Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's like the truest, deepest way of making theater is just being like, yeah, we're gonna do everything.
Like, that's just everyone's job because we all need to make this thing happen. And you know that everyone is doing it. Some people obviously have a lot more money and a lot more resource and a bigger team, but everyone There is having five to 15 minutes to set up their show and then take it down. And that's kind of amazing.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: I'm Luke Steinfeld.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: And I'm Wyatt Sarkisian.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: We made the 5050 podcast to support you on your filmmaking journey.
[00:00:33] Speaker C: 50% business, 50% creative.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Every Tuesday, a new how to.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: This week, we talk with director Britt Burke. Not only is Britt a returning champion of the 5050 podcast, but she has emerged as almost a theater correspondent of sorts. Britt came onto the pod last year with a hankering to work on new plays with emerging playwrights. And a year later, we find her fresh off a month long run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In this episode, we dive deep into the Fringe Classic 5050 fashion, approaching it from the artistic, then business angle. Britt's next direct and run will be a production of Phil by Cicely Hamilton alongside the Mint theater company, running October 3rd to November 7th. See you soon, British.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: I was thinking about coming to talk to you guys again because it's been such a crazy busy year since we last chatted. And I was like, what is new? What's happening? And I was doing all this introspecting about it, and then I was like thinking about how when I got that call from my agent, I was like, kind of like strutting around New York feeling very.
I have it all under control. Like, I call my agent, I get on the subway, I run around. This is, this is life, kids.
And then I dropped my airpod in the tracks.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Happens.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: It was humbling. It was good.
[00:01:56] Speaker C: Well, regardless of whatever introspection you have done, we come with questions and curiosity about what you have been up to. Because you're fresh off of getting back from Edinburgh, correct?
[00:02:09] Speaker A: I am. I'm back from Edinburgh Fringe.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: So exciting. We have a lot of future guests, current guests, former guests who have been in and around that festival. And I think it would be really fun to do, like, at least for part of the episode, like an Edinburgh 101.
What is the point of going?
What is, what are the shows that you loved that you saw? What were you doing there? Like, we can, we can get into it all and sort of frame it in terms of what you've been up to for the past year.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Great. I love that. That's great. Wait, also, how are you guys? What's going on?
We're good. Getting to the recording.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: We're great.
[00:02:49] Speaker C: We're great.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: We're great.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Okay, fine. Everything's fine.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Everything's good. Everything's fine.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: What's happening with you? And you're going to flip it back on me because you're good interviewers, but just know I care.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: That's sweet.
[00:03:01] Speaker C: Well, we.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: We can. We can. We can. We can get the lowdown right after, honestly.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: But all is. All is well. A lot of fun stuff happening.
Yeah. Very excited to do the. The year later with you as well. So happy to be here.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: I know. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me back on.
[00:03:22] Speaker C: Of course. My God. Well, we talked with Ruby Karp in person a couple weeks ago, and obviously she's, you know, her special comes out very soon or already came out or it's out. Where are we at with that? What's the date?
[00:03:36] Speaker A: It comes out September 10th. So this week.
[00:03:38] Speaker C: Okay, September 10th.
That's perfect.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's really crazy. It's crazy because, you know, like, it's coming out on veeps, and Veeps is making little promo reels that pop up on Instagram. And it's so weird to see these, like, professional cuts of our special.
But some of the jokes are the same jokes that we had like, three and a half years ago when we started working together. And it's, like, really amazing to see it in this format now. It's crazy. It's the craziest feeling.
[00:04:06] Speaker C: It's so crazy. And I also know that, you know, you're. You're a theater person first and foremost, but you have, you know, dabbled in doing film stuff. So it's like a cool mix of. Of your work getting put through that lens. It's. It's so awesome. And the whole team is. I'm sure the whole team is thrilled at how it's coming out.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: We're very excited. Yeah. It's a crazy. I had never directed a series special for film before, obviously, and it was so.
There were so many components of it that I didn't really know how to do. It was kind of learning in real time, but it was really fun. It was good. It was kind of like. I think last time we were talking, we talked about how I was like, figuring out the difference between directing theater and film. And I think I Was like, they're almost not the same job at all. And this special was kind of like overlapping both of them, which was interesting.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: It's like the ultimate common ground a little bit. You know, it's like very theatrical, very performance based. But I mean, you're on a stage, but you're, you're shooting the thing.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're trying to expose that you're on a stage. Like, you're not trying to hide that you're on a stage. You want it to, you want the audience to see the context of the space that you're using.
Like for one of the nights that we filmed the special, we had someone, we had our, our friend Tyler, who also edited the film, shooting on the stage, like with Ruby walking around her.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: So we had to like cut around that. But we needed that footage from him so that we could get her micro expressions. It's just a really delicate but really fun thing.
[00:05:34] Speaker C: So fun.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:37] Speaker C: Major congrats on all of that. It is so, so exciting.
I, I'm curious, like, is that something you see yourself doing in the future? Like especially with these, I would call them one person shows. Right.
There's such a. I mean, I feel like a trend that I'm seeing is that they're getting more and more popular, like sort of blurring the lines between stand up and theater, for lack of a better term. And to film them is like a no brainer. And people love like an hour long sort of narrative type thing. Is that something you can see yourself doing in the future?
[00:06:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I like working on these one person shows because they're so intimate and personal for the person who is going on stage and saying the words, you know, with Ruby, the show I just did at Edinburgh Fringe, it's like one person is the writer and actor and producer in many ways. You know, Ruby and Amy produced. I don't trust adults in different ways, but Ruby was like really obviously a huge part of that engine.
So it's a really intense collaboration, but it makes it really satisfying and really meaningful and I don't really know another.
I don't know. You have. I don't know if there's a version of that that exists in a lot of other ways where you kind of enter into someone else's very dense personal autobiographical story and you're like, I'm gonna help you tell it. It's really personal.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: In that interview with Ruby, she mentioned kind of like how awesome it was to have you a part of the process, like pre, you know, Shooting the thing and like how you were able to really tailor the story to make it a bit more digestible. Perhaps. I'm not remembering the exact terminology she used, but like there were. It was almost like sharpening some edges and like I get maybe some polish or something like that. But can you talk about doing that with like such a personal piece and like how do you go about. I guess that's a directing thing.
But how did you go about communicating that with Ruby and making sure it wasn't like stepping on her personal story?
[00:07:46] Speaker A: Yes, I think it's.
There's. So first I feel like it's about deciding if you're making a play or a special because if it's a play, then it's like, like Fleabag is a play that could be performed by someone who's not the.
But I don't trust adults is more of a special or a one woman show where I don't think anyone besides Ruby would perform it because it's Ruby's life.
And then I think it's about looking at it, understanding that. And then I picture it always as like I'm standing next to Ruby and we're looking at the story together rather than like, I am Brit and I'm looking at Ruby who is holding this story that she wants to tell and I'm picking at it and instead I'm like, okay, we're gonna as a pair tackle this set of ideas and anecdotes that you want to tell and try to make it as like clear, engaging, theatrical and purposeful as possible.
But it is really personal.
