Episode 35: Weston Chandler Long

[Pipe and Drape theme plays.]

STEPHEN FALA: I’m Stephen Fala, and you’re listening to Pipe and Drape, the only podcast that spotlights the creative minds behind the Theatre For Young Audiences industry. Join me every two weeks as I sit down with a theatre professional to unlock their pipe and drape stories. These are the (often untold) stories of the creators behind the pipe and drape scenery in the theatre for young audiences world. Theatre for young audiences (or TYA) inspires young minds by entertaining audiences with topics big and little in any and every setting. My guests have mounted shows small enough to fit in a minivan to productions so big they travel by caravan, and on this podcast we discuss the ways theatre for young audiences helps all artists and theatregoers make this world a better place.

STEPHEN: Hi everybody! I’m here with actor/puppeteer Weston Chandler Long. For the last few years Weston has been Off-Broadway terrorizing the Westside Theatre and consuming Broadway favorites like Corbin Bleu, Jinx Monsoon, Jeremy Jordan, among many other esteemed Broadway and Hollywood vets as the flesh hungry Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. But before appearing on Skid Row, he was puppeteering for young audiences on screen, Off-Broadway, and all around the country. He led the Drama Desk-nominated production of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show Off-Broadway, was in the national tours of Mr. Poppers’ Penguins and John Tartaglia’s ImaginOcean, and performed in other Tartaglia projects in New York like Reusable the Musical. His television credits include Sesame Street and Helpsters, and he has worked alongside puppeteers that have shaped the industry like Caroll Spinney and Marty Robinson. His other credits include Avenue Q, The Laramie Project, and the world premiere of the irreverent and hilarious show Aliens Vs Musical. Here to share his pipe and drape story is Weston Chandler Long. Weston, welcome. 

WESTON CHANDLER LONG: Thank you so much for having me. Wow, that was such…that was quite the intro. Made it seem like I'd done a lot of stuff. [Laughter.]

STEPHEN: You’ve done so many things in so many places and you've eaten so many people. I can't believe that.

WESTON: I really have

[Laughter.]

STEPHEN: I was just reviewing the list of Little Shop cast members and I was like, ‘Wow.’ Like there’s…a lot of like really cool people have walked through those shop doors.

WESTON: Yeah, it's kind of crazy. It's kind of crazy because we get a lot of people that really wanna do this show. Like, it's such a great show and, and people are really excited about it. So we just get people that are not only like really, really cool, exciting, fancy people, but they're just so happy to be there and they're so happy to be a part of it. And yes, and it's like, you know, we typically get people that sometimes are in for like a shorter stint, like eight weeks or something like that. So it just means that we're just like, we're really churning people out and we've had a lot of really great people. It’s incredible.

STEPHEN: Yeah. And I can imagine that's exciting, putting them into the show for the first time, and it's something that I guess happens…not frequently, but it happens I'd say like quarterly you guys are getting at least like, new cast members?

WESTON: Yeah, yeah. Typically we have…I think the standard contract for our leads are like a four month contract. But depending on the people, some people are in for a little longer. Some people are in for a little shorter depending on their needs. But like the standard amount of time is like a four month contract. So that means we usually churn through like about three leads, three sets of leads a year about, give or take. So yeah, it's very exciting.

STEPHEN: I think it's really, really cool. I think, and then everyone gets to put their own spin on it. It seems very like…that’s part of the excitement of the show rather than like a machine. It's like, ‘This is how they do it…’

WESTON: Yeah it’s so…that’s the thing that…I never thought I would be doing the same show for as long as I've been doing this one, and it'll be two years that I've been full-time next month and then three years total in October, 'cause at first I was a vacation swing and I would come and go, but like, I never thought I would be doing a show for this long. But it doesn't feel like that long because we get…it’s not a stagnant show. Everybody who comes in…our directorial team is very good about making sure people can bring whatever interpretation of these characters that they want into the show. And so it's never stale. It's never boring and it keeps people wanting to come back because they're like, ‘Oh, what is this person going to do? How is this person going to…’ And we have had a million different interpretations of these characters and they all work and they all are great and everybody is able to put their own fresh stamp on these characters. And I think it keeps the show alive and fresh and never, ever boring or stale. You always see something new every time you come see it. It's great. I'm such a fan of just like watching the show…

STEPHEN: [Laughter.]

WESTON: And like from, from my little vantage point, I'm just sitting there like watching the show. I'm like, ‘This is a good show.’

[Laughter.]

STEPHEN: Were you a fan of the film at all? Or like some of the, I guess like puppetry and robot manipulation in there?

WESTON: I had seen the movie maybe once when I was a kid and I saw like a high school performance of it, ’cause it's done all the time in high schools. But, so I was like, I was aware of it and I liked it, but it wasn't like a huge part of my upbringing until way later I saw this production, before I was ever involved in it, I saw it, what turned out to be the final performance before the COVID shutdown. I saw the final performance and I was floored by it. I was like floored. And the next day when theatre shut down with like a big question mark on whether or not it would ever come back, I got to like, hold onto that to be like, ‘Oh, it was such a beautiful little experience and such a great show.’ And I was like, I got to hold onto it and be like, ‘Someday we'll get back there. Someday we'll get back there,’ not knowing that I would be a part of it once, once theater reopened. So it has a very special place in my heart because it was way before I was involved in it. I got to sort of like, keep it right here and like hold onto it to be like, you know, as a sign of getting back to a little bit of that magic that I love so much.

STEPHEN: I remember when you were like in your callbacks for this, too. 

WESTON: Yeah.

STEPHEN: And that things were just starting…like Waitress had just opened. 

WESTON: Yep. 

STEPHEN: And like, yeah. Oh my God, that's so cool. 

WESTON: Oh, and I was back in that house watching Waitress crying my little eyes out.

[Laughter.]

WESTON: That was my first first show that I saw back once theatre reopened again. And A: I just love that show and I love Sara Bareilles more than life itself, but getting to just be in a theatre at all, but especially getting to be in watching that show and hearing that music and seeing her in it and everything, I was just like…I took a [Laughter.] I took a picture outside the theatre after the show, and Braden, my partner, took the picture and looked at it and was like, ‘You can definitely tell you've been crying.’ I was like, yeah, well, makes sense. [Laughter.]

