This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:05] Christine Toy Johnson: Welcome to season two of Conversations from Away.

[0:11] Shawn Pennington: After being apart for 18 months, our company is back on the road, and we're so happy to be telling this beautiful story again.

[0:19] Christine Toy Johnson: So it seemed fitting to center this season around renewal.

[0:23] Christine Toy Johnson: I'm Christine Toy Johnson.

[0:25] Christine Toy Johnson: I play Diane and others.

[0:27] Shawn Pennington: And I'm Shawn Pennington.

[0:29] Shawn Pennington: I'm the production stage manager.

[0:30] Christine Toy Johnson: I'm Jenny Ashman.

[0:31] Jenny Ashman: I'm part of Team Standby.

[0:33] Christine Toy Johnson: So Jenny, Shawn, and I are going to be sharing the hosting duties this season.

[0:38] Christine Toy Johnson: And we are so excited to talk to Aaron Michael Ray today, host of season one of this podcast and another incredible part of Team Standby.

[0:47] Aaron Michael Ray: Hi, Erin.

[0:49] Aaron Michael Ray: Hello. Thank you for having me.

[0:51] Aaron Michael Ray: I love being on this side.

[0:54] Christine Toy Johnson: Well, of course. And so we wanted to start with you because you created the podcast and we wanted to ask you, how are you doing?

[1:03] Christine Toy Johnson: How have you come back from away?

[1:06] Christine Toy Johnson: Are you renewed and refreshed?

[1:08] Christine Toy Johnson: Do you have a new outlook on our show?

[1:11] Christine Toy Johnson: What do you think?

[1:12] Aaron Michael Ray: Well, I'm feeling really good to be back. I think I love the idea of renewal. I think that's such a great word. Um, I do feel renewed coming back just because, you know, for the first few months of quarantine and when this podcast was created, we didn't know when we were coming back or if we were coming back. So it feels really refreshing to have that second chance and to just kind of have a new perspective, a new start of just coming back and starting over. So it feels good. Feels good to be back.

[1:53] Shawn Pennington: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I you know, I feel like we're we're able to embrace the power we harnessed uh during our period of great resilience, you know, and and use it for good. So um this is part of that. I'm really excited to talk about that. Um Jen, how about you? How are you?

[2:12] Jenny Ashman: It's good. It's uh it's I mean it's a little surreal coming back after this much time apart because part of it feels like oh, we were just here, we were just together and just doing the show. And it also feels like a lifetime has happened since we, you know, we were in since we were in Dallas together when when we first shut down. Um and I think it's interesting coming back because all of us have done so much work and changed so much in the last 18 months that it really does feel kind of like a new company in a lot of ways. Everyone's sort of coming back with everything they've learned and all the ways in which they've grown and and seeing how it's affected the show and the company is really kind of lovely. But it's been really nice.

[2:49] Shawn Pennington: Yeah, yeah.

[2:51] Shawn Pennington: What are you thinking?

[2:55] Shawn Pennington: I'm thinking it was uh it was such an interesting time, I feel of highs and lows. Um obviously there was so much tragedy during the time, and and we all were impacted it, impacted by it by various degrees. For me personally, you know, I went through, I mean, at first it felt like a vacation, honestly, because I you know, we worked very hard and and I'm very fortunate to have had several shows streamed back to back to back to back to back. So for me, it was like, oh, I haven't had this much time to myself in such a long time. And I had a lot of time with my mom, which I thought was which was great. I mean, and I time that I didn't think I would ever have, you know, with her. And then I we went into this phase of living without a specific purpose, which I didn't really realize till we were in it.

But for me it was very it was a very like emotional, like to just sort of be quiet with yourself and sort of the forced isolation and you know going from our very social lives to a to almost a a hermit like existence. Like 'cause me, I was by myself most of the time and really had to do a lot of sort of soul searching and and work on myself and being quiet with myself. And and ultimately I think I came out of that much for the better. So I feel in some ways like there was much good to be had from it all too. That said now that we're back, I feel like no time passed. Like it's it took about a week for us to of doing shows and I was like, did it did anything happen? Haven't we just been doing this the whole time? It just feels it it came back very very quickly which which was great. But I think that's that was really strange about pandemic time.

