Exclusive Interview with Chelsea Stardust, Director of Slashed! The Musical
Staci Layne Wilson
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We recently sat down with director Chelsea Stardust to get the skinny on her truly looney tune, “Slashed! The Musical.” Read on for the lowdown!
Dread Central: What’s “Slashed! The Musical” about, and who are some of the characters?
Chelsea Stardust: “Slashed!” is a love letter to the 1980s summer camp genre. The plot centers around a young couple, Blaine and Theresa (played by Curt Bonnem and Clarke Wolfe), who buy a broken down summer camp hoping that fixing it up will also fix their marriage. Unfortunately they ignored the numerous warning from the crazy local, Looney Lucy (played by Fayna Sanchez), that the camp is cursed by the restless spirit of Little Peetie Jergins (played by “Slashed!” author Sean Keller), who died tragically in the camp’s previous incarnation.
As expected, Peetie returns to hack and chop his way through the young counselors hired to work the camp. In order to subvert the clichés of a cliché-heavy genre, we have gender-swapped the roles: “The jock” is a roller derby chick (played by Elissa Wagner), “the nerd” (named Shelly after Larry Zerner’s character in Friday 13th Part 3) is a dorky, sexually ambiguous girl (played by Mary O’Neil), “the slut” is a guy with low self-esteem and a drinking problem (played by Acquah Dansoh), and our “survivor girl” is a Christian guy with some serious sexual hang-ups (played by Tim Kopacz). Bloody mayhem ensures until a mysterious stranger (played by Kristyn Chalker) shows up to ruin Little Peetie Jergin’s plan.
DC: The horror-spoof theater-comedy sub-subgenre is alive and well in L.A. – I’ve seen hilarious recreations of Re-Animator, Silence of the Lambs, The Exorcist, and Carrie to name a few. Did you see those as well, and is this how you got the idea?
CS: I actually didn’t get a chance to see any of the theater spin-offs, but the writer, Sean Keller, saw the “Re-Animator!” show and loved it. The idea was born after Sean and I saw Robot Teammate & The Accidental Party’s show “Thug Tunnel,” which was a musical at the Hollywood Fringe Festival last year. After the show Sean was inspired to write the musical even though he had no real plans for it at the time since it was a passion project. Earlier this year, Clarke Wolfe approached me about directing something for Fringe Festival, and I immediately told her about Sean’s musical. She loved the idea and asked to produce it. We also looped in my film producer, Rudy Scalese, and he too fell in love with the project and came aboard to produce.
DC: “Slashed!” sends up a lot of stab-n-slab film tropes from the 1980s. What are some of your personal favorites, and how complicated will it be to bring those to life in front of a live audience on a small stage?
CS: The slasher genre has always been my favorite sub-genre of horror. Slasher films also have great scores, which helped influence “Slashed!” as well. We use a lot of 80s Top 40 radio and synth inspired tracks. This show wears its slasher influences on its sleeve. The obvious ones are Friday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp, and The Burning. It’s also heavily inspired by camp comedies like Wet Hot American Summer and Meatballs. There are even some Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hedwig and the Angry Inch influences as well. I think the trickiest part is making sure the comedy AND the scares both land, which can be tricky when there is no camera to guide the audience where to look. Since it’s live theater, we can’t easily cut away to set a special effect or a blood gag—everything has to be done in the moment. The blocking is incredibly important, and we will be taking extra care in planning everything out.
DC: The music is of the utmost importance in something like this. We know your partner, Sean Keller, sings the song in the teaser trailer, but what else can you tell us – did he write the songs as well? And will the whole cast be singing and dancing?
CS: Yes! Sean wrote the book, lyrics, and music. Everything! Sean and his son, Folsom Keller, composed and mixed all the songs for “Slashed!” as well. The whole cast will be singing and dancing too! There is spoken dialogue as well throughout the show. We just finished recording the cast album, which will be available to the public on BandCamp before the show opens so folks can listen to the songs and even sing along at the show if they wish.
DC: How is directing a play different from the short films you’ve created for Crypt TV?
CS: There are a lot of similarities but also huge differences. I’m treating prep the same as I would a short film: communicating with my producers, production designer, costume designer, and actors almost daily and making sure everyone has the answers they need to move forward. I’m really lucky to be working with seasoned theater actors—makes my job easier! Some of the challenges have been in the guidelines you have to follow when doing a show for Fringe Fest. You have 15 minutes to set up and 15 minutes to tear down your show, so there are no living sets. Every night we have to load in and load out. So we have to be super efficient with our stage design. Our stage/production designer, Dani Manning, has come up with some simple yet creative and effective ways to dress our set, which still work within our time constrains.
Another challenge is special effects. One of my favorite parts of the slasher genre is the blood and gore. With such a short time to prep and clean up, we have to really get creative with our blood gags and how we are going to achieve those. You also have to think about if you’re able to afford duplicate costumes (should you want to use fake blood) or if you have to come up with an alternate solution for blood gags. But my team and I are constantly brainstorming, and I’m confident we’ll be able to adhere to the rules while also satisfy our audience.
DC: Where can people in L.A. see “Slashed!” ? And… will it later be made available to everyone somehow?
CS: The original cast recording will be available online shortly, but the only way to see “Slashed!” is to come to a show. The coolest difference between theater and film is that theater is all about the magic of a specific moment. If you’re there, you get to experience something fleeting and ephemeral. So come see us at the OMR Theatre at the Complex at The Hollywood Fringe Fest during the month of June. The show is only 45 minutes. and tickets are $13. All the dates and ticket information can be found on our Hollywood Fringe Fest site. You can also follow us on Twitter @SLASHEDmusical and Facebook! Hope to see you there!
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