Trailer

Welcome to While The Applause Is Paused: conversations With  Regional Theater Makers. I'm your host, Lacey Tucker. This is a podcast for anyone who wants to know more about the state of our beloved regional theaters since the COVID-19 pandemic forced a nationwide shutdown in March of 2020. 

[00:00:45] So who is this Lacey you might be asking?  Well, I'm an actor and singer and I'm also a former lawyer and I've helped manage some non-profit theater companies. So right. brain , check, left brain., also check. I seek to make an impact by encouraging people's curiosity so they can throw open the door to their wildest potential. I believe that one of the best ways to make that happen is a well-told story. And so my love of theaterI

[00:01:10] I grew up in Lake George, New York, which I like to say is a small town with a very big lake. When I tell people where I'm from, they often say, "hey,  I've been on vacation there". So listeners put it on your list. A weekend getaway in Lake George in the Adirondack mountains.

[00:01:25] For the past 14 years, I've lived in New York city with the greatest dog in the world, Henry Hudson. If you ever check out my Instagram, you'll see lots of pictures of him. I named him after a founding New Yorker because I rescued him from a shelter in Alabama and I wanted him to feel like he too, I could have a New York state of mind.  Footnote: that Billy Joel song is the best song ever written about New York.

[00:01:50] In March of 2020, I had just signed a contract to do two wonderful regional shows over the summer. I heard that Broadway shutdown as I was leaving a voice lesson at a studio just off Times Square. Like so many of you listeners, additional heartache followed as nearly all theater was canceled, including my contract.

[00:02:09] Since then, I haven't stopped thinking about what is or isn't going on with theaters all over the country. And if you're listening to this, I'm betting you're a lover of theater too. What better way to tell a story then live, in a communal space, where we all literally breathe the same air. Oh wait. We literally can't breathe the same air anymore. Not since March of 2020. Right. So what now? 

[00:02:34] Well each week, I'll talk with an artistic director or other theater maker, somewhere in the country to hear their personal take on the challenges and maybe silver linings for different organizations in different places, with different case counts and different stay-at-home orders. Different communities, different patrons, different budgets, different traditions, different donors, different plays and musicals, different aesthetics, different production seasons. You get it. Under that glorious big tent of organizations that produce theater.,there are many differences that require different responses to the same once in a lifetime pandemic. 

[00:03:07] And let's also acknowledge an additional watershed that happened in 2020, the protests for racial justice and the opportunity for the theater community to stop and listen and take action to find new and better responses to the systemic racism in the industry. Ironically, the pandemic shutdown appear to create time and space to be the change we want to see. So what's happening at the molecular level theater by theater community by community. 

[00:03:32] So I invite you to listen in at this conversation. Campfire, as my guests create a time capsule, a pandemic theater acknowledge our losses, and just as importantly, celebrate what we can accomplish under extraordinary circumstances and make a thoughtful assessment of the future.

[00:03:47] While I've got your ear, I want to take a moment to send some extra special thanks to a few folks. Drew Wutke who wrote the inspired theme music, Lily Torre for her encouragement and help in all things podcasting. Peter Shepherd for creating the space to incubate this idea, Sarah Kleist for creating my new website and the logo for this podcast. Michael Bulger and Ryan Lind for helping me early on when I was trying to figure out the whole podcast thing. And Jenny Hoofnagle for her generous and generative feedback.

[00:04:13] Here we go, curtain up on some conversation. that's as real as the times we're living in. And thanks so much for listening.