In this episode, Jessie and Chris met with Cornell senior Liv Licursi, PMA graduate student Andy Colpitts, and singer-songwriter and composer Michael Wookey, to discuss their upcoming production of The Family Copoli, A New Post-Apocalyptic Burlesque Musical scheduled to take place this August at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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Transcript
00:00 Music
Chris Christensen 00:10
Hello and welcome to episode 66 of the PMA podcast. In this episode, Jessie and I met with Cornell senior Liv Licursi, PMA graduate student Andy Colpitts and singer-songwriter and composer Michael Wookey to discuss their upcoming production of The Family Copoli, a new post-apocalyptic burlesque musical scheduled to take place this August at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Well, welcome, welcome back to the podcast for both you or about the studio itself. It has been some time. Andy, when's the last time was that? Was that actually Family-- No-- Family Copoli? or Yeah, cuz haunted nature's hidden environments was before that. Yeah, yes. But then there was also the Ithaca Department of Arts and Futures. That's right, duh, my goodness, is this your fourth podcast episode?
Andy Colpitts 00:57
Only third.
Chris Christensen 00:58
Only third. I don't think I was here for him. You were not here for Haunted Natures, that's it. I'm getting confused. And it. I'm getting confused, and Liv second time in here,
Liv Licursi 01:04
Yes, second time, first time doing a podcast, though.
Chris Christensen 01:07
We were just recording the audio.
Liv Licursi 01:10
This is fun,
Chris Christensen 01:11
Cool!
Liv Licursi 01:11
So happy be doing this.
Chris Christensen 01:12
Fantastic. Well, let's take a moment to just, you know, kind of, I guess, introduce yourselves. For those who haven't listened to the podcast and we don't want to make people have to go back and listen, but if they're inclined, yeah, go back and listen to the other episodes. So, Andy, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Andy Colpitts 01:30
So I'm Andy Colpitts. I'm a PhD candidate here in the department of Performing and Media Arts, and I'm also the book and lyric writer for The Family Copoli.
Chris Christensen 01:41
Very good. And Liv,
Liv Licursi 01:43
My name is Liv Virginia Licursi, and I am a senior at Cornell. I study Industrial and Labor Relations and Performing and Media Arts, although I find that I spend a lot more time in this building than Ives Hall. But I am the lead producer on this project, and I was in the original cast in 2023 when we workshopped it here. So yeah, and also the director, oh yes, I'm directing it too. I always forget. Sometimes I like pick and choose because I'm in it too. What I what I introduce myself as. But I think right now, my producer hat is, like very much on. So okay, so I lead with that. All right, directing it.
Chris Christensen 02:20
All right, Jessie, have any questions for these folks?
Jessie Jia 02:23
Yeah, the first first question will be to Andy. So some of the audience may be familiar with The Family Copoli, but for those who are not familiar with it, can you take a moment to revisit what Family Copoli is, and to provide our listeners to some background of the play?
Andy Colpitts 02:39
Absolutely. So the full title of the show is The Family Copoli: A Post-Apocalyptic Burlesque and Repopulation play, and that has a lot of a lot of the content in it already. The musical takes place 72 years after a catastrophic solar flare hits Earth and sends the human race into tailspin, frying the electrical grid. You know, many die right away, but there's a small number that kind of survive for several decades, you know, up to 72 years. But the population keeps dropping and dropping and dropping, and by this point, the population is so low that if something isn't done immediately to try and, you know, get the, you know, get the population back up, the human race is extinct, and so the Family Copoli travels around. This is a family troupe that travels around, you know, from encampment to shanty town and these different communities performing a ruckus, sexy, tacky burlesque show with the idea to generate laughter, delight, diversion and especially libido, to get people in the mood to copulate and repopulate.
Chris Christensen 03:55
I had forgotten all of that. I'd forgotten the reason for the Family Copoli.
Andy Colpitts 04:02
But behind behind the scenes. So the the musical has kind of an on stage, backstage structure, and backstage, we get to also see the family's internal politics and the way that, you know, family drama and secrets threaten the ability for them to carry on.
Chris Christensen 04:21
What has the Family Copoli been doing since it was here at the Schwartz Center, which was two ish years ago,
Andy Colpitts 04:29
Mostly lying fallow, Which, you know, I think it's important for a piece of art to to, you know, settle down for a moment until last summer, which I'll let Liv talk more about.
Chris Christensen 04:31
Okay
Liv Licursi 04:42
Okay, I will jump in right to this. So, yeah, I was in the original cast in 2023 I played Martula and, oh my, we were all just so inspired by the piece at the time and the community that we built around it. I think that I'm going on a side tangent here for a second. But, um, I was a sophomore.Like, Oh my gosh, I was a sophomore when we did it, and there's a cohort of us right now. Like, I would say, like, around 20-25, students who are really, really involved at PMA and dedicated and are are kind of building up, like, opportunities for ourselves and community here. And I felt things start rolling around that time. It was just really electric, like the bond between the cast and Andy, and we were so excited about the piece, and that kind of brought us together. And so, you know, we performed in 2023 it was fantastic. And we all fell in love with the music and the piece and continued working together. So I met a lot of my now best, closest friends through that experience, which I owe to Andy. And oh my gosh, I'm gonna get emotional. But, you know,
Chris Christensen 05:43
Please do!
