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[0:18] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Hello and welcome to The Drama Book Show.

[0:20] David Rigano: My name's David Rigano.

[0:22] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And this is episode two of season two.

[0:28] David Rigano: I'm not used to counting so low.

[0:31] Mark-Eugene Garcia: David, today was a really big important day.

[0:35] David Rigano: Because it's May Day.

[0:36] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Absolutely, it's May Day.

[0:37] David Rigano: I was gonna say the same joke.

[0:39] Mark-Eugene Garcia: It is not only May Day, it is also Tony Nominations Day, which is a huge day for the theater community for the Broadway community.

[0:46] David Rigano: I know I woke up early.

[0:48] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Did you wake up early?

[0:49] David Rigano: I uh yes, but for other reasons.

[0:53] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I am in rehearsals for a show and I have deadlines on video editing projects that I am working on.

[0:59] David Rigano: But since I was up early.

[1:02] Mark-Eugene Garcia: It's funny because oh, you weren't here earlier when we were talking about it at the registers.

[1:06] David Rigano: I actually had a stress dream about the Tony nominations last night.

[1:10] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Really?

[1:11] David Rigano: I did. I dreamt that I hate to put it this way, but what do you have to stress about?

[1:16] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Nothing.

[1:16] David Rigano: For some reason, I had a stress dream about it though. I dreamt that I was waiting for the nominations to come out. I was on vacation with my husband, and then he suddenly had to go to work.

[1:25] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And he'll on vacation.

[1:27] David Rigano: While on vacation, like he he walked off of a cruise ship. I don't know how. But I was like, but wait, you're supposed to be here and watching the nominations with me this morning. And he goes, Oh no, we I knew about it a week ago at my job, so we're we already know.

[1:41] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And I was like, you didn't tell me and he's like, No, I gotta go by and leaves.

[1:44] David Rigano: And then I'm I couldn't right and then I couldn't get the stream to watch it. And then I ran into friends from like college who I hadn't seen in years, and they were like, Oh, yeah, we're taking bets on who's gonna win. I'm like, great, you have the nominations. Can I see them? And they're like, No, but you can see the bets that we have. And I was so angry, and then I woke up angry at this, and as I woke up, my husband leans over and says, Hey Mark, it's time.

[2:13] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, and that's how I woke up to watch the Tony nominations this morning. But I was so stressed out.

[2:21] David Rigano: I didn't watch that.

[2:22] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh, okay. I did get up and I and I checked checked my phone while I was working.

[2:28] David Rigano: Nice.

[2:29] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I don't have I don't have my prediction. It's uh it's a tough year.

[2:32] David Rigano: It's a tough year because this year there were so many really good shows.

[2:37] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, like it's it wasn't just a year of a lot of shows, theater, yeah. It was just a lot of really good shows, and they were all fighting for a very few amount of spots, and it's in some ways great, and in some ways heartbreaking because there's shows that I think are great that didn't get the nominations I think they deserve, and then there's definitely some really great shows that did, and yeah, it was it's a bittersweet uh moment.

[3:02] David Rigano: I'm happy for so many people.

[3:04] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Who do you think absolutely didn't deserve their nomination?

[3:07] David Rigano: Nobody, absolutely not, not doing it.

[3:11] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I think every single one of them did. I think that a couple of them could have had an extra couple of categories uh of nominees, but because again, there's just so many, and that's and it's how do you choose?

[3:22] David Rigano: And it's weird because there's looking at the nominees, the drama desks came out. Also just came out.

[3:28] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, yeah. I've only seen one of the best musical nominees, but I've seen all of the snubs.

[3:33] David Rigano: Yeah, no, so I'm seeing Dead Outlaw tomorrow.

[3:35] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh, nice.

[3:36] David Rigano: I'm very excited. I'm also seeing uh Sunset Boulevard finally next week.

[3:40] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Uh huh.

[3:40] David Rigano: Yeah, I haven't seen it yet.

[3:42] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh, really?

[3:42] David Rigano: I have I'm finally getting to see it.

[3:46] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Um we had Mandy Gonzalez.

[3:49] David Rigano: Yes, we did.

[3:50] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So I have to go see for a and I'm gonna see Nicole as well. But I have to once I heard that Mandy was the alternate. We have to. I have to. And then I had a party of people who all was like us too. So then it wasn't even just like, oh, run to the theater and try to get a $40 rush ticket on a Tuesday. It was like, oh, we have to organize all of us going to see Mandy.

[4:13] David Rigano: I have my tickets to see Mandy.

[4:15] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Uh that's why I haven't.

[4:16] David Rigano: Yeah, no. Same. I'm but I love the show. It's my favorite Angela and Weber show.

[4:21] Mark-Eugene Garcia: But that's very cool.

[4:22] David Rigano: That's it. I don't know. I really do love Jesus Christ Superstar. But it's between those two. I like those two. I like some of um Tell Me on a Sunday.

[4:33] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes.

[4:33] David Rigano: But it's not enough to be like, I mean, Sunset Boulevard is. Is gorgeous. Uh Joseph was my first of his that as a kid I got into, and then slowly branched out to some of the others.

[4:45] Mark-Eugene Garcia: But yeah, so I didn't haven't seen all of the noms this year.

[4:49] David Rigano: No, I've you saw Mince Meet, though.

[4:51] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I've seen Mince Meet.

[4:52] David Rigano: Yeah. Loved it.

[4:53] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Okay, very cool.

[4:55] David Rigano: Such a good time. Have to go back.

[4:57] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah. There's it's it's one of those shows where just tracking. There are so many more characters on stage than there are actors.

[5:09] David Rigano: Yes, and I love when that happens.

[5:11] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And uh and they do stuff really that like turning characters on a dime stuff. They have moving, and it looks like they're just moving a set piece, but someone's very surreptitiously just changing characters behind it.

[5:26] David Rigano: Nice.

[5:27] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So one character disappears behind it, and a completely different one appears around the buttons actor.

[5:31] David Rigano: Oh, I love that.

[5:32] Mark-Eugene Garcia: They did that in Dracula, the comedy of terrors.

[5:35] David Rigano: Yeah.

[5:36] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And they were very good to me about trying to help me get tickets, but they only had tickets for me on days when I was here.

[5:43] David Rigano: Of course.

[5:44] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Hosting events.

[5:45] David Rigano: So that's it.

[5:46] Mark-Eugene Garcia: That's your fault.

[5:47] David Rigano: It is. It's 100% my fault.

[5:49] Mark-Eugene Garcia: But yeah, this cast is phenomenal. Half the cast are also the writers of the show.

[5:55] David Rigano: Right.

[5:55] Mark-Eugene Garcia: It has that very homegrown feel that way. That very like story theater of like we're playing and we're gonna play all the parts ourselves. But it's also very polished.

[6:07] David Rigano: The staging is beautiful.

