This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Hunter Weinsheink: When you're reading a script, I love reading the between the lines. I love like finding, ah, you see, this actor said this specific thing, so we need to make sure that we are changing the lighting here and emoting this, and you know, like finding those nuggets that create moments of real awe in a show. Those are like the exciting pieces for me.

[0:33] Hunter Weinsheink: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Business of Entertainment Podcast. This podcast is dedicated to shining light on those who work behind the scenes in film, TV, theater, and live events. My guest today, Hunter Weinsheink, hails from the desert land of Arizona. Hunter is a director, actor, and improviser who has been a part of theater across the US, UK, and Israel. I first worked with Hunter on the production of Rumors by Neil Simon, put on by The Stage TLV in 2021. After our first collaboration, I can say without question, Hunter is passionate about creating new theatrical experiences and being an absolute rock star at his craft. On this episode, we're gonna discuss a lot about Hunter's unique processes of creating a show and what it means to be a director of live theater. Enjoy.

[1:33] Hunter Weinsheink: Well, welcome to my podcast. It's a working title called the Business of Entertainment.

[1:39] Unknown speaker: It's a good name.

[1:40] Hunter Weinsheink: Maybe, I don't know. Like I said, working title. I just came up with it. You want to say, but the, uh, the icon that I came up for the podcast? Maybe the art of the business of entertainment? Or the business of the art of entertainment. How many words can we fit in? Have you heard of that ridiculously long podcast that no one wants to hear about?

[2:02] Unknown speaker: Is that the name?

[2:03] Hunter Weinsheink: No. No, it's not. Uh, the thumb. Could also call it Are You Not Entertained? Exclamation point?

[2:17] Unknown speaker: Exclamation point.

[2:18] Hunter Weinsheink: I like it. With the question mark afterwards. What about instead of that emoji? What emoji could we put on the end of that? Are you not entertained? I always like one of the dancing people. Uh, or you could go along with them. The thing is when it comes to entertainment, there's not a whole lot. You know, you have the comedy and drama faces, and that's kinda it. At least from, uh, uh, from like a theatrical point of view.

[2:46] Unknown speaker: Alright.

[2:47] Hunter Weinsheink: So you know the, uh, metaphorical monkey talking on the phone?

[2:52] Unknown speaker: Yes.

[2:52] Hunter Weinsheink: Okay. My wife came up with a way better concept than that, and we found an artist on Fiverr to draw it.

[3:01] Unknown speaker: That's awesome.

[3:03] Hunter Weinsheink: Uh, so from someone who has no idea about, you know, a set, a production, how they function, and then they hear a phone call with like a producer or director. Like, I know those were words, I understand, but I have no idea what this person is. But I am not sure what's going on.

[3:23] Unknown speaker: That's really cool.

[3:24] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. The whole goal of this podcast is to just talk with people, producers, directors, and anyone that's below the line of that, uh, crew artists, about what makes, uh, uh, what is made like great productions for them.

[3:40] Unknown speaker: Right.

[3:40] Hunter Weinsheink: And like how they interact with and what is their role in terms of, uh, the connection to director or producer. Mainly towards producer because that's where, uh, my long-term focus is.

[3:52] Unknown speaker: Nice.

[3:53] Hunter Weinsheink: So if I'm not doing that in ten years, I feel like I slipped up.

[3:56] Unknown speaker: Okay.

[3:57] Hunter Weinsheink: I like that. Good to have like, uh, a specific goal. I find that for myself I oftentimes am more focused in like what I'm doing right now.

[4:05] Unknown speaker: Mm-hmm.

[4:05] Hunter Weinsheink: Uh, for better or for worse. You know, sometimes I think it can be really good to have like an eagle eye focus on what you're doing and doing it the best that you can.

[4:12] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[4:13] Hunter Weinsheink: And but I also do see that like when people are like, you know, when you go to a job interview and like, where do you see yourself in five years? Like, honestly, in an apartment, uh, rent controlled if I'm lucky.

[4:28] Unknown speaker: Rent control does not exist in this country.

[4:31] Hunter Weinsheink: Oh no. This is like an example as to why rent control was put into as a law. So that people don't end up with astronomical rents in a, you know, shoe box. I actually used to live, fun fact, I did actually used to live in the basement floor of a kamuna with six guys, uh, and various partners and children and animals. There's so many.

[4:55] Unknown speaker: It was a lot.

[4:56] Hunter Weinsheink: That is a huge list. The thing is, it was a really nice, renovated, gorgeous place, and I had the smallest room, which was a clo—like it legitimately used to be a closet that they tried to rent out, and I, someone took it, I took it. And so I was in the basement floor, I had enough room for a bed and a wardrobe, and that was it. And my window looked up to the entrance and it had bars on it, like a prison cell.

[5:24] Unknown speaker: Whoa.

[5:24] Hunter Weinsheink: And I paid a respectable amount of rent for that lovely Tel Aviv apartment. But we had really good parties and we had a projector to watch stuff on and, uh, like an outdoor area. It was three stories, it was awesome.

[5:40] Unknown speaker: Dude, if people—dude, I've said this to so many people. I am very pro going to find, like go find yourself. Huge. And coming here and seeing how much that can happen. I'm not saying like, oh, you come here and you find yourself as wanting to be this or that or like, like whatever it is, however you find yourself and what you want to do, there's a great—it is so liberating to just be able to do that. And hear so many stories from other people that have come here and done that too.

[6:10] Hunter Weinsheink: There was one guy that I met. Um, we were finished—we finished a sh—uh, production at Susandal. We went out, uh, in that area, what is that area called? In Florence, no, Nevitic.

[6:19] Unknown speaker: Nevitek.

[6:21] Hunter Weinsheink: We went to a restaurant in Nevitic and somebody who knows somebody came by with somebody else. I don't remember these names.

[6:27] Unknown speaker: Okay.

[6:28] Hunter Weinsheink: Guy sits down at the table. He apparently won a one-year all-around the world trip from like Discovery or something. It was one of those people. That's ridiculous. I forget, but we were talking about his journeys and this and that. He went to Thailand to learn how to Muay Thai fight. Like, dude, that is so crazy. And when I asked him, like, was it worth it? He said, Talk to me in a few years, I'll let you know. It's one of those things that's like compounding interest, you know?

[6:53] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[6:53] Hunter Weinsheink: You find yourself and then you're like, well, I found myself, and then two years later you're like, oh, okay. But I do think that those experiences help die, you know, create the person that you are.

[7:04] Unknown speaker: Oh, absolutely, for sure.

[7:06] Hunter Weinsheink: I had come here wanting to, uh, to do a, uh, an internship in film and television, and where do you know anyone who went through these programs? I don't need to name names. There's lots of different programs. I'm not gonna shout out and when you say internship, it's, uh, it is you will work for free. 100% and I hope you like it. But holy cow, we had, um, I didn't even—I didn't ask for it. I didn't say, uh, I wasn't on an order form where I could choose. I got an apartment. Key card isn't golf, third floor. Um, like you know the white building next to the movie theater?

[7:49] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[7:49] Hunter Weinsheink: That building. Nice. In the summer.

[7:54] Unknown speaker: And you were paying a respectable rent?

[7:57] Hunter Weinsheink: I pay—it was part of my program. So how they gave it to you, that's what I got in my program. That whole building basically had some people just living there permanently, some actual residents, but it was rented out mostly for my program. Yeah, and one night one of us was super drunk and we were trying to figure out where he was, and he got up on the roof and he was like, dude, I'm on the roof. We're like, there's a roof after that, I shit you not. We put together basically every Friday a potluck Shabbat dinner on the roof.

[8:27] Unknown speaker: It's chilling.

[8:28] Hunter Weinsheink: And me and Dimitri were cooking for most of the people. This guy who I've befriended named Dimitri, shout out Dimitri, makes amazing food. I actually, uh, wrote the ten rules about Dimitri. You know how like the rules of, um, uh, what's his name? The student of Bruce Lee, why can't I think of it?

[8:40] Unknown speaker: Chuck Norris.

[8:40] Hunter Weinsheink: Like the rules of Chuck Norris. When Chuck Norris jumps in the water, the water—Chuck Norris doesn't get wet, the water gets Chuck Norris. Right. Right. Right. It was, um, um, fuck. No, I just got lost into too many. You wrote the ten rules.

[9:03] Unknown speaker: Oh yeah, ten rules about Dimitri.

[9:05] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. Yeah, so I wrote the ten rules about Dimitri that were basically like that. And anyways, me and Dimitri cool though. I don't remember. I could pull it up. You want me to pull it up?

[9:13] Unknown speaker: I think you should.

[9:14] Hunter Weinsheink: Alright. While I pull it up, I'll keep talking.

[9:16] Unknown speaker: Okay.

[9:17] Hunter Weinsheink: So, um, at least we won't get bored, you know?

[9:21] Unknown speaker: Yeah, it's true.

[9:22] Hunter Weinsheink: Uh, got him. So, uh, where would I find it? Ah, no. There we go. So anyways, me and Dimitri cook for most of the people and like whatever you want to it, we would figure out how much it costs, and we would say it's ten shekels or fifteen shekels. You eat as much as you want. There's no like, oh, can we do five and I get half a plate. No. The entry like if you want to eat what we're making. We would every day make food for like ten people.

[9:47] Unknown speaker: That's awesome.

[9:48] Hunter Weinsheink: And we, uh, when my program ended, I was actually sleeping on—I stayed in that building because I was offered a job. Let me rewind. Hang on a second. Um, what am I searching for? Uh, it's crazy how many people, uh, you know, it—and I don't think it's actually specific to Tel Aviv. I think it's one of these things that it happens in a lot of big cities.

[10:12] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[10:16] Hunter Weinsheink: Where you meet a couple people and you just start kind of creating, I don't know if it's a routine or a life or, you know, whatever you want to call it, but I found it too where suddenly, uh, I meet people who live here and it's like, you know, every Friday they have the routine, they go to their family, they do, uh, uh, what they grew up doing, and then you meet all the new immigrants, uh, who are like, Oh yeah, yeah, every Friday I go to this potluck on this guy's roof, and we eat random shit, and it's really crazy how like different it is for those of us who have emigrated or moved over.

[10:53] Unknown speaker: It is, it really is.

[10:56] Hunter Weinsheink: I never thought I was gonna do it. It wasn't like a plan for me.

[10:59] Unknown speaker: No, no.

[11:01] Hunter Weinsheink: Why can't I search my Facebook page? I hit search and then it's post I've seen. Maybe it's Dumetta.

[11:14] Unknown speaker: But um maybe.

[11:16] Hunter Weinsheink: Ah, he wants to be my friend. Okay, can be my friend.

[11:30] Hunter Weinsheink: I don't know why I can't find him. I can't find the post. I'm screwing this up.

[11:36] Unknown speaker: It's okay.

[11:37] Hunter Weinsheink: Anyways, we had the rules of Dimitri. We, well, one time we were where we were living, but that's and was still in the theater, right? Like in that same—in the previous, uh, location.

