Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 634
(upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome back into a fabulous new Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. We are so excited to be welcoming back a theater company who we have the honor of speaking with last year about their production of the Jester's Wife, fantastic show and they are coming to us with another great work which we cannot wait to dive into. Joining us with this information, of course we are joined once again by the playwright and director TJ Elliot and we're so excited to be welcoming on for the first time the amazing actress Alinka Hamilton. Both of them are involved with Knowledge Working Theater, LLC's presentation of Honor, a corporate comedy. It's playing September 19th through October 6th at the Gene Frankl Theater and you can get your tickets and more information by visiting onthestage.tickets or at our.show/honor. The picture alone tells a thousand words. You can actually find that poster on our website which will lead you to getting tickets as well but I cannot wait to learn more about this show. So let's welcome on our guest TJ Alinka, welcome and welcome back to Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. - Thank you so much. - Thank you. Thank you for having us. - I am so excited to have you two here. Like I said, I mean, I know it's weird to say a picture's worth a thousand words when we're doing an audio show but the poster really is fantastic. It's like one of those you'd get like a mail or four, you know, like this is the team to trust, you know? And I, before we even started talking through email TJ, this show was on our radar and I was like, I don't know what this is about but I really wanna see this. This is great. So why don't we kick things off TJ with you and have you tell us what is honor about? - Well, I think a lot of people who go to the show will recognize certain phrases and one phrase is a courtesy meeting that sometimes you'll hear about in businesses there. So in honor, that courtesy meeting morphs into a corporate nightmare. There are three executives arguing over the results of an internal investigation. Two lawyers think it's going to be a snap and the person who comes in third decides to kind of blow it up there. And so then you get all these questions about that internal investigation. Who is that fall? Will there be punishment? And what exactly is a potential negative internal externality? That's worth the price of admission alone. And each character brings their own concept of honor to this battered conference room table for a debate that we think will lead people wondering what constitutes honor in our present world. - Well, I love that. And you're throwing out three dollar words on a theater person's Monday. This is fantastic, I love it. - So TJ, as the playwright of the show, what inspired you to pen this piece? - Well, I mean, that's a great question because in my playwright bio since 2018, I'd rather cheekily noted that that comeback ended a 35 year hiatus from Off-Broadway. But I say during that time, I did produce direct and perform among cast of thousands in the melange of corporate telenovelas and tragic comic melodramatic and semi absurd organizational performance art. In other words, I was an executive. And being an executive and dealing with things like HR and legal and finance, I came across so many situations and I would say like, my God, this is a one act play or, you know, or this is Chekhovian or this is David Mamet or whatever there. And I really didn't write about that much until we put on the Oracle Theater for the New City two years ago. But this one came about just sort of, it was the fastest play I ever wrote, just sort of thinking about the people that I knew and the situations that I'd seen. And it's not about any particular person or any particular situation, but it brings up a lot of issues that would recur, that would surface over and over again among people dealing with the bureaucracy. - I just want you to know that I've never heard anyone say the words corporate and telenovela together. And that just made my heart so happy. - I would tune into that coming to NBC late night, telenovela. (both laughing) - Well, Alinka, I would love to know, how do you fit in with all this? How did you stumble upon this piece? - Dumbled is the correct word there. I got an email from an actor that I had worked with on this thing who got an email from someone else, who got an email from someone else asking if I'd be interested in auditioning for this project that started initially just as a reading. And I was like, sure, I'm an actor in the city and you just wanna work, wanna work on your craft. And I just emailed them back and I met these lovely gentlemen on a random, I think it was like a Tuesday evening at Ripley Greer and it was, that was a few months ago. And they took me on a ride because that reading has since become now, we got into the chain