[4:44] Christine Toy Johnson: Yeah sorry.

[4:46] Shawn Pennington: Yeah no that's that's that's it like grateful to be back.

[4:49] Christine Toy Johnson: Yes, yes I think we all are right. Um I wondered if you wanted to talk a little bit about everyone wanted to talk about where they were they were uh in the world uh during the pandemic because I think I know Jenny um went a lot of different places I know all of you did but I I'd love to talk about where you found yourselves um at home or away from home.

[5:14] Jenny Ashman: Well I when we first shut down in Dallas, I went back to New York right away to my where my husband was, Alan, in our apartment. And we were there for the first six months of the pandemic where we really didn't leave the apartment. I mean, really didn't go anywhere. Everything was getting delivered. It was it was very intense in New York for those first few months of the pandemic. It was really it was really probably the scariest time I can remember for me personally being in New York. Um and after six months in our 900 square foot apartment, my sister reached out because she was about to have a baby and she lives in Washington State and she has a ton of space and she was like, Hey, you wanna come help me with my kids?

And so Alan and I ended up moving out there because she already had two kids, so we lived with her for eight months, which was kind of this incredible blessing of getting all this time with my sister and my nieces and my new nephew and being near my mom and getting to sort of bubble with my family because I I mean with what we do, I've I've missed so many holidays and birthdays. You know, I'm I'm on the road or I'm away on a con I'm on a contract somewhere in a different state, and uh to sort of get this long chunk of uninterrupted time together was pretty amazing. And then we were in LA for four months. We did bounce around quite a bit.

[6:26] Aaron Michael Ray: Yeah, I think that definitely was one of the one of the the uh silver linings uh about the time is really getting to spend time with our families and and our communities, right? And taking care of each other during this time. Aaron, where were you?

[6:43] Aaron Michael Ray: So when we shut down in Dallas, I went home to San Antonio, where I'm from. And just like Jenny said, I mean, to have that time with family was a really big deal to me, just because I you know, same thing we for what we do, we miss so much. And especially when you go on tour. So it was really good to be with my parents and my brother um back home in San Antonio, and I was there for four and a half months and then I went back to New York for the rest of the time until we came back on tour. So I went back to New York in July of twenty twenty and it was just so it was so weird to come back to the city when all of this was still very much a thing and very much happening. Um but it also kinda gave me a lot of pride because the whole time I mean the first that those first three four months I was watching you know everything that was happen I felt like I just kept watching everything that was going on in New York because I knew that I would go back there and I just kept feeling like I wanted to be there even though it was dangerous to be there.

You know, it just it felt like I really need I felt such a pull to come back to New York and then when I finally was able to go back that it felt really good to be there too. Even with nothing going on. I mean it was actually really nice to just be back in my in my city and back to my life. So I'm I'm grateful that I got to spend that much time there and spend over a year in New York.

[8:28] Shawn Pennington: And Sean you were in Arizona right?

[8:31] Shawn Pennington: Yeah I had what I I think of it as like a pandemic in three acts because I had the first like right when we shut down I I I drove I drove home from Dallas. I rented a car and drove because I you know my mother's you know seventy six and I was as we all were I was very very worried um that I would bring something back to her. So I didn't get on a plane because I think I mistakenly thought that planes were safer uh than cars. I just had a rental car or whatever. So I drove to Phoenix from Dallas and promptly got sick when I got there. Um and I don't know what and I still don't know whether I I had COVID. I I certainly was very very ill for about two and a half weeks. Um and my mom sort of took care of me and it was she was great.

Like she was I mean we kept absolute isolation. I mean I stayed in the front of the house she would put on masks and gloves and drop food off at my door and then I would and she just basically like took care of me even though we really couldn't be together at all but she was just there to cook it was it was it was it was really sweet and I love her that she was able to do that. And happily my mother to this day knocking on wood like we got the vaccines and we got everything and she she never she she never got sick at all during that time which was great. And then I I I was lucky I went to California for for the summer of 2020 uh to sort of be in my brother's bubble out there and be with him.

