I’m tickled to be writing our first post for APAC’s Blood Brothers Blog! Over the next few months you’ll be hearing from various people connected to our production as we work towards our first performance on May 2nd.

Blood Brothers is a show that I’ve loved since I was a kid. I bought the CD in middle school and couldn’t stop listening to it. About a year ago I reread the script and was struck by how the major themes of class and economics felt especially relevant in the United States today-maybe even more so than when the show opened on Broadway in 1993. I also had an immediate instinct for how to stage it, in a way that felt theatrical and new. More specifically, I had a clear vision for the groundplan and how the cast relates to the audience, and that initial idea has continued to inspire and excite me.

Over the past few months I’ve been working with the design team, choreographer and musical director to flesh out those initial ideas-a part of the process I love, because it always makes everything that much better (eight heads are a better than one). In the early part of March we worked with APAC’s casting director, wojcik|seay casting to assemble the right group of fourteen actors. I’m especially grateful to Scott Wojcik, who had the idea to bring in Broadway veteran Colleen Hawks for the lead role of Mrs. Johnstone (a role played over the years by powerhouses Barbara Dickinson, Kiki Dee, Petula Clark, Helen Reddy, and Stephanie Lawrence), and I can’t wait to introduce her to APAC audiences. Though the truth is, the entire cast is terrific-the actors playing the brothers, Rowan Michael Meyer and Simon Pearl, blow my mind daily.

Check back next week for Blood Brothers Blog #2!