Cabaret power couple Corinna Sowers Adler and Nicholas Adler are two gifted and dedicated artists with their own respective careers as well as pursuing a joint venture in the much-praised Nicori Studios & Productions. Their Music at the Mansion cabaret series responded to the COVID pandemic with the innovation of porch concerts, allowing a safe environment for patrons to enjoy dinner and live performance.
Corinna, a singer, vocal coach, director and educator, made her solo New York City cabaret debut in 2010 at the Laurie Beechman Theater, her Jazz at Lincoln Center debut at Rose Theater at the 24th Annual Cabaret Convention and was a 2015 and 2016 nominee for the first ever Tony Award for Excellence in Theater Education. She is the Founding Artist Director of NiCori Studios & Productions, initiating the monthly cabaret series, Music at the Mansion, in 2011. Before moving to the New York City area in 2009, Corinna was the director of theater for the Wilkes University Conservatory as well as artistic director of children’s theater at the Historic Pocono and Bucks County Playhouses.
For the past dozen years, Nicholas Adler has worked for Jazz at Lincoln Center, currently as the Associate House Manager. He is also the Producer for NiCori Studios & Productions. Nicholas began his professional career, however, as a performer. At age six he was in a production of the musical Oliver, going on to perform in a wide assortment of musicals, dramas and revues. He holds a degree in Theater from Wilkes University, and has directed and taught theatre, dance and musical theatre at Northampton Community College as well as the Pocono Family YMCA. Nicholas has also overseen all activities and managed publicity at the historic Pocono Playhouse as the General Manager of the Theatre and has also been Coordinator of the Cultural Council of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
NightLife Exchange (NLE) asks Corinna Sowers Adler (CSA) and Nicholas Adler (NA) Six Questions:
NLE: How did the concept of NiCori Studios arise? How did you move from idea to reality and nurture NiCori’s growth?
CSA: NiCori basically happened because Nick and I got married in 2001 and incorporated as business partners that year too. We had dreamed as we were dating and engaged of having a theatre company together with a school attached and we have been working these (almost) 19 years toward that goal. It has taken on many forms and has morphed into other ideas and goals but that was the start.
NA: We both performed for a theatre company right out of college that were a husband and wife who morphed their names into the name of their company. Our goal was to always have a producing and educational theatre company. Once incorporated, we began growing the company little by little, mostly with the wonderful and creative ideas that Corinna has. I find the “Ah-ha” moment quite funny when it hits some people that NiCori is the combination of Nick and Corinna.
NLE: When the pandemic hit and the world stopped, what was your initial reaction? What was the process like of rebooting to the new reality of COVID?
CSA: Initially, like everyone, I had no idea that it would last this long. We actually took the first month and regrouped, changed our semester classes that were already in progress to the online format Zoom (which had a learning curve), began virtual voice lessons, cooked up a storm, stayed in and watched Netflix, and hunkered down. Nick still was working remotely for the first 3 months because JALC has been great through all of this and held on to their team as long as they could. We even ended up with two pretty great virtual performances for our students as well as a couple of virtual shows for me. But as time went on, and it was looking more and more like this was going to last a lot longer than we thought, I knew we had to find ways to make it work. I set about learning all of the guidelines from the CDC (I still read them every day) and figuring out the giant puzzle of how we could offer a summer camp of some kind for our students who were craving in-person interaction. We luckily have the space at Oakeside, our studio home, to be able to social distance and so we were able to make it work and, were able to create something pretty great for our kids this summer.
NA: In retrospect, it really was a “change or die” moment for a lot of businesses. Although she won’t admit it, Corinna loves a challenge and puzzle. COVID-19 was a very intense version of both. The biggest goal was to keep our students, performers and audiences safe while keeping things going. Things happened virtually at first—lessons, directing, performances—then the weather warmed up and we took advantage of being the Artists in Residence at this beautiful, historic mansion in Bloomfield, NJ. Classes, lessons and performances all were able to happen outside. They will continue this way until the end of October, at least.
NLE: Music at the Mansion porch concerts have been a huge success. When did that light-bulb moment of possibility arrive? How easy/difficult was it to handle the logistics and put the program into action?
CSA: I was at the studio one night and had to take yet another show off the calendar. It was a Music at the Mansion performance. I stopped and thought…”wait a minute…we are allowed to be outside…we have a huge porch…the in-house caterer needs work too…maybe we can make this work.” And, so Music at the Mansion: Porch Performances was set in motion. I may have had the ideas but there is no way I could do any of this without Nick’s support. He balances me out in every way and keeps me grounded. When I get too pie-in-the-sky he is there to pull me back down and when I get into dark places he pulls me through. It also helps so much that the staff at Oakeside, led by Kim Reilly, listens to my crazy ideas and says “Go, ahead, Corinna, give it a try”!
