This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Hi everybody, this is Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo, and you are listening to Odd Woman Out, a podcast and a show where we're chatting with women artists about what it is like to be a woman in the entertainment industry, the struggles that we face and the fun that we have while we do it.

[0:15] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: So thank you for listening. Enjoy this episode. Tell a friend to listen and tell a woman to love themselves a little more every single day.

[0:25] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Hi, Kara Young. Welcome to Odd Woman Out. I am so happy to have you here. It has been a long time coming.

[0:32] Kara Young: Oh my god, it has been a long time coming. I'm so grateful to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I've been trying to, you know, we've been trying to work out our schedules for so long. So we're so happy to have you. We just love being odd women.

[0:40] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I want to take it back to the beginning. Baby Kara. Oh. When you first discovered, you know, you wanted to be an artist and an actor. Who were the women who influenced you to want to do that?

[0:56] Kara Young: Um, you know, definitely Whoopi.

[1:01] Kara Young: Oh, all day, every day. And then you just didn't you do her play?

[1:04] Kara Young: Well, we're about to do that next summer at Lincoln Center. Um, it's like the iconic one woman show that she did and Whitney White is directing. Um, and so far it's me and Kerry Washington. So we're about to do that.

[1:22] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Amazing.

[1:23] Kara Young: I know.

[1:23] Kara Young: Um, yeah, that and so Whoopi Goldberg has always been one of those iconic figures in my life where you really saw someone take charge of their infiniteness, and Whoopi has broken through so many barriers and like fashion roles. I mean, you never see Whoopi Goldberg in the same role. I mean, Ghost is like the most like, I mean Sister Act. I mean, come on, like we can name all of them.

[1:56] Kara Young: Yeah. She's just she's one of one, Miss Celia like it's just like there's just two there's just so many and um yeah she's definitely one of those people and there's just also there's a list there's a list of incredible powerful women but ultimately like the stories that are carried in my blood and like that are carried in in like just what it means to exist right now in this time I feel like I don't know how I said yes to the thing I remember the moment where I was like okay this is what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life but um I think it's kind of beyond me in a way too, you know like it just it just happens yeah you know and you kind of just follow you follow that that thing that's so beautiful.

[1:56] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I think like how cool life is so funny how you looked up to Whoopi and now you're going to be like...

[1:56] Kara Young: So I can't even believe that I did but I was like you know watching past interviews to prepare for this I watched The View today.

[1:56] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You did?

[1:56] Kara Young: Yeah girl and there you were with Whoopi and here we are.

[1:56] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: That's amazing.

[1:56] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Okay, so think about one of your first professional gigs. Was there like a woman supporting woman type of thing, you know, when you were green and just entering and not really knowing? Tell us about a woman in the industry who uplifted you and sort of like took you under her wings.

[3:22] Kara Young: There really is there really are so many incredible women, femmes like that that kept on just believing in me. Um, the first person that came to mind when you asked the question was Patricia Iwn Lloyd.

[3:39] Kara Young: I own Lloyd. I did her play Pretty Hunger. I wanna say was back in 2016 at Public Studio. So getting back into the women who have just been there are the playwrights, you know.

[3:54] Kara Young: I own CA Johnson, I mean, like so many playwrights, and I get I meet CA Johnson, we're workshopping all the Natalie Portmans for about three years. That's how I meet Kate Risby.

[4:04] Kara Young: Kate Risby's the director of all the Natalie Portmans. We get a production at MCC in 2020 or top of 2020, right before everything shut down. And um, but there's so many women in Lynn Nottage and Martina Myoke and just like these incredible, and then also just in the ethers, like our peers, my elders, you know the incredible Linda Gravat who's transitioned now.

[4:31] Kara Young: Um, they have been like just pillars, Portia, uh Patrice Johnson Siobhan, uh Heather Elise Sims. There's just been a constant of love that we're all supporting each other.

[4:48] Kara Young: We're all we're all giving each other the love that we need.

[4:52] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love that, and that's the way it should be. I think we're like on a path to having it be sort of universal with the women.

[4:58] Kara Young: Totally.

[4:59] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: So now tell us about a time in the industry when you felt like the odd woman out.

[5:07] Kara Young: All I'm like, always no.

[5:09] Kara Young: But actually, always. I mean, and you know, I have a question for you. Like what how do you define the odd woman out?

[5:17] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I think it's like whatever it means to you.

[5:19] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Like feeling out of place when you're, you know, working profession. Like just to get like I started the show because when I started doing live events, I could not watch footage back without I'm ugly, I'm fat, my arm is fat, like dumb mean things that are just not real.