And I think it's also understanding what the performer wants from the experience because like Ruby and I would talk a lot about the message of the show and if we wanted it to be universal or if we didn't care about that and we would talk about how we wanted the audience to feel and who we wanted the audience to be to rwby. So I'm really just looking at the piece as dramaturgically as possible. And obviously all of the personal, truthful RWBY things are our material, but I'm just trying to make them into like a good theatrical experience.
[00:09:28] Speaker C: Totally.
I. Yeah, absolutely. I, I saw a one man show last night at ucb. It was a small show, but the director introduced it, which was funny because I serendipitously right before this interview and I was, you know, the director was talking about how amazing it was to work with the, the. I guess he's a stand up comic. I actually don't know who it is. The show was called Sad S H D Stay at Home dad. It's about this guy, this guy's life. He. He grew up in like this sort of Christian cult in the Midwest and had a really, really tough upbringing, like food stamps, really, you know, impoverished upbringing.
And then he married this woman who's like this powerhouse, you know, doctor making a lot of money. So he's become the stay at home dad. And he's talking about, like, working through his childhood trauma, through his kids at this point. And it was funny. It was kind of like there were jokes in it.
But I. I noticed, I mean, I think he's a standup by trait. And I think for him that where I noticed the directing probably happened was in the set was kind of like a childhood playroom almost. So there was like a bowl of cereal and he would pour the cereal and then he was like folding laundry for a scene.
So I'm curious, like, in your. In your experience working with Ruby, how much were you paying attention to, like, the choreography of it all? And when she sits on the bed versus when she's standing versus when the spotlight pulls in on her, versus when she's showing stuff going on in the background and talking about Mark Zuckerberg or whatever? Like what in terms of like, the actual, like, physical structure of it? Because the thing last night was divided into, like, scenes. It was like scene one, parenting, scene two, grief or whatever it was. So I'm curious, like, how did you look at scene structure and choreography sort of playing into each other? It's a complex question, but I'm curious where it takes you.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: It's great. I think that I was thinking about this the first time I ever read Ruby's script.
It was really different for me because obviously I usually do plays and musicals and those are written in dialogue, so. So I was looking at Ruby's script and this is like December 2023 or November. And I remember it was in sections because, you know, there's six adults, so it's broken up already. And to me, those are the scenes. Even though maybe when Ruby was writing them, they were just the headings or the topics. To me it's like, okay, great, those are the scenes. And then she had written the jokes as like almost bullet points, with every joke having a beginning, middle and end.
So instead of paragraphs of text, it was like joke, joke, joke. And you could see where the laughs were supposed to be.
So she kind of through writing down what was in her head in the way that she would normally tell the Stories created the structure, and then I just had to do the text analysis to understand what those different sections would look like.
And that is very familiar to me. Right. Because that's such a big part of directing, is being like, okay, what's the event of this scene? The event of this scene is that, like, you know, Masha wants to go to Moscow. Like, it's. It's. You can understand the core thing that needs to be communicated.
And then having one person on stage, when we were staging it, I was just trying to create variety. And create, more importantly than variety, deep feelings, the truest feeling of each scene. So there's a section where Ruby, like, jumps up on the bed, and there's this bright purple spotlight, and she hits the production, and, like, Rachel Berry from Glee pops up, and she's just talking about being a theater kid and loving performing and wanting attention and her relationship to TV and media and feeling like she wanted to be famous. So it's like, of course we have to embody that childhood and that magic and having her, like, use that as a stage.
So I think I'm usually just. I'm looking for the most important feeling to communicate, and then I'm trying to create dynamic staging around that. It's definitely harder with one person, though, because obviously, even if you have two people, there's so many different shapes you can make, so many different relationships you can create on stage.
So many fascinating, you know, like, are. Are they. Is it a handshake with one hand? Is it a handshake with two hands? There you already have two completely different stories with one person. You have to be a little more creative, specific, rigorous. But Ruby was a great collaborator about it.
[00:14:04] Speaker C: Love that, the event of each scene. Luke, what stood out for you there, Luke?
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Well, I remember you saying this, the first round, the first podcast we had together, and it's all coming back of, like, oh, my gosh.
I remember the original conversation being so insightful, just about directing, but I love that. Throwing me back to film school, you know?
[00:14:29] Speaker C: I know. No, it's true. It's very. It's very screenwriter almost, to think in terms of that, whether it's a set piece or a, you know, a physical thing going on in the scene.
But it's a cool way to think about that.
What are you.
So you went to Edinburgh.
What sort of things? And I would love if you could just give us, like, a brief overview of, like, how you got involved with this show.
Who are your closest collaborators in that had. You know, we want the whole thing.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: Okay, great. I got an email from Julia Atkin saying that she was bringing a show to Edinburgh Fringe and would I be interested in talking to her about directing it. I was referred to her by a friend who was referred to her by a different friend. And I think this happens all the time with directors where you're like, oh, I really want to do that, but my dates don't work or I don't think I'm the right person. So I feel like we pass jobs a lot in my little directing community.
I met with Julia, actually. I've read the script. We met on Zoom, and then we met in person.
And it's a really personal story about how she had her big toenail surgically removed and then while it was growing back. I know, isn't that crazy? And spoiler alert, not just once, twice crazy.
[00:15:46] Speaker C: Why she. Is she an athlete?
[00:15:49] Speaker A: She got an infection. She had a really simple infection and just didn't tend to it on time. And then it started this kind of avalanche.
I know. So that's kind of the container for the show. And she talks about her relationship with her Ukrainian podiatrist who kind of became this spiritual advisor for her over the course of the three years while her toenail was growing back.
Yeah, it's great. It's called Crying at My Podiatrist. It's like a really smart, lovely, personal piece of theater. So Julia is the writer, actor, producer, and then our friend Ash Noem is the associate director, slash, I would say also producer, producerial duties, and that's it. Three person team, which is kind of honestly crazy for Fringe because some people are there with a set designer and a lighting designer and a PR team. And although we do have a lovely PR person, but a lot of people are there with a lot of theatrical makers. And it was just the three of us. And really, for the beginning, it was just the two of us. It was just me and Juliet first, and then Ash came to join us.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: Can you break down Fringe for me? Wyatt's done it in the past, briefly.
[00:17:06] Speaker C: No, no, I've broken down Fringe in the past. I haven't gone.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: But. But. Because I. I just am so foreign to that, you know, like, you know, in my head, I'm like, how do you.
[00:17:17] Speaker C: No, I know, like, hearing it from Brit will obviously make much more sense.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: No, whatever I have, I'm just thinking about, like, you're bringing your crew is one thing, but then, like, do you, like, build out there? Like, you done builds, like, to. Are you shipping stuff? Like, what happens if it's A massive production. Like, all those questions are coming to mind.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: That's really funny for you to be like, Wyatt's tried, but I really don't.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: No, no, he succeeded. He's definitely succeeded on the. On the front end.
[00:17:43] Speaker C: Pretend like I've succeeded. Succeeded with that. We gotta hear from Britt. I'll learn something if I hear it from her.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: So I. I will explain our experience as a very small show with one person. And we also were in a very small theater with only 30 seats. But our experience was, you have 15 minutes to set up your show and 15 minutes to break down your show.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: What?
