Podcasts about The Threepenny Opera

Welcome back to the 232nd episode of The Cup which is our a weekly (give or take, TBD, these are unprecedented times) performing arts talk show presented by Cup of Hemlock Theatre. With the theatres on a come back we offer a mix of both reviews of live shows we've seen and continued reviews of prophet productions! For our 232nd episode we bring you a Duet Review of The Threepenny Opera, written by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, and Elisabeth Hauptmann, in a contemporary adaptation by Simon Stephens, directed by Anita La Selva, and presented by Unbridled Theatre Collective. Join Mackenzie Horner and Graeme McClelland, as they discuss playful shadows, question mortality, and make far too many references to other musicals. The Threepenny Opera is playing at VideoCabaret's Deanne Taylor Theatre (10 Busy St, Toronto, ON) until May 17th, 2025. Tickets can be purchased from the following link: https://www.ticketscene.ca/list.php?q=the+threepenny+opera This review contains many SPOILERS for The Threepenny Opera. It will begin with a general non-spoiler review until the [18:58] mark, followed by a more in-depth/anything goes/spoiler-rich discussion. If you intend to see the production, we recommend you stop watching after that point, or at least proceed at your own risk. Follow our panelists: Mackenzie Horner (Before the Downbeat: A Musical Podcast) – Instagram/Facebook: BeforetheDownbeatApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3aYbBeNSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3sAbjAuGraeme McClelland – Instagram: instagraeme999Follow Cup of Hemlock Theatre on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter: @cohtheatreIf you'd like us to review your upcoming show in Toronto, please send press invites/inquiries to coh.theatre.MM@gmail.com

From opera student to comedy icon to Broadway belter, Ana Gasteyer's career has been anything but ordinary. In this candid conversation, Ana opens up about her winding path through improv comedy, the creative chaos of Saturday Night Live, and why live performance continues to mean so much in a media-saturated world. She shares the real backstage realities of SNL's 50th anniversary, the challenges of being taken seriously as a vocalist after finding fame through sketch comedy, and how she's now channeling everything she's learned into writing two musicals. Ana also dives into what motivates her today, how she stays grounded while juggling career highs and creative fears, and why collaboration with longtime friends keeps her energized. Plus, she shares hilarious stories about surviving technical disasters onstage, her love for Christmas, and why hard work always seems to pay off — even when the path looks nothing like you planned. Ana Gasteyer is an actress, singer, and comedian known for her six-season run on Saturday Night Live, where she originated beloved characters like Martha Stewart, Margaret Jo of NPR's Delicious Dish, and one-half of the Culps alongside Will Ferrell. On Broadway, she starred as Elphaba in Wicked, Mrs. Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, and most recently Queen Aggravain in Once Upon a Mattress. She is also a celebrated jazz vocalist with albums including Sugar & Booze, and has starred on screen in Suburgatory, American Auto, Wine Country, and more. Connect with Ana Instagram: @anagasteyer TikTok: ⁠@anagasteyer⁠ Twitter/X: ⁠@AnaGasteyer⁠ Stream the Once Upon a Mattress cast album everywhere you listen to music, or get the CD here Connect with The Theatre Podcast: Support us on Patreon: ⁠⁠Patreon.com/TheTheatrePodcast⁠⁠ Twitter & Instagram: ⁠⁠@theatre_podcast⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Facebook.com/OfficialTheatrePodcast⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TheTheatrePodcast.com⁠⁠ Alan's personal Instagram: ⁠⁠@alanseales⁠⁠ Email me at feedback@thetheatrepodcast.com. I want to know what you think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jocelyn Jones was raised in an artist's community on the Hudson River just 30 minutes north of Manhattan. This idyllic hamlet is home to some of the most influential artists of our time and it was here that her interest in art, artists and their process began.She is the daughter of Henry Jones, a character actor whose credits include some 40 films and over 300 televisions shows. Mr. Jones started out as a Broadway actor, most known for "The Bad Seed", "Advise And Consent" and his Tony Award-winning performance in "Sunrise at Campobello". Ms. Jones began her career at the age of 12, appearing alongside her father and E.G. Marshall in an episode of "The Defenders."Her work in motion pictures includes Clint Eastwood, "The Enforcer" "The Other Side of the Mountain" with Beau Bridges, Al Pacino's "Serpico" as well as starring in the cult classics "Tourist Trap" and "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase."Ms. Jones has appeared on stage in both New York and Los Angeles, most notably at The Mark Taper Forum, playing Greta Garbo in the world premiere of Christopher Hampton's "Tales From Hollywood." She has also appeared with Joe Stern's Matrix Theatre Company, where she played the delightfully insane Violet in George M. Cohan's farce "The Tavern" and as Constance Wicksteed, a spinster with a passion for large breasts, in Alan Bennett's farce "Habeas Corpus". She received critical acclaim for her role as Lucy Brown in Ron Sossi's groundbreaking production of "The Three Penny Opera", which famously utilized all three theaters of The Odyssey Theatre Complex for that same production.An in demand acting teacher for over 25 year, Ms. Jones has shepherded hundreds of actors from novice to starring careers and currently works with over a hundred hand picked actors, directors and writers at The Jocelyn Jones Acting Studio.Known as a "secret weapon" to some of the biggest stars in the industry, she has served as a confidential Creative Consultant, working on some of the highest-grossing pictures of all time. From advising artists on which projects to choose, to working with writing teams, to develop current and future projects, Ms. Jones' consultant work has been considered an invaluable asset to many.As a script doctor, she has served in every capacity, from page-one rewrites to final polishes- confidentially contributing to blockbuster films and television series alike. Her production company, Mind's Eye Pictures, is dedicated to producing her own original content.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.

On the August 31 edition of the Music History Today podcast, Threepenny Opera premieres, George Harrison is found guilty, and Goat's Head Soup is served. Plus, it's a British knight's birthday today...seriously. For more music history, subscribe to my Spotify Channel or subscribe to the audio version of my music history podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts from ALL MUSIC HISTORY TODAY  PODCAST NETWORK LINKS - ⁠https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytoday⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/musichistorytodaypodcast/support

Jocelyn Jones was raised in an artist's community on the Hudson River just 30 minutes north of Manhattan. This idyllic hamlet is home to some of the most influential artists of our time and it was here that her interest in art, artists and their process began.She is the daughter of Henry Jones, a character actor whose credits include some 40 films and over 300 televisions shows. Mr. Jones started out as a Broadway actor, most known for "The Bad Seed", "Advise And Consent" and his Tony Award-winning performance in "Sunrise at Campobello". Ms. Jones began her career at the age of 12, appearing alongside her father and E.G. Marshall in an episode of "The Defenders."Her work in motion pictures includes Clint Eastwood, "The Enforcer" "The Other Side of the Mountain" with Beau Bridges, Al Pacino's "Serpico" as well as starring in the cult classics "Tourist Trap" and "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase."Ms. Jones has appeared on stage in both New York and Los Angeles, most notably at The Mark Taper Forum, playing Greta Garbo in the world premiere of Christopher Hampton's "Tales From Hollywood." She has also appeared with Joe Stern's Matrix Theatre Company, where she played the delightfully insane Violet in George M. Cohan's farce "The Tavern" and as Constance Wicksteed, a spinster with a passion for large breasts, in Alan Bennett's farce "Habeas Corpus". She received critical acclaim for her role as Lucy Brown in Ron Sossi's groundbreaking production of "The Three Penny Opera", which famously utilized all three theaters of The Odyssey Theatre Complex for that same production.An in demand acting teacher for over 25 year, Ms. Jones has shepherded hundreds of actors from novice to starring careers and currently works with over a hundred hand picked actors, directors and writers at The Jocelyn Jones Acting Studio.Known as a "secret weapon" to some of the biggest stars in the industry, she has served as a confidential Creative Consultant, working on some of the highest-grossing pictures of all time.From advising artists on which projects to choose, to working with writing teams, to develop current and future projects, Ms. Jones' consultant work has been considered an invaluable asset to many.As a script doctor, she has served in every capacity, from page-one rewrites to final polishes- confidentially contributing to blockbuster films and television series alike. Her production company, Mind's Eye Pictures, is dedicated to producing her own original content.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.

After surviving the assassination attempt: Is Trump capable of sticking with his new feeling of gratitude, calm, and unity, or are anger and megalomania built into his DNA? Harold Meyerson comments.Also: Kamala Harris – could she replace Biden on the ticket? Should she? Joan Walsh has our report.Plus, from the archives: the song “Mack the Knife” from Berthold Brecht in 1928, to the Off Broadway revival of Threepenny Opera in 1955, to Sonny Rollins in 1956, to Bobby Darrin in 1960: we will listen, and Will Friedwald will explain.

Broadway Drumming 101 is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.In today's episode of Broadway Drumming 101, we chat with the highly accomplished drummer and percussionist Charles Descarfino. With a portfolio of over twenty Broadway shows, Charles shares his extensive experience and unique insights into the world of Broadway music. Here are the key highlights from the episode:- Charles' experiences performing in over twenty Broadway shows, including "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "On the Town," "Elf," "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," "Follies," "Ragtime," "Young Frankenstein," "Les Misérables," "The Threepenny Opera," "Sweet Charity," "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Seussical," "Titanic," "The Who's Tommy," and "City of Angels." and many more.- Charles discusses his early influences, including his father, a saxophonist who played in nightclubs and introduced him to music. He shares how his father's passion for jazz and his late-night jam sessions at home sparked his interest in music and laid the foundation for his career in percussion.- Charles bravely shares his first Broadway experience with "Sweet Charity," a journey that was not without its challenges. He credits Joe Passaro and John Miller for their pivotal role in launching his career, and shares stories about the opportunities and obstacles he encountered as he transitioned into the Broadway scene.- He discusses his time at William Paterson University and how it was a transformative period. There, he studied under notable instructors and expanded his musical knowledge. He underscores the importance of formal training and continuous learning, which has been instrumental in maintaining and honing his musical skills.- Charles shares his experiences conducting shows like "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and working with various conductors and musicians.- Charles emphasizes the importance of perseverance, respect, and readiness for those looking to break into the Broadway scene. He provides practical advice, such as the need to constantly practice and improve, the importance of networking and building relationships in the industry, and the necessity of being prepared for auditions and performances.- Charles talks about his international travels, including memorable trips to Italy, France, and Hawaii. He reflects on the cultural enrichment of traveling and experiencing diverse musical traditions, sharing how his visit to Italy inspired him to incorporate classical elements into his Broadway performances, and his time in Hawaii introduced him to the beauty of Polynesian rhythms.- Charles discusses the evolving Broadway scene, the impact of technology and social media, and contemporary musicians' challenges. He also shares his thoughts on the future of Broadway and the importance of adaptability in a rapidly changing industry, highlighting how social media has revolutionized the way musicians promote their work and how technology has enhanced the audience's theater experience.- He reflects on the importance of maintaining a positive attitude, building solid relationships, and continuously striving for excellence.Tune in for Charles Descarfino's remarkable journey, insights, and valuable advice for aspiring musicians. This episode offers a wealth of knowledge and inspiration for anyone interested in working on Broadway.Clayton Craddock is the founder of Broadway Drumming 101, a comprehensive online platform dedicated to providing specialized mentorship and a meticulously curated collection of resources.Clayton's Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include: tick, tick...BOOM!, Altar Boyz, Memphis The Musical, Lady Day At Emerson's Bar and Grill, and Ain't Too Proud - The Life And Times Of The Temptations, Cats: The Jellicle Ball and The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical. He has subbed for shows like Motown, Evita, Cats, Avenue Q, The Color Purple, Rent, Spongebob Squarepants - The Musical, Hadestown (tour), and many more. Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, the TONY Awards, and performed with legends like The Stylistics, The Delfonics, Mario Cantone, Laura Benanti, Kristin Chenoweth, Kerry Butler, Christian Boyle, Norm Lewis, Denise Williams, Chuck Berry, and Ben E. King.Clayton is a proud endorser of Ahead Drum Cases, Paiste Cymbals, Innovative Percussion drumsticks, and Empire Ears.For more about Clayton Craddock, click here: www.claytoncraddock.com Get full access to Broadway Drumming 101 at broadwaydrumming101.substack.com/subscribe

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth Interview with Patrick Cassidy, Broadway, Movie & TV Star, Son of Shirley Jones & Jack Cassidy About Harvey's guest: Today's guest, Patrick Cassidy, is a popular actor and singer who's been dazzling the world of stage and screen with his remarkable talent, charisma and versatility for over 4 decades.   And his talent comes as no surprise, given that he is a member of Hollywood royalty.  He's the son of the beloved and legendary entertainers Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones.    His body of work in musical theatre is incredibly impressive.  On Broadway, he starred in “The Pirates of Penzance”, “Annie Get Your Gun”, “Aida”, “42nd Street” and “Leader of the Pack”, which earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor.  He's also starred in national tours of some of those shows I just mentioned, and in fact he won the National Broadway Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Touring Musical for his performance in “Aida”, before playing the role on Broadway.   He originated the role of “The Balladeer” in the Off-Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's “Assassins”.  And he has starred in numerous other theatrical productions including “The Sound of Music”, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, “The Robber Bridegroom”, “Company”, and “The Threepenny Opera”, for which he was nominated for the Garland Award for Best Actor.   On the big screen, he's appeared in “Off the Wall”, “Nickel Mountain”, “Fever Pitch”, “Love at Stake”, “Man of Her Dreams”, “A One Time Thing”, and of course, the brilliant, groundbreaking Oscar-nominated movie, “Longtime Companion”.  On television, you've seen him in many movies, TV series and miniseries including: “Midnight Offerings”, “Angel Dusted”, “Dress Gray”, “Dirty Dancing”, “Napoleon & Josephine”, “Hitler's Daughter”, “Ruby & The Rockits” and many more.    Our guest is also the artistic director of the renowned Studio Tenn Theatre Company in Franklin, Tennessee.   For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/ To learn more about Patrick Cassidy, go to:https://www.instagram.com/patrickcassidyofficial/ #PatrickCassidy    #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Luke Joslin is a graduate of The University of Western Sydney and The Actors College of Theatre and Television, Luke has forged a successful career in both musical theatre and straight drama, as well as being highly sort after as a director.Luke worked as an Actor for 15 years. His extensive credits include the national tour of Peter Pan Goes Wrong, The Play That Goes Wrong, both for Lunchbox and Jon Nicholls, Brigadoon for Production Company, Machu Picchu for State Theatre Company of South Australia, Pinnochio for Windmill and Sydney Theatre Company, Threepenny Opera for Malthouse and Sydney Theatre Company, 25th Anniversary production of Les Miserables for Michael Cassel and Cameron McIntosh, Annie and Dr Zhivago both for GFO, Avenue Q for Arts Asia, Assassins for Neil Gooding, Dirty Dancing for Jacobsens, Titanic for Seabiscuit and Guys and Dolls for Dennis Smith.In 2009 he won the Helpmann and Greenroom Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Nicky/Trekky in Avenue Q. Luke was also Nominated for a Greenroom Award for Best Male in a Supporting Role in 2018 for Brigadoon.Directorial credits include Annie for Riverside Theatre, Educating Rita for Seymour Centre, Thank You For Being a Friend for Neil Gooding and Matt Henderson, Songs for a New World (Melbourne and Sydney) for Blue Saint and Hayes Theatre, Giggle and Hoot Live show for ABC and Live Nation, In the Heights (Hayes and Sydney Opera House) for Blue Saint and Sydney Opera House in which he was nominated for a Helpmann Award and Sydney Theatre Award for Best Director, Resident Director for Shrek the Musical for GFO, Les Miserables for Packemin Productions and Riverside Theatre, Revival Director – Otello with Opera Australia, Resident Director – Cinderella The Musical for John Frost at XRoads and Opera Australia and Bells are Ringing with Neglected Musicals. Luke also spearheaded the Riverside Theatre Digital Concert series where he conceptualised and directed six shows back to back. Luke most recently was show director for both Jimmy Rees's Not that Kinda Viral Tour and the Swag on the Beat Live Show.He presently helms the exciting new production of Grease which has made its way to Sydney following a triumphant season in Melbourne. And the next stop is Perth. Luke Joslin joined STAGES to reflect on his journey from actor to director; and why Grease is still the word!The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

NINE surprised Broadway in 1982 when it opened last minute and proved to be a formidable foe to the other big hit of the season, DREAMGIRLS. It was also a musical that couldn't seem to escape drama, whether onstage at the hands of lead character Guido Contini or off. Here this week to discuss the highs and lows of this stylish and somewhat avant-garde musical is original Broadway cast member Kim Criswell (THE FIRST, BABY, THE THREEPENNY OPERA). From last minute costume shopping at a Times Square lingerie shop to wearing Tony-winning couture gowns, Kim spills the T on one of the most memorable musical seasons in Broadway history, and the unforgettable people who made it so. Learn more about Kim, including her many recordings and upcoming performances by visiting kimcriswell.net. If you enjoyed this episode, try our past episodes on Michael Bennett's A CHORUS LINE and Tommy Tune's THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES. Remember the best way to support the show is to rate, review, and share with your friends! You can also subscribe to PATREON! for only $1 a month and receive bonus episodes, including a brand-new DIVAS episode dedicated to Tommy Tune. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and X for more great content. And take a look at our TeePublic Store, the profits from which we donate to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. More than anything, thank you for being part of this wonderful podcasting community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Justin Austin isn't singing at the Metropolitan Opera, Kennedy Center, or Lincoln Center Theater, you're likely to find him shooting hoops on the basketball court. Sports have been a lifelong passion for the young baritone, but it's more than the game's physical benefits that keep him reaching for a basketball. To Austin, cultivating the mindset of an athlete has consistently helped him reach new heights as an artist. "A basketball coach once told me that discipline means doing all the things that are hard and that you don't like to do, but doing them as if you love it," he says on the latest episode of the Classical Post podcast.  "That's helped me in my work ethic and my discipline within my musical career. When I encounter any kind of discomfort or difficulty learning my music or translating or memorizing, I just try to fall in love with the process, the repetition, dancing the words and the music. I find different creative ways to get the score in my body, so that it lives within me and comes out of me organically." That approach to practice and role preparation has helped Austin land repeat engagements on some of classical music's biggest stages — including Carnegie Hall, where, on March 5, he's presenting a recital with pianist Howard Watkins. Part of Carnegie Hall's ongoing festival, Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice, this recital — titled "Don't Be Angry!" — presents music by five composers written over the course of a century, from selections from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera to the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's Marvin Gaye Songs, which Gordon composed for Austin.  In this episode, Austin and I talk more about his upcoming recital and how he hopes the program helps audience members become more comfortable with feelings of anger and hopelessness during turbulent times. Plus, he shares what it was like to return to the Metropolitan Opera stage after pandemic lockdowns, why opera singers should spend time honing their acting skills, and the OutKast album he would need with him if stranded on a desert island. — Classical Post® **is created and produced by Gold Sound Media® LLC, a New York-based marketing agency for the performing arts industry. Explore how we can grow your audience to make a lasting impact in your community.

