Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 656
(upbeat music) - Welcome back in everyone to a fabulous new whisper in the wings from stage whisper. We have the perfect show for you today. I mean, the perfect show for this time of year, for this moment in history. Joining us to talk about this show today, we are joined by the director and producer, Joan Kane, as well as the performer who plays the lead of Alfie, Mike Roche. They're here to talk to us about Ego Actus' presentation of Meltdown. It's happening October 10th through the 27th at Theater for the New City. And there's two places that you can get your tickets and more information. One is theaterforthenewcity.net and the other is egoactus.com. We are very excited to be bringing you this great show at a historic venue here in New York. So with all of that, let us welcome on our guests, Joan, Mike, welcome in to Whisper in the wings from stage whisper. - Thank you, Andrew. Nice to see you. - Hi, Andrew. Thank you. - I am so, so happy that both of you are joining me. I'm so happy talking about this show. As the several, the press releases and changes with you all have gone forward. I mean, this is the app show for right now. So, Joan, why don't we start with you and have you tell us a bit about what Meltdown is about? - Meltdown is about living today in this new, this media saturated time that we live in. And Alfie is watching the TV and having a Meltdown. He's really furious at what he sees. And so his wife tells him, "Hey, take a nap." He takes an app and then he goes into a fever dream. He meets a sorceress, a conjura by the name of Sasha, played by the beautiful Holly. And she then proceeds to take him on a journey. He goes to different time periods, the future, the past and back to the present. And I'm not gonna tell you anything more 'cause you have to come and see the show. He meets some very interesting characters. And what he brings in the end is the whole message of the play basically is, yeah, we live in this horrible time but don't give up hope, keep faithful. - So, joining us now, we do have the playwright, Toby Armor, joining us and I wanna ask you, Toby, I mean, what inspired you to pen this piece? - Well, you know, everything is looming over us right now. And I thought, how can I have a play when everybody's pondering and worrying and I have a feeling John said it all. So I thought, well, we need a break. But sometimes a break takes us together, you know? I think it was about that, yeah. And of course, Ella Fitzgerald inspires me. - I love that, I'm a huge Ella Fitzgerald fan. Yes, we'll get together, that's our new goal now. - Well, now Mike, as the actor playing the lead, I'm curious to know, how did you come upon this piece yourself? - Oh, thanks, Andrew, yes. So I was very fortunate about maybe nine to 10 years ago, I had the chance to work with our wonderful director, Joan. I was one of my favorite people in the world and there's a one act festival in Manhattan. And I've seen her a number of times since then, loved working together. And then over the summer, she sent me a message saying that she had this wonderful play that Toby wrote, of course, meltdown and sent it to me. And so would you be interested in, you know, looking at it and then maybe working together again. And with your wife, Holly, who's also in the show. So we took a look at it in July and I was thrilled. I thought it was so appropriate for the time period and what is happening. And I thought it brought up a lot of issues that a lot of people are currently dealing with, but perhaps not talking about. And I loved the message of hope at the end for people who perhaps are struggling with all of it, the social media, the 24-hour news cycle, the politics, what's happening in the world and how do you keep your mental sanity and try to get through this. So I love the themes of the play. I love the play. I love where it went and all the different aspects of it. Without saying too much, it goes in a lot of different directions. It's really fun in a lot of different moments while dealing with some very serious issues. And I was loved getting acquainted with Toby's work whose name I had heard a number of times. I've heard about the work a lot at TNC, she's done a ton of stuff over there. And yeah, so I was also incidentally very happy to have the script in July. Many times you don't get that type of luxury where you get the entire piece several months before the first rehearsal. So it gives you a chance to kind of work on it and think about it and we had some nice conversations with Joan over December as well. So I'm thrilled to be involved. These are my favorite people in the city and I've just really been a fun process and I think a wonderfully appropriate play for the time period we're in. - That is so, so fantastic. That's the kind of comradery and atmosphere we love hearing exists in the theater. So I'd love it. Joan, coming back to you, I would love to know at the time of this recording which is under 10 days in the show opening, what has it been like developing this work? - Like exciting, exciting and very challenging. There's a lot of moving pieces. We, in the play we have puppets. We have actors. We have a live musician who, Peter Zizosa who has actually composed music for it. We have projections. We have this incredible set design and by the name of Evan Frank who's also doing the projections for us. We have an amazing lighting design by Bruce Kramer and we have this incredible group of actors. So putting all those pieces together and it moves very fast, has been incredibly challenging. But I'm really fortunate because I get to work at theater for New City which is one of my favorite places in all of New York City theater because Crystal Field is incredibly, not only respectful but supportive of the artists who work there. And she gives opportunities to independent theater companies which my company, Ego