Posted By ryan on April 25, 2012
In mid-March I got a call from Don Simonson (voice chair at ISU and Musical Director for Stars Over VEISHEA). He had known that I was a solid guitar player that could read music, and he knew that I worked on the rock n roll class at ISU with David Stuart for many years. Simonson said they were in dire need of a guitar player for SOV this year – and my name came up. I asked “what show are you doing”. “RENT” was the answer. Now I had some misgivings about the subject matter – I knew about Rent and that it had some great tunes. But as a Christian, I had some moral misgivings about the content of the show in some spots. But in the end, I figured it would be a good experience and that I would have a lot of fun meeting and playing with some new people. Musicians need new stimuli every once in a while, right? So I decided to let go of my legalism (LOL) and jump right in, And I am so glad I did!
But I had to tell Don I couldn’t jump in right away; as a music teacher and working solo artist, I had commitments I had to fulfill. As a freelance musician – I only take show offers they come in, and since my name is fairly well-known, I can kinda afford to pick and choose opportunities as they come in. My last musical show was in 2002- SOV’s production of “Grease”. While I loved that show, that particular production was wrought with bad production which really slowed down rehearsals. The band did a lot of waiting around for several days in pre-production. So I was really gunshy about doing another student-run musical. RENT was a big-change of pace from that. The show was very well-run and well-rehearsed, it made the rehearsals go so much easier. 
Right away, I found out that I had joined a very talented group of musicians in the band. Simonson as director has a tremendous gift for knowing when to direct us vs. when to just let “the horses run” a little bit. I had never played a gig with Mike Giles before then; we had just known each other from traveling in the same circles. He is a great guy to work with and a fantastic musician – turns out we are both the same age and went to the U of I at the same time circa 1997-98. The main pianist, Johanna Sholar, is a fantastic musician. She was way fun to work with. She could play the entire show and all of our parts with no problem. ha ha! The other guitarist, Kyle Folvag, is a very promising kid who plays in the ISU jazz band. I really enjoyed working with him – we talked a lot about guitar stuff (it’s a disease!) and playing in bands, etc. The rhythm section of Rachel Petsche and Lee Plummer who were ISU music majors, was really solid. They added a lot, and were incredibly fun to work with. I saw my role is “ultilty guitarist” – I picked up all the rest of the guitar parts Kyle didn’t play – riffs here and there, doubled piano and strings parts, and also ended up putting a healthy amount of my own “Sheeler-isms” in there, just for fun
The cast themselves were all amazing musicians. I got to know some of the cast – Nick Prenger, Colin Morgan, Jonathan Brugioni, Heather Smith and several others. It turns out that many of them were Ankeny High School theater alums — as was my cousin Luke Sheeler, whom many of them knew. So that was a kinda cool “six degrees of separation” thing! But the cast blew me away with their vocal ability. Wow! They’re gonna go places!
As we started dress rehearsals 4 days before opening night – the band was allowed to just mess around before the show started each night. In fact, we were encouraged to come onstage 15-20 minutes before and warm-up etc. I started messing around, digging through my repertoire of rock tunes – I’ve been in bands since a young kid in the mid-1980s. Well, it started to catch on. Since the cast came onstage from the audience (more or less) this ended up being a great way to warm everyone up. We finally worked up a nice little jam/set of songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit”,”Jump”, “Walk This Way”,”Purple Rain” and others, just for fun. We were really just messing around. It really got everyone fired up, and ended a great impromptu way to start the show!
The show itself was fantastic – full of great acting and great songs. My heart ached genuinely for the characters – spiritually and emotionally. It just reinforced for me, who much the world needs love and healing. I continually prayed to God every night for everyone involved, and the audience members, that He might speak through the performances, and that hearts would be moved.
Colin Morgan (Angel) sent me a YouTube clip of a version of “Contact” one of the (ahem…) “headier” numbers of the musical. This version of the tune that Colin sent me was a little more techno that original with a ripping guitar solo underneath of it that reminded me of the classic dance/metal shred tunes like “Beat It” (Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen), “King of Rock” (Run DMC with Eddie Martinez), “Black Cat” (Janet Jackson and Nuno Bettencourt). Colin thought it would be a great idea. I agreed, but I let it slide for several days, ‘cuz I didn’t want to surprise or upset the director, Simonson, or the sound guy. Ultimately, after a lot of prodding from Colin and Nick, I decided to go for it (what would they do, fire me?) and on the Saturday night show during the last run, I laid down some guitar heat on “Contact”, which IMO ended up being the best show of the entire run. I talked to the guys afterward, and they were blown away by “Contact” it somehow gave it a new edge. I was just doing what I do – and to think I almost left that part out.
Anyhow…despite my initial reticence… my time with SOV’s production of RENT was the most fun I’ve had in a musical. I was warmly received by the cast and crew, and I felt like I was an encouragement to the team, and hopefully I contributed to the overall product. Unfortunately, it seemed like the whole thing was over just as soon as it started, but I guess “time flies when you are having fun”! But I’m so glad I had the opportunity – and was able to work with an amazing group of talented, teachable, hard-working, and gifted people. I walked away very tired, but very humbled to have the experience.
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