Dear Multi-hyphenate

“You have to say yes to everything. You have to put yourself in every room you can. It's not learning from one person, it’s going to learn from as many people as possible. Noone is going to hand it to you on a silver platter.” In this episode we discuss… Making his Broadway debut at 10 years old. Becoming Rob Ashford's assistant. A mortifying debut and successful second chance on So You Think You Can Dance. Stepping up and problem solving. Producing, directing, and choreographing. Drag the Musical Spencer's Broadway journey has been nothing short of remarkable. Starting at the age of 7 on the national tour of The Will Rogers Follies, he made his Broadway debut at age 11 and went on to perform in 5 Broadway shows. After transitioning to choreography, he worked on 4 more Broadway productions, including the Tony-winning Hedwig. His 10-year stint on "So You Think You Can Dance" led to multiple Emmy nominations and he's choreographed for top TV shows as well as the Oscars, Tonys, and Grammys. Recently, he has added directing to his resume with a successful production of the cult classic Reefer Madness in LA, with Hollywood stars like Kristen Bell, Matthew Morrison, and Rachel Bloom making weekly cameo appearances. The musical will hopefully make its way to NYC and the UK. https://www.spencer-liff.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The advice that I would give myself now is not that different than what I believed was true 30 or 40 years ago, which is the thing that makes you different… the thing that makes you unique, idiosyncratic, weird… that is your superpower as a writer. Maybe as a human being, but particularly as an artist or a writer.” – Tony Winner David Henry Hwang In David Henry Hwang’s play Yellow Face, he explores the Chinese concept of face, an idea that correlates directly to multi-hyphenating. Which is the face we are currently wearing? Which is the one we want the world to believe about us? Which one do we believe the most for ourselves? Hwang is a giant among us – his resume spans years from hits, to flops, to plays, to operas, to films to brilliant works penetrating the cultural zeitgeist. In this episode, we discuss multi-hyphenating, making choices in our plays, the weight of other people’s opinions, the concept of face, and the state of creating art today. This episode is wonderful for any episode, especially playwrights and soon-to-be playwrights as it is a masterclass of inspiration from one of our great living writers.  David Henry Hwang’s stage work includes the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Aida, Flower Drum Song, and Disney’s Tarzan. M. Butterfly was revived on Broadway in 2017. His newest musical, Soft Power, a collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori, received four Outer Critics Honors, a 2020 Grammy nomination and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Yellow Face was revived on Broadway in Fall of 2024, starring Daniel Dae Kim. Called America’s most-produced living opera librettist by Opera News, Hwang has written thirteen libretti, including five with composer Philip Glass. An American Soldier (with Huang Ruo) will receive its New York premiere at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in May 2024. Ainadamar (with Osvaldo Golijov) will be seen at the Metropolitan Opera in Fall 2024. His screenplays include M. Butterfly and he is penning an Anna May Wong biopic to star actress Gemma Chan as well as a musical feature for Paramount Pictures. For television, he was a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair and is currently creating and show running a new television series, Billion Dollar Whale. He also co-wrote the Gold Record “Solo” with the late pop music icon Prince.  David Henry Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, a Grammy Award winner who has been twice nominated, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. A professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, Hwang is a Trustee of the American Theatre Wing, where he served as Chair, and sits on the Council of the Dramatist Guild. Recent honors include his 2022 induction onto the Lucille Lortel Playwrights’ Sidewalk, his 2021 election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and his 2018 induction into the Theatre Hall of Fame.  In 2016, The David Henry Hwang Society was founded by William C. Boles (Rollins College), Martha Johnson (University of Minnesota), and Esther Kim Lee (University of Maryland). The DHH Society is devoted to the scholarly examination of plays by David Henry Hwang.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where does a playwright start from? Would a playwright identify as a multi-hyphenate if they span genre, style, and medium of writing? How does a playwright break into both Broadway and the West End? Lindsey Ferrentino is one of our contemporary prolific voices in playwriting and she’s full of inspiring nuggets that will get anyone to put their ideas on paper.  