Latest / Theatre Life with Ben Kercheval / Stage Presence Players: Inside the 'Voices of Now' showcase premiere

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Stage Presence Players: Inside the 'Voices of Now' showcase premiere · Theatre Life with Ben Kercheval

0:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I love this idea.
0:01
SPEAKER_03: I think it's fun enough to be able to do this every year, you know, and um yeah, I and it's a very collaborative, um, I feel like.
0:10
SPEAKER_03: Uh there's no real hierarchy to it.
0:13
SPEAKER_03: We're all on the same page tr just trying to throw a show together.
0:17
SPEAKER_03: You know, c it has that feel like when you're a kid and you would just do a bunch of stuff and then do it for the adults.
0:27
SPEAKER_02: Hey everybody, and welcome back to Theater Life, a podcast for theater people by theater people.
0:33
SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Ben Kirchville, and my guests today are two principal members of the upcoming collection of short plays titled Voices of Now, presented by Stage Presence Players, premiering tomorrow, October 16th, at Black Sparrow Music Parlor in Taylor, Texas, with a second weekend of performances at the listening room at St.
0:53
SPEAKER_02: James Episcopal Church, also in Taylor.
0:56
SPEAKER_02: Taking on many hats of writer, director, producer, and actor within this collection of short stories are Denise Garza and Michael Lovestrong, and they joined me today to talk about their latest show.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: Denise and Michael, you two are close to each other, you're all crammed in here.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Theater Life Podcast.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having us.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: We're excited to be here.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thanks for joining us.
1:20
SPEAKER_02: So I had the the pleasure of seeing the short collection of stories, Voices of Now, came up to Taylor the other day to get a little sneak peek at it during the rehearsal process.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: And I it's it's an interesting format.
1:41
SPEAKER_02: You've got five shows, and they are to call them short stories is maybe not even totally doing it justice.
1:49
SPEAKER_02: Because when I say these things are short, I mean these things are short.
1:54
SPEAKER_02: They range from about, if I remember correctly, about 14 or 15 minutes all the way down to about seven or eight minutes.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: They vary wildly in tone, in subject matter.
2:07
SPEAKER_02: In a lot of ways, they're just like five little vignettes, right?
2:11
SPEAKER_02: Like five little slices of life that you all are putting together.
2:15
SPEAKER_02: They are written by uh different, I want to say local, I think they're all local playwrights.
2:21
SPEAKER_02: You can correct me on that if I'm wrong, but I know Michael, you've written one of them too.
2:26
SPEAKER_02: So I want to just get the 30,000-foot view here on how this all came together and what the decision-making process was like in terms of deciding, okay, this is this is what we're gonna try to accomplish.
2:39
SPEAKER_02: We have uh very minimal set, probably very minimal costume, uh, but we have these collection of short stories, and it's about the text, it's about the acting.
2:48
SPEAKER_02: Let's get out there and and put some theater together.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:52
SPEAKER_02: That sounds about right.
2:54
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
2:55
SPEAKER_02: We can we can just end the podcast on that.
2:57
SPEAKER_02: I just gave a summary.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, three of the playwrights are local, and two are actually, they're both um in the Northeast.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: And um it the idea started when I was in a playwriting class in the beginning of 2025, and I read Who's There by Sorry Boren, and it was just and another board member, Greg Rogers, and I were in the class together, and we just couldn't believe that such an impactful story was told in the short amount of time.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: And I reached out to her and I said, one day I'm gonna produce this play.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't know when.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, we're hoping for, and I said like October or September of last year, and that just did not happen.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I just kept emailing every few months that this was something I wanted to do.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: And I thought back to a play I had read um in a the short play festival that Sam Bass Theater had, and I was the on the jury panel, and I read Piece by Piece by Michael Towers, and I immediately just fell in love with the show, knew it was a winner for their um their play reading, and when I read um Who's There and started thinking of an idea to do a collection of short plays, piece by piece just became one of those as well.
4:35
SPEAKER_03: She came to the board.
4:36
SPEAKER_03: It was interesting.
4:37
SPEAKER_03: So she came to the board with all these ideas, all these very, very different plays, and there was just no theme to it.
4:44
SPEAKER_03: And so we start talking about what's really incomplete is that these are these are voices that are happening right now.
4:50
SPEAKER_03: The either they're either about situations that are familiar or they're from voices that are now very relevant, and so the whole voices of now theme became like a pretty obvious way for us to put all these plays that we like together, even though they don't really match.
5:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
5:09
SPEAKER_02: And to your point, Denise, it really does buck the trend of okay, well, you have to spend two, two and a half hours telling a story effectively.