[5:35] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: And I was like, you know, if I'm feeling like this, I want to talk to all the ladies who are existing in the industry, yeah, crushing it, and see what their experience is like. I know I'm not alone.

[5:45] Kara Young: You're not alone.

[5:46] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: And it and it and you know, I've asked that question to, you know, you're my sixth guest. Is that right?

[5:53] Kara Young: Yeah.

[5:54] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: And everybody sort of has a different of what that means to them.

[5:58] Kara Young: Yeah.

[5:59] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: So I think it's just like whatever that means to you in a time when you're like crushing it, you're so talented. We're gonna talk about all of your history making. Love to you. It's the truth.

[6:11] Kara Young: So, but like within all of that, when have you felt like, oh, I'm not good enough, or I don't look like I should look, or I'm not acting like I should act, and like things that I think women experience that men, I'm not saying they don't.

[6:27] Kara Young: I don't think they do. Not as intense, like not as intense at all.

[6:31] Kara Young: I don't think they do. I think for real. I think that the fact that we have to like make sure, you know, the fact that a man could just put on a suit.

[6:41] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I think we should just have a moment where we're just like, you know what? We're gonna just wear sweats.

[6:45] Kara Young: Oh my gosh, I know. I wanted to start doing that.

[6:48] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I don't want to copy Call Her Daddy. Do you watch Call Her Daddy?

[6:51] Kara Young: No.

[6:53] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: It's this like very famous podcast, and she straight up wears a sweatsuit every time.

[6:57] Kara Young: I love her.

[6:57] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I do too. I love her. The fact that we have to worry about so many of the things, the, you know, the shaving, the curling, the uh plucking, the eyelashing, the makeup being, the this, the that, that-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

[7:11] Kara Young: The proper like underwear, clothing, you know, the proper underwear.

[7:15] Kara Young: Like that is like something that always blows my mind. I'm like, why do I have to have different so many different underwear for a different outfit?

[7:21] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I know, and I literally sometimes when you leave the house before you're like, okay, the event is this time.

[7:26] Kara Young: Oh my god, I don't have a thong.

[7:29] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[7:30] Kara Young: Or like I'm wearing granny panties.

[7:33] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You know, like for real. It's like thinking about it. The right bra.

[7:36] Kara Young: The right bra.

[7:38] Kara Young: So many things to work to think about. I think there is always a moment of the odd. The feeling of the odd.

[7:42] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: The feeling of the odd.

[7:44] Kara Young: The feeling of the odd. I love that. Literally. I love that. And I also hate it. But that's why we're talking about it because I think it's so important to talk about it.

[7:53] Kara Young: For women who are existing at a higher level in the industry.

[7:57] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You keep on saying that. It's a good idea.

[7:59] Kara Young: You are. And then to have, you know, younger women who want to pursue a life in the arts know that like it's all we're all doing it, and we're talking about it, so that hopefully the next generation and then the next generation and then the next generation feel it less and less and less and less.

[8:16] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[8:16] Kara Young: Yeah. You know, I think you made me think about Sharon Stone when she that iconic uh, I think, I don't know what the story was, but she wore like she wore jeans and a white button down at the Oscars.

[8:30] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yes.

[8:31] Kara Young: And I'm like, girl, yes. That's like her name is not in my head, but uh she wore the jean jacket to accept her Tony.

[8:38] Kara Young: Um Frances McDormand.

[8:40] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Oh yes.

[8:41] Kara Young: Well she's she's one of a she's a slay all day. Hello. She's a slay all day.

[8:44] Kara Young: I mean, I think that the un you know, the unfortunate thing is that we have to think about those things because like we're we're in a constant state of of eyes on us in some kind of weird way, and it's it's it's weird, but it's like okay, well, if I don't do the thing, if I don't do the thing at you know, if I don't wear the makeup, if I don't make sure that I have the proper, you know, fashions on, or then I might not be looked at to you know, potentially be featured in something in in like a magazine or whatever, like and I think that you know, you when you said like I'm existing at a high level, it's it's so it's interesting to hear it because there are still so many um I guess roads to cross or walls to break.

[9:43] Kara Young: Yeah, and there are a lot of people that that don't see like there are parts of the industry that don't see me like that, with with with the you know, with the accolades attached to it, there you know, which is also you know, I'm a New Yorker, I'm born and raised here, so like I really feel like the hustle is always on and never ending.

[10:04] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: There's it's never ending.

[10:05] Kara Young: I still take the train and I still I'm still outside, you know, I'm still saying hello to my neighbors every day, and I'm still a part of the community. So, like in a way, it's like there's nothing that has changed.

[10:16] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Right, you're like, I'm just me and I'm just doing my job and I'm so happy like doing my art.