In this episode we also discuss her upcoming play THE FEAR OF 13. Based on the extraordinary true story of Nick Yarris, Academy Award winner Adrien Brody makes his London theatre debut at the Donmar Warehouse in the world premiere of THE FEAR OF 13; a new play by Lindsey Ferrentino (Ugly Lies the Bone) directed by Justin Martin (Prima Facie).  Lindsey Ferrentino is an American playwright with three world premieres in the 2024 season. In May, she opened The Artist in the UK (co-adapted with Drew McConie, Theatre Royal Plymouth,) and this August, she will premiere the new musical The Queen of Versailles (book by Lindsey Ferrentino, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, starring Kristin Chenoweth and F. Murray Abraham, The Colonial Theater). Her other produced plays include Ugly Lies the Bone (The Lyttleton - National Theatre, UK, Roundabout Theatre Company, NY, over 100 productions worldwide), Amy and the Orphans (Roundabout Theatre Company), This Flat Earth (Playwrights Horizons), The Year to Come (La Jolla Playhouse) — among others. Her plays have been translated into Spanish, German, and Portuguese and have been produced across the US, in London, Germany, Spain, and Venezuela. This winter, Lindsey will direct her first feature film - an adaptation of her play Amy and the Orphans for Jason Bateman’s Aggregate Films. She has various film projects in development at Netflix and Sony Pictures — with producers including Higher Ground, 3 Dot Entertainment, Dylan Clark Productions, Defiant by Nature. Lindsey is the recipient of The Arc’s prize for Entertainment Industry Excellence for her writing centered on disability inclusion. Other prizes include: the Kesserling, ASCAP Cole Porter Playwriting Prize, Paul Newman Drama Award, Laurents/Hatcher Award, NYU Distinguished Alumna Award, and Hunter College’s 40 Under 40 Distinguished Alumna. Lindsey is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and Felker & Associates. You can purchase tickets to The Fear of 13 here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many people go to college for theatre so one can become an educated actor. Through technique and tools, this will help the actor sustain a healthy and rich career. But what are students getting in terms of theatre business? My NYU student, Natalie Rebenkoff, graduated and took off with flying colors by digging into her multi-hyphenate potential and producing her first piece of work, The Nursery, an unpublished Clifford Odets one-act. The production co-stars Cameron Monaghan from the ever popular television show, Shameless. So how does one graduate and produce their own work? What comes easy? What comes hard? What do we learn along the way? This episode is a great resource for actors who are deep in learning their technique but can also understand how to produce their own work – and not let each artform distract the other.  Natalie Rebenkoff is a New York-based actor, writer, and producer from Hermosa Beach, California. Her recent theater credits include Smokeshow (Edinburgh Fringe), Hamlet (RADA), MotherBoard (Experimental Theatre Wing), and I’m Sorry for Your Troubles (Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute). Her film credits include Don’t Look Up opposite Leonardo Dicaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. She would like to thank Walt Odets, Robert Ellerman, her family, and friends for all the support in bringing The Nursery to life and is excited to finally share this story. Cameron Monaghan is an American actor, writer, director, and photographer. With a career of over 25 years, he is perhaps best known for his series regular roles as Ian on ‘Shameless’ and ‘The Joker’ on Gotham. In addition, he stars in the ‘Star Wars: Jedi’ game series. Supporting roles include ‘The Giver’ with Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges, ‘Paradise Highway’ with Juliette Binoche and Morgan Freeman, and the lead role in ‘Jamie Marks is dead’ which premiered at Sundance, amongst countless other projects. He studied screenwriting at SNHU and has attended directing courses at the Australian Film and Television School (AFTRS), The Actors Studio at Pinewood UK, and Marjorie Ballentine Theatre Company. He most currently filmed TRON: ARES for Disney. Clifford Odets' The Nursery will be staged Off-Broadway October 10-12 at The Sam Theatre, with Stella Diji directing. The unpublished one-act will be presented by Point 5 Collective, in collaboration with The Lee Strasberg Creative Center.  Set in the 1950s, The Nursery follows an upper-middle class couple who are forced to confront the long-simmering fault lines in their troubled marriage. When the suppressed emotions of their union explode during a pivotal conversation, the strength of their love is tested. The Nursery was discovered in the archives of The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. Visit TheNurseryPlay.com for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices