Whisper in the Wings Episode 1530

0:00Hello everyone and welcome back into a fabulous new whisper in the wings from stage whisper. We continue our coverage of the 2026 Spark Theater Festival NYC on our program today and the festival is happening April 6th through the 26th at the 28th Street Theater with tickets and more information available at emergingartistheater.org. On our program today we have four fabulous works and the artists behind them. Today we'll be speaking with a gay missewers guide to happy endings written and performed by Austin Jennings Boykin. Kenzoni Prapapa, choreographed by Taylor Gordon, chestnuts directed by Katie Michelle Stahl and Jesus Titanic and Coca-Cola written by Gina Oppenheim.

1:04I am so excited to learn all about these four pieces so without further ado please join me in welcoming on our guests everyone good afternoon and welcome into whisper in the wings from stage whisper. Thanks for having us. Yeah thanks. Yay. You're the prices right themes long right there. It is great to have you all here and I'm excited to learn all about these works you have coming to New York City for the Spark Theater Festival. Let us begin first by having you all tell us a little bit about what your shows are about starting with Austin Jennings Boykin and a gay missewers guide to happy endings. Yeah. So gay missewers guide to happy endings is a solo piece kind of exploring the parallels and sex work and self worth and it follows a gay misword on an out called Greenwich Connecticut and everything that could go wrong goes wrong. And as that stories unfolding there are these various side stories that kind of like connect to the central thesis of the play.

2:10Should I tell the central thesis of the play. If you'd like yeah. Yeah if your entire personality is built around being wanted like at what point do you just lose control. I love that. That's a great play there. Taylor Gordon tell us a bit about your piece can zoning per papa. Is 20 minute dance suite that I made to honor my grandfather who passed away about a year ago. He was 89. His name was Papa Mike Neuro. And can zoning per papa actually translates to songs for father but we call them Papa Mike so songs for Papa Mike. And so it's about a 20 minute five section dance piece at the moment we're hoping to grow it a little bit more. I'm going to explore his culture and memory and inherited identity rooted very much in Italian American music and imagery. Yeah and it's just a lot of fun and then I'm excited to keep developing it. That is fabulous.

3:10Can he start tell us about chestnuts. Yes I'm so excited to be here. Yeah so chestnuts. What's written by a fabulous collaborator that I work with often named Alan and go to Muhammad. And it's a story it takes place over the course of one Christmas night. It's a story where about generational trauma and addiction. And it's just a moment for we we see a family struggling with things that so many families do. And yet still trying to just maintain the Christmas spirit and keep everything you know light and fun and it kind of just sort of asks audiences to wrestle with. You know that balance of keeping the piece but also what happens when we get to that point that turning point of. We have to talk about it we have to address these things and open that can of worms and it just kind of explores what that looks like for for the this family. That is incredible and rounding out our group we've got Gina Oppenheim and your piece Jesus Titanic and Coca Cola tell us a bit about this. Yes and thank you so much for having all of us here today. So for a while it was said that Jesus Titanic and Coca Cola were the most written words in the English language.

4:19And I think a lot of kids have a Titanic obsession and I did when I was a kid it's sort of I'm also a middle school history teacher. So it's sort of I can see that a lot and I wrote my graduate master's thesis about the Titanic and white supremacy and doing that I read a lot of transcripts of witness testimony. And the thing that I noticed the most in these primary sources with people talking about not getting a chance to say goodbye. And right after I finished writing my graduate thesis my father passed away really suddenly and so it felt like this sort of when I was working on this play in a play writing class is thinking about that you know my own experience of not getting to say goodbye and thinking about these sort of historical echoes in which other figures in this massive tragedy had sort of you know this you know I wouldn't say a similar trauma but you know in their own way this idea of not being able to say goodbye. And what that means so using the primary sources going back and forth from the witness testimony after the sinking they had a 1913 there is a Senate hearings in Washington DC and then or 1912 and 1913 into 1913 and just sort of interspicing that sort of with my own experiences with grief in the form of my protagonist.

