Latest / CINEMACTIVIST / S03E18 - Meet Tethered's Benjamin S. Sheeler

Transcript

S03E18 - Meet Tethered's Benjamin S. Sheeler · CINEMACTIVIST

• John C. Lyons: Hello, everybody, and welcome to Cinema Activist. My name is John Lyons, and I'm your host. And you're going to watch an episode with Benjamin S. Sheeler, who is a member of Tethered's new production, The Lever. He's on the cast, he plays the board president or coach, as we call him. And I recorded this episode just last night. before our last rehearsal in the mansion. So we've had three mock audience rehearsals. and then we just completed this past weekend, our opening weekend. It went great. And before we jumped into rehearsals, I recorded an interview with Benjamin and I also recorded an interview with Audrey King who's also on the cast. This episode is with Benjamin and I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for watching. How are you doing, Benny? Doing wonderful. Thank you for having me, John. Of course. So we met, let's see, it was almost ten years ago now. Yep. And did you audition for our feature film Unearth? I I did, if through Docherty Agency. I was Earl Yates. I got to name You let me name in the middle of the night. That was fun. That that fair [Crawford County] was fun. I wanna go back to that fair when it's not filming 'cause it's it was really a lot of things there interesting me. Yeah, yeah, that was that was a blast. And you're wrestling around with Mark Blucas in the yard. Yeah. Yep. It didn't go so well. No, we didn't. I tried like heck though. Yeah, it didn't turn out well well for either of you. I played trumpet when I was in fourth grade to around junior year in high school. So that introduced me to the arts. I did a little drama back freshman in high school, many another lifetime ago. I was mainly a sports guy. Okay. Through throughout my coming up and once that expired. I'm always thinking of reinventing myself. was in Iowa City, Iowa. Okay. Go Hawks. track and field. Okay. Little football. What'd you compete in in track and field? I was always a hurdler. Okay. They made me a hurdler. I I didn't know how to hurdle when they made me a hurdler, but okay. I learned. Got it. I learned and trained and it's a special kind of deal. It's all technical and takes a lot of training when no one's watching. a terrible amount. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay, so you go through grade school and then So the arts was the trumpet. Yeah. And and I kind of was away from it. I was into the technology revolution that was going on in the early century of the this century, twenty first century. So I got into that, learned how to build websites and write code and really? wow. Yeah. Okay. So you're into like computer science kind of stuff. Yeah, and repair repairing installing, Or people who call into a help desk thing like that. Okay. I was intern for Red Cross when they were downtown Pittsburgh. Then I worked for a PC LAN help desk. That was over in Penn Hills. Okay. And I ended up getting a gig with Baldwin Whitehall School District as a paraprofessional, which is a help desk person at the school. while I was working at the Baldwin Whitehall School District, me and the music teacher become friends. He told me I was talking about what I played and he told me I have a trumpet in the attic. You want it? I said yes. So he gave it gave me the trumpet. And now that you have the internet, you can do all these things through the internet by training, you know, and we're okay. So you're watching like what YouTube videos? YouTube videos on just bringing back the the muscle memory of the every good boy does fine and F A C E and the valves and and that. So I was able to play I what the memorial Memorial Day? They had the CBS plays taps, the way everybody plays taps. I did that a few years in a row and sent it to CBS. okay, cool. Yep. It's still twenty, it's like t they're twenty-six notes, pretty much. Nice. Did you play like in any bands like that? I was in a marching band. Cool. yeah, my background was an unorthodox background as a child. I was in a military orphanage, so that's why I learnt my so I was playing a lot of John Philip Sousa songs. we was marching band and concert band, was small outfit. So it what if you was in band, you was in the concert, you was in marching. We didn't have a jazz band because we had to play. The people that played in the band had to play sports, so we never had a jazz band per se. 'Cause we're sm small in numbers, you know. but once I I left that facility I didn't pick it up much anymore after that. Okay. Until probably Two thousand nine I started messing around again. And then when you picked it up again, were you doing any acting Yeah, I was doing background, just specifically background work for man it was coming from Nancy Mosser in Pittsburgh. So what was some of the stuff that you worked on initially? And what kind of got you into into doing that in the first place? I always had a a thing with communicating with people I mean in my era there wasn't much camera time. But if you did get in front of a camera, you was always called a ham. That was the name that they always called me a ham because I in front of the camera. But you know, I didn't really realize that, you know, the talent I had within me that had to kind of be tapped. You know? So once I was able to do some background work. with