Transcript
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Music.
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Hey folks, how you doing? Thanks for stopping by. You have reached Green Room
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On Air and I am your host, Ray Renati.
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It's a beautiful day today here in the South Bay.
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Sun shining, birds chirping, and I'm a happy camper. Hope you are too.
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Hey, guess what? We have a great guest today.
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Her name is Valina Brown and she is a company member of the San Francisco Mime
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Troupe. She's an actor there, a singer, and has been a collaborator since 1992.
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She's won all kinds of awards and has acted in several of the San Francisco
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Mind Troops plays over the years.
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She's been a an actor at act
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berkeley rep cal shakes all the
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main theaters all the big professional theaters here
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in san francisco and we're privileged to be able to talk to her today about
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her life as an actor and also san francisco mind troops upcoming show american
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dreams which will be playing this summer all over the bay area hey if you like
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this show please give it a thumbs Thumbs up and subscribe if you're watching on YouTube.
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And if you're listening on the podcast, subscribe to that and give me a rating
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somewhere, anywhere. I don't care.
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I'm easy. Really helps a lot. Seriously. All right, folks, let's get right to
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our guest, Belina Brown.
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Good afternoon. How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you doing?
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Good. Thanks for coming on today. I'm looking forward to speaking with you.
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I've been a fan of the Mind Troop for so many years.
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Well, thank you. thanks so much for having me you bet i
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remember i went to the first mime troop show it was i think
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in dolores park in 1988 okay yeah yeah um that might have been and that's before
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i i started working with them and that might have been like ripped van winkle or it might have been,
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sounds familiar actually yeah i think
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that's what it was yeah and i was wondering
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why there were no mimes okay well let's
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start there yeah maybe we should mention that for the people who are listening
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yeah well so the san francisco mime troupe uses the word mime in the more or
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traditional sense that most Americans aren't aware of.
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For some reason here, we only think of mime as silent mime, like being,
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you know, the striped t-shirt and the white face and you're trapped in a glass
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box or struggling against, you know, imaginary wind or whatever.
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And that is definitely an aspect of mime, but the umbrella of mime is much broader.
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And the definition is the exaggeration of everyday life in story and song.
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That's the, so that really encompasses a lot of different things that you might see.
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And so we are, we do not do silent mime. We do musical political theater.
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So it's, you know, there's, it's like going to see a musical.
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Michael likes to say, seeing a musical only with a point.
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Yeah. And Michael is your husband who's been on the show. And he's the head
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writer for over 20 years.
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Yeah. Well, also, I just like the name of the company, the San Francisco Mime
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Troupe, because it makes people ask questions.
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And if you get them asking questions, then they're going to be interested.
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Yeah, I mean, we've thought about changing the name.
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I mean, it's come up over the years. But what happens, the Mime Troupe,
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by the way, is 65 this year. Wow.
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So, you know, we so we've been the Mime Trooper, depending upon what era you're
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from. Earlier, folks said Mean Troop.
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And but regardless, we've had that name for over half a century now.
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So, you know, there are people like, oh, no, you can't change the name,
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you know, and other people like you've got to change the name.
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So we just haven't we haven't really come to a consensus to do it.
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And a lot you know generations of people know us that way so well my vote is to keep it the mime troop.
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No meme is the french pronunciation uh-huh yeah my wife is french so they say meme,
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yeah i think the
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thing that's useful about that is that because to
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an america general american ear if you're
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not saying mime then they don't have
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a whole bunch of associations immediately in the way that meme
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you go oh what's that you know now meme means
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something else on the internet it totally does strange
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pictures with undecipherable text right so
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that would be a really weird troop you know yeah so maybe that's not a good
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idea yeah yeah so so 65th anniversary 65th season we are this is our third show
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back in the park since the shutdown, since the pandemic.
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So we're still feeling that excited vibes to get to be back with our audience
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in person because we did, you know, a radio series,
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two radio series while we were in lockdown.
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And that was super fun and interesting for us to do.
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But it's also just really still very exciting to be back with our audience.
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And it's an election year.
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So that has really informed what it is that we're talking about this year.
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Shall I just jump right into it? Yeah. Tell us about the show and what it's about. Yeah.
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So American Dreams is the name of the show.
