A Star is Bored Keith Weiss

Michael Potts stars as Slow Drag in the film adaptatin of August Wilson's  Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Now Streaming on Netflix, and will be starring in Prodigal Son on FOX. Spanning a 30 year career on stage and screen, his Broadway credits include The Book of Mormon, Grey Gardens, The Prom, Jitney, and the Iceman Cometh with Denzel Washington.

Chapters:

0:00 Welcoming Michael/1st Preview

2:00 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

4:50 The Weeknd/Abuse of Black Artists In the Music Industry

6:00 LGBTQ+ Stories on Stage and Screen

9:20 Changes Made from The Play

11:00 Reckoning with Racism in the Theatre

14:00 George C. Wolfe

17:00 Rehearsing Ma Rainey

19:30 Colman Domingo, Viola Davis, Glynn Turman

21:30 Bonding with Denzel Washington

24:00 Wilsonian Scholars (Anthony Chisholm, Stephen Henderson, Theresa Merritt)

25:00 The White Gaze Eclipsing the Authentic Black Identity In Entertainment

31:50 Chadwick Boseman “The King of Wakanda Just Walks Down the Street”

35:00 Reflecting on 28 years on Stage

36:45 The Book of Mormon

43:45 How Has The Book of Mormon Aged?

46:30 Taking Religion with a Grain of Salt

48:30 Joining the cast of FOX’s Prodigal Son

51:00 Theatre Coming Back: Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand.

#MaRaineyFilm #netflix #thebookofmormon #theprom #broadway #broadwaymusicals #truedetective #broadwaytheatre #augustwilson #blackmovies #theatre #theater #theatrekid #theatrelife #hasadigaeebowai #chadwickboseman #bethleavel #theprommusical #thepromnetflix #rubensantiagohudson #netflix #hbo #podcast #podcastersofinstagram #podcastlife #theatrepodcast #musicaltheatre #keepcreating #blkcreatives #stayempowered


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Lesli Margherita is an Olivier Award winning actress and has starred on Broadway in Dames At Sea, Matilda, as well as Emojiland. Her solo performance in Who's Holiday just streamed for BCEFA, she is currently appears in the Broadway Podcast Network's As the Curtain Rises, and is starring in the upcoming prequel to The Soprano's, The Many Saints of Newark coming to HBOMAX this March.



0:00 Welcoming Lesli Margherita

3:00 Learning The Bong for the Stage

5:00 Who was in charge of getting it approved? Lesli explains

6:00 Lesli’s iconic BC/EFA speech 

8:00 Getting AEA points at Disneyland/ A Chorus Line

9:45 How Lesli Got Involved in Who’s Holiday

14:33 Lessons Lesli Learned

15:30 Male Playwrights Writing for Women 

17:30 Pushing comedic boundaries 

19:35 Messages from this shows

20:00 Self tapes 

22:00 Seeing Friends Booking on Social Media/”Cats out of the Bag” Posts

25:55 Emojiland!/Loving Josh Lamon

28:26 Keith Talks About Getting A Gastric Sleeve

31:05 Funny Ladies/Triple Threats

32:45 Ann Reinking

35:20 As the Curtain Rises/Ratatouille Parallel

39:40 Sopranos Prequel 

42:45 Secret Quarantine Project 

44:50 WeSeeYouWAT

49:15 West End Theatre 

52:00 Reuniting with the Zorro Cast 

52:30 F**k Resolutions


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This episode is sponsored by
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Need a Roundtable About Ratatouille the Musical? I guess you do. Well you’ll have to find it in Episode 33, featuring the Producers from the 24 Hour Plays: Nationals Cohort where we promote their upcoming projects which include attempting breaking world records, producing podcasts, trivia nights, and short films. We go on to discuss how this past year’s injustices have reshaped producing in the American Theatre, and specifically.....#RatatouilleTheMusical

Guests: Chloe Brevik-Rich @sothishappened , Ryan Duncan-Ayala @ryan_d99 , Dylan Tashjian @dyltash , Olivia Facini @oliviafacini , Kelsi Parsons @kelsiparsons , Narissa Agustin @narissa_agustin

0:00 Introduction of Producers/What do producers do that people don’t know about?

8:05 Hickory Playground/Public Education/Community Based

11:00 Why did you become a producer?

12:53 Stage manager to producer

15:15 What you been doing in quarantine?

17:20 Meeting people only online

19:20 Tetrology

21:00 Narissa Breaking a Guinness World Record - Album of people singing the same song

23:00 What are we gonna be like after quarantine

23:42 Millie Boden short film 'Too Black' produced by Olivia Facini

27:00 Balcony Scene

28:00 Kelsey is Tall

28:30 Cara and Kelsey talk about height

30:00 Listen to Best Paper I Ever Wrote produced by Dylan Tashjian on Spotify

32:40 Keith loves Joe Rogan wtf.

35:00 Trivia Nights

39:00 Chloe promotes DO NOT AIR, sketch comedy show

42:40 RATAOUILLE/What are you looking forward to for our industry?

45:30 Disney ruins everything/anyone can make a musical

47:00 We are pigeonholeing things into theater or film, but there needs to be a third thing. This is where innovation happens

49:00 Non-profit world

53:00 Tony Awards

55:00 It is our job to make change happen!

57:00 Sustainability

#theatre #broadway #broadwaymemes #producer #producergrind #theatrekidproblems #theatreislife #ratatouillememes #onstage #toystorymemes #industrystandard #peanutsgang #hamiltonmemes #tiktok #onceonthisisland #findingnemo #mammamia #jennifercoolidge #phantomoftheopera #guinessworldrecord #armenian


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This episode is sponsored by
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We sit with the composer of Jeannette: the Musical, Hamilton star and American Idol Semi-Finalist Ari Afsar, and director Erin Ortman to discuss the inclusivity of their work, dismantling hierarchy in theatre, separating your ego from your collaboration, and enlisting young musical theatre fans in flipping Georgia. You can check out the concept album for the musical, WE WON'T SLEEP, on Spotify. Chapter Timestamps Below:
0:00 Introduction of Guests
1:22 Jeanette Brigade 
3:10 Team Genie (high school and college student focus groups. December 15th)
7:00 This play is for all people 
7:30 Songwriting Journey - American Idol To Hamilton
10:00 How they got into theater
11:40 Cherish Your Mentors
13:00 Erin’s directing journey
14:10 Ensemble Studio Theater/Dismantling Hierarchy
19:00 Influences in theater and music
21:00 Ari digging into her sound for Jeanette 
21:50 Erin On The Genius of Ari
24:25 Being Fearless in the Unknown
25:27 Musicality 
26:45 Republican means something different now. It is always changing.
28:20 Changing how we look at theater in the virtual space
30:00 Change that can be made to the piece following the death of George Floyd
32:00 What is theater going to look like?
#georgia #fundraiser #benefitconcert #bethechange #makeadifference #flipthesenate #vote #aretha #ossoff #warnock #staceyabrams #runoff #georgiaartist #activist #artivist #playwright #screenwriter #singer #actor #musicaltheater #theater #musicals #newmusicals #broadway

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This episode is sponsored by
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Delores Pereira @queen_davery is an actress and finalist in the Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Slam from NBC, where you watch her work on FB Watch TONIGHT at 8:30 on December 9th. We discuss our work fighting the labor injustices and erasure of the Resident Artists of the Flea Theater and the formation of the The Fled.
https://nosotrosorg.com/yatusabes/ya-tu-sabes-vote-now/
Chapters:
00:25 DLO Intro
0:45 How DLO got involved with The Flea
3:00 Nosotros explanation
5:40 DLO went to LA as a finalist
10:45 Cuomo haters and Cuomo lovers
13:30 You hate when your parents are right
16:05 You can’t be a well rounded artist without a well rounded life
17:00 When ya’ll found out about the flea
19:40 Letter from Flea
20:50 Niegel Smith
25:25 Formation of The Fled Theater
27:45 Dave Chappelle
31:10 Analysis of Flea Statement
32:40 Delores is beautiful!
38:10 Kinfolk
#fleetheflea #ajoyfulhell #giveusthekeys #thefled #thefledtheater #bestintentions #dominicanartist #nosotros #yatusabes #broadway #offbroadway #actor #nyctheatre #nyctheater #theatre #theater #podcast #podcastlife #podcasts #podcastsofinstagram #theatrepodcast #nbcuniversal #dominicanamerican #anchorfm

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The Cooking Project by the Dominican Artists Collective Is Available to Stream until 12/15. 

https://www.nytw.org/show/the-cooking-project/tickets/



Highlights : 

1:50 Cooking Project Process

3:06 Cooking with these ingredients and now we got a meal

4:45 The first time domincan artists have come together for theater

5:03 This is a happy hour bitch 

6:25 The last days of judas iscariot. Merlixse’s first play

10:10 Fingers 

11:15 Outline of Cooking Project : poetry, meditation, original songs, etc. 

11:35 Spoiler dope riff off of the twilight zone

16:00 Dilson’s community engagement 

16:58 Dilson explains how he didn't talk the talk. He wanted to do more than just create art.

19:00 Dilson is the coolest person ever. Did hip hop workshops on Reicher’s island. Now working with incarcerated youth. 

20:00 Did Keith pass out?

23:00 Little Veras does not need her students finding her

24:05 Keith used to jam and now his friend moved away 

25:49 When you are a musician you just listen for the music

27:36 The importance of listening, incorporating different staples

28:30 TRUST THE PROCESS and TRUST YOURSELF

30:56 Authenticity. Professionalism is b******t 

31:31 Learn to take up space

32:00 Racism Transcends Time

33:32 What keeps you up at night? “This country”

33:40 We are living in the twilight zone 

36:25 time to knock the door down and hear new voices

36:45 This has never been done in American Theater

37:50 We are always thinking about our community

39:00 I have the bootlegs COME AT ME WHITE AMERICAN THEATER

43:45 We aren’t talking about Ned’s Declassified 

45:00 artists can’t survive without those creative outlets

MERLIXSE VENTURA is an Afro-Dominican artist born and raised in Washington Heights. She is an alumnus of SUNY Purchase, where she studied Theater and Performance, and Philosophy. Ventura is currently pursuing her Masters of Fine Arts in Acting at Columbia University.



DILSON HERNANDEZ's talents include playing various instruments, spoken-word, singing, audio engineering, and beat making. Though self-taught in many of these skills, he received a Bachelor's of Arts in both English and Music from the University at Albany. He also received a certification in audio engineering from the Institute of Audio Research. Dilson wishes to change the world with his art and community work, striving for a more progressive future. In addition to music, Dilson facilitates artistic workshops for NYC youth and is employed by Friends of Island Academy, an organization that provides services and advocates for sixteen to twenty-four year olds who are justice-involved people.



LITTLE VERAS is a multidimensional Dominican-American artist from New York City. She is an alumna of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts and the Diller-Quaile School of Music, where she became a classically trained musician. Veras has continued working on her craft at the renowned UBC, has trained with film director Pete Jensen, and continues under the tutelage of grammy-nominated opera singer and actress Monique McDonald. Little Veras has performed in comedy festivals and independent films such as the Dominican York Web Series, as well as sketch shows at the PIT, UCB and CAVEAT. You can also catch her singing your favorite jazz standards at open mics around the city. From femme fatale to your Latinx Daria - she's your gal.


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