Duke copyright law professor Jennifer Jenkins joins us to celebrate and explain Public Domain Day.  After a twenty-year hiatus, copyrighted works began moving into the public domain in 2019. Now each year, we can re-discover works that are available to be re-purposed by creators without the legal burden of obtaining permission from the former copyright holders. This year, for example, includes works such as The House at Pooh Corner, Millions of Cats, The ThreePenny Opera, and the 800-pound mouse, as Jennifer calls him, Mickey Mouse (as well as Minnie) as seen in Steamboat Willie. Interestingly, in the context of our recent conversation about censorship, Lady Chatterly's Love enters the public domain this year and now can be explored and built upon by everyone. We also discuss Poor Things, the new film paying homage to Shelley's Frankenstein.  Jennifer explains it all in this lively episode: what copyright law is and was, what it covers, why the copyright period was extended, and what you, as a creator, can do with works now in the public domain.  We also get to talk about art, inspiration, Disney, monetization,  plagiarism, creative commons licenses —and even a bit more about Tom Lehrer.Jennifer's article about Public Domain Day 2024:https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2024/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=topThoughts? Comments? Potshots? Contact the show at:https://www.discreetguide.com/podcast-books-shows-tunes-mad-acts/Sponsored by Discreet Guide Training:https://training.discreetguide.com/Follow or like us on podomatic.com (it raises our visibility :)https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/books-shows-tunes-mad-actsSupport us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/discreetguide

A new year marks a new trove of material entering the public domain. This year's entries include works from 1928 like Bertolt Brecht's "The Threepenny Opera," music from Cole Porter, and literature from Virginia Woolf, DH Lawrence, and Agatha Christie. But the real star of show is Mickey Mouse, whose very first appearance in "Steamboat Willie" is now without copyright. Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, joins us to explain what that means. It's also been one year since we launched WNYC's Public Song Project, and we have plans for that in store. Keep your eyes peeled and ears open for more info to come soon.

Throw your Grimace shake out the goddamn window. Tonight we need to talk about McDonald's other mascot, the moonman himself, Mac Tonight.

Doo wop, Broadway, The Met. Larry Marshall is a veteran musical performer whose exemplary Broadway career began in 1968 with the musical Hair. 15 Broadway productions later, Larry appeared on Broadway and in the National tour of the recent musical Waitress.Larry's many other Broadway credits include Two Gentlemen of Verona,The Full Monty, The Color Purple, The Threepenny Opera with Sting, and Mother Courage with Meryl Streep for the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park's Delacorte Theatre.Larry has had many turns as both performer and director with the opera Porgy and Bess. He has toured in this show nationally, internationally, in opera houses and on Broadway. Larry eventually earned Tony and Drama Desk award nominations for his portrayal of Sportin' Life in the Houston Grand Opera's production of Porgy and Bess. His film roles include playing Cab Calloway in The Cotton Club and Simon Zealotes in Jesus Christ Superstar.www.larrymarshall.net

Someone must care. For some reason the tail end of the preamble (RJ talking the end of Shield season 3) just disappeared courtesy of CraigBot, so... alas. Podcast's intro song 'Here Come the Creeps' by Ugly Cry Club. You can check out her blossoming body of work here: uglycryclub.bandcamp.com/releases Like us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/criterioncreeps/ Follow us on that Twitter! twitter.com/criterioncreeps Follow us on Instagram! instagram.com/criterioncreeps We've got a Patreon too, if you are so inclined to see this podcast continue to exist as new laptops don't buy themselves: patreon.com/criterioncreeps You can also subscribe to us on Soundcloud, iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher!

In this episode, editor and writer Rob Weinert-Kendt discusses the work of the German-born American composer Kurt Weill from The Threepenny Opera to Lost in the Stars. We also talk about the song "In Dahomey" from Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern's 1927 musical Show Boat. You can write to scenetosong@gmail.com with a comment or question about an episode or about musical theater, or if you'd like to be a podcast guest. Follow on Instagram at @ScenetoSong, on X/Twitter at @SceneSong, and on Facebook at “Scene to Song with Shoshana Greenberg Podcast.” And be sure to sign up for the new monthly e-newsletter at scenetosong.substack.com. Contribute to the Patreon. The theme music is by Julia Meinwald. Music played in this episode: "Alabama Song" from Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" from The Threepenny Opera "Lied der Fennimore (I Am a Poor Relative)" from The Silverlake, A Winter's Tale "September Song" from Knickerbocker Holiday "Green Up Time" from Love Life "Lonely House" from Street Scene "Hills of Ixopo" from Lost in the Stars "In Dahomey" from Show Boat

On the August 31 edition of the Music History Today podcast, Threepenny Opera premieres, George Harrison is found guilty, and Goat's Head Soup is served. Plus, it's a British knight's birthday today...seriously. ALL MY MUSIC HISTORY TODAY PODCAST LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytoday CHECK OUT MY OTHER PODCAST, THE MUSIC HALLS OF FAME PODCAST: LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichallsoffamepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/musichistorytodaypodcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/musichistorytodaypodcast/support

Valisia LeKae stars as LaVern Baker in Rock & Roll Man. The hit musical is playing at New World Stages. Valisia was nominated for Tony and Grammy Awards playing Diana Ross in Motown: The Musical. Some of her other Broadway and off-Broadway credits include Three Penny Opera, 110 in the Shade, Ragtime, Book of Mormon, Superhero and Almost Heaven: The John Denver Musical. On TV Valisia has been seen in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, FBI: Most Wanted, The Blacklist, and Blue Bloods. On March 15 Valisia will be making her Carnegie Hall debut in the show Hittsville: Celebrating Motown with the New York Pops. This episode was recorded August 10, 2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another chance to hear our special edition from Vienna, featuring: art at the re-modelled Austrian Parliament building; artist duo, Muntean/Rosenbloom; crowdsourcing modular opera; and a cross-cast production of The Threepenny Opera.

3:23:07 – Frank in NJ, plus the Other Side. Topics include: Phish night 6 at MSG, encore theory, Nash the Slash, FN – Black Noise (1978), Dept. 23, The Threepenny Opera, psychedelic elephant T-shirts, lobster claw guy, Bounce, get started listening to Phish, riot at Union Square, Barry Lyndon (1975), Flea Devil update, Jul23 archive, The Meanderer […]

3:23:07 – Frank in NJ, plus the Other Side. Topics include: Phish night 6 at MSG, encore theory, Nash the Slash, FN – Black Noise (1978), Dept. 23, The Threepenny Opera, psychedelic elephant T-shirts, lobster claw guy, Bounce, get started listening to Phish, riot at Union Square, Barry Lyndon (1975), Flea Devil update, Jul23 archive, The Meanderer […]

Sheila Bradley is one of the country's most experienced and best-loved music theatre stars, with a career that has spanned 70 years working all over the world. Born in Essex, U.K., Sheila was brought to Australia in the 1950s by J.C. Williamson's to play the lead in Grab Me a Gondola. She had an established career as a lead singer with the George Mitchell Singers and playing Lalume in Kismet opposite Alfred Drake in the West End. Sheila quickly decided on Australia as home, and so begun a litany of leading roles in plays and musical theatre around the country. Sheila was the nation's original Nancy in Oliver, playing opposite Johnny Lockwood as Fagin. Celebrated turns include Princess Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress, Anna Leonowens in The King and I, Sharon Mclonegran in Finian's Rainbow, Vera Charles in Mame, and Mrs Peachum in The Threepenny Opera. Performances in revue at the Phillip Street theatre, alongside colleagues Gordon Chater, Johnny Ladd and June Salter, confirmed her position as a fine comedienne with a dynamic voice. Her indelible presence made it's mark in productions right up to the early 2000s with performances of The Wizard of Oz, Nunsense 2, Crazy For You, Jolson, Hello Dolly!, Follies in Concert, Me and My Girl, My Fair Lady, The Pirates of Penzance, and in pantomime and theatre restaurant. Sheila is one of Australia's much loved and enduring performers. She recently celebrated her 90th birthday and retains the energy, humour and passion that made her a star several decades ago. It was indeed a tremendous privilege to share a couple of hours with the wonderful Sheila Bradley.The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Paul Barrosse joined me to discuss his influence of vaudeville and fifties TV comedians; working with Sid Caser at SNL; Dick Ebersol's host choices; Sid wanting more rehearsal time; he and Tim Kazurisnky fitting the same nichde so he knew he wouldn't get airtime; being in a comedy cabaret troupe with adults at 16; directing Threepenny Opera at Northwestern; student written comedy revues led to the Practical Theater Company; PTC had plays, improv revues and rock; improv was scripted beforehand; his theory of improv; how the Practical Theatre Company (himself, Brad Hall, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Gary Kroeger) got hired for Saturday Night Live; their love for the Beatles; the network censoring him out of his part in his first SNL sketch, the PTC Club; letters about "A Christmas Message from April May June"; Nukes are for Kukes, Brad's guitar at Weekend Update and Dick nixing political and physical comedy; Davey Wilson nixes ideas if to hard to direct; difference between Letterman and SNL; writing a Tonight Show parody for The Smothers Brothers; writing Best Little Whorehouse on the Prarie for Robert Blake; Blake's being friendly only to him; Blake's hatred for Michael Landon and Hal Roach; writing Hell Bent for Glory for Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, Battered Husband and My Friend Zeus for Gary Kroeger, and Guy Crazy for Beauand Jeff Bridges; memories of Stevie Wonder; Ed Koch; Northwestern University houses his sketches; his season only writers Ellen Fogle and Tracy Torme; was let go because he was hired at same pay as cast members and was most expensive and newest writer; he did not handle it well with Dick Ebersol who was friendly to him; went back to PTC; producing specials for TV Land including "100 Greatest TV Themes"; creating Little People, Big World; doing documentaries with Elizabeth Smart and Mary Kay Laterneau; his daughters, all of whom are now in show business; future shows of the Practical Theatre Company

Rob was the founding editor-in-chief of Back Stage West & is the editor-in-chief of American Theatre magazine. And he's here for the only Off-Broadway show to win a Tony Award. Topics include: psuedo-Marxist propaganda, in rep with The Fantasticks, Gilbert & Sullivan, Double-LP German recordings, Domar Warehouse, how existence is a female dog and then one perishes, and the vocal stylings of Dame Bea Arthur. American Theatre Dot Org Featured recordings: The Threepenny Opera - The Complete Score (1954) • Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill - Hal Willner (1985) • The Threepenny Opera - Original Cast Recording (1994) • Die Dreigroschenoper - Columbia Masterworks (1958) • Mame - Original Broadway Cast (1966) ORIGINAL CAST MERCH! Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where 2023 is THE YEAR OF BARBRA celebrating the filmography of Ms. Barbra Joan Streisand! Patreon • Twitter • Facebook • Email

Jamie deRoy discsses her father backing "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees"; her dad being a big fan of Broadway; getting advice from Harold Prince her senior year of high school to stay in Pittsburgh; her leaving for NY fter one year in college; working with Larry Keith and Margot Moser; Sidney Simon; Margot Moser wants her to stay in NY and take voice lessons with her teacher; getting cast in The Drunkard; becoming friends with its musical coordinator, Barry Manilow; getting hired in the mountains and having Barry write the charts; not writing patter; opening for Irving C. Watson; being a popular opening act with comedic songs; opening for Joan Rivers; performing in the Monkey Bar with Crandall & Charles and Mel Martin; Norman Steinberg; Jeffrey Richards has Jamie watch The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged; she becomes co-producer; revival of show is paused by 9/11; producing Mr. Saturday Night; it was supposed to follow The Lehman Trilogy but COVID hit; Jamie performs a duet with Tyne Daly at a benefit for Primary Stages; COVID closed Broadway; many people quit acting; a British cast gets stranded in NY; Jamie gets COVID in October 2022; producing Beetlejuice, Tina, Fiddler on the Roof, Angels in America and The Inheritance; two most emotional theatre events - the end of The Inheritance and the first "Jamie deRoy and Friends" which paid tribute to cabaret critic Bob Harrington in 1992; producing The Lion, The Two of Us (with Jay Johnson) and Say Goodnight Gracie (with Frank Gorshin); seeing understudies; co-starring with Rene Auberjonois in Threepenny Opera; how sitting next to Martin Scorcese got her cast in Goodfellas and how leaving to go to Cannes got her a bigger part that wasn't cut; appearing in See No Evil, Here No Evil; recording nine albums; her TV show of over thirty years, Jamie deRoy and Friends; what shows she has currently out and about to come out; working with Judy Gold; and making sure to tape everything.

On this edition of The Arts Section, host Gary Zidek catches up with author and screenwriter Rachel Koller Croft. The Chicago-native's new novel, STONE COLD FOX, is getting rave reviews. The Dueling Critics, Kerry Reid and Jonathan Abarbanel, review a revival of THE THREEPENNY OPERA. Later in the show, WDCB's own Leslie Keros interviews acclaimed drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. And Gary checks in with local film critic Nick Allen to talk about the underappreciated art of stunts in filmmaking.

Kate Linder was cast as Esther Valentine on The Young and the Restless 40 years ago, where she remains a key member of the top-rated daytime drama's cast. Kate's feature film credits include: Hysteria, Erased, Miss Meadows, Garry Marshall's Mother's Day, Charlie Matthau's The Book of Leah, and various others.Kate enjoys the best of two worlds -- on the air and in the air – because she never quit her pre-Young and the Restless weekend job as a United Airlines flight attendant, which she says keeps her grounded.Born in Pasadena, California, Kate entered dance classes at 3. By the time she finished high school, she'd appeared in major singing and dancing roles in Promises, Promises, Threepenny Opera, L'il Abner, Jesus Christ Superstar, and many more.Following graduation from San Francisco State University with a degree in Theater Arts, Kate worked part-time at the University, which is where she met her husband, Professor Dr. Ronald Linder, who subsequently joined the Public Health and Medicine faculty at UCLA. After settling in Los Angeles, Kate broke into TV with sitcom and drama guest-starring roles, including starring in Cotillion '65 as a dance teacher with a dual life that won multiple film festival awards.Kate became the celebrity spokesperson for the ALS Association following her brother-in-law's diagnosis. She spends most holidays serving food at the L.A. Mission. And she was on many USO tours with the late Johnny Grant, spending Thanksgivings visiting troops in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Korea, Guantanamo Bay and Fort Hood.Kate and Robin Wyss debuted Kate's charity OpportuniTea in 1998 in Vancouver, featuring her Young and Restless castmates. Kate's teas also benefit the March of Dimes Canada's Conductive Education® program in Toronto and Calgary.Kate was elected to two terms as the Television Academy's Governor of Daytime Programming Peer Group and was elected to multiple terms as a SAG-AFTRA board member.In April 2008, Kate received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

Heading into the final tracks from Orphans, Tim, Martin and Sam discuss the ruinous junkyard dog that is Waits's music, with another track from Brecht/Weill's Threepenny Opera, some nursery rhyme cribs, and a bit of spontaneous(?) comedy. Waits delivers some aggressive anti-war sentiment, a song slightly lacking in specificity, and then finishes with a load of absolute bull. website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Cannon Song, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Jayne's Blue Wish, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Dog Treat, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Cannon Song, Lost In The Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill, Kurt Weill / Bertolt Brecht / The Fowler Brothers / Stan Ridgway / trans. by Ralph Manheim and John Willett (1985) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We're travelling way, way, WAY back in time to the 1930s with Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera! This week, we're joined by Sick + Twisted Theatre's Debbie Patterson, to talk all things Verfremdungseffekt.Paul, Jill, and Debbie puzzle over such questions as: why does Brecht hate applause? What other sneaky show tunes was the Chairman of the Board tricked into singing? And when will we finally seize the means of production to make Daddy Marx proud?We got MERCH now y'all! Visit Spring to check out our mugs, t-shirts, hoodies and more!Instagram: @monkeysandplaybillspodEmail: monkeysandplaybillspod@gmail.comPatreon: patreon.com/monkeysandplaybills Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/monkeysandplaybillsWe gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as our producing partners the Crescent Arts Centre, on this season of Monkeys and Playbills.

