Rock of Ages comes to the Madcity with Director David Pausch

I wanna rock!

I wanna rock!

I wanna rock!

I wanna rock!

Ha ha ha!

A small-town girl and a city boy meet on Sunset Strip

while pursuing their Hollywood dreams.

That is the liner for the 2012 movie, Rock of Ages,

responsible for bringing 80s glam rock to a new generation.

I couldn't talk my daughter into listening

metallic to Metallica, but deaf leopard, twisted sister,

and journey were now firmly on her radar.

I'll bit a slightly different version than I remember.

One Broadway show, Rock of Ages,

is coming to the Mitby Theater at Madison College

from March 1st through March 9th,

and it's directed by Dave Pousch.

Dave Pousch and Karen Sari, they are here to tell us

all about it.

Welcome to Maxine Curredio.

Thank you for having us.

So, you know, who is your favorite rock band of all time?

Oh boy.

It's a good question.

I have been a long time, so I am in, like, it's funny.

I was a really big, like, heavy metal head

when I was in early teens,

but then I moved into punk and Indian.

My favorite band for 25 years has been guided by voices.

Karen?

I'm gonna have to go with,

it's a toss up between The Who and Queen.

Oh, what are your kids listen to?

Show tunes.

Almost exclusively, yeah, constantly.

Wow, okay.

Well, Dave, tell us a little bit about yourself

and how you became the director of Rock of Ages.

Well, I've been a theater, doing theater in Madison

since the late 90s, basically, and a variety of capacities.

So I was involved in the Bartel Theater

when I first opened in the late 90s

of an involved in community theater there.

And then I've kind of moved into,

I've had my own theater companies,

a couple different ones.

The Bricks Theater was the one

that had the most kind of play for a while.

And then I've moved into kind of more educational

and professional theater.

I've worked with Forward CTM,

done a lot with Madison College.

I'm also the theater director at La Follet High School.

It seems like there's a,

I've known a number of people doing radio

that Don Theater here in Madison.

It seems like theater here in Madison is very welcoming

and it's very easy to get into.

It absolutely is.

It's a long standing community

that's very pretty close knit,

people know each other.

And that kind of goes from the people

that are doing like community work all the way

to the people that are doing the professional work,

the kind of all, it all dovetails.

And one other place, if I may jump in,

the Bartel Theater.

That place has been a Madison forever.

It's kind of a legendary theater in Madison, right?

And like I said, I mean,

I, the first show I did at the Bartel

was the second year it was open,

which was what, 98?

Wow.

Back when, after you get done with the show,

you'd walk out of the theater

and there was nothing to do down, like down in the square.

Oh, right.

It was pretty old fashioned if you can believe that.

Dang.

Wow.

Yeah.

So tell us a little bit about

Brock of Ages, the musical,

and what makes it different from the movie,

or is it even different from the movie?

Well, so I heard, KJ, I heard you say earlier,

during a little secret that you've never seen the movie.

I have to admit that I've never seen the movie either,

so I'll make it.

I'm not alone.

Not alone.

Well, full confession, I haven't seen the movie either.

And the thing is, that's, it's actually,

that is something that I try not to do,

if I am actively working on a play,

that there's a movie version of,

because the stage version of something

and the film version of something

are going to be two completely different actors, right?

So you take, take another musical,

like, you know, the Sweeney Todd, right?

So there was, it's this long, loved, dark musical,

and then a film version comes out,

made with Johnny Depp, everybody,

everybody who loves the stage version,

pans the film version.

I was like, well, to be fair,

these are two different genres.

Right, you can't even compare them.

Different audiences, too.

Apples and Comquats.

Yeah.

Apples and Comquats.

I like that.

So will you see the movie after you've done the musical?

I probably will.

I think what happened with the movie, too,

is like, both of our kids were born in the early 2010s,

so it came out in 2012, and I don't see any movies.

No.

If it was, they were animated, right?

If it wasn't Pixar, now had Pixar made rock of ages,

maybe then I would have seen it.

Oh, that could be fun.

That would be really fun, I think.

So do you have different music in the musical then

to sort of bring it a little more to today?

No, I mean, it's the same sort of thing.

I mean, it's all, most of the music is from the 80s.

It's, the musical is really kind of a parody

of 80s, hair band culture, and 80s, hair band videos, right?

I mean, I think the music probably really extends

from the late 70s.

I think there's too much time in my hands by sticks, isn't it?

I think that was probably 79, rocker.

I'm guessing right there.

Right, yeah.

And then we kind of sneak into, I think the oldest,

the most recent song is Every Rose Has It's Thorn

is probably.

Yeah, I would actually say it's probably extreme.

Yeah.

More than words.

Yeah, more than 90s, more than 90s.

But most of them, like, you know,

hardened my heart by quarter flashes in it.

There's a couple journey songs.

These are all famous.

I want to rock.

Yeah.

So it's a jukebox musical.