[00:18:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And at the Fringe in Edinburgh, there are, I think it's 4300 plays happening.
[00:18:14] Speaker C: Crazy.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: And it ranges. There's one person shows, like what we were doing. There's full productions with huge casts. There's operas, there's circus there. It's everything you can imagine is happening at the Fringe. There's comedy, a lot of stand up comedy and improv. And so what we wanted to do was actually, I think I still have the post it notes up on the wall behind me. I do. We wanted it to just feel as specific as possible.
We wanted it to feel like a lot of it obviously happens in a podiatrist's office, but then there's a lot of other locations too. But we wanted the office to be the most literal space and then for everything else to feel more liminal, flexible.
And I wanted to use.
This is how I always feel about a one person show. Like, Julia, as a performer is very charismatic and very nimble. She's like a Pilates instructor and she's physically trained and she can do a lot of stuff with her body.
So I was like, we should use the magic of Julia, which is that she can do a lot of cool stuff and she can, like, keep her foot in the air for a really long time to show she's at the podiatrist and she can, like, has like the core strength to, like, flip upside down on the stool that we're using. We should.
[00:19:23] Speaker C: Yeah. You're like, let's make her work for this, you know?
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm like, let's make it hard for Juliet.
I'm like, let's use her unique skills because that's what makes the solo show good. And then we got this really beautiful fabric. Sparkly and kind of medical feeling, sort of like a teal.
We wanted to feel like kind of hospital curtains, a little bit fluorescent lighting. And we just. We would literally.
This is crazy. We would. We had two big swaths of fabric, and we would pin them up with binder clips to the black curtain in the theater, and that was the entire back backdrop. And then we had a rolling stool, which was an idea that came to me early when I was reading the script that I thought was really, really useful for us. And we covered the rolling stool in a little cover of the same fabric, and then we had, like, a journal also covered in the fabric. We just put the same shiny fabric on everything and on our water bottle and everything we needed to use, we just had this, like, teeny, tiny set that packed into, like, a plastic bag.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: Did you take the rolling stool from New York to Scotland, or did you get one there?
[00:20:32] Speaker A: We had one delivered there, and we put it together.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: So you spend.
How many minutes did that take to set up?
[00:20:41] Speaker A: Like, six.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: And then with those other minutes, are you, like. Do they have folks there a part of, like, the Fringe tech team or something on AV side that you're like, hey, here are cues or something? Or, like, how does. How does all that work?
[00:20:57] Speaker A: So you get an hour and 20 minutes to tech your show. What we did, actually, which I think was very smart of Julia, we did previews at the Rat in Brooklyn the week before we went. So we had four showings in New York where we got to practice in front of an audience and make adjustments to the text and understand the show better.
And we did all the sound cues and lighting cues in Brooklyn. And then when we got to Fringe, we just transferred the same exact sound cues for the most part. And then the lighting we did have to redo, but we knew what we wanted, so we were like, oh, this. This is the yellow part. Like, we just kept it really simple and as dynamic as possible. So you have your time to check. There's literally, like, we were at a theater called Paradise Green in Augustine's, which is in the basement of an old church on this beautiful street in Edinburgh.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: And, yeah, really cool. It's really, really amazing.
They had this amazing team of volunteers, and we had one person do our lights and one person do our sound during the tech time. And then every day when we would get there, our store was at 7:40. So at 7:25, we could go into the space, and someone would, like, make sure the lights and sound were gonna work. And then I would run the boards. Like, I would call and hit the buttons. And then when I left, Ash took over.
So it's just, like, scrappy, but it's kind of beautiful because it's like, the truest deepest way of making theater is just being like, yeah, we're gonna do everything.
Like, that's just everyone's job because we all need to make this thing happen. And you know that everyone is doing it. Some people obviously have a lot more money and a lot more resource and a bigger team, but everyone There is having five to 15 minutes to set up their show and then take it down. And that's amazing.
[00:22:45] Speaker C: Does.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Does Fringe. Sorry, Wyatt, I have like a thousand questions here.
[00:22:50] Speaker C: This is good.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: This is good. Does Fringe set up those, those pre shows or is that on you to do that?
[00:22:58] Speaker A: The pre show?
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Like the one. Like the, the ones in Brooklyn that you did.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: Oh, that's us. Yeah.
[00:23:04] Speaker C: And that's just for you guys to like book a theater for a couple nights in a row and nail down the cues.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Yes. And then what you do before you
[00:23:12] Speaker B: get there and then when you're actually. When you're actually there.
My. I think about like programming and curating and like, how the heck do they. Like, was that a theater you, you know, like auditioned for or something or like submitted for or are they just like you. You go in this massive pool applications and they're like. Or submission, sorry. And it's like, okay, you know, this one is this type of thing and it's comedic and it would play really well in front of this type of crowd. So we're going to put them in the church basement.
How does that.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: That's a great question. Well, that's an amazing question that I have a half baked answer to because I joined the process late probably right now because Fringe just ended. People are doing this, sending their scripts and information to a bunch of different venues. Because at Fringe there are.
And to me, I'm sure someone knows the exact number. I don't know it, but there's a bunch of different venues and they all do different things. There's like a comedy venue and there's one where it's like, oh, I'm like stopping myself because I'm like, I do not know the log lines. I don't want to get. I don't want to misrepresent any of these venues, but there's somewhere you would like expect to see specific types of theater for sure.
So people, I think you can. I know Julia had submitted to several and had been accepted by two or three and then decided to go with this one. So it's kind of like you're submitting to them, but they're also kind of bidding on you and trying to create a season or Like a grouping that makes sense for their theater.
[00:24:49] Speaker C: Totally.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: So fringe is just a They're because that. But that just sounds like it's a. It's a bunch of venues coming together and being like, hey, this week or two. I don't know how long fringe is, but it sounded like what you just said. It's like, okay, every night we're at this time.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Yep. Which is a month.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: It's a. You're. Every night for a month?
[00:25:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yes.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: I know we had. We had some days off, but mostly every night for a month.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: And who, who goes to this? Like, are these locals? Are these. I know it's like a massive festival, but
[00:25:29] Speaker A: it's. It's. Well, I think that a lot of people are theater people seeing each other's shows. I saw 22 planes while that's what
[00:25:37] Speaker C: I was gonna say. Like, if there are 4,300. Did you say 4,300? 4,000 shows happening.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:25:45] Speaker C: Then there are 4,000 people in Edinburgh to see shows, essentially.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: And I mean times.
[00:25:51] Speaker C: Right, Exactly. Teams of people. So, like that's the built in audience. And I'm sure some people are whatever, high schoolers, college people who get sent. There are locals or people in the UK who just like love theater and want to go watch awesome comedy. I know there's a lot of people, like on the business side who want to go to sign clients, go to option things into TV shows. Like a lot of amazing shows have come out of there. So I think that's. That's like the sort of built in craft crowd is what I would suspect does.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: Does the actual like festival take over like a massive theater or something or a home base or they make like a. Do they have any physical setup or is it more of just an understanding that like from the major, like this day to this day, we have all of these local venues playing all of these amazing shows and like, you can come.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. There is like a Fringe Central for those listening at home. I'm doing air quotes, but I don't really need to do air quotes because it's called Fringe Central. And so there is a building where the main administrative offices are, but it's not a theater. It's like a kind of a storefront on the Royal Mile where you can go get tickets. Like, I never went there. You don't need to engage with that, but you can.
