In this pilot episode of This Wooden O, your hosts Daniel Kemper and Montgomery Sutton sip delicious Singlecut Beer and speak with special guests Daniel Kemper and Montgomery Sutton (respectively Master of Casting & Company Management and Master of the Revels for Rude Grooms). We know what you’re asking — how did you get them??? We can hardly believe it ourselves!

Topics include:

• Daniel’s discovery of the Star Wars Happiness Paradox (Jedi: Fallen Order getting in the way of The Mandalorian getting in the way of Jedi: Fallen Order).
• Momentum and burnout, both as individual artists and in running the Punk-Rock Renaissance Theater Company Rude Grooms.
• Finding motivation a an individual vs. finding motivation for work in a group.
• Setting New Year’s Intentions vs. New Year’s Resolutions.
• That moment in your early 30s of reflection and gear change from the habits you didn’t even know you’d made.
• The irony of trying to make plans in a completely unpredictable profession.
• Looking back on Rude Grooms’s 2019 season, including Romeo and Juliet and The Changeling, and doubling budgets, performances, and attendance in the second year of a young theater company.
• Failure, Resilience, and compounding small improvements to make big changes in life and in collaborative creation of art.
• Monty forgetting the name of the Kobayashi Maru and being demoted back to the Trekkie minor leagues.
• Edison’s discovery of thousands of ways not to make a lightbulb.
• Figuring out out what the hell this podcast even is.
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Music is by Kara Arena, Master of Music for Rude Grooms. Follow us @thiswoodeno on Twitter and Instagram, visit us on the web at thiswoodeno.com, like us at facebook.com/thiswoodenopod/, or support us on Patreon (patreon.com/rudegrooms) to join the conversation during livestream broadcasts of every episode.

This week’s shoutouts & further reading include:

• Jedi: Fallen Order (buy for PS4 or XBox)
• Warren Rusher (actor, teacher, producer of Speak the Speech workshops – UK) 
• Shakespeare Dallas – learn more at shakespearedallas.org
• Ashley H. White (Director, Fight Director, Intimacy Director)
• Atomic Habits by James Clear (buy at https://amzn.to/2RVCYwI)
• Kristen Johnston (Actor & Teacher) – follow her @thekjohnston
• lupo blu, LLC (Monty’s media production company)
• Kobayashi Maru (read more)

This Wooden O is a production of Rude Grooms. Learn more at rudegrooms.com or follow us @rudegrooms on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/this-wooden-o/donations