Hello Beautiful People,
Zoe Sarnak is a name that you will be hearing for years to come. She’s a Harvard University graduate. She’s an outstandingly talented composer, lyricist, and playwright, whose shows and projects include A Lasting Impression, The Quad, Mixtape, and Painless (book by Michael Kimmel). Her songs have been performed in various composer showcases, New York Theatre Barn’s D-Lounge Series, Composers Sing Composers, and NYTB Presents a Celebration of Women Composers. Zoe is one of those people who I have met who is truly a kindred theatre spirit. Her music cuts right to the heart of its listeners; she has an uncanny ability to illuminate a wide range of human emotions. I’m thrilled to introduce her to you all, and so very fortunate to call this gal my friend.
Ladies and Gents, meet Zoe Sarnak…
TWT: Did you always want to be a composer?
ZS: No, actually. Or maybe I did but never really realized it until later on. I went to school for molecular and cellular biology. That’s related, right? [Imagine our laughter right here.] My freshman and sophomore year I studied biology. There aren’t any minors at Harvard; they call it a secondary concentration. So, my junior year they started letting people explore other options. I really loved music; it was a sort of secret outlet for me. I went to the practice room on my time off, but I was never really that singer/songwriter girl on campus. When the minors were finally allowed, I said you know what, I want to study music. I wrote a musical during the summer after my junior year, and then it was done when I was a senior year at Harvard. Afterwards, people were telling me that I had to take it to New York, and I all I could think was that the whole process was the most engaging most rewarding thing I had ever done – and so I just went for it. I was supposed to go to medical school, actually. But this just felt right.
TWT: Tell us about A Lasting Impression.
ZS: I had the experience I think a lot of people have, I was like…ok, Broadway who wants to do my show first? It’s [Quad] ready, it’s done – I want to have a Broadway musical now. Obviously it doesn’t work that way. A Lasting Impression is the first show that I wrote when I was living in New York. At the time I wrote it, it took in a lot of the emotional things that I was going through, but also being surrounded by people as an artist and still sometimes feeling lonely. The show discusses what it means to make art, and how that overlaps into your life, and how your life experiences come out through your art. It’s had a very crazy path at times, it was a PACE New Musicals winner, which is just a wonderful venue to workshop new work. Then it was at the New York Theater Workshop, which was awesome. I’m excited to say that there will be a concert reading of the show at Joe’s Pub on June 29 – I always love a new opportunity to work on this piece, and have new people see the work.
TWT: What advice would you give to high school students and college students who want to be a musical theater writer on Broadway?
ZS: Don’t be afraid to break the mold. Write musical theater, instead of “musical theater”. You absolutely need to know what has come before you, and in the BMI workshops and the NYU writing programs, you learn so much. From that perspective, from the perspective of being a student, you should be seeing shows, listening to old scores, and knowing what has come before you. But, it’s also no coincidence that Once was such a huge success, or Spring Awakening, or Hair in it’s time. You can’t be afraid to write a musical that doesn’t check off the traditional boxes, the concern should be expressing the story that you want to tell and the best way to do it. I think it’s important for musical theatre to allow various types of music and theater to seep into each and every new show. As a high school student, you should let yourself be a broader artist, because those experiences will inform your musical theater writing.
TWT: Do you have a writing process?
ZS: My process is pretty varied. There are scenes and songs that I write, and say ok, this spot needs this song and has to do this, and I’ll sit down at my piano and I’ll make it happen. There are also days when I get up, and open my computer, and I’m looking at a blank document thinking to myself, I have no idea what to write. But I make myself put the words on paper, and I give myself that extra push. And then there are times when I’m sad or happy or just emotional, and I sit down at the piano or pick up my guitar and just play. I also work well when I’m walking or moving or whatever. I’m that awkward person who’s singing or talking into my voice recorder on my phone of the streets of New York; you can’t control when a good idea is going to come to you. I remember being on a train on day, and I had this idea for a melody, but I didn’t have my phone. So I drew a staff and started writing out this melody. Didn’t have anything to record it with, but that song became I’ve Never Seen, it’s a song that I love and it’s in A Lasting Impression, and I wrote it away from any instruments, on a piece of paper, on a long train ride.
TWT: In today’s economy, arts programs are being cut. What reasons would you give to a politician for preserving the arts in schools?
ZS: There’s a ground level answer, and a global perspective answer, both of which are both equally important in my opinion. I think that so much of education is about finding and understanding yourself – you might understand it via learning how to express yourself through language, you might not be a science person, but you still need to make yourself take on this puzzle that is so didn’t for you, work yourself through it, and find a way to understand it. I think that music is a huge part of finding yourself, learning to understand emotion, learning to understand creativity – these are thing that are invaluable as an adult, both professionally and personally. We need to start thinking of education as something that prepares you for life, not just the job that you’re going to do. We need to look at how we stimulate creativity, self-worth, self-understanding, and for me, that’s been in music. We need to allow people to have that opportunity, even if they don’t necessarily do it professionally. If you think of this on a global perspective, our world is getting less and less human. We are starting to be able to do the things that we need to do with less and less human interaction, but the arts force human interaction. Yes, I can go on twitter and Facebook and still do work and somehow feel like I’m in the know, but if I want to see a piece of live music, I’m going to go to a show. I’m going to want and need to be surrounded by musicians and real, live, breathing, people. There’s so many people in our generation, and even younger, who are uncomfortable calling people on the phone. They tweet while they’re eating dinner. We’re putting up all these walls with the growing levels of technology, but the arts help bring that down.
TWT: What sound do you hate, what sound do you love?
ZS: Any kind of high-pitched buzz and/or ringing. The kind that you can’t tell where it’s coming from – it drives me insane. I love the sound of beautiful vocal harmonies.
TWT: Just for fun, what character in musical theater are you most like?
ZS: It’s so bad because I’m going to reference my own show, but Kali, from A Lasting Impression.
TWT: Just for fun, what character are you least like in musical theatre?
ZS: Burger, in Hair. I wish I was a rebel like that, sometimes. But we do have the same hair!
TWT: What books are permanently on your bookshelf?
ZS: The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss – gorgeous book. I also read a lot of plays; A Streetcar Named Desire sits proudly on my shelf. Truthfully, I’m currently reading these books by Tanya French, which are really fun reads.
TWT: If you were stranded on a desert island, what TV series would you want to have with you?
ZS: Sex and the City, hands down. I’m currently watching Game of Thrones, so I would throw that in the mix. When I was a teenager, and I’m stressing the word teenager, I have to say I absolutely loved Dawson’s Creek and the OC. If anyone gave me the rights to Dawson’s Creek, I’d write the best folk/pop/real rock/90s inspired musical. It’d be amazing.
TWT: Who is/was your greatest teacher?
ZS: If I start saying more than one, I’d have to say ten. But, the one person who had the most impact on me would have to be Mr. Hand. He was my history teacher and my soccer coach, and he was my hero at life. His class was the most work I think I had ever done for a class in my life, but he taught us what it was like to kick our own ass, to really work hard, to work for a teacher who you wanted to make proud. As a coach, he made you feel so much belief in yourself. Now, I’m not a professional historian or soccer player, but between the belief and work ethic that he instilled in me I would have to say that Mr. Hand has had the most impact on my life.
Thank you, Zoe!
And be sure to head on over to Joe’s Pub on June 29th, and see the beauty of A Lasting Impression.
Live, Love, Learn,