Rembert Block Talks About Confronting a Delayed Dream in a Time of Renewal
(Editor’s Note: In 2019, New York-based singer/songwriter Rembert (Remy) Block (who fronts her own band Rembert and the Basic Goodness) was commissioned by The Vortex Theater in Austin, Texas, to write a musical revue about the social media phenomenon of “selfie” photography. [A “selfie” is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick, and usually posted on various social media platforms.] The show was set to open in April 2020, but the CoronaVirus pandemic forced the cancellation of Selfie! The Musical. This April, two years later, Remy Block will finally get to see her musical hit the stage. This is her story about the emotional roller coaster she has experienced with her project.]
Bonnie and I cried together on the phone. Selfie! The Musical would have to be canceled. But then again so would everything else. It was March 2020.
I had come so close—so very, very close—to realizing a dream: traveling to Austin, TX with my band to perform in my own original music theater production, my first commissioned work. The band was ready to fly. Bonnie, the director, had done all the work. The assembled cast knew the choreography and the songs. Sets were in place. Selfie was just days away from its world premiere.
But an ominous shadow had been lurking, an accelerating sense of anxiety and dread, as a worldwide pandemic invaded my hometown of New York City, soon to be the epicenter of a global tragedy.
Uncertainty was pervasive then, and now, two years later it refuses to leave. Yet, here I am once again preparing for the world debut of Selfie in early April. My feelings about picking up where we left off are surprisingly, yet decidedly, complicated.
So much about our world and our country has changed. Has the meaning and relevance of Selfie! The Musical changed too? A redemption story of selfie-ciding Instagrammers, those folks who tried to get a spectacular photo to post, but killed themselves in the process—does such a story still resonate?
Pre-pandemic—before life was suspended, before everyone was forced to stay inside, isolated—telling the tale of the self-obsessed ways we documented our lives may have felt incisive and au courant. Now that narrative feels anachronistic. The way we project our self-image has forever changed. Sweat pants have replaced skinny jeans, bookshelf pineapples have supplanted those envy-inducing far-flung landscapes of yore.
Now when I listen to the final song of Selfie! called “Share the World,”—a song that celebrates sharing quotidian images to sustain intimacy from afar–there’s a bittersweet quality I didn’t pick up on in 2020. We have lost so much. Small personal moments transmitted between scattered loved ones feel more poignant than ever. This feels like reason enough to bring Selfie! to the stage.
Still, I’m feeling ambivalent. Since April 2020, we have rescheduled Selfie! three times. With an opening scheduled for early April and virus cases decreasing, it finally feels the show is not only possible but probable. I should be unabashedly thrilled. Yet, I surreptitiously wonder: has the world moved on? Is it worth leaving the couch for Selfie! the Musical? Is staging this show just my own giant selfie?
I’ve become too comfortable in my pandemic cocoon—haven’t we all? I used to live to perform, to collaborate, to exchange creative energy between my body and the bodies of fellow musicians and audience members. I have had to shelve that essential part of myself for so long now, I sometimes wonder how to revive it. Perhaps an IRL, sensory, cathartic theatrical experience is exactly what I need. Maybe the audience does as well.
It’s a beginning. Bonnie and I spoke on the phone recently. When she asked whether we were ready to finally put on the show, I heard a slight quaver in her voice. We both know we can’t predict or control what will happen and questions loom? How will audiences feel about coming to the theater? Will we stay healthy during the entire run of the show?
In my private moments I am still a bit wary, anxious about pulling it off, but at the same time I am excited to take this adventure with Bonnie, the cast, and my fellow musicians. I am inspired by their willingness to take the risk with me.
I can’t wait to find out who will be ready to leave home and join us.
Selfie! the Musical opens at The VORTEX in Austin, TX on April 1 2022 and has performances scheduled on select dates through April 17, 2022.
Top photo: Remy and the band, Basic Goodness.