Broadway's Hadestown | Talks at Google

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This is really long, but the interview contains some really interesting questions and answers. (And there are two songs at the beginning.)

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/InSearchOfGoodPun 📅︎︎ Aug 26 2019 🗫︎ replies
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[MUSIC - "WAY DOWN HADESTOWN"] [MUSIC - "CHANT"] [MUSIC FROM "HADESTOWN"] [MUSIC - "WAIT FOR ME"] ANAIS MITCHELL: Hey, guys. Thanks for being here with us. It's fun to-- [APPLAUSE] Thank you. It's fun to see the Google mothership. [LAUGHTER] So this is Liam. I'm Anais. We're going to play a song from the show. It's the encore song that we do. It's called, "I Raise My Cup." And a little insider info-- we cut this song from the show multiple times because we thought, well, the show already has an ending. We don't need to do this. And ultimately, we just missed it every time. So we're going to do it. [ANAIS MITCHELL SINGING "I RAISE MY CUP"] [APPLAUSE] [EVA NOBLEZADA AND REEVE CARNEY SINGING "ALL I'VE EVER KNOWN"] [APPLAUSE] SPEAKER 1: So excited to have you guys here. So we're going to go down the line. If you wouldn't mind introducing yourselves and saying which character you play or what you do in the show, that would be lovely. So starting here. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: Andre De Shields is my name. And I perform in "Hadestown" as Hermes, messenger to the gods. [LAUGHTER] ANAIS MITCHELL: My name's Anais Mitchell. I'm the writer. PATRICK PAGE: My name is Patrick Page. I play Hades, king of the underworld. EVA NOBLEZADA: My name's Eva Noblezada, and I play Eurydice. REEVE CARNEY: My name's Reeve Carney, and I play Orpheus. SPEAKER 1: Yay. [APPLAUSE] So to start off, you guys just opened this past Wednesday. Congratulations. You're on Broadway! [APPLAUSE] Have you recovered from the party yet? PATRICK PAGE: No. SPEAKER 1: No. [LAUGHTER] I didn't think so. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: It's on a Friday, right? [LAUGHTER] SPEAKER 1: Is it? ANDRE DE SHIELDS: We're still partying. SPEAKER 1: So I want to get to know each of you a little bit and just chat with each of you. So Anais, we have to start with you, my dear. So you're actually traditionally a recording artist. You're a singer songwriter. Why Broadway? What brought you here? ANAIS MITCHELL: Yeah, I never expected to end up here. I come from the music world. I write regular old songs and make records and tour around sometimes. And I've been doing that for a long time. But 12 years ago, some lyrics came into my head that seemed to be about this story. And I kind of followed them into the labyrinth and then just got really excited about using songs to tell a longer-form story. And the show started out as a DIY community theater project in Vermont, where I used to live. Then I made a studio record of some of the music and toured with the music as just a concert for a few years. And then I started working with Rachel Chavkin in 2012. And we put on the show off-Broadway, at New York Theatre Workshop. And then we went to Edmonton, Canada, as all shows do. [LAUGHTER] And then we got to do the National Theater in London. And just never expected it to keep going, but it has done. And here we are. SPEAKER 1: Were you a Broadway fan to begin with, or is it just something that you fell into? ANAIS MITCHELL: Having met some Broadway fans, I think I'm not quite at that level of-- [LAUGHTER] --intensity. I don't identify with-- but I love musical storytelling. I've loved "Les Mis" since I was young. SPEAKER 1: That's my favorite. ANAIS MITCHELL: Yeah. It's so special. Epic, romantic, political-- all the things. And I also love "Hamilton." I love "Sweeney Todd." I love "The Great Comet of 1812." And I think what all those shows have in common is that they're sung through-- like, they are operas, essentially. And there's nothing to break the spell of the music. So that's what, hopefully, this show is-- in those footsteps. SPEAKER 1: Great. Now, Andre, I want to meet you, say hi to you. You've been in the business for a couple of years now. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: This is 2019? SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: I'm celebrating a half century as a performing artist. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. SPEAKER 1: You look fantastic. [LAUGHTER] This guy moves. If you haven't seen the show yet, he moves. [LAUGHTER] ANDRE DE SHIELDS: Well, I'm feeling fantastic. SPEAKER 1: Good. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: And part of that has to do with being in "Hadestown." SPEAKER 1: And I also have read that besides being a performer, you're also a choreographer, a novelist, a director, and a professor? ANDRE DE SHIELDS: Yeah, but those are all past. SPEAKER 1: So you prefer performing? Or anything in particular you like better? ANDRE DE SHIELDS: I prefer performing, yeah, because it answers the three major questions in my life, which are, how can I satisfy that chattering magpie in my head that we call the mind, but it's actually an ego? How can I satisfy the yearnings of my heart? And how can I answer to that quiet voice that speaks to me from my viscera and tells only the truth? And the only way to do that is to perform. And right now, the best way of doing that is to be Hermes in "Hadestown." [LAUGHTER] SPEAKER 1: I like it. That seems reasonable. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: Patrick Page, Mr. Hades, here. So correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe out of everybody on stage besides Miss Anais here, you have been with "Hadestown" the longest? PATRICK PAGE: Yeah, probably. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] SPEAKER 1: You and Amber, but poor Amber can't be here today. We miss her very much. She plays Persephone, your wife. PATRICK PAGE: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: What kept you coming back to the show? You followed it through New York Theatre Workshop and been with it for a long time now. PATRICK PAGE: Yeah. It's a beautiful piece of theater. And I fell in love with the music initially and with the lyrics, which to me, are poetry. I was getting all-- and now I'm going to get tearful again. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: Oh. PATRICK PAGE: I was getting all tearful listening to Anais sing the final song in our show. And I hear it every night. [LAUGHTER] Every night, eight times a week-- SPEAKER 1: Lucky. PATRICK PAGE: --for three years. But I still get choked up at what was expressed in the song. So when you get to be in a piece like that, you grab on. And they would have to shake me off. [LAUGHTER] SPEAKER 1: All right. And then you're singing some pretty, pretty low notes. How do you keep your voice healthy? Because you've got quite the range on you. PATRICK PAGE: Thanks. [LAUGHTER] I think I'm just very lucky that it's-- you know, it's funny. When I was a kid, I used to get sore throats all the time. And then that went away. And now I very rarely-- knock-- [KNOCKS] --plastic. [LAUGHTER] The healthy part of it is it's not a huge amount of maintenance for me. I drink a lot of water. SPEAKER 1: That's good. [LAUGHTER] Hydration is great. PATRICK PAGE: Thanks. SPEAKER 1: Miss Eva here, our superstar. So for anyone who doesn't know Eva Noblezada, she was chosen to play Kim in both the West End and the Broadway run of "Miss Saigon" and was nominated for a Tony. You started at just 17 years old on that role? EVA NOBLEZADA: Mm-hmm. SPEAKER 1: You know, I wasn't doing that much at 17. [LAUGHTER] But you're doing great. In that case, you took on a classical, well-known role, whereas here, you're originating and bringing this new character to Broadway. How has that experience been different? And how is that? Do you have a preference on taking something classic and making it your own or bringing someone new to the stage? EVA NOBLEZADA: I will say my preference is always to be in "Hadestown," because I am obsessed with the show. The second that the material was brought to me, I fall in love, like most people who come across this piece. But I will say, I was lucky, in "Saigon," not to have a cookie cutter thing waiting for me in the rehearsal room. I was very lucky to have people who wanted to help develop a new Kim. And I didn't watch anything. I didn't have the chance to watch any of the original. And same with this beautiful piece. There have been many beautiful Eurydices incarnate in the past. But I never got the chance to watch any of them live. I did hear a few. But this piece that Anais has written, and with development of Rachel Chavkin-- it allows so much self-expression. And it's almost encouraged to be as human as possible. So it's just been an amazing ride. I'm very, very lucky to be part of this piece. SPEAKER 1: Well, you do it so well. All of you are so great. I'm sorry, I'm just nerding out right now. [LAUGHTER] I'm not going to lie. And then Reeve, our Orpheus, here-- so during the show, Orpheus is a lyre player. He's a musician, a poet. But you're actually playing guitar in the show. Was that something that you were like, hey, I know how to do this already? Or was that something that was already written in the character? Or how did that come about? REEVE CARNEY: Well, originally, Anais had been presented with this magical tenor guitar from a fan that said, I think you need this. And ultimately, it worked its way into "Hadestown" over various incarnations. And so originally, I was playing a tenor guitar, which I had never played. My grandfather actually played it back in the 1940s. So I'd learned that for the show. But I think that the guitar really allows you to be more expressive, playing the six string, because there's a lot of solo accompaniment where Orpheus is just playing and singing with no band accompaniment whatsoever. So having those two extra low strings is really helpful, especially with all the singing being more in the higher register of the male voice. SPEAKER 1: Yeah, you're all the way-- REEVE CARNEY: It's nice to have a little bit-- SPEAKER 1: Patrick's down here. You're up here. REEVE CARNEY: --of a contrast. Yeah. SPEAKER 1: That's great. I was like, oh-- oh, he's going to play. Oh, that makes sense. That's good. And then there are times in the show where you carry the whole thing. The band just kind of sits and watches you. And it's just super well done and really helps inform the character, I think, of being able to carry