This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Leah Walsh: Hi, and welcome to The Compass, the podcast documenting the struggles of life as an artist.

[0:05] Leah Walsh: I'm Leah Walsh. Today my guest is one of my closest friends, director Lori Wolter Hudson.

[0:12] Leah Walsh: Lori is an amazing director. She runs a theater company called Three Day Hangover with her husband David and fellow director Beth Gardner.

[0:19] Leah Walsh: She works with New Play Development with the New Harmony Project. And she and David are the new parents to a baby girl named Isabel who was in the room with us for this interview.

[0:28] Leah Walsh: I hope you enjoy episode nine of The Compass.

[0:42] Leah Walsh: So I'm here with Lori and with Baby Izzy. If you hear a squeaking in the background, that's baby Izzy is sleeping in the swing that's swinging back and forth.

[0:51] Leah Walsh: So that is her presence making itself known. We're gonna we're gonna keep that going as long as we can.

[0:55] Leah Walsh: As long as we can.

[1:07] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah.

[1:08] Leah Walsh: So we'll see. Adventures. Yay.

[1:10] Leah Walsh: Yay. Um so what is the dark side to you as an artist? What does it look like and what does it feel like for you when you feel yourself going to that place and what do you do to try to keep yourself from there?

[1:27] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um I think the dark side for me is uh ending up in the pity party where it's just nothing's happening for me. I you know, if I was only given a chance, I could do XYZ. And um and feeling helpless and like I can't do anything to change it. Um I think that's something probably every artist struggles with is what can I do to be doing the work that I want to be doing. Um and yeah, you know, of course it happens for everybody probably more than they want because we never want to be in the dark place. But um you know so often like looking back some of the best stuff I've done has come out of, you know, those low, low spots of you know what what will happen now and then being forced in a way to come up with something.

And for me, you know probably when I was younger in my twenties, I used to make all these lists and I just put down every show, you know, I I used to have a spreadsheet. This is funny, I haven't thought about this in a while, but I used to have a spreadsheet where I would you know list all these Broadway shows or off Broadway shows or um directors I wanted to work with and I would just put them down and figure out you know how I could get in touch with them or how I could you know who I could talk to to try to work on the show. And and sometimes that would work and sometimes it most of the time probably it didn't. But now it's more about uh instead of like assisting projects it's what do I want to direct and how do I make that happen and um since uh in the last two years I've formed a theater company with um two other people and that has created a lot more opportunities to do work that I'm excited about and um explore you know things I wouldn't have ever directed probably and uh and yeah just push myself in new ways which has been totally rewarding and maddening and uh exciting and scary in all the best ways.

[4:00] Leah Walsh: What is that like as a director to I mean like you're saying to be able to create your own work is obviously like a huge tool to get yourself out of feeling like you're stuck or yet that you're not being recognized.

[4:14] Lori Wolter Hudson: Well it's hard because you know that was always the thing we I'd sit on in on these panels, you know, um and hear directors that we really admired talk about their projects or how they got to you know where they are and and or advice from you know people working MTC or roundabout or you know like how you know somebody would always ask how how do you find the next big director like or how can my how can I work at your theater and you know there's like 50 to a hundred like twenty five year olds staring with big eyes like yeah yeah that's me I'm the best and you should be looking at my work and they're like, you know, well you need to do something that I can see. Hmm and that's so simple uh sounding and so hard I think to to do um in reality because you know we're all directing or we you know, I was directing like things in ten minute play festivals or like the w night of one axe where everybody's doing their where you can invite people, but yeah, are they really gonna come?

The associate artistic director of MTC is not gonna come and see my one act or your ten minute play within a a program of ten minute plays. Of course not. So that was tricky. And you know, we're all like using the same three cubes and a chair. It's not like I am showcasing the design uh collaboration that um, you know, I'm potentially capable of. So yeah, the company changed what I was able to do in terms of uh realizing an actual full-length project, and uh and that's been fantastic.

[6:07] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um we the company's called Three Day Hangover and we do plays in bars. So the location was sort of determined for us, and we've now moved outside of a bar and we've created our own bar in this funky church space. Um but yeah, it's it's now tricky to kind of um go back to those people and say, hey, you need to take this seriously, even though it sounds really silly, and I'm inviting you to a play in a bar, and you've probably seen a hundred productions of Romeo and Juliet, but this one's different and this is why. And you know, I I don't know that that's um always gotten through to people, but you know, at least I'm happier now because I'm fulfilled by my own work, so that uh the pressure is sort of off to to you know produce this big showcase for me. I think it's good.

[7:10] Lori Wolter Hudson: So I don't care as much about other people coming to also put their skin up opportunities for that that's part of the thing that um is hard about making your own work is that you kind of have to be the producer too.

[7:26] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[7:26] Lori Wolter Hudson: And so I know that you have kind of taken that on for Three Day Hangover, even though you get to direct, it's it's you, another director, and then your husband David, who's an actor producer.

[7:36] Leah Walsh: Um, so you get to direct half the shows, yeah, but you're also a producer. So what is that like?

[7:42] Lori Wolter Hudson: So that's a huge responsibility. But it gives you the power of directing your own work.

[7:48] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah, it it it is a lot. And um the thing that's really good about the three of us is we all have very different strengths, and they for the most part bal we balance each other out really well. Um you know we we all bring something different to the table.

[8:06] Lori Wolter Hudson: And when Beth, for example, is directing a project as she is now, it's a little funky right now because I just had a baby. So I've um kind of really taken a step back um with this upcoming show we're doing Tartuffe, and we just did a production of um Dracula that I was directing until I wasn't.

[8:30] Leah Walsh: Yes, we'll talk more about that.

[8:32] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah. So um, so when I'm not directing, I am typically a lot more involved in you know, helping out with press and marketing, front of house, um props if you know somebody needs to run out and get uh, you know, 500 squirt guns. I will research where those can be gotten. Um or you know, even just like checking the toilet paper in the bathrooms, which is something that, you know.

[9:04] Lori Wolter Hudson: If you're doing a show in a bar, yeah, that's a priority. It's not glamorous, but sometimes necessary. And you know, there has been a lot of like bar scouting, which I really enjoy, and like figuring out the next place that we're gonna be and how a space can work for us, and um and so I think for all three of us, there are aspects of producing that we all really enjoy. And then there's you know, the grunt work that nobody likes taking out the trash down two flights of stairs when the bag rips at the end of the night and bottles and cans and trash goes everywhere, and you know, like that's the night.

[9:43] Lori Wolter Hudson: That's the end of the night. But you know, you get to come back and like have another night ahead of you where a hundred people are gonna come and really enjoy your work and tell you about it, and so that's why you you say, Okay, I'm gonna show up again tomorrow. And you all really work together so that even if you're playing that part on the play that Beth's directing, then she supports you on the play that you're directing.

[10:07] Leah Walsh: Absolutely.

[10:11] Lori Wolter Hudson: And he these two are the first where he hasn't um been involved as a performer, and that was strategic because we knew uh our lives would be a little chaotic this fall. We just didn't know how chaotic.

