this. I want to be a part of it”. That’s what happened.

[Patrick] I’m always the most excited to find out how actors found out they’d be going to Broadway. For this production, since the show had closed before the decision was officially made, most of the actors found out via email. For Krysta Rodriguez, who at that point was recovering was recovering from a double mastectomy she’d had as part of her cancer treatment, the moment was especially surreal. Here’s Krysta, and then Daniel Durant.

[Krysta] We actually got the call to go to Broadway as I was recovering from the surgery. I was hopped up on drugs. I had to be like, “Is this real? Did this actually happen, or did I fever dream this thing that we’re going to Broadway?”

[Daniel] It was a huge moment for me. I’ll never forget it. We had a gut feeling, but it was really a huge question. There was a big question in the air, and then DJ from Deaf West, the artistic director at Deaf West- We kept kind of waiting for him to let us know. One day I was in my basement watching Netflix, and I get this email from one of the producers, or someone, saying, “We’re offering you this role of Moritz on Broadway”. I was stunned. I looked at that email for several minutes, and then finally I called my mom, and I Skyped with her. And it was very emotional. I was telling her I was going on Broadway. My mom is a big theater nut. So, she was just thrilled. We were all just stunned. It took a few days for it to set in that I was going to be moving to Broadway, moving on and doing this show.

[Patrick] Coming to Broadway, of course, also meant relocating most of the Deaf actors from California to New York. Here’s Ken Davenport.

[Ken] I said, “Oh, they’ll move here”. And then we were like, “Wait, that’s just not as easy for them”. What, again, they proved, was, “Yes, we’ll move here. We’ll figure it out”. What I loved was, it was not this- “Don’t treat us in a certain way. We can figure this out”. And they banded together, and a bunch of them- It was 18 to a room in some- It was crazy. But yes, we had to give everything an extra thought. But I think that all taught us a very valuable lesson.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Patrick] Something that I haven’t mentioned until just now is the fact that the Deaf West production of ‘Spring Awakening’ was breaking ground in yet another way with actress Ali Stroker. Ali had been with the production since the LA run. But when the show moved to Broadway, Ali, who is paralyzed from the chest down, would be the first actress in a wheelchair to appear on Broadway. The way the cast and creatives talk about Ali, especially with the challenges she faced, just logistically working in a handicapped-inaccessible Broadway theater, is so emblematic of how close this team was. Here’s choreographer Spencer Liff, and then Andy Mientus and Krysta Rodriguez.

[Spencer] Ali is one of the best people you’ll ever meet. She’s constantly pushing boundaries, but she’s much more aware of her capabilities than I was at the beginning. We had a conversation on the very first day. And I said, “Hey, this is totally new for me. I’ve never choreographed for someone in a chair”. She showed me a lot of videos of her dancing. She’s on an actual wheelchair dance team. I watched those, and I was like, “Holy crap- You can do a lot. Okay, there go my judgments of what you can and can’t do”. Then I really focused on what she could bring to the table that someone who wasn’t in a chair couldn’t. I made her the cornerstone of a lot of my formations and was able to use her capabilities and showcase them. Which is the place I came from with her.

She would look at the choreography I did and adapt it herself. Then we would, in our own private sessions, work to- “Okay, you’re going to turn this way at this time. How do you sign and move your chair? Where do we drop the hands?” It was complicated, but she’s unbelievable. It’s funny- It was one of the first things I thought of when we knew we were going into the Brooks. I was like, “Well, where are we going to put Ali”. She has to be on the main floor. And they have to get a ramp, because there are stairs to get in just the door.

The cast would band together. When we first got into the theater, Andy picked up Ali and took her to every floor to make sure she could see the whole theater.

[Patrick] Oh, my god. I’m going to bawl.

[Spencer] That cast held onto each other so tight and loved each other so much.

[Patrick] I was very excited to get to ask Andy about this.

Did you really take her out of her chair and take her all over the theater when you guys first went into the Brooks Atkinson?

[Andy] Yes.

[Krysta] We took her everywhere.

[Andy] We’re always picking her up.

