Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 564
(upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome back into another wonderful Whisper in the Wings from Staves Whisper. We're continuing our coverage of several shows that have been remounted since the, or from the New York City French Festival, I should say. And that's all happening at this beautiful place called Playhouse 46, just off Broadway. And today we have a fantastic show to share with you. It's really a brilliant story and one that shouldn't be missed. And joining us to talk about this piece, we have the playwright and director, Tony Patrick. He's here to speak to us about the fountain. And that's playing now through July 14th at Playhouse 46 and you can get your tickets and more information by visiting playhouse46.org. We are so excited to be sharing the show with you. It really was so much fun to experience that we were on the edge of our seats. It's so clever. And I think the better person to explain this to you is not me, but actually our guests. So let's welcome on our guests, Tony welcome that. Welcome back to Whisper in the Wings from Staves Whisper. - Hello, hello, thank you for having me back again. It's a pleasure. - I'm so happy you're here. I'm so excited to be talking more about your show, The Fountain. This was so amazing. I mean, to get things started, the actors that played the woman or the fountain, if you will, hats off to her 'cause she's on stage from the word go, completely still. I mean, that's a difficult role in itself. But this is such a clever show and a clever story. So why don't we start by having you remind our listeners about what The Fountain is about? - Sure. So what the fountain is about is it's a short story. It's a one act about 60 minutes. And it's about two companions from different time periods. One's modern day and the other is a 16th century night from Spain. They become companions in this labyrinth. And while traveling through the labyrinth, they come across this fountain. And while they're stopping to take a rest, they realize that the fountain is, for lack of a better word, alive quote unquote, and offers them pretty much whatever they'd like, but for a price. Kind of almost a twist sound like the monkey's paw. - Yes, yes, I love this tale. It's so good. So what inspired you to pen this? Where'd you come up with the idea? - Sure, so, you know, for many years, I ran a monthly cabaret on the Upper West Side. And we were always creating new different types of themes and shows and we're always doing stuff. And you know, COVID kind of killed that. And as theater was picking back up and we were becoming to be me and my friends are becoming more creative again. Last year around March, March, April-ish, we were celebrating my buddy's birthday and we're outside having a joint at the restaurant. He's like, hey guys, I've got an idea for you that I've been sitting on. I'm like, oh yeah, what is this? He goes, I have an idea for a podcast. It'd be a monthly podcast where we just tell stories and it's gonna be kind of like, like, oh my God, Twilight Zone where it's, you know, fantastical and sci-fi, but there's not really necessarily a through line. Some stories can be connected, some stories can be not. And eventually he wanted it to be a thing where like, after we come out with the first season, which is airing right now, after going out with the first season and people are like exposed to it, we could start bringing other people that have little short stories that they want to like, don't know where to put them. They get this picture to us and we'll help them record it and pitch it. So that was the initial plan, was writing a couple of podcasts episodes. I'm like, yeah, that sounds like fun. So I'm like, yeah, I've not done this. So we all started writing in like five pages, turn into 10, turn into 15, turn into 20. And I'm like, we wanted this to be like a 12 minute podcast. I'm like, this is, I have like 20 more pages I gotta do. So finally, this blossomed into like a 45 page script. I'm like, guys, I think this is actually like a staged thing. And so they read it and they're like, oh yeah, we want to do that too. So they kind of adapted their episodes into a staged format. And in June of last year at Playhouse 46, we did a free invite reading of these three shows. We cast it some actors and just sat there, scripts in hand, told the people what they're there to see. And it's kind of did episode, episode, episode. And mine got a really good reaction. Thankfully the actors I cast are the actors that you have seen now in fringe and here at Playhouse 46. And so after I got that reaction from the crowd, I'm like, huh, maybe there's something there. So I submitted it to the fringe festival. It got accepted, went through fringe. And I happen to be on the board of directors at Playhouse 46. So maybe a little nepotism, but we had the open space. And I'm like, you know what? Let's see if we can work with fringe, you know, fringe is expanding. This is, you know, I know technically old fringe is dead because COVID killed it. And this is now the New York City fringe festival, but this is new fringe. And every year they've, I think they said they doubled. I think this year they had 45 people or shows. Last year was like 30 something the year before that was 20 something. So I'm like, yo, I want to be a part of this. So I reached out to the head of Fringe and was like, hey, we have an opening right now. Why don't we work together? Do you think any of your