I would never have done this incredibly rude thing until I had a child, but I felt my phone vibrate and my heart pounded “something might be wrong” in my ears. So I discreetly checked my husband’s text message to make sure all was well with my toddler at home before turning my attention back to the stage. And that’s when I locked eyes on… Matthew.

He fixed me with a smoldering gaze and I realized that in the five seconds I had looked away, he had begun singing a song about the lady who made him “want to wait.” Oh dear God, he was walking towards me. I was the lady.

I looked to my fellow board members for help, but was greeted with only the laughter of the moment, and I couldn’t help giggling nervously along with them. Now Matthew was closer than ever, and he kneeled in front of me and clasped my hands.

As he continued his serenade, I felt myself blushing, but it was nothing compared to what was to come.

Yes. He pulled me on stage.

A stool stood down center, and he gestured me to sit. I faced the audience, the girly giggles erupting unbidden from my lips, as Matthew continued his song. I felt the rest of the Altar Boyz closing in behind me, and I looked from one to another, then back out to the roaring audience, feeling my cheeks and ears turn red hot, yet laughing in spite of myself. The song was coming to a close.

With one final kneel and grasp of my sweaty palms, Matthew sang his final reminder of why we would have to wait until our wedding day to consumate our love, and along with my audience, I burst into laughter at his final line, but I won’t spoil the surprise of that hilarity here.

I thought my part was over. Clapping and grinning, I stood and took a step towards the stairs, when I was caught. “Hey Baby, where you goin’?” asked Matthew. I sat back down. As if the song wasn’t enough, he had a final gift for me before I was dismissed. A gift I would surely treasure forever, even more than the memory of blushing scarlet in front of an audience of peers (and one cameraman!) that night.

You want to know what that gift was? Come see your unsuspecting friends get pulled up on stage and serenaded this weekend by Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan, and Abraham and find out! Visit streettheatrecompany.org for info and tickets.

Or, to be as lucky as me, meet the Boyz in person on September 8. Wine, cheese, and virginal hotties are just an email away. Contact cathy@streettheatrecompany.org for details.

Or as the unchurched might call him….

Taylor Casey is thrilled to be making his Street Theater debut as Mark in Altar Boyz! He is a Nashville native and has been singing and dancing from an early age. Taylor studied Musical Theatre at Belmont University as well as Vocal Performance at MTSU.  Some of his favorite roles include, Jack in Into the Woods, Angel in Rent, and Brainiac in Dollywood’s Dreamland Drive-in. Taylor grew up around music and dance, so it was a passion shared by his family. He has always had a love for everything artistic but song and dance are what has taken over his life! He is so grateful for this opportunity and can’t wait for the success of Altar Boyz!

Party with Taylor and the rest of the Altar Boyz at Street Theatre’s Funder’s night on September 8, by contacting cathy@streettheatrecompany.org.

Or, as his secular name reads… Humberto Figueroa…

Humberto Figueroa has been seen on television in Rough Trade. His other performances include Reindeer Monologues and Thrill Me: the Leopold and Loeb Story (as Nathan Leopold) at The Other Space; Rent, Disney’s Mulan Jr., Disney’s Cinderella Jr., Honk, All Shook Up, Disney’s Jungle Book, Disney’s High School Musical, Disney’s Aladdin Jr. (as Jafar), Buddy: the Buddy Holly Story, Bye Bye Birdie (as Harvey Johnson), Miss Saigon, and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Roxy Regional Theatre.

Get tickets to see this singing, dancing, Jesus-adoring member of the hottest Christian Boy Band in Nashville, The ALTAR BOYZ, by visiting Street Theatre Company’s website.

Want to meet Juan in person? Call 615.554.7414 or email cathy@streettheatrecompany.org for information on becoming a Street Theatre donor and score an invitation to a totally divine post-show reception with the cast!

I’ve done some live scoring and film scoring in the past, so the idea of adding music to a
stage show wasn’t entirely new to me. It does bring up some challenges though.

First, the music needs to take a complete back seat to the story. This is Film Scoring 101
stuff, but it is easy, in the process of coming up with ideas, to get caught up in the ideas and put them ahead of the story itself. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever hear the music, or that the music can’t sometimes “step out” and become an important (read: loud) element on stage, but ultimately each and every place that music exists within the context of the story, it serves the greater purpose of underscoring something and so must always be a means to an end and not the end itself.

