Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast exploring the topics of business, education,
technology and design.
I'm your host, Mr. Jason.
Join me weekly as my team and I produce content that's informative, positive, fun and uplifting.
Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders and inspirational stories
with an international flavor.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International
Community School of Bangkok.
In today's episode, we have the privilege of talking to several student cast members
of this year's musical, along with the director and his choreographer.
I'm joined by co-host, Premi and Patience.
But before we get into details about the upcoming show, Susical the Musical, let's hear our
quote of the day and get some headline entertainment news.
A quote of the day comes from Charlie Kaufman.
He's quoted to have said, there's theater in life, obviously, and there's life in theater.
This quote highlights the connection between theater and real life.
It suggests that art imitates life and vice versa, as theater often reflects human experiences.
This quote also implies that theater often allows individuals to explore and understand
the complexities of life through storytelling.
And finally, life itself can serve as a source of inspiration for theater production.
And now, onto some news from the world of entertainment.
Our first news piece is quite sad, especially if you are a big fan of the hit show, Friends.
Matthew Perry, who plays Chandler Bing, passed away recently.
He was 54 years old.
According to E! News, Matthew Perry was laid to rest at a private funeral attended by close
friends and family members.
Matthew Perry, along with his co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc,
and David Schwimmer, played their roles on Friends for 10 seasons, from 1994 to 2004.
And now, moving onto the worlds of American celebrities who own professional English football
clubs.
No, this isn't an episode of Ted Lasso.
According to Entertainment Tonight, Ryan Reynolds wanted to throw up after he was told how much
his team, Rexham AFC, lost.
And it seems Ryan Reynolds and his partner Rob have lost close to 12 million US dollars.
However, there is a silver lining to this story.
Rexham AFC did win their league title.
The Prince of Wales even sent out a tweet to congratulate them.
And finally, this next news piece is a mix of a tech billionaire slash business celebrity
who has gone into the violent sport of mixed martial arts, or for short, MMA.
The 39-year-old billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Metta, had a surgery recently
after tearing his ACL while training and preparing for an upcoming MMA fight.
And according to ET, the injury also comes more than two months after Zuckerberg called
off a highly anticipated fight with fellow tech CEO Elon Musk.
Zuck wasn't happy when he found out that Musk was not serious about getting into the ring
to fight him.
Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.
Okay, that ends our entertainment news for this episode.
Thank you for the quote of the day in our headline, entertainment news.
And you're right, patients, that's news you just can't make up.
The entertainment industry is a funny business.
Alright, it's time for our first segment and we are joined by several cast members
of this year's musical titled, Susical the Musical.
Patience will start us off with our first question.
Welcome to the show, everyone.
We are so happy to have you all on.
To start, could you please introduce yourself, tell us what grade you're in and what role
you're playing in this year's musical.
Yes, I am Malachi Smith.
I'm a senior this year and the role I will be playing is to the cat in the hat.
I'm Kylie Overstreet.
I'm also a senior this year and the role I am playing is Maisie LeBird.
I'm Peech and I'm Virjuran and I'm in grade six and the role that I'll be playing is Jojo.
My name is Nishka Gurung.
I'm in ninth grade this year and I play Gertrude McFuzz.
Thank you so much.
And as we all know, a lot of work goes into putting on a live musical show.
Last year was Shrek.
This year is Susical the Musical.
For this year, what's it been like behind the scenes and what challenges have you faced
and how have you overcome them?
This year has been really fun and as you know, I was Pinocchio last year in Shrek and it's
just been really great to be back on stage.
I really like the songs and the dancing, like the choreography.
It's all really fun.
One challenge that I've had to overcome is creating physicalities and accents for each
character I play because the point of the Cat in the Hat is that he pops up in random
places and the audience never really knows where that's going to be and I could play
any number of characters and so distinguishing with my physicality and my accent is crucial
for the audience to enjoy each character.
So that's been a really fun thing to figure out.
I think one of the coolest things about the behind the scenes in this show is just how
fun it is and this might be my favorite musical that I've done at ICS just because the atmosphere
is really fun, all the songs are really fun, the cast is getting along really well and
so that just makes it a very enjoyable show because every rehearsal I look forward to
doing it.
