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[0:00] Mason Bray: So we have Martín Acuña, who is one of the amazing hosts of What's Up Broadway here on the Broadway Podcast Network.

[0:06] Mason Bray: But he also hosts the Backstage Talk podcast where he interviews iconic people from behind the scenes of theater all over the world with an exciting season coming up that I'll let him talk about.

[0:16] Mason Bray: He also works as a performer, assistant director, and social media manager in Colombia. Hi Martín.

[0:22] Martín Acuña: Hey Mason, how's everything?

[0:24] Mason Bray: It's going good. How are you?

[0:26] Martín Acuña: Good, good. The holiday season has been crazy bananas, but everything is good, fortunately.

[0:34] Mason Bray: Yeah. Well, can you start out by telling everyone how you got to where you are working in theater in Colombia?

[0:40] Martín Acuña: Ooh, yeah, for sure. Um, long story short, I come from a family that has been in the arts for a very long time. Uh, so my great-grandfather was a very well-known painter here. Um, then they started a Christmas choir, which my grandfather then directed, and then my aunt, who is a musician, directed or directs right now. We're still going. And I started there in a singing in a choir. Then I started doing high school musicals, and I decided that I had to be in the performing arts world somehow. Um, so then I started studying film, and then transferred to another college in which I was pursuing a communications BFA and then I did a double major with performing arts. So I got my double major, and I graduated in 2019, then 2020 from both bachelors, and that's been it.

I've been working as a freelance since then on social media as an assistant director for both film and theater, and I started my own podcast back like two or three weeks just before the pandemic hit here in South America and we went into lockdown. That was around February, March 2020, and then I landed this co-hosting gig at What's Up Broadway with my fellow co-hosts Ayanna Prescod and Christian Lewis. So that's been the wild ride for me.

[2:32] Mason Bray: And that's all amazing. So let's start with What's Up Broadway and digging in with that. How did you meet Ayana and get on that amazing show?

[2:42] Martín Acuña: You know, it was very fun because it's a very funny story because I have met most of my closest friends except my two best friends here from Colombia. I've met the rest online. It's been crazy. I've always been on every social media platform that it has ever been, like literally since I was I think 12. Um, I started on Facebook, then jumped on Twitter. Uh, I wasn't Tumblr before Facebook. I was on MSN and High Five and MySpace, which we don't use anymore, fortunately. But then I started with these more contemporary social media platforms, and I joined Twitter back in I think it was like 2008 or 2007, and I just used it for like gossips, and it was like my personal diary, and then in probably the end of 2020, our own winter 2020, I started following Ayana.

Like I found her on Twitter, and I was just like, hey, this woman is pretty cool. She's amazing. I like what she tweets. I like how she writes. And then when I was one day looking for guests for Backstage Talk, I was like, I've never interviewed a journalist specifically that concentrates on Broadway or performing arts. So I followed her, and I just like literally texted her one day. Like tweeted out into the world, hey, like I do with a lot of my guests. So I just tweeted it like, hey, Ayana, I would love to have you in Backstage Talk, your point of view towards Broadway. Um, it's really valuable, and I want you on my show. So she was the first entertainment and Broadway journalist I had. And I remember it was a very, very interesting conversation for me because since I'm not in the States, but I'm constantly looking at news, both there and here in Colombia, um, and news in general, either what is going on on the political side, on the entertainment side, on the healthcare side.

When I interviewed her, it was like a month or two months after the big Black Lives Matter march in the whole states. So her point of view on racial issues in the entertainment industry was really valuable for me. And that's what I wanted like to know to have that embodied experience from her, and it was just a very eye-opening conversation. So I met her over Twitter, and then in around June, July-ish, yeah, June, July 2021, she texted me one night, and she was like, Hey, um, I just entered the Broadway Podcast Network. Would you be interested in co-hosting a show with me? And I was like, heck yes. Like, that you don't have to ask that. I'm in. Um, and we started co-hosting with Christian Lewis, who is another critic, dramaturg in New York, whose texts are amazing.

Like both of them write like their point of view towards life and entertainment is super valuable and super current, and we need more people to not only listen to their voice, but we need more people that think like them. So we started this show that's called What's Up Broadway, powered by the Broadway Podcast Network, in which we are Broadway's go-to in terms of news and what is going on on Broadway. Uh, so we started that I think it was August. We launched it, like, I don't remember if it was the first week of August or mid-August. Um, but we launched it, and we had our last episode in the first week of December. Uh, it was like our final episode of the year. We interviewed Rovin de Jesus, who is an amazing Latin performer that you can see him in Tick, Tick... Boom! and Voice in the Band on Netflix.

