A Star is Bored – Details, episodes & analysis

Jacob Ming-Trent is an actor currently starring as Falstaff in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR at The Delacourte Theater, adapted by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Saheem Ali. Tickets are free and Performances run until 9/18. Most recently seen in The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix) and R#J (Sundance). TV: starred in the series “White Famous” (Showtime), played Panda in “Watchmen” (HBO), “Ray Donovan” season six (Showtime), “Feed the Beast” (AMC), etc. Film: Starred in the reboot of SuperFly (Sony), The Possession of Hanna Grace (Screen Gems), etc. Upcoming: “Only Murders in the Building” opposite Steve Martin and Martin Short (Hulu) and “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” (Hulu). Broadway: Hands on a Hardbody and Shrek The Musical. Several Off-Broadway productions, including Father Comes Home From the Wars..., for which he earned a Lortel Award for Best Supporting Actor. 0:53 A day off for Jacob 3:15 Being a part of the first production since the pandemic 6:00 Performing on Stage after 6 years 7:45 Pros and cons of performing outside 11:20 The Shakespeare Lab at the Public Theater 14:10 Demystifying Shakespeare at 12 Years Old 16:00 Hip Hop and Shakespeare 21:30 Reaction to Merry Wives of Windsor being set in Harlem 23:00 “Every character I bring to Shakespeare is black” 25:09 Decolonizing the Eurocentric Values of Shakespeare 27:30 The Pandemic Monologue in MERRY WIVES 29:00 The Traditions Of Shakespeare Are The Freshest Moments in the Show 33:50 White Famous/Representing All Bodies In Our Industry 35:15 Perform like it is Your Last Time You’ll Ever Do It 38:40 Discerning The Clown Vs. the Fool 42:25 Choosing Joy

Felicia Boswell is an actress and singer currently starting as The Baker’s Wife in City Springs Theatre Company’s production of INTO THE WOODS at Byers Theatre opening on Friday 7/9. She has appeared on Broadway in MOTOWN THE MUSICAL, SHUFFLE ALONG, and MEMPHIS. Additional credits include EMOJILAND and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR on NBC. We recap our lockdown with one another. CHAPTERS 0:00 Emojiland 3:25 Playing the Straight Man in Comedy 5:50 Not Being Allowed to Stagedoor Amidst in March 2020 10:20 Post-Emojiland 16:20 The Sanity of Performing on a Stage Again 20:00 The Role of The Baker’s Wife - Into The Woods 23:30 Normalizing Numbness 25:00 You Cannot Go Through Life a Ruin 28:50 As Storytellers We Should be Telling the Stories of Today 32:50 Why Broadway Will Be Better. 37:45 Working Towards the Greatness of Our Descendants 38:20 Lack of Accessibility in Theatre/Our Elitist Industry 43:00 Art Saves Us 48:10 Check Out Felicia Boswell in Into The Woods! #broadway #musicals #musicaltheatre #musical #theatre #broadwaymusical #hamilton #bway #rosaparks #theater #broadwaymusicals #theaterpodcast #broadwaymemes #theatreproblems #podcastersofinstagram #nyc #actor #music #podcast #musicaltheater #heathers #theatrelife #singer #theatrekid #theater #newyork #theatre #sondheim #teatro #bhfyp

Rachel Sussman is a Tony-Nominated Creative Producer of critically acclaimed productions such as Pulitzer Finalist ‘What The Constitution Means To Me’ (Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video), The Woodsman, and Endlings at NYTW. This is our first episode in conjunction with the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival, with the goals that holding conversation with artists native to each region of students, demonstrates that theatre knows no bounds, can be made wherever you make space to let it. She is a co-founder of  The MITTEN Lab, an emerging artist residency program in her native state of Michigan focused on nurturing the next generation of theatre artists. She is also a co-founder of The Business of Broadway, a new educational venture with the aim of democratizing commercial producing knowledge in an effort to develop more transparency between artists and producers. 

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

2:00 Insurrection of the Capitol/Racism/Anti-Semitism

9:30 Rachel’s Start in the Theatre

13:00 New Play Development 

13:50 Why Asking Questions Is Important  

15:50 Learning from your mistakes

16:20 Now Is the Time To Reach out to Artists For  Advice! Be Brave. 

18:10 Co-Founding The Mitten Lab/The Regional Theatre Renaissance 

23:20 Democratizing Theatre/Dismantling Hierarchy in the Producing Model 

25:25 Theater Producers of Color

26:35 Industry Standard Group/The Antiquated System of 3 Old White Dudes Running Broadway

28:25 We are Pushing for a More Equitable Theater Community 

30:00 Mean Girls in the AUGUST WILSON Theater...bruh.

