Here is it, my very first real post on Bow Ties, Coffee, and Art. I’m dedicating this first post to a totally awesome group of people I’ve been working with over the past couple of weeks. This post is going to have a mix of photos, video, and music. Enjoy!
What do you get when you combine the plots from all seven Harry Potter novels, singing and dancing, an amazingly talented group of people, and a low budget? Mostly you just get a stitch in your side and facial cramps from laughing so hard, but in this case we A Very Potter Musical.
My friend, Cassie Levy, started a group a while back called Art is Free; dedicated to sharing and promoting art to anyone and everyone for free. It’s a free exchange of ideas and work between mostly local artist in our small community of Susanville. Being a lover of Harry Potter and Team Starkid (@TeamStarKid-Twitter), Cassie decided that she wanted to bring A Very Potter Musical to life here in Susanville. Together, with other group members and fellow thespians, they put their blood, sweat, and tears into making that vision a reality. The community also pulled together and generously donated time, money, and materials to the theater troop. Customer Talk generously printed a banner for advertisement, Mr. Ready donated walls and props from the High School drama department, costumes were donated from our local Best of Broadway producers, the City Council waived a $300 fee for using the park facilities, artists donated props, and I myself did cast photos that they used as a fundraiser at the end of the shows.
First off if you have never seen the StarKid YouTube videos….you are missing out! Below is the link to A Very Potter Musical. You might not recognize Darren Criss from Glee; He plays the bushy haired Harry Potter. A Very Potter Musical YouTube .
I saw the performance 5 or 6 times, and was rolling with laughter every single time. Some standout performances by Cayle O’Brian as Malfoy, Claudia Lopez as Snape, Matt Ngotel as Dumbledore, Ashley Morgan as Giny, and the Trio played by Barrett, Maytal, and Dakota. While those are the main players in the show, the whole cast was brilliant, and personally I found I laughed the hardest when they would go off script and improve some lines (something Matt was amazing at), or when they would add little things in here and there. The cast also had to deal with mother nature, and Lassen County’s overabundance of wind for almost every show, but they always pulled through and seemed to doge falling walls at a remarkably well choreographed pace. Along with the wind we have had some huge wildfires all around us filling the valley with smoke. This comment from Barbara France on the groups Facebook page was great to hear.
The final evening performance was my favorite. The cast pulled out all the stops, added new amazing material, and they had the cheers and support of a fantastic crowd that night. I know the people behind me had seen the StarKid production and were very entertained the whole time, and I had a few friends with me that night who were also Starkid fans, and no one left disappointed.
As I said before, I had the awesome pleasure of photographing these guys and girls for some fundraising signing material. The thought Cassie came up with was to produce some sexy photos (originally for a calendar, but time got short), or as sexy as a musical about Harry Potter can get…needless to say it was a photo session full of laughter. (Click here or on the cast photo to see the full gallery.)
Directed by: Cassie Levy and Kym Antonucci
Cast:
Barrett Shepherd-Harry Potter Dakota Brannon-Ron Weasley
Maytal Eigen-Hermione Granger Ashley Morgan-Ginny Weasley
Caley O’Brian-Draco Malfoy Matt Ngotel-Albus Dumbledore
Claudia Lopez-Severus Snape Hannah Hewitt-Quirrell
Zachary Korin-Lord Voldemort Suzanne Kanavel-Bellatrix Lestrange
Kym Antonucci-Crab Holly James-Goyl/Rumbleroar
Ana Turrubiates-Pansy Jenell Murphy-Cho Chang
Frankie Fong-Lavender Brown Heather Fortin- Cho Chang’s Posse
Jesse Toland-Cedric Diggory/ Cornelius Fudge
Mikayla Godman-Molly Weasley
And on a final note, Cassie made me possibly one of the best gifts in the world. Below is a hand carved wand that she made just for me…my own personal wand to add to my collection. She’s going to still paint an stain it, and i’ll post another photo when it’s done, but this is totally awesome!
And here is some behind the production footage…it’s really bad quality sorry about that. Working on getting it all up on YouTube.
Tagged: Art, Art is Free, AVPM, Cassie Levy, JCharles Photography, Justin Miller, Musical, StarKid, Susanville, Theater