But really?
Oh, how can I? It's so funny because obviously this is my first time going, so a month ago I wouldn't have Been able to answer any of these questions. And now I'm like, okay, picture that, like, and then be like, I'll tell you all about it. But the, the festival overtakes the city.
Everyone. Every time I called an Uber, you can walk almost everywhere. But there were a few, like, late nights where I would call a car. And all the Uber drivers are like, oh, yeah, I only drive Uber in August.
They're. They have full time jobs. Like, some. One of them was a.
He like, designed an app, but he's like, it would be stupid to not drive Uber during the Fringe because there
[00:27:52] Speaker C: are thousands of people making more money from this.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:27:58] Speaker C: That's crazy.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: They're all like, oh, yeah. Like, I only do this during the festival. And I would imagine, like, you know, because we were staying, we rented a flat from someone who's an Edinburgh local, so he probably just like went on a gorgeous vacation and we paid his rent for the month.
[00:28:12] Speaker C: Oh, my God.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: It's crazy. And you can't go anywhere in the city without.
No, I'm lying. We lived in Leith, which is a little bit outside the center of the city. And you can be there and not think about fringe. Once you're near the city center, every building, posters. Oh, there's like a big part of the fringe economy is posters and flyers. So everywhere you walk, there's like huge signs for all these shows, for all these 4300 shows. And everywhere you walk, there's people handing you flyers being like, you know, like 7:40pm Body horror comedy.
[00:28:50] Speaker C: Unreal.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: This sounds like the coolest thing ever. They like, take over an entire city and like, what?
[00:28:59] Speaker A: It's a really crazy thing. It totally scratches an itch for me because, you know, I was a theater kid in high school and I went to a performing arts camp. But it does what I need it to do, which is make me feel like everyone is obsessed with making theater, which they are. Everyone there is obsessed with making theater and wants to talk about it.
[00:29:15] Speaker B: I have. I. They're just there.
So you, you, you perform every night for a month and so you just basically stay. They just expect you to stay for a month?
[00:29:27] Speaker A: Yes, Julia stayed for a month. I had to come back for a different job, but yeah.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: And then. So do you guys. Are you selling tickets? Like, are you splitting tickets with this, this church basement? Basically?
[00:29:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. I think that's what we're doing.
And you're, wow, you're. You're doing like. I kind of can't stress enough how much of your day is it's called flyering, and it's a portion of your day. We did it for two hours, but you can obviously do what you want, where you literally stand somewhere in town and try to get people to come to your show.
And it's extremely competitive, and it's the only way. Unless a of people lot. Obviously, it's the only.
[00:30:04] Speaker C: Right. It's so funny. We're in this age of, like, social media and putting everything out on Instagram, but, like, your people who are going to see the show are there right now walking around, so that's kind of the only way to do it.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: It's crazy. And the first probably week that we were there, Julia and I were like, we're friendly people. We like talking to strangers. We were kind of flyering very.
We're trying to be very organic. We were walking around, we were starting conversations. Do you want to see a show? It's like, it's not working. It's not working. We had to create. We made a sign, big sandwich board for Julia to wear on her body. And the sign says, tell me something gross that happened to your body.
And people come up and want to talk about it. And then Julia engages them in, like, a full conversation. Or, like, you know, I would be, like, scampering around behind her, and I would see someone look at the board and get interested, and then I would run up to them with a flyer and. And we're. We heard a lot of disgusting things. You would not believe the things that have happened to people's bodies.
[00:31:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: And then it's about us being like, well, Julia had her big toenail surgically removed. And if you want to hear more.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: Twice. Twice.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Twice.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: It was crazy. And I was kind of like, okay, like, let's see if this gimmick works. But it. It did really work. It was great.
It was a success.
[00:31:22] Speaker C: That's awesome.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: That's so fun.
[00:31:23] Speaker B: It's so fun. It's so cool. It's like, so.
[00:31:26] Speaker C: It's so fun.
Is it, Luke? Isn't it, like, very 5050 feeling?
[00:31:30] Speaker B: Totally. It's like you.
[00:31:31] Speaker C: You love standing out with signs and doing that. Like, it's just.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: It's like, so community driven and, like, it's just the most boiled down, like, creativity and, like, passion and love for, like, the art, you know, and it's just like. It's just. We're all here to celebrate each other and, like, make stuff, and everyone is making stuff there. Like, everyone.
[00:31:51] Speaker C: There's really. There's really no equivalent for film, I would say. Because there are film festivals, but it's e.
You're seeing kind of the same big movies or the same smaller movies or the same type of thing. You know, there's not like the variety.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: I don't. I don't know. I. I think some definitely get close. Like you can make the argument for a few of the. The big festivals or probably all of them, honestly, but I'm not sure it's as. I don't know because there are different tiers and, and these larger fe. Like film festivals have so many blocks of films and shorts and all of that. And so a lot of times you will have to like, go out and be present and like socialize and try to convince someone to go to your screening, you know, And I guess it's also the.
[00:32:36] Speaker C: The tech setup is way different too. And with theater there are so many different.
The form fills the space in. In such unique way. Like you can. You can set something up in 10 minutes and it's just a crew of three people. Film is potentially different in ways. I don't know. It's an interesting conversation.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Yeah, Brit, I would. I would love to. Sorry to jump in. What were you saying?
[00:33:00] Speaker A: No, go, go.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: I almost am like, cool. So like, this episode should be like, how to make something that goes to Fringe and like go there and like, is successful or something.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: You know, I wish I could tell you more about the lead up to. I feel like I joined the process too late.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: But then let's, let's focus on that. Of like, you went to Fringe and sorry, Wyatt, but of, of like. And why it mentioned it too, of the industry folks being there.
Can you talk about that? Like, is that. What. What was that like? Are people coming up after like emailing you? Are you guys looking for that?
[00:33:37] Speaker C: I want to take that question actually to. From the earlier conversations with Julia of when you actually signed on. There are obviously the creative conversations where you're talking about the story and everything and how it's going to be presented, but I'm sure there are also the business esque conversations. So what were those conversations like? And, and how did that actually play out during the festival?
[00:34:00] Speaker A: Yes, great questions.
The. So when Julia reached out to me, she was like, this is the fee for the director and you will pay for your own housing, but we will figure out the flight together. And honestly, in theater, that's such a generous, transparent way to start things because no one ever has enough money. And Julia is, you know, like funding this through her own resources.
So that was always set and there was Never a feeling of.
I think sometimes, like, even with. I don't trust adults. That was sometimes, like, when we would tour around and be like, oh, like, we'll get 10% of ticket sales. But that is not so much the case with this show, which I think is right and good, because obviously we could have gone to Fringe and not had audiences, and then we would have all been in this place of, like, wishing it had gone a different way. So it was very up. It was very literal and very concrete, which was, I think, is smart.