this melody that ultimately changes the world. So good on you. [LAUGHTER] REEVE CARNEY: Thank you. Thank you. SPEAKER 1: So let's talk a bit about this show. Anais, you've been working on this for a very long time, as we said. I remember hearing some of these songs off of your 2010 original album. And we were saying, this idea, where did it come from? You said just, something kind of fell into your head? Was there some sort of inspiration? Or did it just kind of pop up one day? ANAIS MITCHELL: Yeah, I think a lot of times if I'm writing a song-- and I know Reeve's a songwriter. We have multiple songwriters on stage here-- Eva. Just that usually, there's not a grand plan at the beginning. Something comes in your head and it's mysterious, sort of a gift. And then to try to follow it. And so I would say, that's where this whole piece came from, was just what felt sort of like a mysterious inspiration. But then, once I got into it, I got really excited about the story because the hero is a songwriter. So that's fun. And the character of Orpheus is this impossible optimist, this dreamer who believes, if he could write a song beautiful enough, he could change the way that the world is-- change the rules of the world. And that world, in "Hadestown," being this land of wealth and security and industry presided over by Hades, the king. And the characters kept unfolding in these different ways. There's just so much richness to who the king of the underworld is, who the queen of the seasons and the natural world is, his wife, and their troubled marriage. These young lovers, Eurydice-- and I think Eva's portrayal of her has gone into this whole other stratosphere of who that character can be and what her backstory is, and how Eurydice as a sort of a runaway and a tough person who's seen the way that the world is. And then Hermes, of course, who has become this incredible guide and narrator of this story, literally telling us things we need to along the way. So just all of those mythic characters have kept unfolding in different ways that has kept the wind in the sails of the thing for as long as it's been getting developed. SPEAKER 1: Did you all read the myths, or did you just come in and see the script? Or what did you take for the inspiration of the characters? ANDRE DE SHIELDS: I've been familiar with the Greek mythology since my days in college. But I've never had an opportunity to make them manifest in my life or my art until Anais Mitchell came along. And she does it so beautifully, because it doesn't feel like there are cobwebs around them. SPEAKER 1: Exactly. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: They absolutely have ramifications for our contemporary life. And more important than that, I think what Anais is doing-- perhaps not deliberately, but it's part of the process-- she's blurring the lines between politics and art. And that's what keeps me interested in this character of Hermes who-- you tell me to shut up if I'm talking too much. SPEAKER 1: No. You talk forever. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: --who says, deep in the second act, to the characters Orpheus and Eurydice, do you trust each other? Do you trust yourselves? Which I think is the most important question in the show, because everything in the production is about metaphor, is about allegory, is about parables. So that means, if you understand it on one level, there are other levels to go. Everything is at least a double entendre. So through these two characters, Hermes is asking the audience, individually, are you ready to be responsible to be the change in the world that you desire? PATRICK PAGE: Yeah. Very well said, yeah. ANAIS MITCHELL: Yeah. [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] SPEAKER 1: Anybody have anything else to add? We good? I think he covered it. [LAUGHTER] We can go home now. It's fine. [LAUGHTER] That's fantastic. Great. So for the rest of you guys, when you were developing this story, what were you drawing on? How do you take Hades, this largest than life, mythic character-- the god of the underworld-- and how do you turn him into a person onstage? How do you make him accessible, if you will? PATRICK PAGE: You give away your acting secrets, right? [LAUGHTER] And the secret that all actors have is-- what defines a character is what a character wants. And if you would go down the wrong road with Hades, you might say, well, what he wants most in the world is he wants power, or what he wants most in the world is he wants money or influence. And I think those would all be the wrong way to play the character. What Hades wants is Persephone-- all of her, all the time. He wants all of her love. And the way the myth is set up, if you don't know, the relationship between Hades and Persephone-- she is the goddess of the seasons, and she leaves the underworld for six months every year. So I have this competition for her love. She loves the upper world as well. And so it drives Hades mad-- power mad, mad for money, mad for all of those things that shore up his image of himself. But it's all about Persephone. It's all about the fact that he's so madly in love with his wife. And so in terms of the developing of the character, it's about finding that, following it, deepening it with