Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 554
(upbeat music) - Welcome back and everyone to a fantastic new Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. I am so excited about the show we are talking about today. It stems off of one of my favorite plays and my opinion, one of the best plays in the American theater canon. And joining us to talk about their new piece is the playwright and director Luke Bond. He's here to tell us more about still waiting for Lefty. It's playing July 4th through the 6th at Tietro Lataya and you can get your tickets and more information by visiting tietrolataya.org. It should be noted that the tickets from the show are very, very affordable. $15 if you buy in an advance, $20 at the door, all of this covers surface fees and everything. I mean, this is the perfect summer night out and what a show to be seeing too. So why don't we waste no more time? Let's welcome in our guest, Luke. Welcome into Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. - Thank you. Thank you for having me and excited to be here. - I'm so excited you're here. I can't wait to be sharing the show with our listeners. As we talked off air, waiting for Lefty is one of my favorite plays. It was the crux of my collegiate career. I had a teacher that taught it brilliantly. I think it's so relevant, it's now more than ever. And now you've taken from that and written the show, still waiting for Lefty. Tell us, what does this show about? - Well, in case if you're not familiar with the original works, then I'll talk about that one for a little bit. It was produced in 1935 by the group theater, but that's just the writer. I mean, the group theater actually was not really interested in producing it. So a lot of the group theater actors were in it when it's first drawn, but then when they saw they buy in response, then they got more involved in introduction and then it's Broadway run where it ran in repertoire with another show. But the original show is very heavily influenced by the 1934 cab driver's strike of that time. Of course, we're in the heart of the depression of this time period. So the cab driver's union and their strike, I think was very much a symbol for what was going on in a lot of the country, which of course, what has been going on a lot in general. And yes, so that was 89 years ago and looking at the play now and our world now and it's amazing to read it and see how little has changed and how there are certain lines and moments that sound like something you would hear someone say today on some public speaker, some public figure would say these sort of exact same ideas that really have not transformed a lot over the year. So I think our education twists things to one side a little bit very often. But then you actually go back and read the works of people who are writing out that time. You see that how little people have changed our culture, how little humanity has changed. So yeah, I certainly, I wanted to update it and my adaptation is a little hack need. The first act is a little bit closer in semblance to Odette's play. There's a couple of scenes that are slightly similar, but then towards the second act, it really just becomes this hack need mosh of what the original used to be. So yeah, the title is almost more of a cheeky wink more. So essentially what I'm trying to say is you shouldn't go into the play expecting to see Odette's play. It's not that. But yeah, I'm very proud of it. It follows the stories of different protesters who are protesting a large preparation and the working conditions that they have and the fact that their union is trying to tell them to not go on strike, even though all the workers want to go on strike. Yeah, and so we follow the different lives of different protesters and how their lives are personally either affected by the strike or their work environment or their or all sorts of different circumstances or conditions. Yeah, and we get to see the corporation poll. It's underhanded tactics to try to disarm the union or disrupt the union or break it up or prevent them striking and all that stuff that we sort of just saw last year. Last year, there was a record number by record. I mean, by a dozen years, not by multiple dozens of years, but record of number of labor strikes and labor disputes. There was over 423. And yeah, and that's of course, obviously, the people in my occupation and in my circle who are a lot of artists and writers and actors were very heavily affected by the writer strikes and the actor strikes, even though that was more so in the film world, but there's an incredible ripple effect in the entertainment industry when film actors are not getting worked and they're auditioning for plays. And when they audition for plays, then it makes the talent pool that much bigger and it makes the competition that much harder and it really affected everything everywhere. And, you know, it happened right after the pandemic to do so theater was already at this very, I think it was Eugene O'Neill who said that theater is the longest night in our farm of all time. So yeah, where we just saw that accelerated a little bit in the past few years. - That is incredible, incredible, I love it. So you've kind of already touched on this a little bit, but I would love to dive a little bit more into, you know, what inspired you to pen this piece? - I mean, I'm a writer, so it's what I do. I have many scripts, and so deciding which one I'm gonna focus on and which one I'm gonna try to amass the resources necessary to make it happen. There's so many factors that go into that. So inspiration is a nice term and there's certainly some sentimental aspects to it. I've always really loved those good debts. I've always had a great admiration for the group theater as does anyone in theater and I've always wanted to pay homage to that, but ultimately this script, you know, was something that I felt was worth doing personally because it's such an enormous cast. I could have a better chance of pulling in a crowd. And, you know, I realize it might be cynical to talk about it in these practical terms, but I have many scripts and inspiration is ultimately for amateurs, it