theater festival. So we did that one at the festival and now we're going on this three-week run at the Jean Frankel. - It's amazing. I wanna snowball off of that though, because as you mentioned, you're coming up on this run at the Jean Frankel Theater. So what has it been like developing this work? - Oh, that's the fun thing with new work. You get to originate roles. You get to dive in and bring these people to life and investigate these scenarios. And that's, I mean, that's the beauty of theater. That's the beauty of like why I love performing, why I love storytelling, it changes every single night, essentially with the relationship that you have with the audience, and that's just the text. It's just you're getting to bring to life new work. And that is really, really special. - I love that. Now, I wanna ask you kind of that same question 'cause if memory serves me, correct me if I'm wrong, this isn't the world premiere of the play. This has been done before, right? - Well, yeah, so I started, I wrote this play and we were doing Jester's wife and I put it on the back shelf and somehow Ed Oldman, who was associate producer of Jester's wife and had acted in some other things for us, got ahold of a copy of it. And I think he got ahold of a copy from John Blalock. So these are the two actors who are with Alinka in the show there. John had helped me because I let him read an early draft and he talked about the character that I wanted him to play and what I needed to do to strengthen that. Ed read it and said, I wanna play the other character. We have to do a reading. Andrew, I wasn't prepared to do a reading. I was literally suffering from exhaustion from Jester's wife at the chain. And then Christine Perry, God bless her. She sent a note to me and said, do you have anything for the One Act festival? And I thought, I want the heck, I just sent a copy of this to John and Ed. I sent a copy to her and snapped right away. We got accepted, we were in program number one and we then had to put together the paper for an equity showcase. At the point we were accepted, I didn't have Alinka. I was like, I think I better find someone who played this central role here. So we hustled through that. We had a tremendous reception there. Of course, I think Shane does a great job at the One Act festivals and there's still one going on now. But in the winter, One Act festival there, we had great audiences and people would come up and say, oh my gosh, how did you know what goes on in my office? Or they'd say, I know those people. I said, oh, you know someone like those people? No, no, no, I know those people. And I'd say, okay, I made them up. So that's kind of interesting. And so that then allowed us to determine as a team that we were going to take this on to Jean Frankel. So we've only had three performances before an audience and now we're going to go into 14 or 15 of those. And we're pretty excited about how that develops because I know it's not going to be the same. I know there's a lot of work already being done by our three fine actors and sort of figuring out how this plays out now. Wow, that is fantastic, fantastic. Now, we've been having a lot of fun. We've been throwing out some fun buzzwords like corporate telenovela, among other things. Or mentioning that we've all heard the story before, but I'm curious to know, TJ, as the playwright and the director, is there a message or a thought you hope audiences take away from the piece? I mean, I love that question. And part of me is in the Sam Goughlin School, where if you've got a message, send a telegram, although that certainly is anachronistic now. But I think the message is that we really need to think more beyond our first reaction as to what certain words mean. Certain concepts are that we have there. And I think we need to consider how those resonate outside of our experience, right? So my experience is a 72 year old old white guy with a beard. If I just stay within that concept, I'm really missing out on an opportunity to understand how these things reverberate and affect other people there. So that's why I get really excited. Alinka has made the character of Ronnie Emerson. I'm not saying made her own. She's made the character. I cannot imagine anybody doing it otherwise there. And part of what she does in terms of a message is that she manages to turn the tables. And I think not just confronts another character there, but I think she's actually confronting the whole audience. And as I sit there, I get sort of hairs on the back of my neck, standing up at the idea that, and we can hear this from the audience members who came out there, that it made them think about, what does honor really mean? I love that. I love that, Alinka. I wanna ask my final question for this first part to you as one of the actresses in the show, as TJ's mentioned, creating these wonderful roles. Who do you hope have access to honor? - That's a great question. You know, just in general, I came to, I