Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 586
(upbeat music) - Welcome back and everyone to a fabulous new Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. We are back with Fridgen, New York, covering one of their fantastic festivals that happens every year to this time of year. And that of course is the Little Shakespeare Festival. And today we're speaking with one of the shows that is part of that. And doing that on our show today, we've got the director, Megan Loomis, and the actor, fight choreographer, and dramaturgical and access consultant, Catherine McCracken. They're here to talk to us about their production, much to do about nothing. And that's playing August 9th through the 11th at under St. Mark's. You can get your tickets and more information by visiting frigid.nysleep. We are always so happy to get to cover anything that Fridgen, New York is doing, especially there are many festivals throughout the year. And to be kicking things off with such a fantastic show by the great William Shakespeare is even more fun. So let us welcome on our guests, Megan, Catherine, welcome into Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. - Thank you for having us. - Yeah, thank you for having us. I'm so happy that you two are here. I'm so happy we are giving this chance to talk about your wonderful production of Much to Do About Nothing. Megan, why don't we start first with you and have you tell us for anyone who doesn't know a little bit about what Much to Do About Nothing is about? - Sure, so Much to Do About Nothing to kind of describe the plot in a very basic way. And that's a little bit of a complicated plot. It centers around two couples. You have Beatrice and Benedict who are kind of enemies. They have some sort of past and that sort of play. They do not like each other. And you have Hero and Claudio who kind of meet at the start of the play and go ahead over heels with each other and decide to get married. And because they're getting married, a bunch of the people and the friends of Benedict and Beatrice decide to try and convince Benedict and Beatrice to fall in love with each other so that they will stop arguing around them. And while this is all happening, there is a classic kind of Shakespeare villain just there to cause problems on purpose who conspires to tell incorrect truths about Hero so that Claudio doesn't marry her. And it kind of leads to a lot of betrayal and romance and that's kind of the easy way, I think, to discard that plot. It's a little convoluted. - I think that's a brilliant description though. At the end of the day, this show really is just a lot of fun too. So, Catherine, I would love to know as one of the actors in the show, how is it that you came across this piece? - Sure, so Megan and I have actually been working regularly together for a while now and I am proud to say that I'm the one that introduced her too much to do and told her, read it, you'll love it and I was right. It's always been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. And yeah, we were looking to do another show together and looking to take a disability and neurodivergent affirming approach to a classic piece. So, we ended up deciding to do this one 'cause we thought it would be a fun time. We both really needed just to have fun and theater and that's how we ended up here. - That is wonderful. Well, at the time of this recording, I mean, we are just under a month from the show going up. So, Megan, I would love to know what has it been like developing this particular iteration of the classic Shakespeare piece? - So, the version that we're doing for the festival is a 90-minute cut of "Much New About Nothing." And so, a large part of the development was, how do we figure out how to take the show that's two and a half hours and make it 90 minutes without kind of losing the plot of it and making it still make sense. And how do we use cutting the show to bring it in a specific direction and a specific directorial direction? And kind of what we figured out going into it was that we really wanted to play with, like Catherine said, the neurodivergence and disability affirming approach, but also the ways in which the piece talks about the intersectionality of feminism and misogyny and disability, as well as we also have a female Benedict. So, our main couple is a not-straight couple. And so, also playing with the different elements of homophobia that that brings into the text and the way we can kind of explore that as a concept and the way it impacts communities and impacts groups of people and how all three of those different marginalized communities can really kind of intersect and also how different members of those communities can unintentionally hurt each other, trying to just save themselves. And that's been a really, really interesting way to explore the piece, looking at it from kind of a semi-political lens of how people in power tend to use and abuse marginalized communities for their own gain and the ways in which the marginalized communities that are experiencing that can find solace in other members of that marginalized community and how you can really have, if you don't have a community of people that have also experienced that with you, you feel very alone and it's very hard to kind of move through a world that doesn't really want you in it in the way you want to be in it. And that's been the way we kind of been exploring the text. And everyone in the show has really been kind of taking it in and exploring it in really interesting ways. And so far it's been really, really great to see the way different people are taking that context and adding more into it, adding more nuance from their own lived experiences and the way they see it and the ways we can all kind of explore this topic from our own perspectives as well as also seeing their perspectives and others. - That is fantastic. Catherine, I want to ask you that same question because on top of being an actor in the show, you're also the fight choreographer and dramaturgical and access consultant. So what has it been like developing this piece? - It's been a rollercoaster in the best way possible. Megan and I both tend to look at pieces in non-traditional ways and in very political ways, which is part of why we work together so much. But in our first iteration of this production, we both had noticed both in the original reading and during that production that there are a lot of very problematic aspects of much ado that a lot of people don't explore. It's known as a very fun, silly, goofy play and it is in many ways. But also we're talking about a man who shamed his fiance publicly in order to make a point, to such a degree that he ends up doing a lot of damage. I'll put it that way. And we have the choice about how much to go into it or to pull back from it, but ultimately the topics of domestic violence of women being believed are all very major topics that deserve exploration. And I think that I find it really fascinating to look at these topics in such a non-traditional manner and a normally very light-hearted show. So both as a dramaturgical consultant, I have been working with Meghan. We talk through a lot of different concepts, through a lot of pasta, the one ball, not all of it ends up in the final product. And we both bring a lot of our own experiences. I, for example, am openly autistic and disabled. I grew up in the Southeast, which had its own shenanigans with that, but I bring that highly political perspective. And as bike choreographer, I very intentionally choose to go a lot harder on some of the opportunities for bike and the show. That Meghan and I have discussed and we want it to be, to be painful to watch and painful to look at and see what that does to a traditionally very fun silly piece. - That is such a brilliant answer. I love this. Meghan, as the director, is there a message or a thought you hope that audiences take away from your work? - I think really kind of one of the big experiences that has kind of informed my entire take on the show. What kind of two big experiences, I would say, is that while we were working on the first version of this production, I had something happen in a workplace where I was being told that I was overreacting and I was being too sensitive and I was getting essentially a lot of really misogynistic and ableist comments about the way I reacted to a very justified situation. And I remember thinking that I started blaming myself for a lot of that and then I came home and I happened to be living with about four women at the time because my mom was visiting and we had a friend over and every single woman I talked to about this looked at me and that would never happen to a man. And having that conversation immediately made me feel like, okay, this isn't my fault. And that's kind of a big part of what I think the community and the camaraderie, which is the theme of the festival, comes into this version of the show is the idea of, in that sense, women, having other women to kind of have in a society where it's very difficult to be a woman. And on the other hand of that, I worked on a production of a show where I was dealing with, I'm also openly autistic and I was dealing with a lot of ableism from cast, from production in multiple ways. And if I hadn't had Catherine on that production with me, I don't know how I would have been able to deal with all of those comments. So in a very similar way of having somebody who has a similar lived experience as you and being able to kind of have that feeling is something that I'm really trying to showcase in this show and also the ways in which we unintentionally hurt each other by trying to survive in a world that doesn't like marginalized communities. And so for audiences, I think I would love for them to watch the show and understand the parts that they play in the way societies like this are created and the ways in which we can unintentionally very, very deeply harm marginalized communities. And also the idea that if you do feel like you're alone and that you are the only person that has ever experienced this discrimination of whatever kind it is for whatever reason, there's a very high chance that you have not and there are people out there that will be your community so that you don't feel like you are completely alone. So it's kind of twofold in that regard. - Wow, what a powerful thought idea. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. And I hope the theater recognizes that and the community at large continues to change to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen. They think you are making fantastic points of that. So wow, wow, thank you for sharing me. Catherine, I wanna ask my final question. You have this first part because as I'd mentioned, you're not only the actor and the quite choreographer, but you're also the dramaturgical and access consultant. So who do you hope have access to your production of "Much Ado About Nothing"? - Sorry, can you repeat the tail end of that? - Who do you hope have access to your production of "Much Ado About Nothing"? First off, I love the question. - So as access consultant, a lot of what I'm doing is working with Megan to make the production as accessible to as many disabled people as possible, both people in and outside of the production. So a lot of that means making sure that our rehearsal room is accessible. And I'm really proud to say that we have a, for both the last iteration and this one, a, disability and neurodivergent majority cast. So we're doing something, right? We're trying to figure out what it is, but we're doing something, right? So that is one piece of it is making sure that disabled artists are, A, able to be a part of it in the first place. Like they have their basic access needs met, and B, that they feel welcome and safe to be in the rehearsal room and say, "Hey, I'm having a really bad flitter day "with my chronic illness. "I'm not able to do as much today "or wear sunglasses for a migraine "or anything else that they may need. "They feel comfortable asking for." Or even just doing. But B, the second piece of all of that is making sure that audience accessibility is happening. So we have played around with a lot of different methods for things like audio visual descriptions, captioning, that kind of thing. We have not figured out all of the best methods yet. It's totally work in progress, and we are always open to hearing feedback of, "Hey, this didn't work so well because of X, Y, Z, "but we would really love if you guys tried this other method "because that might work better." And ultimately the end result is to try and make sure that it is accessible for as many people and that people feel welcome saying that kind of thing so that if we are unintentionally excluding a group, we're being told that we can rectify it. (upbeat music) Well, for the second part of our interviews, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better, pick your brains, if you will. And I would love to know what or who inspired you. (upbeat music) Well, for the second part of our interview, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better, pick your brains, if you will. And I would love to know what or who inspired you. What playwrights, composers, or shows have inspired you in the past or are just some of your favorites. And Captain, I would like to start the second part with you if I may. - Okay, oh man, I mean, for obvious reasons, one of my more recent theater obsessions has been How to Dance in Ohio. I got lucky enough to get to speak with several of the artists who have been here for a while. I got to speak with several of the artists on that. And just how much autistic joy they brought to the theater was very inspiring to me to remind me, both why I love theater as an artist and as an autistic individual. Like I got into theater because it's generally a very welcoming, open-minded community. And of course they put on a great show as well, but it was so much more than just a good show. It felt like getting community. - So that's what I've been thinking about a lot recently. - I love that, I absolutely love that. Megan, how about you? What are who inspires you? - There are a lot of things that inspire me. I'm also major fan of How to Dance in Ohio. We went to go see it on one of their neurodivergent community nights and that experience was to use Catherine's words, like a religious experience in the theater to experience that much autistic joy surrounded by a bunch of other neurodivergent people and to feel that sense of community. And I've thought about that every day since. But I would be remiss if in the question of who inspires me, if I don't mention the director Michael Arden because I, his direction is the reason that I am the director I am today and that I'm probably even a director at all. I ran across the Deaf West production of Spring Awakening in 2016 and just fell in love with the accessible theater that they were doing, the direction of it and just the brilliance of it. And that kind of sparked something in my brain to understand like, okay, somebody's figuring out how all of these details come together. And that's somebody in that show with Michael Arden and I've just been kind of obsessed with his work ever since. And I love just how much detail he puts into it. And also just kind of generally I get really inspired by, and this is such a cheesy answer, but I'm gonna say it anyways, I get inspired by the artists that I work with all the time and just how much passion and joy that the people I get to collaborate with and also call my friends, bring into things. The like, I love working with Katherine and we work together a lot because she, we very much have the same wavelength when it comes to theater and having groups of people that have similar wavelengths that are gonna have those discussions and wanna go into shows and look at them from new perspectives and kind of help challenge you is something that's so inspiring. And every time I go to direct a show, I wanna not just do the peace justice or do what I wanna do with it. I wanna also create a work that does justice to the work that everyone else is bringing into it as well. - So. - Well, another great list of inspiration. Let me ask the two of you, what is your favorite part about working in this theater? And Megan, if I could start first with you on that. - Oh, it is my favorite part of working in the theater. There are so many good parts that it's really hard to like kind of figure it out, but I think for me, there are moments in your rehearsal where you are just working with other people and it's clicking and things are just flowing and you're coming up with ideas on the fly and they're just the completely right ideas for the