Hello, all! Yes, I'm actually writing something! Super excitd about that, considering I haven't delivered a post to you all since November of last year.... But I'm beyond happy to be writing for you all today! For the past three months I've been busy working on the musical at my school, Fame. I've always really liked musical theater, and a few years ago I finally put my finger on why. I've been highly involved in music for pretty much all of my life, and I really enjoy singing and good music. But quality writing and storytelling has also been a really big part of my life, I would say an even bigger part of my life. And so a musical is telling a story, but combined specifically with the power of music, which is just perfect. I was cast as Iris Kelly, the best dancer at the school, classically trained in ballet, and really insecure about herself. Getting to be her was a priviledge, and the entire experience was life-changing, a highlight of senior year. Fame is truly one of the most spectacular pieces of art I've ever had the priviledge of being a part of. Two hours (or more) of rehearsing pretty much every day for months doesn't leave a lot of room to even really think about writing a post, so that's why it's been so long. However, I learned so much from being a part of this experience and this story that I really want to write it somewhere and share it with you all. But there's so much to say and no way to cleanly organize all the different things I've learned into a singular post. Instead, I'm currently writing (besides the Disney Princess series that I have not forgotten about) a series of posts on the blog's INSTAGRAM called #FameFriday. Every Friday I write a quick little piece of something I learned about writing or about the analysis of my character (and sometimes her boyfriend). If you don't already follow the blog on Instagram, follow @itsanadventur so you can keep up on that series. And, if you want to see Basic Academy's full production of Fame, you can watch that here.
The real point of this post is a anout another musical, one that was also kind of life-changing for me. Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton was released in 2015. The first time I heard about it, I believe, was when Rick Riordan went to go see it and wrote a blog post about it. (He went the same night as Preisdent Obama; it was wild.) What I knew about it from that was that it was a hip hop musical about the Founding Fathers. Alright, cool. Then besides a Vine by the amazing Thomas Sanders and seeing the Tony nominations, that was the only exposure I really got to Hamilton. Then once the Tonys had come and gone, I wanted to see all of the performances, so I went to the website and watched them all. When I saw Hamilton's performance, I was absolutely SHOCKED.
Like, honestly. I knew what it was, but it was something I couldn't quite believe until I saw it. I had been hearing and seeing all this hype about it and I thought I was ready, but I had no idea what it would be like. They were wearing Revolutionary War uniforms and they were rapping. It was one of the craziest things I had seen in my life. And the first time, I didn't quite like it.
But it was like I couldn't stop watching it. It was so strange, I had to see it again. And I liked it more every time I saw it. And my interest and love for Hamilton escalated a lot more than I thought it would.
No, really. I was not expecting it to get so out of hand. I'm kind of sorry.
Before I talk about one of the main things I love about Hamilton, I would like to send a special shoutout to the guy who wrote it. He continuously inspires me to be a better writer. The work Lin did was so intelligent alone, but the personality he brings to his work makes it even better; he's awe-inspiring. Have you guys seen his performance of "Alexander Hamilton" at the White House? Years before the show came out when Lin originally had the idea of putting anything like this togethr, he got asked to perform at the White House Poetry Jam. He had this one song done, so he decides to bring it. He's telling them all about how he feels such a strong hip hop vibe about Alexander. Look at them all. Look at them all react. Look at them all laughing at him. I was watching that video for the first time after Hamilton was huge, everyone's favorite, award-winning, successful beyond words. And I'm watching this video from years and years before any of this has happened. I'm watching them all laugh at this man's idea. And I'm so in awe of the fact that he knew people thought his beautiful piece of art was ridiculous, and that he continued to make it because that's what you do when you have art to make. You make it no matter what anyone thinks. Lin, you inspire me.
Pretty much everyone knows that Newsies is my favorite musical, and that's still true. It's such an upbeat and inspiring story, perfectly written and designed as well. And what else I love about Newsies is how close I've gotten to the characters; they feel like my best friends. The thing with Hamilton, however, is the more I studied that musical, the more I realized I felt like Alexander. I didn't feel close to him, I felt like he was me.
