by Pa Rock
Proud Papa
My primary purpose in making this trip to New York City was to see an abbreviated version of a new musical stage production of "The Brass Teapot," a work rooted in a short story of the same title that my son, Tim, wrote in 2008 and published on the Internet. It has since been the basis of an ethics class at the University of Kansas as well as two films, a short version in which Julia Roberts' husband, Danny Moder, was the cinematographer, and a feature-length film which premiered at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival in 2012. The feature length version has run on Showtime and has been shown several times on Prime.
Tim collected me at my hotel this morning and we walked together down 8th Avenue to the venue where his work was playing. He said just before we got there that we had crossed over into "Hell's. Kitchen," but it all looked, sounded, and smelled just like the rest of New York City to me!
The new musical version of"The Brass Teapot" was presented twice at the New World Stages here in NYC, once yesterday and again this morning. I was at the morning performance, and it was dynamic and flawless. The performance was introduced by four people: Tim (and boy were my buttons popping!), Ramaa Mosley, the co-writer and the director of the film versions, Erik Kaiko, the producer who came up with he concept for turning the work into a musical, and Chaz Cardigan, a young dynamo of a musical talent who composed the music and wrote the lyrics.
The music was wonderful and added strength and depth to the material, and the professional actors who handled the dialogue and songs were absolutely amazing. It was a thrill to watch. The young lady who was sitting next to me whooped and hollered at the end of every number - and I really relished her enjoyment because in addition to being an exuberant theatre fan, she is also my grand-niece, Lauren, who is a sophomore here at Barnard College of Columbia. Lauren is involved in theatre at her school and seems to be focusing in that direction for an eventual career. It is always so great getting to see Lauren!
I also enjoyed seeing Ramaa Mosley again. We first met at the film festival in Toronto when "The Brass Teapot" was released. She was holding my granddaughter, Olive, who was about a year old at the time. (Now Olive is thirteen and almost as tall as Ramaa!) Ramaa and I met again when she came to my town of West Plains, Missouri, in 2016 where she directed the feature film "Lost Child" which was also written by Tim, and during that trip she even visited my humble abode, as well as invited me to sit in on one of the movie's production meetings. And now we have also connected briefly in New York City. Ramaa, we are going to have to quit meeting like this!
I was very pleased to meet the young man who infused "The Brass Teapot" with such fantastic music. Chaz Cardigan gave me a big hug when Tim told him who I was, and then he told me how much he liked working with my son - and his manner and attitude clearly said that his sentiment was heartfelt Such a nice young man!
Leaving the theatre I picked some SWAG, a "Brass Teapot" tote bag with big lettering on the side. Later while walking down Broadway on the way back to the hotel, I heard someone behind me say something about the bag that I was carrying, and then a couple stepped up beside me and the gentleman asked if I had been to the presentation and had I enjoyed it. "Yes" I told them, and added that I had loved it. I finished with a boast about my son being the writer, and they quickly told me that their son was the music composer for the show - Chaz's parents! We had a very nice visit on the crowded sidewalk next to Broadway, and I left feeling that meeting those nice people was the perfect ending to a very special theatrical outing.
What a grand day in the city - and it's still just early afternoon!
More later!
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