Second, underscoring is called “underscoring” because it underscores emotions/actions/
situations that are not immediately apparent. For instance, when you read a book there are paragraphs dedicated to giving inside information about what is happening in a character’s head, or what is happening without the character knowing, etc. Music, in the context of a film or play, functions as an unseen narrator commenting on emotions or actions of which the director feels the audience needs to be aware. So, in The Bad Seed, the score helps us focus on who Cathy [Street, the director] wants us to focus on. It is easy, in casually watching The Bad Seed, to be taken by Rhoda and her eerie cold-hearted attitude toward killing. But in this case, Cathy wants the story to ultimately be about Christine and her dealing with her past and with her daughter’s unique personality. So the music needs to be less about the obvious evil in Rhoda, and more about Christine’s confusion and subsequent coming to terms with it. It changes the approach to the music tremendously.

Third, the biggest challenge in a live setting is coming up with material that a) makes
sense, and b) connects story lines. So I couldn’t just sit there and make everything up as I
went…that would end up confusing the audience since there would be no landmarks to help them along the way. It would only be wall paper, occasionally hitting moments but failing to truly underscore the unspoken narrative present in the subtext. My first goal of playing along in rehearsals was to get a sense of the overarching emotional movements of each scene and ultimately of the whole show. I need to be able to anticipate ups and downs. But when to play? I sat with Cathy and we worked out musical entrances, the kind of music that would be found in those spots, and when that music would end (in film we call those “cues”). We talked about what the music in those moments would touch on, answering these questions: who is the music pertaining to? Which emotion are we touching on? What needs to be shown that isn’t otherwise obvious to the audience? Now I have a road map to follow.

After we established a road map, the next step is to come up with some themes. Something that can help the audience subconsciously make connections that they might not ordinarily make. The script calls for Rhoda to play a little piano student tune, “Eau Claire de Lune.” She actually plays it on a piano in the show. It is simple, haunting, and when twisted just right, it can become down right evil. So the times when I reference that melody, we recall Rhoda, and depending on how it’s treated, I can literally spell out for the audience how to think about Rhoda…and she might not even be on stage. There is a Christine theme, a Leroy theme, and a generic set of chord changes that “brand” the show…that is, that gives it a distinctive feel and mood.

One fun little note is that we decided in the very beginning to paint Leroy a little darker by adding some ominous music in his first entrance. This is misdirection to throw the audience a bit off the scent for a while. At the beginning they start to look out for Leroy as the one to watch and to see Rhoda as a nice little victim-to-be. As the play unfolds, we learn things aren’t always what they seem. But this fun little misdirection would be very hard to do without music.

And finally, fourth, the challenge is in knowing that a little goes a long way. I am using two keyboards, one for piano and another for low and high string moments. Also, I am having a helper play some percussion (brush on the back of a guitar, brush on a metal pole, and bells of sarna – which are Indian goat bells, little brass bells attached along a string…they add a nice color without being too familiar or identifiable) which adds more color to the palette. The tendency is to want to do it all at once and throw it all in, but a little percussion here, some high strings there, and simple piano stuff will be more effective if it is used judiciously. There are just a couple of places where the music is loud and those are in places where the script specifically calls for chaos. However, more often than not, the music (strings, piano, and percussion) needs only touch on a spot in order for it to make the difference.

I think underscoring also helps the actors. One advantage film has over stage productions
is that actors can be subtle because close-ups, camera angles, music, etc. can add all kinds
of back story without having the need for an actor to entirely carry the burden herself. In
this case, with music underscoring a theatrical play, an actor can act more subtly. Where a gasp might have been called for before, now they can keep their movement and reaction to a minimum while the music provides the gasp, or whereas before an actor might have needed to talk loudly to sound angry, now they can speak softer and let the music fill in the rest of the energy. Couple that with lighting effects and you have a theatrical show that can be as subtle as film in many ways. And for eerie psycho-thrillers like The Bad Seed, it adds to the overall eeriness of the show.

Hear it for yourself! The Bad Seed opens this Friday, June 10, at Street Theatre Company. Buy tickets by visiting our website.

Congratulations on being cast in the title roll of The Bad Seed! Are you excited?
Very!! I’m excited to work with Cathy, too.

You obviously did really well at your audition! How did you feel during it, and what did you do to prepare for it?
Well, I worked really hard on a monologue that was written for me to try and show my sweet side and my evil side. Then for the call-backs we did cold readings from the script; that’s my favorite way to audition. I was so nervous but excited too. I really wanted to get the part.

