Why I‘ll Never Make It
Episodes
Monday Aug 08, 2022
Monday Aug 08, 2022
In the last episode, I spoke with composer Matt Vinson and writer Matte O'Brien about their new musical Anne of Green Gables. It was the first time I’ve spoken with a musical writing team here on Why I’ll Never Make It, and so for the two of them I thought I would bring back a bonus episode I haven’t done in a while: The Final Five.
After that main interview they answered five final questions about what “making it” means to them, lessons they’ve learned both as individuals and as a writing team, as well as useful advice that has helped them creatively and personally.
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Monday Aug 01, 2022
Monday Aug 01, 2022
Writing a musical is a long process, and once the writers are have finished that last page…that’s really only the beginning of their journey. By the time an actor comes along to audition for it, there’s usually been years of drafts, workshops, and revisions.
Listeners of this podcast know that this summer has been a welcome return to the stage for me in a new theatrical adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, my first musical since the covid shutdown. And it all started with a self-tape audition back in February of this year that then culminated in several callbacks with the creative team a few weeks later. Well today, I’m joined by two of the people who were in that audition room: composer Matt Vinson and writer Matte O'Brien.
A transcript of this interview can be found here.
While there have been individual writers and composers on previous episodes, this is the first time welcoming a musical writing team to the show. Matt and Matte have done several musicals together, but for this conversation we focus on the many years it has taken for Anne of Green Gables to get to Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut, and how they are preparing for its potential future. Matt and Matte share three stories of its humble beginnings, learning to take (and not take) feedback from others, and how actors influence the rewriting and editing process.
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Anne of Green Gables Concept Album
As this musical has gone through various readings and workshops, there have been a number of people taking on these characters and singing these songs. And throughout this episode you’ll hear samples of music from Anne of Green Gables, taken from a Concept Album and subsequent recordings. Those featured in this episode include:
Oh, My Diana - Chris McCarrell
Different Kind of Girl - Michelle Veintimilla
The Asylum - Jenna Rubaii
I Wanna Know You - Chris McCarrell
Make a Move - Aurelia Williams
Different Kind of Girl (Reprise) - Juliette Redden
Listen as Matt and Matte answer the Final Five questions and read their Writer's Notes on Anne of Green Gables.
The Queer Life of L.M. Montgomery
Her 1908 novel about a red-headed orphan girl has sold more than 50 million copies and made her known throughout the world with generations of fans. But what is really known about L.M. Montgomery, who was called ‘Maud’ by close friends and family. She started out as a single schoolteacher, but went on to marry a minister, gave birth to two sons, and wrote many more books.
But in 1985, publication began of a journal Montgomery had been keeping for fifty-three years. It was quite a shocking exposé of a woman who was often depressed, dealt with a horrible marriage, yet found her greatest happiness from deep, intimate and meaningful relationships with female friends.
And so for decades an undercurrent of Lesbianism has been debated not only for the central character of Anne Shirley but also the author herself. This came to a head in 2000 when professor Laura Robinson published a paper named “Bosom Friends: Lesbian Desire in L. M. Montgomery’s Anne Books,” where she argued that Anne had more passionate relationships with her female friends than her male love interest. This has not sat well with those who view Anne’s female friendships as both innocent and platonic.
Read more about this ongoing debate…
Bosom Friends Affair
Professor suggests Anne of Green Gables was Lesbian
The Gay Anne of Green Gables Scandal
Netflix is at It Again…Homosexuality in Anne of Green Gables
The Queer Life of L.M. Montgomery
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Why I’ll Never Make It is hosted and produced by Off-Broadway actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones in association with WINMI Media, LLC. It received the Communicator Award of Distinction in 2022 and is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot. WINMI is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.
