Episode 18: Alyssa Armstrong

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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:

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Host: Stephen Fala

Artwork: Stephen Gordon