And then I came back to Arizona and lived in a we have an Airbnb um that we decided not to Airbnb and I stayed there um for the fall basically or the the winter and until basically until we until we came back. So I was there for the last like six months or so um of it. But it was there was all different experiences. It was all different you know different view views of this and and um I spent a lot of the last half you know starting to ramp up and there was a lot there were several months of getting ready to come back because that that obviously had to start before we actually did so there was it was exciting once we got into meetings and production schedules and like you know it was like oh this is really happening we are coming back I I was in New York City almost the entire time in Washington Heights with my husband and my dog except to go I I was very fortunate to actually have uh a bunch of different jobs that I I got to do.

What was interesting about it was that they were all in their own bubble. So the only time I traveled um before coming to Memphis to to do the relaunch was to uh go to New Orleans for a week to shoot an episode of NCIS New Orleans and this was before the vaccines so it was it was very different traveling you know with the I had the mask and the shield and you know and all of the all of the things and then being my first no it wasn't my first experience but one of my first experiences of being in that testing cadence where you know everyone got tested ever I think I was tested eight times in 10 days you know and then but but you know that was the beginning of really learning what will what has become part of our our regular lives now and and thankfully how we're able to return to work safely you know with all of that but I I felt a little I honestly I felt a little cheated um when the city reopened because I was only going to my jobs in like very contained travel situations um and not really exploring and not really I'd be like looking at the car window like oh there's there's Times Square and I remember the first time I drove through Times Square to do a um a recording session this was in um November of whatever year it was 2020 um and we were in the car driving to the studio and I passed the um oh no um the 46th Street theater I believe where Hamilton is and instead of um the marquee saying Hamilton it said 2021 and I just started crying because the reality of that oh my goodness right we can't really be thinking of being inside the theater until sometime next year which felt at the time really far away and as you said Sean the pandemic time it's like what happened were we in this weird sort of vortex and you know all of these um all of these things happened uh and it's hard to um really understand how the days and the minutes and the weeks and the months um added up to how they did right I always say what is time it's like I just 2020 was so weird exactly I do remember when that when they announced to us that it was that September 2021 was was the soonest we would be back because up until that point I mean you remember when we shut down in Dallas we all thought it was gonna be a matter of weeks.

[14:00] Shawn Pennington: I mean, we, you know, it was it was I I I didn't have any idea that it would, and I don't think any anybody did. But when we finally came down that it was like, nope, it's September of 2021, it seemed impossibly far away. It just seemed like how are we ever going to make it that far? And you know, we're all very lucky, and I I you know that we had we knew we had a job to come back to. Absolutely. And I think that changed the tenor for me, at least I'm sure all of us, of the experience, because what we did not have was that fear at the end of it that what am I gonna do when this comes back? I I you know, I the fact that we knew that as soon as was humanly possible, we would be back, um, and that we could come back to our jobs, and that was you know, again, so grateful for that.

I think one I wanted to talk about a little bit about um your perspective in in um in adjusting to the time and the unknowns. I think one of the greatest things that um happened, what one of the greatest things my darling husband Bruce did for me was in the very beginning, you know, I'm a I'm a playwright and librettist and lyricist too. He said to me, I just think you're taking the next year off to concentrate just on your writing. And as soon as I heard that, I thought, oh yes, that that is a great way to look at it. How will I how will I best use this time where we have been as as we've all said, you know, we've been running around, we've been working, we've been missing family things, we've been missing um, you know, it's a it's a wonderful trade-off.

It's a great gift to have that um opportunity to to trade off the what we what we miss and what we gain. Um but I wanted to talk to you about your perspective on time, but first, we're gonna take a little break, and when we come back, we'll hear from Well of you.

[16:09] Aaron Michael Ray: And we're back. So let's talk about how you shifted your perspective on the time ahead of you that would lead eventually to the return of the tour and the relaunch of Come From Away.

