The Kitchen Theatre opens a play this week called Last Train to Nibroc, by Arlene Hutton.  In addition to being a beautiful, romantic play performed by two stellar actors, it’s a wonderful chance to hear some great old style music by local musicians.

The main musical theme, entitled “Home”, was composed by Ithaca College student Rob Dietz in the style of an early bluegrass waltz.  Dietz is the conductor of Ithacappella, IC’s award-winning male a cappella group. Joining Dietz at Rep Studio to record the music for Last Train to Nibroc was Harry Nichols, guitar, Stephanie Jenkins, banjo & vocals, and Rosie Newton, fiddle & vocals.  Harry is a member of Ithacappella and plays with Rob in a folk/blues duo called Passing Through (http://www.myspace.com/musicpassingthrough).  Stephanie and Rosie play together locally as The Pearly Snaps (http://www.myspace.com/thepearlysnaps).  Both duos are great–so musical and tight.  Bringing them together was a blast. They created a gorgeous sound pretty much instantly.

Steve Reichlen

This season, the Kitchen Theatre Company is premiering FIRST DAY: Suite for Four Actors and Percussionist by Ted LoRusso in collaboration with and directed by Sturgis Warner. We’re calling the piece a “theatrical event” rather than a play, as it has a form unlike any play we know. Four actors play the inner thoughts of one young man who is going to his first day of work at his first ever job in New York City. An onstage percussionist makes it an exciting musical event. The amazing Steve Reichlen is the percussionist, and he talked to Lesley Greene about the piece in October 2009.

LESLEY: Hi, Steve. Tell a little about your musical background and what brought you to Ithaca.

STEVE: I started playing drums at the age of 12. I participated in school band and also played with a variety of different groups through high school including a couple of rock bands, a jazz group, a polka group (no joke), and a country band. I also was the principle percussionist in All State Orchestra for two years. I got a degree in Jazz Studies from Ithaca College where I continued to play in all of the school ensembles and Musical Theatre productions as well as just about every band that I could possibly handle. I think at one point I was playing 12 different groups. I didn’t get a lot of sleep in college! After college, I started working on Cruise Ships and I also spent some time in Los Angeles participating in the Henry Mancini Institute which was a program geared towards finding young talent and exposing us to the film music industry and studio world. I had the opportunity to work with many of the legends of film music and jazz while I was there including: Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Quincy Jones, Terence Blanchard, and many others. It was really exciting and life changing. After working on a Cruise Ship for six months and playing “Memories” and “In the Mood” 7 zillion times, I moved to New Orleans where I worked with many different jazz, blues, funk, and Latin groups. I also subbed with the Louisiana Philharmonic. I spent several years on the road touring with Mem Shannon and Chubby Carrier. I moved back to Ithaca 3 years ago with my fiance who is a PHD candidate at Cornell and I have been playing with several different groups and teaching private lessons.

LESLEY: Have you done things that are similar to playing in FIRST DAY?

STEVE: I have been involved in several musical productions over the years including: “Man of La Mancha”, “West Side Story”, “Into the Woods”, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”, and several others. In “Hedwig” and another one I did called “Coconuts”, the band was part of the set and we had a few lines which is similar to “First Day”, but that is pretty much where the similarities stop. First of all, “First Day” is a play and not a musical. At least not in the traditional sense. I think it has a very musical flavor to it. A lot of the accompaniment that I provide seems to come from a sensibility that I have from being a jazz drummer. None of the parts that I play are specifically written out but I was able to put together most of the sections together by referencing what was done in the Workshop and through improvisation and trial and error. Having a background in jazz has helped a lot with the process. Sturgis has been wonderful in helping me to find some of the parts as well.

LESLEY: When I read the script of FIRST DAY and knew that there was a percussionist in the piece, I imagined the percussionist was keeping time and maybe setting up some grooves. But having been there in rehearsal for the piece, I know that you have really created a musical score. You are also playing a lot of different instruments. Would you describe the music for FIRST DAY and tell what instruments you play?

STEVE: The drum set is the heart of the set up. When the Play was workshoped, it was performed exclusively on a kit. Sturgis suggested that we add some keyboard sections. So I have added the keyboard as well. My parts are part accompaniment, part mood, part sound effect, and part life force. My role is to play the musician that is in everyone’s head. I definitely walk down the street and hear a drummer in my head (almost constantly). Also, sometimes there is a piano player up there too. I think the percussion also adds to Johnny’s primitive senses, almost adding to the primal nature of the play. I hope people will leave the theatre and hear their own drummers as they walk to their cars or their next destination. The drums help the actors to stay in sync with each other as well which is necessary for this play considering they are all essentially part of the same person.

