POCAHONTAS Judy Kuhn Panel & Performance – Steel City Con August 2022

judy

kuhn

welcome, welcome thank you very much for coming okay, hello everyone, thank you for coming so early so we have time for a few questions before we start. I would just like to ask very quickly. Yes, I know you have a background in music. theater, how difficult was the transition to voice acting and singing? Well, I mean, theater is where I live. I mean, I'm a theater actor, that's what I do. I do little film and television, but what I love is performing live in theater and I mean the transition, I mean, the reason I did Pocahontas is because of my background in theater, which the writers Alan Menken and Steven Schwartz They were theater writers.

I had worked with Stephen on a show before a Broadway show called Rags and he wrote the lyrics. stop and um oh there's a bra someone saw one of the four rag shows um uh and um so they invited me to do it and and what I think is the modern 20's you know late 20th century um uh Disney animated movies One of the reasons Why I think they were so popular and so great is that they were written by theater writers and they had a kind of energy and storytelling that people really responded to and that's why they had a lot of voice characters from theater artists, which is why I I felt very lucky that they invited me.

Thank you. Would you mind receiving some questions from the audience? I don't have much time. Who has a question here? okay, he's doing it oh yeah, I'm doing it, right? No, you don't need to scream, I got you, I don't want to touch a nerve, but out of your four of your four Tony nominations, did you get them and I don't understand how you never got one, but thank you, that's very kind. Did you have a favorite role? Uh, you know it's like choosing between your children, how can you do that? she's great, thank you um, I mean, I guess out of those four, oh God, I don't know, I can't choose, I mean fun at home. which one was the most recent one still lives in my heart so if I had to choose maybe I would choose that and we'll probably have a two part question here alright hi Judy it's great to have you with us.

Today I just want to say a wonderful job since Pocahontas is part of my childhood, thank you. Okay, so the two-part question is: what was the experience of working with Alan Menken and Steven Schwartz on Pocahontas? and the second question is what moment do I consider to be the most impressive, both in theater and in musicals. Oh wow, okay, working with Alan and Steven was fantastic. I adore them both, they are hilarious. I have an excellent relationship with them. And like I said, I worked with Stephen. before, so I knew him and Alan only from New York and stuff like that, um, the most shocking thing. um, I think I have to pick funny home again because, um, gosh, there are some funny home fans out there because it was an incredible personal journey that I was involved in. in developing the show for many years and um i um emma liked to think of myself as a kind of social activist and sort of combined my interest in theater and storytelling and social activism.

I think it was such an important story that we were telling and I think it had a big impact on our audience and that was very special to me, it went beyond entertaining to something else and that was very important to me and a question in the middle here , so hello, hello. My question is: How hard was it to learn all the music and stuff and all your lines and stuff for Pocahontas because I'm really interested in that kind of stuff? Well, I didn't do the talking part, so um, but um. You know, the way you learn any material is not really through memorization, but by learning to understand what you're saying, what story you're telling, who you're talking to, all those things and the more deeply you understand them.

You just don't forget, you just know, ask again in the middle. How did you get the role for Pocahontas? Well, when I guess Alan and Steven had written the Colors of the Wind song that they had in the movie. Disney hadn't gotten the green light, but it was just an idea at the time, so they were putting together a proposal with some writers to do the Pocahontas story and they had written that song and they needed to do a demo and Solo asked me to do a demo, which we did in Allen's home studio and then they told me that once the movie was greenlit, they told me I wasn't going to be able to do it because they wanted to cast a Native American actress. the part i understood and i don't know, i guess they got so used to hearing my voice singing the songs that they decided to have me sing the songs and they chose a wonderful native american actress, irene bedard, to speak and do her voice. it really matched my singing voice, it was kind of extraordinary the way it worked out, so I was lucky, another question in the middle hi

judy

, i'm jennifer, hi jennifer, now I can say that I officially met you, yes, so thank you friend , I can say that I met you.

I officially met you, um, I just wanted to tell you that right around the river bend I remember sitting in the movie theater listening to that and how much that has affected risk taking in my life. I packed up and moved to Spain without speaking any Spanish. So I just wanted to thank you for that and Alan Menken and Steven Schwartz, but I also wanted to ask you what's around the River Bend for you right now. Oh, well, yeah, we mean work, I guess. I'm doing a lab on a new musical that's being developed for Broadway in September with some wonderful writers.

I guess I'm allowed to say what I understand, it's an adaptation of Norma Rae, the movie Monorama Ray, etc. We're doing a five-week lab starting at the end of this month for writers and to get investors and people interested in all that and then some gigs and I guess some more of these conventions that we have time for. Two more questions Hi Judy, how are you? Hey, okay, you've played so many roles on Broadway and that's mostly how I know there's a role you've never been able to play because of scheduling, because your schedule was so crazy, oh, oh, that.

I couldn't play well, there are some that I couldn't play because no one asked me. I can't really think of some that I had to turn down because of scheduling, um, oh, I have to think about that, I mean, there are certainly roles that you've wanted to do that you know, then you wake up one day and go, well, I'm too old for that now, I always wanted to play Eliza Doolittle, I always wanted to play um dot in Sunday in the Park, um, I still want to play Margaret in light in the square um, you know, some sondheim I want to do and we have one more question right on this side of the room hello from one theater actor to another I'm the fun at home fan oh I have to ask this on behalf of my friend in LA, she wants to know what it was like working on tik tik boom with andrew garfield, it was great, i mean, it was a wonderful set, lin-manuel miranda directed it and, um, he you.

I know he's a good guy and he just made everyone feel really safe and comfortable. It was the height of the pandemic in New York before vaccination. The Covid um restrictions were so intense that they made it less relaxing than it might have been otherwise. been um and everything was moving very fast because they really had a very tight schedule because you know, because they had closed when the pandemic happened and they were starting again and anyway it was a crazy experience that I had to I lived alone in a hotel in New York for eight days before they allowed me on set because those were the restrictions, even though I lived practically around the corner, they said I could live at home if my husband didn't leave the house and I.

I said you don't know my husband. There's no way he wouldn't leave the house, but it was a great experience. I was very proud to be a part of that film because it was a celebration of theater. You know, so yeah, and the big question: are you ready? Um well and never having sung this song at 10:30 on a Sunday morning we'll just have to wait and see okay here we go you think you own any land you land on earth it's just a dead thing that you can claim, but I know. every rock, tree and creature like a life, but if you follow in the footsteps of a stranger, you will learn things you never knew, never knew, could you ever paint with all the colors, come run through the hidden pine paths of the forest, come try? the sweet berries of the earth come rolling in all the riches around you and for once never wonder what the storm and the river were they are my brothers and we are all connected to each other then you will never know that we need to sing with everything until you can paint with all the colors you know what to do fabulous judy

kuhn

you can do better than that thank you so much thank you so much keep up the good work I'll be here all day come say hi oh that's so wonderful thank you Hi, I'm Aaron Ashmore and you're watching Phantom Spotlight.

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