SLAC discusses process and pirates with Musical Director Darrin Doman

SLAC. Most of our audience know what a fantastic actor you are after GOD OF CARNAGE, but tell us about yourself as a musical director.

DARRIN DOMAN. The first time I musically directed a show... I'm trying to think when that was. It was back in the Dark Ages.

SLAC. When did you start playing the piano?

DARRIN DOMAN. I started piano lessons with Piccola Wood when I was in the third grade, and she was a very good teacher. In the third grade, I would have been eight. I must have taken to the piano quite quickly, and she would show me off – she chronically told people I was six or five... She told someone I was four once. "I'm eight.." It was like she was trying to make herself look good as a teacher. Apparently I outgrew her, and she referred me onto to Don Royster, and I spent the rest of my junior high years studying under one teacher. He was, interestingly enough, a graduate of Yale. My piano teacher was roommates with Maury Yeston in college, and Maury Yeston, I believe, is still at Yale as a theory teacher or a composition teacher. My piano teacher's doctoral thesis is actually an entry in the New Grove Music Dictionary, which is very prestigious, and here he is in small town in Idaho teaching piano lessons. He can trace his piano lineage back to Bach. We studied together, and I went to college on a performance scholarship to Utah State University. One summer, a friend of mine was in an unfortunate car accident, and he called me from the hospital asking if I would take over as pianist for a production at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson, Wyoming. The Pink Garter Theatre is no longer in existence, but for the next three summers, I was involved with the Pink Garter Theatre in some capacity or another – most of the time I was in the pit, but I did run lights and box office and a few other things, so I got a good taste of summer stock theatre and musical theatre in general. One year, the piano player had some lines – it was a murder mystery – and it came to light that the piano player was offing people throughout the night. I was the bad guy. I had some lines, and I got tied up and jabbed with a stick, and it was a good time! And I realized it was more fun being onstage than being in the dark pit, so that's how I started in musical theatre. Performing at the Grand, I had some opportunities to do some assistant musical directing, but my very first gig was at Rogers Memorial Theatre.

SLAC. So singing and acting just came to you naturally?

DARRIN DOMAN. I don't know natural, but I studied voice as well as piano. Piano was my main instrument, but I studied voice as well.

SLAC. When did you start studying voice?

DARRIN DOMAN. When I was very young, but I kind of left it after my voice changed because it was a completely different instrument, so it took me a while to get back into that. I guess it was college again. After years as a performance major on the piano, I developed a stress injury, and I was not going to be able to complete my degree as a performance major, but I did some studies with regard to vocal pedagogy and choral conducting as I finished my speech therapy degree, so I got to study voice at a college level and sing with the college choirs as well. Then I had piano background, vocal pedagogy background, some vocal performance background, coupled with what I'd learned at the Pink Garter Theatre and then in other community theatres, and it all came to the point where someone asked me if I would musically direct a show.

Penny and I met up via Youth Theatre at the U. Our first project together was ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, and we had a good time. She had me back a couple of years in a row. The last project we worked on together was actually a pirate show, CAPTAIN BREE AND HER LADY PIRATES. Imagine a band of lady pirates. It was a scary show. So, Penny and I – and pirates – go way back. We're very familiar with the genre and all the gimmicks.

[Piano is] certainly not for everybody but nobody had to force me into practicing or shake a stick or threaten me in any way. My mother and grandmother were arts-minded and wanted us to learn an instrument, but they said we could pick, and they would help pay for lessons. Since there was already a piano in the house, that's what I leapt for. I was always motivated to practice because it was fulfilling to me to play an instrument.

SLAC. Can you talk more about the music in HOW I BECAME A PIRATE and the process?

DARRIN DOMAN. I've auditioned for plays here at SLAC, and I was fortunate enough to be in VOYEUR 2005, understudy for David Spencer in I AM MY OWN WIFE, numerous New Play Sounding Series readings, but kind of without even pushing the issue, Keven Myhre approached me and asked if I would be interested in directing a show. I had helped with some music with a fundraiser some time ago, and apparently some people were pleasantly surprised – perhaps pleased – with the work I did; I don't know if that had anything to do with it. It was mostly Keven approaching me; I don't know what kind of conversations staff might have had, but I was certainly happy to be picked as the Musical Director. I get along well with children, of which there are two in the cast.

SLAC. And the adult children – of which there are five.

SHANNON MUSGRAVE (a.k.a. Max the Pirate). Or four and me.

DARRIN DOMAN. I'm very careful when I tell people I'm musically directing children's theatre, because Children's Theatre is a confusing term. It could be children acting or it could be adults acting for children. Is there a determination or distinction between the two? I have to be very careful to specify that it is adults acting for children.

SLAC. Does Professional Children's Theatre say anything?

DARRIN DOMAN. I like adding Professional. And of all the theatres around town that do put on musicals, SLAC is the only one that does musicals for a kid audience, and I think that's really terrific. The script is, of course, geared to kids, but there's humor for the adults as well. I really like the "Pirates Dot Arggh" song because it's kind of that conflation of the old and the new. Kids growing up today are all very tech savvy and then you apply that to pirates, and that's kind of fun. I also enjoy the "our teeth are green" song because apparently it's a parental threat. I've talked to more than one parent who's said when their kids don't want to brush, "Do you want to end up with pirate teeth?" So I think it's going to strike a nice chord with kids and adults. As far as the process, I've said before that they call it musical theatre for a reason; there needs to be an emphasis on the music. I can't think of any musical theatre director from Broadway or whatever who is particularly famous. Musical Directors – and even the music in musical theatre – gets a little bit shoved to the side. I think if it's done very well becomes part of the play, and you don't even notice it's a musical. It's only if it's jarring – when it's bad musical theatre that people want to know who the musical director is. So I'm hoping I'm not in that category this time around. As far as coaching the music, I'm all about technique and having a good technique. Some people think that you're an opera singer, or you're a pop singer, or you're a country singer, or you're a Broadway singer, but if somebody has good technique and how to use their voice, then they can span the range. So I'll always do warm ups with some vocal exercises with some specific techniques attached to them to add balance or blend or a flavor to the number and the show. When it comes to pirates, it may be a little ragged and there may be a little more growling than I would normally want. I may not worry about the vowel shaping as much, but crisp diction and good entrances and cutoffs are things I'll be paying attention to. Having worked with Penny before, I know there's a kind of a hierarchy, so I know I'll teach notes and rhythms and lyrics to begin with, and I won't worry too much about cutoffs because Penny so craftily choreographs that she will put movements in that then I can coordinate with cutoffs, and we'll have some sort of body movement that "this is where you put the 't'", "this is where the phrase comes to an end", which is such a wonderful marriage of movement and music. I'm so glad Penny gets that because it makes my job easier, and in reverse, I hope that the things I'm doing are making her job easier as well. She doesn't have to worry about diction and rhythm and notes; I can take care of that. She can do the blocking. I think we've managed to figure each other out and compliment each others' style of directing.

SLAC. Can you speak to the style of the music?

DARRIN DOMAN. I hesitate to call it karaoke music because that sounds a little derogatory, but it is canned music; it is pre-recorded, so you don't have to hire musicians and pay them. That's a nice sort of cost-cutting measure. The musical stylings – there's a ballad; there's a little sort of lazy waltz, there's a sort of calypso, reggae, salsa feel. You get a variet of musical styles mixed all together. So you can see the pirates and the influence of the sea and the ports around the world that shaped their musical interests...

SLAC. We're going deep.

DARRIN DOMAN. Nothing real heavy rock, but a lot of fun stuff.

SLAC. Thank you, Darrin MD!