BACKSTAGE DEPT. FROM THE TOP

How do great artists get their start? The misty-eyed will say it all begins with a dream.

- —Jane Bua

At Juilliard, it takes a bit more than that. On a recent gray evening, a group of drama students were in their sixth hour of rehearsals for a concert at Joe’s Pub. An upright piano, several music stands, and a Gretsch drum set were globbed together in a tiny, all-white room that could pass for a sanitarium. Loose lyric sheets littered the floor. The air was tropical. The door bore a sign with the words “Tesori Sessions.”

“Tesori” was the composer Jeanine Tesori, two-time Tony winner and Obi-Wan Kenobi of the workshop. As students buzzed about the room, grabbing pencils and tuning guitars, she leaned against a back wall with one foot up, as if ready to push off.

“O.K., let’s do it!” Tesori shouted. One member of the group, Joel Wenhardt, from Southern California, shuffled to the piano and flopped down on the bench. He had on circus-tent-striped pants and a hat that said “JUILLIARD ATHLETICS: UNDEFEATED SINCE 1905.”

There was some confusion about the sheet music. Wenhardt stared at his pages, puzzled. “I think a jazz musician wrote these chords,” he mumbled.

“Let's just go through it once so we can knock it out,” Tesori repeated over the chatter. She wore a typical rehearsal getup: track pants and a baggy T-shirt. A botanical tattoo crawled up her arm, and her hair was piled on top of her head.