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.]
It’s been a big year! So I’m popping in with a Dinky summary of my 2022-2023 adventures before launching the third season of this podcast! I’m talking Theatre for Young Audiences/USA to Off Broadway. Thank you for listening today.
Last May I flew out to Arizona to begin working on a show with 48-hours notice while also editing and releasing the second season of this podcast. This contract was hot, gas was expensive, there were roller blades, I climbed a steep mountain a dawn. I share more details about this desert theatre adventure in "Dinky Episode 7."
Before that show closed, I began the callback process for Sesame Street Off Broadway and the interview process for a position at the membership-based organization Theatre for Young Audiences/USA. Between performances, I gathered and submitted my application material for TYA/USA and I filmed a reel for the Sesame team with a puppet I made out of my roommate’s discarded pizza box. Once I returned to New York I had a few interviews, a few callbacks and work sessions, and then I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.
And then I was hired for both with twenty-four hours of each other, and I made my Off Broadway debut and began working at TYA/USA the same week. I spent all of autumn on 42nd Street, my days split between mornings at Theatre Row and afternoons at the New 42 office, then sometimes evenings back at Theatre Row.
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| Cast of Sesame Street: The Musical. Photo by Evan Zimmerman |
Last quarter I balanced three part-time positions and audition season with a show in Florida. My five-week gig in Fort Lauderdale introduced me to delicious home-made chocolate, invasive wildlife, and a new community of uniquely talented artists. In my time off I went kayaking, ate big ass cookies, and went to antique stores, but I was working a lot, many times from my dressing room backstage. I ended this marathon of a year at the TYA/USA National Festival & Conference in Tempe, Arizona, just minutes from where the race began exactly a year to the day prior.
This theatrical season was exciting, challenging, exhausting, and also nourishing. I had literal muppets as scene partners, I drafted content that went out to thousands of people, my name was in the New York Times, I now have a page on the Muppet Wiki, and for the first time I found myself surrounded by hundreds of theatre makers who care just as much about theatre for young audiences as I do. It was so much fun to watch TYA shows in a room filled with adults who love and believe in it. The National Festival and Conference featured four new plays produced by companies from different corners of the United States, workshops and presentations of two new immersive plays and ten new songs, a panel discussion with local theatre-going children, eighteen breakout sessions presented by more than fifty theatre practitioners, gatherings of leaders in the theatre for young audiences field filled with hula-hoops and paletas, speeches, awards, and a month-long series of webinars and on demand content.
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| Stephen Fala, Rachel Lee, and Sara Morgulis at the 2023 TYA/USA National Festival & Conference. Photo by Tim Trumble |
I suggest that everyone check out Mabelle Reynoso and Tori Rice’s thirty-four minute recap of the 2023 TYA/USA National Festival & Conference in episode 64 of their podcast Hey Playwright.
I am so excited for what’s to come in the 2023-2024 season, and as I move toward that chapter, I’ll carry with me the lessons I learned from this past year in the audience, behind the screen, on stage, and in the wings:
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
- The SpongeBob Musical, book by Kyle Jarrow
“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way”
- Disney’s Mary Poppins, lyrics by the Sherman Brothers
“When you find something precious, gather it up and keep it safe.”
- The Pa'akai We Bring by Moses Goods and the Honolulu Theatre for Youth Ensemble
“We are in the business of provoking thought, of affirming identity, and nursing possibility.”
- Julia Flood
"The world is new when we turn to the young."
- Mahogany L. Browne
“Trust young people. Trust them to have big conversations and think big things.”
- Caitlyn McCain
“Be brave be bold, don’t wait for a sign…The time is now.”
- Brittny Bush, Brave Little Company
“You just keep going love who you are, perhaps you already are a star.”
- Sesame Street: The Musical, lyrics by Helen Park and Nate Edmondson
[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.
“If chocolate’s good once, twice makes it better.”
- The Hula-Hoopin’ Queen, authored by Thelma Lynne Godin, adapted for the stage by Gloria Bond Clunie
Connect with Pipe and Drape:
INSTAGRAM: @PipeAndDrapeStories
EMAIL: PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com
Host: Stephen Fala
Artwork: Stephen Gordon
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