Liv Licursi 05:44
I shall, I shall. And, yeah, so flash forward. I was, you know, it's always lived in the back of my mind, kind of the thought of, like, what's what's next for it? Like, I know Andy and Michael are so, so busy with their lives and and being up at Cornell, we feel so isolated from, like, New York and like, and the big Broadway scene and stuff like, what, you know, the question of what could be next for this piece is always lingered in my mind. So I was kind of sitting I've been sitting on that for a long time, but I performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland last summer with a bilingual children's musical called Baby Rock, which was Taylor Bezo's thesis project here. Sure with it, and I got a taste of what the fringe was like. And it's a marketplace, essentially, for new work. A lot of really major pieces have started there, like Six: the Musical, Dear Evan Hansen, TV series like Baby Reindeer, Fleabag. So you know, it has that component to it, and it's also just a extremely exciting experience for young artists, or artists of any age, to network and build community and meet people who are in their industry. Like, I mean, I met two artists there. I mean, a million, but I met two in particular whose shows I fell in love with, and I produced through Cornell Students Create here. So, like, that's just the kind of thing that can come up something like that. So anyway, I was at the Fringe last summer, and I was at seeing a show called Shantify. I'm going on a million tangents right now, but
Chris Christensen 07:08
Please do, that's all right.
Liv Licursi 07:11
I love that. So I was seeing this, this show called Shantify, which was a bunch of bunch of dudes singing sea shanty versions of songs. That's the kind of thing you'll come across at Fringe. There's a little bit of everything. I mean, for those listening who don't know what the Fringe is, definitely give it a quick Google search. But it's the largest, most prestigious theater festival in the world, and it takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland for the entire month of August every every year. So there's there's comedy, a lot of comedy, actually, Comedy Theater, musical theater, spoken word, burlesque, circus, basic music, anything there is, there's anything and everything there every type of performance. Um, yeah, I should say largest performing arts festival, there's a little bit of everything. So anyway, I was seeing the show in the Spiegelton like, a really beautiful, uh, circus style, like Spiegelton. And I was with Rahi, who played Ferdinand in the 2023, um run of Copoli here, the workshop here, and he was just at the Fringe, just watching shows and stuff, and we were sitting there and like, I don't know, it just kind of plopped into my mind. I was like, wow, Copoli would be so cool here. And that was, that was the first thought. And I was like, Okay, I'm just gonna text Andy right now. I'm very, I'm very spontaneous, like that with with my project, and just my life, which it just pays off a lot of times, but sometimes, you know, I jump up things a little bit too fast, but I'm glad I did, because I texted Andy pictures of the venue. I was like, look at this place. Oh my gosh. Can you imagine a building here? Blah, blah, blah. And then I don't know, the ball just started rolling. I think I kind of tuned out for the rest of the show sitting there, and my eyes were wide open, but my brain was in a different place. I was running through. Oh my gosh. Okay, okay. What? What would it take to do this? You know, I I got a taste of watching what it's like to produce a show at the Fringe, from being in the cast of Baby Rock there. And I learned a lot from Taylor and Anna who were producing it. And, yeah, I also immediately, once, once, once, that ball started really in my head. I was like, wow, the Fringe itself is so perfect. You know, there's a lot of different routes you can take to develop a musical like that. You know, from my limited experience of what I know, but, but the fringe itself, you know, the scrappy nature of it. It's like an ODE. The Family Copoli's, an ode to the types of artists who are there and travel around. You know, you're setting up and breaking down your show every single day. So like the way, again, I should explain this a little bit more. The way the fringe works is, there's about 4000 shows that go every summer. And put that into perspective, some smaller festivals, like the Hollywood Fringe Festival, where also performed last summer, take like, 400 shows. There's 4000 there. It's the largest, and the whole city turns into a theater. Essentially, people volunteer, like, totally, you know, for free, they volunteer their time, and like, bring up lights and put flooring down and turn everything from like religious centers to business offices to hotels into theater spaces. It is magical. People describe it as like theater Atlantis that rises out of the sea every year and, and people, um, so, so each, like individual venue, there's a bunch of companies that own, probably somewhere from like 10 to like 50 venues