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Sierra Rein - Film, TV, Theater, Music |
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These are heady days for actress and singer Sierra Rein, she has now
returned to what she enjoys doing most in life, performing on stage and
in front of a camera, after two years of much of the arts world being
put on an involuntary pause due to COVID. She has two podcasts on the
go, a short film in post-production, appears in two episodes of a series
to be broadcast and streamed on FX on Hulu this fall and she has several
exciting music gigs coming up. Believe or not that is just barely
scratching the surface.
Sierra Rein (pronounced Rhine as in rhinestones) talks about her role in
the FX 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.
As for her character Cherry, “My character has two brief scenes, blink
and you will miss me. She represents the polar opposite form the Claire
Danes character, who is intense, exact and who works out all of the
time. She has a difficult relationship with her identity as a mother.
(Whereas), I am well rounded, I have some meat on me, I have round boobs
and I have a butt. I am proud of being a mother.
(My character) gives a little tough love to my cousin, played by Jesse
Eisenberg who is Fleishman. She is a little more grounded and earthy and
she is able to see through some shit. That is my character’s purpose in
the scenes that I was in.
There is a ten-year gap in the two scenes that I am in. It was fun,
because I have some grey in my hair now that I am in my forties. The
first time my hair was brown again and for the second scene they didn’t
touch it (laughing lightly she says) I got some natural aging process.”
As for the basic premise of Fleishman is in Trouble, or as much as
Sierra Rein can reveal, “The premise of the book, as well as the TV
series is a young New York doctor has two kids and he is married to a
very intense woman. At a certain point she abandons them and he becomes
a (single) father of two who is inserted back into the dating world. He
has to deal with how he connects with people and with romantic partners.
He uses online systems to do that. I am not exactly sure what the
solution is for coming to terms with it. That is as much as I know, so I
will be watching the TV series to find out for the first time as well.”
A short film The Maples, is now in post-production. It was written by
Randall C. Willis, directed by Taylor Corielle and stars Sierra Rein and
Mick Bleyer.
Sierra Rein says, “It is in the design and editing process. The script
in its initial form, in its original form was sitting on my (computer)
for eight or nine years. The writer Randall C. Willis is a Canadian and
I met him in Toronto through a puppeteering friend (more on this later).
He teaches script writing as well. I asked him if he had any simple two
or three person scripts and he said I do and he sent one to me. It was a
two-character script in an airport. Two people who used to be friendly
in high school run into each other while going through an airport.
I thought this will be great. I need to find an airport bar, one of
those places where you go and grab a drink while your airplane is
delayed. Cut to the pandemic and we are bouncing around in our
apartments last year and I thought what if we rewrote that scene. What
if we said it in an open park on a bench, like in Central Park or up
here (in the part of New York City) where I live? Randall was like yes
let me look at that. I thought I can’t do it with the guy I originally
thought of, because he now lives in Florida.
I thought maybe my friend Mick, because I had always wanted to
work with him.
We had a Zoom interview with Mick, Randall and me. I interviewed him. We
got a sense for what his strengths and passions were. Randall
reconfigured the script, to our personalities and what we wanted to get
out of it. I learned so much from Taylor, because she literally brought
spreadsheets and asked who is going to do this and you are going to need
this. You are going to need insurance. You are going to need someone to
(oversee COVID safety). We are going to get (permission) from the park.
We went location scouting in a bunch of different places.
This was before Fleishman and I had to come to terms with being an actor
again. We did script analysis and we had one day of shooting. Like I
said we are in the music and sound editing (process) and then we will
have to do title sequences. It has been a very long process over a year,
but we are taking our time with it. Hopefully, it will be a very
enjoyable process that you can watch for ten minutes and that will be
it.
People asked if we are going to send it to festivals and things like
that and I didn’t even think of those things. Let me just get it made
first and we will see. It has been a learning experience, being the
producer, but also the actor and stepping away, so the director Taylor
could make her statements. It was a good introduction how to express,
critique and to check my own ego, instead of asking is that really the
best angle for my face? Is that the best angle, instead of being proud
in the moment and saying I like that.
I have learned so much about the process, so now I know the steps and I
know how to push the next project, maybe a little faster in the future.”
Sierra Rein’s acting does not end when the cameras are turned off, far
from it, as she has built a very strong resume in theater.
The one that I am most proud of is we did City of Angels at Goodspeed
Opera House in 2010. I was with my vocal group Marquee Four, because at
the time there were not all five of us. We played the Angel City
Quartet.