But some challenges that I've faced are mainly my songs have challenged me a lot vocally
because it's a different style of singing than I'm used to and also I've had to do
a New Jersey accent which I am not used to and so learning how to act in a charactery
voice and singing these songs has been a challenge to me.
I like enjoyed physical a lot.
Some challenges that I faced was like the transitions I had to get from some places
to other places while in like Shrek I only had to go on stage and off stage and that's
it and so however this year in physical it was like much more fun because I got to get
more involved in the songs than I did in Shrek.
I really like being a part of physical I just really like being part of musicals in general
mainly because of the rehearsals and getting to spend time making friends and spend time
singing and dancing and performing with my friends.
This year something that was challenging for me was the acting in physical because before
in the past with my roles in musicals they've been a lot smaller so there hasn't really
been that much acting I have to do so I had to learn a lot and that was pretty challenging
but it was also really fun.
Well that must have been really challenging but I'm really glad you guys have overcome
those.
Our next question has to do with auditions.
Casting auditions can be quite competitive.
Were you nervous during the audition rounds and did you get the role you were hoping for?
To be honest I was not very nervous and in hindsight I think that was a bad thing.
I think it's really important to be nervous as if you're too calm you don't give all
your energy and you're not at your best.
Even though I did get Cat in the Hat I think I barely got the role and I could have been
much more prepared for auditions and callbacks.
So I think one thing that's really important is to just give it your all and mentally be
prepared to do that.
If I hadn't gotten the Cat in the Hat I'd probably have wanted Mr. Mayor or the General
because Mr. Mayor also has a really fun song called Here on Who.
Like since I've seen it been performed by Isaiah Cannon so many times it just looks
like really fun.
Or the General which is played by Noah Lowe.
I think he has a really great song.
That's a lot of fun so probably one of those two.
Yes, I was definitely nervous but I think I wasn't as nervous as I was last year during
Shrek.
During Shrek I was terrified.
I think this year part of the reason I wasn't nervous was because I wasn't hoping for a
specific role.
I kind of just went and like Malak I said gave my all and I think that's what helped
with the auditions because if you go in yes nervous because you want to be a little bit
nervous in order to do well but also if you go in just excited and ready to do your best
then I think you'll always have a good outcome.
And so yeah I didn't really I wasn't sure what I expected for this show.
I don't think I was prepared well enough.
I didn't know the parts well enough but I just went in and gave it my all and I'm really
happy with the outcome.
And if I hadn't gotten Maisie I think I would have been happy with any of the characters
but I'm very happy with the part that I got to play.
I was pretty nervous during the physical audition.
Actually more nervous than I was in Shrek and I was like kind of scared.
I actually was thinking of like getting some like minor characters since I got something
in like Elf in Shrek but like now that I got Jojo I'm actually pretty excited and I'm
more energetic for the next audition that might happen.
During the first round of auditions I wasn't that nervous because I'd already done auditions
before in previous years and I was just happy to get in and be part of the cast but I was
really really really nervous during callbacks because they put out a spreadsheet where it
was like the people who were going to be considered for roles and then I really really liked the
character of Gertrude and I listened to her songs beforehand but I was really intimidated
because everyone else who was trying out for the part was older and more experienced than
me so I felt like I wouldn't get it at all and I was really scared during callback.
I'm so much respect for all of you though.
I like just auditioned alone if I were to go I would be absolutely terrified.
Okay now our final question of this segment is an if you were question.
So if you were able to play another role in the musical what role would you choose and
why?
So I realize now I actually answered this question.
What was I supposed to?
So I'll answer the question that I didn't answer which was did I get the role I was
hoping for and yes I was totally unlike Kylie I was hoping for a specific role and it was
very lucky that I got that but that's not the best mentality.
I just happened to look out and yeah I mean the Can the Hat is just a blast to play and
he's got so much like like sass and it's such a fun character to play and something that
I've never done anything like before.
It's been fun to really push myself, push my singing levels like I've been taking voice
lessons and push my acting.