Tom Service takes a musical dive into the decadent sound world of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's epoque-making The Threepenny Opera.

Aaaaand… we're off! Guest host Jeu Jeu La Foille rejoins Martin and Sam to tackle the first tracks from our monumental Orphans season, digging into the first tracks of Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards. We examine the Elvis influence in another hot-and-bothered song for Kathleen, a children's song for an elderly bunny, and a very faithful cover from the Threepenny Opera. website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lie To Me, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Bend Down The Branches, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) What Keeps Mankind Alive, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Synopsis The haunting melody “September Song” by Kurt Weill was first heard by the public on today's date in the year 1938, during a trial run in Hartford, Connecticut, of a new musical titled “Knickerbocker Holiday.” Kurt Weill was 38 at the time and had been in America just three years. In Europe, he had been a successful composer of both concert and stage works, most notably the enormously popular “Three-Penny Opera” from 1928, a collaboration with the Marxist poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht. He had left his native Germany after being warned that he was under danger of imminent arrest by the Gestapo. In America, Weill set out to establish himself on Broadway, but to remain faithful to the philosophical thrust of his European work. The text for his “Knickerbocker Holiday,” for example, was by Maxwell Anderson, inspired by Washington Irving's fanciful “Father Knickerbocker's History of New York.” But in the Anderson-Weill treatment, the historical Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant comes off as a proto-Fascist dictator, a comic but pointed reference in the year 1938, when both Hitler and Mussolini were at the height of their power. Until his untimely death in 1950, for his Broadway musicals Weill continued to set serious subjects – ranging from psychoanalysis to South African apartheid – in a distinctive yet accessible style. Music Played in Today's Program Kurt Weill (1900-1950): September Song (arr. Morton Gould) –Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; John Mauceri, cond. (Philips 446 404)

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Jamie deRoy, Multiple Tony Winning Broadway Producer About Harvey's guest: Today's special guest, Jamie deRoy, is a show business tour de force, whose list of achievements is nothing short of jaw-dropping.   In addition to her work as an actress, in movies like “Goodfellas” and “Raging Bull”, and on TV shows like "Alice” and "Knight Rider," and on stage in hit shows including “The Threepenny Opera” and “The Drunkard”, our guest is perhaps best known as one of the greatest Broadway and off-Broadway producers in theatre history.   She's co-produced over 80 Broadway shows and over 50 off-Broadway shows, and so far, she's won a staggering TEN Tony Awards.  She's brought us a multitude of unforgettable Broadway shows including “Death of a Salesman”, “Ragtime”, “Mr. Saturday Night”, “Company”, “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical”, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Angels in America”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Ain't too Proud”, and that's just scratching the surface.   She co-produced TWO brilliant documentary films, entitled “Broadway: The Golden Age”, and “Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age”.   In addition to her Tony awards, she's won a HUGE number of accolades including 10 Drama League Awards, 9 Drama Desk Awards, 9 MAC Awards, 3 GLAAD Media Awards, 2 Broadway World Audience Choice Awards, and enough lifetime achievement awards to fill a truck.   If that weren't enough, our guest is one of the most generous and beloved philanthropists in the entertainment industry.  For over 30 years, she's been entertaining New York audiences with her cabaret series and TV show entitled “Jamie DeRoy and Friends”.  Her cabaret shows benefit the Entertainment Community Fund, and specifically, the Jamie DeRoy and Friends Cabaret Initiative, a program to assist people in the cabaret industry with medical and other needs.   She's also produced NINE wonderful CD's in the “Jamie DeRoy and Friends” series. For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/http://www.jamiederoy.com/https://www.instagram.com/jamiederoy/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiederoyhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Musician-band/Jamie-deRoy-friends-117593178303906/ #JamiedeRoy  #Jamie-deRoy-Friends  #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Synopsis On today's date in 1928, Kurt Weill's “Three Penny Opera,” whose cast members portrayed thieves, murderers, and sex workers, debuted at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. “The Three-Penny Opera” was a 20th century updating of a satirical 18th century British ballad-opera by John Gay, titled “The Beggar's Opera.” A new German text was provided by playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill provided a jazzy score. “The Three Penny Opera” was a smash success in Berlin, and within a year was taken up by theaters all over Europe. But in 1933, when the Nazis came to power in Germany, all performances of “The Three Penny Opera” were banned, since Kurt Weill was Jewish, and Bertolt Brecht a communist sympathizer. Just as “The Three Penny Opera” was being banned in Germany, its 1933 American premiere in New York was a flop, and the show closed after only a dozen performances. It wasn't until 1952 that it was successfully revived in America. With a new English translation by the American composer Marc Bliztstein, the “Three Penny Opera” was reintroduced by Leonard Bernstein at a Music Festival at Brandeis University, and in 1954 reopened off -roadway in Greenwich Village to sold-out houses and rave reviews. Music Played in Today's Program Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950) –Three Penny Opera (Suite Canadian Chamber Ensemble; Raffi Armenian, cond.) CBC 5010

In a political environment as combustible as the Weimar Republic, it was only a matter of time before the country's Kinos became venues for ideological warfare. G.W. Pabst was on the frontlines, firing broadsides against nationalism (Kameradschaft), capitalism (The Threepenny Opera), and the patriarchy (Pandora's Box). But even in the face of a rising fascism, the German left threatened to tear itself apart.For show notes and other supporting information, click here.

Jocelyn Jones was raised in an artist's community on the Hudson River just 30 minutes north of Manhattan. This idyllic hamlet is home to some of the most influential artists of our time and it was here that her interest in art, artists and their process began.She is the daughter of Henry Jones, a character actor whose credits include some 40 films and over 300 televisions shows. Mr. Jones started out as a Broadway actor, most known for "The Bad Seed", "Advise And Consent" and his Tony Award-winning performance in "Sunrise at Campobello". Ms. Jones began her career at the age of 12, appearing alongside her father and E.G. Marshall in an episode of "The Defenders." Her work in motion pictures includes Clint Eastwood, "The Enforcer" "The Other Side of the Mountain" with Beau Bridges, Al Pacino's "Serpico" as well as starring in the cult classics "Tourist Trap" and "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase."Ms. Jones has appeared on stage in both New York and Los Angeles, most notably at The Mark Taper Forum, playing Greta Garbo in the world premiere of Christopher Hampton's "Tales From Hollywood." She has also appeared with Joe Stern's Matrix Theatre Company, where she played the delightfully insane Violet in George M. Cohan's farce "The Tavern" and as Constance Wicksteed, a spinster with a passion for large breasts, in Alan Bennett's farce "Habeas Corpus". She received critical acclaim for her role as Lucy Brown in Ron Sossi's groundbreaking production of "The Three Penny Opera", which famously utilized all three theaters of The Odyssey Theatre Complex for that same production.An in demand acting teacher for over 25 year, Ms. Jones has shepherded hundreds of actors from novice to starring careers and currently works with over a hundred hand picked actors, directors and writers at The Jocelyn Jones Acting Studio.Known as a "secret weapon" to some of the biggest stars in the industry, she has served as a confidential Creative Consultant, working on some of the highest-grossing pictures of all time. From advising artists on which projects to choose, to working with writing teams, to develop current and future projects, Ms. Jones' consultant work has been considered an invaluable asset to many.As a script doctor, she has served in every capacity, from page-one rewrites to final polishes- confidentially contributing to blockbuster films and television series alike. Her production company, Mind's Eye Pictures, is dedicated to producing her own original content.Her new book is Artist: Awakening the Spirit Within.Jocelyn Jones is one of Hollywood's most prized secret weapons. A legendary acting teacher, coach, and artistic advisor to the stars, she has served as a confidential Creative Consultant on some of the highest-grossing pictures of all time.Now, she shares her personal journey—and the secrets behind her unique methodology—in Artist: Awakening the Spirit Within.How do you tap into the power of creation? A great teacher doesn't just tell you; they show you! With forthright vulnerability, Jones shares the memories and lessons that shaped her, both spiritually and as a world-class teacher—proving beyond question that the same creative process she offers actors can help you discover andmanifest a life in coherence with your own heart.Whether you're an actor looking to elevate your craft or a fellow human traveler pursuing your dreams, Artist shows you step by step how to awaken to your higher self and move confidently into the life you were born to live.Enjoy my conversation with Jocelyn Jones.

For Video Edition, Please Click Here and Subscribe: https://youtu.be/0W-s75LaXK0 Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Charlotte Crossley better known as Charlo got her start singing in the choir at Metropolitan Community Church at the tender age of seven. She continued music education in elementary school learning the piano and clarinet and continued until she graduated from South Shore High School. At fifteen, she got her start in theater with roles in West Side Story and the Three Penny Opera at the Young Men's Jewish Community Center where she was encouraged by the director to audition for HAIR, The Musical: the American tribal love-rock musical by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt McDermott's, which was opening a Chicago company. She was performing eight shows a week. While it was hard work for young Charlo, but being the center of attention was second nature to the burgeoning star. She continued with the Chicago Company, traveled to Las Vegas, and ultimately went on the Tony Award-winning production's first national tour. After moving to New York City, she joined the original Broadway cast of Jesus Christ Superstar, rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice which later won a Tony Award. Charlo later met and toured with Bette Midler and Barry Manilow, which opened many doors that led to recording for CBS Records with the highly coveted trio of backup singers formerly known as The Harlettes with Sharon Redd and Ula Hedwig. Her music credits include working with the likes of Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross, Lainie Kazan, Muddy Waters, Sister's Love, Boz Scaggs, and Hiroshima. She has also appeared on the big screen in films including The “Preachers Wife,” “Beaches,” “Sister Act 1,” ...

Marc Blitzstein did not die in a car accident. Marc Blitzstein was murdered in Martinique on January 22, 1964. Blitzstein was the genius creator of "The Cradle Will Rock" with Orson Welles. Marc was also a collaborator with Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill on "Three Penny Opera." He also worked with Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic." He was murdered for daring to be Gay in a foreign land. 