Promised Land was one of Okay. I was a stand in. I had to write some of this down 'cause it's been a minute. I was a standing for Southpaw for Forrest Whitaker and Those Who Kill was a series back in two thousand five or something. It was a series on T V. I w did some stand in work for that. Nice. and I mainly did background work up until I got my SAG card. Okay. So how to get your SAG card do you have to I'm trying to remember how many project is it how many projects you need to be Yeah, it says three projects or if you speak in a particular shoot. I I have to thank shout out to Matt Damon 'cause he's the reason I do have my SAG card. Awesome. It was a scene we were shooting in Promised Land where I was doing the They told me before I was gonna be handing the star a towel in the Concourse House, which is the old railroad station on in Pittsburgh along this station square. And I didn't even know the movie, so I had to look it up. Who who's in this movie? And I saw Matt Damon, and so me and my wife was jokingly saying, I'm gonna be handing Matt Damon towels. Ha ha ha ha ha. And it was actually Matt Damon, I was doing that. So it was he would wash his face. Right when the movie starts, he's washing his face. I step up, hand him a towel. We did that a few times and he gives me money and he leaves and and it was funny. He came back the third time and gave me the the play money back and said, if you say thank you, sir, it's more money. Now I wasn't sure if he was talking about the money he just gave me. or or something else. And so it was something else that I didn't didn't. I was so green, I didn't even understand what he was saying. And I spoke and they started measuring me and getting me closer and all this stuff was going on. I didn't understand what was going on. And they sent me to the to the SAG office to this the office after the my shoot and then I then I understood what was happening. Yeah. okay, this is what happened. And about a year and a half, I joined the union. Okay. Yeah. And then I got representation through Docherty in Pittsburgh. I've taken a ton of a ton of workshops with Randy Kovitz. He's real good in Pittsburgh. He's done a lot of things in film. some West Coast guys, John Homa and Jeff Dockweller. He's my acting coach in LA. If I ever need him I'd give him a call. Nice. Mark Cross, we all we had a Pittsburgh acting workshop back in the mid two thousands that It was in the evenings downtown Pittsburgh. And we'd go there and shoot different scenes from movies and rehearse off book and stuff like that. I went to intensive with Tom Todoroff He's a director, also a coach, acting coach. Chevy Chase, Maryland. Yeah, went to Chevy Chase, Maryland. Is where he had the intensive. It was a couple days. Super intelligent guy and full of a lot of valuable information. Awesome. He told me about the book The Audition. And it talks about the twelve steps that you want to take as you approach your character. So when I took improv, I was taking took an improv at Steel City Improv. Shout out to them. took two levels, level one was intro, then took level two. They were all six weeks, and at the end of the six weeks, we have a stage show, the group of us. And we go on stage and we create an organic scene I loved it. it was we would take a word from the audience. Sometimes it was a beach. You know, I remember one time it was a beach, it was on a beach and the the seven of us had to organically create this scene on a beach on the stage. And I what I found from that during that training is every time I w got together with him, I felt so good inside and happy and energetic. Yeah, it was like, yeah, this is fun. This is I like how this I'd like how it flows, how the the games are played too. Yeah, the play of it all. Okay, that's cool. How long ago was that that you did the That was twenty fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. Okay. So that was on a house team called Playdate. we did one at the arcade downtown Pittsburgh is another comedy spot. Nice. We did one at Steel City Improv Theater. We had a couple of different venues we went and had our shows at. And it was more of the games games played within the improv. where you had to be a character and have an answer from the audience and a question they would ask. And you'd be in this character and you could answer it outrageously as you wanted, all sophisticated, make it sound like you know what you're doing, but And yeah, that's fun. I love that stuff. Mainly film, right? mainly film, but I still do improv with the arcade people now. it's basically a multi generation, multiracial people of color kind of improv. 'Cause we don't have they don't have much of that in Pittsburgh where we all get together. Gotcha. So there's a special we have these special dates where we do shows. And right when I got auditioned for this, they told me they wanted to have me on standby in Pittsburgh for this for they win the show. I could come to practices and stuff like that. Uhhuh. But I told him well I'm gonna do this immersive. And then when I'm done with that in October I'll come back and we'll see if we can work something out with the with the other side. Work beguns work is what I told. Let's get into a little bit of this show. what did you think about the audition experience? And what did you think about the process of developing your character? The audition experience was refreshing, to be honest with you. 