Why I‘ll Never Make It

Normally at the end of each season I take a chance to look back at the guests and conversations we’ve had throughout the year, but for this special episode you aren’t gonna be getting some "best-of" retrospective (although I will be counting down the Top 5 guests of 2021). Instead I’m bringing back two former guests and introducing you to a new creative ,as we talk about what this year has meant for theater in general and special events coming up next year.

Featured in this episode:

Get access to Audition Stories, the Final Five questions, and other bonus content by becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber to Why I’ll Never Make It. Producing this podcast is rewarding in its own way, but I’m essentially a one-man operation. So it is both costly and time-intensive to put together each episode. By subscribing you’ll be supporting these podcasting efforts, and have access to extended conversations and other bonus content. Your financial support of this podcast is greatly appreciated!

Follow WINMI: Website | Instagram | YouTube

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Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top Theater Podcast hosted by actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones and is a production of WINMI Media. Background music is by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The experiences of our lives influence the paths we choose and shape who we are. In Part One of my conversation with Debra Ann Byrd, she revealed the ups and downs of her own life that eventually ignited a desire to perform and pursue a life on the stage. In this second half of our conversation, we discuss how Debra’s path toward becoming an actor was slow, but steady, and how her first steps as a producer started from very meager beginnings.

At her very core, Debra is a storyteller and that is on full display in this episode as she talks about taking on Shakespeare’s iconic role of Othello as well as the early years of forming her own company: Take Wing and Soar Productions. 

Get access to Audition Stories, the Final Five questions, and other bonus content by becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber to Why I’ll Never Make It. Producing this podcast is rewarding in its own way, but I’m essentially a one-man operation. So it is both costly and time-intensive to put together each episode. By subscribing you’ll be supporting these podcasting efforts, and have access to extended conversations and other bonus content. Your financial support of this podcast is greatly appreciated!

Follow WINMI: Website | Instagram | YouTube

———-

Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top Theater Podcast hosted by actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones and is a production of WINMI Media. Background music is by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I first found out about Debra Ann Byrd through an article in the Guardian titled “Black Shakespeare champion working to change views on color blind casting.” She was just starting a residency at Stratford upon Avon, and this article talked about one of Debra's college professors who discouraged her from getting into classical theater. That story alone piqued my interest, so I reached out to her and the conversation that we ended up with certainly had many more stories than that one instance.

Most actors can talk about how they got into theater and then trained and grew from there, but for Debra it was definitely a start-and-stop journey that veered off course several times throughout her life due to personal, medical, and racial issues that she had to face and deal with. Her story has so many interesting twists and turns that I just couldn’t fit it into one single episode. 

We start off Part One with a unique story of who Debra looked up to as a child, but as we continue our conversation you’ll hear an array of hardships and challenges that would cause any of us to question ourselves and wonder what to do next. Listen carefully, and you’ll also hear an inner strength and a hope infused into each one of those struggles. It is certainly inspiring and a true testament to the strength of Debra’s character and spirit.

Listen to Part Two of our conversation!

Get access to Audition Stories, the Final Five questions, and other bonus content by becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber to Why I’ll Never Make It. Producing this podcast is rewarding in its own way, but I’m essentially a one-man operation. So it is both costly and time-intensive to put together each episode. By subscribing you’ll be supporting these podcasting efforts, and have access to extended conversations and other bonus content. Your financial support of this podcast is greatly appreciated!

Follow WINMI: Website | Instagram | YouTube

———-

Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top Theater Podcast hosted by actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones and is a production of WINMI Media. Background music is by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this day and age of everything going digital, and especially with zoom becoming an important part of both personal and professional connections, it’s a very rare moment to have a phone interview. Back in August of 2021, I had the privilege of calling up a wonderfully talented actress both on stage and on screen, four-time Emmy winner Michael Learned. Though she is best known for playing Olivia Walton, on the long-running 70's TV show The Waltons, it’s important to point out that she has had a stellar Broadway career as well, which began in 1969 with a production of Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, produced in association with the San Francisco-based American Conservatory Theater.

As you’ll hear in this intimate and revealing Interview, she’s also had to face her own struggles and disappointments. She opens up about divorce, alcoholism, and regret. We also discuss the evolution of women’s roles on television and the stage, and Michael confesses her true feelings of playing Olivia all those years on The Waltons. She has such depth of knowledge and experience so we start off talking about her about longevity as an actress and what has kept her going for 60 years. 

Get access to Audition Stories, the Final Five questions, and other bonus content by becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber to Why I’ll Never Make It. Producing this podcast is rewarding in its own way, but I’m essentially a one-man operation. So it is both costly and time-intensive to put together each episode. By subscribing you’ll be supporting these podcasting efforts, and have access to extended conversations and other bonus content. Your financial support of this podcast is greatly appreciated!

Follow WINMI: Website | Instagram | YouTube

———-

Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top Theater Podcast hosted by actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones and is a production of WINMI Media. Background music is by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The main focus and message of this series has been on storytelling. From Kate who talked about how to use our voices and acting skills to connect with casting directors as well audiences, to Max who broke down the elements of a good story and how to craft that for print, stage, or screen.

On this episode, I’m talking with composer and audio producer Matt Sav about musical storytelling and how the path from initial idea to an actual finished product can be a long and sometimes stumbling journey. While we focus in on his audio drama In Strange Woods, Matt and I also talk in broader terms of production, composition, and writing as well as the future of podcasting as it provides a new way for artists to create and tell their musical stories. 

Get access to Audition Stories, the Final Five questions, and other bonus content by becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber to Why I’ll Never Make It. Producing this podcast is rewarding in its own way, but I’m essentially a one-man operation. So it is both costly and time-intensive to put together each episode. By subscribing you’ll be supporting these podcasting efforts, and have access to extended conversations and other bonus content. Your financial support of this podcast is greatly appreciated!

Follow WINMI: Website | Instagram | YouTube

———-

Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top Theater Podcast hosted by actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones and is a production of WINMI Media. Background music is by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though the theater is my main focus as both an actor and a podcaster, it is often interesting and educating to talk with those outside the theater world. Today’s guest has performed on many stages, but he is the last person who would consider himself to be an actor of any sorts. Nonetheless, Max Stossel has a lot to teach us actors about how we present and perform stories, and maybe even write our own. Max is an award-winning poet, filmmaker, speaker and a former media strategist, named one of the best storytellers of 2016 by Forbes. 

Max has traveled around the world, and his performances have been described as mind-expanding, profound, and hilarious. In this episode we talk about the basics of storytelling, how to get our thoughts and ideas down onto the page, and his one-man show Words That Move, which was selling out theaters all over the country before Covid and is currently being developed into a digital special. Max goes on to discuss the importance of staying authentic and true to yourself, especially on social media. 

If the last name Stossel sounds familiar to you, you know of his father, journalist and sometimes contrarian John Stossel. While I do my best to keep this podcast free from political themes and discourse, I did ask Max about his father and what he has taught him about telling stories and using video as a medium.

Get access to Audition Stories, the Final Five questions, and other bonus content by becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber to Why I’ll Never Make It. Producing this podcast is rewarding in its own way, but I’m essentially a one-man operation. So it is both costly and time-intensive to put together each episode. By subscribing you’ll be supporting these podcasting efforts, and have access to extended conversations and other bonus content. Your financial support of this podcast is greatly appreciated!

Follow WINMI: Website | Instagram | YouTube

———-

Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top Theater Podcast hosted by actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones and is a production of WINMI Media. Background music is by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a continuation of part one’s look at voiceover work and acting behind the mic. You will hear from a group of actors, directors, and producers applying voiceover and acting techniques into their radio play podcast called Standby for Places. As the pandemic was shutting down most opportunities for actors, this group of artists found a way to keep acting and producing throughout the pandemic.

Standby for Places was co-created by Freda Mattea, Margie Zarcone, and Graydon Gund. They then brought on Dunya Karam and others to make it a full audio drama production team. I’ll be talking with three of them today. They’ll give us a bird’s eye view, as well as hands-on experience of the art and craft of producing audio dramas which gives us actors a new way to both exercise and explore our creativity. To be a part of their audio drama productions, contact them via email: [email protected].

Get access to Audition Stories, the Final Five questions, and other bonus content by becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber to Why I’ll Never Make It. Producing this podcast is rewarding in its own way, but I’m essentially a one-man operation. So it is both costly and time-intensive to put together each episode. By subscribing you’ll be supporting these podcasting efforts, and have access to extended conversations and other bonus content. Your financial support of this podcast is greatly appreciated!

Follow WINMI: Website | Instagram | YouTube

———-

Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top Theater Podcast hosted by actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones and is a production of WINMI Media. Background music is by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today begins the second annual presentation of this month-long series with actress and voiceover coach Kate McClanaghan. We will be touching on the various aspects of voice work and technique but also addressing some fundamental struggles every actor faces.

About 30 years ago Kate founded Actors’ SOUND ADVICE with fellow producer and coach Jeff Finney. Together they sought to provide an honest and personalized approach to career consulting, voiceover coaching, and demo production. As both an actress and casting director, Kate has a unique dual perspective of what is expected of us as actors, both in the audition room as well as in performance. While this episode may be focusing on the art and craft of voiceovers, these lessons and insights are useful to any artists of the stage and on screen.

Get access to Audition Stories, the Final Five questions, and other bonus content by becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber to Why I’ll Never Make It. Producing this podcast is rewarding in its own way, but I’m essentially a one-man operation. So it is both costly and time-intensive to put together each episode. By subscribing you’ll be supporting these podcasting efforts, and have access to extended conversations and other bonus content. Your financial support of this podcast is greatly appreciated!

Follow WINMI: Website | Instagram | YouTube

———-

Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top Theater Podcast hosted by actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones and is a production of WINMI Media. Background music is by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices