Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Foreign welcome to disability empowerment now season four. I'm your host Keith raviginsini. Today I'm talking to actor Danny J. Gomez. Danny, welcome to the show.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Hey Keith, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: So I originally saw you on a alt Broadway production of all of me written by Laura Winters. Winters. Thank you. I almost said waters and I would like. Oh no, that not her name.
She's gonna kill me.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Yeah, she probably would. No, she's the sweetest.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Yeah, she would. She's a great person though. I hope to interview her one of these days because all of me was so drop dead hilarious.
I went to seed with a friend mine and throughout the entire performance I would try my badge not to laugh so loud.
It all me is a disabled romcom that is very f R and very serious about telling me like it is how disabled people fall in love, live their lives.
And you had some pretty big names in the cats bedsides yourself of cords.
How much go back to how you first became aware of the project.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Yes, thank you for all of that. It's. It's been a long time coming actually. I just a quick history of me like I was injured in 2016 and I didn't find acting again. You know, I didn't, I didn't realize or even think about acting when I was injured. It was just about, you know, figuring life out and then acting randomly found me again and I decided to give it, give it one last shot and really focus on it. And all of me came in is just an audition through my agency and it was just a self tape to do a reading in New York at the, at the drama league. So I did a tape. The script was completely different, the character was different.
But I, you know, I sent in my tape and, and I didn't, you know, when you do auditions, you just kind of send it away and you know, you never, you never know if you're going to hear back. So thankfully they, they called me back and they flew me to New York and we did a reading. I mean literally it was like a, a small room with maybe 30 people max.
And we were, you know, we didn't have.
I don't, I don't remember if we had the audio devices back then, but it was just really informal, just kind of hearing the script out and it was a great experience. And that's where it all started. It was just. That was in 2019 I believe.
So I, Laura, I think had been working on it since 2016, 2017, give or take. So she's been working on it for a while and I kind of came later in the process of the readings. Madison Ferris was attached I think from the get go.
So that's kind of where it all started. And then every year it just kind of snowballed into something bigger. I would get called back to do another reading year by year, and the rooms would get bigger, the crowd, you know, the audiences would get bigger. And finally one day Laura Said told us she, she had won an award to put the play on. And we actually did the play for the first time at Barrington Stage in, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. And that was my first time ever doing theater. You know, I had dabbled in like 10 minute plays here in LA, but nothing to that magnitude that Barrington was at first. So like for me it was, I was complete rookie, completely green and it was really a really fun experience and that's kind of where it all started.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: So you mentioned that you got injured in 2016.
Would you mind talking about that?
[00:05:22] Speaker B: No, of course, I, in 2016 I was a bar manager in Hollywood and I had just recently started mountain biking. And on it was a Friday afternoon, I decided to go for a ride with my friend and my, and my, and my brother in law in, I think it was called Sullivan Canyon. And I've done the ride before, you know, no issues.
But this day I just decided to jump off of something on the way down that I probably shouldn't have jumped off of. And it was literally one of those split second decisions where your life can go this way, your life can go that way. And for me it was a hard fall and an instant paralyzation and I had to be airlifted off the mountain. And you know, it was, it was a big ordeal. I, you know, if I was by myself, I would have died up there because I, I had broken so many things, ribs.
The ribs punctured my lungs so I was breathing blood and two vertebrae popped out of my back. So I was instantly paralyzed.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Hold on, did you just say I would breathing blood?
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Oh, okay. How it.
Okay, continue. I'm trying to visualize that because I've never heard that term.
Yeah, continue.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah, it was, it was on my right side and one of the, one of the ribs pierced my lung. So, you know, every, I guess every time I was breathing blood was entering my lungs. So that's probably would have, would have killed me quicker than anything else.
But you know, I knew instantly that something was wrong when I hit the ground. And I came to after maybe a minute or two And I, you know, I remember everything very vividly. So I remember being airlifted to the hospital. And I remember. I'm pretty sure this happened because I've said this story many times, and I remember it happening. But when they. They took me up into the helicopter, they put me in a gurney and they lifted me out, and they were working on me in the helicopter, and I was looking around, looking at these guys, and they're all working serious, and I go, hey, guys. And they look at me and I say, this is my first time in a helicopter.
And some of them laughed, and others were like, oh, my God, dude, you're, like, about to die here. We're trying to save your life, and you're cracking jokes. But that's kind of how, like, my outlook on life is. Is. Yeah, I find comedy in some situations and.
