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[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña, and you are listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:16] Martín Acuña: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Backstage Talk. Today's guest is Bella Faye.

[0:23] Martín Acuña: They are a Brooklyn-based queer composer and lyricist, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. They wrote and composed Catching Fireflies. It's their second full-length score, the first being San Francisco Daydream, a new song cycle which premiered in Philadelphia Workshop 2020 and has a concept album. They are also a former private student from Drew Gasparini, which we love. Drew also has a podcast on the Broadway Podcast Network, if you didn't know, so go listen to that. And Bella also studied music at CUNY and musical theater at the University of the Arts. So I am really excited to have them over to talk about Catching Fireflies, to talk about queerness and musical theater. So Bella, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to Backstage Talk.

[1:18] Bella Faye: Hi there. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Very grateful.

[1:24] Martín Acuña: So what did I miss on your bio? Tell us a little bit more about yourself.

[1:29] Bella Faye: Yeah, I think you got it mostly covered. I am from San Francisco, a little town called Santa Cruz, which is about an hour outside. Yeah, composing is definitely my main passion. Outside of that, I also, I'm a big hiker, roller skater. I also have a couple pet rats. Fun fact. And yeah, I also play six instruments, too. A little fun fact there.

[1:53] Martín Acuña: Which ones?

[1:55] Bella Faye: My six instruments, we'll see. I actually played trombone orchestrally for seven years. That's a little thing. Very random, but I'm very grateful for that experience. So trombone, piano, guitar. I play banjo, banjolele, which is a fun instrument that's a combination of ukulele and banjo. Ukulele and then also ocarina, which is this fun little flute that I taught myself over quarantine. So yeah. As a fun fact, when I was in high school, in second grade, they taught us, they brought a lot of ocarinas from like Germany and they gave it to us.

[2:30] Martín Acuña: Really?

[2:34] Bella Faye: Yes, I did too, played ocarina and actually like threw it away during the pandemic, during lockdown because I was like, I'm keeping this in a drawer and I'm not using it and I'm not playing it anymore. So I was just like, yeah, I'll just throw it away. Someone else will enjoy it. But yeah, I did too, learned how to play the ocarina when I was growing up.

[2:57] Martín Acuña: Oh my god, that's incredible. A fellow ocarina player. Love that.

[3:02] Bella Faye: And I love that you gave us your random fun fact between having pet rats and the six instruments. So I don't have to even ask that anymore.

[3:09] Bella Faye: There we go. I was like, I'll just throw this in here. Yeah.

[3:13] Martín Acuña: Love it. So let's get into the specifics of musical theatre and your work, writing and composing. Which was your aha moment?

[3:25] Bella Faye: My aha moment, I guess, specifically for composing. So I started with a more performing based background. I studied theatre in Philly, came from like a theatre background in childhood. My aha moment for theatre was probably when I was cast in Peter Pan. When I was young, I was cast as a lost boy. And I was like, this is so fun. I love the element of play that is going on here. And something I want to do, but I still wasn't sure enough, like what side I wanted to really like, whether that was writing or like being on stage. So by default, I was just like, I'll be on stage. And then let's see, at the beginning of 2020 in February, like right before the pandemic lockdown, I had a little workshop of this little song cycle I wrote called San Francisco Daydream.

And we had a workshop of it. And I just remember watching it all, all in its entirety and being like, Oh, I love watching how people bring their perspective to my work. Like I love watching people, like bring their own lives and bring their own characters to stuff that I write. And that was kind of a moment where I was like, Okay, I want to write I want to do this more and do this side of the theater world more. So yeah, that was probably my moment that I was like, Okay, we're gonna take a little pivot from stage to more behind the scenes and creating work.

[4:45] Martín Acuña: I love that. I absolutely love that. So why musical theater and why aiming to get this shows to Broadway, specifically like Catching Fireflies or like, or both?

[4:52] Bella Faye: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say theater is like the most authentic, like art form that really shows and highlights human emotion under like, such a magnifying glass. It's like, there's, you know, we have music, we have film. But like theater is such a raw outlet that it's like, it's real, it's happening in real time. It's like right there in front of you. So I think that's so special and something that I want to write for. And also in like commercial theater today, there's a lot of like, there's not too many characters that feel like authentic to me and like a lot, especially in the queer world. There's not many like authentic, non-binary or trans characters that aren't like stereotypes. So I definitely want to like, when I started writing, I was like, Okay, I want to make a promise to myself to create the characters that I want to see that aren't in commercial theater today. So that's also a big reason why I'm like, okay, this industry. I love it.

