Janus Concert Series

2017 - Selections from Phantom of the Opera, Le Misérables, and Into the Woods
• Narrator, narration author, soloist
2018 - Selections from Carousel, Guys & Dolls, and She Loves Me
• Narrator, narration author, director, soloist

Two interesting creative projects, both which were presented as selections from three musicals in a concert/semi-staged setting.

In 2017, I sang a couple small roles and was tasked with analyzing the shows and putting together a script to tell the stories of the shows and provide context to the songs, shape to the evening. It was a wonderful challenge and introduced me to a lot of talented singers. In 2018, I reprised that role, but was also invited to direct the evening.

Concert direction is a blast – removing all of the pressure and complication of additional technical elements to focus on the core experience and storytelling is really rewarding. One of the most interesting elements of this was the idea of playing with the experiential gestalt of a “concert performance”. The audience requires very little in order to suspend their disbelief during a scene when we all are in agreement that this is a concert. We don’t need costumes, just maybe a few fun elements here and there. Exceedingly minimal props can be used, and no scenic elements except for the performer’s chairs. With these restrictions in place, suddenly every small element added to a stand-and-sing becomes a bigger deal, and little moments of stage magic hit a lot harder to endear the audience to the performers and the experience as a whole.

I hope to continue finding concert direction opportunities – there’s a magic to them, and working within (and often bucking) the expectations audience members have during a concert can be a joy.