Episode 26
Experience the Magic of 'Next to Normal' with Adam Karsten
Join Bonnie G as she welcomes Adam Karsten, the executive artistic director at CV Rep, to discuss the upcoming production of Next to Normal, which opens on November 6. Adam shares insights into this powerful rock musical that addresses themes of grief, depression, and family dynamics, highlighting its emotional depth and compelling score. He reveals the exciting cast, including Broadway talent Bligh Voth, who will portray the challenging role of Diana, and local veteran Eric Kunze as the father. The episode also touches on the rest of the season at CV Rep, featuring a diverse lineup of productions such as The 39 Steps and Jesus Christ Superstar. Listen to Bonnie and Adam delve into the creative process and the vibrant arts scene in the Coachella Valley.
Listen to The Desert Scene and stay up-to-date with show information on our website at www.TheDesertScene.com or Subscribe and Download from one of our preferred Podcast Distribution Partners including Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Captivate.fm, or Spotify. This podcast is presented by the Mutual Broadcasting System.
Takeaways:
- Adam Karsten is set to direct 'Next to Normal', a powerful rock musical about family issues.
- The show 'Next to Normal' explores themes of grief, depression, and family dysfunction.
- A live orchestra will accompany the performance, enhancing the energy of the musical.
- The upcoming season at CV Rep includes diverse productions such as 'The 39 Steps' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar'.
- The cast of 'Next to Normal' features talented Broadway veterans, bringing high-quality performances.
- Adam Karsten emphasizes a collaborative approach to directing, valuing actors' creative input.
Transcript
In a land of sunshine where the palm trees sway, there's a special show to brighten up your day.
Bunny G:From rockin festivals to Broadway dreams.
Bunny G:Tune in with Bunny G.
Bunny G:It's a desert scene.
Bunny G:The desert scene with Barny G.
Bunny G:Meet the stars and feel the beast from the Coachella Valley is the place to be for all the culture, fun and harmony.
Bunny G:The Desert Sea, yeah with Pony G.
Host:Mutual broadcasting welcomes you to the desert scene, featuring conversations with the people who make culture, art and entertainment happen in the Coachella Valley.
Host:From local theater to live music, art exhibits to cinema and beyond.
Host:The desert scene is presented by El Portal mexican restaurant in Cathedral City.
Host:Now here is your host, Bonnie G.
Bonnie G:And welcome to the desert.
Bonnie G:So happy to have you here and happy to welcome back to the show once again, Adam Carsten, who is the executive artistic director at CBweb and got a great season coming up.
Bonnie G:Hi Adam, how are you?
Adam Carsten:I'm great, Bonnie, thanks for having me.
Adam Carsten:Glad to be back.
Bonnie G:Absolutely.
Bonnie G:So you're starting out.
Bonnie G:You're directing next to normal, opens November 6.
Bonnie G:I know the title, but I don't know much about this show.
Bonnie G:Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Adam Carsten:I can.
Adam Carsten:And yes, I am directing the first production and my managing director hates me for it.
Adam Carsten:But it is such a great show.
Adam Carsten:It's a powerful rock musical.
Adam Carsten:It won a Pulitzer prize.
Adam Carsten:It won three Tony awards.
Adam Carsten: ny awards when it came out in: Adam Carsten:It is just a powerful show about a family and they're dealing with grief, depression and separation and dysfunctionality.
Adam Carsten:It's done in a raw, honest and emotional and powerful and dramatic way that you just can't take your eyes off it.
Adam Carsten:The songs are so great.
Adam Carsten:They're so recognizable, they're so motivating and inspiring in many ways that I felt like we had to do it.
Adam Carsten:And I'm excited to begin.
Adam Carsten:And we just have an outstanding cast that's coming in from New York and a couple of amazing local Broadway veterans as well that live right here in the Palm Springs area.
Adam Carsten:I'm excited to begin and we start next week.
Adam Carsten:I can't wait.
Bonnie G:And when you decided that this was going to be part of your season and opening the season, you knew in the back of your mind, I'm directing this.
Bonnie G:There was no question in your mind about that.
Adam Carsten:I was hoping it would work out that way.
Adam Carsten:Yes, I have strong feelings about it.
Adam Carsten:I'm excited to approach it from a really unique angle, which is what I like to do when we create Broadway revivals in that way.