[Krysta] Unfortunately, you have to. There is so little accessibility in so many places. We would have a joke about the rating of accessibility in each place we’d go. “Accessibility zero”. This is not- So, yes. She’s so good at maneuvering that. But yes, we would have birthdays in the basement. Someone would have to take Ali, carry her downstairs and set her there to sit and watch and hang out, because she can’t get down there. Also, the Brooks Atkinson- They renovated a dressing room on the ground level for her to be able to get into and made a bathroom for her to move around. It’s great now. That theater is fully accessible- Well, not fully accessible. But more accessible than a lot of the other ones that have been around a hundred plus years that didn’t have the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) regulations that they have now.

[Patrick] Throughout the Broadway rehearsal process, Ali also held her own in Spencer’s notoriously difficult warmups. Here again, is Spencer and then Krysta.

[Spencer] I would lead this very long, aggressive workout every single morning, where they would have to plank, do pushups, and do cardio. She always was there doing her own version. I would bring an elastic band in, and we would do biceps together. It was very cool.

[Krysta] Truly, at that point, I was held together with sweat and Scotch tape. My brain was gone. I had chemo brain like crazy. I was recovering from surgery when we came to do the production. So, we would do Spencer’s warmups, and I would not do some things. I’d be like, “You know what, I just had surgery. And I don’t need to”. I’d look over, and Ali’s doing triceps pushups on her wheelchair. I’m like, “Okay, I guess we’re doing this now. I guess I don’t have an excuse. There are Deaf people dancing, and Ali’s doing pushups. So I just have to do it”.

[Patrick] All of this is just to say that, as an ensemble, they cared about each other. Loved each other, even. They were connected, and their show lived or died by that connection. Here’s Alex Boniello and then Krysta Rodriguez.

[Alex] “Don’t Do Sadness” was a really, big thing for that, because Daniel had to jump off of a staircase. I would give him this cue, and he would always be late. I’m like, “Why is this happening?” And one of our ASL masters, Elizabeth Green, is the only hearing ASL master. She goes, “Well, it’s because you’re thinking about it like a hearing person. So why do you think?” And I was like, “Because I’m tapping my chest when I want him to jump. But his brain needs to see it and then jump”. So, for someone who’s hearing the music, I would want to be like:

[Alex (sings)] ♫ You just sail away, because you know... ♫ tap.

[Alex] Because that’s when I want him to jump. I would have to go:

[Alex (sings)] ♫ You just sail away because... ♫ tap ♫ ...You know... ♫

[Alex] In the middle of my- It was like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time and realizing that that’s how it has to go.

Daniel and I would laugh. He’s like, it’s working now? And I’m like, “Yeah, it’s working now”. He’s like, “Why, and then I would try to explain it to him. I don’t even have the vocabulary in your language to explain to you why this works, but trust me forever and ever, and we’re great”. He’s like, “Okay”.

[Music: ‘Don’t Do Sadness’] ♫ Just sail away // 'Cause you know // I don't do sadness // Not even a little bit ♫

[Krysta] Yeah, as far as focus: Man, I’ve never- You do other shows, and you have to pay attention. You can’t just be thinking or whatever. But the whole show relied on us giving the cues at the right times and relied on us- As soon as your hand would move, they would start signing. It had to be on the word. If you spaced out for a second- I mean you can imagine what would happen if a person who can’t hear the music- If something went wrong, and they just keep going, because they don’t know that something’s different. Or they don’t know that the music didn’t start, or that the track didn’t come on, or anything. So, everyone- We were just on edge all the time, totally focused on each other, or else the show could have fallen apart so many times, so many times.

[Alex] Seconds. In-

[Krysta] There were actually a couple times- We had this thing we called the ship during “Touch Me” where we all had to walk together. We would sort of tap on the shoulders. After a while they know the rhythm, but sometimes the tempos of songs are different. That’s what live theater is. So, we’re tapping, and sometimes we’d call it the shipwreck, because it couldn’t get together. Spencer, actually, was like, “you know, sometimes those are the most magical. Because it reminds the audience that these people cannot hear”. That we’re doing all of this without- And not just maybe hear. They cannot hear. They’re dancing on rhythm, on beat, with emotion and with dynamics. Loud and soft and all of that stuff. Those times were actually kind of special, when you’re like, “Oh, this is actually a treat, every night; a treat”.