your acting partner, and finding how it manifests itself through the lyrics, through the melodies. And then all those other details, like what the character looks like-- we've been working on what the character looks like, now, for three years. And that's a collaborative process with a brilliant costume designer, Michael, with Anais, with Rachel. And finding out, how do we express who this man is just in terms of what he looks like? So that's been a great process. And now we have a thing, right? SPEAKER 1: You have a thing. [LAUGHTER] ANDRE DE SHIELDS: And amazingly, the character looks like Patrick. [LAUGHTER] SPEAKER 1: I know. Yeah, that's something, as you're watching the show and you're learning who everybody is, there is no real bad guy in this show. Even Hades-- he's not a bad guy. You just, you have to understand why and the motivations they do what they do. And I think that's something that we could talk about Eurydice. Eurydice makes a choice. And in the original myth, she doesn't make this choice to go to the underworld, whereas in this one, she does. And Eva, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about-- she makes this difficult choice to go because she is impoverished and she doesn't see another way out. And Haiti has promised her-- I'm not spoiling this. These stories are very old. [LAUGHTER] But promises her a life where she will never be hungry again. And so she decides to leave. And the Fates, who are these three-- goddesses? What are the Fates, technically? ANAIS MITCHELL: They're divine, for sure. Yeah. SPEAKER 1: They're one of-- they are not of the men. But they say, there's no telling what you're going to do when the chips are down. And she makes this choice. And do you think this is something that is a universal human experience? We talk about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and you can't move on to the next level until your basic needs of food and shelter are met. And how did this come into you building this character? And how did that inform your choices? EVA NOBLIZADA: I will say, in the original myth, even if there was no script, or the way it was written had no open dialogue between the characters Orpheus and Eurydice, it made it out to seem like Eurydice had nothing to say. Like, she didn't have a choice. She didn't have anything to say. And she fell victim many a time, in the original myth, to the environment and also at the hands of others. And that's one thing that I wanted to make very apparent in this, bringing in humanity, but also bringing the bad assery of making a decision-- a decision that, even if it's not the smartest from the audience's point of view, who have an omnipotent kind of perspective of watching everything unfold on stage, she makes the choice. Because in the song "All I've Ever Known" that you guys have just listened to, she explains to Orpheus, I've only ever known how to survive. Not to live or to thrive, but to survive. So I'm a little messed up. And the choice she makes-- hopefully, people can relate to that and not see it as a stupid decision. It should be out of, I need to live. I'm hungry, I'm starving, and I'm cold. And the love of my life is not providing my basic essential needs as a human being. So I hope that is relatable, because I think all the characters make a huge choice, or they make many choices that unfold at the end. But I hope they're all relatable. And I think-- I actually know for a fact that they are, because looking at the faces of everyone at the end of the show is kind of wonderful and beautiful, to see that everyone has been on the journey with us since we all step on stage. SPEAKER 1: It's tough to watch, but it's like they literally say-- what would you do? And you think, no, I would never make that choice. It's like, yes. You would. Yes, you would, if you were starving and this was your only option. Andre started talking about, a bit, some of the political side of "Hadestown." There is a song in the show called "The Wall." I assume you didn't know when you wrote it. [LAUGHTER] ANDRE DE SHIELDS: I wrote the song in 2006. SPEAKER 1: So we follow this world of Hades, and Hades has a lot of followers and a lot of people who are listening to him and repeating what he's saying. And "The Wall" is a song that's a call and repeat song. This may be a very big question, but why does that work? Why do people follow that? Why do we think that it's something that we know, maybe-- again, from an omnipresent part, where the audience-- we know what's going on? Why is it so easy for people to fall in? And how does this relate to what we're seeing now, in our current political climate? And I don't think they're wrong in there, because what else are they going to do? And I don't know who would want to speak to that-- any of you. REEVE CARNEY: I think, if we don't relate to the struggle of becoming a follower, then we're not being honest with ourselves. And so I think if you think, oh, those people are doing this in "Hadestown," and they're making these choices, then I think we're not really being open enough to be honest with ourselves about these struggles. And I think that's one of the beautiful things about each character in the show and the ensemble-- everyone. I find each character to be so relatable in