Also, the performers are younger kids, right?

Are you college age or?

For the most part, they are.

There is quite a few Madison College students in it.

There's also quite a few people.

We've had a really interesting experience

because a lot of people have come in audition

to do a lot of work down at the Stoten Theater.

Okay.

And from that area.

And then, you know, there are a few people that aren't

college age.

A good friend of ours.

Bart Terrell is playing the father of one of the characters.

And he's not college age.

Let's just say that.

Bart's probably listening right now.

So he would expect me to make fun of him on the radio.

And I have a lot of college students.

How does a man's student become involved with this?

Well, I mean, I think what happens, especially

with Madison College is a unique kind of situation.

And Karen is the kind of runs the theater programming

there now.

And you kind of get an interesting mix of students

who are studying theater at Madison College

combined with community people.

So this is the fourth production I've been involved with

in the last two years.

Third one I've directed, I acted last fall.

And so what you end up getting is you get a lot of seasoned

theater artists that come in and do shows.

And then almost take a mentor position

towards some of the students that are doing the shows.

And so you kind of, it's a cool environment.

It's a cool experience.

It's not complete educational theater,

but at the same time, it functions that way.

It definitely is, especially when we

think about the guest artists.

Because I'm the only theater faculty at the college.

And so we don't have other faculty that

can teach the technical trades to those students.

And so when we hire guest artists,

that's actually part of their contract

that if a student raises their hand and says,

I really want to learn more about set design.

Or I want to learn more about sound design.

We ask that there be some learning opportunities.

OK, come with me for a couple hours.

And I'll show you what I do.

I'm on under my wing.

Let me show you some tricks.

Right.

So we've got, I mean, our lighting designer

is the technical director over at New My Arts Facility

where right there.

I can't wait to see the inside of that thing.

Yeah, I mean, we've got our lead carpenter,

he's been a professional theater tech for 40 years,

things like that.

So it's a really interesting thing.

Well, let's talk about your local trained trombonist

extraordinaire, Jamie Kenberer.

People may know him from the big payback,

but he's the music director for a rock of ages.

So you got local, local slabs in there.

Tell us about him.

We do.

Well, Jamie's a great guy.

Jamie and I actually both also work at LaFallette

because he is the band director at LaFallette.

And he works at Madison College.

See how that all works out?

He's kind of a big deal.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's a great guy.

He's called a really cool band together.

Beyond Jamie, we have, I mean, we've had,

I think we're telling you this, there's a few,

and we have other local artists, music artists, like you.

We have Annalise Howell, who, yeah.

I am, German art students.

Exactly.

Andrew Rowan from VO5, who's helped, has been involved in that.

So it's been really cool.

And Megan Randolph, who's the founder of the Founder

and Artistic Director of Music Theater of Madison,

also helped with some of the vocal coaching.

Yep.

So all these people coming in, all these pros coming in

to help.

So you, Dave, as the director, what's left for you to do?

Well, as the director, especially the show, like,

yes, I mean, I always say like, I'm the captain of the ship.

You know, I don't make all the decisions.

I mean, I make all the final decisions,

but I don't do all the work.

But I mean, especially with a musical like this.

So in my directing, like a non-musical play,

I really, most of the work that happens on stage is mine.

Like, I've worked with all the actors.

I've helped tell the story.

I set the, you know, develop the theme for the show.

But with a musical like this, I mean, there's choreographers,

there's music directors, there's the band,

there is all kinds of different things.

And I just kind of help corral that

and make sure we're all pointed in the same direction.

And I kind of give the entire production vision.

So they kind of go with, I kind of give them an idea

of where we want to go and they go, they take it there.

Yeah.

That's a great story.

Sounds like a great time at the Myth Thee Theatre,

Rock of Ages, at the Madison College,

Friday, March 1st, the show runs through March 9th.

If people wanted to get more information, get tickets,

how do we do that?

Okay, they can go to Madisoncollege.edu slash Rock of Ages.

And that will take you to a page on our events calendar.

And there'll be, just click the buy tickets link

and choose a show time.

I will add to that students get it,

Madison College students get it free with their one card.

So nice.

Nice.

Free is good.

And I mean, if you come, feel free to sing along,

have a good time, you know, don't light your lighter.

Right, we can't do that anymore,

but you can bring a picture of a lighter.

You can't light your lighter anymore?

Not in the Myth Thee Theatre, yes, sorry.

I think everybody holds it their phone now, right?

Does that what they do?

They don't hold it their phone.

Oh boy, times have changed.

Dave Karen, thank you so much for coming in,

telling us about Rock of Ages.

Once again, happening March 1st at the Myth Thee Theatre

at MAT Madison College, some Madison's East Side.

Thank you so much.

First through the ninth, right?

First through the ninth.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Thanks a lot.

Appreciate you all.

Let's do some mascot theory,

it's Maxing, Radio and Civic Media.

We are local music.