Music and Cooking!

Hi everyone. It’s Juri Panda Jones. Yes. I am the chef/musical director.

I am hoping that someday I can be a host of some reality show that teaches music and cooking at the same time. I love both. They are pretty similar when you think about it.

You have to use all your senses, improvise, be alert, sophisticated, be smart and be spontaneous.



I started playing the piano at age 3 and started cooking at age 4. My mom treated me like an adult when I was young and she even forced me to join her Rock band when I was 4. I rehearsed every Tuesday night with some adults and memorized all my parts. Then the day of the show, I got nervous and couldn’t perform. All I did was blamed on my mother putting orange scarf around my waist of the beautiful costume which she used her wedding dress’s material to make it for me. I cried so hard on the back stage.



I was raised in Japan and that place that I lived till age of 13 was very rural.

They had a farm and grew everything except onions and rice. I loved my grand-ma’s cooking. She let me help all the time and I did not mind at all. She always measured by her eyes and never saw her using any measuring tools. (I don’t think she owned any)



So now days, I hate to use recipes, measuring tools. I read them and I even record Japanese cooking show and watch them closely but I always memorize the recipes and ingredients. I use ratio thinking and dimensional thinking when I cook. Just like music.

You hear something and just use your sense to make it prettier. When you are in the moment and grooving, you wanna create that momentum with your gut and feeling not by meticulous manual and direction.



I love cooking because sometimes being artist can get frustrated because it’s difficult to see the end of tunnel, but cooking, yes you can see it. You can see that it’s done. You can see people eat your food, saying nice things to you and you can see that you did something positive for that day.



Music is harder to feel that goal than cooking. Cooking has tangible measurable outcome, but music/being musician is harder to see it.



I love being musician and chef because I am good at it and I feel perfectly balanced.



Thanks all the crew/ cast for eating my food and being so wonderful to me. As you know I believe in the power of food! It sure made us closer and we became such a wonderful team! I absolutely love Surviving the Nian. Working with all of you makes me so proud and wanna make me cook more food for you guys!



And please remember I can play the piano, too!

Juri March 28

Nian, he was here....

So a run-through tomorrow.... I'm not sure if I'm ready, but I don't think anyone's ever ready for a run-through. You just gotta do it, screw up, fix it, and then you'll be ready. It's kinda scary we only have about a dozen rehearsals before the show goes up.... Eek... It's very exciting and scary at the same time. I don't know which one more so....

We just had a our final music only rehearsal, which was awesome because Juri brought her amazing lasagna and lemon pie.... It's amazing how much she's helped me throughout this rehearsal, because I never knew that I needed THIS much work on my singing, but now I really feel like I'm getting somewhere. Hopefully I won't let her down on stage.... Our entire cast is getting to a point where we sing out a line from the musical every other minute. We were walking down the street to get lunch and we'll spew out a line from a musical and all of us kept humming the tunes in harmony.... It's definitely a good sign I guess... and a bad one because we're going to annoy all of our friends and families with our non-stop humming. Anywho... designer run-through, bring it on!!

Hyun Soo March 26

As JURI is my witness, I'll never go hungry again!

Scarlett O'Hara is not the only one eating good these days. The cast of Nian has been eating some serious five star lunches since Juri has been on the set for rehearsal. From home made turkey lasagna to lemon pie (with whipped cream!), cookies, Vietnamese noodles (with the lime, of course) omurice (a delicious Japanese rice and omelet combination) and fried rice, our bellies have been in very good moods. But Juri's food would be nothing without her battery powered pepper grinder, which not only adds the extra flavor to the meal, but the extra entertainment as well (right, Wu family?). Lunch, laughs, and a battery powered pepper grinder. What more could you ask for?

Thank you for all the wonderful lunches, Juri! You're the best :-)

Megumi March 25

Tired. Sleepy. Awesome.

Blogging today: Abria! She plays Asha

Whew. It's late, I'm tired. The kids were up late because they were wired. I'm so sleepy, I'm writing stupid poetry. I have had no time to blog because things are soooo hectic. I can't really do it while the kids are up because they require a lot of undivided attention. I keep asking myself, "What have I gotten myself into?" as if I didn't know that working full time, going to school and taking care of two kids (oh yeah and rehearsing for a play) was going to be tough. I guess I'll stop whining now. At least I get to work with an awesome cast of people who are very supportive.

