Life and Art: Revise them both! — The World Still Need You, Boris Yeltsin!

“Yeltsin” with Paul Yirga and Yeltsin with Paul Yirga

The revision process is going quite well. Evan Mack, Joshua McGuire, and Christopher Mirto have been meeting up weekly to revise the show based on reactions/responses from the Fall reading at Centenary College. One of the things we are discussing is how much real life enters the musical and how much the musical can show real life.

Above is a picture from Feb 2020. When promoting the opera, we went to the original grocery store where the event happened. Paul Yirga, the original manager joined Nate Mattingly (dress as Yeltsin). We recreated the tour and sang a few songs. What was wild was the reaction of the shoppers and employees in 2020. It was a healthy mix of fascination, politeness, annoyance, and not caring (especially if a shopper was in a rush or an employee was on break!)

That magical moment of unintended theatre is now being injected into the show. From big picture ideas: where THE CLERK teaches YELTSIN some TX Rock moves, including a peace sign and the Texas Rodeo swing. To smaller ones: the dividing lines in 1989 vs. today. All the while, finding the funny elements of what was predictive, what missed the mark, and learning that no matter what, you need to get up and MAKE YOUR MOVE!