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And it is a plural, American Dreams, Because, I mean, we grew up hearing about the American dream.
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And, but now it seems like our country is more fractured than ever.
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You know and i mean
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there have been some big fractures some deep fissures but
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you know that caused civil war you know but it it this seems very splintered
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now like in all different kinds of directions and so this this the idea of a
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singular american dream doesn't seem like we We agree on what that dream is.
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And to the point where it seems like a big identity, American identity was to be a democracy.
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And some people are pretty comfortable putting that on the chopping block. So just.
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What is what is what are people's dreams
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and so that's that's sort of like the jumping
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off point that we're doing with this this show
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is that people are different people are as
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during the run-up to no november
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election day having these
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dreams and they and they're happening at
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different points during the process
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heading towards election or even after
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election and what are
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some of the different results that happen
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depending upon how the election goes so
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and just the idea that one person's dream
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is can can be another person's nightmare
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so that's the idea behind american dreams
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so do the characters have actual dreams
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like yeah like awake dreams
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or sleep dreams sleep dreams okay yeah no and it's irony and funny and music
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like san francisco mime troupe always gives us that's right well you know i
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mean that's our thing that's what's unique about is that we do musical.
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Political, we're leftist, and we use satire and farce and parody and things
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like that to discuss really heavy subjects.
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But we're not making fun of the topic. We're making fun of some of the people
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who are, from our perspective, ridiculous.
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But we deal with serious subject matter and the way that we can do it and have
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it be something that people can, can kind of sit with is with our music and our humor. Yeah.
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Well, I listened to some of the music this morning. It's a lot of fun as usual.
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Who wrote the music? So, yes, our composer lyricist is Daniel Savio.
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And yeah, and then the head writer is Michael Gene Sullivan.
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Wow. Wonderful. Have you seen interviews? I've seen some interviews on YouTube
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where the interviewer asks random people like at a Trump rally if they would
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rather have Joe Biden as president or Trump as president as a dictator.
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And all of them answer Trump as a dictator.
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I find that very alarming. Well, sure.
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I mean, that's what I'm saying about about what is what does it mean to to to
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be an American in certain people's minds?
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Right. That being a democracy was a big part of the American identity and a
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big part of the American experiment.
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Experiment and the you
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know yes there are things that you we can
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definitely critique about the founding
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people of of the united states
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but the whole point the whole
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reason why they're coming out here was to say all
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right yeah we're we're not we're not going to
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be under the monarchy rule right
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you know and so that's a really big
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obviously from my perspective
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regression to be like okay now we don't even care about whether or not we have
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a democracy anymore and we're fine with the idea of a dictator we're fine and
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therefore you you know you have to be fine with the idea that this election
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could be the last one we have you know.
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I don't think people understand the implications of what they're saying.
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I mean, you'd have to be lucky to have a benevolent sort of dictator,
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even though I don't think that's better.
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And that's an extremely rare occurrence in history.
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Usually dictators are not benevolent and they tend towards.
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Yeah. Yeah. A person who wants to be a dictator, that's a certain personality type.
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Usually. For sure. Yeah.
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So what about you? Tell me a little about yourself. And how did you decide to
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pursue a career in the theater?
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How did I decide it? Oh, that's going back to when I was six years old.
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Well, let me put it this way.
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When I was six, the first play that I saw was Guys and Dolls. Oh.
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Which is one of the great American musicals. Love it. And my dad was in it.
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My dad is a career army officer. And on, uh, we, we, at that time stationed
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at Fort McClellan in Alabama, and they had a little theater and they decided
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to put on guys and dolls and he was nicely, nicely Johnson.
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And it was really thrilling. They had me at the overture, you know,
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and I was just like, Oh, excited.
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And it was so fun all the way through. I was very inspired and I knew that I wanted to do that.
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I didn't know about having a career as a performer.
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I just knew I wanted to do that, what I saw and felt and experienced with the
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music and the dancing and just everything.
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So I got bitten by the bug of performing in musical theater when I was six.
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When I decided that I wanted to be a professional actor, of course,
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now that's later when you have that concept. And I, you know, I.
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I was doing theater through school, through high school and in college,
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while I was also, I got a vocal scholarship to San Francisco State.
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And that was really, that was really helpful.
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But I actually ended up getting a BA in psychology and then an MS in marriage,
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family, child counseling.