[16:29] Aaron Michael Ray: Okay. Uh so I that's that's quite that's quite a question. But like, okay, so I think that during the whole time, I think I spent like Sean was saying, you know, just kind of doing a lot of soul searching, spending a lot of time um, you know, looking within yourself of saying, you know, what what do I want to one accomplish while I'm here in quarantine, and then two, what I want to do when I get out of quarantine. And so I think that the first I think while I was in quarantine, I really just had to take some time to, you know, prepare myself for what was coming next, whenever that was coming. And I spent a lot of time, you know, just really taking a break. Um, I didn't realize when we shut down how badly I actually just needed to sit down.

Um, I think, you know, like my my body was just so I felt like I got the best sleep somehow in the first like two weeks of quarantine just because my body said you need to be horizontal and you need to lie down somewhere. Right. So that was first things first. But um, you know, but I think it also forced me to kind of say, like, what do I, you know, what am I gonna be doing after this? And and it was really scary at first, but I think doing a lot of work of just you know, we we talk a lot about doing the work with social justice and looking inward and saying, you know, what what is something that I have been doing that maybe I need to change about myself or change about the things that I've said in the past or whatever.

And you know, me being a black person, I too have to do that work, you know. And I'm glad that I also took a chance to look inward. And I think something that was really special about it was that I felt like looking inward, I kind of came out of it and realized that I can bet on myself more. I can, you know, believe in myself a little bit more and find validation within myself instead of finding validation within other people. And I feel like that was one of the biggest things I've learned in quarantine of just trusting myself and trusting the process and knowing that everything that we're going through right now is part of the process towards your greatness, whatever your greatness is. And so now that we're out of, well, you know, starting to come out of a pandemic, slowly but surely, um, I'm ready to, you know, go into the world and put that into action.

And like Sean said, I'm also just really grateful we're back at a job. Because I know there's so many people who unfortunately don't have their jobs that they thought they were going to come back to. And we're very fortunate enough to come back to a great show and great people like yourselves.

[19:53] Jenny Ashman: Thank you, Aaron. Um gosh, it was I really struggled at first when I got home. Um you know at first it was sort of nice being back with my husband and after being on the road for so long. Um but it really turned into I think I I think we probably all have similar stories in a way of spending more time with myself, with my husband, with my family, getting to invest in helping take care of them. It was this really lovely thing. But it was also balanced with okay when are we going back to work? What am I doing? If I'm not performing if I'm not on stage if I'm not auditioning then what am I doing? Like what is my what is my life look like? What are the things that fulfill me? What are the things that define me?

Uh and I think it was really helpful to have time away from that and to s and to be able to separate myself and to remember all the things that I am outside of this career which can feel so all encompassing. And I think that was one of the biggest takeaways was prioritizing my needs and my family's needs and really having time with yourself to to recognize what brings you joy, what fulfills you and what makes you happy. Um I I had never had so much time to sort of sit and think with that. And I really came to some some surprising conclusions about where I want to live and what I want my life to look like. My husband and I would, you know, have these sort of conversations where I was like, okay, what's the dream version of our life look like?

Well, let's just start like, you know, with all of this shut down, what are other things that what are other things that could be in our lives, you know, if we didn't have this all-encompassing career. And it really brought up some interesting conversations. And I don't know, it helps me, I feel more settled coming back into this because I feel like I just have a better sense of who I am and what I need, and of my worth outside of this career, that I don't need that same validation. And it's interesting coming back too, because for the standbys in particular, I'll speak to this is that we've, you know, been home for a year and a half, and part of the job of being a standby is, you know, being backstage and not being being in the show every night.

Um, so we also being a standby has a similar has some parallels in sort of having a lot of time to yourself, a lot of time to sort of uh I mean focusing on the work and focusing on really relearning the tracks, which has been its own, you know, fun adventure, but you do have a lot of other time as a standby where it's like, okay, well, what else am I doing with my time? In what other ways am I bettering myself? So I've seen some I've brought some of that has come back in as we uh as we re rejoin and relaunch. So great.

[22:32] Shawn Pennington: Thank you, Jenny. What about you, Sean?