Um, and it was amazing, and it's been a wild ride co-hosting that show with them. And they are both iconic. I just got a tweet notification from Ayana. Um yes, I keep the tweet notifications on just so I can see the news right when it hits. She is amazing, and so is Christian. Oh my gosh.

[7:36] Mason Bray: Um, so what is the production behind that show? I know that you are rotating co-hosts with Ayana. Um, so how does all the production into that what's a week episode look like?

[7:46] Martín Acuña: What we usually do is during the week, we usually record on Mondays, and the episode is published around Tuesday by noon or Wednesday morning. And what I usually do, uh, and I know that Christian also does this, um, and Ayana does too, is during the whole week after the previous episode has been published, uh, we are always looking out for news, and we had several content branches, so we had big news, we had hot tips that are usually only managed by Ayana, um, then we have what is going on on social media, um, if we have opening casting announcements, closings, um, or any other events, like specific events. What we usually do is we gather all of the news that we think it's worthy either mention, I shouldn't say worthy because I think everything is worth mentioning, but like the big things um and we just like drop it in a Google Docs on a drive folder and then we pick out what is truly important for that week because some news may be a bit older than others so we try to stay up the most updated as possible so what um we usually do is we just drop everything into a drive document and then we pick out of that.

[8:46] Mason Bray: Yeah, um, so you mentioned the hot tips and those being managed by Ayana. How early do you know the hot tips?

[8:46] Martín Acuña: Honestly, I get to know about them while she, while we are recording, so I never know anything about the hot tips until Ayana mentions it during our recording session and obviously, uh, if you go to like the third or fourth episode, um, in which Ayana had this very, very big hot tips, the live reactions were so fun because they were like literally live reactions to what she was saying. So I don't know when she, for example, announced Beetlejuice, I remember I was like, no, no way. Um, I just freaked out. It was, I was a mess. Um, so yeah, she usually keeps them to herself because she likes our live reactions.

[10:33] Mason Bray: And I know that it has happened also with Christian that um they've been like, hey, no way about that.

[10:41] Martín Acuña: So yeah.

[10:42] Mason Bray: So what I'm hearing is Alan or anybody else from the Broadway Podcast Network listening. We need to get those recordings and we need these reactions to be published.

[10:55] Martín Acuña: Yeah.

[10:55] Martín Acuña: I remember that on one episode, um, Alan added a bloopers.

[11:02] Mason Bray: Yeah.

[11:02] Martín Acuña: At the end of the episode, and that was so, so funny. That was so funny.

[11:07] Martín Acuña: I remember I cracked out loud. And I know that you know this, but every time I would listen to the episode, it was usually like Monday night on the early access um Broadway Podcast Network app.

[11:18] Mason Bray: Um, I would text you and I'll be like, oh my god, I just got a shout-out.

[11:21] Martín Acuña: And it got to the point where you would text me before the episode came out.

[11:25] Mason Bray: Yeah.

[11:26] Martín Acuña: Because I remember um when you and I started like talking on a daily basis because we've developed a friendship in which we talk on a daily basis. Thank you, Twitter.

[11:35] Mason Bray: Um yes, thank you, Twitter again. You brought a wonderful person to my life once again.

[11:43] Martín Acuña: Um, it was so funny because I was reading our script, and Ayana always leaves a space for the Broadway podcast uh show's mentions, and sometimes she like copy pastes on that document, and sometimes not. But I remember on one of my last recording sessions a month ago when she said it live.

[12:11] Martín Acuña: I had my phone by my side, and I was like, I'm going to try to unlock it silently and type silently.

[12:19] Martín Acuña: Um, Mason, you just got a mention by I'm recording by. And that was so fun too.

[12:24] Martín Acuña: It's perfect. I was in class, I remember, and I like I was like, I'm getting a mention this week.

[12:33] Martín Acuña: And they're like, Okay, great, cool. They won't they they they will never understand the hype.

[12:40] Martín Acuña: They won't. There is so much hype around that shout-out section of the episode and literally the entire show.

[12:46] Martín Acuña: Yeah, I tweeted about it almost every single week. I am a top fan, I promise.

[12:53] Martín Acuña: So getting into Backstage Talk, how did you get the idea to start that show right before the pandemic?

[12:59] Martín Acuña: That was it's been an evolution process for me because in December 2019, it was like a very weird dark period of my life, and because I had just graduated my performing arts program, I was looking for internships for my communications program, and I wanted to do my internship in New York, and I had a couple of interviews that all of them went south.

[13:30] Martín Acuña: Um, and I was like, damn, I need to get an internship. And unfortunately, it wasn't in New York, it was back here home in Colombia, but I was so down and so not satisfied with my life.

[13:46] Martín Acuña: Um, that one day my dad was like, Hey, uh, I just bought you a ticket, you are going to New York tomorrow. You're going, you're coming back um 10 days later, one literally one day before your internship starts, so bye.

[14:01] Martín Acuña: And one of my best friends was living in New York, so I just literally called her and I was like, Hey, um, can I crash at your place? And she was like, Yeah, obviously you can.

[14:13] Martín Acuña: And I went to New York for 10 days and this was already January 2020 and I remember I saw a wonderful off-Broadway musical called Romeo and Bernadette in which I had a friend playing Romeo and I just loved it and then I saw Jagged Little Pill and then Moulin Rouge and I started doing reviews on my Instagram like literally I just started writing on my notes app then taking screenshots and uploading them into my stories.

[14:13] Martín Acuña: And when I came back at the same time I started listening to one of my favorite favorite favorite shows podcast shows because I wasn't a podcast person I ended up being a podcast person thanks to three shows; first was Pitch to Stage, then Drama with um the twins and Theater Podcast with Alan like Broadway Podcast Network shows this is a shameless plug, um but those three shows were like you can create content about what you love even if you are not in New York even if you don't know anybody because that's where I started and I started Backstage Talk and thought okay I can what can I do being in Bogotá Colombia that is related to where I want to be that is New York.

[14:13] Martín Acuña: So first thing first idea was this is going to be a review show a review podcast. And I remember like my first and second episode, I talked about Moulin Rouge, then I talked about another movie that it wasn't a musical. Like at that time, it was like all a mix because I was uh I thought I have an arts bachelor, I have a communications bachelor, I know about film, I know about theater, I love musical theater, so why not mix everything?

[16:15] Martín Acuña: So I was pretty open to review everything, and then life quickly showed me that if what I want to do in life is musical theater, either on stage, offstage, whatever, but if I want to do musical theater, I have to go down that path and not pick other things at the same time.

[16:39] Martín Acuña: So Backstage Talk quickly turned only into musical theater, and I started looking for guests um because I really enjoyed interviewing people and knowing new people, and I started interviewing friends mostly, and that took me down where I am today, in which the purposes, the two purposes came out a very long time after I started the show.

[17:12] Martín Acuña: I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but it then transformed into something else. That's why I said it was like an evolution process for me.

[17:20] Martín Acuña: So today, Backstage Talk has two purposes. The first one is to bridge the gap between the Colombian musical theater industry and what is going on in both Broadway and the West End.

[17:33] Martín Acuña: Because at some point I started getting a lot of followers from London. And I would like I know that in London there's a place called the West End that is very similar to Broadway.

[17:46] Martín Acuña: And that curiously happens also in countries like Germany, like Argentina, in Mexico, it's starting to happen that you have a couple of streets in which they turned out to be a theater district.

[18:02] Martín Acuña: So I then started contacting people in the United Kingdom. And so yeah, that is the first purpose.

[18:10] Martín Acuña: And then of course it's interesting for me to interview the leads of shows. Like who doesn't want to interview the big names in the industry, right?

[18:21] Martín Acuña: But what I started seeing was that I enjoyed more sharing the stories of people that are not under the spotlight. So and that means stage managers, uh producers, directors, writers, lyricists, ensemble members, people from uh front of house, uh people that work in tickets, people that work in marketing, um, that you that are like unsung heroes in our industry.

[18:52] Martín Acuña: Yes, they sometimes have awards, but they are not like mostly recognized, right? Because you always get on both the Tonys or I don't know, any other award show like the Emmys or uh the Oscars, you get Best Direction, you get um male lead, female lead, and then secondary lead, and whatever. But you never get like I don't know, best ensemble, right?

[19:24] Martín Acuña: So I started interviewing people that somehow uh are linked to Broadway, either off-Broadway or huge Broadway, Capital B Broadway, and I just enjoy sharing their stories. So it turned to be a platform for these amazing artists to share their stories.

[19:44] Martín Acuña: I wrote down a note while you were talking about the best ensemble award. Um, and we need to talk about Diana Ensemble in a second.

[19:53] Martín Acuña: Oh my god, please. The Diana uh everything, Diana, everything.

[20:00] Martín Acuña: Yeah. And earlier I forgot to ask the question. So what can we see from the next season that you mentioned on Twitter?

[20:07] Martín Acuña: Yes, okay, so um for my for Backstage Talk's second birthday, which is on March 2022, coincidentally, it will my my my current season will end just before the birthday or the anniversary, I know, but um coincidentally I would just end the season and two or three weeks after that it's gonna be the birthday, and I was planning because for me it's been a whole huge process of finding the place of Latin Americans in musical theater.