[11:47] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[11:47] Hunter Weinsheink: And one time we found a half broken couch outside of the theater, and we just—I picked it up and carried it, and we put it into our apartment on the Mir Pesta. And then while Dima and I were drinking, we were just chilling and talking, and I was like, Hey man, I think we could fit this on the roof. He was like, won't fit up there. You can't get it through the hole. And I was like, No, I think we can do it. I've heard that before. And I was like, I was like, listen, let's give it a try. It's not that heavy. Because I carried it myself from the theater to like one whole block. Not a big deal. And it wasn't small, it was like this at least, uh, a little bit longer than this table.

[12:24] Unknown speaker: Humble brag, yeah.

[12:25] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. Humble brag. So, uh, it was easy for us to try and pull it up. It fit like it was touching the sides as it went through, but we got it up there. And then we had a couch on the roof.

[12:36] Unknown speaker: That's awesome.

[12:37] Hunter Weinsheink: I don't know if you were with us when we, um, when we were doing Rumors, were you with us when we got the couch? The black couch that we had on stage?

[12:46] Unknown speaker: I don't think so.

[12:47] Hunter Weinsheink: So a few of us went, uh, one of the girls who was the assistant stage manager donated an old leather couch to us. Which first of all was a lovely donation, but second of all, old leather, uh, like old, old leather when it starts to chip and then no longer looks black, and so we, um, had to somehow get it down the stairs, and I think it was four people. This fucking couch was so heavy, and in those narrow staircases where it was hugging the side all the way down, and our thought was it's only, uh, you know, her place is a fifteen twenty minute walk from the theater.

[13:24] Hunter Weinsheink: We'll just carry the couch on our backs all the way over to the theater. And you know, it didn't seem like a bad plan at the time. Wait, it's a twenty to thirty minute walk.

[13:34] Unknown speaker: Fifteen to twenty minutes.

[13:35] Hunter Weinsheink: Fifteen to twenty without a couch.

[13:37] Unknown speaker: Yes.

[13:39] Hunter Weinsheink: Like an hour. So my logic was the fifteen to twenty minute walk with a couch on our backs, you know?

[13:45] Unknown speaker: You just made it an hour long journey.

[13:47] Hunter Weinsheink: 100%. Luckily, one of our lovely volunteers, Judy, just showed up with a car and we were like, we can make this work. So we just threw it on top of the car.

[13:58] Hunter Weinsheink: Actually, I think we threw it in the car and just left the trunk open with half the couch sticking out and drove slowly and got there. Yeah, it was one of those things that took much longer and a lot more sweat than you expected it to take.

[14:15] Unknown speaker: But it's just because you were too optimistic when you were looking into it.

[14:19] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. But I think that's the thing. When you have free things, you're like, yeah, I'll do whatever it takes to get it. It's free.

[14:26] Unknown speaker: That's true.

[14:27] Hunter Weinsheink: Especially when you're brand new here and you don't have money.

[14:30] Unknown speaker: 100%.

[14:30] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, that's it. I've actually lived in multiple apartments too where the couches have just been off the street. You know, you lys all it or whatever the equivalent is.

[14:41] Hunter Weinsheink: Some people put some nice stuff out. Like I lived on Pinsker next like right near Biala. And dude, like some people put like a really nice ass, like hand stitched couch that like old from like the 60s.

[14:54] Unknown speaker: Backpedal, hand stitched couch like embroidered.

[14:56] Hunter Weinsheink: Oh, okay. For a second I was like, I crocheted this couch.

[15:02] Unknown speaker: Did you crochet the wood, sir?

[15:03] Hunter Weinsheink: I yeah, 100%. It would take a very long time, but actually I have a rug in that room that I did crochet as a thumb pack.

[15:11] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[15:11] Hunter Weinsheink: Dude, I built my own bed.

[15:13] Unknown speaker: Out of crochet?

[15:15] Hunter Weinsheink: No. Even more romantic.

[15:18] Hunter Weinsheink: It was the first set, the first day I worked here was on Nickelodeon Stuttgart. When they at the end of the season got rid of the show, they were done with that set.

[15:31] Hunter Weinsheink: They put it out for recycling. I was allowed to take whatever I wanted from them.

[15:36] Unknown speaker: That's awesome.

[15:37] Hunter Weinsheink: I took every day by bicycle enough wood back to Tel Aviv to build myself a bunk bed.

[15:46] Unknown speaker: And is this the bed that your daughter currently uses?

[15:50] Hunter Weinsheink: No.

[15:50] Unknown speaker: Okay.

[15:53] Hunter Weinsheink: And there was a futon underneath the bunk bed. So I had a futon where I could sit down below with a dresser, and then I had a bunk bed where I slept on.

[16:02] Unknown speaker: So it was like only the top bunk.

[16:03] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah.

[16:04] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, it's just a top bunk. And then there was like this weird, like I don't even know how to like make this triangle.

[16:10] Hunter Weinsheink: I've never seen such a weird triangle in my life. It was a corner of my room. But the other wall, so it was like this weird triangle, then this, and then like the wall came down.

[16:20] Unknown speaker: It was fucking weird.

[16:21] Hunter Weinsheink: Completely weird. And I was like, wait a minute, I could build a triangle shaped desk.

[16:26] Hunter Weinsheink: So I brought back, I like measured how much like the space is, and then at work, I cut a triangle piece and then bicycled that back and made that my desk.

[16:36] Unknown speaker: That's very impressive.

[16:38] Hunter Weinsheink: I bolted the bed to the wall by each post.

[16:43] Unknown speaker: Okay, I was about to say, like, were you ever concerned on a bed of your own making?

[16:49] Hunter Weinsheink: But nope. Seems pretty good. I was very happy with it.

[16:53] Hunter Weinsheink: The reason I remember is it came up in my feed yesterday, like ten years ago today, and it showed the bed upside down.

[17:00] Unknown speaker: Actually, that is something I can show you.

[17:02] Hunter Weinsheink: I don't know if I like those or hate those.

[17:05] Hunter Weinsheink: It was ten years since this happened.

[17:07] Unknown speaker: I'm loving it.

[17:08] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah.

[17:08] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[17:09] Hunter Weinsheink: I'm most of 'em.

[17:11] Hunter Weinsheink: I am looking at like one day party, next day work, one day party, like club, next day.

[17:15] Unknown speaker: Well, and it's also good because it's not like you're posting like ten years ago, I was, you know, like dead in a ditch.

[17:21] Hunter Weinsheink: Like you're not posting the shitty things, so you're like, ah, good memories, ten years ago. Here we go. Making a custom bunk bed, a work in progress.

[17:31] Unknown speaker: That's awesome.

[17:33] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah.

[17:34] Hunter Weinsheink: June 9th, 2012.

[17:39] Unknown speaker: Twenty twelve.

[17:40] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah.

[17:41] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, the world was supposed to be. Look at how much metal hardware I put on that bed for that wood and metal to connect to each other.

[17:48] Unknown speaker: You asked me if I was concerned.

[17:50] Hunter Weinsheink: Look, yeah, you can't say you weren't safe with it.

[17:54] Unknown speaker: I practice, I try and practice what I preach with safety.

[17:57] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah.

[17:57] Unknown speaker: I try to.

[17:59] Hunter Weinsheink: Makes sense.

[18:00] Hunter Weinsheink: You don't want to end up with, I remember like, you want everything to be secure and don't want anyone to die.

[18:07] Unknown speaker: No.

[18:08] Hunter Weinsheink: No. I don't even want to get into that aspect of production life because that's just horrible and sad.

[18:15] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[18:15] Hunter Weinsheink: No show's worth dying for. If it's like for me, rule number one, make it safe. Rule number two, have fun. Because if you're not having fun, why the fuck are we here? Go work in a cubicle.

[18:26] Unknown speaker: A hundred percent.

[18:26] Hunter Weinsheink: I also think though, like, I will say that danger sometimes does pay off. I did see Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

[18:35] Unknown speaker: I talked about that in my first podcast.

[18:37] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, I saw it on Broadway, and I was beyond enamored, and I thought it was incredible.

[18:44] Unknown speaker: What?

[18:44] Hunter Weinsheink: Yes, it was a good show.

[18:47] Unknown speaker: I loved it.

[18:48] Hunter Weinsheink: I saw it when I was in high school, granted. But like it was, and there was only one almost fall of like one of the Spider-Men.

[19:01] Unknown speaker: But why weren't they connected with the right safety harness?

[19:04] Hunter Weinsheink: No, no, they were connected, but it's like, you know, they go over the audience, yeah, and then they go all the way back, and they have platforms that they stand on when the guy lost his balance on the platform.

[19:14] Hunter Weinsheink: So he was on the harness, he would have been fine, but then like someone grabbed him and pulled him on it, just would have taken you out of the show.

[19:22] Unknown speaker: Yeah, an actor falling directly in front of you almost to his death.

[19:26] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, that takes you out of the show.

[19:27] Unknown speaker: A little bit, yeah, but it was a great show.

[19:30] Hunter Weinsheink: Dude, Cirque du Soleil actors do that stuff with no harnesses.

[19:33] Unknown speaker: Yeah, but that's like their lives, that is what they're trained for.

[19:37] Hunter Weinsheink: I think it's a little different than I'm a Broadway actor, put me in a harness, you know.

[19:42] Unknown speaker: That's what concerned me about it.

[19:43] Hunter Weinsheink: When looking back at like what happened with that show, and I researched two of the actors that played each Spider-Man, and I tried to find who were like the, you know, people like to broadcast like their logos on big productions, like we did this for this whatever, whatever.

[19:58] Unknown speaker: So it's easy to find some of this.

[19:59] Hunter Weinsheink: And it's just looking at who is a part of this, and then I look at something like Cirque, where they do these shows, you know, at before COVID day in, day out, forty-four different shows around the world, touring and residence shows in multiple countries.

[20:14] Unknown speaker: I think twenty-two of them were in Vegas.

[20:16] Hunter Weinsheink: Simultaneously.

[20:17] Unknown speaker: That's incredible.

[20:18] Hunter Weinsheink: Multiple shows over ten thousand shows.

[20:20] Unknown speaker: That's really incredible.

[20:21] Hunter Weinsheink: But dude, that is an incredible feat. They've had, have they had injuries?

[20:26] Unknown speaker: Yes.

[20:26] Hunter Weinsheink: Are there, they are so few, you could literally, the reason you can bring them up is because there are so few.

[20:35] Unknown speaker: You know who they are.

[20:35] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. And also I think the people, if you say, I'm gonna go do Cirque du Soleil, it's because you feel pretty confident that you're not going to get hurt in your day job.

[20:45] Unknown speaker: Because if you do, you're out of a job.

[20:46] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. You know, it's not like you, you know, if I get hurt working at my desk, well, I'm not gonna get hurt at my desk.

[20:52] Unknown speaker: But if I get hurt, I can still go to my desk.

