All I'm saying, Bob, is that you could have gotten that thing a lot cheaper at the big box store down the street instead of having a friend of a friend sculpt it for you. That is so unpatriotic of you, Sarah! Down the street at the wall, I general, everything is made overseas! If I bought it there, I might as well have shipped off an American job to a foreign country myself! No, thank you! Actually... What now? I get that it's upsetting when an American factory lays off workers or shuts down altogether, and it's good that you want to help those affected. But allowing American businesses in their production facilities to focus on things they do better than anyone else is patriotic. When we put barriers up to global trade, like tariffs, it drives up prices across the board. Not only that, but when people look to local companies to fill the gaps left by the imports they can't get a decent price on anymore, it forces American companies to make things they wouldn't have made ordinarily. Well, what's so bad about that? Think about it like this.  Everything you use that you didn't make yourself would have to have been gained by trading things you can make yourself, like those cakes you like to bake. Bob does bake a really good cake. Thank you! When it comes to cakes, you have what's called a comparative advantage. But when it comes to producing eggs, wheat, and milk, your neighbors have the comparative advantage, which is another way of saying they can do it better than you. So you trade with each other. But one day, your neighbor Karen, who also makes cakes, but not as well, gets tired of losing out to your superior baking. So she gets together with her friends and convinces them that you're totally cheating. I never cheat when baking! But she convinces them that you do. So now they won't sell you flour and you have to grow it and mill it yourself. In fact, you have to produce everything you need to bake a cake by yourself with no outside suppliers. I guess that makes sense for that, but I don't see what it has to do with national economies. When it's no longer cheaper to hire someone else to make something for you, which is generally what tariffs result in, you have to make everything in-house, as it were, generally for more money than it would cost otherwise. This harms low-income people who are no longer able to afford the goods and services once available to them. By the way, who did you buy that thing from anyway? Oh, my good friend Karen recommended a great toy maker to me.


Welcome to Sheboygan County Government, working for you. My name's Adam Payne, County Administrator and co-host of this program, although as you can see, our fearless leader, County Board Chairman Mike Van Der Stien isn't with us today. In fact, Mike had some ankle surgery. He's resting comfortably at home and if you get a chance or you know Chairman Mike Van Der Stien, please drop a note or give him a phone call because he may not be with us now for the next couple of months, in fact. But we are very pleased today to have Greg Schneller, Highway Commissioner with us. Welcome, Greg. Thanks, Adam. I enjoy being here. Greg just mentioned to me it's been since 2006, since he started as Highway Commissioner. It's amazing how quickly the time goes. We've met with a lot of challenges so far, but we're weathering the storm. Weathering the storm and speaking of storms, by the time you see this, things are already really clear, but we had what, 8 to 10 inches this weekend and I thought the Highway Department just did a tremendous job. Let's start there. Tell me a little bit about what it takes. I mean, when this area sees that kind of snowfall, blizzard conditions, how do you respond to that? What's the game plan? Well, first we start early November. We prepare all of our equipment, wings, plows, all of our trucks that are utilized for asphalt and gravel installation over the summer months are transformed into winter activities and modes. We also have our graders that have wings and such and v-plows so that we can open up for the bigger storms, similar to this one. We did activate just about every piece of equipment that we had with our snowblowers and Oshkosh trucks, which normally don't go until we get the big stuff and usually we don't see the big stuff until January, February when the ditches are all full and we get the drifting. In order to prepare for this, we spent a couple days and we've heard about it coming and nobody really knew where the eye was going to be. We made some decisions as far as sending some guys home early to get some rest and so we had enough people to go over the night. Our night shift is primarily only two guys for eight hours and another two guys for another eight hours after. So as we get a second and third shift, it only consists of two people. For this storm, we added a few more just to keep our main highways going and keep everybody moving along. So when it's just coming down like it was Saturday night and again I know this is a tape-delayed program, which certainly everyone's going to remember this snowfall for a while. When it's just coming down in buckets, winds blowing hard, do you try to stay after it while that's happening or do you essentially hold off a little bit and say let's let it come and get out there once rather than fight it the whole time? How does that work? We will continually plow through the storm. It's a challenge to shut down roads and say to people, hey, we're going to let you sit. We're not going to do that. We're going to do our best to keep our equipment moving. But there is a safety fact that we have to look at as well. And that's to keep the motor in public safe besides our own people and our equipment.  So when it's loaded down with salt and a wing and a plow, you can do some real damage. And if you don't know what's in that snowbank, there's a potential of some danger. So we haven't had to pull our plows yet. I remember a few years back in a previous job where we did pull plows and it was a challenge. We had to shut down the interstate and put up barricades to not allow people to go back up there. And it probably took us six hours to shut the interstate down. By that time, the winds had died down. So it's a real challenge. But we do continually plow. The reason we do that is we don't want to have the compaction similar to what you're seeing today. The snow really made a bond to the pavement.  That has a lot to do with the temperatures that we're seeing now. And the consistency of the snow when it came was real wet and moist. And now we're stuck with it. So it's coming around. The sun's helping us now. And that's our best friend right now. And we're going through a lot of salt, though. So this is an expensive one. And let's complete that thought. You know, I've heard you say in the past, or former Highway Commissioner say in the past, when you get three to five inches of snow to get that all cleaned up from beginning to end, you might be talking $40,000, $50,000. I know it depends on the wind conditions and everything else. Something like we experienced this weekend, what did we look at? I believe after I ran the numbers for Saturday and Sunday alone, as of yesterday, we had about $125,000 in it. The storm or our cleanup will continue now and still will be continuing probably through Thursday. We're hoping that we can get it all cleaned up. We're expecting a little bit of snow overnight and tomorrow. But I would say by the time it's all said and done, we'll have close to $200,000 in this storm alone. And we've kitted about this, but it's more cost-effective for us when it snows during the week than over the weekends. Absolutely. We have some operators that worked on Sunday for 17 hours, and that's completely over time, the entire time. So the overtime starts to rack up. The truck gets the same rate no matter if it's going on Friday or Saturday or Monday or Tuesday. So a lot of people realize that the salt alone goes for $60 a ton. That's what we're buying it for. When it's kind of strange to me where we can put asphalt down for $40 a ton, and salt costs $60 a ton, and at the end of the season, we have nothing to show for it. Yeah. Now, those who may have followed our budget process this year, of course, the county board's been making real tough decisions about where they're going to provide limited resources, whether it's law enforcement, the highway department, health and human services. In our highway department, we've done some downsizing there. We've reduced the staff. Where are we at right now with your table of organization? And again, back to the snow plowing on a regular shift. How many folks are out there actually plowing still in Chavoine County? Where we currently stand today is we have 96 employees. At the end of December, we'll be down to 90. We'll be laying off six employees, and that's what we're budgeted for for 2011. What it's going to do to our operation is we're going to continue to provide the service, but we're going to rely on the same people more often. Maybe making them or having them run longer, shifting our services around. Maybe our levels will be a little bit different, but you're not going to see a lot of change. The one direction that we looked at when we were going through our budget cuts is that we feel that this is our main focus, is to take care of winter, and that's what people rely on us for to do. So we didn't want to disrupt that apple cart, if you will, in order to make ends meet. We are providing a service and a safety service. So I know for a number of years now, we've had a hiring freeze in Chavoine County. We've been reducing some staff through attrition as they retire or take another job. If memory serves, at one point we had about 120 employees at the highway department. When I started in 2006, we were at 118. 