STEPHEN: Wow. What a special time of really jumping back into the game, like being a part of this, seeing one of your idols. 

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: Weston, I am so curious about your first experiences with theatre in general.As a kid, do you remember your first time ever seeing a show?

WESTON: My first time ever seeing a show…I’m sure it had to have been like a school performance or something. I don't remember exactly the first theatre I saw at all. It was, I mean, it probably was like a…I don't know if you can call this like a theatre show. It was like a stadium show where I would go to see like Sesame Street Live or something like that. I remember going to those, but like an actual theatre show…I don't remember what my first one was, but my first time doing a show, like doing a community theatre show was when I was five. So that is what kickstarted my love of theatre. And I only did a community theatre show after my parents tried to sign me up for soccer and I like, hated it. 

STEPHEN: [Laughter.] 

WESTON: And they were like, ‘Well, we gotta find something for him to do.’ They were like, ‘Well, we’ll try community theatre, I guess.’ And so that was what really, and I decided right then when I was five, I was like, ‘Well, I'm gonna be an actor, I guess.’ And so after that point, when I was aware of like theatre as a concept, that was when my love of theatre really started. But my first ever show was probably like a Sesame Street Live or something like that.

STEPHEN: Speaking of Sesame Street…

WESTON: Yes!

STEPHEN: You were extremely close with Caroll Spinney, like since a kid. How did you two get connected?

WESTON: So around, around that same time when I was about five. So ever since I was like born, I was obsessed with Sesame Street. That was my show. That was all I watched. I have a very, like, since I was a kid, I have a very like, obsessive personality where I find one thing and like that is my thing. And when I was a kid it was Sesame Street and I had the clothes and the toys and the books and the movies and I just like, I ate, slept, and breathed Sesame Street and my favorite character was Big Bird. I don't quite know why I don't like, I've tried to look back to be like, what, what was it about, you know, Big Bird that really connected with me. And I can't really put a finger on it, but it was just like, he was my favorite. And when I was five he was on the cover of a Parade magazine. And so naturally I was like all over it and I was like, ‘Yeah, let me, you know, let me get my hands on that.’ And I opened it and there was a feature on Caroll. There was like a big picture right in the middle of this spread of like Caroll and Big Bird, like back to back. And that was when I learned about puppetry. When I like learned…I guess I didn't really…I was convinced that like Big Bird was real. I would like get into arguments with my brother and sister and they would like tease me about it and I'd be like, ‘No guys, like he's, he's real.’ But that was when I learned about puppetry and I learned about him and I was so, so fascinated by it and I really latched onto it. And around that time when I did my first community theatre show and I decided I was gonna be an actor, I read that article and I was like, ‘Well, I'm gonna be a puppeteer, too.’ And so I wound up writing him a letter with my dad before kindergarten one day when I was five. And it was just like, I think it was something to the effect of like, ‘I want to be a puppeteer. I wanna learn about puppetry.’ Like, you know, I love Big Bird, I want to know about…everything about it. And I think we just, we didn't know really where to send it. We sent it to, I think the Sesame Workshop offices here in the city, an address we could find online. And somehow miraculously it got to him and even more miraculously, he wrote back and he was just…and and so we began, you know, sort of writing letters back and forth and me asking him questions and things like that. And he invited me and my family to the, to the set of the show. I think I went for the first time when I was seven. And so I got to see the production of the show in real time and everything like that. And getting to see how they work and what a day in the life looks like and all the technical aspects of it and getting to see the performers and the characters and their relationships with each other and, and how the show is made. And it was so…fascinating and enlightening and like real core memory stuff right there. And so then Caroll and I just had like a, a wonderful mentor-mentee relationship ever since. Like, it was, it was that from that first letter when I was five. And I was, it was…I will never understand why he chose to write back to me and why he chose me to like…I will never understand it, 'cause he got so much mail, he got so many letters, he met so many people. And I will never understand why, but I will be forever grateful for it because it was just like, aside from my parents, he was like the most influential person in my life setting me on this path and nurturing me and giving me the tools that I need and the example to follow, because he was a brilliant example to follow, of someone who is in this industry and is just a master at everything he does. And getting to watch that and witness that and learn from that was, was invaluable. I will be grateful for it for forever.

STEPHEN: I think it's so important for adults to mentor kids in that way, especially in the arts. To have an adult who can show a kid, ‘Hey, you can do this with your life. That cool game that you play…making a small puppet show in your living room that could be your life.’

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: So that's really cool that he, made that connection with you and then you got to like learn from him for years. 

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: Did your puppet experience/knowledge expand into your high school theatre career at all? Or were you very much just you as a singer performing in like your school shows and community theatre?

WESTON: For growing up it was really a little bit more of, uh, I did a lot of musical theatre growing up there, there, the puppetry didn't overlap all that much, but I was always sort of doing both. They just kind of rarely ever overlapped. My first like, professional job, I got like $20 a week or something like that— 

[Laughter.]

WESTON: —was when I was like…a sophomore in high school. There was like a theatre like in the next town over that was like putting up a new show. And that was the first time that I got to do puppets on stage. And I showed up with my sort of Muppet style puppet knowledge, and I showed up to this audition and I was like, ‘So this is, uh, puppetry, right?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, no, that's great, but like, that's not the style of puppet we use in the show.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, for sure, for sure, for sure.’ So it was like a kind of total resetting of everything that I had sort of learned because it was a style of puppetry that I hadn't really done before, but that was my first time getting to, and it was a show called Luna's Sea, not Lunacy, but Luna's Sea and it was this TYA show, but it was a visual spectacle and it was like a dance show. There was movement, there was light, there was puppetry, there was black light, there was all of this sort of, with like this gorgeous music all about, like this little girl who goes on adventure, like under the sea. And it was all kinds of like found object puppetry and sort of like bunraku-style puppetry. And there was like d dance elements involved. There was like two main dancers, but then like some of the puppeteers also did like a little bit of dance movement stuff. And I loved doing that show. And it was my first, like, it was like on weekends in like in Mystic, Connecticut, like right in conjunction with the Mystic Aquarium. It was like right outside the Mystic Aquarium at a theatre. And so that was my first time that I got to combine puppets and theatre. But for the most part, every show I did in high school and middle school, elementary school and stuff were all musical theatre. And then I was doing puppetry sort of as well, separately.