really can't be relied upon if you wanna be doing something consistently. If you wanna do something consistent, it has to be more of a discipline. So inspiration is great, but it's just a tool. It's a convenience, right, to doing what you need to be doing to be a storyteller, right? So yeah, obviously Odette's original work was very influential. All of his entire body of work was influential and then of course I read all the readings of Harold Herman and Cheryl Crawford and Ms. Trozberg and Stella Adler and Aylia Pazan and, you know, the people who were either responsible to recreate in the group theater or were nurtured by the great theater and so by the group theater. So yeah, just getting a sense of that time period and what their souls were like at that point and a little bit of the vernacular or the structure. There's a couple of scenes that are a little bit out of place at a time that are, you know, pretty, more directly taken from Odette's work, specifically the rally scenes, simply because the work is universal and striking has become this universal aspect to whom it exists since the industrial revolution, right? So it's just, it could be at any point at any time, any place, these labor disputes that seem to continue to happen at all times. - That is fantastic. I love that answer. I know that as we are speaking today, this time of recording, the show has opened and is running but I would love to know, what has it been like developing the piece? - You know, because I have great people involved, it's always just a really special privilege and something that you, it's worth putting all of your resources into trying to cultivate the environment that I've managed to have. I, yeah, but I've been in rehearsal for, you know, 30, 35 hours a week to the past month and still working on top of that, you know, as all of my actors, I mean, thankfully, they don't have to commit that much time to rehearsal. One of the reasons why the play was possible was because so many of the scenes we follow individual characters who only rarely pop up in other scenes. There's a vignette nature to it. So I can schedule rehearsals with actors fairly easily because it's only two or three people for scene. And then there's a couple scenes where there's six or seven characters, but those ones had to be, you know, scheduled for an advance and any scene that had the full cast of 22 people had to be scheduled even farther in advance. But yeah, it's really been fantastic just watching people who you admire and who you like and who are really good at what they do and really passionate and really, you know, hardcore artists because they're dying if you're certainly not being paid a lot to them. So they're here because they want to be part of something bigger. They want to be a part of stories they care about. They want to work with people that they like working with. And that's really, you know, what's so touching for any time you do a process like this where there really is no very little money involved. It's just a bunch of people who are really passionate getting together to organize something and organize a story that we want to tell. - That is fabulous, that is fabulous. I love that. Well, you've kind of, again, touched on the answer to this question, but I would love to know, is there a specific message or thought you hope that audiences take away from your piece? - I mean, you always want that to be whatever's best for them or whatever's going through their mind at the moment, but I guess I hope that people can walk away with some sense of being able to process our times or some sense of cathartic relief from seeing a story that is processing our times and their working conditions, the living conditions of the working class and the proletariat, which is most of us, right? So especially the people involved in their show and their friends and family. So yeah, I just hope that there's something in the show that speaks to them and makes the feel seen in a way in regards to their experience or attitude towards their working conditions and their living conditions. - That is a fantastic idea. I love that. My final question for this first part is, who are you hoping have access to still waiting for Lefty? - I mean, you hope everyone, right? I mean, that's why you have to charge cheap tickets. I mean, if you charge you expensive tickets, then you know, pull or less fine to take an evening off, right? But for everyone, I hope, I think there are, again, there's 22 different characters in the show. So I really think if you come, no matter who you are, you will see something that speaks to you. I do, I really believe that there's just a endless number of characters. And, you know, there's, we follow multiple story lines and it's all interconnected, perhaps loosely so, but interconnected. And yeah, I think at any level or any, no matter who you are, there will be something there for you to believe that. I mean, I guess just in regards to ticket prices, I mean, I've been working for the New York Theatre Festival for about 10 years, so 100% as an employee. And I've seen the ticket prices go from $18 to $30 in the past, you know, nine years or so. And it's just really driven away a lot of the audience, especially these people coming and trying to put on their really low budget independent show. When you're doing a show at that level, it's pretty safe to assume that a lot of the audience you're trying to reach are not gonna be able to pay something like that. And the last thing you want, I mean, really the last thing you want, I think if you're doing independent art, is to have somebody, when you're trying to amass, an audience are trying to get quarters is to have somebody walk away feeling like they got robbed. So you have to have a certain quality to your show and it has to be an appropriately priced, I think. But it is also, I was an usher for Broadway for four years and you, that apparently the average income for a Broadway going audience member is 200k a year, right? And that is just certainly not most of us, especially not the people who are working in independent levels of our occupation, our industry. So yeah, that will very quickly and very