118. So a 25% reduction in our employees over the last four years. And I think it's important for people to understand that clearly, snow removal and taking care of our highways, our infrastructures, are a critically important task, critically important responsibility should boil in county. But like all levels of government, we're feeling the pressures, we're hearing the demands to keep property taxes in check. We're seeing reductions in revenue from the state level, and we're also seeing demands for more services, whether it's health and human services, law enforcement, you name it. So I think Greg and his leadership has been absolutely critical to our success. And of course, we need to see how this next year or two unfolds. It will be at 90 is what we've budgeted. And of course, snow removal is a key responsibility. On any given day, for example, today, if we saw three to five inches of snow during the week, how many individuals do you generally have out there doing snow removal? We provide service to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and plow their snow as well. So when we send out a full complement of our just our one-way trucks, the ones that are carrying the salt and doing the, I would say, the primary plowing, just to keep everything open, intersection salted, we send out 42 trucks. At one point on Saturday or Sunday, we had 60 employees in not counting our mechanics and any of our supervisors that was just running the graders, which we would send out 12. We wouldn't do that with a three to five inch storm depending upon the wind and all that. There's different conditions that will dictate that. But for the most part, we're looking at 45 people that will be sent out on a three to five inch snow storm. Okay. And 42 pieces of hardware, 42 trucks out there. One shape, size or kind out there involved with it. And then we had the graders, that's an additional 12. And we had six Oshkosh trucks out on Sunday and those are, like I said, depends upon the wind there. But some of those haven't been used for four and five years and they're like our insurance policy, if you will. They're old, but they get the job done. An earlier set, unless I misunderstood you, that the third shift though, you only have a couple of folks out there. So what time does the first shift start? Because I'm sure you want those roads clear before most people are heading to work. Well, our normal operation with the one on a snow was seven to three thirty. At three o'clock, we have two individuals come in to take care of our second shift. They come in from three to ten, they're at ten thirty and we have two others come in at ten thirty and they go until seven o'clock in the morning. Their primary concern is I-43 and State Highway 23. The state pays for those individuals to be here to respond to their calls. It's not to say that we won't go off and take care of an emergency call some place out in the county, but that does take away from the service that we're providing to the state where there's more traffic. So that's why when we get up in the morning and head on Highway 23 or 57 or one of the interstates, those roads are looking good because we've had some people doing nothing but predominantly focusing on those. Whereas during the day, your workforce is going out to all the county and town roads and throughout the area. If we would get that three to five that you talked about earlier, if that would start, let's just say at maybe midnight to night before, we'll bring our guys in. Our first shift guys then will be called upon maybe coming at three or three thirty four o'clock in the morning and then they'll plow throughout the day. So by the time the normal person would leave for work at seven or six or whatever, there's a pretty good chance that they're going to have good sailing, if you will, or some salted highways where the salt is starting to work. Typically, if that storm is going to take the course and it's going to continue throughout the whole day, we'll go until eight, depending upon how bad it is, we might go until nine with those other individuals helping out on certain sections so we can get ahead of it so they can perform their services throughout the night when nobody else has given them a hand. So that's usually our four to eight is what we were running during the snowstorm if we have to and then the night guys will take care of the hotspots if you will. As we know accidents always happen and obviously you want to really try to avoid hitting another vehicle or knocking over a mailbox, but I know just in the area of mailboxes that we both hear from time to time, just the weight of that snow coming off the plow can knock that mailbox right off and I noticed just the other day where one had been knocked off. If that happens, if someone has some damage like that, what should they do? Contact the Highway Commissioner, your assistant, how do you like to handle that? The way the policy has always been, if it's maybe an unwritten policy, if we cause the damage physically, if the wing or the plow of the equipment will hit the mailbox where it's, you can see the physical damage, whether it's an orange paint or an area where it was definitely hit and dented, we will replace that mailbox and the post. Now if it's caused by the snow, that's something that really can't control, that would be the homeowner's responsibility to take care of that. We've have fixed a few here and there because of arguments, because of yes, the plow hit it and all the plow didn't, but we would like the homeowner to be responsible for that because really it's something that we can't control.  Also on the lines of safety, I know you've said it before and I think it's always a good reminder, what's the distance that people should keep from these plows, whether they're heading down 23 or on a town road? Minimum 200 feet. You don't know, when we are plowing down a highway and if we have to come to a bridge, there's a lot of times that the bridge lays the same as what the plow is and all of our bridges have a joint in them and if there's not enough snow covering that, that plow has a tendency that it can fall in there and stop the truck dead in its tracks. A lot of our guys will slow down, put a little pressure up on that blade so it's not falling in there. So if the person behind them is not paying attention or at least doesn't give them that 200-foot buffer, when he slows that truck down, they're going to be on him immediately and obviously if he's out there it's going to be slippery because otherwise he wouldn't be there. So our guys are creating whiteout conditions when it's windy and they're plowing and it's flying off the blade, so we don't want you to drive into that large cloud either.  And intersections I know sometimes can be a little confusing for folks because the plow will come up to the intersection, they might assume it's just going to go on through, but they may actually work those corners and push that snow back and be backing up.  As they're cleaning up and like I said, if you can look into that truck and you can't see the operator in his mirror, then he can't see you either. So there's always that possibility and when you're at the intersection it's good advice to turn down the radio so you can at least hear that backup alarm because sometimes the snow is covering their lenses in the back and you won't see that they're backing up but you'll be able to hear it with the backup alarm. Now we're talking a lot about snow here but it is the season and obviously it's a very important responsibility of the highway department and you've talked a little bit about your labor force and the different schedules and the approach you take out there and you mentioned real briefly salt and the cost of salt and I know that's fluctuated tremendously and as you said at the end of the year the salt pile's gone and what did you get for it but give our viewers a flavor for just how expensive salt is, what the cost county taxpayers as a whole to pay for the salt, how much we need every year, how much we go through and where do you get it? When we go through our salt we have to order it in July already and we go on estate bids so all 72 counties plus the municipalities within those counties have an opportunity to go on a state bid where we can obviously when you buy that amount you have buying power where you get a little reduced price. I believe the number is in 100 plus thousand tons of salt that the state of Wisconsin buys so obviously if we all get in on that we can get in on their unit cost. So what we do is we'll take our inventory at the end of the winter and see what we have left. Based on five-year averages we we could run about 12,000 tons a year which basically comes down to about three quarters of a million dollars in salt that we have to purchase. We have salt sheds we have to have the storage for that it has to be inside throughout the summer months a lot of people try to keep it outside but it leaches into their ground. It runs about 60 dollars a ton and when you're going down the road and you're putting it down you want to make make sure you're utilizing it to its fullest extent. These temperatures that we're seeing right now sometimes the salt that doesn't work is effective it won't work is effective 15 degrees and below becomes a challenge where you have to add more to it. We have been taking advantage of some additional funding that we got from the state to purchase tanks where we're starting to mix salt brine and that's injected at the spinner so that when the salt hits the road it's already activated it's wet and starting to melt so we don't get the bounce anymore where the salt's bouncing off the side of the road so we've taken steps in order to reduce the use of our raw material the salt and started using the liquids to help enhance it. And your comment about the salt not working if it's 15 degrees or colder and I got to imagine from time to time folks are going to and from home or work and they're wondering why is this ice not yet off what's taken so long well before experiencing temperatures like we are now four or five degrees it takes a little longer you need some need some sun and to get those temperatures up in the 20s is really the best. Sometimes it can work as a disadvantage to you as well as when we some if we're going to go out and salt in the morning we pay real close attention to what the wind is going to do the rest of the day if we go out we're salting we get the road all wet and also the wind picks up at about two o'clock in the afternoon that snow is going to start to collect in the road and the salt's not going to stay there long enough to melt it down so now we've just created ice and over the night it's going to turn to ice and it's going to get extremely slippery that we're going to have to contend with throughout the night and for the next couple days after. Someone experiences a real trouble spot they you know leaving early in the morning go through an intersection or come around a curve and it's just glare ice or black ice how should they you know they want to be a good Samaritan and point that out sooner rather than later before somebody gets hurt or killed. Do they contact the highway department the sheriff's department what's your advice there? Depending upon the timing if it's during the week Monday through Friday we have people in the office from usually six a.m. until four o'clock in the afternoon outside those hours the best bet would be the sheriff's department inside those hours they can call directly to our highway department we'll get a hold of the people that take care of it. Very good very good I know we haven't even looked at these questions very much obviously Greg knows this department and roles and responsibilities inside and out every year we talk about the seasons and that there's two predominant seasons I know we've just talked a great deal about one of them the winter season what's the other? Construction we all you see the comics in the paper you know you're in Wisconsin when you see all the orange barrels up and down the highways and that's what we've been seeing over the last couple of years and unfortunately we have such a short construction window we want to try to compact as much into as possible so as you can imagine things are starting earlier this year this uh in 2011 you'll probably see the orange barrels come out in March already for I-43 there's some bridges that need to be replaced we have our own construction projects that will be coming up in April and in May so we're trying to get as much done in that short amount of time as we possibly can and so we're aggravating the people just constantly it's either winter or it's construction so it's not what we want to do we just want to perform the best service that we possibly can. Sure and you've got you've got a tremendous crew of people there as you mentioned you know the 90 employees working for you you know I certainly know you don't have just those who plow snow and just those that do construction they're there year round and and have a variety of skills talk us talk about the construction season a little bit and your workforce and and how you utilize your workforce what are some of the roles and responsibilities there? We uh we're pretty much a full service highway department we construct our own roads we we offer that service to our other local missed valleys as well we have an asphalt plant a crushing operation we have a grading crew which is the grading crew does the actual earth work cuts and fills and then we have another crew that comes back and adds the gravel and puts down the black top so it's when when the construction's going on our other crews are off working on a municipality job or any other project that we have we have some backhoes we have some earth moving equipment plus we have our maintenance operation as well with the mowing has to get done at the same time we're one of the few counties in the state that takes care of as many townships as we do there's 15 townships in shitboyton county we take care of 11 of them i mean take care of them i mean that's picking up the litter filling the potholes cutting the grass plowing the snow um ditching color replacement so we're moving a lot and taking care of a lot of stuff we have 450 miles of highway department jurisdiction just county trunks we have 170 miles of state road and we have 465 miles of township road that we take care of a lot going on out there and as we look for it at 2011 ahead in the construction season that before we know it we'll be done plowing and back out there what are some of the key projects you have come in our direction we're going to be first thing in spring we'll be going down to county trunk okay for a roundabout project that intersection from my knowledge has for the last 10 years been looking at a lot of accidents and so that's what's our first project out of the out of the blocks from there we'll be going over to county trunk or to finish from i-43 to why that's been a constant project from 2008 on now and this is the last phase of it and hopefully we can get it completed and get it all taken care of we got numerous paving projects the county board was gracious enough to give us some additional dollars this year to catch up on our road paving that's been put aside since the prices have been going up so high on on oil costs and roundabouts you you said it roundabouts and i know i know very well because every now and then you and i get a phone call about roundabouts it seems like some people they either love them or hate them and the folks that don't care for them they generally tell us we know there are a lot of good reasons for roundabouts and they're becoming more and more prevalent throughout not only the state of wisconsin but the nation and they're very prevalent in some other countries what is it about roundabouts that the department of transportation is is encouraging that they be put in now more frequently than ever before strictly safety less maintenance the when you look at a traffic signal a light setup you know those require almost as much real estate as what does a roundabout because you have to add in different lanes and put electrical boxes in so you have to have space for all that stuff the true reason behind a roundabout is that it reduces accidents and injury accidents by it's in upwards of 85 percent if not higher and the reason that is is because you're going into them at such a slow speed and when it's when you do have contact with another vehicle you're hitting in the side where you're glancing off or you're a front fender it's not this t-bone type real aggressive accident some of the reduction in accidents that roundabouts are just because people don't want to use them so we're not seen as much traffic you know they try to avoid them at every cost so so i guess they are still reducing accidents and that's what we're after we're after the safety for the people well as you said when you go in at the angle if you do hit someone you're not hitting head on like you do through a stoplighter or a stop sign personally the first couple of times i used a roundabout you know it does feel a little uncomfortable and you're looking to see who's coming and who's going but what i've come to really appreciate about them is you're never waiting for that doggone long stoplight it seems like it really keeps the traffic moving it's and that's really another key point for them is that if you're you know if you're if you're in the circle you're the boss so that's that's one of the things you got to learn right away the guy in the circle has the has the right away if you look back and you we watch people at certain intersections they like to course through them well now you have the opportunity to all the time in a roundabout you're not going to ever get a call for it not you fail into yield so it's it's a nice nice feature how many roundabouts does sheboy and conny have now seven soon to be eight seven soon to be eight and when we put in a roundabout you know i think some people are under the impression well the county solely made that decision and the county taxpayer is solely paying for it how is the process established why when when is it to determine that a round about is the best approach and then when that decision is made how is it paid for we typically will look at our accident history at the intersection and we'll ask for help from the do t to indicate whether what would be a good fix for this intersection not every intersection should be around about it and i think we're all well aware of that so we'll start the process we'll get an accident history on it and the funding that's that's associated with the roundabouts typically is federal funding and the percentage of funding that you're going to get is based on the history of accidents and the severity if there's fatalities and a lot of injury accidents they establish a cost to all that the particular roundabout at county trunk ok and ee is a 90-10 funding we're going to have 10 percent of is our responsibility only and that's due to the severity of the accidents and the history and the amount of accidents over the years the the intersection of 40th and superior that roundabout that was solely funded by the county taxpayers it was applied for to get some funding but it didn't it didn't meet their criteria it didn't have the accident history if you will that's a beautifully functioning roundabout with a couple different legs off of it that you don't see a lot with wilger street coming in at such an angle but it's worked all well and i've we've gotten a fair amount of compliments from it got some complaints as well but some compliments too but normally how does the cost sharing work with a roundabout if the department of transportation is involved with it and the accident rates up there what's the funding breakout normally it would be a 80-20 normally 80-20 normally yep and that's and that's the uh the federal government would be would be supplying not the state government okay very good well we only have two minutes remaining and covered a lot of ground and i know in the last four years you know as i mentioned at the onset here tremendous challenges for anyone at any level of government and as our viewers know real winds of change right now at the state level there's tremendous pressure to hold property taxes in check or reduce taxes at all levels yet at the same time work continues to need to get done demands for services in many areas continue to go up and all 21 of our departments including the highway department need to be part of that solution and part of that process as you look back at the last four years and look at the year or two or the next four years ahead you know what do you see as some of your key challenges or you know what are you most proud of and again we only have about a minute remaining well i'm most proud of that at this point we've reduced our service our staff by 25 percent and we're still maintaining we're going to have to maybe prioritize some of our work schedule in the summer months and still focus all of our service towards the winter i believe that that's that's our strongest that's the backbone of our highway department is our winter people rely on us to do that and that's what we're going to continue to do biggest word for next year and next couple years is change and that's what we're all going to have to deal with yeah yeah like it or not we can either embrace it or get rolled rolled underneath it well Greg thanks for joining us today excellent discussion of the good work your highway department's doing i know you've got great staff i know it's been a challenging period for all of us and certainly highway department employees who have left or a few will get laid off but i appreciate the good work that you're doing in your management team and everyone at the highway department so thank you for being here and thank you for joining us next month erin brault our new interim director of the planning conservation department will be here so i look forward to introducing him to you very good person has been working with our non-motorized program now for about five years and again recently promoted to interim director until then have a wonderful holiday season and drive safe


Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us for today's Artist Encounter. We're thrilled to have you here to hear a little bit behind the scenes of the making of Brigadoon. My name is Adam Belcourt. I'm the Associate Producer here at the Goodman and also Director of Casting and I'm thrilled to introduce the people to my right. Before we get to that though, I did want to give some attention to the people that make Brigadoon possible and those would be our production sponsors. For this production the major corporate sponsor is J.P. Morgan Chase. Our corporate sponsor partners are Allstate and PWCLLP. Production support from National Endowment for the Arts and our media partner is the Chicago Tribune. Additional support has also been provided by the Season and Production sponsors and the Musical and Classics Endowment Fund donors.  A couple of housekeeping things. If you would please, you have cell phones turning them to silent. Even turning them off of vibrate would be great. We'd really appreciate it. And lastly today's discussion is going to be live streamed via HowlRound.tv. It's the theater commons that platform and so if you miss future Artist Encounters please do check in on HowlRound.tv. You can watch them here in our rehearsal room. Now without further ado, I'd like to turn to our guests. Introducing, please do note in your program, you can look at their bios a little bit more completely, but I'll just introduce our artists on the far right, Roberta Ducek, our musical director, book reviser Brian Hill, Rachel Rockwell, our director and choreographer, and our producer, Goodman's producer Steve Scott to moderate. Steve? All right. Thank you, Adam. Well, we always stop with applause. So thank you very much and that's it for today. I learned that a long time ago.  It is a great pleasure for me to be here today. Brigadune has long been one of my favorite musicals and I've had the experience of when we first announced the show and when we've been talking about the show throughout the season. Invariably when you tell a group of people that we're doing Brigadune, at least some of them will go, oh, that's my favorite musical. I was in it in high school or we got it. We got an email a couple of weeks ago. Brigadune was the, I went to see Brigadune the night that my husband proposed to me. Yeah, it's one of those pieces that seems to hold a very special place in everybody's heart. And it's one of the great musicals from the golden age of American musical theater in the 1940s and early 50s. First done in 1947, it was the first major success of the team of Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Lowe, who would then go on to write My Fair Lady and Gigi and Camelot, among others. And it was for a time produced by a lot of different theaters across the country. And on TV and, of course, the film version with Gene Kelly. It has been kept alive, I think, in the last few decades by high school and college productions and community theater productions. But this production of Brigadune is the first major professional revival of the show in several decades. So we want to talk a little bit about how the show came to be and how this production came to be. And really, what Brigadune means to audiences in 2014, as opposed to 1947. So I guess my first question to all of you is what attracted you to this production? What previous experience have you had with the show? Why was this a project that you wanted to become involved with? Well, yeah, because you have the longest history with it. Well, this musical changed my life. I used to listen to the album when I was six years old at my grandmother's place every single weekend. And it's the thing that got me into musical theater. It's the thing that made me fall in love with musical theater. So it's fantastic that, you know, from many decades later, I can be here working on this piece that I've loved since I was a kid. And the score really is one of the great classic scores. It's hit after hit after hit. Yeah, yeah. And every time I watch it, I think, my God, all of these songs came from this show. It's kind of amazing. Well, Rachel, as a director, what attracted you to this show? Well, the first thing was seeing the movie when I was a teenager, the Citrus and Gene Kelly film as a young ballet dancer. I think we were all obsessed with that movie. Then when I grew up and saw the stage version, I realized that they were not terribly similar to one another. There were a lot of differences. They made it more of a dance love story for Gene and Sid. But when Liza Lerner, Alan Jay Lerner's daughter approached me about directing and choreographing this piece, I was floored, first of all, because that doesn't happen every day of your professional life. But the idea that we would get to create these new story dances was so very exciting to me, really exciting to me. It was originally choreographed by the legendary Agnes DeMille. But I have never seen any of that original choreography. I don't even know if it exists on film. But we're doing all new dances. So it was really an incredible challenge as a storyteller and choreographer to create narratives for characters that don't speak much in the play. Previously hadn't spoken at all, actually, until we decided now that in this age of musicals, dancers have a much broader skill set than when they had separate singing and dancing choruses. So now we thought Maggie Anderson deserved to speak for herself. And that Gene could say more and that we could hear more from Harry Beaton so that we could learn a little bit more about them before we plunged into kind of a dance narrative. So that was very exciting for me. So for this particular production, there was a new book created by Brian. Why did you decide that that was important for Brigadine? I mean, we've been talking about the wonderful score and the wonderful dances. Isn't that enough? Well, there were quite a few holes in the plot because it's a very fairy tale-esque plot. And we wanted to make sure that all of the fairy tale logic kind of scanned all the way through and that all of the questions were answered and also to give it just kind of a slightly more historical foundation than it had originally. The reason that Brigadine disappeared in the first place was that there was a rumor of witches in the woods, but they weren't really witches. They were maybe witches. And we thought maybe we needed a slightly stronger, more historically-based reason for an entire town to worry so much for the preservation of it that it needed to disappear for every 100 years and only appear for one day. So mercifully and completely by accident, the play takes place in 1746, which is an incredibly rich period in Scottish history. It's the Battle of Culloden when the Scots tried to reclaim the English throne and failed.  So we were, I mean, when we first started researching it, there was so much rich, actual Scottish history that we could pull from that it seemed a shame not to really dig into it and use it. And so, Brian, you took on the task of revising the book and doing an adaptation of a classic must be kind of a daunting- It's terrifying. And people love this piece. People who love this piece love it deeply. And I don't want to mess that up. So what we try to retain is the heart and soul and the passion and magic that's in this. And just do what Rachel said. Make sure any plot holes are filled. Do some restructuring to make sure that the characters' stories make human sense to a contemporary audience. And in the original book, there's a lot of humor that probably would have been very funny to audiences in 1947, but not so much so to audiences in 2013. There are a lot of topical references that mean nothing to us now. And a lot of jokes that felt like 1947 jokes that we just, we wanted to, some of them remain and some of them are really funny. But we just wanted us to take the edge off those and bring it into something that we would understand. Well, also the play being done so soon after World War II, interestingly, the original doesn't really allude to all of the trauma that America had been through in the first half of the 1940s. I think those scars were, those wounds were still pretty fresh. And I think what was originally written was an escapist piece, which I completely understand. But I think now we can add that historical element and elevate the piece beyond that. And you've done so very movingly, I think. And very deftly, I think. It could be very easy to have a heavy hand in making that kind of revision. One of the happiest things that has happened in the past two days is I was at a show last night and there was a woman behind me talking about seeing Brigadoon and loving it. Her friend hadn't seen it. And her friend said, well, I heard they made changes. What did they do to the show? That's a good show. And the woman said, I don't think they did anything. She said it's exactly the show I remember. She said all the songs are in the same order, I swear. As much as I would love people to look at the show and say, oh my God, look at what they did, I would rather people looked at the show and said, oh my God, we love that show. We still do. Well, and as many of our audiences can probably attest to, the Goodman is known for doing kind of revisionist looks at certain classics. And I know we had a lady on the phone a couple of weeks ago who was demanding to know what we'd done to Brigadoon, whether we'd set it on Mars in 2030 or something like that. Hang on, we missed a great opportunity. Think about that for yourself, that would be fun. So, Rabuda, what did this mean for you, in terms of revisiting the score of this? Well, it seems like every time Rachel calls me, we never do a nonsense, something small. Everything's epic. And no, I was thrilled. I've always been a learner and low fan. They're classical by nature. And that's my background. That's where I come from. I was a classical pianist from the time I was three. And so I grew up with these songs, too. I didn't really grow up with the story as much, but as the songbook of Learner and Low. And I have such, I just love their music so much, I didn't want to screw it up. But we kept the score intact. It's classical in nature. We have full belles. I mean, some of these songs are seven, eight minutes. And they are classical pieces. The different part one and part two, we go from Adagio to Andante, just like a classical score. And for my musicians and my singers to attack it in a classical way is really, really great for me. I didn't hire a bunch of pop singers or jazz quartets. We have a 12-piece orchestra plus a pianist. Budgets always a concern for us. And of course, we'd love to have 18 or 19 pieces. But I think what we achieved with 12 classically trained musicians is pretty successful. It's beautiful. Oh, and the other thing that I think was so, that was challenging and surprising was that underscoring wasn't used in the way then that it is now. And we are, Roberta and I, and Brian too, underscoring is such a critical part of the emotional tone that you want to set for a scene that you're doing. And what we found was that almost all of the music that bridged one scene to another was basically 24 bars of the song you had just heard. Because that was the way that they did it. But you want to set a mood and a tone and so trying to pull from within the score to create underscoring that tells an emotional story in between the scene or keeps the tension that you've created or creates tension going into a place or buoys the romanticism of a moment that you left was something that we were really conscious of. And some of these, the book scenes, some of them are lengthy for a musical because there's a lot of exposition to get out. And you want to make sure that if it needs musical support that you can do it in a way that is the right voice for the story that you're telling. Contemporary audiences aren't used to really dry scenes. If you go to the movies, everything's underscored. Right. Every moment, here's the scary part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's where you cry. So we do the same thing with this show, but we have to compose it with existing melodies. I can't just say, hey, doesn't this sound great? Well, that wasn't an original melody. So then we have to start weaving, you know, different melodies in and out, which is so much fun for us. And it actually started out at Rachel's house. She's like, let's come on over, you know. Let's, let's, let's figure it out. So she's like, how about this? And we just start singing things and I start playing it. And I'll talk over the top of her and see if it times out. And if we hit the kiss right when the kiss is supposed to be happening and, and then, you know, Brian would come in with new pages