[22:35] Shawn Pennington: Um yeah, I mean, to build on that, I do feel like I had something of an existential crisis, like because theater, I think this is true for all of us, but theater is such an enormous object in our lives. And and it always has, I mean, for me, I've I've been very fortunate. I mean, I've done theater my whole life, you know, ever s and and I and I think that having that removed for a time bluntly, just ripped out for a time, and being left to sort of stare at what's left is was at first a terrifying experience. And you know, I mean, I'm a single mid-40 year old, and it's it when you're when you're left and you're like, what is my life without the theater? Like what is there? And that was um like I had to do some pretty deep thinking about that and just and and happily I think I came to a lot of really good conclusions.

Like Aaron, like, you know, I thought a lot about the social justice, and we we, you know, I feel like I I really was able to devote some of my time and energy to that. I thought about all about other things that I care about and and other things that are important to me. I learned to value the fact that there is life value in just reading a good book and just letting that be okay. Like, I don't have to in this moment produce something. I don't have to be productive in to be doing to to be enjoying my life at any given moment. And I really learned that. I think that was something that over after 20 years of show schedule and everything is rehearsal and performance and and everything is to just have to be forced to deal with the quiet of having that gone was I think very benef scary, but beneficial.

[24:30] Shawn Pennington: Yeah. I think one of the things that um on a on a l little lighter note, um, one of the things that we seem to all enjoy based on our social media feeds and photos. It was cooking and having the time. You know, speaking of having the time, being at home and thinking, oh, what shall I make for lunch today? Oh, let me think about this. And you know, having the time to do that. And so uh one of the things that we did in in the Johnson household was start to make our own tortillas. So we would make um cassava flower tortillas for me, who was basically on a paleo diet, and and whole wheat flower tortillas for my husband, Bruce. So I wanted to ask if you uh had any special kind of new hobbies or or skills that um that you uh enjoyed uh c uh coming up with and and maybe what you will uh continue in the next um whatever period of time you want to look at.

[25:30] Aaron Michael Ray: Well um I oh well one thing I definitely did was um during when I was in Texas, um, you know, my brother and I every single weekend without fail ha we would grill every single weekend and that turned into my happy place. That is where I thrive. I love to just slap some meat or veggies on the grill and just put some music on and like it truly centered me in a way that my family it got to the point where they just knew to kind of give me space to grill and just to let me do my thing because I was so intense about it because it just brought me so much joy. And that it's it's crazy how like looking back, those kinds of things were just the moments that like okay. I know this weekend I'm gonna grill and it's gonna be great and I'm gonna relax, and whatever I went through this week, I can just you know leave it, leave it on the grill or whatever, you know, that may be for what your hobby was. But that was something. I sense a new I sense a new show, leaving it on the grill with Aaron Michael.

[26:55] Shawn Pennington: I need to coin that.

[26:56] Aaron Michael Ray: That's right.

[27:00] Shawn Pennington: But yeah, I mean, that was something that just really brought me joy, and I'm and to this day, if I ever get an Airbnb somewhere while on tour or on vacation, like if there's any way that there's a grill there, then I'm gonna use it.

[27:15] Jenny Ashman: That's amazing.

[27:16] Shawn Pennington: But speaking of grilling, um, on the opposite end, Miss Jenny, I saw all your posts about your cakes, your cookies, your dessert items.

[27:29] Jenny Ashman: You had to make it.

[27:30] Jenny Ashman: Well, baking is always I mean, before the pandemic, and before everything, baking has always been a big outlet for me, specifically pies. Um, but I got into baking a lot of things. Actually, early on in the pandemic, I did an event with Bakers Against Racism, and I raised $800 selling mini hand pies that I delivered. I walked like 12 miles in one day walking around Manhattan, masked with like everybody had their individual, like, you know, everything was like safely wrapped up, just delivering little ham pies that I had baked as a fundraiser. But it yeah, baking was really my outlet. I made my first wedding cake this summer for a friend of mine. I mean I did a lot of birthday cakes. Uh and it just became this.

I mean, there's something so therapeutic about baking in general because a life in the theater and in entertainment, you have control over nothing, especially as an actor. I feel like you have no control. But if I combine the right ingredients in the right order, I can have a cake. And that is so satisfying for that part of my type A brain that needs to have like control over something. So it was fun, you know, being like, all right, I'm gonna make full puff pastry, which is obnoxiously difficult, but like, sure, let's try that. Or I want to learn how to make donuts. I want to learn how to make, I don't know, beignets, like all sorts of just fun and exciting different challenges. I got really good at Hala.

