Latest / The BSB Podcast / Exclusive Interview: Shelby Seeley, Joe Wright, & Amanda Buchalter of Theatre Nova's 'Athena'

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Exclusive Interview: Shelby Seeley, Joe Wright, & Amanda Buchalter of Theatre Nova's 'Athena' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Theater Nova is hard at work bringing this production of Athena to stage.
• 0:03
  And today we're talking with Shelby Seeley Joe Wright,
• 0:05
  and Amanda Buchalter from this production.
• 0:07
  Thank you so much for being here and joining me.
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  Thanks for having us.
• 0:11
  Yeah, happy to be here.
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  We're so
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  exc we are so excited to have you on and you're just a few days out from
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  Excited.
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  o the opening of Athena. Shelby,
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  how are you feeling about leading into the big day?
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  I honestly feel so good about it.
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  Like I've never had a process that's I'm like,
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  nothing could go wrong, everything's going so well.
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  I'm so excited for people to be here on Friday.
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  Like I can't wait.
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  Amanda, are you still kind of feeling the same way too?
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  Are you getting a little nervous as we're getting closer to that day,
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  or how you feeling?
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  I'm thrilled, genuinely. I can't wait to share this show with people.
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  I think it's so cool. I think it's really different from what people
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  may have gotten used to seeing and I think it's really gonna impact people.
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  So I cannot wait.
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  Joe, how about you? What kinda drew you to the show and how are
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  you feeling about it?
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  Yeah, I'm a fight director and I like the idea that action transcends language.
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  And so ~ in this way it's fun to see a thing to where two young women
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  get to engage in quite literally a a back and forth and contest each other
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  and challenge each other. And as we get closer to opening,
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  my job kind of lifts off a bit because I had a whole thing when we first started,
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  but now the show is basically theirs.
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  So I just I get to be excited and watch this grow and take off.
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  have to be super exciting to kind of see that product come together
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  now as everyone else is f fine tuning those pieces.
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  ~ but shel but Shelby, what's kind of the story of Athena for those
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  Yep, definitely.
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  who maybe aren't familiar with this with the show?
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  Yeah, so Athena is about two 17-year-old fencers that are training together
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  for the Junior Olympics and they want to be friends.
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  ~ and it's a world of competition where they're practicing together
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  and figuring out this relationship that is going to affect them forever,
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  in in my opinion.
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  What was it about this story that really drew you to it?
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  'Cause I've noticed that even when we were corresponding about Athena,
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  you had such an excitement for this show.
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  Yeah, okay, so I have wanted to do this show for as long as I can remember.
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  I don't I don't even know when I read it,
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  but I've pitched this show. ~ I went back through my email when Theater Nova finally
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  said yes. I went back through my email and was like,
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  how many times have I pitched this show?
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  And it's been at least four years and fifteen times to theaters all over the state.
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  I've wanted to be directing this show for
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  Ever, it feels like. ~ and I wanted to do it because I always say the theater that
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  I want to do and the stories that I want to tell are violently tender
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  and fairly feminine. And when people are like,
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  What does that mean? I'm like,
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  Go read Athena, get back to me.
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  Let me know what you think it means after see after reading that show.
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  So this is just like the epitome of the story that I want to tell
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  ~ about these strong.
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  badass and they're also like seventeen and fragile and they have
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  all these different they're allowed to be ferocious,
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  they're allowed to be funny, they're allowed to be imperfect.
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  ~ and you just love them. You can't help but love them anyway.
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  So I've been I'm so thrilled to get to do this.
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  And honestly, I'm so thrilled it worked out this way too because
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  the universe just kept saying,
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  wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, because this is the moment to do this show.
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  This is the time, these are the people,
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  this is what I've been waiting for.
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  So
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  I mean, it sounds like such a c incredible story to kind of be telling.
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  What was it about it that stood out to you as you were like auditioning
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  for the show?
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  When I was auditioning, I mean,
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  I've been friends with Shelby for a long time as well.
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  And Shelby truly has been talking about this show for literal years.
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  Ha ha ha.
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  So when it finally was picked up and came around to having
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  the opportunity to do it, a huge part of it was getting to do a show with
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  my friends. and I've started doing fight work in the last three or four years,
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  so getting the opportunity to do
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  A fight show with my friends was really,
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  really exciting to me. And it's really nice to see a show stealing a little
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  bit from Shelby's words that is so fairly feminine and lets women
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  be imperfect and tough and badass and like actually human as opposed
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  to this thing that is up on a pedestal.
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  It's nice to see some passion and imperfection.
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  So I love this show, truly.
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  And you're playing Jamie in this production,
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  correct?
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  Yes, yes, I am.
