30 Days of NYMF: How To Become Unlock'd

HOW TO BECOME UNLOCK'D
by Christopher Gunn (Edwin in Unlock'd)

Usually, when working on a new show, one finds one or two songs or moments that really SING, that leap out of the rehearsal room and make you long for the day that you will see them breathe under bright lights and colorful costumes; aided by the palpable hush of a rapt audience and the adrenaline pulsing through the actors' veins. If you are lucky, you may even see great potential in the show, and you may feel fortunate to be a part of something you actually BELIEVE in. Something you might actually invite your friends to come see. 

And every once in a while, you feel you're in on the ground floor of something that is crackling with SO MUCH potential that you can almost feel the thing whistling to explode. You look around and find that you are surrounded by 10 ridiculously talented actors delivering a show written by 2 RIDICULOUSLY talented writers. To call the book and lyrics clever would be accurate. But then you watch them fall and spit and tumble out of the actors' mouths, and they transcend the page and fully realize their intended genius. And can we talk about the music? An ENTIRE score that not only serves the plot but is also so much damn fun to sing! AND SOUNDS GORGEOUS, too? Pinch me.

I find myself acting in a show that attempts no less epic a feat than blending a Shakespearean sense of poetry; a classical score infused with a KICK-ASS pop sensibility; a screwball comic spirit; a satirical insight to our modern world; an invisible cast of spiritual sylphs and gnomes; a song in which a maiden sings in tight, 4-part harmony with the locks of hair on her own head (you heard me); and a visit from the father of all Gods….Zeus, himself.

None of that should work. Some of it walks a very tricky balance. And somehow, miraculously...it ALL SINGS, and leaps across the stage. And we're still only in a rehearsal room. Can't wait to see what happens under those bright lights.