BWW Blog: Meet Jake Winn of KID VICTORY - Floating State

"Floating State"

There was a moment today, during our musical rehearsal, when John Kander stood from his seat behind the writers' table. With his first step, the room fell silent. Each subsequent step brought actors further and further towards the edge of their seats as hands of stage managers' discretely turned their phones to camera mode. When he sat down, behind the old, upright rehearsal piano, the focus in the room was unparalleled. His fingers stroked the keys and a brand new version of the verse in question flowed through the chamber of the piano and into the room. No one breathed. Unsure of whether to clap, nod, or cry, we all sat motionless. Jeff Denman, who was sitting next to me, raised his hands in the air and pronounced "John Kander, everybody," and the silence broke in stunned laughter, headshakes, and stifled amen's. It was at that point, sitting around the piano with some of the most talented artists that I've ever had the privilege of meeting, it hit me how surreal this experience was.

In Kid Victory, the new musical by John Kander and Greg Pierce, we follow my character, Luke, on a journey of psychological healing and social reintegration, as he returns from a year of abduction. In the opening stage directions, Greg tells us that Luke is in a "floating state... Luke's worlds slide into one another in ways that are at times exciting and at times unsettling." While our circumstances could not be more different, this so-called "floating state" seems to perfectly encapsulate this journey for me.

As I sit in this rehearsal studio in Chelsea - as Christiane Noll belts an F sharp, as Greg Pierce continually blows my mind with newfound complexities of this world he's created, and as Liesl Tommy finds the meaning of life in a single line of dialogue - I cannot help but feel simultaneously humbled and overwhelmed. I can't help but think of 13 year-old Jake, at the back of the school bus, listening to the Chicago soundtrack on his iPod mini, practicing his lines for the local production of The Music Man, Jr. I'm in the thick of the dream.

Yet this feeling of floating extends so far beyond the disorientation of working in the big leagues; in creating this new piece of theater, we are venturing out into uncharted waters with subject matter rarely broached and material untested. We, the creative team of Kid Victory, are floating - showing up and not knowing what's going to happen but trusting that it's a part of some theater making process we cannot control or predict. It's exciting. It's unsettling.

Then I look around me, at these wonderful people, and all I can think is that if this is what floating feels like, I hope my feet never touch the ground.

First day of rehearsal for Kid Victory. Photo by Jake Winn.

Music Rehearsal for Kid Victory. Walter Ware III, Christiane Noll, Valerie Leonard, and Laura Darrell. Photo by Jake Winn.

Music Rehearsal for Kid Victory. Walter Ware III, Christiane Noll, Valerie Leonard, Laura Darrell, Jeffry Denman, Jake Winn, Sarah Litzsinger, Parker Drown and Bobby Smith. Photo by Jake Winn.