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  So it who do you feel like Jamie is to you?
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  gosh, who is Jamie to me? I mean,
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  she's a passionate, tough young woman who just really,
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  really wants to be good at something and be good at something with
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  the people around her. ~ she wants people to get better.
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  She wants to get better with her friends.
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  And I just think that that's again something that's really,
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  really human when you really care about something.
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  It it
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  pushes you and it pushes you to push the people around you too.
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  Sure, absolutely. ~ so when you kind of got this role and you got this part,
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  and obviously there's a script that you're working with and stuff like that,
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  but how did you kind of develop and find Jamie outside of the page and kind
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  of bring her to the stage?
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  Yeah. Well I think Shelby's actually done a really,
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  really good job of helping us with that in rehearsal.
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  ~ after we did our our couple of days of working up all of the fights
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  and and learning to be together physically in the space,
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  we actually took the time to just sit and talk about these characters
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  and who they are and who they are to each other.
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  ~ and I think a lot of those conversations really helped to build the world
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  and make some of those ~
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  tougher decisions because this is a show that would be very,
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  very easy to just simplify down to,
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  ~ they're teenagers just living life and couldn't possibly have any emotional depth.
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  But I think that that would be a real disservice to the show.
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  ~ so Shelby really allowed us a lot of time to have those conversations
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  and that made a huge difference.
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  It sounds like you have a very collaborative approach when it comes
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  to directing a show.
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  yeah. I like to think that everybody that's working on a show with me
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  is the expert in their own field and it's an honor and a privilege to
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  get to work with them and to build something collaboratively together.
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  And my job is to just get us all going in the same direction.
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  When you 'cause you have such a love for this project,
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  you've you've been with this project for so long,
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  it sounds like in so many different ways.
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  Where do you kind of start then to bring Athena to the stage?
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  Like, do you have to t almost take a step back for a moment to kind
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  of reassess the the the material before you can dive right back into it again?
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  Yeah, I actually because I've been pitching it for so long and so long
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  and I kept getting all these no's,
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  when I finally got a yes, I was like,
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  Okay, so why this show now? You know,
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  it's been so many years, so why now?
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  ~ and I really came to like to an interesting place,
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  I think, where these girls are seventeen,
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  we're putting the show in twenty twenty six,
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  which means they would have been eleven during the COVID lockdown pandemic.
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  And I was a middle school teacher during the COVID lockdown pandemic.
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  So I was working with those 11-year-olds.
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  Goodness.
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  ~ and I saw firsthand like the struggles that they were having to connect
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  to one another when we started to come back.
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  and I really think that this show exemplifies that and that connection
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  ~ that everybody so desperately wants and is often
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  so earnestly ~ going after.
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  But maybe makes a few mistakes along the way,
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  put your foot in your mouth, that kind of a thing.
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  and I just felt like that was something that audiences today,
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  even adults, will really relate to because I felt like when I came back
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  out of this ~ lockdown situation that I was having a hard time connecting with
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  people again. ~ so to take these younger ~ characters
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  Sure.
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  and see how they're
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  the f their fight to connect with one another,
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  I think, is very interesting and very admirable.
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  I mean, absolutely. I mean but also what a great like dynamic to help
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  to kind of bring to the stage.
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  You know what I mean? That sounds like it's so ~ I mean,
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  I guess dynamic's the right word.
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  There's so much going on, there's so many layers to these different characters
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  in the scenario and what kind of fighting can maybe represent here.
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  So Joe, when you're kind of starting a project as the fight director,
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  and y this one it sounds like fighting is so ~ integral to the story,
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  like where do you begin with like developing a vision for that
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  and developing that vision?
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  Yeah, real good question. ~ when it comes to fight work in general,
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  one of the things I like to avoid is just delving too much into spectacle.
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  I I believe action should move narrative and narrative should flow through action.
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  So if they're not married, it doesn't work for me.
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  ~ one of the things I like to say is to put a little math in theater for a second,
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  that characters have objectives.
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  They take
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  Actions to reach those objectives,
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  and when they become each other's obstacles,
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  that's where conflict lies, and that's where fight exists.
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  We help manifest that conflict through action.
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  in this case, fencing, for example,
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  dramaturgically, sits in a place that,
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  especially like riffing off of what Shelby was talking about,
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  how these these girls were young in middle school during COVID.
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  It sits in a place where they are now contesting each other,
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  but in a like
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  I don't want to say polite, but at least in a way that has etiquette.
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  So there are rules that they have to contest each other by,
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  and they have to learn how to work within that paradigm in order to have this back
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  and forth. And that's where I think foil fencing is a really,
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  really good representation of that.
