10 Questions
Take Ten - WILLIAM YANESH
For once, WILLIAM YANESH isn’t working in a vacuum — the D.C.-based composer-lyricist, who’s served as music director on shows all over the region, is on the conductor’s podium this fall for a production of his own adaptation of the classic kids’ story Blueberries for Sal at Adventure Theatre MTC through October 21. In this week’s Take Ten, he fills us in on battling impostor syndrome, why he’s never been able to land a day job, and why everybody should make the time to absorb more art.
1) What was the first show you ever saw, and what impact did it have?
My hometown of Wickliffe, Ohio sees an annual musical put on by our church’s theater troupe, the Mount Carmel Players, and in my childhood this was a serious event that received such an outpouring of time, resources and love from the community every year. When I was in first grade I saw Mount Carmel’s Me and My Girl. Seeing a bunch of adults come together to put on a show was formative for me in and of itself, and I’ve been a theater kid from that moment.
2) What was your first involvement in a theatrical production?
My parents started enrolling me in children’s theater programs shortly after that, so I played Grumio in Babes in Toyland and Maude in Bye Bye Birdie in kids’ productions at this local theater called Lake Performing Arts, where (fun fact!) Broadway music director Vadim Feitchner got his start around the same time! It was kind of a surreal thing to find out about each other when we worked together at Signature a few years back.
3) What’s your favorite play or musical, and why do you like it so much?
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. But really just the collected works of Dave Malloy. There’s some alchemy in his music and lyrics that captures the joy of being alive while acknowledging what a lonely, confusing experience life is. If I ever wrote a lyric as powerful and incisive as “Natalya” from Preludes, “Hero” from Ghost Quartet, or “Dust and Ashes” from Comet, I’d be crushed under the weight of the expectation to top myself.
4) What’s the worst day job you ever took?
I’ve never been hired for a day job. I applied everywhere when I first moved to DC, and literally every person who looked at my meager employment history said, “What’s the deal with all these music jobs? So you have no experience at anything?”
5) What is your most embarrassing moment in the theatre?
Last summer I was on my way to a matinee for Jesus Christ Superstar at Signature, and I got caught on Pennsylvania Avenue in the middle of the Rolling Thunder street closures. I was trapped for an hour, texting and calling our stage manager Kerry Epstein the entire time in an utter panic. I had no Associate Music Director, so the show wasn’t going to start until I reached the theater. I am never late. I typically arrive at the theater fifteen minutes before half hour is called. But on that dreadful day our 2pm matinee did not end up starting until 3pm. I was told the audience wasn’t informed specifically what the holdup was, but I will say it was the only time I’ve received entrance applause in my life. Not my finest hour.
6) What are you enjoying most about working on Blueberries for Sal at Adventure Theatre MTC?
The opportunity to hear and see real flesh-and-blood people sing my songs and make choices that would never have occurred to me. So much of my writing happens in a vacuum, making demos and multitracking myself singing all the harmonies: the gulf between that experience and seeing human beings sing these songs, as any composer will tell you, is huge.
7) Other than your significant other, who’s your dream date (living or dead) and why?
Oh, this is such a funny question to ask a writer, because we all have impostor syndrome and firmly believe that we aren’t good enough to socialize with anyone we admire. I deeply relate to Donald Glover’s freakout on Community when his character, on meeting Levar Burton, sobs, “I just wanted a picture. You can’t disappoint a picture!”
8) What is your dream role/job?
Being able to write full-time, scaling back my performing a little. I’d like to write more choral and concert-oriented vocal music. I’ve long had pipe dreams about a musical about Dante Alighieri, a musical after Sophocles, a new operatic adaptation of Of Mice and Men, a setting of Prufrock, a cantata based on the “Hades” episode of Ulysses, etc., etc.
9) If you could travel back in time, what famous production or performance would you choose to see?
Is there footage of the original Broadway cast of Amadeus, with Ian McKellen and Tim Curry? I think about this a lot. It sounds like someone’s made-up dream cast, and I just love that it’s a real thing that really happened. I would love to see that. Also, live performances with Gershwin at the piano, and Bernstein conducting Mahler. Of the latter we definitely have footage, but being in the room would be really transformative.
10) What advice would you give to an 8-year-old smitten by theatre / for a graduating MFA student?
I’m not old enough to be giving advice to anyone, but my number one complaint about colleagues is that I wish they consumed more. I would probably tell both the eight-year-old and the MFA to just see and read and listen to as much as possible. I know we feel like we don’t have the time, but just do it. When you hear about a thing that sounds cool, Google the thing and watch or read or listen to it. It’s been there waiting for you and it’s probably great and will remind you why we do this.
WILLIAM YANESH (Composer/Lyricist/Music Director) returns to Adventure Theatre MTC for his eighth time as music director, having written the songs for Caps For Sale and the incidental music for The Cat in the Hat. His other DC music direction credits include Snow Child at Arena Stage, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Last Five Years at Signature Theatre, Ordinary Days and The Nutcracker at Round House Theatre, and Floyd Collins at 1st Stage. He was the Associate Conductor of Passion, A Little Night Music and West Side Story at Signature Theatre. BA in Music Composition from Carnegie Mellon University.
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