Writing Plays for Youths with Lindsay Price
Episode 100: Writing plays for youths with Lindsay Price
It’s episode 100 of The Theatrefolk Podcast. Today we turn the tables and put Lindsay Price in the hot seat. What’s it like writing exclusively for young performers?
Show Notes
Episode Transcript
Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, theatre educators everywhere.
I’m Craig Mason; I’m the publisher here at Theatrefolk.
Hello, I hope you’re well. Thanks for listening.
I’ve always wanted to say that! This is Episode 100 of the Theatrefolk Podcast and you can catch the links for this episode in the show notes at theatrefolk.com/episode100.
If you’re a regular listener to the podcast, you’re probably asking yourself, “What happened to Lindsay this week?” Well, maybe you’re not because you probably heard her laughing and being disruptive over the intro but, at any rate, fear not, my friend. She’s sitting right here beside me and she’ll be back with her regular hosting duties next week.
Today, as I said before, it’s the 100th episode of the Theatrefolk Podcast. And so, we thought we’d turn the tables and we’ve put Lindsay Price in the hot seat for once. So, today, I’m going to be the host, Lindsay is the guest. So, let’s just get this show on the road.
Lindsay: You have got a very nice hosting voice, Craig Mason.
Craig: Thank you very much.
Lindsay: That’s lovely.
Craig: Well, hello. Welcome.
Lindsay: Hi. How are you?
Craig: Good. Tell me a little bit about yourself. What do you do for a living?
Lindsay: Well, I write plays. I have little skits that are out in the world and get produced all over Canada and the US and overseas as well which is the most awesome thing I think you could ever say. We were just in Lincoln, Nebraska, and we met students from Saipan who have done my scripts.
Craig: Yes, and they told you that you were famous in Saipan.
Lindsay: I’m famous in Saipan. I’ll take it, I’ll take it.
Craig: Yes, they first came up to the table and said they were talking about what they were doing and one of the pieces was yours and I said that I was your husband and they were like, they almost wanted to kiss my ring. They were so amazed that anyone who was even remotely close to you was there.
Lindsay: Awesome.
Craig: So, how did you get into playwriting?
Lindsay: Oh, okay. Oh, we’re going to go way back.
Craig: Actually, you know what? Let’s go even further back. What was the first play that you saw? Do you remember?
Lindsay: The first play that I ever saw must have been The Nutcracker. I’m almost certain it was The Nutcracker. I must have been in plays from kindergarten on because the school that I was at before I moved towns, they did that, and I know I have a very, very vivid memory of me being Mary in the Nativity play – must have been grade three though – but I wore a black dress because that’s the dress that I had and I had a green towel – my mom gave me a green towel.
Craig: So, it was a very traditional production, the Virgin Mary in the black dress and green towel.
Lindsay: Yes! Oh, gosh, I’m trying to think because I can see myself; it must have been another Christmas show. We must have done Christmas shows every year. But I think that The Nutcracker at the O’Keefe Centre – which is no longer called the O’Keefe Centre – it’s not the Hummingbird anymore either.
Craig: I don’t even think it’s called the Hummingbird anymore.
Lindsay: Oh, man. But then, I think that the biggest memory I have as opposed to the smallest memory I have is I went and saw Annie and I’m going to call that the very first play that I saw.
Craig: Was it a professional production?
Lindsay: I think it was probably a touring production. It was also at the O’Keefe Centre which is no longer called the O’Keefe Centre. So, I’m going to bet that it was – it had to have been about the exact same time – not the exact same time but very recently after – it was on Broadway because it was the late 70s that it was on Broadway, right?
Craig: Yeah.
Lindsay: So, it would have been the first.
Craig: Probably the first Broadway touring production.
Lindsay: The first Broadway touring production.
Craig: Wow! Do you remember anything about the show?
Lindsay: I don’t remember any of the songs but I totally remember the orphans and I remember it was either that show or The Nutcracker – I’m sure they were around the same time but – I remember us driving around the corner, driving away, and seeing actors at the stage door and being completely taken with at that very young age like, “Oh! Oh, that’s where they are! That’s where I want to be!”