We actually went and saw West Side Story for a theater project and Mr. G he told us that
that Broadway level of acting should be our standard and so for the past like two months
I've really been trying to push and aim high for my standard for myself.
I think if I were to play another character if you'd asked me at the beginning of the
show I would have said the Cat in the Hat because it's definitely a super fun character
and there's so many parts to it but watching Malachi play it I don't think I could possibly
do it.
There's so much work that he's put into that and so I definitely don't think I could do
that and there's so much cool characterization to that.
So if I were to play a different character I think I would choose one of the Wickersham
Brothers because they have some of the funniest scenes even though they're kind of a smaller
part they're definitely something to look out for their songs are super fun they're
silly each of them has very strong characterization but and they just work so well together so
yeah I would definitely pick one of them just because of the fun that they bring to the
show.
I would like want to play some like minor characters like characters that would have
some solos and before like the audition I kind of wanted to get a baby kangaroo and
but now that I got Jojo I am pretty excited still and I'm happy that I got it.
I didn't expect to get Gertrude during the audition I was just really happy to be part
of the show but I really like the character and the role and getting challenged myself
with singing and acting it's a really big and kind of scary responsibility but it's
also just an amazing experience as well.
If I had to choose another character to play I would maybe want to be Maisie because I
really like the way Kylie does all her songs and she's like the polar opposite of Gertrude
because she's so flamboyant and loud and amazing um but it would be really fun to do that I'm
not sure if I could though.
Alright thank you so much for joining us today super excited to go see Susie and everyone
listening do go see Susie.
And with that last question for the cast members we'll end part one.
It's been a pleasure talking with some of the cast members for this year's musical.
I'm always amazed at how collectively talented our student body is and I have the privilege
of seeing them in action on opening night and with that we'll be right back after a
short announcement.
One, two, three, four.
Hey this is Asia and I'm here to invite you to join us for ICS first ever Makers Faire.
We have an amazing roster of vendors who are ready to share their handmade items with you.
Our makers are from our very own ICS students, parents, and teachers.
We're going to have everything from tacos to baked goods, specialty gifts like candles,
bags, books, artwork, stickers, and more.
We will have live music and this is going to be the event of the year.
Come shop with us on December 7th and 8th after school in the high school secondary
courtyard by the flag.
See you there.
By the way, Susical the Musical is coming out very soon Wednesday and Thursday the 22nd
and 23rd.
Don't forget to go see the show.
It's going to be great.
We are back with part two.
For this segment we'll be talking with both the director and the choreographer of the
musical.
Both highly talented people who are able to pull off amazing productions each year.
Patience will get us started with our first question.
Let's start off with the casting process.
We want to know what the director's mindset is when it comes to casting.
What do you look for in the casting process, specifically for Susical?
Patience, thanks for your questions.
And I'm excited to once again be on the podcast talking about the musical.
Not just because I like musicals, but also because I like this podcast.
I think it's a great thing.
Casting is a large part for me about how easy people are to work with.
And that I would say plays as big of a role as their ability.
The way I kind of prioritize things for a musical specifically, so for Susical, right,
is number one is singing ability.
Can they sing?
Especially if you are actually, it doesn't matter if you're a lead or an ensemble.
Both have to be able to sing.
So that's the number one.
It's like, can they carry a tune and what's their tone like?
Part of that tone for Susical was also character singing.
Do I think that they can sing as a character and not just trying to sing pretty?
And second to the singing comes how easy are they to work with?
Are they directable?
Are they coachable?
Do they listen when I give them notes?
That's a big, big element that I really consider as I cast.
I've even rejected people in the past because I found them hard to work with because they
would resist direction or talk back if they were told in given notes, they would be like,
oh, I did that because of that.
It's like, well, right now we just need you to fix that thing.
We don't need to.
In short, is the person willing to work on things and willing to work hard to make things
good?
Is they just thinking that they're talented and can just do it, you know, without the
hard work put in?
I think that plays a big role in the casting process.
And then of course, there's roles that are very dance heavy, like the dance captain.
So for those, we look for dance specific skills.
But all in all, for a musical, everyone needs to be at least a minimum of each of those
things to even have a chance to get it.
So we reject about 50% of the people who audition.
And it's not that they were bad auditions.
Does that make sense?
Like it's not at all that they were bad auditions.
It's often that they were just a mark short on maybe one aspect.
And the other person that did get the part was one mark higher on those things.
And so it gets very complicated.
So yeah, what do I look for?
Singing number one, attitude and workability, directability is number two, and dance is
number three.
You know, notice I haven't mentioned acting.
And that's because I believe I can teach anyone how to act.
I think we can get there.
That doesn't mean that you don't need to try.
And I feel like if you try hard, you've got the first ingredient at least to act.
And then we can work with what we need to accordingly after that.
And now onto a question I'm sure many of us have.
Overall, how do you generally choose plays or musicals?
Why did you specifically choose musical?
There's a different process for both.
First of all, both of them go through the administration before they get approved.
So I will submit to Miss Amber, because she's my direct supervisor.
And if I can get her on board, she's my first kind of person, then I pretty much know if
she's excited about it, that she's going to bring it to the other administration in a
way that's excited.
So usually I'll discuss with her first, hey, here's what I'm thinking, rough idea.
And she'll go like, I like it.
Yeah, go for it.
And then I'll submit a proposal to her and that she brings to the administration.
So that's the first step.
And there's a difference between plays and musicals.
The plays I tend to do, I believe that theater should change people's perspective on things
and should not just make them be entertaining and entertained.
It should make them think about life or feel something about life.
It's an art form, right?
It's not just supposed to be mindless entertainment.
If you want mindless entertainment, there's lots of that on YouTube.
So when I choose a play, I usually pick something that's thought provoking and says things about
the world, about human beings, about religion, things like that.
I want to get people thinking and people talking.
So that's my place.
And then secondly, the plays are related to whatever we're studying in class, in drama
class specifically.
So the theater arts class does most of these shows.
And so the theater arts class will be studying a specific thing.
For example, next semester we're studying Expressionism.
So we pick a play that relates well to that module of Expressionism.
Otherwise, what can end up happening is you just end up picking the same old kind of stories
and plot lines.
And there's not a lot of variation.
Whereas we want variation.
We want different styles.
We want different time periods.
We want all those things.
For musicals, it's a little different.
Generally speaking, the musical has a younger people in it and therefore the content is
going to be different, right?
You can't easily do a very political play or musical with very young kids because they
don't really engage in politics yet.
Whereas with high schoolers, that's fine.
So the musical is more accessible to a larger group of people.
And we want that.
We want it to be accessible.
We have done musicals that are slightly more intense, but even that, I mean Oliver wasn't
that.
It's a little bit more mature, but kids can still watch it and love it.
My kids watched it and loved it.
Generally with the musicals, we want to go for something that people go to musicals also
just for the spectacle and the fun of it.
So it's a mix of that.
I usually try to pick a musical that has a really cool, good moral that everyone can
relate to.
Everyone.
So even if you're doing Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, which is technically a story from
the Bible, it has relatable morals that everyone likes.
Nobody likes to get betrayed by their siblings.
Everyone loves forgiveness and being forgiven.
Those kind of things.
Those are general morals.
So I try to pick ones with that, good moral and good storyline.
I really want a good story that makes sense and is fun to watch it as it unfolds.
And for Susicles specifically, this is kind of leading into the third thing I do with
musicals.
I search for musicals that have strong ensemble pieces.
I like ensemble.
I like big groups doing something well.
I feel that musicals with strong ensemble are the best musicals.
I feel like when you rely only on your leads, it's just not as fun.
Not that the leads can't be great.
There's great musicals that are very lead heavy, right?
It's just a few people singing solos and duets and stuff.
Those are great, but there's that energy that comes to the stage when you have the entire
ensemble on and that energy is just, it's electrical and it's infectious.
The audience feels that excitement when there's so many people all forming at a high level.
So that's why I chose Susicle.
It's a very good ensemble play.
It has lots of fun ensemble bits.
Lots of people are changing backstage within the few minutes, you know, into the next costume
to do the next bit.