[20:54] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. If you get hurt during this, it's like an athlete, you know, in any case, you can't play the game anymore.

[20:58] Unknown speaker: What you can do is become a trainer, you can be some other things.

[21:03] Hunter Weinsheink: There are the other.

[21:03] Hunter Weinsheink: But honestly, though, even the people who do this, like they literally scout Olympic gold medalists.

[21:08] Unknown speaker: Like that's the one of the shirt is sole.

[21:10] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. Some of their athletes are like a step down though.

[21:15] Unknown speaker: No, they see what they do is they find people who are Olympic gold medalists, like, oh, you've got a gold?

[21:19] Hunter Weinsheink: Alright, you're good enough to train.

[21:21] Unknown speaker: Ah, okay, okay.

[21:22] Hunter Weinsheink: I hear you.

[21:22] Unknown speaker: I don't know.

[21:23] Hunter Weinsheink: I'm not, I'm not saying that's how it works.

[21:25] Hunter Weinsheink: I think also that would be hilarious if it was.

[21:29] Hunter Weinsheink: It's, do you actually know Reeve Carney who played the original Spider-Man, like the main Spider-Man, not the Sun Spider-Man in Turn Off the Dark, was also the original cast lead for Hadestown?

[21:44] Unknown speaker: He played Orpheus.

[21:45] Hunter Weinsheink: You familiar with Hadestown?

[21:47] Unknown speaker: Didn't see Hadestown.

[21:48] Hunter Weinsheink: I didn't see it, but I watched a lot about it, listened to the music.

[21:52] Hunter Weinsheink: I really, really, really liked it. As far as the amount that I knew the show. Hopefully I'll see it if it's still playing come the next time I'm in the States.

[22:03] Unknown speaker: But it looked like a really awesome show.

[22:06] Hunter Weinsheink: What shows do you like going to? Because I would love to go to a show that you want to go see.

[22:12] Unknown speaker: Um, so in general, I'm actually going to London pretty soon for work, and I will not be going to London pretty soon.

[22:19] Hunter Weinsheink: No, but I am gonna go see The Show That Goes Wrong.

[22:22] Unknown speaker: Dude, they did that here in Israel.

[22:24] Hunter Weinsheink: They did?

[22:25] Unknown speaker: You didn't see it?

[22:26] Hunter Weinsheink: I didn't know it was with Bait Lesson.

[22:28] Unknown speaker: When did they do it?

[22:29] Hunter Weinsheink: A few years ago.

[22:30] Unknown speaker: I worked on that show.

[22:31] Hunter Weinsheink: And was it, I didn't know what I didn't know what I was doing. Like that day, I'm like, I'm there, it's just like it's not my show to run, but it's one of their shows, so I'm an assistant for the head of whatever that day for lighting.

[22:43] Unknown speaker: So I would be around while they were building it.

[22:46] Hunter Weinsheink: After you build it, you have to then test everything. I was completely unaware of what was being tested and for what.

[22:54] Unknown speaker: I was legitimately scared things were going to fall on.

[22:57] Hunter Weinsheink: And things were breaking, yeah.

[22:59] Unknown speaker: I was like, things were breaking.

[23:01] Hunter Weinsheink: I didn't know why. And I felt like dude the first time like a flat, like when I go cut by a chain, I'm like, oh my god.

[23:09] Unknown speaker: You want to talk about a show.

[23:11] Hunter Weinsheink: I haven't seen it. I've only seen, you know, parts of it. But you want to talk about a show where like the tech is really the art in that case.

[23:17] Unknown speaker: I think that's a perfect example because you have to build that set to fall apart.

[23:17] Hunter Weinsheink: You have to build it to break.

[23:23] Unknown speaker: You do.

[23:23] Hunter Weinsheink: And then put it back together.

[23:24] Unknown speaker: And that I think is something really cool.

[23:26] Hunter Weinsheink: But if you want to ask about like shows that I like seeing, I'm very torn because I like musicals, but unpopular opinion, I don't love them.

[23:36] Unknown speaker: I like listening to them.

[23:38] Hunter Weinsheink: Really?

[23:39] Unknown speaker: But I will prefer a play over a musical.

[23:42] Hunter Weinsheink: Hmm.

[23:42] Unknown speaker: Interesting.

[23:43] Hunter Weinsheink: Because I really, and it's also part of me as a director, but I really look at the acting, the stagecraft as an art of something that you can really focus and you can really see.

[23:57] Unknown speaker: And I tend to feel that in musicals, there's a little bit of hiding behind song and dance.

[24:04] Hunter Weinsheink: Ah, I see which in terms of story.

[24:07] Unknown speaker: In certain not actually as much in terms sometimes in terms of story, but I think of it almost more as in terms of the ability of the actors.

[24:15] Hunter Weinsheink: You know, like you have to say I'm putting on this musical.

[24:18] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[24:18] Hunter Weinsheink: And I need to cast a group of people, I need them to be able to sing at a certain level, and I need to be able to dance at a certain level, and oftentimes I feel that the acting becomes secondary.

[24:30] Unknown speaker: That you say that, like, yes, it's important that they're able to emote and get what I need out of them, but the wow factor that the audience is going to remember is the high note that they hit, and that wow.

[24:41] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, the wow moment, the dancing of the entire ensemble, and you can often hide behind an ensemble as well.

[24:47] Unknown speaker: That's not to say I don't like it.

[24:48] Hunter Weinsheink: I think ensembles are really incredible, and I love, love, love some musicals I think can be done very well.

[24:54] Unknown speaker: It can't, what you're saying is it can be a cheat code depending on how you use it.

[24:59] Hunter Weinsheink: A little bit, yeah.

[25:00] Hunter Weinsheink: And as a director where I'm really focusing on the original writing that I'm getting and the actors and making an audience feel something.

[25:12] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[25:12] Hunter Weinsheink: Because this may be because I'm not a musician, but I do feel that it's like it's almost like an easy hack.

[25:19] Unknown speaker: You know, like it's an easy way that I still love going and seeing musicals.

[25:23] Hunter Weinsheink: I think oftentimes I leave a musical going, I want to go on stage and do that.

[25:28] Unknown speaker: You know, like it really, it makes you feel really, really strong, some musicals.

[25:33] Hunter Weinsheink: And like some of my favorite musicals are Hairspray.

[25:39] Unknown speaker: Who doesn't like Hairspray?

[25:41] Hunter Weinsheink: Everyone loves Hairspray.

[25:42] Unknown speaker: The original one though, not the new one, way better.

[25:46] Hunter Weinsheink: The movie.

[25:47] Unknown speaker: Yeah, yeah.

[25:47] Hunter Weinsheink: The original.

[25:48] Unknown speaker: And I also think I've never seen it in live though.

[25:52] Hunter Weinsheink: I saw it live actually here in Hebrew, and this was the funniest thing for me.

[25:57] Hunter Weinsheink: I saw it, I was only in Israel for a year, and at the time my Hebrew was absolute shit.

[26:03] Hunter Weinsheink: But it was a gift from like a work employee, and they took me with them, and it was actually the opening night, and I didn't know, and there was only one row of seats that were sold to the public, and everything else was invite only, and we were in that row.

[26:16] Unknown speaker: So we were surrounded by a bunch of Israeli stars and whatnot who I didn't know at the time, but whatever.

[26:22] Hunter Weinsheink: Because I know the show so well, didn't matter that it was in a different language. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I got every joke and I understood the thing because I know that show.

[26:35] Hunter Weinsheink: And so that I think was great as far as the musical goes. Um I tend to, I think, uh, in musicals veer a little bit more towards comedy. Whereas uh when it comes to plays, either I'm gonna go full farce, you know, like I love um one of my favorite plays of all time is Thirty Nine Steps.

[26:55] Unknown speaker: I don't know that show.

[26:57] Hunter Weinsheink: Oh you've got to got to got to see. I it's a dream of mine to direct it, but it will be uh hell in a handbasket to do, and you want to talk about really difficult tech. That's also a show with very, very I don't know if I'd say difficult, but uh you can be as artistic as you want to be. Really?

[27:13] Unknown speaker: Um yeah, the 39 Steps is based off of an Alfred Hitchcock film by the same name.

[27:18] Hunter Weinsheink: Uh and as you know, probably with most Hitchcocks, those are your, you know, very intense. But the fact that I don't know Hitchcock, and I'm pretty sure people who listen to this know that I should probably know who's Hitchcock. I'm gonna catch a lot of flack. So educate an idiot, please. Tell me about it.

[27:34] Hunter Weinsheink: So uh basically most Hitchcock films are, you know, your classic film noir mystery.

[27:39] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[27:40] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. That you go dark and interesting and you get the voice, so watch going, you know. My favorite was the woman who killed her husband with the frozen lamb shank, and then she cooked it and served it to the cops. And the cop at the end was like, I'm sure the murder weapon is right under our noses.

[27:53] Unknown speaker: Yeah, exactly, exactly.

[27:54] Hunter Weinsheink: It's great, great stuff. So this was a play based off of the movie. Based off the same yeah, uh, based off of uh the same name, but that took it to a complete different direction. And it makes kind of fun of Alfred Hitchcock and Phil Noir in a play sense, and it's a complete, complete farce. Um, it is a cast of roughly I believe a hundred and twelve characters played by four actors.

[28:21] Unknown speaker: I got a question.

[28:22] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah.

[28:23] Unknown speaker: What if you did that live in black and white?

[28:27] Hunter Weinsheink: That would be really, really interesting. Like you're talking like full lighting makeup set everything.

[28:33] Unknown speaker: Yep.

[28:34] Hunter Weinsheink: That'd be really cool. There's a theater that's done it.

[28:36] Unknown speaker: They specialized it.

[28:38] Hunter Weinsheink: In black and white theater?

[28:39] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[28:39] Hunter Weinsheink: I don't remember, but I looked on their website and some of their blogs to like know more about this. They don't at the time, I don't haven't looked at it recently, uh, they did not give they said it was like their secret sauce of how to put uh how to put that makeup to the top of the yeah.

[28:56] Hunter Weinsheink: I was looking at some of it and I saw it had to do with certain undertones and overtones of the um of the uh makeup and then there had to be some specific type of lighting. I think it was uh it was daylight lighting and they had orange or makeup on.

[29:14] Unknown speaker: Like it was Ah to reflect.

[29:16] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, to reflect the blue light to kinda make it like balance out like super interesting. And the reason I think that is because I saw a picture of one member of the audience, uh one member of the cast with someone outside of the theater, like by like the entrance or whatever. It might have been that she was blue, like overly blue.

[29:31] Unknown speaker: That would be blue.

[29:32] Hunter Weinsheink: I forget it was one or the other. Where they're like the makeup and the the light complemented each other to reflect white. That's really interesting. That's what in my head made sense. I don't know, but I tried testing it one time. That one test didn't work out so well. It gave me an idea of what doesn't work. But I would love to be able to put on a show in black and white.