[6:09] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh, I'm excited. I'm excited to see it.

[6:12] David Rigano: At some point, I will see it.

[6:15] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I'm very jealous that you get to see Dead Outlaw.

[6:18] David Rigano: I love the people in that. Julia Nytel, um uh I um Eddie Cooper.

[6:25] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, um and the score. I'm excited for the score. Anything David Yasbeck.

[6:29] David Rigano: Yeah, no, last night, right before the nominations came out. I signed on the TDF and we just sat there and went this one. Get them now before before. Because you never know.

[6:37] Mark-Eugene Garcia: You never know what's gonna happen in a couple weeks.

[6:40] David Rigano: I got I gotta try this, you know, how much I can get over there before the awards.

[6:47] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Exactly.

[6:47] David Rigano: I know after the awards, one of two things happens.

[6:50] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes, yes, and that's the face.

[6:53] David Rigano: Both of those the prices go up, or you lose the show.

[6:56] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Or yeah, and I know like I have to see my mom wants to see O'Mary, and so we're gonna see that. It's interesting. She saw Cole on Jeopardy and thought Cole very funny on Jeopardy.

[7:08] David Rigano: Oh, that's right. Yes. They were well an answer on Jeopardy.

[7:11] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Right. And did all the clues. I don't think my mom knows what she's in for, but I'm not saying a thing. So that's just between me and the listeners and you.

[7:18] David Rigano: I was just talking to Dylan, who who's been on the podcast and who works here. Um I have I don't really know Cole personally, but I we did go to the same college.

[7:32] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes.

[7:33] David Rigano: Um, I believe that I was a senior when they were a freshman, which is part of the reason I I don't know them very well. But I saw Cole play the crazy mom in a student-run production of Psycho Beach Party.

[7:49] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh my god.

[7:51] David Rigano: I love it in like 2007. So I've been I've been following them ever since and and just think that they're genius genius camp master. Um so yeah, and I couldn't get tickets for it when it was downtown, and and I I love Betty Gilpin and I love Titus Burgess, but I have been I've been waiting for Cole to come back into it.

[8:16] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I'm excited. I'm excited to see it, and I'm excited to experience it with my mom.

[8:19] David Rigano: Yeah, I feel like it's gonna be a lot of fun.

[8:23] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Slightly evil laughing out theaters. There's so many other shows to see. I haven't seen Boop.

[8:28] David Rigano: I want to see that.

[8:29] Mark-Eugene Garcia: No, I haven't seen Boop. Smash was a lot of fun, especially for someone who writes musical theater. It is so fun and so funny, is ridiculously funny.

[8:40] David Rigano: There's just so many good shows this year.

[8:42] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, it's we it has the thing that always makes a great season also makes for a stressful award season.

[8:51] David Rigano: A hundred percent.

[8:52] Mark-Eugene Garcia: It does. I wish they'd been spread out a little bit more. Sometimes you have a real boring award season where truly is like this is the only good thing. So thankfully, that's not where we're at.

[9:03] David Rigano: No, definitely. I think it's this, it was such a good season. And then we go, you know, you look at the you look at the like Death Becomes Her, which has 100%.

[9:12] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh my god.

[9:12] David Rigano: And so good. Something else. That's the one I've seen. Something else is right up there with it was Death Becomes Her and One of It's the Social Club. Those are the two.

[9:20] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Those are the two that both had 10.

[9:22] David Rigano: And you start to go a sweep. Or are the awards gonna be kind of more judiciously.

[9:27] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, and it's it's there's just so many good shows. That's what it comes down to. There's so many good. There's a lot of good theater right now, and that makes me very happy, is that there's a lot of good theater.

[9:37] David Rigano: Even if it gives you stress dreams.

[9:38] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Even if it gives me stress dreams.

[9:42] David Rigano: That was a fun Tony Tangent. A lot of good shows opened this season.

[9:47] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes.

[9:48] David Rigano: And speaking of open.

[9:51] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I was wondering where the segue was gonna go.

[9:55] David Rigano: Speaking of open, it was something that that was part of this season.

[9:58] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes. Uh we had Crystal Skillman come.

[10:02] David Rigano: A friend of the friend of the show.

[10:04] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And she came with her one-person play open.

[10:08] David Rigano: And I love that she brought two actors for this one-person play.

[10:14] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Very Martin Short Fame Becomes Me. But in this case, it was it was an actor who had done it in New York and an actor who had done it on tour regionally.

[10:25] David Rigano: I think, but they also had never seen the other do it.

[10:27] Mark-Eugene Garcia: They've never seen each other.

[10:28] David Rigano: Yeah.

[10:29] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So you had these two actors who shared this role in common. I think they may have met before, but they had never, or one of them had seen. They go into it in the interview. I'll let them talk about that.

[10:42] David Rigano: But it's a beautiful one-person play.

[10:46] Mark-Eugene Garcia: It presents itself as a magic show, and then it is so very much more than that.

[10:54] David Rigano: And I don't want to give too much away because the reason she brought two actors was to do two monologues.

[11:00] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So you're gonna get to hear a little bit of the play in there with the interview.

[11:06] David Rigano: Let's dive right in. Hi, Crystal.

[11:09] Crystal Skillman: Hi, David.

[11:16] David Rigano: Thank you so much for joining us tonight. This is a dream.

[11:18] Crystal Skillman: I love the drama bookshop.

[11:21] David Rigano: I love it so much. And so tell us just briefly, set up the world of this play open that we're going to be hearing some excerpts from.

[11:31] Crystal Skillman: Yes, some people are actually, I think I've seen different versions of the show for some folks maybe new, but open opens with a magician on stage welcoming us and very excited to see us and starting to perform tricks.

[11:46] These tricks are pantomimed, so we cannot see the actual physical optics or the actual trick. Or is it that we need to believe to see? And the magician reminds us that the show is a contract between themselves and the audience.

[12:02] And as the audience leans into that, all of a sudden, when some flowers come out of a hat, we actually hear that. We may not see it, but slowly the magic tricks are enhanced by design. In just before the section that Lily-Ali Oshatz was about to read, we discovered that the magician is a persona actually a Christian. Kristen is a YA author. If you follow her, often somehow writing is involved or creation. It's just my jam.

[12:33] Crystal Skillman: He is a YA author, and we realized that in the middle of the night, very hastily, she had to get her partner Jenny somewhere. And we're not really given much more information than that before the section.

[12:46] Lily-Ali Oshatz: I performed the tour de Mulvin in Four City in Italy, which was part of OnStage! festival, and was awarded a Mid Atlantic Best of Arts grant and was really supported by Megan Finn with The Tank and also applying for me. So we were so fortunate to have that. I'm so excited that you get to see a little snippet of that right now. Lily, will you join us?

