And we’re back! On today’s Wrock Talk page, I have a special treat for everyone. A few weeks ago, I reached out to Matt Cox and Brian Metolius, the writer and composer (respectively) of Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic, an Off-Broadway play that retells much of the Harry Potter series through the viewpoint of a group of oft-forgotten Hufflepuff students.

The production—full of hi-jinks, hilariousity, and of course magic—has been praised for its wit and comedic writing, with the New York Times declaring that it “exudes a jovial, winking fondness for all things Harry.” Needless to say, it was quite a delight to speak to the creative luminaries behind the play’s production.

Paul: In a nutshell, what is Puffs? What is your elevator pitch for the play?

Matt: For seven eventful years a certain famous boy wizard went to magic school. This is not his story – but rather a tale of his classmates, the Puffs, who pop-culture has deemed the ‘not so cool kids’ at magic school. Over the seven years they grow up, make friends, learn some life lessons, and try not to end up horribly injured or dead with all of that other crazy stuff going on. Puffs is a story for anyone never destined to save the world.

Paul: How did this all come together? What is the origin story of Puffs?

Matt: In 2015 had the initial idea of focusing a story on other students at this particular wizard school. It was a quick jump to focusing on the Puffs characters. After some quick searching to find out if someone had done it, which to my delight they had not, I pitched it to the creative team of another of my shows which was running at the time, Kapow-I GoGo (basically every Saturday morning cartoon/ anime/ action movie rolled into one marathon play). We set up some readings and I got to work on the script – then Winter of that year we put up an early version of the show with the expectation to run for five performances, with the hope of maybe an extension of two weeks or so. Puffs would go on to run for four years. Three of those years were Off-Broadway, as well as a separate production in Melbourne, Australia which broke records. It’s now performed across the country at schools and regional theaters, was the eighth most performed high school play of the last year, and a filmed version is available called Puffs: Filmed Live Off-Broadway.

Paul: What was the writing process like (e.g., how long did it take to craft the script, and how many rewrites did you go through, etc.)?

Matt: The original draft was written in about three weeks split over two writing sessions leading up to public readings. We were given dates for performance at the People’s Improv Theater for later that year so the next few months were spent tweaking here and there. After the first week of rehearsal, I threw out the majority of the script and started from scratch – as there was a lot that just wasn’t working. I very much write to the room I’m in, and love playing off of what actor’s find fun, so the script was constantly evolving through rehearsals – and continued to evolve once performances started and I was able to see what audiences found fun. When we found out we were moving Off-Broadway, the play went through another major revision to sure up many of it’s plot points and create a more complete play – with more nuance to the characters and room for emotional beats. When we moved theaters around halfway through the Off-Broadway run, I did another revision, just to add in some ideas and play around with new options that had opened up with the new set and space. All that to say, I have no idea how many rewrites. Many, many, many – over the course of several years. There’s also a lot of room for improvisation in the play, so no performance anywhere is ever the same.

Paul: What has the reception been like? Have there been any notable folks that you were surprised liked the play?

Matt: The reception to the show has been wonderful. We have a lovely fan base, who have been so supportive of the show for many years – and as mentioned above – the play ran much longer and has expanded to places far beyond where I ever dreamed it would go.

Paul: You have just been accepted into Hogwarts (or one of its many international equivalents); what animal will you bring to school as your own familiar?

Matt: Probably just a cat.

But wait! There’s more! I was lucky enough to not only get a chance to speak with Matt, but also with Brian, the composer for the play. Here’s what he had to say…

Paul: How did you get involved with Puffs?

Brian: Long story short, Matt Cox and I go way back. We met in high school, but it was only after I graduated that we started playing in bands together and hanging out making fun stuff. Some of that stuff still exists online but you’ll never find it. We made a lot of music and videos and it was clear that we had similar interests and compatible senses of humor. After college, I had worked a day job at an office to pay bills and it was slowly killing me, because all I wanted to do was write music for theater and film and use my degree in music composition in some meaningful way. I talked to Matt, who had already made the move to New York, and he talked about the opportunity he had come across writing short 10 minute plays at The Flea theater as a part of the Serials series, and told me if I moved to New York I could write the music for his plays. It didn’t pay any money, but I was so excited to just get started I uprooted my life and moved to the big city. I have worked with Matt and all of his collaborators on lots of projects since, Puffs included. I’ll always remember Matt pitching me on Puffs on a walk on the way to a comedy show and getting really excited. It felt like something that should’ve already existed, but turns out it didn’t and it was up to us to make it happen.

Paul: Were you familiar with the world of wizard rock when/before you were composing?

Brian: Yes! First of all, I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I went to every midnight book release party at my local Barnes & Noble. I spent more time on JKR’s website poking around for clues about future plotlines and hints than I like to admit. I read MuggleNet every week in high school and was very active on message boards… So yes, I had known about wizard rock for years before composing the music for Puffs. With the release of the soundtrack of Puffs, I actually went back and listened to stuff that I hadn’t heard in like a decade, and I am happy to see that the community is stronger than ever.

Paul: What sorts of musicians or songs inspired you will you were writing the music?

Brian: I think it’s obvious to anyone familiar with my music for Puffs that the number one influence is the incredible scores of films 1-3 of John Williams. Specifically Prisoner of Azkaban, which for me is not just the best movie of the series but a high point for the scores as well. However, because Puffs is set firmly in the time of the books, throughout the 90’s, we felt that the music should reflect that as well. Other less likely influences include Ginuwine, Usher, Kraftwerk, Queen, Michael Jackson, The Backstreet Boys, Chumbawumba, and Dee-Lite.

Paul: How did you approach the composing process? What did that look like exactly?

Brian: The music from the first run of Puffs was written over the course of two and a half weeks, so it looked a lot like me sitting at a computer stressed out. Matt would send me scripts, and I would do a control-F on it and look for any instances where he would specifically ask for music in the stage directions, highlight them, and then read the whole thing several times so I got a feel for what the play’s music should be. As soon as I figured that a lot of the underscore should be in the same musical world as the John Williams scores, I listened to and studied them a lot. I played along with them on the piano and tried to figure out what made them tick. Once I had a good grasp for their harmonic and rhythmic language, I composed the main theme. The main theme is the second half of the track “Heroes Made, Not Born” on the soundtrack. That theme is used as a leitmotif that was used throughout the play.

Paul: What the most memorable part of the whole production? What about the most challenging?

Brian: Everytime I saw the production, I am blown away by the audience reaction to Leanne’s big 11th hour showdown with the Death Buddies. It’s such a roller coaster. The audience was never really sure how to react. Laugh out of nervousness? Gasp? Stunned silence? I’ve experienced the audience go through these and more. As a composer I wanted the music to guide the audience through a whole range of emotions, from fear to anger to hope to triumph… then a complete stop in one minute. It’s my favorite scene in the whole show. The most challenging was “Lift Up Your Cups.” I obsessively reverse engineered Chumbawumba’s “Tubthumping,” and I had to walk away from it a few times and come back to it with fresh ears at several points in the writing process. [Interviewers note: As a parody musican, I absolutely love hearing this!]

Paul: And for fun: You have just discovered a new spell. What is it and why?

Brian: Easy. It would be a transfiguring spell that would turn anything into a plate of my wife’s oatmeal raisin cookies.

Check out Puffs at their official website, and buy a copy while you’re at it! Be sure to also give ’em a “like” on Facebook and a ‘follow’ on Twitter! Don’t forget to also pick up a copy of the official soundtrack!