[10:21] Kara Young: Yeah, doing my art. Doing the art, doing my art.

[10:24] Kara Young: But I guess to answer your question, there's always a feeling of the odd, and there's always a feeling of like why why is there the odd when when um like why can't we just break our constructs of how we see people?

[10:39] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Right, period.

[10:40] Kara Young: Like, can't people be people?

[10:42] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Can we just be people?

[10:43] Kara Young: Like when you were just going through, I'm still like saying hi to me, I'm still taking the train.

[10:47] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Because you're a human.

[10:47] Kara Young: Exactly. Can't we just all be people and get rid of the odd?

[10:51] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah, can I get used to my face without...

[10:51] Kara Young: I know I saw oh my god, this little girl used to babysit, she's so cute. She was like, I saw her, I saw her on the block, and um she was like, and she's like really good with makeup, you know, and I was like, oh my god, you look so beautiful.

[11:07] Kara Young: She was like, I'm trying to get used to my face.

[11:10] Kara Young: And she's like, I have no makeup on right now. And I was like, you look beautiful.

[11:14] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Uh huh.

[11:15] Kara Young: I'm trying to get used to my face.

[11:16] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love that.

[11:17] Kara Young: I'm trying to get used to my face.

[11:18] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I do that here. I'm like, what's going on?

[11:19] Kara Young: You look beautiful.

[11:20] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You know, we all we're all that perfect, perfect beauty mark.

[11:24] Kara Young: Thank you.

[11:25] Kara Young: I just got a check too, and it's it's okay. Not cancerous. Don't worry.

[11:31] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: It's beautiful.

[11:32] Kara Young: Thank you. Okay, so now I do want to talk about all of your successes because it is really amazing.

[11:37] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Kara, I remember, you know, I first got introduced to you in the pandemic when you did Dominic Cologne's play that was virtually and it was like eggy eggie eggy.

[11:47] Kara Young: Yeah, I forget what it's called.

[11:49] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Dominic Cologne's The War I know.

[11:50] Kara Young: Yes.

[11:51] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: That's how we were first introduced.

[11:52] Kara Young: That is how I first saw you.

[11:53] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I'm like, who is this girl? She's so amazing. And then you know, through the years, I've watched you soar.

[11:59] Kara Young: Wow.

[12:00] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: And it's just been so amazing, and you deserve all of the flowers that you get. But specifically, I want to talk about your four consecutive Tony nominations and your two consecutive Tony wins, which you made history as the first black performer to ever do that.

[12:14] Kara Young: And like, I looked it up, and I think there's only one other person who's ever done something like that that similar with the four and the two.

[12:14] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: The four and the two and the four and the two.

[12:25] Kara Young: She's about to start a rap song.

[12:27] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: The four and the two. So like, does it feel real? And so even with those amazing accomplishments, you're still feeling like you're not sort of like in this place in the industry where you are comfortable.

[12:43] Kara Young: So I guess that's a two-part question. That wasn't really a question. Question one is like, how do you handle all of that? Because it's amazing, and I can imagine it's also overwhelming. And then two, well, even with all that, you're s are you still feeling like not steady.

[13:01] Kara Young: I do want to I do want to clarify something something. It's not that I don't feel comfortable. I feel very I feel very um, there's always a discomfort because there is always somewhere to go, right? But that is just detached from the uh the the other things.

[13:19] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[13:20] Kara Young: Like I think what I was explaining was just the the barriers.

[13:24] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[13:25] Kara Young: You know, the barriers and and and the the walls and the and like the the iron freaking walls that you need the steel, you need you need fire to kind of break through.

[13:35] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Hot fire, hot ass fire.

[13:38] Kara Young: Yeah. Um, but I do think that there is something to what the theater community is that it's like we are so of love. Especially, I mean, I don't know what the musical theater world is like.

[13:55] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Um, but like I love I love our community so deeply because we are we we love deeply and we want people to feel like they have a space to exist and a space to feel free.

[14:12] Kara Young: So, you know, there's always dis discomfort in jumping into a challenging role or discomfort in jumping into a new everything because I always want to start from zero um but there the the idea that we have to also deal with the other part of an industry that is sort of keeping us in the box for real keeping us contained keeping us not um you know or keeping us rather versus like allowing us to spread our wings and fly yeah and having the support to do that you know um the first part of your question though I forgot.

[14:57] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Does it feel real like when you what like Tony nomination won number two win number one number two, you know like every time does that happen are you like what is going on? Or are you like that's right. I did that.

[15:11] Kara Young: Not the latter. I think um I really am always surprised when somebody says it I know it sounds corny as hell and it's like girl you know what the hell you did like but it's really truly um I'm always surprised that it that it's that it happened that it that it is real that it you know it's unfortunate that a that's it's the first like it's but it's also a testament to the kind of plays that are being produced to what kind of work is being supported in our in our world now and what the people actually want to see.