And then we had.
Yeah, we started having our creative conversations, actually, you know, it was really nice. We started rehearsing and maybe late May, early June. And we didn't go to Fringe until August, the first week of August. So we would rehearse rather than, you know, when I'm in a normal. I'm about to start rehearsal for an Off Broadway play on Tuesday, and those rehearsals will be from 11am to 6pm six days a week for three weeks. But with this show, we rehearsed Monday and Tuesday nights for many weeks. So there was a lot of time to think in between about what would be exciting to us and we could ruminate on things.
So we started rehearsals. We did a lot of script work because Julia has actually had this script for a little while. But I was new to it, so I was kind of trying to kind of. We were saying with Ruby, like, directorially, dramaturgically, look at what was interesting to me theatrically and find that through line.
And it was a lot of.
There's this really great scene in the show where Julia does mushroom therapy. And. And it just wasn't in the original draft that I read, but through our conversations where I was like, wait, where was the turning point? Why did this happen? Why do you think this. We've got this great story that she had had in different versions but then had lost. And it became a really special part of our show because we had a great staging moment. So a lot of script conversations which turned into staging the show kind of very.
I usually stage very quickly and then go back and edit. So that's how we did it.
And we honestly kept.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: Sorry. Staging. Is staging, like, actual set decoration, like. Or is it more of, like, blocking? Or is it both blocking?
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Yes, it was more.
Can you hear people singing Happy Birthday out of my window right now?
[00:36:57] Speaker C: Kind of. But it's nice.
[00:36:58] Speaker B: It is very nice. Happy birthday.
[00:37:01] Speaker A: There you go. Hey, Happy birthday to my neighbor.
We were basically using this little stool that we had and trying to create different setups. With the stool and also trying to.
Because we have this amazing shiny curtain, I wanted to use it in a bunch of different ways. Like, in one scene, she goes behind the curtain, and she's kind of, like, reaching out through it, and it looks really exciting. And then in another scene, she's using it as a blanket. And another scene, she uses it to show, like, a bed that she's sitting next to. We're just trying to get really creative and really engaging with very little resource.
And we kept making edits to the script and the blocking for the first few days of the actual Fringe Festival, just because, you know, Julia would do her thing and then we would talk about it, and we were trying to cut out anything that slowed down the show or that seemed to disengage the audience from what we were trying to create.
Mm.
Okay. What else should I say? What else should I talk about? We're together.
We did a red eye. We couldn't sleep.
It was. Yeah. In a good. With. With so much, like, actual. That sound, that sounded like it was a bad thing. It was very cool to travel together. It's really cool to meet someone in April and then be like, should we, like, let's internationally travel together and live together in a different city we've never been to before. But I think it's just. It doesn't feel crazy because everyone is doing it.
[00:38:42] Speaker C: We'll be right back.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: I want to play, like, a scary song from, like, a horror movie before this, but all the copyright stuff, so I can't but imagine there's, like, a scary song playing right now, and it's like, oh, the 5050 horror festival is coming up. You need to submit your short film soon, by August 7th. August 7th is the deadline. You have two months to submit your short film. You have months, and then after that, there's another deadline.
Read it here first. Submit now. Sub it now if you.
No, but for real, we have our horror festival coming up in October.
October 18th is the actual day. Get your short in by August 7th if you want to be a part of it. We look forward to viewing your submission on film freeway 5050 horror. Those are the numbers. 5 0, 55 0. Horror.
[00:39:48] Speaker C: Yeah. And you get so close with people when you're sharing a project like that that's so personal and intimate.
It just. I mean, you mentioned earlier, it just is, like, the purest form of art and purest form of theater. Was it nice for you as a director to kind of have, like, two other people to worry about and not have, like, a Whole giant crew.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: It's different.
[00:40:14] Speaker C: It's different.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it's different. It's neither better nor worse. It's just really different because it's so personal and deep and you get to know each other so well. And actually this happens when I'm directing a larger cast too, but because it was just me, Julia and Ash, they were picking up on, like, my directing habits. Like, they were seeing me really clearly because we were getting to know each other so well, which was actually really nice. They were. You know, we did this.
This, like, little, like, these little Instagram graphics that were like, roast.
You know, one of those, like.
I don't know how to explain it. One of. One of those, like, meet the team. These are their quirks.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, sure.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: They were, like, getting me good. Like, they were like, oh, well, Brit always does this thing. They were really picking up on my energy and mannerisms. I felt very.
[00:41:06] Speaker C: Yeah, I love that. That's. That's the benefit of working with only two other people. It's like, yeah, there's nowhere to hide.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: You know, they're looking. They're looking at you for sure.
Once we were there, it is so much. First of all, everyone at Fringe stays out all night every night. I mean, not everyone, but that was my experience, is that it's very hyper social because you'll. We did our show at 7:40 every night, and then I would usually go see another show at 9:30 or 10 or 10:30. And then. Jesus, you're just like, always going, always.
[00:41:36] Speaker C: Also, theater people, too, are so energetic. It's like so much.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: It's so true. And there's like a.
[00:41:43] Speaker C: Do you feel. Do you feel like, like connected to these? I mean, they're like. Were you like. This is so communal.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: Yes, totally.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:54] Speaker A: And everything that. Okay, wait, actually, Luke, this is going to blow your mind. The craziest part of cringe is that everything is in a shipping container. You think you're in a bar, but you're in a shipping container that they have decorated to look like a bar because things like, pop up. Like, it's all manufactured by these different venues. So you're never like, oh, should we go to, like, the local pub? You're always like, should we go to, like, the Secret Artist bar in the back of the venue? And then you get there and it's like a huge shipping container with, like, the bathrooms are like Porta Potties, because it's not real. Plus, it's crazy.
[00:42:30] Speaker C: They, like, make their own whiskey.
[00:42:33] Speaker B: So you're saying the. The venues make Their own like extensions of these bars basically. Or it's like fringe is making all these bars.
[00:42:42] Speaker C: They're pop up bars.
[00:42:43] Speaker B: Yeah. That's cool. It's pretty cool.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: It's really cool.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: Pretty cool.
[00:42:49] Speaker A: Yeah. There's also obviously the University of Edinburgh has a lot of space. So some people are using that space. Not everything is a shipping container, but a lot of the times you think you are in a theater, but you are in a shipping container for real. And they are going to tear it down on September 1st.
[00:43:04] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:43:05] Speaker A: Isn't that crazy?
This blew my mind.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: I wouldn't want to be having my play in the shipping container. Or maybe there's some cool shipping containers, stages out there.
[00:43:15] Speaker C: Yeah, why not put two together and that's true.
[00:43:17] Speaker B: Put three together. You gotta freaking.
[00:43:20] Speaker C: Yeah, one on top. See how that can happen?
[00:43:22] Speaker B: That's cool.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: There is this one. Well, okay, there's.
I saw, I saw several amazing plays in shipping containers. I actually did one of them. It's called, it's called Coma. And you go into the shipping container, the walls are lined with bunk beds. There's a voice recording that's like, get on a bunk bed. All of the beds are safe. All of the beds are clean. You get on a bunk bed, you put on these noise canceling headphones.