[10:25] Leah Walsh: Um yeah, it's uh it's all worked out for the most part. And you know, if we need to bring in extra people for help with things, um, we we try to do that, you know, with friends that um have either worked with us before or you know, people that we know are new to the city and it's like a good learning experience kind of thing.

[10:49] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um so yeah, we've we've been able so far to like tag team and and make sure everything's covered and nobody gets stuck with too much typically.

[11:02] Leah Walsh: Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about how you guys started the company?

[11:06] Lori Wolter Hudson: Beth was directing uh well, I think we were all probably stuck looking for projects. And um and Beth and David went to grad school together at UC Irvine, and a friend of theirs from Irvine, two friends actually created this show called The Hamlet Project, and it had been running for a while very successfully in Los Angeles, and we had some friends then in Chicago that picked it up and had done um a short run of it in Chicago, and then that went well, and I think they did a a second round in Chicago.

[11:46] Lori Wolter Hudson: And I mean it's a pretty simple premise. Um it's a drinking game version of Hamlet. Uh the Hamlet, the cool thing is it rotates where at least the way they did it in LA, um, they would have a Hamlet on for a month and they would do it in a bar, and it's sort of like when you hear certain words, you're going to hear a bell, and then everybody drinks, and an audience member plays Polonius, and and there's just some fun things um built into the script in the evening where it's a short, fun, um enjoyable night, and then the Hamlet each month sort of determines the style and the feel of the production.

[12:23] Lori Wolter Hudson: And um, and that seemed really interesting and unique, you know, that an actor is gonna have that say, especially, you know, in an iconic role like Hamlet. You know, you get to determine a little bit about like what the um feel of the production is, like if there's a concept, quote unquote, you know, you get to kind of run with that. Um so it seemed really cool and it was going really well for them and um and so Beth and David were talking about doing uh production of it here and she knew a a bar owner in Greenpoint and he was gonna like let them use his bar for two nights.

[13:02] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um so they sort of put it together and um by default I was helping out mostly with David and getting off book which sort of happened by the first performance ish.

[13:17] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um yeah it was definitely like standing in the house with a script and I think we had created some sort of punishment like if he had to call for line he was gonna have to do a shot which I don't know that we really thought that through it.

[13:29] Lori Wolter Hudson: But at least then it was like part of the show kind of yeah to make up for uh how hastily it was thrown together and the thing was it uh it was so much fun we packed the house both nights it was a tiny teeny little bar um I know I saw it and we had I think like we were selling 25 seats um and it sold out both nights and we maybe packed like twenty nine or thirty people in this little bar in the winter well it was March um of twenty thirteen.

[14:02] Lori Wolter Hudson: So it was cold out, and you know, the thing that was exciting was at the end uh of both the nights, everybody was like, This is so cool. You have to do this again.

[14:12] Lori Wolter Hudson: Like, what this is great. I want to be in it. Or, you know, like how did just asking all about the show and where it came from, and you know, asking when we were gonna do it again so that people could bring their friends.

[14:27] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um we were like, sure, we should do it again. That went really well.

[14:35] Lori Wolter Hudson: Uh, and we could fix all the things that went wrong, like you know, the show could be better, we could find maybe find a space in the city and like look for some bar in Manhattan where we could do it, and and so we kept brainstorming, and you know, I think it all came from it felt really good to do something.

[14:55] Lori Wolter Hudson: Like David, I I think hadn't like had a really big meaty role since grad school.

[15:02] Lori Wolter Hudson: So, of course, like getting to play Hamlet that's really appealing.

[15:05] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah, um, Beth is like all about scrappy Shakespeare.

[15:09] Lori Wolter Hudson: I mean, like that is so her bag, and she's so good at it.

[15:13] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um yeah, and she had directed David in this gorgeous and amazing production of The Winter's Tale that I saw at UCI, and and it for me had that same feel where it was just like everybody putting in their best self, and um, you know, like that thrown together way of like when a collaboration happens and it's very um grassroots and bare bones, but it all clicks and works.

[15:44] Lori Wolter Hudson: That's what we had going for us with with this uh Hamlet project.

[15:49] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, so we looked for a bar and I found a space uh that I had used like literally a decade earlier when I was uh working at Signature Theater Company, we had all of our well, several of our opening and closing night parties at the Irish Rogue.

[16:07] Lori Wolter Hudson: And it was now Harley's Smoke Shack and Barbecue.

[16:13] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um I knew that they had a call it something else before that?

[16:16] Lori Wolter Hudson: No.

[16:16] Lori Wolter Hudson: Or it was it was the rogue, the rogue and then Harley's.

[16:16] Lori Wolter Hudson: And then Harley's.

[16:21] Lori Wolter Hudson: Now it's something else.

[16:22] Lori Wolter Hudson: Now it's Quinn's.

[16:23] Lori Wolter Hudson: Now it's twins.

[16:24] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah, okay.

[16:25] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah.

[16:25] Lori Wolter Hudson: Oh well, and there's so much to tell there.

[16:29] Lori Wolter Hudson: That change happened in the middle of a show.

[16:32] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yes, the week before we opened RJ.

[16:35] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um but yeah, so we found this space, they were gonna let us use it for free, which was awesome.

[16:42] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, and we had talked vaguely about a hitting a bar minimum, but it was kind of like a spit in a handshake thing.

[16:48] Lori Wolter Hudson: So we were like, great, let's get in there, let's figure out dates, we can do it.

[16:52] Lori Wolter Hudson: And um, and I remember, you know, like meeting Tina was her name, the manager there.

[16:58] Lori Wolter Hudson: Uh I met Tina and you know, she was like, So, you know, and I said, Oh, I'm with this theater company and we're doing this production, you know, of Hamlet in a bar, and she was looking at me like, what are you talking about?

[17:11] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, and then at the end of the conversation, you know, we're shaking hands and I'm talking about when I'm gonna follow up, and um, and she, you know, it's like, Wait, what was the name of your company again?

[17:23] Lori Wolter Hudson: And I was like, Oh, um we are working that out.

[17:28] Lori Wolter Hudson: And suddenly it was like, oh, we need to have a name.

[17:30] Lori Wolter Hudson: We're a company.

[17:31] Lori Wolter Hudson: We're a company and we need to have a name, and uh wow, so that's that's something I should email them about.

[17:39] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah.

[17:39] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, and like part B of that story is that a friend of ours, Ben Charles, had seen um seen one of the two performances at the Ex Lee in Brooklyn, and he had also seen a production in Chicago, and so he was like very into what was happening.

[18:03] Lori Wolter Hudson: And um, and he came up to me after the show and was like, I think this would work.

[18:07] Lori Wolter Hudson: This kind like this style of show would work so well with Romeo and Juliet.

[18:11] Lori Wolter Hudson: And I I think I could do like a cut of it, and I was like, oh, sweet, that sounds great.

[18:17] Lori Wolter Hudson: You go ahead and do that.

[18:19] Lori Wolter Hudson: And and I think I, you know, said, like, if you if you want to do a cut of it, like just put something together and we'll we'll put together a reading.

[18:28] Lori Wolter Hudson: And then, you know, he actually took me up on it.

[18:31] Lori Wolter Hudson: He was like bugging me about this this cut, and I was like, Oh, okay.

[18:36] Lori Wolter Hudson: So, in the um process of like putting together the dates and the space for Hamlet, we were also figuring out like this Romeo and Juliet thing, and um, and we once we had the script ready and realized like this is a really good idea, and we could maybe run this in repertory with the Hamlet Project.

[18:59] Lori Wolter Hudson: So we talked to Harley's about um a four-month sort of residency, which you know, I don't know that they thought of it that way, but we were blocking out all these weekends.

[19:10] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, and we were gonna do Hamlet for a month, R and J for a month, and it was sort of like a a three-week three-weekend run of each with like a week, a weekend off in between to kind of change over.

[19:26] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, but and one cast would rehearse while the next while the previous show was up and you know this the summer stock model uh just sort of condensed and then we would get like sort of two passes at Hamlet with like two different Hamlets and then R and J we were gonna swap and like do uh you know one cast and then change out for the second um and then you know life happened or things got weird with the schedule and the timing and and suddenly we were just gonna do uh one run of Hamlet and then one run of Romeo and Juliet and and that was part of the company thing too we were like if we're running these in rep we need so and so presents this thing and we were looking at getting a publicist which we thought we needed to do but didn't know anything about and you know our eyes were opened when we figured out how much that would cost and suddenly that was like oh gosh we're all gonna put in our own money to do this because we think it's important right but gosh that's a lot of money and you know I think it was a couple hundred bucks uh in the beginning but you know when that's like your money and you don't know you don't know like how it's gonna go or like you know you're also figuring out your life and meals and things um yeah it's a lot but it's all it's all worked out.

[21:02] Leah Walsh: I say that and I love it.

[21:04] Lori Wolter Hudson: You say that now.

[21:05] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[21:05] Lori Wolter Hudson: What has it been like for you to have this theater company and have one of your partners be your husband?

[21:12] Lori Wolter Hudson: Like to be working consistently with your partner.

[21:17] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[21:18] Lori Wolter Hudson: I mean, that is pretty amazing.

[21:23] Lori Wolter Hudson: And I think most of the time it's the best because you have a shorthand in a way.

[21:32] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, and I think probably a lot of business partners end up being almost as close as partners if you're if you're doing a lot of business, let's say.

[21:44] Lori Wolter Hudson: But um just because of the the close proximity and you have to form a language and how you talk about the work and um how you talk about not the work artistically, but the work um of the actual physical uh like email-y like office things that have to get done.

[22:03] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um and so because we have a a shorthand already, that's that's always good.

[22:13] Lori Wolter Hudson: And um and we're pretty much on the same page about everything because we we know you know we're one step ahead of the other person in how we're gonna think and respond and um and use marketing language like he knows what I'm attracted to or like what uh sounds good to me or how I would write a Facebook post.

[22:35] Lori Wolter Hudson: Something that stupid.

[22:37] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um but you know, if you're doing that three five, seven days a week during show weeks, I mean it's um it's something that in the beginning, even figuring out the company stuff, we would we would go back and forth about for sometimes longer than we should have.

[22:53] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um and artistically, you know, David's been in a lot of a lot of the productions as an actor, and I've directed him, um, I mean, yeah, three times, four, three times.

[23:11] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um and that's always great as well, like the the part about you know, the no bullshit where I know I know when he's not giving everything or when he um is shying away from something or or is playing the safest choice uh instead of there's some giggles.

[23:34] Lori Wolter Hudson: Little Antsy noise.

[23:36] Lori Wolter Hudson: She's waking up.

[23:39] Lori Wolter Hudson: Turn down your iPods.

[23:42] Leah Walsh: Nobody's listening on an iPod.

[23:44] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um I don't know.

[23:46] Lori Wolter Hudson: Maybe they are.

[23:47] Lori Wolter Hudson: Somebody has an iPod somewhere.

[23:49] Lori Wolter Hudson: I mean, the other part of that is that it's really hard, you know, because you are gonna push your partner so much.

[23:57] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um and you're up in their face anyway with life, hopefully.

[24:01] Lori Wolter Hudson: I mean there are times when we don't see each other.

[24:04] Lori Wolter Hudson: So it's like theory, you're together a little bit.

[24:06] Lori Wolter Hudson: We're in rehearsal.

[24:07] Lori Wolter Hudson: This is great that I'm seeing you because we have scheduled hours where we're in the same room.

[24:12] Lori Wolter Hudson: We're just not talking like people were artists uh in the space together.

[24:17] Lori Wolter Hudson: But um, but yeah, it it can be rough.

[24:21] Lori Wolter Hudson: I mean, David is um an actor that wants to leave rehearsal and and kind of be done and like turn it off and not uh think about you know the thing like good or bad, like what what just happened, and I'm I've gotta ride the train and talk about rehearsal I've gotta, you know, get home and talk about rehearsal.

[24:44] Lori Wolter Hudson: I've got to think about rehearsal for the next day when I get home and make up and I want to you know just only like live in this world of uh the play and you know he needs time to watch Sports Center and stuff and um and I think I've gotten better about respecting that um and you know he and when he really needs to um when he needs to vent uh sometimes that can be at me or with me and then sometimes he just needs to like call a friend and like go get a beer and do that and we have our own our own time um apart which is super important.

[25:30] Lori Wolter Hudson: And that's what friends are for when you're like hey come meet me because I need to just debrief about all the things about everything including my spouse.

[25:40] Leah Walsh: Yes.

[25:41] Leah Walsh: Yes.

[25:42] Leah Walsh: Uh-huh um so that definitely happens and but I you know we've been together so long now that we're much better at um you know kind of I hope uh anticipating the other person and and where they're at and and their needs um artistically or otherwise and then um you know figuring out like how how to navigate um w what is ahead which is always the hardest part especially, you know, like gearing up and like show we like getting a show open.

[26:20] Lori Wolter Hudson: There's a million things that have to get done. It's so stressful. Um just trying to like pick the other person up and saying, What can I help you with? What can I take off your plate? Um, and you know, probably even more as producers, like there's just uh so much and and some some stuff I can't help him with. He has to do it himself, and that's you know, hard for him and frustrating for me, but like that's that's the way it is, and um, and vice versa, you know, we've he's had we've had conversations with him as a producer and myself as a director where you know, budget things or like uh the show needs to be 10 minutes shorter, the show can't be 10 minutes shorter. Um but like I said, for the most part, we we do share an aesthetic and uh and a language and that solves most of our problems, I think.

Um well there's lots of things besides three-day hangover I want to talk about, but before we move off of that, just the huge events that have happened for you guys in the last couple months. I want to talk about a little bit, like you were getting ready to direct ham or not Hamlet to direct Dracula and have it open a couple weeks before Izzy was due. And then she ended up coming what a month and a half early.

[27:42] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[27:43] Lori Wolter Hudson: And obviously, you and David are two of the three artistic directors of the company, and you ended up kind of naming a what a co-director or just passing over the directorship to your assistant. What was that like? What has it all been like for you to have I know that you I mean obviously you knew you were having a baby and you planned to have this play happen at the round the same time. Yeah, but it all ended up crashing into each other.