What got you interested in theatre? Have you been in any plays before?
I can’t even remember not being interested in theatre. My mom put me in a couple of drama camps (she says I’ve been a drama queen from the start) when I was little and I did my first play when I was six: a munchkin in the The Wizard of Oz. The Bad Seed will be my ninth play in community theatre and my biggest part.

What was your favorite play/role?
They’ve all been fun; I guess my favorite, and biggest part til Rhoda, was Dagmar in I Remember Mama. Interesting fact: my mom and I watched an interview with Patty McCormick, the original Rhoda, and she also played Dagmar on the TV show I Remember Mama.

Your character, “Rhoda,” is very dark; she is described as a “sociopath.” How do you feel about playing the “bad guy”?
I can’t wait to play “the bad guy!” I like scary stuff and have always wanted to do a scary movie or something like that.

Is there anything you’d like to tell your future audience? 
Please come out and see The Bad Seed!! You can say you saw me when… you know before I become a big star!! Haha.

We’re gearing up for our Musical Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre Event (say that five times fast), which will run May 13 and 14 at the Tulip Street Methodist Church.

Campy, funny, and interactive, our murder mysteries always get at least one or two audience members in on the action, and you’ll be seeing some of your favorite STC actors and some new ones too. The show stars Mike Baum, Ben Gregory, Erica Haines, Laura Thomas Sonn, and Heather Trabucco.

We’re really excited about this night. It promises to be deliciously fun!

Cathy Street and Kelli Connors started writing these musicals together in 1994(ish) in New Hampshire, and to date they have written over 15 shows together. They even founded Get-A-Clue Productions, which is a company that provides murder mysteries for corporate events, restaurants, and hotels, and it is still running strong in NH today. (Because, come on, who doesn’t love a little mystery in their lives?) All the shows have a similar format, but each has a unique theme: a 1950s high school reunion, a women’s prison, a beauty pageant, and more.

This one, a 1960′s island beach party, features three popular Phi Beta Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority sisters, the wealthy Hughes, and JJ, who just wants to “give peace a chance.” They may all make to the island but one won’t make it off. And the best part: the audience can actually follow the clues and vote for who they think “dunnit.”

We’d love to see you all out for this event. Doors open at 6:30; dinner and the show begin at 7pm. Tickets are just $20 each, and tables of 10 can be purchased for $180. Just think of it: you’ll be eating delicious bbq, helping solve a murder mystery, and supporting Street Theatre all in the same night.

Visit TicketsNashville to get tickets fast, because seating is limited.

(Performances held at Tulip Street Methodist Church, 522 Russell Street, Nashville, TN 37206)

Got a little bit of time between shows, since our sold-out run of Hairspray ended and Bad Seed doesn’t start until June 10. But we aren’t spending our spare time on the beach sipping cocktails! Hairspray’s set is down now and it’s a busy couple of weeks ahead as we prepare for May’s Murder: It’s No Day at the Beach, begin rehearsals and set construction for Bad Seed, and start work on our summer classes. Whew! We’re busy, but we’re SO excited for our summer events.

We’ll keep you posted…

On Saturday, April 16, from 10am to 4pm and Sunday, April 17, from 1pm to 5pm, we’re auditioning people of all ethnicities for our upcoming shows Bad Seed and Altar Boyz. Auditions are held at 1933 Elm Hill Pike in Nashville. Callbacks for Bad Seed are Monday, April 17 at 7pm and callbacks for Altar Boys are Monday, April 25 at 7pm.

Auditions are by appointment only; please call (615) 554-7414 or email info@streettheatrecompany.org to schedule an appointment. An accompanist and CD player will be provided.

Here’s the info you need! We’ll see you this weekend at auditions!

BAD SEED

Auditions: Saturday, April 16 from 10am-4pm; Sunday, April 17 from 1pm-5pm. Callbacks: Monday, April 17 at 7pm.

Please bring headshot and resume and prepare a dramatic monologue (no more than 2 minutes). Girls auditioning for Rhoda please find more information on our website.

Synopsis:
Little Rhoda Penmark is sweet, charming, full of old-fashioned graces, loved by her parents, admired by all her elders. But when one of Rhoda’s schoolmates is mysteriously drowned at a picnic, Mrs. Penmark is alarmed. For the boy who was drowned won the penmanship medal that Rhoda felt she deserved.. “…It ranks with Dracula and sometimes sets your spine to as much tingling…chilling.” NY Telegram.

Characters:

Rhoda Penmark – Rhoda, 8 years old, is a sociopath. She has no conscience and will kill if necessary to get whatever she wants. An adept manipulator, she can easily charm adults while eliciting fear and repulsion from other children, who can sense something wrong with her. Girls wishing to audition for Rhoda, please find more information on our website.

Christine Penmark – The mother of Rhoda Penmark. She doesn’t want to believe the worst of her daughter, but as the play progresses, she unravels, becoming more and more confused and distraught over what she believes to be the truth an, worst of all, her own fault.

Monica Breedlove – The Penmarks’ landlady and Christine’s best friend. She considers herself to be somewhat of a psychotherapist. Monica adores Rhoda and believes her to be a very extraordinary child.

Reginald Tasker- A writer and friend of Monica Breedlove. An avid murder mystery buff.

Leroy Jessup – The maintenance man who works for Monica Breedlove. He notices that Rhoda is unlike other children because he, too, has his own psychopathic tendancies.

Kenneth Penmark – The father of Rhoda and husband of Christine. Kenneth is away on business and therefore unaware of the developments at home.

Emory Wages – Monica Breedlove’s brother, who lives with his sister. Perhaps a bit effeminate.

Miss Fern – Rhoda’s schoolteacher.

Hortense Daigle – Mother of Claude Daigle, who drowned at his picnic.

Dwight Daigle – Father of Claude Daigle.

Richard Bravo – Christine’s adopted father, who holds a key to Rhoda’s history.

Performances are June 10 through 26.

ALTAR BOYZ

Auditions: Saturday, April 16 from 10am-4pm; Sunday, April 17 from 1pm-5pm. Callbacks: Monday, April 25 at 7pm.

Please bring headshot and resume. Prepare 32 bars (or one minute) of an uptempo song in the appropriate style. All five men are called upon equally to sing and dance; each character has a distinct personality and a chance to shine.

Synopsis:
The musical comedy and critically-acclaimed hit of the New York Musical Theatre Festival is the hilarious account of a struggling Christian boy-band (with one nice Jewish boy) looking for their big break in the Big Apple. “Totally hilarious! It keeps you laughing all evening long. If laughter is a form of salvation, my soul is clean!” Howard Kissel, Daily News

Characters:

Matthew – The Leader
Mark – The Sensitive One
Luke – The Bad Boy
Juan – The Latin Lover
Abraham – The Gefilte Fish Out Of Water

Performances are September 2 through 24.

“My favorite show is [STC's Hairspray],” she told the Nashville Examiner. “It’s been a lot of fun and it’s an honor to play this part.  [Tracy's] a great person with a great message and she doesn’t let people get her down. I just love the character.”

But the fact that Tonya is an undeniable “definite triple threat” (Nashville Broadway World) isn’t the only thing we love about her.

Starting in June, Tonya will be teaching a Puppet workshop for STC’s youth program. A self-proclaimed “crazy puppet lady,” Tonya currently owns 15 puppets! We can’t wait to start this class. Tonya’s energy and enthusiasm are certain to make it a blast! (Click here for more details on STC’s Youth Programming.)

Tonya is also going to be performing in our upcoming school tour of the sexual abuse prevention play No More Secrets in May. (Email for more information.)

Be sure to catch Tonya in our last weekend of Hairspray! (Click here to purchase tickets.)

“The message the show carries that everyone’s equal and should be treated the same is so important, but Hairspray is just so much fun that the audience can’t help but have fun with us. I think they’ll connect with the characters. Having a close connection with people offstage, you can definitely feel that on stage. It’s really easy to like everybody in this cast.” (via)

Welcome to our (gulp!) BLOG! As hip as I like to think I am, sometimes I think I am being dragged kicking and screaming into new technology. But I’m excited to announce that we will now be blogging about all things STC! We will keep you posted on all of our fun projects, behind-the-scenes stories, random bits of interesting information, maybe some contests… ticket giveaways too! You’ll just have to keep coming back to see what’s in store.

And of course, we want to hear from YOU. Theatre is a shared experience, after all, so SHARE with us about a performance you have seen, want to see, questions, etc. We would love to hear from you!

Okay, that’s it for dipping my toes in the blogging waters for the time being…

Til next time,Cathy Street
Artistic Director