This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Justin Locke: You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. I'm Justin Locke. Today Mo Brady talks with Leroy Church, who is the associate producer on the Clubhouse production of Dreamgirls. Performances of Dreamgirls are February 27th and 28th at 1 and 7 p.m. on both days. Download the Clubhouse app and follow at LeroyChurch to catch these performances. Enjoy!

[0:39] Mo Brady: Hey there, would you introduce yourself and tell us where you're calling from today?

[0:50] Leroy Church: Hi everyone, my name is Leroy Church. I'm calling from New York.

[0:56] Mo Brady: Awesome. And you are the associate producer on the Clubhouse production of Dreamgirls. Did I get that right?

[1:05] Leroy Church: Yes, that is correct.

[1:07] Mo Brady: Okay, so so many things to ask. First off, for those people who don't know, what is Clubhouse?

[1:13] Leroy Church: Okay, so Clubhouse is an audio app. It's in the beta phase right now, and it is just blowing up. It's basically like Zoom without the visual. It's like Zoom when you just have your picture up. That is basically what it is. People can come from all over the world and have conversations. There are just topics listed in the hallway, and you can pick a topic or follow different people and follow the topics of their room. And then you jump in the room, and you can raise your hand to get on stage and join in the podcast, basically. So it's really cool because you get to meet all these new people and find out all these different perspectives that you wouldn't usually be able to have on your own. And it's more personable than like the Instagram, you know, with the filters and everything. You have like, you're on the phone. So it's pretty cool.

[2:15] Mo Brady: I mean, the little bit that I've heard about it, you know, that idea of it being intimate because it is like a podcast. It's someone right in your ears. And all of these conversations or rooms that you get to like, jump into seems really cool.

[2:29] Leroy Church: Yes. And the access is amazing. Like my very first day, I was like in a room with Keisha Cole on the night she was supposed to do the famous verses with Ashanti. And I've been in rooms where Ava DuVernay has jumped in the conversation. Or in another room, I was on the stage with Tiffany Haddish. And you know, you just get access that you wouldn't usually have. And even with other performers, you get to have conversations. There's a lot of Broadway conversations that are going on where different Broadway people who usually don't even talk are having conversations about how they're dealing and all that kind of stuff. So it's pretty amazing.

[3:08] Mo Brady: So my sense of it is that it does, it is sort of like a, like a podcast or like going to a conference and that you can, you're there, you can choose all of these different rooms to go into, you can either listen to the conversation or participate in the conversation. What I think is, what I think is incredible is like this leap from that to let's put on a musical. So how did that happen?

[3:38] Leroy Church: Well, somebody was like, let's do a reading on here. And they did a reading of Raisin in the Sun. And then somebody else was like, let's do Lion King. So they did a reenactment of the Lion King movie. And then we were like, well, hey, we should do a musical. So I have friends who I was in these groups with, I never met in person, but because of the rooms that I curate, we've built a relationship and built a rapport. And they were like, you are perfect for this project that we want to do. We want to do Dreamgirls. So we got together. Her name is Sydney Connor and Brendan Patterson was the other, the guy's name. And they've been best friends and they've done musicals together. And they just saw my background and heard about, you know, my experience from me talking about Broadway and everything.

And they were like, what do you want to do? You have to be a part of the creative team, name a title. And that turned from casting director to artistic director to associate producer. And we put it out there and the response was overwhelming. We had 60,000 plus impressions in three days. Our rooms were closed. There's a cap, the capacity on each room is 5.5 thousand. And we basically closed the app down. We had over 9,000 people in the audition over three days. Then we auditioned over 2,000 people.

[5:02] Mo Brady: So how do you audition? How do you audition people like you? You can't see them. Are people like submitting audio? Are they singing in real time? Like how does it work?

[5:14] Leroy Church: Well, same as we're talking now that, you know, I just they have their picture up. So we requested that everybody put their email in their bio because you get a little picture that you can put up that you will make your head shot. And then in their bio, they will put their email and that's how we would do callbacks. But we basically have the stage and people would come up one at a time and they would sing in front of everybody and they would perform their song. We auditioned first Effie's and then we went in order of character. So we had people full out singing. And I'm telling you, that's great. I mean, so cool. So how long? I mean, it's not a very old app. How long was it between you getting on the platform for the first time and you starting to run auditions for Dream Girls?

[6:05] Leroy Church: Not long at all. It was within my first month. I didn't been on the app a month. But that's just how creativity works. You know, when we're in this time, it can be a blessing in disguise or, you know, sometimes those times where you get fired from a job is when you have the Jordan Peele get out, you know, or when Marlon Wayans, you know, came up with Scary Movie. You know, these are the moments where creativity gets going. If you're a creative person and you're just sitting at home, just pulling your thumbs, you're not so busy with the Broadway schedule. You have time to actually think and you have time to actually create. And these ideas come and it was, I think I joined on December 15th and the first audition was January the 2nd.

[6:49] Mo Brady: You just made this happen. That's awesome. So why Dream Girls? I mean, all of the celebrities that you had mentioned getting access to are all Black artists. So does it feel like you wanted to celebrate Black voices through the platform? Or was it just a show that you like?

[7:08] Leroy Church: So first off, well, it was a bit of both. First, it just started off with loving Dream Girls. We all love Dream Girls. You know, it was like, that would be a great show. The music's amazing. We never seen it told this way. So it was that. And then we're like, oh, when can we do it? And we're like, Black History Month is perfect. You know, Black women voices. The show is just so rich. And these three, you know, these stories of these three women who go on a journey that, you know, they have everything stripped from them and they still managed to come out on top, you know, and that's how 2020 felt. And it seemed like the perfect story to lift up. And Black History Month, what better time to lift up Black history? When I think about the Tonys that they won in a time where, you know, we talk about representation on Broadway. This was that, you know, this was the perfect thing to bring to Black History Month.

[8:02] Mo Brady: Now, one of the people that you've been working with through Clubhouse is Henry Krieger, right? One of the writers. How did that relationship happen?

[8:12] Leroy Church: So I had, we have four different casts that we're doing. One of the cast is called the Broadway Finest. Like we named our show because through the auditions, we realized there's so much talent that we want to give as many people opportunity as possible. And that is part of the reason why we trended because of the amount of auditions we had. I was just zooming through them. My line was, thank you. Happy New Year. So like it would be like three seconds in. And, you know, you could tell if you're looking for a metal soprano and somebody starts off Beyonce's Listen in the key of Basement, it's not going to be a go for us. So and we knew that we had to put it up in such little time. So one of the cast is the Broadway's Finest cast.

And one of the people, the Effie in that cast is Marisha Wallace. And she's split the role with Amber Riley in the West End. So she had a relationship with him. So she called him up and said, this is what we're doing. And he was very excited to join us. And he jumped on stage and he said, anything that you need, just let us know. You know, so he's very open and very nice. And he was just really excited to see that the work is still alive and there's new ways that is being presented. So and that's the same way that we had a lot of people like we had. We were surprised with like Amber Riley jumping up and even Shirley Ralph, you know, Tony Nom for the role, the original Dina. So it was just people got excited about it. And before we knew it, it builds such a big buzz and it was like a domino effect. So it was really amazing.

[9:49] Mo Brady: Yeah, you're creating an opportunity to perform in this time where we're like, all so desperate not only to perform, but like to commune with other performers.

[10:01] Leroy Church: Exactly. This is the timing is important, too, because this wouldn't have worked, I don't think, in another time where you can. I mean, we're essentially all working for free right now. Like I'm like, you know, the audition process that I casted, I was there for seven hours one day, 10 hours another day, and I took a 10 minute break, you know, and then we have rehearsals and and we're we're asking people to donate their their time and their talent to us. And and and our cast is like one cast is like, like I said, the Broadway's finest is Broadway elite, like, you know, Marisha Wallace and the Dina is she played Mama Morton on Broadway, Raina White and one of the.

[10:44] Leroy Church: So tell me about the logistics of rehearsing a musical through Clubhouse. How is this happening? Is it happening only on the app? How do you sort of run a room when there's no visuals?

[11:39] Leroy Church: Well, we have decided to rehearse on Zoom and then bring it to Clubhouse. So we have two rooms. We usually have a room on Clubhouse and a room on Zoom. And we have forecasts, I said that, right? So we're running. We have blocked off 12 to 6 on Saturdays and Sundays only. And during the week, we do privates and tutoring. And we have people who donated to vocal health. So you get to have free vocal classes and workshops. So during the rehearsal schedule, in one room, we have just table reads for an hour. And then while that's going on in another room, we have people like Effie singing for an hour and then Dina singing for an hour. And we split it up. We puzzle piece it together so that nobody's in two places at one time.

So we have a lot of limitations with the app. Visually, that's one. So there's no videos or anything. It's an audio app. And we have some limitations with the audio because two people can't have their microphone open at the same time without some sort of feedback. And the delay on both sides doesn't allow for a show like Dreamgirls to happen smoothly. So Elle Morris is our musical director. So she is getting all of the music together. And she is sending out these reference tracks to every individual singer, their own line. And then they come in for their rehearsals at the end of the day. And they go over what she's sent them. And then they record. We have a weekly schedule of recordings. So the harmonies will all be pre-recorded. And the solos will be done live.

[13:22] Leroy Church: Man, the planning, just the planning of figuring out how exhausting and how exhilarating it must be to be that creative right now. I don't know. It's a feeling that I never had before. When you get to create, whoa, I feel like being on Broadway, being a dancer in the ensemble, you sometimes get put in a box. So I've always had these creative ideas. And it's not like I could just show up and say, hey, guys, I'm talented. Put me in. Throw me in that number. Let me come behind the table. You have to be quiet. And you have to respect the process. And especially in the ensemble as a dancer, you really don't get a voice. So I feel like for so long, I was suppressed. So having this opportunity, I'm running full speed.