And also, you know, I was in shock and the adrenaline and.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: And then, you know, when I got to the hospital, all of that shock and adrenaline wore off, and I was in excruciating pain. I mean, like, I. I. My body was twisted in ways that I couldn't even, you know, I just. Yeah, I felt like a pretzel. You know, I couldn't move. I was in excruciating pain. And they had to do it. I believe it was a CAT scan, where they put you in the tube, like the long tube. Not because I think MRI is just like a single piece, but it's. So, yeah, they put me in there. I don't know how long I was in there, but I was screaming, just screaming from the pain. Let me out. Let me out.
And every time they would let me out, they would. I would ask the nurse if I could walk. You know, am I going to walk again? Because I can't. I couldn't. I couldn't move. I kept trying to move my legs, and she's like, no, we have to know what's going on with you first. Like, we have to know what's. What's broken. And they were just like, in and out of this tube, in and out of this tube. And finally, on the last time, I was. I was like, I couldn't take it anymore. And I. And I asked her, you know, am I going to walk again? And she looked at me and she said, I don't think so. And they wheeled me off to surgery, and that's the last thing I remember. And then I came to, and I opened my eyes a few days later, and I was in a room full of people that I. That shouldn't have Been in a room together, like my parents were together, all my best friends, like all these people that just came together. And I honestly thought I was dead. I thought I was like, in heaven and like all my loved ones were there. Right?
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: And then that's kind of where my next, my new journey started.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Wow. So, I mean, wow. I. You're a great storyteller and your memory recall is fantastic because you had me right there with you every step of the way.
And so what would you like readapting to life? And I mean, you're who you are now, but what was it like readapting to your life, movement in a completely different way and then becoming an actor? Were you an actor before? And so would getting back to it, or would you like, hey, I might as well do something, and that would be neat.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Before my accident, I was a career service industry worker. I had been in restaurants since New Orleans.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Completely different.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And the life that I was living before, it was, it was, you know, I came out to be. To be an actor, but I was pretty much giving up on my dream towards. I call it the end there. The end of my first life, because.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: That'S a great way to look at it. And not a lot of people would look at it as. It's only the end of my third line.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: And now I get to start this new line.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Yes. Because if you knew me before, I was a completely different person. You know, I, I still.
Slowly but surely my, My personality and my confidence was dying and I wasn't who, I wasn't like the person who I am now.
I was just kind of going through the steps of life. And it was just, wake up late because I was a bartender, go to work. And, you know, because I was behind the bar, there was a lot of drinking. And, you know, my life was kind of controlled by alcohol and, and, and that, that scene and that nightlife and I would stay up late at night.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: You had no choice, really. It's like that was your life. That was your mode of existence.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: That was it. And I didn't know a way out. And I really always thought about, well.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Life gave you a very interesting way out. Not to trivialize or make fun of everything you just told me, but if life couldn't have given you a stronger indication of, we have something different in mind for you.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: Yes.
And, you know, my life has always been. I've always been taught lessons the hard way. I, for some reason, only learn so much.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: All taught that way.
You are not alone.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Right. And you know it's, it's funny because this is actually the, like, I, I. There was two, I call them hard resets in my life, and the one that got me to LA was the first one, because when I lived in New Orleans, I was working on Bourbon street, and I was going down that path of negativity and craziness because I was young and I was having fun and I was having too much fun and I was getting in trouble. And then Hurricane Katrina hit and my family lost the home, and that pushed me out to la.
So then that was my first hard reset. Then cut to 2016.
My second hard reset was jumping off of the mountain with my mountain bike and becoming paralyzed. And I think the second one, I finally learned my lesson.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: But, you know, I really tell people that this was a blessing in disguise because it brought me out of that old life. It forced me.
I literally had to learn like I was a baby. I couldn't even sit up straight. I would just fall over like a, you know, like a baby who's trying to sit up and learn how to sit for the first time because I had no core strength and I had to learn, relearn how to feed myself, how to use the bathroom, how to shower, how to get dressed, you know, literal baby steps that I was going through. And it was a hard time and, and it was lonely and it was scary, and I wasn't thinking about what I was going to do with my life. I was just trying to figure out this new life and how I was going to live it as a, As a human being and, and being in a wheelchair and, like, there was all these things being thrown at me that I just never thought were. Was in my path in life. And, you know, you, you always picture this path in your head of where your life is going to be, but it never works out that way.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Nope.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: No, it works out that way.