If you have never heard City of Angels, Cy Coleman wrote some amazing
scripted and dictated scat at the very opening (lyrics by David Zippel,
story by Larry Gelbart) and I could see the director and the director’s
shoulders relax. We had already rehearsed a little bit beforehand (you
can hear the smile in her voice).
I had the great honor of being the understudy for Nancy Anderson, as
Donna / Oolie. I got to perform, because she told me right off the top
at the first rehearsal, on October 11, you are going on. I thought, oh,
okay, that sounds great. It was a great experience.
I have also done a couple of productions of White Christmas and we
performed in New Hampshire at the Music Hall. I got to yell at Sally
Struthers in The Snoring Man. That was a surreal moment. The other
surreal thing about that is we had a Secret Santa as a cast and Sally
Struthers was my Secret Santa. Everything that I got was from Sally
Struthers. She was a sweetheart.
Before we get to Marquee Five, where did all of this start?
“I grew up in Oakland California. It was right across the bay from San
Francisco, so it felt big city, but also a little bit like suburbia. It
was historic, because we were right next door to Berkeley and there was
a lot of anti-war, college energy. My parents didn’t meet at Berkley,
but pretty soon after they established themselves in the area. That is
where the Black Panthers were from. Oakland is where the black panther
from Marvel is where the
Wakanda Embassy
is, even if it is fake, they chose Oakland to be in it.
I am Portuguese by New Bedford, Massachusetts. My grandparents came as
young adults from the Azores and I recently went back there (New
Bedford) to visit family. I was reminded that this New Beford Portuguese
thing runs deep.
My father’s family came from New York and they were probably in the
(diaspora), as they got kicked out of Russia for being Jews and they
landed in Austria and Germany, before coming to New York. They probably
went through Ellis Island. My dad was born in New York and then the
family moved to Los Angeles. My dad moved up to the Bay area where he
met my mom. My joke is I am half Portuguese and half Jewish, so I am a
PortaJew.
Religiously my mom grew up Catholic and my dad grew up Jewish, but they
never forced either side of things on me. They respected each side. We
celebrated Hanukkah, we celebrated Christmas and we celebrated Easter. I
went to a Catholic high school, but it was one of those that if you
didn’t want to go to mass every week you would have home room and they
were respectful of other religions. We took world religions courses in
addition to the old and new testament. I got a sense of all the
different parts of me, but it was never one way. I got to choose my own
way through the different sides of my family. (She starts to laugh) my
religion became more musical theater than anything else. Both my parents
were very intelligent. My dad was a lawyer and my mom was an English
professor of creative writing. They raised me on Shakespeare and MGM
musicals at the same time. They always talked about the heritage, but
they let me discover it on my own,” she says.
As for when Sierra Rein’s interest in music and acting was kindled, she
says, “My mom if she were here today would talk to you about a moment
when I was about two years old, and she took me to a production of Peter
Pan. It was somewhere at a community theater in the Bay. When the
curtain went down and I stood up in my little patent leather shoes and a
dress, I pounded on the armrest. I kept saying more, more, more! I was
entranced in some way, by theater in front of me. I was always singing
at the table when I was four or five. Whenever there was a production in
school, in third, fourth and fifth grade, I loved to be a part of it. It
was play acting for me and an extension of what I did naturally, running
around in the backyard or making set pieces with a friend. Disney would
produce these soundscapes based on the movies, we would have dialogue,
music and movement from the shows only it was a half-hour version of
everything. It was on vinyl. I would put those on and act out the whole
thing for my mom. I am sure she was like, I just want to read my
newspaper and let her do that.
One time I told my mom I was going to dance the nutcracker for her. She
thought oh I will just put it on and she will do the first number and
that will be it (she laughs and says) I danced through the entire thing.
I was five or six. I haven’t been a dancer since then. I am not a
dancer. Please don’t mistake me for being a dancer. At least I was
trying to tell stories. I am sure she was grading papers, while I did
that.
In school every year the fifth and sixth grade would do a combined
performance of some sort of script that the teachers would write. It
would be a musical and in fifth grade it was all about American history.
My solo on stage was singing “Brother Can You Spare a Dime,” during the
Great Depression sequence. I sang this and I remember holding out my
hands during the very last lyric (she sings) ‘Brother can you spare a
dime.’ The whole audience just roared at me in applause and I could see
flashes. I was kind of stunned and on the video, you can see my mouth
opening up to a smile. Then the lights went out and I went backstage to
change for the World War II sequence. I can remember thinking oh wait,
other people enjoy watching me having fun on stage. People enjoy
watching that, strangers, not just my mom. This is something that I
really would like to do. That justified a lot of choices that I made
from going to
Piedmont Boys' and
Girls' Choir.