STEPHEN: Okay. Did you, for that like new kind of puppet challenge, did you consult Caroll, like, ‘Okay, I'm doing this separate thing?’

WESTON: Yeah, I did and it was kind of hard to explain where I was like, yeah, it's like, um, you know, I was like, I'm, I'm a penguin at one point, but I'm just the feet and then I will do like a seahorse here and then it's like a sea lion that's made of a bunch of different panels of cardboard that I then have to like, move together. They're all connected by hinges and they all have to like move together. And then there's like a jellyfish that's like an umbrella and all of this kind of…so like having to explain it all. But he was always, he was always so supportive and always like, you know, always just teaching. Like, you know, the thing that Caroll did brilliantly is just keep it real. Keep it grounded. Keep it rooted in reality and you can't go wrong. And even with these characters that I was doing, these puppets that I was doing on stage, none of them spoke. None of them were, you know, they weren't like a talking seahorse or a talk. They were just like, we would go and we would walk, go to the aquarium and study how these animals moved and we would figure out how to like translate it. We would take little videos and we would like figure out how to translate it to the puppets that we had. And no matter what it was just about keeping it grounded and keeping it realistic and keeping it real. And so that something that I always keep with me, that I take into everything I do.

STEPHEN: Was this experience, you know, puppets under the sea, different styles in any way, foreshadowing or manifesting your tour with ImaginOcean.

WESTON: I mean, it, well it, it's funny that I had that experience because that was when, I think that was when ImaginOcean was running Off-Broadway . I wanna say that those two things were happening at the same time. And I was like, ‘Oh, like there's this show that's happening in New York that's like, kind of similar but to the show that I'm doing right here. Like, that's really cool.’ But ImaginOcean was a totally different style. It was a totally, you know, that was back to the sort of hand Muppet style quote unquote puppets. And it was using black light in a totally different way. There's no humans in ImaginOcean. There was all…it was very different, but like, kind of similar. [Laughter.] So, I was aware of ImaginOcean when I was doing that show. And again, not knowing that eventually that would be my first job in New York was getting that show. I never saw ImaginOcean when it was Off-Broadway, but I really wanted to, but I couldn't, I couldn't get to it, but I was like, I was very intrigued by it because I knew and loved John Tartaglia and his work. And so I would like go online and watch a lot of the videos of the show, but I never got to see it live when it was in the city. 

STEPHEN: Did you connect with John before you became like part of the touring cast?

WESTON: Yeah, so I got, as a Christmas gift when I was a sophomore in high school I believe, my family got me a like a private coaching session with John. And that was my first time that I met him. I was maybe fifteen and I just sort of went into the city and went to his studio and we just sort of talked about puppets and I brought some puppets and we sort of worked on, it was like a little bit of technical stuff, like in the mirror, but it really was just like talking and shooting the breeze and talking about like, the industry in like theatre especially because like that was sort of a field that I didn't really know about, was like puppetry theatre, that side of the industry. I had seen, you know, the TV side through Caroll and Sesame Street and everything like that. But like I really, we really talked a lot about theatre and, and about musical theatre ‘cause Johnny's also obviously a musical theatre performer as well. So we talked a little bit about both sides of that and, you know, his experience in Avenue Q and Beauty and the Beast and Shrek and all that sort of stuff. So we talked a lot about musical theatre and puppetry and the combining of those worlds. So that was when I first met Johnny and I wound up doing a couple of those sessions with him and then did a…he did like a proper workshop with…it’s like people that had taken private coachings with him before. He like reached out to them to be like, ‘We're putting together this like actual multi-week workshop.’ This was when I was a, this was the summer before my senior year of high school. And so he was like, you know, ‘You've taken private coachings if you're interested in this, you know, this is, we're offering this.' And so I went and did that and that was a group of, I wanna say maybe ten to twelve people and it was over two weeks. And it was like a TV -tyle monitor puppetry workshop. And I realized when I got there just how much, I didn't know what I was doing, but it was like the most fun sort of collaborative workspace to like figure it out. And so then I did that with him and then auditioned for ImaginOcean a few, a couple years later. So I had known Johnny in a couple different capacities before I had gotten ImaginOcean.

STEPHEN: What was that audition process like for Imagination?

WESTON: So I auditioned for ImaginOcean right after my freshman year of college. I went to college to study acting in the city. I was very excited to go to college. And then I got there and I got into like my top choice school. I was very excited to like sink my teeth into like an acting program. And I got there and I was very…something about it, like, it just didn't click the program, didn't click with me. And so I wound up leaving the program, it just didn't feel right. I was like, ‘Okay, well what does that mean for me as an actor?’ And then I went to do another puppetry workshop somewhere else. And since I had taken that last workshop with Johnny, I had like, I had hit like a bit of a growth spurt. I was very sort of gangly, didn't really know how to get my body out of a puppet frame. So I left that workshop being like, ‘Well, am I gonna be a puppeteer anymore either, can I do that either?’ And so I didn't really know like where I was going or what I was doing, but I found this audition for ImaginOcean and I was like, ‘I'll give it a shot.’ And we went and it was just…’cause ImaginOcean is an entirely tracked show, all the dialogue, all the music is all tracked. So it's a puppetry-focused show. So that you just had to go in and lip sync with a puppet lip sync to a song. And I went in and I lip synced…do you know the musical Ordinary Days? 

STEPHEN: Yes. 

WESTON: By Adam Gwon? 

STEPHEN: Yes. 

