Our Shot: A Winter's Showcase

Hello hello, dear reader, nice of you to stop by on this here blog post! There’s a lot of it, so by all means grab a cup of tea – hope you had/or are having a great day J

If you’re reading this, then you no doubt may have heard of the spectacular spectacle that is the PARTS Winter Showcase (coming to a Bournemouth University near you later on this week), where talented and incredible performers, singers, dancers, actors, anything dramatic and amazing you could possibly think of hit the stage in a wintery extravaganza of an evening. Anyways, there’s also us – we’re performing Aaron Burr, Sir and My Shot from Hamilton. If you haven’t heard of Hamilton yet, I put a link below to the trailer – I’ll wait while the minute of content blows your mind.

Okay, so now you kinda know the aesthetic and style we’re going for (and if you’re already a fan of Hamilton, you were probably singing along to the above – I know I was), time to introduce you to the HAMILSQUAD! SHOWTIME, SHOWTIME!

First, we have the ninth wonder of the world: Martina Nesi! (Playing Aaron Burr)

“If you could have three wishes, what would they be?”

“More wishes, that’s easy.”

“What’s your favourite Hamilton track, and why?”

“Right now, Satisfied!!!”

Then we have the crazy talented: Kieran Campbell! (Playing Lafayette)

“If you could have three wishes, what would they be?”

“1) would be to have a world tour to different countries.I love culture a lot.

2) To become one of the greatest dancers of all time and

3) To have superhuman augmentation powers mixed with some pyrokinetic abilities.”

“What’s your favourite Hamilton track, and why?”

“There’s quite a lot. Y’know.. I’m gonna have to go with My Shot, yeah I know a lot of people who are familiar with Hamilton like that, but the reason why I love that song is because like, just the whole message and some of the lyrical content in that song. Like, how Alexander talks about how he’s not gonna throw away his shot, and.. he obviously says that but.. He uses that as a way to demonstrate how he’s gonna achieve things in his life (and achieve great things for himself). And we can all relate to that, especially those who work really hard, and I feel like I can identify with that in some way.”

The magnificent Olivia Stelling! (Playing Laurens)

“If you could have three wishes, what would they be?”

“1. Happiness for those i love

2. One billion pounds cause honestly who wouldn't

3. World peace”

“What’s your favourite Hamilton track, and why?”

“It would probably be right hand man because its a varied tempo and exciting song with diverse characters and incredible lyrics”

And the Jesus of Suburbia himself: Nick Tuck! (as Hercules Mulligan)

“If you could have three wishes, what would they be?”

“1. Pay off my parent’s mortgage.

2. Happiness

3. Love spread across the world!!” (awwwww)

“What’s your favourite Hamilton track, and why?”

“The Room where it Happens, cos it’s beautifully catchy and there’s some really nice lyrical flow to it. There’s some really nice harmonies in there as well.”

We’re all massive Hamilton nerds so to get to perform the songs on stage is crazy – I’m sure if we were given the opportunity we would do an entire retelling of the show, but being real it’s 2 and a half hours long. Also hi reader, I’m J:

3 Wishes: As close to world peace as can be achieved, Happiness, stability yet changeability in life.

Favourite Hamilton song: It’s gotta be My Shot because of the message behind it, but Guns and Ships, Satisfied, the Cabinet Battles, and Washington on your Side all come really close!

Originally I’d written up ideas on designing the piece so the role of Hamilton would shift from actor to actor – with the “spirit” of Hamilton (so to speak) moving from Laurens, to Lafayette, to Mulligan throughout the course of “My Shot”. This felt like a good aesthetic to go with as the song “My Shot” proposes a philosophy, and sparks an even brighter revolutionary fire in the hearts of the characters – and what better way to show that they’re adopting his ideology for the likeness of Hamilton to flit between characters. Alexander Hamilton then ceases to be a vulnerable 19 year old penniless orphan, just moved to New York City through the kindness of others, no no dear reader - he becomes an idea. Ideas can’t be destroyed, and once they hit home there’s no telling what one idea can do. That one idea could change the world.