The songs clips in this episode from the musical Anne of Green Gables are written by Matt Vinson and Matte O'Brien and used with their express permission. Outro Music is by Blue Dot Sessions and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Monday Jul 11, 2022
Monday Jul 11, 2022
For the past four weeks I’ve been in rehearsals for a new musical adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. During that time I even got Covid for the second time and had to miss several days of rehearsal while I was recovering. In fact, I wasn’t the only one who got Covid during the rehearsal process, so it’s been quite a journey for the creators and the cast as a whole and putting the show together. But we’ve now done all the blocking and scene work and are headed into tech rehearsals this week.
With that in mind I wanted to revisit a conversation from June 2020 with a playwright who is still just getting started in his own journey as a writer, an actor, a director and producer. Cris Eli Blak has remained one of my favorite guests and was someone who actually found me and requested to be a guest on the podcast. I’m so grateful for him reaching out and for the very personal, honest, and at times uncomfortable conversation we had. We talk about the writing process of bringing a show from the page to the stage as well as what it means to him to be a Black writer in theater today. He was only 21 when we sat down for this interview, but his insights and life experiences show maturity and wisdom far beyond his years.
Topics covered in this episode:
- Do The Right Thing 30 Years Later
- Spike Lee on HuffPost Live
- The Brother's Survivor short film
- The World Changes Through Art
- Our Duty to Confront Racism in Theater Industry
- "Like Father, Like Son" on the Logue Lounge
- All-White Production Of HAIRSPRAY In Texas Raises Eyebrows
- Should There Be All-White Productions of HAIRSPRAY?
"I want to give a shoutout to the people who push me, drive me, motivate me and hold me accountable. So, this goes out to my mother. This goes out to my grandfather. This goes out to my grandmother. This goes out to my sister. This goes out to my aunt. This goes out to everyone who came before me. This goes out to the late great August Wilson and Lorraine Hansberry who are on my personal Mt. Rushmore. And this is to everyone who wakes up and turns their dreams into goals and their goals into realities, for everyone who struggles and keeps going anyway."
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Cris Eli Blak Answers the Final Five
After our conversation, Cris answers the Final Five. He shares why he'd love to teach and his dream to be in CATS as well as what he learned from Tyler Perry.
A transcript of this interview can be found at the WINMI Blog and is available thanks to those who support this podcast.
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Monday Jun 20, 2022
Monday Jun 20, 2022
This past week I started rehearsals up in Connecticut at the Goodspeed Opera House doing a new musical version of the beloved Anne of Green Gables. It’s a well-known story around the world but especially in its home country of Canada. So in honor of that I thought I would bring a Canadian onto the podcast.
Ashley Victoria Robinson is an actress, writer, producer and podcaster, and though she and I won’t be talking about Anne of Green Gables, we do hit upon some of the themes from that story...dealing with the loss of family and how that can impact our lives, finding our place in this world and where we belong, and learning how to control our emotions and our words so that they don’t get us into trouble.
Now, I hadn’t met Ashley until we sat down for this interview, But just like Anne is constantly searching for that kindred spirit, I too found a wonderful connection with Ashley throughout our conversation and thankfully a kindred spirit in this industry.
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Ashley answers the Final Five questions on the WINMI Blog
Check out the podcast website and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter
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Why I’ll Never Make It is a top 25 theater podcast hosted by Off-Broadway actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones and is a production of WINMI Media, LLC. It is a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.
Background music in this episode is by John Bartmann (Public Domain) and Blue Dot Sessions (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License).
Ashley Victoria Robinson & Unladylike Theatre present The Bearer of Bad News at the 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival
Most actors are used to working in a traditional power structure where actors are subservient to directors. There’s a very clear sense of who is in charge and whose opinions matter the most. Ashley met her Unladylike co-founders (Tiana Randall-Quant and Kendell Byrd) under these very circumstances. They found collaboration as the three of them really drew on each other through the creative process.
Ashley recognizes a school of thought in contemporary theatre that is Socratic in its approach, where everyone is equal is therefore more “feminine.” Unladylike Theatre was established by 3 femmes, trying to bring feminine sensibilities to every step in the creative process. And so their mission statement is: Reimagining the future through femme-forward theatre.