WESTON: I love that musical. And I lip synced to the song “One by One by One.” And I lip synced to that and I got a callback. And the callback was when we sort of incorporated the movement element of it. Because the way ImaginOcean is, is we are head-to-toe in black, completely covered. The puppets are made with like black light reactive materials and paints. So the only light that hits the stage is black lights. So everybody in black disappears and the puppets glow. So then we have to…and they’re fish, they're underwater so they can really play with levels and getting up high and down low and, and circling around each other. But the problem with that is you need to be able to be aware of your physical space, your physical human body in space as well as your puppet. Because if you're not aware and you walk in front of one of the blacklight reactive puppets, they'll disappear because you block them. So it was a very movement heavy show, heavily, very precisely staged show. So, the callback for that was like incorporating that element where we would move around the space and play with levels and making sure that we don't cross puppeteer body and puppet. And so that was the callback. And I think it was only one callback, maybe it was two where we sort of did more of the same. And we cycled out different characters and different styles of puppet. 'Cause the three main puppets were a standard hand puppet style, but then there were like little puppets that were almost more like rod puppets and then bigger puppets that were like that didn't quite move the same way. And so there was a lot of different styles of puppetry in that show. So I think we sort of cycled through different characters and things like that. And then I got the show as one of the three…the show centers around three main characters and I got one of the three. And so I took a year off from school to go do that show. That was pretty much the audition process I think, yeah, if I remember correctly, it was a long time ago now.

STEPHEN: Yeah, I like only recently have had to audition with puppets for puppet shows. A lot of times it's just been like, ‘Oh, like you dance, like you'll get it.’ But I think it's interesting being in the room and being like, I have never worked with this thing before. I have to learn it's vocabulary in ten minutes. 

WESTON: Yeah. Yeah. 

STEPHEN: So I think it’s…and being in the room with people who are puppeteers first, I was…it was interesting to watch them and like, ‘Alright, how do they find out how this works really, really fast.’ So I think for me that was like a huge learning experience because I had only really done shows. I didn't have like a cool mentor the way that you did. I didn't really do any workshops. So it's cool to hear that you got to play with a bunch of different characters. 

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: Before even setting foot in a rehearsal room. 

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: Were you living in the city for that rehearsal period? Or were you commuting from Connecticut?

WESTON: My sister was living in Long Island at the time, and so I was, I I didn't have a place in the city. I was in school and I had a dorm in school, but then I took the leave of absence from school to go do the show. So I didn't have like my dorm anymore. So I wound up staying with my sister in Long Island and commuting into Penn Station every day for the rehearsal process. And like my sister had like a little studio apartment, like out in Hempstead, Long Island. And so I was like sleeping on her couch and we were just sort of like…I would get home at night and we would like watch Parks and Rec and stuff before I would, like, she would've to get up and go to work and I would've to get up and go go into the city for rehearsal. So that was, I think it was like two weeks of that, two weeks of rehearsal before we wound up hitting the road.

STEPHEN: Quick process.

WESTON: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

STEPHEN: Was this like a big kind of bus and truck tour? Was it a minivan/Sprinter van kind of deal?

WESTON: It was minivan/Sprinter van for sure.

STEPHEN: Okay.

WESTON: We had two Sprinters and then the passenger van. And sp we would all swap off, like who would be driving what. And I really…I sort of became one of the defacto Sprinter van drivers. So I would always be like driving in the Sprinter van. And then we would get to the venues and we would set up…we would set up that ~*pipe and drape•~* and we would set up the whole thing. We would get to the venues and over time we realized like how far away we would have to like place the pipe and drape from the, from the lip of the stage and stuff. We found out how to measure it in like, I've got pretty big feet, so it would be like Weston footprints. So I would stand and I would like walk, it was like fourteen Weston footprints. And then that would be where we would put up the pipe and drape and like, so that would become our system. And yeah, it was just those three vehicles, just the seven of us and yeah, it was…we made it work, baby.

[Laughter.]

STEPHEN: That’s amazing. Especially because this show had so many elements that a lot of “small,” I say small in quotation marks, TYA tours don't have. Like you have lighting, which very few tours of this nature travel with lights and a bunch of puppets, which usually doesn't happen. There's like, there's puppets in TYA, but like not on the scale where it's like the whole show is puppets. 

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: That's a lot of different elements. Did you have like any experience with lighting and setting up stages before this tour? Or was this kind of a crash course in that?

WESTON: It was kind of a crash course. I did it a little bit with that show, the other puppetry show that I did in high school. There was like a little bit of that, but not quite to this scale. And it was my first real like, job job. And so it was a really like figuring it out kind of on the fly. It was definitely a crash course. Definitely.

STEPHEN: I can’t get over the measuring things in Weston Feet. That's so funny.

WESTON: I know in Weston footsteps. Oh yeah.

[Laughter.]

STEPHEN: Did you have like a favorite duty? I mean, aside from from like tracking the distance, like when you were unloading loading. Aside from giving a brilliant performance, something that was non-actor puppeteer that you really connected to from this job?

WESTON: Oh, that's such a good question. Something that I loved to do is whenever we would play the…like, we would test the track of the show. The show started with these two big characters that were basically like a part of the set and they would be like talking back and forth to each other. And it was like the pre-show announcement of like, ‘Here's what you're about to expect.’ Like that kind of…we would test the track and it would be that that dialogue between these two characters. And so we would all be on stage as we were setting up and we would be like lip syncing to like these two characters. 'Cause we got to know the dialogue and the track so well, and the rhythms of it because we had to like lips, you know, the two puppeteers that played, these two characters had to like, you know, lip sync to it. Exactly. And we heard it every day. So we would like make a big thing about like really, really leaning in and like playing, you know, lip sync into those as like us as humans and stuff. So that was fun. That was like the thing that we would always do as part of our setup.

STEPHEN: That’s fun. I love little traditions like that.

WESTON: Yeah, it was fun.

STEPHEN: How many of you were there on that casting crew?

WESTON: I believe it was seven. I want, let me…hold on. I can tell you right now, one two three four five six seven eight, eight with a swing. 'Cause we had seven people on the cast and then we had a swing, so it was eight of us total. And then our stage manager. So nine of us were traveling, but eight of us in the cast. I’ve certainly done shows with smaller casts than that. So it was like a pretty good amount of us. And yeah, it was really fun. It was just like a good, good group of people.

STEPHEN: I love that you had a swing. 

WESTON: Yes. 

STEPHEN: I’ve done too many shows, like in this part of the field where there is no swing or understudy, there's just a contingency where that character is cut for that performance. 

WESTON: Yeah. That was a thing that, like…I’ve had that too, but like with ImaginOcean, the whole thing is tracked. It's like there is…the dialogue is set and locked and these…there’s no way you can fake it and have like another character say these lines. They're all distinct characters with distinct voices. And so we had one, we had one swing that would sort of cover everybody…And it came in handy a couple times. He had to go on for a few different characters a couple times over the course of the four, four-ish months we were on the road.