I got to sing with people and
harmonize.
When I was getting ready to go to high school I went with my mom to the
productions by the (grades) ahead of me. I think I saw a version of
South Pacific in one high school. Then I saw one other production. I
then went to Bishop O’Dowd and we saw a production of Amadeus. I went
oh, they put money into this. They are not afraid to do adult material,
even if it is a catholic school. The acting is really good. They
basically transformed the small gym into a theater. On the way out and
in the parking lot I told my mom, I really want to come here. That was
the choice and it was a great experience. I did a lot of musicals there.
I played a lot of the mama, big ‘belty’ roles that I am aging into now,
Mama Rose, Evita, Hello Dolly, Arsenic and Old Lace.
When the time came for college, my mom said we are Californians and we
can afford to go into the U of C system and I went to the University of
California.
(I was) was mostly in the musical department, with John Hall who was the
teacher of the Musical Theater Workshop. Musicals were produced in the
music department, while plays were produced in the theater department.
I did Into the Woods, Once Upon
a Mattress, which Carol Burnett directed. That was an interesting
experience, because she came with some of her old tricks up her sleeve.
I played the wench, who runs around being chased by the king. (she
laughs). That was my thing, I was able to run around, squeal and be
goofy. Also, it was self-produced by us. I directed a production of
Assassins. We did a production of Falsettos and of Once On This Island.
Those were my formative years at UCLA.
Sierra Rein is also known as one of the founding members of the
award-winning musical ensemble Marquee Five.
We have to first however go all the way back to UCLA again, when “I was
in an a cappella group called Awaken A Cappella and one of my good
friends in that was Vanessa Parvin, who at the time was Vanessa
Marshall. She was one of the first people that I contacted when I moved
to New York City in 2008. I had been doing a bunch of stuff in Los
Angeles, musically. The year before I moved to New York I did a year
with the Definitely Dickens Holiday Carolers, which was four-part
harmony at Disney Land Resorts. We rang bells and we were very festive.
It was time to move to do the New York thing and when I contacted
Vanessa, I was like hey what are you doing out here. She was like I have
a young child and I have a Christmas caroling group. I was oh my god, I
just came from a Christmas caroling group. That is amazing. Do you need
altos? She said sure.
I
Adam West Hemming made a four-part harmony arrangement for “Oh What a
Beautiful Morning,” from Oklahoma! and we did little bits and pieces of
musicals. We asked, what is a published show that we can do? We thought
As the World Goes ‘Round by Kander and Ebb, which is already an expanded
review of (John) Kander and (Fred) Ebb music. It requires a fifth person
and Vanessa knew this person called Julie Reyburn, who is a mezzo
(soprano). She was game and we started singing through some arrangements
from the Kander and Ebb show.
At one point during the rehearsal Adam said I think we need to do a
Cabaret show of Kander and Ebb music. We should do some arrangements
from The World Goes ‘Round, but I will do some newer arrangements that
are not from this show, and they are completely different.
I brought in Mark Janas as our pianist and co-music crafter with Adam
and Peter
Napolitano
was our director. We performed
it at the Metropolitan Room and the show was called We Can Make It, the
Songs of Kander and Ebb. We won best group for the MAC Awards that year.
We thought that’s cool. Thanks. Right out of the gate that was really
cool.
Since then, we have created a couple of other shows. We have a full
Broadway show called Broadway By the Letter. We created Eight Track
Throwback, which is also our CD, our album. It was a lot of fun and it
has a Rock band aspect to it as well. We have a swing show called Back
Porch Swing. We are slowly developing new shows and I think it has been
since 2011 that we have been a recurring staple in the Sondheim
Unplugged Series. We created a
Sondheim show out of all the different arrangements over the years for
Phil Geoffrey Bond who is the host of Sondheim Unplugged. His last
hosting gig at the end of September is going to be his one hundredth.
We love singing together. When we were (apart) during the pandemic we
would sometimes have Zoom calls together, just to catch up. We shared
our family strife and our hopes and our dreams. We had people come in
and cover, while I was with Disney Cruise Lines and Julie wanted to step
away for a moment to make sure she was taking care of her family. When
the pandemic was over it was like, do you want to come back? When
Marquee Five spent a wonderful afternoon recording five of our
arrangements, we invited Julie to come back. We said Julie do you want
to come back? We had lost our mezzo to Disneyland. We are happy to have
Julie Reyburn back. The founding members are back in business, as it
were.
