Episode 18: Alyssa Armstrong

[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. Every two weeks I sit down with a theatre professional to hear their stories about the audition, rehearsal, and development process of theatre for young audiences. Each of them have bridged the path from youth to adulthood while working in the theatre for young audiences industry. My guests have mounted shows small enough to fit in a minivan to productions so big they travel by caravan. You can join the conversation by emailing PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com or messaging @PipeAndDrapeStories Instagram.

This is episode 18 of Pipe and Drape. In the blink of an eye, my guest joined a team of six that toured a TYA show through California and Arizona through dust storms, illness, and LA traffic. My guest entertained and educated thousands of children every week through song on a set that she drove from city to city. Thank you for listening with me today.

STEPHEN: Hi everyone! I’m talking to Arizona Valley actor Alyssa Armstrong. Alyssa received a National Youth Arts Award for her performance in Pippin at Spotlight Youth Theatre. In addition to several years of shows and training at Spotlight, Desert Stages, and HyRev, Alyssa has worked on at least ten productions at Arizona Broadway Theatre. There she was most recently a swing for The SpongeBob Musical and the Agnez/Tessie u/s in Gypsy. She appeared in their ensembles of Elf the Musical, Godspell, Sweeney Todd, Sister Act, Peter Pan, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Annie. Alyssa is with me today to share her experience touring Schoolhouse Rock Live with Childsplay. Alyssa, welcome. 

ALYSSA ARMSTRONG: Hi. I'm so excited. 

STEPHEN: I'm very happy to have you on. So for our listeners, Alyssa and I met doing SpongeBob at Arizona Broadway Theatre and, at the time of recording this, our contract just ended less than a week ago. At this time we were still on stage. We were doing the finale together. And Alyssa jumped in. Oh my God, your first rehearsal was…you came to our designer run a week before opening.

ALYSSA: Yeah, so Arizona Broadway Theatre only does two weeks of rehearsals and then that third week is the tech week. So that third week of which you guys had your preview, I came in a week before that, like exactly to that day.

STEPHEN: And then opened the show as Karen. Yes. 

ALYSSA: And then yeah, went on preview and then went on opening as well.

STEPHEN: It's amazing. Like I just turned, I'm like, ‘Oh, it's, it's not Lindsay, it's Alyssa. Okay, great.’ Yeah. 

ALYSSA: Many of times people were like, ‘Hey,' and I'm like, ‘Hi, it's me.’ 

STEPHEN: There was a day where we did the opening number, I ran off stage, and I didn't even know you were…I was like, hello.

ALYSSA: Yeah, your face was just like, hello there. Welcome.

STEPHEN: And that's like how like flawless her performance was in like all of the tracks that she covered. Like no one like knew until like looking twice like, oh wait, okay great. 

ALYSSA: That means a lot because woo, that was such a stressful time. So glad that I got through it and all of you guys were so amazing. Like it ugh, so amazing.

STEPHEN: We were very happy and very lucky to have you on board. Thank you. 

ALYSSA: It was very fun to be with all of you. 

STEPHEN: Did you always want to be a performer? 

ALYSSA: That's funny because I did a lot of things when I was younger. I did soccer, I did volleyball, I did gymnastics, I did swim. Oh, what else did I do? I bet I did other things, too. And then I had to go to a learning center for my reading. And so at this learning center you were able to get these tokens and you accumulate a certain amount of tokens and then you can go and pick a prize. I went and I went to go pick two tickets to Bye Bye Birdie at Spotlight Youth Theatre and I was about like eight years old and I was watching this and I remember sitting in the back row with my cousin and we were watching this show and I just kept turning around ‘cause I was like, ‘Where are they reading these lines?’ I was like, ‘Is there a projector somewhere? Is someone holding up cue cards? Like how do they know what they're supposed to be doing?’ So I just was…so from that moment was so intrigued. And then after that I went home and I just started nagging my mom about auditioning for Tiki Tiki Tumbo at Spotlight. And I was just, was nagging her and she, she's told me recently about how she wanted me to kind of forget because she was like, my little girl does not understand what she's about to get herself into. Like she does not understand theatre. ‘Cause my mom always talks about too, how she was never that type of person. She was always such a scared like shy little girl. So she was like, I don't know if Alyssa understands what she's gonna be getting herself into. But I never forgot and I auditioned and I had the time of my life and I just kept auditioning at Spotlight and I've did shows at Spotlight for then the next twelve years. 

STEPHEN: And then at the same time you were in Arizona Broadway's youth program, you were performing with HyRev. Was that a lot to juggle? 

ALYSSA: So that actually didn't start until 2018 or 2019 I think or uh, yeah, 2018. It was this other group, uh, called Pitches and Tones at Spotlight. So it started at Spotlight Youth Theatre, but then it moved over to Arizona Broadway Theatre, and from there it was, but basically it was kind of all the same group even though it had different names. It was the same group. And I had been in that same group since maybe I was about fourteen or fifteen. Yeah. So even though it had different names, I was in that exact same group in that exact same training with Mark and Lindsay Foreman who, Lindsay was the other Karen, and I trained with them on so many things. And that would be two semesters, one Christmas semester and the other, the second semester would, we would do a summer jam and then we would go to Disneyland and Universal Studios and go perform there and then have fun in Disneyland and Universal Studios, too since HyRev started at Arizona Broadway Theatre in like 2018. That's when I got my first adult show at Arizona Broadway Theatre, which was Sister Act. And so, you know, the rehearsals are Tuesday from Saturday or Tuesday to Sunday and then the HyRev rehearsals were Mondays. So I had rehearsals Mondays through Sundays, but I was in shape, man, singing and dancing was the easiest it had ever been. After COVID, I got back in it and I was like, oh, whoa. That's hard. That's real hard. Woo!

STEPHEN: (Struggles to spit out his words and realizes he needs a vacation. He will not get one though.) And so in addition to to performing and growing and training at these theatres you found yourself working for Childsplay on the tour of Schoolhouse Rock, Live! recently. 

ALYSSA: Yeah. Words are hard. It's okay, it's so hard to find words. Oh my God. Um, but it was such a weird and unexpected thing. My friend Fallon, she is like twenty-three and she really wants to do adult theatre, like is always looking for adult theatre. And she saw this notice for Schoolhouse Rock and it didn't fit with her times her schedule. So she sent it to me and I emailed and it was such a fast turnaround. Like it was insane. I had never heard of Childsplay before. Never. I had never gone to see their shows. But everybody, when I had mentioned that I did get it, everybody was like, oh, you're gonna love Childsplay, you're gonna love it. But she sent it to me, I just emailed them and I was like, ‘Hey, I'm interested.’ And then they were like, great, send us a song. I think I either did it that day or the next day, but either way, the day that I sent the video in, I got a call so I can very much think Fallon because it was so unexpected. I didn't even know that it was really the national tour. Like I didn't, I don't think I really read the audition notice fully. I think I read…uh, oh no, I did, I did ‘cause I remember that it said touring to California and I was like, that's what got me, that's what got me. Because I would rather tour than kind of be on Broadway or anything like that ‘cause of the amount of places that you see, and while you're performing…like come on, come on. The best of both worlds right there. 