shows would want to continue on and have an off Broadway credit in their name? And so that's how we got transferred over to Playhouse 46. We offered out to everybody that was in fringe and about 12 shows got back to us. One had to drop out for other reasons. And so now there are 11 shows from New York City fringe festival that are now debuting off Broadway. That is amazing, amazing. - And one of the big things that the president of our board said in a meeting a couple months ago, we just during one of our monthly meetings they really resonated with me is, you know, I mean, everybody's show is valid and every theater space is valid. Whether you're performing in a 3000 seat venue or a bar in the basement of a place that seats like 30. Like every, every place is valid. But a lot of off Broadway and off off Broadway sometimes have to deal with not the best venues just 'cause they're cheap or they're accessible and this is all they can afford. And one of the things that our president really wants to do is he wants to try to make a space that could be affordable and is nice and accessible to off Broadway and independent artists. I mean, we're right in the middle of Times Square. We're right on restaurant row. Like you would have to really fail to like not get to us easily. So I really wanted to try to continue that spear. We're going to hopefully be starting a monthly cab or a series there and like opening up more for more artists to come in and perform stuff. Like we're really, we're really hoping that this year is going to be a big boost for us within the community. - I love all of that. Yes, and the space is so amazing. So turning back to your show "The Fountain" was it been like developing this current iteration of "The Fountain"? - Sure. So yeah, we had to do a couple of adjustments because like I said, you know, we're a pretty brand new space. So we're lacking some things on the technical side. We don't, even though we have all the piping and electronics set up for, we don't actually have a lighting grid in our space. That's kind of what this festival is about. It's to help raise money for getting light. So we had to deal with lights. We also didn't have at the Fortune Street Y, their entire backdrop was a projection screen. So it really made our fountain look really large and big and the backdrop of the labyrinth look huge. And we're a little bit of a smaller space. So we have a smaller projection, so we had to deal with that. So I had to take everything and size it down a bit. Our fountain is definitely a little bit smaller than it was at the 14th Street Y, but I think it kind of helps. It makes it a little bit more intimate. And I think with this iteration with the audience being so close to the actors, I mean, the first two rows are on the ground level with the actors. It kind of brings them into it a bit more. And so there was a lot of blocking that I just had to tweak a little bit to be like, hey, let's bring this down a little bit. Let's bring this in a little bit quieter. Let's make this moment a little bit more intimate because we're not shouting to a huge venue. It's a little bit smaller, lower ceilings, a little bit tighter. So that was an interesting thing to tackle, but I almost dare say even though the 14th Street Y one was probably a more technical achievement looking wise, I think this iteration is the more definitive version. - That is so wonderful to hear. I love the challenges that you all are overcoming. This is so wonderful to hear. Well, I wanna ask you, is there a message or a thought you are hoping people take away from the great story that you're telling in your piece? - Oh boy, I mean, there's a lot. I mean, for one, anybody that has come and seen it, both have frigid and the opera way I have on our postcards. I have a little blurb kind of talking about the backstory and it's my thoughts on storytelling as a whole. I'm a big fan of storytelling. I mean, my dad, you know, I was watching Star Wars when I was like three years old. I've been watching fantasy movies since I was a kid. I've been, I'm an avid reader. Two of my favorite authors are Stephen King and Douglas Adams. I'm a big proponent of storytelling just as a medium in all its forms, podcast, film. Just sitting around a campfire. Like, I just discovered a couple years ago that the electric something play, it's a story about the Mr. Burns play and it's about this society that is, you know, it's post-apocalyptic and they're telling a story about this one episode of The Simpsons and it keeps flashing forward like hundreds and thousands of years and like this Simpsons story has now become like a religion and people dress up. And like the power of storytelling is such an awesome thing. So that's the big message I want everybody to take away from. It's just telling stories is just such a cool thing and however you want to tell it, whether it's a one man show, an audio, a live performance piece, you know, storytelling is awesome. To get a little bit deeper into it, I do come from a religious background. I was born and raised Roman Catholic. I've been, I had my communion. I've been confirmed, my confirmation name is Michael 'cause when it came down to it was either Michael, the Archangel or George who slayed the dragon and it has like a little 13 year old and I fuck which one's cooler. So, you know, so I grew up in religion but I fell out of it really hard around 13 to get into a trigger warning. There is an unaliving story here. Feel free to use this if you need to but when