I really enjoyed going through the process of deciding my instrumentation for this show. I decided to use a 16 inch kick drum and one tom. I am using a piccolo snare and two splash cymbals as hi hats. Everything that I am using is smaller than an average kit. Much of my parts are underscoring the actors lines and part of the challenge of the piece is not to cover up any of the words or to distract from the meaning of the play. Aside from the drum set, I am also using a djembe drum, a shaker, a triangle, wind chimes, a cabasa, a typewriter, a cowbell, claves, a guiro, and maybe a few other surprises as well. I am also not using drum sticks at all in the performance. Much of the show is performed with brushes, mallets, and my hands. I also use a violin bow for some stuff and some chop sticks as well.

LESLEY: How was the musical score for the piece created?

STEVE: I certainly had a great head start by seeing a video of Mark Farnsworth who had performed the piece during the Workshop. He had some really great ideas and I have included many of them into this production. Sturgis has been really great as well with his direction. He hasn’t specifically told me what to play but he has been very encouraging about stuff that I have tried that has worked. Also he has been very quick in helping me figure out what hasn’t worked so well. The cast has also really helped me with some that stuff as well. Their reactions to some of my parts have also influenced Sturgis a little in letting me keep a few things in. Ted has written some specific direction into the piece. A lot of the abrupt stops and changes in tempo or mood are written into the play. Plus the play itself has a lot of rhythm to it naturally. So, many of the parts have grown out of that organically. I also love that this play has so many built in rules that the whole cast must follow. For one thing, my parts are never meant to foreshadow anything coming up. They are merely a reaction to a moment, thought, or emotion. They also provide a rhythm to the activity that our main character Johnny is currently involved in.

LESLEY: We had a Meet & Greet with the whole creative team before rehearsals for FIRST DAY began, and you said that you were looking forward to being in something where you were the only musician–not a usual thing for a drummer. What’s that been like? Is it exhausting? Lonely? Fun?

STEVE: It is certainly an unorthodox arrangement. I teach drum set lessons for a living and one of the things that I tell my students is that the role of the drummer in an ensemble is to support the other musicians on stage. Drums give music stability. They make the other musicians comfortable to do their thing. They bring the audience into the experience as well by defining the rhythm, which makes people dance. Most people can relate to a drummer or a singer more than other instruments. Most people even with no musical background can tell when a drummer is good or not so good. Drums make people react. That being said, I think that it is the perfect accompaniment for this play. It is a play about a lonely, awkward, individual who is going to his first job. People like that don’t get a whole band. I think the musical understatement really plays to the character of the Johnny. As far as how it has affected me, it has been very intense. A little exhausting. There have been moments of where I have had to really think to come up with my parts. There have been other times when I have known exactly what to do without having to think about it. Overall the experience has been amazing.

LESLEY: What’s it like to work with actors? A director?

STEVE: Everyone has been really great. I think Erin had remarked early on how lucky that we all are to have such a great team working on this play. The experience is a little different than other shows that I have done. First of all, I have almost always had not only a director to take guidance from but also a musical director and or a conductor. Obviously with this show that is not the case. Also unlike other shows that I have done, I am really close with the actors. Sometimes the music and the stage performers are so much a seperate entity that we don’t even see each other. I have done many shows in a pit or in a dressing room or loft. Also for a lot of shows the actors have there own rehearsals and the music is added later or has seperate rehearsals. So it has been great to be part of the whole process with this play. I think that it as really helped the dynamic that we all have together.

LESLEY: The full title of the play is FIRST DAY: Suite for Four Actors & Percussionist, and the different sections of the play are called ‘movements’–like in a piece of classical music. Do you look at the play that way, as if it were a musical suite?

STEVE: I think this play is very much like a symphonic work. The four acts of the play are designed like the movements of a symphony. The first movement states most of the themes that are developed throughout the piece. It also has a pace to it that is similar to a symphony as well. The tempo and the arc the play follows the theme as well. The second and third movements introduce some new ideas while really developing the original.