And Susicle is, it's got a good moral.
It's got great ensemble parts and it's got a lot of fun elements to it.
So that's why I chose Susicle and that's generally how I do plays and musicals.
Okay.
Now, onto this set building and some representation from our techies, can you tell us about the
technical side of Susicle and how long it took to create that beautiful set?
Too long.
No, the set is, we've had a really great group of tech on this set.
So we've been able to do a lot with these guys.
We had four backdrops.
Those are 15 meters by five meters.
So they're huge.
We have, we've done a lot of flats for this set specifically.
Flats are basically wooden frames that are a little bit two dimensional looking.
And we did it on purpose because we're going for a bookish slash cartoony look, a little
bit like the drawings of Sus.
So we're literally taking inspiration from the books itself.
We have a bunch of flats, a lot, and each one has to be constructed, painted, put on
wheels, a tetra.
We have so many lights.
This show, we also have a moving light, which we got new.
That takes hours.
So for lighting, a fun fact is for lighting and sound, it's actually a lot of one-to-one
training.
So whoever's on lights and sound, they are with me and Mr. Micah, just the two of us,
like one-to-one, a lot of coaching.
It takes hours to learn lighting.
So to just learn it takes hours and to set up every single light cue.
Like one song can have five to 10 lighting cues.
That's one song, you're switching lights all the time.
So there are 50 something lights up there.
Every single light has to be told what to do for every single cue.
So if you're saying one song with five cues, that's 50 lights times five that you are telling
what to do on or off every single light.
That's 250 different parameters that you are tweaking for every single time you're doing
lights.
It's a lot of work.
How did we create it?
Sweat, blood and tears as we go.
So what we do is we do a initial design phase where we think of all these things.
That's mostly the stage managers, assistant stage managers and advanced techies that start
to do that.
Then as that happens, it kind of filters through me who takes the creative side of like, okay,
what are we keeping, what are we getting rid of, what else do we need?
And we bring all that together and then we explain that in like baby steps to the beginner
techies who then start to execute that with the advanced techies together.
This set is very technical.
We have people flying into the air.
Yeah, a lot of things moving on and off from both sides of the stage.
We have the four backdrops coming up and down.
Yeah, it's a lot.
It's a lot.
I mean, I could go on about this for hours.
How long does it take?
It's taken us since August till now.
We're still busy.
We'll probably be done next week-ish.
It's crazy.
Was there an overall vision and inspiration for the entire production?
Are there any hints you want to clue us in for the next year's show?
For next year's show?
Next year's show, no.
No hints.
I have an idea or two or three, but I'm not going to divulge any of those.
Overall vision and inspiration for the entire production.
For Seuss, we are going for the idea of page to stage.
So everything looks like the Seuss books.
It looks like that on purpose.
It wasn't because it makes it easier for us.
Actually copying his style has had a lot of challenges and doing things in two dimensions
rather than three is also a lot of challenges because it means that if you have a tree,
you can't just, you know, buy a tree prop like because we have four tree props and wheel
them on and off stage.
There you go.
Done, right?
We have to make every single tree either painted by hand on the backdrop or cut out of wood
and then painted.
So that is the overall vision is this page to stage.
We use lighting a lot in this performance to draw the audience's attention to specific
parts of the stage because the musical is very busy.
So we want to focus your attention on specific things as we go along.
So that is the overall vision and inspirations I've had from this.
Definitely I got inspired by Life of Pi because there was some projection in this production
and Life of Pi when I watched it on Broadway had a bunch of projection as well.
So yeah, definitely there are other inspirations and influences coming along as well.
But the main inspiration and vision is from Dobs or Seuss and then we bring that into
the stage.
And now our final question for this segment is about the process as a whole and all its
parts.
Can you describe what it's like getting a show ready, casting, rehearsals, stage production
and all the time it takes to be ready for opening night?
And how do you balance that?
That is a very complex question.
In the casting process, it's a lot of hard decisions because you're dealing with people's
feelings and you know that they might be sad that they didn't get in the show.
And sometimes it's a matter of you look at the student and you think, oh, they have too
many things going on.