Actus is an independent theater company where constantly trying to find a space and we've found finally a home at theater for New City to do all work. And we do a lot of new playwrights meaning new plays and it's been a wonderful challenge, a wonderful, exciting. I'm very excited to be telling this story. We laugh a lot at rehearsals. That's what I'm loving. We laugh a lot. We're standing there and we go, whoa, that moment just happened. Wow, I love all of that. That is the ideal situation. Toby, I want to come back to you because I'm curious to know, is there a message or a thought that you're hoping audiences take away from this piece? - I think what helps us, especially nowadays, is when we get together. I really think it's about audiences wearing so much life to the theater actors, our miracle makers, directors do it all. And we are all sharing, we're feeling together. - I love that idea though. I truly do and given the story that you're presenting and like I said, how timely it is, I think that's a brilliant idea and love that. Mike, I'd like to come to you for my final question of this first part. I'm really curious to know, who are you hoping have access to this piece? - Thank you, Andrew. You know, I think everybody, I think it's appropriate for younger people, only for adults, for older people. I think it's appropriate for everybody. As Joan was mentioning, her genius is, she creates such a wonderful sense of play in the rehearsals and people are going on impulses and trying different things. And I think that the play goes in so many different directions as she mentioned earlier, the puppets, the projections. There's a little bit of song in there. There's some dance in there. And certainly dealing with issues that are appropriate, you know, in terms of the time period we're living in. And also the month we're in, you know, October coming upon the election in November. So I think everybody, I think everybody would enjoy it. I think there's something for everybody in the play. I can't say that often about many plays, you know, many plays you think, okay, it's gonna be for, you know, adults, it's gonna be for kids. But this one I think can be enjoyed by everybody. And I think in some ways, everybody is dealing with these type of issues. You know, you read about the stuff that teenagers are dealing with social media, you know, and, you know, young children even having cell phones and this distraction that's constantly happening. I was on the city bus the other day. Every single person has their head buried in a cell phone and their shoulders are up and everybody looks totally stressed. And I get it. I mean, there's like news coming out of this 24/7 nonstop. And how do we get through that? How do we come out on the other side of it holding on to some level of hope and being just aware of your own mental stability and your calm, you know, within the midst of what can be considered, you know, conflict or just constant messages being given to us. So I think that everybody has something that they can enjoy about the play and also learn about themselves and perhaps the larger world by seeing the play. And I think Toby did a wonderful job of creating that world with a wonderful message of hope at the end. That is beautiful. Joan, Toby, anything you'd like to add to that? Toby? Oh, yes. Lots all have fun, much play, yes. I'd like to add something. I'd like to say that this has been an amazing experience and I hope we get an amazing audience to come and sing with us. That's a little clue. You're gonna walk away singing. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Well, for the second part of our interviews, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a bit better, pull the curtain back, if you will. And Toby, I actually wanna start the second part with you and I would love to know what or who inspires you, what playwrights, composers, or shows have inspired you in the past or just some of your favorites? Oh my. Well, actually Joan talked about her and she was so such a force and such a wonderful person. Irene Fornes, I don't know if you know her, knew her, well, you're kind of young, but anyway, she was my mentor in some ways. Yes, and oh, all the old guys. And not just old guys inspire me. I mean, I'm still taken with those old Greeks. And I've been involved in theater since I was a teenager. I was a stagehand and it's just been going from there. I don't know if you've ever heard of the living theater? Yes, absolutely. Well, that's where I started as a stagehand for them. (laughs) I was still in school, so it just went on from there. And a lot of my life was in dancing and then it just kind of crossed the cross, but cross faded or crossed over, crossed over to words. And I guess my first play was acted by dancers and you know, dancers just connect, they just, you know, and it was words and it went on from there. Yeah, yeah. I love that. Yeah, some wonderful, wonderful names there. Mike, let's come to you with that question next. You know, what are who inspires you? Well, let's see, Joan and Toby will start there. I love their work. I love John Patrick Shanley's work. I love Doubt. I think that's a beautifully written play. The Maestream Burgipson, you know, is as Toby mentioned, you know, Shakespeare certainly. I like Adrian Kennedy's work. My wife's a singer, Holly, who's also in the play Sasha. So I've got, I've really been listening to a lot of musicals, as you always have in music, but so Stephen Sondheim, I love. I actually like a Webber too. Andrew Lloyd Webber has a lot of fun stuff. So there's so many, you know, so many wonderful artists out there. And one great thing about New York is that there's always some cool stuff going on. You know, it's, I think it's probably the only city in the world where you could probably find something being done by each one of those people every night. Absolutely. There's our new sales pin for the City of New York instead of We Love New York. It's gonna be, there's something different going on every night. Yes. Love it. Joan, what are who inspires you? Oh my goodness. So many, so many people. I think Alan Stewart was the person who really inspired me. The founding artistic director of Lamama. And I met her when I was taking the, I was participating in the Directing Symposium in Italy that they have. And I met Alan. And her whole aspect of creation, you know, it begins with the artist and create and, you know, honor your voice. And she was so supportive of the artists. I had gone to the high school performing arts. I don't come from a theater family. I come from this very, you know, working class, you know, everybody's working a couple of jobs to, you know, make ends meet. And when I went to the high school performing arts, I met phenomenal educators who actually taught me to honor my voice, honor what I want to bring to the world. And that's where Ellen, the message that Ellen was giving me, met my former training. The artists that I love working with, I love working with Tobia Moore because her plays are so diverse. They're so alive. I can be so creative when I'm working on them. I love Irene Fornes also. I also love Lisa Corn and her musical, which is the poster right in back of you, Fun Home. Amazing, amazing work. So yeah, there's so much in the city like Mike was saying. You know, wherever you go, there's a, there's a new voice, but there's always an old voice happening. Recently, I actually saw a really good play up at theater, Manhattan Theater Club in the commercial theater called Fatherland. I love devised work. I love verbatim theater. So for a tectonic theater company who did the Army project and here there are blueberries at New York Theatre Workshop. And I love to be able to take real life situations and interviews and make them into theater pieces where a broader audience other than people who just watching a newspaper or watching a news show can get involved in the actual facts of the case of that story. And Fatherland was like that. It's about the young man who at 19 turned his father who was insurrectionist on January 6 into the FBI. And it's his story and the details around it. And everybody's side is heard, which is what I love about verbatim theater. So I'm inspired by it all. I'm so lucky to be here in New York City to be able to see this amazing, we have incredible Broadway theater, but we having the independent theater is where I mostly go and see and inspired. And I get to work with artists like Mike Roche. I mean, this incredible people that I am able to surround myself with to tell these phenomenal stories that Tobia Moore writes. So I feel really grateful, I feel grateful for being alive today in this time. - I love that list. Thank you for that as well. We have now arrived at my favorite question to ask guests. And that of course is, what is your favorite theater memory? - I saw the great nostalgia Parsons do a production prior to the philosophy of all the Broadway. And the second that started and she was on that stage, you just couldn't take your eyes off of her. She just owned that stage. She was incredible in that. I saw Sunset Boulevard with Glenn Close and there's a moment in that where without speaking she turns her head and the light hits her. And the Broadway audience just went crazy at that moment. She was holding the audience in her hand. And it was like being at a baseball game or something. It was an eruption, you know? And she was able to achieve that without even speaking just a look that she gave them as that light hit her face. I saw this wonderful production of Al Pacino and the Merchant of Venice. And something happened in that show where prior to the show as the lights in the audience were going down there was an eruption in the audience where people cheering and clapping and yelling before the show started. They were so excited. And then the curtain came up and it was this, you know, you almost felt like you were at some type of a sporting event. So I love those shows where there's this wonderful connection between the audience and the performer. And then, you know, and sometimes even an intermission there's no clapping 'cause people just have their mouths in the floor there. You know, there's this, that's the thing that theater has that live theater has that you don't get in film and television necessarily. Certainly when people are watching it on their iPhones and computers and all this other stuff, you don't get that type of interaction between the audience and the performer and the experience, it's the live experience of the theater, so. And those experiences, and you can count them on one hand, you know, now when they get magic happens and you can feel it and everybody knows it's happening when it's happening. Mine is when I saw King Lear, James Earl Jones, playing King Lear, Shakespeare in the Park, Joe Paps Shakespeare in the Park, and I was smitten. It was one of the best performances I had ever seen. He was phenomenal. - Wow, two so far amazing collection of memories of some incredible names to have gotten to see on the stage. - Oh, just wow. So Toby, that brings us to you. - Wow, you've given me to ponder, I think, and this is going a little, but it's still part of theater was when I saw Martha Graham dance and I was just astounded, I just, and I think that's what really started for me, the whole path, but I also thought of one of my, in a way it was one of my worst moments, but at the same time it was an amazing moment, and I might have told you, we had a play at the Traverse Theater in Edinburgh, and this was a known comic, I won't tell you her name. She was known and loved in Scotland, and she decided it was time to do a serious play. So what did they do? They pick my play, one woman play, and both myself and the director, we just were not experienced enough to realize what