each different places. And you know, you'll apply a show, you'll take your show and write up a little bit about it and apply it to individual venues. And then I applied to like 12, and if you're accepted into their venue, then you can apply to the larger Fringe Festival, once you have, like, a location and a location and a contract, secure and stuff like that. And the way it works on the day is like each each individual space will take, like, around 12 shows, and you'll get like, an hour to an hour and a half slot or something like that, and you load in, you do the show, you load out, and you have sometimes, like, three minutes to load in and load out. So it is scrappy. It is like insanity. It is truly insanity. But, you know, I think it can make or break people, like, for anyone who's wondering if they if they want to do this thing, like, you know, that'll, that's, that's a great test, going to the Fringe and doing that stuff for a month. We performed. I did the show well, like, 25 times, or something like that. Wow. When I was there every day, it was at 10am too, because it was a children's show. But, you know, I was able to see that I had grit, and I was into it. And I was like, Okay, let's do this thing.Like I was able to access my, like, glass, half full energy when I was there. And so, you know, all that said that that is what the family could believe. Does? You know they travel around these, these encampments and and shantytown style places, to to inspire people and to to build community among them for a greater for a greater cause. And for me, that's, that's what this work is. You know what? I mean? It's really just for me, in a sense, and it brings people together theater to unite in creating something greater than, than, you know, than themselves. The the whole is greater than some of its parts in the sense. So, you know, I was just thinking about all these, all these things and and how Copoli, you know, we just work so well. Here's a great marketplace for this show in particular. And you know what, my first meeting with a venue, that's what they said to me, they were like, British accent. They were like, Liv this show is perfect for the Fringe. Oh my goodness, I was so excited to talk to you. I love it. And, um, yeah, so that's okay. I'm on a total tangent now, but that's what was running through my head, you know, as I'm sitting here in the Spiegeltown, I was like, you know, we're so well. Texted Andy, and we kind of got the ball rolling from there. I think I asked Andy if he would be interested in this at all, or if he had ever thought about taking to it Fringe Festival. And, you know, we were just texting about, like, like, all the Andy's up to here with his dissertation and his PhD work and stuff and and how he's super busy. But we came around to Andy giving permission, essentially, to direct it and produce it. And, yeah, that was August of 2024 and I just, I just started working on building the team and just getting it going. I was like, you know, sometimes you just have to full send on things like that and fake it till you make it. And just start doing, you know, acting is doing, and so is life. So I just started doing and here we are.
Chris Christensen 12:35
How long did it take you to make the decision Andy?
Andy Colpitts 12:38
Oh, it was immediate. I knew right away. Because for me, I mean, I've been working on this show with Michael. Since 2018 I think is when we started writing it so and we've, you know, gone through now two kind of large, large scale iterations. And for me, the biggest thing that I wanted to see happen next with it was go beyond us and have a life beyond Michael and I kind of running the show. And so when Liv-- Liv, pardon me, when Liv texted me to say, Can we do this? I was, I was delighted also to have someone that knows the show, is passionate about the show, and who I completely trust with the vision and with, you know, making it her own. And you know, leading a group of people that also know and care about this show is a dream come true for me, truly, and they've been doing such incredible work, I have been blown away at every turn from the artistic the artistic vision, to the production, the logistics. I mean, everyone is just going above me on the marketing and publicity. Incredible.
Chris Christensen 13:53
Nice. I'm so happy to hear all of this because I had no clue that all of this was happening until recently, and I am hearing more and more within the past week. So we'll dig into that a little bit more.
Jessie Jia 14:05
Yeah, are we gonna see primarily, like the same version that we shot we saw like a year ago at Schwartz, or are you making any like changes to anything?
Liv Licursi 14:14
So I mean first and foremost, where Andy's working on cuts to the script with Michael, the writer of the music and composer, and because we need to get it down to around 70 to 90 minutes, yeah.
Chris Christensen 14:27
So what was its original runtime?
Andy Colpitts 14:30
At Cornell? It was about two hours and 15 minutes with with a 15 or 20 minute intermission, and you gotta chop that down 45 minutes.
Liv Licursi 14:39
Oh, yeah. I mean, I should talk about that for a second. So the fringe, you know, the standard is to do, like a 60 minute show there. Even if you're the full piece that you're working on there is longer. Some people will just do the first act of their show, or they'll condense it into, like a smaller package. Because, you know, I don't know, time is money for people there, and anybody who is there to to, you know, pick up things potentially. And work and want to develop them like bigger producers and stuff like, they'll a lot of time. If something is running a little bit longer than that, they won't even go so, like, you want it, you want to make it smaller like that, but or have a shorter run time and kind of package it neatly like that. So, and that's, that's what people do. It a lot of time. You can do a 90 minute run, but I think, I think we're, I forget what our exact time. It might be 80 minutes. I should know that, but, um, yeah, we're working on, you know, Andy's working on that, but, um, okay, in terms of, like, vision and stuff like that, yeah, as as the director, let's put that hat on, I have an amazing assistant director too, I should say, Zoe Buddy, who was in the original cast. So we, along with our Director of Design, Carol Ryan, also in the original cast, have been, you know, working on for a while now, like, what we what we would do to give the show, you know, now that we're taking it there, we want to do something, something different with it, you know, keeping its the importance of the themes that are inherent to and stuff. But like, we want to give it a different spin. And what we're going with is just leaning into the grunge of it a little bit more. And like, what the reality of their life would be with, you know, essentially, we're working with the space and the space and the resources we have there, because it is going to be naturally scrappier. But the question we ask is, What does post apocalyptic, attempting, glitz and glam look like, and failing, you know, like failing, I think is the answer I've recently come to I had left up as like a question mark for a while, but, but I want them to maybe fail and reinvent like, what kind of like style and imagery do we see, like, really stripping down all of our conventional beliefs about about fashion and the use of certain items, and you know what? We're really leaning in doing that imaginative work with the piece and with Andy's, Andy and Michael's work to to give it kind of a different life in that way. And I think, you know, the Cornell production was, oh my god, the production quality was impeccable, like the set and the costumes and everything about the production dome was literally insanely magnificent. Like I did not walk into the Kip until I for that reason, I didn't see any of it until walking in the night, and I just was amazed from beginning to end. I loved that play. Yeah? Oh my goodness, yeah. When I first saw that the designs and the set I was I cried. I was, like, that was, like, my first major project at Cornell, and I was blown away by the work of the amazing designers here. Like, literally, it was so beautiful. But, you know, our resources are limited at the fringe, so instead of attempting to create something like that visual, I'm talking more visuals now. But that looks like that. We're leaning into the scruffiness of it. And like the the repurposing and the upcycling, and Caro is working on, like a lot of with Anna Mokla, our other costume designer, like using can tabs to make things, and using bottle caps and, like using stuff that the family might find to create, like what they're wearing. And, yeah, I'm excited to lean into that a little bit more. And I think we're gonna go a little raunchy with it too. A little raunchy. You're gonna lean into the burlesque a lot more. You know, being at the fringe, there's, there's a lot of less work there. So we want toflush that out a little bit more, which we're all really excited to do. So, yeah, in terms of vision, what time of day is the performance gonna happen? And it sounds like it's gonna be a later evening. Yes, performance, it is kid friendly. Yeah, not necessarily. I think we're 9pm 9:20pm is our slot. Yeah, I have it written down somewhere. It's something like that, but it's, yeah, I think it's 9:20. Yeah, definitely a later night show. What will be your venue? Do we know the location? Yes, did you say that earlier? I apologize if I didn't catch that. We're working with the company, the Space UK, and we're at their Nidri lower studio. So it's, it's part of a hotel, actually, that's been transformed into, like a conference room that's been transformed into a into a theater space. And where, in Edinburgh is that it's right off the Royal Mile, for the Royal Mile, that that's like, kind of the central like, orienting location for people. There's this big street that runs through the city, and all of the venues are kind of located right off of that, so nice, yeah, and what dates I might have missed, yeah, all of August we open on, I think the first in my August. It was supposed to be, but I think it might be the third. Now, I don't know I should check on that, but, um, yeah, it's, it's all of August, essentially, if maybe it's the first, maybe it's the first to the 25th and then we have an off day on the 17th, or something, paperwork stuff. See this? This will tell you where my brain's at right now. Like we are in, which is, I should segue into this. We are in crowdfunding mode right now. So like, you know, my creative director hat, I keep saying this, but it is important for me to be able to switch between them. Like my actor hat is way on a different planet right now. Um, my actor singer hat, whatever my director hat is, like local my producer hat is on and keeping, I'm keeping all these, you know, the importance of it Yeah, of the design and the and the directorial vision included in this, but, like, I'm very much about making sure we're raising the money that we need to make this happen right now. So, um, so yeah, any little details like that, I've put off in my brain until like, April will think, I mean, I have it all done, but we gotta, yeah,
Chris Christensen 20:16
So that's not it is in place, though, right?
Liv Licursi 20:18
The contract's done, like, where the venue's done. And we have our times.