The Bearer of Bad News is their debut production, which they worked on for about 2.5 years total. Bearer of Bad News explores the intersection of identity and purpose set against the backdrop of a world irrevocably altered by climate change. Unladylike looks forward to future projects as well, whether an update of a classic work or creating fresh new pieces of theater.
Ashley Victoria Robinson: Canadian Hobbit
She's been seen on stages all over the world including: The Wallis Annenberg, Theatre West, Hollywood Fringe Festival, Ottawa Fringe Festival, Youth Infringement Festival, Sock N Buskin, Cupcake Theater, and more. She's also a podcaster like me, hosting the Geek History Lesson podcast (alongside Jason Inman), was even the face of Twitter marketing for podcasters, and is the co-creator of The Red Shirt Diaries.
Ashley has been featured in several international commercial campaigns including Intel alongside The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons. On TV Ashley has shown off her acting chops on shows like Good Trouble (Freeform), Snowfall (FX), Pump (Urban Flix TV), and Hotel Secrets & Legends (Discovery Channel). Her comic book writings "Science! The Elements of Dark Energy" and the "Jupiter Jet" series are both award-nominated for Best Graphic Novel.
Monday May 30, 2022
Monday May 30, 2022
The past couple of weeks have been difficult for this country, once again grappling with gun violence caused by madmen with evil intentions. This has unfortunately become an ongoing issue with people, politicians, and pundits saying a whole lot but doing very little.
Four years ago this spring, a new play opened off Broadway called Church & State. It dealt with the contentious intersection of God, guns, and politics and featured four actors on a single set. I consider myself very fortunate to have been a part of this production as the understudy for the two male actors. It was written and produced by two former guests of this podcast: Jason Odell Williams as the playwright and his wife Charlotte Cohn as lead producer.
In this special episode, they share the passion and persistence that goes into creating works like Church & State that can actually make a difference in the hearts and minds of audiences, especially on such an important issue like gun violence.
References in this episode:
The Power of Political Theater - Brooklyn Rail
The Critical Role of Humor in the Grief Process - St. Catherine University
Jason Odell Williams (playwright)
Charlotte Cohn (director and playwright)
Sandy Hook Promise
Safer Country
Brady Campaign
Church & State Origin Story - Jason Odell Williams
The seeds for this play date back to 2007. The issue of gun violence in America first became important to me after the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech. I went to UVA (Virginia Tech's “football rival”) and the images on TV of candlelight vigils by Cavaliers for their rival Hokies touched me profoundly. And I realized then, like many Americans, that we had a problem in our country. Guns were a national crisis.
Then the shooting in Tucson where Gabby Giffords was shot. And I watched the news, riveted and angry, scared and hopeless. How could this happen? To one of our own politicians? Will this force Congress to finally take action? When it didn't, I wondered, bleakly, if the response would have been different if something like this had happened to a Republican.* And I couldn't get that dark, nagging thought out of my head.
Then over the summer of 2012, I was talking to a friend from Raleigh, NC about religion and politics and a new seed was planted for this vague idea I had cooking for a play, somehow combing religion, guns and politics. And then in Dec. 2012, the tragic shooting in Newtown. And I'd had enough. I had to turn my rage and fear into action. So I did what I know how to do. I wrote a play.
A month later, in January 2013, I had a first draft of what would eventually become Church & State. I had three friends read the play with me in our living room. We talked about what worked what didn’t. I shared the play with a few director friends who offered some great feedback. And eventually one director, Ralph Meranto from JCC CenterStage in Rochester, read the play saw a lot of potential. He committed to producing it if we could develop it together.
So for the next few months, I’d write a draft, he’d ask questions and make comments and suggestions, I’d do a rewrite and we’d repeat the process. I think it was late 2015 when we felt good about the final product. I then shared the play with two friends in DC who loved it and wanted to do a reading for their Actors Salon. And that was the first public reading, January 2016. I knew then the play was basically ready. (BroadwayBox)
*Just a week after Church & State's Off-Broadway production closed, a gunman walked onto a baseball field at Eugene Simpson Park in Alexandria, Virginia, opening fire on politicians and wounding Republican U.S. Representative and House GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and four others.