[20:51] Martín Acuña: And why has this happened? And it is because I believe that musical theater is very ingrained and very deep in American culture, and by American culture, I mean specifically the United States, and that's the reason why when someone talks about musicals, they usually refer to them as the American musicals.

[21:18] Martín Acuña: And I just wanted to showcase my community. Even if they are people that were born in America but they have Latin heritage, or people born in any South American country that has either migrated to another American Latin American country or to the States.

[22:23] Martín Acuña: We had West Side Story. And they try to shine light into Latin American stories and Latin American heritage.

[22:45] Martín Acuña: Listening to the Hamilton cast recording when they say immigrants, we get the job done. Because yes, I do believe that. Uh, but that also is stating like, hey, we are here. Immigrants are part of what sustains this industry.

[23:02] Martín Acuña: Yeah. So for season three of Backstage Talk, I will feature Latin Americans in musical theater. So it's going to be uh Latinx in musical theater special for season three.

[23:16] Martín Acuña: And I have already started recording interviews for that show, so I will have people from Colombia. I will have people um with Cuban heritage, with Dominican heritage, with Puerto Rican heritage, um, that were either born in Miami, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, you name it.

[23:40] Martín Acuña: Um, and I am trying to book pretty big, amazing people that are like these Latin beacons of inspiration because they have been for me, and it's amazing.

[23:54] Martín Acuña: I remember this year when we had the Viva Broadway special, um, and then Chicago announced that two Latin Americans were going to play the leads, and then we had a concert of Broadway songs in Spanish. Like, you can't even start to understand and imagine how important that is for a lot of people down here, and it's truly inspiring to start to see things that you love in your language.

[24:27] Martín Acuña: Yeah, that's amazing.

[24:29] Mason Bray: So you found the purpose of your show. What tips do you have for other people wanting to start podcasts in general or theater podcasts to find their unique purpose in the Spotify world?

[24:42] Martín Acuña: Ooh, that's a great question. I honestly would really recommend to listen to what's out there. Listen to what other shows are available. Because everyone has either their interview style or their editing style or their content style. So it's really, really important to really know what is out there and try to find your space there. Because when I remember when I started, I was like, there are a thousand theater shows. Everyone went to podcasting and to digital stuff due to COVID-19. But I know a lot of people that went and released, I don't know, less than 10 episodes and then they gave up. So I persisted with that. Like, yes, I had a big hiatus from April 2021 until October because I had to regroup a lot of things from work, from life, from everything.

And during that hiatus was when I found my voice and I found those purposes. It was just talking to people about it and listening to what else was out there. So I literally only listen to one or two news outlets podcasts, and the rest is theater people. It's people from Broadway, mostly from the Broadway Podcast Network, because that's where every single podcast related to musical theater or theater in general, specifically what's going on in New York, is there. So I just started listening to what was out there and brainstorming ideas of what I wanted to do, where I wanted to take my show, and yeah, that was it.

[26:43] Mason Bray: Yeah, in the lockdown, did it allow you to have more time to find that voice that you were talking about, or was that just a natural thing that you went through? Did the lockdown help your production at all?

[26:54] Martín Acuña: It did and it didn't. Because in April I was doing my internship, and at the same time I got a part-time job, and I took the hiatus because I had too much on my plate. And once in August, my internship was done, and I only kept this part-time job that turned full-time, but I was always I always told my boss, like, hey, I have a podcast, and yes, it's been inactive for a couple of months, but I want to get back to that. Fortunately, I have always had very supportive bosses, and they understand that sometimes I will be unavailable because I am doing an interview, and that has been amazing. I usually try to plan my interviews during the weekends, in which I don't have to think about work, but only concentrate on the interview.

But going back to your question because I talk a lot, sorry for that. Going back to your original question, the lockdown pushed me into deciding if I wanted to keep doing it or not, and that was both positive and negative. Negative because I was adding pressure to what I already had, but it was positive because it's gonna be two years since I launched my first episode and my show, even though it is still small, has grown so much and I have a lot of new people in my life thanks to that podcast show. I am really happy that I persisted.

[28:02] Mason Bray: Starting to wrap up, I ask this question to everyone. Do you think your education with communication was more beneficial or the experience that you've learned as a podcaster and as a freelance artist?