piece you don't have to think about them. And other people are also bouncing ideas. It's those moments when all of the spaghetti you're throwing actually sticks to the wall and things are just happening and they're working and people just kind of come together to create something. And then you get to the point where you put that on a stage and when that energy and that passion and everything that everyone loves about what they're doing comes to life on a stage and you can feel it in the audience and you can feel the way that there's a conversation being happening, there's a conversation happening between the show and the audience and there's a feedback that's happening and they're reacting to what's happening. Like, I just remember we did a production of "The Curious" instead of "The Dog and the Night Time" and there were audience members some nights that you could just feel how much the way we were taking that show meant the world to them and being able to kind of have that influence on other people is something that like I've never really found in the same way anywhere else. - That is a fabulous answer. I love that. I really love that. And that's why we do things, right? That is literally why we do things. Captain, what about you? What is your favorite part about working in the theater? - Like Megan, it is so hard to pick just one thing. There's so much I love about it. One of my favorite parts is definitely like the moment when and I've seen this in rehearsal and on stage year in the performance. But the moment when like pure humanity and just honesty is being shown on stage. I mean, as an actor, I've had this moment when I'm connecting with another actor on stage and suddenly the scene ends up going to places that we didn't know it could go. And I'm not even thinking. I'm just there working with another person and having a relationship with them. And then on stage that happens when, especially with the feedback loop, that Megan was talking about between audience and actor, that the moment when I can tell that on an audience member has or a full audience has clicked in to what is happening on stage, it's some kind of human connection that I have never seen anywhere else in life before. And it's magical, there's no other way to describe it. But that's the thing that keeps me coming back over and over. - That is such a lovely answer. Oh, you two are just giving me life. This is wonderful. And your answers actually lead into my favorite question to ask guests, which is what is your favorite theater memory? - So I've had one that I've had for a very long time and Katherine has heard this story before, but I will never forget this moment because I think it was the moment when I figured out what directing was for me. And I was in school and I was directing kind of my first ever directing piece. It was a little 10 minute show. And there were so many issues with it as there are in every production. I wasn't sure if the cast I got was the right cast. I wasn't sure if this was gonna work and all of these different things. And we were in rehearsal one day and there was just a moment where it all clicked and suddenly there was a show. And like everything just magically clicked into place and there was just a feeling that I can't describe what that feeling was like for me, but it was magic and it was adrenaline rush and it was just incredible. And I remember sitting in my professor's office after the shows had been, after the shows had closed and we were all of the directing students of that class were all sitting in her office. And she was just asking, okay, like what did you experience? Once you get out of this class, what did you get out of the directing? And I explained to that moment and what happened. And I remember another one of the directing students looked at me and went, yeah, I've never felt that. And when he said that, that's when I realized that something about that feeling for me was special and it's not something that everybody gets. And honestly, my thought was like, if you're not feeling that, why are you doing this? Because getting that feeling is what makes all the hard parts worth it. And I've been kind of chasing that feeling ever since. And I'm not sure if it's ever been quite the same but I've gotten different iterations since but that first kind of moment of having that feeling and watching a show truly come together is like the definitive theater memory for me and probably one of the defining points of my life. - That is such an amazing memory. Thank you so much, so much for sharing that. Catherine, hit us with your favorite theater memory. - So for a little background during the pandemic, I ended up taking a slight hiatus from theater. I did some tech work, not a whole lot of acting. And then a little over a year ago, a good friend of mine introduced me to Megan. She was looking for someone for another show and we ended up doing a show together that was my first time acting in several years. I had also just become chronically ill. I didn't even have a diagnosis yet. Didn't totally know it was going on. Just knew that my body wasn't doing what it normally did. And I was just having so many insecurities around the fact that, do I remember how to act? Do I remember how to memorize lines? Is my body going to let me do all of this? I was just terrified that I was going to commit to this show and then make an absolute idiot of myself. And there was this one rehearsal where my good friend and I were called together to work on several scenes that we had together playing a romantic couple. And Megan was directing