www.iconsandoutlaws.com    Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton was born June 22, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York City, right here in the U.S., to Catholic parents, Fred and Catrine. Her mother was from Sicily. She has two siblings, a younger brother Fred (nicknamed Butch), and an older sister, Ellen. Her parents divorced when she was five.   Her earliest childhood days were spent in Brooklyn, but when she was about four years old, the family moved to Ozone Park, Queens, where she lived in a railroad-style apartment through her teenage years. Growing up, Lauper felt like an outcast. She grew up listening to such artists as The Beatles and Judy Garland. Then, at only 12 years old, she began writing songs and playing an acoustic guitar that she got from her sister.   Cyndi was primarily raised by her mother, who worked as a waitress to support the family. Mom loved the arts and frequently took Cyndi and her siblings to Manhattan to see Shakespeare plays or visit art museums. However, Cyndi did not do particularly well in school. She was reportedly kicked out of several parochial schools in her youth. Raised in the Roman Catholic faith, Cyndi Lauper recounted in Boze Hadleigh's "Inside the Hollywood Closet" the time a nun attacked her after catching a nine-year-old Lauper scratching a friend's back: "A nun ran in, ripped me off her back, threw me against the lockers, beat the s**t out of me, and called me a lesbian."   As many kids do, she expressed herself with various hair colors and eccentric clothing. She took a friend's advice to spell her name as "Cyndi" rather than "Cindy." Unfortunately, her" unusual" sense of style led to classmates bullying her and even throwing stones at her.   Lauper went to Richmond Hill High School, where she was expelled but later earned her GED. In her book, Cyndi revealed that after her stepfather threatened to sexually assault her and her sister and then secretly watched her take a bath, she left home for good. Cyndi left Home at 17 to escape her creepy ass stepfather, intending to study art. Her journey took her to Canada, where she spent two weeks in the woods with her dog Sparkle, trying to find herself. She eventually traveled to Vermont, taking art classes at Johnson State College and supporting herself by working odd jobs. Money was sparse, so she waitressed, served as an office assistant, and even sang in a Japanese restaurant for a time. At one point, her boyfriend at the time hunted and shot a squirrel, which she cooked up and ate. Lauper also faced an unplanned pregnancy, which she wanted, but her boyfriend did not. So, Lauper terminated the pregnancy.   "Nobody wants to run in and do that," She later told HuffPost. "It's just that I didn't want to have a kid that I love come into the world and not be able to share the kid with a dad." During this period, Cyndi got around by hitchhiking. Unfortunately, she put herself into close quarters with some potentially crappy individuals, such as the man who gave her a ride and forced her to perform a sexual act on him. "I just wanted to be able to live through it, get to the other side of it." On another occasion, she was assaulted by a bandmate and two accomplices.   Sometimes, it all understandably got too overwhelming for Lauper. "A lot of times I couldn't take it anymore, so I just lay in bed all the time," Lauper wrote. "When I really couldn't deal with anything, I used to get the shakes, just complete anxiety attacks." In 2019, Lauper gave the commencement address at Northern Vermont University-Johnson, the academic institution that now includes Johnson State. At this event, NVU awarded her the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.   In the early 1970s, Cyndi performed as a vocalist with several different cover bands. One of those bands, Doc West, covered disco songs and Janis Joplin. A later band, Flyer, was active in the New York metropolitan area, singing songs by bands including Bad Company, Jefferson Airplane, and Logan's favorite, Led Zeppelin. Although She was performing on stage and loving that part, she was not happy singing covers. One night, while singing a cover of Kiki Dee's "I've Got the Music in Me" in 1974, her voice gave out. But it came back shortly after, and Lauper continued to sing in cover bands and a Janis Joplin tribute act. Then, in 1977, Cyndi's pipes said no more. Her voice disappeared again, and doctors discovered that she'd suffered a collapsed vocal cord.   Recommended by her temporary replacement in the Joplin cover band, Lauper sought the help of vocal coach Katie Agresta. She helped heal Cyndi and provided her with the tools and techniques to prevent it from happening again. Agresta also helped her realize that she was singing the wrong music entirely, discovering that she was more suited to pop, not hard rock. As Lauper wrote in her memoir, "[I realized] what I was aching for — to sing my own songs, in my own voice, in my own style, that I made up myself." In 1978, Lauper met saxophone player John Turi through her manager Ted Rosenblatt. Turi and Lauper formed a band named Blue Angel, Combining a New Wave look with a '60s throwback sound, and recorded a demo tape of original music. Steve Massarsky, manager of The Allman Brothers Band, heard the tape and liked Lauper's voice. He bought Blue Angel's contract for $5,000 and became their manager. "The playing was bad. There was something interesting about the singer's voice, but that was all," he later told Rolling Stone. Massarky set up a few major label showcases, but they all thought the same thing; the band wasn't great, but the singer was something special. Lauper received recording offers as a solo artist but held out, wanting the band to be included in any deal she made. She even turned down the chance to record a song by herself for the soundtrack to the MeatLoaf movie Roadie, produced by legendary disco song crafter Giorgio Moroder, the founder of the former Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany. Blue Angel was eventually signed by Polydor Records and released a self-titled album on the label in 1980. Lauper hated the artwork, saying it made her look like Big Bird. Still, Rolling Stone magazine later included it as one of the 100 best new wave album covers (2003). Despite critical acclaim, the album sold poorly ("It went lead," as Lauper later joked), and the band broke up. The members of Blue Angel had a falling-out with Massarsky and fired him as their manager. He later filed an $80,000 suit against them, which forced Cyndi into bankruptcy. She then temporarily lost her voice due to an inverted cyst in her vocal cord.   After Blue Angel broke up, Cyndi worked in retail stores, waitressing at IHOP (which she quit after being demoted to the hostess when the manager sexually harassed her), and singing in local clubs. Her most frequent gigs were at El Sombrero, which sounds like they have amazing chimichangas. Music critics who saw Her perform with Blue Angel believed she had star potential due to her four-octave singing range, which was not an easy feat. Then, in 1981, while singing in a local New York bar, Cyndi met David Wolff. He took over as her manager and had her sign a recording contract with Portrait Records, a subsidiary of Epic Records. On October 14, 1983, Cyndi released her first solo album,"  She's So Unusual." The album became a worldwide hit, peaking at No. 4 in the U.S. and reaching the top five in eight other countries. She became extremely popular with teenagers and critics, partly due to her hybrid punk image, which was crafted by stylist Patrick Lucas.   Lauper co-wrote four songs on She's So Unusual, including the hits "Time After Time" and "She Bop." On the songs she did not write, Lauper sometimes changed the lyrics. Such is the case with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," originally written and recorded by Robert Hazard, which you can find on YouTube, and it's pretty awesome. She found the original lyrics misogynistic, so she rewrote the song as an anthem for young women.    The album includes five cover songs, including The Brains' new wave track "Money Changes Everything" (No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100) and Prince's "When You Were Mine." The album made Cyndi Lauper the first female artist to have four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 top five hits from one album. The L.P. has stayed in the Top 200 charts for over 65 weeks and sold 16 million copies worldwide.   Cyndi won Best New Artist at the 1985 Grammy Awards. She's So Unusual also received nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"), and Song of the Year (for "Time After Time"). She wore almost a pound of necklaces at her award ceremony. It also won the Grammy for Best Album Package, which went to the art director, Janet Perr.   The video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" won the inaugural award for Best Female Video at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, making Cyndi an MTV staple. The video featured professional wrestling manager "Captain" Lou Albano as Lauper's father and her real-life mother, Catrine, as her mother, and also featured her attorney, her manager, her brother Butch, and her dog Sparkle. She was a huge wrestling fan. In 1984–85, Cyndi appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone magazine, Time, and Newsweek. In addition, she appeared twice on the cover of People and was named a Ms. magazine Woman of the Year in 1985.   In 1985, she participated in "USA for Africa's" famine-relief fund-raising single "We Are the World," which has sold more than 20 million copies since then.   At the Grammys in 1985, She appeared with another professional wrestler, a Mr. Terry" Hulk" Hogan, who played her "bodyguard." "'The Grammy means a lot to me,' said Cyndi (in the arms of Hulk Hogan) after winning Best New Artist, 'Because I never thought I would amount to anything. I always wanted to make art.'" She would later make many appearances as herself in a number of the World Wrestling Federation's "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection" events and played Wendi Richter's manager in the very first WrestleMania event. Dave Wolff, Lauper's boyfriend and manager at the time, was a wrestling fan as a boy and helped set up the rock and wrestling connection.   In 1985, Cyndi released the single "The Goonies' R' Good Enough," from the soundtrack to the movie The Goonies and an accompanying video that featured several wrestling stars. The song reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.   She then received two nominations at the 1986 Grammy Awards: Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "What a Thrill" and Best Long Form Music Video for Cyndi Lauper in Paris.   Cyndi released her second album, "True Colors," in 1986. It entered the Billboard 200 at No. 42 and has sold roughly 7 million copies.   In 1986, She appeared on the Billy Joel album The Bridge, with a song called "Code of Silence." She is credited with having written the lyrics with Joel, and she sings a duet with him. In the same year, Cyndi also sang the theme song for Pee-wee's Playhouse, credited as "Ellen Shaw." In 1987, David Wolff produced a concert film called Cyndi Lauper in Paris. The concert was broadcast on HBO.   Cyndi made her film debut in August 1988 in the comedy Vibes, alongside a nobody named Jeff Goldblum, Peter Falk, and Julian Sands. She played a psychic in search of a city of gold in South America. To prepare for the role, Cyndi took a few finger-waving and hair-setting classes at the Robert Fiancé School of Beauty in New York and studied with a few Manhattan psychics. The film flopped and was poorly received by critics but would later be considered a cult classic.   Cyndi then contributed a track called "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)" for the Vibes soundtrack, but the song was not included. Instead, a high-energy, comic action/adventure romp through a Chinese laundry video for the song was released. The song reached No. 54 on the U.S. charts, but did way better in Australia, reaching No. 8. Cyndi's third album, A Night to Remember, was released in 1989. The album had one hit, the No. 6 single "I Drove All Night," originally recorded by Roy Orbison, three years before his death on December 6, 1988. Cyndi received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 1990 Grammy Awards for That track. Still, overall, album sales for the album were down. A side note; The music video for the song "My First Night Without You" was one of the first to be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired. That record sold around 1.3 million copies.   Due to her friendship with a familiar name here at Icons and Outlaws, Yoko Ono, Cyndi was a part of the May 1990 John Lennon tribute concert in Liverpool. She performed the Beatles song "Hey Bulldog" and the John Lennon song "Working Class Hero." She was also involved in Sean Lennon's project, "The Peace Choir, "performing a new version of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."   Shortly after, the album was met with a dismal response, and she split with her boyfriend and manager, David Wolff. Cyndi lived alone in a New York hotel, emotionally drained and considering suicide. "I had come so far but felt like I had failed," she wrote in Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir (via Bullyville). "I would go to the studio, and then sit in my dark room and drink vodka. I had to spend most of my time alone. I was grieving. I thought the sadness would never go away." Indirectly, it was Cyndi's best-known song that encouraged her to try to crawl out of her low place: "The only thing that always ­prevented me from suicide is that I never wanted a headline to read, 'Girl who wanted to have fun just didn't.'" On November 24, 1991, Cyndi married actor David Thornton, who's been in home alone 3, John Q with Denzel, and that god-awful tear-jerker, the Notebook.   Cyndi's fourth album, "Hat Full of Stars," was released in June 1993 and was met with critical acclaim but failed commercially, unsupported by her label. The album tackled topics like homophobia, spousal abuse, racism, and abortion, sold fewer than 120,000 copies in the United States and peaked at No. 112 on the Billboard charts. The album's song "Sally's Pigeons" video features the then-unknown Julia Stiles playing a young Cyndi. You may remember Julia from ten things I hate about you, alongside a young Heath Ledger.   In 1993, Cyndi returned to acting, playing Michael J. Fox's ditzy secretary in the movie Life with Mikey. She also won an Emmy Award for her role as Marianne Lugasso in the hugely popular sitcom Mad About You with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt. On November 19, 1997, Cyndi gave birth to her son, Declyn Wallace Lauper Thornton, who is now a trap rapper. Her fifth album," Sisters of Avalon," was released in Japan in 1996 and worldwide in 1997. Just like "Hat Full of Stars," some songs on "Sisters of Avalon" addressed dark themes. The song "Ballad of Cleo and Joe" addressed the complications of a drag queen's double life. The song "Say a Prayer" was written for a friend who had died from AIDS. "Unhook the Stars" was used in the movie of the same name. Again without support from her label, the release failed in America, spending a week on the Billboard album chart at No. 188. This album also received much critical praise, including People magazine, which declared it "'90s nourishment for body and soul. Lauper sets a scene, makes us care, gives us hope." Let's just say it… her label sucks!   On January 17, 1999, Cyndi appeared as an animated version of herself in The Simpsons episode "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken." She sang the National Anthem to the "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" melody. That same year, she opened for Cher's Do You Believe? Tour alongside Wild Orchid. Yeah, that group with a young Fergie. Cyndi also appeared in the films "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" and The "Opportunists." In addition, she contributed to the soundtrack of the 2000 animated film, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, performing the song "I Want a Mom That Will Last Forever." On October 12, 2000, Cyndi took part in the television show Women in Rock, Girls with Guitars performing with Ann Wilson of Heart and with the girl group Destiny's Child and the queen B herself!. A CD of the songs performed was released exclusively to Sears stores from September 30 to October 31, 2001, and was marketed as a fundraiser for breast cancer.   In 2002, Sony issued a best-of CD, The Essential Cyndi Lauper. Cyndi also released a cover album with Sony/Epic Records entitled At Last (formerly Naked City), which was released in 2003. At Last received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for "Unchained Melody." The effort was also a commercial hit, selling 4.5 million records.    In April 2004, Cyndi performed during the VH1's benefit concert, "Divas Live" 2004, alongside Ashanti, Gladys Knight, Jessica Simpson, Joss Stone, and Patti LaBelle. This event supported the Save the Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in America's public schools and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child's complete education. She made appearances on Showtime's hit show "Queer as Folk" in 2005, directed a commercial for the Totally 80s edition of the board game Trivial Pursuit in 2006, served as a judge on the 6th Annual Independent Music Awards, and made her Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated "The Threepenny Opera" playing "Jenny." In addition, she performed with Shaggy, Scott Weiland of Velvet Revolver/Stone Temple Pilots, Pat Monahan of Train, Ani DiFranco, and The Hooters in the VH1 Classics special Decades Rock Live. In 2006, she sang "Message To Michael" with Dionne Warwick and "Beecharmer" with Nellie McKay on McKay's Pretty Little Head album.   On October 16, 2006, Cyndi was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. In 2007, she served as a guest performer on the song "Lady in Pink" on an episode of the Nick Jr. show, The Backyardigans. Cyndi's sixth studio album, "Bring Ya to the Brink," was released in the United States on May 27, 2008. Regarded as one of her best works when it was released, the Songwriters Hall of Fame has regarded the album track 'High and Mighty' as one of her essential songs. The album would be Cyndi's last release to date of original material, in addition to being her last for Epic Records, her label since her 1983 debut solo album. The album debuted at #41 on the Billboard 200, with 12,000 copies sold. Other projects for 2008 included the True Colors Tour and a Christmas duet with Swedish band The Hives, entitled "A Christmas Duel." The song was released as a CD single and a 7" vinyl in Sweden. Lauper also performed on "Girls Night Out," headlining it with Rosie O'Donnell in the U.S.   On November 17, 2009, Cyndi performed with Wyclef Jean in a collaboration called "Slumdog Millionaire," on The Late Show with David Letterman. In January 2010, Mattel released a Cyndi Lauper Barbie doll as part of their "Ladies of the 80s" series.   In March 2010, Cyndi appeared on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice with the then-future president, Donald Trump, coming in sixth place.   Cyndi's 7th studio album, Memphis Blues, was released on June 22, 2010, and debuted on the Billboard Blues Albums chart at No. 1 and at No. 26 on the Billboard Top 200. The album remained No. 1 on the Blues Albums chart for 14 consecutive weeks; Memphis Blues was nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 2011 Grammy Awards. According to the Brazilian daily newspaper O Globo, the album had sold 600,000 copies worldwide by November 2010. In addition, Cyndi set out on her most extensive tour ever, the Memphis Blues Tour, which had more than 140 shows, to support the album.   Cyndi made international news in March 2011 for an impromptu performance of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" while waiting for a delayed flight at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires. A video was later posted on YouTube.   In November 2011, she released two Christmas singles exclusive to iTunes. The first release was a Blues-inspired cover of Elvis Presley's classic "Blue Christmas," and the second was a new version of "Home for the holidays," a duet with Norah Jones. In June 2012, Lauper made her first appearance for WWE in 27 years to promote WWE Raw's 1000th episode to memorialize "Captain" Lou Albano.   In September 2012, Cyndi performed at fashion designer Betsey Johnson's 40-year Retrospective Fashion show. She also released a New York Times best-selling memoir, "Cyndi Lauper A Memoir," which detailed her struggle with child abuse and depression.   Cyndi then composed music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, with Harvey Fierstein writing the book. The musical was based on the 2006 independent film Kinky Boots. The musical tells the story of Charlie Price. Having inherited a shoe factory from his father, Charlie forms an unlikely partnership with cabaret performer and drag queen Lola to produce a line of high-heeled boots and save the business. It opened in Chicago in October 2012 and on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on April 4, 2013. She won Best Score for Kinky Boots in May at the 63rd annual Outer Critics Circle Awards. The musical led the 2013 Tony Awards, with 13 nominations and six wins, including Best Musical and Best Actor. In addition, she won the award for Best Original Score. Cyndi was the first woman to win solo in this category. After a six-year run and 2,507 regular shows, Kinky Boots ended its Broadway run on April 7, 2019. It is the 25th-longest-running Broadway musical in history. It grossed $297 million on Broadway.    In the summer of 2013, celebrating the 30th anniversary of her debut album "She's So Unusual," Cyndi embarked on an international tour covering America and Australia. The show consisted of a mix of fan favorites and the entirety of the She's So Unusual record.  She stated:"  It's been such an amazing year for me. When I realized it's also the anniversary of the album that started my solo career, I knew it was the perfect time to thank my fans for sticking with me through it all. I'm so excited to perform She's So Unusual from beginning to end, song by song and I can't wait to see everyone!" The tourtour grossed over $1 million   She was a guest on 36 dates of Cher's Dressed to Kill tour, starting April 23, 2014. In addition, a new album was confirmed by her in a website interview.   Cyndi hosted the Grammy Pre-Telecast at the Nokia Theatre, L.A., on January 26,  later accepting a Grammy for Kinky Boots (for Best Musical Theater Album).   On April 1 (March 1 in Europe), Cyndi released the 30th Anniversary edition of She's So Unusual through Epic Records. It featured a remastered version of the original album plus three new remixes. The Deluxe Edition featured bonus tracks such as demos, a live recording, and a 3D cut-out of the bedroom featured in the 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' music video with a reusable sticker set.   On September 17, 2014, Cyndi sang on the finale of America's Got Talent. Then, on September 25, as part of the Today Show's "Shine a Light" series, she re-recorded "True Colors" in a mashup with Sara Bareilles' "Brave" to raise awareness and money for children battling cancer. By October, the project had raised over $300,000.   The Songwriters Hall of Fame added Cyndi to its nomination list in October 2014. Also, her fourth consecutive 'Home for the Holidays' benefit concert for homeless gay youth was announced in October. Acts included 50 Cent and Laverne Cox, with 100% of the net proceeds going to True Colors United. In July 2015, She announced a project with producer Seymour Stein. She later told Rolling Stone it was a country album co-produced by Tony Brown.   On September 15, 2015, Kinky Boots opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End.   In January 2016, Cyndi announced she would release a new album on May 6, 2016. This record was made up of her interpretations of early country classics entitled "Detour." The announcement was supported by a release of her version of Harlan Howard's "Heartaches by the Number" and a performance on Skyville Live with Kelsea Ballerini and Ingrid Michaelson. Then, on February 17, 2016, she released her version of Wanda Jackson's "Funnel of Love."   In February 2016, Cyndi was nominated for an Olivier Award for contributing to the U.K. production of the play "Kinky Boots" along with Stephen Oremus, the man in charge of the arrangements. In January 2017, this production's album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.   In May 2016, she was featured on "Swipe to the Right" from Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise by French producer Jean-Michel Jarre. This second album of the Electronica project is based on collaborations with artists like Tangerine Dream, Moby, Pet Shop Boys, and more.   In October 2016, her son Dex Lauper was the opening act for her in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, for her dates on her Detour Tour.   In January 2017, Cyndi was featured on Austin City Limits' 42nd season, performing some classic bangers alongside some of her country tunes from the "Detour." album. The episode aired on PBS.   In March 2018, it was announced that Cyndi and co- "Time After Time" songwriter Rob Hyman would compose the score for the musical version of the 1988 film "Working Girl." Ya know the movie that starred Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver. She teamed up with Hyman because she wanted "the music to sound like the 80s". The musical would be staged by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley. A developmental production premiere of the musical is planned for the 2021/2022 season.   For Grandin Road, Cyndi exclusively designed her own Christmas collection, 'Cyndi Lauper Loves Christmas', available from September 2018. "I've always loved Christmas. It reminds me to find some happiness in the little things," she said.   Her annual Home For The Holidays concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York was held on December 8, 2018.   Cyndi guest starred, playing a lawyer in an episode of the reboot of the television series Magnum P.I.. The episode, titled "Sudden Death", aired on October 22, 2018.   On November 15, 2018, iBillboard announced that Cyndi would receive the Icon Award at the Billboard's 13th annual Women in Music Event on December 6 in New York City. According to Billboard's editorial director, Jason Lipshutz, "The entire world recognizes the power of Cyndi Lauper's pop music, and just as crucially, she has used her undeniable talent to soar beyond music, create positive change in modern society and become a true icon."    The song "Together" was featured in the Canadian computer-animated film Race time, released in January 2019. Originally written and performed in French by Dumas, Cyndi performed the English translation in the English version of the film initially titled La Course des tuques.   On June 26, 2019, she performed at the opening ceremony of Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019. Backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Cyndi played two concerts on July 12 and 13, 2019, at the iconic Hollywood Bowl.   In September 2019, it was announced that Cyndi would star alongside Jane Lynch in the new Netflix comedy series described as "kind of The Golden Girls for today." However, as of March 2021, there have been no updates on this project. On April 23, 2020, Cyndi participated in an online fundraising concert to raise money for LGBTQ nightlife workers who struggled financially because of the coronavirus pandemic. Her finale was her performing "True Colors." The show was initiated by the Stonewall Inn Gives Back nonprofit organization of the historic Greenwich Village gay bar.    In November 2020, She dueted with former top ten "American Idol" finalist Casey Abrams on a cover version of the song 'Eve of Destruction.   In November last year, Shea Diamond featured Cyndi as a guest vocalist on the track 'Blame it on Christmas.' An official video was released in December.   She then performed at this year's MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute Show, honoring folk icon Joni Mitchell on April 1.   It was announced in May this year that Alison Ellwood will direct a career retrospective documentary about Cyndi. The project is already in production but does not yet have a release date. "Let The Canary Sing" will be the title of this career-spanning documentary produced by Sony Music Entertainment.   Still killing it after all these years!   "Shes So Unusual" ranked No. 487 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. In addition, the album ranked No. 41 on Rolling Stone's Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2012.   "Time After Time" has been covered by over a hundred artists and was ranked at No. 22 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years and at No. 19 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s.   "She Bop," the third single from She's So Unusual, is the first and only top ten song to directly mention a gay porn magazine. An ode to masturbation, it was included in the PMRC's "Filthy Fifteen" list, which led to the parental advisory sticker appearing on recordings thought to be unsuitable for young listeners. Rolling Stone ranked it the 36th best song of 1984, praising its unusual playfulness regarding sexuality.   "True Colors" is now considered a gay anthem, after which True Colors United, which advocates for runaway and homeless LGBT youth, is so “colorfully” named.   Info used from: Nickiswift.com Wikipedia.com

Intro: Final Draft is conspiring against us, Beastie Boys' Adam Horowitz, Doris the dog loves the vet, Jim Croce, The Cure. Let Me Run This By You: storytelling, Risk Podcast, The MothInterview: We talk to the creator and producer of You're Being Ridiculous, Jeremy Owens, about offending people, porn, Samantha Irby, Roosevelt University, University of Arkansas, The URTAs, King Lear, Greg Vinkler, Barbara Gaines, Plautus' The Rope, P.F. Changs, Kyogen, Threepenny Opera, Steppenwolf, Brene Brown, Marianne Williamson.FULL TRANSCRIPT (unedited): 2 (10s):And I'm Gina Pulice.1 (11s):We went to theater school together. We survived it, but we didn't quite understand.3 (15s):At 20 years later, we're digging deep talking to our guests about their experiences and trying to make sense of it all.1 (21s):We survived theater school and you will too. Are we famous yet?2 (34s):Yeah.1 (35s):It was one of these things where it's like, final draft will not let you restart your computer. I'm like, fuck you. Final draft. What did you ever do for me? Final draft writer, duet. They're all, they're all plotting against me,2 (47s):But what is, what is, what does final draft have to do with your camera working on this?1 (53s):So in order to, to be okay, the bottom line is I need a new computer. Okay. Let's start there second. Okay. That's the first level of problems. It's like the deepest level. And then we, if we go up a little bit into the level of problems, it is that final draft that I might camera in order to use my camera. Sometimes I have to restart my computer because it's so old. Right. So I need to restart,2 (1m 19s):You know, I want to do any one thing in the morning I got, are really rev my engine.1 (1m 26s):So like, I'm like, okay, well, in order to restart the computer, it's like not letting me restart it because final draft is this because probably final draft is so advanced and my computer is so Jack.2 (1m 39s):Totally. And that's how they get you mad. I feel like they all conspired to be like, okay, well let's make it. So this will work on this version. So then,1 (1m 49s):So anyway, I see you, you look great. I look like shit. So it's probably better my camera's up.2 (1m 57s):So a couple of things I keep forgetting to ask you on here, about how, how did it come to be that you were chatting in the parking lot with Adam Horowitz about your dogs, Volvo.1 (2m 12s):We never talked about that.2 (2m 14s):We did not.1 (2m 15s):Okay. So I rule up, so my dog, Doris, who everyone knows that listens to the podcast and by everyone, I mean, whoever listens to the podcast, you know what I mean? So hopefully it's growing and growing, listen and rate the podcast. Anyway, the point is I roll up to the vet, which I do oh about every other week, because my dog is a very high maintenance. And so she's just so she of course had an ear infection. Cause she has these huge ears that collect all this bacteria. So I roll up and there's an eye and because it's COVID and everything, you have to park outside and wait, but because it's LA all the windows are down and everyone's car and there's this dude sitting in his Kia has electric Kia.1 (2m 59s):Well,2 (2m 59s):My key.1 (3m 0s):Yeah, I know. I know. I did not recognize this human being. He looked like my husband, like fifties gray, maybe had glasses on.2 (3m 13s):Why would you like all our knowledge of them is when they were so, so young. Right,1 (3m 18s):Right. So young. And I like didn't, you know, keep up with the beast. So it was like, I had other things to do, you know? So I was doing other things. So I'm, I'm like trying to corral Doris out of the car. She's crazy. She's trying to get out. She loves the vet. The backdrop is my dog2 (3m 35s):Loves the,1 (3m 36s):Oh my God. She races towards the vet with a fury that is unmatched, loves it. I2 (3m 43s):Never once heard of this in my entire life. So1 (3m 45s):She's really, really excited about the bet. So she's an extra crazy. And I get her out of the carrier to let her sniff around in the parking lot. And I see this gentleman who is the interesting thing about him is that his leg is out the window. Like he's like resting his leg. And I'm like, well, that's kind of weird for like an older dude, but whatever, it's, it's LA like, you know2 (4m 8s):That sound's going to say, I imagine that kind of thing happens in LA.1 (4m 11s):Yeah. And plus he's probably weighed been waiting and waiting for his dog forever. And so, cause you, you have to wait out there, like they don't want you to leave in case they need you and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, fine. So I, and I say, and he says, oh, a cute dog. And I'm like, oh, she's a pain in the ass. And then he's like, what's her name? And I'm like, oh, her name is Doris. And he's like, oh, that was my mom's name. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. And then we talked about the origin of Doris, cause it's from a Jim Croce song. And Jim Croce is someone, my husband adores the singer. The folks there yeah. Died when he was 29. Looked like he was about 60. When he died.2 (4m 47s):He was 29.1 (4m 49s):Yes. You know, he looks like David Abbott, Holly, if you ever look at me2 (4m 56s):Like a hole, I see it.1 (4m 59s):But just bringing it back to the old theater school. So, so yeah. And so he's like, we talked about Jim Croce and he's like, Jim Croce is the first person I remember dying. I had that album. And I said, yeah. And he said, that's in a Jim Croce song. And I said, yes, Leroy brown, Friday about a week ago, Leroy shooting dice. And at the end of the bar sat a girl named Doris and who that girl looked nice. And that's why we named Doris Doris. He was like, I don't remember Doris being in that song. So we get into that. Right. Okay. And then he's like, I'm like, oh, is your dog okay? And he's like, well, she, she, she got a cut on her neck and I'm like, oh shit. And I'm like, is that2 (5m 38s):A knife fight in a bar?1 (5m 39s):I was like, how did that happen? And he goes, I don't know. But like, you know, since I'm not a doctor, I figured I'd take, bring her to the vet. I'm like good plan, my friend, good plan. So he's like, I'm waiting for him and waiting for her. And I'm like, oh, okay. And then he said, what's wrong with your dog? And I said, oh my God, what? Isn't wrong with my dog? And I said, my dog has a dermatitis of the vulva and an ear infection. And he's like, wait, what? And I'm like, yes, she just she's out. She's got a lot of allergies because she's a friend. She and I did this to myself by getting a friendship. But like, yeah, she's got, and he said that his dog was really licking her butthole and he had dermatitis of the bottle. And I was like, it's the same I heard of my friend, Morgan has a Frenchie who has dermatitis of the butthole because all Frenchie owners talk about these things.1 (6m 26s):And he's like, oh, well, my dog has dermatitis of the bottle. I'm like, well, mine's got dermatitis of the Volvo. They both have, they both have like private parts itching. Right. And so then we started talking and we talked about a lot of things. Cause you have to wait forever. And then right. And so we talk and talk and talk and no clue who this person is. And he's like,2 (6m 47s):Did you say cut? There's something about that voice?1 (6m 52s):No.2 (6m 52s):No. Okay.1 (6m 54s):'cause he was kinda mumbly and also just looked so natural.2 (6m 60s):Aiming, sabotage.1 (7m 1s):No, not screaming and also not jumping around with his other two cohort. And then I just, I felt like, anyway, it just didn't cross my mind. And his shoelaces were untied. I don't know. It was like a real casual situation.2 (7m 15s):Yeah. Honestly, I would never assume somebody in a key is famous. That's my snobbery, but I wouldn't.1 (7m 21s):Yeah. I mean, I, it was a very, very, very nice camp, but it still, it was a key I said to you like, oh, that was her talking about cars. I mean, we talked about kids, cars, Manhattan. Then he said, I'm from it. I said, oh, I'm from Chicago. And he said, I'm from Manhattan. And I said, oh, I said, oh my God. I launched into this thing about how I could never live in New York because I was like to own like the most unhip like fat and ugly human and like, not in a bad way, but just like, kind of like I'm. So I just feel like, I didn't know what the fuck was going on ever in New York. Like, I didn't know which way to go, who to talk to, where to turn I was lost. And he's like, yeah. Do you know what I like about LA is like, nothing ever happens here.1 (8m 2s):That's not2 (8m 2s):True.1 (8m 3s):No. But I was like, what do you mean? He's like, I need to just like New York, like you have like a million things are always happening at any given time. Right?2 (8m 11s):Sure. It's a lot too. Like you have to do a lot of processing living in New York, you're taking your, you know, you're just taking in so much information1 (8m 19s):And that does not happen in LA and LA you're like sometimes starved for like,2 (8m 25s):Right.1 (8m 26s):But we talked about that. And then, and then by like end of conversation almost. I was like, oh, I'm Jen. I'm so sorry. And he was like, oh, I'm Adam. And I was like, okay, still, no, I had no2 (8m 40s):Adam common name,1 (8m 41s):Common name, whatever. And mom named Doris, whatever. Like, okay. And then we started talking, he said, his wife, what did he say? Oh, he bought a house in south custody. Anyway, all this stuff. He has a kid. And at the end I say, he was talking about what we, what we do. And I'm like, oh, I'm a, I'm a writer. And I'm like trying to write TV, but I also consult, I just started this business, but I wasn't, you know, I was a therapist and for felons and like, and then he got really into that. And then I said, oh, what are you doing? And he's like, oh, I was, I think he said I was in the I'm in the music business. I said, oh, that's cool. I thought he was like a producer, like maybe a classical composer or something. I don't know. That's where my mind went. And I'm like, oh, like, what do you do?1 (9m 22s):And then he said, I was in and I said, oh, what kind of music? He's like, I was in a rap trio. And I was like, wait a minute, a rap tree endorsed by this. By this time it was like, biting me. You know, it's like a whole, I'm like, oh, a rap trio. And I couldn't the only rap trio I could think of was run DMC. And I'm like, oh, he's not in that. You know, he's a white dude. There's no way. And I'm like, oh crap trio. And I was like, house of pain, Cypress hill. Like I couldn't get it together. And then I was like, and then it dawned on me. And I said, oh, and he said something, like I said, I don't remember how it came up. And he's like, oh, I'm Adam Horwitz. And I was like, oh, I was like, of course.1 (10m 2s):I said, oh my God. And then I didn't know what to say. So I just said, cause he just moved. He actually, he moved to south Pasadena, wait before I moved to Pasadena. But I said welcome to Pasadena.2 (10m 16s):Right. Because the minute, you know, it's a celebrity. It's like, it changes the ions. Wait. Yes.1 (10m 21s):Thank you. You welcome to you too.2 (10m 24s):So what I think is so interesting and must be so well, I don't know. I don't know if it's annoying or whatever it is, celebrities. You, they must have to always be in a process of deciding with when they're interacting with people, they don't know what are we going to do with this fact, like, do you know who I am? Do you not know who I am? If you know who I am, just, what does that mean? Is that why you're talking to me? And then, but he opened one of the first things you said that he said was that his mom's name was, I mean, I guess that's not unusual, but I was thinking to myself when you said that I was thinking, oh, was he hoping That would confirm not that his dad is famous.2 (11m 10s):His dad is1 (11m 10s):Trail horo. Israel.2 (11m 12s):Yeah. He's a kind of a terrible guy though.1 (11m 16s):I heard is there. I think they're both dead. I mean, from what I got, I don't know. I know he has a sister. I don't know. But like he seemed like the kind, yes, you're right. Like it must be so weird. And also I literally was so into my own world. It's like, so Los Angeles, like I, when I found out that he was, I was super excited because I wanted to say, oh, I saw you at the Metro in Chicago and stuff like that. But then I was like, oh, I can't. And so I got excited, but I also, it was literally like talking to your husband or my husband in that they're old people. Like I wanted to be more excited about the, the youthful version.2 (11m 56s):Right? You want it to be 19 year old, you eating Israel, horrible1 (12m 2s):Adam Harz and being like, let's go on a date or something. But that is not what I, that was not my inclination this time. And also his he's married to this amazing punk hero, Kathleen Hanna from bikini kill who I adore. And I know that, but I didn't bring that up either. But anyway, the point is we exchanged information because we were like, let's walk our dogs. His dog is Terry. It really hairy dog, little girl, dog named Terry. And I said, well, what kind of dog is Terry? And he goes, I don't know, very hairy. And I was like, okay, well, okay. So we may go on a dog-walking adventure. I have no idea, but lovely human, but just like soup. We are super middle age.1 (12m 43s):This is what the moral of this thing was actually not the celebrity. Part of it was the, what hit me the most Gina was the middle age in this of it all. So the other thing is like, nobody gives a shit now about the things that we give a shit about. So the BC boys, I was talking to my niece, she didn't know who that was. And so I was like, oh right. Meaning I still care who they are, but2 (13m 16s):Right. Yeah.1 (13m 17s):Time moves on timeframe.2 (13m 20s):Yeah. Periodically we have kids periodically, they'll come up to you and they'll be like, have you ever heard of this bay? Or like, my son was listening to something and I'm like, and I go, he goes, oh, I've got to play this song for you. It's this band. This is like obscure band or something like that. It was the cure. I go, are you kidding me, dude? I put white face makeup on and wore black and tried to hang my two years in junior high. I knew the cure is okay. So that was one thing. And the other thing was last time.1 (13m 52s):It super nice though. I got to say, if anybody cares, he was not a Dick head.2 (13m 56s):I care. Yeah. That's nice. I'm happy to hear that. But just one last thing about that whole, like being a celebrity, you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't, because on the one hand you, you could have somebody say, oh, it's like pretentious to not say who you are. And on the other hand, people would say, you know, you can't win. You can't, you1 (14m 14s):Can't win. That is the bottom line. Yeah. Yeah.2 (14m 17s):So the other thing was last time we talked, you said, oh, I want to save it for the podcast, but about showcase. So you were talking about getting your kids ready for showcase.1 (14m 28s):Okay. So here's the deal with that. So I, because of this podcast, I'm like, okay, is there a way to make a showcase? Not the shit show that I feel it was now, there may not be, it might be inherent in the thing. Okay. But so I'm teaching fourth year. I like, basically don't even, I don't know what I'm teaching at this point, but not even teaching anymore. I'm done. And my, my, my, my co-teacher took over, but I started noticing as I always do that, that, that the students are like, you know, crazy nervous about the showcase and also crazy nervous about agents and managers and all the things.1 (15m 9s):Now, there is no showcase in LA. There was only a quote meet and greet. There is no showcase in New York. There was only quote, a meet and greet. Look, it gets weirder in Chicago. There was a live showcase and a meet and greet. Now, I don't know what went down, but the bottom line is the ball has been dropped so many times about this showcase and about graduation and about launching that at this point, the ball is just dead in a heap deflated. Okay. So I said, okay, well, what can I do to make this fucking situation better? Because I know what it's like to be there and be like, oh my God, I'm falling behind. What if so then I'm like, okay, everybody, here's what we're going to do.1 (15m 52s):I am going to email everyone I know in LA and everywhere and say, come to this showcase and watch your digital link. They have a virtual showcase. But the problem with that is nobody. If nobody gets sees it, it doesn't matter. And so it was made in a form beans where it looked like spam. So it went to everybody's spam. So no casting directors and no agents got the fucking link. And I realized that because I told a student of mine, I said, listen, you want to be repped by this one agency, let's create a letter to them. Let's pitch them. And so then I get a call from the agent saying, we loved this letter.1 (16m 33s):Also, thank you for including, we didn't think there was a showcase.4 (16m 37s):Oh my gosh.1 (16m 39s):And I said, what's,2 (16m 41s):This has to do with just the fact that like, there's been all this administrative,1 (16m 45s):I think it's, COVID meets the problem with conservatories, which is that they do not think that launching their students is an important part part of their job. Right? Right. So it falls to nobody. And so the person in charge bless her heart is one marketing person that knows nothing. I don't believe about acting or the entertainment industry at all. There is no Jane alderman. There, there is no, at least. So I stepped in to be like the proxy, Jane alderman with another adjunct. And we were like, okay, well, how do we do this? So I am happy to say that after literally making maybe 43 phone calls, everyone has the link.1 (17m 26s):People are coming to the showcases. Now my thing is to do the meet and greet in LA to try to get people there because these, these kiddos are coming to LA, there is no showcase. I'm like, well, we, what are we doing? Like we have to have something like, so, and I also just, you know, and I know these kids, like these are my students. So like, I want to meet them. And then, so now I'm getting everyone I know to come to the meet, greet in the business and2 (17m 51s):The money thing. Like, they're like, oh, well we have, we can do it online. And so we don't have to pay for, to rent the space for,1 (17m 59s):So they wouldn't even tell me, they wouldn't even tell me. They didn't even want to give me the invite to the LA thing. I had to like fight to get the, I don't understand what is going on. But I was like, listen, all right,2 (18m 11s):DePaul, I'm going to tell you something right now in DePaul. You want to be well-regarded you want to be number one. You want to always talk about your, your alum or even not your alum. People who, who went and got kicked out about their great successes. And you don't, but you don't want to do anything to get there. And that is not how it works, how it works is you put a lot of energy and I'm not saying at the expense of teachers or whatever, but you put a lot of energy and effort into not just hyping your students, but hyping your school.2 (18m 51s):Like it should be that your school is saying, have we got a crew for you? Yeah.1 (18m 56s):And which is what I then stepped in and had to do and be like, these kids are dope. Come see this, look at this link and then come to the thing. And so all the casting and agents in Chicago are now coming. Thank God, because guess who, there was one person RSVP2 (19m 14s):Girl, and you need a bonus1 (19m 16s):Stroke. Here's what we're doing. So then I said, okay, because I'm always thinking, I'm like, okay, well, here's what I'm doing. I'm developing a launching curriculum, which I think I told you about, like, I'm developing a day, one BFA for day one of the fourth year. Here's what we're going to do to launch you. And it's not just about the showcase. It's about mentorship. It's about how can we hook you up with somebody that's in what you want to do? How can we do that? And I'm going to pitch it. I'm going to say, here you pay me $120,000. And I will sell you this program and, and hook you up with teachers and people. I know that can step in and do this with me. Like you like people in the business, like people who are on different coasts, like duh, and then we will.1 (19m 58s):So, and if you don't want to buy it, DePaul theater school, we're selling it to Northwestern or NYU or any anyone.2 (20m 4s):Well, I was going to ask, do you know, if other conservatories are doing showcases and doing,1 (20m 9s):And they are, and they are doing it and they are, they are doing it. I, from what I can see, Gina, they're doing it better. I don't know if it's, you know, how good it is. But I do know that like other showcases released their digital showcase because of the pandemic on actors, accessing and town and casting networks, which DePaul did not do. Oh2 (20m 30s):My God.1 (20m 32s):So here's, so that is not okay with me because I went there and I, I do care about it because of this podcast. I also know that these kids having watched them at, you know, 21 year olds, 22 year olds, max, they're busting their ass, just like you. And I we're busting our ass. Like, look, they're busting their ass more than we were, but you and I busted her ass too. And I feel like we didn't get what we needed from the launch process. And what, what will happen is no one will people and people stopped going to theater school. Is that what you want? Or do you want to upgrade like level?1 (21m 13s):Let me run this by. There's a lot of people I hate.2 (21m 24s):Exactly, exactly. Okay. So the thing I wanted to run by you is about storytelling. I signed up for this workshop in my town. We have a little community theater and they sometimes have little workshops and I did improv there one time. And actually by the way, doing improv there, I I'm, I still am terrified of it. And I still don't feel like I'm I do well, but add it. But I reduced my fear somewhat by just aging within, and then we had a performance and my whole family came and yeah, it was, yeah.1 (22m 3s):Why don't we talk about what2 (22m 5s):She like two years ago or three years ago, actually. Yeah. Three or maybe even four years ago now. But anyway, on Sunday I went to, they ha they had a workshop led by a storyteller from the moth and she taught us, you know, how to, so there was only five of us there. One person, only one person absolutely knew when he came in. Exactly what story he wanted to tell. The rest of us were like, I have certain things that are coming to mind. Of course my thing. And I said, I was, I just owned it from the beginning was I've written essays. And I've, you know, written a lot about my life.2 (22m 46s):And yet I somehow feel like I don't have a story to tell. And she said, that's so common. She was telling this great story about somebody. Cause she does corporate stuff too. She was telling the story about somebody in a workshop, in a corporate workshop who just kept saying, I just, I don't have a story. I don't have a story. The day goes on. And he goes, well, I might have something, my family and I fled Vietnam right before this. And she goes, yeah, that's a story. That's a, that's a story you could tell. Anyway, point being, we're putting these stories together and we're going to perform them on Friday.2 (23m 34s):And the I'll say there is something about the process of working on it. That has been, it's not exactly healing, cause this is not a, for me at all. It's something I'm telling a story about when I lived in that apartment on Lil and Libby got me this job at the bakery and while we were, and she was very assiduous about being to work on time. And1 (24m 9s):I remember the, was it the red hen? Oh, we shouldn't say it out loud.2 (24m 12s):I actually, I really don't remember the name. I think it might have been called great Plains. I don't know. Okay. I don't think it's there anymore. And one of the things that was our task was to deal with the mice that inevitably came into the, in the flour sacks and stuff like that in the back. And, but I never she'd said to me, we have to deal with the mice, but I somehow, I hadn't really, really thought that through. And the way we were meant to deal with the mice was hit them over the head with a shovel.1 (24m 47s):Oh. So, so murder of the mice2 (24m 50s):Were into the mice. And so my story is about watching this five foot tall, gorgeous little, just, I mean, she looks like a bird, this girl, woman now, but she was a girl. Then I'm just swinging the shovel over her head and bringing it down. And then just very like with, with zero expression, taking paper towels and picking it up and throw it in the trash, washing her hands and making it back to the register in time for the next customer who came in. And my point of it, of the story is that's. That was one of my most important lessons about the difference between being poor and being broke because I was broke, you know, and always looking for jobs and always working through school.2 (25m 35s):But if it came to smashing a mouse over the head with a shovel, I'm just going to quit that job and go find another job, selling clothes at express. But Libby did not have such luxuries. She had to take the jobs that she could get. And she had to guard them with her life because as even, even with the amount of time she worked, there was a period of time where she would tell me, like, I'm going to bed hungry a lot of nights. And I couldn't help her, you know, because I was broke. I just, I didn't have we bought ramen. I mean, we right. Like six days a week.2 (26m 16s):And so it's about that. And so there's something about, but, but the fact that it's about this epoch in my life yeah. Which I haven't really written that much about, I've written about my childhood and I've written about things that are more contemporary, but you have a lot of experience with storytelling. And I'm curious to know what role that has played in sort of, you know, for one thing, the ability to string together, kind of the, of your life into a cohesive narrative. If, if1 (26m 47s):That's2 (26m 47s):Something that has been helpful or if maybe you have healed in some way, maybe from your one person show,1 (26m 53s):I am Gina. What comes to mind? Like what first came to mind when you were talking about your experience with this storytelling thing? Is it, what, what is the coolest thing to me about storytelling? Like this live lit as we like to call it in Chicago, just because I, storytelling people think it's like, we started calling it live live because people thought it was like, you know, Renaissance fair storytelling. Right. We had like a cheese ball, it's it doesn't matter. It's storytelling. So storytelling, bridges the gap for me. And maybe you have acting and writing. So it is both performance and writing, which I think is brilliant. I think acting is for the birds.1 (27m 35s):Like I just do. I think acting is really hard. I'm not very good at it. Not because I'm not a good person, but that's what I'm saying. I'm not very good at it because I don't like it as much as I like telling a story. That's my story. That also has a performance aspect to it. And it heals the acting thing for me. So you are acting, you are acting, you're not like you in your kitchen, just like when we do a podcast where there's a part of us, that's acting, it's not, you know, it just is what it is. So I think that that is extremely healing. And what, I wonder if it's extremely healing for you, because I feel like in terms of the acting thing, I know that post-graduation from an acting conservatory, you talk about just completely shutting down, completely not shutting down to the acting part of yourself.1 (28m 25s):And I think like through your son and then through this podcast and through writing television and now through storytelling and like your dip into improv, you're, you're healing, the actor part of yourself.2 (28m 37s):That's right. That's right. It1 (28m 38s):Wouldn't surprise me. If you went on to do acting like started acting in plays and stuff. Again,2 (28m 44s):I'm not going to lie. I'm really thinking about it at this point in time. I still feel like it's a bridge too far, just because I have nobody to spell me at home. You know, I can't ask my husband to leave his job so I can go to a play. But at some point, I mean, you know, they're not going to be this age forever. At some point I will be able to do that. And I do have designs on doing that actually.1 (29m 8s):Yeah. And I think, and I think you, I think this storytelling is brilliant because I think the cool thing about storytelling, as well as like you could go to New York city and do them off one night. It's not a, it's not a commitment like the play. In fact, you could do the risk thing that I did in New York. Like the rest of the podcast is live performances in New York. So all this to say that I think storytelling is a fantastic way to heal the part of ourselves that wants to be a performer, but definitely doesn't want, is not ready to take all the trappings and bullshit. That is a professional acting career, which is garbage. Like I got to say, like I just tell my students is to like the part of the business, which is why this is so fraught because it's garbage.1 (29m 55s):That's why you don't like it. But that doesn't mean it's not worth it to you. If you can find a way to make it worth it to you, the competition, the rejection, the then go for it. But what if that is bothersome? And like, you don't want to deal, like what about live lit? Like what about improv? What if there's so many other things? And so like, wouldn't it have been awesome. Gina. If someone had come to us fourth year and been like, Hey, you know what, maybe you get really nervous and that panic attacks when you have to audition. But what about like writing this thing and telling your story on, you know, on a stage somewhere where you get to hold the piece of paper2 (30m 34s):Today on the podcast, we are talking to Jeremy Owen. Jeremy is a storyteller and the creator of a storytelling show called George being ridiculous, which is premiering ask Stephanie, I think tomorrow or the next day, check it out. Please enjoy our conversation with Jeremy Owens. Wow. Congratulations. Jeremy Owens. You survive theater school. I want to hear this fabulous story. I missed the beat.1 (31m 11s):Yeah. So Gina, miss the beginning. So I was just basically saying that everyone's rusty and it's really good. We're talking about this because also Gina's performing storytelling this weekend and we were just talking about rusty. It was, everyone was after two years of not doing live lit stuff. And then Jeremy tells me that he did a show and of course we can, you don't have to use names and all that, but like did a show and it went south and by south, he's going to tell us what that means. It really went south. So7 (31m 41s):It really, when up it's like so complicated. Okay. So I was doing a fundraiser first off. I was like, I there's no way, like, who wants to watch me talk on zoom? Like we're doing that all the time. Like who even cares? How can this benefit anyone? But it's a fundraiser. My sister-in-law asked me amazing. I love it. Amen. Let's go. Let's do it. So we're doing it. And I, okay. I was not as cautious. And as careful as I should have been the show, I mean, you done the show, you did a show. I don't know if I can talk about your story, but you like got your tooth knocked out. That's1 (32m 22s):Oh, I believe me. I did. I gave a blow job and my back lower fell out. Yeah.7 (32m 28s):That's a story2 (32m 28s):Story. I7 (32m 31s):Share that story, but That's good. That's the, but that's like kind of the fuel it's like, you don't know what's going to happen. Some things are like, you know, super lovey Dubby. Sometimes somebody tells a story about a blow job and their tooth gets knocked out. It's like not a big deal. Like this is the world we live in. But I mean, if you're doing a corporate fundraiser for someone and I just, Alex, if you're listening, I love you. I just was not clued in. And that's my fault. That's not her fault. It's my fault. I accept responsibility for all those things. This is my disclaimer for my, for my sister-in-law. I accept all the responsibility for that. I just should have been more cautious.7 (33m 11s):Right. So if you're up for doing show or tea, fall out from low jobs, it's not that maybe not the best for like a board. Like those are the stories that people,1 (33m 20s):I7 (33m 20s):Didn't know1 (33m 21s):It is. If I'm on the fucking board, I'd probably not get,7 (33m 24s):I know, same for me. I mean, we went to theater school and I've decided like, as that has passed me by that we're not the same as like Bob down the street who is like wildly offended by anything, you know, sexual or1 (33m 42s):Anything2 (33m 42s):You ever get used to that, by the way, I, I I'm always like, oh really? We have to do this thing where I have to pretend like I'm talking to my grandma. Like you're a full grown adult standing in front of me. What's that?1 (33m 53s):What's your story about, please tell me something amazing. Gross, please.7 (33m 56s):I didn't even get to my story. That's the thing. Okay. So It wasn't even me. I wish it were me. It was like six or seven people. And I think we got like three or four in. And so as they're happening, I'm like, oh wow. That person said, fuck, oh no, this person's talking about porn. Oh, wow. Like things that like, just don't register for me. Right. Because I guess theater school. It's like, none of that registers for me. I'm not offended by anything other than like racist, white assholes.7 (34m 38s):Anything else? It doesn't register me. I don't. I know. I just don't care. I'm not bothered. So2 (34m 45s):Charity though. I mean,1 (34m 47s):It was like, there was it like the nuns of like a sister.7 (34m 50s):Oh, I don't want to say there. I don't want to say their name. I'll tell you1 (34m 54s):What Sater7 (34m 56s):Well, they're like1 (34m 58s):Healthcare, charity. He doesn't want7 (35m 1s):. Yes. I mean, it's a great charity. They do wonderful things. It's awesome. Right. But they weren't ready for1 (35m 12s):Me. So what happened? It just went blank.7 (35m 15s):Like we're just plopping along and I'm like so excited. Cause it's like July 20, 20. I have only been like talking to my dog and my husband. Right. So this is happening and I'm listening to stories. I'm having a great time. This is like amazing loving life porn who cares, you know, whatever. And then all of a sudden it stops working. Like I don't see anything. And I'm like, oh my God, this is my brother-in-law. I was like running the tech. I'm like, oh no,1 (35m 44s):He thought it was a tech thing. Of course.7 (35m 46s):I was like, well, this happened to me. I was taking this class online this weekend and the internet I had and I was like, oh shit. Like in the middle of class, I'm like, great. So now they think I'm an asshole. I just left class early. So I'm just like, this is dead. Right. Then they come, my sister-in-law calls me and tells me what's happening. And they're all furious. And they just, instead of like a conversation or something, or like this is coming or we're so disappointed, it was just like, this is over now. Like just totally dead. The bad part about that is that none of us knew. And there was no communication with me. Other if it hadn't been my sister-in-law, I don't know if I would, I would still be here on my computer.7 (36m 31s):Probably.1 (36m 32s):That's hilarious right there. Like, are you there yet?7 (36m 36s):Hello? Hi. Hi. They just didn't communicate at1 (36m 40s):All.2 (36m 43s):We're like, really? I'm getting irritated about this. Listen to the story is like, I don't know any of the players, but I feel like, I feel like we're the people we're pretending people are pretending that they don't watch porn or that they don't swear or, you know, like, why do I have to do this? Pretending I just love unless there was children in the audience and maybe there were,7 (37m 4s):I don't think so. Like, you know, it's like, I had like friends who1 (37m 8s):I curated it. Where you did you7 (37m 10s):Find, I mean, it's all, basically this entire thing is my fault. But like1 (37m 15s):You, you found everybody.7 (37m 17s):I found everybody, I got everybody. This was like a great in my mind was this is like a greatest hits. This is like, awesome.1 (37m 24s):It's the one time I'm so grateful. I was not asked to do anything. Like7 (37m 29s):It was just so weird. And there's like, I don't know it. Yeah, it was. But again,1 (37m 37s):I do the story for the ages. I love it. All of a sudden, it just goes blank.7 (37m 41s):I'm in the home. This is a story I'm going to, I just went blank. I didn't know what to do. Everything was gone. Just talking about those things. It doesn't, I don't find that if, when I say porn, I'm not like, this is the butthole. Like it wasn't like, you know what?2 (37m 59s):I7 (37m 59s):Watched porn. Right. That's not offensive to me.1 (38m 5s):I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Yeah. Like Gina was saying like we're okay. So that went south. Like if did you feel I'm really concerned? Like, cause I would have probably had to check in somewhere because I would have been like, I curated this motherfucker and now I caused this whole fucking7 (38m 23s):I'm still like T like we have a show coming up in like a week at Steppenwolf. And I had one of the storytellers from that show sent me a is doing the show at Steppenwolf. And I like had a moment because his story is like, because of that. And because I'm like wildly triggered, I was like, Hey, maybe you could do this story about tennis or whatever. And he's like, do you need a PG story? Like what's going on? And then I was like, and then I re-read a story. And I was like, I do not his stories about sex.7 (39m 5s):I do not find this offensive. This is okay. I'm person totally traumatized. And then I had to go back and be like, oh God, remember that thing that happened in 2020, I'm just totally melted from that. And your story is great and everything's fine. I'm just having a moment. I'm going to calm down2 (39m 24s):And see what happens to me though. When I hear w whenever my antenna go up, whenever I hear like, oh, that's offensive to me. That just automatically means you're doing behavior that you feel really ashamed of. And so you want to shame me instead of just own the truth of whatever it is you're doing. This is exactly what happens on the Handmaid's tale. You know, it's all about the Bible, but then they're just like holding people down and raping them. So I just think it's a little bit of a soft sign for you've got trouble. If adults are saying that referencing the fact that there is porn is7 (39m 58s):Troublesome. Yeah.1 (40m 2s):Oh my God. I can just, okay. I would have been so traumatized. So I hear you. And I also think that, like, it's interesting, I've had a similar thing where like, on this podcast, I've mentioned my husband's job. I have mentioned. And so Gina and I always talk about, well, we will not always, but we've had to talk about this of like, what is the, and it's like a bigger thing in our society right. In the world. Like, where do I draw the line of like, can I stand behind this? I guess that's what it is. It's like, can I stand? If I'm called to the carpet, whoever God, the board, whoever, and say, stand behind this show. These words can.1 (40m 43s):And that's when, if I can stand behind it and I am willing to answer for it. And I'm like, I'm all in. If I feel like I'm wishy washy, then I feel like it's going to go south. And then I it's weird. It's a weird thing. It's like when to cut, when to not cut, now, you didn't have the ability I'm fucking lives to do7 (41m 6s):That. What1 (41m 7s):Happens in live television, right? When someone who goes bonkers or has a stroke, God forbid, or it's like, you don't know what to do. So live is a different thing. Like it's different with a podcast. We can cut. We can, but like a live show, whether zoom or on stage, there is this moment. So when I did my solo show, Samantha Irby, Sam Irby opened for me. Right. Ramus. Now wasn't famous then. But it was always a Reverend and a bad-ass right. But data story at my show and my uncle were there about SAC,7 (41m 38s):Right.1 (41m 38s):Eight leakage and fluids. And I was like, oh. And then I thought, oh, I wanted to run on stage and be like, ah, this is too much. But then I thought you invited this person. This is their jam. This7 (41m 54s):We love. Right.1 (41m 58s):What, what, okay, sit, sit, and just deal with it. And if my uncle and my uncle was really offended and like, fuck that. Okay. So, but it's hard to do. I was squirming. So you must've been squirming when you, when your, when your person called you and was like, cause you, you found these people. But I think sometimes we squirm, right? Sometimes we squirm,7 (42m 21s):Oh my God, I was dying. Cause it's like, I don't, I don't want to disappoint any of, either of you, this computer, this desk. And I just want to make everyone so happy all the time. And I don't want anyone upset with me or like, I don't want to cause any problems, nothing. I want you all happy.1 (42m 42s):And sometimes despite our best people, pleasing efforts, like shit goes south. Like that is the story of shit going south. Despite Being a good person, having gone to college, go to it, shit still goes south. So7 (42m 55s):I vote like1 (42m 58s):You're very active, like socially.2 (43m 2s):So let's, let's talk about you and your experiences. Did you go to DePaul?7 (43m 7s):I wish I had gone to DePaul, but I, from listening to this podcast, I get that. I don't know. I went to Roosevelt university for grad school.2 (43m 17s):Cool. Tell us everything. Tell us, like, when you decided you wanted to be an actor and when you decided you wanted to go to theater school, tell us everything.7 (43m 25s):Well, for me, I grew up in Arkansas. So I went to the university of Arkansas and I started out as like a journalism and a political science major. But then they, the department, the journalism department had us take a speech class. Like how does speak in theater class, you know, to get rid of your accent basically. Cause we're all Arkansans. We sound like, you know, we're in God, but the wind or whatever. So we took this class and I had growing up and like my small town, I always loved theater. I'd done community theater and the whole thing. So when I took that class and like, everyone in there is like, you know, so alive and so like interesting and like, like real, I was like, well, this is going to be a problem.7 (44m 17s):So then I, like, I signed up for, you know, the second semester of the class. And then I was like, oh, I'm gonna audition for these one acts. And then so slowly I just migrated into the theater department and completely dropped journalism, political science, all of it. And disappointed my parents ruined their lives, you know, the whole thing. So I didn't really understand, like by the, by the end of my time in undergrad, I was like, I don't really, it's like, you're young. It's like, I don't understand grad school. I don't know. But that seems to be thing that I, there was a grad program that had just started there, like, like near the end of my time there.7 (44m 59s):And I was like, I guess that's what I'm supposed to do. And so everyone told me to go to Chicago. I hadn't ever been to Chicago. I knew nothing about it. Never even visited, but I was like, okay. They're like funny people should go to Chicago. And I'm like, oh, I'm funny. So I guess that's where I'll go.1 (45m 15s):You are funny. So it's good. You went there.7 (45m 17s):Thanks. So, so I auditioned at IRDAs and did that whole thing. And then I got a call back from them and I, it was like weird. Like I thought there was going to be like some like bigger process or something. Like, am I going to, I was like, ready, you know, with like my other, like, do you want 16 bars? Do you need other other monologues? Like, well, what's the deal? And it was just kind of like a done thing. So I was like, Yeah, it's like at the callback, there was like, it was an IRDAs. And it's like, you'd go to the person's hotel room, which now seems really creepy what, with a couple other people.7 (45m 57s):And it just seemed like I liked the person who did the interview and I was like, they're in Chicago. This seems great. I2 (46m 7s):Like to act in a hotel room. I've never7 (46m 9s):Done. Like, the audition was in, like, I don't even know where it was like the ballroom. It was like, there was like a black box sort of like made up situation. So you audition and then like the next day or a few hours later, you get like a sheet with a little list of the schools that want to like talk to you or whatever. And we have been like through the ringer with my undergrad teacher and she's like, okay, you need to have, like, you had like your folder with your monologues. And like, if someone wanted a song, like your whole thing, it's like bootcamp and you're ready. So I'm like prepared for somebody to ask me to do anything. And I don't know, I got called back to like a lot of places, which I was like, oh my God, none of them asked me for anything.7 (46m 54s):Which maybe looking back, maybe that was like, not a great situation. I don't know what that means.2 (46m 60s):They were just the, and the call back. They were just meeting you. Right. They were just wanting to know if you were like,7 (47m 4s):Yeah, I guess1 (47m 6s):You're acting probably wow. Like really? They probably would have if they were on the fence, but that probably wasn't that they probably wanted to do what, you know, they, they, a chemistry breed or whatever the fuck they call it. Right.7 (47m 18s):Yeah. I guess. But this meaning with the person at Roosevelt, it's like, she was nice. It was great. It felt good. So I was like, all right, maybe that's where I'm going. And I knew I wanted to get Chicago. So like, that was, that was the deal.2 (47m 36s):It's an undergrad. You were not thinking this at all. I'm guessing you don't come from a performing family or you, you weren't doing this in high school.7 (47m 44s):Oh my God. Well, there was like the junior play or whatever that like pays for the prom, you know, like that kind of a situation. But otherwise, like I did community theater and I'm from a town of like 10,000 people. So there wasn't like really a community theater. I did Annie and Mike, I don't know, 10th grade or something.1 (48m 3s):Amazing.7 (48m 4s):Really upset. I couldn't be Annie. I was like a Senator. And like the apple salesman. I was like that guy I'm like running around doing whatever anybody wanted me to do.1 (48m 20s):Funny. That's why he could do a lot funny.2 (48m 23s):Yeah. Interchangeable. Okay. So day one, you're at Roosevelt. Is this the education that you thought you were going to get7 (48m 32s):Funny? You should ask. So this, when I went, which was, this was 2000 yes. 2000. So it was their first year of their MFA program.1 (48m 44s):Oh shit.7 (48m 46s):Oh shit is right. They accepted 30 people take that in verse1 (48m 54s):307 (48m 55s):MFA. Oh yeah.1 (48m 57s):It's too many people that just like five.7 (49m 0s):Thank you. I think that if I'm being kind, I think they accepted a huge amount of people thinking that, you know, with everything going on that like maybe 10, which is still too many would accept. So there were 30 of us. So we're there on the first day. And I'm just like, this seems , I don't know anything about what this experience is supposed to be, but 30 people that's like, that's like an entire MFA program, you know, that's like three years of people or more So immediately.7 (49m 44s):I was just like,1 (49m 45s):Hmm,7 (49m 47s):This doesn't seem right. But you know, I was like 24. So I'm like so happy to be there. I'm living in my friend's base. My friend's mom's basement until I find an apartment just like, you know, desperate twenties times. So immediately. I was like, I, this is hi. All right.1 (50m 11s):I think I should get off this rollercoaster right now, but it's already going, right?7 (50m 16s):Yeah, totally. I just like was on. And because I didn't have like necessarily the support of my parents where this entire thing, I was like, fight or flight. Like I will do this. If I have to hang on to the side of the building and sleep like that, or like, whatever it is, I'm gonna do this. So I did it.2 (50m 49s):And is it a typical curriculum, voice and speech and movement and all that stuff?7 (50m 54s):Yeah. I was sort of surprised by all of it. The program that I did in undergrad, I felt, I don't know. I guess everyone in undergrad, if you're doing theater stuff there, you think that like, what you're doing is like enough and great. And that's how everything's going to go. So to spend like three hours a day in a movement class, suddenly when you're like, God damn it, let me do a monologue or a scene or sing a song. Like let me work. You know, I understand that that is also work and it's fundamental, but it was really shocking to me.1 (51m 37s):You know, what's interesting is like, and you're not the first person that I've, I felt this, that we've had on the show is like, what I would eat. Like you should have maybe gone right to second city and just done that call that five-year conservatives And gotten the fuck out, but it's not accredited. It's not like a real university that would probably make your parents even more like unhappy. And so, but like you needed like a professional program, like there's conservatory training for actors and then there's professional programs. And I wish I had done, so. Okay. But you're in this. How long was the Roosevelt MFA program?7 (52m 15s):Three years. Oh,1 (52m 16s):Fuck. Right.2 (52m 18s):And was it the thing where you can't perform the first year, but then you do and you're in the casting pool with VFS.7 (52m 26s):Yeah, I, we couldn't perform in the first year though, at the end of the first semester, they opened up an audition to be an intern at Chicago Shakespeare, which was like super exciting. So I auditioned and then I was doing the second semester, I got to be an intern and be on stage and do king Lear, Chicago, Shakespeare. I mean, I was like, you know, a dude, a homeless person running around. Oh, we got it. Yeah. So then I was like, oh no, this is great. I'm like with like these amazing people that I don't know who they are yet, but I will.7 (53m 9s):And there, those people are amazing2 (53m 12s):In that7 (53m 13s):Greg VIN CLER.1 (53m 15s):Oh yeah. was Barbara Gaines directing7 (53m 18s):Barbara Gaines director.1 (53m 20s):Yeah. She's amazing. She's she's famous for, for me, for my one audition I had there, she yawned during my whole model to be fair, but to be fair, it was really boring. Like, it was really boring. She was basically doing what I wish I could have done. It was boring. My shit was boring. She was like this. Can't see. But yeah, she was rude, but apropos I sucked anyway. Okay. So you were, you got to work at shakes and so you were like, okay, but did you make friends? What was the vibe like? BFA was the BFA program established at that time?7 (54m 2s):I think so. Oh, and that part. Okay. Like whatever I'll say about Roosevelt, which I don't have, I don't know necessarily great things to say about the program. It doesn't even exist anymore, PS, by the way. But the BFA program, the program for undergrads, I thought that was like, excellent. Like, I was like happy for those kids. Like that seemed like good. And they were having a good time, but for us it was just, I don't know. It just felt kind of sad and different.2 (54m 26s):So your parents were psyched about the idea of you being a journalist. That's what they thought you were going to.7 (54m 32s):I think the imaginary plan was that I would, or what I sold them at the time was I'm gonna get this journalism degree and then I'm gonna go to law school.1 (54m 43s):Oh,2 (54m 45s):Right. That's everybody's, catch-all hilarious.7 (54m 48s):So that's what I'm going to do. But then I was like, but these plays, these people, it's really the people that are purchased more fun.2 (54m 57s):I actually got dressed so many people in for exactly that reason. It's just something that's like tribal feeling that you don't know that you don't have it until you find it. And then you go, oh my God.7 (55m 8s):Yeah. It was really, it was really all encompassing. I was like, well, I can't not be with these people.2 (55m 15s):What kind of shows did you do there at Roosevelt?7 (55m 18s):I all right. So, so there was that first year experience. And then I don't know. I let's see, I did my last year.1 (55m 30s):Yeah. It just sticks out in your brain7 (55m 33s):Threepenny opera. And then there was this weird Asian adoptation of the rope by whatever old Greek guy,2 (55m 47s):Asian adaptation.7 (55m 48s):So here's one of the weird things about the program. So there were a couple of classes that made zero sense that we were taking as actors. One was, we all had to take a stage management management course. I don't know. Did you guys have to know1 (56m 5s):I7 (56m 5s):Was like1 (56m 5s):Crew, but I don't even know. No.7 (56m 8s):Well, yeah, like working on a cruise, like that's normal, but in an entire semester demo devoted to stage management just seems kind of rude.2 (56m 18s):It sounds like they needed stage managers for their shows1 (56m 22s):Teachers. Yeah.7 (56m 25s):And then there is a professor there who white lady who loved Asian theater. And so, yeah. Pause for that1 (56m 37s):PF chains of, she was trying to be the PF Chang's PF J7 (56m 44s):God lover. I mean, yes. I'm interested in Asian theater too, but everyone was required as part of the MFA program to take an Asian theater class. So, which is interesting. I'm not knocking like any of that, but the PA I don't know the possibility of me being in an Asian.2 (57m 7s):Yeah. Like what's the really,1 (57m 11s):It just sounds like she had a thing for her thing was Asian theater and she wanted everyone else's thing.7 (57m 16s):Total your thing. She had studied in, I don't know, Japan, I think, and had done this whole program and it was like her, she may even have like a PhD on it. I don't really know, but that was her thing and good for her. Awesome.1 (57m 31s):Why are you teaching? But it's7 (57m 33s):Not practical. Yeah. It just seems like weird. So the play I did, I did the, the rope, which is like a Greek play. Never2 (57m 42s):Heard of it.1 (57m 43s):I wish you had done the rain anyway.7 (57m 48s):So she translated the play into a Kyogen style thing, which is a very specific Asian theater style play. Not only that, not only that, but like, I have always been openly unapologetically sort of who I am, which means, hello, I'm a homosexual and it's clear and I'm not like afraid of that as an actor or a person. So I played the, yeah, get ready. I played the, I don't want to call it like the evil sister, but I played like the villain in the play, which was like an older, which type woman in the play.7 (58m 40s):And that was supposed to be hilarious.1 (58m 48s):That's really where we're headed in the arts. I'm also saying the arts in the logs shit went down. Not that7 (58m 56s):Some weird shipments out. Yeah. So it's like thinking about that now you would like wants to like light all of Chicago on fire. Right? Correct. But at the time, this I guess was like, cool, cool. And inventive to make the one gay guy that you were Sure was gay play a woman Asian drag. Oh my gosh. The whole thing is like Asian themed rides. and the whole thing I don't, I can't say for sure, but I don't think1 (59m 39s):So. What the fuck?7 (59m 42s):So just a bunch of white people running around and kimonos speaking in a very like, you know, meter to style Asian thing. And I'm a woman also.2 (59m 53s):I wish we had a video. I really want to watch this play. I mean, just like for a snippet, because you know, when you think of yourself and how seriously you took a role when you were young and you and you, and you just in your mind's eye, even if there's no video and you just imagine, like, what does this actually look like? And that's always looks funny, no matter what or sad. If it's a comedy, it looks sad. And if it's True. So that was one. Did you have any roles that you liked?7 (1h 0m 29s):I mean, kind of, well, there was like a, a directing project that one of my friends did. It was like a Steve Martin one act. And I was like, yeah, right. Like it was like a legit play that was like funny and good. And I had like the lead and I was like, it was like us, like a straight man that I was playing. And I like felt excited because it felt like I was like reaching. I'm not reaching, but you know what I mean? You're like, oh, this is a play. I'm like, yeah. I was like, do a thing. And I like am working for this goal to do. And I felt like I was successful in it and it felt good.7 (1h 1m 9s):But like, that was probably the one, even in my thesis role, which was like, I was like a random chorus person in Threepenny opera, literally it's my third year. I'm like, Hmm. I have to write 30 pages now on yeah. That's, it's like that.1 (1h 1m 27s):The thing like that, I just, and maybe you guys could chime in. And in terms of the curriculum, there doesn't seem to be an actual curriculum for these programs. Like now that I'm teaching, I'm like, wait, what, what is the7 (1h 1m 42s):Tactical?1 (1h 1m 43s):And what is the piece of paper that you can point to, to say, this is the mission of these three years for these MFA actors. There is no plan. What is the plan? That's what I feel about a lot of this is, and it's still to this day in, in conservatories, what is the fucking plan? Because there doesn't seem to be one and there's not a plan. We shouldn't be charging dollars to these people. I just, I, it should be, then it should be camp, a freak out where we go when we, I don't know. Anyway. So2 (1h 2m 15s):I mean, honestly, like it's, it needs to be treated a little bit more like a school and pass fail, right?7 (1h 2m 23s):Yeah. Like the goal it's like, if you're a journalist, like, can you do these things? Can you write a bituaries? Can you write a news story? Can you do the, you know what I mean? So it's like, when I leave this place, am I going to be able to get a job? And I know that like, everyone's like, theater's like, oh gosh, you're never going to work or whatever, but that, it's just not true. It's like, everything is the same. There are basic skills. Do you have them,1 (1h 2m 50s):There are milestones to meet along the way. And if you, I mean, anyway, I it's just, the more we interview folks, the more I'm like, oh, this whole higher ed situation, fine arts needs a whole overhaul. I don't know what it's going to take, but we'll probably be extinct on the planet before it happened. So I just feel like maybe that's the way it's going to go and okay. But like, okay, so you graduate, you then are like, okay, I have this MFA. Then what happens to you7 (1h 3m 21s):By the end of the program? I was really like, I don't know. I feel like it kind of, it kind of broke me because things like that were happening, which in a way is like, I mean, at the time we didn't have the language for like, you know, playing an Asian woman in a play, like it's offensive. And it's like, not furthering me. It's racist. It's not furthering me as an actor. I'm not going to leave here and like run around and Komodo and place for the rest of my life. It just kind of broke me. And a lot of the, I would say some of the teachers, the whole situation just didn't make me feel good.7 (1h 4m 4s):So at the end, I was like, you know what, maybe? Hm. I don't know. I need, I needed a break from that whole world. I mean, I did audition for awhile, but the shortest while1 (1h 4m 21s):How short,7 (1h 4m 26s):Maybe it was a couple years1 (1h 4m 28s):Because we have Gina's trajectory and mine, mine too. Like I stopped after I stopped after three.7 (1h 4m 35s):Yeah. I was probably three years. Like slowly, just petered out. I mean, I got to the point where I'm like going. So I went on a few theater auditions in the beginning and then I had an agent and I would go on these, like on camera calls. And I would just be like, oh my God, I'm in this giant room with a hundred people that are dressed and look just like me. This is the most pressing thing. Like, I just was like, I can't, this isn't, this doesn't feel good either.2 (1h 5m 6s):I want to hear how eventually, how we get to storytelling. But before we do, I just, I didn't want to leave the whole Roosevelt thing without, I don't think I've really asked anybody this before, but you're not the first person who basically says to us, like, I'm gay. They didn't know what to do with me in theater school. Right.7 (1h 5m 30s):So2 (1h 5m 32s):I don't know if this is a question or a comment or what, or like just a prompt for discussion, but what is the barrier there? I mean, it seems like what you're saying about this role that you got cast, it's like, you're gay. So you'd like to wear drag. Is that what the thinking was?7 (1h 5m 47s):I don't know. For me, it's two things. It's like, there's the gay thing for sure. But also I'm funny. So if you're in a serious theater program, please understand I'm doing some heavy air quotes because every theater program thinks they're a serious theater program. They really do not know what to do with people who are fitting into the definition of serious. And so I think yes, there is like me, the stereotypical gay person or whatever, if I am so there's that person, but that's usually a funny person.7 (1h 6m 28s):And so then they don't like it totally. This is serious. We're doing real serious work here. How can this work?1 (1h 6m 38s):It makes that, that makes me, it makes sense. And it also makes me so angry, just Raging, also like fucking pick different motherfucking material. You've that fits your mother fucking class. You dumb fucks. That is what we're supposed to be doing is picking material that highlight our students and help them grow in a way and not the pick different place.7 (1h 7m 3s):Well, that's really where in that and the whole situation, I feel like that's, that's what sort of killed me is that there wasn't a place for me. No one cared to create one and you are, I already felt like I don't fit here. I don't belong. And so it's just like that slowly, just really like sinks in. So you've got that going on. You've got your there with 30 actors and it was kind of, honestly, it was sort of like easy to just like hide, you know, unless I'm being called to play the Asian lady on the play. So it's just like a kind of just was like, eh,1 (1h 7m 43s):Yeah, you gave up. But they gave up on at first.7 (1h 7m 48s):It is honestly,1 (1h 7m 50s):We give up when people give up on us first, especially as young people.2 (1h 7m 53s):That's true. That's true. So you're in audition rooms after school. You're, you're feeling like this is depressing. There's 5,000 mess and we all look the same. How, how did, how did you evolve from that to what you're currently doing, which I'm going to go on a limb and say is fulfilling to you artistically fulfilling to you what you're doing?7 (1h 8m 13s):I would say yes. Okay. How did that happen? I mean, after, you know, just deciding I'm not going to go on these calls anymore. I just, like, I was like, okay, then I'll, I'm working in a restaurant. So that's what I'm, I'm gonna work in. I work in restaurants now. That's what I do. And I did that for a while. And then I was just like, okay, but wow, this can't be it. Like, even if you, as an actor, like whatever level you achieve as an actor, I think there's always that part of you. Who's like, yeah, but like, can I talk somewhere?7 (1h 8m 54s):And people just like to listen to me or just let me tell, you know, just get really enthusiastic with storytelling at a party. Or like, whatever. I, I didn't know about the moth or a storytelling or any of that stuff. I really was just like this theater experience, grad school was so bad for me. And I'm too afraid to go to second city to do improv because I had sat through, you know, the first year of friends doing that. And I was like, well, I'm not doing this terrifying. So I thought, Hey, what if I get some actors together?7 (1h 9m 37s):And we will write monologues, which is how I thought of it at the beginning, it'll be like loosely based on a theme and we'll do a monologue show. I think I had just seen Nora Ephron's play love loss and what I wore. And so there's all these women on stage telling this like, story. And I was like, oh my God, I'm not a playwright. I can never like, make this happen necessarily. But like, if there are people on a stage and then they're just like one by one, like telling a story based on a theme, like, oh my gosh, this is revolutionary. I've just invented this whole new thing. So that is sort of where I started.1 (1h 10m 14s):When was that? I

