The Gavilan Press (and me) on Commedia dell'Arte

I am especially excited about this article because I think it talks about something that not too many people (outside of the theatre community) are aware of:  Commedia dell'Arte.

Commedia dell'Arte is a theatre performance style that originated in Italy in the 1500s and is best known for its use of stock characters and slapstick comedy. It also had a profound influence on our production of The Taming of the Shrew.

Because of my budding interest in the theatre form, I decided to write an article for The Gavilan Press discussing Commedia dell'Arte and said influence on our production. It was a great opportunity for me to talk about the theatre, something I have a strong passion for, and to educate people about Commedia. Here is the link to the published article on The Gavilan Press.

Through this article, I was also able to talk to some very cool people about Commedia - namely Connor Clark and Dr. Kate Booth. Connor was one of my castmates - he played Tranio, and for his senior project for GECA (the early college program at Gavilan) he researched a great deal on Commedia. Dr. Booth was my theatre history teacher this semester, and I was very excited to talk about Commedia with her because I knew she'd have something to say; she'd taught it in our class just a week or two prior to our interview.

In the photograph above, taken by my own brother, Kevin, on opening night of our Shrew run, you see Andy Garcia as the dottore character, Hortensio, Talia Vlaovich as the Pantlone, Gremio, Alaric Lund as an Innammorato, Lucentio, and me, Megan Brittani Nacionales, as Petrucchio's head servant, the Zanni, Grumio.

Vintage, Lullabye, and Libera

Today on Facebook, I somehow managed to drag myself to the group page for De Anza's Vintage Singers, the advanced choir that I proudly sang with for two quarters while I was there. About halfway down the page, I found that Pauli, one of my former classmates, had posted this video on the page:



It brought back so many memories from being in Vintage because a small group from within the choir performed this piece during my first concert in the group. The performed it a capella, and I've since fallen in love with the sound of the King's Singers. We've used their music several times in Vintage, including the arrangement for You Are the New Day, which was my favorite piece last Spring Quarter. I enjoyed it because it was a challenge: I'm what we lovingly referred to as a "Sopralto," which meant, thanks to the fact that I have about a 3 to 3-and-a-half octave range, (depending on the day) I can sing just about anywhere in Alto and Soprano. This usually meant I got to sing the Soprano II splits, which I loved. With this song, I had to switch between first Tenor and Soprano I range multiple times. I loved it. I always loved the sound of clear, high male voices, be they counter-tenor or tenor, and being able to sing the tenor part was just so great. This was our performance of You Are the New Day: (I'm the really short one sandwiched between two really tall people... Lol!)



Anyway, so back to Lullabye. I remember absolutely loving the song from the very first time I heard it in Vintage. I didn't realize until afterwards, when I started looking up videos of the song, that I actually had heard it before then, only a short time beforehand, sung by Joshua Madine in Libera.



I realized today that I haven't talked about Libera on my blog yet. Which is practically... sacrilege! Lol. Just kidding. But honestly, I really love the sound of treble voices. (To those who don't know, a treble singer is a boy soprano.) My favorite has got to be Libera, a boy's choir from South London. They do contemporary arrangements of both choir songs and popular music. They've even done the occasional classical music piece. Here's a showcase of some of my favorite work from them:

Sanctus: Set to Pachelbel's Canon in D. This is one of my favorite versions from them, with Tom Cully on the high note solos, and I prefer this ending to some of the other ones.



Salva Me: Ohmigod, Joe Snelling! It's such a shame he didn't stay with the group longer, but at least we have these: a testament to his gorgeous, clear high soprano!



How Can I Keep from Singing: Liam O'Kane, one of the original soloists, back when Libera was known as Angel Voices. Another soft, high tone that is so pure and clear. It's just beautiful. This video doesn't embed, so you can watch it here: Click!

You Were There: Tom Cully's beautiful voice, just a little lower than usual, since this was at the end of his time with Libera. Still, it's so beautiful. This is the song that I ended up singing over and over to comfort myself after my Grandpa passed away last January.



And finally, the song that started it all. This was the very first I ever saw of Libera, on a PBS broadcast - one of those specials where they ask you to donate. I think I was only like... 15 or so at the time, so obviously I couldn't buy it, but the style and the sound stuck with me all those years until I found them again.

Stay With Me: Ed Day's gorgeous soft high tone, and Liam O'Connery's incredible soprano riffs!

Electricity!

Billy Elliot is amazing. I really want to go see it. It's probably one of my longer-lasting obsessions that has something to do with Musical Theatre. (Other ones include Wicked, RENT, and West Side Story.) I know I already talked about the amazing Liam Mower in a previous post, but I'm not even kidding - every time I watch Electricity, I get chills. It doesn't matter if the boy (or boys, as the case may be) playing Billy are from the West End, Australia, the U.S., or even Korea, the same chills rush up and down my spine. It's a combination of the message of the song, the surge in the music when the dancing begins, the ridiculously amazing spin at the end, and the fact that all this acting, singing, and dancing is being performed by a boy who is around 10 to 14 years old.