Chris Christensen 20:21
We have the GoFundMe, the crowds,
Liv Licursi 20:23
Oh, yes, Indiegogo. We're using Indiegogo. We're doing a crowdfunding campaign on there, and we are looking to raise $63,000 to make this dream a reality. That is to cover housing, travel, design needs, marketing needs, yeah, just about everything you can imagine to get a giant group like this to the Fringe, a lot of shows will downsize their cast and have people take on multiple roles to, you know, make things more affordable, because this is an extremely expensive venture. But, you know, in the true spirit of the family, I thought that I didn't want to do that. I wanted to keep it together, keep the full cast. We actually have two swings coming with us, too. For anyone who doesn't know, these are actors who are actors who are covering multiple roles in the show. And we have our music director, Daniela, who's going to be playing keyword for us in the show. She's coming too, and Carol Ryan, and they're our Director of Design. So we have a large group going, um, which has lots of benefits, being on site at the fringe. Like we will just have many bodies there to be in many places at once. Like, there are little events where you can meet, let me, Meet the Press, meet producers, and stuff like that. And then there's a lot of it is, like on the ground, like promoting the show out and on the Royal Mile and stuff like that. So we'll have a lot of people, having a lot of people there, will be beneficial. But the the costs of that are obviously very expensive. You know, within that, that is our, like, dream goal number. We can we'll be able to, it's a flexible goal. We'll be able to go if we raise less than that. Like, there are things that we can drop. That's our like, that's our dream, you know, with all the marketing in the world and all the, you know, really making the most for the show and for our experience being there, that's a number, but, um, but, yeah, we launched our crowdfunding campaign on the 18th of February, and we're currently sitting at, I think we're a little over 15,000 which is extraordinary. Yeah, we have a we have a detailed plan. I should bring up Kenny here. Kenny Aune , Cornell grad is one of our Co-producers in the project, and he is just fabulous. Oh my goodness. The work Kenny's been doing has been doing has been insane, if you've seen any, if anyone listening, or if you all have seen the promotional content, we have like, that's all Kenny. We filmed an electronic press kit here, like, two weekends ago where we did an interview video, we did a photo shoot, and we made like some some content of like songs from the show, and little like BTS kind of thing. So, um, Kenny put all that together, and it's fantastic. But Kenny's been, um, leading the brigade a lot on the on the crowdfunding, um, and, and it's been going well. So we're sitting right where we want to be. And I, you know, it is my belief that, like this, this piece has so much joy and potential and like people, I know I feel it in my soul that people are going to fall in love with this when they see it. And like, I know the rest of the family and the rest of our cast and and crew and everybody involved, we have like, a 24 people, I think, on board doing work on this right now, which is crazy. Um, people feel that. Like people really feel in their bones and like, that's why I knew, that's why I was so glass half full about it. I was like, there wasn't a doubt in my mind from the moment I conceptualized that, that it wouldn't work, because I know that people are really care about this piece and that it has more than legs. And like people, we all love each other too. You know, like I said, a lot of us have grown up here together, essentially at Cornell, and like, we're ready for a project like this. And so, you know, the energy on our zoom calls and our meetings has been really electric. People are just super amped up to to make this happen. So, so it's happening.
Chris Christensen 23:48
So if people want to see some of these videos that are out there, just look them up on YouTube. Where? Where can they find them?
Liv Licursi 23:53
Yeah, so they're on our crowdfunding page. They're linked on there. They're also on YouTube. If you look up the Family Copoli, and they're on our Instagram, okay, Andy Colpitts 24:00 and website, just the familycopoli.com
Chris Christensen 24:03
Okay, so, wow,
Liv Licursi 24:04
that's definitely the central website.
Andy Colpitts 24:06
First you everywhere else that you need to go. Okay, perfect.
Jessie Jia 24:11
Should we call in? Michael,
Chris Christensen 24:13
yeah, I guess we should.
Andy Colpitts 24:15
Okay, I'll ring. Michael, in ring. Michael, all right, here we go.
Chris Christensen 24:22
Is that the ringtone for WhatsApp?
Andy Colpitts 24:24
Yes, it is.
Chris Christensen 24:26
What note is that?
Michael Wookey 24:31
Good morning. Hello,
Chris Christensen 24:34
Hi, hello, Michael. What time of day is it in where you're at?
Michael Wookey 24:41
It's six, 6:46pm
Chris Christensen 24:45
So you're just winding down from the day.
Michael Wookey 24:48
Yeah? Well, just, yeah, just getting home and getting installed, and yeah, yeah, we got a new baby, and she's just arrived. We've just arrived to the house. So it's like, All right, so not really wind.Not really winding down like getting ready for the adventure.
Liv Licursi 25:04
Congratulations,
Michael, Michael Wookey 25:06
Thank you.
Chris Christensen 25:07
Michael, we have Jessie Jia in the studio with us. She is also one of our co-hosts for the PMA podcast. And the last time you were here, we were sitting at a table in the middle of the room. I'm just giving you a physical description. You a physical description of the place. It's a it's been upgraded since you were last here, and you're missing out on a big, really cushy couch.
Michael Wookey 25:29
Oh, man, I have to - for a chair.
Liv Licursi 25:36
I wish all three of us were squeezed onto this beautiful couch right now.
Michael Wookey 25:44
So how's it? How's it going there? You've talked to the other guys.
Chris Christensen 25:48
We have. We've had a nice, lively discussion here, and we're going to dig into things with you as soon as I can figure out where I moved my notes to on my screen, they just seem to have disappeared. Jessie, do you have a question for Michael to start things out while I so foolishly try to find my way around my computer?
Jessie Jia 26:07
Yeah, yeah. Hi, Michael. I'm Jessie. I think we haven't met before, so it'll be great if you can kind of share a bit about yourself to the audience.