Subscribe to Quotomania on Simplecast or search for Quotomania on your favorite podcast app!Bertolt Brecht, orig. Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, (born Feb. 10, 1898, Augsburg, Ger.—died Aug. 14, 1956, East Berlin, E.Ger.), was a German playwright and poet. He studied medicine at Munich (1917–21) before writing his first plays, including Baal (1922). Other plays followed, including A Man's a Man (1926), as well as a considerable body of poetry. With the composer Kurt Weill he wrote the satirical musicals The Threepenny Opera (1928; film, 1931), which gained him a wide audience, and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930). In these years he became a Marxist and developed his theory of epic theatre. With the rise of the Nazis he went into exile, first in Scandinavia (1933–41), then in the U.S., where he wrote his major essays and the plays Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Life of Galileo (1943), The Good Woman of Sichuan (1943), and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1948). Harassed for his politics, in 1949 he returned to East Germany, where he established the Berliner Ensemble theatre troupe and staged his own plays, including The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1957). He outlined his theory of drama in A Little Organum for the Theatre (1949).From https://www.britannica.com/summary/Bertolt-Brecht. For more information about Bertolt Brecht:Previously on The Quarantine Tapes:George Prochnik about Brecht, at 18:25: https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-162-george-prochnikKwame Dawes about Brecht, at 14:55: https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-037-kwame-dawes“Bertolt Brecht”: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/bertolt-brecht“Singing About the Dark Times: The Poetry of Bertolt Brecht”: http://www.theliberal.co.uk/issue_9/poetry/hofmann_9.html“Bertolt Brecht in Dark Times”: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/06/red-library-brecht