[13:16] Lily-Ali Oshatz: Cards. A deck of cards. My dad taught me these crunchings. This is how they do it in Asia. Isn't that I've been doing it all night? Shuffling is a classic way of waiting. Oh, rapes, do a million things. They tap her point to a school they remember. They wish they were somewhere else. They click through the channels. They go through the motions. Eight to eight. Broadway. The Strand Bookstore. 10 p.m. Struggling writers work odd hours. We are freelancers. In the basement. Isle A3 Accult. It's a lonely place. Melee and abductions. God in it. The rapture. Loch Ness. Creatures from beyond. Creatures under your bed. Sexy creatures in your bed. Because the slipped bee. Never have seen each other. If I haven't reached too far, right through the book.

In what was once just six fines, there is now an opening. I look through. I see her. Through the opening. What's it for? Just some research. I sound like an idiot. I am an idiot. He hands me that look. We touch. Do you remember that? Our first touch. When a line was a night of possibilities. That night I run out of the bookstore onto Hurricane Street and open my book, The Magic of Magic, A History of Magic, to find a piece of paper sticking up out of my book. A night. Her name and number. I look out at the lights. And into each window. And see. Every lover. There are lovers in this city. Beginning, ending. Running. Flat in my hands, I ran. She didn't know I ran. I ran and no one could catch me.

The lake in the heels, I bite to shouted out. The old man shivering. The teenagers turning the corner, screaming and jumping and laughing. The man against the woman up against the red brick. My city. How I flew home. Pick a card. Joke the car. Three of the diamonds. Put it back in the neck her number seven one eight six two four five one nine three of diamonds she picks up Hello Um Hey Jenny it's uh Kristen from uh five years ago she takes the place Marie's crisis Harry over here.

[16:31] Crystal Skillman: It's only the first of December and it looks like Christmas threw up in here silence the state is doomed. I take out my cards, shuffle, her eyes line up, yuffing skeptical in Jenny's eyes to pure breath. What was that then for your research? A writer who wants to bring your soul. I'm training to be a magician. That's what my research is for. Do you like card tricks? Don't kill me now, Dad. Pick a card. She does. Show me the card. She doesn't give it back. She leans in. You're the liar for the what? The book. Your research. Coffee center on fifth puck. You work there. I recognize you. My office. We copy there. I saw your name on the piles of pages you copy on the side door. You're a writer. You write stories.

Yes. About what? It's um fantasy. Title. The Magician's Magician about a teenager. Creates a guide of sorts in his mind. He discovers the magic, he thinks he can do his real falls in love, faces his worst fears. Who does he fall in love with? Another boy. I like it. Tell me the first line. Oh god, come on. I trust her. I do. Okay. This is the first sign of my book. Magician! Are you a coward? Don't you want to live? She just walks out. Who does that? I can barely make my way out past the bar, past the first lines of all those pickups. Aren't you dis on the street? She's gone. I turn to go when I hear. Magician! Are you a coward? Don't you want to live? Jenny returns. Here's your research. Piling books up in my arms magic book after a book her own.

Stories of old tricks. Legends. She has written her name in all of them. These are the books of someone who does nothing but try to leave in something wrong. I I don't know what to. I live upstairs. But karaoke. I don't care. Do you? Come home with me. I stand frozen. Jenny turns, her back falls, a mirror tumbles out. I try to catch it for her, but it hits the ground, breaks. I've opened up. Pistol my face. And I'm afraid I see her eyes. No. I'm not afraid. Jenny takes out the playing card, the one she stole, places it against my forehead. I have no way of knowing. I have no skill at this, but I know. Somehow I know all the cards melt in my mind. Gone. Save one. Your choice. Hers. Three of diamonds.

Open at the 10th theater. In which Megan Hill, the form of the role of the magician. And she's drunk in just a minute. And what's happened at this point, we moved forward in time. Oh yeah, it's been revealed that Jenny suffered hate crime the night before. And they're actually in the hospital. So all these tricks and all these things she's doing in a way is a state of mind while going through this traumatic experience. And really believing is magic. And our belief in that magic will save Jenny. So the contract between the audience and Chris and has gotten pretty intertwined. Something else that has happened is that Jenny's pillows are called and they're on their way and they laying Kristen for but happened that night.

We're not protecting Jenny. She has gone through a tight room walk in her mind to gain courage to get to Jenny's door and open it based on the circumstance of the nurse her room. She flees into the parking lot in which she attempts this act of invitation. Please welcome to the stage, Megan Hill.

[21:45] Megan Hill: Commitment. Commitment ever brought lovers together. My mother came home in an address to meet my father, like she did every Friday for their date night. Came home into an empty house. An envelope of cash and the note. It's not working. I met someone. My father's note to me. A post-it on my pillow. I'll always love you. After that day, my mother, she breathed. She moved, she walked, but she can someone live but not be alive. Your father left. I know. Do you know why? No. And there is just silence, but in it I hear, you know. How dare she? She says nothing, leaves it unsaid. She's never talked to me about it, refused. She will never know the real me I hide inside me. I could never be open with her.

She would never be capable of accepting. And I would never expect what some magic words of love, a blessing. Outside. Wind. Air. This is levitation. I float, no longer bound by gravity to stay up. I must leave the past behind. Come with me. Up, up I go up, up into the night air, the stars there. That constellation, that's you as a child and me and everyone we know. Oh, Charlie! Our bird is here flying with us. Go higher! Higher! Galaxies within galaxies. I see houses, the clouds above them. Only they aren't clouds. They're conversations. Conversations stay. Ah, I must stay up. I must keep my concentration, but I see your first apartment. Just moved in. Did you tell your mom her new address? Have you even told her about me?

And your parents love me so much. They just need to get to know you better. They're supportive. From the moment you told them with me, it's different. Well, you know I'm an only child, so they have to love me. I'm all they've got. Well, I was a mistake. How's the book going? I met that agent. He says I have to rewrite the last chapter, and then there's potential. Potential potential. Potential. Hey. As long as you create.

[25:09] Megan Hill: You have an audience.

[25:12] Megan Hill: Me. I wake up that first night in our new apartment. I find Jenny in the kitchen. She can't sleep. A dream. She tells me she was searching the city for me. She was looking and looking for me. Did you find me? I guess I was somewhere watching you. Jenny's home. Over Delaware. That conversation, Cloud? Her family. Two years ago we visit them. Are you hungry? I hope you're hungry. They're gonna cook steak and asparagus. She was open. Always with them. At dinner, I let Jenny do all the talking. She tells her parents the story of how we met. But still. The way they put me skeptical. Is this really the one for our daughter? How do I show them? What gifts I can give? What spells can I cast? Later that night, her parents asleep.