[15:46] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: That to me is a testament of an entire uh industry paying attention in some degree, and I know that we have we have ways to go.

[15:55] Kara Young: For real. Um, but I am surprised again, like at all the accolades stay at my parents' house.

[16:04] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: That's so beautiful.

[16:05] Kara Young: I'm I'm that is there, and I'm in the work, and I want to pay attention to just doing the work and I love that.

[16:14] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: That's the way it should be.

[16:15] Kara Young: Yeah.

[16:15] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Um, I'm sorry that I'm not surprising you with your dad like the Today Show did.

[16:19] Kara Young: That was so cool.

[16:20] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: That was so cool.

[16:22] Kara Young: Oh my god, he really really played that off too.

[16:25] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I really I was like that.

[16:26] Kara Young: I kept like I kept on telling him like that.

[16:28] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I'm doing the the Today show.

[16:30] Kara Young: And he's like, Oh yeah.

[16:32] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: He's about to start acting too.

[16:33] Kara Young: Oh no, for real.

[16:35] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: For real, for real.

[16:36] Kara Young: He's got his acting jobs too.

[16:38] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Um so you've you've done so many amazing shows and projects.

[16:43] Kara Young: Thank you.

[16:43] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: When you read a script, what are you looking for to decide whether that's something you want to do or not? What are you looking for in the character?

[16:52] Kara Young: You know, when those when when I get a the opportunity to delve in, there is something about that sparkle or that thing that like you just you like, oh my god, I can't get these thoughts out of my head.

[17:11] Kara Young: Or um, and I like I I remember reading Cost of Living, and I think we all had the feeling when we read Cost of Living for the first time.

[17:20] Kara Young: I had to step away from the script like multiple times because I was like having so many feelings about what Martina wrote, and I'm like, how does she do this with like one, like it seems like the simplest of lines, and then like the in-betweens are just like these powerful universes of humanness.

[17:46] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[17:46] Kara Young: And you're like, whoa, I felt things that I never put word to, or I still can't even put word to.

[17:53] Kara Young: And I feel like a lot of writers do that. Um, you know, Lynn Nottage, I just can't even believe I'm saying these names, and I'm like, damn.

[18:02] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah, it's amazing.

[18:03] Kara Young: It's like what?

[18:04] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: So I'm saying, like, uh-huh.

[18:06] Kara Young: Wait, huh?

[18:06] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Wow.

[18:07] Kara Young: Um, but I love that.

[18:08] Kara Young: And I and like uh I I meet so many people and so many artists, and and this is the general through line for everyone.

[18:16] Kara Young: This is how, and I think that's the true artist, not getting lost in the fanciness of it all.

[18:23] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Staying true to the script.

[18:25] Kara Young: Like, look at how passionate you are about talking about these beautiful scripts, and that's what that's what it is.

[18:29] Kara Young: It's because they like they wrote it.

[18:31] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: They did.

[18:32] Kara Young: Like they wrote it like like CA Johnson's all the Natalie Portmans.

[18:36] Kara Young: I just remember every single time CA came in with the new pages, you know, after we already had so many like heavy, heavy feelings about what we had just read.

[18:50] Kara Young: And then like these deep discussions around all of it.

[18:54] Kara Young: And then like CA would come in with these new pages, and then like you'd just be like crying.

[19:00] Kara Young: You just be like, oh my god, what the hell?

[19:03] Kara Young: This is crazy.

[19:04] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: We gotta sit with this.

[19:05] Kara Young: Yeah, you know, and yeah, I I just I'm like, how do the words that are inspired, like the words that become inspired by like the way the the way the playwright activates their their minds and their hearts and their spirits and souls to put to put thought to paper or or whatever, and probably not even thought.

[19:28] Kara Young: I don't even know.

[19:28] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I wouldn't even know how to describe how a writer writes.

[19:31] Kara Young: Yeah.

[19:31] Kara Young: But um I know that it's um beyond me.

[19:37] Kara Young: And that like you feel that as an actor, you feel that shit.

[19:41] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You can curse here.

[19:42] Kara Young: Yes.

[19:43] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Okay.

[19:43] Kara Young: Damn.

[19:44] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: You can.

[19:45] Kara Young: Yeah, you'd be feeling that.

[19:47] Kara Young: Like Brandon, Brandon Jacobs Jenkins.

[19:50] Kara Young: Oh my God.

[19:52] Kara Young: Oh my God.

[19:53] Kara Young: Jesus.

