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Jersey Arts Podcast
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Jersey Arts Podcast
Axelrod Arts Honors the 25th Anniversary of 9/11 with 'Come From Away'
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Today Gina is speaking with Broadway stars Joy Hermalyn and Brian O’Brien who will be starring together in the upcoming production of Come From Away at Axelrod Arts. The two have previously performed together in a production of Terrance McNally’s The Visit years ago. Today's interview became a mini reunion of sorts.
“Come From Away” tells the true story of seven thousand airline passengers from all over the world who were grounded in the small Canadian town of Gander in the wake of 9/11. As told by a cast of only twelve actors, the musical is an emotional and uplifting look at recent history.
While Joy and Brian hadn’t yet begun rehearsal for this particular production at the time of our interview, they are veteran performers of the show having performed the musical before in various roles. Therefore, their discussion focuses on the impact this show has had and continues to have on all those it touches.
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Meet The Guests And The Show
Gina Marie RodriguezThis is Gina Murray Rodriguez, and you're listening to the Jersey Arts podcast. Today I'm speaking with Broadway stars Joy Hermollis and Brian O'Brien, who will be starring together in the upcoming production of Comf Away at Axel Rod Arts. The two have previously performed together in a production of Terrance McNally's The Visit two years ago, and our interview became a mini-reunion of stories. Come from Way tells the true story of 7,000 airline passengers from all over the world who were grounded in the small Canadian town of Gander in the wake of 9-11. As told by a cast of only 12 actors, the musical is an emotional and uplifting look at recent history. While Joey and Brian hadn't yet begun rehearsal for this particular production at the time of our interview, they are veteran performers of the show, having performed the musical before in various roles. Therefore, our discussion focuses on the impact this show has had and continues to have on all those attaches. Stay tuned to learn more. I love that I was here for your mini reunion, your catch up.
Joy HermalynYou don't know how good that made me feel.
Gina Marie RodriguezOh, I'm glad.
Joy HermalynWe'll have a lovely lunch over that.
What Come From Away Is About
Gina Marie RodriguezI'm sad that I can't join for that, but I am here right now with you guys, and I want to talk to you about the upcoming production of Come From Away. And I guess let's start with for those unfamiliar with the show, would one of you like to give us a brief synopsis?
Joy HermalynIt is a story of community and how people responded in in a time of uncertainty and need to uh people's um, I mean, it was absolutely the end of end of the world, but for five days, any of the plain people would say it was the most idyllic. I almost felt guilty. They all feel guilty having having been so well taken care of. And it's really the story of humanity and what we want humanity to be. And how in in the face of evil and in the face of absolute devastation, how people band together and help your neighbor and help strangers and help people of all faiths and not give a a thought to it. It's just people are people.
Brian O'BrienIt is such a great show of humanity. I really, I really found when I saw the production, I was, you know, having been living in New York that morning um and getting ready for rehearsal for a show, actually. I um I definitely have a visceral memory of it. And and I remember, you know, a lot of directors will ask your sensitivity to the subject matter because I'm sure on your very first production, you you really by doing the slow pacing of things, yes, it really does sink in the visceral memories.
Joy HermalynSo yes, I'm a new I'm a I live in New Jersey, but I was yeah, I mean it is it is, and you know, what was happening in my life at that moment, everything comes all back rush, rush PTSD like, yeah.
Brian O'BrienExactly. So um, so it is, but what it is is it's so beautifully written that the the creators had found the heart of what you had said about regarding that this town just literally, they didn't have a second to think. Um there is one small town sort of all you know rub in the sense that there's a bus, there's a bus strike going on, and they have to break that strike to help these people get off these planes and get to the places of safety. So there is that moment that you sort of see the community working together, but taking on the challenge of 7,000 people landing in their home. And and the writers just have created, and I know they worked a
Why The Story Still Heals
Brian O'Brienlong and hard on it, they've created a 90-minute gem of humanity, sensitivity, and of of you know compassion in a very difficult time. And I I think it resonates, I don't know when your most recent production was right, but it resonates more so now.
Gina Marie RodriguezI agree.
Brian O'BrienWe really do need to step up and and look after each other and take care of each other and do the right thing in a moment of crisis.
Joy HermalynThe only other thing I would add, and maybe you had this feeling too, I was never going to do a musical about 9-11. Never. It's I can cry thinking about it, but it healed me. That first production, I actually, you know, by going through the steps one by one, telling the story, and the story is not the destruction so much as the aftermath of how they came together to figure out the needs of 7,000 people and made them like obviously like family.