STEPHEN: Oh yeah. Traveling for work is one of, I think, the best parts of this industry. Especially like the TYA world. So much of it is touring. 

ALYSSA: And it's so fun. Like the kids in other places, like even though we did only go to California, it was such a different reaction than kids here in Arizona. Like, it’s not that different, but it was, the feeling in the energy was different and it is just so weird at all the places that you can go and just, I don't know, it's always gonna feel new and different and I think it's great and kids are just amazing. Like when we had the kids shows, we had shows Tuesday through Friday 9:30 and 11:30AM and then Saturday and Sunday were our public shows. The kids were just so into it and then the public shows they were not. And it was so frustrating because the kids were everything and just, I'm so excited for Monday or Tuesday to come back to do it for the kids. 

STEPHEN: Yeah. It’s…I think having kids in the audience is always a treat, especially for like…did you grow up watching Schoolhouse Rock? 

ALYSSA: No. Okay. Neither did my mom. Me and her knew nothing. Like I obviously knew “Conjunction Junction,” who doesn't know that? And then I think I knew like one other song, but besides that I knew nothing. And I remember seeing cartoons I think like maybe in school, but vaguely. But the other people that I was in the show with, there were four others, it was just me and three others. They talked about constantly how they watched Schoolhouse Rock and they came to see child play shows too. So I was like, I was the youngest and the oddball. 

STEPHEN: And within that group of just like four people that you were about to go on tour with, you ended up reconnecting with someone from your past, Joshua who was someone older than you but also a part of your training experience. 

ALYSSA: Me and Joshua, we actually went to the same high school. We went to the same high school and we both were in Footloose at Spotlight Youth Theatre when I was about thirteen and they were maybe about like twenty-four. And to then to finally come to this show where I'm a full grown adult and they are full grown adult and we can be in a show together, we actually had a newspaper come out about us—our journeys and how they've crossed so many times yet like are also parallel at the same time. It was just very rewarding in a way to just finally come together and do something together for kids. 

STEPHEN: So what was the process of putting this show together with just four people in very little time? 

ALYSSA: SpongeBob had about three weeks technically kind of like, of rehearsals and whatever. We only had two weeks and it was Monday through Friday rehearsals, we didn't do weekends. And then it was two weeks and then that Monday after that two weeks was California and all of us, it was our brains like, we had to stop early a couple of days because our brains were not collecting anymore ’cause it was sixteen songs in an hour show that you just have to power right through. And it's, since it's only four people, I only had two songs, and I think there's only like two characters that have about three or four songs. So I was so thankful that I only had two because my brain was already had enough. But it was a lot more than I had ever thought, more than I thought I was walking into.

STEPHEN: In addition to like learning and executing all that material, did you have like duties outside of performing? 

ALYSSA: Yeah, so our set was like this big flat and that just kind of leaned up. So like we just like turned some knobs and like it all fit in a mini band. That set was ten years old. So we had a lot of problems with that set and putting it together and like, there was one time I think we, we spent forty minutes trying to just put two pallets together because it, you have to put it up such a certain way that if you don't do it the right way, you have to start over, you have to start over. So there was the set and then we brought two minivans, we all switched driving, all of us drove about like two, three hours because we went to Modesto, California, which is about ten hours away from Arizona and it took two days to drive there. We drove about eight hours the first day and then the next day was like the last four or three. I drove the big van which had the set in and when we were driving to California, it had horrible winds and sand was like, it was a bad sandstorm and I could feel the top of the van like moving us and shifting us. My heart. I was like, I got this. But it was so, so nerve-wracking to have all of this at my hands with a huge van and like the sandstorm eight hours away from Arizona.

STEPHEN: Just a sensible California tour. 

ALYSSA: Yeah, just sensible, just dipping my toe in the water. 

STEPHEN: What did you get to do in California on your time off? 

ALYSSA: Oh, the last night in Modesto…So we went up to Modesto to come back down to La Marada and the last night in Modesto, my stage manager asked me and Ian if we wanted to go out and go to a little party down in Los Angeles and we did. And it was so fun. We were out until about 4:00AM and on our way home. I didn't know that Los Angeles had freaking traffic at 4:00AM! Are you kidding me? We were stopped, Stephen, we were stopped on the freeways at 4:00AM I was like. Talk about New York. This is the city that never sleeps. 

STEPHEN: What time did you end up getting back to your hotel?

ALYSSA: Five. And then that next day we had to leave at eight (Laughter.)

STEPHEN: Oh, I'm so sorry. 

ALYSSA: It's ok. Our, not our stage manager, but our production manager ended up sleeping in later. So we actually got to have a little extra hour to get our stuff ready (Laughter.) 

STEPHEN: Okay. Okay. How many of you total were on the road? 

ALYSSA: Six, the production manager, our stage manager, and then the forecast mates. But Childsplay has a whole creative team. Like it was crazy. Our first rehearsal there, they were like, we want you to meet the whole team. They brought up the Zoom call because they're very conscious about COVID and they brought up the Zoom call and what was it maybe twenty people on that Zoom call that were all just like, introduced themselves and were like, “Hey, we’re child's play,” basically And it was like sick. But yeah, only six came on. We all did eventually get like sick, like really sick. Not COVID, but like sick. And I think it was just because how exhausted and how we had two weeks rehearsals that third week we had our first week of shows, like all our breaks tour were the driving. So I think all of us were just so sick. And I think that was the biggest thing that happened to us was trying to do the show while sick. As soon as we got back from California, I got majorly sick. I was sick for about almost a month, don't know what it was, but I thought it was bronchitis because I had a very horse cough and it was, oh, it was horrible. But it was nothing like they didn't find anything and they didn't stop any shows. They didn't ask me if I wanted to take a break or anything, and honestly I'm glad that they didn't because I personally, when another person got sick and they asked if they wanted a break, they said yes. So we canceled two or three shows and I'm glad that they did that for the health of us, but at the same time it was hurt my heart that these kids couldn't come see the show at their age. That's where I saw a show and fell in love, and any of those shows could have been a kid that could have been like me and could have seen us and been like, wow, I wanna try that. At the same time, it meant a lot that the company chose to be like, ‘Hey, your health, we can't do that. You know, we gotta we gotta take care of you.’ They were very good in that aspect. It's just further evidence that under studies and swings are so important and, you know, to support the cast, but also to make sure like, you know, that the audience gets to see, you know, what they're so excited to see. And kids it's like a break from the school day or you know, going to a new place or like learning something. It's so important. 100%. And these kids, like when we were, when we would have shows, like, it'd be so fun, they would be like waving in the audience and in my brain I'd be like, I wish I could wave back to you, but I've gotta do a job here. And after all the shows we did talkbacks and one thing Childsplay wanted us to really talk about, like if we got asked the question is to let them know that this is a job. And if they ever asked about something they didn't want us to be like, ‘Oh, it's theater magic,’ they wanted us to show that this is a job and this is like something that's something cool that you can do for with your life. And it's like a job and it, it's a fun job. That's what I'm trying to get at. But it's, they wanted us to show that it's a fun job and that any of you can do it. So I loved those talk back so silly. Those kids. 

STEPHEN: We love a talkback.

ALYSSA: We love a talkback. We literally, after a rehearsal, we had to sit down with somebody from Childsplay to talk about the etiquette of a talkback. And we could not point, we could not say that was a good question. We always had to repeat the question and say, if you could not hear my friend, they said blah, blah, blah. And then when, after the rehearsals after that talk, like the next couple of days we had to do a mock talkback at the end of our runs with our musical director, our choreographer, all of that. And I was so bad at it. I was so bad at it and I was…it was terrifying. It was low-key, like really nerve-wracking to just the thought of a talk back. Oh, it was so scary because I'm not good on my feet. Sometimes I am, most of the time I'm not. And with kids it can always be a surprise with what they said. A kid literally asked me, ‘Are you nearly Armstrong's sister?’ I was like, nope but maybe somewhere down the line we're related. I had a kid ask me, do I know the moons of Saturns? Do I know the names of the moons of Saturn? Oh wait, that's not English. Do I know the name of Saturn’s Moons? There we go… So yeah, kids could say anything at any moment and put it getting put right on the spot. So nerve-wracking, so nerve-wracking. 

STEPHEN: Did you sing “Interplanet Janet?”

ALYSSA: I did sing “Interplanet Janet.”

STEPHEN: How did you answer academic questions? Like the, the question about the planets when you didn't know the answer per se? 

ALYSSA: I owned up to it. I owned up to it. I said I actually have no idea. And I was, I think I asked the kid, I was like, do you know them? And that actually was also one of the things with our etiquette, don't ask the kids questions back . So broke rule number, whatever. I broke a little rule, but I think the kid knew the answer and I think he said it. He, he totally knew the answer and he was just trying to see if I knew it—if I did my research, which I did not, I did not and he caught me. 

STEPHEN: Kids are so surprising. One time I asked a class a question about something science-related and a kid explained the answer perfectly and I was like, all right, well that's that's my time ‘cause you got…you said everything I was gonna say so goodbye. 

ALYSSA: That's like, Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? right there.

STEPHEN: He literally was a fifth grader and I wasn't smarter than him. I was just like older and like a little bit taller.

ALYSSA: Yeah. And what these kids learn, I'm like, I never learned that. How, how do you know that? Gosh.

STEPHEN: What was the age range that you were performing for? 

ALYSSA: Sometimes I think we did have like sixth and seventh graders, but mostly I think it was…I think the youngest might've been like first graders. Like first, which what, what age is that usually? Like six, I would say about six to thirteen, fourteen maybe. Because usually it was like the youngest kids were in the front and it kind of gradually got older towards the back I could see the youngest faces and then the tallest heights. The heights in the dark. Yeah. And all those little kids, they, there were a couple shows where they sang along like with “Conjunction Junction” and just hearing all those little voices of just singing “Conjunction Junction, what's your function?” I'm like, these teachers are doing it right. These teachers know what they're doing, playing some Schoolhouse Rock around them. 

STEPHEN: Good on them for knowing “Conjunction Junction” ‘cause I didn't even know when I did it, we'd be like, “Conjunction Junction ???gsaivylbuweaibeaw?? function” because it changes. It's like, “How's that function?” “Watch that function?” Alyssa, thank you for speaking with me today. How can our listeners find out what you're up to? 

ALYSSA: Hi. So mainly on my Instagram account. It's just @alyssaarmstrong_. In my bio I constantly have whatever show that I'm in and then I @ the theatre. I constantly am posting on my story. I try to at least try to be up to date. That's pretty much the only social media, yeah that’s the only… and then I will be in Spamalot soon. So if you follow me on my Instagram you'll see all those pictures and all that, that whole journey that I'm gonna about be on. 

STEPHEN: So if you're in Phoenix the fall of 2022, be sure to check out Alyssa Armstrong in Arizona Broadway Theatre’s production of Spamalot.

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You can join the conversation about theatre for young audiences and find more Pipe and Drape content including photos, quotes, and TYA news on Instagram @PipeAndDrapeStories. And please be sure to rate and review Pipe and Drape wherever you listen to podcasts! Each star given or review submitted helps future listeners to find the show. Be sure to 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 Anchor. The Pipe and Drape logo was created by Stephen Gordon and music was composed by Stephen Fala. Thank you for listening with me today.

Read about Alyssa Armstrong and cast member Joshua Vern's story here

Spamalot at Arizona Broadway Theatre Fall 2022

Find Alyssa Armstrong:
INSTAGRAM: @alyssaarmstrong_

Connect with Pipe and Drape:

INSTAGRAM: @PipeAndDrapeStories

EMAIL: PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com

Host: Stephen Fala

Artwork: Stephen Gordon

Dinky Episode 7: 48 Hours Notice: Returning to Theatre After COVID-19

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.

[The Dinky Pipe and Drape theme plays.] 

In this Dinky episode I’m talking about that time I had to leave my theatre job with 48 hours notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then how I jumped back into the world of performing for the first time in two years with 48 hours notice. Thank you for listening today.

If you’re following this podcast on Instagram @PipeAndDrapeStories you’ve seen bits and pieces of the jobs and adventures I’ve had over the last decade. I’ve sort of alluded to the fact that I worked for Disney Cruise Line (you’ll hear more about this in the next episode) and I was performing on the Magic in the Western Caribbean when the theatre industry was ripped out from under everyone due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I was supposed to end my contract in Barcelona, and then I had planned to explore Europe for three weeks before returning to the states, moving to New York, and taking my Equity card. 

Instead I was on board with no guests for a month practicing juggling tricks, watching movies on deck, and sailing into the unknown. After four weeks I was sent home to Philadelphia with 48 hours notice and five hundred dollars cash from Mickey to cover travel. During the six months that followed I collected unemployment and stimulus checks while reading thirty two books on my parents’ back porch and finishing scrapbooks. Once I started working remotely for a law firm I followed through with my goal of moving to New York. I wanted to be settled in New York when it was quiet before the industry came back, and with a remote job in place, savings from Mickey Mouse, and student loan payments on hold, the timing was right for me. In total I spent a year away from anything theatre-related, and by the end of that year I had developed this podcast as a way to keep in touch with members of the theatre industry and to help me reflect on what it is I do exactly. While recording Season 1 I was an extra on a film set, trained at a marionette theatre, workshopped an object movement piece, and stage managed in a play festival. These temporary positions were all adjacent to the work I was used to doing, and as the industry opened back up I wondered what my place in it would be.

I hadn’t fallen into a particular “type” when it comes to role or style of show. In musicals I’ve sung and flung as a foolish sidekick and a preppy stud, kicked around as a baby chorus member of a dancing New York City gang, and in plays I’ve drunkenly played piano at an Irish wake and solved a curious dog murder while studying for A levels. I’ve wavered back and forth between man and child, chorus and principle, nervous and sexy. In the world of TYA I performed for children as a puppeteer and/or played a child myself.