They are in a sport and another sport and then they're also trying to do the production.
They're going to be too busy, right?
Usually you can only manage one sport alongside the production.
So that's part of it as well.
And then also just hard choices of like, you know, some people they audition multiple times
and you're like, you know, you feel bad, but you sometimes do have to still reject.
Sometimes it's maturity, sometimes it's they struggled with the audition itself.
So yeah, that's casting.
And then with casting, when it gets to the people who are in it, it's a lot about chemistry.
Who works well with who?
Are their height differences correct for the character or characters?
What's their vocal range?
All those things play a role in casting.
The casting takes about two weeks.
So you could say that's very fast.
The rehearsal process, I plan all the rehearsals months in advance.
I plan out what we're rehearsing and when we're rehearsing it and how do we get through
the entire show through rehearsals.
The rehearsal phase roughly goes in from singing to dancing to blocking.
Blocking is where the actors are standing and moving and how they're moving from place
to place as the show goes on.
So it roughly goes into those sections.
There is a little overlap between dance and blocking for sure.
The rehearsal process takes weeks and then the stage production time also takes weeks.
So my stage manager started working before summer and got homework over summer to do
and they did that homework.
And then when we came back from summer, we executed the ideas from that homework.
It's actually very hard to balance.
Technically, I am fired to be the teacher of the theater arts class, of technical theater
classes.
And then I help Mr. Micah with overseeing the pack.
Mr. Micah's job is to ensure everything runs smoothly for the pack and that's all events.
And for me, it's more of a, what I help out with is more of a, the physical aspect of
the building because Mr. Micah is one person and this building is gigantic and it has all
sorts of wear and tear.
So I help him to flag those problems up.
I help him to keep everything clean and organized.
And so on top of that, actually those are two jobs essentially that I do.
On top of those two jobs is another job which is directing a musical, which is a huge job.
Actually that's a job in itself.
There are many places in the world that hire a person exclusively for just directing after
school shows.
That's all they do.
I do that on top of my other job.
So how do you balance it?
We don't.
You try your best.
You have to realize it's a season and when the season is over, things calm down and become
more sensical.
I am very, very organized and I am very planned in how I approach things.
I don't procrastinate.
I just do it.
I make a list and do it.
And the third thing is I prioritize.
By prioritizing correctly, I can achieve what I want to achieve.
If I don't prioritize correctly, things slip.
And they do.
And thankfully, Miss Amber, when it's little things leading up to the production, she's
very understanding about it.
She knows that things get busy and she knows that certain things will be harder for me
to do in those time periods.
And so as my boss, she plans accordingly as well.
She's like, okay, this is the month of the musical for Mr. G. I will give him an extension
on this thing that I might need or he needs to do.
And so you juggle.
You're juggling different priorities as you go.
And that's the long and short of it.
That's how you balance it.
You prioritize and reprioritize and reprioritize as you go.
When I say it like that, it sounds a lot less fun than it is.
It actually is very fun.
But it's hard.
It's hard fun.
Hi, Mrs. Liz.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Could you please introduce yourself and what you do here at ICS?
Let's get us started.
Yeah, great.
So my name is Miss Liz, as he said.
My main job here at ICS is the head of admissions.
So I've met a lot of students that way.
And then with that, kind of on the side or for fun, I choreograph our musicals.
So yes, I've been doing that since my first year here in 2016 every year.
Is dance and choreography something you've always been interested in?
Yeah, so I was that kid that got to annoy their parents all the time by coming up with
different dances and shows and making them watch them or having friends over and coming
up with different dances and performing for our parents all the time.
And then, yeah, as I got older, I took some dance classes.
And every chance I got, I joined dance teams, cheerleading show choirs, choirs, and any
musical I could find.
What's the process you use to come up with new choreographer for our shows?
Is that something you work on during school breaks or the summer months too?
Yeah, so depending on what semester we're doing the show, I'll use the break preceding
them to kind of come up with the bulk of the choreography.
So the second semester show, Christmas break, or first semester, I'll use a lot of the
summer months where I am still working, but it's slower because there's not students
here.