[29:52] Hunter Weinsheink: That would be really cool. And there are a few things that go in that direction. Um but when it comes to the thirty-nine steps, it's four actors playing a hundred and twelve parts. You have the main actor who is only one character the entire time. Uh and he's the he's uh the main character. You have the second actor who is the main female leads, uh, and I think there's four or five of them.

[30:16] Hunter Weinsheink: And then you have the final two actors, which are called the two clowns, uh genderless, play every other character, the other a hundred characters in the show. First of all, the costume changes are constantly boom boom boom boom. Um the set changes. One of my favorite pieces of the show is there's a moment where they travel. And you know how in some of the older movies you also have in Indiana Jones where they go to the map and you have the plane.

[30:41] Unknown speaker: So above that there's a projector on the back of the uh show, and then they like turn down the lights and they project it, and then they do shadow work of the plane and the people as they travel.

[30:52] Hunter Weinsheink: So you have puppetry involved, you have really crazy sets that are constantly changing, going on and off and on and off and reusing all the same pieces, uh, and it's just hilarious.

[31:04] Unknown speaker: Yeah, look, you can do a cheaper version of it, but the at the end of the day you want to do it well, you know.

[31:09] Hunter Weinsheink: Right. Um I'm I'm a firm believer that you can find cheap ways to do to make things look expensive. But at the you know, if you are going to have fifty set pieces that are all that you need to be able to move in a heartbeat, you're also gonna need people who uh really, really good costumers who can sew a half and half, you know, half suit, half dress, and then somebody turns around and they're a different character.

[31:35] Hunter Weinsheink: Whatever they need to to be that. So I've seen that in the States, I've seen that in London. One of my favorite shows of all time. That I would love to do someday. It's called 39.

[31:44] Unknown speaker: The 39 Steps.

[31:46] Hunter Weinsheink: The 39 Steps. Yeah. Um there's also um in terms of plays. I I'm a sucker for good American classics. Really? So I love uh The Crucible. I love uh Streetcar Named Desire.

[32:04] Unknown speaker: I have never seen Streetcar Named Desire.

[32:07] Hunter Weinsheink: There's some old movies I haven't watched that I've been starting to watch recently.

[32:11] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[32:11] Hunter Weinsheink: Can I tell you one of them?

[32:12] Unknown speaker: What is it?

[32:13] Hunter Weinsheink: Because I went to film school, and you might laugh at me for for this, but uh two months ago for the first time I saw Apocalypse Now.

[32:21] Unknown speaker: Really?

[32:22] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah.

[32:23] Unknown speaker: And what did you think?

[32:25] Hunter Weinsheink: Every moment of that movie was like, wow, the earth is ending. Which is what Civilization is. But I love that quick cameo that um uh he did the director did of himself with the cinematographer and uh production designer. It was um um why can't I think of the ASC member the guy who shot it? Vittorio Starraro was a cinematographer, um, Frank Coppola, the director, and the production designer was can't remember.

[32:55] Unknown speaker: Apologies.

[32:56] Hunter Weinsheink: Um yeah, they had their own cameo in it, and I paused it, and I I was like, What? And I looked it up, and then I called my friend, and I was like, Is this them in the movie? He was like, Yeah, that's where that shot of them in a textbook that you read about when you read about the movie comes from.

[33:12] Unknown speaker: There's what is the famous line at the very end of Apocalypse now?

[33:16] Hunter Weinsheink: I don't remember.

[33:17] Unknown speaker: Oh no, it's gonna drive me crazy.

[33:19] Hunter Weinsheink: Spoiler alert. No, it's either it's it's it's this is really gonna drive me crazy. I need to I'll look it up. Um but yeah, Apocalypse Now is one of those uh must you know I would also love to do a stage version someday. I'm sure this already exists but I would love to do a stage version of 2001 of Space Odyssey.

[33:39] Unknown speaker: That'd be cool.

[33:40] Hunter Weinsheink: This is the uh black and white theater I was telling you about with the one person in color.

[33:45] Unknown speaker: Yeah that's that's a beautiful red dress.

[33:49] Hunter Weinsheink: That's really really cool. I'd love to do something like that. You know I think when you talk about the set involved the the makeup I'm actually almost less worried about because I think makeup and light you can do but it's building the set in a way also that doesn't look cheap.

[34:06] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[34:06] Hunter Weinsheink: Um and also the floor you know we I I oftentimes will work with a theater that I don't own. So yeah what can you screw into the floor not just painting the floor and you know the the traveling theaters here they don't paint the floor they travel with their own state like a math every show no not even some some are maths but most of them are wood flats.

[34:31] Unknown speaker: Like uh really and they play with thick plywood like a they drill them in the three push yep we drill them into the stage and that's the floor.

[34:38] Hunter Weinsheink: Nice. So that every time they know they have the same floor. That's like items it seems kind of like uh redundant like hey man it's whatever it I mean obviously it adds to the artistic value of the show because you can control more of what the viewer sees but also the actors know exactly where they need to hit their marks and where things are going to be and like the chair like we can mark things so on this floor this chair is going to be here at the beginning of the show.

[35:02] Unknown speaker: Absolutely a thousand percent of the makes a lot more sense when you're talking about travel.

[35:06] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah.

[35:07] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[35:09] Hunter Weinsheink: So um what what was I um I wrote I I wrote down the thirty-nine steps as well.

[35:15] Hunter Weinsheink: Thirty nine steps, I really can't say it enough. Um if you're gonna watch a good classic movie, but also the play, uh, you really like Streetcar Named Desire, The Stella, you know.

[35:27] Unknown speaker: It's so good, but there's actually two versions.

[35:30] Hunter Weinsheink: Um first of all, the movie with um the the main male lead.

[35:37] Unknown speaker: Brando?

[35:38] Hunter Weinsheink: Yes, Marlon Brando in his prime is like wow. I heard that was the movie that like changed acting for people where they looked at his acting and went, Oh.

[35:47] Unknown speaker: Th you can do this, yeah.

[35:49] Hunter Weinsheink: It was so that's first of all, I think a phenomenal movie. But also, um London Theatre, one of the theaters in London, I'm gonna get the name wrong, but just did uh a reprisal of um uh a streetcar named Desire, and they did it in a really interesting way because the show is all about looking into the American family in a way that you don't before.

[36:19] Unknown speaker: Yeah, you get these glimpses of a little bit of domestic abuse, but love and how you know, all these pieces, especially if you think about um uh the main female lead, um, whose name is escaping me is also driving me crazy.

[36:35] Hunter Weinsheink: But I always depend on the uh Oh my god, this is gonna drive me crazy. It's one of my favorite shows. Um it will come to me.

[36:45] Unknown speaker: Uh The Kindness of Strangers.

[36:46] Hunter Weinsheink: I always depend on the kindness of strangers.

[36:48] Unknown speaker: Okay.

[36:49] Hunter Weinsheink: Is the m the famous line that she says. But it it's it's another character who is all smoke and mirrors and is masks and is really losing it underneath.

[36:57] Hunter Weinsheink: So the whole show is about how you can see something on one side and then when you really dig into it and look what's going on inside the family. Uh it's very different. And a lot of shows of that era it was very, very indicative of what's really happening behind closed doors.

[37:15] Unknown speaker: And so they took that idea behind closed doors or behind the walls and they built a wallless set.

[37:21] Hunter Weinsheink: So it was just the bare bones like the the uh outline the metal outline of a two story building.

[37:28] Unknown speaker: Whoa.

[37:29] Hunter Weinsheink: Uh and so you have the floor obviously and then they did it in a rotating stage.

[37:34] Unknown speaker: So that's complicated.

[37:36] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah it's theater in the round first oh I think physically moving stage.

[37:40] Unknown speaker: Okay you did it in the round theater in the round and a stage that was moving very very slowly 360 degrees.

[37:46] Hunter Weinsheink: The whole time?

[37:47] Unknown speaker: The entire time very slowly.

[37:50] Hunter Weinsheink: So like the actors weren't gonna like fall over. But uh what it meant is that like you're sitting theater in the round and you're looking inside the house at every different angle which is this underlying motif of the play as well and I thought it was brilliantly done.

[38:07] Hunter Weinsheink: So I I actually I really love when you got the money spend it on something.

[38:11] Unknown speaker: Exactly if you're a well funded theater you better show it off that's what I think.

[38:17] Hunter Weinsheink: Dude I'm loving how um live events now they can't uh they can't skimp out.

[38:25] Unknown speaker: No.

[38:25] Hunter Weinsheink: The bar's been set too high. Hundred percent I remember reading about um uh like the first time moving lights were used on a on a like uh an audio um uh a musicianal tour uh band tour a tour what's wrong with me anyways it like reading about people's opinion who were there like from the lighting board operator or something like that and it's like wow what is that like and then like we're around four like seeing being able to communicate with these devices like via our phone.

[38:58] Unknown speaker: Yeah, an iPad.

[38:59] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. I I can connect things to an app that talks to an iPad and I can just control and test certain things standing in one location on a set with just an iPad.

[39:09] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[39:09] Hunter Weinsheink: You can't do everything on an iPad. But you can do a lot. You can do a hell of a lot.

[39:14] Unknown speaker: A hell of a lot.

[39:15] Hunter Weinsheink: It is awesome the way technology has advanced for production.

[39:19] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[39:20] Hunter Weinsheink: It has. What got you into theater? Like uh like is can you remember a moment in time of like I wanna be in theater. And from that what led you to directing?

[39:32] Hunter Weinsheink: Um it's a good question. I think a lot of it happened in high school for me. Uh there were two points that it really clicked. One of them was my grandma would always take me to see shows with her.

[39:45] Hunter Weinsheink: So I would always go to symphony, opera plays and theater. Uh, so I did enjoy it from a young age and there is a feeling that you have, uh, as a child, you know, not even as a child, I still get it now at the end of a show where you look at the actors on stage and you go, I wanna do that. And originally acting was the thing for me. That was what I wanted to do. That was why I got into theater. I think that this happens to a lot of people who get in because of the, uh, enamor of acting and then find another direction. Um, but then when I was in high school, um, I also like it's silly but you know you have to pick an art credit and I was really bad at actual like, uh, fine art at drawing so I was like I'll go do theater and um it sort of happened by accident.

What happened was it was my sophomore year of high school I was doing theater one and uh I was friends with a lot of the theater kids, you know the kids who did it on a regular basis. Uh and I decided my freshman year I didn't go out for anything but um it was actually um I think I'm getting ah yes okay so it was uh my sophomore year we we did a show um in the fall which was uh Oklahoma we did the musical yeah exactly and um I remember that they were in desperate need of boys and who isn't right all the time and I wanted to it was one of those things where if I auditioned as a guy I would have gotten in. But I was also doing tennis at the time and I wanted to try out for the tennis team and the auditions were the week before tennis tryout.

So it just so happened that if I auditioned and I got in which I knew I would because they needed guys, um I would feel like a jerk if then I made the tennis team and I dropped out of the show. And I didn't think that was fair to the director so I didn't audition in the end. And I remember I saw all of my friends in Oklahoma, and I was so jealous that they were doing it.

