Latest / The BSB Podcast / Exclusive Interview: Angela VanKempen & Jerry Haines of St. Dunstan's 'Head Over Heels'

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Exclusive Interview: Angela VanKempen & Jerry Haines of St. Dunstan's 'Head Over Heels' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  St.
• 0:00
  Dunstan's is returning to their Greek theater with their season clothes or head over heels.
• 0:04
  And today we're talking with director Jerry Haynes and cast member Angela VanKempen about this production.
• 0:08
  Thank you so much for being here.
• 0:10
  You're welcome.
• 0:11
  It's good to be here.
• 0:11
  I'm glad you're doing this.
• 0:14
  Thank you.
• 0:15
  You're you're so welcome.
• 0:16
  Again, we're so excited.
• 0:17
  This is such a cool thing to do.
• 0:18
  I've got to see quite a few different shows out in the Greek theater.
• 0:20
  They did, you know, Grease last year.
• 0:22
  We had Sound of Music Much Ado About Nothing opened this season.
• 0:26
  Jerry, what's it kind of like to kind of close out the season in such a cool environment like a Greek theater?
• 0:33
  Like you, I've seen many shows in the Greek, but I this is my first time directing for St.
• 0:38
  Dunstan's and directing in the Greek.
• 0:41
  I'd just kind of like bit off more than I could do for my first time.
• 0:45
  But it's it's been Yeah, it's been a wonderful experience.
• 0:49
  Um I'm learning a lot about doing a show outside.
• 0:55
  Um the challenges I didn't expect, some that weren't as bad as I thought.
• 1:01
  So
• 1:02
  It's it's it's been a quite a learning experience and I was asked by um someone, would I do it again?
• 1:09
  And I would absolutely.
• 1:11
  Angela, is this your first time out in the Greek?
• 1:14
  No, I've done uh a lot of shows.
• 1:17
  I think this is the I don't know, maybe fourth or fifth time I've acted out there and then um I assistant directed Sound of Music and choreographed that and and choreographed um
• 1:29
  Much Ado and uh Something Rotten in twenty twenty two.
• 1:34
  So I have a lot of experience in the Greek, but it's different every time.
• 1:37
  There's some new challenge every time.
• 1:39
  Um, but it it's like
• 1:43
  I always describe it as like when it's bad and it goes bad, it's bad 'cause it rains, shows over, you know.
• 1:50
  But when it's right, it is like the most magical place ever.
• 1:54
  It's there's no place like it.
• 1:57
  Even when it rains a little bit, it can still be magical.
• 1:59
  I remember when I saw Grease it was like just lightly misting and so like wasn't to the point where like people were like falling on the stage and stuff like that.
• 2:06
  But it was just like it added some ambiance, you know.
• 2:08
  Yeah, there you go.
• 2:11
  So Angela, how would you say opening weekend went?
• 2:12
  'Cause you just had your opening weekend for Head Over Heels.
• 2:16
  Yeah, I think it went well.
• 2:19
  you know, we had like really energetic crowds uh Friday and Saturday night.
• 2:24
  A little bit loud lighter crowd on Sunday, but but they were small but mighty, a lot of theater friends in the audience, so that's always fun.
• 2:33
  Um, yeah, I think I think it went well.
• 2:36
  You know, it's a show that a lot of people maybe don't know.
• 2:39
  So it's not like sound of music or something that's been around for so long and
• 2:43
  you know, everybody and their mothers coming.
• 2:45
  Um, but I think that it's just like a really cool story to tell.
• 2:49
  And I'm excited we finally get to share it.
• 2:53
  You know, Jerry, I'm gonna be honest.
• 2:54
  I'm one those people that didn't know a lot about this show.
• 2:56
  I did before it was it was announced.
• 2:59
  So for those who maybe are like me or in the same wheelhouse, what is going on in Head Over Heels?
• 3:04
  uh I was asked that question on TV and I kind of flubbed it because it's a it's a kind it's kind of a difficult story to tell in a nutshell without doing the whole thing.