This post is mainly a showcase for some of the amazing performances I've come across in the past several months while dying to see the show live. First, once again, Liam Mower, original West End Billy, performing Electricity.



I think this performance is probably stronger than the one I showed previously, for several reasons. First, Liam's a little older, a bit more comfortable in the role and the dancing and performing live. I think I read somewhere that the one I showed before (where he missed his singing cue) was at the very beginning of live performances to promote the show, so he was quite nervous. I this one, he's settled into the character better, and he is more relaxed, so his lines are crisper and more defined. I also really enjoy the performance from the dad in this one - the emotions on his face absolutely make Liam's passion show more.

Next up is the three original Broadway Billy Elliots: Kiril Kulish, David Alvarez, and Trent Kowalik, performing Electricity with Elton John at the Broadway Launch event.



These three boys are amazing, and each has his own style and strengths. I really enjoy Kiril because he is a solid, all-around performer. He can sing, dance, and hold his own in the acting. David, I really enjoy watching because he is such a graceful dancer. His lines and his turns in his ballet are absolutely gorgeous - and little details, like the extensions of his hands and fingers - simply breathtaking. Trent is the tapper. He had already trained in Irish step dancing beforehand, so his Angry Dance is just... so powerful. It also really helps that his cries define and punctuate beats in his performance. This is his performance at the 2009 Tony Awards.

Next up is Leon Cooke, also from the West End, in his performance in the TV show, Anything Will Do, which I probably will talk about at some point, because this series is also incredible. He's a little older than most Billys, so his voice is a bit low, and he's quite a bit taller than most Billys. However, his lines are incredible, and that spin at the end is just great. I think he got to 19, which is quite a few turns compared to most performances I've seen on YouTube.



And this is David Bologna, who is absolutely hysterical as Michael, Billy's friend. He has such great personality and energy, and from the interviews I've seen of him, he seems like a really great kid. These are highlights of his performance of the song Expressing Yourself, opposite David Alvarez's Billy. It's a hoot!



Now, we've come to the section which explains my inspiration for this post: the Korean Billys. First off, I get ridiculously happy when I see Asian Billys. It might have something to do with being Filipino, but who knows? xP Anyway, I remember when I saw that J.P. Viernes was a Billy Elliot, I was seriously spazzing. (Not even kidding, I was like, "Oh my God! There's a Filipino Billy Elliot! YUSSSS!") I wish I could have gone to see him. He was in the touring cast when they came to San Fran last year, but I didn't get to go. I wish watching shows wasn't so expensive, or they all had a $20 lottery for the front rows like I hear RENT used to have.

But anyway, I stumbled across the Korean Billy Elliots while surfing through a bajillion YouTube videos, and they may just be some of my favorites. First up is Ji-myung Lee, who has one of the most heartfelt performances of Electricity that I've ever had the pleasure to watch. He dances the "street" version of the dance, which incorporates more hip-hop inspired moves and gymnastics for those Billys who are perhaps not as experienced with ballet.



His voice is so good, and I can just feel the emotion pouring out from him, even though the tiny little stage makes it quite difficult to do full choreography. He has one of the best voices of all the Billys I've seen. It doesn't even matter that it's not in English. In fact, I think it adds to the story's impact - it truly is a show for all cultures.

And finally, this is Jung Jin Ho, who gives what is possibly the strongest dancing performance of Electricity I've ever seen. His lines and extensions are just... about as close to perfection as you can get in a young boy, or perhaps in anybody. I really don't know - I'm not a dancer. I just love to watch people who can dance.. He is also an incredibly strong singer, and while I may appreciate the emotion of Ji-myung Lee's Billy a bit more, the fact that he has such a strong voice and the a combined version of ballet and "street" for this song makes him one of my favorite Billys of all time.



Seriously! It's like 29 turns at the end!!!! It's amazing! So, on that note, I will conclude my day's worth of obsessing over Billy Elliot. Until next time, then!

The Gavilan Press on Cabaret-TADA!

I haven't written about it before, but at school, I'm both the copy editor and the online editor for our newspaper, The Gavilan Press. While I love writing for the paper -- and I did, both this semester and last -- I really enjoyed learning the behind-the-scenes stuff that went into putting the paper online. I didn't have time to take the class with all the other students, so I took it as independent studies and spent a fair few of my Fridays working with our adviser, Jan Janes, on getting the brand-new website up and running. A lot of this involves me being all techie and detail-oriented, which I personally love and which suits me just perfectly.

The article that I'm linking now was written by Allie Sordello, one of my classmates this semester, and was originally printed on Monday, February 27, 2012 in Spring Volume 49, Issue 5 of The Gavilan Press.

It technically went live just this month, but since we're scheduling articles to appear a week after they are published as newspaper, it says that it went up on March 5th, instead.

The article covers a little of the behind-the-scenes work for Cabaret. The picture is actually of the cast (I'm in the red) and our director, Maria Candelaria-Bagula (front and center, facing us) working on our final number for the show: Seasons of Love, from RENT. I really loved this number because (1) Dymond and I suggested it, and (2) I got the high riffing solo at the end, which involves hitting a C#6. It was awesome. ^_^

This is the link to the full article on The Gavilan Press.