[42:04] Unknown speaker: Were you doing tennis?

[42:05] Hunter Weinsheink: Uh no, I didn't make the team. I made it to the last day of tryouts. And uh well, let's set this right. I'm gonna set the record straight real quick. I made it to the final day of tryouts. You know, they cut the bottom people every day. I got to the last day. There's only ten people there left. There are ten spots on the team. I'm like, I'm gonna make it. This is awesome. I worked really hard for this. And I was in spot ten of ten. And then Mitchell Victor walks up. Shout out to Mitchell Victor. And he was a, uh, a club player, like he played at clubs, and so he didn't come into the tryouts because he thought he would be busy, and then he wasn't busy, he was a good player. So he came to the last day of tryouts, which you weren't supposed to do, and then showed up, and because he was good, the coach was like, Yeah, of course you can just try out. And he had to kick one person out, and I was the person to get kicked out. Oh man.

[43:01] Unknown speaker: So I was so he was so good.

[43:03] Hunter Weinsheink: The coach was just like, of course. Like there's been a spot for you. Exactly. No, I was waiting for you to just walk through the door. So you didn't have to have this loser on the team. But uh so the next year we actually did I started in tech. The next year we did a show called Um Ruthless. Okay. Which if you haven't heard of before, phenomenal show. Uh never heard of it. It was only ever off Broadway. It's uh a cast of nine women. Um potentially one of the roles can be played by a man in drag. Okay. Um and it's basic it's kind of like a spoof of gypsy. Um, it's almost like a spoof of gypsy or a spoof of spoof of like one of the songs is called I Hate Musicals. Very self-aware. Um I've come up with an idea for a musical.

I'll tell you in a minute. Continue. So Ruthless, uh, really, really fun show. It's about a little girl named Tina who um gets cast as the understudy in her school play. Uh-huh. Uh, and so she kills the lead. By the way, this is her third grade school play. So she so she kills the lead so she can get it, and then gets arrested, and and her mom becomes a star in the pro. It's a very, very funny musical, and we got adjudicated for it and went to the state conference to perform it. Well and I remember I was doing tech, I was on the prop crew, you know, because I did I auditioned for the drag role and didn't get it. Um and I remember even standing backstage, the feeling of two thousand people laughing and screaming and cheering for the show was one of the most infectious, crazy things.

Um it was really awesome. Shortly after that, I um I got into acting. Uh I kept on auditioning in school, and uh I got cast in Macbeth as Macbeth. Which was, yeah, you know, my still where I peek. Um don't say that. Yeah, no. And uh I started working as an actor uh shortly after that. So I um I started doing uh just looking for gigs commercials wherever I could because I enjoyed it. I did a couple different I did a reality TV show pilot. I did some.

[45:15] Unknown speaker: What was the reality TV show pilot?

[45:17] Hunter Weinsheink: It was for a show called Food Ball, which was meant to be like football, but with food. So it was like a kid's cooking show. That's awesome. Um it was a lot of fun, uh, except I think I got paid a hundred dollars for it, you know, like, uh not much money in that for a kid. No, but uh it was uh it was a fun event, and they actually ended up selling the pilot through network, and it did go on uh pretty successfully in local television, but nice not my episode, they they re, you know, they redid it all but uh so and I did a few commercials and I worked around and I kind of got the idea. I really loved auditioning.

[45:55] Unknown speaker: Really?

[45:56] Hunter Weinsheink: Uh yeah which most people hate it but there's something fun about going to an audition for me and like the nerves that you would get and like am I gonna get it am I gonna do it. I get that with uh interviewing like I I enjoy interviewing.

[46:09] Unknown speaker: I don't feel the same way because when I was auditioning it's like I was younger and it wasn't a matter of will I be able to pay my bills because of this.

[46:21] Hunter Weinsheink: It was just I'm doing this because I like it and it's fun. And if I don't get the part I don't get the part. But uh oftentimes I was in a I was in a pretty good place with it actually. Um but as far as the transition to directing sorry I'm I'm rambling but no it's cool don't worry about it. So transition to director yeah um also it started in high school I had a friend Savannah that I we wrote plays together. The first play we wrote was called uh originally called Jigolo um just so you get like it's also very far school if you like my style. Uh it was a play where um oh boy I haven't talked about this in a long time. Uh for her eighteenth birthday um for this girl for her eighteenth birthday her mom set her up on a date with the boy next door uh but her best friend bought her a male stripper and the date and the stripper come at the same time, and so she's running back and forth between the two.

[47:19] Unknown speaker: That's hilarious.

[47:21] Hunter Weinsheink: That was uh the first show we wrote, and the second one was called Letters. Um also very farcical. Uh it was a lot of fun. It was a twelve-person cast, he played with six people, so everyone had two roles that were very different. Um, and this was the first show I directed because like it was my final uh project in high school. And um the idea there was uh first of all, of course, uh knowing myself now I find it very funny because it's very me that I was like, Yes, for my first thing, I'm going to have six actors that I'm going to have to train to be two different characters each, do physicality on all these separate. I'm going to give them all quick changes of like 30 seconds, less than 30 seconds.

Um and b the basic concept was that um it took place in this mansion, and um there w the young girl who's inheriting the wealth of uh her parents has narcolepsy uh and everyone's there, but no one knows she's narcoleptic, and they see her and they assume that she's dead, and then everyone's trying to hide the body so they can inherit the the will.

[48:24] Unknown speaker: So lots of physical comedy with like you open the closet, like the maid opens the closet to get the broom, yeah.

[48:30] Hunter Weinsheink: Uh, but somebody hid the dead girl in there, and then she falls on the maid, and then the maid, like that happens in the show goes wrong.

[48:37] Unknown speaker: Does it really?

[48:38] Hunter Weinsheink: Wait, you didn't see it?

[48:39] Unknown speaker: I have oh, I'm seeing it in.

[48:41] Hunter Weinsheink: I thought you saw it. Oh my god. We were ahead of our time, you know?

[48:46] Unknown speaker: No, I'm so sorry.

[48:48] Hunter Weinsheink: That's okay. No, that was a dick move. It's okay, it's okay. I'll still enjoy it, trust me.

[48:53] Unknown speaker: You will, you will.

[48:54] Hunter Weinsheink: So that was the first show I directed, and I'll never f and it was like a high school project. It wasn't such a big deal, but I'll never forget the feeling of um you know, I had been on shows, I had done acting, I had been on live stages, and and you bow out the end and you have a lot of fun. But the feeling was completely different for me from when I was sitting, you know, with the tech, watching the show, and like just kind of the well of pride that I felt for what I was seeing on stage and what I had created, yeah, was something completely unlike acting. I still like acting, I still have a lot of fun acting almost as more of a hobby, but when I direct a show, um, and it's funny because Nier, my partner will uh say all the time that like I come home oftentimes and I'm like Grumpy, these fucking actors and this and that, like uh it's n I it I don't look like I'm, you know, necessarily all smiles all the time.

It's it's difficult and times it can be very trying, but nothing compares to that feeling that that I get personally when I see what I was able to create and put together at the end. Um it's it's really a remarkable feeling for me. And that's kinda what pushed me in that direction. And then after I left high school and went on to the rest of my life, I just continued doing it.

[50:13] Unknown speaker: Is it the aspects of like your ideas of how these characters should flow and then being able to connect with the human that has to play this character and how you get them to connect with that to m for you to mold the stage in a way where like you see the movements and you see these moments where you can have a character do something, and it's not about like demanding an actor do something, it's about having the character itself who's part of this show interacting with other characters create this flow.

[50:43] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. I think there there's two parts of it. For me, directing starts when I read a script. Uh yeah, it starts when I'm going over and I start to create an image in my mind. And I think this is for any artist. I can't not do that when thinking about when reading a script in terms of lighting. When I look at that, and I'm it's like, okay, interior day, I'm like, alright, well, that's like half my information. Right. It's it's um it's then walking through that. It's easy uh i i it makes the first discussion between creative heads so much easier if everyone's read the script.

[51:14] Unknown speaker: 100%.

[51:14] Hunter Weinsheink: And has that mindset of being able to at least the first time think like put yourself not in the in the mind of uh of um like the uh viewer, but as as someone who failed needs to know how to come up with the solutions to make this look right.

[51:31] Unknown speaker: Right.

[51:31] Hunter Weinsheink: And that's what you have to I think that's the hat you need to wear when reading the script, even the first time. And I think also there are lots of hints. Uh my probably my favorite thing is you know, you get a lot of different writers uh who are very specific with their stage direction and like you need to make the show look exactly like this. Okay. And I like, you know, I I appreciate that. I respect it, but I also respectfully depart from that at times. Uh and I think that there's a lot of when you're reading a script, I love reading the between the lines. I love like finding ah, you see this actor said this specific thing, so we need to make sure that we are uh changing the lighting here and emoting this, and you know, like finding those nuggets that create moments of uh real awe in a show. Those are like the exciting pieces for me.

[52:29] Unknown speaker: You know who is at the top of my list of pe of some of someone who can do that no matter the medium?

[52:35] Hunter Weinsheink: Who Mel Brooks.

[52:36] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[52:37] Hunter Weinsheink: In my opinion, film, theater, television, I mean, he's really knocked it out of the park in terms of being able to take the ideas he has, create the environment he needs to create for that art to happen and capture it in a way that audiences love rewatching.

[52:56] Unknown speaker: 100%.

[52:56] Hunter Weinsheink: What what television is Mel Brooks then?

[53:00] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. Um, why can't I remember? Oh, he used to do the Sid Caesar show. He was a writer on the Sid Caesar show with Carl Reiner and uh Neil Simon and um Woody Allen. Woody, yeah. Yeah. So Mel, like Sid Caesar show. Did you ever watch any of those old-timey shows? Not really. He has a joke that still kills. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, from Sid Caesar. I don't know who wrote this scene, but it's uh, they're directing a silent movie, and like you see like these dramatic movements and this and that. And like during a take, during a break, like they cut and they're resetting to do another take, and someone comes in and says that they're now gonna add sound, and this whole movie's gonna be part of the talkies, and people will be able to hear the actors.

And one of the main actresses, the main actress of the star of this pretend movie in the set comes up and says, "I can't wait for people to be able to hear my beautiful voice and know what it is I'm trying to say." And then the uh, the main star of the show comes up and puts his arm around the main actress and the producer or director, and he says, "Oh boy! I can't wait for everyone to hear my voice." Like, it still lands. It still works, yeah. There are a few jokes from back then that still worked, but like all those guys, those guys, the reason, like yeah, I don't know how else to say it. That I think it's like the Sid Caesar show created a whole new generation of writers, yeah, that was able to pass knowledge down up until like even the nineties.