LESLEY: Thanks so much for this interview!  People who are interested in learning more about the play can go to http://www.kitchentheatre.org/first_day.html

The current show at the Kitchen Theatre is called ARCHAEOLOGY.  It is a world premiere by playwright Rachel Axler.  Axler’s day job is writing for tv - she was until recently the only woman writer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and is now writing for a new NBC sitcom, Parks & Recreation, featuring Amy Poehler.  But she started out in theater and is interested in that medium as well.

ARCHAEOLOGY features the youngest cast we’ve had at the Kitchen in a while.  Two actors are in their early twenties, and the other two are Ithaca College theater students.  It’s a funny, weird & wacky story that involves time travel and mathematics but is at the heart a story about 20-somethings finding themselves.

There’s not a whole lot of music in the show, though Ithaca College student Ben Truppin-Brown has made a cool soundscape for the play.  There was, however, a music video made!  Two of the characters in the play have a garage band, and they mention lyrics to one of their songs.  It just so happens that Jake Paque, an actor in the play, is also a musician, and he took it upon himself to write the song!  It’s a really infectious, fun tune, and it only seemed right that it should have a music video to go with it.  So we assembled the cast on the set, brought in a mannequin that features prominently in the play, and filmed a video.  It has pretty much nothing to do with the play, but it was a lot of fun to do and it does gives a sense of the young actors and zany world of the play.  You can take a look at it http://kitchentheatre.org/IWannaExplore.html and read more about the play at http://kitchentheatre.org/Archaeology.html.

The current play at the Kitchen Theatre is a world premiere.  Portland, Oregon playwright Francesca Sanders’ play I BECOME A GUITAR is rich and poetic, and it really calls for an elaborate soundscore.  In fact, sound designer Don Tindall said that the play reads like it was written by a sound designer–the language and the way that events unfold evoke music and sound in a way that few plays do.  Don and composer Ron Kristy and have given it a beautiful, lush score.  I talked with Ron about the music in this play.

LESLEY: Tell a bit about yourself—what brought you to Ithaca?  What do you write and play?

RON: I make my living composing music for TV, films and video.  The invention of the Internet is basically what allowed me to move to Ithaca - I have clients across the country and we send music and video files back and forth over the web.  About 5 years ago while living in Nashville, I met Terry Burns, the youngest of the Burns Sisters, at a party.  Within the year we got married here in Ithaca.  After our son Noah Skye was born 3 ½ years ago,  a very wise friend of ours encouraged us to let Noah’s well-being guide us in making major life decisions.   We spent the following two summers here to see if we could be happy and still make a living, and I fell in love with Ithaca.   We knew in our hearts that this would be a wonderful place to raise Noah.  This is a deeply spiritual, creative and progressive town, and the perfect place to freeze in winter.  There is such a beautiful community here, and Noah has had a wonderful childhood so far.  I’m having a pretty good childhood myself… when not hanging out with Terry and Noah, I compose a lot of music aired on Access Hollywood, the NFL network, PBS - “Soul of the Senate - the Robert Byrd story”, the Discovery Channel - “Angel Stories” & “Miracle Stories,” lots more.

My wife Terry is a wonderful singer/songwriter, and we have begun performing together at coffee houses and spiritual venues, time and Noah permitting.  The songs I write from my heart have titles such as “looking deeply” and “caravan of love,” which don’t really play well on the NFL network… I visited and taught music on death row at Riverbend maximum prison in Nashville for 6 years, played at peace rallies, spiritual centers and things like talent shows in prison with Bo Lozoff.  Not exactly the kind of places to sell a million CDs…  but talk about a captive audience!  I have written a lot of little songs to Noah, and I (sort of) proposed to Terry by sending her an mp3 of a song I wrote for her.  It worked…  now I’m very happy and very tired.  I’m currently working on 20 TV promos for Universal/Paramount publishing.

LESLEY: This is your first time writing for theater - how is that different from writing for film?

RON: The inherent dilemma of writing music for theater, as opposed to film, is that the pesky actors don’t do everything exactly the same way every performance, which is also what makes it such a magical, organic thing.  Writing for film, you watch a cue over and over and find your “hit points,” where you want the music to change mood, etc.