Each of these contracts had their ups and downs: great pay for work I didn’t believe in, exciting shows that hardly paid a living wage, and then there were positions that didn’t help me grow as an adult or performer… I wanted more out of the stories I told, compensation I received, and respect I was given. But stepping back into a recovering industry that had just a few jobs available…I felt like I was asking a lot. A huge part of me felt that I was too much and not enough of the same exact qualities for everyone behind the casting table. Too young yet too old, too "TYA" yet too serious, too big and and too small, too puppety and not unique enough. I felt like a man-child doomed to have taken my last bow ever on a Mickey Mouse Boat in the Bermuda Triangle.

Then I saw a listing for a last-minute replacement in a production of The SpongeBob Musical, a show I knew very little about. On the surface, SpongeBob looks like a musical comedy based on a cartoon for millennials—a cash grab. Dive in, and you’ll see its score is filled with original music by dozens of popular artists, in one way or another covers the topics of xenophobia, racism, women in STEM, global warming, capitalism, corrupt government, cult leaders, friendship, the struggles of being an artist, and has flying, skating, staircase ballets, tap, jazz, hip-hop, live sound effects, audience participation, acrobatics, and it’s truly for both kids and adults. If you haven’t seen the recording of the musical on Paramount Plus, check it out. The up-cycled scenery, diversity in the cast, and the clever staging are a prime example of what I hope the future of the theatre industry turns out to be.

The end of my  COVID-19 intermission went like this:

• A self-tape request was posted Saturday 
  
• I saw it Sunday 
  
• Learned material Monday
• Recorded Tuesday
• Got the offer Wednesday
• Signed the contract Thursday
• Flew out Friday 
  
• Has by first rehearsal Saturday
• And two weeks later I opened the show as an ensemble member

With 48 hours notice I was back in the world of theatre the way I knew it. I packed up my suitcase the way I had done before. I got myself to the airport and started to listen the show. I played the first few songs from the original cast recording on repeat for hours with the score in front of me to drill the music into my head. I was waking up my memorization skills as I was listening to SpongeBob wake up on repeat. During the first ten minutes of the show we learn that SpongeBob wakes up each day hoping to make it the best one ever. He dreams of being manager of Bikini Bottom’s “finest” eating establishment the Krusty Krab but he's told he can never be more than a fry cook, a job he has and loves. That he is just a simple sponge capable of only one kind of work. I don’t know how many times I listened to the first few songs but this trip flew by. 

Flying used to terrify me. When I was touring with Nickelodeon I would squeeze my friend’s hand as the plane took off because I thought “this is it it’s going to happen--boom,” but now suddenly my plane was landing in Phoenix and I was logging into the theatre’s Uber account to call a car to take me to my housing and I didn’t even think about tragedy the whole time. I checked into the hotel with my bags and unlocked the door to my shared occupancy room and that’s when it felt strange. I know what this is: this was my life, for years, living out of a suitcase in a city I’ve never seen before. This is what I did, this was my thing. But I felt different? Maybe it’s the two years off, the pandemic, knowing that I had my apartment waiting for me back in New York, the fact that I was 30 and one of the eldest of my cast mates for the first time ever. The fact that between my last musical and this one, ten of my friends and family got married and had children? 
As I was processing this I decided to do what I usually do when I arrive somewhere new for work: wander around by myself. That’s when my other routines started to come back to me. I thought “ok I should probably locate the theatre now before I have to get there for rehearsal tomorrow morning.” I found it. Then I decided to get dinner. I thought about getting take out and going back to my hotel room and then I remembered “right, you have only an hour for lunch tomorrow, maybe buy lunch to bring so you’re not scrambling.” When I was at Trader Joe’s I remembered i had a working refrigerator in my room so I could get some groceries. While getting groceries I remembered that hotels provide food at breakfast so there are some things I don’t need to buy. I unpacked and started organizing my bags and toiletries the way I used to on tour. It was all coming back to me: which items will always live in my backpack, which will stay in my suitcase, and where I will put everything. Doing this podcast and interviewing colleagues while the industry was at intermission has kept these routines in me somewhere, and I’m so happy I got to wake them up.

I recognized when I jumped back into old habits that I had developed over the years to help me do my job. For example: I am always quiet during the rehearsal process, especially when it’s a truncated two-week period that I hesitate to call a process. To save money, many theatres will give their performers two weeks to learn the show, and there is a grace period during the days of technical rehearsals to make adjustments and fixes to the physical storytelling accordingly. I didn’t have the script for SpongeBob until I was boarding the plane to Arizona, and by the first rehearsal I had only listened to the recording of the show once through. I needed to focus all of my energy on learning the material from scratch during the rehearsal period, so I was not particularly social on breaks or after rehearsals were over. SpongeBob is a lot. It’s a new musical which means everyone is a high tenor and every number is an ensemble number. It’s everything everywhere at once, and as an ensemble member I was constantly moving, on stage and off. We were a few days in and had already staged three major numbers, but in a high-stakes show like this, almost every number is a big ensemble ordeal. Just minutes into the show, crisis strikes when an underwater volcano is on the brink of erupting and destroying the town, and while SpongeBob’s friend Sandy has come up with a way to stop the volcano with an invention, no one in the town believes her because she is a squirrel/scientist. So a lot of big, mob mentality was needed for the telling of this story.

But as we were quickly staging these pieces, I noticed myself being really shy and taking everything seriously and getting really really in my head. This was a habit I did not expect to fall back into, and I thought I had beat it out of myself years ago. I noticed myself making small, non-choices and thinking too much about the spacing and the scenarios rather than experiencing the scene and failing big. When this show is silly it’s silly and when it’s serious it’s serious. Serious, to me, is easy, serious is safe, and serious is simple. I forgot how to be silly. What shook me out of that habit was the arrival of my second act character—a roller blading guitar playing who’s not-not a member of Aerosmith. I’d been watching clips of Harry Styles’ tour and realized he’s having so much fun—he wants to be there, and the audience wants him to be there and that’s when I remembered, 'I want to be here, and the audience wants to be here, what are you afraid of go be Harry Styles,' and so in some weird combination of KISS, Avril Levigne, and Starlight Express I made myself a rock star and allowed that confidence to fuel the other six characters I played throughout the show. I knew how to do this, I know what this is.

It had been a good minute since I had to pick up choreography. While I could play and create characters, I was still faking my way through numbers, and there are a lot of numbers. At one point the ensemble is hip-hop hypnotized into Plankton’s capitalism-driven scheme and just a few scenes later everyone is in a onesie-wearing cult that believes they can think the problem away whilst dancing with tambourines (hashtag thoughts and prayers) rather than investing in the science that will help stop tragedy. And then there is still all of act two which includes two staircase ballets, a long sea shanty, and a twenty-two minute full-company scene with four songs in a row. I was so overwhelmed. Cut to SpongeBob running around yelling “I can’t do this” at the base of the volcano he has to stop from erupting. He has yet to believe he is not just a simple sponge—panicking. I knew that with some time alone in the studio I could get the show into my body. So like I had done in many shows past, I got myself to the rehearsal space and worked alone for hours until I felt comfortable with my spacing.