STEPHEN: Oh, wow. Yeah. Do you have a favorite place that you visited during that time?

WESTON: I, ooh, when we were in Costa Mesa, California, we had like a day off there, so we got to go to Disneyland, which was my first time going to a Disney park when I was nineteen. So that was really fun. I was also like, you know, I was the only one that was under the legal drinking age, so like, we went to Vegas and stuff, but I couldn't really like, partake in like, going out on our days off and stuff like that. So like, you know, I did my own thing in certain places, but Costa Mesa was fun because we got to, it was a great theatre. We were staying in a great hotel and then we got to go to Disneyland. So I was like, this is great. I'm having a, I'm having the best time. This is show business, baby. [Laughter.]

STEPHEN: I love a theme park perk. 

WESTON: Yeah. And it was just like…oh, for that one, we didn't actually have a day off, we just had a morning show. So I think we were done by like noon and we like ran to Disneyland after the show was done and we spent the rest of the day…so we didn't even have a whole day, but I was still having a ball. 

[Laughter.]

STEPHEN: That’s good. 

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: And I'm glad that you were able to find activities you could do legally. 

WESTON: Yes. 

STEPHEN: While the rest of the cast was…you know. I forget about that sometimes, how many activities revolve around alcohol and how that can be limiting in so many different ways.

WESTON: I was the DD on more than one occasion, which was fine, I was happy to do it, but it was just like, that was sort of what my, my role sort of became at times on that tour. [Laughter.]

STEPHEN: Wow. And I love to hear that you spent…I loved driving the Sprinter vans. 

WESTON: Yes. 

STEPHEN: When I was…I think also because it put me up so high, because usually I—

[Laughter.]

STEPHEN: —and so I could see all of the road and it's like, I love this. Yeah. And people can see me, so it's not like I'm gonna sneak up on anyone. 

WESTON: Yeah. We had a…one of our Sprinter vans…we were very good about like keeping all three of our vehicles in a line and keeping them together. But one of our Sprinter vans had a speed cap, I wanna say at like sixty-five. So when we were in parts of the country where the speed limit was seventy, and so people around us were going seventy-five and we couldn't go faster than sixty-five. It was like…[Laughter.] It was a little like…people would be like honking going around us and stuff like that. And we were like, ‘There's literally nothing we can do. I'm so, so sorry,’ because then it was all three of us in a line together. So it wasn't just the one vehicle that was lagging, it was all of us just sort of like this little unit going ten miles under the speed limit.

[Laughter.]

WESTON: But yeah, I loved to drive the Sprinter van. I, it made me feel very, like, I felt very powerful. I was like, I was in this big vehicle and it was great.

STEPHEN: Did you come right back to New York when you were done tour?

WESTON: Yeah, I actually got my, my next TYA job right after that tour ended, which was another John Tartaglia show at the Bronx Zoo, which was Reusable the Musical that happened not long after I got back from the tour. So I had like a couple weeks off where I stayed with my family in Connecticut and then came back into the city to start that show.

STEPHEN: Oh, awesome. We love when it's back-to-back bööking. 

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: And then of course, like you worked…you met previous guests, Stephen Gordon—

WESTON: Yes. 

STEPHEN: —on another show that John had created, that I learned recently was kind of like the aquarium was under construction. And so that was the reason the Shark Show was created.

WESTON: Yeah. They needed something for people to do when they got to the aquarium. So that's why they, they initially, for the first year, they were building this huge new exhibit and it was under construction for like a long time, like a few years. And so what they originally did in the first year is they took that show that we did at the Bronx Zoo in 2015, and they just moved that there for a year. And then they wrote the two new shows that Steven and I did together for the following year because hey were like, ‘We don't have…this show was a big success up in the Bronx. We need something for people to do while they're here, so let's move that show here.’ And so that was how that, that relationship with the aquarium started. But yeah, it was just kind of, because they needed something for people to do when they got here because a lot of the aquarium was under construction at the time

STEPHEN: When in doubt: puppets.

WESTON: When in doubt: puppets. You know what…it was a rousing success. People loved it. [Laughter.] So it was like…it was good for…I’m sure people didn't come to the Aquarium expecting to see theatre, but I think people really enjoyed it. It was like a nice surprise. 

STEPHEN: Yeah. I'll never, never forget the story Stephen told about the nuns enjoying the show.

WESTON: [Laughter.] I just re-listened to Stephen's episode before we logged on today. I was like, ‘I forgot about the nuns.’ I was like, I forgot about them. But yeah, that was a fun.

STEPHEN: It’s the nuns, it's the friends we made along the way.

WESTON: Exactly. The true Take the Plunge is the friends who made along. 

STEPHEN: So I was it through your Bronx Zoo show that you met Jake Bazel? Or did you two know each other beforehand?

WESTON: We met actually when I was in high school and I did that multiple-week puppetry workshop with Johnny Tartaglia. That was where Jake and I met. We were both participants in that workshop and it was a little bit of like, you know, crash course kind of thing where we didn't have a ton of time to like socialize, so we didn't like really get to know each other a ton over that course of that workshop. But that was where we met. And then we were auditioning for colleges together a lot, so we would see each other there. And we were like Facebook friends and stuff like that. So we kept up with like, you know, ‘I'm gonna be auditioning for this school. I'm gonna be auditioning for this school on this day.’ And we like overlapped I think a couple times. And then he did…we were supposed to start college together, but he took a year off to go do the tour of Dinosaur Train. And then I took a year off to do ImaginOcean. So the first time that we worked together was that Bronx Zoo show, the Johnny/Bronx Zoo Show right after I got back from ImagineOcean.

STEPHEN: And then you two went on to do Hungry Caterpillar together? 

WESTON: Yes, we did the, the New York premiere of Hungry Caterpillar Show in 2016. 

STEPHEN: Yeah. 

WESTON: Yeah. We were both cast in that too. 

STEPHEN: Oh, that is awesome. 

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: How long were you with Hungry Caterpillar? I feel like it's been, it's like closed and reopened like fifty-million times under different titles over the last like eight years. 

