How 'The Grinch' Moved To Radio
Speaker 1: 00:00 The old globe theater has made its production of dr. Seuss's. How the Grinch stole Christmas a holiday tradition. Now it's transforming the stage production into a made for radio musical KPBS arts reporter. Beth Armando speaks with James Vasquez. Who's been directing the musical for the past 18 years. Speaker 2: 00:20 James, you are directing this new version of the Grinch for broadcast for radio broadcast. Before we talk about that, I just want to ask you, what is your first memory of dr. Seuss's the Grinch? Speaker 3: 00:35 Oh gosh. I mean, I grew up reading dr. Seuss. So I think my first memory was probably at five or six years old and hearing, uh, having the book read to me, you know, and then of course the cartoon was on every year is on every year and that was a tradition in our house. So I grew up knowing the story, loving the story and knowing all about the who's, you know, so then growing up and getting to be a, who is a pretty spectacular thing. Speaker 2: 01:03 What do you think it is about dr. Seuss that is so appealing across all ages and across time? Speaker 3: 01:11 Yeah, he, I mean, he's absolutely magic and I think the key to it is honestly imagination. He gives the permission to kick the door open, to imagine and see the world differently. And I think even as adults, we need that. We need those moments to see the ordinary that's around us in a new way and acknowledge the extraordinary in the ordinary. I also think his lessons, his simple, simple lessons in his stories are life lessons that never go away that we can always hear and be reminded. Speaker 2: 01:48 The globe has made a tradition of serving up the Grinch every Christmas. Speaker 4: 01:54 Well, I mean one mr. Co-written [inaudible] as a cactus, you're, it's charming as an eel, mr. Gray, you're a bad banana with a greasy black, Speaker 2: 02:16 However COVID-19 has changed the usual plans as it has for many others. And what is the globe going to be doing now with the Grinch? Speaker 3: 02:26 The themes of the Grinch are kindness, inclusion, community, and tradition. So the thought that we would not be able to come back together as a community and tell this story and carry on this tradition was heartbreaking. So we had several meetings and we throw out several ideas of potential ways to visit Whoville and the safest. And the one that made most sense for our, our story was to do an audio plate version, which was really exciting to after years, I put the show for 18 years, myself, and I know it inside and out and backwards and forwards, but to hear it just as audio, the story is fresh and brand new. And there are so many moments of this story that are ringing fresh and new to me this year, because we're forced to hear it differently. Speaker 2: 03:20 So revisiting this for radio is really like mounting an entirely new production. So how did you go about, you know, producing that? Speaker 3: 03:31 Yeah, absolutely. It is, you know, it, it is a cast of all returning whos. So that's lovely because our, our process was really quick. We had, uh, eight days to record the show and we recorded everybody individually. Since regulations couldn't allow us to be together, we joke, but not that we recorded the Grinch 20, 20 and closets across America because the, uh, we had cast members in Hawaii. We had cast members in New York. We had cast members in the Midwest, depending on where they are, they're spending this time. They had microphones, we helped them pad their closets for pad, their spaces to soundproof, as best as possible. And one at a time we would go through their show and we would then take those tracks and lay them in one at a time to create this year's story. And what's really wonderful about it is, you know, there, there are so many beautiful visual moments that happen on stage that, you know, if you know the show as well as we do, but if you don't, you're not quite sure what might be happening. So that's been the fun challenge of telling the story this year is finding ways to continue to bring that to life just by hearing it, without having those visuals. So I think that's really exciting and going to be fun for audiences to really just close their eyes and dive in and hear the fantastic story and all of it be there in a new way. Speaker 2: 05:02 Most radio dramas are dramas with dialogue, but this is also a musical. So how do you do that with everybody in separate rooms? Speaker 3: 05:14 Yeah, very carefully. And a lot, we would do it a minimum of two to three takes of every person for every song. And we would play them back on the spot to see how they lined up to make sure time was right. And in between go back and give notes. Uh, Ellen McMahon, the phenomenal music director in Whoville and I would in between takes, offer that direction. And then we'd roll tape again and do it again, you know, and then there's some editing magic that's happening. You know, you, you need a conductor. This show is such a choral piece that it's really specific vocal lines. So we had our associate conductor, Linden report, conductor cam videos. So every actor got a video of Linden with the music in their ear and they would press play on the video. They see Linden conduct and they would sing with music only in their ear. And we would pick up their voice and then lay all that in. Wow. Speaker 2: 06:17 We started by talking about dr. Zeus and how so many of us read dr. Zeus or had it read to us, how is it going to be with this radio play? Is it kind of recreating that sense of having a bedtime story read to you? Speaker 3: 06:32 That is, you know, it's funny you say that because the approach of going in was in the theater, we always say, you got to hit the last row of the balcony. You know, you got to make sure that that person is, is getting it as well as that person in the front row, in this particular case, everybody in our audiences in the front row. And so we really, we did talk about that being a bedtime story. And we talked about the approach to it, not taking the, the energy and the emotional way by any means, but really allowing it to feel like there were a bed of kids and you were at the foot of the bed. And we were telling the story to them in that moment. Speaker 2: 07:13 And how is this story? And, you know, dr. Zeus's message playing out in 2020 for you. I mean, we're in a pandemic, we've had a really, you know, contentious election. So how has it playing for you this time? Speaker 3: 07:30 You know, dr. Seuss, he has a quote that I love love, love so much. Welcome Christmas, bring your cheer. Welcome all who's far and near welcome Christmas. Here. We stand heart to heart and hand in hand. And I, I feel like it sums it up so perfectly. We can't be hand in hand this year, but we can be heart to heart. And if there's anything we learned from Whoville is you can't steal Christmas. You're not going to steal it from us. And, and we're, we're going to share this story. And if there's ever a time that families should gather together and sit and just listen and be kind and be inclusive and, and talk about truth and family, this is it. Um, and I hope we can do that. I hope we can share a little bit. Speaker 2: 08:17 Well, that seems a perfect note to end on. So thank you very much. Oh, my pleasure. Speaker 1: 08:23 That was Beth haka, Mondo speaking with director James Vasquez, the Globes dr. Seuss's, how the Grinch stole Christmas on the radio can be heard for free on KPBS radio and can be streamed live on the KPBS website, the KPBS app, and on smart speakers, there will be four performances with the first on Thanksgiving day.