5:41That is incredible so for very diverse works across the board which is exciting and I want to dive a little bit more into these and Taylor I'm going to come back to you and I'd love to kick off my next question with you and ask what inspired you to want to create this work. Yeah so we've had in my family unfortunately a lot of very young and tragic deaths and so my grandfather passing away at 89 last year I was kind of surprised at myself when I mean he was sick for a while and then happened and I felt that it's funeral I gave you a G and I actually felt that it was like a celebration of life in the way that it wasn't for the other more tragic heroes and deaths in the family and so I really wanted to try to bring joy and celebrate. His memory with joy through dance and dance has been my entire life I've been dancing since I was three and so my grandmother his wife ran a dance studio so he was always at our recitals and he came to see all my shows here in New York and so it was really important to me to try to share some of his story and some of his memory and honor his memory through dance so yeah.

6:47Brilliant Austin what about you what inspired you to want to pen this work. Oh God I didn't want to write it at all I really really really didn't want to and my I used to do stand-up comedy in my joke writing partner you know because it's the game massage is a part of my story my joke writing partner and a compliment who's a producer on my show she was just like Austin you would be an idiot not to do something with. This because you never talk about it on stage you never really talk about it in life and I think that there are a lot of really interesting parallels between like doing this kind of work and then also you know I'm an actor as well and and I'm a gay actor that has made a career of playing straight parts so like a huge part of my life has been performing and how those two kind of intersect and how much of yourself you give up. Per gig and it just spiraled into this it was supposed to be stand-up comedy and it wound up being a play which was not what I intended at all.

7:55I love that journey all this. Gina coming to you I'd love to know what has been like developing this piece ahead of its run here in New York City. Well I think because my piece is a like deeply personal piece and I feel very lucky my director Millie Cho is one of my close friends and she's amazing and so having somebody really trust and sort of knows sort of your personal baggage as well as your literary baggage is fantastic and I think I'm just really excited to have an opportunity to collaborate with people I have admired. Sort of I'm a theater teacher by trade and so I've written a ton of plays for my students and for my school but this is my first time it's like seven or eight years that I'm doing something that's just for me so it's been really amazing journey. I'm so happy to hear that and thank you for being a teacher you have a you have an incredible job and we so appreciate you inspiring the next generation of artists so that's awesome.

9:02Tady what's it been like for you developing this show? Yeah no so far it's been amazing and I think we're working we have had the privilege of welcoming a large array of people into this room. A few readings and and now we we've really settled on this cast of you know the mighty five there are people who are in their 20s there are people who are in their 40s and 50s and so it's really creating this authentic family dynamic and which has been very nice to work under because we're all you know the chemistry in the room is just wonderful. And working with our intimacy coordinator Kate Diappa has also been wonderful just kind of creating these you know talking about our families with boundaries of course but you know and just reliving some of these moments in our own Christmases and and times that we've experienced but yeah the the level of professionalism the talent the flexibility and passion to do us you know a festival like this and you know we all show up after work and after the gym and we're sweaty and tired and just the fact that we're able to put our heads down and work really hard towards one goal and also.

10:06Be cool people and friends is is so wonderful so it's been a great experience so far for me. That's incredible well I want to stick with you first on this next question because I'd love to know is the director of the piece is there a message or thought you're hoping audiences are going to take away from the show. Absolutely and I mean I never want to tell people what to think right I'm always I'm really interested to see to hear the feedback after because because this is such a relatable experience to have things that you don't say at the dinner table to you know keep the piece for so long and I think the one thing I'm hoping people pull away from this is that. Addiction is really it's taboo subject at times but really what it is is the spectrum of a spectrum of experience and I think that I would love for people to walk away from this realizing that it's not about how you label yourself it's not about am I or am I not it's about how do I feel on any given day and how do how do the people around me make me feel. I think it's about I hope that people walk away from this thinking a little bit more critically about their feelings on a daily basis and how those feelings interact with others and being more open and honest and transparent and also learning being there for people when they're ready to be open and transparent with you and being able to carry that information and I'm hoping that it brings people together and makes us realize that we're more alike than we are different.

11:31Yeah, hopefully that answers the question. Lots of things. No, that is a great answer, fabulous answer. Austin, how about you? Is there a message that you're hoping audiences take away? Yeah, I actually which I do want to say Katie I mean hats off because I've been sober 14 years and I love whenever anyone explores addiction which is a part of my play. I I don't I don't know I try I try to stay out of the results and kind of stay in like I take an action and whatever people take from this they take from it if they take anything you know we've done we had our first reading in Hudson Valley and then we did workshops and province tell Massachusetts and at the chain and I've the interesting thing is that this thing that feels so niche to me is actually resonated with all these different groups of people and what I've heard and feedback and what I hope translates we're taking this to Edinburgh this summer is the expectations that we put on ourselves to to perform for people to kind of fulfill these social contracts that we have of like hi hello how are you I'm great and just what it's like to to deviate from that and just and just be honest and that honesty really is contagious and and I think honesty breeds empathy.

12:53And that's definitely something we could use a lot more of right now so I don't know if that makes sense I think it does I think that makes perfect sense and that's a great idea right there to be communicating. Gina coming here to kick this next question off I'd love to know who are you hoping to have access to your show. I mean I cope as many people as possible you know I think what seems so great about this festival is that the price points are affordable and again especially as an educator I watched my students want to see more things and cost be a prohibitive factor to it. I think to getting younger audience members there to see that they can if they don't see their stories told they can create them that's the biggest thing because I do a lot of work with primary sources my students creating new works and that kind of was honestly born out of necessity because I primarily teach middle school and just there wasn't a you know a very small amount of just sort of thoughtful pieces for middle

13:59schoolers to act out and though this is not you know I play for kids or younger audiences at all I just feel like the concept of this festival is about sort of accessibility and you don't see your story being told created. I love that love that Taylor how about you who are you hoping that access to the show. Yeah I do not love your answer fabulous I would say similarly just everybody and anybody that can possibly come to the theater please come to the theater but specifically for for this piece for me the stories are told only through dance there is no script or any text or acting with with words so I'm hoping that people that maybe don't see dance that often or that don't actively seek out dance will hopefully stumble upon the show and see that dance is a very strong way to. Have storytelling is theater as opposed to just being sort of the side and in a Broadway musical is like oh yeah there's a dance break but actually dance computer is central to storytelling so that's what I'm hoping for.

15:24Well on the second part of our interviews we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a bit better pull the curtain back if you will and with a full house today we're going to skip right on down to my favorite question to ask guests which is what is your favorite theater memory. I'll go. It was a no brainer for me so I saw the normal heart and twenty twenty twenty eleven I'm dating myself because I was about to say twenty twenty one it's not that it was a long ass time ago and I I went on a date with this guy I was seeing and it was at the end when they start projecting the names of everyone. And I had never I knew nothing about it going in I just started sobbing hysterically and this guy tried to like comfort me and hold me and I was like I don't really don't touch me. But then this really really old Jewish woman next to me try she asked if I lost anyone and I was like no because I'm not that old and and then she tried to hold me and I let her do it which I don't I don't know who she is or anything about her.

16:35But I was like that such a powerful moment especially in New York for a stranger to hold a crying person like I just I'll never forget that play that production that night. I might forget the guy I went with but. That experience and shout out Joe Mantello just brilliant in that my God. I have to agree I mean I saw that too and I saw Larry Kramer the night I was there and he was. And just to be able to sort of commune with him after that. I was going to say though mine I think was right as sort of theaters were reopening after the pandemic Hamilton had a special show for all first responders for teachers because for classroom people and I got invited to go. And there was something just it was more to just being in this space with you know I was just so excited to be in a room with a group of other people watching theater. I honestly feel like I could have watched anything but to see a show that was so aligned was sort of my you know my ethos about using primary sources and revisiting history and finding hidden stories.

17:43It was really great and I just I like literally when the curtain open I started weeping because. Is this the idea of being back you know we had no idea when we're going to be back in a theater space. Two great memories so far Katie what you got. I know I love that Gina you kind of spurred this in thinking of this like full circle moment I'm from California originally not the fun part I'm from San Jose but don't tell California that it's not the fun part but. But I'm from Northern California and so very technological like not super creative in my experience and so when I moved here I was like hitting the ground running ready to go. And I feel like when you're kind of in the nitty gritty every day you know working seven jobs and like try to put food on the table it's hard to remember where we are and I was at I was invited because I worked as a stir at a restaurant and got invited to the Mama Mia final dress because we had hosted their after party or their pre party and so I went to this final dress and I was sitting in the room and my grandma's are like the biggest part of my life and so of course they grew up listening and watching Mama Mia with them.

