According to Jenny Stafford in her one-woman musical Color Inside The Lines, there’s three types of boys in high school drama clubs: closeted gay guys, socially awkward nerds, and hot jocks who discovered that singing is attractive to girls. When a matchmaking quiz pairs her up with one of the shy nerds, Jenny is horrified, but looking back as an adult, she begins to wonder if he could have been the love of her life. The Indiependent spoke to Stafford about her inspirations, and the challenges she faced when creating the show.
The Indiependent: Why did you decide to create Color Inside The Lines?
Jenny Stafford: I’ve been carrying the two main lines of this show with me for almost twenty years—the story of the drag queen reading my palm and telling me I’d never find love, and the story of my experience with Michael Davis (not his real name). I find that when an idea stays with me for a long time, I’m usually meant to create something out of it—and these two ideas had finally had enough time to settle in my mind and my heart that I felt like I could write about them.
What made you decide to make Color Inside The Lines a musical?
It actually wasn’t a musical when I started writing it—I started it as a play! I found myself really struggling and banging my head against the wall in the process, and was like, “Why can’t I write this show?!” There was one moment in the show I wrote five or six drafts of and couldn’t get right—it was such a fragile moment and there was just no way to give it the space and weight and nuance it needed. And I suddenly realized, “Oh, wait…I think this moment is a song. It needs to go slowly, and needs breath and music and lyricism.” Then I realized the whole show needed to be a musical…and it was amazing how quickly it wrote itself after that!
The songs in the show are delightfully catchy. Do you have a composing process?
Thank you so much! This is actually the first show I’ve written music for! I write book and lyrics for a lot of musicals, but usually work with a composer. Several of the composers I’ve worked with have told me that I should try writing music, but I’d always dismissed it as, “Oh, no. I’m not a composer. I just write little melodies; I don’t play any instruments well or do music theory well enough to compose.”
But by the time I discovered that this show should be a musical, I was up against a tight deadline—there really wasn’t time to bring a composer into the process and catch them up on the story and the tone and go back and forth on multiple drafts. This was my story, and I knew how I wanted it to sound, so I decided to terrify myself and take a leap and write the music myself!
However, I’m extremely fortunate that my fiancé, Mark, is a musician (he plays guitar in the show!), so he and I really collaborated on what the accompaniment and underscoring should sound like.
Did you face any challenges when creating the play? What were they, and how did you overcome these?
A “solo musical” is a real challenge to structure! So the craft of shaping the show was a real artistic challenge. But the larger personal challenge of this show is that it’s all based on real people and real events, and one particular person from my past. I had to keep asking myself, “How much of this story is mine to tell?” Without giving too much away, I wanted to be extremely sensitive about it. My goal was to honour this person and his impact on my life, while being aware of what parts of his life are not mine to share.
What kind of reactions to the show do you tend to get from the audience?
I think this piece is a great example of “what’s specific is universal.” This is a very specific story from my life, and I’ve been really surprised by the number of people who have been moved by it and said, “You described my experience exactly. I loved so much of that.” It’s a piece that’s funny until it’s not, and I think people are surprised by how much of a journey they experience in 55 minutes.
What do you hope the audience will take away from your show?
I hope we all take away the courage to go for what we want in our lives, and an increased appreciation of how much love exists around us…and maybe new awareness of the people we overlook in our lives and don’t love as well as we should. So basically, more love and courage!
Who are your inspirations?
I was hugely inspired by Ben Scheuer’s show The Lion for this piece in particular; it’s a great example of blending storytelling and music and personal narrative. I’ve bawled my eyes out watching it far too many times and tried to pay homage to it in a couple of small spots in this show.
How are you finding Scotland? Have you had a chance to sample any of our food?
I am in love with Scotland…I don’t want to leave! It’s such a beautiful place, and the people are so kind and friendly. I may have developed a small obsession with sticky toffee pudding. We also tried vegetarian haggis, which feels like cheating, but…it was great!
Color Inside The Lines will be performed at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall from 22-23 and 25-27 August as part of Edinburgh Fringe.
Words by Ellen Leslie
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