Let's take Mel Brooks for the example. You can go from Sid Caesar show to um, uh, other sketch comedy shows that came along and keep going down the line, but like Mel Brooks put out The Producers. Right. And to this day, they still have more Tonys than Hamilton, if I'm not correct. Wouldn't be surprised by one, I believe. You can't beat "Springtime for Hitler." Dude, that was amazing. My dad is the one that introduced me to that. Really? Yeah. I never went to go see it though. In the um, I rem, I don't think I ever went to see the stage version. I only saw... I haven't seen the stage version either. You only saw the film? Yep. Alright. If you and I ever have a chance to go see The Producers together, that'd be a good one.

That's a good one. That's a good one. Is it even touring right now? I don't know. Producers would be a fun one to see. Um, you heard of One Man, Two Governors? I would love to see that too. Uh, another farcical comedy. Like far, I like for me, I either want like as drama as drama gets or a farce. Like I want to go to the end of comedy. Why do you like comedy so much over like, uh, drama? Oh, I don't. Oh, I, I, if I love watching farce specifically, like slapstick style, ridiculous. Steve Martin, like over the top. Love it, love it, love it. And also physical comedy. Like I really, really enjoy it. Uh, if you're asking me what would I prefer to direct, it would be drama in a heartbeat. Okay. And it's sometimes difficult because I feel that drama does not sell as well as comedy does, which is why a lot of people I think prefer comedy.

Because especially in when you're in a production environment, you can't be ignorant of what is going to sell. Right. You know. Um, that being said, you do have professional theaters putting out dramas all the time that do really well. But especially when you're working in a community theater, uh, and you're trying not to lose money. If I was going to do a drama, I'd probably have to go on the lighter side of it. You know, I saw nobody here wants to see a hardcore drama. But sometimes they like the people, uh, do not think about the catharsis, like the cathartic moment you get from drama. Hamilton did that for me. Yeah. Yeah. In terms like which, which part actually, I will tell you there's another, not even being a uh, a part of a show, like watching a show, a part of a show.

There was a show, uh, an event that I did that made me feel that. It was a private, uh, like Bar Mitzvah wedding or whatever in the Tower of David. Oh nice, they rented out that whole area. Private VIP party. Hope they paid you well. I got paid pretty well. Um, they uh, the projectors, there was projection mapping across the entire top of it. They built a cut like a stage to be able to like have like great DJ music and lighting. They built a custom 360 ring with lights and video screens on it, so you could actually like create lighting effects directly from the stage. And we had lights from the archer towers. That's awesome. As well. And I'm going up and down these stairs that are thousands of years old.

Uh, maybe thousands, I don't know, thousand and a half. I don't know the time. They are very old stairs. Right. And if the people who built them saw what we are doing now, they would think what we are doing is magic. Yeah. Hundred percent. And I was like, this is weird. It was like the one time where like, uh, there's a lot of big venues, important venues, but like for me, that was the most impactful venue. Yeah. Yeah. Because of what you were talking about. No, it is one of those like I think venues are also when you talk about directing production, venues take such a big role in that too. Um, it's one of the things where I would love to do a more classic show in like the amphitheater in Yahoo or something that is outdoors.

Really? Uh, yeah, because I think if you w, if you're gonna do a classic, do it. Like there are two ways you can do it. Do it Greek. No, so you can either go speed full classic, right? You can go full classic, uh, which I think you know would be fun to do outdoor and amphitheater, or you can do in a much more modern version of it. Which I think is also very fun to see at times. But one of the best productions of Hamlet that I saw, for example, uh, it was in a theater and it had a single wall. A single wall, that was their set. And they had a few chairs and things they brought on at times that were like period. Uh, but what I love that they did with that is they turned it, they used it however they needed.

It was just as well, I even think it broke into two and then went back together. But that was it. And it was done in such a creative way that also for me was saying, you know, if I see something like Hamlet in this really over-the-top set of these, of the throne room and the area for the players and like ultimately these shows are written in a way where they weren't as considerate of set because there was very little set. And if you compare it to things now, um, for example, like, uh, you can take Streetcar, you can take, I recently read August: Osage County, which was also a really nice play to read. I would love to do that sometime. Okay. Um, but when you have shows like this, they're written in the context of I know I want to get this on somewhere, and there's going to be a set, and I have a number of rooms that I need to make.

And like for you can also take the same example if you look at um, Vanya, Masha. Oh, I don't remember the other two names, but it's a play that was on Broadway, uh, recently-ish six, seven years ago. Um, it's four names of Chekhov characters. I'll find the name of it. Um, Three Sisters. No, all from different, uh, so Uncle Vanya from Uncle Vanya. Ah, Vanya from Uncle Vanya, okay. Uh, Vanya, Sonia, Masha, and Spike by Christopher Durang. Uh, those characters mixed together in a show. So it's just the name of those characters, and the concept is that like their deceased father or mother was a big fan of Chekhov, so he named all of his kids after. Um, also a very silly, very fun show. But if you look at every production of the show, all of the sets look near identical.

And it's something that I've really struggled with because like even when we did um, Rumors recently, because at the end of the day, I wanna do the show with a good set, and I want the set to make sense. Uh, and I also want to respect the source material that says you have three doors, you have this, you have the, you know? Yeah, and at the same time, I wanna say I think it's your duty as a director, producer, whoever, to come in with your unique image. You know, otherwise you're losing something if you're just copying what somebody else has done. Correct. So it's difficult for me when I see a show that is so specific in the way that it's written, yeah, that every production I see of it is built the exact same.

That's tight tolerances. Yeah. And it's the kind of thing where you say, okay, well, the actors, the director, the lighting, all of these pieces are different. Maybe the set doesn't have to be different. Okay. Um, but ultimately, you know, if you want to go real postmodern on it and talk from like a literary point of view about like death of the author and this idea, I really think plays embody that more than any piece of literature. This idea that, like, are you familiar with the concept? Death of the author? Yeah. So the, I did a literature degree, which is why this comes up. Uh, I think this is getting beyond my understanding as to why I love doing this. So I'll take a go. It's a concept written by Roland Barthes.

Uh, which is basically saying that like in a postmodern concept, um, when you're reading literature, the author's intention doesn't matter anymore. Like you used to say when you read literature, what did the author mean here? And what this postmodern concept is saying, like, it doesn't matter what the author meant. The author's dead. The author, it does, you know, like if you take something like, uh, you have all these people who are upset about J.K. Rowling being like, uh, uh, turf and not necessarily trans-friendly and whatnot, and how can you still appreciate, how can you still, uh, for people who have a problem with it, you say, how do I still appreciate Harry Potter, this book that I love when I know the author is maybe not supportive of me?

Um, and if you take it from like a death of the author perspective, okay, once it's written, it has nothing to do with her. It's out there. You don't think about the influence that it has, you think about the new, uh, conceptual feeling that it takes. And I think nothing embodies that more than a play. Really? Because a play is a source material that you get, and to me, the author does, you know, the playwright does write down stage direction. But like I said, there are times when I choose to respectfully ignore them. When I buy the rights to this play, nobody is coming knocking on my door saying the stage direction has three doors and you only built two. Yeah. Right? Right. Yeah, I have full artistic um power there to kinda say how I think it should be built.

So that's why I bring up the literary concept because when I take a play, to me, the playwright is important. It's important to me that The Crucible was written in the context of the Red Scare, and I don't want to ignore that. But when I want to take it and apply it to my current, uh, time period and place that I'm in, I don't care as much why or where it was written as much as I do how does it apply to the show I'm creating. So that's more of, I don't know why I started talking about this, but no, it's cool. This is really in depth. This is really in depth. I, by the way, I love um experimental theater. Yeah. That plays with, uh, actors who don't know what they're doing. Uh, there's a play called An Oak Tree that I really want to put on in a fringe style.

Um, two actors, one of them, I've heard about this. Tell me again. Yeah, yeah. So one of them knows what he's doing, basically. One of the actors is, uh, plays the therapist in An Oak Tree. Uh, memorized knows what he's doing. The other one is a guest. It's, uh, a guest that you invite, and he gets a script when he or she comes in, and uh, they read the script live on stage with the actor playing the therapist. So it's like you're in a therapy session, and you as an actor are reading along, not knowing the story at all. And you are acting and going through the story live on stage as it unfolds. Have you seen the theater? The s, the like, uh, I wouldn't say fringe theater, but like because it's got decent spacing on the stage and height in Bat Yam.

I have not. Yeah. In South Bat Yam on Komamiut, next to these big towers across the street from a Russian supermarket, there is a theater in Bat Yam that has two stages. Okay. And a full lighting setup. And in the middle, a lounge and a bar. I met the guy who runs the lounge and bar. Yeah, they named the bar after him. Yeah, I got, uh, he showed me a tour of, uh, the small stage, which in terms of height, it's like a warehouse. So you have like all the height you need. Nice. You can bring in huge set pieces if you wanted. Yeah.

[1:06:15] Hunter Weinsheink: I mean, but yeah. You could take the number one to get there. You can. I think it's not close, but you know what? Look, I don't live in the center of town either. But my question also when I'm considering, and this is something that comes up for me a lot, running an organization in a foreign language in a country, you know, where's the audience? Where's the audience and who's going to come? And it's one of the things I hate the most. Yeah, I know. Because it's the most unartistic aspect about this. Yeah, and that was the thing, like that's why I say I love doing drama. I don't do it much because I worry about getting an audience. Um, because the thing is you don't have a ton of English theater goers here as much as you do uh English speakers who would be willing to go see a comedy at the theater if you pulled them in and out. Um, so I personally I have a subscription to the Camry.

[1:07:08] Unknown speaker: You do?

[1:07:09] Hunter Weinsheink: Uh, because uh Nir and I we go and see the shows sometimes on Tuesday nights they do uh with English subtitles. No, first of all it's good for my Hebrew and second of all it's really good for just um studying like uh there is no second wall. Second of all I love theater. Um, and they do some really I could not have guessed they do some really really good shows there and because and they have theater goers that's the thing in your native language you have a good enough audience of theater goers. But I don't think here and maybe I'm naive at least in my you know four or five years of putting on shows here I don't think there's a big enough audience to have you know like a subscription style thing in the same way.

[1:08:01] Unknown speaker: For English speaking theater?

[1:08:03] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, you know we've done No it's not it doesn't exist it there's not a there's not enough audience before you have an audience saturation. Yeah. Where the same people have already seen it twice. Yeah. How many are gonna come back to see it a third time? So that's the thing. We had uh two shows now with around four hundred people coming. Um, like two different shows that we did. We had Rumors and Misgasses, both of them had around four hundred people in the audience. Um, and there were different people, by the way. Like of those four hundred, I'd probably say maybe two hundred were the same. But it means that like half the audience was different for each show, which is really interesting. But it does seem like that's kind of the cap as far as how many people we can get.

[1:08:47] Unknown speaker: So if I'm talking doing a small theater multiple performances, awesome.