[28:11] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah. Um we had very strategically chosen dates, and we actually we were supposed to open the show a week earlier. Um yeah, we were gonna front load it, even though it was Dracula and it had to be in October, it just had to be like this, you know, uh fall October show for Halloween. Um I was like feeling a little nervous about it, and it um and so we were working with this earlier September date, and um and then it was really hard to cast. We, you know, like the shows always are we have people in place and then we lose people and um you know, somebody gets a gig and then that person's gone, and then it's like trying to figure out the rest of the cast and juggling and um schedules and all the things.

So we moved uh the opening date back. So we were gonna have first preview September 30th, open October seventh second, sorry, and um, and then run through mid October. And I was like, well, that's tight. My due date is October 19th, but everybody says you go late with your first baby, it's gonna be fine. Um and I was really excited to direct this show. I feel like, you know, one of the personal challenges I've had um, you know, with each project with three day hangover, it's just to like do something very different um for myself and and the company, but uh but yeah, this was gonna be different from each other. Different from each other, and then you know, better, hopefully, always, right? We always want to create uh work that is better than the last project. So, like, how is this gonna be my new masterpiece, right? And not just a version of the same.

[30:06] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[30:07] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah. No old tricks, like coming up with new exciting stuff. Um, yeah, so that challenge was really exciting to me, and to kind of like go out on a bang right before this huge life shift that I was very much not in control of. Um, this thing of becoming a mom and uh having a baby in New York City, which is you know, been something I've thought about for a long time and never quite knew how it would work, and I, you know, still figuring out how that's working, but it's happening, so it's working. Um but yeah, uh it the it was a tight schedule in the beginning to say the least, but you know, we've we all felt pretty good about it. Um yeah, then um I guess it was the yeah, the week of first rehearsal.

Um uh the day it was the day before first rehearsal, I ended up in the hospital with some complications. And um, and that was sort of the first like real red flag. I had just secured an associate director, kind of telling her it it was looking like we were gonna have to maybe deliver earlier than the 19th. Um, so we were negotiating with my doctors about like how how late we could push it. And of course, we didn't want you know the baby to be in any danger, but it was just sort of one of those things where they were like, we think it should be earlier, and without getting into all the details, we were looking at like basically the week the show opened of having uh a C section because I wasn't gonna be able to have a uh natural like vaginal birth.

Then I was in the hospital, and suddenly um my associate director, Krista McCarthy Parker, who was amazing. Um I was like sending her to this read through, and she hadn't like I'd maybe just sent her the script, but I don't think she'd read it. Right.

[32:16] Leah Walsh: She didn't think she was gonna be running the read through.

[32:18] Lori Wolter Hudson: She, yeah. So um I everything was looking very stable for me. It was just looking like I was gonna need to stay in the hospital for a few days for observation. Um, and so David came back uh ran sort of uh the first read-through with all the actors, and I skyped in. And you know, from my hospital bed in my hospital gown, trying not to look a complete mess or a complete fool. Um, I'm like waving at people that I haven't actually met yet that are cast in the show and trying to, you know, like reassure everyone that I'm fine, everything's fine. I'm gonna get out and we're gonna be great and get back on track. And it's gonna be a wild ride, but don't worry, we've you know, got it under control. And um, and sure enough, I was uh Kristen ran um two, maybe no, I think only one rehearsal for me.

I I went into the hospital Monday. First rehearsal was Tuesday. I was out of the hospital. There was rehearsal on Thursday, I was out of the hospital Friday, and I went to rehearsal Friday night, Saturday, uh Monday was Labor Day, and we had rehearsal and was at rehearsal on Monday, and then I went back to work Tuesday. Um we went back to the doctor's office and like after little baby sound wheels. After that, we um we set a new date for the C section, and it was gonna be September 23rd, which is your birthday. So, you know, we were like sort of wide-eyed, but trying to take it all uh in and um and you know, figured out like okay, we're gonna make this work. I I remember going to rehearsal that night and I didn't tell um I think I didn't get a chance to talk to Kristen about it. But I had talked to our stage manager and said, you know, we just sort of found out David, Beth, and I need to come up with a plan, but we're gonna work it out.

[34:21] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um we'll figure it out with Kristen and um and just make sure that everybody's taken care of for that last week going into performances. Um we had a actually a great rehearsal that night. Like I I do think it is one of the few gifts I was given on that production that um but part of I didn't say this before, but part of uh what I was so excited about is that my dad makes haunted houses. So Dracula was like the perfect and I'd met Steven uh Stephen Deets. We were doing his version um of the story, and I'd met him at the New Harmony Project, and my dad has you know made these haunted attractions, as he calls them. In Evansville, Indiana where we went to college. That's right. Um he's done that for over thirty years.

So I have this weird background of like spooky, scary. Like I it's just totally my bag. And then this new, like lovely, rich, wonderful and funny, like surprisingly funny uh version of the script from Steven. And he was being so game with collaboration, um, like changing things and coming up with ideas, and like his end for act one. I just remember reading, and I was like, This is brilliant. Like, he's the best.

[35:36] Leah Walsh: Well, and he was so supportive of you, like adapting it for this kind of show.

[35:41] Lori Wolter Hudson: He he's he was game from the beginning and so amazing. Because so far you had only done shows by dead playwrights.

[35:48] Leah Walsh: Yeah, it was uh classics like Shakespeare at Chuck On.

[35:51] Lori Wolter Hudson: Okay. Yeah, this was definitely the first new play. And you know, it was mostly us doing that because we didn't want to be royalty.

[35:59] Leah Walsh: Exactly.

[36:00] Lori Wolter Hudson: That's an intelligent choice. Yeah. Um, but you know, in the grand scheme of things, it was totally worth the whatever $65 a night or something that we paid. Um, because it it really was such a rich and wonderful process, and and I say that only being part of part of it, which I'm uh getting to, okay, long-winded. Um but yeah, so that night, the my last rehearsal in the space, we came up with this brilliant, it was like all all of my favorite things about three-day hangover and what we're capable of, and um and the collaborative process at work.

[36:37] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, we went in and we were doing the big sequence where Lucy um has turned into a vampire, spoiler, and um, and they're about to um kill her in the coffin um at the graveyard. And we I don't know even how it happened. It was it's one of those perfect things where it's completely organically out of nowhere emerged. Um somehow we were working with the lyrics from uh Total Eclipse of the Heart. So somebody was like, turn around, and then it was like every now and then I get a little bit really. So then we're like all on our phone, suddenly like Googling the lyrics for Total Eclipse of the Heart and like working because you know, we didn't have it in the script, but I was like, Yes, and then you know, Van Yangling slash Van Helsing, and you know, um Harker will run around and then you guys can do a little bit of backup over here, and then Seward can you know take this line and then she can sing that, and um, and it turned into like one of my favorite sequences in the show.