Just when I got my own spacing down I was asked to understudy SpongeBob. My personal rehearsal process started all over again. Instead of finally going out with my cast and exploring Phoenix I was learning material I had never paid attention to. I’m a baritone, I can pop out a few occasional high notes, but SpongeBob lives in the stratosphere the entire show. I went into those rehearsals not sure if I could sing the role, but then I got through the first act just fine. Okay. He sings even higher in the second act because, of course, stakes are higher. He’s upside down climbing a volcano/scaffolding while proving to himself that he has the management skills to lead the scientific expedition to save the town. I don’t know what I did vocally, but I did it. Things clicked into place because they had to, there wasn’t another option. Someone believed I could do this and in that moment I believed I could, too.

I never went on as SpongeBob, but after my rehearsal period was finally over I went out for wine, spent nights at the pool, had movie nights, and made up for the bonding I robbed from myself when I was learning material. This show got more fun every performance. Kids and adults came dressed up in their sponge gear and shouted "ay ay captain" and laughed at jokes from episodes. I dug deeper into the choreography and the moments I created during rehearsals. Dancing along with the wardrobe team, waiting in the wings, and feeling I got when the show curtain rose as our drummer Tom played the opening drum luck made me forget that I’ve been away from this theatre industry. Two years had passed since my last performance, but this job and this lifestyle are so engrained in me that I was able to bounce back into it and grow even more because I know how to do this and I know what this is. 

With 48 hours notice I left my theatre career on a boat, and with 48 hours notice I picked it back up in a desert—a different place from where I left it, but I’m in a different place, too. My time on this contract reminded me what I love about the industry, the work I want to create, and that the right opportunities are out there for me. And as the sun sets on another beautiful Bikini Bottom day, SpongeBob in all his sponginess realizes that who he is and what he has to offer are enough.

[Pipe and Drape theme plays.]

You can join the conversation about theatre for young audiences and find more Pipe and Drape content including photos, quotes, and TYA news on Instagram @PipeAndDrapeStories. And 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. Be sure to 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 Anchor. The Pipe and Drape logo was created by Stephen Gordon and music was composed by Stephen Fala. Thank you for listening today.

Connect with Pipe and Drape:

INSTAGRAM: @PipeAndDrapeStories

EMAIL: PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com

Host: Stephen Fala

Artwork: Stephen Gordon

Episode 17: Stephen Gordon

STEPHEN FALA: The way you're pinching your face. 

STEPHEN GORDON: I hate when people talk about me.

FALA: Sorry. Okay. Stephen has designed the covers. (Laughter.) I can't look at you!

[Pipe and Drape theme plays.]

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. Every two weeks I sit down with a theatre professional to hear their stories about the audition, rehearsal, and development process of theatre for young audiences. Each of them have bridged the path from youth to adulthood while working in the theatre for young audiences industry. My guests have mounted shows small enough to fit in a minivan to productions so big they travel by caravan. You can join the conversation by emailing PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com or messaging @PipeAndDrapeStories Instagram.

This is episode 17 of Pipe and Drape. In the following interview, my guest shares his experience as a performer in two short musicals, John Tartaglia created for the Wildlife Conservation Society. My guest's pipe and drape story takes us out into the summer heat at the New York Aquarium. Thank you for listening today. 

FALA: Hi everyone, today I’m talking to actor/artist Stephen Gordon. Stephen has recently been seen all over the Atlantic Ocean flying around onstage as Peter Pan aboard the Disney Magic, in the northeast at Syracuse Stage, Regal Music Theatre, and Busch Gardens, and in New York City with The Dramatists Guild Foundation and The Drama Company NYC where he was both an actor and graphic designer. Stephen has designed the covers of several Elizabeth Flaherty books, painted the walls of Alice’s Tea Cup, and the created the logos for podcasts like Out There: A Cryptid Podcast and Pipe and Drape. Yes! Stephen designed the logo for this podcast! His penmanship defies all space and time, he knows the name of every crew member aboard the Disney Magic, and he loves everything ookie spooky. Stephen is here to share his pipe and drape story from the time he performed next to some sea lions in John Tartaglia’s Take the Plunge! Stephen, welcome.

GORDON: That was the most wild bio I have ever heard I think in my life. I need you to write all my bios for the rest of my days. 

FALA: Stephen, you grew up as a Disney kid, yes?

GORDON: I did. Yes. 

FALA: What was your favorite Disney film growing up? 

GORDON: Okay, my first favorite was The Little Mermaid for sure. I used to put my feet in an oven mitt and a red sweatshirt on my head and pretended I was Ariel. So that was fun. Pocahontas was a favorite. Mulan was a favorite, but absolute favorites of all time: Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 

FALA: Okay. Most of those have been adapted into stage shows. 

GORDON: Yes, they have. 

FALA: There have been many interpretations of Arial, costume-wise as far as how to solve the feet and traveling problem, but no one's done oven mitts yet. And I feel like in sort of like in a, Into the Woods reinventing found object sort of way, you were onto something back in the 90s.

GORDON: I think I was. I really appreciate that you say that. And actually, while working for Disney, I was able to meet Ariel, and I got to tell her that I used to pretend to be her by putting my feet in oven mitt and she laughed and she said, 'You know, I believe that.’

FALA: I'm surprised she even knew what an oven mitt was. 

GORDON: She's learned she's really come a long way. I do have to say 

FALA: Was it always the same oven mitt that you used? Like was it off limits for like did your mom still stick her hands in there and handle food after you put your feet in there? 

GORDON: Eh, it was one that wasn't used very often. It was green. I didn't have it on for very long. They usually just chose to use other ones. My dad is an amazing chef, so he has like a million of every possible kitchen item. So he is like, well this one's gonna be a toy now I guess.

FALA: When you were on the playground at school, were you also playing different Disney characters or were you doing something else entirely? 

GORDON: It's no surprise I was a weird kid growing up. It wasn't necessarily trying to play Disney characters all the time, but it was always like something in my own head world something. My elementary school had a lot of woods all fenced in, in addition to the playground. So other kids were like playing kickball and stuff like that and I was like wandering through the trees like some kind of like weird nymph spirit gremlin And like once my teacher came over and was like, you good? And I said, yeah, I'm fine. He said, you're just doing your thing? I said, uh-huh. And he said, okay. And he left me alone and I was like, I'm Alice Wonderland right now. Leave me alone. 

FALA: When was the first time you got to channel all of that into performing for an audience and not just for squirrels? 

GORDON: The squirrels didn't watch Stephen, the Squirrels didn't watch. 

FALA: Oh.

GORDON: The Chipmunks did. My parents learned pretty early on that I loved performing in some way or another. So I did something called Kid Stock, which I believe still exists. It's local to Massachusetts. I did that when I was I think five years old where we would watch clips from an old musical and then recreate it by putting on our own like fifteen minute version of it. We learned a few of the songs we did Oklahoma, My Fair Lady and this Dr. Seuss one that involved some of the older kids and we were the who's and they were the Grinch and the Cat and the Hat and all of them. So that was very fun at the time. And then I eventually started doing it more frequently and I would do like, I would do summer theatre camp and I would do four children's theatre shows a year and I would do shows in high school. It was just like something that I was always doing. There was never really a “off season” for me. 