• 3:15
  But I'll try.
• 3:16
  Um it's based Yes.
• 3:23
  Um the book is classic, it's Greek, it's based on I'm not gonna get the name right, but Arcadia, I think.
• 3:34
  Okay.
• 3:35
  and it's the story of a family, of a father who is kind of you could say stuck in tradition.
• 3:45
  And I love his last line.
• 3:47
  He doesn't really know his people, he thinks he does, but he doesn't know the citizens of Arcadia.
• 3:52
  He doesn't really know his own family, but he's stuck in tradition and he wants things to go his way.
• 3:58
  Um, well.
• 4:01
  When it comes to his daughter Pamela and his daughter Philoclea um he wants things to go a certain way and they don't, especially with love.
• 4:13
  So um there's a shepherd boy who is in love with the younger daughter.
• 4:19
  There's Pamela, who he's trying to marry off to a suitor, and neither of those goes right.
• 4:25
  In the meantime, um the
• 4:29
  Gods are doing something different in Greece, and he has been called by the oracle to hear a prophecy, and basically it's four curses.
• 4:43
  And so he thinks to avoid the curse, he's gonna run out of town and take the citizens and his family with him.
• 4:50
  But yes, as one does, but
• 4:54
  He can't escape the curses by running.
• 4:56
  uh He can't escape the prophecy.
• 5:00
  It happens.
• 5:01
  Things happen, you know, identities and love interests and um it all comes back together in the end.
• 5:11
  And I don't want to give too much away.
• 5:16
  But it's all it's all set like expertly to the music of the go-go's.
• 5:23
  It's like the Gogo's wrote this music for this play.
• 5:28
  It just fits so dynamically.
• 5:31
  Were you familiar with the show before you decided to direct it?
• 5:35
  What w
• 5:36
  I saw um I saw it in New York when it when it was running with the original cast.
• 5:44
  And I knew nothing about it.
• 5:45
  I was uh staying at a hotel across the street from the Hudson Theater and I saw the marquee head over heels with music by the go-go's.
• 5:52
  That's all I knew.
• 5:53
  And I'm like, I love the go go's.
• 5:56
  I've always loved the go-go, so I'm going to buy a ticket and go see the show.
• 6:00
  I was in the second row, I fell in love with the show.
• 6:03
  And right then and there I I told my friend they had to go to New York and see it.
• 6:07
  And I said right then I have to direct the show when it becomes available.
• 6:12
  And so it this is kind of like it all lined up perfectly to finally be able to do it and in the Greek theater at that, you know?
• 6:20
  Uh Angela, were you familiar with the show before auditioning?
• 6:25
  Not really.
• 6:26
  Like I it was only a few months before.
• 6:28
  And like I said, I've done a lot of shows in the Greek and it's um, you know, and I was originally planning to just audition for the ensemble.
• 6:37
  And so I I listened to it and I was like, my gosh, this is gonna be really fun.
• 6:41
  Like this would be such a fun show to do.
• 6:43
  Um, and then, you know, the more I listened to it and when I looked at the audition cuts, um, the one for Pamela kind of made the most sense for my voice.
• 6:51
  So I was like, All right, I'll just, you know.
• 6:53
  I'll I'll sing that and and we'll just see how it goes.
• 6:56
  And and that worked out.
• 6:58
  And so then kind of once I got more into the story, you know, it's you're asking what is the show about?
• 7:03
  You may get like a third of the way through the show and be like, What is this show about?
• 7:08
  Where are we going?
• 7:09
  Where are we going with this?
• 7:11
  'cause there's some wild stuff that goes on, but it really like um, you know, it does definitely wrap up nicely with like a pretty little bow.
• 7:19
  Um and
• 7:20
  Yeah, I d I really didn't know much besides like Jerry was like, Go Go's.
• 7:24
  Yep, sounds good.
• 7:24
  That sounds fun.
• 7:25
  Um, you know, and it's like a lot of Jukebox musicals where you're kinda like, they pieced this together with these songs, but like Jerry said, it f they fit really well, like with
• 7:38
  the storyline.
