STEPHEN: Hi everybody, I’m here with Philadelphia actor and teaching artist Leah Senseney. Leah has performed in all corners of the Greater Philadelphia theatre scene, which spans from Central Jersey to the heart of Delaware. Her recent credits include shows with McCarter Theatre Center, Walnut Street Theatre where she is also a teaching artist!, 11th Hour Theatre Company, Media Theatre, Candlelight, Rehoboth Summer Children’s Theatre, and Storybook Musical Theatre. Leah, welcome.
LEAH: Hi. Thank you for having me.
STEPHEN: Thank you for sitting down with me today to share your Philadelphia children's theatre experience, which I'm very excited about 'cause I grew up in the Philadelphia area and was exposed to theatre at some of these places as a kid. And so it's so cool for me to hear about what is happening in these places now on the other side and having actors as peers who are performing these. Did you growing up see theatre as a kid, either in school field trips or your parents took you places?
LEAH: Absolutely. All of the above. I was one of those kids who demanded to sing in the car and go to puppet shows and anything at the library. I would even go to watch my brothers play practices after school. He's quite older than I am. So when he was in high school, I was in elementary school and after school my mom would drop me off and I would get to watch rehearsals of Into the Woods. And my birthday is in April, so it was during like the spring musical and my birthday party would be taking a bunch of twelve-year-olds to go see whatever was playing at the high school. My cakes would be like theme to what the shows. So we had like a stack of mattresses or a stack of books for once upon a mattress. Just whatever the theme was, I would, uh, go for it and just really enjoy the the productions.
STEPHEN: That's really cool. And I know the actors appreciate looking out and seeing like a party of kids altogether watching it. And I've done the same thing where like I have bring my party, I'm like, we're gonna go watch this show on a Saturday and then we're gonna have cake. That is so, so neat. And that's really cool to hear that your family was not only was involved with the performing arts but also so supportive of you and your friends seeing it and then getting involved with it.
LEAH: Oh, my parents have been incredibly supportive.
STEPHEN: Did they sign you up for dance classes and voice lessons when you were pretty young or did they hold off for a bit?
LEAH: Well my parents signed me up for voice lessons as soon as they felt it was appropriate. I know, you know, starting too early isn't always great for the voice and so as soon as they really felt like I was ready to devote some time to it, I started taking voice lessons and, and really delved into that. I didn't take as many dance classes as I would've liked to, but I absolutely did all sorts of theatre camps. I even went to a Jewish summer camp. It has nothing to do with theatre, and I told myself I wouldn't do the play, but you know, as soon as I heard about the auditions for the musical, I was there. [Laughter.]
STEPHEN: Was that your first show at the camp?
LEAH: Oh gosh, I don't even know. I don't know what my first show would have been. I feel like it was probably in middle school. My middle school did a cabaret where we did a bunch of songs from like Songs for a New World; You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown…I think that was probably my first production.
STEPHEN: Yeah, I feel like it's so hard to tell like what your first show is. I'm like, do I count like that Three Little Pigs I did in kindergarten where I stood on risers? You know, it's hard to say.
LEAH: Exactly.
STEPHEN: Is your family local to the Philadelphia area?
LEAH: No, I'm actually from Maryland, that’s where I grew up and I lived my entire life and where I went to college as well. Yeah.
STEPHEN: Okay. What brought you to Philly and the Philly theatre scene?
LEAH: So after college I went to an internship at Barter Theatre. I worked backstage, which taught me a ton. That's where I met Rusty and that's how I found your podcast.
STEPHEN: Yeah! [Laughter.]
LEAH: I did that for a little bit, which taught me a great love of all things theatre, not just being on stage and gave me a lot of tools that helped me with children's theatre, like quick changes and being a one man band and just having the support of such a great theatre community. Anyway, so after that I moved back home with my parents and tried to kind of figure out what I was gonna do and I got a job at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre. Found that I really enjoyed dinner theatre, that was really fun. So I applied to Candlelight, or I auditioned at Candlelight for Funny Girl not having any housing here, [Laughter.] or any understanding of the amazing Philadelphia theatre community. And I got cast and I had a cousin who lived in Philadelphia. So I stayed with her for a little bit and then got my own place. And you know, seven years later here we are still here and loving it.