Craig: Oh, really? So, even back then, you thought that you wanted to be part of theatre?
Lindsay: Yeah, I think so.
Craig: Oh, wow!
Lindsay: What a ridiculous thing for me.
Craig: Did you do anything at that point to make that happen?
Lindsay: No.
Craig: Did you try to do more plays?
Lindsay: Nope.
Craig: Did you ask to see more plays?
Lindsay: No, I don’t think so. No.
Craig: You were just a kid and it’s magically going to happen.
Lindsay: I was just a kid and it was magically going to happen. I listened to a lot. My parents who are not, as you know, who are not necessarily theatrically inclined or musically inclined had a lot of musical records in the house.
We had West Side Story, we had Jesus Christ Superstar, and we had You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown – the album cover of which is currently hanging in our bathroom because that, as I remember, was my very, very, very first musical I ever listened to – and others. I’m sure there was South Pacific. We had this collection of musical records because I’m old, we had records! And I listened to those a lot.
And then, as I got older, I started buying my own. When I was seventeen years old, I believe I wore the tape out of Les Miz. And then, when I saw that show for the first time, being really quite irate that it was way longer and there was a lot of repetition. I remember seeing that show for the first time going, “Wait. I heard this song already. I heard this tune already,” because that’s not what happens when it’s on the tape.
Craig: Well, the seventies were kind of the end of that time. There was a time, especially in the fifties and the sixties, where a Broadway cast recording was considered pop music. Like, you’d hear Broadway music on the radio. It would all be one and the same. Now, they’re completely separated; what you hear on the radio and what you hear on Broadway is completely different.
Lindsay: Well, Send in the Clowns I believe was a hit and I’m pretty sure Jesus Christ Superstar was a hit, too.
Craig: Oh, yeah. No, Jesus Christ Superstar was like a rock record before it was even a musical, I think.
Lindsay: So, it was pretty funny because I think I had this notion that I wanted to do it and very little access. I never asked; I never asked to be in plays! And then, I went to schools – we moved when I was eight so I believe I was in a Christmas play when I lived in Markham and then we moved and I spent two years in a school where we – and I’m sure it was illegal but – we would put on play versions of TV shows and I’m pretty sure we made up a whole story of the Charlie Brown – we were Charlie Brown and we were going camping and I don’t remember why or where for.
Craig: So, you think it might have been an illegal production.
Lindsay: I think it might have been an illegal production. But I don’t remember a teacher. Like, I remember us in grade five doing it ourselves.
Craig: How interesting.
Lindsay: I know!
Craig: So, when you said you thought about being part of it, was it writing then?
Lindsay: No, not at all – acting.
Craig: Acting, everyone wants to be an actor.
Lindsay: Everyone wants to be an actor. And then, in that particular school, we did whole school productions. Like, we did Pinocchio and there was only 100 kids in the school. The school closed pretty soon after that. But, like, I was the blue fairy and I had, like, five fairies underneath me. Like, all of the kindergarten class were the puppets – the puppets in whoever that guy was.
Craig: Geppetto?
Lindsay: Not Geppetto. Oh, no, maybe it was Geppetto. No, they were puppets. They were Geppetto puppets. I was thinking the guy who was going to turn Pinocchio into a donkey.
Craig: I don’t know; the Pleasure Island guy.
Lindsay: The Pleasure Island guy, but no, I think they were Geppetto’s puppets and then, like, the whole stage was taken up with, like, the whale. It was just, I imagine, it was the most remarkable thing to have, like, a hundred kids involved in the show. And then, I remember some others. It’s just insidious into me wanting to be into this because I remember we did some show when I was in grade four that required me to wear this beautiful pink dress and I had my hair done.
Craig: What? You wore a pink dress?
Lindsay: I know. I had my hair done and it was all curls and all everything. There’s a picture of me somewhere in my little shorts and my little t-shirt and curly, curly, curly, curly, curly, curly hair.
Craig: So, where does the writing come in? Was that high school? When you were in high school, were you still trying to pursue being in theatre?