31:30 Thoughts of a Colored Man/Moving a Production to Broadway  

34:00 Theatrical Work Should Speak for Itself/Being Mindful in Anti-Racism 

36:00 Marketing Commercial Hits/Co-Producing What the Constitution Means to Me

40:00 The Concept of A Penumbra Is SO CURRENT- We are stuck between what we can see what we cannot see

41:45 Putting What the Constitution Means to Me on Amazon Prime/ If you love theatre when it is on streaming, you’ll want to see it live and view it in a more meaningful way

45:10 The Power of Accessibility/Questioning the rhetoric of theater existing solely as a live experience 

47:00 Theater as a tool for Activism/Tikkun Olam- Leave the World Better Than You Found It

49:00 Theater Being Created during the AIDS Epidemic/Developing A Suffragist Musical

51:00 Highlighting The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals

Michael Potts stars as Slow Drag in the film adaptatin of August Wilson's  Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Now Streaming on Netflix, and will be starring in Prodigal Son on FOX. Spanning a 30 year career on stage and screen, his Broadway credits include The Book of Mormon, Grey Gardens, The Prom, Jitney, and the Iceman Cometh with Denzel Washington.

Chapters:

0:00 Welcoming Michael/1st Preview

2:00 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

4:50 The Weeknd/Abuse of Black Artists In the Music Industry

6:00 LGBTQ+ Stories on Stage and Screen

9:20 Changes Made from The Play

11:00 Reckoning with Racism in the Theatre

14:00 George C. Wolfe

17:00 Rehearsing Ma Rainey

19:30 Colman Domingo, Viola Davis, Glynn Turman

21:30 Bonding with Denzel Washington

24:00 Wilsonian Scholars (Anthony Chisholm, Stephen Henderson, Theresa Merritt)

25:00 The White Gaze Eclipsing the Authentic Black Identity In Entertainment

31:50 Chadwick Boseman “The King of Wakanda Just Walks Down the Street”

35:00 Reflecting on 28 years on Stage

36:45 The Book of Mormon

43:45 How Has The Book of Mormon Aged?

46:30 Taking Religion with a Grain of Salt

48:30 Joining the cast of FOX’s Prodigal Son

51:00 Theatre Coming Back: Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand.

#MaRaineyFilm #netflix #thebookofmormon #theprom #broadway #broadwaymusicals #truedetective #broadwaytheatre #augustwilson #blackmovies #theatre #theater #theatrekid #theatrelife #hasadigaeebowai #chadwickboseman #bethleavel #theprommusical #thepromnetflix #rubensantiagohudson #netflix #hbo #podcast #podcastersofinstagram #podcastlife #theatrepodcast #musicaltheatre #keepcreating #blkcreatives #stayempowered

Lesli Margherita is an Olivier Award winning actress and has starred on Broadway in Dames At Sea, Matilda, as well as Emojiland. Her solo performance in Who's Holiday just streamed for BCEFA, she is currently appears in the Broadway Podcast Network's As the Curtain Rises, and is starring in the upcoming prequel to The Soprano's, The Many Saints of Newark coming to HBOMAX this March.

0:00 Welcoming Lesli Margherita

3:00 Learning The Bong for the Stage

5:00 Who was in charge of getting it approved? Lesli explains

6:00 Lesli’s iconic BC/EFA speech 

8:00 Getting AEA points at Disneyland/ A Chorus Line

9:45 How Lesli Got Involved in Who’s Holiday

14:33 Lessons Lesli Learned

15:30 Male Playwrights Writing for Women 

17:30 Pushing comedic boundaries 

19:35 Messages from this shows

20:00 Self tapes 

22:00 Seeing Friends Booking on Social Media/”Cats out of the Bag” Posts

25:55 Emojiland!/Loving Josh Lamon

28:26 Keith Talks About Getting A Gastric Sleeve

31:05 Funny Ladies/Triple Threats

32:45 Ann Reinking

35:20 As the Curtain Rises/Ratatouille Parallel

39:40 Sopranos Prequel 

42:45 Secret Quarantine Project 

44:50 WeSeeYouWAT

49:15 West End Theatre 

52:00 Reuniting with the Zorro Cast 

52:30 Fuck Resolutions

Need a Roundtable About Ratatouille the Musical? I guess you do. Well you’ll have to find it in Episode 33, featuring the Producers from the 24 Hour Plays: Nationals Cohort where we promote their upcoming projects which include attempting breaking world records, producing podcasts, trivia nights, and short films. We go on to discuss how this past year’s injustices have reshaped producing in the American Theatre, and specifically.....#RatatouilleTheMusical

Guests: Chloe Brevik-Rich @sothishappened , Ryan Duncan-Ayala @ryan_d99 , Dylan Tashjian @dyltash , Olivia Facini @oliviafacini , Kelsi Parsons @kelsiparsons , Narissa Agustin @narissa_agustin

0:00 Introduction of Producers/What do producers do that people don’t know about?