Monday May 02, 2022
Monday May 02, 2022
No matter how many conversations I have with artists, no matter how many episodes this podcast releases, I’m amazed at the variety of insights and lessons that each person brings to these discussions. But in this episode, I think we hit upon one of the biggest obstacles, if not THE biggest, that holds us back as actors and creatives--and that is fear. Being afraid of vulnerability or not making enough money or not being cast or simply not being good enough.
This fear is the cause of our self-doubt and uncertainty and it can hold us back or even paralyze us from moving forward. Today, I’m talking with David Dean Bottrell, who knows all too well what fear can do to us. Though he's been in TV shows like Boston Legal and After Forever (created by former guest Kevin Spirtas), David has also battled fear as an artist and has even written a book to help us navigate the ins and outs of this business to become a Working Actor.
David joins the podcast to talk about three specific examples of fear...
His upbringing and the strange reaction his family had to success.
The book he wrote and how completely inadequate he felt while writing it.
His desire to imitate and be someone else, rather than understand or even accept his own unique talents.
Support WINMI through donations or subscriptions - https://winmi.supercast.com
Podcast hosted and produced by Off-Broadway actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones - https://www.pojones.com
This week's Artist Resource - WORKING ACTOR
This veteran character actor draws on his 35+ tumultuous years of work in the entertainment industry to offer a witty, informative and very honest guide to breaking in, making a living, and making a life in the fabulous trenches of show business.
"Both practical and inspiring...open-eyed and unsentimental...This is no guru-like tome, but a hands-on, working manual written out of true experience and enthusiasm for what can be achieved.” --Alfred Molina
"Weaves a lifetime’s worth of experience navigating the slings and arrows of the acting game into a compilation of personal stories and pragmatic lessons to enlighten, encourage and forewarn both the novice and more advanced performer." --The Los Angeles Times
The Final Five Questions
Learn more of David's journey from Louisa, Kentucky to Los Angeles and New York, as he chronicles various roles and milestones. It highlights his struggle and successes as well as covers topics we didn't get to in this interview. Find it on the WINMI Blog.
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Monday Dec 20, 2021
Monday Dec 20, 2021
The experiences of our lives affect the paths we choose and help make us who we are today. In part one of my conversation with Debra Ann Byrd, she revealed the ups and downs of her own life that eventually ignited a desire to perform and pursue a life on the stage. But just as it was with her personal journey, Debra’s path toward becoming an actor was slow but steady and her first steps as a producer started from very meager beginnings.
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At her very core, Debra is a storyteller and that is on full display in this episode as she talks about taking on Shakespeare’s iconic role of Othello as well as the early years of forming her own company…Take Wing and Soar Productions.
Podcast hosted by Patrick Oliver Jones - https://www.pojones.com Learn more about WINMI podcast - http://whyillnevermakeit.com
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Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.
Music in the episode by Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Bettering Ourselves and Bettering Our Careers (Part Four)
The main focus and message of this series has been on storytelling. From Kate who talked about how to use our voices and acting skills to connect with casting directors as well audiences, to Max who broke down the elements of a good story and how to craft that for print, stage, or screen.
For today’s episode I’m talking with composer and audio producer Matt Sav about musical storytelling and as you’ll hear in our conversation, to go from that initial idea to an actual finished product can be a long and sometimes stumbling journey. While we focus in on his audio drama In Strange Woods, Matt and I also talk in broader terms of production, composition, and writing as well as the future of podcasting as it provides a new way for artists to create and tell their musical stories.
Sign up for the monthly WINMI Newsletter. Podcast hosted by Patrick Oliver Jones - https://www.pojones.com
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Learn more about Storytelling
Support WINMI and get access to Members-Only Episodes on Supercast.
Check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter.
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Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.
Music in the episode by Kai Engel and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.