Bob Christianson & Cappy Capossela

Once Cappy and I decided to start recording “Grail”, the first thing we had to do was to find a cast— a cast that had Broadway acting skills AND rock vocal skills. Today, that type of actor is much easier to find than when we started to record the piece.

But we were REALLY lucky. We not only found a great cast, but a cast that would commit to recording the whole show, even though it took almost two years.

Having been a studio arranger, keyboard player and singer for many years, I was fortunate enough to know many talented artists who could get the song “nailed” in one or two takes, as well as keep the through-line of the character happening. We found Sophia Ramos to play Justine; Vaneece Thomas to play Kundree; Bill Nolte to play Senator Peter Klingsor; Florence Warner to play Maya, and Joseph Kolinski to play Richard Castleman. We were also lucky enough to find Russell Velazquez to play the Red Knight and Kurt Yahjian to play the dual role of Jessie and Dr. A. We even found the “young Lance” we were looking for, the talented Christopher Marquett. The only role we hadn’t filled was our hero….Lance.

We kept auditioning a lot of really talented people for the role, but no one seemed to be the “right fit”. Now, originally, Cappy and I had written the adult role of Lance to be in his late 30’s, or early 40’s. Here’s the perfect story to point out how sometimes hearing and seeing a specific actor can change your whole concept of who a character
“should” be.

We were told about this amazing young actor, Jason Paige, and we decided to audition him. The only problem was that he was, in our minds, much too young to play Lance. Then we saw him, and heard him sing, and from that moment we KNEW he was Lance. All we had to do was to re-write the character about 15 years younger. And you know what? It turned out MUCH better that way. Without Jason Paige, this piece would never have happened. (Thank you, Jason!!!!)

And to top it all off, we got the amazing Margaret Dorn to not only arrange the vocals for the show, but to lead the chorus as well. You can say what you want about my music, or Cappy’s book or lyrics, but every single vocal in Grail is sung with skill, passion, and amazing commitment. For that, I am indebted to everyone who sang on “Grail”.

In my next blog entry, I’ll tell you more about the characters, and more about how the show was recorded, but I want to fast forward a bit to thank a few people who are helping spread the “Grail” story now.

“Grail” has always been a bit of a political piece, since part of the story is how the multi-national corporations have taken over America. (In our piece, we even call it “The United Corporations Of America”) So, last year, I decided to take one of the songs in the show called “City Of Light”, and commission an “animated” video for the song, making sure that we tied it in to what was happening politically in the country at the time.

I was lucky enough to find Jeff Clark. His vision of the song is simply awesome.
If you don’t know Jeff, he is the main designer/animator over at the Sci Fi Channel in New York.  He has created many incredible trailers, and promo spots for the Sci Fi Channel such as “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?”, “Splinter”, “Fire & Ice”, “Primeval” and many more. You should check out his website at: www.jcthetruth.com

The other stroke of luck was to find our web designer 2b•2p to totally re-do the “Grail” website. You should also check them out at www.2b2p.com . They totally brought it up to date, and made it easier to find out anything you want to know about the story or the CD. (Thank you!)

In my next blog entry, I’ll tell you how we recorded the songs, and how we put it all together.

Tags: 2b2p, animator, beginnings, grail, Jeff Clark, video, web design