I was in the CCD and I was around 12 years old, we had two CCD classes and we would always meet together at the middle of the day for like lunch and snacks, you know, just socialize. And one of the kids that was in another class, I didn't know him very well after he had served, you know, his treats he asked one of the nuns gonna go excuse himself to the restroom and he left, walked across the parking lot to the chapel, took out a gun and shot himself in the head. Didn't leave a note behind, nothing. So obviously we were all sent home for the week. When we came back the next week, it wasn't like a regular CCD class we spent the entire time in the chapel which I thought was like they had another church just on the other side of the building why they brought us to that chapel really fucked with me but that's besides the point and we spent our entire CCD class there and you know, there was prayers and there was talking. Kids were mostly silent and at one point I remember one of the priests asking if anybody had any questions and I raised my hand. I said, why did God allow this to happen? And they paused, they hesitated and then went into the hole, you know, God works in mysterious ways and he got out of bullshit but it was that moment, it's like, nope, bullshit, this is all bullshit, this is all fucking wrong and I've had a real problem with religion since then. I don't have a problem with people who are religious or spiritual believe what you want to believe. It gets you through the day, you know, your God bless you. I have no problem with it. But when people start using it as excuses to do things as the one character Diego says in the play, I have seen and performed numerous decrepit acts and his holy name. There have been many people that have done things and used religion as a backdrop to say, no, this is okay and I can hate it. So that's another thing that I kind of like to bring up with the show is my open, content with organized religion. As a side note, one of the characters in the play William, the actors, parents are actually very religious and when they came and saw the show at Fringe, they burst into the tears, they were crying. It really made them question some things. And that's another goal that I do want people to take away from is just to talk about it and digest it. And, you know, there are many different interpretations as to what is the lady of the fountain. Is it a representation of God or the Meditron, the voice of God or is it a other ambiguous omnipotent being? You know, that's kind of up to the interpreter, I guess. Sorry, that was a long diatribe. But there's some of the messaging behind what went into this story. - That is incredible though. That story, my heart goes out. I totally have been there. So what an amazing, amazing thought and idea to come out of that, to channel into this word. So that is fabulous. My final question for this first part is, who are you hoping to have access to the fountain? I mean, I think everybody, I mean, it probably shouldn't be for anyone below like 12 or 13. I guess like a PG-13 rating if I had to throw a movie on it. Like a movie rating on it. Though, I don't know if I'm the best one to say that I saw the exorcist when I was eight. So again, that's a little bit of me. But yeah, I think anybody. I mean, there's good messaging in there. You know, regardless of the religious backing, there is still good messaging in there. And also the stories being told, the metaphors being told are, you know, metaphors as a story that have been told over and over and over again, since the dawn of time. I mean, I reference again, the, you know, the wish giving and granting is very reminiscent of the monkey's paw. The, the lay, the fountain retells the story about ground pose, the mask of the red death and, you know, faith and folly. You know, there's the telling of honesty with Sir Gawain and the green knight. You know, there's all sorts of different tales that just, I think anybody can have access 'cause we all love stories. I mean, as children, we're put to sleep, what story? It's like we're grown up listening to stories and now we listen to podcasts. When we go to sleep, we're on the road, like we like hearing people talk to us. So I think this is accessible for everybody. (gentle music) (gentle music) - Well, on 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 want to start by asking you, what or who inspires you? What playwrights, composers, or shows have inspired you in the past or just some of your favorites? - Oh, wow. Okay. We're gonna run a gamut of things. So in terms of writing, I've already mentioned Douglas Adams and Stephen King in terms of novels. And I would say more recently a novelist who's kind of a mashup of the both of them. He used to go by the student named David Wong, but now he was by Jason Pargan. He wrote the John Dye's at the end series and another series that begins with what's called Futuristic Violence in Fancy Suits. Really, really good writing. It's, you know, sci-fi horror dark comedy. In terms of things like musicals, I mean, "Little Shop of Horrors" is forever my number one musical of all time. I loved the movie. It was the first show I ever saw on Broadway with Joey Fatone as Seymour. It's just, I think it's one of the best musicals. I mean, you want to talk about musicals that you can't remember music to. I dare you to have somebody sit through that and not sing for the songs on the way home. Like, that's just one of the best musicals in the world. More recent stuff. I