18:53And then to sit in this room with all of these incredible people but mainly women who were from generations ago and and to see these women just sitting watching this new cast take the stage and listen watching them dance in their seats and do the choreography in their seats like it was just one of those moments where I looked up and I was just thinking like wow. I'm here like I am in you know New York City I'm doing the thing I'm again of course it was like the restaurant that got me there that time but just watching the passion and the love and the support in the room for these fellow actors like the community that I know everyone says that but the community that we as a collective have is something to be. It was a pleasure and forever you know and to be a part of that it was just one of those moments where I was like it was a pinch me moment. Oh that's so amazing y'all are three for three so far so Taylor bring us home on this what's your favorite memory.

19:53I was having a hard time choosing one but what Katie was just talking about she mentioned working seven jobs and I related that very very well and I do work probably more than seven jobs at the exact moment in time but. When I'm in that sort of chaotic place and trying to do all the things all the time I had to really pull myself back and remind myself of like why why do I do this why do I work seven jobs oh it's because I love. Performing and creating art and so I guess my favorite. Memory that pulled me back to that is I grew up at training at Boston ballet grew up in Massachusetts and I was training at Boston ballet school so very young and they do they let the young performers dance in the Nutcracker. Classic ballet that probably everybody seen little pieces of it's not the whole thing and so my first Nutcracker show I was what was called a doll basically under the big Christmas tree in the Nutcracker there's like little dolls and I'm a seven year old doll you know walking my way on stage and I was carried off by a mouse. But the running story with my family is that like apparently what I don't remember this exactly but I told the story that like once I got on stage it's called the weighing center in Boston now it's called something else big big beautiful theater.

20:58But apparently I was so in awe because all I could see were the red exit sign like black theater but the red exit signs I was like oh this is great I can see exit sign but I was just so happy to be on stage what looking at the exit signs being carried off by a mouse and that's all I needed in my life now I probably need a little bit more than that but it just takes me back to when I think back to you you know the roots of how I started. What a great memory to close out this question on thank you for sharing all of you thank you so so much for sharing those amazing memory those were wonderful. As we wrap things up I would love to know if our listeners would like more information about your shows or about you perhaps I'd like to reach out to you how can they do so. So starting with Austin Boykin tell us about your piece. Yes you can see a game of source guide to happy endings April 15th at 7pm we have an Instagram game of source guide there's obviously the at at there and if you want to know more about me my Instagram is at Austin with four ends JB and I'm trying to think is there any I also feel like you can probably I feel like an email is somewhere on there yeah you can reach out anything but come to the show it's good it's fun and and if you're in Scotland this summer.

22:19Please come see a game of source guide to happy endings at green side that'll be the fifth through the 20 seconds of August. Wonderful can Zoni Papa and Taylor Gordon. Yeah can Zoni Papa will be April 14th at 7pm you can find me on Instagram at Taylor J Gordon or J or my website Taylor J Gordon dot com. Incredible chestnuts and Katie Michelle stall. Yes everyone come see chestnuts it's going to be amazing it's on Sunday April 12th at 7pm we're going to try to make their whole room smell like chestnuts we'll let you know how it goes. If you if the festival lets us on Instagram our lovely playwright Aladin his is demon Kingden and then mine is Katie dot Michelle dot stall on all platforms. And bring in us home Gina Oppenheim and Jesus Titanic and Coca Cola.

23:19Yes first I'm so excited to see all these shows so I will be there and that my show will be happening on April 20th at 7pm so it's a week after the ship itself sank the anniversary so you know timing works pretty well. And anybody has any questions they can find me on Instagram at Gina Beans that's my handles GE N A B E A N S. Fantastic well Austin Taylor Katie and Gina thank you all so much for taking the time to speak with me today for sharing your amazing works your amazing memories I have had an absolute blast chatting with you all I'm so excited for these shows. So thank you all so much for your time today. Thank you so much. My guests today have been for amazing artists who spoke to us about their incredible shows that are part of the 2026 Spark Theater Festival NYC.

24:24The festival is happening April 6th through the 26th at the 28th Street Theater and if you'd like tickets or more information head on over to emerging artist theater dot org. We also have some contact information as well as performance dates for our guests which will be put in our episode description as well as on our social media posts but hurry over to emerging artist theater right now. Get your tickets for all the amazing works that are making up the 2026 Spark Theater Festival especially the shows you heard about today a game is yours guide to happy endings. Canzoni Prapapa Chestnuts and Jesus Titanic and Coca-Cola. So until next time I'm Andrew Cortez reminding you to her knock yourself on unwrap your candies and keep talking about the theater in a stage whisper. Thank you. If you like what you hear please leave a five star review like and subscribe.

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