So, yeah, and I had to go through all these challenges and figure myself out, and I think I really needed that, that, that these lessons and I needed these challenges and I needed to go over these hurdles to get to the point where I'm at now and realize that that old life was really, you know, it was dragging me under and.
Yeah, and, you know, this was, you know, it was a blessing in disguise and was honestly the best thing that ever happened to me because it put me on this other path that I, that I, that I originally thought I'd be on. It just, it just took a big tangent to get there.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: I'm sorry, did you judge so I make sure I heard that correctly. Kajo, the second guess who had said it.
The accident that could have taken your life but Judge paralyzed you. You consider that the best thing that has ever happened to you. Did I hear that right?
[00:17:21] Speaker B: No, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. I.
You know, I was leading a life that I was not happy with. I was miserable before. I was a shell of myself. This was before my accident.
I was giving up on my dream. I was settling for the life that I was being given, and I was depressed and unhappy and.
And I. And I didn't know a way out. So the accident saved my life, so to speak, because it got me out of that. And all that stuff went away, and I had a literal fresh start. You know, I was in a relationship that went away. My job went away, friends and I used big quotes, went away.
And I was. I was alone. I'm not gonna lie. I was alone for a while, but I needed that to figure myself out.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: So let's go back to all of May because that was such a great experience from a audience perspective. I, unfortunately, could only see it once. I made sure my parents saw it and they loved it.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Oh, that's good.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: What was it about that project that.
And I purposely use this word, attracted you to it?
And how did the project evolve to what we eventually saw on stage?
[00:19:21] Speaker B: So, you know, the. The way that.
What attracted me initially is that I needed a job.
And. And, you know, that's a lot.
You know, being a disabled actor is not easy. There is a lot of competition in general. We are all competing. When I'm not. I'm not just competing against people in wheelchairs. I'm competing against every other disability. So, you know, that is a whole nother conversation there. But, you know, the thing that really attracted me to the project?
[00:19:57] Speaker A: You judge cheat up part two of this episode. I hope you know that.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Okay, great. Yeah, we'll get into that for sure. But after the first reading and meeting Madison and. And the director, Ashley Burke Monroe and Laura Winters, they were the ones that really, like, first of all accepted me, made me feel welcome and made me feel like part of the family. And I. And I. And after the first reading, I was like, I would love to do anything with them.
And, you know, I already mentioned the pro. The, The. The. The path that it took from the reading to Barrington Stage. So after Barrington Stage, we had a successful run there in. In. In Pittsfield, Massachusetts. And it was really a.
Such a wonderful and rewarding experience.
And, you know, I thought that was the end of it.
And then that was in 20. 2022, I want to say 2022.
And so I'm getting my date. If I'm getting my data, we can. We can go back and check it later. But there was talks of putting it on again, and there. There was talks of putting it on in New York, and they wanted to do it the next year, but things fell through. And I think that was a year. Yeah, the year of the act. The writer strike and that actor strike. That was last year. So, yeah, I think I had my dates. Right. So, you know, some. They were trying to actively put it on in New York and bring it to a bigger stage or a bigger city, and it just. It just wasn't. Wasn't working.
And then at the end of last year, end of 2023, I get an email saying or asking if I want to do a zoom reading for all of me. And I'm like, okay, for a zoom reading for what? And the response was, well, we have an actor who is interested in doing the play, and her name is Kira Sedgwick.
[00:22:16] Speaker A: And you know what? Think I may have heard of her.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: I don't know. I think she's done a few things.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: Maybe she's been, I think her husband. It's a really big name. I can't put my tongue to it. We're joking here. Judge for the people who are watching this and are confused.
[00:22:45] Speaker B: Right?
[00:22:45] Speaker A: We are joking.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: We are definitely joking.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: So. So that's a big name. And again, I mean, what's your reaction to that? And my question upon meeting her would be, why are you interested in this particular work?
Because that's amazing. But that's also confusing in a way, because it's like, I mean, Vincent's the leader of the closer. She's married to Kevin Bacon. I mean, what about this project really moved her to become attached to it?
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Well, we'll do a little time jump, because when I first met her, we all had that same question, and she.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Okay, I'm glad everyone did, because it's important.