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  ~ when somebody makes an attempt and a sincere and honest attempt,
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  but then it's defeated, they have no choice but to allow a response
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  and then deal with that. And one of the characters,
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  without getting too spoilery, ~ makes a
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  wonderful ~ observation on how she approaches solo training.
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  And it's early on, so you'll the audiences will be able catch it.
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  And ~ pr elicits a reaction of,
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  well, you're that good, and this is how you you just perform this way solo
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  or train this way solo. And I think that sets up a really good foil,
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  excuse me, for for how they're going to interact with each other throughout
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  Mm-hmm.
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  the process.
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  And so when I when I begin a project,
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  I guess to circle back onto that,
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  I want to look at what what violence or fight
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  or physical contestment means dramaturgically,
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  and then I want to facilitate that for the actors from there.
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  Are there times then that that your vision changes then as you get into
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  the staging of it and the and you're getting into like the the the blocking of that?
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  Like where you're like, this doesn't fit like narratively or it doesn't
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  fit with with the emotion of the scene and you have to change some of that,
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  well in this project it pretty much it pretty much flowed very well.
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  I know all the performers and Shelby and I seem to be very,
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  very much in sync with what we wanted.
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  But yeah, there are plenty of times where I'll have a concept for something
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  and that might run against what a performer or an actor is feeling
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  or what the director's intent is.
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  And then we adjust 'cause again,
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  my job as a fight director is facilitation and translation.
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  I I get my own ~ I get my own say,
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  but if it's not working in concert then it's
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  just ego. ~ And my job is to facilitate that work.
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  And in this case, I think it all came pretty streamlined.
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  We figure out how the actors want to perform and then we make characters
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  and actions that flow through that.
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  That is incredible. And again,
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  because it's so integrated, it sounds like you can't have one without
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  the other when it comes to it.
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  Nope, absolutely not. They're inseparable.
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  Now Shelby, are there times as well that you feel like your vision
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  as a director changed for what you had for Athena as you're kind of developing it.
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  ~
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  That's a great question. I just think that as we were working on it,
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  this endless pursuit of connection just continued to become clearer
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  and clearer and clearer to me.
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  And I think that it's become I think it's only strengthened the the final product,
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  I guess is is where I'm going with that.
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  That didn't change
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  it but it helped to like fortify it in a way.
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  Yeah, yeah.
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  That is incredible. That's incredible when there's already such
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  a strong foundation that all you can do is build on that.
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  Yeah, it's been a wonderful process.
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  So Amanda, when it comes to both Jamie and the material,
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  do you feel like your understanding of this character and the story that
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  she kind of inhabits? Does it has it changed over time since you kind
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  of been with her? Or do you feel like do have like a deeper understanding
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  of who she is?
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  Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. I mean,
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  even just again, going back to the conversations that we had,
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  I it's it was hard to decide what to do with Jamie from from my perspective.
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  And so getting to figure out where she sits in this world
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  ~ definitely changed changed my opinions of her.
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  And even just the other day I was doing some some script work and
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  and realized that there were some things that were hidden in one
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  particular thing that I say that I hadn't considered before.
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  So I mean it it changes every time I do it,
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  which is part of why I love live theater.
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  And it changes when I am having the opportunity to perform with the other actors
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  and just seeing what they give me and what reactions I can have to that.
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  ~ it's it's very organic and the opportunity to listen to each other
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  on stage makes it different every single time,
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  which I think is really cool.
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  Do you think that this has challenged you in any way,
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  made you grow as an actor, ~ being a part of Athena?
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  Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is my first time ~ doing a show with fencing,
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  for one. You know, a lot of the other fighting that I have done
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  has been very theatrical, and this is my first time doing a show after
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  all of my fight training, so it's kind of cool to see the culmination of that.
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  But Jamie is is so concise
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  and and so ~ ferocious.
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  Which is not a role that I get to do very often.
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  I'm I'm usually the the gentler roles.
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  So it's it's fun to to kind of come out of the gate really
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  ~ hot and pointed, it both from a fight perspective and from
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  a an acting perspective. It's been it's been very fun.
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  I've had to make some bigger choices than I typically would.
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  That sounds awesome though that you've been able to have the safe space
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  to also make those adjustments and find kind of your footing with that.
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  Yeah, I mean, again, Shelby, everybody involved,
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  but Shelby in particular did a really good job of just creating a space that
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  was ripe for making those choices.
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  And it's hard not to have fun with it when you are surrounded by friends
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  and people who are all really passionate about making this a good show.
• 15:32
  Sure. Joe, for you as a as a fight director,
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  do you feel like there's been anything that's been specifically challenging about
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  this production or things that you just as they're coming along,
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  you d it feels almost accomplishment like you're it's accomplishing
• 15:44
  to have it completed because it was like a challenge to to get
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  the right sequence together.