[Music: ‘Touch Me’] ♫ I’ll tell you how // Where I go // When I go there // Touch me // Just like it // Now that’s it // Oh, that’s heaven, touch // I love your light ♫

[Patrick] The Deaf West production of ‘Spring Awakening’ opened for a limited engagement run on September 27th, 2015, to rave reviews. Charles Isherwood of the New York Times said that the “show was born anew, was thrillingly inventive, and was directed with remarkable finesse by Michael Arden”. The production ran for a previously determined 23 previews and 135 regular performances and went on to be nominated for three Tony Awards, including best lighting design of a musical for Ben Stanton, best direction of a musical for Michael Arden, and best revival of a musical.

[Music: ‘Song of Purple Summer’] ♫ A summers day // A mother sings // A song of purple summer // Through the heart of everything // And heaven waits ♫

[Patrick] One of the great things about making this episode a year after the show closed is that the people who made the work now have some perspective on it, so I want to end by sharing some of the thoughts and takeaways the cast and creatives shared with me. DJ Kurs goes first.

[DJ] Talking about it a year later, we can only view it from the rearview mirror. The achievement of our production feels even more exceptional in the age of Trump. It is magical when Deaf and hearing artists cross cultural and linguistic boundaries to work together in the purpose of creating art, and even more so when hearing and Deaf audience members sit together to enjoy the same show. I’m also very proud of the press that we got. Everything from the first reviews to the celebration of Ali Stroker as the first performer in a wheelchair on Broadway. I’m also just very happy that our production has inspired so many other productions that involve Deaf talent and am very proud of the outsize impact that our little theater company has created.

[Patrick] Here’s Daniel on his feeling about Broadway run and the legacy of the production.

[Daniel] I think part of the legacy is just a little bit of magic that happened in that show. Music and English and American Sign Language and choreography: These were all layer upon layer, upon layer. It was so textured and gave the audience something different. And historic moment for Deaf people, for our culture, and for all of these people who were involved in the production. I just think it was so historic.

[Patrick] Here’s Michael Arden.

[Michael] I hope that our production gave both audiences and theater makers and producers an opportunity to see how exciting performers with different abilities can be. I think there are so many ways to tell stories, and having Deaf actors and hard of hearing actors and actors in wheelchairs- These things just don’t happen. Yet sometimes we can somehow tell the story more clearly and in new ways. So, I hope it served as an enlightening experience. To think, “Hey, why can’t I hire a Deaf actor for this role. Maybe I’ll get something more out of it because of that”. An opportunity for audiences to come and enjoy theater in their own language and to not feel like they had to come to just the one signed performance where they get to look to the side of the stage but miss what’s happening on the stage.

I think that’s important because I think we’re supposed to as theater makers, it is our charge and our duty to reflect the world around us and not just the parts of the world that look just like we do.

[Patrick] We’ll leave you with a story from Spencer Liff about an experience he had at Pearl Studios, a place where a lot of theater auditions are held here in New York City.

[Spencer] A few days ago, there was a long line of girls standing outside an audition room, waiting to sing their 16 bars. And there was a girl in a chair in that line. I was so happy, immediately, thinking, the people in that room are going to be forced to think about nontraditional casting. They’re going to have to go, “Oh, could we put this character that’s not written as someone in a chair-” And then I thought, “Somebody in that room saw ‘Spring Awakening’, and maybe they’ll say they saw Ali Stroker and that it can be done”. This girl and I- This girl in the chair- We locked eyes. She lit up. She came over to me, and she knew who I was. Not only was she in a chair, but she was hard of hearing and wearing a hearing aid.

She was like, “I saw ‘Spring Awakening’, and for obvious reasons, I was incredibly inspired by both of those factors. I’m able to come to these auditions now and put myself in positions that- It doesn’t specify an actress in a chair”. I couldn’t get over that all day- What an impact Ali had made to this girl, and our show in general. How many of those stories there are of people that came to see our kids onstage inspiring them to go after their dreams and goals.

And that- I came home and called Michael Arden and told him that story, and both of us- It reminded us that it was bigger than what we had done in the theater, even. I was so happy I had that moment.

[Music: ‘Song of Purple Summer’] ♫ I will sing the song of a purple summer // All shall know the wonder ♫

[Patrick] Stay tuned after the credits for scenes for our next episode.

