88 episodes

In The Working Actor's Journey, hear from amazing teachers, role models, and mentors about their lifelong careers. Learn from those who have been acting professionally for decades—to see exactly how they approach the work, what decisions and resources have made the biggest impacts on their artistic lives, and to hear their struggles and successes in the business. How do great actors work? What do they actually do? Let’s find out. These conversations are a virtual toolbox for actors, full of techniques, advice, and lessons learned.

The Working Actor's Journey Nathan Agin

    • Arts
    • 5.0 • 17 Ratings

In The Working Actor's Journey, hear from amazing teachers, role models, and mentors about their lifelong careers. Learn from those who have been acting professionally for decades—to see exactly how they approach the work, what decisions and resources have made the biggest impacts on their artistic lives, and to hear their struggles and successes in the business. How do great actors work? What do they actually do? Let’s find out. These conversations are a virtual toolbox for actors, full of techniques, advice, and lessons learned.

    Acting the Role: Uncle Vanya with Tony-winner Reed Birney

    Acting the Role: Uncle Vanya with Tony-winner Reed Birney

    Reed Birney played Uncle Vanya at SoHo Rep in 2012 in a translation by Annie Baker, with a cast that also included Michael Shannon. He joined us in December 2021 to discuss the character in depth.
    You’ll hear Reed and I talk about:
    his ideas going into Chekhov what he discovered and connected with about the role trusting the script challenges in the production and playing trapped characters We also learn lots more about Reed in our lightning round with a couple special New York questions!
    This episode marks our third installment in our Chekhov series as we focus on Reed playing the role of Uncle Vanya. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out two most recent episodes of our Vanya workshop and Libby Appel’s Q&A. I suspect you’ll have an even deeper appreciation of and curiosity for the works of Chekhov.
    This episode also concludes Season 5, which began way back in March! We’ve released a dozen episodes this year, from interviews to workshops to text work and Q&A’s. Thank you to everyone listening and I hope you’ve enjoyed this season as much as I have. I’d love to hear below if you have a favorite episode, guest, or moment. I’m also excited to share that we just passed 40K downloads and the show regularly appears in the top 100 of arts podcasts around the world! 
    Reed and I first spoke on the podcast back in Season 2 about his life and career. He has over 130 credits on stage and screen over the past 45 years. He is a Tony Winner for The Humans, a Tony nominee for Casa Valentina, and you can see him in the film Mass (now streaming on Hulu and elsewhere), HBO’s Succession, Apple’s Home Before Dark, and currently in theaters in The Menu with Ralph Fiennes. He also just closed a production of Chester Bailey with his son Ephraim at Irish Rep in New York. This guy just keeps working!
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    • 46 min
    Q&A with director Libby Appel (OSF, Indy Rep, Cal Arts)

    Q&A with director Libby Appel (OSF, Indy Rep, Cal Arts)

    This is a wonderful follow up to our Chekhov workshop from last episode with an even deeper discussion with the director!
    You’ll hear Libby and I talk about what she looks for in auditions, what she expects in rehearsals, her inspirations, what things went well, what scared her, and yes, we have another lighting round!
    Libby Appel is the author and translator of Five Chekhov Plays, the former Artistic Director for Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Indiana Repertory Theatre, and former Dean of Cal Arts Theatre.
    It was a great honor that she gave so much of her time to both the workshop and this Q&A. Gaining insight into “the other side of the table” is always valuable and few directors have accomplished as much as Libby, so I’m sure it’ll be a fun and very informative hour for you. 
    Learn more about Libby @ theworkslibbyappel.com 
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    • 1 hr 3 min
    Uncle Vanya Presentation with Alberto Isaac, Deidre Henry, and Libby Appel

    Uncle Vanya Presentation with Alberto Isaac, Deidre Henry, and Libby Appel

    We have our first workshop scene NOT from Shakespeare, and there’s a great reason! From October 2021, we present a deep dive into the first half of Act 2 from Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya with director Libby Appel - who wrote the translation along with our dramaturg!

    Uncle Vanya - excerpt of Act 2 DIRECTOR: Libby Appel (Q&A) DRAMATURG: Allison Horsley VOICE: Ursula Meyer PROFESSOR: Alberto Isaac (interview) SONYA: Deidrie Henry MARINA: Jully Lee VANYA: Howard Leder YELENA: Sara Mountjoy-Pepka ASTROV: Corey Hedy One final thing I’ll leave you with before we get to it is that Sara mentions toward the end that Libby asks such great questions, which is really the basis of any deep work, creative or otherwise. What questions do you need to be asking yourself, and as an actor, how far are you willing to push yourself to find answers?