Um yeah, it was great. It was it was so much fun. And it's something that I mean, it's actually something I miss on the road because in these hotel rooms, baking is not really an option. But my sister said I should do a uh like a like Great British Baking Show, but hotel version. So it's like, you know, using what you have, can you make cookies or something?

[29:16] Shawn Pennington: Yeah.

[29:17] Jenny Ashman: I don't know.

[29:18] Shawn Pennington: That's a great idea.

[29:19] Jenny Ashman: So see we've come up with two new shows.

[29:22] Shawn Pennington: Hotel baking um hotel baking.

[29:26] Jenny Ashman: Yeah, getting after it.

[29:28] Shawn Pennington: Well does the girl.

[29:30] Jenny Ashman: I would watch that show.

[29:31] Shawn Pennington: I would watch that show.

[29:34] Jenny Ashman: Absolutely.

[29:34] Shawn Pennington: How about you, Sean?

[29:36] Aaron Michael Ray: I'm I myself, I had every intention of becoming an excellent cook in the pandemic. And I did not do that. Um I don't know why I didn't do that. That was not a place that I found my uh my energy for uh during the and now now that we're now that I'm sitting here in this hotel room you know we had kitchens in the last hotel so that was great and I'm sitting here in this hotel room without a kitchen and I'm like I wasted a year and a half with my own kitchen that I could have cooked like but it just didn't seem like a priority at the time for me like it just wasn't something that I did focus a lot on nutrition like I I did make a a concerted effort to eat better but that involved a lot of salad and yeah well that's good sounds I I I didn't I didn't get you know I did Nutra System for for a while which was which was good I mean I felt you know it was easy to do because I was in the same place you get the deliveries and it's like it was easier that's something I've never been able to do but I mean the portions come on like it was you would get like the meal the meals it's like a bite of a hamburger like this it was I stuck with it though I stuck with it I didn't do that but I did not become a good cook.

[31:00] Jenny Ashman: Okay it's okay we love you anyway well so as we're gonna wrap up a little uh it shortly but um just want to l ask you one more question what do you look forward to most in the new year we have a new year coming up we have uh you know lots of possibility who wants to who wants to start with that oh oh you go I will start you go okay Aaron go ahead leaving it on the grill go ahead okay leave it on the grill um I'm I'm really gonna coin that in some way. I don't know. I'm just I'm really fascinated by this idea, Christine. Um anyway, so I think, well, I mean, I people who know me very well know that New Year's Eve is my favorite holiday. And so I'm really fascinated by New Year's resolutions and that kind of thing.

And even in 2021, when the end of 2020 was just like not looking as positive as it is now. Um I still I just wanted some of my news resolutions were just very like normal things, and I desperately wanted just like normalcy again. And so there were some things that I still couldn't necessarily commit to, but even in even in this new year, like I definitely have you know committed to one of those New Year's resolutions throughout this entire year and still will say that I have committed to it and completed it. Um but in this new year, I mean, I'm looking forward to the world actually opening up. Um, you know, I'm very grateful for science and vaccines, and you know, now that I'm boosted, boosted up, I'm just ready to, and now that we're on tour again, it's just it's as safely as possible.

I'm ready to say yes to everything, I'm ready to go do the things that we dreamed of doing deep in, you know, the quarantine in 2020, and I'm just ready to, you know, like I said, I I spent a lot of time just very much saying like or putting a lot of um emphasis in just believing in myself and betting on myself and trusting myself and I'm ready to put that into the world and just see what comes from that.

[33:35] Jenny Ashman: Yes.

[33:36] Shawn Pennington: Oh, well, I am I'm first excited to finish relearning all five of the tracks that I cover and to have all of those back into my four out of five, so we're we're doing okay, we're getting there, but I'm excited for that part to be kind of uh done. Uh I was actually just talking about this uh with my husband and about sort of setting intentions for the year and for being back on the road, and it can all feel so overwhelming coming back and sort of being back into the the traveling and the hotels and trying to, you know, the uh the constant movement. Um I'm excited to continue the work I started in the pandemic on well, focusing on my family and on me and like what I need and wanting to, you know, find other creative outlets.

