ROUNDABOUT BLOG

Roundabout’s high school education intern, Yasmine Haddad, participated in a pre-show workshop and talk with the cast before attending The Robber Bridegroom with Student Production Workshop (SPW) students. She recounts her experience below:

Last week, SPW students and I got the opportunity to work with Carrie Heitman, a teaching artist from Roundabout, who led us in a workshop surrounding The Robber Bridegroom. After the workshop, we met with cast members and attended the show.

Carrie established the focus on the characters from the musical through fun, creative activities. Since some of the characters in The Robber Bridegroom are criminals, Carrie initiated the workshop by having us describe the stereotypes or images associated with words like “robber” or “theft.” She then asked one person to stand in the middle of the room, while the rest of the participants divided into two groups. One group’s goal was to convince the individual standing to steal, while the other group’s goal was to dissuade the individual from stealing. Both groups made impressive arguments like “How would your mother feel knowing she raised a thief? As your mother, she would be very disappointed” or “Your child needs that new calculator for school, without any money, all you really can do is steal” to support their causes.

Following this, Carrie shifted our focus to lyrical analysis in relation to the characters. She asked us what kind of lyrics a good musical should include. We answered with responses about how the songs should have rhythm and tie back to the plot while offering insight on the performer's perspective. Carrie asked us to work in groups again to create lyrics describing the personalities of some of the characters based off the scenes we read from the script she provided us with earlier. Each group performed the song. I think my group had the funniest lyrics because we made fun of the character Salome for being a gold digger. At the end of the workshop, we thanked Carrie for her time and prepared for our Q&A with some of the cast members from The Robber Bridegroom.

We shared a fun, light discussion with the cast members and gained insight on the rehearsal and audition process that took place before the show hit the stage. I learned that some of the actors and the director, Alex Timbers, have been working on The Robber Bridegroom for quite some time now, and everybody is excited that it’s finally happening! One of the questions that was asked was what is the main difference between the actors and their characters, to which  Greg Hildreth, who portrays Goat, answered, “My character is dimwitted and I like to think I’m not.”

Cathlouin, a member of SPW, asked Nadia Quinn how she developed her character as Goat’s mother. Nadia shared with us how she met with Alex and decided to give the character a background story, where she and her son have a junkyard and they sell used items to get by. When asked what his favorite moment from the musical was, Lance Robert, the actor portraying Clement Musgrove, stated it was during the musical number for “Steal With Style” because he feels as if he’s in a music video. Lance told us to keep a look-out for his face during the song for proof of his claims.

After sharing a pizza dinner, we went to finally view The Robber Bridegroom downstairs in the theatre, and we’re very pleased with the production, it was so much fun to watch! My favorite song was “Rosamund’s Dream.” We even waited for Lance’s reaction during the show and were not disappointed with what we saw!

The Robber Bridegroom is now playing at The Laura Pels Theatre. For tickets and information, please visit our website.