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  Yeah, ~ foil fencing in and of itself is
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  a very concise movement vocabulary.
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  I think that's the best way to phrase it.
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  and creating different feelings just out of
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  the idea of stab. and is is a is a challenge in and
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  of itself and working with the actors so that they can do ~ a show with
• 16:19
  no intermission.
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  And no breaks. And then think about all
• 16:25
  I'm gonna say 31 points that they have to make throughout the show with zero time
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  to refresh, zero time to get ready.
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  They go on, and that's it. We go.
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  so creating yeah, yeah,
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  yeah, yeah. ~ so creating that with Shelby and working with
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  her within her leadership and the actors' goals,
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  ~
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  was a very rewarding process and doing things in such a way that helps them again
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  tell their story without becoming monotonous and while maintaining personality
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  was a very fine rope to walk, but ~ thanks to Shelby,
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  Amanda, Jen and Brittany, they allowed they allowed for a space where that
• 17:11
  can happen. I think that's really,
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  really fun.
• 17:14
  Awesome. Shelby, everyone is praising your leadership here.
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  But do you feel like this show has challenged you in any way or made
• 17:20
  you grow as well, on top of just the fact that you are exceptional
• 17:23
  at what you're doing here?
• 17:25
  thank you. ~ I like it means so much to me to hear these praises because I've
• 17:32
  said it before and I'll say it again.
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  ~ it's so special that in a show that's about meeting your match
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  ~ and being challenged and iron sharpens iron and one human sharpens another.
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  Like there's so many things in this show that those are thematic through lines
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  for me that I feel like with this team,
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  the universe
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  ~ rewarded my patience in putting this show together and gave me iron
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  all the way around. Like everybody,
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  I've met my match with everybody.
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  Everybody has brought so much to this.
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  I I couldn't be happier with just the passion and the precision
• 18:12
  and the thought and the care and
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  I mean every day I wake up excited to go to rehearsals and excited
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  for what everybody is bringing to the table that day.
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  And I can't be more thankful for that.
• 18:24
  ~ I just I really feel so lucky.
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  So
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  incredible. So the one final question for all of you,
• 18:31
  and Amanda I'll just start with you is what are you hoping audiences take away from
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  this production of Athena?
• 18:35
  gosh. ~ that is an excellent question.
• 18:40
  think that I want audiences to take away how love
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  and challenge can change you. ~ I think that that is really what this show is about.
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  ~ and I think that that it's important to acknowledge the comfort
• 18:58
  and discomfort that can come from being challenged in love.
• 19:02
  That that's a great answer. Joe,
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  how about for you? What are you hoping audiences take away?
• 19:07
  ~ at the risk of being very,
• 19:10
  very, very ~ obvious. I'm a guy.
• 19:13
  and yeah,
• 19:15
  Well it's no
• 19:17
  right? what I what I really hope they take away from this is that this is
• 19:23
  a ~ a feminine story that allows women to have their own voice.
• 19:25
  And ~ this is why I've tried to make it make it clear in this interview that
• 19:30
  my job was facilitation, not just
• 19:32
  Trying to impose my view on the things.
• 19:34
  So it's very important that Amanda,
• 19:36
  Britney, Shelby, Jen, they all have their voice come through in this work.
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  And what I what I really want them to take away is that women,
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  young women, just women in general,
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  are allowed to be expressive, are allowed to take space,
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  and are allowed in some ways to violently take space and be unashamed.
• 19:54
  I love that. And I do think that this is the perfect example.
• 19:56
  You know, you only talking to you,
• 19:57
  Amanda, and you Shelby, but there is a lot of passion,
• 19:59
  there's lot of care for this. And it shows you that this space
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  is necessary and needed and warranted.
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  And it's great to have a show like this to do that.
• 20:07
  ~ but Shelby, to kind of close this out then,
• 20:10
  what are you hoping us just take away?
• 20:13
  so many things, but maybe to just wrap it all up is I hope they take away
• 20:19
  ~ just an excitement for theater and stories about women
• 20:26
  and their experiences and their lives.
• 20:29
  ~ that's yeah.
• 20:33
  Beautiful. Thank you so much for being here.
• 20:34
  Mm-hmm.
• 20:35
  It's been such a blast chatting with all of you.
• 20:37
  ~ and we cannot wait for the show.
• 20:39
  Yeah. Thanks so much for having us.
• 20:42
  Yeah, thank you.
• 20:42
  Thanks for having
• 20:42
  us. Yeah yeah.
• 20:44
  So Athena arrives at Theater Nova on July seventeenth and runs through August ninth,
• 20:47
  so get your tickets now and we'll see you at the show.