ACT LIKE A MOTHER – Details, episodes & analysis

Critically-acclaimed actor Tessa Auberjonois speaks with Katie and Melanie about the challenges she faced in a two-actor couple with kids, how she learned to give herself permission and redefine success, and how teaching has helped her fall in love with the craft of acting again. Plus a peek into her process as she prepared for her tour-de-force performance in Joan at South Coast Rep.

For more info on Tessa:

www.tessaauberjonois.com

www.scr.org

Working actors and mothers Katie MacNichol and Melanie Lora, talk with fellow actor moms about balancing career, creativity and parenting. While no two stories are the same, what these women have in common is an ever-deepening relationship to their craft and a profound commitment to raising their kids in a way that feels true to them.

Award-winning actor Francesca Faridany speaks with Melanie and Katie about progesterone shots, pregnancy fatigue and what happens when the dream job comes at the same time as the baby. She shares how she's learned to let go of expectations as a mother and an actor while bringing to her work the fierceness and fire that only a woman over 50 can.

For more about Frankie:

www.francescafaridany.com

@faridanyf

Note before: in this episode we talk about pregnancy loss which may be a sensitive subject for some.

Actor-singer-songwriter Lenne Klingaman speaks to Katie and Melanie about her journey to becoming a mother and how creativity supported and saved her. She shares the grief and pain of multiple miscarriages, how she advocated for herself as a pregnant actor in the workplace, and what her artistic life looks like now as the mom of a healthy baby boy.

More on Lenne and her recommendations:

lenneklingaman.com

@lenneklingaman

Phoenix

listen on all platforms and find it here:

https://lenneklingaman.bandcamp.com/album/phoenix

Matrescence by Lucy Jones

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=matrescence+lucy+jones&crid=36GMT7HDJFJSO&sprefix=matresc%2Caps%2C279&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_7

Fertile Hope Yoga

https://fertilehopeyoga.com/

Actor, director, producer and educator Tracy Hill Williams takes us back to the 80s. She talks about what it was like as a pregnant grad student loosening her corset in As You Like It, being uncast from a big production, and finding a way to come out on top despite the sexism and misogyny of the time. From her days as a young mother of three balancing acting jobs and a marriage on the rocks, to her current incarnation as an inspiring educator and department chair, Tracy tells it like it is with grace, humor and her trademark charm.

Info about Tracy's program :

https://www.miracosta.edu/academics/degree-and-certificate-programs/creative-and-applied-arts/dramatic-arts/index.html

A few of the poems living in Tracy's head:

"I'm Nobody" by Emily Dickinson

"Her Story" by Naomi Long Madgett

"Patterns" by Amy Lowell

"Eldorado" by Edgar Allen Poe

"The Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll

Sonnets 18, 27 and 29 by William Shakespeare

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne

Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendak

Crescent City Stage co-founder Elizabeth Newcomer speaks with Katie and Melanie about building a theatre and a well-rounded life in New Orleans. Through her work as an Enneagram coach, Liz digs deep into what motivates the characters she plays and directs. Hear what her #1 concern was while filming Black Panther with Chadwick Boseman, and how inspired leadership and a family-first approach guide her theatre company and nurture her as a mama and an artist.

Liz's links:

elizabethnewcomer.com

@liz.newcomer

crescentcitystage.com

LOVE liz podcast

Parent Artist Advocacy League:

paaltheatre.com

CSI: NY star Anna Belknap speaks with Melanie and Katie about navigating two pregnancies while playing Detective Lindsay Monroe and what it was like to give birth to her TV baby just weeks after delivering her own. She recalls her extreme exhaustion as a working mom, the struggle to find a work-life balance and what led to her decision to mover her family away from LA. Hear what Anna is up to these days, what brings her joy and why her neighbors might think she's in the CIA.

Anna's Book Recommendations:

All Fours by Miranda July

Making Comics by Lynda Barry

Midlife: A Philosophical Guide by Kieran Setiya

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

and

The School of Life APP

https://www.theschooloflife.com

Brand new mama Celeste Arias never could have imagined the expansion she would feel after giving birth to her son - universes of love and enchantment - keeping her afloat during swells of anxiety and extreme fatigue.

After her agent dropped her and a frigid NY winter loomed, a fortuitous audition led not only to an escape to warm weather for her young family, but to a juicy role and an opportunity to reclaim her artistic self after the birth of her baby boy.

Celeste shares in real time what it’s like to do an out of town gig with a 6 month old and spouse along for the ride: from sleep training an infant in artist housing, to summoning the creative spark in rehearsals, to pumping, pumping and more pumping. Celeste knew that when she stepped into rehearsals to play Thea Elvstead in Hedda Gabler at The Old Globe Theatre, she would meet the challenge from where she was: emotionally raw, deeply fatigued and with more love in her heart than ever before. 

More on Celeste:

@celestenarias

www.theoldglobe.org

www.theactorscenter.org

www.thealready.org

Award winning actor Cindy Cheung blames a hot pink flyer stuck to a UCLA campus wall for causing her 180-degree turn away from applied mathematics and towards an acting career.

From her days in LA discovering the power of theatre and the importance of representation on stage, to turning down a job helping to build B1 bombers so she could do an acting intensive, to struggling to feel authentic and inspired as a young actor in NY, to the time she quit the business altogether and what ultimately brought her back, Cindy's stories are laced with heart and humor.

 She shares the thrill of deciding to have a child with her novelist husband and how they are raising a well-adjusted son who can handle work- related separations and be thoroughly himself.

Cindy is a tireless advocate working for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and as a member of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition, she has created noticeable change in the industry and put her math skills to good use.

She tells Melanie and Katie about all the fun she’s having in rehearsals for the premier of MEAT SUIT at Second Stage and why Bouffon clowning may just be the absolute best way to express the literal “shit show of motherhood.”

More on Cindy:

2st.com

aapacnyc.org

edlinforpresident.com

As a single gay actor going from out of town job to out of town job, J. Paul Boehmer didn’t think having children was in the realm of possibility for him. Then he met his husband, bought a house and, after a fortuitous conversation, began looking for an egg donor and a surrogate. 

In this very special Fathers’ Day episode, Paul shares the fatigue of life on the road and the reality of 8-week friendships, how he grew his audiobook side hustle into a full-time gig, and how he and his husband found their way to parenting twin girls at the start of a global pandemic. Paul describes the prejudices they faced as a same-sex couple wanting to have children, how deeply they bonded with their surrogate, what his daughters think of his work, and why they outsourced potty training. 

This is an episode honoring all the amazing dads in the business- hats off to you and all you do.

More on Paul:

a few of his audiobook titles here:

https://www.audiobooksnow.com/search/paul%20boehmer/

For any additional questions about the episode please get in touch with us via DM @actlikeamotherpodcast