Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 517
(upbeat music) - Welcome back in everyone to a fabulous new Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. We have a full house today and an incredible production to be sharing with you. Joining us on the show today, we have the director Thomas G. Waits and the actors Dylan John Collins, David Monginello, Island Evans, Serge, Jordan Allen Bell and Matt Ugly McLean. They're all part of Faith American Bruin Company and Chelsea Grammar's presentation of Much Ado About Nothing, playing June 7th through the 30th at Gene Frankle Theater. And you can get your tickets and more information by visiting our dot show slash Much Ado NYC. We're so excited about this production, a classic tell with some incredible artists involved with it. So with that, let's welcome on our guests, everyone, welcome in to Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. I'm so happy you are all here and I can't wait to dive more into this. And Thomas, I wanna start with you first. You're the director of the show. Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about what Much Ado About Nothing is about? Essentially, it's about the loss of hero. It's about the loss of her reputation and the recovery of it. The hero is the daughter to Leonardo, the town for lack of a better word mayor or head. Takes place in Sicily. I've placed it in the 1940s to Godfather Esquio. And aside from the plot, which is hero's loss and recovery of reputation, it's also about the dueling lovers, Beatrice and Benedict surrounded by and bounced off with Don John, the evil villain and Dog's very Burgess and several other comic characters, George C. Cole. And in my opinion, I've done all of Shakespeare's comedies. I've directed them all or acted in them and directed them. And this was the only one I hadn't done. So I was drawn to it primarily because I'm an acting teacher. And in my acting class, I had students that went above and beyond the call of duty with regard to their commitment, their grit, their yearning to express themselves with craft. And so I went around and I robbed a few banks and got some money together. I mugged a few people in the subway. I got a few bucks, cobbled a few bucks together to put this production on. And I'm very excited about it because I think we have just great talent and Shakespeare is the master. He is the great task master. If you can do Shakespeare, you can do anything. And then doing Shakespeare in front of an audience, as an actor, I've never felt more fulfilled than when I've done Shakespeare in front of an audience. And he's done it well. I've also done it badly. So I can tell you the difference. One way feels great. The other one makes you want to become a plumber. - Well, let me ask, you know, you mentioned that you either acted or directed in all the Shakespeare's comedies. So what inspired you or what was the emphasis to pick this particular show for this particular production at this time? - I felt that I had the right members in my class to fill the cast. We did bring in a couple of ringers from outside, but I'd say 99% of the cast is from the class, right? You guys? And it was their talent that inspired me. I mean, there's nothing more you can do for an artist in my view than inspire them. And they inspired me to do whatever I had to do, jump through whatever hoops necessary and make this happen for them so that they get the experience of performing in front of an audience a great play. And that ultimately the aim is for them to feel not only more fulfilled, but to build their esteem. - Love that. Let me jump around in our questions here 'cause we're gonna be playing past the phone a bit, but I wanna ask you before we move on, is there a message or a thought you hope audiences take away from this production? - Yes, that love will never die and love can cure all ills. - I love that, that's a wonderful message. Well, we are now gonna move on to speak to several of the cast members. And the first cast member I'd like to speak to is Island Evans, the actress playing the role of Beatrice. Island, welcome, welcome. I would love to know what has it been like developing this current piece? - I have absolutely, I've loved the entire experience. Honestly, Beatrice, I've never, this is actually my stage debut. So I've never done a full production before. But if I were to choose a Shakespeare production, I want to do Beatrice because she's just so satisfying. She's honestly, there's a lot of qualities in her that I wish I had more in myself. - Oh my gosh, that's amazing. And now we're joined by Dylan John Collins, who's playing the audio club. Dylan, I want to ask you that same question. You know, what has it been like developing this piece and putting it on its feet? - Well, the thing that comes to mind first is like Tom said, the fact that this is like a class