And I think that's the great thing about it as well. Before the musical, Alexander Hamilton was the first secretary of the treasury to me. Nothing I could really connect with at all, or even think to. The show turned him into a tangible person, someone we would know. For me, he turned into someone I was. If I had known the real Alexander Hamilton, this show proved that I might find I could relate to him a lot more than I would've originally thought. Putting their personalities into a language we could all understand made them so much more real to me. Real, and relatable.
The more I studied Alexander's character, the more he seemed like me. We just had so much in common. He's brutally honest and obsessed with the way people see him. He's constantly focusing on his legacy and the mark he's going to leave on the world. He can make enemies in a short amount of time, almost as quickly as he can make friends. Maybe even worse than all of that, he is prideful beyond belief, and thinks relatively highly of himself, even if he does have a way of tearing himself apart. It all just seemed too true to me. When I took all of that and combined it with the fact that he was known for his way with words, I turned into Alexander.
When I was three years old, I asked my mom if I could learn how to read. I was so young my mom didn't really think anything of it, but she wasn't going to say no to that kind of thing, so she gave me some computer game about reading and told me it would teach me how to read, not actually believing it would. One more thing Alexander and I have in common-- if we want something to get done, it's going to happen. I'm pretty sure I could read by the time I entered preschool.
That's probably the biggest thing. We both read everything we could; we just wanted to take it all in. Then we started creating the words ourselves. We just want to do more, produce more, write more. We never stop. The words are everything to us.
That is why I call myself Alexander.
Every line in the show resonates with me so much, it's like every time they talk about Alexander they're talking about me. I guess if I wanted to waste the rest of my life on this blog post, I could tear every song apart line by line and word by word and thus expose my entire life to you, but I'm not going to do that. Instead I'll share with you one quote that will give you a pretty good idea and that I sometimes say to myself when life gets real or crazy: "See, I never thought I'd live past twenty." Seems I would never be able to relate to that quote one bit, but that one hits me almost the hardest of all. For Alexander, that is very literal; the fact that he is actually going to survive past youth is amazing to him. But I was thinking about this song one day and was blown away by the realization that I couldn't quite believe that I would live past youth either. See, the next three years of my life are perfectly planned out. I'm in Henderson, Nevada for the next few months to finish my senior year of high school. Then I move to Cedar City to attend Southern Utah University, where I'll be in the Jumpstart program to do all of my general education in one year, in the stage and screen class. Then after that summer, I don't know where I'll be; I'll be serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for a year and a half. The next three years of my life are perfect. But after that, after I'm twenty years old, the lines start to get a little blurry. That's when I'm start my creative writing major at SUU, but what else? I'll try to start my writing career, but how and when will that happen? Who will I even still know then? What else will I be doing? For me right now, it's genuinely difficult to imagine living past twenty.
That's just one example. But when they talk about Alexander, they talk about me. Even tragic lines like "I walk alone to the store" hold a place in my life, some that are too personal to share.
So once again, thank you, Lin. Thank you for writing this real-life character that I associate myself with. Never have I connected myself with a character from a musical this much. Thank you for introducing me to Alexander, because it was like being introduced to myself. Thank you for making the beginning of our beautiful nation a tangible thing for me and for so many other people, for making it all seem real and not like a story. Thank you for being an inspiring writer. Thank you for teaching me about our heroes.
And while we're talking about the heroes, thank you for building this hipster nation, that always wants to do things its own way, that overcomes hard times and fights for what is right and believes in freedom and equality. Thank you for building America. Thank you, James. Thank you, Thomas. Thank you, Alexander. Thank you, George. Thank you, all of you.
And thanks to all the friends out there for the continuous support you give me as a person and especially as a writer. Someday I am going to be publishing bigger things than a meaningless blog post, and I'm going to need all the love you guys give me, because better art includes better haters. Thank you for making me feel like an important writer; the support legitimately blows me away. You're amazing and I don't deserve you.
But I do love you.
--Lizzo