[19:54] Kara Young: It's just too deep.

[19:56] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[19:56] Kara Young: So then it's not too deep.

[19:58] Kara Young: It's very deep, and it's deep and it's deep, and it gets deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper.

[20:01] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: And you can once you continue.

[20:03] Kara Young: It's like all of these, all these peeps is like once you continue to do the thing, like, for example, I know we're gonna talk about it eventually, but doing gruesome playground injuries, it's like Rajiv wrote this work 15 years ago, had a production 12 years ago or something of that nature, and then like the thing just keeps on opening itself, and you're just like, What?

[20:27] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[20:28] Kara Young: Let's talk about it right now since since it's brought up.

[20:30] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: So I I heard you say in an interview that you've wanted to work with Raji for a long time.

[20:34] Kara Young: Oh my god. I've interviewed him before, and just even speaking to him, I'm like, Oh, are you you're a genius?

[20:39] Kara Young: He's touched.

[20:40] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah, he's very they're all touched.

[20:42] Kara Young: Yeah.

[20:43] Kara Young: But like he's he's you know, he's he's touched because like it there's something, man.

[20:49] Kara Young: Last night, last night, uh Nick Braun, Nicholas Braun, shout out shout out to Nicholas Braun, um, beautiful, beautiful actor.

[21:02] Kara Young: I can't believe I'm getting to work with him every day.

[21:04] Kara Young: Um, six days a week, eight shows a week.

[21:06] Kara Young: He did the monologue.

[21:08] Kara Young: I mean, everybody knows this play, it's an iconic play, which is so beautiful to me.

[21:11] Kara Young: The iconicness of the play is just so deep to me because people are still studying this play in acting conservatories and you know, in acting programs, and there's so many young people that come in and like I've just I just did I just did the coma scene and I just you know I'm still I'm or I just got it and I'm working on it, and um, or I directed this in college.

[21:33] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: But Nick did this mo did the monologue in the funeral scene um last night, and it it always breaks me.

[21:43] Kara Young: But there's like a line that he says, he's like, he's basically talking shit about my dad who's dead, and his body is in a coffin out, you know, in our imaginate imagination.

[21:57] Kara Young: And he's like, he doesn't know that that you're just this perfect being, that you're a gift from God.

[22:06] Kara Young: And I'm like, in my head, I'm like, Rajiv, wow.

[22:11] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[22:12] Kara Young: Like it's uh about a broken person.

[22:14] Kara Young: And then she hears that from the person that she loves the most or that loves her the most.

[22:20] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[22:21] Kara Young: And it just like it just activated another door of whoa.

[22:28] Kara Young: And I not that I didn't hear that before.

[22:30] Kara Young: It's just I heard I heard it differently.

[22:33] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: And is that so beautiful about live theater?

[22:35] Kara Young: I fucking love a play.

[22:37] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: For that exact reason of like you can be in it for so long, and then something switches and you find something new that's so cool.

[22:44] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: So so my question about Rajiv is, and you sort of just answered it, but what's been the most rewarding part about working with him on this play?

[22:54] Kara Young: Rajiv was present um when we were in rehearsal, and um, you know, I've had the fortunate circumstance of being with Rajiv in a workshop and and and talking about his play, not not gruesome, another play.

[23:08] Kara Young: And um it was just a it's it's a powerful experience because you know he's just he's inspired, they all are so inspired, um, because they put pen to paper, and this particular work, it just feels like the more that we're doing it again, the more the more things are cracking open, but um the way that these two people experience life are so different.

[23:39] Kara Young: Yeah, and I feel like we're really entering a world of being desensitized to feeling things, and the theater is the place to not do that. The place the theater is a place to feel and to lean in. And I remember, you know, not to detour from Rajiv, but to really bring forth light to the power of the writers and the power of their worlds is that I remember this one time this young man, it was a man who after Cost of Living said, you know, I'm a doctor and I heal people, you know, I want to heal people. I that's my job, but you healed me, you healed my heart. I know it's so it's like it's so, but it's so and and I think that that's like what we can do, yeah, you know, and these characters like we're all not okay for real we're all broken in some kind of capacity and yes Kayleen and Doug are in a very in the extreme versions of that um but there are people who are accident prone and cannot quite explain why they keep on doing the things that they do and there are people who the world is failing them and they're just trying to survive, you know.

And these two people are navigating their worlds and time is going by and we've all experienced what it means to have a friend and not see them or speak to them for some time because of something that has happened, or even deeper something that we're going through.

[25:37] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Right.

[25:38] Kara Young: And now like now five years have gone by. Oh my god. Oh my god, I have to call. Oh my god, what that person just had a babe. Like what what happened? And yeah, what happened? What happened to us? Yeah, and time is so crazy, and it just goes. Yeah, I'm talking a lot. I'm so sorry.