It was so great, and it was like it just happened, it just happened because people felt free in the room to offer their ideas and like play and sing and be silly, and you know, I came home that night thinking, I'm not even gonna tell David about this because it could be so dumb. We have to cut it tomorrow, and I'm gonna be so sad. But if it works, I want it to be a surprise, you know, just to really like there are a few things where you just want somebody to like respond and say, Yeah, that was what had happened. So that happened, and I was really pumped and you know, kind of nervous that it would have to go, but at least we had something there to work from.

[37:14] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, and then you know, sure enough, two in the morning that that night, um, I woke up and um and we're suddenly um rushing to the hospital.

[38:47] Lori Wolter Hudson: And um, and we got to the hospital and they were like, you know, everything looks great. We're fine, we're probably just gonna have to keep you here. And they had told us this, you know, if you come back, um, because it wasn't for sure I would be released the week before, but I was, and they said, you know, if you come back, you're staying till you have the baby. And I was just like, Oh three weeks. I'm gonna be in this hospital for three weeks. And like humongous. What am I gonna do? You know, six o'clock the doctors come by and like, oh yeah, the baby looks great, just you know, we'll come by for rounds later, but just settle in. And I'm like, oh my god, this is a disaster. Um, and then, you know, around 8, 8:30, my nurse came in and you know, was like, hmm, we're uh seeing a few things on the monitor.

Are you feeling anything? And I was like, no, I'm I'm good. What's what's going on? She's like, well, it's just a few contractions, but they're really far apart. And I'm sure it's it might just be a little blip. And then it wasn't a blip, and they went from 10 minutes apart to five minutes apart to two minutes apart. And then suddenly my doctor was coming in to tell us, you know, we were probably gonna have the baby that day. And it was, you know, I was 34 weeks and two days. And because I'd been in the week before, they'd given us or me a steroid shot, um, two steroid shots to to bump up the lung and uh intestine development. So we were in okay shape and she looked like she was a good, or we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, but the baby was seemingly a good size, um, because we thought we were gonna have a giant baby and she would have been a giant baby if she'd made it to I mean I was my due date was this week, which is crazy.

So um anyway, by noon we er one PM we had a beautiful screaming baby girl and uh she was up in the NICU for a few days and it was a wild and crazy thing. Um but Kristen stepped in, took over rehearsals, Beth stepped in, helped taking over rehearsals that Kristen couldn't be at. Um David stayed with me, which was awesome that everybody sort of like, you know, in that way that the show must go on thing. Like everybody just did what needed to be done to make it happen. And we got our time together and we all then were finally out of the hospital, which was great and his parents were here and so th they actually ran a bunch of errands like on photo call day, you know, Mike and Cheryl went up to the Upper East Side to get costumes and like get them up to the upper west side and um and you know, it all worked out and and I was able to look 'cause I was doing okay.

Like I was able to see some of the last couple runs and give notes and be at rehearsal and you know bring her with me and s you know just keep her strapped on until she started screaming and then I'd leave and beat her. Uh and what a crazy thing that Yeah it just happened that you guys doing a show happened to be wrapped up all around the time when you had your first kid.

[42:02] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[42:02] Lori Wolter Hudson: It I mean, in hindsight, like what kind of idiots would ever do that. But at the time, you know, you think you have control over, oh, that's the due date. That's the due date. Yeah. It was such a lesson in it, you know, in letting go. I mean, yeah, one of my mantras in my prenatal yoga class was let go. And there you I didn't know that it would be used in all the ways.

[42:28] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[42:29] Lori Wolter Hudson: But oh my goodness. Hey, she's gonna have the best stories.

[42:34] Leah Walsh: She's got great stories.

[42:35] Lori Wolter Hudson: Best pictures. There was one day where I changed her on the coffin. And that's just gonna go in the baby book now. So there you go. She'll love that when she's alive.

[42:42] Leah Walsh: Okay.

[42:46] Lori Wolter Hudson: So if we can talk a little bit pre-baby, um, even though all I want to do is talk about the baby. Um it's a pretty distraction. I know you've done a lot of assisting.

[43:01] Leah Walsh: Yep, as a director, and some like very prestigious assisting on Broadway and some amazing shows.

[43:08] Lori Wolter Hudson: But I also know that's like a strange thing, kind of like with playwrights that directors there's only one and a half on each show. Like um, so you're considered quote unquote emerging forever.

[43:22] Leah Walsh: Yeah, until you finally like get your shot and people are like, okay, we're just gonna call you a director now.

[43:28] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah. What was what has that been like for you?

[43:32] Leah Walsh: Oh and I know now now you've taken control of the situation, you've given yourself your own work, but like trying to pursue within the system, yeah.

[43:39] Lori Wolter Hudson: I mean doing a lot of assisting, what was that like? It's super frustrating. I mean, um, it's you know, that that thing I said before, that catch 22 thing about like we can't hire you until we see your work, but you can't see my work until I get a chance to do some work. And then, you know, that switch of now that I'm creating work, I'm very I'm creating a very specific type of work, which you know I think people i there are labels and typecasts in every field, and you know, I think oh if I if I get a shot now it's gonna be because I'm the immersive bar theater director, you know, like I wouldn't be given um oh I don't know. I guess like an a legit Arthur Miller.

[44:35] Leah Walsh: Yeah, yeah, I'd love to I mean I'd love to direct the crucible, let's do that.

[44:41] Lori Wolter Hudson: But you know, people would be like, Well, but are you gonna set it in a bar? Is there gonna be drinking? Are we gonna have to run around and like um and I think I mean I actually think there's a very fun version of that could probably happen where we all get top in the witches. Um but um yeah, uh but yeah, that I can do other things than bar theater. Um and I have this really lovely and rich history too of like new play development. I've been with the New Harmony Project. Uh I think this will be my thirteenth year.

[45:17] Leah Walsh: Which is insane.

[45:18] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um starting as an intern, you know, in college when we were the year after freshman year.

[45:24] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[45:25] Lori Wolter Hudson: Getting exposed to these amazing playwrights and new plays and in this gorgeous idyllic utopian community, that r really shaped, you know, where I've come from and so getting a shot to work with new plays and young playwrights emerging playwrights um we face that same thing yeah um together yeah it's it's tricky and it's hard here you know like the um the other advice you know that I've heard so often is tie yourself to a an a new playwright and come through the ranks with them and and I think that's maybe a little easier to do um if you have that through a grad program where you know like Yale or UCSD where you're working together with somebody and and you're gonna leave after three or four years and say yeah um we we do this thing together really well but I I don't I've maybe tried to make that happen with some new harmony writers that I've met through the years but but they also have the people that they've worked with or you know as they tell me like they're given directors that are a lot fancier than I am when they actually get play readings at some of the bigger theaters or a production at you have a choice.

[46:51] Leah Walsh: Yeah so yeah it's just it that's the powerless feeling again of like well how am I supposed to you know unless I'm gonna do it myself and just say either it's gonna be a le a reading in my living room or I'm gonna raise you know ten to a hundred thousand dollars to do like there's um a writer a composer I've been working with for years who I love Joel B new.

[47:15] Lori Wolter Hudson: I love you. Um, and we've been working on a show for I wanna say almost six years now, five years. And it just is one of those things where there's so much that I like it's it's such a an amazing piece and we have had so many different incarnations, but we just need somebody to say, here's the money, like let's workshop it.

[47:38] Leah Walsh: I'll fund you.

[47:39] Lori Wolter Hudson: But if he got approached excuse me, by a theater and they handed him a director, I mean, I would have to just like let that happen, which you know would break my heart, but for the sake of the show, right? My God, of course. Like d do the you know, workshop at second stage. I don't you know, like take it, go. Um, but then you know, right, where does that leave me? It just leaves me with five years of development with a really lovely piece and uh a relationship I've formed with a composer that hopefully, you know, should he get that break will one day bring me back in. But there's no promises.

[48:20] Leah Walsh: Yeah, no, no.

[48:22] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um it's tricky. I mean, I think the like deep down tucked away secret hope is that some show will be such a hit that the right person will see it and give me the opportunity, or the relationships that I've made over the last ten, fifteen years now, um, will start materializing in well, yeah.

[48:46] Leah Walsh: I she's been around a while.

[48:48] Lori Wolter Hudson: I don't know. I think I thought in my twenties, I thought everything's fantastic to work with.

[48:54] Leah Walsh: Wow, thanks.

[48:55] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah, it's just I guess it's just not as it's not as much of a straight line as you hope it is.

[49:00] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[49:01] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah.

[49:01] Leah Walsh: For anyone, for actors or for directors.

[49:04] Lori Wolter Hudson: Mm-hmm.

[49:05] Leah Walsh: And that's, you know, frustrating.

[49:07] Lori Wolter Hudson: That's where you have to avoid the dark side.

[49:09] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[49:10] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah.

[49:10] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[49:14] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, one, I am just so impressed and proud of you guys that you decided to start a family within this.

[49:22] Leah Walsh: Happy crying.

[49:24] Lori Wolter Hudson: Happy crying within this world that we're all trying to build for ourselves, which is theater or art or which is not dependable. So that's I mean, it's something that Frankie and I want to do, and it I'm just in awe of you and Dava that you guys did it. You went ahead and just went for it.

[49:41] Leah Walsh: Um and I know that it's just happened.

[49:46] Lori Wolter Hudson: It has just happened, and this is the crazy time for me to ask you to be on the podcast, and you're you know, everything is in flux. Maybe I asked things in the wrong in the wrong sequence.

[49:57] Leah Walsh: I wanted to talk about your day job as well.

[50:01] Lori Wolter Hudson: But then besides your day job, how are you? What are the big priorities in your mind right now for your new mom?

[50:09] Leah Walsh: And of course, wanting to prioritize art as well, but then also having to go back to a full-time day job in a few months.

[50:18] Lori Wolter Hudson: All the all the things. Where's your head at with all of it?

[50:22] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um it's oh, it's all over the place. I mean, I I've been very fortunate where when I first got to the city, um, I was working in theater it at a theater, and you know, I learned so much, and I and I had worked at a bunch of theaters like as you know, like in the summer.

[50:49] Leah Walsh: Yeah, the chair of our department uh in undergrad called me the the intern queen. John David Lutz shout out.

[50:57] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um yeah, he he thought it was hysterical, but I I grew up in Evansville and I went to school at Evansville and um and I made it a point that I wasn't gonna hang around that was so smart every summer I needed to get out and do something ideally theater related.

[51:15] Leah Walsh: Um and that worked out really well for me.

[51:19] Lori Wolter Hudson: And then I was able to kind of switch because I had these skills, um, these administrative office skills um where I could go into temp jobs and um and was able to kind of make a transition from working administratively in a theater and not making so much of the monies uh I mean I I can't wait to tell my grandkids someday, like I made I moved to New York City and I made $75 a week.

[51:53] Lori Wolter Hudson: And I walked uphill in the snow and I walked downhill in the snow. But the money part was real that was how much I made but seventy-five dollars is real um and and my rent was not seventy-five dollars. Um yeah. So that was uh that was nuts. And so yeah, when I switched to kind of doing those, you know, slightly soul crushing corporate work. Um I say that though with a smile. I there are so many things that my brain is rewarded by and you know, like I I'm pretty type A and I like to have everything. Is it like checking things off the list? Yeah, and it's like checking things off the list. I like making someone's schedule very organized. And I like filing creating filing systems, and I, you know, don't mind booking travel and creating uh, you know, schedule and spreadsheets.

I mean, the tricky thing is when that gets to be so all consuming and takes over my free time um in the evenings and weekends, then you know, if if it's a job and I've found this to be true, where I'm on a BlackBerry, or now, you know, with even the corporate world is switch over to the iPhones, um, where I'm checking my email for work and stuff after hours, or like on the phone with travel all day on Saturday because of weather in, you know, Seattle. It's just it's rough, and that that gets to be too much for me. But I've I've been very lucky where I've found these jobs um a couple at a couple different places where I I feel like my I'm rewarded as a person and people value me and and you know, I'm I'm so interesting suddenly as an artist in a world of finance.

Um, you know, that's that's kind of fun where these people that I would normally never interact with, I can get them to come out to my shows and they have a great time, which is really cool and uh for the most part they're all awesome people and I I value the friendships I've made. Over the years, uh some of my very close friends now are people I've worked with at my, you know, at the time, like throwaway temp job that turned into something more, and and this has allowed me sixteen weeks of paid maternity leave, which could just never happen if I worked uh unfortunately, if I worked for a theater company. So that is such a gift. Um and yeah now it's me reassessing uh figuring out you know when I go back in a few months w yeah how how long I will do that and and um what needs to happen and shift to make other things worthwhile.

And I I've always wanted to, you know, have a job where I worked at a theater and then had an artistic outlet where ideally I'd be directing but um you know that's that's kind of the the pipe dream we'll see. I mean it's certainly possible but again there are even fewer uh artistic associates or artistic directors than there are directors in a season at a theater. Right. So that's a very small window that I'd love to break into if you're out there listening that's kind of a dream you have. Yeah for sure. It's always been I think since I was able to shape like one artistic institution. Yes. Yeah. Life. Yeah. I mean I because I I think it's that perfect balance of artistic stuff where you know I I can still be in a rehearsal room which I love so much.

Oh I just love that. I could be in a r rehearsal room all day. I mean I'd be pretty a pretty happy camper. Um but then also like the the shaping thing of of producing where I can put together a team of people um with a play that I love or that I think an audience would love and assembling that and overseeing that and putting the things in place to make sure that that's successful. Um introducing a new playwright to an audience that I think would, you know, it's just I I see so much there. She's about to wake up. Um yeah, that's definitely like the long term uh happy place, run off into the sunset. If if I could do that tomorrow, that'd be awesome. I mean, I'm amazed watching you work these day jobs you've had lately, just because I mean you what time do you leave for work every morning?

Guys, there is a world and I'm in the world. I don't like it already. 8 a.m. Monday meetings. I don't no I hate it. Nope. I hate it. It means leaving at 7 15, so I'm not late. So you get up at like 6 15. Yeah, oh it's terrible gross. I mean, I'm so in awe of it, but it to allow you to have 16 weeks paid matrix. Listen to this, America. I think this is actually gonna be America. All of you. Let's let's get our shit together. Uh yeah, no, it I think the the maternity leave thing is I think gonna be a big issue for the upcoming election. Because it I don't know, it's it's it's a mess. Yeah, it is a mess. It's a mess. Not just for artists. No, uh for that's the thing. I think it's for for anyone, and when we look at other um other countries that have other things in place, um Canada, I mean in England, I think it's like a year.

You get a year off to be a mom and figure out your life and family and raising a child and dedicating. Yeah. But that child has a good start. Exactly. Um as we're just starting to look at like wait lists for daycare. Why I'm considering getting a corporate day job. Because it could allow it's scary to think that that might be the deciding factor in us having a kid. Yeah. Not having some kind of support in that way which has nothing to do with my training or fields. Also then tied to health insurance. I mean not that Obamacare hasn't saved so many things. I th I'm so I was so grateful when I was able to go on that and um you know now I just have a a little more in flexibility and options. But um but yeah it's it's um it's a lot and like the stability thing is is huge when you're thinking about the financial not just you know emotional and physical responsibilities of a baby but I mean that that financial burden is real.

Um and you know there's a lot we can like skate by with for ourselves um and cut corners and in ways you know we need to to get by to do what we need to do. Um but but yeah you don't want to do those same things when a little tiny baby's involved you want everything to to be perfect and it can't be but you at least want to be worried that you can't afford whatever you need to take care of the kid. Exactly. If we, you know, run out of wipes in the middle of the night. Not that that's happened. You need to be able to Amazon Prime. Okay. Some some wife that will arrive the next day. Uh yeah. And not think like, oh, that's, you know, 2588 that like, where's that gonna come from? Because I didn't budget for you know some people never want to fan like never want kids in whatever form, and that's fine.

But some people make these huge life decisions dependent only on the fact that they're an artist and they think that they can never financially support them. And that's terrifying to me. Yeah. Like I think you should be able to have the family you want to have. You should be able to if you want to adopt kids, you should be able to adopt kids. If you want to have kids, you should be able to have kids and not have to make that a financial decision. Well, and I think for artists, so it's not just a financial decision, it's a w when am I gonna work again decision, you know? Because it is it is gonna be prohibitive. It's gonna be harder, you know. Like you can't you can't just leave for an audition, you know, for you.

Like if you get one and you don't have somebody to watch the baby. Like well, then it that's when it becomes really important to have a strong community that you can depend on. And I know your family is mostly in Indiana, David's family is mostly in Texas. But uh you have a strong community here of friends. Yeah. Absolutely. I have so many people. I mean, and you know, we're still in the very early stages of that, but there was a night um during the Dracula run where I was hoping um we had a sitter in place and that fell through, and then it was suddenly like me texting some people um to see if I could get coverage so that I could go to the show. And I was, you know, gonna go to the show kind of to watch it for myself for opening um opening night, but also, you know, to like run box office.

And um it ended up working out where I I actually couldn't find someone, so I I brought Isabel with me, and you know, she was super and like totally passed out until the you know uh latecomers came in at like 8 12 and she's screaming and I'm trying to like quite them in. Yeah, and you know, it was a bit of a disaster. I'm like, this is so unprofessional. But um, you know, it all it all sort of works out and and we have so many people here that are like I mean kind of scary, like please leave me with your baby. I apologize. No, I am one of those. You're you're in the in between, like you're not super crazy eyes when you say it. There's a few where I'm like, uh I might not get my kid back. But it's it's probably fine.

Just be in great hands. Um, yeah, we were super lucky that there are so many people here. Um that yeah, uh drop of a hat if I needed anything, you know, you're or the people that have just offered too for me, like for my sanity, like if you need a glass of wine or if you need um to take a shower. Yeah, just call me and I will come. And I and I do feel comfortable enough to say to yeah, any of those close friends, you know, can you just come over for good a half hour and I or or can you just bring this to me? Like I can't leave the apartment and I need this. Can you uh can you please bring me toilet paper? If you feel comfortable with that. Yeah. Please, please do. I mean, and you know, it's New York City, so anything can basically be delivered, which is kind of magical.

And I was trying to explain that to like our in-laws and my parents where you know like we're so sorry, you know, we can't be there to do things. I'm like, you know, a lot a lot can happen here with yeah a phone call, a text, yeah. Things can just show up at our door. Which is awesome. Groceries. Magic. What's been the most surprising surprising thing you've been dealing with since becoming a mom? Oh wow, I don't know. I think because it happened so quickly, I it's gonna sound really selfish, but I um because she came so early, I thought my recovery time just in general would be a lot worse. And I think because she came six weeks early, my body didn't get too out of whack, but we were on a like second floor walk up and I was just sort of envisioning um not being able to go up and down the stairs and not being able to lift anything and like needing so much help and I actually feel like you know I've been fairly self sufficient since leaving the hospital which has been awesome.

[1:04:47] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, you know, there were a few weird health things. Like I had a couple days of like crazy swelling. Uh, crazy swelling where I was like, I'm gonna be like Shrek feet forever. I'm gonna have fat foot. Um, so that was really disturbing. But beyond that, it was like I really thought it'd be this long process of getting back to feeling like me, and maybe because the show was running as well, like I felt like me right away, and I could kind of like jump right back into rehearsal and like have intelligent thoughts on line changes or maybe the entrance should be from there, you know, like things that I could, you know, respond to as now a producer, seeing a final run of a show, and then, you know, come home and try to figure out feeding her and not sleeping a lot, but also being able to run errands on my own and not feeling trapped in my apartment and yeah, yeah. It's been better. The show was going on, yeah.

[1:05:56] Leah Walsh: I mean, to keep you grounded in your life, your pre-baby life, even though this suddenly obviously this most important focus.

[1:06:06] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah, I think I was ready to like let everything shut down and just like live in this cocoon, and that hasn't been able to happen, and I think it is good that it's been okay. It's just kept going. Life is just still going, and now we have this other little person. So she's along for the ride now. I'm so excited. Yeah, she's here. It's pretty cool.

[1:06:31] Leah Walsh: Is there a project, big or small, that you've worked on in the last couple of years that you are just like surprisingly proud of?

[1:06:40] Lori Wolter Hudson: Hmm. I mean, the first thing that comes to mind, like the Three Day Hangover stuff's been fantastic. Like I think I always thought I'd save directing Uncle Vanya until I was forty and knew exactly how to do it perfectly. And so like that was really a big push for myself adapting that and directing that and doing it in a bar. Oh my god. It was craziness. It was so special. Um, I mean, there was something really special. Dracula, you know, for the reasons I mentioned earlier, there was something really special about working on that with just a really small group of people. Um, it was just David, Beth, myself, and Chris Grant and like the birth of that project, that was probably the hardest thing I've maybe ever done, the hardest process.

[1:07:38] Leah Walsh: Yeah, it was one and two for the yeah.