I mean, it must be very flattering as a writer, as a director, as a actor, but also the question of why.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Right, well, I'm going to go back to the zoom reading. You know, when I saw the name, I knew immediately who she was, and I knew how the gravity of the situation. And we had the zoom meeting, and we. You could just feel the. We're not all in the same room, but you could feel the tension in the air. You could feel the tension in the Zoom Room because she's a legend, you know, and a lot of us are just starting out. We've done a few things here and there. Nobody really knows our name. And to. To be at acting in Zoom, across from Kira Sedgwick, you're. You're like, you're bringing your A game. You know, you're suiting up.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: So we just wanted.
Madison, I for sure wanted to, like, really bring, you know, what we could to the table as far as our performance in the Zoom, to show her what this could be about. And she. I know that she just wanted to hear it. She wanted to hear the words coming out of. Out of her mouth and seeing how, you know, how the story would sound in the Zoom reading. And after that, we didn't hear anything back for months.
So we're like, oh, maybe she didn't like it. I don't. I'm not sure.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: And.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: And, you know, and then you kind of forget about it. And then out of nowhere, we get an email saying that Keir Cedric wants to do this play. And. And it was just like a freight train. Like, okay, the new group is putting it on. And I believe it was the new group.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: Now that I'm thinking the new group is really good at finding these types of stories and these types of plays.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: Yeah, they are.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: And I think they reached out.
The theater director, Scott reached out to Kira, and I think that's how she got the initial play, because, like you said, it's like, how.
[00:26:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: How did this little project that we just did in Barrington Stage find such a. An amazing actor or actress in Keir Cedric? And, you know, I think it was all because of the new group. And, you know, from there, it's just.
Like I said, it was a freight train of this is where we're going to be. This is how long we're putting it on. We have photo shoots coming up, and I'm being flown to New York and being put up in Manhattan and.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Not a bad wife.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: It really is crazy because you. You go all of 2023, I literally had zero jobs except for one job, a commercial. This is. I'm gonna take a small tangent. I. I booked a commercial at the end of the year, right when the. The writers strike ended and the actor strike ended. I booked a commercial, and lo and behold, I got taken off of the commercial before we shot it because the place that they were shooting was not accessible.
So I lost a national commercial because of inaccessibility. And, you know, that's. That's just another Part of this acting equation that. That sometimes just doesn't work out. And anyways, so, yeah, I didn't work at all. And then now I'm here in New York, off Broadway.
I didn't know how serious it was really. Like, I knew that we had Kira attached, but I didn't know that. I'm not a theater person. I didn't grow up around theater. I didn't grow up in New York. Like, I never.
But, you know, when we started going to the rehearsals and in the space and I'm like, oh, this is a huge deal. Like, a lot of people are really excited about this.
And then when we actually started the play and the responses that we got from theater goers and more importantly to me, it was like the community, the disabled community, how it affected them.
I was like, this is a really special project that I'm a part of. And I. And I'm just so happy and grateful to be part of it.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it's impossible to pick a line or a scene from the production that stood out because it's.
All of it stands out. I mean, you will photographed and written up in the New York Times. And I had that spread on my dining room table for weeks. So I literally walked past you guys every multiple times a day to remind me to book these people. This is important.
And so how would you like building the cohesion of the cats? Because you guys really betrayed.
Portray, not betray. Portray a family type unit.
And you have big. A big name in there, but she's in the background. It's you and Madison. And did you guys know each other before? How do you create the. There's no way around it. Sexual tension every night, every performance.
Because you. You have to. It's a rom com. You have to develop it. And unlike a movie where you can. Jogs do evolve. Humont then put it up on the big screen. You are literally rev each and every performance.
So how would you like working with Madison?
[00:31:06] Speaker B: I mean, first of all, Madison is an overall incredible, beautiful, talented human being of a person. It. I mean, she's so funny and just so talented. Right. And thankfully, we had already done the play at Barrington and we had a little bit of history doing the readings and stuff like that. So we're actually friends. So that makes it. That makes it a lot easier. But then, you know, being on stage and you're in character and like you said, building a sexual tension. Like with Madison, you're just looking at her and you're falling in love. She has the most amazing eyes I mean, sometimes I would be on stage getting like. I'd be looking at her eyes, just kind of getting lost in them. And it was real. You know, it was real. But then we go backstage and we'd be goofing off and laughing and cracking jokes. Right.
The stuff that you don't see and laughing about, like something that happened on stage. And no one else was like, pervy too. But Perry. Is that right word? Anyways. Yeah. Preview. Prebie. Anyways.
Yeah. She's just so easy to work with and she lightens up a room and she's so quick with her jokes. Like, I'm actually kind of jealous about it, how. How witty she is.
And, you know, and there were. That all came also from the rehearsal period, which if you, you know, you saw the play there.
I think the hardest part was for bonding was for the Iverson family, which was Kira's family.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: Because they have.
There was all new actors. All new actors were cast for this. This go around, except for Madison and myself. So they had a real challenge, you know, and sometimes I would be like on the far side of the room because I wasn't working, and they were. They'd just be hammering their scenes out.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:08] Speaker B: And, you know, they had to build that camaraderie and they had to build that rapport of being a family and. And Brian and Lilia being a couple. So for them, and it felt like a short amount of time that they had to do that. We had to do that. So. And also, you know, with my mom and I, Florencia Lozano, she's just. I mean, she's like on another level of actor acting. She's, She's.
I mean, just. I was in awe watching her.
The questions that she would ask and the, the things that she would do in rehearsal process and her preparation every day was just. She's. She was just so.
What's the word? Like, consistent about. About her approaching it, you know, like a scientist, you know, it was. She had to do every step before she got to the performance. And I learned a lot from her.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: I mean, the bench thing you can say about the play, and I can fawn over it for hours and hours, hey, do you want to do a five hour episode where I just fawn over this work? That's the leading joke in this season is that very quickly into the third scene and particularly later on season, the violins.
I forgot you were actors. You embodied those parts so well. And that made the humor even more richer because if, you know, they're actors, they're Doing a job. They're seeing lines. The lines in this play were so damn real that every time we were with Madison's family, just like you telling your story of the end of your first life, beginning of your second.
And I would like there with you throughout that experience.
I would write there in the living room with Madison and her family, like I would write in the living room with you and your mother. I mean, and the lines became, again, they became so much more richer.
Because as much as you got large in magician's eyes every performance, even though I saw the play only once, I got large in the beauty and the honesty of it. Nothing was written for Philip Shock. And all. All of the lines, all of the scenes felt so real that it.
It's a shame it took this long to get a show like that on the stage. And that's a credit to Lauren Winters, the writer who is a absolute genius. Although, please come on the show. I'm legally begging you.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: I have to send her a text. I have to reach out to her.
[00:37:36] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, because it's like I hesitate to ask you what your favorite lineage, your favorite scene, because you're living this character, this dynamic, the anxiety of Fudge Media, Madison's character, the communication device that you both use, you're living that and putting it on a new, but not a new, but a new for the audience.
Eight times a week.
Please talk about the ins and outs of being in a character who isn't you. But you have to make believe, and you do quite spectacularly, by the way.
[00:38:48] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: Talk about that podcast, because I don't think a lot of non activists know about their projects. I'm from New York. I'm a video goer. I'm a amateur actor. We'll talk about that later. But even I don't know what the podcast is. And every time I go to see a show, I'm reminded of that project and I'm marvel at it and I'm almost cheering up. Added because it's so magical and it's so loving for the actors and the companies.
Yes, it's your job, but you put so much of yourself, so much of your pageant, so much of your energy, so much of your life forms into that role.
What is it like in that experience, recreating it every single show?
[00:40:21] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah, that. That's a great question. You know, it's. It all really starts with the writing.
As cliche as that sounds like it. If Laura wouldn't have written such deep and amazing characters and a great story, then you just you don't really want to get into character. You don't want to, you know, you don't want to give it your all. But I think that we love the story and the character so much that, you know, we can't wait to. We can't wait to show the audience and the rest of the world like, how we, how much we love doing these parts. And I mean, the preparation, like, as an actor for this, it was actually really difficult because, you know, for the audience who hadn't see the. The play, my character is non verbal and we use. Madison and I both use AAC devices.
So it's to explain it for someone who doesn't know what that is. It's kind of like what Stephen Hawking uses to speak. You know, he types in words that he wants to say and it, it comes out of a machine basically in a robotic voice. Ours, my voice in the play is a little more advanced because my family's wealthy and I could afford different technology and then. And Madison's voice is more robotic because our family just can't afford the technology that Alfonso has. So I had to learn, first of all, like, not to speak, just show my emotions through my face. And another, another challenge was that Alfonso, my character, doesn't. He doesn't really move. He can't really move besides his hands. And he uses his left hand to move his motorized chair, the joystick, and the right hand to type on the screen. Besides that, I can't move anything, you know, as far as my character. So to find the stillness and to find how to portray what I'm feeling through my face and facial expressions, that was the whole character.
And another aspect of communication that we've. We found out is when I got the, the motorized chair, which I used, will C2.
It looks, it looks kind of futuristic, you know, and it matches with that name.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: It better be.
[00:43:02] Speaker B: Yeah, right. That we'll see too. But we found throughout the years and throughout rehearsals, in the process, that the chair also became for both of us, a way of communicating.
For instance, if that doesn't make sense, if I wanted to really drive a point home, let's say, put an exclamation point on a sentence, then I would jerk my chair, you know, like, with the joystick and jerk it her way, like move it quickly to like drive this, this point home. And there were times where, like us on accident, we would tap each other's wheels and it was almost like a flirtatious tap, you know, when, when you're flirting, have them on the shoulder. Or something. And like we use our chairs to do that.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:55] Speaker B: So.
And we. We would do that and. And not realizing that the audience would pick up on these things and they would pick up little nuances and they're like, we love the way you guys move your chairs around each other and the way you, you know, you could say so much without speaking.
[00:44:12] Speaker A: And you dance in your chairs towards the end or I think kids, the lads sing. And it's seamless, it's beautiful, it's euphoric. And as a audience member and so I can totally get why audience members would pick up on that. Because it's non vel communication using a different mode of transport.
[00:44:56] Speaker B: Yes, yes. And that scene, you know that that dance was actually something that we added new to this. This go around for the play. Because the first time we did it at Barrington Stage, we had a completely different ending. Wow. Yeah. There. I mean, there were so many changes. Laura is notorious. Her nickname is Scissors Winters because every night she would cut.
She would cut stuff. You'd come into rehearsal thinking that you had something down. And then she would come in with like a whole new joke, a whole new scene.
But she. All the changes she made made sense. And a lot of stuff she put in because of conversations that we were having during rehearsal. She, like, she would hear a joke and we. She would hear a conversation and then it would end up in the. In the play.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, when I tried to get her to do interview, she would like, I'm sorry, I can't. I'm in my big.
Sorry. In my Bing season, I'm writing three different plays. I'm writing a screenplay. I'm doing this, I'm doing that. So her nickname makes absolute sense. That she's a walk heart. She's really doing what she's paginated about and what she's called to do.
[00:46:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I mean, when we were doing what. What is. Oh my God, I'm losing the.
The. The term. When we were doing the previews. Yeah, we were in previews.
We had like a month of previews. Right. And.
[00:46:52] Speaker A: Well, that's long.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: I know.
So we were.
[00:46:57] Speaker A: So.
[00:46:58] Speaker B: Let me tell you a day. A day in the life of an actor. During previews in tech, we would get to the theater.
Not super early. I want to say maybe like noon. 11. 11 or noon.
We would. We would rehearse. We'd take like an hour break. We'd come back, keep rehearsing.
And then I think we had like another hour break and then we would do a preview. Of the whole show.
So we would run the whole show with an audience and the next day Scissors Winters would come in with new lines and cuts and edits. So we were like rehearsed that we rehearse the new stuff and do this, you know, until we opened, until they locked in the script, we were doing that. So like, you really have to be on your toes. And I'm not gonna lie to you, I was exhausted.
I was exhausted living. Excuse me, I'm like spitting all over the place. But I was.
It was a very.
Like. I wasn't really prepared for the New York theater experience working as an actor. And.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: Well, I mean, all the cuts and changes for the play eventually worked out and made it what it was. I mean, the only better mode for that play, which led of a theater geek is to see it as a movie because it judge.
It's the type of production you want to see again and again and again. Because it's funny, it's heartbreaking, it's heartwarming, it's engaging, it's euphoric, it's confusing, it's mad, it's frustrating. It's basically every emotional word you can alleged, but the nickname Fitz, the writer, and she made all the right cards. But to your point, I can see why that would be exhausting for a month. I mean, most shows have previewed for a week, 10 days, two weeks at mo a month.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: It's like, yes, it. And you know, I could be overshooting the time.
[00:49:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:57] Speaker B: But we did have. I remember when we heard the preview schedule, people were like, wow, that's a lot. That's a long time for previews. So whatever it was, it was a long time because we had.
We were a small theater, we were a small production, and we needed to bring in paying customers. You know what I mean? End of the day theaters, you know, lose a lot of money doing. Doing shows. And the new group was just so gracious to have a song because they loved the project and. And it was. It was really rewarding. But yeah, you know, it wasn't just like the edits and the cuts that Laura was making, because they were all great. And I probably still to this day, she's like, I want to. I want to change this next time we do it. So, yeah, you know, and then speaking of the movies, there's rumors and there's hopes and. And that's one word that I think that the play went at the end is that you're hopeful.
