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[0:14] Robert Bannon: Welcome to the round table, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon. You're listening to us on Broadway Podcast Network or over here on Broadway World or here in Detroit. Hello, Broadway and Detroit. I'm so excited to be here. You know, six months ago when I moved from New York City and New Jersey to Detroit, I thought I was gonna have to give away all of my Broadway fun moments. But then I found out that the Fisher Theater and my friends at Broadway and Detroit bring my favorite Broadway shows right to my backyard. And one of my favorite shows, my most touching shows that I've ever seen and watched and been a part of is Come From Away. And as a New Yorker who was in senior year during 9-11, and the generations of people now who don't even remember what that day was like, like my students, because I guess we're getting old, um it's so important that this show is here.

I want to kiss the cop. I'm ready. Kathleen Cameron is here. I'm gonna kiss a fish. I'm gonna bring my husband to see the show for the first time. And I'm so excited to talk to her. Kathleen, welcome to the round table.

[1:11] Kathleen Cameron: Oh, thank you. We're so excited to have you here.

[1:14] Robert Bannon: Yes, thank you. So I am excited for the show to roll in because what I've learned is that I've been spoiled and that there's so many musical theater fans around the country that don't live in the backyard of 42nd Street. And now they get to see Come From Away for the first time.

[1:31] Kathleen Cameron: Yeah, this has been a really, I've, this is my second year touring with the show, and it's been such a joy to get to talk with people at the stage door or in the lobby after the shows who say, you know, like I don't normally like musicals, but this musical is amazing. Or I saw the show on Broadway and I had to bring my whole family back to see it now that you're here in our town. Um, it's a really special piece of theater, and I'm so excited to bring it to people all across the country.

[1:59] Robert Bannon: What was it like your journey to be a part of this show? Did you go to an audition in person? Did you have to self-tape? Like what was it like? Did you see the show before you auditioned?

[2:08] Kathleen Cameron: Well, I saw the show I think the same week that it opened on Broadway with my parents. We were up in the nosebleeds and my dad's from Toronto. So, uh, at the end of the show he turns to me tears in his eyes and he goes I'm so proud to be a Canadian so this show has always held a special place in my heart and my family's heart. Um, and I saw there was an audition notice that was released um in 2023 for this tour and so I submitted and I had virtual auditions and I had a Zoom callback and then I had a final callback in New York City for a lot of the original creative team and Christopher Ashley the original director was there too. I was very very scared it was a big deal and um and I was in and out and then I waited and waited and then I heard that I got the part and I cried out of you know joy.

[2:50] Robert Bannon: I understand, I would cry as well. Your journey to musical theater, um, you went to NYU, you are a comedian like you studied sketch comedy and I was thinking about it because you're singing in this show like you you're singing and but the way the show is set up if you've never seen it you play many characters the blocking of the show is almost like a big circle of flipping and changing and I'm this character and off without even walking off stage, I'm someone else. Did your history in sketch comedy come into play for you to be able to embody all the people you get to be on stage?

[3:40] Kathleen Cameron: You know, I think for sure I would describe Come From Away as actor boot camp, because you have to switch characters at the drop of a dime. You put on a hat and you're suddenly somebody else. And so I think both my acting training and my experience in sketch comedy um enabled me to make really strong, bold choices and be unafraid to just go there. Um, and then it's up to the creative team to, you know, reel us back or say, okay, that is nice, but let's make this character a little bit more normal. Um, but yeah, it's great fun and it's a great challenge.

[4:13] Robert Bannon: What inspired you to be in sketch comedy? Like what made you, what was the day that you were like, I want to do, is it an SNL thing? Is it a Mad TV thing? Is it a Living Color thing? Like what was it?

[4:25] Kathleen Cameron: Well, I've always been a big fan of SNL. Um, that's still on my like dream bucket list. Um, I was a few years out of college auditioning and auditioning and just, you know, not getting any roles, and I was getting really frustrated. Um, and then I found my way into taking class at UCB, Upright Citizens Brigade, and writing my own material, and I found um a lot of satisfaction out of um writing my own work, and I felt like I could claim some more agency than you know, just being an actor does. Um, I feel like it's only really enriched my life and um and my experience as a performer because I can come to it as a collaborator and not just someone who says, you know, give me words, you know?

[5:07] Robert Bannon: Yes.