Adam Carsten:And I think this is a perfect one.
Adam Carsten:It's a small cast, so it's intimate, so it works really well in our space.
Adam Carsten:And I know there's a lot we can do with it because of that.
Adam Carsten:As I getting much more familiar with our space and how audiences respond to it, it's a cast of only six.
Adam Carsten:It's kind of like small vignettes telling the story through these memories.
Adam Carsten:So it's perfect for the way I like to approach a show.
Bonnie G:So, yes.
Bonnie G:And are you having a trio, a small orchestra on stage offstage?
Bonnie G:How are you doing?
Bonnie G:How are you handling the music?
Adam Carsten:Yeah, it's a great question.
Adam Carsten:We do a live orchestra.
Adam Carsten:Each time we do a musical, I kind of try and insist that we have live recordings or live music musicians playing the score with them because it just gives them the energy that you have from live music.
Adam Carsten:And that really, I think, adds another level.
Adam Carsten:There will be five musicians for the orchestra, for this elite.
Adam Carsten:Guitar, bass, drums, a big, extensive drum kit.
Adam Carsten:And it will be just off stage.
Adam Carsten:So you may not see much of them, but you'll hear them and you'll be able to thank them at the end when they'll come out for curtain call.
Bonnie G:Excellent.
Bonnie G:So how do you, I love to ask directors this, what kind of director would you say you are?
Bonnie G:I mean, some are really, really hands on, have a very, very sort of rigid idea of what they want.
Bonnie G:Others tend to let actors kind of find their own way a little bit.
Bonnie G:Where would you put yourself in that scale?
Adam Carsten:Wow.
Adam Carsten:Thank you for that question.
Adam Carsten:It's a great question.
Adam Carsten:I don't get asked it much.
Adam Carsten:I start with a concept.
Adam Carsten:I'm very conceptual, so I try and find a way where, whose story is this and how are we going to tell it, what lens we're going to look at it through.
Adam Carsten:And I present that to design team, and then I present that to the actors before they even show up for rehearsal.
Adam Carsten:And I asked them, I'll send the materials, say, think about this, think about that.
Adam Carsten:And then we explore that approach, how we're going to tell that story, how we're going to keep that in our minds for each scene, each step, each movement.
Adam Carsten:But I'm very collaborative with them.
Adam Carsten:I do come in with ideas.
Adam Carsten:I do come in with thoughts.
Adam Carsten:There's some small things that I say.
Adam Carsten:This is going to be very choreographed.
Adam Carsten:I apologize for it, but let's see how it fits and finds in your body.
Adam Carsten:And then let's evolve from there and take it to the next level.
Adam Carsten:So the one thing I struggle with is time.
Adam Carsten:We always feel.
Adam Carsten:I feel like we always run out of time.
Adam Carsten:And I'm sure I'm not the only director feels that way to get even further as they begin to create and take things at these characters and these scenarios and go even deeper and find even more within them.
Adam Carsten:So if I'm answering that question, I would say I like to think of myself as being collaborative.
Adam Carsten:I like to ask the actors to bring their ideas to the table and then recreate around them as well.
Bonnie G:Have you ever had a situation where you did that with another show collaborative and an actor came in with something that just out of left field that just.
Bonnie G:You hadn't thought of, but it really worked?
Bonnie G:Has that happened?
Adam Carsten:Oh, absolutely.
Adam Carsten:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Adam Carsten:And that's the wonder.
Adam Carsten:That's the great thing about being collaborative.
Adam Carsten:Look, directors don't.
Adam Carsten:I.
Adam Carsten:I don't think directors have to have all the answers, and I'm not necessarily sure that they should, because then you might be missing an opportunity like that one.
Bonnie G:Yeah.
Bonnie G:So, yeah, absolutely.
Bonnie G:We're gonna take a really, really quick break with Adam Carsten, executive artistic director at CV Rep.
Bonnie G:We're on the desert scene.
Bonnie G:We'll be right back.
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Bonnie G:And we are back on the desert scene with Adam Carsten.
Bonnie G:So tell me about your cast.
Bonnie G:It sounds like, is this sort of your dream cast that you had in mind when you first approached this whole thing?
Adam Carsten:Well, I didn't have the cast in mind when I first selected this show, but yes, to answer that question, it is a dream cast to be able to go into the rehearsal process and create the show.