It is an exorbitant amount of work. Anyone who produces knows that in “normal” times it is a lot of work. These times add so much more to think about and double check and lose sleep over. However, the alternative is to not do anything. And that is not the way we roll. We had plexiglass walls made, we measured and measured (I have a tape measure with me at all times it seems), we sanitized and scrubbed, we hoped and prayed, researched and planned, and continue to do all of the above to make it work.
NA: So, I get a bit nervous everyday when Corinna showers. I can almost guarantee that when she comes out, she will say, “so I was thinking…”. This is the start of another idea or project, the majority of which have been highly creative and magical. The “so I was thinking…” most of the time leads to a project for me. I can honestly say that I love these projects during this pandemic. I am a Project Manager by trade and these ideas have brought so much joy and normalcy to so many, that the work has definitely been worth the effort.
NLE: What’s it been like to work with the kids in this time of COVID? What were the toughest obstacles to overcome?
CSA: The toughest obstacle for me was to not be able to welcome them back with a huge hug after not seeing them in person for four months. That and the balancing act between creating and following the rules to a T. I had to learn how to get creative in a new way and, truth be told, I missed some of the old ways of rehearsing. We ended up making a film using the grounds of Oakeside as our set for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. We made theatre games out of hand washing times. We filmed socially distanced blocking that still told the story and was visually interesting. We danced on the great lawn in 100 degrees with masks on. We turned the porte cochere into an Egyptian pyramid and the vegetable garden into Canaan. We incorporated masks into costumes when we couldn’t social distance. When I say we have the best production team at NiCori, I am not kidding. They are exceptionally talented people who “make it work” because they care about the kids and the craft as much as we do. It was a great experience that led to discoveries of new ways to be creative, and lots of life lessons for these kids, but I will never complain about a 16-hour-a-day-in-the-theater-hardest-of-the-hard-tech week again.
NA: The kids have been amazing. They are a great group and are all respectful of each other and the situation. We have a list of NiCori Core Values where Corinna puts in full display on the first day of any new theatre project. It is made quite clear that all who are enrolled in any of our programs MUST follow these rules. It is meant to make it a safe space for everyone to grow and try in. COVID-19 is no exception to this. Everyone coming to a class or performance has to acknowledge a COVID-19 release and we have all students fill out a health form and all must let us know immediately if they have been around anyone ill or have traveled in to one of the quarantine states. It is just part of the times that safety has to extend into creating a healthy environment. It was kind of funny, during camp—there were certain teens that would jump at the chance to be the Lysol fairy during breaks or at the end of the day.
NLE: Personally, how have you both been navigating your individual professional lives outside of NiCori?
CSA: Is there life outside of NiCori? Lol… I have been lucky enough to have been asked to sing on several on-line shows and used my own show Songs from the Heart as the guinea pig show for Porch Performances. We ironed out a lot of the logistics on my show and then were able to have everyone else’s show who is on the series run as smoothly as possible. I have some ideas for the Winter months just starting to percolate so stay tuned!
NA: Besides Producing for NiCori, I have been lucky enough to be a House Manager at Jazz at Lincoln Center for the past 12 years. JALC has been wonderful and kept the full 150 staff members working on a virtual Gala and the 25th year of Essentially Ellington until the end of June. Plans are being made to get back to opening when it is safe for all staff and guests.
NLE: Moving forward, with so much uncertainty abounding from the pandemic and politically, what are your thoughts about the future of NiCori and your individual careers?
CSA: I think one thing this year has taught me is you truly can plan all you want but, you are so not in charge. I have been learning to get better about taking what today gives me…just today…or maybe the week…and working with that. It seems ill-advised to plan too far ahead in this time with so much uncertainty. Whatever comes, we will do our best to face it. That is not the norm for me and I am not always good at it. I like to feel like I have some measure of control. And, the truth is, I just don’t. So pick up what’s in front of you and do your best.
NA: The world does not stop creating and neither will we both at NiCori and JALC. NiCori’s Fall semester is up and running, condensed with in-person meetings happening twice a week and live, in-person performances scheduled for late October. I am sure that there will be Winter virtual classes after that. Voice lessons begin at the end of this month in person with plexiglass walls in place. Corinna is a master a making things work. Her students are very lucky to see that no matter what challenges they have in their lives, you face it head on and can get through it!
JALC has had a plethora of classes, workshops, Dizzy’s Club performances. If you have not listened to the latest release, The Ever Fonky Lowdown, you are missing out! The album just dropped in late August. There were a bunch of staff members in a music video for the song “Everybody Wear They Mask.” A lot of us keep in touch through zoom or text and all hope to be back in the office, with the orchestra live and music in the halls soon. It is a magical place and I can’t wait to get back!
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