Interview: Jeremiah and Jessica Discuss Taking New Show THE LAST TIME WE WERE HERE to NYMF
By: Matt Tamanini May. 24, 2015
THE LAST TIME WE WERE HERE, a new musical by Atlanta performers Jeremiah Parker Hobbs and Jessica De Maria, was recently selected as an invited show to perform at the prestigious New York Musical Theatre Festival. The musical will will play at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in New York City on July 25th and 27th.
Having seen an early concert version of the show, I quickly fell in love with the humorous and intimate heartbreaking story. Recently I chatted with Jeremiah and Jessica via email about the journey their show has taken.
BWW: For those who haven't seen one of the concert versions in Atlanta, or found the videos on YouTube, what is THE LAST TIME WE WERE HERE about?
Jeremiah and Jessica: Jacob, a singer-songwriter on a path toward superstardom, struggles to make sense of the big moments in his life - most notably the end of his relationship with Grace, a passionate woman fascinated by a romance from the past. Two other performers weave the stories of other couples into this powerful blend of music, love letters and poetry that catapults us across time and out of our contemporary world of snapchats and shortcuts onto a journey of two hearts aching to be heard in a world too small for their words. It's about love and loss and the struggle to figure out how to be happy.
This is something Jeremiah has been working on for a while, so how did you two end up collaborating on it?
In 2008, Jeremiah took a playwriting class and challenged himself to write a musical instead of a straight play. This "challenge" came from having already written three or four songs that felt like they had a similar theme. One of those four songs has made it all the way to the end, "We Belong Together," through all the different drafts; the versions with one person and with eight. It was never about Jeremiah, and it was never about one specific girl or instance. It was, however, incredibly weathered to his temperament and experiences.
In early 2014, Jessica made an offer to read the version of the play Jere had (a four person linear saga, ending in absolute despair), and give share her thoughts on it. 48 hours later, she came back with half of the show red-penned, ecstatic to share her thoughts on what she thought could be an incredibly moving, personal show. Together, they changed the play to an emotional journey, a memory play of moments. It was no longer a dark, embarrassed, closed off look into one man's life; it was a celebration of life, and the love and loss that encompass that life. Grace and Rose became real people; songs became finished; scenes made sense and poetry swept through the lives of these four.
It was recently announced that THE LAST TIME WE WERE HERE will be a part of this summer's New York Musical Theatre Festival. What exactly does that mean?
Basically, what that means is that we have a lot of flexibility. As of now, we are planning on doing the full show (script and score) as fully realized (set pieces, etc.) as the Kickstarter funds allow us to do. This will include some additional muscians as well, which is very exciting. We will run for two performances right at the end of the festival, which is really exciting and prestigious.
Best case scenario, what are you hoping this opportunity leads to? What are your realistic goals?
Well, the goal for any show performing at NYMF is that a fancy producer is going to see it and say "STRAIGHT TO BROADWAY KIDS! PACK YOUR BAGS, YOU'RE GONNA BE A STAR!" We feel really lucky that just getting ASKED to NYMF has gathered some great people who want to shepherd the show post-festival. We would both really love to see this show try and tackle Off-Broadway. We just want to see it have a future, even if that future means coming back to ATL and having a theatre here produce it.
You mentioned your KickStarter campaign, which was fully-funded a few days ahead of schedule, so what will that money go towards?
Jessica made a joke the other day that Atlanta ran on favors and NY ran on cash money. It's kind of true. When we got the sample budget for a Special Event from NYMF we were pretty overwhelmed. Luckily the show requires very little in terms of tech magic, so that was a huge plus. The Kickstarter funds will go to paying the artistic and technical team in NY (stage manager, light board operator, lighting designer, etc.) a load in and load out crew, insurance, travel to get up there, purchasing set pieces (a portable bar, glass ware, bar stools), marketing costs (advertising in print material and online up there, post cards), creating of the press kit (photos, flash drives, etc.) creation and printing of the program, advertising online with NYMF and in the NYMF program, professionally recording the music to have available at NYMF for interested folks, and costuming.
That's all really important, but the best part of donating to a KickStarter is getting to pick your reward, what was been the most popular reward?
The original cast recording, for sure. That's going to be so much fun.
What is your favorite reward option?
Naming a character in the next musical after someone. We really wanted that to happen!
One of the things that has really intrigued me about THE LAST TIME WE WERE HERE is that it is essentially a memory play, and that allows you to explore some unique language and storytelling devices; for example, why did you decide that the show's book should consist of spoken word poetry?
Jeremiah had already written some and it was gorgeous. He felt it had no place in a script, but Jessica also most comfortably wrote in a very heightened style, so it felt very natural. The spoken word and the heightened prose are used only when these characters are speaking their thoughts, it lets the audience know that, "Man, if I were able to articulate this feeling in the pit of my stomach, in the tightness of my chest, in the beating of my heart, the flushness of my face...it would sound like this."
There's something very magical about losing yourself in thought and memory, and the way our minds work in that way, pulling threads from all over the place.The unique use of poetry communicates that.
You've said before that you didn't write the show for yourselves, but you will both be part of the NYMF cast. So, was that born out of necessity, or are you just not ready to let go of your baby?
Hmmmm....it's a little bit of both honestly. NYMF planned on it being us. Also, the show is moving so quickly forward, it's been hard for us to even keep up with it. We still do not have a complete score on paper, so handing over sheet music to a musician or guitarist and asking them to learn it is still slightly impossible. The vast majority still only lives in Jeremiah's head.
Also, we, of course, are profoundly attached. We talked pretty recently about at least Jessica stepping back, but we decided that that should be something we do together...so that the first time it's other folks playing Jacob and Grace, we get to watch together from the audience as satisfied writers. The score is almost complete, which is wonderful, so it's well on its way to being able to stand on its own. We really can't wait, however, to be in a room with new performers and see how they go about negotiating the spoken word and so on. That's going to be so fascinating. Even now, when we hear other people sing the music, it's always very moving and exciting. It feels surreal.
You mentioned that you are already working on another musical, ORPHEUS SONG, what is that one about?
We hope to have one of the songs for this one recorded before NYMF to keep people excited about our work. That show is about a man on the younger side of middle age who's long-time romantic partner passes away, but her spirit is hanging around. They can't quite figure out why. She thinks it's because their partnership lead him to have to give up his musical and creative aspirations, and in her death, she is supposed to guide him to seeing them through to fruition now.
The show will follow his journey through exploring the choices they both made to put them where they are now. The Orpheus and Eurydice myth has seen loads of re-telling, most recently with JASPER in DEADLAND. But it's one that has always resonated with both of us, for different reasons, which makes re-telling it from their perspective really interesting. This sort of turns it on its head with our lead male being both the Orpheus and Hades figure, Persephone as a husky, dusky mistress in a dark club, and Eurydice with a much larger voice and presence. It's a bigger show than TLTWWH, with a 6 person ensemble in addition to the leads, but it will maintain a folk-rock quality with some more contemporary and blue-sy sounds in there as well.
If you want to follow the pair on their journey to NYMF and beyond, you can "Like" their page on Facebook and see videos on YouTube.
Comments
Videos