Then you are submerged into total, complete darkness. Like you can't see your hand in front of your face. Darkness. And they play the soundscape that makes it seem like you're in a coma being kind of mishandled in a hospital because you're in a coma and you can't without it.
[00:44:08] Speaker C: Oh my God.
[00:44:10] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:44:11] Speaker A: I loved it. I ate it up. I thought it was amazing.
[00:44:13] Speaker C: Did they what, how would you describe the soundscape? Like, did they talk to people who had been in comas and they were like, yeah, this is what it sounded like. Or like what were you able to hear doctors and nurses like talking about you?
[00:44:27] Speaker A: Yes.
I thought it was going to be realistic coma. And I was like, that is very scary to me that they're going to create this medical realistic piece. But it was actually much more narrative.
And there was this voice who was the doctor. And because of how amazing the headphones are, you feel like there's someone right next to you. Like they have the sound of a curtain being pulled back. Oop, did you see that? My iPad just zoomed out. They have the sound of a curtain being pulled back. The sound of someone walking up and down the aisle. And they have created. It's not realism. It's totally fiction. And you're dealing with this character who is talking in your ear about what he wants from you.
It's really spooky and really scary, and then you kind of wake up.
[00:45:11] Speaker C: There's also a super comedic way to go about doing that that I. I'm just, like, thinking on the spot. But it could be really funny of, like, the things that people are doing around you, like thinking that you can't hear them, you know?
[00:45:23] Speaker A: Yeah. No, it's so true. And they have. Because I liked that so much and was so fond of it, I went to another show by the same company called Flight, and on that one, you're on an airplane and there's a plane crash. And that one is a little more.
I don't want to. It's not gimmicky. But that one is less scary and more kind of silly or.
No, silly is not the right word. It's not silly, but it's less, like, deeply haunting because you're in the shipping container, and it's like. It's like, shaking. And the.
There's like. They're doing bits about the airline attendants giving you really bad food or doing a really bad safety presentation. So they actually do have a funnier version than coma, which was really scary.
[00:46:14] Speaker C: Yeah. What we're learning is that with the intimacy of a shipping container, it can be extremely immersive, which is very cool.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: Yeah. It's really crazy.
Yes. All that to say, maybe make a movie in a shipping container.
[00:46:29] Speaker B: Guys, I was about to say, we got to. After this, the three of us are going to think, okay, shipping container. We have 15 minutes to set it up. What are we doing?
[00:46:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:46:37] Speaker C: Exactly. Exactly.
What. What are some other highlights? What. What else did you get to see?
[00:46:44] Speaker A: Let me. Hold on. This is a moment where I need to look up this person's last name because it would be crazy or me to not say it.
[00:46:54] Speaker C: Yeah, no worries.
[00:46:55] Speaker A: Now, how do I get back to you guys?
Oh, God, we're here.
Oh, my God. So scary.
This is. This is the curse of only having an iPad and no computer.
[00:47:06] Speaker B: Okay, is that for real? You don't have a computer. You just have an iPad.
[00:47:11] Speaker A: I only have an iPad. I have a keyboard on it.
[00:47:13] Speaker B: That's. I think that's very director of you. You probably do. You have your iPad with you everywhere. On stage, like in the theater.
[00:47:21] Speaker A: When I'm directing a film, I have the iPad and I'm directing a play. I don't even bring it to the rehearsal space. When I'm directing a play, I'm so Analog. I just want to touch paper. And even if I have visual research, I want it printed out. I want to look at everything.
It's, like, distracting to me to even see an actor holding a phone when I'm directing a play, which is so dramatic. But I'm like, there weren't phones in this play.
[00:47:46] Speaker C: Totally.
[00:47:47] Speaker B: Do you freak out at them? Are you like, oh, my God, you're. You're so screwed. You're on your phone right now.
[00:47:54] Speaker C: You tell them about how they won't. They won't last in the business and stuff? Or.
[00:47:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm like, you'll never work in this town again. No, I. Sometimes I do. It depends on the play. But sometimes I am like, maybe we can mostly keep phones to just using them on breaks. Like, I. Sometimes I try, but also, it's like, let's be realistic. People need to sometimes do it.
[00:48:13] Speaker B: Totally. But when I don't, it's like, hey, come here for a second. Just get in the shipping container for a second. And then we're just going to close this.
[00:48:19] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, Close the door. Yeah, we're just gonna close the door.
[00:48:21] Speaker A: I'm gonna make them go through a 10 o'. Clock.
[00:48:23] Speaker C: Yeah, the timeout shipping container. You give your actors timeouts.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: I make them do coma.
[00:48:29] Speaker B: You can't do that, Britt. Seriously, Brit, you actually. You can't do that.
[00:48:33] Speaker C: So you've been putting them in comas as their punishment when they take their phone. Oh, my God.
[00:48:38] Speaker A: They have to learn a lesson. Listen, it's not my fault.
[00:48:42] Speaker B: That's insane, Britt.
You can't do stuff like that anymore.
[00:48:47] Speaker A: This is really funny because last time, this was actually a very good thing for you guys to pull, but you pulled a clip where I was like, arthur Miller's my boyfriend and I'm in love with him.
And it did really well.
[00:49:01] Speaker C: Yeah, that clip did well.
People loved that.
[00:49:04] Speaker B: This one's gonna be like, I love shipping containers.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: And, yeah, you're gonna just cut together me sounding completely evil. I'm like, I can't stand phones in hotel room or phones in my rehearsal room.
[00:49:15] Speaker B: This sounds nothing like the episode.
Okay, well, we totally derailed.
Definitely your fault, Brit. But we were talking about.
We're talking about the industry side of things, and, like, so do folks go to Fringe thinking, like, okay, I want to turn this into, like a. What are they. Are they even thinking that? Or is it strictly just like, I want to show this to people, period?
[00:49:46] Speaker A: I think it ranges. I think everyone obviously wants their show to get attention in some way. We, I don't want to brag, you guys. We got a lot of attention from podiatrists, A lot of podiatry.
[00:49:57] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:49:57] Speaker A: Like our show, we have an offer to perform it at a podiatrist convention.
[00:50:02] Speaker C: Here's, here's what we. We.
Here's what a former guest, a former two time guest of the podcast would say about that. Josh Foley is the guest. You can go listen to his episodes. He would say, if you are thinking of making an indie movie about the podiatrist thing, you should call these podiatrists and ask them each to give a sum of money to you guys to make it. Because that is like the definition. And podiatrist, we know, we know they're doing well and they probably like the arts. It seems like this one who mentored Julia did. So, like, that's, that's exactly what you guys need to do to make this movie, is it? That's just free advice right there. And Josh probably will want to take a cut.
[00:50:42] Speaker A: But specifically, that actually is, it's, it's good advice because I think a lot of podiatrists were genuinely moved by this, especially in the uk. You know, they have like a.
Because they have a national health care system. When you go to a primary care doctor in the uk, it's a different doctor every time. When you go to a specialist, like a podiatrist, it's someone who you have relationship with for years. So they actually really like were into what we were doing, which is very nice.