“Raise a glass to Freedom, something they can never take away, no matter what they tell you.” – John Laurens, The Story of Tonight

Of course that would have been hella fiddly and ambitious to pull off costume-wise, so the alternative which works better is the spreading of Hamilton’s ideas through the other characters sharing his raps. They start to pick up on his style and implement it in their own speech, and in these moments they “shout it to the rooftops” as one. Ahh, music! Then, the amazingly talented Nick Tuck put his mad theatre directing skills to work and brought a new realist vibe to the piece that really grounds everything, and just AHHH… No spoilers, dear reader, but the staging decisions we’ve gone with have made the piece so much more layered and interesting – can’t wait to show you guys what we’ve come up with!!

Now, we can’t talk Hamilton without talking about a certain deplorable wavy haired Pumpkin King who happens to be President elect of the US after the results of the election back in November, and who also happened to tweet at Hamilton after VP elect Mike Pence attended their performance and was met with bad reception by the crowd.

It’s a sure sign of political disenfranchisement that this is the final straw that ticked me off personally. This man has blagged his way through rhetoric and a campaign based on hate, intolerance, and blind nationalism – and even in the face of video evidence, such as the evidence taken in the Richard Rogers theatre during this particular performance, he still lies and re-presents a new version of truth which suits him better than the consensus reality. Git.

Now this is usually the part of a post when the author apologises about “getting political” as many creatives or pretty much anyone outside of these spheres of influence are often criticised for “stepping out of line”. My favourite response to this goes along the lines of “screw that”, dear reader, because politics affects all of us. It’s our responsibility to get involved in our systems and to be active in our communities; as they say, change starts with us, and to become passive in light of recent events would be foolish to say the least.

This all ties in with Hamilton because Lin Manuel Miranda dared to be different when he wrote it: by casting the American founders to reflect the multi-ethnic America of today, by mixing hip hop/rap with revolutionary history, and by making a statement on current affairs through this story.

As dramatists; whether we be actors, directors, producers, on the technical side – all those wizards with their lighting, sound, smoke and mirrors (maybe scratch the last part), we do what we do to tell stories. Stories that inspire, stories that inform, they make us laugh, they make us cry, they make us bop along like crazy people and the music gets stuck in our head for weeks (ironically I’m writing this while listening to “Jesus of Suburbia”). The stuff we do on stage can reflect our reality, and shape our future by changing people – which is at least what I hope to achieve in taking part in the Showcase. If only one person left the show inspired to be a better person, inspired to share stories/music/content to inspire others and make the world a better place – then that’d be pretty sweet. If not then it’s still gonna be a fun night regardless, it’s a win win :’)

I think that’s everything covered. We talked Hamilton; hopefully this spread the amazingness to people who hadn’t heard of it (or heard of it from a super obsessed friend but haven’t checked it out yet). This got political (thank god, can’t have too much of a fun thing without bringing in the human embodiment of the Grinch that stole Christmas – it’s 2016 after all), and hopefully not too many people stopped reading a paragraph and a half in (I’m aiming for 3 paragraphs, personally, that’d be good!).

I mean, if you wanna see more I guess you’ll have to come to the amazing Winter Showcase if you haven’t got a ticket already (JUST DO IT, MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!) and support PARTS in our amazing endeavour to bring festive theatre joy to the world and to help fund our production of American Idiot (coming to a theatre near you next March! *).

As the cool “kidz” around town would say; it’s pretty “hip” and “with it”. You’ll be humming the music for weeks afterwards – just ask any member of the cast/crew, I’ve had “21 guns” stuck in my head since late September.

That’s way down the road though, we have a lot to do, a lot to prepare for. Starting with this showcase. And as for Hamilsquad, we’re working Non Stop until we’re Satisfied with the act, but I’m sure whatever happens… They’ll tell The Story of Tonight, and any late comers who ask “What’d I miss?” wouldn’t be Helpless as theatre doesn’t end when the curtains go down. No time to Take a Break, reader :D, and We are NOT throwing away our Shot.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

J. Black

*if you live in Bournemouth!