easily make you incredibly cynical about your art and who has access to it. And yeah, I think, I think there's nothing more important. If you're going to find into your independent production and thinking, oh, well, I gotta charge this amount to break even, then you're, you're gonna be and we're gonna be in for an unpleasant surprise. There is no breaking, right? You just, you do it and it's, you have to do it if it's something that you wanna do more than anything else and there really isn't much else to it. Yeah. (upbeat music) - Well, on the second part of our show, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better. Pick your brain, if you will. And I would love to start by asking you what were who inspires you? What playwrights, composers or shows have inspired you in the past or are just some of your favorites? - My favorite creator is definitely Martin McDonough as a playwright and as a filmmaker, right? I mean, primarily a playwright first, but he's more well known as a filmmaker. But yeah, I mean, I think he just never has a wasted syllable, right? It's all just so lean and fantastic. Yeah, I think he's a genius. But yeah, there's been many things over the years. Most of my education was going to see off-Broadway shows and if anyone listening who's wondering how they can do that with the ticket prices are outrageous, I used to volunteer as an usher for the off-Broadway shows all the time. You show up an hour and 15 minutes before the show, you stuff some playbills and then you show some people to their sheets, seats and then you get to see the show free. So it's a great deal. It does take to ask you for some of your time, but I recommend anyone go do that. And I say that like it's easy, it's not necessarily easy. All these off-Broadway theaters, whether it's signature or playwrights horizons for second stage, they'll have tabs where you can inquire about volunteering and people you can reach out to. But of course, there's a lot of people who want to usher. So when they send out this list of, right, but the dates that you wanna usher, you gotta get in there quickly, right? So otherwise they'll fill up. So it is still something that requires a certain amount of time or you have to get lucky with when they send that out. I don't do that as much anymore, but for time reasons and got more snobbish with what I like as I got older. But yeah, back then I saw just a lot of really wonderful, amazing plays. I think one of the Sticks and Bones by David Rabe at Signature with Helen Hunt and Bill Pullman was just way out. I'll never forget that show. It's just mind-blowingly good. I saw a lot of really wonderful things. Take the St. C monsters was amazing. Mercury fur, Rashida speaking. And I saw all these really, really well-done things. And even though the audience is just the rich of Manhattan and there's this heartbreak of watching them tell stories about the human experience and there's only really one type of human in the audience is very disheartening. But as an education was valuable to me, a venture museum, what works with this work, what is the American theater audience interested in these days? What are the playwrights where I look up to interested in these days? So, yeah, I'd say that was really my education. But, you know, there's so many amazing plays. I mean, just looking at my shelf right here. There's all the other famous American playwrights, Eugene O'Neill, John Packard-Shanley, David Mamet, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller. But I also really love Naomi Wallace, who had three world premieres at Signature over the past few years, which I just think she's, as she's my second favorite playwright, she's just out of this world good and just an incredibly master application of language and poetry and character. And, yeah, no, I hope some people write something that's 10% as good as her work. But, yeah, so I guess to try to bring this back to what you originally asked, Naomi Wallace, Martin McDonough are some of the big ones, but there's a lot of really links out there that are there to be read. - That is a fantastic answer. I share my love for those artists as well with you. - Well, I know you've been very busy with still waiting for lefty, but I'm curious now, have you seen any great theater lately? You might be able to recommend to our listeners. - I have seen a bunch. I haven't seen anything really great lately, unfortunately. I did see, I'm afraid I don't remember the playwright, but I saw something at the tank. Midnight, Coca-Cola's, Scary, Tails. So, Monica, who's their board operator, is the board operator for mine, so I went to go see if she invited me in, and she's great, she saved my show by programming this Lightboard. But, yeah, I enjoyed it. There was one part where someone disappears into a couch, and I still don't know how they did it, and it was hilarious and brilliant. So, there's that, a friend of mine, Alex Perez, who's a wonderful playwright, who has, if you eventually know his name has a play coming out at the tank, though, at the end of July, July 24th, called The Bad and each other. And if you're looking for a good theater, I would highly recommend going to see that. You can also pay for $15 tickets. I think those tickets, better $15 are limited, but I know there's still some available, and yes, it's a great show. I've read it and seen it, and Alex is a great writer, so if you're looking for something to go see, I definitely want to plug that. - Amazing, oh, let me ask you, what is your favorite part about working in the theater? - I mean, I imagine my answer with that would really be the same for anyone and almost any occupation or industry, which is the people, right? And you find people who are really good, really dedicated, and really great people as well. It's a grand slam, it's a home run, 'cause those people are hard to find in general, right? And so, when you find those people, I latch onto them and don't let them go for the longest thing. Well, let me, in terms of trying to continue to work with them or trying to continue to have them involved in my work because, yeah, so there's just a lot of really great people in this show who have