STEPHEN: It's so funny because I like I saw Funny Girl at Candlelight, I cannot believe that was seven years ago. So cool that you stayed in the city and the planted roots and then worked everywhere, basically.
LEAH: Well, I just wanted to do theatre anywhere and everywhere I could. And I found that Philadelphia had such a rich theatre community. D.C. does as well, but it is so vastly different. It just is.
STEPHEN: Did you find that your experiences in college or your work at Barter, which is all very hands-on, did you find that that translated into theatre for young audiences work where you are doing a lot of extra duties?
LEAH: Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, I worked backstage at Barter as a wardrobe intern, so I learned a ton of just the in and outs of how everything worked in college. I actually got a degree in music, so it was very not, not the same thing. [Laughter.] Not the same thing at all. But I think my internship at Barter definitely prepared me and helped me to understand what it takes to work in the theatre.
STEPHEN: I love hearing about different music programs 'cause some schools are very separate. Like I know mine, the music college was very different and classically training most of their students and they were very separate from musical theatre. And I mean like looking at your resume, you're kind of doing everything from very like high classic soprano to like belting Baby. Were you studying all types of vocal performance in college as well or did you have one specific focus?
LEAH: No, I was studying classical music. My final performance, my senior project was in five different languages, [Laughter.] and an aria. And it definitely was a good building block for singing healthily. But when I got to pick like something I wanted to do at the end, I absolutely picked a musical theatre song to sing is like something fun, for me. I just, I have loved musical theatre forever and though I could have gone a more classical route, this is what I wanted to be doing and I'm grateful to get to do it.
STEPHEN: What was the song that you ended with?
LEAH: Oh, it was like a Kristin Chenoweth like “Glitter and Be Gay.”
STEPHEN: [Laughter.] Good. So you moved to Philadelphia and you start working at Candlelight and you're like, ‘Hey, these are cool people. Let me stay around.’
LEAH: Exactly.
STEPHEN: When did you dive into the Walnut scene?
LEAH: I just got so lucky [Laughter.] with the people that I worked with, with the connections that I made. I worked at 11th Hour with Nick Parker and he was the director of the children's show that I did at Walnut.
STEPHEN: What was the, the show you did? Goosebumps at Walnut?
LEAH: Goosebumps The Musical.
STEPHEN: Excellent. So what is the process for rehearsing and mounting TYA shows at the Walnut?
LEAH: It was, if I can remember 'cause it was in 2019, I believe it was about two weeks of daytime rehearsals and then the production. It was a pretty quick process, but I definitely felt incredibly prepared.
STEPHEN: Is that based off of a Goosebumps book?
LEAH: Yeah. So not only is it based off a book, but it it's very much based off of the Phantom of the Opera [Laughter.] very much. It's got like this five minute long detailed description of, of the Phantom story and his daughter and what she goes through to find the Phantom. It's a nerd's dream of Phantom of the Opera.
STEPHEN: Were you, I was gonna ask, were you a Phantom of the Opera and/or Goosebumps fan as a kid?
LEAH: Absolutely. I, yes, absolutely. Both. [Laughter.]
STEPHEN: I grew up having, like…my parents liked Phantom, so they played it in the house not knowing I was gonna grow up being a theatre kid. So whenever I hear music from the show that really sends me back. Your audiences, did you notice if they picked up on any of the Phantom…like maybe winks at the show throughout your production?
LEAH: I hope they did. What I found to be the case is that they were just so excited. It was this wonderful theme of like intense and Halloween and something like just so, so totally immersive. There was this great big lightning crash and thunder crash at the beginning and you just heard screams upon screams from the audience so much so that offstage everyone's like, ‘I have no idea when to come in,' [Laughter.] because you just couldn't hear the music. The kids were just so loud and so invested and so involved in the storyline.
STEPHEN: I've had that same issue in that space at the same moment. It's the house lights go out and then they're screaming and I'm like, ‘Are they screaming for me or are they screaming because something happened?' Did you meet the students afterwards in the lobby and do like a meet and greet with autographs for that one?
LEAH: Yes, I did. Yes. It was me and always one other person from the cast.
STEPHEN: I do like when you get to meet your audience and I know kids really enjoy it too. 'cause they're like, ‘Oh my God’, and then sometimes they're taller than you and it's, they're like, ‘Oh, how old are you’ And I'm like, ‘Oh, you know.’