mean, I think I've seen "Hadestown" four times on Broadway. I absolutely think like when the subject of storytelling, I didn't know, I knew "Hadestown" was like a story, telling it of an old story. And I knew that it was, you know, kind of like Jazzy folk music, but I didn't know what story they were telling. And as the show was going on, I realized with storytelling, I was like, "Oh no, this is gonna end bad." Like, as it dawned on me, I was like, "Fuuuuuuck." And then I just cried every single time. So yeah, I would definitely say "Hadestown." In terms of like movies and television shows, I know he gets a lot of hate for the last Jedi, but Ryan Johnson is one of my favorite writer directors even before he started getting hot for the glass onion and knives out people and people are like, "Oh, these are the great things ever." I'm like, "Bitch, I've been with him since brick." Okay, brick is one of my favorite movies of all time. I'm Joseph, a young Joseph Gordon Levitt. It's a movie that takes place in a modern day high school. I think it was around like mid-2000s. And Joseph Gordon Levitt's character's girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, turns up dead. And it's a murder mystery. And he sets out to figure out who killed her and why. But what's cool about the movie is all the cinematography and all the dialogue is of like a 1920s Humphrey Bogart film noir. At one point, he's interviewing the guy who was last dating her and he punches them in all his pot of references and they're smoking pot by in a building and they get up and he turns and he goes, "Swing if you want to hash heads, I got all five senses." And I slept last night, which puts me six up on the lot of ya. And I'm like, "Oh my God, fucking dialogue." Like just so fucking fire. So I've been a Ryan Johnson man, brothers bloom, looper. Like he, I think that man crafts wonderful stories and has such a way with dialogue. So I, I, those are definitely all insposed into my little wild and crazy world. - I love that list. That is amazing. We're kind of snowballing up of that. Have you seen any great theater lately? You might be able to recommend to our listeners. - Oh, the last really good piece that I could say that I saw unfortunately, it's not closed. It was a short one. It was a really cool piece actually by one of the guys that was Art of Fringe. It was a show called Third Law. And it was a six person piece. They had, I think, three female facing actors and I think three male facing actors. And it was kind of a interpretive story, telling of like Adam and Eve and the garden and the creation of man. But it was very interactive. You were brought in in small groups of like, I think my group was like maybe 12 to 15. And they don't tell you anything. They do not explain anything. It is up to you to figure it out. And thankfully, thankfully me and one of my producing partners, we got into it really quickly. And afterwards, I talked to them. I was like, do you guys care that like we kind of ran control? Like as soon as I figured out what the thing was and like what the circles were and what triggered what? I was hopping from circle to circles. I wanted to see all these different. One thing changed the sound. One thing changed the light. One would swap out actors. And so I was just bouncing around. They were like, oh no, this was incredible. We never had to deal with that before. Like this was awesome. So that's a really cool piece that I saw. Unfortunately, it's not around. Of things that I have seen recently, I will bring up self promotion. The fringe stuff that's playing this weekend. There's a lot of great shows that are still playing that I saw. Solitary is a great 30 minute piece written by a gentleman that's starring a lovely lady that takes place inside of solitary confinement. And the background ambient track was recorded live from a solitary wing in Maine. And it's a little disturbing. There's nothing overtly disturbing. There's no swearing or gruesome sounds, but just the constant onslaught of noise and screeching and just never having a moment of quiet even though you are locked away by yourself. It's really, for a 30 minute piece, it's really jaw dropping. I can't speak enough about it. A date with my wild again is a fantastic one woman piece. Oh, catch it for our actor friends that listen since most shows are dark on Monday. Miss Rachel Redleaf will be doing her show on Mondays. Too much of a good thing. It's a one woman show about her self breast discovery. And she's actually going to be bringing that show to Edinburgh Fridge this year. That's amazing. That's some wonderful suggestions in there, including Birdwall, from what will the neighbor say? It was a creator's pick here. It's so cool. It was so cool. I'm glad you got to see it. It was wild. I was, I sent to all my friends as I go see it. Let me ask you now, what is your favorite part about working in the theater? You know, it's the first time I wrote something that was completely mine that I had performed, 'cause I had done cabarets where it was like, other people's works. I'll dabble in my own little jokes to hear in there and you know, whatever. People are laughing mostly 'cause they're coming to see like when we would, when I would perform the Nightman Cometh on stage. Like they were coming to see that, not my little stupid jokes. So the first time that I wrote something fully and people reacted to it and they cried and they laughed and I'm like, ooh, it was like a drug. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, give me this. I mean, I was a performer at a young age. I got into theater, I guess technically late. I was a, high school and musical was technically about me. I was a state wrestler all throughout high school. And then my senior year, I quit all sports 'cause my knees were getting jacked up. I'm like, I'm just gonna go to theater now. And so I quit sports. I was captain of the wrestling team. And I quit to be Mercucio and Romeo and Juliet and Joseph and Joseph, my senior year of high school. So like, I loved doing theater 'cause it's just fun. And hey, to all of our young listeners, you know what? They always used to say jocks get all the girls. No, theater kids get all the girls. Theater kids get, or guys, or both. Theater kids get all the people. Man, the first time I went to an after party. Woo, that's for a different podcast. But yeah, just theater, you can do so much cool stuff. I mean, you know, from even something as, you know, God bless them, Godzilla, King Kong, the musical, wasn't the greatest thing in the world. But that animatronic puppet and the graphics that they did, wow, the fact that you can do something like that in live theater, but also do something in like a 10 person black box and still get the same type of emotional reaction. Like, I don't think there's anything like that. Film and TV is awesome and they have their place, but to get it live and raw, like that, there's no other feeling. There's no other feeling like it. - I love that answer. That is a brilliant answer. And I think many, many of our cohorts in the arts completely relate to that. And that leads to my favorite question to ask guests, which is what is your favorite theater memory? - Oh, wow. Okay, this is one of my favorite stories to tell. We're doing Greece in high school. It was my junior year. And this was mid 2000s, I think it was. And like most schools, the arts system is one of the first things that gets cut and budget cuts, arts and music. And there was a threat to cut the arts program. Our plays and musicals are not really bringing a lot of people. So we went for broke and said, we're gonna do a show that's gonna bring people, we're gonna do Greece. And thankfully, we sold out every night, like we oversold, we had students just sitting on the floors. And we ended up, you know, every after every performance we would bring out a petition and say, hey, there's a vote on this petition. You know, please sign it so that we get funny. And we did, we saved the theater for our school, but that's not even the story I wanna tell. We're doing Greece. And if you're familiar with the theatrical version not the movie version, the T-birds, there's a scene where they're getting ready to fight the flaming dukes. And all of us are lined up and we all got our weapons and I was playing duty and I had a lead pipe and my buddy was playing Krenicki and he had a bat. And we were waiting for the character of Rump to come on and he's supposed to come on with a car antenna. Our car antenna was just a hanger folded in half that we had set aside. So we're sitting on stage and we're giving the lines and we're waiting for him to come on and he's not coming on. And I can hear off stage just things being thrown 'cause he cannot find this. So we're ramping, we're ramping. And finally, I just hear a noise. I hear just scraping along the ground and we turn and look. And out walks Rump and he's dragging behind him a six and a half foot tall metal coat rack that used to hang our costumes that he just threw all the costumes on and he's dragging it like a Neanderthal club behind him. And so we all turn and look at him and Sonny's the next line that's supposed to be, "Hey, look who showed up, where'd you been, meatball?" He was so in shock, he just looks at him and goes, "meatball." So we're all on stage trying our hardest not to laugh. Rump's next line is supposed to be, "Oh, hey guys, sorry I'm late. "I couldn't find my bullwhip so I had to bust off an aerial "talking about the car antenna. "Well, you know they have a car antenna." So he goes, "Hey guys, sorry I'm late. "I couldn't find my bullwhip so I had to swipe this "for my grandma's house." So all the teabers are now laughing on the floor. And the audience is laughing too, but they don't really know that this is not the lines. And then the piece of resistance, my buddy Kaniki takes the bat, he walks over him. And again, Rump is supposed to have a car antenna and Kaniki's line is like, "What are you gonna do with that thing, huh? "How about you hitting me overhead with that? "I hit you overhead with this. "Let's see which one hurts more." So he goes and he goes, "Yeah, what are you gonna do with that? "How would I hit you overhead with this thing? "You hit me overhead with that. "Let's see which one hurts more." Probably that thing. At that moment, all of us are just on the floor laughing. It was just absolutely insane. And the audience was cracking up. Everybody on stage was cracking up. It was just one of my favorite, I was like 16 years old. I'm like, "Oh, this is what theater's about. "This is great." That's one of my favorite theater memories. - Oh my God, that is amazing, amazing. I absolutely love that. There's gotta be a video that's somewhere out there. I just wanna see that. - I'm sure my mom or dad have a VHS tape somewhere buried in our basement. I hope someone has it because, oh God, I would love to watch that again. - I love that memory. Thank you so much for sharing, Matt. As we wrap things up, I would