'Cause it it was non traditional. And everything that we did in it, I was happy to do. It was it was fun. It was involving, it made you think a lot. It wasn't why it requires scripts and code reading and which a lot of them you do. Yeah. This required your natural ability to think on your feet and to l listen, be an active listener, not just hear, you gotta listen actively and that's what I really liked out of the whole process. Cool. And doing and doing my monologue, which I kinda have just packed away. Not many people ask for it anymore these days. They don't wanna hear your monologue anymore. And it's a lot of self taped stuff. A lot of self tape. I've been doing that since 2014 actually. Once I once I learned from w workshops that you could record yourself on YouTube. Yeah. And you could watch it. Yeah. And it doesn't cost anything. Yeah. and then I'm in. Then I became a full prolific recorder of myself and characters I create and doing monologues, you know, because in sports what I what we did a lot, we played the game, we studied the tape. What do I what do I need to do better? What am I doing here? Keep my head down, chin up, don't look you know Yeah, that's that is a benefit of self taping, right? Yeah. Yep, and you can t critique yourself too, even with the general stuff where you don't send it in. Yeah. And sometimes I was just doing monologues. I was just searching out monologues, going off book, recording myself, and then going back and watching it and seeing if my volume was loud loud enough, my dictation, how about Is my chin up like this? You know, and if there's a lot of weird things go on that you don't notice in in that can throw off your your presentation. Yeah, for sure. But the coach now I brought coach into it. Now coaches he he likes to be liked. And his main job is to keep everybody cool and confident, like himself. and the fact that I'd been a coach in my previous life. It it was like, okay, this is cool. What did you coach when you coached? I was football, I junior high football. And I track and field again. I don't get away from track and field. I was a scout as well. I scouted for the varsity team. they sent me out on Friday now. This is in Iowa. Yeah. In the country on Friday night, go here and they pay me $25. I go out and scout the team before, come back, give it to the coaches and they create the game. Okay, well then you definitely have real life exp totally did not know that. I mean when you showed up to audition I was super happy that you did. I was hoping that you would. Thank you for that opportunity as well. I appreciate it. Yeah, the rehearsals at first I didn't quite understand because I'd never under heard of immersive. Yeah. So I didn't understand the timestamps. Yeah. What all that meant and the movement. so it took me a while to that synchronization. Yeah, sync it sync in my head, understand what you know, and I mean a while like several rehearsals. Yeah. Cause I was so focused on my dialogue, I wasn't really focused on the timestamps. And then once I okay, I got my dialogue kinda in control. Let me look at this and see. And then I realize, I'm in the game room. I'm in this place. I'm in the bar. I'm back here. And it's a ten minutes okay, so yeah, this this is doable. And if you miss it, you might miss like your whole interaction with performer. Exactly. And so it's it's it's key to hit them points which I didn't understand. So the rehearsals help bring that bring that realization to me and help me understand the uses of the clocks that we have. Pay attention to the clocks and move as time requires us to. Yeah. The first weekend, now that was awesome. Now I'm gonna tell you. up to the mock audience, even the mock audience were good practice because it allowed us to, make the mistakes and and not feel like it was like super duper pressured. We had three mock audiences Right? Did you feel like yeah, how did that first one feel? And then by the time you got to either the third mock audience or opening the first one I was near nervous, yeah. But I'm always I like to be nervous. That's part of my sports thing. If I'm not nervous, I'm not ready. And so I was a little nervous, worried about my dialogue. Will I be able to like bring this all out in the way that I s read it? So it was Yeah, having the confidence in myself to be able to do it. Not standing in front of people is not a problem. I've been doing that for a while. Talking in front of people, I could do that all day. but when I can but when you're required to stick to this script and not the script in your head, it it's a little more controlled and you gotta understand the dynamics of okay, I have a little bit of time, I can talk about this, but I have to stick to stick to the plan. Yeah. how was the opening weekend experience? now that was That was like I was something I've been waiting for. It is you know, you when you first started doing out in August, you know, October 2nd, you know, that's like so far away. Who's thinking about October 2nd in the in the middle of August, you know? but it was always kind of back there in the back of my head, and next thing I know, here's October second. Yeah. We're here. Yeah. And and I put so much pressure on myself to be perfect and to hit my marks and try to be the best I can in that particular moment. Yeah. That you know, I felt a