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But I was doing theater the whole time. And so once I graduated with my master's,
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and I was, I had been doing both tracks, you know, at the same time.
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And then I decided I wanted to just keep going with, with theater.
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And, you know, and again, I pretty much everything that I do,
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involves music, typically, not always, but mostly, even if it's not a musical,
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it often has music involved.
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And the first time I worked with the Mind Troupe,
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i i was inspired to want to work at the mime troupe because of.
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Seeing double which was michael's my
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husband michael's first show where he was he originated
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a role because he was he was a replacement actor in
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rip i think it was in rip van winkle so that's why i
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know that show from 1988 and so
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he was in seeing double actually is it
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was the mime troops show about Israel-Palestine that
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they and they went to Israel-Palestine back in 89
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but when I saw
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that show I was so inspired because
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there was so much stuff that I didn't know about that situation and a lot of
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happened since then like you couldn't really do that show again as is because
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so much stuff that was such a an optimistic show and I was just like this is amazing,
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you know, to get to do something that has incredible music, that's really funny, that's really moving.
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I'm learning stuff that I didn't get taught in school.
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And I just felt like I just really wanted to have the opportunity to do that at least once.
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You know, that's what I was like, just do that once, you know.
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And then I had a chance to do a show where I was a replacement actor in 92 for a fall tour.
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The original actor didn't want to do the tour.
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So that was my opportunity to work with them. And then my first time originating a role was in 94.
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And I've just.
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Kept working with them because there's something about having the opportunity
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to use your abilities as an actor, as a singer,
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in the service of something that feels really important.
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And also to be a part of the process of being able to come to new show meetings
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and talk about experiences that you've had,
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documentaries you've seen,
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articles you've read like what's what's happening
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in the world and everybody can bring that those
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those different things to the table and kind of make
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a case for you know why why we
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should talk about this or that or have a character that represents this or whatever
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and so that's really exciting to being part of the creative process yeah but
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that's always been my impression of the mind troop is they have such a great
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team of people who put together the, these shows.
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Um, and it's such a collaborative situation and you can really tell when you,
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when you see the show, because everything just sort of all fits together.
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And it's, it's hard to do that with an original piece that you create so quickly.
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Uh, usually people do something original has to go through a year or two of readings.
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But you guys are able to just, make it happen every single year.
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It's quite, it's quite amazing. Yeah. It is fast and it is in intense.
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Um, most musicals do take at least two years to develop and we do a new one every year.
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Yeah. I think it, it.
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Part of it is that what it is we're talking about is, is, is so like of the
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moment that, that it, it's, it doesn't really work to take, you know,
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two to five years to make the thing. Yeah. Right.
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A lot of stuff has happened, will have happened in the meantime.
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And so you can never finish, you know? Yeah.
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That's one of the great things is when you go to one of your shows,
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it's, it's always about something that just recently happened.
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It's, it's quite amazing. It's, It's just a lot of fun.
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So did you have any significant challenges in your career that made you wonder
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if you went the right direction or not?
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Or did you, or has everything just been smooth? Well, I wouldn't say everything's
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been smooth, but at the same time, I mean, you know, just because life is rarely just smooth.
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You know, things happen in a life, you know, but.
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I haven't really questioned whether or not, like, oh, did I make a mistake being an actor?
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Yeah. I actually haven't had that feeling.
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I've been pretty fortunate, actually, to become part of a company.
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Because that's huge and that's rare. because there was a time when there were
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a number of companies that were, that were actual, that had acting companies,
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you know, ACT used to have an acting company.
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So did Cal Shakes. And the Mime Troupe was sort of the other one in the area
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where there was a company of actors.
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And, and then there was a point where I guess by the nineties, then the next.
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Artistic directors that came into those companies just set about dismantling
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the acting companies, all of them, they all did them.
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And so, yeah. And so to be, to, because that was another dream that I had,
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you know, by the time I was finally done with school, I, you know,
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I'd been in school a long time since I was like two and a half.
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And finally I graduated with my master's. I'm like,
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I think I think that's enough school right now my
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dream was to be part of a company now that's not the easiest thing to get a
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chance to get in there when there's a company right if they have the people
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that they need and I was just fortunate to have a chance to work with the troop and.