Jenny wakes me. Let's go to my cousin's house. We pull into the driveway. Walk into the kitchen. My God. There are cakes on top of cakes and cupcakes, coffee brewing at 11 o'clock. You found us okay. His smile, his wife, their kids, the way they introduce me. Ah, the soon to be famous writer. I tell them the story of how we met. Jenny's aunt. My god, Roger, just look at them from the arc. And we talk about getting hitched. Jenny takes my hand, which sounds like frosting. My pockets are filled with mini cupcakes. We float out on our happiness. Driving back to the city the next morning. When do we get home? I've got to finish that last chapter. The magician's magician. What do you have to do in the rewrite?

I don't tell her. She won't like it. In the original, the boys end up together. It's fantasy, actually. They fly away. It asks for suspension of disbelief. It asks for the power of imagination. And the agent thinks it needs to be more real. I can do that. I can make it real. Maybe they grow up and or maybe they forget each other. Or maybe it doesn't resolve. Maybe Jenny wants to enjoy the drive. She's talking about family. Family. Of our own. As if we could family us. Mothers. It's the first time she brings it up. My mind goes cold and hot. My mother, I don't call her. Never called her. But Jenny tells her parents everything, even if they don't understand. Words said and unsaid to Jenny. It bothers you.

I told close friends. I didn't tell co-workers. I didn't feel the need to be no. I didn't deny. I just didn't want. I would never to be safe in a world of you and I. We create what our space is, what we feel comfortable. And yes, there are so many wonderful people in this city that love us. But in the world? There are rooms where you eat steak and asparagus and look down. There are driveways where you are hugged and take home cupcakes. There are smiles, there are glares, there are nothings. There are some things that you were never cautious. And I am aware of the danger. Even in a city that loves you. Even in a city that cradles you.

[29:51] Megan Hill: It's what keeps me going. There. That's you and I. Do you see? There in the park. That's us. Oh only look, see? Our faces. Ten years older. Twenty. Thirty. We join hands. We smile. And even though there is so much more upon us. We still walk lightly. We laugh. And when we touch, it is the deep touch of knowing who we were, who we are now. Who we are becoming. You and I. This is the future. This is what I dream of. The act of transformation. I see myself and I'm no longer frightened. I no longer think frightened thoughts of the world. That's magic. And this is magic. Me sharing with you.

[31:40] David Rigano: And now why don't we bring in both our actors and our directors?

[31:44] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes. So you'll be seeing Jessi D. Hill going to the stage with both Lily and Megan at the Bon Saution.

[32:00] David Rigano: So first off, Megan or Lily, that's the first time that either of you have gotten to see each other perform live. What was that? What was that like?

[32:09] Megan Hill: Just a real quick wonderful. Yeah, I think it's I've been with the show for a very long time, and so it was really so cool to see, especially because I've heard so many wonderful things about Lily and heard about how amazing the tour was, and so I was like dying to see her interpretation of it. And also I think as an actor, you're lying to yourself if you think you're the only person that can play a role. And it's really like good art should be prismatic in my mind, which is different lights hitting it, and so to see the way when Lily's light hits it with different rainbows and patterns that creates is really cool.

[32:57] Lily-Ali Oshatz: And I would never see Megan do it. So my first introduction to this play when Jesse sent me the recording that went to Edinburgh that was of the 2019 off-Broadway critics. So I had watched a recording of you and since watching that once because I didn't really think like Jesse would look for the and why do I do this? Staging wise and I was like, no. Don't tell. I don't want to set like you tell me what to do. But I had I because of course your performance live very large in my mind, and at a certain point you have to set that aside as an audience member and kind of take the raise as an actor. So getting to sit back from his script and experience it as an audience member again live this really moved me.

[33:45] Lily-Ali Oshatz: Yeah. This play is so hard to get through as a character movie. So for me, the love of Jenny is like at the centerpiece of performing it, and I definitely do that love and watching you perform it too. Like my heart just is full and also broken.

[34:01] Megan Hill: Yeah. We both love the same woman.

[34:11] Lily-Ali Oshatz: And especially since she doesn't exist.

[34:14] Megan Hill: She doesn't.

[34:15] Lily-Ali Oshatz: In your hearts.

[34:16] Megan Hill: But she exists in your hearts and she exists on the page.

[34:19] Lily-Ali Oshatz: Yeah. But those are really the only places other than then in the imagination of the audience that you bring to them, which I think speaks to the writing.

[34:29] David Rigano: So Chris, where did this play come from? Where did the help? Where did the playing come from? Where did the idea of using magic this way? And I know that you like to play with magical realism. We'll talk about that in a little bit as well. But yeah, where did this play come from and what was the journey of it?

[34:55] Crystal Skillman: Yes, there's a lot of truth in this play, obviously, and a lot and a lot of custom lines are very much my own. What is that? Rallie and I just didn't get along. It was, I had been playing around with this concept. Actually, William Jackson Harper did that 10, it was a very different play, but the sketch of the idea of the magician at Rattlestick at Theater Jam. And I it was very a very new idea. And all I knew is that I wasn't quite sure what I was on to yet, but audience members were like, what is this? How does it end? What's going on? It's just like a little five-minute thing. And I was like, there's something here. And then something happened in 2016 where a Mr. Son key who a shot up name to the president of this country.

But it was it's a time restored current problem as a country and a world. And within 24 hours, I was experiencing extreme hate, both for myself, both for the people in my community. It was like something I never experienced before in my life in New York City. And I was like, I need to write, that's what writers do to get through things, and the magician appeared. And the magician was a shake of what I've been playing with earlier, but was a different character. And then I would say I wrote the first 10 pages without really knowing what I was writing. It really was channeling through the very beginning. And then I think I got in the room pretty quickly with Lincoln and Jesse, and then we started working on the play.

[36:28] David Rigano: So what was that?

[36:30] Crystal Skillman: And Megan, Jesse, whoever wants to talk about this, what was that development process like?

[36:36] Megan Hill: Justin, you want to tell me what the year was that was the first time that it was like 2013.

[36:45] Megan Hill: Yeah. Was the first one we did a bunch of workshops reading.

[36:50] Crystal Skillman: Oh, sorry.

[36:50] Megan Hill: Yeah, we did a bunch of like workshops and readings. So we were reading we were visiting the play, pretty cases, so like about once a year from like 2013 to 2016. And then sick 2016, I feel is like when you came together. It started like really meshing, and then you doggedly pursuing theaters being like, why are you producing this? Which is the reason it got produced is because of that like persistence and just pure belief in this story. So thank you.

[37:27] Jessi D. Hill: Yeah, so this project is one of a handful of projects that I've worked on in my career as a director who mostly develops new work. It's a rarity, I would say, to be involved in the seeds of a project and be able to see it through all the way to a beautiful production, a published text, a tour, multiple productions across the country.

[37:59] Megan Hill: It just doesn't happen that often. It's a really treasured experience. And I would say Megan and Crystal worked very deeply and collaboratively on the text.