Michael Wookey 26:18
Sure. Gosh, what can I say? I'm a British, British born composer, multi instrumentalist, producer, and I've lived in Paris for the last 20 years, half my life. So now I'm also French. And what else can I say about myself? I hate to cook. Yeah, I just like anything that makes noise,
Chris Christensen 26:53
basically, well, speaking along those lines, what have you been up to? Well, it sounds like you've been really busy being a father right now since we last spoke, what else is going on in terms of musical endeavors in your world,
Michael Wookey 27:06
I've been producing a lot of stuff, actually, for other people, just just albums, like I just made an album for for a girl, she came to me with, like, piano vocal, and asked me to make the, make the arrangements, and I used her voice a lot for that one. It was like, a lot of, like, sampling her voice and using it for percussion, and trying to, trying to, kind of do my thing, but with her thing, if that makes sense, yeah, that's a lot of what I do. Yeah, that's something I really enjoy, actually. Just try, when someone comes to me with a great song and they just like, put your put your stamp on this. And so that's I've been putting my stamp on a lot of little things since, since I was in America.
Chris Christensen 27:51
Who's the artist that you were working with?
Michael Wookey 27:53
Her name is Khloe Lang. It's 'Chloe' with a K and Lang, Iguess in America, Khloe Lang, she's very good.
Chris Christensen 28:04
Is that album out now or still in production?
Michael Wookey 28:09
It's finished. It's coming out in summer. But there's, there's a another EP that I made for her, like last year, which is, which is out. It's called, it's French. It's called Secret la Nuit
Chris Christensen 28:21
and available on the the standard streaming services where people tend to find their music.
Michael Wookey 28:26
Yeah, it's on some of those places. I haven't, I have for myself, I haven't really, I'd love to tell you I've made an album since, no, I've been really working for other people, and I've been writing a lot. But for myself, there's not, there's nothing I can like link you to at the moment. It's all kind of, it's all still in drawers. You know what? I mean, like, it's all it's ready, but it's not, not out there yet. Takes time.
Jessie Jia 28:52
Yeah, that sounds awesome. Um, just going back to the Family Copoli. Um, what are you're most looking forward to in revisiting it,
Michael Wookey 29:04
gosh, in revisiting it. Well, just all of it. Honestly, it's such a hoot to it's such a fun project to be a part of. But I'm looking forward, really, to what we're doing, which is what they're doing, what I'm trying to help with is they tightening up. It's, it's, it was, I think it was already such a great piece. And I was, I was really proud of it from the beginning. But it's like, every time we revisit it, it gets tighter and it gets gets kind of a little shorter, and we take out bits that don't work and but, you know, mainly what I'm looking forward to is just hearing it again, like, here's another version of seeing another version of it, just to see those characters again and be like, Oh, I remember you. You know.
Chris Christensen 29:50
Are you gonna be present at the performances? Are you performing?
Michael Wookey 29:54
No, I'm gonna be there. No, I'm not performing, but I will. I will go, Yes, I will. No, that's. Super exciting, though, I'm not involved in the production of this one, so I'm just, I'm just there as, like, if they need me kind of thing, yeah, if I'm needed, like, any way I can lend a hand from too far away. But, yeah, super exciting just to see what they're going to do,
Chris Christensen 29:54
Any changes in terms of the music or keeping the score pretty much the same as it was before.
Michael Wookey 30:29
The score is pretty much the same. But lyrically and stuff, we've cut a few few verses, a few kind of bits that maybe weren't completely necessary just to make the whole thing a bit more kind of, bam, bam, bam, like, you know, quick and and tight. But I, I know the my co, the co-musical director last time, Daniela,maybe you can say her full name, someone else, because I am really bad with--
Andy Colpitts 31:02
Daniela Rodriguez Chavez,
Michael Wookey 31:04
Voila. Thank you. I just didn't want to, didn't want to massacre that. And she so she co-musical directed last time, and this time she's going to be the musical director. And she was such a surprise. Like, honestly, I got there lot like, I think was 2023 wasn't I got there and met her, and she was just this, she was this kind of timid girl, obviously very professional, but I just the more time I spent with her, the more I was surprised at her talent and just how hard she worked. I think she's got really great ideas, and I think she's I just think it's in really, really good hands. The music,
Chris Christensen 31:52
I'm curious, Michael, I'm going to go off on a tangent here. One of the things that I absolutely love about the work that you do is you incorporate children's instruments into your music. And I'm wondering, have there been any new children's instruments that you've encountered that you're incorporating into your work? And is there anything that's going to be new that we'll see at the Family Copoli in the Fringe Festival
Michael Wookey 32:14
In my work? Yeah, see there are a bunch of I have such a huge collection of stuff. And I, I recently stuff that is, it's in my house, and I just hadn't touched it in years and years. And recently, I kind of opened a box, and I was like, Oh, I remember these keyboards, and I turned them all on, and I made a made a bunch of songs with kind of, they're like, kind of 80s, maybe early 90s kids keyboards. You know, these plastic, very colorful usually have lights on them. They just sound so amazing. So in my own music, yeah, I've been going back to that kind of gritty kids keyboard sound. But no, in the Family Copoli, there will definitely be toy piano, as there was last time. It's like a kind of chime piano instead of strings as metal rods. That's, that's certainly going to be there. I think Daniela is going to try and make it a bit more kind of junky, not necessarily with toys, but have the, have the cast playing instruments. And that's, I think that's the idea to to make it a bit more kind of family supporting themselves, you know, backing themselves up kind of thing.
