Sierra Rein Returns to Don't Tell Mama With Her Award-Winning RUNNING IN PLACE

Hi, it's Eugene Ebner with Broadway World TV

and I have a really special person here today by the name of Sierra Rine

Not only is she special because she has a really inspiring story and a show called Running in Place

which will be actually the first time here at Don't Tell Mama on March 6th, beginning at 7 p.m

More importantly, she just won her first award as a solo cabaret artist. Yeah

A Bistro Award. Thank you. What is it, new debut? Outstanding debut

Outstanding debut. Someone found a thesaurus and was like, best? No. Greatest? No. Outstanding

I love that. Well, you are outstanding. Aw, thank you. And the first time I heard you sing was actually I had an open mic last year, and I was blown

away by your voice and, of course, your energy on stage. Thank you

How did this show come about? I love it. something about you said and correct me if I'm wrong it was think believe dare

dream I have to do this in my powder so I have to reverse think believe think

dream believe dare I think that's on the on the poster it's actually a quote from

Walt Disney comes out of a story I tell about about me running a 5k for a

Disney Cruise Line and that kind of is involved in a very theatrical monologue

that comes from the title song, Running in Place, in my show. So it's a

kind of a show about putting yourself out there, putting one foot in front of

the other, going through some of the feelings of feeling like you're

running in place, when in reality you're closer to the finish line

than you think it is. I love that. Yeah. Thank you for saying that

Thank you. I think so many of us can feel that way times in our life. Yeah, I'm in the middle of audition season now for musical theater

because I come from that oeuvre. So you're trained in musical theater

Yeah, trained in musical theater. And a couple of years ago when I was considering themes

I was listening to Steel Pier, which is a musical by Kander Neve

And Running in Place is one of those songs. And as soon as I started listening to the lyrics I was like Oh this speaks to me Because as many auditions or open mics as you go to or job interviews you can kind of feel a little bit downtrodden you know when trying to figure out whether you doing the right thing whether doing all this work is going to pay off

going to pay off exactly um and the kind of opposite i don't go too into it necessarily but

i also thought about the idea of running in place on a treadmill um and i actually have some uh

some publicity photos of myself in a ball gown on a treadmill i do when you have tennis shoes yeah

i do have tennis shoes yeah and uh and i was thinking about it's like well sometimes you do

have to feel like you're on a treadmill because you need that momentum so that when that treadmill

stops you have that momentum to go forward and and you know achieve the next step in your in your

career or your dreams or things like that and look what's happening for you opening new doors

and the running in place for a while is now like you said it takes kind of yeah takes you off into

the next stage i have felt that many times in my life i know a lot of performers have and still do

but i think a lot of people in general in their life whatever profession they're in they say

what's happening why does it seem to be stalled out I think timing so important

but like you said which is so important which I have to really remind myself is

constant showing up and sometimes when we're constantly showing up and we don't

feel that we're being embraced or validated through that it gets discouraging yeah yeah but that's when we have to kind of do this right and

maybe take a breather yeah oh yeah back on the treadmill yeah revisit it now

speaking of the show running in place what I read also that I was drawn to is

that you really are incorporating and blending and meshing all different types of styles right

like you said the Broadway the pop the American classics so well in cabaret we know that we really

have to tell the story that we connect to but for you blending all those different styles was it like

you said that first Broadway song and then it went from there oh yeah I mean there were some some

songs that I knew was going to be in my show. The opening number is from Something Rotten

and it was one of those things where I saw the show, and as soon as Heidi Blickenstaff started singing the song I was like that is mine Probably for the opening and it is you know it that that was that was definitely There a Disney song that I didn know if it would fit but it does and I

I'm very glad that we kept it in Because it's it's a very personal song. It's called very good advice and it was from Alice in Wonderland

And and other songs were taken from my love of cabaret, from my love of composers that don't

necessarily have big Broadway shows that I really love. I have a Jeff Blumenkrantz song, I have a Heisler and Goldrich song as well. And then there

were songs that were recommended to me from my director James Beeman and my

music director Bill Zephyro. They were like, we need something like this song

like a character-y song and and James suggested a song that was by the writing

team of Bielo and Martin and I instantly fell in love with it because it's it's

very hammy and wonderfully character-y for me to do which kind of incorporates

you as an actress yes yeah I wanted to this is a little bit I wanted to work on

songs that I might be able to bring into an audition one of these days you know

It's like double, double kind of because it makes me want to learn that song even more and to invest myself and

The song by Jeff Blumenkrantz I bring into auditions all the time Don't you think it gives you a deeper meaning when you perform it in your cabaret show though

Because you're connecting to it in such a you have to ongoing Deep place. Yeah, because you're sharing it with the audience now speaking of all these different styles and songs that you're bringing up

Do you feel vocally? that you can relate to one better than the other

I mean, since you said you're trained in musical theater, obviously that's probably what you're most comfortable in

but did you have to, as a vocalist, really coach with someone to say

okay, now I'm gonna sound more poppy, or now I'm gonna sound more this way

The, I didn't coach with it unless it was like with Bill Zephyro, you know, making sure to

you know there a high note at the end and he like make sure to place it in the thing But I had so many I been singing some of this material for a long time so it comfortable so it it comfortable the probably the most difficult thing for me is like finding the pop rock voice within a more musical

theater instrument but I do to some rock where I just I really rock it out and then other ones

there's a Miley Cyrus song mixed in there and it's it's in a different kind of context but I had to

really think about how my voice would tell that story and my voice would sing that song that's

that's not the way it's normally done yeah so I didn't necessarily have to like I had to work on

it though right some of some of those I had to like workshop and figure out how how my voice

would navigate. Well like you said, workshopping in open mics, that's what's so brilliant about the

open mics. Anyone that's a performer that's interested in cabaret and expanding further

into it, open mics are so valuable. Yeah, I would bring back similar, the same song over and over to

the salon, you know, over and over again and that's a safe place for me to go, did something land

did something not, oh I gotta work on that note, you know, and then when you do your show you just

kind of let go and you're like whatever story and character I'm in the midst of you know live that

instead of caring about the vocals necessarily right connecting to it and you brought something

I'm very important I think is we have to make it our own we're all different we're all individuals

we have different voices we have different backgrounds and what we've been trained in and it's finding that place for us right exactly and I think anyone can relate to that if they're

in the audience as long as you give your best and you're connected to it. Well, it's been such a pleasure

I wish we could talk further because I'm really enjoying this, but thank you for spending time with us today

Thank you. And anyone watching this, this is a really fun show

and she is now not just running in place. She's moving forward

She's expanding, and you get to experience this and share this with her

So please, come out on March 6th. 7 p.m. at Don't Tell Mama. Right here. Right here. Thank you, Sierra. Thank you, Eugene