Blog

from Sarah Hughey, Lighting Designer for Black Pearl Sings!

As a lighting designer, I am often called upon to help transform a setting onstage.  In Black Pearl Sings! the most striking canvas for this transformation is the vast sky that scenic designer Jack Magaw gave our world.  The colors of the sky help track the passage of time in each scene and comment on the emotions onstage.  But in Black Pearl Sings! the lighting must also enhance the subtle but important distinctions between Pearl’s prison home in Act I and the cozy apartment of Susannah’s “bohemian” friend in Act II.

READ MORE

from Emily McConnell, Costume Designer for Black Pearl Sings!

One of the consistent challenges and joys of costume design is the variety of characters one has to (gets to) research.  While it’s always easy to find images depicting wealthy, upper-class people of any period, it’s often difficult to find reliable images of minority groups, poor people, and anyone outside the mainstream.

Certainly that’s true of researching Pearl, the title character in Black Pearl Sings!  After all, photographs of female prisoners in work farms are not the first thing that pops up when you Google “clothing of 1934.” And chain gang clothing isn’t exactly featured in the pages of the Sears catalog.

I was lucky to eventually find some great sources – state history websites from Florida and Texas that included some photographs of prisons, and a wonderful book called “Reform and Retribution: An Illustrated History of American Prisons” by John Roberts.  Fantastic – my work here is done, right?

Not really.
READ MORE

E. Faye Butler and Susie McMonagle have been immersed in rehearsals for the play Black Pearl Sings! since December, with Susie starting autoharp lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music weeks before that – a skill required for her role as “Susannah Mullally.”

Inspired by a true story and set against the backdrop of Depression-era America, Black Pearl Sings! tells the story of Alberta “Pearl” Johnson (Butler), incarcerated in a Texas prison camp.  When music collector Susannah (McMonagle) decides that Pearl has a voice and repertoire worth recording, the two women find themselves forging an unlikely partnership – not only to change their own lives, but to preserve a rich musical heritage born before the first African slaves reached American shores, before its significance is lost to the world.

HEAR CLIPS FROM THE FIRST ACT

In this scene, Susannah challenges Pearl to demonstrate that she would be a valuable addition to Susannah’s recordings.  Listen

Pearl voices her skepticism of Susannah’s “expertise.”  She demands proof that Susannah does what she claims to do.  Listen

Black Pearl Sings! starts previews on January 13.  For more information, visit the show page.

from Tom Burch (Scenic Designer, Ten Chimneys)

As a scenic designer, I love research… really LOVE research.  In the last couple of seasons at Northlight, I’ve been privileged to get to explore the world and times of Jane Austen (Sense & Sensibility), DC and environs during the 1860s (A Civil War Christmas) and the upscale world of New York City parlor society (Souvenir). Each was a fascinating look into a world gone by that I had to explore through books, the internet, movies and the like. However…

READ MORE

from Jess Godwin (actor, Snapshots: A Musical Scrapbook)

I have to be honest with you.  When Northlight asked me for 500 words on my Snapshots experience, I didn’t really know what to say.  The process has been wonderful, but I’d be lying if I said it was a breeze.  Most of the time, I’ve been more than a little anxious.  Why?

Two words: Stephen Schwartz.

I mean, COME ON.  I grew up watching my mom sing “Day by Day” in five different productions of Godspell.  I played Catherine in Pippin in high school.  I ALMOST made it into Wicked.  Twice.  (No big deal.)  To me, Snapshots feels like a gift.  I have the opportunity to work with the man behind the music that speaks to Justin Bieber fans and octogenarians alike.  And not just that – I get to sing it!  In front of people!

So, I fell in love with the music and the story and we all lived happily ever after.  The End.  Not so!  The more I cared about the show, the more worried I got.  Worried about reviews, worried about ticket sales, worried about the shelf life of the show, and REALLY worried about whether or not I was making the right acting choices.  “Are my four characters different enough?”  “What if nobody laughs at any of my jokes?”  “Am I even funny at all?”  “What if nobody has the heart to tell me that I’m actually a terrible actor?????”

Sometimes, we as performers forget that this is FUN.  We get to pretend for a living!  I am ashamed to say that somewhere in the middle of the process, I forgot.
READ MORE

On September 18, 2011, Northlight Dramaturg Kristin Leahey sat down with the creators of Snapshots: A Musical Scrapbook to talk a little bit about working in musical theatre.

