BWW Blog: Briana Cuoco of L.A.'s AMERICAN IDIOT - Let the Chaos Begin!

Let the Chaos Begin!

We just finished our first week of rehearsals full of head banging, middle fingers, bruised and sore bodies from dancing our asses off and singing at the top of our lungs - you guys are in for it with this show! It's going to be in your face, loud, angry, poignant, beautiful, inspiring and I believe, incredibly hopeful.

When we sat down for our first full cast rehearsal at the start of the week, I was blown away by the absolutely ridiculous talent of the people around me. How I managed to weasel myself in there I have absolutely no idea... these people will melt your heart telling these stories. Billy Joe (lead singer and lyricist of the entire 'American Idiot' album) did make it easy on us though - these songs are simply brilliant. My entire freshman year of high school was driving around in my little white Jetta BLASTING this album and screaming it out. Now that I'm a bit older (a BIT ?) and have been dissecting the lyrics, I cannot believe we get to sing these. They are so beautifully written with such vivid themes and lyrics - how can you not be moved to tell the story of each of them? It's impossible for them to not wash over you and simply just make you feel.

As we're just starting to put all these characters lives together, it's becoming clearer by the day how incredibly relevant the content of what Billy Joe wrote 11 years ago. The themes he wrote about, no one ever escapes in this life and will always ring true. It doesn't matter if you're sixty five or twentysomething living in go-nowhere suburbia we all experience joy and pain, change, regret, failure and success, crippling heartbreak, lost loves, missed opportunities, never understanding why things happen but through the chaos, you find your true heart, your true soul, and become who you're meant to be... what a beautiful life.

I personally love the creating process. I love being in rehearsals for hours, I love figuring out the arc of the show as a whole and how your own personal story contributes. I love seeing every person, little by little, day by day get better, know more about who they are and how important they are to the story. Our amazing creative team has done a brilliant job of casting each role and I know that each of these people will remind you of someone you know or have known in your life (or maybe yourself?): the leader, the followers, the realists, the-not-so-motivated, the I-just-wanna-have-funs, the dreamers and the doers.

I get to bring Heather to life and I couldn't be more excited. For me, I always try to find pieces of myself in the people I get to play and it wasn't hard with her. I see Heather as the caretaker, the one person in Jingletown that wants to have stability and wants to take care of the "do-nothing's, no-nowhere's." For better or for worse at my core - that's who I am. I gravitate towards people (okay, mostly men) that I can "take care of" - which by the way ladies, this never works out! If you're loving a lost boy, you will most likely become lost too - just like Heather does with Will.

I can't wait for the upcoming weeks and for you all to meet us and to escape into Jingletown and these beautiful people's lives.

RAGE LOVE!