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Rubén Yuste and Pretty Woman
Riveting
Riffs Magazine attended two performances in Barcelona and while still in
Barcelona we connected with several cast members with Rubén Yuste,
kindly consenting to be interviewed by us. (Editor’s note: We are
secretly hoping that when we relocate to Madrid in the fall that we will
be able to attend another performance.) Naturally
our conversation began with Pretty Woman the Musical, and we
wondered about the challenges presented by playing three very different
characters, and also if he had a favorite scene or two that he was in.
“My
favorite scene is when Mr. Thompson looks for Vivian to talk to her.
After realizing that she is a good person, he decides to help her find a
dress (she can wear) to go to the restaurant with Edward (the other main
protagonist). Also, when he teaches her how to dance the Tango is
another of my favorite moments of the show,” says Rubén Yuste. Oh, that brings us to another facet of Rubén
Yuste’s performance skills, “I competed internationally in ballroom
dancing, in Latin dance. It was really nice, because when I began the
rehearsals for Pretty Woman the |
Aida Ballmann - Actress - Spain
With recent films, and series completed in the past couple of years and
more in pre-production, we decided to start with one that was filmed
during COVID, a short film titled Five Minutes, written and directed by
Genesis Lence.
“I knew Genesis Lence from her photography and television series and
then she started writing and directing. This is not her first short
film. I think it is her second or third. She says she is very proud of
this (film) because it represents the way she wants to talk with her art
and it (reflects) her personality.
It was a very hard piece to shoot, because it was during the time of
COVID and we had to cancel it twice, before we could shoot it. That also
meant we had to do the rehearsals using Skype. The co-protagonist is my
sister Serai and it was the first time that we acted together. That was
great. She is younger than me and she has not done much (acting), but I
was really surprised to find out what a great actress she is.
The special thing about this (film) is it that it is just one piece and
she did not edit it by bringing together different frames. It is just
one like in the theater. We did the rehearsals like that from the
beginning until the end. That was very hard, because my character was in
an emotional state trying to survive. She is hungry and she can’t
breathe and she has to fight. It was very extreme to shoot this, but it
was an amazing experience at the same time,” says Aida Ballmann.
The film is set in a world where the air is no longer breathable.
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Misley - Fashion for Women
Misley - Designed and Made in Spain
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The Claudettes Going Out!
The album was recorded in Chicago over what Johnny Iguana describes as,
“sprawling events.”
Continuing he says, “Half of the record was recorded in piecemeal during
the lockdown era. I had my engineer (Grammy Award nominated) Anthony
Gravino come over and record my piano to a click track and got good
takes that we liked. Then we had Berit do the vocals. We had Mike and
Zac practice in my basement. They were songs that we had mostly played
live, so it wasn’t like they were being introduced to new material.
Fortunately for me when COVID arrived I had been on a big writing streak
and the majority were songs that we had started playing live. It was (a
matter of) tightening up and making some choices for the studio. Then we
went into the studio and they recorded it and we did overdubs.
Generally, it involved only a couple of people in the studio at a time
and with masks. That was in 2020 and into 2021. Then in 2021 we felt we
could get into a space together and record. That led me to believe that
the songs from both recording periods wouldn’t play well together on
something you might call an album, because
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Luke Leblanc - New Album
The very likeable artist said, “The whole time we were recording it, it
felt like everything melded together perfectly. It is a nice group of
songs. Erik Koskinen was the producer and I was very fortunate to be
able to surround myself with some good musicians too. It all just
clicked together very nicely.”
The title of the album has us stumped Luke.
“It is used a lot in psychology and one of the definitions is a
temporary defense against extreme stress. The person might lose
awareness of their identity and the awareness of where they are. I took
that term and as I have observed, and I think a lot of other people have
observed, as a collective society I think we are going through a fugue
state a little bit. In terms of a cultural and political divide (Many)
responses to generations of inequity and the pandemic are leading people
to take a step back. That is why I have the lines in the song, “Take
your mind off of it / I think we’re living in a fugue state.” Someone
told me the other day that a fugue is also a Classical music term. I
don’t know a ton about it, but it is like a chaotic sound. I think the
musical term came first,” he says.