[5:45] Martín Acuña: I love that. So how would you summarize the whole journey you've had in this industry, like, starting back in Philly, starting as a performer, then moving as a composer, and then being an alum to Drew Gasparini, which is an incredible composer and writer, all the way to having Catching Fireflies and your song cycle?

[6:06] Bella Faye: Yeah, so I, like I said earlier, I did theater in California, I gone to University of the Arts for musical theater, did that for two years. And that was where like, I moved across the country very young, I left home, like I was barely 17. And I use songwriting as kind of a coping mechanism for that big transition, which is kind of where a lot of the songs for my first song cycle came from. And then after that, when I had the aha moment, I was like, Okay, I kind of want to write something bigger and on a like, bigger scale of full length musical. And that was over quarantine, where I started working on Catching Fireflies. I also got in contact with Drew Gasparini. And over quarantine, I started taking lessons from him.

And I was just like, sort of propelled me into this, this world really quickly. And then I got the opportunity to workshop my musical in New York. So I dropped everything in Philly and then left and moved to come to New York. And it was here that I've been like for the past year and a half just had a couple workshops, we recorded a concept album, and just kind of really pushing for this passion project of mine to get on its feet. So yeah, that's kind of the summary of where my career has taken me.

[7:27] Martín Acuña: I love that. I love that. And as you said, you jumped all over the country very young, but I think that those experiences give you a lot of life baggage, if we can call it some way.

[7:41] Bella Faye: Absolutely.

[7:41] Martín Acuña: To write a lot of things, right? To put that those experiences into your art, into your music.

[7:49] Bella Faye: So I just love that. I think that is amazing.

[7:51] Martín Acuña: Thank you. Yeah.

[7:53] Martín Acuña: Let's, let's talk about Catching Fireflies. So tell us everything about it, where it is right now. Where do you want to take it? How it started? What it is about? All of that.

[8:03] Bella Faye: Yeah, so Catching Fireflies is a new crew musical. Like I said, it started as a quarantine project. And then like, for most of quarantine, I was working on it. It started as a song cycle originally, as like a series of short vignettes. And then through the workshop period, we realized that it needed a full script and really needed that full length score to be its full potential. And then so the basic plot

[8:26] Bella Faye: It takes place in Philadelphia. It's about these six queer friends, a writer who gets stuck in Philly over the pandemic. Sound familiar? And she's kind of exploring her identity. And I think quarantine forced a lot of us into this period of self-reflection, where we really had to ask ourselves those important questions of, are we who we want to be? Where do we want to go? All those things in life that are the uncomfortable questions to ask. So it's very much an investigation of each of these characters' journeys onto gender, sexuality, identity, and really just stepping outside of their comfort zone to be that most authentic version of themselves. So that's kind of the gist of it. It's a punk rock score, little folk sprinkled in there.

But yeah, it started as a quarantine project. And then in June, I found the lovely Adam Glock and Jenna Baines to join me in creating arrangements and orchestrations, as well as a whole harmony arrangements for everything as well. And then after that, we all went to New York, did the first workshop at Don't Tell Mamas. It was like a workshop concert style where we presented it. And at that point, it was still kind of a song cycle. And then we're like, okay, we need to write a script for this. So then we spent that winter kind of getting a script ready and kind of filling in the holes that needed to be filled for these characters' plots. And then we got transferred to Feinstein's 54 Below for our second workshop concert, which was super exciting.

And that was definitely a good moment to kind of step back and see, all right, what are the next steps? And then our bassist from that workshop actually approached me after the show and was like, hey, I just started a new studio in Brooklyn. If you need to record a concept album, let me know. And I was like, absolutely. So James Rubino and I then spent this past summer and fall recording a concept album. And the whole team got to kind of look at it under this magnified lens. And because recording, you know, you're picking apart everything. So it was like a great opportunity to really solidify what we wanted and also have like a tangible draft to use for submissions as well. So yeah, so we recorded the concept album, released that in December. And now we're just submitting and seeing where it goes. So that's kind of the big summary of where it's at right now. So yeah.

[10:37] Martín Acuña: I love that. It's super exciting, you know. And where can people listen to this concept album? Is it on all streaming platforms or do we have to ask you for it?