[00:50:54] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah.
[00:50:56] Speaker B: About the future for these characters, for the play, for These actors for the creative team because it did remarkably well.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: As a off Broadway limited time show. It did remarkably well, Danny.
I hope he will come back and talk more about your life, your outlook, what you do in your normal 9 to 5.
You such a joy to talk to and I feel very honored and blessed to meet you and know you. We know mutual friends Joseph Kibla and Kerry Cox and.
But there are two questions that I like to end each episode with. The first one is if there are any advocates, aspiring advocates, inspiring actors, stagehands and the like wanting to make their chosen prevention their life.
What would be some pointers, some action steps you would give them?
[00:52:39] Speaker B: First of all, anything is possible.
Anything is possible. After my accident, I didn't know what I was going to do with my life and acting found me again. And acting in the world of acting let me in. Only because I.
You have to take and, and this isn't probably good, me saying, you have to take the leap, right? But you have to look before you jump this time. Don't jump off of some crazy stuff.
[00:53:11] Speaker A: We should just end the effort so that we won't. But we should. The next time we do an episode, we're Indian.
Go on.
[00:53:26] Speaker B: You have to take, you have to take risks, calculated risks, you know, in certain things. But the things that scare you when you're thinking about doing something and you're like, oh, it's too scary, that's the thing that's going to be the most rewarding doing this play, the reading. I wasn't a theater person and I was terrified in this first reading and it was just us reading off a page, but I was terrified of the whole thing. And then, and then now we're on off Broadway and every day was. Was scary. And because you're, it's a new audience and you're trying to, you know, you want to do good work. And. But at the, when you finished it, you're just like, wow, I just conquered that, that fear. And like, it just gives you this energy and this motivation to like, go do something else.
And every time I do something, it's scary. And like, that's.
If you do stuff, that's easy. And it doesn't scare you. Just, it's like, oh, well, I did that, you know, so if you're scared and you're like, you're nervous about pursuing acting, pursuing singing or being a director, being a podcast host, if you don't do anything about it, you're never going to know you might fail. But if you fail, failing is the Best thing that ever happened to successful people because it shows you what you did wrong. Do it a different way the next time. But at least you tried. And maybe you didn't like it. Go, go find something else. But if you're not challenging yourself on things that you want to do in life, then you're going to state, you're going to be stuck, you're not going to be moving forward. And you know, I, there's, there's still parts of my life now. Like when I got back home from New York, it was, it was difficult because there was nothing on the horizon. There's. I just came back to like a desert creatively and that, that sand started swallowing me up and I, and I got super depressed and everybody talked about the post show blues and I was like, that's not gonna happen to me. And I, I, man, I was, I didn't know what to do with myself. I was just like, I'd be sitting in my room looking around like, what do I do? Because I just come from New York and everything was like schedule oriented and, and go, go, go. And the energy and the pace of New York. And then I got back to LA and I was like, I couldn't wait to get home and get in my car. But then I got here and I was like, I need some, I need people. Like, I need, I need to be on stage, I need to be with my cast. And it was crazy. I'm sorry, I'm going off on a tangent, but it took me again, like, I had to like, get out of that funk and like go do something. Go. Like, I started learning ASL because it's something that I've wanted to do. So I've been studying that and it, and, and it's all about tricking your brain into wanting to be productive. And yeah, for me, like exercising, learning something new, listening to podcasts that motivate, motivate me.
Listening to motivational speeches. Like this morning I, I put on a five minute meditation to start the day, which is something new. I just started today and it really helped. And you just kind of had to like do things that aren't your normal everyday life and then other things start happening. It's just, it's. Life is like, life is so unpredictable and paths, like, if you have like this path in your head, like you, it's just not gonna happen. You have to.
Life is just gonna throw curveballs at you left and right and you just kind of, kind of go with it.
[00:57:20] Speaker A: So I like to think or I'd like to hope that both people, advocates with disabilities and people who don't have disabilities yet, both legend and watch this show. But I'm not naive enough to thank that both groups and groups within those groups take away the same things from every episode. So as my guests, what do you hope that advocates with disabilities take away from this episode? And what do you hope that people who haven't discovered their disabilities yet take away from their jeopardy?
[00:58:29] Speaker B: It's a great question. The first thing I would say is that for me, I love this community.