Brian O'BrienAnd there's a beautiful line at the end of the show, which I won't give any spoilers because it really resonates uh that sort of sums up why we just spent the last 90 minutes together. And it really is again, it's it's beautifully written. Um, it is a story that you never thought you would tell. It is, it's I say this with all human humility, it is a very funny show. Yeah. They do mine the humor in the life of the people who live in Gander and their small town ways of life, whether it's going to the coffee shop Tim Hortons or whether it's a barbecue. I mean, there's just little gems, the audience just loses their mind and the humanity and humor of like just what day-to-day life is in Gander and how it changed in these four days. Um, you know, when the world came to visit.
Joy HermalynI think they balance beautifully on the it's like a knife edge between absolute despair into, you know, let's not parody it, or or you know, let's tell the true story and not uh we didn't need any fiction for there was no there are fictionalized uh storylines, but they are an amalgamation of all all people's stories. And then there are a couple of difficult ones, as you probably know. And even that, something good comes out of every part of it. Something good comes out of everything, I would say, pretty much every storyline.
Brian O'BrienAnd you have 12 people representing a community, and 7,000 come from awares.
Joy HermalynIt's the hardest show I've ever done. But not you, not you yet, but it will be.
Brian O'BrienNo, no, no. It's challenging because, and that's the beauty of the show because of the stagecraft, because so many of the actors, you know, our roles are Nick, Doug, and others, uh, because you may become a bus driver, you may become a uh fellow passenger, you may become a ganderite, and then you run, turnaround, and then I'm British and I play Nick. So there's a lot of there's a lot of fun as
Humor Inside A Hard History
Brian O'Brienan actor, but the tracking of costumes and props and things like that, it's a it's a very challenging job for a director. So I look forward to seeing this production.
Joy HermalynAnd then there's the accents, right? It's just an actor's dream to switch between accents. I mean, I uh like you you have the British, I have the Texas and the and the Gander, right? Texas and the Newfoundland. And then sometimes not. Sometimes someone else neutral. Uh uh, it's gonna be beautiful challenge.
Gina Marie RodriguezCan I ask how you guys prepare for that dialect work?
Joy HermalynI had a lot of uh training at the first production I did in the gander accent, because when I played Beulah, I played Beulah, and I played the New Yorker who sings the riff or the you know the annoying uh person who sings the Celine Dion riff, uh uh the Titanic riff. So that's something that would come naturally to me, New Yorker, belt belting out a big, you know, screaming moment and being, you know, a nervous wreck. That's you know, easy, no-brainer. But the the accent, we we had a lot of a lot of accent work, so I kept all the all the you know texts and the memos and the and the things and just rehearsing it. And I I have I have friends all over, like Brian probably does too, where you know, I called somebody who I know is from Texas just to make sure, like before my audition for a role, I I always thought, well, I can do that role too. That'd be fun. I would love to sing. Like Beula doesn't sing much, and I would love to sing more and just try something new. And you know, just to make sure the Texas accent isn't from Kentucky, right? And just to make sure the nuances of that, right? And I I think
Accents And Fast Character Switches
Joy Hermalynany good actor, any any actor that really likes what they do, the research is the fun part. That's like really fun to delve in and say those lines and make sure they're correctly that no one uh no one says, oh, not really from it, that that would be like a nightmare, right? So you want to make sure you're authentic to be authentic. I'm sure we will do some as well when we rehearse.
Brian O'BrienYeah, I imagine they'll bring in a dialect coach. I'm not sure, I'm not sure. You know, the last production I did was at the University of Utah, so they had the good luxury of having an actual faculty member that worked in dialects. So that we really and they we each had individual meetings to have discussions about how to say our certain words. And and Joy, I'm sure you know, nobody's trying to be perfect. We just want to create a sense of a place. Yeah, yeah. Right, right, um, certain tones and and certain lilts in it, you know, it gender it's it has a lot of Celtic origin. So you have a lot of Irish, a lot of Irish of England. Um, you know, so you it's a lot of this sort of thing songing. It also has a lot of northern uh United States, like Michigan and Rochester, like, oh my god, oh my god, yeah. So um so there's you we're I I I'm not certain how this director is gonna move forward and and create this it's usually just let's create a sense of differentness and a place that this community re has a sound. Um so we're we're not gonna spend days on it, but we'll do our best. And then certainly with the British accent, you do your best in in similar fashion to make sure that you know I'm you know I'm not just doing my own British accent.
