This whole project came together within about two weeks after we received the shelter-in-place directives in California, and yet they all deliver amazing performances! I knew it would be a great show, and even with no director and no rehearsal, these actors exceeded my expectations! You’ll hear our introduction to the play, including a wonderful section from our dramaturg Gideon Rappaport, and then a couple scenes from each act, and our intermission with Shakespeare trivia!

Please join us on Thursday, April 2nd as The Working Actor’s journey podcast presents— in collaboration with the San Diego Shakespeare Society and the City of Coronado Public Library—an online Shakespeare reading of "Much Ado About Nothing", featuring Dakin Matthews, Armin Shimerman, Ray Porter, Robert Pine, and many more amazing actors from the podcast!

Randall Duk Kim and Annie Occhiogrosso from ep #25 work on Shakespeare together, specifically Hamlet's "Advice to the Players".

Do you have some really audacious goals, or maybe even a few crazy ideas? Guess what, you’re not alone! That’s exactly where our guests were: despite working regularly and finding success, they didn’t see the kind of projects they wanted to do, so they created a place where it could happen, and it became hugely successful. But it wasn’t all roses: they ultimately walked away from it, and created a whole new chapter of their careers. We cover the highs and lows, and lots more of this journey!

Today we have another Behind the Podcast episode, with an actor helping you create more control in your career, Mike Moreno from Actor CEO! His show’s goal is for all of us to understand how much an acting career is like running your own business, and using the insights we learn to create our own success. Mike is a NY-based actor with a BFA and MFA in acting, with training at the Lee Strasberg Institute. He’s performed Shakespeare, appeared as the lead in several films, and been on Law and Order: SVU.

Have you felt like you weren’t really ready to work at a professional level—that perhaps you needed to study more, you needed more training—before you could really work among the people you admire? Or that you felt like a fraud, that you weren’t supposed to be where you are, that someone is going to find you out? Our guest today dealt with all of those feelings and soldiered on, ultimately winning a Tony award and enjoying a long and varied career across theatre, TV, and film.

Simon Vance from Ep #23 shares how he worked on a couple of different audiobook projects: first, dealing with a practically unreadable chapter in Alan Moore’s Jerusalem and then, a bit on The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth.

Perhaps you thought that acting couldn’t really be your job, but you still felt it in your soul it’s what you wanted to do—or maybe you’ve experienced some huge and life-altering changes and are unsure where it’s going to lead. Our guest today went through all of that, and has become one of the top performers in his industry—and he continues to push himself! Simon Vance is an award-winning narrator of 1000+ audiobooks, and we chat about being proactive, depression, nerves, and acting on-camera.

Jeanne Sakata from Ep #22 discusses a monologue she worked on from the TV show Threat Matrix. She plays a Cambodian woman who recounts her experiences of escaping the Khmer Rouge.

Perhaps you discovered your passion for acting later in life, or maybe you didn’t get the early start on this career you think you need—our guest today was in the exact same spot, and she still pursued it and has experienced quite a bit of success! Jeanne Sakata has 40+ credits on tv/film and has worked at acclaimed regional theatres in NY, Seattle, Portland, the Bay Area, and numerous in Southern California. She has played opposite such legendary actors as Chita Rivera, Estelle Parsons, and Raul Julia.