Everything is fluid in a play, which is something that Sara Lampert Hoover, the director, helped me learn by letting me know that most of what I was originally writing sounded great but was not going to work!  The music had to be easily manipulated and looped so that it could work within the variances of the performances.  Honestly, I still don’t exactly know how it works.  I think it’s magic or something.  Sara really helped me to strip the music to its most simple form, to be easily recreated later in the process for various cues.   She knew exactly what she liked when she heard it.  She also knew what she didn’t like!  It was honest, demanding, and fun working with her.  Sound designer Don Tindall is like, dude, where did you come from?  Don knows so much about sound and music for theater that it wouldn’t surprise me if he were kidnapped and interrogated by agents from a foreign country that doesn’t have the theater technology that we have.   His cue sheets look like something you could guide the Mars Landing probe with.  Without Sara and Don I wouldn’t have had a clue about the process.   One more thing about the team - a major part of the beauty and emotion of the music comes from the quiet yet awesome talent of Nate Silas Richardson (of Rep Studio) as a guitar player and sound engineer extraordinaire.  No kidding.

LESLEY: We learned at an early read-through of the play with designers in attendance that you actually have lived in Zihuatanejo, the tiny fishing village where the character Madrigal was born and raised.  Did your history in that village affect the music you wrote for the play?

RON: I actually lived in Mexico for about 9 years in the mid 70s and 80s, and lived for a year in a tiny fishing village named “Pie de la Cuesta” (foot of the coast), between Acapulco and Zihuatanejo.   I lived in a palm tree hut, got bitten by scorpions & fire ants, chased by wild boars, rams, mad cows, and federales.  It was a totally magical time of possibilities in my life.  My neighbors were mostly peasant fisherman with a few sorcerers thrown in - it’s a long way from Bellmore, Long Island…   Mexico is a big part of my heart and soul - I absolutely love the country and the people.  They are incredibly funny, loving, giving and hard working people.  And they love to party!  I wrote a lot of music down there for Mexican artists and telenovelas, so writing the music was like visiting an old friend.  And what beautiful synchronicity brought me to Ithaca to work on the play!  ¡Que buena onda!

LESLEY: Tell about the process of writing music for this play.

RON: The process of writing music for theater is for me, the same process as writing music for film - there’s a lot of kicking and screaming, praying for inspiration and just plain hard work on the way to the final score.  There’s probably an easier way, but I don’t know it.

LESLEY: Anything else you’d like to add?

RON: I can talk till the cows come home, but it seems I’ve run out of time…

Peace out, rk

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PLAY, see http://www.kitchentheatre.org/Guitar.html

Music is integral to many productions at the Kitchen Theatre, from musical theater pieces to plays with original scores by local composers.  This season has two musicals in store–Tony & the Soprano and Gutenberg! the Musical! Another play, I Become A Guitar, in which one of the central images is the making and tuning of a beautiful Spanish guitar, is likely to have an original score.  More on that one when I know the details for sure, but here’s a little about the first of the two musicals:

Tony & the Soprano was written by Rachel Lampert (book & lyrics) and Larrry Pressgrove (music).  Lampert is the Artistic Director of the Kitchen, where she has written numerous plays and musicals for

adult and family audiences.  Pressgrove lives in NYC but has collaborated with Rachel on three other musicals at the Kitchen:  Comfort Food, The Angle of the Sun (which made it to the New York Musical Theatre Festival last year), and last season’s popular Bed No Breakfast.  Currently he is performing on Broadway as the pianist and music director for [title of show], a quirky, funny musical about making a musical.

Tony & the Soprano was first produced on the Kitchen’s 2005-06 season.  Now Lampert & Pressgrove are revisiting it, adding new songs & lyrics.  And this time it will be performed with a live musician rather than with the pre-recorded tracks used last time.  Richard Montgomery will music direct and accompany the show.  Almost all of the original cast is returning, which is a wonderful thing, because they are a fantastic group:  Joey & Erica Steinhagen, Jessica Flood, Jesse Bush, Susannah Berryman, and Robert DeLuca.  The only cast member not returning is Sophie Reppert, who is now too old to play the part of 12-year-old Carol.  We’re holding auditions for that part this coming week.

I don’t want to write too much for my first ever blog entry, but I do want to say a few words about the musical itself.  Tony & the Soprano takes place in an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn, and it’s really the story of the people in that neighborhood.  The soprano of the title is an opera student at Julliard, played by Erica Steinhagen, who moves into the neighborhood.  I won’t give away the story, but it is funny and romantic.  And there’s fabulous music and singing.  What’s not to like?!

You can read more about the Kitchen and Tony & the Soprano at www.kitchentheatre.org