5:21
SPEAKER_02: You can do it in a matter of minutes, and in some ways, it uh uh heightens the urgency on getting the narrative across.
5:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh things that we talk about a lot in theater and in acting, but maybe sometimes take for granted over the course of a hundred and twenty minutes or so the pacing, tempo, beats, urgency, stakes, all the things that uh make for really great scenes and and and plays you you've uh uh really distilled down to to a single moment.
6:00
SPEAKER_02: It's almost like scene study in a way.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: And uh we can start with who's there because I I walked away from from the other night thinking that's gonna be the standout.
6:13
SPEAKER_02: That's gonna be the one that people really remember.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: Um, partially because you know it's spooky season, right?
6:19
SPEAKER_02: Some of it is it's sort of thematically relevant to the time of year.
6:23
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't maybe call it a horror, certainly suspense.
6:28
SPEAKER_02: Um, but there there is an element of tension and edge that it really has in a short amount of time.
6:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh there are two actors in it.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: I think every single one of these plays has two actors.
6:44
SPEAKER_02: Am I right on that one?
6:46
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
6:46
SPEAKER_02: Every single one of these has two actors.
6:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh in Who's There, you have uh, is it Lovelyn Sesick?
6:52
SPEAKER_02: Is that how you say her name?
6:54
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Lovlin Sesik, and who's the other actor with with her?
6:58
SPEAKER_00: Justin Dean.
6:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Justin Dean and Lovelyn Sesick.
7:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh they are excellent together.
7:04
SPEAKER_02: They have very good chemistry, which sometimes for an adult and a child is not always easy to have naturally.
7:11
SPEAKER_02: Uh sometimes you have to manufacture it, they do a very good job.
7:15
SPEAKER_02: Lovelyn, in particular, I talked to you about this the other night.
7:18
SPEAKER_02: She is outstanding.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I dare say she might be the best part of this whole collection of vignettes.
7:26
SPEAKER_02: She is very natural, she has a confidence in her delivery.
7:32
SPEAKER_02: Because how old is she?
7:32
SPEAKER_02: 11?
7:33
SPEAKER_02: 12 year old?
7:34
SPEAKER_00: She's 11.
7:34
SPEAKER_02: She's 11.
7:35
SPEAKER_02: And I mean this in the best way possible.
7:37
SPEAKER_02: It as a compliment.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: It looks like I'm watching an 11-year-old kid.
7:41
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't look like I'm watching an 11-year-old kid pretend to be an 11-year-old kid.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: It just it she just is she just is the way she speaks, the way she engages uh with her scene partner.
7:56
SPEAKER_02: She is fantastic.
7:58
SPEAKER_02: Uh, tell me, did she just come and audition?
8:01
SPEAKER_02: How did you find her for that?
8:03
SPEAKER_00: No, um, we didn't have any young people audition for the show, and I wasn't exactly sure how we were gonna proceed with it.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm directing who's there, and so I was thinking about just getting a young 20-something or an older teenager that we know reaching out, and then um I told my husband um if I can plug him a little bit.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: My husband is um Jason from Acclaimed Talent, and he looked at his roster and he said, I think I found somebody for you.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: Let me reach out to her mother.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: And so he did, and she was very interested.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: And I talked to her, I made sure she understood, you know, the topic and um and that it was a thriller, and and she said that Lovelyn was on board.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: So she didn't even audition, she just came and read at the cult reading the night we had our um our table read together, and she was just phenomenal from the get-go.
9:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, from that first reading, we were all like, okay, this is a force of nature right here.
9:07
SPEAKER_03: She's something else, yeah.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, sometimes in a table read, you're just getting the feel for how the the whole thing's gonna go, and and that she just kind of jumped off the page, so to speak, right away.
9:20
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: And I think when you mentioned the chemistry between her and Justin, Justin actually has a son her age, and her and um his son and um Loveland know each other.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: So it was it was very interesting to find out that they had actually done something together at another theater and and knew each other.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: So um he's used to he's used to being around um a tween.
9:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, some some pre-existing chemistry that that you don't necessarily have to manufacture.
9:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's it that's an excellent one.
9:53
SPEAKER_02: That's that's the whole play, right?
9:55
SPEAKER_02: That's it's not like part of a like a larger that is the whole play.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Right.
9:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's the whole play.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: That's it's it's wild how you can get something so thrilling in what's who's theirs runtime, like ten minutes somewhere in there?
10:14
SPEAKER_02: It's seven minutes.