We are regrouping, discovering some new arrangements and maybe going
back to our original roots. We are figuring out what show we want to do
perhaps in 2023.”
Although Marquee Five boasts a vast musical palette, we wanted to dive a
little deeper into the show tunes side of things, so asked Sierra Rein
how she individually and how the group prepare when singing a song that
has its context within a musical and in many cases a specific character.
‘it is a really tough balance between people’s expectations for the song
and the history behind it. Then there is what you bring to the song and
how you interpret the lyrics. We have done a gender bent version of
“Still Hurting,” from Last Five Years, when Adam our tenor sings the
lead. Him singing about Jamie (Wellerstein) is different than the
original production. It is no less painful to say, oh my relationship
with Jamie is gone.
We have an insane mashup of Sondheim songs. It is a combination when
each of us sing a solo piece, a snippet of a Sondheim song and then at
the very end Adam has miraculously melded these five melodies altogether
in this cacophonous tapestry of Sondheim music. It is very fun to sing.
I sing “Broadway Baby.” I am not the original character from the show
who is going on seventy or eighty years old ironically singing about
hitting the pavement and being a baby. I am kind of in between. I have
auditioned a lot, but I still have hopes and I still have dreams of
making it on Broadway. I can relate to the character and I can put my
own spin on the character. It has been sung by both young people
unironically and by older people in a way that is, this used to be my
youth feeling. (It could be) they are still hitting the boards and
auditioning just as fervently as when they were twenty.
When you are singing as a group you have to realize that as a group you
are telling a story and you all want to be on the same page, as to how
we are communicating a song. If we are all singing “Something’s Coming,”
from West Side Story we have snippets of solos but we have (times) when
we are singing in harmony. We all have to be on the same page as actors.
Not necessarily just as actors, but as vocalists, so we have a common
voice.”
I bet you thought we were finished talking about all the various aspects
of Sierra Rein’s artistic career. Wrong! Remember way back when we
talked about Sierra Rein meeting a Canadian screenwriter through a
common puppeteering thread? Here is the scoop, Sierra Rein has an alter
ego and her name is Kay the Pal.
She explains, Sierra that is, not Kay, “She’s my id She is my please oh
god someone cast me in (whatever musical, play or film). I would love to
play Kate and Lucy the slut.
We had seen these puppets at the
Whatnot Workshop
of F.A.O. Schwartz,
when it was on Fifth Avenue,
right near the south corner of Central Park. My husband and I have
always loved the Muppets, Fraggles, Dark Crystal and anything to do with
puppets. For Christmas right before Obama was inaugurated, we got these
puppets. My husband brought his puppet to the inauguration. He said I
have to bring it. I can’t leave it at home. He created his character on
the spot. We have video of his character coming to life. We filmed
around Washington D.C. It was amazing how people reacted to Jay the Pal.
I came up with a name for mine and I called her Kay the Pal. They are
not romantically involved, they are cousins. They are related, but they
can still give each other shit. I decided to make her a singer.”
Now why doesn’t that surprise us that Sierra Rein would make Kay the Pal
into a singer?
You can catch Sierra Rein on the podcasts
Horror Movie Survival Guide, which she co-produces
and
Life’s But A Song, on which she appears as a
regular guest.
She is also reading a new play with the American Bard Theater Company on
October 3, more details still to come. Marquee Five performs at 54
Below, 7 pm, New York City, Sondheim Unplugged: Into Sweeny Todd’s
Woods.
Please
visit the website for Sierra Rein for more
performance dates. You can follow Sierra Rein
on Instagram.
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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).”
t
was revealed that she was heading up the east coast version of
Definitely Dickens (she laughs), while I was in the west coast version.
I had no idea there was an east coast branch of the same caroling
company. I knew the arrangements, but there were a couple of differences
in the repertoire. I said I am an alto and I know it all and she was I
am a soprano, so let’s sing together. This new guy Mick Bleyer was
singing bass. When people heard us sing, they would ask what do you guys
do the rest of the year, beyond Christmas caroling. We would say, we go
about our merry ways, do musical theater and teach. People said you
sound really good together. We thought, why don’t we find out what that
sound is, beyond Christmas caroling.