Chris Christensen 33:31
Okay, as you mentioned, like keyboard, I'm having this memory of, was it? Was it a keyboard that was yours? Andy, it was something from your childhood that you brought, or something you found that was part of the play. Am I remembering that incorrectly?
Andy Colpitts 33:47
I have a toy piano. It's not from my childhood, but a toy piano that, you know, was made for children. It's from, I believe, the 1960s or 70s.
Chris Christensen 33:56
Okay, and you had picked it up while you were traveling or something, for some reason. Or am I imagining, right?
Andy Colpitts 34:01
So the way that I got it was through Craigslist. A woman was selling it. It was actually the very touching kind of sad story. I met her on the side of the road in the middle of Maine, yeah, that's and, and we had, you know, figured out this one, this one place that we would meet. There was nothing around. And she said, Well, I'm not going to have any grandkids, so I don't need this anymore, which was heartbreaking, and it's, but it's so lovely that now it's, you know, being used a lot, and, you know, has been used in the past two productions. And I don't know if we'll use the very same one that we've used before, but, but yeah, it's, it's lived a good life. Now, nice.
Liv Licursi 34:41
We should tell her!
Chris Christensen 34:43
We should reach out to her
Andy Colpitts 34:45
We need to dig deep into my email.
Michael Wookey 34:52
But I remember, yeah, I remember we were, we were working on a distance Andy, and then I asked you, I was like, oh, it'd be great if we had a toy piano. I can't really bring my. And then you mentioned that you'd found that one, and I think I didn't realize how far Maine was, and you just went and got it. I was like, great. I didn't realize you, like, the very scale, scale of America is very different to England than France. Like, it's, it's, it was far for you, right?
Andy Colpitts 35:15
I think it was about a four hour drive
Chris Christensen 35:19
The things we do for our productions, right?
Michael Wookey 35:23
Things we do for toys? I've done worse, like for toys. I've definitely driven, like, a day to go and get something shipped. Ships things from random countries. And, yeah, it's like, it's, but, you know, gotta love those sounds, I guess.
Chris Christensen 35:40
Yeah,
Jessie Jia 35:40
We are kind of, we are kind of, we have few moments. Is there any question that we still want to cover? Just wanted to be sure. Wait. I think we went through a lot we did,
Chris Christensen 35:52
I guess I would say, because we've got this, this physical distance between you and the rest of the cast and everybody who's working on this and as you're trying to pull everything together, which seems like such a Herculean task, what are some of the challenges you're facing right now, maybe in terms of coordination at this point, or aside from just getting the monetary backing, are there other things you're running up against, collectively,
Liv Licursi 36:18
I would say coordination and getting everyone on a call together a little bit, but it's been pretty good. Like, like, I said, like, I don't know. I'm not, I don't feel like I'm really pulling teeth to get people to do what they need to do. You know what I mean? Like, because everybody feels so inspired. Like people, people are doing what we're asking of them, like we're everybody's associate producing in the true Family Copoli fashion, like, I've said a million times, like everybody, everybody's pulling their everybody's pulling their weight and really helping us get the word out about the show. And communication is key to all of us. You know, we have over, we have a Slack we have all of our group chats, and we're always emailing and, you know, keeping Michael in touch about everything that we're doing, and making sure that, um, you know, we're staying true to his vision for the music and everything as much, you know, we're spending a lot of time just, just coordinating, I guess, yeah, logistical stuff is our biggest, biggest battle. We're expanding our team. Actually, we have three new people who are Cornell alum who are going to hop on and help with, like, delegating a little bit of that. That's something I'm personally struggling with, is just struggling with, is like, just delegating tasks, like I take on a lot myself, I think, with like, you know, getting this whole thing together and just like little things sometimes, like scheduling meetings or like keeping track of, like, where people are at, what they're like, stuff they need to complete tasks they need to complete. Like, keeping everything documented, meeting notes, stuff like that. But learning the artist delegation, that's what I'd say.
Chris Christensen 37:41
All right, yeah. Andy, anything that's or maybe flip it around, what are some things that are really working in addition?
Andy Colpitts 37:48
Yeah, I mean, so the first bit, I don't think that there are things that aren't working. I think that the amount of organization, especially that Liv has been doing, in terms of coordinating so many people and so so much material has been astonishing, and she's doing an incredible job. She's also directing Spring Awakening at the moment, on top of doing all of this for the Family Copoli, so, yeah, I'm just flabbergasted.
