Some New Things!
Two new projects I worked on are out and available for you to enjoy!
Hey Substack-ers! It’s been a minute. I’ve grown keenly aware of how the weeks have gone by without a new post from me here. Maybe I was too ambitious at first, hoping to post on a weekly schedule. I’m working on putting fewer deadlines on myself and enjoying life more, and judging by my posting rate here, I guess I’m succeeding.
I’m back in your feeds today because two projects have come out in the past couple of weeks that I was a part of, and that I want to share with you. One, Starkid’s latest musical, Cinderella’s Castle, is available to watch for free on YouTube, and the other, Hit Singles, an original audio series by Long Story Short Productions, is available now on Audible.
Starkid’s Cinderella’s Castle
Team Starkid is an independent group of creators who for the most part produce original full-length musicals that are performed live and then put on YouTube. And it’s a group full of people who have become my dear friends over the past decade or so, from being around each other at conventions in the early 2010s (I was at these conventions for The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) and working with Joey Richter in School of Thrones in 2013. While I’d appeared in a couple of Starkid’s smaller filmed projects over the years, Cinderella’s Castle was my first time working with them for a stage production. They brought me in as an understudy/swing, and I learned four different roles/tracks in order to be able to step in if anyone was unable to perform.
Cinderella’s Castle is a dark retelling of the classic fairy tale written by brothers Matt and Nick Lang with a deep lore that presents the stepmother and stepsisters as flesh-wearing trolls rather than mere despicable humans. The whole show draws on the Henson fantasies of the 80s like Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, with working puppets and a synth-y soundtrack. My job was to learn the roles played by Angela Giarratana (The Stepmother), Kim Whalen (The Fairy Queen of Sweet Dreams), and Mariah Rose Faith and Lauren Lopez (Putrice and Rancilda, the Stepsisters). This included learning their various harmonies and choreography for the songs in the show.
I’ve never been an understudy/swing before, and like I mentioned earlier, I’d never worked with Starkid in this capacity before, so it was a lot of firsts for me. I started attending rehearsals about a month before the show opened, and as I learned the show I’d start to spend each day cycling through my four different tracks and making sure I knew each person’s lines, blocking, choreography, and harmonies. I did a lot of stepping in for people during the rehearsal process if certain actors weren’t present. I got a little time working with the troll puppets, which was so cool but pretty difficult! The ladies make it look easy in the final cut. Besides getting to hang out with my buddies for six weeks, the most fun part of the process for me was learning Lauren Lopez’s choreography and dancing through all the songs - I don’t get to spend as much time dancing as I used to, and I really enjoyed it. Thankfully, when it came down to it, I never had to go on for anyone during any of the performances. Which isn’t to say that I didn’t feel prepared; I certainly did (if not a little nervous). But I know how much Starkid fans adore their faves and come to these shows specifically for them. And I’m glad that’s always what they got.
The proshot (a professionally filmed version) of the show is available now on Starkid’s YouTube channel, and I have a very quick cameo as some villager with FABULOUS hair. The whole experience was a lot of fun, and I look forward to working with my Starkid friends in whatever capacity comes along next.
Hit Singles - An Audible Original
I’ve been waiting nearly two years for this project to come out, and it’s finally here!
If you are a close connoisseur of my audio projects, you will know that I have worked with the folks at Long Story Short Productions - spearheaded by Gabriel Urbina - multiple times over the past few years. I first appeared in a special episode of their hit series Wolf 359 back in…2017? And then did an episode of their series Unseen during the pandemic. In early 2023, Gabriel reached out asking if I’d do an internal table read of a new project he was working on with a handful of writers, a project that had a different name at the time. I absolutely fell in love with protagonist DJ Faith and her story of a summer in NYC, the cast of characters who surround her, and the clever, meta way the story was told. I hoped they’d ask me to be in the real thing.
And a couple months later, they did! I got flown out to NYC to read the role of Roxy in the show, Faith’s love interest David’s evil (for lack of a better term) ex, a successful but troubled influencer. You won’t hear Roxy until later in the 12 episode series, but that shouldn’t deter you - this quippy, bright, heartfelt story is a delight from start to finish, and features an excellent cast lead by Evangeline Young. My scenes are opposite the brilliant Nicholas Podany, who recently earned rave reviews for his portrayal of Billy Crystal in the film Saturday Night.
The Long Story Short folks put together such excellent audio narratives, and this one is the biggest and best they’ve done so far. It’s certainly not to be missed if you’re a fan of audio fiction.
Hope you enjoy these two new projects that I got to be a part of! I hope to be posting again sooner rather than later with more news, recommendations, or perhaps just reviews of movies we’ve been watching in movie club.
Until next time!