10:14
SPEAKER_02: Maybe not even it's seven.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so seven minutes you have to establish characters, establish what's happening, but then immediately start ratcheting up the the tension and the stakes.
10:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh you mentioned uh Greg earlier.
10:34
SPEAKER_02: He he was the uh he was the door knocking sound effect.
10:39
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know what you're gonna end up using for the show.
10:42
SPEAKER_02: I would imagine it's something pretty similar.
10:44
SPEAKER_02: Like it won't be a sound effect, will it?
10:46
SPEAKER_02: Or will it?
10:48
SPEAKER_02: For the thunder, it will.
10:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thunder and the doorbell, which we were having to play with, but probably for the door knocking, it'll be real door knocking.
10:55
SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
10:55
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because that that the door knocking was almost like its own character.
11:00
SPEAKER_02: It is like you could you could feel the the in the energy and the intensity behind it, and just the the way that you talk about like active listening and acting.
11:13
SPEAKER_02: There was like active listening going on between the two actors, and that door knocking, and it starts to overlap and it starts to build, and and what's really cool about it, and I I won't give away too many details about this show or any of the other ones because I want people to come see it, but there leaves um the the resolution's a little open-ended.
11:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, it it kind of leaves some a bit to the imagination, and I think that's part of the effectiveness of that particular play, is there's so much about it that goes unexplained, which for a seven-minute show, I think you're not gonna be able to explain it all anyway, even if you wanted to.
11:56
SPEAKER_02: But to leave so much to the imagination of the audience uh plays a very critical role in how effective that play is in a short amount of time.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's one of the things that drew me to the show in general when I read it.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, it just leaves you, it does kind of make you wonder what's next.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: And when we had auditions and I offered the role to Justin, and I said, you know, would you like to play Dan and Who's There?
12:31
SPEAKER_00: He said, Is that the trick-or-treat play?
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yes, and he said, Absolutely, I've been thinking about that play since Monday.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: So it was just something that stuck with him, even though he'd only read it a couple of times in the audition.
12:47
SPEAKER_02: It does stick with you.
12:49
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
12:50
SPEAKER_02: So uh you've got you've got Who's There?
12:54
SPEAKER_02: Piece by piece, I thought was another very good one.
12:57
SPEAKER_02: And uh, Michael, you were not the original cast member in that one.
13:02
SPEAKER_02: You had to take over in that one, correct?
13:03
SPEAKER_02: Right, yeah.
13:04
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
13:05
SPEAKER_02: And this is on top of you have a you're acting in another one and you've written one.
13:11
SPEAKER_02: You're kind of all in on this, this class.
13:13
SPEAKER_03: I am.
13:13
SPEAKER_03: I I love this idea.
13:15
SPEAKER_03: I think it's fun enough to be able to do this every year, you know, and um, yeah, I and it's a very collaborative, um, I feel like uh there's no real hierarchy to it.
13:26
SPEAKER_03: We're all on the same page, just trying to throw a show together.
13:30
SPEAKER_03: You know, it has that feel like when you're a kid and you would just do a bunch of stuff and then do it for the adults.
13:35
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of what my Yeah, you when I uh spoke to you the other night, I think one of the first things you said to me was it's it's kind of gorilla theater.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: And I do like that aspect of it that you know, if you set up a stage or even a clearing and someone walks across it and someone else witnesses it, you have theater, right?
14:00
SPEAKER_02: That you don't need necessarily big productions to tell effective stories.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: And look, the theater life podcast does not discriminate.
14:09
SPEAKER_02: We enjoy effective theater in all of all kinds, of all sorts, of all mediums.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: Um, so I and so this is the first year that you've done this, though, right?
14:19
SPEAKER_02: I mean, because I know you've you've bounced around a lot over the years, you've done different plays at different locations around Austin, but this is the first time you've done even if it wasn't called Voices of Now, the first time you've done a collection of little vignettes like this, right?
14:33
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
14:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
14:34
SPEAKER_03: Would you would you want to we did work for partner with Sandbass Theater Association?
14:40
SPEAKER_03: They have an annual 10-minute play contest that they have, and then they have a reading of those plays.
14:46
SPEAKER_03: So we she's judged, I think I I was on jury one year, and then we, you know, we'll read with them.
14:51
SPEAKER_03: So we like this format of the short plays already.
14:55
SPEAKER_03: Um, so yeah, it's it's the first year, but it feels like we have a little bit of experience doing it.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: And I did want to point out um we do there is an actor in piece by piece who was just out sick.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: But Michael has been subbing for the different roles whenever somebody's out, he gets to read all the things.