found my way to theater. It's been a rocky road because I came from a family. Like my parents are first generation Jamaican immigrants. I'm sorry, I'm first generation. They are Jamaican immigrants. And so it wasn't something, a field that they understood. They still don't understand it. I have to still explain. Yes, no, I have to do a reading. No, there's rehearsal still. No, this is what a callback actually means. And so there is this sometimes a barrier that I think can exist in feeling like the theater is, and the work there is a little elitist. And so I'm grateful and I want people to know that that doesn't exist here, that this is a work that people, it doesn't matter who you are. You can experience and you can take away something from it. So I hope that people that have never stepped into a theater come, I hope people that frequent that come, that I think that you will leave you with something to think about. And that is important. And I also hope my parents again come, 'cause I don't know if they believe in coming to show's plans. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Well, for the second part of our show, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests just a bit better. Pick your brains, if you will. And of course, TJ, we have had you on before. A link, you are new to us. So a link, I wanna start with you and our regular first question for the second half. And that is, what are, who has inspired you? What playwrights, composers or shows have inspired you in the past or are just some of your favorites? - Hmm. I think something that has, that's still, I learn something new about myself every time that I read it is "For Colored Girls" by Auntie Zaki, just heard like a nonlinear way of storytelling and the use of poetry that can also be like narrative, but then just infused with movement and music. It's just, it's all the kind of love that you, that I like to produce this like evocative work and induce all this emotion out of people. And so I, and I also just, you know, at different stages of my own life and I encounter and grow up for lack of a better word. I'm experiencing new things. So I love that play, I love that playwrights. She was taken from us far too soon, but that's a work that I always go back to. - That is a wonderful, wonderful answer. Thank you for sharing that. You, Jay, coming back to you, I mean, you are a returning guest. We made the joke about, you know, we're gonna have to start getting robes for the five-timers club. Having such wonderful artists return to us, I would love to know, how is that you came into the performing arts? - Well, you know, it's a very interesting story for me is that I was in the fourth grade. I was in a Catholic school. I was a distracted student, shall we say, but there was this tall, beautiful non-cystinorine who sort of got the mastery of me through letting me do different things. And she let me put on a play on St. Patrick's Day about St. Patrick. And again, writing and directing, I had a kid out in the hallway to make the sound of thunder. St. Patrick was gonna kill a pagan chieftain with a lightning bolt in this play. And, you know, you're in fourth grade and you turn around and the kids are laughing and whooping and, you know, that's a flame that doesn't go out very easily. And I did theater in college, I have at Manhattan College in the Bronx and the famous players club up there and did regional theater then. So I came into it by being inspired by watching other people. I have to say, I did not know what a link was gonna say there. I think if we go back, I said, and Dazaki Shange as one of my inspirations when I first answered your question there. And the reason I said that was because, and this has to do with your question, Andrew, I think it was like 70 or 71, whenever the original production was, my roommate had a membership to the public. And it was, I think in the same season was that championship season by Jason Miller and for colored girls. And I think also a reimagining of some Greek play and for colored girls, just blew me away. And, you know, it's amazing that, you know, we're talking now 50, some odd years later, there that, you know, you're giving that answer there. What a tribute it is to her. - And TJ, if I may say, I also went to Catholic school and I had a sister, Noreen. - No. - I don't think it was the same woman, but she now. (both laughing) - That's amazing. I love those answers and they're going to lead now to my favorite question to ask guests. And I'm really excited to hear this. First of all, TJ, I can't wait to hear another one, but Alinka, I'm really excited to hear yours. And that of course is, what is your favorite theater memory? Or of course, TJ, in your case, what's another of you? - I have two. One as an actor and one as a, an audience member. I'll say the first one as an audience member, I, it was my last year of grad school. I went to Columbia and got my MFA. And I was with a friend and we were sitting at the signature to watch a Dominique Moreso play, Paradise Blue, directed by Ruben Santiago Hudson. And it was just, I mean, it was emotional, it was a vodka. And it was just like the synergy that was happening in that space. And we come to the end of the show and it's me, my friend. And these two older white women were, and we were just, we couldn't move from our chair and we started, we were just started talking. We just started talking that whole time. And we were like unpacking the show. And then we like, by the end of it, we couldn't leave the signature lounge. We were hugging each other. We were like, we have to come to more, we have to support. We have, we became friends after a two hour experience seeing Dominique show. And that to me is kind of the beauty of why we create. It's the community aspect of it. It's sharing in these stories that you think someone else is not gonna understand, but then they get, they do understand because that's a baseline for all humans and humanity is something that we can have a, we have a through line for. So that to me was like, my favorite memory as an audience member. You would have not thought like looking at us that we would ever know each other. And we are now friends. And then as an actor, I was doing a production of Clides at Alabama Shakespeare festival. And I shot part of my finger off on stage. - What? - Yes. - You can't leave it there like. - I can't. - Show us your hands. - So, okay. So this is the Siva. So this, it was Mother's Day, 2023. It was on my last chop. And then I went, oh my gosh, is that, did I? 'Cause it looked like an illusion. And I was like, did I? And I was like, then the blood started. And I was like, oh, I did. I did. And then I was like, oh, wait. This, there's, the scene is still going on. I need to go say some lines. And I continued with the show. 'Cause I thought at the moment, I was like, this is, I know how much theater has impacted my life. I know the experience that I get from watching something. And I don't wanna rob an audience member of the joy of experiencing this show. So I'm going to finish this show. And then I went to the hospital and I couldn't, so I couldn't find the part of my finger. It was mixed in the first part of the potatoes that I kept talking. And so I asked the doctor, I was like, so can we just stitch about gone? He's like, you didn't bring me anything to stitch. No, so I ended up, it was cauterized to stop the bleeding. That's why it's a little, it's a different shape than my other fingers. And now I have, if you can see this, my nail is kind of funky. 'Cause it's still an ongoing battle. But you see, you leave it all on the stage. You leave it all on the stage. - You have raised the bar on that saying. (all laughing) - Those were amazing. - Thank you. - Well, you know, I mean, how, the only I can follow that is by saying that Shakespeare also is one of my great theater memories in the early '70s. I mean, all the Shakespeare in the park are always great. And partly for the reason that Alinka stated is that you end up, you know, you're on line with the people, you got to know people, you're next to people there. So it's very much more a communal event than other things might be. But it was Stacey Keeche's Hamlet, James Earl Jones's Claudius, Colleen Drewhurst's Gertrude Barnard, you was Barnard using? Yeah, the whole bunch of people that are there, in the middle of it, Stacey Keeche had a very early generation microphone and he started to get the transmissions from a police helicopter coming in through the mic. (all laughing) And he's Stacey flipping Keeche. He uses a line of what spirits are these harkening to me. - And the time and nuts. - So, I mean, there's just so many, you know, the things that's, I think back in the, and it made me random or something, but Martin Vinovic singing "What a Day It Has Been" in Brigadier and my wife, Marjorie, she wasn't my wife yet, had given me tickets for my birthday. And, you know, just all of a sudden, this guy like hits these notes and everybody is electrified by it. You have so many things like that, which is why, you know, people will say, oh, you did things on Zoom that must've been great. It was great 'cause it was the pandemic, but you don't get that feeling. - Y'all, those were amazing. Oh my gosh, truly. Those were a, thank you so much for sharing those. Those were incredible. As we wrap things up, I would love to know, do either of you have any other projects or productions coming on the pipeline? We might be able to plug for you. - Yes, so I went to Columbia and we started an inadvertently started a company while we were in grad school. I don't recommend that, but it's called the company's called squeaky wheels productions, and we are in the evolution festival at the center and our play August 28th. The play is called August 28th, is going up September 5th at 8.30. - Yeah. - Yes, I know. But August 28th is the day that Martin Luther King gave me because I have