and we'd all sit around the piano like a radio play and try to figure out how we could tell the most emotionally clear story that was supported by the music that we were choosing. One of the challenges is that there are very few minor themes in this musical. And when you need something that gives you tension or gives you fear or pathos, it's, it's, it's all in the second act. So if you're in the first act, we, you know, we're like, okay, well, I think we have to pull from the Mysterioso, which is a very small part of music. Or we have to try to figure out a way to make something minor, but that it, so it doesn't sound like we're trying to make something minor. So it was challenging, but really exciting and fun. A lot of fun. And you mentioned that you were working very closely with Liza Lerner, who is one of Allen J. Lerner's daughters on this. Did you have to get all of these things approved by the Lerner? Yes, these things were, these things, we needed to make sure that these things were copacetic with the estate. You know, they, of course, they care very deeply about the legacy of their, of their clients and, and of Allen J. Lerner and, and Frederick Lowe. So we wanted to make sure that everybody understood that, you know, we, we love the, we love Brigadune too, and that we're trying to just take it into a slightly more contemporary direction without getting rid of what is so beautiful about it, the magic and the charm and, you know, it just introducing it to a new audience. But it was great. And they were so great about supporting us and, you know, allowing this production to happen. So did you make any changes in the songs themselves? Any, any, any revisions in the songs or? All the lyrics are the same. We changed a few order, order of two songs. Restructured a little bit. Uh-huh, uh-huh. But lyrically, they're completely intact. Okay. Which is a tribute to the, to the songwriting. Absolutely. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.  Oh, sorry. Because one of the challenges of doing Brigadune is that it's a huge show. I mean, when it was first done in 1947, it had a cast of 60, I think. It had a singing chorus and a dancing chorus. And nine principles. Yes. Right. And so our, our dancers have to sing. Right. So how, how did you find these people? You, you have a cast of 29. Oh, they're, they're kind of amazing. Did you scour the earth to, to bring this cast together? We did, we did. We started in Chicago and we were so incredibly pleased at what we found here. We did some casting in New York, but primarily the company comes from the Chicago and surrounding area. And the bio is just filled with people making their Goodman debut, making their Goodman debut. So it's very exciting for us as musical theater performers. We don't get to perform in our theater district very often, unless it's with a tour, because there are so few musical theater houses in our theater district. So for all of those incredibly gifted musical theater performers from the Chicago area to get to spend the summer bringing this beautiful show to people in their theater district is an incredible source of pride and, just, we're all really grateful. It's an incredible company of people and they would do anything in service of this play. So it's, it's, it's been pretty magical. That's great. Now you spoke a little bit about the dance and this is one of those classic musicals where there is a lot of dance. Yes, there it is. And you're the director and the choreographer and I can't imagine doing both, but so how did you approach the dance and there's, there are many varieties of dance. Absolutely. Well, I, I am the choreographer, but there is a team of people. So it is not me. It is also Gordon Pierce Schmidt, my associate choreographer, and Katie Spellman, our assistant choreographer and dance captain. So it takes a village, believe me. There is, for us, we would storyboard these dances and sometimes for days or weeks before we would ever dance a step so that we could say, all right, musically, this is the story that we want to tell for these characters and this is when this happens and this is when this needs to happen. And then we would figure out what the steps were to support that story. So the Scottish culture, we're very fortunate because the Scottish culture has a dance that's attached to almost every event. Battle, oppression, there's a dance for when the English took away their kilts and made them wear pants, where there's a lot of kicking of, we call it, I don't want to wear those pants dance. It's called the Chantreuse, where you kick, literally kick the pants off and it represents the oppression and feeling like you can't be free in your movements like when you were wearing a kilt. So, and there's a dance called the Flora McDonald's Fancy which is about the woman that helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to the Isle of Skye. So there are all these incredible national story dances that are in the Scottish culture and so we researched them all as best we could and tried to educate ourselves as much as we possibly could. But it also wonderfully, it blends beautifully with classical ballet. Scottish dance is very similar to ballet in its movement, in its style and feel. So we were able to kind of blend those things together to create a kind of new vernacular and there are moments of slightly contemporary dance but nothing that you would go, oh that's a so-you-think-you-can-dance kind of contemporary take on it. But we're a much more dance savvy culture now than we were even 10 years ago because of all of these television shows that have gotten families around the TV again to watch the art form of dancing. So it was a big, it was a big challenge and an incredible one. And also giving, because it is the primary narrative for a lot of these characters so we have to make sure that we know them through this dancing. And that was really, really great. And one of our dancers is also a bagpiper. Oh yes, yes. That was a surprise, right? That was a surprise. He did not lead with this information at his audition. I thought it would be wise. He said, by the way, I'm a pretty proficient bagpipe player. Like, you're in! Fantastic! What else can you do?  And one of your principal dancers, the actress who plays the character Jean, just graduated from high school. Yes, on the first day of rehearsal, I had to allow her to go to her high school graduation. Yes, she just turned 18 years old and she is one of the finest dance storytellers I have ever seen. And she's, to have that kind of emotional, well-spring in such a young person is just amazing. She's all joy and all limbs and all heart and just, you're just mesmerized by her. She's so lovely. And it just brings a tear to your eye because she's so delicate and strong at the same time and darling. Oh, and the come to me bend to the ballet. One of the many places where I start sobbing is in the show. And one of the things that I noticed watching the show again today is that everything is staged so specifically and is very character-driven, even in the ensemble. How do you do that kind of work with a group of people who are basically there to sing and dance? What do you do with them to create that kind of specific? Well, I mean, every cross, every exchange, every everything is choreographed. So it's like looking at a living picture you want to be able to see the picture clearly all the time. And if this person moves two counts earlier, it will expose that part of the picture. And if this person moves here and lingers just a little longer, it will expose that perspective on a picture. And luckily, I mean, I was so fortunate because this company is so incredibly committed to creating a believable community of people who are so grateful for the opportunity to look into the eyes of their loved ones for however many years they've lived. For however many hours they get every 100 years. And as an ensemble, they understand that there is not one thing that they do that is superfluous or does not enrich this play in some way. And I think because all of us have an ensemble and principal background, they know that we know how important what they're doing is. They know that when they're moving that chair, that it is an important part of the picture and the story that we're telling. It isn't just please move that chair because we've all moved our chair furniture and had it not mean anything. And I think that's what's unique about Chicago Talent is that we are an ensemble town. Yeah, it's just absolutely who we are. What can we do? How can we tell this story better? How can we commit to it? Constantly stunned by the conversations that would bubble to the surface in the middle of a dance rehearsal, suddenly things would grind to a halt because someone started to ask a question about the history of this town. And we would talk for hours about that. And you don't really find that everywhere in this particular community. Yeah, we have a Brigadoon family tree. Everybody in that community knows exactly how they're related to everybody else. So everybody knows what their place is and their function is in this community and it's a very symbiotic community. Everybody does for everyone else. Oh, I just lost the thread. I had a good thing to say. It really pays off in the specificity because I've seen the show five times now and I've discovered each time that there are lots of things that I didn't see before and lots of discoveries that an audience member can make. But I love that it doesn't pull you away from the... It's a bedrock for the primary story and we like to talk about it in terms of dynamic levels like music. This experience is kind of mezzo-piano right now and the primary action needs to be mezzo-forte and then I need this thing that's mezzo-piano to kind of jump up to forte and then this thing, de crescendos. So everybody kind of knows what the level is of their activity and how it relates and because they all have such a great foundation they really understand what the parameters are and the boundaries are so we won't come back in two weeks and go, wow, that thing has really grown and not in a good way. They all understand how it functions and what it's meant to achieve and how it supports the primary action. One of the things you mentioned earlier is that you all have backgrounds as actors. You all began in this profession as actors and first of all, how did you make the leap to director choreographer, to musical director, to librettist and playwright and how does your acting background kind of influence how you do those jobs now? I directed my first equity show by accident when I was 22 years old. I was choreographing a production of 10 types at the New Harmony Theater and the director was suddenly unable to do the project and the artistic director said, could you direct this play? And my 22-year-old self said, sure. Can I direct this play? I had no idea. I didn't know how to communicate my ideas or communicate with actors, but I did it and I had always kind of choreographed because you know in high school, there's always the one girl who takes ballet, who does all the musicals and that was me. But that one show kind of opened a door that I could never close again and I was never able to just look at my place in a production, which must have been incredibly annoying for the director so that was working. Because I couldn't stop looking at the big picture and going, gosh, I wonder if we did this. So it really did open up something in me that I know was the right thing. It's the right place for me to be. And then when I got pregnant with my son almost a decade ago, my gosh, during those nine months, I wasn't dancing or performing. So I was choreographing a lot and then in that time period, I kind of got some opportunities to start directing family theater and then it just kind of snowballed. I will tell you, I could never have engineered this career for myself. I marvel at it every day and I am in awe of what I've gotten to do every single day. Roberta, how about you? I didn't see it coming. I was acting for over 20 years and as an actor, you're always taught to say, yes, I can do that. Sure. And so someone offered me an opportunity and I said, yes, I could do that. And I did it.  