15:15
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: Um everybody's yeah, he's everybody's swing, so he's on standby.
15:20
SPEAKER_02: I and hey, look, swings are hard to come by.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: They are absolutely are.
15:25
SPEAKER_02: So, Michael, you'll be on call for every play in uh in The Voices of Now.
15:31
SPEAKER_02: Who so then who is the regular actor for for well who are the who are the two of the actors in that?
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Adon Fuente and Sam Pearson.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh yes.
15:42
SPEAKER_02: And Adon was there.
15:43
SPEAKER_02: Adon was there the other night.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he was, yeah.
15:46
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: And Sam was out sick, um, and we told him not to come and get everybody sick the week before the show.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, but he is he is really good.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: We, you know, we've been watching him grow in the rehearsal, and and and he's really great in the part, really animated and lively and fun, and has that kid energy, as you'll see when you come see the show.
16:11
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
16:12
SPEAKER_02: He Adon is is very, very good.
16:14
SPEAKER_02: And you know, the the nice thing about Peace by Piece is again for being very short, it conveys uh its story very effectively, particularly with an intentional language barrier.
16:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh you have one person speaking English, one person speaking largely Spanish.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: And despite that, uh you it never feels like you're lost at any point.
16:41
SPEAKER_02: It feels like you kind of know exactly what's going on at any given moment.
16:45
SPEAKER_02: I think Adon is very good at conveying that.
16:48
SPEAKER_02: And I I I don't know how experienced he is, uh, but when you mention that it's like him being a kid up there, I I always come back to if you have that childlike energy and that and the complete lack of inhibitions or barriers, you catch on pretty quickly.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: And and a lot of times the people who have maybe the least amount of experience, and I don't want to speak for him on on that front, just that as a general idea that if you can just sort of dive in head first, you'd actually be surprised about how effective you are, because so much of it is just being willing to play, being willing to you know be big and be present and listen and do all of those things.
17:34
SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, the things like keep your feet still will come in time, you know.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is his first time uh being on stage as an actor.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: He is a um, I work with him in our day jobs, and uh, but he does do music.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: He's a he's been on stage as a as a musician before, so this is his first time as an actor.
17:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's he's he's very good, uh, very likable.
18:00
SPEAKER_02: I've done shows in the past with first-time actors on stage, and a common theme throughout, and the reason why they get end up getting cast in these shows and and end up having some immediate successes, because they're just so damn likable.
18:16
SPEAKER_02: They're just their their charisma is just comes off and you kind of can't help but watch them the whole time, and that's kind of how I felt with him.
18:26
SPEAKER_02: And and I know, Michael, you were acting swing on that, but there was a lot of good chemistry, there was a lot of good tempo, and then and you know, then you have your moments that you maybe you savor a little bit more, but it felt like it went pretty fast.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: And the and the thing that can happen with even a short vignette is if your pacing is bad or if it's slow or whatever, eight minutes will feel like 28.
18:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and it did not feel like that with piece by piece.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: I love that play.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's got a good it's got a good message.
19:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it does.
19:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh two boys, uh, although again, very funny because the two boys are two adult men, but you can still you know play with it, meet at the US-Mexico border wall and find a common language in baseball.
19:17
SPEAKER_02: Um Michael, the one thing I did not get to see the other night was uh the pie contest, but uh go ahead and why don't you explain that one a little bit because you wrote it yourself.
19:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um it wasn't actually supposed to be a part of this.
19:33
SPEAKER_03: We had a different scene um set up that uh we weren't able to cast properly.
19:39
SPEAKER_03: So this we moved in and it was sort of an idea, and so I thought, you know what, we're just gonna make this a collaborative play.
19:46
SPEAKER_03: I'll give it a structure.
19:48
SPEAKER_03: But uh Corbin Lindstrom and Brandy Lujano are the the cast of this, and we have been working on this together.
19:56
SPEAKER_03: So we had a script, but what they say and their interaction and their chemistry is very organic because it was written to be that way.
20:04
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I I don't know how to explain that that came about, but it's it's one that the three of us are all working on together.
20:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
20:13
SPEAKER_02: Is that your first play that you've ever written, or have you written others?
20:16
SPEAKER_03: Um, the first one that's gonna be seen, yeah.
20:18
SPEAKER_03: The rest of them are on a box somewhere.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: How does how does that feel as opposed to being on stage?
20:26
SPEAKER_02: Because this obviously isn't the first time that you've been on stage, but when you're presenting something that's also from you, just differently.
20:34
SPEAKER_03: I'm trying not to think about it, honestly, like from that perspective, because it feels overwhelming.