Adam Carsten:With the show evolves around one, a couple of primary characters, but the big, challenging role is Diana, the mother who Alice Ripley won the Tony Award for on Broadway.
Adam Carsten:And it's just, it requires an enormous amount of vocal strength and ability and agility.
Adam Carsten:And the young woman who is coming in from New York, a Broadway actress, her name is Bly Vaugh.
Adam Carsten:She is just.
Adam Carsten:I'm so excited to be able to bring her out here and tab her as part of this production.
Adam Carsten:She's just enormously talented and is just going to crush it.
Adam Carsten:And in addition, the father, who is a really powerfully dramatic role, is somebody who's a Broadway veteran, who's a local, who lives right here in the valley.
Adam Carsten:And that's Eric Coonthe, who's worked at the Playhouse before, who I've known for a while and moved out here with his family from New York, and is just a great talent and a great asset for us to be able to have at cv rep.
Adam Carsten:So it's exciting.
Adam Carsten:Yeah.
Bonnie G:And tell us two more broader questions.
Bonnie G:Tell us just a little bit about the rest of the season.
Bonnie G:Just touch on it a little bit after this one.
Adam Carsten:Yeah, right after this one, we have a play called the 39 steps, based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie, but done in a kind of a Monty Python theatrical manner, in that you have four actors playing about 120 different characters and roles and scenarios.
Adam Carsten:And it is really creatively genius for the theater, the way it's staged, the way it's created and crafted.
Adam Carsten:And I'm excited to bring out an amazing cast and a great director for that one as well, who many of them have done the show before.
Adam Carsten:They're familiar with it.
Adam Carsten:And it's just a great time.
Adam Carsten:If you want to laugh and you really want to be excited by what can be done with the simplest of theatrical manners, it's a great production.
Adam Carsten:The third one is the Lightning Piazza, which is a gorgeous musical, almost operatic Broadway musical score by Adam Gothel.
Adam Carsten: a young girl in Italy in the: Adam Carsten:And the fourth one is the iconic, well known rock musical Jesus Christ superstar.
Bonnie G:Excellent.
Adam Carsten:And we are all, it's just going to be so much fun because we're finding some great voices and cast members and artists come out and work on that with us, and I'm excited to be able to present that as well in a small space and see the impact of that show.
Adam Carsten:And the last production, the fifth production, is other desert cities, which actually takes place.
Adam Carsten:The play takes place in Rancho Mirage, dealing with the family and some family secrets.
Adam Carsten:And it's witty and smart and sharp and just a really great play to be able to present here in Coachella Valley.
Bonnie G:Fabulous.
Bonnie G:And how did I know?
Bonnie G:I've asked you this before.
Bonnie G:How many seasons now have you been at the helm here at CV rep?
Adam Carsten:I was just thinking, Matt, I was just thinking.
Adam Carsten:I've been here.
Adam Carsten:I've been here two months or two years and two months, but this is going into our third season that I am in the position I'm in and I'm amazed and excited by what we have to come.
Bonnie G:Has it been what you thought it would be or has it exceeded your expectations?
Adam Carsten:It's been exceeding my expectations.
Adam Carsten:I think so much of our audience has a love for theater and also is a sophisticated theater audience.
Adam Carsten:They know theater just attended here in the Valley.
Adam Carsten:They go into LA, they go to New York, they go to Chicago, and they come from those cities and they know the quality of theater that they want to be able to see.
Adam Carsten:So that's been a joy and that's been a real bonus, as well as the talent in the theater, for theater in the Valley that resides here that I've been able to be able to network with.
Bonnie G:And that's a big plus.
Bonnie G: -: Bonnie G:Congratulations.
Bonnie G:Looking forward to this season.
Adam Carsten:Thanks you.
Adam Carsten:Barney, good to talk to you.
Adam Carsten:Thanks.
Bonnie G:Have a great day and the rest of you will talk to you the next time on the desert scene.
Adam Carsten:The.
Bunny G:Desert sea with Barnegee meet the stars and feel the beef from the Coachella valley it's the place to be for all the culture, fun and harmony the desert seems yeah.
Bunny G:With Barney G the desert scenes where you belong with mutual broadcasting body g just sing along, just sing along.
