{"id":14847,"date":"2019-08-02T13:05:29","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T20:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/?p=14847"},"modified":"2022-08-19T12:23:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T19:23:56","slug":"broadway-drummers-cathryn-wake-the-other-josh-cohen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/broadway-drummers-cathryn-wake-the-other-josh-cohen\/","title":{"rendered":"Cathryn Wake, The Other Josh Cohen"},"content":{"rendered":"

11 characters. 5 instruments. 1 person. Meet Cathryn Wake, former drummer (and guitarist, mandolinist, pianist, and violinist) of The Other Josh Cohen, the uplifting off-Broadway musical that really put its performers through the ringer. The band members are the actors. The actors are the band. Got it? Cathryn will tell us more.<\/p>\n

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This is not your typical acting gig, nor your typical drumming gig.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

It’s an absolute blast and a whirlwind because every show is different, especially in Josh Cohen – all of the actors on stage are responsible for everything you hear. So there’s tremendous responsibility in being an actor-musician, especially as the drummer.<\/p>\n

Also, we are a show that’s not on click. So I’m responsible for time through a visual metronome making sure that the entire band is on track.<\/p>\n

Wait, do you at least have headphones to hear the click?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

So I am watching a blinking light and that\u2019s how I’m keeping us on track. I need to be checking in with this blinking light in the brain of this V-kit that I play onstage to make sure that we’re close to the sweet spot of each song.<\/p>\n

That was the biggest adjustment for me…I’m used to an auditory click. I am a classical clarinetist and that’s always how I practiced: with an auditory metronome.<\/p>\n

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Cathryn has a preset tempo list, and just follows the blinking light, all while acting and singing simultaneously.<\/p><\/div>\n

How the heck do you go from classical clarinetist to playing drums in an off-Broadway musical?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

We had a drum kit in my basement when I was 13, which I banged on every once in a while, so I sort of had that in my back pocket. I think when I was in college I got privy to the fact that more and more often they’re taking the orchestra out of the pit and they’re making them actors and they’re putting them onstage.<\/p>\n

And so I started kind of investigating. If I play clarinet and I play guitar – I started guitar when I was twelve and clarinet when I was nine – how can we make that multiply? So if you know clarinet you can pick up saxophone and oboe…but you’ll probably be terrible starting out at oboe, as I am. If you know guitar you can play ukulele, mandolin, banjo, and bass. Those all operate under the same rules.<\/p>\n

Author’s Note: While Cathryn was the main drummer, a few others in the cast took turns filling in while Cathryn was singing or playing another instrument. And there’s no intermission to rest!<\/em><\/p>\n

So how did you prove your abilities were legit and not just interests?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

I actually was in a different incarnation of the show five years ago at Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn, New Jersey) but I wasn’t playing the drum track. I only played drums on one song called \u201cHang On\u201d.<\/p>\n

For this incarnation, Hannah Ellis (who originated the role Off-Broadway) was leaving, so yes, I did have to come in. I played and sang three song snippets, which is easier said than done. They already knew that I played clarinet, saxophone, guitar and so on, so I just exclusively proved my worth on the drum set.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a normal thing in regular bands, let alone staged musicals. How do you even prepare for that?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

I have two very benevolent roommates. I turned our living room into a mini stage, and I went through the blocking. I had my drum set set up. I had the piano. I had a cajon, a violin, and a mandolin, and I just had to physicalize it in my body.<\/p>\n

The show is a 90 minute whirlwind\/fireball of activity where we are running to switch a wig off stage, then come back in and play piano, then leave the piano to go pick up a violin somewhere, then cross underneath the stage, put on a gray wig and a sparkly tracksuit, and run up to the stage to do a huge number only to then play the drums again. So I knew that there was no room for error.<\/p>\n

Talk to me about those shiny drumsticks.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

That was an aesthetic choice. Our director Hunter Foster wanted lots of color on stage.<\/p>\n

Part of it is that the heavier sticks feel better because of one of the things that I struggled with: you really gotta mash the heads on the V-kit to get the sound. So we choose to use heavier sticks to exert less force and maximize my energy.<\/p>\n

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Do you have any nightly challenges in the drum book?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

There’s a moment in this song called \u201cNeil Life\u201d. We play verse-chorus-verse-chorus, then the bridge starts. I tacet drums for maybe a measure or two in order to put on a headband and get a prop phone. I have to squat slightly in order to make this work and keep four on the kick going while I’m singing and acting.<\/p>\n

Finally, the crazy part of this whole sequence is getting out of it. I have to ditch the phone and headband, grab my sticks, sit down on the throne, and then hit a crash and I go back to this comfort I know about.<\/p>\n

Here is Cathryn singing and drumming that part without all of the choreography. Now imagine adding in the props and costume switches…<\/p>\n