LEAH: They're definitely taller than me. [Laughter.]
STEPHEN: Yeah, we're both in that same five-foot-something group.
LEAH: But that's nice. They can kind of see themselves in you and that's great that they don't know how old you are. They're like, ‘That is a kid just like me.’ And that's, that's the goal.
STEPHEN: Exactly. Did you start teaching at the Walnut around that same time or what? Okay.
LEAH: Yeah.
STEPHEN: And what age range do you typically teach?
LEAH: I typically teach the five to seven year old classes, which is great for somebody shorter because the kids do look up to you. They do physically understand that you are different [Laughter.] That is very helpful. But I find that little kids that young taking acting classes, it's, especially post-pandemic, it’s more about people skills and understanding how to talk in front of people. And it's not always theatre kids that are there. Sometimes it's just shy kids that want to learn about talking really big and loud, and having fun and playing games. And I love that it can be accessible to more than just people who enjoy musicals.
STEPHEN: That's super, super important. Especially, you know, there’s so much conversation about incorporating arts into school curriculum and if that's not happening, where are they going to learn the skills that you need for life? Because so much of that you can learn through doing the arts and activities that are adjacent to them. And so I I think that's really great that theatre provides that and has that. What are some things that you as a teaching artist try to incorporate into all of your classes? And what are some things that Walnut likes all of their teaching artists to include that's unique to their program?
LEAH: I know that what I've heard from anyone who doesn't teach there, they've heard about the Actor's Toolbox. That is something that every Walnut Street teaching artist will do in their class, I believe. And that's something that I've taught people who don't teach there. It’s the…you have your body, your voice, your imagination, concentration, and cooperation in your toolbox as an actor to use on stage. And again, I think that relates on stage and off stage. You know, you have to work with people, you have to listen to them, you have to use your body and your voice and your imagination to go through life every day. That's definitely something that I teach in all of my classes. And I also have kids slate, as funny as that might sound for five to seven year olds, but just saying like, ‘Hi, my name is _____, I am this old and my favorite color is green.’ And just be able to say things about themselves and be confident
STEPHEN: That is so important to instill in kids, like whether or not you're in the arts, ’cause I remember in college, we went through our slate and I felt like…it still felt weird and I was like, oh, because I didn't have to do it as a kid. I wasn't auditioning; I wasn't in classes where we were required to do that. But that must instill so much confidence in them in introducing 'cause introducing yourself is hard sometimes.
LEAH: And getting your personality across and you don't have to move a muscle, but being…you can get your personality across and just how you speak, how you introduce yourself. And I think that's a skill that you'll carry into like job interviews and anything you do.
STEPHEN: Yeah. And do you teach there year round or do you…like right now, do you have the summer off?
LEAH: I'm teaching there year-round right now. And I feel like I finally have a pretty good curriculum that I do. And what's really nice is that for the five to seven year olds, they've been having two teachers, co-teachers. And I find that I learn from my co-teachers and we can bounce ideas off of each other because unlike the school curriculum, you know, there isn't a curriculum. You're really doing what you are passionate about and what you want to, which is a very nice freedom. But as somebody who, I was also an education minor in school, and I always thought I'd go into education. I am very used to having a curriculum and having somebody tell me like, these are the things that you need to teach. Whereas often in theatre camps that is just not given to you. You need to figure it out and as much of trial and error as occurs, there really isn't error. Whatever you teach them, it's going to have a positive effect because this is theatre and everything has a use and a purpose.
STEPHEN: Absolutely. So you're spending all this time performing in and around Philadelphia. You're bouncing around McCarter, you're doing a bunch of shows at Media Theatre, too, balancing your work as a teaching artist and then you're casually like going down to Rehoboth and performing down there. How did you find yourself performing down at the beach?