Let us take a step back. His first name Luke is after Old Luke in the
song “The Weight,” by The Band and his middle name is Young, because his
mom was a big fan of Neil Young, with whom he shares the same birthday. |
Florence Dore
After spending an hour and one-half in conversation with Florence you
come away with deep respect for her insightfulness, smile at her quick
wit and due to her warmth and generosity you come away ninety minutes
later convinced that you must have been friends in another life.
We decided to begin with digging into the roots for her passions for
literature, writing and music. Where did this all begin?
She thoughtfully says, “I think it was the music. I would say the two
things are similar parts of me. It is my love of literary beauty related
to whatever that kernel of joy is when you are really small and your
enjoyment of music and your response to beauty that maybe is irrational
beauty and artistic beauty. I think they are similar.
In terms of the chronology of my life, music happened first,
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If I Were the Moon, Children's Book
Let’s start with the song Jesse, “The song is an honest expression of
emotion and it was written for my daughter Lily. It was a song that came
out quickly and it felt beautiful. When I sang it live, people started
saying that should be a children’s book. That is how it came about.
The more you write you start coming back to themes that you realize are
important to you and that resonate with you. There were themes about
family, but I don’t think there were any in the children’s book realm.
Even this one happened organically. It wasn’t intended to be a
children’s book.
When COVID hit the lives of everybody changed in an instant. We were
thinking about different projects that we could pivot to. My wife works
in live events and she lost her job. I remembered what my fans had said
in their feedback to this song. I thought that sounded like a really
great idea and I became passionate about creating this book.
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Diane Marino - I Hear Music
“I started (this
album) not long after COVID was in lockdown. I have lost track of the
years. What was that 2020 or something? A lot of people took advantage
of that time and there was a lot of creativity going on. That is
probably what happened here too,” recalls Diane Marino. Continuing she
says, “I was researching the songs and looking for the next project,
before COVID even hit and we said what are we going to do now. It forces
you to spend more time focusing on what you want to do. You weren’t
going anyplace. You weren’t working. You weren’t doing anything.
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A Fragile Tomorrow
We opened our conversation with Sean by asking him to describe the
typical fan of A Fragile Tomorrow.
“We have opened for so many different kinds of bands and we have done so
many different things, that I think there are people who like some
things that we do, but don’t like other things that we do. That is
totally fine. There are people who come to listen to us play and who buy
our stuff, but they are also people who listen to a million different
things.
That is a hard question, because I definitely don’t think there is a
typical fan. One thing that is really cool is we have grown to (the
point) that we also have fans whose music we have grown up listening to
and who we have looked up to. They are also people we have toured with.
We have in some ways become a musician’s band. I prefer that in one way,
because I am a music nerd. There is something (about our music) that
resonates with people who also have musical backgrounds. There is not a
typical fan.
When we were kids, people came to see us, because we were kids. I was
thirteen years old and in Brendan’s
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Russ Hewitt - Chasing Horizons
With a style of music that might be described as more narrowly defined
in North America compared to some, we wondered what it is that draws
people to Russ Hewitt’s music.
Russ Hewitt says, “It started with my first album and I would have
people say to me, we listen to this album on repeat. We leave it on as
we are cleaning the house, we leave it on as we are hanging out in the
backyard or if we are driving home. It dawned on me I can no longer
write songs that I think are good or bad songs, but I have to write
songs that warrant repeat listens. Starting with the second album, I
would ask myself, is this the best way I can phrase melodies? Is this
the best solo? Obviously, the end result is someone’s personal taste
whether they like it or not. I spend a lot of time on that aspect of
making something worthy of repeat listens.”
He explains that he has become somewhat of a student of his own music
and the music of others, analyzing what he likes, as breaks down the
melodies, solos and so forth. It helps to inform him about what makes
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Actress Sara Deray
Those are the words of actress Sara Deray of Spain and she has had to
imagine a lot of things during her career, as she has played a nun (El
Sorbono del Cielo), an inmate in jail, a scientist who was the
mother to a cloned daughter (Órbita 9), she incredibly funny
as Mary Ann, in the television
series Yo Soy Franky (I Am Franky) for Nickelodeon (2016 –
Colombia), and she just finished her fourth season of the comedy series
El Pueblo, a Spanish Amazon Prime production, in which she plays
Maria Luisa.
Sara Deray’s ability to portray a broad spectrum of characters is due to
a combination of her skills as an actress and her culturally diverse
background.
She explains, “My grandma was born in France. That was my mother’s
mother. She went to the United States when she was quite young and she
decided to become a U.S. citizen. She left her French nationality behind
and married an American guy. That was after she had my mom and she
became divorced from my grandfather. She then married the American guy.
My grandma married three times.
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Misley - Fashion for Women
Misley - Designed and Made in Spain |
Sierra Rein - Actress / Singer
Sierra Rein (pronounced Rhine as in rhinestones) talks about her role in
the Hulu series Fleishman is in Trouble, “It came out of the blue. It
was January of this year and my agent who hadn’t really talked to me for
a while said hey can you put yourself on tape for this TV show? I didn’t
really know much about the project, so I did a tiny bit of Googling. I
was like oh, okay there is this character Cherry who is in the book
Fleishman is in Trouble, but there wasn’t very much about her. I had my
husband do the other dialogue and I shot the scene and sent it in. This
was when we were in lockdown a little bit (New York City). We were
slowing emerging and putting our toes back into the river of humanity of
this year.
In mid-February I got an email that said, you are booked. I called my
husband and I said you know that one minute scene that you shot with me,
I am going to do a scene with Claire Danes and Jesse Eisenberg. It was
one of those surreal moments.
I was surprised they didn’t have a callback. I think it was one
of those (times) when they see who the person is and think yep that’s
the character. That’s great, because I didn’t necessarily have to act
when the time came to be the character. I had already rehearsed enough
of the character ahead of time or I had enough of the identity of the
character already built in.
I did two scenes for two episodes and sometimes it was just do what you
rehearsed and sometimes it was throw everything out and do what the
director tells you to do. Let’s record it, rehearse it and shoot it.
There was a little bit of learn your lines and go. Here is the person
playing your daughter, oh great. Here is Jesse and he is your cousin.
It
was frightening, because I was coming out of a pandemic and I didn’t
remember if I was an actor anymore to, oh you’re acting! Here’s you
behaving, acting and listening and remembering everything your acting
coaches taught you before the pandemic. I seem to remember this, let’s
trust it and go. Everyone was great on set. It was a wonderful,
thrilling experience and I have forgotten exactly what happened, but I
will watch the TV show for the first time and I will go oh that’s me,
look, wow! (she chuckles) It will be surreal and wonderful (more light
laughter).”
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Actress Chelsea Clark
Last month (September 2022), she presented a reading of Joseph
Krawczyk’s The Last of the Freudians directed by Eddie Lew in New
York City.
Chelsea Clark elaborates, “I have worked with Joseph Krawczyk before. He
is a brilliant playwright and I love his work. This one is about a
college professor who for some reason can commune with the dead spirit
of Sigmund Freud. I think it is brilliant. The way it is done in the
play is he can hear Sigmund Freud, but nobody else can. I play one of
the professor’s graduate students and (my character) is still having an
affair with this professor. It is not the typical play that I am in, but
I love Joe’s work, so I am excited to be in this reading.”
As for her preparation for The Last of the Freudians, she says,
“I work from the outside in if it is a character I do not understand
emotionally. I work a lot with physicality. How does this person walk?
How does this person speak? What is the tone of their voice? Is their
voice different than mine? That will inform how to play this person if
it is not something that does not come naturally to me. This person is a
little bit sexy, which is not really who I am. She has this little
hip-hop and that is what I work with. That informs the rest of the body.
The voice kind of follows.”
You
had to know that Chelsea Clark was destined for big things, because
right beside her house was the Field of Dreams. Well, maybe that
is just a bit of hyperbole, but there was a cornfield beside the family
home. Although, dealing that hyperbole yet another blow, she confesses
she is not even sure who owned the cornfield, but it was not her family.
“My family moved from North Dakota and I was in my mom’s belly when we
moved to Ohio. My dad got a job at Bell Labs, so that is why we moved.