us. And we did one of my all-time favorite acting exercises for us of ours. And things just clicked. Like I was suddenly on stage with one of my best friends of many, many years who I've acted with before. I trust him with my life on stage. And I was just in the moment working with him and actually like acting again. And it just, it made me realize how life-giving for lack of a better term. Theater is for me that it's not that I've been like sad or anything for those last few years, but I've been missing something and I've forgotten how much I love doing this work. And yeah, that was when it really clicked for me that theater is something that is just innate to who I am and it brings me such joy. I can't imagine working without it and the people that I do it with. - It's such an amazing memory as well. You two are killing the game today. This is amazing. Thank you both so much for those inspiring memories. Thank you. - Thanks for giving us the opportunity to share them. - Well, as we wrap things up, I would love to know, do either of you have any other projects or other productions coming down the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you? - I have a very busy couple of months. I am right after we get much about nothing up and get through that. I am hopping over to direct a staged reading of a new musical. I don't know how much about that. I'm allowed to say yet actually. So, and in February of next year, I am also directing East called Acadeca as a part of the neuro divergent new play series. So that's going to be happening in February. Those are a couple of kind of the projects that I have coming up. - And I just graduated and I'm still figuring out my life. So this is it for me right now. - Well, that is fantastic. So definitely those some things that we need to keep our eyes and ears open to. And that is a great lead into my final question, which is if our listeners would like more information about much ado about nothing, or about either of you, maybe they'd like to reach out to you. How can they do so? - This production of much do about nothing has its own Instagram page. So it's @nd as in neuro divergent.much do about nothing. And so that's our much ado Instagram page where we're going to be sharing kind of various different promotional things, but also information about the show and also frigid will also be sharing different variety of things about our show and the others. And I share everything I'm doing all the time. And my Instagram is just my name, Megan Loomis, L-U-M-N-U-S, 'cause it's always hard to spell. But if anyone wants to reach out to me in anything, talk about accessible theater, talk about much do about nothing, I am always excited to talk about accessible theater and everything that we can do in regards to that. - Yeah, and for me, I have the Breaking Boundaries podcast that's Breaking Boundaries accessible paths and theater for disabled artists. So you can find it on Apple or Spotify. So that's where I just share more of my thoughts on all of this. And then I have a public Instagram as well. That's just my name, Catherine McCracken. That likewise, I am also thrilled to connect with other people who are interested in this kind of work. So I am always open to being reached out to. - Amazing. Well, Megan, Catherine, thank you both so, so much for taking the time to speak with me today. We're sharing this amazing production that you're doing. This is so fantastic. I can't wait to see what both of you do next. So keep us posted. And in the meantime, thank you both so much for your time. - Thank you for having us. - Thank you so much for having us. My guests today have been two amazing artists, the director, Megan Moomis and the actor, fight choreographer, dramaturgical and access consultant, Catherine McCracken. Both of these wonderful artists join us to talk about their upcoming production of Much Ado About Nothing, which is part of New York City's Little Shakespeare Festival. Their show is playing August 9th through the 11th at Under St. Mark's. And you can get tickets and more information by visiting frigid.nyc. We also have some contact information for our guests with food posting on our episode description, as well as on our social media posts. But make sure you come out and support this amazing, amazing production and these wonderful artists that are changing for the better of the theater landscape. This is so wonderful. Again, their show is Much Ado About Nothing, playing August 9th through the 11th. So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez, reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrap your candies. - And keep talking about the theater in a stage whisper. - Thank you. (upbeat music) - If you like what you hear, please leave a five star review, like and subscribe. - You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Stage Whisper Pod. - And feel free to reach out to us with your comments and personal stories at stagewhisperpod@gmail.com. - And be sure to check out our website for all things stage whisper and theater. You'll be able to find merchandise, tours, tickets and more. Simply visit stagewhisperpod.com. Our theme song is Maniac by Jazzar. Other music on this episode provided by Jazzar and Billy Murray. You can also become a patron of our show by logging on to patreon.com/stagewhisperpod. There you will find all the information about our backstage pass as well as our tip jar. Thank you so much for your generosity. We could not do the show without you. ♪ Don't wait for a pair of swear ♪ ♪ I don't care anywhere near your town ♪ ♪ Makes me there ♪