Latest / CINEMACTIVIST / S03E21 - Meet Audrey King
Transcript
- John C. Lyons: Well, hello there, everyone. Welcome to Cinema Activist. I am your host, John Lyons, Today we're gonna have an interview with the Lever's Audrey King. Audrey played Constance Goodwin in the cast, and it was a discussion that we had before our final rehearsal, before our second weekend of the show. So I'm recording this intro and the outro actually after we have wrapped production on the lever in Erie, Pennsylvania. We had eight performances four weekends in a row, and it was really fantastic. In the upcoming episodes, I hope to have members of the cast and crew on to kind of reflect on the whole situation. But I couldn't be happier with how the show turned out. I was very happy that each performance and each weekend we saw more and more people, which really spoke to word of mouth. And we had some really crazy nights and some really fun performances. So without further ado, let's get into meeting Audrey King, and I'll be back soon. All right, Audrey King. Yes. How the heck are you? Doing great. Had a great day today. Good. I am so happy that you came to audition this project. Thank you. why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? have you acted from a young age? Did you perform in any other types of arts when you were starting out? Yeah, I started in Erie at the Erie Playhouse when I was in early middle school. So I had a lot of straight play or musical experience, but then when I went to college I started acting in a comedic improv troupe. Really? Yes, yeah. Okay. So which college did you go to? I went to Kent State University. Okay. Yeah. And we had it was the black squirrel improv troupe because we have a lot of black squirrels around there. Got it. Yeah, and then I did that for four years while I was under in undergrad. And then I due to some schooling mishaps you might say, I did go back to Kent for my master's degree, the second half of my master's degree, and then I rejoined the troupe for about a year and a half. Wow. Okay, so you have like a lot of improv experience too. Yeah. Specifically comedic stage improv, which in immersive theater there is a level of improv. the overlap is is a lot, but not everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Had you heard about immersive theater before this? Yes, so the the in between moment before I so I graduated from Kent and then I went back to Kent. The in between moment I was in Philadelphia at University of the Arts. And University of the Arts closed unexpectedly, so then that's why I had to finish my schooling back at Kent. Yeah, bummer. But I was in a museum exhibition design program and part of that was figuring out how to incorporate other aspects of just art of like immersive experience. it was also like experience design as a whole. So grabbing immersive theater as part of an experience design. We tra took the train to New York City and got to see Sleep No More. So that was That was a great experience. That was like That's my first experience. Yeah, that was my first experience and it feels like it was like the the thing to see. and then I loved it so much and I didn't see enough of it. So I had I took the train individually back a second time and I was like I have to see this, this, and this because people were talking about it and I didn't know what was going on. And that was also a very good immersive experience to have to be like, there's stuff that I missed, and that's great. Yeah. that tickles me you have seen sleep no more. 'Cause not a lot of people in this region, know of immersive theater or know of sleep no more. And I would say Sleep No More is probably like the gold standard, right? They had over five thousand performances. Yeah. So you saw two. I just saw one. Yeah. that's incredible. what are your fondest memories of Sleep No More, your fondest experiences? or scariest or most impactful or most impactful, because there was so for I don't know exactly who's gonna be r who this is going to reach, but for Sleep No More, there are kind of a couple different storylines. It is Macbeth to some extent, but there's also things piled on top of that that the like Emursive productions with like an E added their own like world building. They have like a I think an established kind of story. There was a detective, again, not in Macbeth, but like part of the other world. There was a detective And he was like trying to find out like the secrets of like a missing person. And he was like in his office, like writing things down. And when he went to his typewriter to like type things around, all of the people who again, people all were basically ghosts. They the actors didn't see them, and they had like masks on. Everyone like crowded around his shoulders, like, what is he typing? And I was unfortunately very short and not as aggressive so I didn't see but I was just so entranced of the second that he went and sat down and started typing people just swarmed him. It is very cool. Yeah, yeah. Did you get any one-on-ones? I didn't get any one-on-ones. It was I was I was this close to getting a one-on-one, but again I wasn't as aggressive and I didn't want to be like get out of the way because I was also like they can have the experience. Yeah of course. I did get one. Yeah with a nurse in the forest she took me in the tree house. Yeah it was beautiful. We both cried she fed me tea. yeah, I heard about that one. One of my other friends who went the first time got that one on one too. So that's very interesting. Yeah, very intimate. Yeah. Yeah, I was hooked. I I was in my wife and I went and we were in there for three hours and I told her I could have stayed in there forever. For sure, yeah. Yeah. It was just wonderful too. It was part of Since I was there for experience