a dream speech and I feel a fun fact for parties. And so we have that coming up. And of course, good old honor. That would be my, what I would be doing for the rest of my September and October, is honor. - I love that. Jay, anything for you? - Well, I mean, one thing we're trying to fit in and I think it is gonna happen is that we had a play Joe Queen and I wrote called Grudges that never got up on live stage because it was scheduled for its auditions March 12th, 2020, if that date means anything to anyone. But then it did get up on Zoom and was phenomenally successful. And so we thought given that the election season is coming around and it's about two brothers who are separated by politics and an attempt to bring them together, which ends disastrously, it's a comedy. We thought we'd try reading that. So they tuned, we're gonna be putting out what the date is for that. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun to see that actually, I've never seen it up on stage because we never even got to do a reading in person. So I'm looking forward to it. I will say one other thing, ah, so glad I remembered. On September 25th, after our performance of honor, we are putting on a workshop for playwrights who are interested in self-producing. And we already have a number of people signed up. It's free, any playwrights is listening to this. We think you should stop waiting for someone else to produce your work. That will happen eventually, but produce your own work, figure out how to do it. We've got a great panel. We've got John Mark, Lucas, Claude, Solnik, Indian Industry Novocen and Alinka Hamilton are on that panel. And we're really looking forward to it. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. That's going to be obviously at the Gene Frankle Theater, 8.30 PM September 25th. That's incredible. Both of you have some great stuff going on, some fabulous honors in the fire. And it's a great meeting of my final question, which of course is, if our listeners would like more information about honor, a corporate comedy, or about either of you, perhaps they'd like to reach out to you, how can they do so? - Well, easily for us, go to our.show/honor, H-O-N-O-R, and that'll take you to our ticket site and also a description of the show. Or www.knowledgeworkings.com will have the same effect, but Alinka has a great web page. - I do, which just happens to be my first and last name, Alinka, A-L-I-M-C-A, Hamilton.com. So I also moonlight as a playwright. And thank you, TJ, for that all you, because I also have a reading as in this group with five other playwrights that wrote one at plays at the intersection of environmental justice and reproductive health. And those plays are going up on October 4th and 5th, the Goddard Riverside Community Center, and you can find more information about that. I don't like a Hamilton.com. And also my Instagram handle is a link-y-loo with a K. So Al, I-N-K-Y-L-O-O. - Well, wonderful. Well, TJ, Alinka, thank you both so much for taking the time to speak with me, for sharing this wonderful show. I cannot wait to see it. I'm so jazzed about it. So thank you both so much for your time. - Absolutely. And we look forward to seeing you there. And I, you know, this has been so much for an manager. Thank you. - Yeah. Thank you. - You. My guest today have been two amazing artists, a friend of the show and an incredible playwright and director, TJ Elliot, and a phenomenal actress, Alinka Hamilton. They sat down and talked to us about Knowledge Working Theater, LLC's presentation of Honor, a Corporate Comedy. It's playing September 19th through October 6th at the Gene Frankle Theater, and you can get your tickets and more information to places at onthestage.tickets and at our.show/honor. We also have some contact information for our guests, which we'll be posting in our episode description, as well as on our social media posts. But right now, head on over to one of those two websites. Get your tickets now. It's at the beautiful Gene Frankle Theater. It's not a huge theater. So when tickets go and they'll go fast, they're gone. So get your tickets now for Honor, a Corporate Comedy, playing September 19th through October 6th. And we want to add for our American listeners that Election Day is November 5th. Make sure you are registered to vote, have a plan to cast your ballot, and you do your democratic duty. You can find out how and where you can register to vote by visiting vote.gov. The future demands that we fight for it now. So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez, reminding you to turn off your cellphones, unwrap your candies, and keep talking about the theater. - And a stage was back. - Thank you. (upbeat music) (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 Jazar. Other music on this episode provided by Jazar 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. ♪ Wave from there on square ♪ ♪ I don't care anywhere near your town ♪ ♪ Makes me there ♪ [BLANK_AUDIO]