A songwriter, singer, pianist, actor, and comedian known for his caustic sociopolitical humor, Eddie Perfect (IG: @edmundperfect) (TW:@theeddieperfect) released his first comedy album, Welcome to the Inside of Ed's Head, in 2003. Having already worked original songs into his live comedy act, he wrote the satirical Shane Warne: The Musical, based on the life of the Australian cricketer. It premiered in 2008. Starting in 2010, he spent six years on the TV comedy-drama Offspring, and appeared as a judge on Australia's Got Talent's eighth season in 2016. Trying his hand at Broadway, he found work as a lyricist on King Kong in 2018. A year later, Perfect received a Tony Award nomination for his playful score to Broadway's Beetlejuice. A native of Mentone, Victoria, Perfect earned a bachelor's degree from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2001. While honing his live stage material, he landed guests spots on Australian TV series such as the drama Blue Heelers and sitcom Kath & Kim. He released his first two comedy albums, Welcome to the Inside of Ed's Head and Angry Eddie, in 2003 and 2005, respectively. His live show The Big Con, a collaboration with actor Max Gillies, toured theaters in 2005. Also that year, he premiered his own comedy show, Drink Pepsi, Bitch!, releasing an album of the same name in 2006. The year 2007 saw Perfect playing multiple characters in Casey Bennetto's Keating! The Musical, about former prime minister Paul Keating. Perfect's own Shane Warne: The Musical opened at the Melbourne Athenaeum Theatre in December 2008, with a national tour to follow. The show won the Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work. Meanwhile, Eddie Perfect & the Renovators contributed two songs to the March 2009 Vitamin Records release The Colors Tribute Album, Vol. 1. The show-business polymath next directed and hosted all ten episodes of reality show The Ultimate School Musical and performed the autobiographical song cycle Songs from the Middle, both in 2010. Later in 2010, he took the role of Mick Holland in the hit Channel Ten comedy-drama series Offspring, where he stayed through 2016. In the meantime, he played Mack the Knife in two different productions of the musical play The Threepenny Opera, and his show Misanthropology, a mix of music and social satire, premiered at the Sydney Festival in 2011. A live album of the show arrived later that year. Perfectstarred in an updated version of Shane Warne: The Musical in 2013, with a cast recording to follow a year later. In 2015, a revived Songs from the Middle was captured live at the Sydney Opera House, featuring Perfect, Iain Grandage, and the Brodsky Quartet. Around the end of his run on Offspring in 2016, Perfect appeared as a judge on the eighth edition of Australia's Got Talent, alongside Kelly Osbourne, writer/actor Ian Dickson, and actress Sophie Monk. By then, Perfect had moved his home base to New York City, where, partly inspired by the success of countryman Tim Minchin, he pursued a career on Broadway. His first credit was writing lyrics for the Broadway version King Kong. With music by Marius de Vries, the musical had premiered in Melbourne in 2013, with a reworked version making its New York debut in October 2018. Featuring music and lyrics by Perfect and a book by Scott Brown and Anthony King, the stage musical Beetlejuice (based on the 1988 Tim Burton film) premiered in Washington, D.C., that same month before moving to Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre in April 2019. The show went on to receive eight Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The cast album was released by Ghostlight in June 2019 and reached the Top Ten of Billboard's independent albums chart.