But I'm sure other people got interest from other people who weren't podiatrists. And we do too, actually. We have a few things that we're looking at and thinking about.
[00:51:15] Speaker C: Cool.
[00:51:16] Speaker A: I think that obviously the dream for your Fringe show is that you become fleabag baby reindeer. You get a Netflix deal, someone really invests in you and your story. But other things that can happen, you get a run at a theater in New York or in London, you get funding to make a special. You are asked to travel somewhere else, either in America or internationally and perform there. Like, I think the dream is that someone understands your story and wants to help you tell it to more people in whatever format that is.
[00:51:52] Speaker B: I love that makes a lot of sense.
[00:51:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
Beautiful. And. Yeah, yeah.
[00:51:56] Speaker B: I don't know. You were saying.
[00:51:58] Speaker A: And, and, and for some shows there's like circus shows that come to Fringe every year. And maybe for them it's more of like a space to do what they do best, which is amazing acrobatics. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a stepping stone, but I think for a lot of people it is totally.
[00:52:19] Speaker B: And I think that resonates with, with our listeners as well. Yeah.
[00:52:22] Speaker C: And that's the same with film festivals.
[00:52:24] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
[00:52:26] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:52:29] Speaker B: You as a director, you have mentioned it of like, your schedule is packed, you have representation.
How do you go about being like a full time director? And I think we spoke about this briefly on the last episode, but like, how do you pick projects? How are you.
Oh, man. Like, this project sounds so up my alley, but like, I'm already in the middle of this one.
Do I like push or do I hand it to my maybe friend or something? Or like that's kind of a broad question. But like, how do you go about being a full time director in New York City?
[00:53:06] Speaker A: Yeah. When I was having my introspecting time before I spoke to you guys, I think last time I was on, I was telling you I wanted to work on more new plays, I wanted to do some musicals, I wanted to travel more for work and get to do more residencies.
And this has been the year of those things, which has been great. It came true.
[00:53:26] Speaker B: Well done.
Amazing.
[00:53:28] Speaker A: It's been a really big year for collaboration. I've worked with a lot of amazing playwrights and amazing designers and there's been a few components of that.
Like I was doing this fellowship at NYU and I was also finishing up a residency at WP Theater, which was a two year residency that ended in a reading. There was like a few perfect things, things that all aligned so that I got to work on so many new plays this year.
I think I did.
I think probably I've worked on like 30 new plays in the last year.
[00:54:02] Speaker C: It's amazing.
[00:54:02] Speaker B: Oh my gosh.
[00:54:03] Speaker C: And that's, that's through these various residencies. Right. And you can, you can have multiple residencies at the same time. Right. They're just, they're kind of like, I'm blanking on the word, but in like a writing, like a fellowship almost.
Oh yeah, Writers would do.
[00:54:19] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's like I worked on a bunch of new operas and a bunch of new scripts. And the thing is, which I think more directly answers your question, so few of those have been full productions.
A lot of them have been readings, workshops. And there is a question of being like, how did this week long collaboration go and what's going to happen next?
And are we ready to email producers this script and see if anyone wants to do it, or do we need to find another way to keep developing it. And sometimes it is pretty crazy to keep everything organized. This is the first year that I haven't done any associate directing, which feels really good, but has also meant just taking as much work as possible and as frequently as possible.
And I tend to love everything I work on because I always have a way in. And theater people are so good and love what they do so much, but it's been really crazy. It's been exhausting in a great way.
And you just kind of patch in it.
You keep patching it together. Something really wonderful about this year is that I think last time I spoke to you, I couldn't announce this yet, but I was doing a show in January. I did a show at the Mint, which is an Off Broadway house. And they do these. I think we talked about this a little bit, but they do these lost or under loved plays. And most of them were written over 100 years ago. So I directed there in January.
And then while I was researching that play, which was called Zach, I was in London in January researching Zach. And the artistic director of the Mint was like, if you're at the British Library, anyway, can you find this other script for me? It's called Phil. I can't find it anywhere, but I think they'll have it there. And he texted me, if you can find it, you can direct it. So had you.
[00:56:14] Speaker C: Had you heard of it before?
No.
[00:56:17] Speaker A: I mean, no one's ever heard of it. It was written in 1908 and it was banned because it's a little salacious.
[00:56:24] Speaker C: It's because it's about a woman, like, achieving independence, basically.
[00:56:32] Speaker A: Exactly. Yes, that's right. I mean, it's such a wonderful play. It just has never been.
It was produced for one week in Manchester in 1915, and now it's gonna happen in New York on 42nd Street. So that was. It's been really nice to kind of bookend the year with these two very full rehearsal processes and then in between, have all of these readings, all of these super quick turns, because it's just like the muscles keep getting stronger and totally.
[00:57:02] Speaker C: And you're expanding. You're expanding your network, too, and you're getting to meet these amazing playwrights and actors and, you know, programmers and people who you can, you know, like the Mint, who want you back. If you can go and find that play, It's. It's so fun. So that Phil is going to be
[00:57:18] Speaker A: in September or October, October 3rd.
[00:57:23] Speaker C: It's our first preview through November or something, right?
[00:57:26] Speaker A: November 8th, October 3rd to November 8th.
[00:57:29] Speaker C: So exciting.
[00:57:31] Speaker A: Yeah, it comes. I feel like you've Beautiful play.
[00:57:34] Speaker C: I would love to. I think it's, like.
It's right up your alley in terms of, like, you. You've gotten very good at, like, resurfacing these old plays from a hundred years ago and, like, modernizing them.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: It's so.
I feel so lucky that I get to do this. I'm so moved by it every single time, because it is crazy. Well, first of all, you know, obviously, I got really into my playwright, Cicely Hamilton. She's amazing. She was a real genuine feminist, suffragist, advocate for women's rights. She really believed in birth control in 1908 and wrote about it extensively. And she was, like, a passionate political figure who also wrote plays.
So it's such a big honor to direct her work. That's crazy to me that I get to do that.
And the play is great. It's just a beautiful period piece. We're going to do the British accents. We're going to have the period music. It's going to be lovely. I'm so excited about it.
[00:58:30] Speaker C: That is so exciting.
[00:58:31] Speaker B: Amazing.
[00:58:33] Speaker C: Wow. Is there anything else on the horizon for you that you're excited about? I mean, I wrote down so much for this interview, and I feel like. Oh, I did actually have a question.
Yeah, I had a question.
So nervous.
[00:58:45] Speaker A: What is it?
[00:58:47] Speaker C: Love and power and how they're intertwined and revolutionized.
[00:58:52] Speaker A: Those are your words on the website.
[00:58:56] Speaker C: Have many times are. There are like. Would you describe that as that. Is that, like, your directorial mandate in a way? Like, if we're thinking of you as, like, a commodity, like, are those. That's the lens in which you see the plays that you want to involve yourself in, right?
[00:59:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say that's right. I think that that is the type of work that I'm drawn to and that people think of me for. And I also think that that's just the thing I'm going to find in the work, no matter what. Totally is something in that world. And I don't mean that I'm twisting things to make them follow that mandate, but that's just what I'm going to be naturally drawn to usually.