[Music: ‘The Bitch of Living’] ♫ God, I dreamed there was an Angel // Who could hear me through the wall // As I cried out like in Latin ♫

[Patrick] If you enjoyed today’s episode we would be super grateful if you take a minute to rate and review us on iTunes. You can also follow us on Twitter, we’re at ‘bwaybackstory’ (@bwaybackstory) and Facebook, where we’re at ‘BroadwayBackstory’.

Huge thanks to the people at ‘TodayTix’ who make this podcast possible. So just a little bit more about them. You guys, ‘TodayTix’ pioneered mobile lotteries and was the first to offer digital Broadway lotteries. With the ‘TodayTix’ app you can enter daily lotteries to win discounted or free tickets to selected Off-Broadway and Broadway shows. Share your entries on social media to double or triple your odds of winning. You can also sign up for alerts to get a reminder the next time a lottery is open for entry.

Download the free ‘TodayTix’ app on iOS and Android for even more exclusive deals and promotions. Including access to exclusive lottery tickets to the hottest shows in your city. And don’t forget, ‘Broadway Backstory’ listeners can use the code ‘backstory’ for 15 dollars off your first purchase.

Huge, huge, huge thanks first and for most to Alex Boniello, who helped arrange so many of the interviews I did for this episode. That kid has hair for days. You can follow him on Twitter at ‘alexboniello’ (@alexboniello).

Also, a huge thanks to Mr. Alex Wyse who stepped in at the last minute to provide the voice for DJ Kurs. That guy is hilarious on Twitter. You can follow him at ‘alexwyse’ (@alexwyse).

Special thanks for the invaluable production help from Steve Tipton, my husband who I really, truly could not make this podcast without.

Also, Mike Jensen, Matt Tamanini, Rickie Condos, Chloe O’Connor, and Chloe Lindt.

[Music: ‘The Bitch of Living’] ♫ God, my whole life's like some test // Then there's Marianna Wheelan ♫

[Music: ‘Legally Blonde the Musical’ “Oh My God Guys”] ♫ Dear Elle, honey, mazel tov // Future's taking off // Bring that ring back // And show it to me // Four carrots, a princess cut // Are you psyched or what? // I just wish I could be there to see // When he gets down on one knee // Oh my god, oh my god, you guys // Looks like Elle’s- ♫

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

[Laurence O'Keefe] And we got into a conversation about this phenomenon that happens to young women called “dumbing themselves down”. And I was like, “wait you’re kidding? That really happens?”. He said, “Oh, absolutely”. He said, you know, it’s one of the reasons that all girl schools became, you know, popular at some point. Because, they thought if they removed the male element from the equation, these girls could, you know, excel.

And having just seen ‘Legally Blonde’ the film, I got me thinking like, wow, here’s a girl who’s smart enough, if you think about it, to get into Harvard Law. And why does she do it? To chase the jerky guy.

And I thought, now that’s a story we gotta tell. And we immediately said, well there’s only one person who we know that we think is ready to direct and this is Jerry Mitchell.

[Jerry Mitchell] ‘Legally Blonde’ was a massive, massive undertaking and great learning experience. I was ready to tell that story. I knew how to tell ‘Legally Blonde’.

[Laura Bell Bundy] I sent him an email, and I just said, “Hey Jerry, I heard about ‘Legally Blonde’, I am so happy for you. You totally deserve this. You’re going to kill this. And by the way, I know someone who would be really, great for Elle Woods, wink, wink”. He responded back immediately and said, “Why do you think that I came to see you in ‘Wicked’ I wanted to see if you could carry a show”.

[Jerry] And then we opened in New York, and we got a rave from Variety and some other great reviews. But the only review that matter in New York City is the New York Times.

[Patrick] Do you have any thoughts on the reviews?

[Nell Benjamin] My general thinking on them was they were not particularly positive.

[Richard H. Blake] We were passed over for nomination for best musical, which look, at the end of the day, I’ve won Tonys. I’ve not won Tonys. At the end of the day it’s got to be about the work. ‘Legally Blonde’ is one of the things I’m proudest of, but I’m not going to say it didn’t hurt.

[Patrick] Next time on ‘Broadway Backstory’.

♫ [Music (no lyrics)] ♫

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