They were looking for a rural setting like in North Dakota, which they
found (in Ohio). There was a little road and I remembered there was a
neighbor’s dog that slept in the middle of the road. He could snooze all
day in the middle of the road, because there weren’t any cars around. As
I got older rich people started moving in and they built up the town a
little bit. By the time I got to high school it was somewhat different,
but the corn fields are still there. Industry has built around them. I
am not complaining very much, because I got to go to a very nice public
high school for free. It was a blue ribbon school (editor’s note: this
designation recognizes schools for academic excellence) and the campus
is modeled after the University of Virginia campus.
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Akash Sherman - Film Interview
As much as the entertainment industry is filled with stories of
successful performing artists who grew up in places like Los Angeles,
New York City and Nashville, there are an equal number of fabulous
stories of artists who grew up in obscure places, not obscure, because
they were unimportant, but more because one does not think of those
towns, cities and villages, as an incubator for creatives. Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada is one of those cities and this writer says that with
warmth and sincerity, as it is still the city considered to be my
hometown, even though I was born in Toronto.
Akash
Sherman, whose father and sister are both doctors and whose mother is a
pharmacist, one might have assumed would have been headed for more of an
academic career, in a cold, northern city, far removed from Canada’s two
Hollywood North cities, Vancouver and Toronto and where minus thirty and
minus forty degrees Celsius temperatures keep most people indoors,
unless you ski or snowboard. However, for the director and screenwriter
of the feature film Clara, which is experiencing a renaissance on
streaming platforms, and has been warmly embraced by mainstream
audiences and the science community worldwide, alas, it seems all but in
Canada, fascination with film started as a young child. This is where
our story begins.
Akash recalls his early influences, “When I was young and my parents
were busy and / or working they would plop my sister and I down in front
of the TV. We would watch the Disney animated movies. For me the
original Star Wars trilogy on VHS was pretty formative. It is a
tale that is often told by filmmakers of my generation and other
generations above me. Star Wars opened up so many doors in
people’s minds and made us think that anything is possible. As a young
kid I was pretty entranced by what was possible.
Fast forward a few years to the age of ten (we should mention he still
is only twenty-seven), I picked up my mom’s digital point and shoot
camera and I would play with Lego to create stop motion videos. I guess
at age ten or eleven I was already making little movies in stop motion
with Lego and Playmobile. Stop motion is taking multiple pictures of
little figurines and moving them frame by frame and inch by inch, so
that they are moving once you play all of the images back. What is
amazing about stop motion is it exercises the muscles of the director of
blocking for actors. You are pretty well controlling every frame. As a
child that was the best exercise that
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Un Asunto Privado (A Private Affair)
Un Asunto Privado,
which if you live in an English first speaking country you will find on
Amazon Prime, as A Private Affair, can best be described as a
Mystery Dramedy. Set in the late 1940s or early 1950s in Spain, firmly
entrenched in both the Franco dictatorship and a time when women had few
rights in Spain and for that matter elsewhere in the world, the
storyline is built around Marina Quiroga and her sidekick Héctor, as
they seek to find out who the serial killer is. There is some limited
violence in this series due to the nature of the crime and although it
is not gratuitous, it is probably not best for children. Jean Reno who
has for decades blessed us with his magnificent performances, at the age
of 74 demonstrates that he has not lost a step in terms of his brilliant
acting. Aura Garrido who has starred in El Ministerio del Tiempo,
Blue & Malone: Casos Imposibles and El inocente (The
Innocent), blossoms in both a comedic and dramatic role as Marina
Quiroga. We are wishing for a sequel to this series if for no other
reason than to enjoy another spectacular performance from her.
Will Pablo Zarco (played by Gorka Otxoa) win Marina’s heart or will it
be Andrés Castaño (actor Álex Garcia) or will one of them be discovered
as the killer? Marina flirts
with both, batting her eyelashes and looking deep into their eyes,
before handcuffing one to a chair and knocking the other one out cold.
Otxoa is funny and quite handsome, while Garcia’s character, Castaño,
rumor has it may be a womanizer.
Why is it that Marina’s brother Arturo (Pablo Molinero), the current
commissioner of police does not want Marina poking around, unofficially
in this crime, trying to solve it? Does he merely reflect the male
chauvinism of the times, is it jealousy alluded to in flashbacks to when
they were children or is it something else altogether?
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