8:05 Hickory Playground/Public Education/Community Based

11:00 Why did you become a producer?

12:53 Stage manager to producer

15:15 What you been doing in quarantine?

17:20 Meeting people only online

19:20 Tetrology

21:00 Narissa Breaking a Guinness World Record - Album of people singing the same song

23:00 What are we gonna be like after quarantine

23:42 Millie Boden short film 'Too Black' produced by Olivia Facini

27:00 Balcony Scene

28:00 Kelsey is Tall

28:30 Cara and Kelsey talk about height

30:00 Listen to Best Paper I Ever Wrote produced by Dylan Tashjian on Spotify

32:40 Keith loves Joe Rogan wtf.

35:00 Trivia Nights

39:00 Chloe promotes DO NOT AIR, sketch comedy show

42:40 RATAOUILLE/What are you looking forward to for our industry?

45:30 Disney ruins everything/anyone can make a musical

47:00 We are pigeonholeing things into theater or film, but there needs to be a third thing. This is where innovation happens

49:00 Non-profit world

53:00 Tony Awards

55:00 It is our job to make change happen!

57:00 Sustainability

#theatre #broadway #broadwaymemes #producer #producergrind #theatrekidproblems #theatreislife #ratatouillememes #onstage #toystorymemes #industrystandard #peanutsgang #hamiltonmemes #tiktok #onceonthisisland #findingnemo #mammamia #jennifercoolidge #phantomoftheopera #guinessworldrecord #armenian

We sit with the composer of Jeannette: the Musical, Hamilton star and American Idol Semi-Finalist Ari Afsar, and director Erin Ortman to discuss the inclusivity of their work, dismantling hierarchy in theatre, separating your ego from your collaboration, and enlisting young musical theatre fans in flipping Georgia. You can check out the concept album for the musical, WE WON'T SLEEP, on Spotify. Chapter Timestamps Below: 0:00 Introduction of Guests 1:22 Jeanette Brigade  3:10 Team Genie (high school and college student focus groups. December 15th) 7:00 This play is for all people  7:30 Songwriting Journey - American Idol To Hamilton 10:00 How they got into theater 11:40 Cherish Your Mentors 13:00 Erin’s directing journey 14:10 Ensemble Studio Theater/Dismantling Hierarchy 19:00 Influences in theater and music 21:00 Ari digging into her sound for Jeanette  21:50 Erin On The Genius of Ari 24:25 Being Fearless in the Unknown 25:27 Musicality  26:45 Republican means something different now. It is always changing. 28:20 Changing how we look at theater in the virtual space 30:00 Change that can be made to the piece following the death of George Floyd 32:00 What is theater going to look like? #georgia #fundraiser #benefitconcert #bethechange #makeadifference #flipthesenate #vote #aretha #ossoff #warnock #staceyabrams #runoff #georgiaartist #activist #artivist #playwright #screenwriter #singer #actor #musicaltheater #theater #musicals #newmusicals #broadway

Delores Pereira @queen_davery is an actress and finalist in the Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Slam from NBC, where you watch her work on FB Watch TONIGHT at 8:30 on December 9th. We discuss our work fighting the labor injustices and erasure of the Resident Artists of the Flea Theater and the formation of the The Fled. https://nosotrosorg.com/yatusabes/ya-tu-sabes-vote-now/ Chapters: 00:25 DLO Intro 0:45 How DLO got involved with The Flea 3:00 Nosotros explanation 5:40 DLO went to LA as a finalist 10:45 Cuomo haters and Cuomo lovers 13:30 You hate when your parents are right 16:05 You can’t be a well rounded artist without a well rounded life 17:00 When ya’ll found out about the flea 19:40 Letter from Flea 20:50 Niegel Smith 25:25 Formation of The Fled Theater 27:45 Dave Chappelle 31:10 Analysis of Flea Statement 32:40 Delores is beautiful! 38:10 Kinfolk #fleetheflea #ajoyfulhell #giveusthekeys #thefled #thefledtheater #bestintentions #dominicanartist #nosotros #yatusabes #broadway #offbroadway #actor #nyctheatre #nyctheater #theatre #theater #podcast #podcastlife #podcasts #podcastsofinstagram #theatrepodcast #nbcuniversal #dominicanamerican #anchorfm

The Cooking Project by the Dominican Artists Collective Is Available to Stream until 12/15. 

https://www.nytw.org/show/the-cooking-project/tickets/

Highlights : 

1:50 Cooking Project Process

3:06 Cooking with these ingredients and now we got a meal

4:45 The first time domincan artists have come together for theater

5:03 This is a happy hour bitch 

6:25 The last days of judas iscariot. Merlixse’s first play

10:10 Fingers 

11:15 Outline of Cooking Project : poetry, meditation, original songs, etc. 

