You're On In Five! - A New Podcast

Understudying is not an activity I would describe as fun.  I might not even go so far as to say that I'm particularly good at it.  But it definitely is one of the biggest challenges an actor can take on, usually with no guarantee of ever getting to show off their work.  So when I was thinking about how to focus my creative energies during the pandemic, the subject of understudies was at the front of my mind.  I had an amazing understudy experience doing Casa Valentina in Sept 2019, and had an amazing "overstudy" experience working on Here Lies Henry in March 2020 with my understudy and friend Josh Kemper.  I was inspired to create a conversation podcast that would feel like hanging after a show with fellow actors discussing process, our journeys, and whatever else was happening in our life.  I was desperately missing these conversations, and was committed to creating a place where actors could speak their truth and give a little peek behind the curtain.  Our conversations would be based around the experience of understudying, raising up the experiences of actors putting in "The Work", and relating strategies for actors to succeed in Chicago's vibrant theater scene.
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The first step was finding a co-host.  I could have hosted the show myself, but it would be very limited to my experiences - and since I was planning on having guests who I had worked with, it was important for me to have an additional host to give broader perspectives than just I or my former co-stars would offer.  I was incredibly lucky to have met Elana Elyce only a few months prior as the director of Here Lies Henry, a one-person show of which I had landed the lead.  We hit it off and made each other laugh a bunch during rehearsal, and had proved to be a formidable team - oh, and we got some great reviews and awards recognition for the show, and that was nice.  As a Black female actor/producer/genius originally from Detroit, she was first in my mind to complement my suburban white boy perspective.  Despite us both having arrived in the Chicago scene in the late 00's, we had somehow never met before Henry, and had only a little bit of overlap in friends circles - which gives you some idea of the structural racial segregation in the Chicago Theatre Community, but that's another story.
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After some courting, Elana agreed to be my partner on the project, and we got to work on fleshing out this concept for a podcast.  We created segments and a loose outline to follow - at which point we enlisted Laura McKenzie to compose music for the show.  Laura was an obvious choice - I had worked with her at the Factory and Lifeline Theatre, and knew her to be a hysterically funny and creative musical force.  She delivered us bite-sized jams, one after another, which helped to define our loose-yet-deliberate tone.  We made our dream list of guests - and every single one said YES!  And then we got to the work of recording, and editing, and releasing, and promoting, and the other laundry list items that comprise the work of launching a podcast.
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And here we are!  We've released SEVEN episodes so far, and have SIX more episodes recorded and in post-production.  The response from members of our community has been awesome - we're honored to be a part of the conversation regarding best practices in theatre, which has been growing louder in the last few years, and turbo-charged during our pandemic-induced sabbatical from the stage.  By championing the work of the understudy, we've brought light upon the conditions of actors -  what actions help to support their work, and which actions make their jobs harder.  As we head into a new era of theatre, these conversations are more important than ever.  We hope you'll listen!

All the links are here: https://linktr.ee/yoif