FALA: You grew up bööked.

GORDON: In the suburbs of Massachusetts youth theatre? I sure did. I was very lucky that I had the opportunities that I had and that my parents were willing to take me to those things and pay for those things and deal with all those things and drag all the people to go see me in those things for so many years. 

FALA: Outside of performing in the woods and in your kitchen and in your camp shows, did you get to see theatre at all as a kid? 

GORDON: I did! At our high school they would do something called the children's tour that we, we called the children's tour or the elementary tour and every year the high school did a big fall musical. A lot of high schools do a spring musical. We did a fall one right before Thanksgiving, right when it's a very festive time for the schools ‘cause like they get ready for the Thanksgiving games and all that stuff. And a few weeks before we all got to travel to all of the elementary schools in the town and perform a few numbers from the show that we were doing. And I remembered I was in first grade kindergarten or something and they started doing that and I said, who are these grownups doing this play? Like I wanna see it, what is this? I remember they did The Music Man and 42nd Street and some other things ‘cause usually the big musicals were like family friendly musicals at the time. And I was hooked from the beginning. Every year that they would come, I would get so excited, we would go see the high school shows and I was convinced it was Broadway through and through. And then it was surreal when I was a high schooler to be able to go and be the older kid doing that for all the elementary school kids. 

FALA: Did it feel like Broadway once you were performing? 

GORDON: No! (Laughter.) Like all right, here are some crates that they store on the cafetorium stage. Let's use that as our table and chairs for this fun number while we do our jazz squares. But it was a lot of fun. 

FALA: That sounds a lot like what people end up doing when they're touring TYA places. You got your gymatorium and it's like I got a box then we stored our costumes in it and now it's the sofa. 

GORDON: Yeah, pretty much. Although our high school, our director had built the program from scratch for years and years and he was an amazing set designer so we actually got to come back and do the shows on these amazing sets with these amazing costumes and stuff like that. So that was very cool. That's not relevant but I thought I would mention it. 

FALA: No, that is, that's staying in. Did you have professional productions come through your elementary school or was it just your high school's teaser performances? 

GORDON: It was mostly the high school teaser performances. Occasionally we would have performing groups come through. We had a few Shakespeare groups come through where there was like four or five people and they'd do an abridged version of Romeo and Juliet or something like that. That was always very cool. We usually got that when we were older. We had jump rope performers come through, we had professional actors come through and kids were pulled out of class and they would workshop a show with these people about bullying or something over the course of a day or over the course of a couple days and then they would present the little show to the rest of the school, which is very cool. And we had some more of those things, not so much big full production things that were coming through. 

FALA: Okay. So that adds that you ended up studying theatre in college, you know you were a wood nymph then you were doing children's theatre as a child and your parents supported it all, letting you play with the oven mitts, doing the camps and they said yeah, go get your BFA. 

GORDON: The oven myths did not make it past probably kindergarten.

FALA: I don't believe you.

GORDON: Okay, that's fine that's fine. We'll call my mom. We'll get her involved. I went to Hofstra for a year after I graduated high school. I did my whole freshman year there, and that program was much more Shakespeare-based and they did a musical every other year and I had to really work hard by getting contact with other departments in order to do voice lessons or take dance classes and things. So I thought, you know, this is just not a program that's going to foster me in the direction that I really want to go. And after all the college auditions, Syracuse was the school that stood out in my mind the most in terms of like I feel like I could really fit in here and have a great training experience. So I just auditioned at Syracuse to transfer. I already had a school to go to but it was just Syracuse that I wanted to go to and I put all my eggs in that basket and worked really hard and fortunately the stars aligned and I got to go to Syracuse. And the way that program is built, it is a four year program so it's really hard to shorten it but we found a way to make it work. So I ended up doing five years of college instead of four and I'm so glad that I got to do that because my whole world changed—being able to do that instead.

FALA: You have this program where you were immersed in the New York audition and class scene and you're blossoming into true adulthood. 

GORDON: I did the Tepper Semester in New York, which was a great way to have my entire graduating class move to the city and adjust and everything before we got released to the real world. And I auditioned and I worked a little bit for a couple of years. When I was in college I was fortunate enough to do Avenue Q, which was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had performing. And our director knew Stephanie D’Abruzzo who was the original Kate Monster/Lucy in the Off Broadway and Broadway production. So she came in for a few days and did a puppetry workshop with everyone that was auditioning. So we got some of that training and then from that we, when we were cast we would do a bunch of puppet work throughout the rehearsal process, blah blah blah. So I ended up having this puppetry experience and I think because I had puppet toys growing up and I have been so much a visual person, it came pretty easily to me, which I was very fortunate to have a skillset like that that I was able to easily pick up. So when I graduated after a few years of auditioning and working some jobs, this opportunity came up on backstage seeking singing puppeteers for this show. Like okay, well that's something that I can do. What's this all about? And it was through the Wildlife Conservation Society performing for John Tartaglia Productions doing musical puppetry. I was like, well I grew up caring a lot about animals, learning a lot about wildlife and being very passionate about wildlife conservation and I love doing puppetry, I love performing, and John Tartaglia is somebody that I find to be a huge inspiration, so this is a phenomenal opportunity that I can't pass up. So they asked for video submissions first and I recorded myself with a puppet that I had made singing “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion. Surprisingly, they asked me to learn some material and come in with it and I spent several days trying to memorize these two scenes from these two little educational theatre shows because when you're holding a puppet with one hand and then using the rods to move the arms with the other, you don't have a hand to hold the sides so it's much harder to look down at a piece of paper. So I was trying to memorize it and create characters and create voices and all of this stuff, which was really a lot of fun. And it was the only audition I have ever gone to where I was actually a couple minutes late. 

FALA: Ooh, interesting. 

GORDON: I am the kind of person, if it's a twenty-minute commute I will leave at least thirty minutes before like especially for an audition of any kind. I always like to be early. It was in May, it was warm, New York subway. I was like I definitely need to be early. And that day it just did not happen. I showed up right at my audition time, which when you have to fill out paperwork and everything means that you're late. But they were very gracious and they said there's no one waiting, it is okay, you come in when you're ready. Which was very kind. Come to find out I was one of three people auditioning that day ‘cause they had only narrowed it down to three of us and we all got the job.

FALA: Oh my God. 

GORDON: So that was fun. But it was so much fun. It was such a nice room. It was people that had worked on other shows through the Bronx Zoo, through the aquarium that the WCS had hired John Tartaglia to write shows for. So they knew him, he was not present but they knew him and they were all awesome. They were so kind and they ended up being my directors and my castmates for the next four months. 

FALA: Did they have a puppet for you to work with in the audition room? 