Chris Christensen 38:16
Nice, nice. How about you, Michael, anything that's coming up where you're, you're running up against things, or is everything just going smooth as could be
Michael Wookey 38:26
super smooth. I mean, I, I'm, I'm kind of just on the outskirts of this one, like, I'm just, just, like, I want to be kept in the loop. But Daniella has got the music and from the interviews, from the meetings that we've done online, as I've just been I've been super impressed with with just the organization of everything, and just even I don't know that, even that everyone kind of waits to talk like it's it's been quite, quite astonishing. It's very, I just, I'm very impressed with how well organized it is. And not only that, but also how everyone is, everyone is kind of pulling their weight for the for the crowdfunding and stuff. It's, it's just super it's just super lovely to see so many people care about this, this thing that Andy and I wrote, yeah, it's really, yeah, no, no complaints, different. Nothing's a talent. Everything's, everything's, it's an adventure, good.
Chris Christensen 39:30
I'm so glad to hear that. It's just been really amazing to sit here today and hear how close you are. Just, you know, even coming up with those funds, that's that's really great. I'm thinking as we're talking now, maybe while, while the Fringe Festival is happening, we could call you all in at some point and get maybe some recordings to see, to check in and see how things are going in August.
Liv Licursi 39:49
So fun. I mean, it's like, I'm viewing it in like, three phases, like, there's our, like, crowdfunding phase right now, and, like, all of our prep work in the and the, you know, the work I was doing, building the team. And then we'll have our like, rehearsal period and like piecing everything together, and that'll be director live enters the chat more largely. And then there's like, on on site, like being in Scotland, and that's like a whole different beast, like marketing, just like changes there, like, like I said, it's a lot of like, in a really beautiful way. It's people out in the streets, like handing out flyers for their shows and doing like street performances and getting people to come. It's like a totally different, different different beast than what we're working on now. But real quick, I want to circle back to what Michael was saying about Daniela. She, she, yeah, she co music directed with Michael back in or assistant. Was she your assistant, Michael? Or did you guys? You were co music?
Michael Wookey 40:36
No, no, she, she is. I'm sorry. It started as, sorry, I spoke too loudly in the baby. She No. She started as Yeah. Started as just like an assistant thing, and then it was like, No, she's doing labeled, and assisting wouldn't be possible without her. So no, no, we, we changed the credit.
Liv Licursi 40:56
Yes, that is so Daniela. That is so Daniela, yeah. We had worked together very professionally, and she's just a pro at everything she does prior to this summer. But Daniella music directed Baby Rock, the musical that I was was performing in at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in LA for all of June, and then at the Edinburgh Festival in August. She wasn't on site with us in Scotland, but we got really close over the summer and and really got to know each other. And we were talking, we would talk a lot about Copoli. And like, that was before that was in June, when we were, we were living together for all of June and LA, and sleeping in the same bed. We got very close. Yes, it's like our space confines in LA, but um, you know, we would, we would talk a lot about Capo League, like in theoreticals and stuff. And then after I or during the fringe in Scotland, I think I called Danielle up after I talked to Andy, like, probably the next day, and I was like, we're doing this. So here we go. Ready, and she's just so on as a co producer and and the music director. So yeah, so grateful for Daniela. Shout out to her nice
Chris Christensen 41:58
Well, thank you all so much for joining in the podcast. Is there anything else that we didn't cover today that you really want to talk about? Last minute statement? Nothing.
Liv Licursi 42:11
I have one last little thing, I guess I would say, anyone listening word of mouth is our best friend, just, you know, talking about the show, sending people our website, sending people the link to the podcast, like just getting word out about the show is really important right now, and help us with our crowdfunding. Yeah, you know, we need a lot of financial support to make this dream a reality. And I think, you know, the performing arts, especially in this country right now, are really, really important cause to be dedicating time and effort too to keeping fanning the flame and keeping it alive and finding passion and firing community and creating art like this. So please support us. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your enemies, send our links and yeah. Thank you guys so much for listening. Thanks so much. And come to Edinburgh, absolutely.
Chris Christensen 43:00
Michael, thanks again for joining us. Really. Great to hear your voice. Congratulations.
Michael Wookey 43:06
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, great to hear your voice. You have a lovely voice, but cool.
Chris Christensen 43:10
Thank you, sir.
Liv Licursi 43:13
Really do.
Chris Christensen 43:17
Oh my gosh. Of course, great to have you here today.
Liv Licursi 43:19
Yeah, and thanks everyone for keeping up with my pace of speech. I meant to say that I'm a very fast very fast talker.
Chris Christensen 43:23
We'll slow it down in post.
Liv Licursi 43:26
We probably should!
Chris Christensen 43:29
All right, take care.
Michael Wookey 43:31
Thank you very much. See you.