different ways, at different stages of life, and even simultaneously, in the present time. PATRICK PAGE: Hades understands what a powerful motivator fear is, and particularly fear of scarcity-- that there won't be enough of something. And that someone from the other side of the wall will come and try to take what you have. And Anais has often said, the coincidence is archetypal. It's this archetype that goes back for centuries-- millennia. And people have always tried to divide people and said, we'll put a wall up. And you'll be safe on our side. And it was one of the first things that attracted me to the show-- was I listened to the album and heard that song. And I thought, the song is unbelievably simple in its circular logic. It's perfect. It's perfectly crafted. I think it's one of the great folk songs ever written. I really do. And I have to sing it every night-- have to? I get to. [LAUGHTER] But it's interesting because I've sung it since before Trump was a candidate. And then he was a candidate. Then he was a nominee. Then I sang it in Canada-- completely different vibe, coming-- [LAUGHTER] --from Canadians. Then I sang it in London, completely different vibe coming from them-- they're very aware they're watching an American cast telling this story-- and now to this audience. And if you haven't been in the Walter Kerr theater recently, you may have forgotten how intimate that space is. It's like facing a wall of human beings all stacked on top of one another. And that's been really eye opening, to sing it over time, as the image of the wall has been more and more ingrained in public consciousness. SPEAKER 1: How can we use this art and use these words as a learning experience? Because you're stepping back and watching this from an outside perspective, what's happening. But how can we take that and bring that out into the world? ANAIS MITCHELL: Can I jump on this? SPEAKER 1: Of course. ANAIS MITCHELL: Just to continue this conversation about that song, I'm a very, very slow songwriter. It takes a ridiculous amount of hours to ever finish anything for me. But that particular song-- I don't even feel like I can take credit for it, because it just happened so quickly. And I almost didn't know what it meant. But at the time, I was thinking about climate change and migration of people and trends that, obviously, have been around us for a long time and are still intensifying. And the thought was, who among us is not going to want to be behind a wall when the masses are knocking at the door and there's not enough to go around? And I love what you said, Reeve, about that song is not a statement, per se. It's a series of questions. And that's, I think, what the show is meant to do and what the song is meant to do is really provoke the question, what are you going to do when the chips are down? And all of the characters in "Hadestown" have a different approach to that. There's Hades and Eurydice are the more practical and fearful characters. And then Orpheus and Persephone have more faith in the abundance of the world. And they sort of believe that the world will provide and there's enough to go around. And it's not that anyone is more correct than anyone else. It's more a question of, how do we want to live in this world, in these hard times? ANDRE DE SHIELDS: The wall in "Hadestown" is also emotional. It isn't just brick and mortar. The question is, why do we build the walls that's internal architecture? Persephone asks Hades, what are you afraid of? Why do you put up these defenses between yourself and one other individual or between yourself and all other individuals? What are you trying to keep inside? What are you trying to keep on the outside? That's what resonates for me when that song happens, because that's what's going to liberate us if we can first mend the problem that we are suffering, if we can heal the wound that's festering in us. Then, we can go about healing the wound that's festering in the rest of the world. SPEAKER 1: I don't even know what to say to that. [LAUGHTER] Right? That's amazing. REEVE CARNEY: Because I do believe that physical barriers-- they tend to be a manifestation of these barriers that Andre is speaking of. And so I don't know that they would exist without forming on the inside first. SPEAKER 1: I want to shift a little bit over to building the world of "Hadestown" and putting it on the stage. So to start-- Andre, here-- you set the tone for the show the second you step on stage. I'm not going to tell you what he does, because that is something that you'll want to experience. But you come out and you bring us here. How has the audience reaction been to that? ANDRE DE SHIELDS: The audience reaction has ultimately been squeals of joy. [LAUGHTER] However, and without spoiling it, it starts off as a question of mystery, because the figure you meet at the top of the show is monstrously slow, stern, and shining. SPEAKER 1: Very shiny. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: So the first thought you might have is, is this the man that my mother has been warning me about? Stay away from him? That kind of thing? And then, of course, the first wall is broken down. And the response to the contract that we're trying to make with the audience is absolutely affirmative. And the contract is this-- come with me on this journey. You might be challenged. You might be changed. But you won't be harmed. And that's when the people lean forward and say, yeah, take me. And we do. SPEAKER 1: That is exactly it. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: We take them. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. I want to play a quick clip of "Wait For Me," which is my favorite scene in the show. Like, I lost it. So just play a quick clip of Reeve, here, singing "Wait For Me." [REEVE CARNEY SINGING "WAIT FOR ME"] [APPLAUSE] So true life, during this scene, I forgot there were other people there. And then-- you have to see it. It's absolutely incredible. And then everyone starts clapping. I'm like, oh, there's people here. But I wanted to talk about the logistics of that. How did you combine the lighting and the smoke and all these different aspects? Was it something that the individual teams all did together, as a group? Or did they come with their own different thoughts of everything? How do you how do you create this world, especially this beautiful scene with the lighting and just the way that they built it? ANAIS MITCHELL: I wish we had Rachel here to answer that. SPEAKER 1: I know. ANAIS MITCHELL: But I will say that the very first meeting I had with Rachel about this show-- it was, like, 2012. She had the studio album, which had a version of that song on it. Not as expansive as it is now, but a version of that song. And she was like, I don't know why, but when I listen to that chorus, I just see these swinging lanterns-- these lanterns that could swing at the same tempo as the music. And I was like, great. [LAUGHTER] And I want to say that at the Walter Kerr, something magically came together with the size of those lanterns, the size of the space, the way that they swing out over the actual audience. And if you're in the first few rows, it's like you're going to get hit in the-- you're not going get hit in the head, but it looks like you are. [LAUGHTER] It's very visceral. And I feel like that vision of hers from six years ago is finally really hitting. And there's so much else going on. I don't know-- is it OK to give away-- AUDIENCE: No. ANAIS MITCHELL: No? [LAUGHTER] But I'll just say, there's some lights. [LAUGHTER] SPEAKER 1: There's some lights. There's a couple lights. ANAIS MITCHELL: Yeah. There's some smoke. SPEAKER 1: Guys, go see this show. You have to see it. PATRICK PAGE: When you were talking-- I'm so struck with how many of the things-- it's a play, a piece about trust, faith, doubt-- how doubt poisons the belief in yourself-- in what you were talking about, Andre-- that inner voice that knows and knows. And to me, the thing I keep hearing is you saying, I heard these lyrics, this song, "Wait For Me." They came to me and I followed. And Rachel-- she says, I don't know why, but I see an image. And she followed it. And what we're talking about is the moment in the show, frankly, that seems to just knock people over. And that it came from these two women saying, I'm going to follow this thing, and I don't know what it is. Instead of doubting and saying, oh, no, that doesn't make any sense-- swinging lights? There's no swinging light imagery in the song. There's nothing about that in the song. I should make it about an image that's in the lyrics somehow. But instead trusting just this gut thing and just following. And then coming up with something so beautiful. It's a real lesson for me to just follow those little things that make no sense and see where they lead. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: And there's a moment like that shared between Orpheus and Eurydice when he produces the coronation for the first time and she says, how do you do that? And he says, I don't know. [LAUGHTER] And then they follow it. EVA NOBLEZADA: Yeah. REEVE CARNEY: Yeah. PATRICK PAGE: And that's, frankly, another little magical thing, I think, in the creation of this show, is that Peter Nevins made this wood cut-- was it a wood cut or a print? ANAIS MITCHELL: Yeah, it's linoleum. It's this one. PATRICK PAGE: Yeah. [LAUGHTER] And there was this flower. And when we first did the show, there was no flower in the show. Lots of flower imagery in the lyrics. And then slowly, over time, artwork began to emerge. Flower emerged in the show. And now it's the central image in the show. Just, again, following something. Who knows where it came from? Was it you, the other day, that was saying, if you were to ask any one person, who had the idea for the flower, nobody knows? ANAIS MITCHELL: Yeah, yeah. PATRICK PAGE: It just appeared in the show. ANAIS MITCHELL: Yeah. It feels to me like a collective unconscious thing. The image was right, and everyone knew it. And at first, Orpheus produced that flower. And then I remember maybe Bradley King, our lighting designer, saying, hey, maybe when Eurydice descends to the underworld, instead of dropping her scarf, what if she drops the flower? And then someone else saying, oh, hey, what about, in "His Kiss, the Riot," what if Hades contemplates this flower? And it was many, many different minds grabbing onto this image which felt so right as an expression of hope and the potential for change and transformation and the springtime. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: I don't want to hit the nail of politics over the head too much, but that image relates to so many generations, not the least of which, Tiananmen Square, with the-- and I'm an unreconstructed hippie. And flowers-- if you go to San Francisco, wear flowers in your hair and that sort of thing. PATRICK PAGE: And labor movements. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: And labor movements. Yes, indeed. So with that image, you are speaking to generations of causes, which, I think, is going to project this piece of art way into the future, just by looking at the audiences who are coming to see it. Not only are they multicultural, not only are they ethnically diverse, they're intergenerational. So we have all of these intellects responding to that image. So if there are 900 people who sit in the theater, we have at least 900 ideas of what that means-- eight times a week for 52 weeks. SPEAKER 1: We're going to take an audience question right over here. AUDIENCE: I wanted to ask-- I know you guys talked a little bit about the very low parts of Hades and the very high part of Orpheus. But it's not just a little low and a little high. It's super, super high and super, super low, to the point where you wonder, is there a smaller amount of actors that could even play those parts? Or is the talent you had on hand the reasons why you decided to option up for those and option down for those kinds of things? So I was curious about whether or not that aspect of it is essential to the characters and central to the production, or maybe just a consequence of how things unfolded? ANAIS MITCHELL: I should maybe answer that. Yeah, right. It's so funny, because I was hearing Amber Gray, who plays Persephone, talk about how oftentimes, in music theater that's written by men, the parts for women are really tough to sing. Like, they're a little too high and it's like, you'd have a very specific voice to hit that stuff. And I have to say, me as a composer, I'm just not trained in music theater. And the women's parts I wrote in a place where I could sing them. And I felt like, great. This will be easy. And I just had no idea with the men's parts. [LAUGHTER] I just had no idea. [APPLAUSE] So that's part of why they ended up where they did. And lucky enough to find these two unicorns who are able to sing them. PATRICK PAGE: I wonder if it has anything to do, also, with the fact that you may be unique among Broadway composers in that you compose on a guitar as opposed to on a piano. Whereas on a piano, you visually see, oh, no, that's a ridiculous note. [LAUGHTER] I mustn't do that. But on the guitar, you're just, whatever. ANAIS MITCHELL: Yeah, you can't even see it. I know. But there is something poetic, I think, about the fact that the king of the underworld has this subterranean singing voice and that Orpheus, who's really this pure, ethereal spirit, has a heavenly-- he's up in the stratosphere, there. But to what you're saying, sure, if someone's going to do this in high school, we'll put it in a different key. No problem. [LAUGHTER] SPEAKER 1: Thank you. And over here? AUDIENCE: Great. Thank you guys so much for coming to Google. First of all, I had the privilege of seeing the show on Saturday, during the matinee, with 26 friends, which was pretty amazing. Thank you, Kevin, who got the tickets. [LAUGHTER] During the show, there was a woman in the orchestra center who was sobbing. And actually, Andre, you say this at one point in the show, and that's when it really hit me. You say, it's a sad song, but we sing it anyway. But I was just hoping you guys could tell me what that means to you. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: I'll start, since I get to sing that deliciously layered and mysterious lyric in this show. It also gives me an opportunity to say, I think for the first time in your presence, Anais is an oracle. SPEAKER 1: Yes. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: She's a contemporary prophet. [LAUGHTER] SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm. Yes. [APPLAUSE] ANDRE DE SHIELDS: And traditionally, oracles live at the naval of the universe-- the naval. So therefore, you have to imagine there's an umbilical cord that's attached to Anais and then goes to the highest point-- Orpheus-- and the lowest point-- Hades. That's where we get that terminology, as above, so below. Hermes is the connection between the two. That's why it has to be a sad song. In "Hamlet," Shakespeare calls us the paragon of animals. But that's because we are supposed to connect heaven and hell. And the connection is the purpose and the question of our lives, which is, why is it all miserable? Why is life so hard, and then we die? I don't know if we answer that question in "Hadestown." But we certainly give you many options to consider. And ultimately, our friend Orpheus has to not succeed in his effort so that each of you out there gets an opportunity to test it for yourselves-- to be Orpheus and to be Eurydice. Do you know anything about "The Hero of a Thousand Faces," Joseph Campbell? Get that book and put it by your bed stand and read it for the rest of your life. [LAUGHTER] But what Joseph Campbell says in this is that your