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[0:10] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's the Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon. Welcome to the Roundtable, everybody. It's another edition here on the Broadway Podcast Network. And also, wherever you are watching us on YouTube or Instagram. Do I sound old when I say the YouTube and the Instagram? Probably. No, it is not old. New works. New works at the Roundabout Theater, like Jonah, just playing your three weeks from change to go see the show. It was so funny to talk to the star Gabby Beans and the playwright Rachel Bonds to talk about this new work that's on stage that you can go see right now. You gotta support Broadway work, new works, new plays. And we're here to tell you all about it. Coming up right here on the Roundtable.

Well, we love Roundabout. We love the work that's done at Roundabout. We love new works. We love plays that are written. We just talked to Danya Taymor this morning over here at The Outsiders. And she was raving about that these two people that she's gotten to work with and Gabby got. But Gabby, why were you so mean to Greg on Succession? That's what I want. No, you weren't mean. You were lovely to Greg.

[1:20] Gabby Beans: I was so not mean. I was put in an impossible situation.

[1:25] Robert Bannon: That's so like how are you gonna consult a first-year law student about high-octane legal troubles? He set himself up for failure, is what I'm saying.

[1:35] Gabby Beans: I think you're right, Gabby. That is fair. And then you jump from television to the words of Rachel Bonds right here. How's this journey with Jonah been for you?

[1:46] Rachel Bonds: It's been such an indescribable blessing. Um to work on, you know, like all the reason I became an actor is because I wanted to work on meaningful writing with artists that I admire, and that's what this process has been. So I'm very grateful. And this show is deep and serious and racial. Where did the idea of fantasies and these characters and this innocence that is a journey that goes through, where did this idea come from for you, Rachel?

[2:25] Rachel Bonds: Um a few places. Gabby's heard this like five thousand times. So sorry, Gabby. Um I always say I think that the seed of the play was planted during the 2016 election. Um I was pregnant with our first son, and um it was that very hot summer. Or it just felt very hot to me because I was pregnant, but um the TMZ video came out with the locker room talk, and I remember thinking, like, oh this I was like, oh good, this is it. This is gonna sink this guy, he's out of here. And then it was um it slowly and it was like this slow, horrible shock that um I realized that it was actually going to have zero impact on him, and almost everybody felt like it was harmless. Um, it didn't seem to matter at all.

It was something that I considered so violent. Um didn't seem to matter to anyone, and it just got me thinking about all the locker room talk that I had been either the subject of or a witness to, and how I had also when I really started thinking about it, I had also normalized it. Um I felt like the seed of the play was planted then, and then during the Kavanaugh hearings, um, when Dr. Ford gave her testimony and watching her um it was just so clear that that experience from when she was 14 or 15 was still so present in her body, even though it had been so long. Um and I yeah, that just really um was resonant with me.

[4:27] Rachel Bonds: And I started thinking about so many of my earlier experiences of sexuality and uh as a girl, and I realized how problematic most of them were. Um so that was when I felt like the play really took root, and then I had a residency over the summer at Space on Ryder Farm, and I I had like five days away from our little one, and so I just wrote and like the heat of the summer, I just like wrote really fast, like it just kind of poured out, and I wrote 75% of it there. Um yeah, and I I mean I have my own journey with um dealing with some past trauma of a different sort really, and how that uh I've learned how it's affected my body today, and so I think that was also just brewing. Um, and that's how the play was birthed.

[5:35] Gabby Beans: Ooh. And then Gabby, I mean, when we go back to the skin of our teeth, and we go back to your other theatrical works here in New York and around the country and the television and et cetera, you're no stranger to taking on heavy subject matter. Uh, you're not afraid to jump in there and get your hands dirty. But this show is so interesting because it's it without giving anything away, it's a weaving journey as an actor. You have a real arc and story to play. How did you discover the tools and the words and the actions that led you to tell this story through all the night every week?

[6:15] Gabby Beans: Well, I think um I had I was sort of Danya and Rachel in the room led by example, and what we found is that the play has a very specific way that it wants to live as an event. And so a lot of it was just trial and error of understanding what allowed the piece to be buoyant, you know, like what kind of choices it could hold and would sort of push it forward, and what kind of choices became very, very immediately clearly wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. So um, it was a little bit of a learning curve because you know, a lot of times when you're working on a new play, you just kind of bring stuff in and you try some stuff and it's like, oh yay, but this, you know, Rachel's writing, I think is so specific, and it just wants to live in a certain way.

So you know very quickly when you're working on something whether or not it's right. So it was just kind of like following those breadcrumbs, and then I think another thing about this piece that's a little bit different than some of the other stuff I've done is that it's just very um athletic emotionally and energetically, and so a lot of uh what the process was of learning how to feel good in the piece was just getting the reps in and sort of uh getting familiar with the contours of the event in addition to all of the actor work. And once I think we got our legs underneath us in terms of just understanding what the demand was, um that now we're in a place where I feel more free on stage than I pretty much ever felt, and that feels really good, so it was really worth it.

[8:04] Robert Bannon: Well, while we're talking about it, you have a couple weeks left to see it. Go to roundabouttheater.org if you're listening to us run. And if you want to follow Gabby, go over to Instagram at Gabby.period.beans and go to rachelbonds.com and you know, we give the full plug here. We are giving go click away, click click, click, read, read, read. I did the deep dive, I was all up in Gabby's resume earlier. You know, we go in. They let me run a credit score, we'd run it. But we try to look, I'm getting no. I've been working on it, so you go you can go ahead and look. Same solvency, solvency 2024. It's hard to live that artist's life.

[8:43] Rachel Bonds: Rachel, what is it like when you see an actor like Gabby, when you see this cast take your words? I can only imagine what it's like to take it from the page and see it really come to life. What how do you describe that experience?

[9:00] Rachel Bonds: Wow. Um it's moving, it's very moving. Um my I would say my the most moving day is always the first day of tech when you go in the theater in the morning and you see just this sea of people who have come to work on this thing that was just like a little flicker in my head, you know, and to see this huge group of people who are putting their work and their talent toward it, that's incredibly moving.

[9:42] Gabby Beans: Um but I I mean watching just the actors, it's it's exhilarating. It's um yeah, it's it's exhilarating. It really is. And uh especially now that they are really, really living in it. They it just watch it's like watching, it's like flying, they're flying in it. And it and it I I feel like I I feel that way too, you know. Um yeah, your heart kind of flies. I mean, that's why I I do theater even though it pays nothing. Although I will say the roundabout actually paid me a living wage, and they're the only theater to have ever done that. Um so congrat thank you, roundabout, because it has been uh an amazing, amazing professional experience. Um but you know, the reason I keep coming back to theater again and again is because you it's just like the you just feel like your life feels enormous. It feels like like this was the life I wanted, like everything feels so expansive. Um Yeah, it's a real high.

[10:50] Robert Bannon: I I hear that. That's right. You know, and and Gabby, for you, when you read this for the first time, um, what what was it that made you be like, I I need to I know this character, I know this part. I I I'm the person to do this job. How how what what connection do you have to this piece?

[11:11] Gabby Beans: Well, it's funny you should say the you know the the feeling of feeling like I'm the person to tell the story. It was the opposite. I mean, I just really like the play. And what was mo I just loved it. I was very moved by it, even just on the page. Um it felt like it touched, you know, my heart in a very, very deep place. And whenever you encounter writing like that, you know it's worth investigating further. But then in thinking Rachel, you've heard this a thousand times, but and then thinking about the part and what the part would demand of me, I honestly did not know if I could do it. Um I felt very intimidated, scared, and um however, um I've learned that oftentimes when I feel that feeling, it's pointing me towards a new horizon, you know, of who I can be.

Uh so after meeting with Dania and and understanding how focused and clear-minded and uh what a great leader she was. I knew I would be in good hands to at least try and see where we land. Um so that was kind of what it was. It was just really loving Rachel's play, um, really respecting Dania's work and wanting to do something that I wasn't quite sure if I was gonna be able to do it.

[12:41] Robert Bannon: Well, you're doing it and you did it, and it's it's up there and it's done. So check that off the list. Here we go.

[12:47] Gabby Beans: Here we go.

[12:49] Robert Bannon: That's it. Onward. Uh Rachel, do you do you feel that this cast, this, this show was it is it lightning in a bottle when you when you look back now, when you show up and sit in the back of the theater, or when you open the show, what when you see the the personification of these characters come to life, do was was is this experience was this what it what it lit?

