INTERVIEW: Jody Christopherson invites you to her ‘Greencard Wedding’

A new indie rock musical has hit New York, and it promises to be both fun and topical. Greencard Wedding stars Jody Christopherson and Ryan McCurdy, the critically acclaimed Irish-American duo.

Over the course of the evening, which is presented in both English and Gaelic, the two performers don’t time travel that far. They only bring audiences back to the days of 2012, when Brooklyn was so much fun — at least until one’s visa expires. What develops on stage is a combination rock concert and Skype film, featuring the two actors and a host of performers who were previously filmed.

At this Greencard Wedding, presented by Goode Productions at HERE through Dec. 20, cake is served for each audience members.

Christopherson wrote the show and lyrics. Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Christopherson, best known for Because You Are Good, The Other Mozart, The Reenactors and Necessary Exposure: The Female Playwright Project. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.

What can audience members expect from Greencard Wedding?

To rock out and have their hearts broken by immigration laws while they eat whiskey soaked wedding cake.

How close is the show to the true story that inspired it?

Pretty close. I started a band called Greencard Wedding with Dutch musician Michael de Roos, who was in America on a K-1 visa. We met in a church, instantly connected and thought the name would be a funny band name. Later, it became a way we’d stay connected. We moved in together pretty quickly and made music (part folk, part Dutch beatbox), performed, toured  pretty much every day for two years.

His visa ran out. It was very hard to get another, and we discovered we couldn’t make music over Skype. A lot of our work was based in harmony, and you can’t speak or sing at the same time on Skype. So, I started writing this sort of performance art concert called The Skype Show, which was just us being ourselves on a projected live Skype call onstage (but in the same physical place) and playing our music, talking to our audience and giving out cake.

The hope was that the show would give us reasons to work and hang out more together in person and make a case for an artist visa if people booked it — and they did. But, ultimately, it became too difficult to continue performing the show. Immigration is complicated for a lot of reasons, both personal and financial. The band broke up. I did a re-write and created Greencard Wedding from that experience.

It seems that the show is multidisciplinary, using music, Skype, taped acting performances. When did that approach to the material develop? 

Half of the show is performed with interactive Skype video, meaning we [are] acting with a pre-recorded video that plays behind us during some scenes, as if the character was on Skype. It was always the medium I envisioned telling the story in because it’s very relatable, and Skype recorder is a new-ish technology that allows for recording calls, a type of experimental filmmaking.

What are you hoping the audience learns during the piece?

Video chat, the devices we use to connect with it and wifi are still luxury items in many places. It’s heartbreaking to go through and read about what’s happening to people right now. I want people to care about the complexity of immigration and understand what people go through, what artists go through in order to prove that they are worthy of visas, which is a very difficult thing to do.

Can you describe your collaboration with Ryan McCurdy? Why was it important to work with McCurdy on the project?

Greencard Wedding’s music is experimental folk rock, which leaves it open for a lot of influences or possible adaptations. When we were re-casting the role from the Dutch version, we decided that whoever we cast there would be a rewrite tailored to them.

Ryan plays six instruments and a looper, is a generous human and really blew us away in the audition. Artist visas are expensive, and there’s still a lot economic disparity in Ireland. We have artist friends there who have told us stories about that. As someone from an area of America with many farming communities, a place that can be financially impossible for people to break out of, I felt Ireland was one of many good settings in which to explore this conversation.

The length of time we have been developing the show, performing at music venues as the band (most recently Alan Cumming’s Club Cumming) and traveling together to perform it in various cities has made us a real band, helped to re-invent the music and has made us co-music directors on the piece. It’s special to have a history like that.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Greencard Wedding is currently playing at HERE in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.