Kristin Leahey: Thanks so much for joining us again. This discussion is geared particularly toward students, who are interested in what the profession of musical theatre is, what type of training on needs to do and what musical theatre means today. My question for both of you is: what’s your training?

Stephen Schwartz: I studied music, piano and subsequently composition for about 10 years starting when I was about 6 or 7. When I was in high school I went to the Juilliard Music School in New York City, Preparatory Division, where I studied piano, composition, theory, orchestration, etc. Because I knew I wanted to do musical theatre, I then went to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, which had one of the best undergraduate drama programs in the country, and while there I also wrote or co-wrote four original musicals. When I was in the drama department at Carnegie, even though I didn’t want to be an actor, I took a lot of acting classes, which were very helpful to me as a writer. I also studied directing, set, costume and lighting design, voice and speech, etc. I think it’s really important to get as much training as you can, and particularly to get some experience in the area you want to follow.

David Stern: I went to the University of Pennsylvania and studied Computer Science Engineering. I grew up in the south, and the idea of working in the arts was not on the table. My parents were not supportive of that kind of choice and felt that I should do something practical. Further, I didn’t know anyone who worked in the arts or made a career out of it – so it just wasn’t an option. But while I was in college I worked on all the shows. I was directing and writing plays and musicals. And when it came time to graduate, I was really faced with the choice of what I was going to do: would I take a job as an engineer or take a shot at this impossible career? I took a leap of faith and decided to move to New York and try to find a job somewhere in professional theatre. The only person I could find with any connection to Broadway was my brother’s youth group advisor’s assistant – who had a job at ASCAP but also worked part-time for David Shire. I called him, and he ultimately introduced me David who then introduced me to Richard Maltby, Jr. I then called Richard every morning until he gave me something to do — I believe my first job for him was sitting in his apartment and waiting for a carpet delivery. And then ultimately, when he went into production on Miss Saigon and on Nick and Nora, I was there — so I got to work on those shows. My training really came from having a front row seat to the major leagues. I soon began writing on my own and getting feedback from Richard and other professionals. They taught me the craft of writing, and over time my work improved to the point where people became interested in it.

READ MORE

Lisa Wolf and Stephen Schwartz

Lisa Wolf, co-host of Hollywood 360, sat down for a chat with Stephen Schwartz.

Listen to the interview here.

Lindsay Jones

Northlight Theatre offers numerous free events that enable audiences to go beyond the performance to enhance their theatregoing experience.

Last night, Sound Designer Lindsay Jones participated in the post-show Community Conversation.  Dramaturg Kristin Leahey facilitated the talk with Jones, a prolific sound designer who has worked with Northlight on many past productions and is currently involved in Snapshots: A Musical Scrapbook.

from Lynn Baber, Artistic Administrator

I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I have a really good job.

It’s an interesting job and I work with fascinating people and all kinds of things are always happening.  One thing is that we are currently in rehearsal for this amazing show. Another thing is, whenever the set for a show is just going up I am always a little in awe.

Just last week our theatre wasn’t a theatre at all. For 3 weeks every summer, the Northlight Theatre space in the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie (NSCPAS) is changed into a big, open “multi-purpose room”. There is an event that takes place in what is usually Northlight, but they take out all the seating, the booth and everything that makes it a theatre in order to use that space for an education showcase sponsored by NSCPAS. READ MORE

from BJ Jones, Artistic Director

Somewhere between the letter accepting our daughter Michaela to University of Dayton and the long drive back from taking her there for her freshman year, Candy and I realized that we were going to be alone together for the first time since our first child was born in 1982. Like the protagonists in Snapshots, we were facing an entirely different life. We didn’t even replace Baxter, our last dog; no goldfish, no cat, and until our son Cameron came home from school and left his Boa Constrictor in the spare bedroom for a year, leaving me to feed it frozen rats, Candy and I were alone in the house we bought to accommodate the three kids.

Doubtless many of you have either experienced this or are about to and it’s a soul searching moment in your life. You ask yourself big questions: where are you headed, individually or together? Is work enough? Or the dark question, how much time is left and what is remaining on your bucket list? Add to that the global questions of economic stability both here and abroad, and the chilling notion that the life you left your children includes a bankrupt country and a world in turmoil ready to erupt in a seizure of fear and international resentment. Did you do enough for them? Will you be a burden for them? Do they even like you as they achieve adulthood, or do you get along with them?

READ MORE