While I'm in a show, they're like, oh, I could fix that. I could fix that. Oh, yeah. And I was like, I said that? That's terrible. But yeah, it's so interesting. I think we all wear many hats in our lifetime and I think we put them on when we're ready to. And I think I just was ready. I had done enough things. And I'm also a voice teacher and a vocal coach and a pianist.  So you just, you just keep saying yes. And then you surround yourself with the right people. And then it really, all the magic happens. Well, and I think that's one of the special things about working in Chicago, too, is that those opportunities open up. They do. They do. Very quickly. They do. And if you're good, then they keep opening. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Even if you're not so good, sometimes they're just like, that's good. Yeah. Well, and Brian, I know you were an actor for many years at the Shaw Festival and all over the place. How did you begin writing? It's the same story. It's just grabbing an opportunity when it comes your way and you feel like you're ready for it. I was an actor for 20 years. I had started transitioning into directing. And then literally out of the blue, I got a phone call saying that someone had recommended me to submit a proposal to design a training program and write a show for that training program. My God. So I called up my partner, Neil Bartram, who's a genius composer and lyricist. He's sitting in the back row there. And he had never written a musical and wasn't a big musical fan. He was popping jazz. And I said, do you want to write a musical? And he said, I've never done it. But sure. So we put together this proposal for a training program and the show that would showcase the students and we got accepted. So our first job writing something was a commission for a musical. And again, the door opened and it never closed. I thought, this is good. This is where I want to live and I'll keep doing this. And I kept acting for a little bit then and still direct and all those things definitely feed off each other. They do. I don't think I could be a decent writer if I hadn't been an actor and a director. No, not at all. And the same thing. I agree. You can never forget those things that you learned. It's so important to remember what it feels like to be in their shoes. Especially casting. Rachel and I will be sitting behind a desk casting. The first time we did it, we're like, oh my God. I can't believe we're behind this desk. OK. But I still, we breathe with them. We see either nerves. You're exhausted by the end of the day. And we're like, just breathe. Just breathe. So yeah, but we want to see their best. We really do. Yeah, always, always. And you can just never forget. I remember somebody saying, I don't know why they're taking it so personally. When they were giving notes. And I was like, because it is tremendously personal what we're asking them to do. We're asking them to stand in the dark on that stage in a pin spot and risk everything. And we get the safety of being in the dark house. I mean, during the rehearsal process, you put it all out there. But they're the ones that have to bring it to life every day. So you can never forget what it is that they go through every single day. Does any of you want to act again? Are there roles that you're dying to play now? Or just let me know. I'm going to do something here. Oh, wait a minute. There is a Christopher Durang play that's happening right now. So that's really interesting to me. I hear it's being directed by a brilliant actor. By a brilliant actor, I guess. No, I can't imagine what it would be that would. I'm just singing. I don't miss the eight shows a week. I did that for over 20 years. I'm good. I miss tap dancing. Do you? Just because it feels good to do it. You know, that's it. I only miss it when I'm watching something and going, oh, I could do that. And then I realize, no, I couldn't do it. And then the first day when you do choral music, I miss that day because the first day that you put all those voices together and they make something astonishing, I miss being one of those voices and feeling that feeling when you make that first chord and it just blows your mind. Rachael's one of the only directors. You know, that's usually the director's day off when I teach all the music. And she's right there. She just loves every second. Or a first orchestra rehearsal. She's like, can I stay? I want to be here. I want to be here. I want to stay. It's like Christmas. So talk a little about the physical production because I think it's gorgeous. And yet it's very spare in many ways. I know. It's a challenging piece because you have to create a town. And the way people think about that is kind of wing and drop and wagons and stuff. And to me the idea, it needed to feel like an Impressionist painting almost and something that could disappear easily and that you could see through and that was there and not there. And I was so fortunate to get introduced to this incredible theatrical artist from Argentina named Leandro Panetta who had done a production in Argentina and I was looking through a book of his production shots and I saw this material that was strands of silk thread that almost looks like a flapper skirt and I said, what is that material? He told me what it was and you can project onto it but at the same time you can light through it so you can see through it and you can make things behind it appear and disappear. It was just something so original and magical and I saw it and I thought, okay, that is a big component of what I think this set needs to be. And then our scenic designer who's a long-time collaborator of mine, Kevin Depanay, came up with this beautiful kind of ethereal sky that can change and really show us time of day because time of day when you only have about 18 hours to be alive every century is really important and that clock is something that you're constantly aware of. So he found a way of showing the time of day. We have a projection designer, Sean Sagady who's done some really incredible, subtle and beautiful original kind of projections that make this town and there are some very ethereal kind of mountain pieces that you can see through. So it's all very, very light and it's only ever anchored by the people on the stage or a piece of scenery. It's very, very spare and I felt like that was kind of a new way to look at this world that could get really heavy and bogged down if you were to actualize every single location. But if you could just keep it moving and keep the air moving and the time moving quickly it would really help bolster the idea of this place that was there and then gone in an instant. And of course fog, the element of fog. And it's such a temperamental thing but it's a very necessary part of the storytelling. And the clothes that Merrill Blumenfeld created she went to Scotland. She did. She went on a research trip to Inverness, the Tartan Mills in Inverness because every family has its own specific Tartan and they're, I mean they're registered and they are made by thread count and there's a dress version and a modern version and an ancient version and every family has a very identifiable Tartan. And then there are a couple of characters in our play that belong to kind of different subsets of these different clans. But Merrill went to these Tartan Mills and talked to all of these brilliant Tartan makers about the fabric, the weight of the fabric, the families they belong to. So all of our kilts themselves were manufactured in the Tartan Mills in Scotland and all of the jackets and the accessories and things were made in the Goodman shop. It was really important to us because part of the English, the punishment of the English was the dress act of 1746 where they said that no man or boy could wear any of their highland clothes or they could be thrown in jail. So in the beginning of this play it's really important to us that it is largely Tartan-free. It's not a lot of plaid because I feel like if you introduce plaid in the first scene it's plaid plaid and more plaid and then it isn't special. But so when they go to the wedding that night and they introduce their clans, their individual clans and you see them in their full dress regalia and the pride that they feel when they put those clothes on and what it means to them to identify as their own individual family and clan it's very moving and very emotional and who knew that clothes could be so emotional but it really is and quite lovely. And the Scottish instrumentation that you included adds to all of that I think too. How did you research that? On a budget. Thank you, Lippert. I had bigger plans. No, really we have two bagpipers. We paid one of our musicians. We gave both of our bagpipers lessons. So we found an amazing teacher and then we also have an actor in the play who we gave him Scottish tenor drum lessons and so he learned how to play that. Now my favorite part about the Scottish tenor I don't know if you guys have ever seen yeah, pipers, a pipe band. Well the Scottish tenor drummers are to be seen and not heard. That's my favorite thing so but he had to learn all the flourishes so when you see the show you could see George doing all the physical movement and he learned it really quickly. Actually, he was offered a job with his pipe. By the teacher. Yeah, by the teacher. Really? Boy, is he good. Yeah, he's really good. Yes. And he learned that for this. He learned that for this. And he also learned how to play the baron too. I mean I'm telling you in Chicago it's like sure what do you want me to do? Sure. So yes, we have two bagpipers in our show and then we also have penny whistles and all different types of tin whistles. And Celtic violin. I mean it really does sound very authentic and lovely. Yet lush and classical. Almost part of the original orchestration? No, with a brand new orchestrator. His name is Josh Clayton. He's from New York and he did a wonderful job really combining the two worlds. Yeah, it's a very distinctive and lovely sound. Yeah. Now, while I've got you, there's something on your resume I have to ask you. I knew it was coming. You were the vocal director for the film of Les Misérables. I was. How did you get that gig? And what was that like? This is the People Magazine segment. Yes it is. You know, I was very fortunate. My old voice teacher, John Kamasa, was actually commissioned to work with a star, Russell Crowe. He was here filming Superman and he was auditioning for the movie. And John wasn't able to work with him the whole time. So he called me up, which was really nice. He was like could you take over and at the time Rachel and I were working on Sweeney Todd and I thought to myself, I have to make time. So I went to his house that he was renting in Neighborville and I worked with Russell Crowe and he turned out to be the nicest guy. And we spent a few, I know it's great. He didn't throw phones at you? No, no he did not. He was so gracious. And what's great about Russell is that and Hugh Jackman, I ended up working with him too, they treat everything like it's an Olympic event and that's why they're so good. You know, of course they can afford the lessons. But yeah, we worked together in Neighborville and then he asked me to continue to work with him. And so I would just kind of follow him along wherever he would go. I would go as well. And we'd continue the voice lessons. And I actually went to his audition and I met Cameron McIntosh and all the creators of Les Mis. So it was just Russell Crowe, me, Cameron McIntosh, let's see, Claude Michel and Alain Boublil, the composers of Les Mis and a few producers. And we were in there for about two hours singing and the director and over and over and over again and he was offered the job in the room. It was really exciting and Russell was like, I can't believe how much time we spent in an audition. I said, welcome to musical theater. So then I was invited to work with him on the film and when I was on the film, Russell was great. He kept kind of telling everyone else how great I was to work with. So Hugh Jackman asked me to work with him for the rest of the film. So I said, of course, sure, I can fit you in. And then I worked with Annie Hathaway and Samantha Barks and really whoever. I was, again, I don't know if this is a Chicago mentality or just a Midwestern thing, but you're hired for a job and we just dig in. You need help, sure. We just do it. And I think because I've worn so many different hats, it was easy to just kind of move in and do what was needed. So I worked with the musical director. I worked with whoever, the man in my attention. Well, it doesn't hurt that you're like the nicest person. The planet either. Well, what was tricky is we did everything live. Everything was live. And so I don't know if you know anything about the background of the film, but basically they were singing acapella to everybody who was in the production of the film and they only had a pianist in their ear. So all the orchestrations were done post, not pre. So the director's vision was to allow the actor to lead the way the instrumentation would go. And so sometimes it was me playing in Russell's ear. So it was pretty intense. And then I'd get camera Macintosh and the composer and lyricist giving me notes to give to Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman. Sometimes I did. Yeah, even when they're nice, there's a limit. Yeah. Oh, well, back to Brigadoonland. So all the work that you've been describing, over what period of time did this take place? How long did it take to put this production together? Well, over a year. Well, over a year. I want to say it was two years, but am I exaggerating? No, I think it's about two. Yeah, yeah. It feels like we've been working on it since we were very young. I was never very young. I was always very old. But and I can't believe that it's kind of coming to it. Like the work is coming to an end. It kind of breaks my heart a little bit. But it needs to just we need to put that baby in the basket and send it down the river, you know? But yeah, it's been it's been a long time coming. And you know, there's so many components to decide ahead of time to give yourself adequate time to really develop the ideas. And I mean, essentially, we ended up kind of workshopping a new musical on top of rehearsing it. Yeah, I keep saying this is on one hand a revival. And on the other hand, it's a new musical with pages this morning. Every race went in today. And I don't think there's a page that wasn't touched or changed or altered at some point in the process. I was a late addition to the process. And I only put pen to paper in February of this year. So it's been it's been fast and furious. Wow, it was. And it was like you're hired. And then I had a draft in like a week. It was amazing. You liked that. Yeah, it was great. But we collaborated before. So I think that it was it just made it easier for us to get right down into the work. We didn't have to get to know one another. We already kind of knew the other one's sensibility. And we all think the same language. Yeah, we do. And just kind of dug in in that way. Really made it easy. So the show opens tomorrow night. Will you come back? Oh, absolutely. Yes. Yes, absolutely.   And then other things you go, oh, you know, we're tipping the balance a little bit here. We need to keep it. We need to keep it where it wants to live. But it is a living, breathing thing. So you need to give it a wide berth so that it can continue to evolve. And we've also got wonderful, you know, a stage manager, Alden, who will keep it, you know, where he knows we want it. And a brilliant dance captain, Katie Spellman, who will keep it clean and tidy and moving forward. And we also have a company of actors who have the greatest sense of personal pride and commitment to the show, who will also help keep it where it where we have, you know, started and then grow it in the right ways from there like a garden. And you just come back and prune every once in a while. Okay. Well, now let's turn it over to you. What questions do you have? And because we are live streaming this, we're, we would ask you to come up and use this microphone. Is that what we're doing, Adam? Yes. I got it right. So if you have questions for, for the group or for any particular person, please come up and ask. And if not, I have a few songs that I can do. Last question. Ask, please. Okay. Thank you. The first time that my wife and I saw Rachel and Roberta, you were both, along with Heidi Kettenring, you were both on roller skates.  This was in an esteemed location that no longer exists, Dury Lane Evergreen Park. And I'm just wondering, did you have any concept then? She probably did. That you'd be doing this now. I don't know. I don't know that we did. I just knew that at that time, I think we were all kind of getting to a point where we, we needed to find a new way to express ourselves, you know, and, and, and, and roller skates. Well, it was not doing it. Was this for Starlight Express or was this for Evita on Ice or something? And the world goes round. Although I did not crack her on ice and we don't skate. And I've done two shows where three, where I've been on skates. Terrible. Terrifying. Yeah. Horrible. She was a figure skater, so it was easy for her. That was another life of mine. So no, I don't think we really did know that this was going to be, I don't think we could have ever quite known that it would be. However, I remember I did one show without you and I, and I thought that was going to be my last. And then, and then you said, Oh, will you be my musical director? Yeah. I thought to myself, Oh, I don't really like this. And, and then, but I said for Rachel anything. And then I turned out just so beautifully. And yeah. Yeah. I changed my life. Mine too. Mine too. Okay. Anyone else? Yay. On skates. I wish I had been. I came crashing down in Iowa one day and both feet went out from underneath and I landed on my tailbone right in front of Terry James, who's the executive producer at the Marriott and he goes, Oh, that looked like it really hurt. I said, it really did. Oh, well. Yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah. Can you go into detail about what underscoring is? Oh, absolutely. Oh, absolutely. Yes. Underscoring is music that happens during dialogue. So it's something that, that literally underscores or supports dialogue. And it has the power to change everything that you say. It can really emotionally support something, especially if you're passionate. And then when it's to get really gentle, it can do that as well. So that's what, see how that goes. That was brilliant. Thank you. That's how that, that's what that does. And it, and it's, it's a really, when it's well done, you barely notice it at all. But it also, it does have an incredible emotional impact on the psyche of the people watching the, the scene. And sometimes you'll go, something, even the other day, we had done a scene for a very long time. And, and someone suggested, I think there needs to be underscoring in this moment, because it feels like it's a very long period of time where we go without any music. And so we added it on our, like our last 10 minutes of rehearsal time. It's going play faster, play faster, get it in. And, and it's, now it's like one of my favorite things. It's really sweet. And it was originally written in a minor key. And, and then Brian and Rachel were like, no, it has to be major. And so again, we have like three minutes of, if you know how much musicians cost, I know I said that like 4,000 times, but it cost a lot of money. Three minutes left in musician time. And our orchestrator said, play it in a major key. And they did perfectly, beautifully, because they're brilliant. And, and it's cut print. Yeah. So that's what underscoring is. It's a really important part of what we do. And if you craft it just right, you can, you can it, you know, it's, it's a subtle form of emotional manipulation that is only for your benefit. It's not an, it's not an evil mind control thing. I promise. It's only to make a scene richer and stronger. All right. Yes, please. All right. Thank you. My question has to do with musical revivals. Rodgers and Hammerstein had several in New York, South Pacific, and, Carousel, Cinderella, with Hugh Jack, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, and so on. And the, this is the first time in Chicago that we're having a major musical revival of Learner and Low. How are these received? I read somewhere that it's very difficult to get producers for revivals. Yes. But how, yes, how, how do you think, how have they been received in those situations? They've been received very well. Yeah. I think if they're done well and done with respect, they can be really, really well received. And respect is the big thing. Yeah. And I think in the right hands, you can find, you can take something like Oklahoma, which some people think is just a sweet little musical, and really dig deep and find some depth and richness in those pieces that you didn't know was there or didn't expect. I think they can be very well received. But the, yes. Well, and the challenge now, as I said earlier with Brigadine, is that those old shows are very expensive to produce now because they require a lot of people and sometimes a great, a fairly large physical production. So you have to