[1:07:39] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah, it was kind of like combining Henry IV one and two into a retelling of five with false stuff. Um, and Hank as buddies. So yeah, um that one and ultimately like R and J is still sort of this magic show for me that I think broke me out of the work I was doing that I felt like, oh, I direct these, you know, very neat and tidy—not cookie cutter because they're all beautiful snowflakes—but, um, you know, that I do good work and I can develop new plays and all that. Um, but that just changed everything. So that'll always be really special for me. And then getting to direct at New Harmony is the other thing where I'm really proud of. Um, I got to work on—I’ve done a musical there and that was a while ago.

But the last two plays, Still Now with Katie Bender and Tanya in the Getaway Van with Susan. I mean, I know it's not so silly, but like there's something so special about that place for me and being in the room and just the possibility of working with new plays is just that's what it's all about where it's just like this hope and vision and yeah, like those magical rewrites come in and you hear a scene click for the first time and you're just like, Yes, yes, this is it, this is the art, it's magic, you know.

[1:09:30] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, there's nothing that can replace that feeling of like making a play better and like being part of that change. Ugh, it's just it's like when something clicks in rehearsal for the first time too, where you're like, Yes, I nailed that beat, or that moment finally feels like something. Um, it's really exciting. So are there any things that you feel yourself like turning to again and again when you want to come out of the dark side, like things like music that you listen to?

[1:10:01] Lori Wolter Hudson: I don't know that I really do much other than I keep myself real busy. No, that's true. Like I don't, you know, after something really all-encompassing, I'll, you know, sit for a week and watch all the Netflix or whatever. All the West Wing. All the West Wing. Or all the HGTV. Gosh, that's a bad one right now. But um, fantasy's about owning a house. But for me, I very often will just see a lot of theater. And good or bad, um, and you know, ideally free. Still at this point. I'm saying that in my early 30s, which is sad. No, but well, if you want to see a lot of theater, it's not realistic to pay full price. Yeah, it's I mean, truly, it's too expensive. But um, you know, either comps through friends or I'm, you know, aging out of the, you know, young ticket offer things, but um, but yeah, like TDF and whatever. Like I try to see I've always seen a lot of shows, and I think that is what it just brings you back in.

[1:11:17] Lori Wolter Hudson: Yeah, fuels me because it's either, you know, fine, which is frustrating, um, terrible, which is either, you know, like very fun, because if it's that bad that you get to really enjoy it, that's just a good time. But, you know, there are many of those. And then, you know, you always go, you sit down, and you know, if it's one of these shows, the lights get dark and you have that hope for a moment that this is gonna be the show that changes your life for forever, for a year, for six months, for a day. Um, you know, that's that's the magic that you know you hope for.

[1:11:56] Leah Walsh: The next question is have you seen anything lately that you want to recommend?

[1:12:01] Lori Wolter Hudson: Well, I know you're a little out of the loop right now.

[1:12:06] Leah Walsh: Yeah, it's rough.

[1:12:06] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, it was funny when I started listening to the podcast, everybody was talking about John, and I was like, oh yeah, oh yeah, everybody should see John. No, whatever. Go to the library, go to the Lincoln Center Library and watch that someday. I hope that the nuance of that production is captured via film. I don't know that I, you know, or what are you looking forward to seeing if you haven't seen the big.

[1:12:32] Lori Wolter Hudson: So um we've been talking, well, Hamilton is on everyone's list, right? So that's a must. I just don't know when or financially how, but maybe Santa will bring me some Hamilton tickets. Um, that thing's gonna run forever. So that um we've been talking, David and I, he still talks about seeing um the Deaf West Big River, and so he's really excited about the Spring Awakening. Um, and I'm excited for that too. What else? Um, I'm totally drawing blanks right now on like everybody's upcoming show. Oh, this is a little sad because of the controversy around the all-white cast, but I am excited for Noises Off. Cause I just think it's so funny. I was a light board op for that show in college.

[1:13:32] Leah Walsh: Well, yeah.

[1:13:32] Lori Wolter Hudson: And I got nostalgic a couple. Uh, one of the designers, who is also one of our professors, yeah, like yelled at me in a design meeting after the show because I was being too loud. I was laughing too loud during rehearsals and it was distracting. I was like, I don't know how it's distracting from your set. But yeah, get off me. It's hilarious. So um that's sort of silly and fun. Sylvia. I don't know why I have I really want to see that too. Nostalgia for that play, maybe from school as well. They did that in the undergrad.

[1:14:10] Leah Walsh: Yeah.

[1:14:10] Lori Wolter Hudson: I think that cast is sort of super great. Um, I'm only naming big shows, but that's I still haven't seen King and I speaking of like I haven't seen either, but here it's amazing. I want to see that. Can you give a little plug for Three Day Hangover's next show?

[1:14:26] Lori Wolter Hudson: Oh sure. Hey, you know what I'm really excited about, guys, is Tartuffe. Um, sex in politics. Yeah, so um Tartuffe is coming up. Uh, we open, oh gosh, and now like new mommy brain. Wow, I haven't said that yuck. It's like November—November 4th. Let me look it up on my body. Beth is directing it. Yeah, Beth Gardner's directing. Um, Jake Brandman's doing this hilarious, ridiculous, like outrageous adaptation. Um, and it's gonna be so much fun. I um I'm actually going tomorrow to do a little choreography. Um, I don't know November fourth through the 21st. There we go. I was right with a fourth. Yes. There you go. Um, it's gonna be super fun. And if you haven't seen any like one of our shows yet, you should totally check it out.

ThreeDayHangover.com, all spelled out. Um, but tickets are only 15 bucks. You drink, it's a blast. We reimagine these stories that you think you know really well and kind of present them in a new, fun, but hopefully very poignant and lovely way. Like part of the magic of what we do is that we get really great actors.

[1:15:43] Lori Wolter Hudson: Um, and they knock it out of the park consistently. I'm not, uh, and I'm not I'm gonna sound biased, but I'm not. I mean, they're like some of the city's best. I'm sitting across from one of them now. I mean, it's really cool to see people get excited about really old plays that they normally would drag themselves to only because their best friends in it, and these are super fun. So come check it out.

[1:16:16] Leah Walsh: Yay!

[1:16:16] Lori Wolter Hudson: Well, I'm kind of it was lovely that Izzy stayed asleep all the time, but I was kind of sad. I expected her to be awake and part of the conversation.

[1:16:25] Leah Walsh: Well, if she had been awake, you would have known about it.

[1:16:28] Lori Wolter Hudson: She had some moments earlier today where I was fearful for tonight.

[1:16:34] Leah Walsh: Next time.

[1:16:34] Lori Wolter Hudson: Next time, yeah. Maybe she'll be on this someday.

[1:16:38] Leah Walsh: Yay, thank you.

[1:16:40] Lori Wolter Hudson: All right, thank you, Lori.

[1:16:51] Leah Walsh: Thank you for listening to the Compass Podcast. I'm Leah Walsh. More episodes are coming soon. Please look for us on Facebook in iTunes. I'd like to thank the following people for their generosity. The Compass Cover Art is by Kim Miller, music by Brendan Speeth, audio assistance from Nick Choxie, and a special thanks to Frankie J. Alvarez. See you next time.