was going on. Long story short, she dosed, she was so nervous, she dosed up on beta blockers, opening night, and suddenly we realized that director and I are sitting near each other, that she's just wandering around the stage, and she's not getting off, and she's out of it. It went on and on, and I'm sinking, and I want to flush myself down the toilet. And while that was, she lost it, but she was just, and while that was going on, the audience, they were absolutely with her. You can do it, come on, come on. I never experienced, in my life could I write something that would bring an audience like that, and I'll never forget the feeling from that, they were so with her, they would. And finally, the director said, and I won't tell you her name, it's time to go. And she left, and later she recovered and did a wonderful job, but that moment, I thought to myself, what could I ever write that would bring an audience at that level of support and excitement and energy memory? Who knows? I mean, wow. - I know, three of you. - I know. - Those were amazing. Thank you for sharing those. - I should've made it. You never know, you never know. - As we wrap things up, I would love to know, do any of you have any other projects or productions coming on the pipeline we might be able to plug for you? - Actually, I do, my company, Eagle Actus, along with Bruce Kramer, who's my partner in co-producing, is, we're producing, again, a theater for New City, a play called Diva Therapy. It's written by John Mark Lucas, and it is hysterical. It's about six aging drag queens who are aging out of performing in Las Vegas, and they have decided to go into job therapy. And so they're in a job therapy program trying to find other professions. It is a very funny play. Very funny. And that's going up also, as I said, at Theater for New City, November 7th to the 24th. - I'm so excited about that show, yes. - I'm also, I'm gonna be doing a play of theater for the New City again in January, doing a Strimberg rep, is doing a production of Miss Julie. So I'll be doing John in Miss Julie in January. And then, I mean, this web series, a friend of mine has been doing for about a year now. He's been filming episodes and stuff. We've worked together pretty consistently called The List, and it's actually very similar to some degrees in terms of the themes of meltdown where a person's having some difficulty kind of negotiating the world and dealing with some of the stuff that's happening. I'm sorry, I believe that's coming out in the spring online. - Very cool, very cool. Toby, anything for you? - I do have a project. I'd love to talk about it a little bit. I've never done this before. It's animation and it's for children. And the first episode is just being finished. And it's about animals, of course. And it's animals saving the world. And as I said, it's for children, but it's for all of us. And as I have had a focus group of tweenies, I'm learning a lot about what that means. And they passed it and it's been, it did well at the Austin Film Festival. They said it was a charming, playful fantasy for children with an important message. So I'll go with that and we'll see. - Well, that is all so fantastic. And that means we've got to keep tabs on all of you for these great upcoming projects. And that leads to my final question, which is if our listeners would like more information about meltdown or about either of you, maybe you'd like to reach out to you, how can they do so? - Yeah, so for meltdown, certainly the TNC website, Joan's wonderful website, EGO Actors. There's an article on Broadway World about the show, opening October 10th, of course, playing for about three weeks. So it should be a fun experience for everyone that's able to go. And then, you know, everyone has a website now. So my website, it's my name, it's pretty easy. www.microach.net. So anyone that wants to reach me can just shoot me a message on there. I have a website called Joan Cane One US. And my company website, EGO Actors.com, E-G-O-A-C-T-U-S.com. And it has the experience that we've, all the shows we've done since 2009. And our contact information. - Well, wonderful. Well, Toby, Joan, Mike, thank you all so much for taking the time to speak with me today. For sharing this amazing show, I am so excited about it. I'm so happy that it's being done now, especially the world that we're in. And it just sounds like you're all having so much fun. So truly, thank you for stopping by and sharing your work. And thank you so much for your time today. - Thank you, Andrew, for having us. - Thank you. - My guests today have been three amazing artists, the playwright Toby Amore, the director and producer Joan Kane, and the performer playing the leading role of Alfie Mike Roche, who joined us to talk about EGO Actors' presentation of Meltdown, playing October 10th through the 27th at Theater for the New City. You can get your tickets and more information by visiting theaterforthenewcity.net or egoactus.com. 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 trust me, you are gonna wanna hurry and get your tickets now for this brilliant new work, this fun new work. It's very timely. You're gonna leave singing, we've been told. There's great puppets. I mean, it sounds like an absolute blast. So get your tickets now for Meltdown, playing October 10th through the 27th. And we wanna add for our American listeners, that election day is November 5th. Make sure you are registered, have a plan to cast your ballot, and do your democratic duty. You can find out how and where you can register and 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 cell phones, unwrapped your candies. - And keep talking about the theater. - In a stage whisperer, 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 whisperer 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 ♪ ♪ Where I don't care ♪ ♪ Anywhere near your town ♪ ♪ Makes me there ♪ [BLANK_AUDIO]