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[0:11] Mo Brady: You're listening to Super Swings, a mini-series from The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. Welcome! I'm Mo Brady.

[0:30] Mo Brady: Now, it's been a few years since we shared stories from Broadway's superheroes, the Swings. These actors have some of the most challenging jobs in theater. Hero might not be each of their middle names, but they are definitely superheroes of Broadway. In general, Swings are hired to understudy multiple ensemble tracks on a show. They're asked to remember all of the lines, blocking, choreography, vocal harmonies, and backstage traffic for multiple roles. The number of roles they cover varies from show to show, but it's usually every role in the ensemble, sometimes of all genders. Last season, 288 actors worked as Swings on Broadway. That's literally a third of the performers working under Actors' Equity Chorus contracts. When people say, "the show must go on," Swings are usually the people who make that happen.

[1:24] Mo Brady: Christopher Rice spent more than four years as a Swing on the Broadway production of The Book of Mormon, where he covered the seven men in the Mormon ensemble. He's also toured the country as Baby John in West Side Story and in Irving Berlin's White Christmas. This summer, Chris has been working as a vacation Swing on the soon-to-close Broadway production of Pretty Woman, so we caught him in the middle of his rehearsal process to tell us what the experience has been like. Here's our conversation.

[1:52] Mo Brady: Hi, Chris.

[2:11] Christopher Rice: Hey, how's it going?

[2:12] Mo Brady: Good, very good. Will you introduce yourself and tell us what neighborhood of New York City you live in?

[2:16] Christopher Rice: I'm Christopher Rice, and I live in Hell's Kitchen.

[2:19] Mo Brady: In its simplest form, what is a Swing?

[2:22] Christopher Rice: Swings could go on stage for, I would say, probably two different main reasons. One would be if a principal is out and the understudy would go on to play the lead role. The understudy would usually be in the ensemble, so a Swing would fill the ensemble position. And another time a Swing would go on is if an ensemble member would take a vacation, personal day, or go to a wedding or funeral, kind of like any other job when they take a personal day. A Swing's job is to fill the track.

[2:44] Mo Brady: And at its most complicated, what is the role of a Swing?

[2:50] Christopher Rice: Problem solving to the max and fixing problematic scenarios on the fly. Often playing multiple people at once if multiple people are out of the show and there's not enough coverage. Split shows, which I'm sure we'll get to at some point in this podcast, but split shows come along and you may have to be two or three different people, or two different Swings could be on covering four guys that are out, and you have to make sure that different people get their props and the set pieces get adjusted if the set is moved by any actors. While maintaining all the formations of the dances, making sure all the harmony lines are covered, it gets quite extensive at times.

[3:27] Mo Brady: What's the most tracks that you've been asked to cover at one time?

[3:31] Christopher Rice: Eight. I covered seven in my last show, and then my current project, Swings, cover eight.

[3:37] Mo Brady: And how do you like to keep track of notes?

[3:39] Christopher Rice: Every person kind of keeps track of things their own personal way. No, absolutely. I feel like everybody has, just as we all learn differently, we also can maintain a track in a different way. For me, I have a three-ring binder, or like a spiral notebook, depending on the project, and I put the person's, it's like a cheat sheet, I put the person's name at the top, I write down entrance, exits, anything that's different with the choreography or staging or harmony lines. If I had any questions and my memory wasn't serving me correctly, I could go back and glance at my notes. And for me, that's what helps, and I can, if the show allows you to check your notes backstage during scenes that you're not on for, that's a good time to just glance down at your notes. I know a lot of people use note cards, or some people use apps on their iPad, which, that's really cool, but for me, just paper and pen.

[4:26] Mo Brady: How much rehearsal does a swing usually get to learn all of those roles that they have to take?

[4:31] Christopher Rice: In my experience, I've been a replacement swing, so I've joined a pre-existing show, and I've had a more leisurely experience swinging because I have got to join a show that was set in stone. This person stands on this number, on this track, and sings this part, then they move to this area, and it's kind of mapped out, so I'm learning a pre-existing show. If you are a part of a show that's new, my fiancé has swung a couple shows, and he has joined from many different parts of the process. Sometimes he joins mid-show, sometimes he joins mid-tech, and sometimes he's joined at the beginning of the process too, so he's gotten to experience swinging from the beginning, middle, and end of a rehearsal process.

When it's a new show, there's a lot of changes that happen as the creative team decides to cut numbers, make adjustments, add costumes, things change a lot. What's been great about the projects I have joined to swing, they have given me ample time to learn the pre-existing track, and also move at a rate that I'm comfortable with. My first show, I had two weeks to learn my first track.

[5:27] Mo Brady: Do you rehearse on stage, do you rehearse in a rehearsal room?

[5:30] Christopher Rice: Both. I started learning my most recent show with the dance captain, an assistant dance captain, and actually a replacement dance captain, who was learning the show. We learned at Ripley Greer Studio, smaller studios, they taught me the dances, and then they had some time on stage. It costs money to put people into a show, it costs thousands of dollars, because it's not just costumes and wigs and things like that, it's the rehearsal time and rehearsal space, with stage managers being paid, and the dance staff being paid, and the musical director being paid, on top of the actor who's learning the show getting paid. So it's an expensive process to put somebody into a show. And it also costs money to rehearse on stage, because they have to hire representatives from the different unions, so you have to have a union head there to rehearse on stage. But I was fortunate enough to get to rehearse on stage a little bit by myself.

[6:17] Mo Brady: You've talked a little bit about some of the other things that a swing needs to know about a track, but in addition to choreography and music and lines, what are those other things?