production. The biggest emphasis I want to make is, we are doing this production at the Jean-Franco Theater and we just feel so at home here. We have class here every Monday and Tom's such a fantastic teacher. I've been with him for two years. And to be working on a play at a place that we feel like is a second home, and to be doing Shakespeare with someone who's truly our trained. Like we just have a lot of confidence and the fact that we already have a relationship with all of the actors because we see each other every Monday has propelled the creativity in a smoother direction than maybe with strangers. Because everything happened very quickly. This production got organized almost within less than two months. And now we go up on Friday. And as you saw the set, I mean, it's gorgeous. Like we, it's really been all hands on deck. So the team camaraderie of it all and feeling at home is the big win for us. - That's so wonderful to hear how incredible how fast it came together. - Yeah. - And now we go to Jordan Allen Bell, who's the actor that plays the role of Fryer Francis. Jordan, I want to ask you a question I asked Thomas, which is an actor, what is the message I thought you hope that audiences are going to take away? - Well, I think the things about love that I don't know how many hundreds of years ago this was written, but it seems like it could essentially be written today that they just the kind of relationships that you build with people. And oftentimes, whatever happens, whatever you hiccup on ends up being much ado about nothing. So you continue to love and work together and often finds a solution. - That is lovely. Joining us now, we have the actor that plays Don, John. Serge, Serge, I want to ask you that same question. Is there a message I thought you personally hope audiences will leave with? - Well, I'll tell you, it's sometimes far from meeting answer questions, but, you know, I guess all I got to say is that, you know, that acting, you know, can be like some kind of, you know, like a second choice in life, you know, a rebirth, right? Not just an art or a business, but some kind of, you know, some kind of a light for your life, all right? A new beginning for yourself, right? That thing you always wanted to do for your life or probably never wanted to do in your life, but it's a beautiful thing, you know? - It's a wonderful answer, I love it. We have David Manganello joining us now, the actor playing the role of the Ennato. David, this is such a stellar production. What a great cast, and what a beautiful theater too, very intimate theater. I'm curious to know who are you hoping to have access to this piece? - Everyone, everyone who enjoys some great theater and great Shakespeare, and this is, as we, a couple of the others have touched upon. Sorry, at its root, at its core, really about love. Not to sound cheesy, but love conquers all, and it's just a very fun, lively production with different plot lines and different layers, and it's just been feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of it. - Wonderful, now we're joined by the actor, playing Benedict, Jacob Middovich. Jacob, I wanna ask you that same question. Who is it you are hoping have access to this piece? - Everyone, absolutely everyone. - Yes. - Anyone, I want everyone to come. Even if, like, I want people to come, even if I know that they'll hate it. You know what I mean? I want absolutely everyone to come. Like, no one should not come. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - On the second part of our show, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better. Pull the curtain back, if you will. And as you can tell listeners, we have many, many artists on the show today, which means this is gonna be a great question to ask, which is gonna jump to my favorite question. And this is for everyone. And of course, that is, what is your favorite theater memory? - I have a lot of theater memories. This is Jacob Middovich speaking, Benedict, you know? And I have a lot of good theater memories. My most recent one, which I don't know if I'm like incriminating myself at all. But I was playing a character outdoor Shakespeare. I was like wielding a sword and swinging it around. And it was great stuff. And I fell in love with my necklace there. And I took it after the production was over, obviously. But, and they don't know, I think. I was thinking about it last night. I think they may know. And now they probably do know. Anyway, and anyone else should go now. - Go. - Fabulous memories. - I don't know. It looks like you have one. Tell us about yours. - I have one. And I promise it doesn't include stealing. (laughing) - If you feel, I've borrowed that. - Borrowed without asking permanently. But, so okay, my favorite theater memory, it is theater, but it's theater for dance. Cause my main background was dancing. And so growing