• 7:39
  Um, so yeah, it's it's been it wasn't new to me, but now I you know, I'll definitely have like this as one of my
• 7:48
  One of my top ones to to listen to.
• 7:52
  It's always so I love a jukebox musical that it feels like the music is just made for the story of the story fit like like I know that they can make stories to fit, but like the
• 8:00
  when they just kind of naturally come together and it doesn't feel like you're trying to force it to like to be married.
• 8:05
  That there's such a beauty to a jukebox musical like that.
• 8:08
  So Angel, you mentioned you're playing Pamela, correct?
• 8:13
  So who is Pamela to you?
• 8:15
  Oh, she is a complicated gal.
• 8:20
  you know, she she really is like super vain.
• 8:23
  And at least how she, you know, presents at the beginning of the show is like this vain princess that like isn't happy with any of these suitors and um you know it it and um
• 8:39
  you know, she really goes through like her own journey of why she's really not happy with the suitors without giving too much away.
• 8:46
  and, you know, kind of discovers herself.
• 8:49
  So finding a way to play it that's not just like uh how I don't like not just like catty, like princessy, you know, um but
• 9:07
  Yeah, and like, you know, you don't just wanna be this like annoying bratty character.
• 9:12
  Um, you know, but like there's you know, she has a line that says, Every princess is to her duties bound.
• 9:19
  So obviously like she takes being a princess seriously.
• 9:22
  She has, you know, she's bound to her duties, of what she knows marrying some suitor is one of them.
• 9:29
  So she's obviously having this internal struggle of of why that's not working.
• 9:34
  So yeah, it's definitely, you know, more
• 9:36
  She has a song that's beautiful.
• 9:38
  That's really like what she says is like what I see when I look at me is beautiful.
• 9:42
  So like there's definitely that vanity there, but there are a lot more layers to it that kind of peel away as as the show goes
• 9:51
  Was there something super surprising that you kinda learned about her as you continue to step into that role, especially as you kind of walk towards like opening weekend?
• 9:59
  Um, yeah, I mean more things just kind of click, you know, as as you get closer um, you know, to the show opening and and when you're in the space and you know, as we go through
• 10:10
  the rehearsal process, it's like you learn your songs and you learn choreography and then you're kind of piecing it together and you know all your lines, but then once you're um
• 10:19
  you know, once you put it all together, it gives you you know, you're you're more like living the show in your body a little bit more.
• 10:27
  You get the
• 10:27
  kind of the flow of where things go and um you know it gives you a little more time to like process how these things go together.
• 10:35
  Um so now I don't remember what your question was, but what did I learn about her?
• 10:40
  um yeah.
• 10:42
  revealed to you as you're like as you became her?
• 10:46
  Well, I think like part of that, like this this journey that she's on, um, and what these like people around her uh mean to her and and showing again, without revealing too much,
• 11:01
  um, you know, kind of there's uh you know, like there there's this reveal and um, you know, halfway through and it's it's uh it's been a challenge for me to try to like
• 11:14
  builds this character to this reveal versus just like, boom, now we're doing something different.
• 11:20
  You know, it's kind of when you see it, if you come to see it, you'll know what I mean.
• 11:24
  But uh yeah, it's definitely a little more challenging um in terms of like developing a love interest and things like that than I than I thought it might be.
• 11:36
  And Jerry, you know, you mentioned that you kind of you've loved this show from the first time you saw it on Broadway.
• 11:40
  So when you kind of go into directing it, when you have like that vision of what kind of was, how do you develop kind of your vision?
• 11:46
  Like what's your process for bringing a show to life as kind of like the captain of the ship?
• 11:51
  so um usually I when I put in for a show, I listen to this code for like a year.
• 12:00
  I read it, I when I uh read the script I have lights and I
• 12:07
  I have s s sets in mind, I have sound in my I have all of these aspects um that I want to put into it.
• 12:17
  And I don't like to recreate what I've seen, so I like to put a new
• 12:20
  it in my own setup.