    Fantastic work after only a few weeks of rehearsals; listen in to the cast and director continue to discuss the process. Part of The Rehearsal Room series. Prefer to watch the session? Find it here on YouTube!
     
    Get your copy of "Keys the Pro's Use to Unlock Any Script"
    See additional content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
    ---
    The WAJ podcast is designed to show you HOW the work is done, WHAT the realities of the working actor life are like, and to share all the different ways actors have come to this career. There is no one path and no single answer. We want to learn from all of those further down the road, to shorten the learning curve and to discover what helps and what doesn’t when it comes to having a lifelong career as an actor.

    • 1 hr 56 min
    Acting the Role: Dogberry with Geoffrey Wade

    Acting the Role: Dogberry with Geoffrey Wade

    Geoffrey has played Dogberry twice, at very different times in his life, and finds it's a fascinating character to dissect. He first performed it as a student at Amherst College and then again at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
    You’ll hear Geoffrey and I talk about rehearsals, preconceived ideas, and discoveries. How to ground characters that seem eccentric, bizarre or over the top, and how to trust yourself and the script. He’ll talk about working on roles that people think are “funny” and dealing with any sense of obligation an actor might have to be comical.
    And as some of these guests have been mentors to me and perhaps even to some of you (even by listening to these conversations), you’ll hear a defining conversation in Geoffrey’s life with a mentor about this very role. Plus, don’t miss the lighting round where you’ll learn even more about Geoffrey!
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    • 1 hr 4 min
    As You Like It Presentation (3.5) with James Newcomb and Erika Rolfsrud

    As You Like It Presentation (3.5) with James Newcomb and Erika Rolfsrud

    We have another “all pro” group—all the actors in the scene are professionals, so the work has been so fun and rich! Our dramaturg Philippa said that she found it so mind-blowingly good how fully the actors and director jumped into this scene, that it’s not something she usually experiences—and I don’t think I could have said it better myself.
    In the scene today, Silvius tries in vain to get an answer from Phoebe regarding her love. Rosalind chides Phoebe about her treatment of Silvius and Phoebe ends up falling in love with “Ganymede” (which is, of course, Rosalind in disguise as a man). After Rosalind departs, Phoebe convinces Silvius to bring a letter to this Ganymede, and Silvius is delighted to do so.

    As You Like It - Act 3, Scene 5: “Sweet Phoebe”
    DIRECTOR: Elizabeth Dennehy (listen to our interview) DRAMATURG: Philippa Kelly SILVIUS: James Newcomb (listen to our interview) PHOEBE: Erika Rolfsrud ROSALIND: Meaghan Boeing
    Fantastic work in Shakespeare's As You Like It from May 2021. After only a few weeks of work, the cast and director continue to work on and discuss the process. Part of The Rehearsal Room series. Prefer to watch the session? Find it here on YouTube!
    --
    Get your copy of "Keys the Pro's Use to Unlock Any Script"
    See additional content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
     

    • 1 hr 27 min
    Veralyn Jones on Feeling Like a Fraud, Circuitous Paths, and Saying Yes

    Veralyn Jones on Feeling Like a Fraud, Circuitous Paths, and Saying Yes

    Today’s guest grew up on a tiny island in the Caribbean, studied fashion and dance in New York, often felt like she never had the right background or training, and yet found success in several careers.
    Veralyn Jones is an award-winning actress who has been working professionally for over 30 years across theatre, film and TV. She has worked at The Denver Center, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, The Kirk Douglas Theatre, and internationally at LaScala Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden.
     
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    Get your copy of "Keys the Pro's Use to Unlock Any Script"
    ---
    The WAJ podcast is designed to show you HOW the work is done, WHAT the realities of the working actor life are like, and to share all the different ways actors have come to this career. There is no one path and no single answer. We want to learn from all of those further down the road, to shorten the learning curve and to discover what helps and what doesn’t when it comes to having a lifelong career as an actor.

    • 2 hr 2 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
17 Ratings

17 Ratings

chocolatecityusa ,

Wonderful!

Terrific interview with L. Scott Caldwell. So much history, such a career! Brava!

James M. J. ,

Gave me so much confidence

This is the best podcast on acting that I've been able to find. It has given me so much more confidence. As an actor, I've had a bit of a rough time, because I'm on the autism spectrum. It took me much longer than some of my friends to get down the basic techniques of acting, so I've had to work almost twice as hard as everyone else, but now I'm one of the best in my class. This podcast has shown me that I'm not the only one with obstacles, but if I put in the work I can overcome them and be even greater than I was before. So thank you for making an amazing podcast!

Brettowens1212 ,

Something g I’ve looked for for a while

I could never find a podcast for actors. This was so helpful for me as an actor to give me something to listen to, to keep me inspired

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