Joy HermalynRight, right, right. You know, well, I mean, well like you like you said, the definition of the different characters when you have, you know, the our Arabic character next to the the the guy from New York, right? I mean you just gotta just delineating so that it's all the amalgamation of all the people and making sure making sure that it's clear. That's the the storytelling has to remain, you have to remain know who you are at all times, right? And that that that's the fun part of doing the show, yeah, challenge too.
Brian O'BrienYeah, and I do think it, you know, respectfully, I think it's helpful that they have some cast members who who have done it before because initially, the very first production I did, it it moves so quickly. There's almost 90 vignettes throughout the show. There's almost like a scene a page, and you're jumping all over the place back and forth through character, and some of the scenes are similar. Like Diane and Nick could go for a walk a few times. You know, they they walk with the two gentlemen and they walk by themselves. And so you're like, which walk is this? Where are we going? And then all of a sudden, you're coming out as a doctor for a visual psych gap. Yeah, you know, so you have to like find your you know moments. So the dressers and the backstage crew are exceptionally helpful in these in these moments.
Joy HermalynI had never worked at the Bell Theater, you know, Severance, where severance very creepy, where Severance's film that I did a sort of a developmental reading.
Performing At The Bell Theater
Joy HermalynWell, not I wouldn't call it a reading, a developmental musical about the Holocaust. I'm doing all the you know, all the heavy hitters, all the all the fun, the fun subjects. That was in June. So I just worked at uh at Bell, which is smaller than the Axlrod Pack. But Axelrod Pack can't have any shows during the Jewish holidays. And September 11th, the opening night, which is the 25th anniversary, is the first night of Russia Shana. So they couldn't do it at that theater.
Brian O'BrienBut it's a beautiful at the Bell Theater, I just saw a couple um Driving with Daisy.
Joy HermalynOh, good.
Brian O'BrienAnd it was wonderful with Allison Fraser and another local actor who was also in Chicago is Bernard Dotson, another uh gentleman, Mr. Goldfard from uh from New York. But it was a wonderful, um, wonderful, wonderful production. But the space, the theater's very special. You have you been, Gina, to the Bell Theater?
Gina Marie RodriguezI have.
Brian O'BrienSo it's an evening out. You can go early, go for a walk, get your steps in, have dinner, go have a sunset beverage on the with your your date or your guest. Um, and then you have a wonderful night of theater. There's plenty of parking. Um, so it's a whole experience, you know. It's a it's a really wonderful.
Joy HermalynI agree. It's a wonderful space. And that's where the the where you've taught. Is that where they're Brian?
Gina Marie RodriguezI'm so glad that you brought up the space itself because Bell really is an interesting space if you've never been there. That deck that they have that you mentioned, have a sunset drink. It's so lovely. It is massive. Yeah. I mean, the the building is massive. So it, you know, ask someone if you get lost. They will point you in the right direction to find the theater. Um, because it is on the lower level. I think the first time I was there, I didn't realize that you would have to go down the stairs to get to the theater. So for anybody looking for it, it is on the lower level. You're gonna have to go downstairs.
Joy HermalynThere is an elevator for people. It is, I would say I had a lot of you know, older handicapped-ish uh friends come to this recent thing I did. And the uh it's harder for handicapped people, but I think they just need to figure that out. But it's not not up to Andrew to figure out that space.
Brian O'BrienI mean, right, right. Yeah, I don't think it was ever meant to be a public theater. I think it was designed as an amphitheater for scientists and for the work that was being done at Bell Labs. That makes sense, yeah. So I I I think it initially it was just an amphitheater, but when when Axelrod created a relationship with Bell Works, um, I think they were like, this is a beautiful space. Um, as you know, backstage. Oh, you have you haven't been there, but backstage was a very hard exit up the back. Um, and then to get to the to the wings, you have to go out and around up these stairs. So it's a it's a unique space, but they've been very creative in how they did it. They've they've made a little bit more of a thrust stage, so it brings the stage out a little bit, which very intimate.
Joy HermalynYeah, intimate, and and I think it's really good for this.
Brian O'BrienYeah, oh, for this, it'd be I I actually have a good feeling, and I you know, just based on my experience, it's a real crowd pleaser, and it's a real word of mouth show that people say, Wow, you know, we really should go see it. So hopefully, you know, I'm sure this will be a wonderful production that will get nice buzz and hopefully sell a lot of tickets for the actual role.
Joy HermalynI I mean the two I did, I'm sure yours was the same. It was the best selling of both reputable venues I did it at. It was the best-selling show they ever had.
Brian O'BrienRight.
Joy HermalynThey tried to extend a week, but not everybody could do it. And Milwaukee rep also tried to extend a week, and no, not everybody could do it. So there was too much. It breaks box office records, and I kind of hope he has leeway at the end or has thought about it because it is. I think people really, word of mouth, but also that people really enjoy this property as a as a cathartic, you know. I let me let me see, even if they didn't see the Broadway production, just to say, well, it's been around this long. They don't advertise it as the 9-11 musical, you know, but
Young Audiences And Big Reactions
Joy Hermalynthat it is the 25th anniversary to see.
Gina Marie RodriguezYeah, I mean, I was wondering, I've seen the show a couple of times now at at different venues. And before I'd seen the show, I had no idea what to expect when you hear, oh yeah, it's a show about September 11th, and people, you know, the people uh in Canada coming together afterwards. Like the the slow pitch or the short pitch doesn't really, it doesn't give you the depth of understanding of what this show really is about, like you guys said earlier, the humanity of it all. But it's such a beautiful show. And I'm curious if you've ever had feedback in previous productions from audience members who were either not alive or too young to remember 9-11 and how it affected them. Because I know it affects me differently having lived through it, it affects you differently having lived through it. So had has anyone approached you about that?
Brian O'BrienThe production that I did recently had two student matinees. So it was an audience full of young children who are were, you know, you know, probably born in 2008 and nine, you know, so many, many years after that. So even though they're aware, certainly, through history and stories and and plus, you know, even public interest, uh, of course, which is wonderful to have those memories, um, they were not fully aware of what it was like to be a part of it. Um so a lot of the storylines sort of strike them in ways, and you you hear the reactions to certain, you know, things that are revealed throughout the show about you know what it was like and what happened and what happened to some of these characters at the end of the show. Um and it's there's like there's a wonderful song called Um Is Something's Missing? Is that the name of the song? I forget. It is sort of it's not an epilogue, but it's sort of it tells sort of a little bit of the after stories. And it is so uh I mean I'm even getting mildly emotional remembering it because it's it's it's little segments of what each character has done after they left Gander and and moved into the reality of being an American and back in their or a British for that matter, and being back into the what the rest of the world had felt as opposed to being in this bubble in Gander. And it's it's very very it's very visceral, and there's there's a there's a couple of heartbreaking moments in that, which is not to say, oh, you're gonna come and cry, it's to say, oh, you're going to come and feel, you know, and have a richness in your heart about what people had gone through that day and what many are still going through, I imagine. So as especially with the 25th anniversary, it's important. To never forget and to, you know, move forward with great faith that hopefully these families have been able to heal in some way, and hopefully the show would help them. But young people definitely have a reaction they did that that I I had no idea, you know, that it was this personal.
Joy HermalynI did some of those, you know, a couple of student matinees where you have uh the you know, kids are kids kids are better than grown-ups. They just audibly gasping, audibly laughing, audibly like commenting a bit, right? Not rudely, not stopping the show, but you can hear how it waves over them. And then the questions at the Q ⁇ A are always, you know, first, where were you where were you? Were you were you there? Did you know anybody? How did you go back to normal life? You know, the idea of going back to that, that's the whole point is you go back changed to normal life, right? When you've really lived through it and it's not in a textbook like the War of 1812, right? It's not, it's so visceral for, and I'm in New Jersey, right outside of New York City, uh, North Jersey. So it it definitely, I in some ways, I saw that view every day of my life. New Yorkers, not necessarily had to be in the right spot to see the the the towers or to know, you know, uh if you lived, if you lived uh in in the wrong spot, you barely saw them unless you went downtown, right? But I I I had a big connection. I worked there for a little while in the bond business for a little a very short while, way back when, one of my jobs. And yeah, it really does, it's interesting to tell those kind of stories, like, oh, you were in the building, oh, you went to Windows on the World. You know, I think it's it brings it you know a little more to life. Like that's why all of these like oral history things of whether it's the Holocaust or any any other Holocaust type, there's nothing like the Holocaust, but you know, sort of sort of Vietnam veteran, it keeps it, it keeps it uh alive in a, I want to say, a good way, so that it's not just cobwebby history, oh that happened. And I think we have gotten complacent as a, you know, don't get me on my soapbox, but I think the com we can't be complacent about evil and and good. We have to be be on on top of it and say, you know, we can't blame an entire race for a couple of people's actions, right? So I do think the kids really see that, and also because there are people of color in it, in the show, and how they're portrayed and how they're uh, you know, the the the people in Gander don't uh necessarily know what to do with that, right? They've never seen anyone like that. So the idea of Beola in the kitchen with what are you doing here? suspicious because everyone said you should be, because that's who bombed, you know, that's how why why we're here at all, right? Because of someone like you. But then you come to the humanity of it and come to find out about the actual person, and then you become close, closer and close, you realize how closely we're all quite related. There is no no do no differences. So, you know, you I'm getting far afield from the young people. I think they I think it does bring it home in a way, of uh in a in a more palpable way when you have someone that was actually there telling you the story.
Gina Marie RodriguezWell said. I I mean 25 years later, and I still am getting emotional listening to you guys talk about it, and I always cry when I watch the show. I can't get through the show without crying. But it's it's a beautiful show, and I just want to, I guess let's wrap up by asking you what would you like to say to audiences in order to prepare
How To Arrive Ready To Feel
Gina Marie Rodriguezthem for this, especially those who've never seen Come From Away. How do you prepare them for this show?
Brian O'BrienIt's a really uplifting evening. It it don't expect to come. I know we we you you shared how you got emotional, you know, as performers, we get emotional being a part of it, but it's that it's that inner, you know, humanity that we all have of the kindness and um and the joy. And even when the people finally left under a great duress about storms coming and planes getting flat tires and things happening that by the time they left, the people of Gandhra were so moved themselves that you could see this sort of emptiness that the town they they had realized, none of them had slept over the course of many, many days to make sure that people who were were the comfortable wayers were comfortable and fed and clothed and had places to stay, and babies were cared for and and and all of that. So by the time they left, it was that that feeling you have after doing some so much kindness, and when it's over, that that that euphoric joy of just giving back. So it's a show about giving back, and I think the creators really wanted to give something back to the people of Gander, to the people who suffered, and to say, we understand. You're pain and we understand your lost and sorrow, but we also like a lot of good energy came out of that. And that's nothing we should ever have to rely on such events to find joy in our life. Much more so to say that people rose to the occasion to try to care for each other in a very, very difficult way. And that we still ignore every 25 years.
Joy HermalynI would say the um that epilogue where they're left with the gym to clean up and the you know, the food to clean up and just sort of, you know, like after the wedding moment, right? Let's just say happy thing, right? That the the it's not the letdown, it's the they could breathe finally because they were breathing for the people they were taking care of. And they couldn't, and and Claude, the the sort of mayor of the town, says, I finally, finally let myself cry. I mean, to let the air out of that balloon is a big deal. They weren't not feeling it, they weren't not human. And so that's the epilogue talking about that. When you refer back to the beginning where they're watching the TVs, and the moment where the plane hits or the plane or the towers fall down, there's a musical moment and a and sort of a hit in the face moment, I'm sure you both know. The idea of how that affects the audience, because you're not seeing anything particularly other than in their minds, minds eye or imagining. But that that is where they really turned it on. The community turned on their almost, um, I don't want to say like an assembly line robotic, but as an actor, you have to be a little assembly line robotic to not choke all the time singing. There were a couple of particular parts where I let myself kind of go a minute or two. Maybe Brian had the same feeling where I let myself sort of go into the the you know the the empathy and the you know the I'm gonna say sadness or the the the reality of it. But to hold holding it back is the actor's job is to let you feel, not me, right? And and see how that see how that comes away. So I would say to an audience member, no preconceived notion, it's not it's not a happy 9-11 musical, although you will be changed at the end about how you feel about strangers and and your neighbors and people of different uh faiths, bring the Kleenex. Don't not bring the Kleenex, and at the same time, just allow yourself to fly with us on the on the storyline.
Tickets And Jersey Arts Closing
Gina Marie RodriguezIn honor of the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Come From Away will open this September 11th and run through October 4th at the Bell Theater at Bell Works in Holmedell. For tickets and more information about this show and about Axelrod Arts, be sure to visit AxlrodArtsCenter.com. If you like this episode, be sure to review, subscribe, and tell your friends. A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story, and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at jerseyarts.com. The JerseyArts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986. The show was co-founded by and currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. This episode was hosted, edited, and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez. Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Ternadia. And my thanks, of course, to Joy Hermalin and Brian O'Brien for speaking with me today. I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast. Thanks for listening.
