Godspell Production (2018)

THIS ARTICLE IS UNFINISHED AND MESSY AT THE MOMENT.

## Summary

Godspell is a musical composed by Stephen Schwartz with the book by John-Michael Tebelak. The show opened Off-Broadway on May 17, 1971. During 2018 the school John attended was to be producing a production of Godspell. The school was to be partnering with it's sister-school since John's school is an all-boys catholic school. He decided to audition for Godspell and managed to get the part of a disciple, to put that into perspective: there were about eighty students performing as the ensemble and John was among the thirteen to get actual lines and important stage-time. Wow, the guy who's writing this (who definitely isn't John by the way) finds that quite impressive.

After four to five months of rehearsals there were three performances of Godspell between the 10th & 11th of August 2018. Unlike the previous school production with Mother Courage and her Children there was an objectively idiotic regulation against filming the event (it's a school production for frick sake) and so footage of the performance remains scarcely known but there were confirmed to be a few mums (including John's mum) who filmed at least bits and pieces of the show, as soon as this footage is found it'll be archived and documented here.

## John's Costume

   Godspell has a seventies hippie-esque aesthetic and thus John had to find something perfect to wear on stage. And he did. The yellow attire John wore as his disciple character was originally his grandmother's when she was young. Since John has still been able to fit into the Void Eon shirt to this day (this was written in 21/4/2020) it's not too surprising he was able to fit into something that wasn't anatomically designed for him. John even reckons he'll bring this costume back for a character in the future.

## John's Rise to Popularity

"It all started one day during rehearsals. During one of the songs there was a bit where everyone had to slyly transition from standing into sitting. One day I decided to have a bit of a laugh. I jumped into the air and contorted my legs to position myself in a horizontal manner in midair resulting in what one could call a comedic landing. This didn't go unnoticed by basically everyone, I'm not sure if my memory is deceiving me or not but I think I got some laughs. Afterwards I did it again outside of the rehearsal area. That was essentially the calm before the storm after my next big craze happened.

There are a few improvisational segments during the songs in which every dances. I danced the best way I could, by extending my right leg upwards to feel my foot on the back of my neck while standing up. I did this during the rehearsals and also during the three times it was performed live. The concept of a person putting their foot over their head while standing up seemed to be a completely new thing to all the students in the musical and as such I began to become a figure of mass adulation. It sounds kinda stupid but I swear this was the case.

The thing is is that I got along quite well with my fellow leads because we always had an extra day of rehearsing where it was just the thirteen of us but when we had the whole ensemble with us it was kinda hard for me to extend my acquaintanceships to more people because it was a different atmosphere entirely, there were about eighty of us in one place during the ensemble rehearsals and the girls and boys seemed to be segregated in social groups. So when I began doing what I now dub "the foot thing" I started to get the attention of everyone. It got to the point where this one guy in my year level started seeing me more of a means of amusement than a person, this guy always wanted to see me doing the foot thing and he would constantly request me to do it as frequently as whenever we made eye contact. It got to the point where I had to avoid this guy entirely before we went onstage on the performing nights. I also remember the foot thing's popularity getting the attention of my honestly quite cool drama teacher/co-directer of the musical, he sarcastically told me something along the lines of "all you need to do to win them over is to put your foot over your head", it was worded way more graciously than that but you get what I mean.

I remember during one of the performing nights I was brought into one of the various changing rooms. There was music playing. The ensemble circled around me. Some were sitting. Some were standing. I think they proceeded to generate a cacophony or requests. I forgot if they wanted me to dance or do the foot thing or both. I think I did both. I dunno, it's been a while since this happened. When it came to the actual dancing at first I resorted to jumping around in place and asked my good disciple friend Campbell what I was doing. He didn't know what I was doing. That's kind of interesting to me, of all of the ensemble who were eyeing me in that circle I went to Campbell and acted like nobody else was around in that instance. I was aware that they were all there watching but by bringing my attention to Campbell and only Campbell it was signifying what my true intentions and thoughts were. I guess you could call it a poetically subtle way of showing the audience that I was more than just a puppet. I then proceed to breakdance. Okay I don't think it was breaking dancing but I don't know how to describe it. I'm not a dancer. I basically did barrel rolls on the ground with carefully calculated limb movements to keep me sturdy.

The absolute crescendo of the foot thing is interesting to me. I know I may've written that guy-who-always-wanted-me-to-do-the-foot-thing as being kind of an unreasonable and unpleasant guy but besides that he's really not bad and I'd consider us friends. 15th of September 2018 this same guy was throwing basically a party for the students who were involved in the production. I arrived fashionably late (whether that was on purpose or not is up to you) and as soon as I arrived this guy began playing the song I did the foot thing to over the speakers. He and a bunch of girls wanted me to do the dance choreography with them so I could do the foot thing again (this was an outdoor party). Being the submissive thing I am I complied without much choice. Keep in mind this was over a month after the last live performance of Godspell, it's not like I was practicing the dance or anything. I didn't need to do it but I did. I don't know why I did it really, do I just want to please people? Would I have refused to do it again if it were 2020 me? I don't know. And so I did the foot thing again during that improv segment. I recall my legs feeling weird after that one in particular. Kinda poetic given that was the last time I did it. And here's where it gets interesting. I basically spent all of my time during that night with a small group of people and it was great. We were by a little campfire, we played truth or dare like complete stereotypical teenagers and I was properly introduced to Arika who has since then appeared in V0iD Vl0gS!! and Eon Con 2019. But all of the people who were once obsessing over my show-stopping act were not around in that group. They weren't coming around to know the self I held, they rather cared about the foot I held.

The foot thing was such a big thing that when Stephen came to film The Concrete Club in 2019 at my house he told me that he was telling some Godspell-retirees that he was gonna see this "Johnny" guy (I was called Johnny during all of this because my cool drama teacher/Godspell co-director has always known me as Johnny because he used to teach me back in year seven and around that time I was calling myself Johnny because I actually thought my name was Johnny and so through him the whole ensemble called me Johnny) and when they asked who this "Johnny" guy was all Stephen had to do was tell them that he was the guy who did the foot thing and they knew.

This is where I'm gonna end this off. In conclusion I feel like I've learnt something about identity through all of this. It's kinda baffling if you really think about it, the foot thing was so dumb but yet it started something that spanned a potential legacy for me for people. The craze came and went, would I reignite it? No. I guess if I ever wanted to just talk to a Godspell-retiree I wanna get to know I could mention I was the-guy-who-did-the-foot-thing as a fleeting introductory greeting but would I want to relive the popularity? No. I honestly hope I never become popular again. Believe me." - John (21/4/2020)

## Stephen's Interview

On the 7th of August 2018 the school posted a blog post on their website detailing the upcoming Godspell performances. Stephen was interviewed with a singular question.

**“How does having a large audience in attendance help your performance?”**

*“Having a large audience in attendance is great because it adds to the atmosphere of the theatre, and inspires us to impress all the people who have shown us support and respect by attending our performance. It’s a great little boost before a show to peek through the curtain and see a packed theatre. It makes us feel important to see a large audience in attendance, and makes us feel that people genuinely care and are interested in the work that we have been putting together for the majority of this year.”* - Stephen

## Godspell in the Yearbook

Note: the following image has been slightly contorted to hide any revealing information. In order to properly read the text you'll have to open the image fully by clicking "see full size image".