[25:57] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Hello, you're on a podcast.

[25:59] Kara Young: Oh my god. Hello, you're on a podcast. You're supposed to. Don't be sorry. I love it. This is why we have a podcast. Um while we're still on the gruesome topic, can you just let everybody know how long you're running, how they can get tickets, where you're playing, just so we can oh my goodness, let them all know.

[26:18] Kara Young: So Gruesome Playground Injuries is playing right now at the Lucille Lortel on Christopher Street, 121 Christopher Street. This is the legendary work by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Neil Pepe, starring Nicholas Braun, you might know him best from Succession, his cousin Greg, Nicholas Braun and myself are in a two-hander, a 90-minute two-hander. We never leave the stage. We change in front of you. We change the set in front of you. We are there for you to feel things maybe perhaps you haven't thought about. Boom.

[26:59] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love a play downtown. I love a 90 minute.

[27:04] Kara Young: So you played so many amazing characters.

[27:07] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Thank you.

[27:07] Kara Young: This one included. What character have you learned the biggest lesson from? And who is that character?

[27:15] Kara Young: This is gonna sound cliche and corny. I learned lessons from all of them. They still exist in my brain in a way where I continuously have revelations about, you know, if we're doing a play for six months, eight months. Again, there's so many, there's so much more work to do always. And like there's so much to honor. I have to honor you. How do I honor you in an hour and a half? How do I honor you in two hours? How do I honor you in three hours? Right. But sorry to point. But like, but like, how do I honor a whole spirit in an hour and a half? So there's always continuous work. Right.

[28:02] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Right.

[28:03] Kara Young: And the lessons that are constantly flowing are of Sweet Tea in Sangushi Kam Sinking Inc. Of all the Natalie CA Johnson's, all the Natalie Portmans as Kiana, like you know, like all of them, you know, Jeff Augustine's, um, New Englanders, like they're it they're a constant, they're constantly living inside of me. I've just feels the opt of the honor to even um be the vessel, to be the vessel, meaning like the peak in the pit.

[28:42] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: What's been the peak of you getting to play all these different characters?

[28:49] Kara Young: The peak. Yeah, and then we'll go to the pit. What's like the peak is like the biggest reward of the pit's like the biggest challenge and hardest part, something that's tough. I I feel like this answer will evolve. I love it. Um the peak, I think, is the support from people that come to see the work. And you know, the recurring guests of the theater that I love. You know, shout out to Georgette, shout out to Jordan, shout out, shout out to you know Verna and uh Marcia, like shout out to the people who you know, Cheryl and Eleanor and like all of the people who just continuously show up, and there's so many, so forgive me if I haven't shouted you out. That shout out right there. That's so beautiful.

But like they, you know, they come and they've been coming, yeah. And they've been supporting for so it makes me so emotional for so long. They've been supporting for so long, and um, you know, they're like, Oh, I or the people who are like, I saw you in Pearlie, and then I saw that you were doing this, and and we couldn't make it to purpose, but we had to come to see you do this, or I saw you in purpose, and now we're seeing you here. I think that the peak is always the people who come.

[30:10] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah.

[30:11] Kara Young: Because you're healing, just like the doctor. Just like you healed the doctor. Well, the audience is the one, you know. This is like, what do we do? What do we what are we here for? Yeah. We're here for for y'all.

[30:23] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Mm-hmm. I love that. And then what's the pit?

[30:26] Kara Young: The pit. Um, I don't know if there's a pit because I I don't I don't want to look at things pejoratively or negatively. Yeah. Because I feel like there's always uh in the neutrality of like Buddhism of like there's the thing that might not feel so good is going to pass, but also you might break through, find something else because it is a bottom. Right. You know? Um you always can face a challenge. You know, but if things are hard or difficult, then you like put a to it. Yeah. But if you You always can face a challenge.

[31:07] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love that.

[31:08] Kara Young: Because you can. You can. I want to talk a little bit about to to do a hard transition. You were just recently honored with Ebony Power 100.

[31:16] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Oh.

[31:16] Kara Young: Alongside past Odd Woman Out guest Whitney White.

[31:20] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Whitney White. Shout out another woman who's always holding it down for women.

[31:24] Kara Young: Yeah, girl. Um everybody, period. She'd be holding it down for everybody.

[31:27] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Yeah, she's facing.

[31:30] Kara Young: Um, can you tell us what that was like and and the whole experience and what it meant to you to be included in that group of people?

[31:40] Kara Young: You still can't believe it. Yeah. Because you're like, okay, so uh Tiana Taylor is here. Yeah. And Whitney White is here, and Jonathan and Jonathan McCory from National Black Theatre is here, and you're like, whoa, and the guests that are there, you know, I I saw Shaquille O'Neal and the legendary Iman. Wow. Um so many w I I cannot believe that I was honored alongside them in that way. It always is like what? Yeah. Yeah. It felt uh it felt amazing. I loved I loved that. I was like, wow, this is what it is, you know. How beautiful is that? And then I got to take my auntie who lives in LA. Shout out to my auntie. Shout out Dana. Dana Devons. Um, yeah. So that was like it was special. She was my guest, and yeah, it was all all very special.

[32:40] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Well, congratulations, that's huge. And I was so happy to see that. I was like, yes, Kara.

[32:44] Kara Young: Thank you.

[32:45] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Um, I want to bring it back to odd woman, all the all the odd women, all the odd girls who might be listening or tuning in.

[32:51] Kara Young: Yes.

[32:52] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: How do you think we as this generation of women artists can continue to make change so that like I mentioned earlier, the next generations feel the odd, whatever that means to them a little less and can focus on their work and their art and their accomplishments and not worry about the way they look or speak or act.

[33:20] Kara Young: Well, I do think power comes in numbers, you know, and I think that the more that we support each other, the more change that we can see. You know, whatever that is. And I think like when somebody's fighting alone, it might be less of a chance that you know we're heard. But for the odd femmes in the world, you know, odd the odd people really, I feel for them because I feel I still feel those things. And but I just feel like when we find our tribes, when we find our people, when we find our communities, when we find our groups, when we find the people who like believe in our believe in us a little bit more than we might even believe in ourselves. Yeah. That like there could be more potential for us to break walls down and um and see the change that we want to actually see.

[34:17] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: I love that.

[34:18] Kara Young: But I don't know if that's a good answer or not. Cause like I've been thinking about it. Like, I don't know what yeah, you know.

[34:27] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Well, it is, it is hard, it's a hard concept and you think about it. You know, I have a niece and she's eight and she's already experiencing things of like not looking right, or she told me the other day that she wasn't cool, and I'm like, no, like that's not right. But when you're when you have TikTok and social media and YouTube and people are able to put out whatever they want, which is great, but also to not, you know, when a young person is seeing something and then thinking that they don't fit that, and maybe that's not the way it, you know, it's just it's it's it's a lot.

[35:00] Kara Young: So it is a tough question. Because it's like we, right? Whoever we is can do so much work and spew positivity and spew self-love and spew women supporting women, but then you also have the layers of how do we how do we how? It's tough. I mean, well, it's interesting too, because like it's okay, like I'm gonna bring it back to Gruesome for two seconds. Bring it back. Because a lot of people have been commenting on the height difference of Nick and myself. You know, my guy is like six, six, six, seven. I'm like five two. And like and so people have been commenting on our height, but like it's something that we don't even see, or we don't even really like it. It's clear that he's taller than me.

I think he's taller than many people, taller than many people, and I'm shorter than many people, but like it's something that we don't necessarily feel like that, yet it's the way that our minds have been programmed to believe that this is just so odd, or this is just so not, you know, real or whatever normal, normal casting or whatever that like it it's it's not right, right? And so it's like the thing about the beauty of the casting, I believe, is that you are able to look past eventually, yeah, right? How do we change people's minds as to the lies that they've been told. Right. Based on the way beauty standard or standard of all the things, how these sort of con construct con stress that exists within us where we're like constantly, this is not the way you're supposed to do things, or they're supposed to wear your hair like this, or you know, they were supposed to get their you know lip waxed, or you know, why did they why didn't they put on miscass?

Or what is like what like all the things that were just constantly the construct construct contracts that are just silly, silly like what's the a better word? Fucking silly it's kind of dumb, yeah, really but it but it almost to your to the beauty of your podcast, embrace the odd embrace it because everything else is going to follow the TikTok way of doing things, or the the uh, you know, this is the way you're supposed to do your makeup, or this is the way you're supposed to do this, this is the way you're supposed to wear. And you'll embrace the odd until it's no longer odd. Right. Embrace the odd. That's it. Hashtag embrace the odd. It's gonna go viral, guys. And also like what you said, you're like, oh, well, we're so in it, we're not even thinking about our height difference.

Not really. Because who cares? Because that has nothing to do with the heart of the play, correct. And of the people, correct. And that's just so so important when you when you take a step out and look at it and take a moment to actually listen to these words. It doesn't matter what you look like, if the heart is there, right? Right. So now I would like you to give some advice to any of the odd women or the odd people who are listening to to embrace who they are and focus on their passions. I fear that there are a lot of people in this world who are passionate about the arts or have a talent but are too held back by their insecurities and whatever that means to them. Yeah. So what is your advice to the odd squad?

To the odd squad. To the odd squad. I love it. I love the odd squad. I love the odd squad. Um I think this is an eerie thought. Okay. So raise yourself. Um I think that like we're so lucky to be living. So like let me let me know. Number one. We're so lucky to be living. We're so lucky to, you know, to, you know, in in the vibration of gratitude, that we are so privileged to, you know, and if this is true to you, to have someone you can call if you have a cell phone, if you even have a cell phone, to have someone you can call, reach out to, have a warm meal. I mean, this is this is I don't want to uh prescribe these things to people because some people don't have this, but if you do, if you do have this, this is a very lucky position in life, right?

Uh warm bed, hot water, access to clean water, access to food, access to health care, access to an education, access to people, access to community, right? Um, just the basic, basic uh living of what we all of all what all human life should be experiencing. The basic living requirements to me education, health, bed, food, shelter, etc. Now, with all of those things that we are very privileged to have, and I don't use that word pejoratively, is that we will die. And on our deathbeds, if we look back at life and say, I wish I would have, or I wish I didn't, yeah, and if we operate in our mortality, if we operate in our mortality because we have the opportunity to live, a lot of people make the most with nothing.

A lot of people, right? But if we have the opportunity to live, and we have the opportunity to dream, and we have the opportunity to follow our dreams, however challenging it might be, the fact that we can face life every day and wake up with the luxuries because we're saying that the basic nature of what it means to be human is a luxury. We're saying that hot water is a luxury, we're saying that we're saying that that clean water is a luxury, we're saying that education is a luxury, we're saying that healthcare is a luxury. We're saying that living with these basic needs are a luxury. Yeah. But if we have those, and if we look at our life as like, you know what, at any moment it could go, what do we do today?

And so that's my advice, but I don't think it's advice. I think it's just a way of life. And in the way that we're living in our global temperature of what it means to have life and what it means to have a comfortable life. I mean, you have to live for today with what you were given. You know, like Mariah, Mariah Carey says. What does she say? She says something like Merry She says Merry Christmas. I mean, also a luxury. Um Merry Christmas is also a luxury. But like still, yeah, I think we have to live in our mortality. And I think that's a really eerie way to look at life sometimes, but at the same time, you kind of want to live for the thing now. Yeah. And it puts it in perspective. It puts it in perspective of like the noise and the this and the that.

It doesn't matter because of everything you just said. All this doesn't matter. So live for today. So live for today. That's not the first time we've gotten that as the advice in so many words of like, well, what if you died next week? What would you think? Girl, I could walk outside right now. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I'm just saying, like, you know, God forbid, but like, like, there's just so many things that can happen to us. Yeah. And you wouldn't have wanted your insecurities or your feeling of your odd to hold you back from the things you wanted to do. If you have the privilege to be able to pursue the things to pursue your dreams. Yeah. I love that. I think I don't know though.

Like, I don't know. And I don't, I don't ever want to come from a place of like sounding like, oh, I don't know nothing. You know what I'm saying at the same time at the same time. I don't know nothing. So I'm but also so much because you've lived so much, you know. I think for for every person who's living a life, you have the experiences and the wisdom and and the thoughts to share your gift of knowledge. And that's what you just did. And I thank you so much. It's been such a gift. Thank you for thanking you. Having you here that way on The Odd Woman on the Odd Squad. The last time I love that squat. Squat. Kara, what a gift it was to have you on the show. It was a we thought we were only here for like 15 minutes, but it's been a long episode.

I just looked, I said, is that a half hour? Hour. Can you let everybody know, listening how they can keep up with you on the social medias and to keep up with all of your amazing projects? Oh wow. Well, well, I am my handle is character with a K. It's K-A-R-A-A-K-T-E-R. Um what you can find there is just the work, and that's that's pretty much it. Just the work and my love for the work. Um, and next year you can catch me in the Whoopi Monologues, directed by Whitney White, um, also starring Carrie Washington and other names soon to be announced, I imagine. Um, and also the incredible Alicia Harris's Is God Is. That was a hit cult play in 2018 at Soho Rep. She adapted it into a screenplay. She's making her directorial debut in her future film Is God Is that Mallory Johnson and myself will be in.

Amazing. Congratulations on all the things. And everybody run to the Gruesome Playground Injuries you have until the end of December. That's correct. Boom. Boom. Fun. Hi, Odd Squad. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Odd Woman Out. I hope you liked it and enjoyed it. Please give us a like, subscribe, and follow. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Odd Woman Show. Telefriend to Telefriend. She's back.