[1:08:52] Hunter Weinsheink: But when you want to do a show in a big theater that sits two hundred people and you're gonna pay for the space, it's hard to do something that is running, you know. What? It's not big. Oh, I know it's not big, trust me, I know it's not big. I know what you mean though, but for this audience size, it's huge. Yeah, that's like at bait uh ba uh Zoa. Um, like they have some good sized theaters there. Yeah. And uh but it's like the audience saturation even there happens quick. Yeah. And I do wonder when you look at a place like the Camry, they they do really well in terms of there's I saw a show, uh uh Horse Walks Into a Bar. David Grossman. Um we saw that show in two thousand eighteen. No, two thousand nineteen. Two thousand nineteen. No, two thousand eighteen. Yeah, we saw the show in two thousand eighteen. And it's still running. I think they do it once a month or so.

[1:09:51] Unknown speaker: Really?

[1:09:51] Hunter Weinsheink: But they do uh and there is an English show at the Camry called The Wandering Israeli. Okay. Um, which has been going on for a few years, uh more than a few years now. It's been going on for four or five years now as well. Uh, and he does a good job and he still sells he doesn't sell out, but he sells a decent amount, and he puts it on uh once a month. And the reason he does a decent amount is because, first of all, um, it's a show that tourist English speakers would enjoy. That's one. You know, if I'm a tourist, why would I come and see uh a production of Neil Simon in Israel when I can go see it back at home? It it's a good question. But this is something that's like specifically Israel themed, uh, about you know, an Israeli adolescent, uh Olay, whatever. Um, so that's one. Two, he does the show in English, Hebrew, and Spanish.

[1:10:45] Hunter Weinsheink: So he does it in three different languages, and they I'm pretty sure he does them back to back to back in the same night. So it's about an hour, hour and twenty minute show. It's not a super long show. Okay, but he does there's like exhausting. It's exhausting, but I think that's they basically say, Okay, you have the theater from like five PM until the end of the night. Yeah. You need to sell enough to cover your expenses. Yeah, exactly. Uh prove to us that we shouldn't be giving it to someone else. You know the Marx Brothers? Uh, like Marxism? No, Marx Brothers, like Groucho. Oh, yeah. Okay, okay. Okay, har dude, my father, the first comedians I was ever introduced to by my father was the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers.

And Harpo Mark Marx was the first clown I'd ever known. I never knew someone that was that could be a clown. I was like, that's a goofy person. So uh in their documentary, the point of me rambling on about this, they were known before they went and shot film. They needed to know what bits were gonna work.

[1:11:52] Unknown speaker: Mm-hmm.

[1:11:52] Hunter Weinsheink: So they rented out a theater and would do five shows a day. Wow. To figure out where the laughs are and how to make it better. And a lot of you hear that from actually a lot of trained comedians as well. Yeah. You know, they're going and they're they do random bars, they pop up just to test new material and see how it works, how it doesn't work. Yeah. But uh you know, clowning is really a talent. It is. It's uh it's one of the reasons, by the way, that I love The 39 Steps because of those two clowns. They're really clowning throughout the show. It's hard to be a good clown. Very hard. My wife's afraid of clowns. Yeah, but you know, clowning in this sense isn't the same in that way. No, I haven't seen it.

I do actually want to read it at some point, even though I'm not the biggest Stephen King fan. Really? Yeah. I really he gets kind of dark, depending on where you want to go. I will say the first thing I was introduced though from Stephen King was Pet Sematary, the movie. Yeah. And I was like, this is bizarre. It's really interesting because you know, horror tends to get a different uh categorization than fantasy.

[1:13:08] Hunter Weinsheink: But a lot of Stephen King's horror is really fantastical. You know, it's the horror in the fantastic. Right. Uh, and it is very, very interesting. I read The Shining, and uh, you know, they have a new one that they're coming out with for Stephen King as well. I haven't seen The Shining in forever. I haven't either, but uh I read the book last two years ago for Halloween or something. I decided I wanted to read a good horror story. Alright. And it does the slow build well. I will give it that. But I didn't love it. Which was kind of a disappointment. I know that he, Stephen King himself, is not a fan of the movie because of how the changes that Kubrick made to it. Kubrick. One of my favorite directors.

Can you separate Art from the Man? That is a good question. Because he has such a distinct stamp that he put on everything he did. He did. And uh I don't know if you can. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of my favorite movies of all time. And there's just something about it that is so distinct. You know? It's just you know it's him. 100%.

[1:14:20] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. As a side note to that, uh new film that recently came out, uh Everything Everywhere All at Once. You get a chance to see it? Nope. Do it immediately. Is like the I wanna I have not left a movie theater. I leave a theater more often going wow than I do a movie theater. Um but this was the first time I left the movie theater saying wow. Like that was easily one of my top ten films of all time. Really? Yeah. And uh there's a Space Odyssey reference in it, which is why one led to the other. Gotcha. But yeah. I s I recently saw a uh sure you didn't see it. It's the new Chip and Dale reunion reboot. I did not see it. It uh came out this year. Stars um Andy Samberg. Oh yeah? Yeah. And um Mulaney, John Mulaney.

That's Chip and Dale. Nice. Yeah. And it's just this um it's I found it less comedic than it was like a love letter to cartoons. That's nice though. I mean, especially for like you as the an older audience member going to see it. Yeah, because like I'm looking at this going they some of these people uh who are involved with this have done like uh did you watch The Boys?

[1:15:36] Unknown speaker: I ha the Amazon show?

[1:15:37] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. Haven't seen it yet. Okay. There's this a group of people made um a cartoon version, like a love letter to nineties cartoons. Uh and it was unbelievably graphic. In terms of like it's like, oh, this is cute and this little kid has laser eyes. Yeah. Okay, you know how Cyclops uh had from X-Men had laser eyes and you're always wondering, what could Cyclops do with those laser eyes when you really hit somebody? Yeah, they animated that. In a nineteen nineties-ish like uh cartoon goofy oversaturated way was hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. They did that also with another cartoon. I don't remember the name of it, but it was like um they put a bunch of classic cartoon characters in a reality TV show.

Mm-hmm. It's very fun. It was like you had Betty Boop and uh Chip and Dale and a few other ones and but then if they made it very raunchy and ridiculous like most uh reality TV shows. I respect people for wanting to make money. I really do. Listen, I if you figure out a way to create content that makes money, by all means. Be you, go do you. But there's something about reality TV shows. I'm just like, I gotta I gotta take a step back. It's just like sometimes this forced drama. Yeah. That it feels like, and then you hear about some side stories come out in magazines or documentaries about what was it really like behind the scenes and on the set and like how chaotic it some of it really was and then how some of it was all made up and uh some of it was completely uh fabricated. So it's like what do you believe and like where is this draw? It's like for me it's like too much. Like I'd rather just get lost in a completely different story, fantasy or series.

[1:17:24] Hunter Weinsheink: Reality television to me is um almost a little like Circus Soleil on TV in the sense that like, no, but I I really do uh 'cause I studied this a while ago, like I actually think reality television uh is negative or harmful for the theater industry. Uh or like the theating industry, the reading industry, uh basically anything that's a slow burn. Because uh why? Because reality television uh does well giving you a spectacle the entire time. They give you excitement after excitement after excitement after excitement. That's what they do. Some of it's completely fabricated, but it's in the same way that and and when I say it's negative, it's the same way that soap operas are. You watch a soap opera, and why do you watch it?

Because it's excitement after excitement after excitement after excitement. You don't watch it for like the oh okay, that was nice, you know. Some shit needs to hit the fans somewhere. And that's also a really nice cathartic moment, but I think you then get people going to a theater and seeing something live and getting bored and going like, Oh yeah, but when is the stuff gonna happen? Like the the normal or maybe the intricacies of these relationships and whatnot, and I think especially with drama, um, gets lost a little bit because it's not zero to a hundred right away. And uh I gotcha. And I think also like the the other side of that is um concerts as well have really really changed. Like, for example, umadays.

[1:19:08] Unknown speaker: No, but but it's more than that.

[1:19:10] Hunter Weinsheink: Like, uh my mom and my sister went and saw uh Coldplay and Adele on the same weekend. Uh it was my mom's birthday weekend, they bought tickets to go. That sounds fantastic. It was and they saw and and what was interesting was loved Coldplay and disappointed by Adele. And it's your own. No, but the re my mom, like they love Adele, but the reasoning Coldplay was a spectacle.

[1:19:35] Hunter Weinsheink: And it wasn't just in the sense that you have an exciting show with the cameras and whatnot, but everybody also has the wristbands that are changing colors the entire time. You feel like you're a part of the show. Whereas with Adele, she was kinda standing there singing. And it almost felt like less of an excitement. And you wonder like if these shows keep on upping the bar in terms of how involved and exciting what happens to just the guy playing piano at the bar, you know, like is that enough anymore for people? And it's a good question. It's true. I like it's it's all it's like it's a dangerous question to ask in a way, because you hope it is. Especially for those of us that work in production, you don't want to have to make something over the top just for the sake of it being over the top.

[1:20:24] Unknown speaker: Yeah, we were talking about that at the beginning. And I agree with you. Like it needs to fit the story. There should be a reason to fit the story. Going back to what sorry, we're going back to what we were talking about at the beginning. Um not having a spectacle for the sake of a spectacle.

[1:20:39] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, I totally agree with that. Uh to repeat myself the second time. Um and I just don't know what I wanted to say after that. Can't remember my train my train of thought.

[1:20:48] Unknown speaker: It's okay.

[1:20:49] Hunter Weinsheink: Never mind. I do love working on big shows though. It makes you feel like as crew you're a part of something huge.

[1:20:56] Unknown speaker: For sure, for sure. Huge.

[1:20:58] Hunter Weinsheink: Like if it's if for me I love it when it's complicated, time consuming and and you know it's confusing to most people.

[1:20:58] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:20:58] Hunter Weinsheink: I love it when it's not straightforward. I really do. I hear that. I do enjoy it when you hear uh some people saying and like w when they're walking out and they're like, how did they do that? You know that I love it.

[1:21:24] Hunter Weinsheink: I had that happen on a movie set.

[1:21:27] Unknown speaker: Really?

[1:21:27] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, I was in Detroit and the um the camera that we were using uh I knew it didn't have a large amount of dynamic range. It's how many stops of light you know from one to the next before it can't see anything either from dark or light stuff. Whichever. I actually only know that because of video games but continue.

[1:21:47] Unknown speaker: Ah okay cool.

[1:21:49] Hunter Weinsheink: So uh we had a monster we were filming a horror movie in Detroit in an abandoned building as one does. Yes. Uh so the monster I figured out where the actors were gonna walk. I figured out what was going to be like their closest part of their head to these lights hanging over the head of them. I switched out the light bulbs to like a lower powered light bulb and then I took uh a piece of cloth you know uh like a piece of black cloth and blacked out like where the uh the actor was standing so uh sorry where the light was hitting the actor hiding behind this wall a little bit and literally as the main characters walk by this k creature just peeked its head out through the dark just following them and on the monitor you can't see his body you just see his head literally appear from a black hole that's awesome and people off to the side were looking at the monitor going but how did you do that?