20:39
SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't know.
20:41
SPEAKER_03: It it this is an expression, and I feel like that's all I'm really going for, whether people like it or not.
20:48
SPEAKER_03: I got out what I needed to, so uh yeah, I'm I'm okay with it.
20:52
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna enjoy whatever happens because they are funny together and they're they're playing off each other in ways that I I had no thought in my head whenever I wrote this.
21:02
SPEAKER_03: So it's it'll be fun.
21:04
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
21:04
SPEAKER_02: Well, you are acting along with Denise in the honeysuckle effect.
21:09
SPEAKER_02: And uh Denise, ooh girl, you are infectious in this one.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: You you are you are all over the place.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: It's uh it's it's a lot of fun.
21:20
SPEAKER_02: The two of you together are very good.
21:22
SPEAKER_02: Um I I understand that you know casting and doing these things was probably somewhat maybe out of okay, where's the intersection between fit and necessity?
21:34
SPEAKER_02: But tell me a little bit about your uh your process in terms of of doing this together.
21:39
SPEAKER_02: And then I guess Greg is kind of taking on the reins of directing that one.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the honeysuckle effect was written by um a local playwright, and she when we were trying to figure out who was going to be in this one, um I will I will start with saying we hardly had any win.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Audition for for this showcase, which I thought was kind of odd because usually in the theater it's all women and hardly.
22:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was gonna I was gonna say the the one problem that you typically don't have you you typically almost always have women.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: You typically don't have enough men.
22:16
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: And we had we had a lot of men who auditioned.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: Um and so you know we were we were talking about being in the show and um Alison who wrote it said well you know that she could picture me and Michael doing it.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: I said, well, that's good because I think that's who it's gonna be, essentially.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Um and so yeah, so we started we started working on it and it's fun, it's a little it's a little crazy.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh it was written, it was written about a decade ago, so the time period is just a little bit off when you think about the references to time as as you'll hear if you go see the show.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Um but it's just a lot of fun and thinking back to myself when I was in my 20s, I was not like my character at all.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: But I would say that reflecting on my life when I turned 50 is probably pretty accurate.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, it's it's fun, and uh, and a chance meeting with somebody that that looks familiar to you and just in and talking through that and and seeing if there really was a meeting there that that you think happened is is fun.
23:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's sort of an unorthodox meet cute type of story, yeah.
23:33
SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, very fun, a lot of laughs in that one for sure.
23:38
SPEAKER_02: Is there a designated order for how you want these to go?
23:44
SPEAKER_03: We want to go from start to finish.
23:45
SPEAKER_03: Now, what happens between there, we have no idea.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we I had kind of thought that we would we would have Who's There as the last play of the first act because of um because of how it does make you think, and then having piece by piece at the end of the night because of the message and just how it it's just an uplifting story.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, we'll we'll figure it out.
24:13
SPEAKER_02: Well, so you're gonna do two acts.
24:14
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna have an intermission and all that.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're going especially we wanted to do it at the Black Sparrow to to make sure that people were able to get up and and patronize Sharon, uh Sharon Shannon's bar and and get drinks and food because you know she's been gracious to host us, and we want it to we want people to give her business and uh and and we're also the first couple of nights um we're gonna have a singer come and play in between the shows while we do the set changes so that um they have something to listen to and if they need to get up and you know take a break, but yeah, that's uh it's smart actually.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh I was wondering to myself, okay, how are five short plays gonna work in a bar?
25:04
SPEAKER_02: Because I the thing that I would be most terrified about is I don't know, people talking and doing the things that they do in a in a bar, right?
25:16
SPEAKER_02: While like you're trying to perform theater.
25:19
SPEAKER_02: So I it sounds like a great idea to have someone in between that kind of keeps it like, alright, we're gonna have something that keeps your attention, give people the ability to get up.
25:30
SPEAKER_02: Because uh if you ran all of these together, you're probably not dealing more than what 35-40 minutes if you were to you know string them all back to back to that.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Um I would say maybe 45.
25:44
SPEAKER_02: Okay, 45 minutes.
25:46
SPEAKER_02: So, but still, 45 minutes, yeah, people are gonna want something to drink, yeah, maybe something to eat, and then if you had them getting up and doing it while you're trying to like trying to perform, actually breaking it up is probably the smarter thing that I I don't know that I would have thought to do.
26:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, it kind of feels like we're doing this almost like you know, one of those fancy course dinners, you know, you just here's the first course, everybody gets up and relaxes, here's the second.