known for a really long time. Federico Mallet, who's been in the theater scene here for over a decade, he just had a production that he produced and wrote and directed a telenovela version of "Hamlet" that was hysterical. And do you know what I'm talking about as well, that's two? Isn't it hilarious? Yeah, so I mean, that Federico is just one of my oldest friends, and he's in this show, and I always try to involve him, 'cause he's just simply one of the most dedicated, most talented and most kind people you'll ever meet. And it's just such a, you know, triple threat to that. And, but I have a lot of really great triple threats in this show, Ivan Gores, who's in it. I'm gonna feel bad with people who I forget to mention, but Gregory, Bill Fleckenberg, all these, all there's a lot of really great people who are in the show. Yeah, I hope I will always get to work with him. That is a fabulous answer. I am living for these answers. This is wonderful. This is gonna be a lot of fun to go back and edit. And that is a great lead in to my favorite question to ask guests, which is, what is your favorite theater memory? Oh my God, oh my God. That's hard to nail down. I mean, I might have to go to just, maybe a piece of work I'm most proud of. I did this play in 2017, it was July of 2017. So now, about seven years ago, called Berrying Davey. And it was a cast of 10 people, which is pretty large, especially at that time for me. And we were just doing it in a rehearsal studio at Pearl Studios and the audience, you know, as an audience like 30 people sitting in a semicircle and all the actors are just standing right behind the audience. And there's no light changes. There's no nothing. It's just, we enter through these aisles to do the scenes and all the scenes happen right on top of each other. And yeah, it was a 90 minute show that I was just, I think, the most proud of and the one that when I think of in the past, I discover more about the process or the product. And yeah, so I think being there, you know, there's something special when you were the actor or in the audience in a way. I mean, I'm standing right behind them and sort of experiencing a story with them. And that was, yeah, that was a very special experience. So yeah, since that is the work, I think I'm probably most proud of. And I say that having done lots of crap in my life, the lots of not good stuff in my life, but that one, I think the circumstances clicked there in my favor. And yeah, so I think I guess that would be it. - That is a wonderful memory. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. - Oh, thank you. - Well, as we wrap things up, I would love to know, do you have any projects or productions coming on the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you? - I hope so, you know, but unfortunately, these things, when I'm wearing all the hats and using every ounce of every resource that I have to make it happen, it's just that's unfortunately always a one project at a time type of thing. I mean, there was a time where I could, you know, throw up really cheap or character, tiny black box dramas in a year through conniving and scheming my way into getting space, but as my standards have gotten higher than so does the necessary resources involved. And yeah, the last thing that I produced before this that I wrote and directed was a film, but that was 2021 that we shot that film. And so yeah, it's been about three years. And I really hope it will be less than three years for my next one, I really do, but it's hard to know, it's hard to say, 'cause it takes so much saving and time and energy. And yeah, those are all not renewable resources and difficult resources to acquire. So I hope there will be something sooner rather than later, but no, there's nothing that's efficient locked in pipeline. - It sounds like you've got some wonderful ideas million about and some great iron and the fire. So that leads to my final question, which is if our listeners would like more information about still waiting for lefty, or about you, maybe they'd like to reach out to you, how can they do so? - The LLC that is just me behind the computer screen is a logo file production. So www.logofileproductions.com is the website for it, where you can see all the work I've done in the past. And on the coming soon tab is all the information for still waiting for lefty, where you can also buy tickets. But yeah, and then I'm pretty sure the business email is in there as well, which is just logo files P. So it's logo files P as in Paul@gmail.com. And so yeah, feel free to send me an email there. - Wonderful. Well, Luke, thank you so, so much for taking the time to speak with me today. For Sherry, your amazing show, as I mentioned, I'm doing everything I can to make sure that I get to catch performance of this. This sounds so exciting. So congratulations on this great production. And thank you so much today for your time. - Oh, thank you. And thank you for taking the time and thank you for what you do. It's great to be able to talk about these things with you and with other people in general. So thanks for putting in the time and energy and resources to setting this up. - Thank you so much for that. - Yes, of course. - My guest today has been the amazing playwright and director, Luke Bond, who joined us to talk about his new work, still waiting for lefty. It's playing July 4th through the 6th at Tietro Latia. And you can get your tickets and more information by visiting tietrolatia.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. But right now, you need to head over to tietrolatia.com, get your tickets. It's a very limited run, and you're not gonna wanna miss this show. We're gonna be planning to be there. So make sure you join us for a stage whisper nine out of the theater. Again, the show is still waiting for lefty playing July 4th through the 6th. 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. - And a stage whisper. - Okay, 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 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 this show without you. ♪ I'm way more narrow, swear I don't care ♪ ♪ Anywhere will you count ♪ ♪ Make me down ♪ [BLANK_AUDIO]