WESTON: Yeah. There's been a lot of different iterations of the show and they've sort of swapped out different stories and they've moved venues a few times. And I was part of it for its initial run only when it was like eight months in 2016. It was like January to August I believe, in that year. And at that time, like we did move venues once we moved from the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater on 47th was where we opened. And then we moved to Theatre Row for the last few months of the run. So I was involved with it just in 2016.

STEPHEN: And there you got to be, at least for part of the show, kind of puppet-free and you got to be you.

WESTON: Yeah, I got to do, I got to do a little of both. I got to do some…I started the show, the first story that we told was the Eric Carle story, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. And so I was the Artist and the other three puppeteers in the show were all of the animals that I painted. So it was like a fun little…I hadn't done…I went from ImaginOcean to Reusable in the Bronx Zoo. So it was a lot of puppet-heavy shows. So I hadn't done anything just sort of as myself in a while at that point. So it was like a fun little change of pace to like get to do a little bit of interacting with these characters because also in those other shows that I was doing, you know, the characters were part of us. You were acting to the puppet, you weren't acting to the other people and things like that. So I got to be a human interacting with these characters and these beautiful puppets that were made by the Puppet Kitchen. It was just exciting. 'Cause I had never done the human-puppet dynamic before. Like the relationship that like…and 'cause there are certain vocabulary things that you have to learn in that relationship because there is a puppet, there is the puppet's performer, they're both on stage together, but you just have to play to the puppet. And there's certain things that the puppet can and cannot do. Every puppet has its own physical limitations, no matter how beautifully they're built and these were gorgeous puppets. But there are certain things that like, you know, if I wanted to have a a a relationship with these characters, there's certain things that they can't do. So we had to work or figure out like what each character could do and what I could do with them to highlight them and what makes them look good and everything like that. So we got to like really play with figuring out that dynamic and that vocabulary between me and, and the puppet characters. And yeah, it was really, really fun. It was a new…that part of it was like a new sort of challenge and, and fun dynamic.

STEPHEN: Was this your first time like originating a role?

WESTON: Yes. So this wasn't technically originating a role. The show had opened in Australia, it had run in Australia. So it wasn't the first, it was the New York premiere of the show, but it wasn't the world premiere of that show. But yeah, this was my first time like in a rehearsal process sort of discovering my version of this character and what I could do. 'Cause there was a little…there was certain, there were choreography elements. There was a little bit of dance and stuff like that with the, with me and these puppet characters and like, you know, what that looks like for me and what I can do and things like that. So we, there, it was my first time sort of getting to discover something as myself for the first time. Like not stepping into to something that was already existing.

STEPHEN: And what a way to do it on the New York stage. 

WESTON: Exactly. I felt very cool.

[Laughter.]

STEPHEN: Yeah. And I mean, at this point you were really becoming a part of the puppet fabric of New York. Like this is when you…right around the time you started working on Sesame Street and Helpsters, like right before…

WESTON: Yes. My first day on Sesame Street was around that same time. Helpsters came later. Helpseters I did just a couple years ago, but around that time was the first day that I worked on Sesame Street. I worked with the Muppets for the Macy's Parade that year as well. So like 2016 was like a big puppet year for me. I got to do a lot of really, really cool stuff.

STEPHEN: Yeah, that is really cool. Doing the parade. I've always wanted to attend the parade…Doing that, I can't even imagine. 

WESTON: Yeah.

STEPHEN: I don't know how much you're allowed to tell us about what you did, but that's really cool.

WESTON: Yeah, I don't, I don't really know either, but I will say that it was, it was honestly like one of, if not the coolest day of my life, getting to do the parade that day because part of what we did was prerecorded and part of it was live. So we had a couple days in New 42 to like rehearse what we were doing and sort of do the camera staging a little bit. And then on the day, on Thanksgiving Day, we were called, I believe at 5:00 AM to prerecord everything…the prerecorded element…because we filmed it on the day up on like 72nd Street where the balloons start. So we did the prerecorded portion and we only had, I feel like we only had like an hour to get it shot, get it finished. And there was a lot of moving pieces. There was a lot of shots, there was a lot of…we had a ton of extras, we had dancers, cheerleaders, we had like a bunch of different setups. So it was really like, I'm glad we had the time in the studio to really like lock it down. 'Cause we really didn't, we didn't have the time to sort of figure out our portion on the day. There was a hundred other elements that we had to figure out. So we kind of had to really be locked in. And so we filmed the prerecorded part and then because the parade hadn't started yet, we got a police escort down the parade route down in front of Macy's to do the live portion, ‘cause we were the opening number of the parade. So nine o'clock hit, the parade started, it showed our prerecorded thing and then it cut to the live element and then we were done by like 9:05. It was crazy. We were, we finished in front of Macy's and we were all wrapped for the day, but then we got to just like stand there and watch all the balloons come down and all the floats come down. Like it was…oh my God. It was, what a cool experience that was. I am so, so…I still don't know how I got that gig, but I'm very happy that I did. It was the coolest day. I'm so, so grateful for it. It was really cool.

STEPHEN: That’s really, really neat. 

WESTON: Yeah.

STEPHEN: It’s, oh my God. And then you got to do it again too, a couple years later.

WESTON: Yes. A couple years later in 2019, I got to do another prerecorded segment for the 2019 parade with, with Sesame Street. So I got to do…that one was…I wasn't at the parade on the day. That was…we did a prerecorded segment on the set in the studio in Queens. And so it was everybody get together and it was Sesame Street's 50th anniversary year. So it was like, there was a lot of…Sesame Street was a big feature in the parade that year. So we got to do this prerecorded thing on the set where it was all of them being like, you know, ‘Let's go go to the parade. Let's get ready to go to the parade.’ It was very exciting. So I got to be part of that, which was great. It was so, so much fun.

STEPHEN: I assume that you met Marty Robinson on set for Sesame Street? 

WESTON: Yes. So when I, when I was growing up and I going to the set to visit Caroll when I was a kid, that was where I first met Marty and, you know, 'cause he worked with Caroll a lot as like Big Bird and, and Snuffleupagus or Oscar the Grouch and Telly Monster and stuff. So I got to see him in a lot of different contexts. But he was there a lot. So I got to meet him and that's where I first met Marty. Yeah.

STEPHEN: Okay. 'cause I saw clips of All Hallows Eve—

WESTON: Oh, yes.

STEPHEN: —that you got to work on with him. 

WESTON: Yes. 

STEPHEN: I need to know, were you doing the spooky jack-o-lantern marimba bunraku puppet?

WESTON: I was doing the spooky…yes. A huge, a huge jack-o-lantern skeleton kind of puppet. I was one of the puppeteers on that. There was one two three four five there were five of us on that puppet. So I was one of those. But my main job in that show, and I was brought on to that show very late in the game. They had already been maybe like a month into rehearsals and they realized that they just needed like another body, they needed someone else to, like, they realized that the way that they were staging things was not conducive to the amount of people that they had. So they just needed another person. And my main job in that show was, again, I was sort of, I was all in black head to toe and I sort of became like the, the magical force of the like main witch character played by Jen Barnhart where she, and the protagonist of the show was played by Haley Jenkins, and when the witch would like lift her up and spin her around, that was me, where I would just like come up, lift her up, spin her around. My main job was just carrying Haley Jenkins around the stage in a bunch of different ways on my back. I would pick her up like this. I would like…she would hop and I would hold her in in front of me. And like, that was my main job on the show was just carrying Haley Jenkins around, which was like the best. I love Haley Jenkins so, so much. But then I also did the part of the…I was the left arm of the jack-o-lantern skeleton character named Pumpky. That was a crazy incredible show to be a part of. That was, that was wild. 

STEPHEN: It looked really, really cool. 

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: Especially that spooky clown puppet that was enormous. I was like, ‘What is this?’

WESTON: Yes. The spooky clown puppet that popped out of like a jack-o-lantern box and like flew over the audience, like yeah, it was, it was nuts. It was nuts.

STEPHEN: You get to see and do the coolest things as a puppeteer. 

WESTON: Yeah. 

STEPHEN: It’s interesting to see the way that you did it for like the TYA field and then for a mostly adult audience. And that's something I've been thinking about a lot recently as I'm making a transition in my career. Like, 'cause it's been hard, and I've spoke to some other actors about this, transitioning from a TYA background into a theatre for adult background. That's just a weird divide that we have in the theatre community. 

WESTON: Yeah: 

STEPHEN: And it's cool to see the way that you have done both professionally, like whether it's, um, Little Shop and then it's Avenue Q up in Connecticut, it’s Laramie Project downtown…I’m wondering about branding as far as branding yourself as someone who can do it all. Is that something that you were consciously thinking of as you progressed in the field or is it just kind of happened this way for you?

WESTON: That’s a really good question. It's the thing that I've also been thinking a lot about and dealing with a lot because I've always done both musical theatre acting and puppetry. I've always done both sort of hand in hand. I always knew I wanted to do both, and with puppetry, a lot of work in puppetry comes in the TYA field. There's a lot of, you know, a lot of TYA shows use puppets. They're very sort of synonymous…puppets in this country are kind of very synonymous with children's media. Like, I think because of how popular shows like Sesame Street are and like they're viewed as sort of a kid's art form, when that's absolutely not the case. There are incredible, incredible puppets for kids, puppet shows for kids and everything, but there's also…it’s also such an effective storytelling tool for everyone, adults and children alike. So a lot of the time though, as a puppeteer, the work that is presented to you sometimes can skew very child or TYA-centered because that's where a lot of it…that’s where people view as a good place to put a puppet is in a show for for kids. And so that was a lot of the first jobs that I had were sort of one after another after another, because that was where the work was. And getting to sort of…the first time I really like broke out of that a little bit and got to do something that was for an adult audience was when I did Avenue Q. I did Avenue Q when I was twenty-one, regionally, just at Playhouse on Park Theatre in West Hartford, Connecticut. And getting to jump back into a full-length musical, a two and a half hour long musical, that was definitely not for children, but getting to see like how much of an effect it had on audiences, and that, that show I think is brilliant. And I think it does such a great job at…the puppets are there sort of as an homage to children's media, which allows the audience to sort of let their guard down a little bit. And then really, because they're associating it with innocence and children's media and things like that. And that really is what let that show…that really is what lets those characters in that show connect with the audience. And so getting to witness that was a really great reminder of the power of puppetry in theatre for everyone. Like there's not a set audience for this kind of work. Anyone can be touched by it. Anybody can be affected by it and connect to it. And that was a good reminder for me because…I get so much fulfillment out of TYA work and work for kids, but I also get a lot of fulfillment of connecting with audiences of all ages. And so I knew it was an effective tool, but I also knew that I kind of wanted to have my hands sort of in both…I didn't want to just do one or the other, 'cause I think theatre in general, and puppetry…it’s such a beautiful art form for storytelling and connecting and getting to…and escapism and all of these things. I get so much out of theatre as a concept. I love it so much. Theatre in general, I get so much out of it. And I love being a part of sharing that and getting to find those connections. And I meet people that have felt those connections. And so I always knew…I don't know if it's any…but the thing is, is as an actor, you only have so much control over the work that you get and the stuff that you get to do.

STEPHEN: Yeah. 

WESTON: So I know consciously I want to, you know, I always want to have a hand in all sides. I love doing puppetry, I love doing theatre, I love singing, I love being a human actor, I love being a puppet performer. I love all of these things, but you're sort of beholden to the work that you get and the work that's out there. So it's a conscious thing that I always have. And there have been times where I've sort of wrestled with it of like, you know, ‘Can I do more? Is there…am I being sort of pigeonholed in one thing versus another?’ But there have also been times where it's sort of out of my control and being aware of it, I think is a good thing and always wanting to have the goals and the aspirations and the love and the want to do the all of these things is great. And I think it's a good mindset to have as you move forward. But there's a certain element of, and I think that that helps going into things that you can't control, going into things that like you can't control the jobs that you get, but it helps you find a better sense of self for that uncertainty where you're like…it doesn't derail you being able to do the work if it's not necessarily all of the work that you want to do. Does that make sense? 

STEPHEN: Yeah. 