lot of pressure on within that first night, you know. Yeah. Is is is this gonna be how they said it's gonna be? Would the people did it come along with us and do these things they said? Did you find that the people came along? They did. They they did. they were interested in a lot of different things. the coach is they see the coach as a person who they can come up to and have these conversations with what they see something weird with the board because I'm the president. So they can talk to me like, Come on, coach, what what's going on? Why'd you letting this go on? you know? And as a coach, you know, I'm a team guy, team player. So I always remind them that is where a team up there is a board and I can't just go rogue on my own on stuff. Coach, you know, he come up in a prominent neighborhood, a lot of accolades and trophies and rewards and all that. So he's used to the high life and the the shine. You know, he's used to all that. But the board offers just a little different kind of shine. Some of the shine you don't want, you want to be associated with. But the fact that I'm on the board, there's no place to escape it. But to talk it out with the different guests who approach me and ask me why why I was doing these things I was doing. Yeah. Because you as a coach, you know it takes all kind of people to do things. So there's no need to start putting limitations on different individuals and And I totally understood that. I tell it's a valid point. You know, I tell look, I I totally that's I get it. You know. I don't wanna kill what they're trying to say 'cause it is true what they're saying to me. Yeah. Yeah. But at the same time, I it's keep my discipline and I stay with the board and what we do. Even if it sounds like it's the most craziest thing in the world, I will st will stay with them 'Cause we built that bond over the years, you know, sixteen years on the board. Yeah. We built a bond that yeah, we're gonna have some crazy things we're gonna present. But if we back each other, hey, you know, right. We can probably handle it, handle the pressure together instead of one. Yeah. And so that the Friday night we had a nice crowd, you know, And they were real ambitious. They were like, anxious to do stuff, you know, they would follow me and and I would ask them to do things and they want to do it. And it was like, okay, we're in. And I had to make sure, you know, as I'm asking them these things that they that they follow through on what they wanted that say they're gonna do. Sometimes it's just to get into the space and and kind of see what's going on. Which which is okay too. Yeah. But when you want to volunteer to do something, I'm like, come on, let's go. Now the Saturday night was a bigger crowd, which heightened my spider senses even more. I was like, okay. That was the first real test, I think. they they were people that worked me. Couple people were working me hard on why the coach was like he is, why you're agreeing with this, why you going along. You c they always when I said it's the team, maybe as well, you can pick a different team. If they told me you can pick a different team. Yep. That's what they are kept saying every time. No, you can pick a different team. And it was the women that was working on me. The the funniest thing was the women that came up to me and was working on me. The men not so much. The women were working on me to to ch to do you just say it's not you, coach. You're not like this. And they they see that. I guess they get it when they meet me at first. Yep. And my Yeah, you're very personal. Charmable, yeah, personable. I have some charm and charisma. I can bring and I schmooze really well as well. So even in real life, I schmooze really well. And so as I said in the beginning, I keep feeling confident and good. Then they don't come at me really harshly. They come at me in a negotiating style kind of way. Yeah. Let's talk this out. And I'm I'm happy to do that. Yeah. You know. Yeah, that's the cool thing about this stuff is you're gonna you know, you're gonna get a different crowd each night, it might be a totally different chemistry. Yeah, exactly. You get and I get some you know, I had one woman ask me the other night in the middle of monologue, How old are you? And I I I kinda thought, Okay, did she do that just to throw me off? Or she really interested 'cause it had nothing to do. 'Cause I was talking about the past, so sh I guess she was wondering why is he talking about being in being the man on Friday night and all this when he's this old. Is that And people are like that. And then I was still doing that same woman walked by. I was doing the monologue and she turned and said, Them those those days are over. Yeah. She just crushed me like man. Put out. Put out. Without my response, not for me. Yeah. Not for coach. Them days are never over. Yeah. They live in infamy on a playback reel. I I'm really enjoying it. And you know, as the show's word goes around and word of mouth, and I'm sure the people here Saturday, they loved it, absolutely loved it. They're gonna tell a person, that person's gonna tell a person. Yeah. You know, before we know it, there may be a hundred in in the room. Yeah, I think it'll be a word of mouth kind of show for sure. People are in are into it. yeah, and I really I really love that. And Thank you again for this opportunity. Of course. Thank you, sir.