LEAH: So I auditioned for the company, it was the Hansel and Gretel production for the summer. And I did not get it, to be fully honest. [Laughter.] And then the pandemic happened and the company no longer could house their actors, which they typically do. And it kind of threw them into a tailspin as it did for everyone, and my, my partner, my boyfriend Jared, who I met doing Goosebumps at Walnut, he was asked by the head of Rehoboth Summer Children's Theatre to do the summer contract of Hansel and Gretel because he had housing down there. He had worked there with the company before. And Steve, the guy, the man who runs the company, knew that Jared had housing down there. He asked him if he would do the contract and he asked him if he knew anyone and he said, ‘Boy do I!’ [Laughter.] And at that point I had had quite a bit of experience with children's theatre and I was very happy and grateful to have the opportunity because at that point, you know, no one knew what they were doing that summer or if theatre was gonna happen at all. So we were able to be like a little COVID bubble and have our own housing down there. And sometimes we did not know what we would be performing on if it was like a park or a parking lot because we could not perform inside. Sometimes we'd be on the gravel outside a preschool, sometimes we would be inside and I would mask and you know, sometimes we did have pushback with that. But I know that Steve, the owner of Rehoboth Summer Children's Theatre, was always incredibly supportive for us doing what made us feel most comfortable.
STEPHEN: What was your rehearsal process for a show that would tour to different spaces and you don't necessarily know what the weather's gonna be or what space you're in? How do you in the room prepare for something like that?
LEAH: We had, I think, I feel like it was a week-long rehearsal process where we would just work with Steve, the director and we would rehearse all day, you know, with a lunch break in between. And we, I know we met with him like a month or two before we went down to the beach to Lewis just to read through the script and get comfortable with it. It was really fun because we were playing…it was just a two person production where we were playing a variety of roles. So I was playing Gretel and a bunny rabbit, oh, and the evil aunt and Jared was playing the witch and Hansel and the father. And we would have two standing things that we would unfold and they had different backdrops that we would tear away to be the candy house or whatever. And so we both had to practice not only the lines, but we had to practice the set changes and the quick changes and which lines we had to draw out so the other person could change, 'cause again, it was just the two of us, which was very helpful for rehearsing, just being able to live and work with the person that you are having to memorize this twenty-page Hansel and Gretel production of.
STEPHEN: I was wondering what that was like, having rehearsal proper and then going home and it's like, ‘Oh, well my scene partner is right here.’ Like, would you draw a hard boundary between when you would end rehearsal and then have your own personal time?
LEAH: So it's a little bit of both. When I rehearse personally, I will record the entire scene on my phone leaving blank spaces for my own lines so I can rehearse all by myself with my phone listening to it and being able to say my lines in the little spaces I've left. So I didn't always need him. Of course, it's nice to have your scene partner right there, but I didn't always need to take that moment to rehearse. We have since worked together about five times, so we're very good at drawing that line. And I, especially as a woman, find it really important to be my own person and make a boundary of like, we are not super together in rehearsals. If anything, I find that there's more of a boundary in rehearsal than there is out of. Out of rehearsal we can kind of have fun. And of course we had like a bucket list of like the fifty things we wanted to do down at the beach that summer. So we did have a lot of fun. We rode bikes and got ice cream and went to the beach and saw the sunrise and the sunset and went to the pool. We had a ton of things, but if anything we could just like rehearse for a second or a minute or any time of the day. And I felt like the more boundaries were more at rehearsal where I try to be incredibly professional and respectful of everybody's time.
STEPHEN: That's, that's good. I think people need to hear that. That's really cool. And I also love hearing that people have bucket lists when they go on contract. 'Cause for me it's like, ‘Oh well I'm here so I'm gonna go do the stuff that I can only do here.’ How long were you down in Rehoboth?
LEAH: We were down there for about, I think three months. And then at the end of the contract we taught the summer camp that they have down there as well.
STEPHEN: While you were down there and you were setting up your set and performing, having had experience on wardrobe, were you also in charge of costume maintenance and set fixes and things like that? Or did the company have staff that was, that was their responsibility?
LEAH: The wardrobe…I definitely feel like I learned such invaluable skills on how to quick change. [Laughter.] So I definitely take control of that whenever I'm in any sort of cast for myself and like anyone who would like that knowledge, of course. But in terms of the set, it was set like, he, Steve has been doing this for years and years and years and years. And so there really wasn't any set maintenance that needed to occur. He really has it down pat. It's like two foldable large pieces of wood that had fabric surrounding them. And so they were very much like the sail on a sailboat and you had to be really careful making sure to weigh it down. We had to make sure the kids stood far enough away just in case something happened. I mean, of course if it fell, it would fall on us. So the kids were never in any danger, but you also had to make sure they were far enough away because they just wanted to be so close. They just wanted to. We would have little ones like come right on up backstage before the show, and we played all sorts of spaces—parks and amusement parks and just anything and everything outdoors. That summer we were there, we were in the parking lot of it of a firehouse of anything and you know, it was just a time you really didn't know what was going on. So I know everyone was just so grateful for us to be there to have some form of entertainment for the kids, and I hope that it was a great escape for the kids as well.