[28:02] Martín Acuña: I will be honest with you. Even though I started my communications degree before starting my performing arts degree, there were a couple of times in which I wanted to drop out from communications because what lit my fire was performing arts. But today, a year after graduating communications and two years after graduating performing arts, I am so grateful that my dad pushed me to keep the double major. So this may be a party pooper comment, but honestly for everyone that wants to be an artist, try to get a side something that also ignites your fire that you also love because things like COVID can stop the world. And if it wasn't because of communications, I wouldn't have a job right now, honestly.

And I wouldn't have half the skills that I use for my podcast show. I remember talking to the daughter of one of my dad's best friends because she wants also to be a musical theater performer. I was like, honey, you know I love you. I wouldn't lie to you. But if you can't get a double major, do it. If you, I don't know, if besides performing, you also love, I don't know, art direction or costume and design or makeup or scenery design, get an architecture or a design degree too. And you will always find a way to mix both things. My current job is not as artistry in the performing arts as I would want, but I link it because I end up creating content. So I get to mix like the best of both worlds.

I will always try to find a way to go back to theater. I will always try to get back on my dream journey to Broadway. And also dreams transform. Like obviously, I would love to end up performing on a Broadway stage for the rest of my life. But right now I'm in a point of my life in which I say, oh well, if I don't end up performing, that's cool. Because I would end up, I don't know, being an assistant director for shows on Broadway, or being a social media manager for a Broadway show, or a marketing agency that works with Broadway shows, or maybe I don't even end up there. Right now, COVID has shuffled and turned things around so much that honestly I'm just living a day at a time, seeing what things I can do next.

Obviously, I'm still planning. I still want to move to New York. I still want to work on Broadway. But being in the present is way more important than living on dreams. And this is advice that I need to re-listen to every single day of my life. It's usual, it happens a lot that you give advice that you should apply to your own life. That is happening to me right now. Because I've always had this mindset of Broadway or nowhere, New York or nowhere. And the pandemic has slapped me in the face and be like, what if it's nowhere? So yeah, it may happen. Obviously, I don't want it to, but I'm just living one day at a time, and yes, education is very important, I think. So if you want to go get your performing degree, go enjoy it.

I had the best time of my life in college, but always try to have a backup, even if it's a minor degree or just outside classes, things that you enjoy, that maybe it can fill your pockets in the future, who knows? It happened to me that I always thought that I would quit communications, and no, I didn't, and I'm here working as a social media manager, as a content manager, as a podcaster, and that was a life-turning experience.

[33:30] Mason Bray: So yeah, I would say that.

[33:33] Martín Acuña: Yeah. And just because we can, you were talking about being a Broadway social media manager. So we need to talk about all the times that I randomly text you and I talk about how good social media managers are. Because oh my gosh, all eyes are on them right now.

[33:49] Mason Bray: Like Diana, that was iconic.

[33:51] Martín Acuña: Yes. The last week of the show, they were following everyone.

[33:55] Mason Bray: Oh, it was mind-blowing. I mean, the social media management of that Broadway show deserves an award in and of itself. I still don't know who runs it. I have my leads, but I still don't know. I am guessing that Marathon Digital is involved. So shout out to Marathon. If you have openings, please I want to apply. I sent you an email.

[34:19] Mason Bray: Me too. I did too.

[34:21] Martín Acuña: But yeah.

[34:23] Mason Bray: Yeah, I know. I'm always looking at their open positions. But specifically for Diana, I think that they raised the bar so damn much that on their final week, I started seeing other Broadway shows starting to emulate or engage with their followers on social media as Diana was doing. And yeah, I think it was like the people behind the people or the individual behind the Diana socials. I want to pick your brain, and I want let me be your apprentice. I want to.

[35:07] Martín Acuña: Oh, yeah. It was insane. Diana was insane. And I have a theory. So the person running Diana works at Marathon, presumably. So I think that they started seeing results from their social media and took it to like a team meeting, so then all the other marathon clients got the same idea and got the same strategy. But yeah, also Marathon, pick up your phone and answer my emails.

[35:33] Mason Bray: Yeah, like Marathon is one of those marketing agencies that would be a dream to wind up to end up working with. Is there anything else you want to add before we wrap up?

[35:45] Martín Acuña: Stay safe. The world may be going cuckoo again, but don't panic. Like, that's a thing that has been going on on Twitter and on socials. People are getting less and less information lately, and that creates a lot of panic. So don't panic. Read the news, listen to doctors and to the people that know, and just stay safe, enjoy the holidays, and keep supporting live theater and digital theater.

[36:21] Mason Bray: Yeah, and on top of listening to your doctors, also listen to Backstage Talk and all the episodes of What's Up Broadway and the Broadway Podcast Network and literally everyone that you can.

[36:31] Martín Acuña: Oh, thank you for that shameless plug.