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And what I had to offer meshed with what the company needed and also was on
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track with like their mission fit with my mission as a person, you know.
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And so it just really helps. So therefore, things like the choices that a woman
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who's an actor has to make around, are you going to have children?
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When do you have children? You know, like that kind of when to make that leap
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is a kind of a bigger choice.
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It's a big choice for anybody, but it's a bigger choice for women, you know. Yeah.
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And so the fact that Michael and I were in this company together,
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we were part of the, you know, as collective members, because the collective,
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by the way, is the artistic director of the company.
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And so the company is, you know, has a family friendly part of its ethos, you know.
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And so when we had Zachary, we could bring Zachary to rehearsal.
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When we toured, we, you know, Zachary came with.
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And so, as opposed to going, oh,
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well, if I have this baby now, I'm automatically pressing pause on my career
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because nobody wants babies in the rehearsal hall and nobody,
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you know what I mean? Yes, that is wonderful.
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Wow. I didn't know. I didn't know that. Yes. That's so rare that a company will
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let you bring your kids. Totally.
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And, but that, that was so,
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you know, I mean, I think that, that those kinds of, you know,
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questions and crisis of,
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of your choice or whatever with your career, I think would, would come into
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play a lot more likely if you're having to choose between,
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you know, can I, can I have maintain a relationship and do this?
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Can I have a family and do this?
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Then the tension there would create a crisis that I was fortunate I didn't have
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to face because I was part of a family-friendly company.
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And you're both part of the same company. So that's fantastic because,
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you know, I've been doing this for years myself and I've had to miss so many
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family functions, trips, vacations.
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Yes. school events and and
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partly it's my wife is not in this business so recently
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I've decided I'm I'm definitely taking a
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turn and laying off for I don't know how long
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cuz you know I'm already in my 60s and it's like I need to live a life that
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I haven't for practically my whole adult life and see what it's like you know
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yeah And so that's great that you're able to incorporate your family life into
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the theater company. Yeah, I mean... That's fantastic.
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Like you, though, I have missed, you know, like with extended family,
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like both sides of, you know, my parents' families, you know, they would have...
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Reunions, July 4th weekend. Yes.
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That's your biggest weekend for Mime Troupe, right? I've missed just about all
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of them. Yeah. The past, you know, 30 years.
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Yeah. So that's, so yeah, that I, I definitely feel that.
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That's one of the, I think that's one of the most difficult sides of being in
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theater is, is you miss a lot of family events.
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Yeah. And there's no way around it. Either you're rehearsing at night or,
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or you, or you have a show and right.
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Especially when you have a show, there's no option. You got to go to the show.
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I mean, right. People are going to show up who paid for tickets. You better be there.
305
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the thing that a lot of people don't understand.
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So I'm always surprised when someone goes like, oh yeah, I would never marry an actor or whatever.
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And it's like, well, you know, maybe you've had some battery experiences with
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who you dated, you know, but that doesn't mean in general.
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Like, because I think it's really hard to be in a business that's so demanding
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with somebody that really doesn't get it at all.
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It helps to be able to say we're going into tech next week and the person goes, got it. Yeah, exactly.
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Understands. stands. Yeah, because with most jobs, if you don't show up one
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day or two days or whatever, you know, you can get work around it.
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But but in the theater, it makes life extremely difficult for yourself because
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you're going to be behind and then it makes everything really difficult for
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everyone else. And so it's just not an option.
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And your time is so compressed.
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Yeah. A lot of people don't get what that's like.
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I mean, to put a show together in four weeks, you know
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is is quite an amazing feat but it means you got to dedicate yourself
321
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to the thing but it's not just us it's not just theater people i mean you know
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when people during thanksgiving they're like oh let's watch the turkey day game
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you're watching people who are not at the turkey day table exactly the field
324
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right athletes another thing similar similar thing yeah yeah yeah.
325
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Very similar. Yeah. And what role are you're in the play, right?
326
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No, I'm the director this year. Oh, you're the director. Oh,
327
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let's talk. So you just started directing a few years ago. Is that correct?
328
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Yeah. The, my first time directing the mime troupe, you know,
329
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it's like my, my primary identity has not been directing, but I direct.
330
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You know, but I first started working as a director with the mime troupe.
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It it was the the it was supposed to
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be the the 20 the 2020 you know
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so that was going to be my first time directing a park show and
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then there was no park show yes so then i
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ended up directing so we like i said we do
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two seasons of tales of the resistance and
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so it was all these episodes so radio show
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that's right and i really enjoyed it by the way thank
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you yeah that was that was an
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amazing experience because at a
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time when everybody like theaters are going okay theaters
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are closed what are we going to do and and different different
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theaters and different circumstances had different responses to it and we were
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just really fortunate that because we have an in-house writer we have an in-house
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composer lyricist we have an in-house sound designer like Like that's part of this part of us.
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That's part of the, you know, that we had the plus we had, you know,
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in-house actors and people who could direct. And I had said I was going to direct that season.
348
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So it's like, OK, well, I'll direct this that week. We had the ingredients we
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needed to go ahead and and make.
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Radio show or scripted podcast as they're
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called now yeah so we we had everything we
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needed to just move forward and do it you know
353
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but that pivot involved a pretty
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steep learning curve we'd never done anything like that before
355
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in terms of creating for that medium but in terms of creating original work
356
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we've been doing that for decades yeah yeah it's mostly the technical aspects
357
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of yeah creating a sound a show
358
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that's all about sound right i mean and it sounded really professional.
359
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Yeah yeah and keeping it visual and the sound effects
360
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and the music and yeah and then the quality of
361
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the sound is super important and it was really good yeah
362
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yeah that taylor gonzalez was our
363
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is our sound designer yeah did a great
364
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job yeah when i was in england going to
365
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school i used they still have a lot of radio plays there and
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i enjoyed listening to them and it reminded me you that yeah well
367
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Michael just happened to be a fan of radio
368
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plays and so he was just listening to them you know
369
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that's just something that he had been doing for you
370
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know his adult life anyway and so so he was very familiar with that that art
371
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form and so was kind of excited to have a chance to to do that and he was he
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was already knowledgeable about that but we just had to to find a way to make,
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to tell the story 100% auditorially.
374
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So that was something that we were learning to do together.
375
00:29:02,546 --> 00:29:06,326
So yeah. Because a lot of your shows are so physical. The physical comedy,
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the physicality of each character is very distinct.
377
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And it's part of the fun of watching your shows.
378
00:29:16,210 --> 00:29:19,550
Now, the current show, American Dreams, when is it opening?
379
00:29:21,110 --> 00:29:24,430
It's playing all over the Bay Area, I assume, as usual. Yes.
380
00:29:24,430 --> 00:29:26,770
So it opens July 4th weekend.
381
00:29:27,670 --> 00:29:36,230
It's opening the July 4th is at Dolores Park, which is our typical opening location.
382
00:29:36,370 --> 00:29:40,290
And then we're going to be, I think, at Live Oak. Let me just double check.
383
00:29:40,970 --> 00:29:45,970
Yeah. So then that Saturday. So Thursday is July 4th. It's a it's a Thursday.
384
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Then Saturday and Sunday, we're going to be at Live Oak and Berkeley.
385
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And so we're going to be we're going to be doing parks all over San Francisco,
386
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Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto.
387
00:29:58,110 --> 00:30:02,190
Oh, good. And yeah, kind of like all over the place.
388
00:30:02,270 --> 00:30:07,110
And we're going to also going to we're also going to go to Ukiah and Katahdi. Oh.
389
00:30:08,590 --> 00:30:12,810
Yeah. So there's going to be mostly park shows.
390
00:30:12,930 --> 00:30:17,310
Right. That's our main thing. But this year, for example, we're going to be
391
00:30:17,310 --> 00:30:24,930
indoors for some of those locations like Davis that can be very hot and Ukiah that can be very hot.
392
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We're indoors this year.
393
00:30:27,490 --> 00:30:32,910
So that makes it so that there can be like air conditioning and it's not,
394
00:30:32,910 --> 00:30:40,290
you know, because it can be 100 degrees, you know, in Davis and Ukiah.
395
00:30:40,290 --> 00:30:45,730
So, but mostly we're going to be in parks all over the place and probably a park near you.
396
00:30:47,133 --> 00:30:51,333
Well, I know that I will. Usually you go to Mitchell Park in Palo Alto.
397
00:30:51,773 --> 00:30:56,053
Right. Hopefully that's where you're going again, because I live like two minutes away.
398
00:30:57,433 --> 00:31:01,733
This is the Coverley Community Center. Yeah. Okay.
399
00:31:02,473 --> 00:31:06,013
Yeah. Road. Mm hmm. Yeah, that's it.
400
00:31:06,313 --> 00:31:09,613
Well, that's similar. That's just like a block from Mitchell Park.
401
00:31:09,773 --> 00:31:15,013
And then a new thing, actually, is we're going to be at the Bruins Theater. Cal Shakes is.
402
00:31:15,333 --> 00:31:18,833
Oh. Oh, you know, we're going to be there. Wow. Nice.
403
00:31:19,413 --> 00:31:24,933
Yeah. On Thursday, July 18th. That's a beautiful outdoor theater.
404
00:31:25,193 --> 00:31:31,213
Yeah. Yeah. And so that space, it is, it's a ticket sales situation,
405
00:31:31,613 --> 00:31:36,333
$20 a ticket to go to the Cal Shake space. Oh, I see. Cause usually it's free.
406
00:31:37,353 --> 00:31:42,153
Yeah. Unless people, but then you're really good. You're really good at fundraising too.
407
00:31:42,953 --> 00:31:46,253
Well, I mean. I mean, I love how you do your fundraising at the end.
408
00:31:46,333 --> 00:31:48,993
It's really, it's a lot of fun. And actually you want to give.
409
00:31:49,533 --> 00:31:54,473
Yeah. Yeah. Pass the hat because, you know, our idea is that we don't want to
410
00:31:54,473 --> 00:32:01,353
create something that is, is out of reach of anyone that wants to see the show.
411
00:32:01,533 --> 00:32:08,573
So we, it's past the hat. We, it's a $20 per person suggested donation, right?
412
00:32:09,213 --> 00:32:15,373
You know, but if you, if you can't put anything in the hat. And we don't want
413
00:32:15,373 --> 00:32:16,873
to be like, okay, get out.
414
00:32:17,453 --> 00:32:21,853
So everybody can come in there for their people who don't pay anything.
415
00:32:21,973 --> 00:32:25,613
And then we have people who put a check in for $1,000.
416
00:32:25,993 --> 00:32:32,533
It has to do with what you can do. Whatever you can do, please do.
417
00:32:32,733 --> 00:32:38,013
Because that makes it so we can continue to do the work. Yeah. Great.
418
00:32:38,773 --> 00:32:46,533
And people can go to your website to find out all the information about this. Yeah. SFMT.org.
419
00:32:46,973 --> 00:32:47,513
Okay.
420
00:32:48,073 --> 00:32:51,693
If you don't remember that, just search for San Francisco Mime Troupe.
421
00:32:52,912 --> 00:32:57,092
Yeah is there anything else you'd like to share today velena with the audience.
422
00:32:59,352 --> 00:33:02,212
Um well i think i i
423
00:33:02,212 --> 00:33:05,072
talked about the show yeah and we learned a
424
00:33:05,072 --> 00:33:08,552
little about you yeah and which is always fun and
425
00:33:08,552 --> 00:33:11,372
i just encourage people to go
426
00:33:11,372 --> 00:33:14,432
it's a lot of fun you guys always do a great job and it's
427
00:33:14,432 --> 00:33:17,332
a nice day outside and it'll make you laugh and
428
00:33:17,332 --> 00:33:20,572
it'll also make you think and and often
429
00:33:20,572 --> 00:33:23,712
a great combination when you come to a park often there
430
00:33:23,712 --> 00:33:27,232
are people who are working on whatever the issues are that we're talking about
431
00:33:27,232 --> 00:33:33,252
in the show and so if you feel like okay now i understand what's going on about
432
00:33:33,252 --> 00:33:37,852
this i think i do want to get involved there's often a table that you can go
433
00:33:37,852 --> 00:33:41,652
to that someone can help you take the next step to get to get more
434
00:33:41,832 --> 00:33:44,292
involved and take action. Great.
435
00:33:45,392 --> 00:33:49,852
Love it. All right. Well, thanks so much for coming on. Thank you.
436
00:33:49,932 --> 00:33:51,592
I appreciate it. You're welcome.