26:13
SPEAKER_03: So um, yeah, it just because I think these shows are so very different, it almost makes sense to have that little bit of a palette cleansing moment between.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:23
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: And I would say it's 50 minutes.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll think I think it's gonna be about 25 minutes for each act.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so you have I know there's a small stage at the Black Sparrow.
26:38
SPEAKER_02: There's there's like okay.
26:40
SPEAKER_02: Um have you guys done anything there before?
26:43
SPEAKER_02: Is this gonna be your first time performing there?
26:45
SPEAKER_00: First time.
26:46
SPEAKER_02: First time, yeah.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: First time.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna have like even like a mini tech week or something there just to make sure that you got like just a tiny they call it a hell week, but just maybe like a heck week where it's we have a hell hour.
26:58
SPEAKER_03: That's all we can do.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: And it probably will be.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: In the end will take us back to a show, yeah.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: Just to make sure everything works right now.
27:11
SPEAKER_02: I don't do you are you even gonna have lights or is it just sound?
27:14
SPEAKER_03: We we are gonna go in on Thursday and work with her to she's super generous about the space.
27:20
SPEAKER_03: She just wants art to happen where she has, you know, the possibility to make it happen.
27:25
SPEAKER_03: So she normally has it set up for music, but she's like, we will move these speakers, we'll move this drum kit, we will move like so.
27:32
SPEAKER_03: We'll go in on Thursday and she'll help us get it set up.
27:35
SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't know about the lights.
27:36
SPEAKER_03: We do have lights um that we can use.
27:38
SPEAKER_03: We'll see how that looks after.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:41
SPEAKER_02: And then uh the second week, so black is Black Sparrow Music Parlor will be this weekend, October 16th, 17th, and 18th.
27:51
SPEAKER_02: Uh the Sunday matinee show at 3 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 7 30.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: But then weekend two, you're back at St.
28:00
SPEAKER_02: James Episcopal Church, where you have performed before as a as a troupe.
28:05
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
28:05
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
28:06
SPEAKER_02: Right.
28:06
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
28:07
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we did in June we did the second chance second to last chance ladies league there.
28:12
SPEAKER_03: So we set up the stage, the lights, everything.
28:15
SPEAKER_03: It's just a big common room that they have allowed to us to use, and it works out there for performance.
28:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:22
SPEAKER_02: And uh do you think uh if if this I I mean I I would hope that it goes well, I think it should go well.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: But format-wise, just considering that you know, getting year by year some semblance of a season together certainly has its challenges, that this is something that you feel like annually we can pull this off.
28:45
SPEAKER_02: This is something that we have, you know, great local writers, we have people who can come in and and it's you know minimal minimal sets, minimal costume, minimal casts, and you can effectively uh have very good theater and do it in a way that uh I mean it kind of separates you a little bit in some sense because you're you're able to kind of bring it back down to the like you said, almost this almost this grassroots gorilla type theater.
29:14
SPEAKER_02: What do you think?
29:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, I think both of us hope that this becomes an annual thing.
29:20
SPEAKER_03: I I do agree there are so many good writers in the area and a lot of talent that you know might just want to come out of the woodwork and dip their toe in theater, and 10 minutes is a great way to do that.
29:33
SPEAKER_03: Like we have a couple of actors that that's exactly what they're doing is I haven't done this for years.
29:38
SPEAKER_03: This seems less intimidating.
29:40
SPEAKER_03: I just want to give this a shot.
29:41
SPEAKER_03: So I I think it's worth you know doing annually.
29:44
SPEAKER_03: I also see it growing, you know, like I could see it becoming a whole festival with you know kind of different locations all over town.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I'm a big dreamer.
29:56
SPEAKER_02: I wish that hey, you know what?
29:58
SPEAKER_02: Dreaming big is is totally encouraged uh on this podcast.
30:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh there is if you could grow it, there's almost like this fringe aspect to it, you know, where if you could get just like a whole like if if a town was willing to host it or if Austin was willing to host it, where you could just have you know all different kinds of stuff going on.
30:20
SPEAKER_02: And it that's that's generally short, you know, shorter things.
30:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that is kind of the cool thing about Taylor that we found is that the community is hungry for community theater.
30:31
SPEAKER_03: They're they're ready to you know find spaces for us to use, they're ready to come out and start playing with it and hosting things.
30:37
SPEAKER_03: Like they have festivals out there um almost every you know couple of weeks or so.
30:42
SPEAKER_03: So I I think one more festival in Taylor, they they could handle that.
30:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:46
SPEAKER_02: So this is a good segue because I know stage presence, and we talked about it a little bit earlier, but they've bounced around a lot over the years.