life is about following your bliss. And Orpheus' bliss in this play is his love for Eurydice, just as Hades' bliss in this play, as he so wonderfully explained, is his love for Persephone. Again, none of that is possible if you don't first establish the bliss in yourself. Was that helpful at all? [LAUGHTER] AUDIENCE: Thank you. ANDRE DE SHIELDS: Thank you. SPEAKER 1: Great. And right over here? AUDIENCE: The whole history of Greek myths being adapted into the English canon is totally fascinating. And you can look towards the middle of the 20th century for O'Neillian kind of inspiration, and even up until Ellen McLaughlin, who's one of my favorite playwrights in the '90s-- the way that she adapted "Iphigenia and Other Daughters" to "The Trojan Women" around the story of the Trojan War. And so I wonder how, in the development of this production, you might have thought about this play and this piece of work's place in the canon of adapting these very, very old myths into something that's very American? And as a little sub question under that, I think when you were previously answering questions, you talked a little bit about this, on the Eurydice. story. But were there, as you were developing the storyline, any pain points around elements of Greek myths that have some difficulty working their way into a modern storytelling? Mostly because there are lots of war stories coming out of the Greeks. We don't really tell those anymore. The morals don't quite translate. So if there was anything difficult there to work in. ANAIS MITCHELL: Wow. That was a very intelligent question. [LAUGHTER] I don't know that I've thought as deeply in what seems like a sort of academic way about what this adaptation means in the broader scheme of adaptation of Greek stuff. But I will say that I love old songs and stories. And in my songwriting career, I also have done a couple of projects of adapting really old folk ballads and stories, making them accessible for the modern ear and the American ear-- stuff that comes from England and whatever. And in doing that, I just keep discovering how the same stories pop up in different places around the world. And they may or may not be traveling from one place to another. It's like they have staying power and they resonate. And they spontaneously appear in different places. Like, I did this one ballads-- this is kind of an aside. But there's one epic folk ballad about this couple. There's an evil mother-in-law, which is an archetype. And the evil mother-in-law doesn't like the new bride. And she puts a curse on her that she'll get pregnant. And she just gets more and more pregnant, and she can never have the baby. And this is a real-- it's an amazing song. And ultimately, the husband figures out how to break the spell. And this story has cropped up all over the world. It's like a universal paranoia situation. And I just love that stories are like that and songs are like that. And I love that this story, which has existed for as far back as any human can remember, is still relevant today. And I would say that, I guess, as far as your second question goes, one of the tough things is certainly, the female characters in those stories often really have no agency at all. In the case of Eurydice, there's just not much you can find about, what does she want? What did she think about the fact that she just gets chased around and ends up dead? And even in the case of Persephone, I think the traditional myth leans into the sort of abduction of Persephone in a way that we haven't found useful for our version of the story. And then I think the other thing that's interesting is, this thing in the Greek where people aren't actually really making decisions, right? Because the Fates are kind of making them for them. Everything is ordained. And they're getting pushed around. And that exists in our show. There are these three Fates. And as far as the characters go, they don't have an arc the way that these guys do. They're pretty constant all the way through. But they exist as the voices in people's heads. And they push people around. And so that feels like, in a way, that was adhering to their role in the ancient Greek stuff. SPEAKER 1: Well, we are just about out of time. But before we go, I would be remiss if I did not mention, this is the only new musical this season directed by a woman. Anais is also one of-- [CHEERING] Yes. Anais here is one of the only women ever to have written both the book and music and lyrics for a musical. I believe you are one in five? Something like that. So-- [CHEERING] Yeah. But you can follow "Hadestown" online, @Hadestown. They are currently playing at the Walter Kerr Theater. Hadestown.com. Please go see this show. It's incredible. And please give a hand to this amazing cast of "Hadestown." [APPLAUSE]
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Channel: Talks at Google
Views: 123,354
Rating: 4.9766278 out of 5
Keywords: talks at google, ted talks, inspirational talks, educational talks, Broadway's Hadestown, broadway hadestown soundtrack, broadway hadestown wait for me, hadestown, broadway
Id: foMPZggeAN0
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 55min 31sec (3331 seconds)
Published: Wed May 08 2019
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