find producers who have the resources to do them and the integrity to do them well. Yeah. And don't do them cynically because they think, anybody else in Oklahoma will just do it. Right. So yeah. Well, I mean, they're classics for a reason. They're classics because they are incredibly well written. The scores are, you know, timeless and incredibly emotionally effective. That's why they endure because they are such, you know, cornerstones of what we do. And I mostly do, we mostly do revivals, starting to do some new works, but almost all of what we have done as a team, Roberta and I certainly have been revivals. And I love them. I mean, when we did Sound of Music, people said, what did you do to Sound of Music? And I said, we didn't do anything to it. We didn't change a word. We didn't do anything other than bring the emotional storytelling that already existed on the page and try to make it front and center. And I think what happens with some of these classics very often is that they become cliches of themselves because they get produced so often in, you know, non-professional arenas. And, you know, some of those productions are beautiful because of the incredible heart that the people bring to them. But they focus on things like in Sound of Music, the children being adorable, instead of the children being in a tremendous amount of pain and needing love. Or in Brigadoon, you know, it's a lot of, it's a lot of plaid and it's a lot of, you know, kind of like Disneyland Scotland, like Epcot Scotland, I like to call it. But what's really there on the page, even before we revised a single word of it, is an incredible amount of faith and gratitude that is required to be a person in Brigadoon. And the incredible amount of faith and gratitude that it requires, that's required of the principal character, Tommy Albright, to take that step of that leap of faith for love. And it's about, it's about faith and love and what you will do, what it means to truly love. And now those are all timeless themes. So I think that's why these stories endure and why I think they, if they're done well, they will be very successful. I also think that we all revere the musical theater art form. And that makes a difference. You know, we know it's it's truly American. We were just talking about that today. And it's something that we have and we have such pride in it. There's some, sometimes you work with a director who doesn't come from a musical background and the first words out of their mouths are, well, it's not a musical. You know, but working with Brian and Rachel, you know, they love the musical art form. And so I think we really do treat it with respect. I worked, I did a production on The Town Ones with the director who started the rehearsal by saying, all you musical theater actors, I want you to throw it, everything you care and know about musical theater. We're going to do this right. And it was a disastrous production because she took away all the tools that we could have brought to that piece to bring it to life. And if you don't treat it with that kind of respect, it's not going to work. It's not going to be well received. Okay. Yes. Yes. Oh, did somebody tweet something? Yes, indeed they did. Oh, I'm so excited we've been tweeting before. One of our viewers is curious if Tams Whitmark is aware of the orchestral changes and what it's like working around such limitations. No, we did everything on the slide. We're just telling everybody now. Tams Whitmark which is the leasing agency that controls Brigadine works very closely with the learner in low estates. And so, yes, they know. We've been dealing with Emily Altman directly from the low estate about the things that are happening with the show. And in terms of the orchestrations, this very often happens when you take something that was originally orchestrated for what 32 pieces and then you reduce it. So this is very common place. This is a common place thing to do with the musical. For us, we just added some different colors because we don't have 18 brass. We needed something that would give it the flavor that we needed it to have but in a different way. So this is a very common practice reducing an orchestration. But you still have to get permission to do it. Absolutely. Absolutely you do. You have to get permission to change a single thing about a piece. And oftentimes, companies don't do that. But when they say you must get permission to cut, change, or significantly alter this work, they're serious. Yes, ma'am. Could you choreograph the crossing? Absolutely. I know. I feel like I need to put another. Doing a great job. So I have a question on behalf of myself and my daughter. I know I've read somewhat about this and you addressed it at the outset of the talk too, but just more about the genesis of how this came to be rewritten. Was the Goodman approached by the Lerner family? Did the Lerner family approach the Goodman? Or sort of which came first? Check Rachel or the Goodman or the Lerner's? And I guess my daughter's question is when a revival was discussed, was it presumed that it would be significantly rewritten and reshaped? Or did that happen sort of as you got into it? Well, from the Goodman point of view, it happened in a couple of different ways. Rachel has had tremendous success as a director around Chicago in recent years. And so we have been talking to Rachel for a couple of years or for several years about bringing her to the Goodman to do something that she wanted to do. At the same time, as I recall, and Liza can correct me if I'm wrong, the idea for doing Brigadoon with Rachel came from Liza Lerner and the Lerner family because they had heard of Rachel's success in Chicago. And it was their idea to bring it to the Goodman because we have a reputation for doing things well, hopefully. So it was presented to us and we kind of said, yes, immediately. I don't even recall there being one of our infamous staff meetings to talk about this. I think all of a sudden we were announcing Brigadoon. And I think from the outset, it was planned that there would be revisions and freshening, although I don't know that we knew exactly what that meant. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, no. It was when Liza and I first met a couple of summers ago, we went to a little wine bar a couple blocks away and met blindly. It was a blind date. And she had spoken to the head of my agency and needed a director. And they said, well, there's a female director that we have as a client who does revivals of musicals and we think you two should meet. And so we sat down and had this meeting and we started talking and our ideas meshed immediately. And then by the end of the night, Liza said, so do you want to do you want to direct and choreograph Brigadoon? And I remember going, is this happening to me right now? This cannot be happening to me right now. And I think I said yes. I think I kind of murmured. Sure. And then I left and was walking back to my car and called my husband on the phone immediately and said, I think I just got a major revival of Brigadoon. But even then it didn't seem real until a couple of weeks later and then deals were made and then we were looking for a home for the piece and trying to find the right place to produce it. And then I think Liza brought it to you. And there it was. Yeah. And the rest is history. Yes, it is. All right. Other questions? I just have to acknowledge that that question came from a little girl who wants very much to be a director named Cassidy who I met last year at production of Shrek that I was directing when her mother said she wants to be a female director like you. And nobody had ever said that to me before. And she said she wanted to spend her birthday at one of your shows. And I've never been more touched. So I just recognize that Cassidy is in the audience and that she asked that question. And I think she's pretty awesome. I hope she becomes a female director. With those sunglasses. Now she's mad. And Cassidy, I'm going to be very nice to you because I will be asking you for a job sometime. Probably in the next couple of years. So do you have favorite moments in this production? Are there things that you especially look forward to seeing or that you especially love? I think it changes every night. It does. Yeah. I'm always surprised when I watch it. Little things creep to the surface that I didn't think were going to hit me. Yeah. I was like, oh, I've never seen that. I've never appreciated that moment in that way before. But I got to say come to me, Ben, to me. I look forward to it every night. I look forward to the wedding every night too because it's so visually rich and you can just feel the pride coming off of that stage and the community and the, you know, the sense of emotion and family. It's really beautiful. But there are moments that hit me differently every night. Moments of comedy that I just look so forward to. I always look forward to Craig's vitals. Anytime he's on stage, you know, and Roger Mueller. I just wait. I can't wait for him to tell me the story of Brigadoon every again. I'm like, tell me more Santa every time. I mean, you just find yourself on the edge of your seat because he makes it sound fresh every single time. But I think there are new moments every day. Yeah. So what do you have coming up? What's next for all of you? You go. In a week, I'm going to be in Montreal workshopping a new musical based on Michel Trombley's Les Belceux. Oh, really? Which is going to be fascinating. Yeah, Neil and I wrote that. We're the week before this began. It's kind of busy. We're back to back. We were working on bed nubs and broomsticks with Chicago Shakes. Good. Workshopping that. What else is happening, Neil? It's busy. There's a lot of stuff. There's a lot of stuff going on. It's good. I like being busy. Good. I have a new, a workshop of a new musical called Ride the Cyclone that comes from Canada at Chicago Shakespeare. It's a really original, interesting piece. And then Mary Poppins at the Paramount. And then Roberta and I are heading into West Side Story and then Billy Elliott. And then Michael Mahler and I wrote a musical based on Alice in Wonderland that Chicago Children's Theater is going to do this spring. So I know, I know, but I'm taking a vacation with my family first. Well, thank God. Thank God. And Roberta, what else for you? I'm doing West Side Story and Billy Elliott with Rachel. I'm teaching a musical theater camp for 50 children at the Drury Lane like in two weeks. So I'm going to sleep a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I have a couple other things that I'm hoping happen in the movie industry. I don't know. We'll see. Good. Yeah. And I have a studio too that I teach Private Voice. You're round. And I teach at Columbia College. So just a few jobs. Well, that's good. That's good. So give my best to Russell and Hugh. Tell him Steve says hi. I will. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And listen, I just want to commend all of you. It's just a beautiful production. And we're very, very proud to be able to house it here at the Goodman Theater. So thank you. Congratulations to you all and thank you all for joining us today and enjoy Brigadu.