30:55
SPEAKER_02: Uh they've per had had performances in Austin, Pflugerville, kind of all over the area, searching for a permanent home.
31:04
SPEAKER_02: What is it about Taylor that feels like home and what efforts are being made to get a permanent place for stage presence players?
31:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, um, about three years ago, I wanted to just go to Taylor and look at some spaces.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't even remember what what drew me to it.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, I just wanted to go take a drive out there and take a look and see.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: And there were, I noticed that there were so many spaces there that just looked like what I had envisioned for something community related.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: And so I just set my sight on that and and slowly the convinced the board that that this is probably something we should do.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: And and after a while, after about a year, um, I started talking about it more and I and I would keep going out there.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Um and probably, I don't know, what 18 months ago we connected with some folks out there um looking at spaces and just and and hearing what people were interested in.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: We went to a couple of events in Taylor and had booths um for their city events, and people were just very interested and excited about what we what we were thinking we could do.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: And going into the local businesses there, especially places if I could give them a plug, um Silver Moon Curios, Local Grocer, of course, the Black Sparrow, and then St.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: James.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: People that we talk to just get so excited.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: Ripple and Rose is another one.
32:47
SPEAKER_03: Um Yeah, I I actually dropped off a poster for this show at one of the businesses there, and behind the counter were two young women that as soon as I explained what it was, they were like, Oh, what are the auditions for the next one?
33:00
SPEAKER_03: Like, when can we get in on the show?
33:02
SPEAKER_03: So, like we meet people all the time that are just they they want to play, and it'd be nice to give them a spot for it.
33:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
33:10
SPEAKER_02: What does a realized version of Stage Presence players look like to you?
33:17
SPEAKER_02: Full season, classes, youth academy, like what what is it in the vision that you have for this?
33:24
SPEAKER_00: Community, community space, um, definitely full seasons.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, we would like to work with the people that we've been doing shows with now and and have at least three shows next year um spread out so that we don't get too exhausted and overwhelmed trying to cram a bunch into a short period of time.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: And then when we get our own spaces, you know, four to five plus, depending on you know, the bandwidth and the directors and stage managers and people coming out to audition, definitely want to get classes, both youth and adult.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: There's not a lot out here for adults, even.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: I've been in classes for a long time and just having to travel to way south Austin or even central Austin when I live north, giving other people an opportunity who live out here who don't have, who don't want to make that long drive, but are still very interested, I think, having those opportunities for them.
34:25
SPEAKER_03: Although our focus is always, you know, theater, that's how we think.
34:29
SPEAKER_03: I think that there are opportunities for multiple artistic type endeavors in the space that that we have in our vision, you know, whether it's somebody wants to play music or we have an open mic night for poetry, or there's a dance, you know, recital, just anything that contributes to the art.
34:46
SPEAKER_03: We were even talking about as we were sitting here, we need a podcast booth.
34:49
SPEAKER_03: We need a spot, we need a little room where we can.
34:51
SPEAKER_03: You open one up, you just let me know.
34:53
SPEAKER_02: I'll come out.
34:54
SPEAKER_02: I will let you know.
34:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:56
SPEAKER_03: Like anything that gets people the opportunity to express themselves through whatever means they are, like that's where we want to get to eventually.
35:04
SPEAKER_03: These little steps hopefully get us there, but the goal is to have a spot where the community knows they can come and let it out, you know, whatever they want to artistically.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: And we've talked to some business owners who have put us in contact with the owners of the buildings that they're in, and and we're we're talking to some people about about their spaces and getting them interested and excited about what we're doing as well.
35:30
SPEAKER_03: And and there is a local group that's that is helping us too, uh the Taylor Theater Foundation.
35:36
SPEAKER_03: They're really kind of partnering with us to get some more momentum going on, fundraisers, finding a building and all that.
35:44
SPEAKER_03: The legwork that we don't know how to do or who to talk to, they're helping us a lot to get that going.
35:50
SPEAKER_02: So is everything that's being done, is it you're just going completely private, or do you get any help, or do you solicit any help, I guess, from the city?
36:04
SPEAKER_03: We haven't yet.
36:05
SPEAKER_03: I mean, we we've been doing this basically based on our own donations and the shows that we've done so far.
36:12
SPEAKER_03: Um one of the things that this group is going to help us do is look at you know funding opportunities there in Taylor and some of the local businesses.
36:20
SPEAKER_03: Um, there are several places that we have talked to that they're like, yep, just let us know when you're ready to go and we'll we'll make sure we we help you out.
36:27
SPEAKER_03: So we feel like we're getting close, you know, right on the bubble with a lot of these things.
36:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: Is there uh is there a space in particular that feels like it would fit the bill for you?
36:38
SPEAKER_02: And it would it be like downtown as well?
36:41
SPEAKER_03: I like that historic downtown area.
36:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
36:44
SPEAKER_03: I I think it would be a really easy with the restaurants and the shops there, it would be very easy to partner up and do almost like themed shows, you know, and drink specials at the restaurants and start so that that area becomes a place that people like to come hang out, whether there's a show on or not, you know.
37:01
SPEAKER_03: But the show is is gonna drive you know more business for the the local community.
37:06
SPEAKER_03: Um so somewhere in that area, and we've looked at several spots and we like all of them.
37:12
SPEAKER_02: You like you like the one that'll say, hey, you can park up here.
37:16
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: It's I can't even I don't even know how long it's been that I I would walk down a sidewalk in a retail shop or something, and if I saw for a for lease sign, I would think, man, I would love to have a space there to do something for the community artistically.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: And even when a decade ago, when I lived in another part of town in North Austin, there was a big vacant space, and so I took a picture of it and I drew my this was before I was part of Sage Presents Players, but like I drew my logo for my theater company, and I you know made this picture and tried to just craft that vision in my head that I wanted it that one day it was gonna happen, so we'll see.
37:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:59
SPEAKER_02: Well, and it's because Sam is Sam Bass still open or did that close?
38:05
SPEAKER_03: The group is still there, the building is not.
38:07
SPEAKER_02: Okay, the building isn't.
38:09
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't remember.
38:10
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so you you have Sam Bass, you have Georgetown, but when you start getting into North Austin, it gets sparse.
38:21
SPEAKER_02: Kind of quick.
38:22
SPEAKER_02: There's a bit of a market there in in North Austin where, like you said, you just you get to some of these places and you know, hopefully the desire is there, the want is there, the interest is there, and then you know, you have the ability to come in and fill the niche that's been been missing.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: And I think I think people are interested and excited when we talk to them.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: I think they need to see us there consistently.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: And um, and I think too going back to the fundraising and you know, talking to businesses about donations or just support, you know, it's one of the things that um I struggled with was really trying to ask for financial support and donations if we really without any kind of guarantee that that's where we were gonna be.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: And so that's another reason why I'm so excited that the board is eager and excited about being in Taylor, because now I feel like we can say, yes, we are really gonna be here.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: We have these shows, and especially if if in 2027 we can say we're doing three shows, here's our season, and then maybe the work will get out better.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that's that's still kind of a struggle in the small town.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, people talk, but do they get the messages in time to come to auditions?
39:47
SPEAKER_00: And how can we better better get our word out?
39:51
SPEAKER_00: So we are, you know, trying again to do some of the downtown events and have a booth there and get our word our name out there and let people know that yes, we will we will be here again in 2027 doing more shows for all of you.
40:03
SPEAKER_00: So please come come out and watch and be a part.
40:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, audition.
40:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, canvas canvassing becomes a lot easier when you've got some roots that you can you can put down on that.
40:14
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
40:14
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah.
40:15
SPEAKER_02: Well, you all are are fighting the good fight.
40:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh the arts, theater in particular, uh not easy to get up off the ground.
40:26
SPEAKER_02: Funding's always an issue.
40:28
SPEAKER_02: So uh nothing but respect from the podcast to you guys on on getting that going, and certainly the best of luck with all of that.
40:36
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I am gonna have in the description for this episode the uh fundraising page on the Stage Presence Players website that you can visit.
40:46
SPEAKER_02: You can see all their information and how to donate.
40:50
SPEAKER_02: Um, so we'll we'll end on that.
40:52
SPEAKER_02: I'd like to thank my guests, uh Denise and Michael.
40:54
SPEAKER_02: You can find Stage Presence Players on Instagram at the Stage Presence Players.
41:00
SPEAKER_02: Tickets for Voices of Now can be purchased on their website, aforementioned StagePresencePlayers.com.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: Donation page can be found in the description of this episode.
41:11
SPEAKER_02: Be sure to follow all of our socials on Instagram, on Facebook, on X and Blue Sky, and on TikTok at TheaterLife Pod.
41:19
SPEAKER_02: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to Theatre Life on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube so that the next conversation finds you and find everything at theaterlife podcast dot com.
41:33
SPEAKER_02: New episodes drop every two weeks.
41:35
SPEAKER_02: So until then, I'm Ben Kirchhoffell.
41:38
SPEAKER_02: See you next time.