[38:32] Lily-Ali Oshatz: Yeah, absolutely. And in that process, it was so exciting to come together. My basic philosophy for playwriting is when I do this when I teach is you're not up there. So these questions of why I'm saying what I'm saying next, what comes next. Younger writers particularly like because I wrote it that way. And I was like that myself probably 15 years ago. But over time, it was really through my first experience working with me, which was on a play called Cut, where I began to see the magic of really building. I've got to be in my mind, is it actually working where it's coming from? Where are we going with it? And so it was very instrumental to my writing this collaboration.

[39:14] Crystal Skillman: Yeah, and for me, like working with Crystal is that on Cut my hand was the champion and the warrior because she would champion the play, but also she was a warrior, and I would say like a lot of your philosophy is get it all out, and then we'll cut it down, and you're really good about listening to actors and directors about what's working, what's not. And so I would say pretty much from the beginning, even in the staging of it, which once we got in the room to stage, that was a whole other bag of challenges of do we do actual magic, do we do projections? We had played around with all these ideas of how to make the magic work. And then I think what we landed on was the best solution, which is that it's all shadows and sounds.

[39:59] Megan Hill: Um was great about doing this throughout the whole process. There was one which has been infamous, right? Whereas was me and Crystal, where she wrote this draft where it was like three times longer than what the show actually is, and I sat in a living room and we read it, and then for the next three hours, we just cut. Crystal is not precious about her writing, it's okay, cut it, move around, okay. Okay, let's do it. And so we were like piecing it all together, and then once we were in the room and all Jenny and I were Jenny, Jesse. Jesse Crystal would really listen to the two of us. Maybe this section needs to go here. But it really was with we always knew when it wasn't right. And so we would just never settle on the new game.

[40:53] Lily-Ali Oshatz: So when you would just be like, nope, it's not working, and we would just either we start out with there'll be like four chairs, and then we kept being like, we don't need any chairs. And so we just kept we we always knew when it wasn't right, and so we just kept digging. So we were like, oh yeah, this is the direction we need to go on.

[41:13] Jessi D. Hill: Jesse, what was there of text when you came on board? And then what do you feel as the developmental director is your responsibility as you're developing the show?

[41:28] Jessi D. Hill: Listen to the play and let it tell you what it wants to be. You don't put anything on it. I very deliberately went into this process with that as a mantra and smaller. Let me tell me what it wants to be, and I kept saying, at the furniture, at the furniture and that until there was I remember this day where we were like, wow, there's nothing on this stage. Nothing, there's no scent. And I remember thinking that there was going to be a scent in the beginning. So again, it was about listening to the play, and the play just kept telling me, No, it's just Kristen on stage, and also the ideas about sound. I don't think we ever I think I made that discovery with Crystal and Megan in the process that all the magic really needed was really crystal, clear, recognizable sound effects, and the audience would fill in the rest.

[42:25] Jessi D. Hill: So again, that was that's what I feel my job is when I'm working on a text that hasn't been realized before is just to keep listening and making decisions about the piece from what is telling me it wants to be and not put anything on top of it. It's not about me.

[43:02] Jessi D. Hill: Also, so I remember too. We had a very short reversal process, and as soon as it was landed only like sound and lights. We had an amazing and diverse. We're figuring this out, and so we were it was really throwing the belongs to seeing what would stick. And our designers would come in and be they would they were in the rehearsals with us exploring and figuring it out, and I don't think we didn't have the show ready to think they had enough because it was such a quick process.

[43:37] Lily-Ali Oshatz: And then Lily, what is it like to step into that when it's already been figured out, and now you have to figure out how you're gonna do it and how you're gonna tour it?

[43:51] Lily-Ali Oshatz: Yeah, we found I think it was the reign was that I was being obsessed with the mechanics of the imaginary tricks. And I think there were certain things that like your body was like and then the rain goes there and I was like we must stop. I need to know how big are they how heavy are they like we I just had to build the set in my imagination from the ground up and once it was there and once the apartment that Kristen shares with Jenny is there and I visualize the posters and I know like how long the hospital table was but like we spent a lot of time being that specific where if I had been holding rings I wouldn't have been exactly doing the trick. If I had been holding cards I would feel the weight of them and I would and it's not like we were bringing in a pantomime or a mine expert it was more about if I understand what this card is the audience really does start to see it.

[44:51] Lily-Ali Oshatz: I understand the mechanics of juggling you're gonna start to see that when you say that the ball is blue like you see some of these sort of walls which bluest if you will thing that's been said on this podcast.

[45:13] Lily-Ali Oshatz: Yeah so I think it was just about moment to moment step by step and was like so much members that by the time stuck into the rehearsal room I had already gone on my own crisis of faith journey and poor Kendall Mikeart there and lines with me and Maddie and our customer for Italy had read lines with me and my mom on Zoom had run away with me because it was like I arrived and I was like, I'm a different person and I bang through some stuff.

[45:44] Megan Hill: Okay. I'd love to open it up now if anyone first off, who here got to see any production, whether if it was at the tank or on tour of it. I said, Don't worry, those of you who are sitting without raising your hands and looking around you. Because me too, because I I read the play here going, I need to see this performance. I need to see this imaginary magic performed. So I want to know if do you have any questions for the performers, for the director, for especially the writer of this fantastic piece?

[46:18] Audience Member: Yeah. I'm like curious about your relationship to classic structure. Hearing about you moving the scenes around, I'm like, are you thinking, but what's the exciting incident? What's the turning point? Like, what's your relationship to that?

[46:32] Crystal Skillman: This may not happen, but I'm gonna say it anyway on the podcast. There's interest from the Save the Cat books for me and someone and a friend, who's just drama bookshop, Darren, working on some playwright books. And we had some fun talking about it because the first thing was like, oh don't really use that kind of thing for playwright. I was like, oh, I disagree.

[46:56] Crystal Skillman: I the basic story is for me in playwright, is that I was a visual artist. I was going to Parsons School of Design, and I was a photography major, and I already done two years of foundation art at the Harper Art School in Uha. And it was my because I didn't know that all playwrights were all dead people. So I didn't really be alive. Like, so it wasn't interactive, writing play. Oh my god, this is the thing. But at the same time, I was getting this, it's what I always refer to. This Samara's done like this, Matthew Varney was like this with pre-mastered. We now have many performative artists that also do visual art, but I was creating whole universes that you could walk through and be in.

[47:36] Crystal Skillman: And I wrote a play called Carpentum is not a Japanese fish, in which I was in a bathroom. I know it can act, so it was all on tape. The actual actors just drinking drinking milk and eating cookies obsessively, and you heard a woman and a man like head arguing because I was breaking down about what to do, but they were also falling in love at the same time. This is like the 90s, right? And so when he Kramer happened to be there at this performance downtown, we might have even been like in Brooklyn or something, and she was the critic for the New York magazine at the time, or no, it was New Yorker. And she grabbed me, she goes, Oh my god, I think you're a playwright. I was like, that's amazing. What's a playwright?