WESTON: I think it's a good…it helped me find my sense of self a little bit in, in the unpredictability of the industry. 'Cause as artists we're always, even though I've had a wonderful, incredible steady gig for this long with Little Shop that I love, you know, as artists we're always wanting to challenge ourselves and find new things and explore different mindsets and things like that. But I think having that sense of self, of knowing the benefits of everything that you get to do has grounded me in a way to letting go of the things that I can't change and being present in the things that I can. Branding is a thing that I've really sort of had a lot of time with, I've thought a lot about. And all of that is to say like, there's really only so much you can do [Laughter.] at least for me, because there's a lot of people that I know that are incredible at making their own work, that are incredible at writing their own shows, building their own puppets, writing their own songs, and I've sort of tried all of that and I have the utmost respect for the people that do, because nothing quite scratches the itch for me as much as acting does, as being the vessel for the storytelling. I tried building puppets when I was younger. I tried writing, I tried all this and, you know, maybe I'll go back to it at some point in the future, but nothing really gave me the same sense of fulfillment and the same sense of excitement and satisfaction and the thing that really just scratches the itch as much as just telling the story does, being the actor, the storyteller as a human or as a puppet, like, it's such a thing that I love to do so much. The creation of work is not necessarily where I think I thrive. And so that also limits my branding because people have had…I’ve talked to a lot of people and a lot of my friends are brilliant at creating their own work. And that helps them when they're like, ‘I really want to do X, Y, Z, so I'm gonna write it for myself.’ But it's just a thing that I just have never been able to really crack and do as wholeheartedly as I do when I get to do the thing that I love. So it's really a little bit of a letting go of that expectation a little bit, but finding that same sense of self while you're dealing with the uncertainty. Because unless you create your own work, there's only so much you can do. So that was something that I…it was a hard lesson to sort of learn and come to terms with. And I'm still sort of learning it. I'm still sort of coming to terms with it, but I think I'm better at that than I was. [Laughter.]

STEPHEN: Is there anything that we have not covered today that you would like included in your pipe and drape story?

WESTON: A little anecdote that I have: When I was doing the Johnny Tartaglia show Reusable the Musical at the Bronx Zoo in 2015…there was a little kid named Noah who kept coming back to the zoo just to see that show. I think he was maybe three at the time. And he was such a big fan of the show. He would go home and like sing the music and do little staging of the show in his apartment. And it was such a beautiful reminder of how much this work can affect people. And, you know, we were out there in like 90 degree weather and making kind of no money doing the show. And it was a little, you know, we were dealing with the weather and being too loud for the camels that were right next to us. And like all that sort of stuff, the crazy day to day that comes with any job. But we had this kid that was so enthralled by what we did and also learned the lessons that we were trying to teach in that show. That show was all about conservation and environmentalism and all that stuff. And he was really taking the lessons as well as being a fan of the show. And then two years later we were doing the sort of sister show at the New York Aquarium, and this little kid came back and he didn't know that the show was there, but he came in and he recognized the characters and he recognized us as the performers and he like, ran up to us and like, gave us a hug and was like, so happy. And it was such a beautiful reminder and beautiful testament to how impactful this work is. And even a little show at a little stage in the Bronx Zoo can make such a difference. And I think that that comes with the people that put their whole selves into these, that put a lot of work and really care about making good work. Because I think a lot of people can view TYA or children's media as, for lack of a better term, as sort of like less than: there’s the “legit” musical theatre that is like artistic and everything and then TYA is sort of kept in a separate bucket. And I think doing it well, doing TYA doing children's media well is one of the hardest things to do. And so there's a reason why TV shows like Sesame Street have endured for as long as they do, because they put in so much work. It takes so much to make good content that reaches people and is effective at what it does. And so I think children's media is often overlooked in that regard. And that was a perfect testament to that, is we had people that were, that cared a lot about this work and were putting a lot of time and effort and love into that work. And we got to see firsthand how that paid off and how it affected people. And that little kid that remembered us and came back just to see us and then came back two years later and remembered us is the perfect testament to that.

STEPHEN: You might get a letter from him at some point. 

WESTON: You might, you might— [Laughter.] Yeah.

STEPHEN: How old would he be now? Maybe he's coming Little Shop.

WESTON: Oh my god. Who’s to say. [Laughter.] Oh my God, that sweet, sweet kid.

STEPHEN: Weston, thank you for sharing your story with me today.

WESTON: Thank you so much for having me.

STEPHEN: How can our listeners find out what you are up to right now and in the future?

WESTON: Well, I am on social media. I'm on Instagram @westonclong. My website is westonlong.com. That is..the best places to keep up with me. But you can see me eight shows a week at Little Shop of Horrors at the West Side Theatre as the puppeteer for Audrey II. When in doubt go there, you'll probably find me.

STEPHEN: Weston’s website and Instagram handle, and the website for the Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors are linked in the show notes. This week’s Tuesday Afternoon Dance Party music is “Storm” from the recording of York Theatre Royal, Little Angel, The Marlowe, and Engine House’s co-production of The Storm Whale, Based on The Storm Whale and The Storm Whale in Winter by Benji Davies Written and directed by Matt Aston with music by Julian Butler.

[Pipe and Drape theme plays.]

Are you interested in sharing your pipe and drape story? You can join the conversation by emailing PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com or messaging  @PipeAndDrapeStories  Instagram. And everyone, please be sure to rate and review Pipe and Drape wherever you listen to podcasts! Each star given or review submitted helps future listeners find the show. Tune in every other Tuesday to hear theatre for young audiences creatives share their pipe and drape stories. Pipe and Drape is created and hosted by Stephen Fala and distributed by Spotify for Podcasters. The Pipe and Drape logo was created by Stephen Gordon and music was composed by Stephen Fala. Thank you for listening with me today. 
 
Find Weston Chandler Long:
WEBSITE: http://www.westonlong.com/ 
INSTAGRAM: @westonclong
Little Shop of Horrors Off-Broadway: https://littleshopnyc.com/ 

This week’s Tuesday Afternoon Dance Party music: “Storm” from The Storm Whale

Listen to the Tuesday Afternoon Dance Party playlist here!

Connect with Pipe and Drape:
INSTAGRAM: @PipeAndDrapeStories
EMAIL: PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com
Host: Stephen Fala
Artwork: Stephen Gordon

Weston Chandler Long and cast in The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show Off-Broadway, 2014. Photo by Carol Ragg.