I've been researching and writing a play about Eva Tanguay, an American vaudevillian who broke barriers and knew huge success as an entertainer, but who had a pretty lonely personal life and squandered her fortune. She was driven to succeed on some levels and to fail on others, and she really haunts me. I have a big batch of music to work with, and am writing scenes, and am working with my great new band. We're hoping to make an album of the new music, as the play develops (see front Myspace page for information on how to donate funding--).
Working with a historical figure as a muse is a compelling because it's a mystery; you know they really lived, breathed, ate, had insomnia, laughed, scratched, all that, but exactly HOW they did these things has to be supposed. I've been given a great resource in Andy Erdman's book on Eva, which contains many clues, but still the project is largely, for me, detective work and imagining. Johnny Depp gave an interview on the Dillinger movie that's out now, and he mentions that when you channel someone who really lived you want to get it right because they may be watching. I hope! Eva Tanguay was an enigma even to those who knew her because she could be very generous and powerful but also violent and vulnerable. She was the first of a certain breed of celebrity personality whom we know well at this point.
The musing continues and the project grows. I'll post more soon--MBL