0:00
Hi, I'm Lynn Nottage. I'm nominated for Best Play, Clyde's and the book of MJ the Musical
0:06
It is Tony Day. We are here. You are double nominee today. How exciting is this
0:15
I know. It's very exciting, particularly after such a long, hard-fought season
0:20
To be here in this community celebrating is outstanding. You know, everyone has these stories that, you know, usually you write a show, you cast a show
0:28
you go into rehearsal, you preview, you open, everyone's like, open, shut down, or you didn't get a chance to do anything
0:34
I know. It was like running an obstacle course this season. It's just when you thought you got there, it's like, no, here, you got to jump over this
0:41
And no, there's a ditch. But that's what it was. I mean, it was, it wasn't easy, which made the work, when it succeeded, all the more sweet
0:53
Okay, I spoke with your whole creative team for MJ, and everybody talked about collaboration. Yes
0:59
And they all talked about collaborating with you. Yes. Like Christopher, Wielden, and your creative team
1:04
Lynn had this incredible vision of how she wanted to have this play out
1:09
I wonder what it was like collaborating with those collaborators for MJ. You know, I think one of the astonishing things about the process of putting MJ together from its very inception to the rehearsal to the stage
1:22
is that it was a purely collaborative process, is that we had a contract, is that we were going to make this together
1:28
And I still remember, like, sitting in Christopher Wielden's living room and dreaming about what songs we wanted to be in the musical
1:37
and having him push up against some of my ideas and me push up against some of his ideas
1:43
But it always was done in a way that was gentle and supportive
1:49
And I think that when you see the musical, what you're seeing is the passion, the joy, the talent of a lot of people who played very nicely in the sandbox
1:58
Everybody said that. But it really is true. I mean, it's not hyperbole
2:02
I think that Chris, as a leader, really created a safe room and worked very, very hard to do that so that people could, you know, create in the way that they did
2:16
And what about Clydes? And Clydes was also, I mean, I was fortunate to have two extraordinary experiences
2:24
Clydes was blessed with a phenomenal cast, with a director who was very imaginative and a costume designer who's like, I'm going to add the special sauce
2:35
Jen Moeller. And it was, Clydes was a beautiful experience. And one of, Carol Rothman, who's the artistic director, she said to me, she's like, I can't think of another time in which there was so much love in one theater than Clydes
