Nominees were just announced for the 2011 Craig Noel Awards, celebrating excellence in San Diego-area theatre…and we are thrilled to see that our show is up for 6 awards.
Outstanding Resident Musical – SLEEPING BEAUTY WAKES at La Jolla Playhouse
Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, Female – Aspen Vincent
Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, Male – Bryce Ryness
Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical, Male – Bob Stillman
Outstanding Choreography – Doug Varone
Outstanding Lighting Design – Christopher Akerlind
Their show is an entertaining, one-of-a-kind combo of indie rock concert and touching holiday fairy tale (though secular…the holiday is New Year’s Eve), with enough bah-humbug cynicism and fourth-wall-breaking humor to keep it well out of saccharine territory…It’s a must-see opportunity. – Tom Mizer
We did our first STRIKING 12 show of the season recently in Lone Tree, CO – and a bunch of disparate elements came together beautifully to make it a very special weekend.
First, we were excited to get together and play, ’cause it’s been a while. Second, we’ve also been wanting to get together to work more on WHEELHOUSE (which premieres next spring at TheatreWorks of Silicon Valley), ideally in the company of the wonderful director we now have on board for the show; her name is Lisa Peterson. Lucky for us, the executive director of Lone Tree was happy to help us accomplish both at once; her name is also Lisa Peterson.
Lisa and Lisa had never met, though as theatre professionals they had heard each other’s names for many years. We were delighted to be the reason Lisa flew in to meet Lisa at the Denver airport.
Lisa (J.) Peterson, our WHEELHOUSE director - photo by Fred Hayes
Lisa (Rigsby) Peterson, Executive Director of Lone Tree, at groundbreaking last year - photo by Kristal Kraft
Lisa and Lisa watched STRIKING 12, which was a blast to do at the beautiful brand new Lone Tree Arts Center…and between Friday and Sunday, we were able to squeeze in 3 days of intensive work on WHEELHOUSE, mostly in a glass-enclosed conference room in the middle of the venue’s administrative offices. We had a borrowed keyboard; we had a big table; we were steps away from Super Target; it was perfection.
A big thankyou to both Lisas for making it all possible.
We’re up against the composers and songwriters of (among others) “The Penguins of Madagascar,” “The Amazing World of Gumball,” “Green Lantern the Animated Series,” and “Robot Chicken.” We love our lives.
Hey all – Ellie MacNeil pointed out that the links to our NYC Dec 26-31 shows were broken, making it look as if every show was sold out or unavailable. Apparently the venue changed the links after we had posted them…but now they’re working again, and all’s well that clicks well. See you for STRIKING 12 in NYC during the last week of the year…(and in Westport, CT on Dec 10)
we've never been here before but have heard good things about it
Hey folks – something slightly odd has transpired: tonight, Tuesday, November 8, Bren & Val are playing an hour’s worth of our songs at MBar in Hollywood, with a few songs from other people before us.
The evening was intended to be a kind of exclusive theatre-oriented open mic night where everybody does one song, but pretty much nobody from our writing-musicals-in-Los-Angeles group actually SIGNED UP to perform, so it’s gonna be like this:
• a couple of songs by other people
• and then mostly Bren & Val for about an hour, playing some old and some new songs and having a fun time.
We hope you can join us on such short notice.
Tuesday, November 8, 6:30 to 8:30pm
Mbar, 1253 Vine Street, Los Angeles, CA 90038
$10 food/drink minimum
It’s now up at the Disney site, here. (If it doesn’t start playing right away, click on “Dig Down Deeper - Dance to the beat of Zendaya’s inspirational anthem!” which you’ll see on the right side.)
The first (2008) TINKER BELL movie is airing at 5:30 PM tomorrow – Saturday, November 5 – on the Disney Channel, and the music video of our song “Dig Down Deeper,” performed by Zendaya, debuts during the first break which should be right around 6:00 PM.
One of the songs we’ve written for TINKER BELL is really heating up at Disney — and it’s fascinating to see the resources of this powerful company in action as they get behind this song. The single will “drop” on iTunes on November 8th: it’s the theme from the upcoming TINKER BELL & THE PIXIE HOLLOW GAMES half-hour TV special (which premieres Nov 19 on the Disney Channel), and the tune is called “Dig Down Deeper,” sung by 15-year-old Disney starlet Zendaya.
For the first time, a modern-sounding “pop” production style has been approved for a Tink song (up until now, the consistent sound of Pixie Hollow has been a Celtic, Enya-meets-Loreena-McKennitt sort of vibe — very lush, cinematic and beautiful, but not quite hurtling-up-the-radio-charts-style ear candy) — and this one, thanks to the ideas and wisdom of Disney music exec Matt Walker, plus the creativity and craft of producer Scott Erickson, has been transformed from our original down-home demo to a veritable Beyoncé-esque festival of pop-ness. It’s a single with a bullet, our first ever.
There’s a full-on Janet-Jackson-style music video due to be released any moment now (see preview below), replete with dancers and a drum line in the high school gym…and Zendaya will be performing “Dig Down Deeper” at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, while riding atop the Build-A-Bear Float.
We never cease to be amazed at the ways life does not turn out according to plan, instead surprising and stunning and sometimes delighting us in ways we never ever imagined. (If you believe, clap your hands…)