up, I always did the Nutcracker. And that was always just the best, the best season ever. And a lot of dancers get fed up with it. But for me, you know, it was, we always did it very early in the year. And so it was just this wonderful way to begin the holiday season, all of the magic and everything. And whenever I think back of like, favorite experiences inside a theater, it's always that. It's just all of the grandeur of the Nutcracker, the costumes, the stage magic, the dancing, the magic of Christmas, all of it, love it. - I love that beautiful memory. Thank you for that. - Yeah. All right, David. - David's joining us now. David, what is your favorite theater memory? - Well, we're gonna go back to the fourth grade with this one. I was in production of the pajama game. And I do not know where I got the balls to do this back then, but I went off script. I had lived. And the audience left. The audience being the parents in the gymnasium. And that's actually when I knew I wanted to be an actor. I knew that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life, like right in that moment. To this day, I've never had a better feeling, to be honest with you, alcohol, sex, drugs. That is the, that tops them all in that moment. And that's when I knew, as I said, that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. And again, I'm so grateful to be part of this production. This is Shakespeare. So I do not plan on going off scripts whatsoever. I think his words are pretty airtight, but yeah, I would say that was my favorite theater memory. - That is a wonderful memory. We love a good origin story. So that's, George, it's so good to see you again. - That's great. - Theater memory. - Well, this theater memory, it's not exactly, you know, theater-related. It's like partially, you see, this was back. This was during high school actually, right? They put on, they were put on production of Dracula, all right? And some people were totally shocked and disappointed that any audition for it, all right? And I was like, you know, maybe I should have, you know, but when I got to see the production, total garbage, right? Even the actor, the actor himself played Dracula didn't make a good impression, right? And after watching that, you know, I just had so many, a lot of regrets at that time and I was pretty disappointed and wish I should have, you know, just the chance. So I guess ever since that time, I guess, it like kind of, you know, motivated me to do acting, but I really didn't know what to do at that time. You know, I didn't know anybody or what to do, okay? But after high school, or maybe during my senior years, you know, somebody hooked me up with acting and, you know, in sentences like theater production. And I think since then, I just got my foot caught in a door, right? And one thing went to another after that. So that's it. - That's amazing. What a way to get into the theater in that, that fabulous. Thank you for that. We're joined again by Jordan. Jordan, tell us your favorite theater memory. - I guess perhaps the first thing that came to mind was last year I was a part of this, you know, it was a theater festival at the Clemente, I think that's near the land say or something. What is it? I forget, you know, one of those downtown theaters and it was just a, you know, festival is a full-length play and, you know, it was, you know, maybe the first full-length play had ever been, you know, somebody had actually offered to pay me for. And I was like, finding this character and doing all this research, right? And the reans metamorphosis where the guy turns into the roach and read an autobiography of was the baseball player who could bat on both sides, Mickey Mantle. I did a, you know, just did this full character research and found the emotional aspect of this character and, you know, cried on stage. It was just like, and it was just like this commation of all the, you know, all the classes that I've been taking for, you know, more than a decade. And it's just all things that come together and it's like, hey, that this may actually be working. It's just worth it. And it just meant, it felt like it was meant to be and it all worked out. So no, that doesn't always go that way, but that was a good memory relatively recent when you were going. About this time, about this time last year. So hopefully we can make a new favorite memory with much to do about nothing, with this Marvel, it's really deep off. - That's such a wonderful memory. Thank you so much for sharing that. - All right, here we go Dylan. - And welcome back. Tell us your favorite theater memory. - Can I be selfish and say two? I'll be real quick about it. - Absolutely. - Beautiful. The first one is so appropriate with Sarah Paulson. Yeah, yeah, I had the same reaction. I took my mother for her birthday and then she's a huge Sarah Paulson fan. And then it was her