As far as the process goes, as soon as Mr. G decides the show, I start listening to the
soundtrack on repeat, much to the annoyance of probably my entire family.
But as I become more familiar with those songs, I can kind of start to visualize different
things in my head, some images, maybe some specific dance moves there.
And so those start to kind of form in my mind.
And then next to see if that movement I'm seeing helps tell the story and helps inform
the characters.
And then it comes down to actually trying out those different moves and writing it all
down.
So these shows are huge, you know, often they're two hours, lots of different songs.
So I have to take lots of notes or I will forget my own choreography then when it comes
time for rehearsals to teach it.
Yeah, so a follow up question with that is like, where to get your inspiration from when
you come up with all these dances?
Yeah, so I really, the thing I love about musical theater is telling a story.
So you really want the choreography to inform that story and be a part of it.
So the first thing is those images, right?
So seeing something that's going to add to the story, whether it's how I have everyone
standing maybe the shape of the stage or how they're moving in that.
And also the specific moves as well.
So you know, in Susical, we have a lyric trip on a ship and it's a salute and things like
that.
And then also kind of how the movement helps inform the characters.
So sometimes that involves a repetitive movement.
So if you've ever watched Hamilton, when they do my shot, it's very similar choreography
every time.
And so that helps to inform that movement.
So on a not Broadway scale here, when you watch Susical doing, oh, the things you can
think, it's a very similar movement every time we're singing that line, right?
And the next is also the character development.
So how do those characters move and how does that inform that?
So if you watch Shrek, the do locking is moved in a very set motion.
And Susical is the same for the Hoos and also our jungle creatures.
So wanting the dance to help tell that story and help the actors become that character
on stage as well.
Yeah, for sure.
I think with like a lot of this, I'm starting to realize because I like to write a lot too.
And for me, writing is like the way to tell a story, like that story telling to me.
And now I'm realizing, I think like last week, I talked to someone who was a dance
major and she said that like to her dancing is telling a story, but just like another
maybe a different form and different medium of telling a story.
And I thought that was really powerful.
I think I do think that like many creatives or like creative areas are all about telling
the story, developing the pod, the characters.
Yeah, yeah, especially through anything music, right?
Through vocals as well, it's telling a story.
And so the joy to me, musical theater is you're bringing so much of that together, right?
You're singing, you're acting, you're dancing all for the point of telling that story.
And music touches people's soul differently.
It does.
It's really dark.
Yeah.
So being able to kind of bring that together and really bring that point home, whatever
it may be of the show, it's really cool.
That's really cool.
What's the process look for you when you have to put together a dance team for the show?
Yeah, so the specific dance team is a little bit new to ICS.
So I've done it in the past in other schools I worked at.
And back in the US, I choreographed for a lot of high schools and community theaters
and show choirs.
So it's a bit new for us, I think.
In Joseph, it was a dance heavy show and we had that a little bit with specific songs,
like if you saw and there was the hoedown, that was all country western and insane.
And then in Shrek, we also had some crazy dance breaks with this whole morning person.
It was 40 sets of eight, which is huge for your dancer.
And then we were continuing that with Suzakul.
So that starts to come together in the audition process.
So we always have dance captains here at ICS.
So they are, of course, part of the dance team.
They are dance leaders.
So figuring out who that is, based on technical talent, right?
Can they dance?
Can they hit the moves?
But also leadership qualities, because then they are expected to be me when I can't be
there or to take over for a rehearsal or if we separate groups, they're expected to lead
that.
So then after we find the captains, it's kind of looking through the audition process.
So looking at scores and comments from those sheets.
And if people have been in past shows, kind of seeing the development there as well.
So and then kind of trying to put together a team that can work together and kind of
sell these big crazy numbers that can act while they're dancing is a whole process
as well.
And just to add with that, I think a big part of the dance team is also the acting skills,
right?
So I tell this to the cast all the time, patience is hard, multiple, it's not always about the
technical step.
You can miss the step, but the beautiful thing in musical theater is if you can be that character,
you don't always notice it, right?
So it's again, telling that story is also even a big part of the dance team.
Yes, it must be like very stressful also, like trying to like come up with the dance
moves that also teach it to them specifically so that they understand and then they can
kind of teach us as well.
So very talented.
I can do that.
So our last question, can you describe what it's like getting ready for a show or getting
a like the show ready and like with the casting from the beginning to the end casting, rehearsal,
stage production, and the time it takes to be ready for opening night?
And how do you how do you balance that?
Yeah, yeah.
So it is it's a long process, right?
So a lot of people kind of try to compare musical theater with athletics.
And there are a lot of similarities with teamwork and working together.
But one of the big difference is, you know, I've done sports and you're on a team and
you practice together and you have many games throughout the season and things change.
Well, with musical theater, we have four months leading up to two nights.
And that's it.
You get two nights that you're pouring everything into.
So a lot of work goes into that and you want to make sure you hit those two nights because
that's all you get.
That's your only chance.
So yeah, it starts with auditions, which that process in itself takes to about a week or
two, depending on the show, a lot, you know, a lot on Mr. G. But he also discusses with,
you know, me, Miss Amy, Mr. Micah as well with into that.
And then we start our rehearsals.
So rehearsals start kind of broken down by scenes and songs.
So for me, it's doing dance boot camps and then breaking down the dance rehearsals for
our full cast numbers, typically first because they're the most difficult.
And you have 50 people on stage and you're trying to figure out how you can dance without
hitting each other, which is always an adventure.
But I do just applaud Mr. G for his rehearsal schedule.
It is in most schools I've been in, you're rehearsing every day for five hours a day.
And so he has really made it much more efficient where I think it's great that students can
do multiple things now, right?
Whereas in other schools, that's not possible.
So having that really efficient schedule and expecting that our students are going to practice
at home, that is a big expectation.
So those rehearsals start and then we start to get into where we are now for Susie Cole,
where we're doing runs and we're going through.
So those are a little more upbeat, a little more crazy rehearsals as we get into that
with everyone.
And there is a big technical side to it.
You have all that side that I'm not as involved in, but Mr. G and Mr. Micah are building sets.
They're doing lighting, sound technique, all of that as well.
And then I also help with costumes and makeup a bit.
So that's what we're into now is finalizing costumes and we'll start getting the makeup
ready here soon.
And so that all leads us to those big two nights that are long days as patients well
knows as well.
Oh, testify.
Yes, yes.
A lot of adrenaline, a lot of excitement leading up to that.
So the balance is a little bit crazy.
So of course I have a full time job as the head of admissions here.
So I do that during the school day.
And then rehearsals are typically after school.
And then I also have three kids and a husband at home.
So time management, like I think teachers talk about all the time, really is a good
life skill because also rest is important, right?
So without rest, we get sick and nothing works.
And so I think for me, that has been really helpful is just honestly blocking out that
time of this is, this is family time and nothing else is going to happen here, right?
And then this is musical time and this is work time and this is sleep time and I'm
going to go to bed at this time.
So finding that balance, which luckily, since I've done this now for almost 20 years is
really, I've really been able to find where that fits best.
And for me, I love my job as head admissions.
I love being the choreographer and it's two very different parts of my brain.
So it is fun to be able to swap back and forth and use both of those sides still.
Yeah.
So there's like a lot of flexibility and adaptability, not only that, but it takes so much patience
to worship everybody.
Yes.
Well, this is the end of our interview.
Thank you so much for your dedication and your time and putting together dances for
the musical.
We all appreciate it very much.
I hope that the audience recognizes our hard work and the time put into this for everybody
to watch.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
And with that ending question, we have run out of time.
I hope you're able to get a glimpse of the amount of planning and work that goes into
producing a live theater event like Susical the musical.
Opening night is right around the corner.
So I hope you have your tickets.
Maybe I'll see you there.
As we end this episode, I just want to say thanks for tuning into our show and supporting
what we are doing.
We really appreciate it.
Our next episode will feature an alumni of ICS who is currently doing his master's in
the cinematic arts film and television production program at the University of Southern California,
USC.
As always, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international
student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives
sharing copyright free images, videos, and music.
And we are signing off until next time.
Be your students incorporated because your voice matters.