STEPHEN: What kind of prep work did you have to do before getting down to Rehoboth for this?
LEAH: We had to try to learn the script as much as possible. That's really the prep work that I did because it's not quite the original story. I had actually done the opera version of Hansel and Gretel in college, so I was very familiar with the story and personally what I found most interesting in this version of Hansel and Gretel, and anything I do for that matter, is the comedy in it. I love to find the jokes to play the jokes. I find that that is where I can bring myself to a contract the most is to bring out the comedy in it. And so any little joke that I could find, anything I could make myself laugh or make Jared laugh, like that is what I wanted to like really delve into. Otherwise it's about two kids getting like eaten [Laugher.] by a witch. So I've found that, you know, the littlest things and the thing about this story was that the moral of it was that you should eat more vegetables. So [Laughter.] that that idea and making it as funny as possible, I found was really my goal.
STEPHEN: What kind of arrangements did you have to make with other aspects of your life to pick up and move for a couple of months?
LEAH: Well, thankfully because we were providing our own housing, I was able to bring my dog, which just meant I had to coordinate how long were the drives. 'Cause Delaware, though it's not big, we would've to like drive an hour up this way, that way, making sure we get the dog in order no matter what or where we're going, which is something I have to do with all of my contracts and it's harder than I think I ever expected, but it's definitely rewarding having her on any contract. I do that, I also work as a waitress [Laughter.] of course. So I have been working for the same company for about five years, mainly because I can say, ‘Hey, I have to leave,’ and they will always know that I will come back 'cause I really have been working for them for so long. So that year I was like, ‘I'm gonna be gone for about a month or two, and I will be back,’ [Laughter.] and they were like, ‘No problem!’ And that is always so nice to have that kind of job stability, even if I'm just there once or twice a week.
STEPHEN: That's, that's really, really wonderful and great that you were able to figure it out to make it happen. Did you have students as campers who had seen Hansel and Gretel earlier in the summer?
LEAH: Oh definitely. We definitely did. And something fun that's coming up, I'm going to be in a children's theatre production at Storybook Musical Theatre of Beauty and the Beast. And I am actually gonna be performing for one of the classes that I teach, like the, the camp that I go to and teach an improv class to is coming to see the performance, which is really exciting.
STEPHEN: That's really cool, I think to watch someone perform and then see the work that they're teaching in class in action. It's like, ‘Oh, well they, they did this and then they're doing this. I see.' And it's, it's so cool to watch those pieces come together. What was your audition process like for Storybook?
LEAH: Yeah, their audition process was online, so I sent in a video submission. It wasn't always like this. I went to their in-person auditions for years, but this time it was a video submission and then a video submission of sides as well.
STEPHEN: How do you feel about the online component of auditioning? That first came up as like a necessity because we couldn't get together in person, but now that we are auditioning in person again, there are still some online components, maybe for the first round of callbacks. Do you find that freeing or like an extra weight of making an audition feel a certain way because you can do multiple takes?
LEAH: I'm so divided. I mean, it was a huge learning curve to put myself together and I mean, you can see the earlier lines with my curtains just hung up on the back. And of course now I have the typical gray and blue background that everyone has and I have a setup now, but it really was such a learning curve. I think I sent out a total of sixty video submissions in The Times of, you know, When We Had To. And it has been a great learning experience really. And of course there's a part of me that is like, well, I have to do fifteen thousand takes [Laughter.] and you want the perfect one. And it is nice that at a in-person audition you can't pick yourself apart like that. You go in and you do your best and try to be personable. And so of course I like that you don't have to pick yourself apart and you are not gonna listen to it. You just do what you do and you do your best. But of course it's nice that you don't have to wait in a room for seven hours and wait for your call. And there's pros and cons to both sides. I can't say which is better. Of course, it's nice to sometimes be able to use the same video for multiple submissions now that I have things set up and I know how to do them, I can say, oh, well this would work for this, so I'll send that in. I don't know, I guess I don't have a clear cut answer on that. I of course prefer in-person auditions, but there is a really nice ability to do something else with your day [Laughter.] and not sit in a room and wait and have that anxiety of waiting. I mean, it also gives an opportunity for people who do have to have day jobs and do work to submit to more things and I really appreciate that.
