We sit with the composer of Jeannette: the Musical, Hamilton star and American Idol Semi-Finalist Ari Afsar, and director Erin Ortman to discuss the inclusivity of their work, dismantling hierarchy in theatre, separating your ego from your collaboration, and enlisting young musical theatre fans in flipping Georgia. You can check out the concept album for the musical, WE WON'T SLEEP, on Spotify. Chapter Timestamps Below:
0:00 Introduction of Guests
1:22 Jeanette Brigade
3:10 Team Genie (high school and college student focus groups. December 15th)
7:00 This play is for all people
7:30 Songwriting Journey - American Idol To Hamilton
10:00 How they got into theater
11:40 Cherish Your Mentors
13:00 Erin’s directing journey
14:10 Ensemble Studio Theater/Dismantling Hierarchy
19:00 Influences in theater and music
21:00 Ari digging into her sound for Jeanette
21:50 Erin On The Genius of Ari
24:25 Being Fearless in the Unknown
25:27 Musicality
26:45 Republican means something different now. It is always changing.
28:20 Changing how we look at theater in the virtual space
30:00 Change that can be made to the piece following the death of George Floyd
32:00 What is theater going to look like?
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