[13:11] Rachel Bonds: I think I know the answer. You told me you got paid a living wage and the show is up.

[13:15] Rachel Bonds: Yeah, I mean, absolutely, but I knew that right away. I mean, I knew that from day one because everyone is just really um it's a group of very generous, kind and highly intelligent actors. Um with a really strong work ethic. Um the language is hard, right? Like it it's athletic. Um it really is, and there was such a dedication to getting it right. And I mean the punctuation is hard to nail down. I mean, it's it's nailed down for you, but it's it's hard, it's it's difficult to memorize. It's um I mean, I write almost like it feels like I'm writing music. I'm like scoring. I'm scoring a ri I'm scoring music. That's how it feels. That's the experience of writing for me, is like trying to capture a rhythm. Um and these this group of actors was just so dedicated to getting that right. And um, yeah, they're just I mean, you guys are just such a a really lovely group of people um who cared really deeply about the characters.

[14:43] Gabby Beans: Um I couldn't have asked for better.

[14:48] Robert Bannon: I I love that. Yeah, Rachel, I would have been fired because I could have memorized your word perfect punctuation. I'm done. Gabby, who who did you run lines with? How who helped you? There's gotta be some unknown person out there who helped you get this off book.

[15:04] Gabby Beans: Olivia.

[15:05] Gabby Beans: Olivia, one of our um RPS, yes, um, RPA rather. Um they were so integral. My partner Patrick was really nice and helped me run lines a lot. Um, so thank you so much, Patrick. Um and that's not anything you want to do. But um, but also I will say, just to piggyback off of what Rachel said, my castmates are absolutely spectacular. And you know, if I ever was like, hey, do you guys want to meet up before or after rehearsal and run lines? All three of them were always game, always down to just run scenes. Um, and so I felt incredibly supported. I it you know, it yeah, I felt incredibly supported.

[15:53] Robert Bannon: Well, I'm sure the day the show was set and the lines were learned, it's like, oh whoo, we did it. We're ready to put this baby up here. Who is the show for? It's not a show specific for gender, it's not a show specific for age, it's not who Gabby, who and Rachel for both of you. Who is the show for? Who do you hope goes and sees it?

[16:11] Gabby Beans: Oh, everyone.

[16:12] Rachel Bonds: Yeah, period.

[16:14] Gabby Beans: Yeah. Truly everyone. I mean, of course, I'm writing from a I identify as female and and you know, the Anna does as well, and she carries the play. The play is her, she is the heart of it. Um but I think and I hope that it could offer healing for everyone who sees it.

[16:45] Rachel Bonds: Um, because I think what it's really exploring is um how we process the difficult things that happen to us, and I think that's universal. Um we all have bodies, and all of our bodies are are keeping the score. Um and so I think I think and I hope that the play is for everyone.

[17:13] Gabby Beans: I think so too.

[17:15] Rachel Bonds: Yeah, I would agree. I mean, if you have a past, childhood.

[17:19] Gabby Beans: If you have a childhood.

[17:22] Rachel Bonds: Or a laugh.

[17:25] Gabby Beans: It's Anna, Anna has so little of a childhood, really, you know, and so it's also written for those of us who grew up really quick.

[17:36] Rachel Bonds: And I will say, like, in at the stage door, you know, the the reactions that I've been privileged to hold space for after this piece, yeah, have come from so many different types of people. Any, you know, across age, race, gender, sexual orientation, all of the categories of human have responded to this piece.

[18:03] Gabby Beans: So that means you gotta get your little selves here.

[18:07] Gabby Beans: You get a ticket. The roundabout, it makes shows affordable. The roundabout makes shows available to people. You need to get your get your tickets. Jonah is right now.

[18:16] Gabby Beans: Look, I replaced poor Gabby got replaced with Cartoon Gabby. Jonah is now Jonah is now playing. You have a couple weeks left to get your tickets, and you just gotta head on over, go to roundabout theater.org and make sure you get your tickets. And like we said, follow Gabby, go to Rachel's website. We're go to We're trying to keep, you know, do the deep dive, see the art, see the work. And we're ready for more stages and screens and more words from both of you. Thank you so much for being here.

[18:43] Gabby Beans: Thank you so much.

[18:44] Rachel Bonds: Thank you.

[18:45] Robert Bannon: This is great.