Part 1
The cast of Crazy for You participated in a multi-day dramaturgy boot camp the first week of rehearsal to help us connect with the performing arts scene in 1930s New York City and the defunct mining town of Deadrock, Nevada, the two settings of our play.
On Day One, we bonded as a company by sharing some of our favorite things, and discussed the way the things we are crazy for often revolve around physical experiences (food, places, physical comfort) and associations (people, childhood memories, feelings of safety and love). We also collaborated on playlists of music that our characters would have listened to, be it recordings made by vaudeville stars of the time, sweet big band jazz that was popular in city ballrooms, or country music (a new genre that featured Christian folk tunes and yodeling cowboys).
On Day Two, we watched The Great Ziegfeld, a 1936 biopic about Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., the producer of the Ziegfeld Follies and inspiration for the character of Bela Zangler in Crazy for You. The film features performances by several artists that were employed and promoted by Ziegfeld, such as Fanny Brice, Will Rogers, and Eddie Cantor. We also had a great conversation about some of the good, bad, and ugly elements of the vaudeville world, and what it might have been like for our follies girls to work in that industry.