I'm up all night. Sometimes we talk till 6 o'clock in the morning. We're just coming up with ideas. Or we have hours upon hours of rehearsal where we just practice, OK, how's the sound work on Zoom? Do I have the music? We troubleshoot for the cast. Do you have the music behind you? Do we send everybody their track and have them play it behind them? Or are we playing it through Zoom and they're singing over top of it? What is the delay? How do we play it on Zoom and the clubhouse at the same time? Figuring all these little things out. Is it possible for them to sing at the same time? What if they anticipate? So we have rehearsals where we just troubleshoot these ideas. Do we have earphones in or not?

All of those things we had to figure out. Because what we wanted to do is now that we're using people's time, we wanted to value it. And so we don't want to have stalled time or waste of time. So we figure out every single thing ahead of time so that it's a well-oiled machine. And we hear that from the cast all the time. They're like, how is it that you guys are running this like this? This has never been done before. And it's like, because we're actually...before you got here, we did it seven hours on our own and figured out what the problems were and problem-solved ahead of time. So that's how it's been going. As a former performer, I can tell you nothing is sexier than a well-run rehearsal room.

That's exactly how I feel. I've been in so many rehearsal rooms where I just wanted to speak up and say, oh my God, we all think, what if they were to just...or how about they just...or why didn't they just...or what is this? Why are we here? Why can't this be an email? Well, certainly. And so to have the opportunity to do it ourselves, it's been amazing. When people are donating their time and talents to be part of this, you definitely want to respect the time and talents that they're donating.

[16:10] Leroy Church: What's been an oh my gosh moment? You mentioned all these celebrities that have been involved. What was a moment so far in the process that was just something you never expected to happen?

[16:22] Leroy Church: Well, I mean, the big one was seeing my name at trending number two in the United States, Dreamgirls Clubhouse with Leroy, and seeing all the memes and people wrote songs that said they love that phrase, thank you, happy new year. It's like people are selling t-shirts and I was getting all of my inboxes flooding over. I couldn't even read all the messages. It was just like, oh my God. And I was in the audition, I told you, like the first day we went seven and a half hours without a stop. So I didn't even know this was happening. So after I get off and like my friends are all texting me, I have all these missed calls and it's like, oh my God, did you see your trending number two in the United States on Twitter?

And I was like, oh my God. So that was a big wow moment. Of all the things that I've done from Cirque du Soleil to my Broadway debut in King Kong and all of the amazing things and the things that I accomplished that I worked so hard for, this was the thing that out of just three friends deciding to do their own musical in a clubhouse app, on this new app, this is the thing that I get noticed for. With everything going on, with people climbing the Capitol and that was trending. So I thought that was pretty amazing. And it goes to show when you follow your heart and you create and you just go for it and jump off the bridge. I mean, you jump off the cliff, I guess. How amazing it could be and how you could fly and you do that by just taking the risk.

[18:06] Leroy Church: Last question. How can people watch? Is it only the performances on the last weekend of February or is there a part of the process they can watch? How can people kind of be a part of the audience for this?

[18:11] Leroy Church: Okay, so we're going to have a special invite because the performance will be happening on Zoom and on Clubhouse. So the simplest way is February 27th and the 28th, the end of Black History Month at 1 and 7 p.m. on both days, there's four shows with four different casts. You can be on the Clubhouse app, download the Clubhouse app, follow Leroy Church, follow Sidney Conner or Brandon Patterson, and you will be able to see when we open up the room and it'll be titled Dream Girls, of course, for the performances and you can listen in. And the special thing is, the secret thing, is that not only will you get audio, but you're going to get a visual. So there's this Clubhouse lingo called PTR, which means pull to refresh.

So we've decided, like Instagram, how multiple pictures make up one big picture. We're going to use the headshots to create a visual aspect to the show as well. So during the show, like the illustrated book, audiobook, you're going to have a time where you have to swipe and the scene will change. And those will be done, those illustrations will be done by a lady named Ryan Kelly and she's basically designed, illustrated the whole entire show. Each character, each person in the cast will have their own illustration done. So that's how you can listen in. We're going to have a private Zoom going on where we're going to invite producers and, you know, people who can get the word out and they can come and see the performance happening on Zoom as well. So it's going to be pretty exciting. So that's February 27th to 28th, 1 and 7 p.m.

[20:09] Leroy Church: A special thanks to Leroy Church for sharing his story with us today. Again, Dreamgirls performances are February 27th and 28th at 1 and 7 p.m. on both days. Follow Leroy Church on the Clubhouse app and prepare yourself for what will be four unforgettable performances of Dreamgirls.

[20:51] Justin Mock: The Ensemblist was produced today by Jackson Klein, Mo Brady, and me, Justin Mock. Please rate and review The Ensemblist wherever you listen to your podcasts, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or bpn.fm, the home of Broadway Podcast Network. Our Patreon members have on-demand access to our archive, including full conversations with our guests and early access to episodes. You can support us for between $5 to $20 a month at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist. Thanks for listening. Until next time.