[5:08] Kathleen Cameron: Wow, so I I think I love sketch comedy and I love going to see different comedy and improv groups and things like that around New York City and wherever you are around the country, because I think there's an activism element to it in the within the comedy. So, and that's what I like about Come From Away is that it's really about community and and uh a neighborhood that lets people in when they're in the worst need and they come together with nothing, they have nothing and they welcome thousands of people. Do you what's that like to share that with an audience, especially in these times where we seem to not be as neighborly and as welcoming as we have we can be? What's it like to share this show?

[5:45] Kathleen Cameron: Yeah, this show, Come From Away is so special because it's truly about the power of being kind to a stranger, which we need now more than ever. Ever. And whether it be, you know, like my character does helping animals that are stuck in plane holes, or making food for somebody, or taking them into your home, or just speaking kindly to somebody. Um, it that's really a universal lesson that I think everybody can always need more of. Um, it's been really fun as we've been touring the country and we hear from people at the stage door or outside of the theater. They go, everybody here is just so inspired to be so kind to each other. We were in, I forget what state it was, but you know, somebody leaned out of their car and they said, Everybody's holding the doors for everybody now, like after seeing the show.

So I I feel like Come From Away is a great um, it's like a seed that can be planted, and hopefully people um really leave the theater feeling inspired to just add a little bit more kindness to their days.

[6:53] Robert Bannon: And you're spreading that all around the country right now, and you're gonna spread that here in the D. And it's gonna be you guys are coming here to the Fisher from February 11th to the 16th. So while we're here, get your tickets, go to BroadwayandDetroit.com. I promise you, it is 90 minutes or so of uh just joy and inspiration. And that there is bright, there is at light at the end of some tunnels. Horrible days come and we go through events, but we can get together and be stronger together than we are divided. Um, you are like a viral superstar.

[7:25] Kathleen Cameron: Well I did pick up a hobby in uh quarantine.

[7:31] Robert Bannon: Um, but Kathleen, like some people knit and some people opened an Etsy shop and sell rhinestone earrings, but you have like 200,000 followers on the TikTok.

[7:42] Kathleen Cameron: I do, and I play the plastic recorder, and that's all that I do on TikTok.

[7:48] Robert Bannon: Like you play the third grade, like when you learn hot cross buns, plastic recorder. I have many questions. I know about Come From Away. I'm done with that. I have questions now about the recorder. Did you have a recorder in your home? Did you buy one on Amazon? How did the recorder call you?

[8:06] Kathleen Cameron: You know, the recorder called to me when I uh came back to my parents' house during uh the height of 2020, and I was cleaning up my childhood bedroom, and I found this neon green plastic recorder that I got um in high school when I went to the Allstate choir conference. Um, but I had not picked it up since. And so I decided because you know, like so many, so many people, um, I had nothing to do all day, and I was trying to keep from going insane. Um so I just taught myself how to play the plastic recorder, and then I started posting videos on uh TikTok, and uh I've amassed a fun community of little freaks.

[8:45] Robert Bannon: I like that.

[8:46] Kathleen Cameron: And you literally, if you look at your um, if you look at your videos, like you are all around the world, country, like you're outside, you have this green neon see-through recorder. Like you are just let's and how do you find the music? Like, do you just pick random and some of the songs are not what you think is on a recorder?

[9:06] Kathleen Cameron: Yeah, I mean, well, that that's part of the fun of it is so I when I was in high school, I took music theory, and so I'm I'm a big music theory nerd. So that was kind of part of the fun was like figuring out like that what are the notes of these songs, or like how how do I, you know, um put together some sort of flute version of a song that you might not necessarily expect to see.

[9:27] Robert Bannon: Well, I hope you follow her because now if you ever want to hear like "Turn Down for What" by Lil Jon or something, then you follow Kathleen and her neon green plastic recorder that if you're a parent probably gives you nightmares of when your child was learning how to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and you know it's really a cursed instrument, I think.

[9:48] Kathleen Cameron: Oh, I'm happy you're giving love to the recorder, and there's a whole community of recorder fans out here.

[9:54] Kathleen Cameron: Absolutely, and you know what's funny is that in—sorry, I know we're not talking about "Come From Away" anymore, but in "Come From Away," one of the members of our band, Logan, he's our like pipe and flute player, he has a couple recorders that are being played during the show. So, I get some major flute inspiration from him during the show.

