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[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi everyone, I am Martín Acuña and you are listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:18] Martín Acuña: Hello everyone, this is a very special episode here at Backstage Talk because I have Telly Leung and Joey Monda with me today. After being admitted to Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, where he received most of his formal training in acting, singing, and dance, Telly made his Broadway debut in the revival of Flower Drumsong. He also originated the role of Bach in the Chicago Company of Wicked. He was also in the final Company of Rent, and other shows include Godspell, the Broadway development of Allegiance, and in 2017, he began his star run as Aladdin on Broadway. Joey is a producer in Hadestown, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Inheritance, Slave Play, The New One, and The Chair Show, among others, and in 2016, Joey co-founded Daily Monda Management, a full-service production and management office to bring fresh and innovative approaches to theatrical business management. Joey, Telly, I am thrilled and fanboying a lot to have you here, so welcome to Backstage Talk.

[1:36] Telly Leung: Thanks for having us here, Martín. It's an honor to be here.

[1:39] Joey Monda: Thanks, we're thrilled to spend the morning with you. This is great.

[1:41] Martín Acuña: Yes, so I just shared a very big, broad overview of your journey on Broadway, but let's double click on what you both think were those big moments of you in the industry, so I'll let you take it from here.

[1:58] Telly Leung: Well, Joey and I, the big moment for us was actually meeting on Allegiance on Broadway, so that show, it was quite a journey for that show to make it to Broadway. I think there were many people who thought, a musical about the Japanese-American internment, that'll never happen, and somehow, in the course of developing the show, I was with the show for six years before it got to Broadway, from the very first reading, to workshops, to taking the show out of town to San Diego, to its premiere on Broadway at the Longacre Theater, and it was a very tight-knit little family that was creating this musical from scratch, you know, it was inspired by the life of George Takei, but it wasn't based on a movie, it wasn't based on a previous work, it was a fully original musical, and so Joey and I, we were in the trenches together developing that show and taking it all the way to Broadway, so he's part of my Allegiance family, so I consider that a big highlight because it brought together this collaboration.

[3:03] Joey Monda: Yeah, I think that's exactly right, Telly, that Allegiance was the start of a lot of exciting opportunities and exciting ideas that really have taken shape from then, and Telly has become one of my closest collaborators, not just on this project, but on a number of other projects that we've got going on, and I think, you know, it's really in line, this ensemble, the documentary, is in line with a lot of the ideas that Telly and I really want to foster within the theater that we like to see, which is, you know, raising up unheard, unrecognized, or underheard from voices, and that was really the big impetus for us to jump on board with this documentary, was, it was a subset of the Broadway community that is really one of the backbones and never frequently is the one, you know, they're not the ones in front of the microphone so much because they're not always on the principal contracts and they're not getting the big press and everything, but there is an entire community of dancers and performers that over the, you know, the year that, between the initial shutdown and when we all gathered at Open Jar Studios on the one-year anniversary, they hadn't had a chance to tell their story and they hadn't had a chance to be together, and so just like a family that was fostered in Allegiance, that was something that we really were looking to replicate and bring together within this documentary.

[4:24] Martín Acuña: I love it because this is the perfect segue into our big topic today, and it is this documentary that you two are part of as the executive producers because it has an amazing director, it has big, big names besides yours in the production team, so this documentary is called Ensemble, and it tells the stories of some Broadway performers during the shutdown, and I just have to ask, where did this idea come from?

[5:11] Telly Leung: Well, the idea actually isn't from us, it's from another member of our Allegiance family, his name is Aaron Albano, he was in the ensemble and he was actually the understudy for Sammy, the role that I played in Allegiance, but I've also known Aaron for a very long time, the first time I met Aaron was the summer of 2000, he was still a college student, I was, oh maybe it was 2003, it was the summer of 2003, he was still a college student, he was in the ensemble of a production of Miss Saigon at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, I was playing Tui in Miss Saigon, and that was when I was first aware of this phenomenal Broadway talent who has then gone on to Bombay Dreams and Spelling Bee and Wicked and Mary Poppins, so many shows, and currently is on tour on Hamilton, so when you think of somebody who's an ensemblist, who has gone from Broadway show to Broadway show, who's been in this business for a long time, who knows it well from that point of view, it's Aaron, he and his friend Mo Brady, who had the Ensemblist podcast for many, many years, which celebrated the ensemble members all across Broadway, they came up with this idea that the ensemblist experience during the COVID shutdown was very unique, that there are many stories that we need to hear from them, and so it was their idea to gather these 13 dancers together for a dance class, and then to gather them for a socially distant conversation, you have to remember this conversation took place in March of 2021, so at that time there was no Broadway is back date, there were no vaccines readily available for people our age, you know, I think my parents in their 70s were vaccinated, but we, it was really their idea to bring these people together, a diverse multi-generational group of ensemble members together to talk about sort of what made them become ensemble members in the past, what they are dealing with in the present, and the uncertainty of that present, and how they sort of, what they want to see for the future.