STEPHEN: Oh, absolutely. Does Storybook have their own rehearsal space or do they rent out rooms in Philadelphia to rehearse their shows?
LEAH: There is a space that they use consistently, the same one that they use for their auditions, that's where they hold their rehearsals as well. And we first met to just go through the music and then we met for like three or four days after that to do the show. And a lot of the people in the production have been doing this production for years and years and years and years. They kind of cycle through their shows. And so a lot of the people I was working with knew the entire thing and were just kind of refreshing themselves. So that was, it was a challenge being the new person and having to learn something fresh that it felt like everyone else knew. But it was also helpful to have people who were so confident in what they were doing and look to them for guidance.
STEPHEN: Yeah. And I'm sure they love having like a fresh face in there, like someone new, bringing different things in. So Storybook is an Equity company, and so there aren't too many Equity musical theatre TYA houses in the Philadelphia area. And so sometimes there are different rules, different restrictions where things that will slide in other smaller companies…there’s rules around it. So is there anything strikingly different that you noticed in rehearsing a TYA piece that falls under like the Equity jurisdiction?
LEAH: Ooh, that's a really great question. I mean, I think if anything they were just so respectful of time and what we needed to focus on and say like, ‘Oh no, Leah, don't worry [Laughter.] like, sit down, you're fine.’ Whereas sometimes I'm very much like I'll hands on deck. Like, I will move that chair for you, don't worry. I'll move the set. I'll change myself. I'll get that prop. I know where to put [Laughter] I, you know, not to be controlling, but I definitely, I want to help. And I find a lot of theatre people are like, that are like, let all hands on deck, let's do it. And I found that to be the case in children's theatre that you just have to, and you should and you want to. Whereas with Storybook, I think somebody spilled something and I went to go help clean it up and they're like, ‘No, no, please go sit down. You're fine. Don't worry.’ It's like, I don't have to move a single set piece unless I'm going into the scene with it or I'm coming out of the scene directly with it. So they're very respectful of all of that. They're like, ‘No, you are not the [Laughter.] you are not the wardrobe department. You are not the…’ So often I find that we have to be all of those things and it's nice to sometimes just be the performer and you just need to do that. [Laughter.]
STEPHEN: Yeah, just show up and, and then just do your show and then and do your best. What character building things have you done while working on Beauty and the Beast to create a show that is authentic but also easy for children to digest as they're still picking up on social cues and how a story functions? Because oftentimes we could spoon feed it to them, or we can find a way to create characters where you are telling a story that isn't a showing-and-telling kind of way. You're just doing it, but you're making choices that are easy for kids to understand. What kind of work are you doing here for this and how is it different and similar to when you're creating shows, like when you're working on Sound of Music or you're doing Baby or Grey Gardens?
LEAH: Well, this is my first time being a princess. [Laughter.] I have struggled in my career because I look very young. Being cast as the parts that I feel I can sing is…obviously my singing is my strong point. And so it's been really nice to get to play a part that I feel very connected to and a part that I feel like I can develop in tone and quality of my voice. I think the tone in which you're sing is just as important as the acting that you're doing. I find that my acting through song is really what I excel at and what I find gets across the character more than scenes, especially, when children's theatre scenes are more paired down so that they can understand the information as as easily as possible, of course. In terms of making sure that she is a princess, that is not just a princess [Laughter.] making sure that she's more of a three-dimensional character who is funny and nice and angry and upset and also kind and gentle and, and has all of these things. I think that I really pinpoint the emotions and her characteristics and go from there. And that was partially because that was what I was given in terms of this is the character that, you know, because everybody there had kind of worked on the piece before. Mainly what I gleamed from them, what the director told me are the characteristics of Beauty. Like she is kind and she is nice and, and what her characteristics were. And I went from there when I did any character work. Like what is she trying to be? Because really I think that we need to show the kids these different character traits and what they look like and how we act when we are nice and when we are kind and when we are funny and when we are angry and when something upsets us, how it's appropriate to act and what people look like when they're doing that.