[10:15] Robert Bannon: One day I hope that the amazing producers that are up from "Come From Away" let you just whip out the recorder on stage and just go at it.

[10:22] Kathleen Cameron: Oh yeah, I'm waiting for him to get sick one day and I'll just pop in.

[10:26] Robert Bannon: Jump in, she's in.

[10:28] Robert Bannon: How do we follow you over on TikTok or on social media so we can watch it?

[10:33] Kathleen Cameron: Well, if you're interested in following me on TikTok, my handle is @CathDoesTikTok.

[10:39] Kathleen Cameron: Okay, and my Instagram handle is @KathleenGCameron.

[10:44] Robert Bannon: Got it.

[10:44] Robert Bannon: It's like I'm Robert M. Bannon because someone out here—

[10:48] Kathleen Cameron: How dare they?

[10:49] Robert Bannon: How dare.

[10:50] Robert Bannon: It's a kid in Idaho, and they only have five followers.

[10:54] Kathleen Cameron: I don't even think it's an active account, Kathleen.

[10:56] Kathleen Cameron: I know, that's so rude.

[10:58] Kathleen Cameron: Thank goodness we have middle initials.

[10:59] Robert Bannon: Thank goodness we have middle initials.

[11:01] Robert Bannon: So I'm gonna be following, I'm gonna be following the recorder, I'm gonna be following you.

[11:05] Robert Bannon: Back to fine, I'll go back to "Come From Away" if you insist.

[11:09] Kathleen Cameron: No, I do every single night when you go to a different city.

[11:12] Robert Bannon: I don't know where you are right now.

[11:14] Kathleen Cameron: Want me to tell you?

[11:15] Robert Bannon: Yeah.

[11:16] Kathleen Cameron: We're in Philadelphia.

[11:17] Robert Bannon: Oh, I love Philadelphia.

[11:20] Robert Bannon: So fun.

[11:21] Robert Bannon: Well, so you're in Philadelphia right now, and then you get on a bus, plane, train.

[11:26] Kathleen Cameron: We're flying to Detroit. So we're gonna be getting on a plane. But we do a little mixture of plane and bus.

[11:32] Robert Bannon: Okay.

[11:33] Robert Bannon: So how much time from when you leave Philly to you come to the Fisher is there for you to like walk the theater, know where your dressing room is? Like, that's gotta be a whole—you are a traveling circus.

[11:47] Kathleen Cameron: Yeah, it's funny. This is my first tour. So this is my first experience being in a new city in a new theater every time. It's kind of a trip though, because the show itself and the stage itself is the same, but everything around it is different. But luckily our stage management team, they put up these very nice signs for us that say, you know, this way or dressing rooms or bathroom, or you know, don't go this way. So we walk in maybe like two hours before the show, and we just look for the signs and we go, okay, the dressing rooms are this way, so we're gonna go this way. So we kind of just walk around, obviously not knowing where we're going, but eventually we do get to know the theater.

[12:31] Robert Bannon: Well, you were saying that you play the character that's concerned about the animals, so I'm assuming you're Bonnie.

[12:35] Kathleen Cameron: Yes.

[12:35] Kathleen Cameron: And you get to tell that version of the story. But the cast is from a pilot to the gentleman that lived there. And well, let me ask you this question for the people who don't know, because a lot of people in Detroit have never seen "Come From Away." They don't know. How do you describe what the show is about?

[12:53] Kathleen Cameron: So "Come From Away" tells the story of a small town in Newfoundland, Canada, which is on the northeast tip of North America. It's on a tiny, tiny island, and it's a small town of like 7,000 or 9,000 people. And right outside the town is an airport where back in the day planes used to land to refuel before they kept going on their journeys. And on 9/11, when the US airspace was closed for the first time in history, lots of international flights were rerouted when the US airspace was closed to Gander. And they were there for like five days. And so this tiny little town in Newfoundland was suddenly a host of 7,000 people from all across the world who had no idea what was going on and didn't speak like the same language.

You know, it's just a whole mess of strangers. But luckily for them, Canadians are so nice and warm and welcoming, especially Newfoundlanders. So this little town just took all these strangers in. They took them into their homes, they fed them, they rescued their animals, they took care of them, and then when the US airspace reopened, they sent them on their way. So that's what "Come From Away" is about. It's about both the plane people and the people from Gander coming together and making friendships in a dark time. It's a different lens to view this time through the lens of humanity.