love to know, do you have any of the projects or productions coming on the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you? - Oh, sure, yeah, a couple things. For one, my company, Patronized Productions, we also produce three podcasts that are currently running. One is a podcast between a husband and wife duo called In Good Spirits, where they just talk about supernatural stuff. And what they're trying to do for this first season is do a ghost story for all 50 states. Another one is a show called Villanology, in which my friend Rob interviews a person about who their favorite villain is, whether it is a real-life person or a fictional villain. We've got people on there such as like The Joker and Jean-Ville John. We have all sorts of great actors on there. He actually has an interview with Alex Brightman. So that's a great one. And then we also have our narrative podcast, Tales from the Labyrinth, of which The Fountain is part of that story fabric. And our podcast version of that one should be out in a couple of months. In terms of play stuff, actually we are working on a play in a musical right now. The play is an adaptation of a now out-of-print Stephen King book called Rage, which was, it's written about a high school kid who holds his math classroom at gunpoint and has a conversation with them about what it's like being a kid. How do we treat each other as peers? How do parents treat us? It's a very powerful story, am I telling it? He wrote it first when he was 16 years old and then published it under the name of Richard Bachmann when he was starting to get popular 'cause he was like, am I like a really good writer or are people buying it 'cause I'm Stephen King? That turned out to be both. And he published it as under Richard Bachmann and it has now been out of print because there were eight or nine school shootings in the US that referenced the story in some way. Either they had like written an essay on it or they quoted it. So he pulled it off the shelves and you can't find it anymore. I have a copy of it 'cause I have an old copy of the Bachmann books. And so I'm doing an adaptation of that and I'm hoping to pitch it to his team 'cause King is very famous for working with up and coming artists and producers and he has a portion of his website called Dollar Babies where he has everything listed that he's ever written that is not in some form of production. And if you pitch it to him and his team and they like it, he'll sell you the rights for a dollar. So I'm gonna try to pitch this to him. And then a musical that I'm currently working on, I've been working on for the past six years. I'm working on a jukebox musical using the music of a band called Jukebox the Ghost and it's called Safe Travels and it's very silly, rom-com, Boy Meets Girl and Boy Meets Boy story that takes place in an airport where there's a really bad thunderstorm. So all the plans are grounded and nobody can go anywhere. And it's a little love story that takes place in an airport and it's super super cute. - Wow, that all sounds amazing. Amazing, you've got quite a few irons in the fire right now. - Yeah, I've got to keep him cooking, got to keep him cooking. - So that's a great lead-in to my final question which is if our listeners would like more information about the fountain or about you, maybe they'd like to reach out to you. How can they do so? - Sure, you can find us on our website which is patronize.com. That's E-A-T-R-Y-N as in Nancy, I-Z-E.com. Or you can follow our Instagram @patronizeproductions. We always post things there. We have links to the tickets to see the show. Use code lights on for $10 off your ticket. And that works for all the shows at friends. So even if you're not coming to see mine or don't only want to see just mine, you can use that code for all the shows at fringe. - Well, wonderful. Well, Tony, this has been an absolute blast. I've had so much fun and I really appreciate you coming back on and delving more into your great piece of "The Fountains" and it really was just such a great time. I can't wait to see it again. I'm so excited about all you're doing with "Playhouse 46" and all that's happening, especially around your show. So thank you so much for your time today. - Thank you for having us. You know, this has been awesome. - My guest today has been the amazing playwright and director, Tony Patron, who joined us today to talk about his work "The Fountain" which is playing now through July 14th at Playhouse 46. You can get your tickets and more information by visiting playhouse46.org. We also have some contact information for our guests which will be posted on our episode description as well as on our social media posts. And also you can use the promo code lights on for $10 off tickets for "The Fountain" or any of the shows that are part of the "Turn the Lights" on festival happening at Playhouse 46. And be sure to come out and support them because this is a great fundraiser for this theater. Help out a wonderful organization. How about a great theater? And you get some great shows when you go as well, especially this one. This amazing show is playing now through July 14th and again, the title is "The Fountain." 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 state 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 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 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 this show without you. ♪ I'm way too narrow ♪ ♪ I don't care anywhere near your town ♪ ♪ Makes me there ♪