Lindsay: Yeah, but failing and not even pursuing it. I cannot say that I ever pursued it, to think of it as a career. I think that it was mostly because you just didn’t. Like, no one in my school was ever going to pursue a career as an actor and it just wasn’t going to happen. It wasn’t going to happen to anybody which is hilarious because I also balanced that with being stubborn and I had a Drama teacher who I didn’t quite get along with and I think at least half of my drive was when I got into the real world to make a living as a theatre artist had to do with proving him wrong.
Craig: Okay. So, you went to university, but you didn’t go into a theatre program?
Lindsay: No! I had an English degree because you were supposed to. I don’t think it was a viable career. It was never seen of or thought of as a viable career. I never thought that I was… but I did! Like, I can’t even explain it as I’m sitting here, trying to figure it out for myself. I never thought that it was a viable career but I never saw anything else for me.
Craig: But what was the goal with your English degree? What were you going to do with that?
Lindsay: Not a clue. I have no idea. You were supposed to get a degree. I was supposed to get a degree and I liked English. It’s so funny because, when I was in school in high school, we looked very much down upon the kids who went to college to the point where we mocked them and, really, the joke was on me. I should have gone to college. University – aside from a background in some English and some classic literature – did nothing for me. I never really use my degree and, quite frankly, I should have gone to college and I should have applied practical aspects because college is much more practical whereas university is much more theoretical.
Craig: And, just to clarify for those listening probably in the US who are wondering why you’re slagging college, there’s the distinction here in, I guess all of Canada, certainly in Ontario where we live, is that university is the four-year higher thinking where you get your bachelors of arts, bachelors of science. College is more of a certificate-type thing where it’s generally more practical training. It’s actually probably the really good stuff where you learn how to become a plumber or a radio DJ or what else do they have at college? All sorts of the practical type of things whereas university is more thinking type of things.
Lindsay: Theoretical.
Craig: Yeah. So, that’s why we kind of always had that put-down of the college kids were the ones who couldn’t think well. It’s completely wrong.
Lindsay: And ridiculous.
Craig: I agree, it’s better to go to college than to university. But, nonetheless, that’s how those two are divided.
Lindsay: And it’s so funny because I have a very clear memory of my Drama teacher in university saying, “The only reason to get a university degree – unless you’re going to be a doctor or a lawyer or something – is to teach university,” and having that clear memory of, “Well, I’m not going to do that.” And so, how bizarre as I sort of just sit here and verbalize this that I never considered any other job because I wasn’t really good at anything else.
I also have a very clear memory because I worked in the parks department every summer. I was a summer program leader for a number of years and then I was a leader of a group of program leaders which I was really quite horrible at. But, on one day on that, when I was the coordinator, I had to sit in the office in the Brampton Parks and Recreation offices and complete a report and I knew then, at eighteen years old, where I spent one day in an office that I never ever wanted to be in an office. That’s as far as I could get about what career I was going to have was not an office job.
Craig: So, university though, you’re still thinking acting, right?
Lindsay: Yes, but still not really pursuing it. Like, I’m at a university that has a Drama minor and so I did quite a lot of plays – as much as I could for my Drama minor – and I did some community theatre stuff and I started writing there as part of a class project. And then, I actually, just because I had written something for a class project, I actually got a summer job writing a play. You know, every university, I’m sure, in college has a sex ed program that they do for the incoming students and I got that project for my university.
Craig: What was the first play? What was the one before that? Do you remember?
Lindsay: I think that was the first one, really. Oh, I wrote a play called Walls. Walls is my very first play which is in our ten-minute play collection.
Craig: Yes, it is in our ten-minute play collection.
Lindsay: Which I wrote for class. I wrote that for a class project. That’s got me the sex ed play. And then, after that, I wrote Among Friends and Clutter.
Craig: Why do you say Among Friends and Clutter is your first play? Is it the first one that was really produced?
Lindsay: Because it’s the first one, like, Walls is like five minutes long.
Craig: And the sex ed is like a commission type.