[7:04] Joey Monda: No, it's how we covered it all, it's like, it's like we wrote the blurb together.

[7:09] Martín Acuña: I want to read an excerpt I took from the trailer, because I got chills when I saw it, and I had to see it several times to let it sink in, so it says, on March 12, 2020, Broadway experienced a complete shutdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. One year later, 13 Broadway ensemble members came together to have a conversation about the past, the present, and the future. These are their stories, their experiences, their lives. This is ensemble. I got chills when I saw that in the trailer, and I just have to ask, what were the biggest challenges from producing this documentary, besides all the COVID craziness?

[8:03] Telly Leung: Yeah, it was very interesting, because, you know, so we, like Kelly said, we filmed this on the one-year anniversary of the shutdown, so in March of 21, and we've really been working on it since then, and as we all know, COVID is a constantly changing situation for all of us, and so one week is totally different than what the next week looks like, and so it's been really interesting for us to go back and revisit these interviews, and what this entire narrative, and the story that we're trying to tell, is like, when they're really, you know, as of July, when we did the first draft of the cut, you know, there was no particular definitive comeback date for Broadway, so there was kind of that open-ended nature of it, and then we did our next cut when Broadway was back, and then we did the next cut, and Omicron had ravaged so many Broadway shows and everything, and so I think what's been a really unique challenge is that the thing that we set out to do was to create a time capsule for this moment in time.

What did March of 21 really represent to this community? And the challenge has been that how we look at it in reference to what everything that just constantly is happening, and so, you know, Cameron Adams is in our documentary, and she was in, she's in Mrs. Doubtfire, and you know, then in January, all of a sudden, she was in a show, and she's no longer in a show, and then as of yesterday, the show is coming back, and so it's, you know, it's this constantly changing situation, and we really wanted to figure out how to capture that essence of unknown and uncertainty that all of these dancers were facing in that moment, and it just continues to kind of come up as we try to figure out how to release it, and what is this moment for us all to view this right now?

[10:01] Telly Leung: I think what Joey is speaking to is that we were trying to capture a moment, this time capsule, because Joey and I were very aware when Aaron came to us with this idea, we felt a deep sort of like urgency and need to capture the moment, because we knew that once vaccines came, once there was a Broadway return date, it was going to be very easy for us to forget sort of what we were feeling in that moment, and you know, it was a moment of uncertainty, it was a moment of great loss, it was a moment of grieving, but I also think that there are lessons to be learned in that time when we are that vulnerable, and when Aaron asked us to help him with it, Joey and I were like, gosh, we are not sure if people are going to want to hear about COVID a year later, but it is going to be really important for that theater kid who is studying theater five years from now, 10 years from now, to know our experience and learn from it, and hopefully make this industry a little better, a little kinder, whatever that is, but to learn from it. We have to capture this moment. The trick with capturing this moment is we are still in the moment.

[11:00] Joey Monda: Exactly, yeah.

[11:00] Telly Leung: We are still in this pandemic, we are still in the uncertainty, we are still in this ever-in-flux situation, so to try to capture something while it is still happening is, I think, has been tricky, but also a fun challenge.

[11:15] Joey Monda: Yeah, I can imagine.