[6:27] Christopher Rice: From the audience point of view, Broadway looks really, really big and expansive. Backstage, for most shows, it's really tight, and really, it's a danger zone. So you have to know where you can stand when there's not a set piece coming and going from the stage or from above. A lot of the wings on the sides of the stage, they are really small, there's not enough space for all the set pieces, so they often fly them overhead, sometimes two and three. It stacks one scene on top of another scene on top of another scene, all flying overhead. And if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, clearly there's a crew there to watch out for any actors, but you just want to make sure that you're not in anybody's way, because that can be the most stressful part about swinging, is remembering where to be backstage and where not to be backstage, as well as...

[7:07] Mo Brady: Are there certain things that make a track easier or harder to learn?

[7:11] Christopher Rice: I think learning a track for the first time is like, okay, it's more to wrap your head around, because you don't know the ins and outs of the show yet. And then once you kind of have the first track, to me, everything else kind of is like, okay, so track A stands there. Okay, now I'm track B, so track A is to my right. And you kind of start to map it out. The more tracks you know, it actually is easier, because you're seeing all the pieces of the puzzle, and you're saying, oh, yeah, I know that, because that's how the door gets opened, and I walk through the door. So that makes sense. You kind of start to get ahead, and you kind of start to figure out things from observing the show and observing rehearsals.

You see the domino effects that take place. So I think when tracks are like – the tracks you learn later, for me, have been more easy for me to pick up. If this first one takes you a couple days, the fifth track may just take you 30 minutes of, yeah, you know what to do, stand there, stand there, stand there. This one's on the right, not the left, and you're good to go. Also, if some tracks may be more featured vocally or featured physically, say there's a dance sequence that a certain dancer does, not every person's in every number, for the most part, if it's a musical. If you are swinging a full ensemble, some of those people cover the leads, and usually they may have a little bit lighter of a track, so it's not so aggressive to go on when they need to go on for the lead, and it's easier for you to jump in.

[8:25] Mo Brady: So let's talk about The Book of Mormon. Was there a track in that show that was harder or easier?

[8:31] Christopher Rice: Honestly, Book of Mormon was pretty tough all around. Like, they were – each track asked a lot of you. I covered seven different guys, as I said, Mormon's really fun to swing because each track gets a feature of its own. So you may be Jesus or Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer, or if you haven't seen the show, this will all make sense when you see it. Let's assume that most people listening to a theater podcast in 2019 have seen The Book of Mormon. Let's hope so. If not, pause this, go see the show, and then come back because you're going to have to learn to finish this. But most of those tracks had a feature, and I think the ones that were harder or less hard would just be amount of effort if I was singing, like, the top ten or one. It took a lot of effort.

[9:07] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: Welcome to The Ensemblist, where we celebrate the performances and careers of ensemble performers.

[9:37] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: Today, we have a special guest, Christopher Rice, who has spent more than four years as a swing in the Broadway production of The Book of Mormon.

[10:07] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: He has also toured the country as Baby John in West Side Story and in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.

[10:37] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: This summer, Chris has been working as a vacation swing in the soon-to-close Broadway production of Pretty Woman.

[10:57] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: We caught him in the middle of his rehearsal process to discuss what the experience has been like.

[11:17] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: Here’s our conversation with Chris Rice.

[11:37] **Christopher Rice**: Thanks for having me!

[11:57] **The Ensemblist**: Of course! So, you’ve been a swing for quite some time now. Can you explain what that role entails for those who might not be familiar?

[12:17] **Christopher Rice**: Absolutely! A swing is essentially an understudy for multiple roles. In my case, I covered seven men in the ensemble of The Book of Mormon.

[12:37] **The Ensemblist**: That’s quite a lot! How do you keep track of all those different parts?

[13:07] **Christopher Rice**: It definitely takes a lot of organization and memorization. I would create charts and notes for each character, detailing their lines, blocking, and even their personalities.

[13:27] **The Ensemblist**: That sounds intense! What has been the most challenging aspect of being a swing for you?

[13:57] **Christopher Rice**: I think the most challenging part is the unpredictability. You never know when you might have to go on for someone, so you have to be ready at a moment's notice.

[14:07] **The Ensemblist**: That must keep you on your toes!

[14:37] **Christopher Rice**: It really does! But it’s also incredibly rewarding. There’s a unique thrill in stepping into a role and making it your own, even if it’s just for one performance.

[14:57] **The Ensemblist**: I can imagine! Now, you mentioned you’re currently a vacation swing for Pretty Woman. How has that experience been different from your time in The Book of Mormon?

[15:17] **Christopher Rice**: It’s been a bit different because the rehearsal process is much shorter. I’m learning the material quickly and jumping in as needed, which is a different kind of challenge.

[15:37] **The Ensemblist**: That makes sense! What has been the highlight of your time in Pretty Woman so far?

[15:57] **Christopher Rice**: I think the highlight has been working with such a talented cast. Everyone is so supportive, and it’s been a joy to learn from them.

[16:27] **The Ensemblist**: That’s wonderful to hear! Do you have any advice for aspiring swings or performers looking to break into the industry?

[16:47] **Christopher Rice**: My advice would be to stay adaptable and always be prepared. The more you can learn and the more versatile you are, the better your chances of success will be.

[17:07] **The Ensemblist**: Great advice! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us today, Chris.

[17:27] **Christopher Rice**: Thank you for having me! It’s been a pleasure.

[17:47] **The Ensemblist**: And thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of The Ensemblist. We’ll see you next time!