GORDON: They did. They had a few puppets to choose from and because I was I think the first person that afternoon, they didn't have a music stand yet so I was putting the sides on the piano that was there like trying to read when I blanked and they had done this show the summer before so like they were like whispering the next line to me at one point as well which was fun. And then of course as I was leaving the person showed up with the music stand, they're like, here's your mirrors are stand. I'm like thanks (Laughter.) Which was silly. 

FALA: And so how soon after this did you get your offer? 

GORDON: Within a week. I think I auditioned on a Thursday and I found out the following Tuesday. 

FALA: How much time did you have between getting the offer and starting rehearsals to kind of figure out your life? 

GORDON: We had about two weeks notice? It was performing at the New York Aquarium, which is at Coney Island. So it was local,  didn't always feel local but it was local and everything was done via email at first. Like you'll start around this date, you'll do a week of rehearsal at the Central Park Zoo in one of their learning spaces that's big and open and then we'll move to the aquarium. We'll just do a week of rehearsal ‘cause the shows… it was two shows we would alternate, they were both fifteen minutes long so it was a pretty quick learn fortunately. So we would do a week of rehearsal at the beginning of June and then we would perform on weekends for June, July, August, and September all through the summer. So I was able to keep my survival jobs, just adjust my schedule and my availability for them throughout the summer. During the course of the summer juggling all three of them ended up being too much and I ended up leaving one of them in order to keep doing this performing one and doing another survival job that was easier for me to balance the schedule. 

FALA: Did you have a day off between all of your jobs? 

GORDON: If I chose to, yes. I could usually get Mondays off. Friday, Saturday, Sunday was pretty much all aquarium the whole time just because I lived up in Harlem at the time and the commute was ninety minutes. So I would, over the course of a weekend do three hours of travel, at least on the subway when it was just Saturdays and Sundays. And then when we also did Fridays it was longer. 

FALA: Did you bring a book? 

GORDON: Sometimes? Usually a few of us lived up in Harlem so we would just commute together and we would find ways to entertain ourselves and some people were scheduled certain weekends and some were not. So there was always a chance that you would be with somebody different. 

FALA: What was the rehearsal process for these two shows like? 

GORDON: So the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York contacted John Tartaglia and wanted him to create a show for the Bronx Zoo with puppets that they can talk about recycling and ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint and stuff like that. And he created this show called Reusable the Musical that they performed outside there and they had specific characters that ended up being favorites to locals that would come a lot and see the show over and over again. So they asked him to do a show for the aquarium instead and focus specifically on sea life because at Coney Island you're right on the beach. So there's a lot of ocean-based conservation stuff happening at that aquarium. And he wrote two shows, one was called Take the Plunge and the other was called Shark Show and one was specifically about the oceans right off of New York and this character or these certain characters from Reusable the Musical were in that and they go on this new adventure under the ocean and in the in Shark Show they would go down to the ocean again and they specifically found these tiger sharks that you can find off the coast of New York. That was really cool and relevant for the kids that were going. It was a small cast of like five or six of us that would rotate and he wrote an original script and then he took songs, pop songs of all different genres and would write parody lyrics to them. So it was a very easy learn and like there was no sheet music or anything. We had scripts that were finalized and we just kind of learned by listening. Like in Take the Plunge, there's a big sea turtle that comes out, her name is Tina Turtle instead of Tina Turner and she sings Aretha Franklin's “Respect," but it's about respecting the ocean wildlife. So that one was a lot of fun. I got to be backup fish dancers in that I had two little fish on my hands and they had all this fish choreography they would do behind her while she got to belt and riff to the stratosphere for a bunch of six year olds. Speaking of belting and riffing to the stratosphere in front of six year olds, we would perform on an outdoor stage with this little canopy over it right outside the sea lion exhibit. I don't know if you've ever heard sea lions, but they are some of the loudest animals I think possibly ever. And they were usually quiet but sometimes they just felt like singing along and they would just howl and it would cut through our mics, it would cut through the sound system. It was just, there was no point in talking or singing when they were making noise because it was just so loud and like, anyway, as I was saying. So that was always a fun little surprise and we're like, oh yeah, you guys wanna join in? Cool, let's do it. 

FALA: Were you allowed to improvise during and acknowledge the sea lions? 

GORDON: Sometimes. It depends. Usually we would just try to keep going. The show was tracked entirely. It was just one continuous track, which at times was difficult if we were not sure how long we had until the music started or the next sound cue happened. They did put little tricks in where they had, um, when they were above land, if you heard a seagull, it meant that you had ten seconds until the music started or if you were under the sea. If you heard bubbles, you knew that there was a song that was starting. So that was a nice cue in so that you knew when to start. But mostly we had to stick with what we were doing. There was one point, it's about a human girl or a human puppet girl rather that gets taken under the sea by her animal friends. Once in a submarine one has this special diving goggle set that she's able to use so that she can breathe underwater. And she's talking about these sharks and talking about how big and scary sharks are and the music was just going on for so long. Every time they said the way that it's set up, you just have to really milk this part. So if you can add lines in, you can. And she, this one girl would just milk it beyond belief while this like jaws music is starting to underneath her and she's like, sharks are big strong denizens of the deep, they are large in charge and we are back there holding these tiny shark baby puppets ready to pop out. Trying not to cackle at her, just going on and on and making these like monstrous noises. I'm like, oh my goodness, how is this real? How am I getting paid to do this? And the sea lion's like, (sea lion impression) whoa, whoa, whoa. It was wild. 

FALA: Did the kids...was this a moment where kids kind of saw all the sharks coming and they're screaming? Like was this a very participation based show that would happen? 

GORDON: It was not actually, which which was a little bit relieving. There were points where it was kind of encouraged that they could yell to us or talk to us. It's fifteen minutes, come engage with us, cheer, clap, yell if you want to. But usually it was just, we're gonna tell you this story. 

FALA: How do people know that the show was happening or you know, when it was starting because people aren't going to the aquarium to watch a puppet show necessarily. So how do you gather this audience around outside? Was there a pre-show announcement? Did you have to go and say, ‘Hey, kids want to see a puppet show?’

GORDON: It's funny you mentioned that because yes, that is what we had to do. They advertised it in the brochures for the day and on the schedule, but people weren't always reading them or didn't really register what it was. Five minutes before every show, two of us would go out with two of the fish puppets and have them swim around and we would yell to each other saying, what? There's a puppet show in five minutes. Five minutes. I love five minutes. It's my favorite increment of time. How can you tell time you're a fish? What'd you say? Blah blah blah. Like it was, it was ridiculous but it often did work. And we also started to play music. I created a playlist of "Wipe Out” and other like Caribbean oceany summery songs that we would play and we'd turn that up on the speakers so people would be attracted to the music sound as well. We usually had pretty full space. It was a small space that we had so we were able to fill it up pretty well. There was one show, it was one of the last of the day and the last row was just all nuns. And we started, we were like, okay, let's see how they like it. They were living, they were clapping along, they were laughing, they were having the best time and then it started to rain and we had to end the show early and I was so disappointed.

FALA: Do you usually get to meet your audiences afterwards? Like was there a chance you were gonna meet the nuns?