[14:25] Robert Bannon: Yeah, literally humanity and creating community. And it's such a moving and touching story because you hear, you know, you'll—I didn't think about it until I saw the show, and then it was on Apple TV, it was Apple TV did a pro shot of it, and now it's a tour, it won Best Musical. Like, it is a lauded Broadway musical with great music and a great story. But what you leave—what I left feeling is that when I think of that time living in New Jersey and 9/11, we think of all the horror and the loss, but it was a time to come together, and it was a time for us as a nation and for other nations to open their arms to us. And when you look at these people who really don't have much, who don't know people, and they let people in from different races, religions, ethnicities, backgrounds, and they just open their arms to everyone without a tariff, Kathleen. They didn't give us anymore. They let us in without a problem. So it really is a really special, special show.

[15:23] Kathleen Cameron: It's gotta be uplifting at the end of the night too when you finish and you're done walking in that rotating circle and you finish the show to tell people this story.

[15:34] Kathleen Cameron: You know, it really is. You know, it's like any other job, you know, we all show—sometimes we have good days and sometimes we have bad days, and there's some days where I show at the theater and I'm tired or you know, whatever. But I always, always when I finish the show, I always feel so much better. It's kind of a boom for the soul for the people on stage and for the people in the audience.

[15:56] Robert Bannon: See, I agree. I love it. I can't wait. You know, it's been my favorite thing is to see classic shows here in Detroit and bring my husband and his family who are all Detroiters, so they don't get to go to New York and see these shows. And we've gone to every show that the Fisher has this season.

[16:11] Kathleen Cameron: Amazing.

[16:12] Robert Bannon: Just yesterday, Darius was like, okay, what's next? And I said, "Come From Away." And he said, "What is that?" And I get to sit there and let him experience it for the first time and fall in love with the show that you all do.

[16:23] Kathleen Cameron: When you're playing Bonnie, did Patrina was the original Bonnie?

[16:28] Kathleen Cameron: Yes, yes.

[16:28] Kathleen Cameron: So what—have you ever gotten like a well wish or a word or any advice or we haven't interacted really?

[16:36] Kathleen Cameron: Yes, but she does have kind of a legacy in the show. She and the original Beulah, Astrid, they were the two Canadian members of the original Broadway company. And when they were staging the show, this is the kind of show where it's chairs and tables and people are moving things and setting prop pieces and everything. And famously, Bonnie and Beulah are the roles in this production that do the most work. We're moving the most tables, we're moving the most chairs, we're running around, and that's because the Canadians were the most helpful in rehearsal. And when they said, you know, we need a chair moved, they went, "Oh, I'll do that, I'll do that." So I like to think that we're carrying on the legacy of the very helpful Canadian members of the company.

[17:18] Robert Bannon: Oh my gosh, you sure are. I love it. That's sweet. Well, with Best Musical all across North America, "Come From Away," which is a remarkable true story, comes to the Fisher right here in this downtown Detroit. We're gonna have to get Kathleen a Coney dog and a Faygo soda, and I have no idea what those are.

[17:36] Kathleen Cameron: I'm so excited to find out.

[17:38] Robert Bannon: I'm gonna have to bring you one. I'm gonna have to bring you some chili cheese fries from—I had to learn.

[17:43] Kathleen Cameron: Are you from the East Coast originally?

[17:44] Kathleen Cameron: I'm from Connecticut.

[17:46] Robert Bannon: So you're like me. So like we have diners. You can get cheese fries, but they don't have diners here. They have something called a Coney.

[17:54] Kathleen Cameron: Oh, okay.

[17:55] Kathleen Cameron: It's like a diner, but you order at a counter and you sit down, but you can get omelets and burgers and a Coney dog is a hot dog with chili, cheese, onions, and it's like theirs. They take it very serious here.

[18:06] Kathleen Cameron: Okay, great. Well, I look forward to checking out a Coney dog.

[18:11] Robert Bannon: Well, Coney Dogs on me.

[18:13] Kathleen Cameron: Uh, you got it, Kathleen. Welcome, congratulations. We'll be following the recorder, the "Come From Away" tour, and all the things that you have to come. The best is yet to come, and we're excited to see you.

[18:24] Kathleen Cameron: Thank you.

[18:25] Kathleen Cameron: We're so excited to come to Detroit.

[18:27] Robert Bannon: Yes, let's go.