[11:16] Joey Monda: It has been a great challenge, and I think it just also speaks to that feeling of constant uncertainty and that feeling of never, that ensemble members have felt and are always feeling of never really being on solid ground, and what is that like when you have this long-running show and that show and that industry, your industry is no longer there for you, but I think one of the other, like Telly said, one of the other really beautiful things that came out of this shutdown, and I think we are all experiencing it in different ways, is this hope and optimism for the future, and the change that we all want to be a part of, and that we all want to bring to our arts and our business, and how we can all, we all have a voice and a role to play in that change.

[12:04] Martín Acuña: I absolutely love it, because if, I think, one of the good things the pandemic gave us was a little bit of time to just stop and be like, this is what is wrong, and this is what it needs to change immediately, in a short-term, a mid-term, and a long-term perspective, and I think that documentaries like this, and works like this, with people that are always in the backstage, always a little bit unheard of, brings to light a lot of issues that this industry needs to correct before we move on. So in that order of ideas, what do you think are the biggest lessons learned from sharing the stories of this great group of performers?

[13:00] Joey Monda: I think one of the biggest things that I took away from that night, it was, you know, I was in the room. Telly was away on a gig, so he wasn't able to be with us that night, but I was in the room with these amazing performers that have all, that are all at various levels of their career, but it was really interesting, as a producer, to be in this room of performers, and be given the opportunity to really hear an uncensored perspective of everything that they've felt, are feeling, and, you know, it was very interesting for me to have to reconcile that with my own perception and worldview of the business, and what I thought the issues, or what I thought some of the things that they were experiencing were, and it was really interesting to hear this completely unguarded testimony from their perspective, and so I think one of the things that I took away, and I hope that people take away from our, this extended conversation that we're inviting everybody to be a part of, is that there's a humanity to every single person, and every single role in our business.

Everybody from the musicians, to our crew, to the people that are doing eight times a week, and covering multiple roles, and everything, and just because the business model has run in this way for so long, doesn't mean that it necessarily should always run in that way, and that there are, there is a faith to these issues, there's a faith to the people that are actually in the theater operating it, you know, that are doing the show, and putting up the show, and again, that's something that I think we all know intellectually, but that

[15:11] Telly Leung: Welcome to this special episode of Backstage Talk. I'm Telly Leung, and I'm here with my co-producer, Joey Monda.

[15:41] Joey Monda: Hi everyone! We're excited to dive into our new documentary, "Ensemble," which highlights the stories of Broadway ensemble members.

[16:11] Telly Leung: It's been quite a journey since the pandemic hit, and we wanted to create something that showcases the incredible talent and resilience of these performers.

[16:41] Joey Monda: Absolutely! We gathered thirteen ensemble members to share their experiences and insights during this challenging time.

[16:51] Telly Leung: The documentary captures not just their struggles but also their triumphs and the community that supports them.

[17:01] Joey Monda: We wanted to give a voice to those who often go unnoticed, the backbone of Broadway.

[17:11] Telly Leung: It's fascinating to see how these artists adapted and found new ways to express their creativity during the shutdown.

[17:21] Joey Monda: And the conversations we had were so rich and meaningful, reflecting the passion and dedication of these performers.

[17:31] Telly Leung: We also explored how the industry has changed and what the future might hold for ensemble performers.

[17:41] Joey Monda: It's a unique perspective that we hope will resonate with audiences, both in the theater community and beyond.

[17:51] Telly Leung: The documentary will be available on Broadway On Demand starting March 11th, and we can't wait for everyone to see it.

[18:01] Joey Monda: We believe it’s a must-watch for anyone who loves theater and wants to understand the heart of Broadway.

[18:11] Telly Leung: So, mark your calendars! We’re thrilled to share these stories with you.

[18:21] Joey Monda: And we hope it inspires conversations about the importance of ensemble work in theater.

[18:31] Telly Leung: Thank you for joining us today on Backstage Talk. We appreciate your support!

[18:41] Joey Monda: Don't forget to follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content.

[18:51] Telly Leung: We’re looking forward to connecting with you all as we celebrate the incredible ensemble performers of Broadway.

[19:01] Joey Monda: Thanks for listening, and we hope you enjoy "Ensemble" as much as we enjoyed making it.

[19:11] Telly Leung: Until next time, keep supporting the arts and the amazing talent behind the scenes!

[19:21] Joey Monda: Bye everyone!

[19:31] Telly Leung: Thanks everyone for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk.

[19:41] Joey Monda: Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.