[48:17] Crystal Skillman: And so from that, I just ended up writing plays. But because of that, to come back to your question, Madeline, is that I had to really intensely study different kinds of structures. Luckily, my husband is a comic book writer and has written the bulk of the things tomorrow about dance in that world a little bit. But one of the things that he's written that's truly amazing is called Action Philosophers. In it is a whole section about Joseph Campbell, and in it, Ryan Dunley who draws these books, drew an incredible comic book pop culture reference board game of the hero's journey. And I was like, great! There's a poster of it, it's on my wall.

[48:54] Crystal Skillman: So like I just studied everything and tore it apart, but I could talk about those things as much as I could talk about. See how possible Marx talks about structure. It took a lot of time, it took a lot of reading, a lot of just diving deep into that. If we come back to say the Fatter Hero's journey, right? I mean, Belly of the Whale might be the entire play. There's a sad play called Blackbird that's entirely a belly of the whale sequence. That's the only part of it. And also great musicals. So as I started to keep working at home in my craft as a book writer, I had to understand the hero's journey and structure.

[49:28] Crystal Skillman: And I realized that the big reason I needed to learn it, which was back in the show, is I needed to understand how to trick the audience into reality or not reality so I can smash it. The only way to do that is to play around with the pieces. But if you were just filling out stuff and trying to be point blank about it, right? Like about this site in instant, I can't do that. I have to create some content first and I teach my students. We don't really shape up the cup until we have some content. And so I usually use genre. So the genre of a magic show and someone trying to live through these tricks and have us look became the structure from which we then began to do some of the other tricks where the audience can be. This play also plays with a Tinkerbell-like structure in which by the time you get to a pivotal moment where the audience needs to 120% be that for Kristen, they are, and for Jenny.

[50:19] Jessi D. Hill: And Jesse also directed magic and has a foothold in the magic world. So it was very instrumental in working out some of that structure.

[50:28] Crystal Skillman: And I gotta say, because I am a structure nerd. I cannot sit down to write a play if I have not structured it out, at least in my head first. So when you actually I'm like, oh, but the structure of this is so clear. I might like wacky structure. I don't need a traditional inciting incident rising action. I don't need that. And I was reading this, and I think also if we could talk about your play Cut a little bit, has a really terrific structure where it surrounds an incident, and you keep coming back to the incident and then pulling us away from it and going back into the past and showing us everything that led up to that incident. Can you talk to us a little bit about the since we're on the structured conversation about the structure of Cut and why you wanted to tell that story that way?

[51:24] Megan Hill: Yeah, my uh Cut's about three reality TV show writers. They are working on what was the name of the ladies of Malibu. And what had happened was the play. I came in. I was really interested. Almost all my plays are about how we feel about reality now and the kind of difference of perception in addition to creators and fantasy. A lot about winning and losing as well that drives my work, the final scenes in them. And I read a reality TV show writer, devastated because they understood they weren't going to get credit, but they were watching an episode and their name wasn't there, and they had a little bit of a breakdown of that. And I thought, that's so incredible, that's so interesting. They never think about the writer of these shows.

And then I thought, what if these were friends in some way? And what if through the act of having to desperately recut this last episode, we're watching them actually backstab each other? What is that? And then I started to detail out their lives. It was originally written in his monologue pieces, and then Megan letter talk about the management company, which she was a part of Josh Kampel and a group of those wonderful folks, and they saw these monologues and they were like, this is so awesome. There's a slot at St. Mark's in three months. Do you think you can write a whole like play of this? And of course, again, for my students, I always say the rule from Ghostbusters, if someone asks you if you're a god, you say yes.

So I said yes. I was like, oh my god, how do I do this? But again, it I would say because I'm a genre like writer, I was using tricks from the genre of reality TV. And one of those tricks were each time we're in the present, we then flash back backwards in time. So the play goes backwards and forwards to just as we're seeing them being really shitty to each other a moment where they first met and we're realizing, gosh, how did it solve it wrong?

[53:13] Lily-Ali Oshatz: Amy, do you want to talk a little bit about what it was like working with management? It was a downtown theater company from years ago that it since died. And then we became dodo for a little bit. But yeah, we would do new plays and we worked with playwrights, and so that was the first time we worked together. Um yeah, we just would pick these wild ideas, and that year is like crystals was the one that won. And we would just get in a room together and create these amazing plays. And our wonderful director, Meg Striano, because also with Pet, there was no stage directions. No, and which was similar with Open. You don't really write stage directions. Working both with Meg and Jesse, it's amazing to watch their minds work and really carve out.

Okay, here's the creating the space, making the architecture, creating the moments. And something too about Cut was that we trying to figure out okay when it's moving in the past or when it's the present or when someone has a monologue or other people doing in the background. And so it went through different realms, which opened us too, where we realize Open lives in these three realms of Chris in the hospital room with Jenny in her fantasy of playing out the magic, which maybe some of them the trick she is actually doing, and then a memory play. So it was like three plays, and then one and just being really specific about that. I don't know if that really answers the question, but yeah.

[54:43] Crystal Skillman: And I think it's also just feeling competent and writers, feeling confident and writing in layers. And I do write in layers. And you do also have to ask your creative process what you need. I developed a process where I develop uh based on I had the opportunity of Cut and also with Big Winds, accompanying Vampire Cowboys to work with actors. When that went away, I was like, oh my gosh, how do I do this? And so I had to develop a process on my own of drafts and how I work the drafts before I show artistic directors or literary managers. It took a while to learn that. So now I think I finally understand what descended layout made.

[55:18] Dylan Glick: Does anybody else have any questions for yes, Dylan?

[55:21] Dylan Glick: Perfect stack point because I was just always asked when in the writing process do you open it up for collaboration? What do you feel the play is running to send out to collaborative letters?

[55:33] Crystal Skillman: Yeah, that's a great question. I definitely think collaborators can be early on for in general. You have to wrong what you're trying to say, or what you're trying to decay. It doesn't have to have the ending even again. It can be in essence, you just frame it for your collaborators and say, I think there's something here. Maybe you have a bulk case or not, but it does need to be enough focus so that you know what the dramatic question is, or even if you're between three dramatic questions, there's something to sink your teeth into. And that way the director reading it, or the collaborators and the actors can say, Oh, I can find my place in this. I feel like this is right for me. This is interesting.

For theaters and literary managers and artistic directors, the one thing that has been difficult, I think, in the American theater specifically, I think internationally it's a little better, is that potential doesn't work. So it's very rare that somebody running a theater or producer will get out script entirely on the potential. However, collaborators can it can be a little shaggy. That's okay. But for that kind of stage, but they it doesn't have to be perfect for like gambling manual Miranda. He was lucky that he shared one of the best drafts at the White House. When the White House was actually like doing what it was supposed to do, it was awesome because for Obama. So that's a great audience to get to know your better show. But also went through the same stages that we're talking about. It's interesting. That's a great question. I hope that helps.