A songwriter, singer, pianist, actor, and comedian known for his caustic sociopolitical humor, Eddie Perfect (IG: @edmundperfect) (TW:@theeddieperfect) released his first comedy album, Welcome to the Inside of Ed's Head, in 2003. Having already worked original songs into his live comedy act, he wrote the satirical Shane Warne: The Musical, based on the life of the Australian cricketer. It premiered in 2008. Starting in 2010, he spent six years on the TV comedy-drama Offspring, and appeared as a judge on Australia's Got Talent's eighth season in 2016. Trying his hand at Broadway, he found work as a lyricist on King Kong in 2018. A year later, Perfect received a Tony Award nomination for his playful score to Broadway's Beetlejuice. A native of Mentone, Victoria, Perfect earned a bachelor's degree from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2001. While honing his live stage material, he landed guests spots on Australian TV series such as the drama Blue Heelers and sitcom Kath & Kim. He released his first two comedy albums, Welcome to the Inside of Ed's Head and Angry Eddie, in 2003 and 2005, respectively. His live show The Big Con, a collaboration with actor Max Gillies, toured theaters in 2005. Also that year, he premiered his own comedy show, Drink Pepsi, Bitch!, releasing an album of the same name in 2006. The year 2007 saw Perfect playing multiple characters in Casey Bennetto's Keating! The Musical, about former prime minister Paul Keating. Perfect's own Shane Warne: The Musical opened at the Melbourne Athenaeum Theatre in December 2008, with a national tour to follow. The show won the Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work. Meanwhile, Eddie Perfect & the Renovators contributed two songs to the March 2009 Vitamin Records release The Colors Tribute Album, Vol. 1. The show-business polymath next directed and hosted all ten episodes of reality show The Ultimate School Musical and performed the autobiographical song cycle Songs from the Middle, both in 2010. Later in 2010, he took the role of Mick Holland in the hit Channel Ten comedy-drama series Offspring, where he stayed through 2016. In the meantime, he played Mack the Knife in two different productions of the musical play The Threepenny Opera, and his show Misanthropology, a mix of music and social satire, premiered at the Sydney Festival in 2011. A live album of the show arrived later that year. Perfectstarred in an updated version of Shane Warne: The Musical in 2013, with a cast recording to follow a year later. In 2015, a revived Songs from the Middle was captured live at the Sydney Opera House, featuring Perfect, Iain Grandage, and the Brodsky Quartet. Around the end of his run on Offspring in 2016, Perfect appeared as a judge on the eighth edition of Australia's Got Talent, alongside Kelly Osbourne, writer/actor Ian Dickson, and actress Sophie Monk. By then, Perfect had moved his home base to New York City, where, partly inspired by the success of countryman Tim Minchin, he pursued a career on Broadway. His first credit was writing lyrics for the Broadway version King Kong. With music by Marius de Vries, the musical had premiered in Melbourne in 2013, with a reworked version making its New York debut in October 2018. Featuring music and lyrics by Perfect and a book by Scott Brown and Anthony King, the stage musical Beetlejuice (based on the 1988 Tim Burton film) premiered in Washington, D.C., that same month before moving to Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre in April 2019. The show went on to receive eight Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The cast album was released by Ghostlight in June 2019 and reached the Top Ten of Billboard's independent albums chart.

Subscribe to Quotomania on Simplecast or search for Quotomania on your favorite podcast app!Bertolt Brecht, orig. Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, (born Feb. 10, 1898, Augsburg, Ger.—died Aug. 14, 1956, East Berlin, E.Ger.), was a German playwright and poet. He studied medicine at Munich (1917–21) before writing his first plays, including Baal (1922). Other plays followed, including A Man's a Man (1926), as well as a considerable body of poetry. With the composer Kurt Weill he wrote the satirical musicals The Threepenny Opera (1928; film, 1931), which gained him a wide audience, and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930). In these years he became a Marxist and developed his theory of epic theatre. With the rise of the Nazis he went into exile, first in Scandinavia (1933–41), then in the U.S., where he wrote his major essays and the plays Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Life of Galileo (1943), The Good Woman of Sichuan (1943), and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1948). Harassed for his politics, in 1949 he returned to East Germany, where he established the Berliner Ensemble theatre troupe and staged his own plays, including The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1957). He outlined his theory of drama in A Little Organum for the Theatre (1949).From https://www.britannica.com/summary/Bertolt-Brecht. For more information about Bertolt Brecht:Previously on The Quarantine Tapes:George Prochnik about Brecht, at 18:25: https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-162-george-prochnikKwame Dawes about Brecht, at 14:55: https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-037-kwame-dawes“Bertolt Brecht”: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/bertolt-brecht“The Poet of Ill Tidings”: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-poet-of-ill-tidings/“Brecht Was a Revolutionary”: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/04/bertolt-brecht-marxist-culture-politics-estrangement

Today, I am so happy to announce the release of my interview with Broadway choreographer Liza Gennaro, author of the new book Making Broadway Dance, available here: Purchase Making Broadway Dance Tune in now for an in-depth study of Broadway choreography, including many of the stories of Ms. Gennaro's long career, including: what she remembers about seeing the original Oliver!, why Smile deserves a second look, assisting her father on the trouble-ridden Threepenny Opera, interviewing Donald Saddler and Gemze De Lappe, collaborating with Lee Theodore on American Dance Machine, being a dance captain at a young age, how she makes musical numbers evolve out of the script, why the revival of Once Upon a Mattress might have been a mistaken endeavor, recreating Jerome Robbins' choreography, and so much more.

On this episode, John Astin, the original Gomez Addams, the original Readmoney Matt in Threepenny Opera, he was in the original West Side Story, and is an original himself. Plus he was a replacement Riddler on TV's Batman. Six decades in the business plus two decades as a distinguished professor at Johns Hopkins University. What else could you ask for? All that and more on this week's episode of Household Faces! Listen to Household Faces Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: http://foreverdogpodcasts.com/plus Follow Household Faces: https://twitter.com/householdfaces https://www.instagram.com/householdfaces John on: IMDB Hosted by John Ross Bowie Follow John on Instagram Produced by Ben Blacker and Forever Dog Production Assistance by @lefthandedradio Follow Ben on Twitter If you enjoy this podcast, you'll probably also enjoy The Writers Panel Household Faces is a Forever Dog podcast https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/household-faces Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Abe Goldfarb is known to burlesque circles as a talented host, Bastard Keith, regularly seen at New York City's Slipper Room and festivals all over town; however, he is also an accomplished voice over actor (Pokemon! The Jungle Book! Strangeland!), film director (The Horror at Gallery Kay), and stage performer (Broadway's Beetlejuice, Off-Broadway's Bunnicula and Threepenny Opera!)  He's got so much going on, somehow he found an hour and a half to talk about all this and more with Viktor Devonne, who got over his stagecrush just long enough to hear about his exploits! - this episode was recorded on August 22, 2021 | call hook: @sirgogogadget Instagram: @abrahamgoldfarb Twitter: @abegoldfarb IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2026827/ https://www.thehorroratgallerykay.com/ The Earth Moves: https://www.gideon-media.com/the-earth-moves - Hosted by Viktor Devonne, reigning Mr Hollywood Burlesque, and celebrating 15 years in burlesque.  White Elephant Burlesque recently closed a five year residency in Manhattan, and continues to produce White Elephant Burlesque virtually. Visit weburlesque.com for details. SUPPORT THE POD: http://www.patreon.com/weburlesque Instagram/Twitter: @viktordevonne | @weburlesque Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weburlesque http://linktr.ee/weburlesque

To open Alan Cumming's Shelves, Alan chats with the amazing Cyndi Lauper about a pair of white leather gloves that he wore when the two of them were in the production of The Threepenny Opera on Broadway.Alan Cumming's Shelves is all about Alan Cumming and his shelves. There's lots of things on these shelves, oddities and artefacts from across Alan's life, and so each week he takes one of the curiosities off his shelf, and tells you all about it, with the help of some friends. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot share favorite songs about shady characters and talk with Jake Brennan, host of the Disgraceland podcast. Plus the Black Pumas share the songs that got them hooked on music. Become a member on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/soundopinionsMake a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/36zIhZK Record a Voice Memo: https://www.micdropp.com/studio/5febf006eba45/ Featured Songs: Utopia, "I Just Want To Touch You," Deface The Music, Bearsville, 1980Erykah Badu, "Tyrone (Live)," Live, Universal, 1997Solomon Burke, "Maggie's Farm," (single), Atlantic, 1965The Clash, "Wrong 'Em Boyo," London Calling, Epic, 1979Nick Cave, "Mack the Knife from the Threepenny Opera," September Songs, Sony Classical, 1997The Chicks, "Goodbye Earl," Fly, Monument, 1999Nelly Furtado, "Maneater," Loose, Geffen, 2006Pink Floyd, "Arnold Layne," Arnold Layne (Single), EMI Columbia, 1967Ghostface Killah, "Maxine (feat. Raekwon)," Bulletproof Wallets, Epic, 2001Black Pumas, "Colors," Black Pumas, ATO, 2019N.W.A., "100 Miles and Runnin' (Clean Version)," 100 Miles and Runnin', Ruthless, 1990New Radicals, "You Get What You Give," Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, MCA, 1998Carole King, "So Far Away," Tapestry, Ode, 1971