[00:59:40] Speaker C: Totally. Those are. Those are like, your specialties and the things that you've done. And those are like. You can toggle with the. The buttons on the keyboard and, like,
[00:59:49] Speaker A: heighten and it's flexible. Right. Because making plays about love, it's like, that means so many things. It can be romantic, platonic, familial self. There's just a lot under that umbrella. But I think ultimately it comes down to relationship and passion. And like, we. We cannot make enough theater about that.
That's only good if we're making theater about love.
[01:00:12] Speaker C: Is there a.
Is there a play from 100 years ago that you would love to put up that you haven't gotten the chance to, that we can manifest?
[01:00:22] Speaker A: Well, you know what we should manifest? We should manifest that we get to do a full production of one of these new plays with love to my dead playwrights who I love. And I'm dreaming them all. And I love all my boyfriends and girlfriends who are dead playwrights.
[01:00:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:00:38] Speaker A: I really would love to, like, shepherd one of these new plays into a full production. That would be so exciting for me. I think last time I was on, I was like, if anyone has a new play, send it my way. Now I feel like I know who my playwrights are. I know which. What the projects are, and if you're really excited about getting to create that kind of world, and I'll keep you guys up.
[01:01:03] Speaker C: That's a fantastic answer.
[01:01:04] Speaker B: And it's also the dream, I feel like, you know. Yeah, you answer the final question. What? So cool, Brett. I love. I honestly really love the ability to, like, have the format, you know, of the podcast, to be able to do like an annual check in of sorts. You know, it's a cool, like, to hear that you've achieved all those things that you set out to do and like, put out into the, into the world, like, you know, literally a year ago, probably a couple weeks or whatever of a difference, but, like, really cool and congratulations to you and hopefully you're able to. To see that and maybe listen back to that episode and be like, oh, my gosh, like a year ago I was asking people for this, and now, like, I know the actual proper way to do it and have the direction and the path to do that. So good on you, Brit.
Good stuff.
[01:01:51] Speaker A: Appreciate it. Thanks. Yeah, it's. It's nice to get to chat with you guys again. It really was like a good check in point. Do you always do a repeat guest? Is it always slowly?
[01:02:01] Speaker B: I mean, slowly but surely. You're like our second.
[01:02:03] Speaker C: Yeah, select. Select people.
[01:02:05] Speaker A: You know, that's good.
[01:02:06] Speaker C: We're having. We're next. Next week we're having Wiley Anderson on, who was also at Fringe.
She was directing Grace Guy's show. It was called Deckhand. I don't know. I mean, there are 4,000 of these, so I don't know if you ever Ran into them.
[01:02:20] Speaker A: I didn't get to see it. Wait, do you want me to. These Fringe, These two shows that you should keep an eye on if they come to New York?
[01:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah, okay.
[01:02:29] Speaker A: The two. The two. My two favorite things I saw at Fringe, and I saw many amazing things. The first one is Live from the Afterlife by Charlie Kilgore. And the other one is How Strange It Is by Salty Brine.
They are both musical and spectacular and heartbreaking and such genuinely good, rigorous theater. I was so inspired by both of them.
[01:02:53] Speaker C: Sick.
[01:02:55] Speaker A: Yeah. That's great to know highly enough. They were wonderful.
And obviously Hole is coming to New York. It's gonna be at Playwrights Horizons. And that was a great experience.
[01:03:04] Speaker C: Yes.
So exciting. It's so fun, especially working in mainstream film, film, tv, to like, you know, flag an awesome person coming out of Fringe. Like, there, it's. It's buzzy. Like, do you find that it's like, buzzy to be like, yeah, fresh out of Fringe? I feel like that's like a thing people talk about, you know?
[01:03:25] Speaker A: It's a good feeling. I mean, I think it's so exciting.
It feels like we met so many people who. I will say everyone who I met at Fringe was from Brooklyn. Like, I was not having an international.
[01:03:35] Speaker B: That's hilarious.
[01:03:37] Speaker A: Like, I was kind of like, oh, like, we should stay in touch. And then I'd be like, you live off of the Grand. I'll stop. Like, I will see you around. Which is good. I mean, there's just a lot of Americans going there to make stuff. You guys should go. You can go as spectators.
[01:03:50] Speaker B: I know.
[01:03:52] Speaker A: You can make a play. You can make a play.
[01:03:54] Speaker B: We're gonna do that.
[01:03:55] Speaker C: Spectators.
[01:03:58] Speaker B: Come on. We're gonna do a live podcast in a shipping container. That's what's gonna happen.
Yep.
[01:04:03] Speaker A: They would love that.
[01:04:04] Speaker B: We're gonna interview.
[01:04:05] Speaker C: We could totally do live. I mean, a podcast. Every single day is so fun.
[01:04:09] Speaker B: Oh, my God. We'd be set. We'd be like, we don't have to do anything for.
[01:04:13] Speaker C: For the next 30 weeks.
[01:04:15] Speaker B: It's kind of genius.
[01:04:18] Speaker A: You could interview someone from the audience every day.
[01:04:20] Speaker B: That's cool.
[01:04:21] Speaker C: Yeah, that is cool.
I think it's like a no brainer to get the 5050 team over. Oh, yeah, at Fringe.
[01:04:29] Speaker B: I'll call fringe. I'll call Mr. Fringe.
[01:04:31] Speaker C: Yeah, we can call the good people at Fringe.
[01:04:34] Speaker B: Who runs it?
[01:04:35] Speaker C: Fringe Central.
[01:04:36] Speaker B: Do you know Fringe Central? The Fridge Corporation. The Fridge Corporation.
[01:04:43] Speaker C: I went to Edinburgh. Fridge this year?
[01:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:04:45] Speaker B: Did you get a fridge, Britt? Did you get a fridge or. Fridge?
[01:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like. Fridge is a whole different thing. It's just appliances. It's a kitchen appliance. Successful. There's 4300 fridges. It's a. Guys, you literally have to be so cool.
[01:04:59] Speaker C: Freezing.
[01:05:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:05:00] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[01:05:01] Speaker C: So they're all plugged in?
[01:05:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:05:04] Speaker B: It's so loud.
[01:05:09] Speaker A: It's like a total nightmare. They're, like, expanding into freezers next year.
[01:05:13] Speaker B: Wow. Good for them.
[01:05:14] Speaker C: We have a lot of big freezers.
[01:05:16] Speaker B: Good for them, so that's great.
Well, thank you, Brit.
Enjoy.
Enjoy New York City.
[01:05:24] Speaker A: Thank you, Echo. Enjoy law family.
[01:05:25] Speaker C: I'm sure we'll be in. In touch and hopefully we can see each other soon. You're never in la, is the issue.
[01:05:31] Speaker B: Never.
[01:05:31] Speaker C: Like, we're so busy.
[01:05:40] Speaker B: Did you learn something? I'm like your mom. Did you learn something in this episode? I hope so. Or not. That's okay. Thanks for hanging. Make sure you follow us at the 5050Fest on Instagram and give us five stars, because. Why not? Why not subscribe? Why not? You know why not? Okay, bye.