I love, when I became disabled, I thought I was going to be miserable and lonely and scared. And I was for a little bit until I found this community. And it's the most loving and accepting community. It's, it's like we're family. Instantly. You meet someone with a disability, it's like you tip your hat to them, like, hey, I know what you're going through, but you know, brother or sister, you know what I mean? And my disability was a gift. And to people who are disabled and scared, like, you have to, you have to put yourself out there first of all, if you want to, for whatever you're doing for people who aren't disabled. And you have to learn about what's going on in these communities because, you know, before my accident, I knew nothing about disability. I was completely ignorant to like, I was one of those people who just someone in a wheelchair would roll into the bar, my bar, let's say. And I just, you know, I want to be like overly helpful or I just kind of ignore them. And, and, and then when I experienced that firsthand, being ignored and being invisible, like, it crushed me. So I always try to, for me, like, I, I love educating people about disability.
Like, you know, a lot of people don't like being asked, like, what happened to you? You know, it does get annoying. Like it's, it's kind of intrusive if it's done the wrong way. But for me, if somebody asked me, I'm like, how, you know, how'd you end up in a wheelchair?
I take it as an opportunity to educate someone and be like, look, this is what happened to me.
I got injured. I was a non disabled person for this, this long in my life and I had, I had an accident and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I thought, I've had all these opportunities, I've met all these beautiful, loving people in this community and we're not scary. Like, we're, you know what I mean? We just want to be Loved. And we just want to be. We just want to do everything that everyone else wants.
[01:00:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:00:50] Speaker B: World. And that's what this, the play, is really all about.
You know, and I'm probably not answering your question at all, but.
[01:00:59] Speaker A: No, but you're giving a good, well rounded answer.
[01:01:05] Speaker B: I.
[01:01:07] Speaker A: Personally could talk to you another hour or two easily.
Even if we're just fawning over law winters. I mean, that's the easiest tax ever. I mean. Lol. Preach commandage, Joe. I'm literally begging you, Madison. Preach commandage, Joe. Hold me was a cathartic experience for me as a audience member. I related to it every single beat of it. You and the cats had me from the first syllable to the last dance. And so I want to thank you for being a part of it. I hope that it's only the thirds of many conversations we have together, brother. I appreciate your audience tree and your passion and your commitment and most of all, your empathy from here to the moon. And again, I am very honored to know you.
[01:02:38] Speaker B: Thank you so much. This was actually a really great conversation and it always helps to. It's. You know, I. I do a podcast as well and at the end it's always like therapy. Right. You feel a little bit better about talking to someone and sharing your truth and you're a great host and I'm sorry it's taken so long to get on the show, but, you know, you know, I was bit. I was. Yeah. You know, during the run, we were doing a lot of interviews and doing a lot of stuff and like I told you, we were. I was just mentally and physically spent. But yeah, I think it's important to. To go on shows like this and meet people like you. And you were. You were great at what you do.
[01:03:18] Speaker A: And yeah, you need a good spot on your pod cats. You know where to find.
[01:03:26] Speaker B: All right. Yes. But thank you so much. I'll reach out to Laura for you and see. See if I can get to them, her and Maddie maybe.
[01:03:36] Speaker A: That would be amazing.
I.
I really hope that this isn't the end for all maybe goods.
Everyone needs to see this show. It is that spectacular. There is. And I'm tearing up at the end thinking about it because it's so true to everyday lives.
People with disabilities want everything that their non disabled counterparts have. We want love, we want respect.
Some of us want family and children. In fact, there are a lot of parents with disabilities.
Chaka.
That's not shocking at all, by the way. And all of me, it's a great introduction to.
I forget what the headline or what the byline of the New York Times article words. Whatever it was, it was true to the point it's that you guys were judged living your lives, not treading on your disabilities, making the most of your lives judge ads if you didn't have disabilities and it was a remarkable experience to see. I wish I'd saw it more and I can't wait to talk to you again my brother. You are a delightful pudge into interview and I wish you all the best.
[01:05:48] Speaker B: Likewise. Thank you so much Keith. I really appreciate you having me.
[01:06:01] Speaker A: You have been listening to Disability Empowerment Now. I would like to thank my dads. You are listener and Disability Empowerment team that made this episode possible.
More information about the podcast can be found@disability empowermentnow.com or on our social media Disability Empowerment now the podcast available wherever you listen to podcasts or on the official website. Don't forget to rate, comment and share the podcast. This episode of disability empowerment knowledge copyrighted 2024.