That's actually something I've been thinking a lot about and you know, more writing, working on this podcast, doing uh doing other things that fulfill me um outside of the show that I think will help my time at the show feel even better. Um Yeah, I'm excited to get back on stage. It's just uh I don't know. There's a lot to look forward to. There's a lot that I still feel anxious about, to be totally honest. Like I I still have a lot of anxiety just about the state of the world and what things are gonna look like because we've lived in such a state of uncertainty that even the idea of looking at next year for me feels far away because things have changed so quickly. Um yeah, I'm excited to to be back with my people and back doing this show.

[35:20] Shawn Pennington: Yeah, Sean.

[35:22] Aaron Michael Ray: I'm uh I've just to sort of build on what what Jenny was just talking about. I think it it has to be stated that you know I think few people understand the difficulty of this of standby life in general. Um, but for those who know come from away and know what our show is and know what that each of these folks has five of these roles in their heads, um, and all the complications that goes goes on with that, it is an enormous undertaking. And in March of 2020, we had just finished learning all five roles. Like we had just got to the finish line, and then we shut down and a year and a half went by. So when we came back, there was this sense of like, are we starting back at zero? Are we are we do we have to do all of that work like all over again?

And our six standbys are rock stars, like literally like we are flying through, we are flying through getting back to where we were. And so I just publicly would like to express my gratitude to how how grateful are I am to these amazing, amazing folks um who are just the absolute you know necessity for our show to work. And and all of us on on uh in the on stage playing cast uh also have such deep gratitude and appreciation for the gifts of these six extraordinary people.

[36:55] Jenny Ashman: Thanks, yeah.

[36:56] Aaron Michael Ray: So we're we're on track for for we're we're on track to to be back where we were by shortly after the first of the year so that's like my first like get to January is like that's our first goal is just to like get all you know get back to where to where we were in March 2020 and we're gonna get there. I know we are um so that's great. Um and then beyond that like I've I I have feel I feel like I have a lot of interest that I that I developed over over the course of of our time off that um I'm excited to explore. I'm excited to like you know I love that I have come from away as my job. I couldn't love a job more and that's something that will sustain me but I have lots of I think areas of interest.

I think there's a lot to be to thought think about in our our society and you know there's so much polarization and and so much um negativity and distrust and I I think there's I'm interested in looking for ways to bridge those gaps and I also think that one little quirky thing that I've been into is like investing and and I think specifically investing for theater people because I think that we don't frequently we don't focus on like that's something that doesn't interest us all that much like money managing money figuring out money like that is but it's important and I think that this time period showed us that like how how you know when your job is taken away without your will against your will for all this time.

So I'm sort of kicking around ideas of like how to sort of delve into investing for theater folks, like and like how like I don't know what form that takes, but that's something that I'm interested in.

[38:43] Shawn Pennington: Investing with for theater folks with Sean Pennington.

[38:47] Aaron Michael Ray: There you go.

[38:48] Shawn Pennington: We just created three new shows.

[38:54] Christine Toy Johnson: I also just want to acknowledge that what a what a gift to come back to this show because of just the messages embedded in it about the healing power of intentional compassion and generosity and kindness and that we can do that with each other for each other. Um there have been so many losses in our community, but for us to be able to come back to this show and bring what we've learned through the past year and a half and and ongoing, and um and give it back to each other and to our audiences. It's um it's really we're the luckiest people, aren't we?

[39:39] Shawn Pennington: We really are.

[39:41] Christine Toy Johnson: So I'm gonna wrap us up on that note, and uh we can't wait to share more thoughts with you as the season progresses. So stay tuned and thank you all for being here today. Aaron, Sean, Jenny, it's my deepest joy to be with you always.

[39:58] Aaron Michael Ray: Thank you, Christine.

[40:00] Shawn Pennington: Thanks, Christine.

[40:01] Jenny Ashman: Thank you, Chris.