[57:14] Jessi D. Hill: It did. Great. And I saw another hand.

[57:17] Audience Member: Yes. I have a few questions. But I'm really curious about this one. I'm wondering what you mean when you said reality or not reality, and then submashing it. Is it the reality of the world of play? What does that mean? And when are you going into non-reality?

[57:31] Crystal Skillman: Yes, I am not being on naturalistic plays. And that word itself is problematic. It was only created because Chapel was doing something new and amazing. Didn't even understand that he was creating the dramedy. He'd always be like, they'd be like, oh my gosh, everyone's laughing and three sisters, and he's oh my god, what's happening? Like everything you're always like talking or tragedy. And as you're reading, you're like, is this single colony slash tragedy? But he didn't understand that it could be both at the same time because his work was doing that. But it was not spectacle. And up until that point, most things were spectacle. So the term natural to me is very problematic, but I would say given circumstances is a much more helpful word for actors and writers and creators, and what was happening in my work because it was genre-oriented, sometimes I was dropping them too quickly into the world.

They didn't have a footing, they didn't know what was real. And the audience doesn't know what's real and doesn't know what the truth is or the kernel of the truth of the play, they will be lost in distance and they will dig it back. And I'm always trying to make the audience lean forward. I wanted this in the player word called Geek, which was for who wins Vampire Cowboys, it gets published by the Concord, and in that play. Yeah, right here. It's a love letter to cosplayers. I'm a booth babe, I'm a comic book person before I even was writing comics. And but what was happening was like imagine the Wizard of Oz, okay? But there was no Kansas, and we didn't know that Dorothy had problems, we didn't know she wanted to go over the rainbow, and we just started in Oz.

And then we meant everybody all at once. The lunch gift and the Tin Man, just like everyone, right? That's how Geek was starting. It's a sensory overload. And the audience was also like, I read about this in a magazine, but what's happening? So I had to establish the main characters why they were there, the obstacles of trying to get into the con, and watch them become costumes. I think we have to see them get into the cosplaying roles, otherwise, we didn't really understand. So that's just a quick example. But I would say you just want to make sure where does the play begin and where are you taking people? And it can be any mixture of anything, so that's something we've learned.

[59:43] Crystal Skillman: So for everyone on stage, we do have three writers up here. Both of the actors involved are also writers. We love a multi-hyphenate. So where do you feel from a writing standpoint is the importance of this play? And now that it's published, the future that you see for it. You talked about not being precious with being the first person to do it and knowing that it's gonna go out there, and now it's out there for other people to do. So what do you feel is the importance of having this play out there in the world?

[1:00:28] Megan Hill: I would say as a writer of a solo show, it's a real master class on how we make a piece of theater that just feels like a role-post and actor, and all they have to do is just be present and just play the action and just put in the plays over and you're like, hold on. And it's pretty open, it's like that, like it begins and adjusts, it's connected and it's so rich and it's written so well, and uh circumstances make so much sense and they're so thoroughly thought through that it's easy to just do it. And in my show, it's still very hard. So I think there are a lot of lessons here in cutting, definitely, and in just getting into the heart of the piece and everything is hanging from that one spine, and it's all making sense, and it's all leading the actor in the moment to moment. So I mean having it as a published play is really helpful for writers.

[1:01:23] Lily-Ali Oshatz: Yeah, I agree with all of that thing. I think also the combination of having the directory can you have this you created this world but so specific a place so specific that every night I just always thought like oh I just have to bought the room and do it. Like I once you start it just circumstance both of you for success for the actor where I'm telling the story and connecting the I didn't have to worry about anything where it was at the end of each time I was like oh in terms of it's such clear storytelling we never had to worry about cry and I just technical things or where's the are are they praying when you're playing two different characters or just all these things where I just felt I just gave it all the tools I needed in order to do the job at hand in a way that felt good.

[1:02:26] Jessi D. Hill: And Lily you talked for a little bit about looking at your own work through the lens of this do you want to talk a little bit each of you about the some of the stuff that you've written then maybe if how your work as an actor makes you think about your work as a writer.

[1:02:42] Lily-Ali Oshatz: Yeah my solo show is out then justice club movement the heartbreak of feeling ahead and yeah we write the know you well we have dreams of doing the show in free and festivals but yeah anyone can help us all support.

[1:03:08] Crystal Skillman: Yeah, but no, she said it's going really well, that it's a really important piece for folks who have experienced similar scary things and complex emotions, as well as on college campuses, like part of your world that we need to learn about consent.

[1:03:30] Megan Hill: Yeah, but it would be an open because then it’s very helpful in understanding like it shouldn't be this hard when we have something to say. You need to really have it on the page, and then it just helps people connect so much more easily.

[1:03:44] Jessi D. Hill: I don't know if I have, and I would for just like we, uh, do you want to talk about your writing a little bit? And if you have something about how your work as an actor affects your writing and how your work as a writer affects your acting?

[1:04:01] Crystal Skillman: Yeah, I always have to have an idea really firm in my head, and I map it out and I have to imagine it, but then I sit down and I write it. I had a show called The Last Black of Jazzer Size Play. For that one, it's floating in that the idea for the show because it's an actual erotic class happening in real time, and so I couldn't write it. Then I realized I had to work backwards, so I knew what the structure of the play was, I knew what the dramatic structure was in the story, but I couldn't write the play. So then I put together the playlist that added to the dramatic structure, and then I gave that to the choreographer, and then she built the class, and once she built the class, then I could write it. So that was a very kind of collaborative creating.

[1:04:47] Megan Hill: Yeah.

[1:04:47] Crystal Skillman: So, and so I have a new idea that I've just broken the seal on in terms of writing, and I'm finding that I do have to just imagine it more. But over the pandemic, what it felt like the way later ever come back, I got really into short story writing. All of a sudden I was like, oh, maybe this needs to be an angle of my process where whenever I write for theater, I'm always imagining it in the confines of a theatrical space, and I'm imagining what the staging would be or what the costumes would be. And all of a sudden I'm writing short stories. I was imagining a world that didn't exist inside of a theater. So I was toying with, okay, maybe everything should start out for me as a short story so I can imagine it fully and then adapt that venture and story into a play, which I haven't done yet. It's all in theory.

[1:05:43] Jessi D. Hill: I love the idea of, and clearly, Crystal, this was a lot of how you worked with this play of bringing your collaborators on very early. And I also talk to young creators and I try to talk to them about not thinking about their play in terms of just what the words on the page are, but who you're gonna need in that room and how early to bring them in. So I love this idea of having this choreographer who you're working with side by side to create the piece.

[1:06:12] Megan Hill: And I will say with working with Crystal is that she said, oh, we're writing this whole, we're not like telling her how to write the play. So it's just, but she really does take our thoughts into consideration. So that's why I love working on new plays, is because I feel like I get to have all cylinders going, I get my dramaturgical mind going, and but yeah, she trusts in us, which is wonderful.