Lindsay: And, also, it’s not really, you know, we work with high school students and middle school students and it’s just a little bit weird to say thirty seconds for sex is your first play and I think that, when I think about where my career – and it was just, again, it was a scramble – when I think about where my career started, it’s Among Friends and Clutter. And, also, I have a very clear memory of sitting in the audience for Among Friends and Clutter and having that experience and listening to the audience in December in the middle of a snowstorm in 1991 and hearing people just laugh and react and be quiet and that’s where I knew that writing, I would say that that’s the play where I knew that writing was perhaps the avenue that I should attempt to take.
Craig: You still acted for a bit after that, though?
Lindsay: Yup!
Craig: So, when did you decide you weren’t going to act anymore?
Lindsay: So, you and I, let’s see. I got out of university and then I, again, fumbled around some more for another year. I had friends who worked at the university and I was able to get a couple of pick-up jobs through them and then we started dating and you went away. I stayed in Waterloo – oh, the construct of our lives!
And then, we started a company and we acted together in shows and I also toured Fringe Festivals. I toured in Canada. You can almost go from coast to coast and tour festivals during the summer months and I got hired to do one of those tours and it just so happened that I went and I gave a really good audition and I was actually second – I wasn’t first choice for a part – and the woman who was first choice couldn’t do it and so I got the job and I went on tour and acted in a play for four months which led to us touring also Fringe Festivals for five years.
One of those years, I did a one-woman show and it was just me and it was called Flashbacks and I wasn’t even in front of the audience. It was a shadow play. Like, the whole thing was behind a screen and just with using shadows in a variety of ways. I just couldn’t care less about the acting and what I was saying as it was coming out of my mouth. What I wanted was to be in the audience and to get that experience about having somebody saying my words and, like, what was that like? And I knew at that moment – I was in Winnipeg, I knew exactly where I was – that I couldn’t do it anymore and that I had to just let that go.
Craig: That’s really cool because, see, we just came back from Lincoln and I think all those kids there thought that maybe they have a really clear idea of what it is they want to do with their lives, where they want to go, what types of theatre they want to do, and you want to just grab them and say, “You know, it’s going to be years before you really finally know what it is that you’re going to do, you know? Don’t get so wrapped up in getting into this school and getting into this play because all these things change.”
Lindsay: And not only that, what happens if you get into that school and you hate it? What happens if you get into this line of work and it turns out that it’s not for you? Or what happens if that door never opens for you? I think it is a bit of a myth that the cream always rises to the top in our field. I think that the people who work hard have just as good a chance and people who never give up. Like, now we’re both in our mid-forties and, you know, there’s not a lot of people who are still acting that you know when you started, are there?
Craig: No, very few – very few. There’s a couple but there’s very few.
So, then you decided to become a writer and you were writing for adults, right? You were writing, like, regular plays. So, at what point did you start to more focus on writing for youth? Because it’s pretty much all you do now, yeah?
Lindsay: Yup! That’s all I do.
Well, let me tell you about my complete and utter failure as writing for adults – and I say that with total love because it was such a necessary journey. It was kind of a journey about what we were just talking about and I think this is really important too for students who are just starting out and looking at their own careers is that there’s a difference between going into something because it’s what everyone else is doing and you think that is going to fulfill you and actually honing in and figuring out exactly what it is about the craft of theatre or the art of theatre or any aspect of it that fulfills you and makes you a happy satisfied human being.
When I started out as a playwright, we moved to Toronto and I started to embark on the career that I thought I was supposed to have as a traditional playwright – getting workshops, getting produced at the bigger city theatres in Toronto, getting into playwriting groups, writing certain types of plays because those were the plays that were being produced – and literally every step of the way was a complete and utter mistake because I was trying to fit into a mold – quite literally a round peg into a square hole.
The types of theatre that I was seeing in Toronto, I didn’t like at all and I didn’t write like that and I was miserable trying to write like how everyone wanted me to write or trying to write like how someone would like me and like my work and produce my work and it was a never-ending struggle of trying to fit into a mold that wasn’t me and trying to open a door that not only wasn’t going to open, I actually didn’t want to open.
