Audience of One—musical on the rise
- alisabair
- Mar 31
- 5 min read
Producing a musical from scratch is not dissimilar to making sourdough bread. From the live fermented culture of the Audience of One trip itself back in 2000, I have been diligently maintaining and feeding the musical's "sourdough starter" for the past three years. With the help of a loving and experienced production team, it's now shaping up into a loaf and starting to rise. In June it will go into the oven and be made ready to serve to the public.
Under the capable hands of Director Bonnie Bosso, we have Elsa Rogers as Stage Manager, Jen Felty as Vocal Director/Production Support, Anne Flinchbaugh as Set Designer, J.P. Meyer as Music Director, and Marian West as Choreographer. Along with the actors we will meet with for the first time tomorrow night and the musicians and support team we'll bring on at The Junction Center this summer, everyone has their special part in creating the conditions necessary to "bake" this musical into what we trust will bring the beautiful aroma of the Bread of Life.
We recently finished holding auditions. Casting characters is an intuitive process, looking for what the late Stephen Sondheim described as "the essential quality" of the character. Take the role of Kendra, for example, the youth choir director in this musical. She has to sing well, be of a certain age, and exhibit leadership qualities. Most of all, she has to have an openness and sensitivity to the Lord and love for the students in her choir. That is her essential quality.
When Jen Felty, who sang the part of Kendra on our cast recording, wasn't able to commit to playing her in the show, I was naturally disappointed. She, too, had the essential quality and a voice to match. "Don't worry," Jen said. "God will bring us the right Kendra." We extended our casting deadline twice, and even though several talented actresses submitted audition reels, the shoe just didn't quite fit.
In my office one afternoon as I was thinking hard about whom else we could approach to play the part, I recalled a Facebook message I had received last summer from one of the original Audience of One trip attendees, Andrea "Drea" Heller: "Hello!" she wrote. "I just realized that I missed a message from you TWO years ago! I am so sorry! I have seen some of the work that you've been doing with the Audience of One project, and it's so exciting! I hope you are well."
Turns out I had not messaged her. She had gotten one of those spam hello-how-are-you-doing-today messages from my account. I would never have sent something that cold and cryptic, especially after not having seen her since the original trip 25 years ago. But the connection served as a little catchup between us, in which she shared two videos of her leading worship at her church. Her voice was stunning, and her heart for the Lord was palpable.
Seven months later, the memory of those videos came rushing back to me. I listened to them again, and this time a flood of tears came. Drea has the essential quality of Kendra, I thought. And by now, I quickly calculated, she had to be close enough in age to play the part. I scurried to get her phone number from a mutual friend and called her immediately. Did the performance dates work for her? Would she consider auditioning for the part?
"I'm so sorry," she said. "We're leaving for family vacation the Friday the show opens." My heart sank.
The next day, as I was trying to move on to other possibilities, the tears welled up all over again. Ask her again, came an insistent voice.
"Hey Siri, call Drea," I spoke out loud before I could overthink it.
"Calling Drea," Siri replied. Drea picked up.
"Drea, is there any way you would consider arriving a couple days late to your vacation? You could be in your car to leave by six o'clock Sunday evening." I told her I kept tearing up over her videos, and that I didn't mean to pressure her, but was this God?
There was a pause. She was wondering, too. She had a slew of hurdles to clear, but she promised to see what she could do. We agreed we would keep discerning together, one step at a time.
One by one, the hurdles melted away with the understanding help of her loving family and the promise that they could attend the Thursday night dress rehearsal. Two days later, Drea and I met at a Starbucks, where I filmed her reading a short scene to send to my casting partners. Despite her acting inexperience, it was her naturalness, her coachability, and her essential quality that won her the part. She will also bring to the role what no other actor can—the memory of the "Audience of One" trip itself.
She was just a week shy of her 13th birthday when she stepped out onto the wet and stormy field socked in with fog on top of the Skyline Drive the night of the concert for God. "All I could think of when we got off that bus was ewww," she recalled, the memory of her sandals squishing beneath her, the dripping wet waist-high grasses tickling and sliming her bare legs. And it was cold—a drop of 15 degrees from the summery warmth of the Shenandoah Valley just an hour before. "I couldn't imagine us doing a concert in those conditions!" But ultimately it was a night she wouldn't forget, one that helped her feel the tangible presence of God.
About that bus she stepped off of. I have to share my excitement over the fact that the company the church hired to transport us on our original Audience of One trip has agreed to be our Presenting Sponsor for our June production. This is the highest sponsorship level available in our fundraising campaign—one that can be claimed by only one corporation.
Weeks ago I sat across the desk from Dale McMichael, President and Owner of Executive Coach. Following up on an email I'd sent two days before, I told him that the musical not only features a bus, but also its driver, who closes out the show with a monologue.
"I saw in your email the driver's name in your musical is Bill," he said, trying to piece together the particulars in all my excitement. "That happens to be the name of one of our current drivers."
I laughed. "Total coincidence! I did call your company last year to see if we could locate the name of the original driver, but unfortunately your computer records don't go back that far."
"The buses have changed a lot in appearance, too, since then," he mused with a smile.
It is extraordinarily special to me to have this company associated with our upcoming production. Over the last year we received generous support from so many individuals and a couple businesses, which helped us publish scripts and scores, do a staged reading, and make a cast recording. Now, we are in need of another influx of funds to finally bring this show to the stage.
Like the bus and its driver, Executive Coach's sponsorship is still helping us get to our destination! We hope others will join them! If you'd like to buy a program ad, make a donation, or purchase tickets to the performances June 27th-29th, please click on the live links below.
Together—and only together—will this musical rise.
With enormous gratitude,
—ab
You just have a way with words. And imagery! That's so rich that I'm smelling bread ... and there's nothing like the Bread of Life. Let it rise!!!
What a beautiful post, Lisa -- masterfully articulated as only you can. As one whose husband is consistently feeding his sourdough starter, I love the image of this "loaf" in the making for the glory of God and the blessing of many. Thank you for persevering in this fragrant and extravagant offering to God who delights in receiving the gift of this musical!