11:35 Spoiler dope riff off of the twilight zone

16:00 Dilson’s community engagement 

16:58 Dilson explains how he didn't talk the talk. He wanted to do more than just create art.

19:00 Dilson is the coolest person ever. Did hip hop workshops on Reicher’s island. Now working with incarcerated youth. 

20:00 Did Keith pass out?

23:00 Little Veras does not need her students finding her

24:05 Keith used to jam and now his friend moved away 

25:49 When you are a musician you just listen for the music

27:36 The importance of listening, incorporating different staples

28:30 TRUST THE PROCESS and TRUST YOURSELF

30:56 Authenticity. Professionalism is bullshit 

31:31 Learn to take up space

32:00 Racism Transcends Time

33:32 What keeps you up at night? “This country”

33:40 We are living in the twilight zone 

36:25 time to knock the door down and hear new voices

36:45 This has never been done in American Theater

37:50 We are always thinking about our community

39:00 I have the bootlegs COME AT ME WHITE AMERICAN THEATER

43:45 We aren’t talking about Ned’s Declassified 

45:00 artists can’t survive without those creative outlets

MERLIXSE VENTURA is an Afro-Dominican artist born and raised in Washington Heights. She is an alumnus of SUNY Purchase, where she studied Theater and Performance, and Philosophy. Ventura is currently pursuing her Masters of Fine Arts in Acting at Columbia University.

DILSON HERNANDEZ's talents include playing various instruments, spoken-word, singing, audio engineering, and beat making. Though self-taught in many of these skills, he received a Bachelor's of Arts in both English and Music from the University at Albany. He also received a certification in audio engineering from the Institute of Audio Research. Dilson wishes to change the world with his art and community work, striving for a more progressive future. In addition to music, Dilson facilitates artistic workshops for NYC youth and is employed by Friends of Island Academy, an organization that provides services and advocates for sixteen to twenty-four year olds who are justice-involved people.

LITTLE VERAS is a multidimensional Dominican-American artist from New York City. She is an alumna of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts and the Diller-Quaile School of Music, where she became a classically trained musician. Veras has continued working on her craft at the renowned UBC, has trained with film director Pete Jensen, and continues under the tutelage of grammy-nominated opera singer and actress Monique McDonald. Little Veras has performed in comedy festivals and independent films such as the Dominican York Web Series, as well as sketch shows at the PIT, UCB and CAVEAT. You can also catch her singing your favorite jazz standards at open mics around the city. From femme fatale to your Latinx Daria - she's your gal.

I sit down with Ryan Duncan-Ayala, Executive Director of RDA Producing, Annika Perez Krikorian, and Abe Johnson, the playwright of ‘and we will eat your grief.’ We discuss writing plays about middle school, how we each got into theatre, the election, the sad lyrics of pop stars that we only vaguely remember, end up talking The Sound of Music, the 2005 International Sensation the film The Pacifier starring Vin Diesel, and Keith learns that Andre 3000 is in OutKast. Highlights : 3:50 Annika talking about how most songs in middle school were inappropriate/ Hey Ya dark lyrics 4:50 Keith forgetting that Outcast is called Outcast not Hey Ya 5:20 cut the cameras dead ass 9:17 Abe flower child moment 11:30 Only first act of Into the Woods IS NOT INTO THE WOODS RYAN 13:40 Ryan’s BIPOC centered dating show!! 14:30 Love that looks like the world we live in 16:20 Anika’s departure was staged and Keith goes NO. 19:00 Anika loved the guillotine! Don’t treat children like they are dumb! 21:38 RIP Big Ups to Ghandi 23:33 Abe “Saw a chorus line. Very scarring but very formative” 26:30 Abe said he wouldn’t waste his time on a show if he couldn’t be the lead 30:30 Jesse McCartney was “that kid” 32:45 Abe singing Eidelweiss 36:20 Bring back good book musicals 2021 42:20 Ted Cruz in the crucible 45:30 Jon Osoff total thirst trap 46:50 GEORGIA KIDS VOTE 59:20 Abe’s emergency vomit 1:00:00 She parked that MF van 1:06:00 Circle Jerk 1:09:00 “I will respect theater more when it respects more people”