Stage Combat The Podcast

If you've spent any time in the entertainment industry, you'll quickly learn that almost everyone has a story similar to the one Sean Hayden shares here. The theater may change, the city may change — but the experience doesn't. I applaud Sean for his courage in sharing his story and shining a spotlight on a subject far too few people in our industry are willing to openly address: mental health in the arts. What matters most is that listeners walk away knowing they are not alone — and that real help is available. For those seeking support, I highly recommend the Entertainment Community Fund as an outstanding mental health resource specifically serving our community. Stage Combat is doing important work. This is exactly the kind of conversation our industry needs to be having.

Being a professional in the industry and having countless things happen to me and around me—- this is in imperative work that Sean is doing. Thank you for uncovering the dark side and not being afraid to speak out for yourself and advocate for others. A must listen.

Theatre is a cult— from the rinkiest-dinkiest of community theaters to the biggest of Broadway houses (and I say this as a Union professional still working in the business). And like all cults, it keeps its transgressions tightly under wraps, through a combination of cultural conditioning, countless enablers and few effective avenues for recourse/remedy, all of which can make it nearly impossible for artists experiencing abuse to recognize (much less speak out about) what’s happening to them until it’s far too late to stop it. This podcast is a much-needed and long overdue reckoning of a culture and system in which silence and complicity are often valued above everything else, even the bodies and souls of the artists without which it could not exist.

If you are an actor/performer or just a supporter of the theatre arts you will love this behind the scenes podcast! Sean's true tale in season one is a gripping saga that will have you listening to back to back episodes!