[1:22:47] Unknown speaker: I see him right here that's really awesome.

[1:22:50] Hunter Weinsheink: And it's like when you can find those little moments it's like I'm so happy I'm not in a cubicle today.

[1:22:56] Unknown speaker: Yeah hundred percent and then I know about you but then I actually do go to my cubicle at times and I'm like goddamn I have a desk as well I wouldn't call it a cubicle no I don't have it's just a row of desks not bad.

[1:23:09] Hunter Weinsheink: I do have you seen the movie Office Space I don't think so.

[1:23:13] Unknown speaker: What you've never seen Office Space for employees working in an office and things go wrong sounds very familiar.

[1:23:21] Hunter Weinsheink: They beat up a printer it sounds very very maybe I have seen it. How old is it?

[1:23:27] Unknown speaker: 90 maybe I have seen it.

[1:23:32] Hunter Weinsheink: But I if I have I don't explicitly remember seeing it.

[1:23:35] Unknown speaker: Alright never mind it's um it is uh absolutely um outlandish. I highly recommend that um do you know of any good shows that are coming this summer to Israel that are touring 'cause I I know that cats uh has come through in the past you said good shows I hadn't seen cat until like since I was like my daughter's age.

[1:24:01] Unknown speaker: Okay.

[1:24:01] Hunter Weinsheink: It had been a while. And you remembered it as amazing, yeah.

[1:24:06] Unknown speaker: Yeah, it was alright.

[1:24:08] Hunter Weinsheink: No, no, I'm saying w when you saw it when you were younger.

[1:24:10] Unknown speaker: Yeah, I remember it being great.

[1:24:11] Hunter Weinsheink: And then it stopped and then it's like no more cat.

[1:24:14] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:24:14] Hunter Weinsheink: And I'm like, I always wanted to see cats again. And then they tried doing the movie, which had um some very big names in it. Big names and big technical problems. Like you could see instead of cat paws, you saw hands and fingers some places. It was um not the best release. None of the actors like you know the move like the tours that people do like on the show on shows, like the promo the promotional tours. So uh no one's doing a post release tour of that movie. No one is talking about it now.

[1:24:49] Unknown speaker: Uh I don't actually know of a good touring cast coming shortly. I have seen a couple, but there's not a lot of touring shows that come to Israel, I feel like.

[1:25:01] Hunter Weinsheink: They are, they're just not uh they're use there's some are yeah, I get what you're saying, compared to the rest of the world, like Yeah, well no, when it when I uh Europe and even Arizona. Like and you go over to Gamage and they have uh dude, Gamage?

[1:25:16] Unknown speaker: Ooh, Gamage was a beautiful, beautiful space.

[1:25:20] Hunter Weinsheink: A nice thing. Cupcake. I love that's a beautiful name for it too, the cupcake.

[1:25:24] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:25:25] Hunter Weinsheink: Um I used to go to Gamge once a month and see whatever touring show is coming, like uh they always had great theater.

[1:25:31] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:25:32] Hunter Weinsheink: That's hilarious. Like it never went to like downtown or some other place. Like, no, it went to the college. Like if you wanted good theater, this college had amazing theater. And if you worked in their theater program, you could be able to be able you might be able to help crew some of those traveling shows.

[1:25:47] Unknown speaker: Really?

[1:25:48] Hunter Weinsheink: That I didn't know. I've heard, I don't know firsthand.

[1:25:51] Unknown speaker: Right.

[1:25:51] Hunter Weinsheink: It just depends. Like there's unions and Arizona is not a union state, but also you have people who are kids who are studying there that wanna learn this, so it's like can you use them in terms of labor laws if they want to work as an intern, so to speak.

[1:26:04] Unknown speaker: Ah, and I don't know. Maybe it's like educational extra educational credits. I don't know. Potentially. Someone explained to me who knew doesn't matter. It's basically hearsay at this point. I might be talking nonsense.

[1:26:15] Unknown speaker: No, but there are actually a lot of good theaters in Arizona. Um so touring shows there, you know, you see tons. I wish there were more here. I saw Chicago when it was touring over here.

[1:26:24] Hunter Weinsheink: How was it?

[1:26:27] Unknown speaker: It was pretty fun. It was like the set uh was unique in that like they had a staircase, just like a full staircase in the middle of the stage that they use quite a bit. And then on the sides of the staircase they have the orchestra.

[1:26:40] Hunter Weinsheink: And I love when you have an on stage orchestra.

[1:26:43] Unknown speaker: Yes. It's just so like band music too. Because they're really into it and and like it makes sense for a show like Chicago that they would do it.

[1:26:52] Hunter Weinsheink: I know. Um but I love in musicals and they incorporate it into the show. See that's a part where you're talking about go like going over the top just for the sake of going over the top. It's like that adds an element that you don't see anymore.

[1:27:04] Unknown speaker: It's the specific time period.

[1:27:05] Hunter Weinsheink: Hundred percent. It's a specific flavor of show. It's not i it's a whole it's a throwback to a whole different time when shows were done.

[1:27:13] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:27:13] Hunter Weinsheink: And it's really cool. And for that it's not I've always seen it from like the lighting perspective of of those types of shows. It's not about the light. Just make sure there's light on stage. Yeah. And just let the whoever's about to start dancing or whatever they do. There's no lighting changes when Fred Astair is full frame on camera.

[1:27:31] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:27:32] Hunter Weinsheink: Do we watch some Fred Astair movies?

[1:27:34] Unknown speaker: Uh you know Fred Astair?

[1:27:36] Hunter Weinsheink: He's the famous tap dancer who did like movies.

[1:27:38] Unknown speaker: Yeah, but like which give me give me some filming.

[1:27:41] Hunter Weinsheink: Oh, I can't remember the moment. It was in his contracts, I heard that he would be shot full frame. So that you would be able to see. I heard. I don't I've never seen his contract. I love tap dancing. I actually took tap dancing when I was uh younger.

[1:27:57] Unknown speaker: Really tap dance.

[1:27:57] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah, I wanted to be in a musical that needed tap dance, and then I got cast in the musical as the only part that doesn't tap dance.

[1:28:04] Unknown speaker: Really?

[1:28:04] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. But it was still a good part. It was uh thoroughly modern Millie. It was a fun show. Um I don't think it will ever be produced again because of the racial undertones to it. But uh I played a Chinese character and all of my lines were in Mandarin.

[1:28:22] Unknown speaker: What?

[1:28:23] Hunter Weinsheink: I had to memorize your mandarin uh lines. I had to memorize Mandarin, and I remember it was funny because um the show basically just fucks with people, like the the all of my words were in Mandarin, all my songs were in Cantonese, which means it basically didn't make any sense, but you know, whatever, and so I was in full yellow face. Like not really, like I don't we'll leave it. But um the girl who played my sister was Chinese and she actually spoke Mandarin. Um, and I remember that it was one day during tech week, like, and I just didn't have one of the lines down.

[1:28:56] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:28:56] Hunter Weinsheink: So I just made up fake Chinese. I was like, the director doesn't know what's Chinese and what's not Chinese, so I just made up fake Chinese. And the girl playing my sister froze on stage because she was actually going off of my Chinese. So when I made up fake Chinese, she got so confused because she was like, he just spoke gibberish. She like understood all of my lines, and I was like, just keep going. Don't let it like don't show it. Show must go on.

[1:29:20] Unknown speaker: Exactly.

[1:29:24] Hunter Weinsheink: Man, that was a trip though. It was a such a fun show. Bretister, Hamaday Inn, uh Follow the Fleet. Uh the gay divorcee. Okay. Funny face. The pleasure of his company. The sky is the limit. Damsel in Distress. Blue Skies.

[1:29:46] Unknown speaker: I know Blue Skies.

[1:29:50] Hunter Weinsheink: Anyways, yeah. Tap dancing freak. Just wanted to in a good way. Like he just wanted to you think you could tap dance? And then you saw Fred Estare, you'd be like, oh, at that time in the fifties. I'm sure like everyone nowadays that's like tap dancing 101.

[1:30:03] Unknown speaker: Oh, for sure.

[1:30:04] Hunter Weinsheink: But you know, back then, it's like how many other people were able to dance like that? There was one tap dancer in all of Hollywood. Maybe that's because they didn't want to, and there wasn't much more. They were like, There's saturation. There's only room for one of us. Market they hit market saturation on the tap dancer.

[1:30:21] Unknown speaker: For sure.

[1:30:22] Hunter Weinsheink: Dude, I have always been a fan of comedy.

[1:30:25] Unknown speaker: Yeah?

[1:30:25] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. My father, I think, turned me on to that. Being a fan of comedy. First stand-up I've ever went to go see was uh at Cleveland Playhouse Square. You ever been to Cleveland Playhouse? So the Cleveland Playhouse, like Broadway tours also go through there. It is five different theaters, and it is like when you walk in there, if you were to wear like a nineteen thirties like tuxedo, you'd look up at the walls and be like, Yeah, this makes sense. It is it is absolutely a piece of history.

[1:30:54] Unknown speaker: That's awesome.

[1:30:54] Hunter Weinsheink: Major shows tour through there, and the first time I ever saw stand up was there, my father took me to see George Carlin.

[1:31:00] Unknown speaker: Wow.

[1:31:01] Hunter Weinsheink: And this was just after I'd see found out who George Carlin was. He had done back in town at the Beacon. I had never and I saw it on HBO. And I had no idea what was stand up. I had no idea it was George Carlin. And I watched this thing. And I went to go and get my hair cut the next day. And the woman who uh cutting my hair is trying to talk to her about this, and I was like, I actually don't remember anything that I just saw. I have no idea what I just saw.

[1:31:24] Unknown speaker: Right.

[1:31:26] Hunter Weinsheink: What did I just see? And my dad got me introduced like uh to like when uh took me to George Carlin when he was here, Therese Douges, Mark's brothers, the Sid Caesar show. That's awesome. Um Mel Brooks. Like I was allowed to watch all of Mel Brooks's movies. That's not with without anyone sitting next to me giving me contact. I don't know why.

[1:31:46] Unknown speaker: You were like, Yeah, let's get into it.

[1:31:48] Hunter Weinsheink: Yeah. So comedy was like a really big factor for me in that. But now I I I want to switch myself from like the uh the tech to like for like focusing on the business side of things, like producing and managing production.

[1:32:03] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:32:04] Hunter Weinsheink: That's really where my goal is and why I want to talk with people just about art and yeah how they view shows and things like that. Anyway, do you have anything else you want to talk about?

[1:32:14] Unknown speaker: I feel like we had a good talk.

[1:32:15] Hunter Weinsheink: Nah, it was great. I loved it.

[1:32:17] Unknown speaker: Awesome.

[1:32:18] Hunter Weinsheink: Thanks for making it all the way to the end of this episode of the podcast. This podcast is not sponsored in any way, so please like, share, and subscribe. I'll be releasing an episode every week, so make sure to come back for more. Thanks for listening and stay creative.