birthday. So afterwards, when she came out to sign autographs, we couldn't get anywhere near her, but I just yelled at the top of my lungs. "X Sarah, it's my mom's birthday." And then she stopped what she was doing, came around, hugged her, took photos, and they talked. So my mom was obviously elated, and I have bragging rights with my brothers forever for that one. The other one, Delphin Sleep, is here at the Gene Frankl Theater about two years ago. Thomas G. Wade's cast me in my theater debut, which was a one man, one and a half hour show called The White Man's Guide to Rikers Island. And it was the greatest lesson I ever could have had for being an actor. But the specific story is one of the Saturdays during the month that we did it. I woke up that morning, 3 a.m. with food poisoning. So one man's show, no understudy. I showed up to the theater at noon because we had a film crew here. We were gonna film from 12 to seven, and then we were gonna have a show from eight to 10. So I call it my Michael Jordan's flu game, but it really taught me that with enough adrenaline and support from friends, you can really do anything. So those are my, that's my two. Show must go cool. Yeah, but-- Those are cool, amazing memories, wow. Jack, come introduce yourselves. How you doing? Hi. My name is John Tucker, and I play Don Pedro. How you doing? I'm great. You've joined us at my favorite questions for guests, which is what is your favorite theater memory? My favorite theater memory is watching Aladdin on Broadway because that is the one and only play I've ever seen that I've also experienced with my grandmother, my late grandmother, I should say. But I got balcony seats. So I was able to see every single piece of like machinery on stage, how it moved, how everybody got prepared. And one, I was still, I watched things for what they're trying to do as well, just because you can see the pieces moved other than me is ruining anything. So I was able to see the show as well. And I actually met the genie separately on another day of shooting something else. Oh, yeah, that show is close to my heart. Oh, that's amazing. Thank you for that. I love all of those memories. Thank you all so much for those memories. Please. That's in the back here. Well, as we wrap things up, I would love to know if our listeners would like more information about much to do about nothing, or about any of you maybe they'd like to reach out to you, how can they do so? For me, if anyone would like to know more about me, I constantly update my Instagram. It's Smilin Island. So it's S-M-I-L-I-N underscore island A-I-S-L-I-N-N. Usually if you type in Smilin underscore A, you'll be able to find it. So that's me. David Manginello, my Instagram is Dave_N-I-N_N-Y-C. Hey Andrew. So right now, you could also reach me at I-G Instagram, which is artist search, artist A-R-T-I-S-T search. You want my Instagram and I take it? OK, just talk about OK. It's just Jordan Allen Bell, A-L-L-E-N. It's Jordan Allen Bell. And she-- Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And me, you can reach me at Jock the Ripper on Instagram, J-A-C-P-U-E-T-H-E-R-I-P-E-R. And I'm Jake Minovitch. It's my Instagram handle, J-A-K-E-M-I-N-E-V-I-C-H. Instagram as well, Dylan John Collins. And it's D-I-L-L-O-N-J-O-H-N-C-O-L-L-I-N-S. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah. Oh, can I just throw one more Instagram for Tom? Yes. It is your acting teacher. Y-O-U-R, A-C-T-I-N-G, T-E-A-C-H-E-R. And you'll see a lot of highlights from Tom's students and productions and all the fun stuff. You want baraccio stuff? Yeah, he does. I'm ghostly kind, G-H-O-S-T-L-Y-K-I-N-D on the Instacult. And then my website is Matt McLean at NYC. Wonderful. Well, my guests today have been several of the artists, many of the artists who were involved with Faith American Brewing Company and Kelsey Grammar's presentation of Much Ado About Nothing. It's going on June 7th through the 30th at the Gene Frankl Theatre. And you can get your tickets and more information by visiting our.show/MuchAdoNYC. We also have some contact information for our guests, which we'll be posting on our episode description, as well as on our social media posts. But right now, head on over to our.show/MuchAdoNYC. Get your tickets now for this brilliant production of Much Ado About Nothing, playing June 7th through the 30th. So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez, reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrapped your candies, and keep talking about the theatre. In a stage with birth. Thank you. 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 StageWhisperPod. 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 StageWhisper and theatre. 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 this show without you. [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ Hello, your town, make me down ♪