[10:44] Bella Faye: Yeah, it's on all streaming platforms. Yeah, I think you can find out everything. We've made sure. Just Catching Fireflies, new crew musical, and it should pop right up. So yeah, I love that. I love that. So everyone who's listening to this, you already know, go into Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher, whatever you use to get your tunes and grab this show. Grab this concept album. I found them. Yeah, please stream it because I found them on TikTok. And I was like, this, this sounds really good. This sounds nice. Like I'm not into like rock punk, but it was like, I like this. I'm liking this. So that's when I reached out to Bella and here we are. So everyone go stream it. Give it a chance because it is amazing. Bella, what advice would you give to those that want to start in this industry that want to be a part of the performing arts industry?

[11:38] Bella Faye: Um, that's a really good question. I feel like definitely creating your own opportunities. I feel like so many people, especially like as someone who's been self-producing for a while and trying to get something of their own up on their feet for a while, I think creating your own opportunities, not just waiting for an opportunity to come, but just like being like, okay, I'm going to create a workshop of this thing that I wrote. Even if it's like, you know, a lot of people think you need like a producer, you need an agent, like especially for writers to like have a professional workshop. Well, yes, you do for like a real professional workshop, you need that. But like, if you just want to try out work and try out art and see how it goes, like you have that full power and capability yourself.

And I think a lot of people forget that. So just like taking the initiative to just like create the opportunities you want to see in theater, creating the work that you want to see, and not being afraid of, you know, what people think if it is different, if it isn't like commercial theater. I think that's super important. And just kind of holding your own and not thinking that you need to fit in a certain box, especially in the writing side, because I feel like there can be judgment sometimes, but you just gotta, you gotta create the work that you want to see. So, yeah.

[12:55] Martín Acuña: Yeah, I agree with you. In your overall journey, where you are today, what is a risk that you have taken that has totally paid off?

[13:02] Bella Faye: Um, let's see. Probably dropping out of art school. I'm not gonna lie. I was at University of the Arts for a while, and then I dropped out to pursue like composing full time. And that was probably a risk that, yeah, I was definitely like, should I just finish my degree? Should I just like continue this path of performing and then revisit composing later? But like, I'm so grateful that I didn't like, not waste that time, because I don't think any time is wasted, but just to like get a head start. And also like moving to New York is definitely, New York is definitely a very, you know, it's a very overstimulating, chaotic city, but that risk of just like leaving everything in Philly, because Philly was definitely my home, like where I felt most myself.

So just leaving that and going to New York to create this, this art was definitely a risk that I would say has paid off in a lot of regards. So I'm definitely still getting on my feet here and still establishing myself in this big city. But it's definitely, I'm very grateful for like taking that initial move from Philly. So yeah, those are like the two main risks, I would say.

[14:11] Martín Acuña: Love that. They are amazing. And yes, New York can be chaotic, can be big, but just the feeling of being in that city fulfills me personally, and gives me so much energy. And I know that for a lot of thespians, it does too. For a lot, it may be overwhelming. I'm not gonna lie. It's been overwhelming for me too.

[14:29] Bella Faye: Yeah, but it's just the place where we need to be.

[14:37] Martín Acuña: Yeah, it has a very ambitious energy that just encourages you to really, you know, go after what you're looking for. So yeah.

[14:49] Bella Faye: Yeah, absolutely. Last question. What are your top five favorite musical theater shows?

[14:57] Bella Faye: See, that's a hard question. That's such a hard question. Okay, well, my all-time favorite musical is Once. I absolutely love Once, as guitar is like my main instrument right now. So just, you know, by nature, I have to love that one. I love Chicago. That was like the last musical I did before I officially quit like to composing. I played Roxy and that was like, it was such a good musical and such a good commentary on like government and such. So love that one. This is gonna be controversial, but I love Love Never Dies. The sequel to Phantom. I'm gonna get cancelled. I love Love Never Dies. And let's see, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is definitely another fave of mine. Love that score.

It's so classical, but like in a very comedic sense. And then last one. This tick tick boom cow. I don't know. That's like more of a song. I would say that one. I love a lot of song cycles like Drew's Rain does a lot of song cycles. Love a lot of his Kerrigan and Loudermilk. Yeah, a lot of like standalone song cycles are really cool too. So I definitely have an appreciation for those as well. But yeah, love that.

[16:10] Martín Acuña: Bella, thank you so much for coming here. I wish only success to you, to Catching Fireflies, to any other show you have right now on your brain and will come to live in the future. Thank you so much for being here and for sharing your thoughts, your perspective, your journey in this industry on Backstage Talk.

[16:28] Bella Faye: Thank you so much for having me. Have a lovely rest of your day.

[16:34] Martín Acuña: Thanks, everyone for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.