I wonder what my costumes will look like. Will I finally meet with the makeup artist? Will I stop blurting out random things? Probably not. I am so exhausted. I guess sleep is winning right now. I'm out.

Abria March 24

The Jaded Lounge

Jacques Monday was pretty fun - I performed and lounged backstage with the always fabulous Becca D'Bus and her multi-colored, multi-layered, multi-textured monster wigs. Lotus Blossom sported humongous Pamela Anderson boobs and tried to fit them in this small strappy dress. Hot.

Kit Yan, a brilliant poet-spoken-word extraordinaire (and did I mention he is extremely extremely goodlooking???) did a couple of pieces. I met for the first time Alex Dematteo, also very sexy as both Justin Timberlake and Mimi from RENT.

The House of D'Bus cheered us on. It's always a good time even on a quiet night.

Melissa March 23

RISE AND SHINE!!!!

Today is our first 10am rehearsal for Nian. Over the last few days we have all worked hard with Patrick to create our Wu family. The casting has been done really well and I must say that Judy does little quirks as Mother Wu that actually remind me of my own mother. Spooky! And Hyunsoo, who plays my brother Vincent, has begun to really create that character, so I'm starting to feel quite at home with my new family. Gary came back from vacation and joined us in rehearsal last night which was wonderful to have him back! He's such a happy person to have around and I can't wait to do more scenes with my Uncle Tony! And of course, Abria and I have been having nothing but fun together in rehearsal. Often our downtime has been dedicated to perfecting the electric slide. I'm sure Patrick is happy to know she's practicing! haha. But so far everything has been great and rehearsals have been flying by! Which is both scary and very, very exciting. Every rehearsal, as we do our blocking and choreography, we get a small glimpse of what the final production might be like, and let me tell you. . . it's going to be great! :-)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Megumi March 17

Juggling and Singing

Juggling school, apartment hunting, and getting my class schedule organized for both the summer and next fall is proving to be quite a challenge. And of course, on top of all of that, is our rehearsal schedule for Nian. This past week was our music rehearsals with Juri and it was great to hear all the characters' voices come to life (not that hearing all the songs sung by Melissa's many voices wasn't entertaining). However, it did prove how many songs I'm singing and how many lines of lyrics and dialogue I'll need to memorize. It's quite a bit. But, like any other show I've done, it all seems overwhelming and unattainable in the beginning. However, with love, hard work and dedication (sounds like a relationship...) it all comes together and I know on opening night we'll all be bursting with excitement. Everyone's been really wonderful and we all can't wait till Gary (that lucky guy has been on vacation) will return and complete our family.

Megumi March 15

Slllllluuuuuurrrrrrpppp!

That slurping sound you hear is our amazing cast, sucking in the juicy drops of musical wisdom that Juri Panda Jones –our unparalleled Musical Director— has been pouring out for them! The first week of rehearsals has been so exhilarating! This cast is super-talented, bringing so much beauty and passion to their roles.

The songs that Melissa has written for this show (like 26 of them or something crazy like that!) are utterly gorgeous and hearing the cast work with them has me more excited than ever.

Juri is a master at getting right to the point and getting everyone to do their very best work, but at the same time she’s FUN! All that and she even made a scrumptious noodle dish for everyone to eat at rehearsal today. I first met her through our beloved fellow artist Tommy DeFrantz a few years ago. The moment we were introduced, she was in the act of giving someone else a gift (which is typical, so if you’re smart, make friends with her!). I don’t want to say exactly what the gift was, but… okay, its kind of like traditional herbal Viagra! Wait, snake venom isn’t really an herb, is it?

On Tuesday they start the staging rehearsals with our boy genius director Patrick Wang! I know, Patrick is not officially a boy anymore, youthful as he does appear. He’s a tremendously accomplished artist who’s made a big name for himself in theater and film. But I’m proud to say that I first met him when he WAS still a schoolboy! Well, at MIT.

Patrick is on my mind because he has played such a great role in the development of the show, giving deep and smart feedback and suggestions about the script and really pushing to make this the most spectacular production The Theater Offensive has ever put on! Starting Tuesday, the whole cast will get the pleasure of plugging into his creativity.

Valencia Imani Hughes, the Production Stage Manager, keeps the whole show running! When Valencia is in charge, everyone is well taken care of. We also know we better deliver, because as a mother of four (!) Valencia knows a thing or two about being in charge. Actually, she’s now a proud grandmother! In fact, her daughter Marina was helping Valencia at a production meeting for our last show when she went into labor. I’ll never forget, Valencia was so devoted to the production, she was like: “Sweetheart, just hold tight. I’ll finish my meeting in just a few minutes, then I’ll drive you to the hospital. One cool cucumber!

So it’s not a surprise that with this terrific cast and crew, rehearsals are going strong. This is destined to be one of our most spectacular productions EVER!

Abe March 13

MUSICAL!

And we now hear from Hyun Soo who plays Vincent!

So it begins... Surviving the Nian rehearsal.... I just survived the first week of rehearsal.... A lot of work to be done... It's been a while since I was in a musical. Almost 5 years.... And everyone's wicked helpful, and Juri's angel hair noodles are awesome. She's such a mom, she was like "Make sure to put the lime in it. It'll taste better!"

I really enjoy the music. Now I find myself keep singing after the rehearsal with all the songs stuck in my head. Which is good, because they're all very catchy and enjoyable, but annoying because it keeps playing over and over and over and over again in my head... I feel bad for Asha and Kaylin, because they have to learn a LOT of songs.... I have like 11 but there's like 3 where I have.... a total of 2 measures or so of singing or speaking, which is kinda sweet. I can still say that I have a LOT of songs in the show, but I dont have to put in work for it.

I'm def. excited for the rest of rehearsal. We'll see how well I can memorize all my lines...

Hyun Soo March 11

Sing! Sing! Sing!

Megumi Haggerty plays Kaylin, Megumi is today's blogger.

Hi! This is the first time I've ever "blogged" so I don't know if I'll be any good at this. Hope I'm not boring and you actually read this little entry till the end. Anyways, I will be playing Kaylin in Nian and am very excited about that! I adore this show and think it's going to be wonderful when we open in April. It seems so far away till then but I know it's going to creep up on us fast! I'm a junior B.A. Theatre Education major with an Emphasis in Acting at Emerson College. And although I've never been a musical theatre kid, I guess I'm getting sucked into it now with this show . . . funny, how they'll get ya, huh?

So last night was my first singing rehearsal for Nian and it was a lot of fun. Juri is our great musical director and working with her was not only professional and easy, but it really helped me put the story behind the lyrics. Kaylin is a strong young woman, but she does have a vulnerable side and that part of her comes through in her songs. She's a great character to play and I know I will discover more and more about her with every rehearsal.

(Are you still reading this? Good!) I just clicked on the Surviving the Nian blog site and wow! That's my face! On the right-hand side of the page. I guess that's the poster they're using for the show. It looks fantastic! And I love the fun picture of Abria and I on the bottom. That picture was in the METRO last week (something I did not discover on my own but was told via text message by friends who had seen it). All this publicity for the show is great and I hope it brings in a wide variety of audience members, because it really is a relatable story on so many levels. Plus, it'll give my mom something to brag about. ;-)

Megumi March 8th

Look New

Deep from the trenches (okay dressing room) of make-up consultations, here's Mariko who plays Jessie:

Last Thursday, I had a hair and makeup consultation for the show. Had my bangs cut, which I was growing for the past six months, and my really long hair got a trim (about 5 inches). I look really Asian now. Actually, this is the hairdo I've had since I was five years old.

Then I had a makeup done...with huge pink eyelashes. I decided to go home with the stage makeup, but I stopped by my office for a bit. Saw my boss and said hi, but I don't think he recognized me. Then I was going to go hit the mall, but I realized I had different eye makeups on each side. My roommate liked my new look.

Mariko March 5

Annoying

I have been so annoying at work today.

I started my day, as usual. I walked by the front desk of the YMCA and debated whether or not I should pick up the Metro (because lately I haven't had time to do my crossword). I did pick it up. In the office, I flipped through it to search for my puzzle when I noticed - get this - a HUGE picture of Abria and Megumi (my beautiful lead actresses) covering a quarter of the page.

My heart was totally racing. I'm so excited about this show, I ran and told everyone at work, even people I'm not really that close with.
Everyone.

I have been so annoying at work today.

Melissa March 2