STEPHEN: Yeah. I'm curious about what you do to create like a princess character. Like in a world where we're trying to make royalty more three-dimensional, like we are taking everything we know about like, like a Disney princess stereotype and we're really stripping it down and we're being like, ‘No, they are a real person that do all these things.’ It's like, you know, the end goal is not to get married. So what are some things that you are incorporating in that character work and in in the room to make this like a newer Belle?
LEAH: Well, I think that a lot of the story at Storybook is more focused on her and her father and her family. She has two sisters in the story at Storybook and she's constantly going back home. They’re always talking about the father. He has other plot points, and so I think talking and being with her family is a large part of the story, just as much as falling in love or being good friends with the Beast. And the final song is about never judge a book by its cover. I think it's more about friendship and learning to see beyond and help people out. If anything Belle's helping him learn, helping him grow, helping him use a fork. And it’s…you know, Gaston is not a character. It's Jacques and he might be a little bit full of himself, but it it's a very different character. And we don't have the Silly Girls. They're the sisters and they are silly, but not in the same way, you know, I think it's focusing on her family is is what's important.
STEPHEN: What are some questions that you've encountered in like the talkbacks for this show, or really any of your shows? I know there's us the usual, like a comment that's not a question, and then there’s, ‘How did you memorize your lines?' but have you noticed any specific trends with this generation of kids and what they're curious about after watching a live show?
LEAH: I think they're really curious about how you do things or like, ‘Was the steak real that they were eating? Is it really pumpernickel bread [Laughter.] instead of steak? Like, what are you doing? How are you doing that it? Did you really ____? Are the popsicles real on the candy house?’ I think they just want to know so much about physical things, you know, especially being so virtual recently. It's like, ‘What are you doing? How are you doing that?’
STEPHEN: I'm glad that they're still hungry for that information and I hope it encourages them to go get out and do physical things. I don't wanna be like, “Put the iPad down,” but also put the iPad down, [Laughter.] go, go make…like when I was a kid I was like making little fairy huts in the woods and so, you know, every…nothing was virtual. It was all hands-on things and like being curious and then, and figuring it out.
LEAH: For me, the reason I got into theatre is that it was such an escape. Not that life is awful or hard, just that I find that any medium of entertainment is that for me, it is an escape into something that makes you purely happy. And I hope that regardless of how life is going, that's why I like to do children's theatre is so that they can forget of their math test or their science class or that reading is hard, like [Laughter.] they’re just gonna enjoy the story.
STEPHEN: I try to think about that whenever I'm doing a show or things as a performer, get too much pressure. It's like, people just wanna go be somewhere else for like two hours. They wanna be here, they want to, they want that escape. Everyone needs a little break. We open Netflix and we take a little break. It's almost the same, but just not a screen. So thank you for sharing your pipe and drape story with me.
LEAH: Of course.
STEPHEN: How can our listeners find out more about your upcoming shows, what classes you're teaching at Walnut and where you are in the world?
LEAH: So of course I have my online socials, @sense_nonsense1 on Instagram and this winter I'll be performing at Candlelight Theatre and Into the Woods as a stepsister and Rapunzel's understudy. And I'm always teaching, I am teaching everywhere and always and forever. And, as of right now, just look at Walnut Street Theatre's education page. But I pop up at Media and Delaware Children's Theatre and if your child takes a class, I might be teaching it. [Laughter.]
[Pipe and Drape theme plays.]
Are you interested in sharing your pipe and drape story? You can join the conversation by emailing PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com or messaging @PipeAndDrapeStories Instagram. And everyone, please be sure to rate and review Pipe and Drape wherever you listen to podcasts! Each star given or review submitted helps future listeners find the show. 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.
INSTAGRAM:
@sense_nonsense1See Leah in Into the Woods this fall at The Candlelight Theatre:
https://candlelighttheatredelaware.showare.com/event-performances.asp?evt=32Learn more about The Theatre School at Walnut Street Theatre:
https://walnutstreettheatre.coursestorm.comThis week’s Tuesday Afternoon Dance Party music: "Lucille, Camille, Chenille" from Junie B. Jones The Musical
EMAIL: PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com
Host: Stephen Fala
Artwork: Stephen Gordon
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