GORDON: If they decided to stay after and fangirl for us, sure, but usually not. Usually we would finish and we would immediately have to start switching the puppets out. If it was a really hot day, we would actually take them back inside so that they weren't overheated. Cuz there were these gorgeous, gorgeous puppets that they had made. The company was called Puppet Dungeon and he's done a lot of stuff with John Tartaglia before, and his team. our backstage area was inside the classroom and it was a large room that was carpeted and they had a whiteboard and a projector and stuff like that, but usually it was just an indoor space that they could use if they had a function there. Or when they have summer camp, they'll have the kids in there. And when it was rainy for the whole day, we would actually set up in the classroom when we perform inside, which was nice because we were in air conditioning and not in the sweltering heat. But every day we would get there, we would set up everything ourselves, we'd strike everything ourselves. At the end of the day we were given our uniforms. We had tee shirts and baseball caps that we would wear and they told us to wear khaki shorts and then whatever sneakers we wanted to wear. On particularly hot days, I would sometimes bring more than one shirt and I would switch if I had to, if it got to be too sweaty. The shows were physical and they were hot, but they were so short that usually right when we started to sweat a lot, the show was done and we could go back into the air conditioning and have half hour, forty-five minutes, an hour off before we had to go out and do another one.

FALA: How many did you do a day? 

GORDON: We would do between five and six a day. 

FALA: Oh!

GORDON: I mean, it ended up being an hour and a half of performing total. But these, these shows, even though they were, they were short, they were taxing, they were really taxing. It was fifteen minutes of nonstop character voices and physicality in the heat. And when you're not on stage or preparing to go on stage, you're switching a set piece or you are helping somebody else get ready for their part because their puppet is bigger and they have two people or you're moving the backdrop or whatever. Like there was just constant motion for the entire thing. 

FALA: The constant motion.

GORDON: Of the ocean. 

FALA: It's exhausting, but suddenly it's then it's like, oh, I'm done, I'll go home. People don't realize a lot of times with TYA, it's like you're going nonstop the entire time. Whereas with a lot of shows for adults where it's bigger casts and you have a hired stage crew and wardrobe and people to preset everything for you, you are only on stage or like doing anything for maybe fifteen minutes with, with this show it's like, it's fifteen minutes of work all at once in the August sun. With puppets. On ice.

GORDON: Underwater on fire, yeah.

FALA: With lesbians. 

GORDON: I love lesbians. Not as much as you. And people who know me well know that I do not like the sun. I don't do well in the sun. And it was a full day of working in the sun. And at certain points in the day, if it was overcast or if the sun was right over us, we were usually okay ‘cause we did have a mesh canopy. But in the evening when the sun was sitting right over the horizon, it was so beautiful and it was so bright and it was right in our faces all fifteen minutes. But it was kind of like a little bit of a badge of honor for me to be able to say that I worked for Wildlife Conservation Society, even though I was doing puppet shows at the aquarium, I thought of it more as, oh yeah, I work for them, I work for the Wildlife Conservation Society. I have always cared about animals. I loved going to zoos growing up. I know like to this day I know way too much about like the big cats of the world. So being able to work for Wildlife Conservation Society and suddenly learn about using metal straws or silicone straws and reducing your carbon footprint and recycling and the science behind it and ways that we can make adjustments. It was fun to have that be a little bit more on the forefront of my mind while I was working there. It wasn't just a job where, ‘Oh, I wanna work with John to Tartaglia and his associates,’ blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like that was an appeal, but it was, it was a great organization with a great cause that I was really passionate about and I got to learn so much from working there just about the science behind all of it. And the reality of, I've often been on the fence about like, are zoos good or are they awful because it's animals at cages? And I learned all about the AZA, which is the Association of Zoos in Aquariums. And it's all…it’s an organization that regulates zoos in aquariums all over the country and makes sure that everything is up to code so that certain animals have a certain amount of space and are treated properly and have access to the resources and the socialization and stuff that they need. And they never pull healthy animals out of the wild. It's always animals that were bred and captivity and could not survive in the wild or they were injured and rescued or whatever. And some form where they are better off and safer or they're in a breeding program where they're trying to bring the population numbers up and you can't regulate that in the wild, but you can if you have the animals living together in a space. 

FALA: I think a lot of people don't realize that doing shows for kids, educational theatre, it's not just the kids that are learning. There's so much research that that's involved with it too. And so, while the final product is a piece of educational theatre aimed towards a younger audience, the entire process ends up being educational for everyone involved. What other things have you taken away from this experience and applied to other jobs in theater, in design, or just like your life?

GORDON: Working with this really great team, I was able to get into some auditions to work with them further on some other projects, which was very exciting. And those were rooms that I never would've been able to get into or would've otherwise felt way too intimidated to actually try to get into. And having a personal relationship with these people made that so much more accessible and so much easier and so much more fun. Doing the shows for kids that were, some of them were infants and would actually try to crawl onto the stage and touch the puppets or pick up a prop that they weren't supposed to touch yet or whatever, so we got to have those experiences. But certain jokes and certain songs appealed to different kids and adults at different ages, which was really interesting to see how different crowds would respond to the things they recognized. I just had a really nice time, it was a really fun gig and it was easier because I got to still live at home and have my personal life. So these shows did not consume my life in the way that like a tour would or a sit down production somewhere else would. I had my set schedule where I had my weekends, I was completely full, but I still had my evenings off. I would get home around six or seven and that was too late to maybe pick up a shift at another job, but I had the evening free so I was still able to see my closest friends and go to restaurants and have my life in New York while still being able to kind of go a little bit remote and go a little bit out of where I normally reside, have these experiences, and then come back.

FALA: Stephen, how can our listeners find you and see more of your work? 

GORDON: I’m @stevachu, not like sneezing, like Pikachu, but my name's Stephen, so that's @stevachu on Instagram. I have a website, stephen-gordon.com. I should change it to StephenNotFala.com, but we'll get there. 

FALA: Are we gonna sing “Sisters” from White Christmas now? But we'll sing Stephens… 

FALA & GORDON: (Sung.) Stephens. 

FALA: Check out Stephen's Instagram to learn about his adventures under the sea and at sea, and definitely take a trip to Alice's Tea Cup Chapter II in New York City to see his artwork and get a little scone.

[Pipe and Drape theme plays.]

You can join the conversation about theatre for young audiences and find more Pipe and Drape content including photos, quotes, and TYA news on Instagram @PipeAndDrapeStories. And please be sure to rate and review Pipe and Drape wherever you listen to podcasts! Each star given or review submitted helps future listeners to find the show. Be sure to 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 Anchor. The Pipe and Drape logo was created by Stephen Gordon and music was composed by Stephen Fala. Thank you for listening with me today.

GORDON: Oddly enough, when I asked to be a mermaid at the aquarium, they said no.

Find Stephen Gordon: 
WEBSITE: stephen-gordon.com 
INSTAGRAM: @stevachu

Connect with Pipe and Drape:

INSTAGRAM: @PipeAndDrapeStories

EMAIL: PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com

Host: Stephen Fala

Artwork: Stephen Gordon