understanding, just walking throughout the sets. Also, I went to school in Kent undergrad for theater scenic design. So it ended up being like a really good blend for all of sorts of things I was interested in. But just walking around the sets, what even when nobody was there, it was like, my gosh, this is so cool. Yeah. okay, then you go to school, you get your masters, but Remind me what your master's is in? officially the title is visual communication design, but my thesis and my specialization, which isn't specifically listed on my degree, is museum exhibition design/slash experience design. Wow. Yeah. Amazing. So a lot of stuff going on. Yeah. So what kind of stuff do you want to do? what's your dream within your major, within your master's? Yeah, that's a fun question because it's still that dream is still being built. I'm not exactly sure. I just graduated in May, so there's a lot of there's a lot of ex opportunities for me to go, which is really exciting. right now I'm like in my theatrical renaissance. I'm coming back to the theater and things like that. And so doing scenic design again, I would love. museum exhibition design I love in general. And since I live Right now I live in Kent, so Cleveland is relatively nearby and there's all sorts of museums up there that I would love to be a part of. Yeah, of course. well I can't wait to see where that story goes. Thank you. I'm excited to see what happens. As far as this story, how did you hear about tethered? Were we on your radar? Because I don't think you you were able to come to either of the first two shows. No, I didn't. So how did all this happen? Yeah, it was my mom every once in a while picks up the Erie reader and she ripped out a page for me. like you know how the sizes are this big and she's like, here, take this, what I saw her one time. And it was about the Erie playhouse 'cause it was just talking about theater in the area and the playhouse had had a hundred years prior, so they were talking just kind of like, remember that the Playhouse is very old, but here's some new stuff that's happening and like There wasn't any images because tethered is relatively new and people aren't comfortable as comfortable with the idea of immersive theater. So there was a couple of sentences and I was like, wait, wait, wait. So then immediately after I read that article, I got out my phone and I was like, Tethered immersive Erie, what is that? And then it was like, sign up for our newsletter, and I was like, Okay. And then it was crazy because like two weeks later you're like, guess what? We're doing another one. And I was like, You're kidding me right now. That's amazing. It was so exciting for me. Very, very cool. Thank you for signing up for the newsletter. Thank you, Mom. Yeah, thank you. Thank hey, thank you, Mom. Very cool. Okay, so then you come to the audition. had you ever done an audition like that before? Was it what you were expecting or you had no idea what to expect? You you threw right in, which was amazing. I was excited specifically because I was hoping it was gonna be somewhat of what I was used to to improv auditions, but then in a theater sense. And originally I don't think I knew exactly like the rehearsal schedule or anything. So I wasn't sure if I could be involved. So I just went, I was like, I wanna see what the audition process itself is like and then further down the road it ended up working out. it was very exciting 'cause I was like, What's gonna happen? And so I was like, Yeah, sure, let's do it. Just Caution to the wind. Yep. And it worked out. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was me and Taylor and Frederick And now I know Taylor and Frederick. So that now I can talk about it and be like, hey, I know them. okay, how has the how has it been getting back into like the rehearsal process and how has it been like with the mock audiences and you don't have to talk to yourself anymore? Were you excited for opening weekend? it was really exciting when we didn't have to talk to ourselves anymore. So we have an hour of time where me and three other characters are touring people around the house and I was like, I'm really good at talking to nobody. But it's also something that I know, since I was expecting an improv sense of it, I don't know how people are gonna react and I can't predict what people are gonna say. So I was very excited with the mock audiences and eventually opening weekend. And so then I got to feed off of that and be like, yeah, I'll tell you about This this decoration right here, like this and this and this and the yeah, it was a lot of fun. Mm. It's so much fun to just spew out all of the historical facts. Yeah. I I wonder if people are like, is she totally making this up? And I'm not. I'm like telling you what the actual house is about. I gotta tell you, my so my brother and my mom and his fiancee came to Saturday's show and my brother afterwards asked me if all the hosts were real real hosts for the mansion. or if they were in the show, which I thought was a great compliment. Yeah, that's great. That's that's good to hear. Because you knew your stuff so well. let's talk about Constance. Yes, Constance. Goodwin. Yeah. How did you how did you find your way to Constance and how was the development process for you of the character? Yeah, so the only thing that I knew at the beginning was that was she was called the gopher. And just like she can't say no to anyone. So I was expecting more of like a very busy young person running around doing everything all of the time. And While that is partially the case, that also strays into she is being taken advantage of in such a way that there is a very scary power dynamic between specifically one of the board members and her, but also just an uncomfortable power dynamic between the board and like the labor. And that's what we explore. but it was daunting at first because that I'm very fortunate that that is not something that I have personal experience with, but also I realize that there's a lot of weight to that, that trying to reflect people's realistic experiences. it's just a daunting task. It's a hard thing 'cause I wanna I wanna do it justice, but also like I don't know how to access that from my personal self, which again I'm very fortunate in that way. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, I'm glad that you have not, for sure. Yeah, so that was a challenge. Yeah, a big challenge. and that's probably definitely a good thing that we had like two full months of working on rehearsals and kind of working on that dynamic and And how, to get you comfortable, as comfortable as one can be and those awkward things. Yeah, I think a lot of the backstory work that Brooke encouraged us to do, of writing down who you are and what happened to you and all sorts of things, s specifically diving in, has really helped, especially in the middle of the performance, because I kind of fall back on that. And like whenever I'm having moments where I'm not directly in interacting with an actor or a character and like it's a very intense moment for Constance. Then I kind of think about like how would this impact her based on like all of the things that we've talked about or I've either either we've talked about or things that I created and that allows me to sit with those emotions and then be able to access those things that again, not mine, but how that would realistically affect somebody's life. let's talk about yeah, the mock audience and how that built up and into Opening weekend and how did you find your opening weekend experience? Was it nerve wracking? yeah. Super excited? how were how was night one and night two for you? It was nerve wracking. Night one felt like a manageable experience because there were less audience members, so it felt more like, like I'm used to this. The mock audience we had was about a similar size throughout those three days. 'cause we had two mock audiences in an opening. But then the second day There were a lot more people. And that was very, very different. And that was a little bit more stressful for me. And not necessarily stressful all of the time because it was also very energizing. And but also at like I was very I was able to feed off of that energy and put that in. But then also there were just unexpected things that happened and it was just kind of like I don't know what to do. And I had to kind of take it as it came. And it was that was a little bit tough. Yeah, yeah. How much Would you say it was very different from the squirrel group as far as because yeah, I guess the audience isn't like right up close in person in that kind of a situation. You're like the audience is guiding the situation and you do have that relationship, but here it's much more intimate, right? Yeah. Yeah, some so for the comedic improv that I did, it was just our troupe and we had ten people and we all knew each other very well. We practiced outside of our shows because and then so then we were able to pick up on how people responded to things in general. And then the audience was there to give us information, but then we just played with it. This is very different. I've actually started to think of it more like the way an unexpected experience that has helped me is how I play Dungeons and Dragons. It's very strange because it is improv in the sense of you don't know what's going to happen, but it also fits within a world. So like when you're playing Dungeons and Dragons, there's an established world and established character traits that you have as your player character, but then you have to respond to things that are coming at you and even other player characters who you don't know what's gonna happen. So like that's a different way of improv, but it's just embodying a person. So this immersive theater is D and D. Just just in a weird way. I found that out 'cause I'm embodying Constance and I'm interacting with other player characters. And then like the audience is almost like an MPC. I wouldn't necessarily say that for art, but like the way that I'm thinking about it. but then the there's an established world that we have to like understand how Feed Our Neighbors fits into like nonprofits and even unions and how I would respond to that and how other people are gonna respond to me and things like that. So you have to know all of the rules of what we set up and fit it within the sandbox of the like the boundaries of the sandbox. You can do anything you want, but you can't leave that sandbox because otherwise that doesn't make sense. Yeah. Yeah. No, that really sums it up really well. It's yeah, it's a really rules of the game. Yeah. Alm almost like improv comedically, but not very much. Yeah, yeah. Well, Actually, we have to go to rehearsal. but thank you so much again for showing up. Thank you, mom, again. Thank you, my mom. It's been great working with you, and I can't wait to see where this journey takes us. So yeah, this has been a really great time to like do immersive experience with all of these people. Yeah, awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much. John here again. So that wraps our interview with Audrey King from the cast of The Lever. we'll be back in the upcoming episodes with other members of the cast and crew, I'm also excited to welcome back to the podcast here really soon. Previous guests, Jill Killington and Jacob Perrett to talk about their films, Mr. and Mrs. Death and Photo Negative, and check in with them and see how they are progressing and talk a little bit more about the state of independent film. Thanks for listening. We'll be back soon.