[1:06:38] Crystal Skillman: I just want to see one word. The way I became connected with this project was Adam Reiner. He was directed by Parks of Lesbian Musical Nazi. And Jessi was our director. We're still in still working on it. And D, you are a stature writer's director. And it's on the page, she'll direct it and show us what we've done. And that is so helpful as clarifying.

[1:07:09] Jessi D. Hill: Okay.

[1:07:11] Crystal Skillman: Well, I think I'm happy a little bit.

[1:07:14] Megan Hill: Yeah, yeah.

[1:07:16] Crystal Skillman: So I think I find it. I just want to shout out Jessi a little bit more. Everyone knows I love to go on about directors. Not just positive. So this is fine that there were directors that stamp on something, or they're very excited about material that then they will take and do what they will, and the writer becomes irrelevant. Sometimes the writer is too clingy and too attached to things as well. So it's like interesting thing. Jessi's vision as a director is so specific and clear, but again, a consistent listening to what play, so always living in it and not predicting it or trying to get ahead of it. And Jessi was instrumental to the power of displaying in a lot of ways because being a writer, the original reconnect, and I was like, someone was like, I just want to show this as fun as it could be.

It's a magic show, it should be fun. And I was like, it should be fun. We did seem the magic. We just need a magic in English, but start writing, putting in the magic. And so I started putting it in. I was like, wow, this seems like a clown show. I don't know if I'm not. But then I forgot that I said to my friend in high school, Scott Kitchcock, who is a magician who plays Vegas, who's consulted with this show consistently. And I just got a, I think my phone starts ringing. And it stopped, right? And again, we were we growing together, okay? So my old magician friend is following me. And I mean, it's like I am crying. I'm devastated. I read openings, these gorgeous so important. I sent things from after where you don't see the magic.

And go, Scott, that's something just because the key is a little bit more fun. Maybe he says magic. And Scott was like, don't you dare so magician saying that. But that's what I think very happy again. And this is where you're watching it. This is okay, but there's no.

[1:09:19] Jessi D. Hill: I was like, yes, yeah, there is a projection. Meet me. Do see this rabbit, maybe. And it's like Crystal, what do you want the audience to believe? And I said, I want them to believe in Kristen and Jenny. I want them to believe this is magical and see the magic. And you've consistently dug into that. Thank you.

[1:09:45] Megan Hill: This is a crap. And you're asking hot hands to actively use their imagination. And that's an exciting thing. That's the spectacle. Yes. Then allowing themselves to use there. You're asking something of them so that they don't sit back. And I love that each magic trick isn't about the trick. It's about what Kristen needs or is feeling that it's how she's projecting her feelings in each moment. And I remember reading it and imagining the sound effects and how that would affect me to know that it's not about whether she was actually getting the rings together. But I've seen the ring trick before. I've seen someone get out of a box before. It's what it means emotionally for her in each moment. And it's so much what love is, and it's leap of faith. It's like you have to believe in it for it to work. And you don't have everything spelled out for you. And that was magic.

[1:10:53] Crystal Skillman: It absolutely was.

[1:10:55] Megan Hill: And do we want to talk fun fact about that day?

[1:10:59] Jessi D. Hill: Let's do that.

[1:11:00] Crystal Skillman: Oh my god, yes. None of the books came out. I thought it was a disappearing act. Um, there was a mistake in translation when putting in the calendar when I put open, I think our book buyer at the time thought the night was open. Uh-huh. And so when I followed up and was like, hey, wait, where are these plays? We have an event coming up. He was like, oh, I thought you might was just open. And I was like, no. And so Rush ordered them, but they didn't come in. I was, I think two days till two days after. I think something like that.

[1:11:33] Megan Hill: Yeah.

[1:11:33] Crystal Skillman: And so luckily, Crystal Skillman being as wonderful as she is, came in and signed them. And we had to basically have a bunch on hold for all of the audience. In case we've never like really made it clear, these author events are book signing events. You should come to these.

[1:11:48] Megan Hill: Yeah, no, they're, it's a podcast recording, a book signing, a talk back, a Q&A. Sometimes a performance or a concert. It is the ultimate multi-hyphenate event.

[1:11:59] Crystal Skillman: Yeah.

[1:11:59] Megan Hill: And you get your little one-on-one time with the author, and you get not only you get your books signed, but you get a cute little sticker.

[1:12:06] Crystal Skillman: Yes, you get all those things unless you were at open.

[1:12:09] Megan Hill: Unless you were, you get all of those things. So we had to have these books on hold for everyone who had been at the event, and then Crystal came and signed them, and then pick them up. And I love it. I love when Crystal comes here because she brings her students and it's always a fun playwriting conversation. And so that's why I say she's a friend of the store is because she really brings the knowledge and the energy and the people with her when she comes in and makes it an experience for all of us.

[1:12:36] Crystal Skillman: Yeah.

[1:12:37] Megan Hill: It really was. It's a total twist, uh, not a shift on what we have done normally because this was one that was aimed more for kids.

[1:12:46] Crystal Skillman: Yeah.

[1:12:47] Megan Hill: We've had a handful. I kind of love when we do kid or youth or family-oriented books because I love seeing the young theater fans.

[1:13:02] Crystal Skillman: I do.

[1:13:02] Megan Hill: It's something really special when you see somebody experience theater at a young age because you see those wheels start turning and you remember what it's like. You remember the first time you saw a show. I remember the first show I remember seeing was Arsenic and Old Lace with a mentor of mine playing one of the leads. And my, oh my god. And she also took me to the very first cast party I ever went to. And so I was like maybe nine and talking to these actors and being just like, oh my god, you are so good. I want to do that one day. And just it was a very magical experience. And so to see kids doing that now and to having that time, yeah, and being in the room with performers and seeing opportunities for them and that spark, it's just really magical.

[1:13:47] Crystal Skillman: And I look at our children's section, and I am so jealous. There is a lot of really great books. Really good stuff geared towards kids, geared towards young adults, uh, teen fiction, and this stuff that I would have gobbled. I was reading time travel books and murder mysteries instead because there weren't as many theater-oriented books, and I still love my murder mysteries and my time travel books. Um, yeah, I don't feel bad reading these books now. It all comes back to Mandy Gonzalez, who's writing theater books that has ghosts and time travel.

[1:14:29] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So we're gonna delve into a new book next episode, JJ's Audition Adventure. And it is a book that is aimed at kids, but I promise you it is gonna hit your adult heart too. So follow us on Instagram at dramabookshowpodcast. Follow the Drama Bookshop on Eventbrite so that you can be notified when we have new in-person events. And all of the books and plays we talk about can be found here at the Drama Bookshop. And so can we, and we will see you at the bookshop.