Why I'll Never Make It - An Actor's Journey Patrick Oliver Jones

We're less than a week away from the 2020 Tony Awards ceremony (finally!) so I wanted to bring back this special episode all about those surprising Tony Award Nominations (announced 11 months ago) and the fallout from them. My conversation is with music director, conductor, and fellow podcaster Nate Patton. Nate and I first met when he was associate conducting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Broadway. And his podcast called Booked It.


The title to one of his episodes was “Broadway is broken and I alone can fix it.” And it's this kind of witty, tongue-in-cheek, knowledgeable opinion that I wanted to bring on the show as we talk about things like:


The lone best actor nomination of Aaron Tveit

The complete snubbing of the lightning thief

Only plays being nominated for best original score


Nate and I will also get into these topics and more, including what these nominations in general say about the state of theater, and we even make a few Tony predictions.


You can also watch this full conversation (with 7 extra minutes) on YouTube - 


Here are links to the people and topics discussed in this episode:


Broadway reaches for normalcy with Tony Award nominations 

‘West Side Story’ Won’t Reopen on Broadway

Snubs and Surprises: The Tonys Point a Middle Finger at The Lightning Thief 

Tony Award Snubs, What Ifs And That Strange Case Of Aaron Tveit

The 2020 Tony Award nominations were weird and sad 

Tony Awards Announces 2019-2020 Nominating Committee

Outer Critics Circle Honorees 

Tony Nominee Reactions 


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Incidental music in this episode by Chad Crouch and Admiral Bob and used under a Creative Commons License.


 

When it comes to work as an actor, there’s that old adage of "feast or famine" or "when it rains it pours." For myself that has meant going 11 months without any work…all while still auditioning of course.  While there have been other times when three shows come up at once, and I had to decide which ONE of them I’m going to do.


In Part Two of my conversation with Rodney Hicks, we’re going to be talking about the feasts and famines of his career -- various shows and original casts he’s been a part of as well as the shows he didn’t get and the lessons he’s learned from both experiences. As he shared in Part One, Come From Away marked a time in Rodney’s life that was certainly a feast. Not only was the show a wonderful chance for him to create and perform a rich character, but the show itself was getting a lot of buzz and it opened on Broadway with a lot of fanfare and high expectations. At the same time other aspects of his performing and coaching career were also taking off.


But his diagnosis of spasmodic dysphonia and it’s unfortunate progression took him in a very unexpected direction. And that’s where we pick up our conversation today: a look at everything that was going right in his life and how quickly it all changed. 


We also discuss the upcoming Tony Awards and his bookend contracts in the original Broadway run of RENT.


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Follow Rodney - Website / Playwrights Center / Instagram

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Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance. 


Incidental music in this episode is by Hyson is used under Creative Commons License.

Here in America, we just marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11. And on the eve of that anniversary a live recording of the Broadway production of Come From Away was released. It featured many past and present members of the cast. But one of the original cast members, Rodney Hicks, was absent from the filming. And in part one of our conversation, Rodney takes us through his long journey with the show and how it came to a sudden end. But he reminds us that even in the darkest of times, there is still some light to be found.


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Follow Rodney - Website / Playwrights Center / Instagram 

Support WINMI and get access to Members-Only Episodes on Supercast.

Check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter.


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Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance. 


Music in the episode that comes from Soundstripe ("Retreat" by Gold Coast) is used under a Promo Enterprise Agreement.


Other music in the episode provided by Karaoke Queen Brasil is used under Creative Commons.

As we came to the end of part one of our conversation Will Swenson and I were talking about the deeper questions of who we are as artists and as individuals in the absolute importance of bringing ourselves, our full selves to the stage. This is certainly one of the biggest lessons that we have to learn as actors and performers, and I throw in a couple of questions about lessons he and his wife Audra McDonald have learned from each other.


Also in this episode, the Final Five has been included. Though these five final questions are normally a bonus members-only episode, it's been added here as I try out a slightly different format for the show. What do you think?


But we start off talking about Will’s performance in the Broadway revival of HAIR back in 2009. It was certainly a vast departure from the Will I had known both on stage and off, and it seemed as though that show and the character of Berger in particular allowed him a freedom and an energy that he had never gotten to express on stage before.


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If you'd like to watch Part Two of our conversation on YouTube, then become a WINMI supporter. Click the link below to get access to other special episodes and bonus content as well.


Support WINMI and receive Members-Only Episodes

Check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter

Follow Will Swenson on Twitter


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Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance. 


Music in the episode by Borrtex is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.


 

For the next three weeks I’ll be talking with two Broadway actors and a music director about their careers in New York and their own thoughts on the Tony Awards and theater in general. I start today with actor and singer Will Swenson, a Tony nominee for his outstanding work in the revival of the musical HAIR back in 2009. He's someone I’ve known since the late 90s when we were working at Disney World in Orlando, both sharing the role of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. We are both baritone leading man, who grew up in the church, and both had first marriages that didn’t last.


We have shared so much in common that one of my initial reasons for bringing him on the podcast was to figure out what I could’ve done differently, what are the one or two things I could’ve done that would’ve let me mirror his path, his career. But instead what I came away with was a greater understanding of shared experience, of commonalities we all have, both professional and personal, that go far deeper than who is better than who or who has a better life or career.


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There’s a lot to digest here, and so I decided to split up our conversation into two parts. In this episode you’re basically getting an intimate conversation between old friends, celebrating the big moments and successes like his Broadway debut, the Mormon films he made, and of course his Tony nomination. But more importantly there’s a lot of listening, learning, and healing as we discuss the low points as well.


If you'd like to watch Part Two of our conversation on YouTube, then become a WINMI supporter. Click the link below to get access to other special episodes and bonus content as well.


Support WINMI and receive Members-Only Episodes

Check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter

Follow Will Swenson on Twitter 


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Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance. 


Music in the episode by Borrtex is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Whether from personal experience or hearing stories from the past two episodes on this podcast, you know that almost anything can happen in an audition room. Sometimes it’s magical moments, while other times are filled with frustration. Yet even still, the most “perfect“ audition doesn’t always lead to a call back or a contract. It is this uncertainty that can bring both excitement and dismay. Not to mention the fact that auditioning for the stage is slightly different from auditioning for the screen. And with me today to discuss these differences is television and film actor Darren Darnborough, CEO of WeAudition.


Listeners of this podcast get 25% off a WeAudition Membership by using the promo code WINMI25. https://www.weaudition.com 


Darren grew up in London and started to work as a professional actor around the age of 16. He earned a degree in film and media from the University of London but has also been very entrepreneurial throughout his career. In 2002, for example, he co-created StuckForStaff.com – the world's first online marketplace for promotional staffing. 


But in 2006 he decided to relocate to Los Angeles to focus on his acting career and has appeared on shows like MacGyver, 2 Broke Girls, and True Blood. He was even writer and director of his own film called Stefano Formaggio, which is available on Amazon prime. 


I first met and got to know Darren when he reached out to me as the CEO of WeAudition.com back in January of this year. He is someone truly dedicated and motivated to helping all actors get better at their craft and reach even greater heights in their career. And I’m very proud and grateful that he’s become a big fan of this podcast. You’ll certainly be hearing about more collaborations together in the future. But for today, I sit down with Darren to talk about his own journey as an actor, the wonderful opportunities he’s been given as well as the hard lessons learned along the way. He reveals a lot during our conversation and gave me new perspective not only on auditioning but the art and business of being an actor as well.


Part Two of our conversation can be found at https://youtu.be/IfPxrNynsoU


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Sign up for the monthly WINMI Newsletter. 

Support WINMI and get access to Members-Only Episodes on Supercast.

Check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter.


Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.