And seeing other people around me succeeding in this career in the way that I thought I was supposed to and quite literally getting to thirty years old and just feeling like a complete and utter failure, like, with nothing – like, with no path and no future – and realizing and just sort of sitting myself down and going, “Okay. What exactly is it that I want here? What do I want from my writing? What do I want to do?” and all through this time, I had opportunities to write for youth and I had opportunities to grow with Theatrefolk. We had started doing some high school stuff and I resisted it every step of the way because high school is amateur; it doesn’t go anywhere. High school doesn’t make any money, you know? What would I want to be associated with that for?
When I sat down and went, “Okay. What is it that I really want?” What I really wanted, I wanted to make a living as a writer. That’s what I wanted. I wanted this to be a career. I wanted to write plays that I was proud of and that I could stand behind – that was really important – and write plays that have some impact – that was also kind of important to me, too. I have no issues with any of the fluffy wonderful comedic plays that I have when I can balance them off with things that have just a little more depth to them, and sometimes that’s with a different form – like, writing plays in a strange form that I’m not used to, writing musical lyrics when I’m not comfortable doing that, or attacking an issue.
When I put those three things down on the table, the first thing that came to my mind was, “I can achieve all of this writing for youth. I can write plays with impact. I have the opportunity to reach an audience. I can make a living doing this. And I can write work that I’m proud of.” So, what was I fighting for? Oh, so many years! What was I fighting for? Why am I trying to be a playwright just because it’s the mold that everyone else – that I assumed – everyone else was trying to be when I don’t even really want to be that kind of playwright. I don’t write the kind of plays that were being done. Why would I try to? I don’t want to be that kind of person. Why am I trying?
As soon as I sort of flipped that switch and completely backed away from trying to be the “Toronto playwright” big city playwright, that’s when everything turned around. That’s when Theatrefolk really took off.
Since that point, I’ve never been on a loss for something to write about. I have about four years of plays still ahead of me that I still know I want to write and I think that there’s really no other group of people that are more interesting and more open and energetic and optimistic and risk-taking than school students, than high school students. Also, how being in a play can be a life-changing for them – just even as simple as someone coming out of their shell or someone seeing someone on stage going through something that they’re going through. It’s a very powerful position to be in – to write for this market – and I take it very seriously.
Craig: I don’t even remember what the question was.
Lindsay: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Craig: Do you have a couple of memories or instances of impact that really stay with you? I know a lot of people tell you stories about things that have happened with your shows. Are there any that really stand out?
Lindsay: I have a play called The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note and every time I get to see a production of that – SPOILER: it’s about suicide – every time I see a production of that, every time I hear about it being done, a student comes up to me or emails me and tells me how seeing the play or being in the play has helped them get through a personal experience. It devastates me how many kids I’ve met who knows someone who has killed themselves or tried to kill themselves. So, that’s very impactful.
Another favorite story of mine is Kristin Gauthier who wrote the music for our musical Shout! She did a one-act version with her middle school students and told me a story about one of her students who was sort of in the ensemble but was too scared to go on stage. So, she told the student that they could sit in a chair just off-stage and just sing from there. On the last night or their show, went up to her and said, “Okay. I’m ready,” and went and joined the rest of the cast on stage.
Craig: Wow! Okay. We’re coming to the end here.
So, you have a kid who comes up to you at a table and they’re really interested in becoming a playwright. I know you get this 24/7. So, what is your go-to advice for them? How do you counsel people who want to become a playwright?
Lindsay: Well, the first thing is that, more often than not, the question they ask is, “How do I get published?” and it’s just the wrong question because that’s not our aim. Our aim as playwrights is that we want to be produced and that’s what you should be looking for.
Now, this is for adults. If you are writing for adults, first of all, a lot of publishers won’t even look at you until you’ve had, not just a production, a substantial production – that’s got to be your goal. Get to directors. Make yourself known at theatre companies. Become a very indispensable face around a place or with people so that your plays get done. That’s what you need.
The publishing for a play is the last stop on the train because, if it becomes your first stop, well, how are people going to find your play, right? If it gets lost in a big catalogue, I know a lot of people who have got their plays published and then that was it, they never saw their play produced again which is very hard to wrap your head around. Other than that though, if you’re really dying for publication, you know, you might want to go for a smaller house so that you actually can stand out.
Also, when you have a play, you really want to make sure you know who it’s for. Who is your audience? Who is supposed to see this play? Because what you have to determine very specifically, come up with your ideal audience member, draw a picture of them. Where do they work? What do they do? What’s their income bracket? Where do they work? What do they do in their spare time? Know exactly who your ideal audience member is because then, when you go and look for a theatre company to produce your play, you should be looking for theatre companies who market and do plays for your ideal audience member because that’s what’s going to give you a partnership.
There’s no point in trying to just blanketly send out your play to every Tom, Dick, and Harry theatre company when there are some companies that are just not interested in the kinds of plays that you write, and that’s okay! I think it’s way better to write something that’s very specific for a very small niche than to try and just write for “Oh, I want everybody to see this play! Everyone! Oh, it’s going to be on Broadway! Oh, it’s going to be great!” You know, that is a lovely sentiment and it could happen, but the likelihood is that it’s better to strike out.
Go to regionals, go to smaller theatres, enter contests, and meet people. If you really want to get produced, you need to meet directors. You need to become friends with directors because they’re the ones who might be choosing plays and who might become artistic directors. That’s where the biggest piece of advice is community. Build a community. Make friends. Work together.
Craig: Wow! What are you working on? What’s next? Put you on the spot here.
Lindsay: Which is so funny that you say that but I’m actually working on an adult play! So, I talked about sometimes doing things that are out of my comfort zone. I haven’t worked on an adult play since 2007. So, that is a very long time ago. I just had an opportunity to work on a play for a theatre company which is locally in my area because I knew the director and the director reached out and said, “Do you have anything that you’re working on or that might be good?” I’m like, “Well, try this, try this, try this,” and we picked on one and had an idea to sort of develop it. And so, I have to sort of take my brain in a different direction which I think is going to be really helpful and really useful for me when I return to writing for youth because that means the synapses in my brain will have been firing in a whole different way and that’s never bad.
Craig: You have a lot of plays in your drawer that are unfinished, is that right? I’m assuming.
Lindsay: Yes.
Craig: Okay. So, what is your favorite one? What is the one that you think you could still make it into a play and why is it not done? Why haven’t you gotten through that yet?
Lindsay: I have two that have been done.
I have a play called Shattered. If any of you Canadians out there and you know Albertine in Five Times, I have one like that, it’s called Shattered and it’s seven women from ten to seventy who are all at different ages of one woman and the one at seventy, she has Alzheimer’s, and they all meet on a beach and sort of not only just relive and celebrate her life but also bring it to an end together. And that has had two productions and then no more.
And then, I have a play called Appliance which won a national playwriting award and then also won a really coveted workshop slot in Chicago and it was done, too. It was done in Denver and, you know, it’s hard work when you’re an independent playwright, if you want to be in that kind of profession, and it’s really funny. I get really jazzed about working for Theatrefolk and working to make the company better and getting – not just mine – getting all of our plays in the catalogue into the hands and getting them produced.
I don’t have the same energy and enthusiasm for my adult work. I just don’t and that’s why these plays are sitting in a drawer because I find it – it’s so funny – I find it down-heartening and depressing to try and push my adult work out into the world and I feel none of that with my youth work.
Craig: Why is that?
Lindsay: I don’t know! I don’t know. I don’t know, maybe because I believe in my youth stuff more? Maybe I believe that it’s better? Maybe because it’s been more successful so, you know, success breeds, it sort of becomes a snowball effect because I find success there? That it’s enjoyable to keep pushing? I mean, it’s not easy either. I like the people who put on my youth plays. That has not always been the case with adult plays.
I’ve had way more struggles with adult plays and people messing with them or people, you know. A high school director has never told me to never send them another play or that my work is abominable. I’ve had artistic directors for adult plays tell me such. So, why would I continue to pursue in a world where you’re told you suck?
Craig: Well, thank you for being a guest on the podcast.
Lindsay: You’re going to end on that?
Craig: Well, what else should I add? Okay. I have a question. What were you afraid that I was going to ask you?
Lindsay: Well, I wasn’t afraid at all because that’s the whole point of this. The reason we’re doing this, it’s the 100th episode and all I could do – and I had no idea about the questions that Craig, that you, were going to ask – and we’ve been so busy today, I really haven’t even had time to think about it. So, all I can do, when I sat down here, is to be honest and try not to say “um” too many times which I failed at that, too, but that’s okay. For another day – another day! And to try and share something that you guys out there might find useful.
I think that, if any of you have young writers in your classes and if you’ve got people who are thinking about this career and are thinking about it in an idyllic light that there are some realities, I will say, having said that, there’s no better job.
There’s no better job than being a communicator of the creative arts. I’ve been doing this now for twenty years. I’ve been doing this now for twenty years through all the very lean times and through being very focused on what kind of writer I want to be and that’s what you need to tell your students. Get them to be focused – not just “I want to be a playwright” or “I want to be a writer.” The more you can be specific, the more focused, the easier it will be in this day and age to find an audience and that’s really what it’s all about.
Craig: I’m so bad with dates but we were in our mid-thirties, yes? When we finally quit our last day jobs, is that right?
Lindsay: Thirty-five. When did we move? 2007. Except that, when we bought our house, I went back and did a little temping because we were in the midst of buying a house and we needed to have a little more. But us supporting ourselves as creative artists, we were thirty-five years old – that’s another thing you might want to tell your students. This is not a career for the weak or the easily wounded or someone who, when the tough comes, they get going. You have to stick it out and, to be honest, there are some people who stick it out this long and they never find it, do they?
Craig: No, I know people who are still trying to make it as actors who are my age, people who I started out with who still aren’t quite making it, and are still trying to get things going and I find it kind of sad, but I don’t really consider myself an actor anymore. I’m kind of out of that. I’m kind of Theatrefolk full-time. But I don’t know. If Hal Prince called then maybe I’d come out of retirement.
Lindsay: All right. You’ve heard that. You’ve heard it here; if Hal Prince calls, Craig is ready to step in.
Craig: This episode is going to cost us a fortune with all the downloads from Saipan.
All right, now are we good? Was that a positive ending?
Lindsay: That was lovely. Thank you so much, Craig.
Craig: Well, thank you for being a guest today, Lindsay Price, and I know you’ll be back next week as the host.
Lindsay: I look forward to it!
Craig: Before we go, let’s do some THEATREFOLK NEWS.
Are you on our email list? If you’re not, you really should be! We’ve been focusing all summer on resources for Drama teachers. Two weeks ago, we sent out links to three amazing Romeo and Juliet resources. Yesterday, we linked up to a piece called Competition: Performing in Pairs which is full of tips and tools for getting your students to perform their best in duet scenes.
Each issue of the newsletter also features a play of the week where we give you a little insight into a play in our catalogue and we also share a little tidbit about ourselves. Yesterday’s email made mention of someone’s wedding anniversary.
Lindsay: I think it’s you and me!
Craig: It’s a good email list, I promise! It’s not one of those bad email lists that you just delete the second you see them come in. So, join up right away at theatrefolk.com/signup.
Hey, and if you don’t like the emails that you get, it’s really to leave. There’s an unsubscribe link in every email and it actually works! You click it, we won’t bother you anymore. You won’t hurt our feelings, I swear – well, maybe just a little.
Finally, where, oh, where can you find this wonderful podcast? Lindsay’s staring at me.
We post new episodes every Wednesday at theatrefolk.com and on our Facebook page and Twitter. You can find us on YouTube.com/Theatrefolk and you can find us on the Stitcher app. Who has the Stitcher app? Do you have a Stitcher app on your phone?
Lindsay: No.
Craig: But some people do.
Lindsay: Somebody does.
Craig: I know that some people do get us on the Stitcher app. And you can subscribe to TFP on iTunes – that’s the far more likely place to find us, iTunes. All you have to do is search for the word “Theatrefolk.”
And that’s where we’re going to end. Take care, my friends. Take care.
Lindsay: Nicely done, Craig.
Craig: Thank you.
Music credit: ”Ave” by Alex (feat. Morusque) is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
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