• 12:22
  Which was
• 12:23
  the Greek.
• 12:24
  Um because I lights in act one when it's daytime.
• 12:32
  Um sound system to bring in sets.
• 12:37
  So I had to work with the set designer and like rethink what it would look like outside, which means um dealing with a unit set and giving the audience being able to tell the
• 12:52
  story in such a way.
• 12:53
  That the audience would get a feel for different locations, um, and still, you know, have lights that were interesting um that would also help to tell the story.
• 13:09
  Um, so all those things came into play.
• 13:12
  Um, but my set designer um he he decided to do this whole
• 13:22
  kind of concerned.
• 13:26
  which is kind of cool.
• 13:28
  Um, it just works.
• 13:34
  Um, so there was that aspect.
• 13:36
  Um the other one was staying true to the story.
• 13:43
  story.
• 13:46
  It 'cause what I'd like to do on Broadway is is I didn't know what it was explaining of it, like.
• 13:53
  But the advertisement is played serious, which made it more funny.
• 13:59
  took it seriously.
• 14:01
  Um
• 14:03
  Which which made it even funnier for the audience because it drew you in and you believed it.
• 14:09
  And I I I did want to get that across with with with my actors.
• 14:12
  I'm like, okay, we're telling the story.
• 14:14
  We're gonna try and tell it as straight as possible.
• 14:16
  Um and then we found out that that really didn't work.
• 14:21
  It kind of works, but it doesn't.
• 14:23
  Um, so I kind of gave them the freedom once they knew their lines and their songs, and like, okay, now give me the details.
• 14:33
  Like who are these people?
• 14:34
  And so there's a little bit of ad libbing that comes in now which which works beautifully because it makes them feel like they're real, like they're reacting to to this what's
• 14:46
  what's in the story.
• 14:47
  And it's and it's and it's kind of all related and it just kind of all flows and um so I'm very proud of it.
• 14:56
  Very proud of it.
• 14:58
  was gonna say kind of at the beginning the other problem I had about the additional challenge of like sunlight changing and things like that, like how that calls by the fact
• 15:09
  that the lighting that might work later in the night, but it's regardless of time and work for this, you know, uh fresh sheet of pockets, we're gonna, you know, all of it toxic
• 15:18
  stuff like that.
• 15:19
  Yeah.
• 15:20
  I mean Angela, w when you're you're kind of when you're you know, an actress or n yeah on the stage for that, what is that like?
• 15:28
  'Cause you're much more exposed to the audience too.
• 15:31
  You're kind of down in the middle.
• 15:33
  You're uh I think I'm such a bad theater gate here.
• 15:36
  You're in a proscenium, correct?
• 15:37
  At that one, technically.
• 15:39
  There's not really, but it's it's like this really wide uh stage.
• 15:44
  And and yeah, it like when the show starts, you know, kind of through most of act one, it is light, you know, you can see every single person.
• 15:54
  So I warn people the first time they perform in the Greek, like you're gonna look at the audience during the opening number and they are just gonna be like, Because people don't
• 16:07
  think.
• 16:08
  People don't think about their faces when they watch something.
• 16:11
  You know what I mean?
• 16:11
  Like so they may just be staring at you.
• 16:13
  It's gonna take a minute for them to to come with us, you know.
• 16:19
  so I really try not to, you know, I I try not to kind of until like act two when it's getting darker, then I'll kind of glance around a little bit to see like, you know, who's
• 16:29
  there.
• 16:30
  But you yeah, it's very it's very intimate because they are like with us on this journey from day to night and you know.
• 16:37
  Which is again so unique to the Greek.
• 16:40
  but it it can be jarring if you you get out there and the first time you think about that as opening night and you're like, Oh my gosh, I can see every single person staring at me.
• 16:50
  Um, it's definitely different.
• 16:52
  Which didn't help when I when I encouraged them to break that fourth wall.
• 16:58
  I'd like interact with them.
• 17:02
  But that is such a cool aspect about the Greek theater, I feel like it's because there is that less of a traditional wall between the audience and the the actors.
• 17:10
  Cause I mean, I've seen shows where they use the stairs and they run around and they're talking to people and they're hiding behind people and like or you know, even when you're
• 17:17
  down in the the little, you know, the grassy part, you're right there and everyone's just like, it's
• 17:22
  I would ass I'm not an actor, but I assume that sometimes that could be intense when you're like all eyes are literally you can see you can feel them, you know, as you're
• 17:28
  you're doing that.
• 17:29
  Um, but yeah, that's that's really cool.
• 17:31
  So you encourage kind of the fourth wall break.
• 17:32
  You were like this make them a part of the show.
• 17:36
  Why was that important to you?
• 17:37
  Because so there's so many monologues, and in those monologues they're talking to somebody.
• 17:45
  Um, so it started with those those actors who had those monologues.
• 17:52
  I'm like, they're there.
• 17:54
  You need to talk to somebody.
• 17:56
  So talk to the audience.
• 17:57
  That's your other character.
• 17:59
  Even though you're like the monologue's supposed to be in your head, you're talking out loud.
• 18:03
  So
• 18:04
  I'd rather you engage the audience and get them involved in the show.
• 18:07
  Um, when the show opens, and since there's no curtain, I said I told the actors as they're coming out, um wave at the audience, talk to the audience, get them involved from then
• 18:20
  from that opening number.
• 18:21
  Um and then the the character of Pithio, that's all he does is interact with the audience.
• 18:31
  So
• 18:32
  It it was important for me for a show that people really don't know.
• 18:38
  It was a vehicle to get them involved in it.
• 18:43
  get it in called in I
• 18:44
  they feel like they're a part of that story.
• 18:48
  and speaking of the music, you mentioned about how this is the go-go's.
• 18:51
  Um Jerry, what would you say maybe is your your favorite number, or do you have a favorite number, or is there one that just like you just feel so accomplished now that it c all
• 19:00
  came together?
• 19:01
  together?
• 19:04
  wow, my favorite okay.
• 19:07
  Yes, I do have a favorite number.
• 19:08
  Um it's Pamela's number.
• 19:14
  Yeah.
• 19:15
  It's it's at the end of Act One.
• 19:17
  It is my favorite number.
• 19:19
  It's the one of the one songs I didn't know by the Go-Go's.
• 19:24
  Um, when I first saw the show, I'm like, I don't know this song.
• 19:27
  And I have since went back and listened to it.
• 19:30
  Um, but um it is my absolute favorite number in the show.
• 19:40
  When I saw it on Broadway, I I've
• 19:43
  been in I've seen shows where a character has stopped the show.
• 19:48
  But I it in this particular instance, Bonnie Milligan stopped the show and people were on their feet for like three minutes.
• 19:58
  my gosh, wow.
• 20:01
  And that yeah.
• 20:03
  And yeah, it's it's just one of those numbers that comes out of the out of nowhere.
• 20:11
  It's unexpected.
• 20:13
  And Angela does a great job with it.
• 20:18
  Thank you.
• 20:19
  Thank you.
• 20:22
  Yes.
• 20:23
  Yeah.
• 20:23
  It's very it's a very fun number.
• 20:26
  Yeah.
• 20:28
  Again, we don't wanna reveal too much.
• 20:29
  You'll have to come see the show.
• 20:31
  But uh yeah, it's fun.
• 20:32
  Yeah.
• 20:33
  just trying to to, you know, get them in intrigued.
• 20:36
  Um, but speaking of the audience, before I let you both go, and Angela, I'll start with you.
• 20:40
  It's just what are you hoping audiences take away from this production of Head Over Heels?
• 20:44
  the story is really, I mean, one of like love and self acceptance.
• 20:48
  You know, there's a lot of crazy stuff that happens along the way in this journey, but that is, you know, it's like these characters are learning who they are and um, you know,
• 21:00
  I hope uh like you know, it's a pretty queer show and there's a lot of um queer storylines going on and uh, you know, it being Pride Month, like I think it's just such a nice time
• 21:11
  to be doing the show and
• 21:13
  Um, you know, it definitely will give you a lot of warm fuzzies.
• 21:16
  And uh yeah, I think I think people will really, you know, like come for the come for the go go's music and the dancing and the costumes.
• 21:25
  Like we haven't talked about the costumes.
• 21:27
  They are a wild, bright, colorful ride.
• 21:30
  Um, so come for that and then you'll you'll definitely leave um uplifted for sure.
• 21:36
  Absolutely.
• 21:37
  Real quickly, we do have to talk about the c I'll come back to Jerry.
• 21:39
  I promise we're gonna answer that question for you as well.
• 21:41
  But the costumes, they are they are bright, they are colorful, they are very vibrant.
• 21:46
  It has to be really cool to kind of step into a costume that just is larger than life in a way.
• 21:52
  When I got the show, I had two words in mind and I told Linda, our costumer Linda Watson, I said, I need to do a mix of Elizabethan and 80s.
• 22:06
  uh That's awesome.
• 22:08
  wanted I really to figure out the game.
• 22:11
  part of it because of the go-go's.
• 22:13
  And then there's the class the classic dialogue of the classic story.
• 22:17
  Um, so I'm like, and she and her and Janie did a they did a great job.
• 22:23
  They they just ran with it.
• 22:26
  I was gonna say, I love when you say the eighties, for people obviously look up some images of St.
• 22:32
  Dunstan's some the costumes like that, because like it's the colors specifically, man.
• 22:38
  They are just so it kind of reminds you of like like a like a Taco Bell almost from like the nineties, you know what I mean?
• 22:44
  Like in a good way, like in a good way, you know?
• 22:46
  Like as a I have fond memories as a child walking in there and seeing the vibrant colors and was so exciting.
• 22:51
  And that's when you think of like an 80s film, you know, or even you know.
• 22:55
  Eighties through nineties, even a little bit of seventies, there's the bright, vibrant colors that really speaks to the life that's kind of lived there.
• 23:00
  So you nailed that.
• 23:01
  Absolutely, Jerry.
• 23:03
  Yeah.
• 23:03
  and like the the hair and makeup, you know, there's lots of like, you know, people are like have their hair really big, some kind of like David Bowie inspired makeup, some
• 23:13
  really bright colors, glitter too, which wasn't so much an eighties thing, but still like, you know, it's like a fun, bright where like if you just saw one person in one of these
• 23:23
  costumes, you'd be like, What?
• 23:25
  But then you see the big picture and you're like, Yeah, like this really works.
• 23:28
  Um, it's really yeah, they really did a great job.
• 23:32
  but Jerry, then to close this out, what are you hoping audiences take away other than the vibrant colors in the world of the eighties that that I think that they're gonna just
• 23:39
  love?
• 23:40
  I I really hope people get the message of the story.
• 23:45
  And that is um each of us has a life we have to live and we should live it authentically and unapologetically because that's what the characters end up doing and that's that's
• 23:59
  what they learn in this journey.
• 24:01
  Not only, you know, the daughters, but um
• 24:08
  The shepherd boy Musidorus.
• 24:10
  He learns to embrace his feminine feminine side.
• 24:13
  Um, the king learns that, you know, he can't solve every problem.
• 24:21
  That, you know, sometimes you have to set aside um tradition for something new.
• 24:27
  Um, so I hope that's what I really hope that audiences take away from it.
• 24:32
  Yeah, I hope they dance and sing to the gogo's music, but I really hope they get the story.
• 24:39
  itself and and what that
• 24:41
  is.
• 24:42
  Absolutely.
• 24:43
  And so I hope that people turn out and that they just they absorb it both visually and just the messages at hand.
• 24:49
  And I want to thank you both for being here.
• 24:51
  It's been such a pleasure talking with both of you and we're so excited for this production.
• 24:57
  So Head Over Heels runs at St.
• 24:59
  Dunstan's Greek Theater through the thirteenth of June.
• 25:01
  So get your tickets now and we'll see you at the show.