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[0:00] Jason Schmidt: Hi, I'm Jason Schmidt, and you're listening to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:18] Alan Seales: Welcome back to The Theatre Podcast. I'm Alan Seales, and this is our second-to-last episode of The Outsiders Takeover here on The Pod. Our guest for this episode, Jason Schmidt, dove quickly into the need for artistic expression and surprised me a little bit with his response around what he finds easy to write about, especially when he's writing songs. But taking this need for emotional expression onto the stage seems like a completely natural fit, especially for a show like The Outsiders, which has put together a cast I've learned through this Takeover series of episodes that have all felt and maybe still do feel like outsiders in some way. But I guess the truth around all of this is that most of us always feel like outsiders in one way or another, at least I do.

So the show speaks to me, can you tell? All right, so everybody, find me on the socials, share this episode and the podcast if you can to help us grow, and everybody, please enjoy this episode with Jason Schmidt. Today's guest just made his Broadway debut in The Outsiders on Broadway, which at the time of this recording was nominated for 12 Tony Awards. A student of Carnegie Mellon University, he can be seen on TV's Grease, Rise of the Pink Ladies, FBI Most Wanted, and The Chair. Regional theater credits include Cinderella at Theater Under the Stars and the La Jolla production of The Outsiders. He's also a singer-songwriter with a whole slew of music that you need to go listen to as soon as you're done listening to this podcast. Jason Schmidt, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[1:23] Jason Schmidt: Hi, thank you for having me.

[1:29] Alan Seales: So let me actually get started with your album, My Ego Loves You, because I just actually love the title. I think it's a really interesting title. Thank you. So tell me about the album and sort of what you're writing about, because ego is hard to let go of, especially at a young age. So I'm just curious to dive into this a little bit and see where this came from.

[1:46] Jason Schmidt: Yeah, of course. It's actually just a single. The song single is called My Ego Loves You, and it came from... Most of the music I write is very personal, and it comes from something I need to get off my chest to kind of move on with my life type of a thing. This was very different. My sister, one of my older sisters, is an artist, and she had drawn just randomly for herself this what is now the cover art of the song with the title My Ego Loves You. And I just thought that was such an interesting phrase. And so I was looking it up on the internet to see if anyone had used that specific phraseology in a song, and I didn't find anything. And I was blown away by the fact that nobody had used that yet.

And so I wrote this whole song around that phrase and the idea that you can be moved on from something, but your ego is still attached to a person and your ego keeps you coming back. And I've experienced that, I think most people have. And so yeah, the song has gone through multiple versions of it. I wrote it all by myself at a certain point. And then when I worked with the producer who worked on it, I rewrote some stuff and brought in lyrics from another song that I felt fit in, and it became the song it is today, which I'm very proud of.

[3:40] Alan Seales: Well, you said you write about stuff that's personal for you. So what do you really like to write about? What strokes your ego and makes you happy to express yourself?

[3:51] Jason Schmidt: Truly whatever is inside that I can get out, which tends to be more depressing stuff most of the time, because usually the happy stuff I'm trying to keep in. But stuff that speaks to the soul, I guess, in a way that feels personal and relatable. But for me, I'm not thinking too much about how people will react to it or listen to it, what they'll think from it. The people who I started writing with in college, they all had this mentality of like, I want to be an actor. And I want to write music for myself, because I love doing it. But I don't ever want that to be the thing that has to feed me type of a thing. And I always loved that, because it kept their music so unique and interesting and personal, because it was never them trying to write the next top 50 pop hit.

It was always just the music that they love to create. And they try to make themselves better within it. And I'm so grateful that that's where I started, because I'm very similar now. I love acting so much. I love songwriting so much. They fill me in such different ways. But the songwriting thing doesn't have to feed me, because the acting thing does. And so I get to do whatever I want with it and create whatever type of song, whatever genre. If you listen through my discography, there's a lot of different genres on there, spanning a lot of different types of lyricism and stuff. And yeah, it's really whatever comes to mind.

[5:22] Alan Seales: You said you like to keep the happiness inside and talk about the depressing stuff. That seems intuitively backwards, in my opinion. If you're curating a version of your life for the online public, most people are like, look at all the happy stuff. And then you peel back the layers and it's like, look how miserable they really are. But you just said the opposite.

[5:41] Jason Schmidt: See, the thing about it is, for me writing, I have no mind of curating myself for the public. When I write, it is purely for me. And then I find the songs that I think are well written, and I create them and produce them and put them out there. And so because that is kind of where I come from, the stuff that I need to write, when people need to journal or meditate, the things that they can't get through or I'm stuck in a mind loop on this person or the way this person treated me, I write it so I can get it out. And honestly, it is a very therapeutic thing for me. I tend to move on from those things post writing about them, or at least more so than I was before. And so what I mean by that is the happy stuff, I like to enjoy and keep inside myself.

And when I write it, it tends to kind of leave my being in a way. And so, yeah, that is interesting, though. I haven't really thought about that. Because in me and my own life, if you met me, you would assume my music would be all upbeat and boppy and pop rock kind of thing. And I think people are generally kind of intrigued to know that most of the music I write is a little more about my feelings and the darker sides of myself that I have trouble dealing with. Like, even My Ego Loves You is a boppy, upbeat song. But it's like the parts of myself that I don't, the toxic sides of myself that I don't quite understand, if you know what I mean.

[7:15] Alan Seales: Yeah. I mean, I am so impressed with you being able to dive into that and explore that and peel back the layers in such a public way. And I venture to guess that maybe, you know, for you, it's not vulnerable. For me, it is. For others, it is. And for you, it's just how you express yourself. Like you said, some people like to journal, some people want to write songs, and they don't feel like they can move on from it. I love that you said that. You don't feel like you can move on from it until you've written about it, performed it, put it out there in the world. And then it's like, you're leaving it in that space, and you can move on and find something else that keeps you happy.

[8:05] Jason Schmidt: Yeah. The energy of that song, the energy that I had inside me, that was surrounding that situation, now is carried through that song. And so there was one song I wrote, I haven't released it yet. I have plans to release it in the fall. It's called Charming. And it was about this personal situation in my life that was difficult at the time. Somebody told me that they were choosing somebody else over me. And I wrote the song, and for the following week, I sang the song every night, because I would get in my head about it, and I would feel the anxiety inside about that situation. So I'd pick up the guitar, and I'd sing the song, and the energy would kind of dissipate into a place where I was able to go to bed. That's honestly where a lot of the songwriting started from. I have trouble sleeping, and I would stay up.

[9:58] Jason Schmidt: Okay, so going back a little bit, in college, one of my roommates in college, his name is Andy, he was releasing a rap album when we got there freshman year, under the name Kid Wolf. And I was so taken aback by the fact that he was that young and so able to create this huge... There was nine songs, and they were good. And so I started talking to him about how I had written stuff and never really finished anything, because I would get this section I was really happy with, and I could never add on something that felt worthy of that section. And he was like, yeah, you kind of just have to finish it. And I was like, well, it's not going to be to the same level. And he was like, yeah, it probably won't be.

I was like, oh, he's like, yeah, but then the next one you write will probably be closer to that level. And then the next one you write will be even closer. And if you keep writing, eventually, you'll figure out a way to make it the level you want it to be. And so then, yeah, I just started writing. And I found myself at a place in my life where I was dealing with these sleep issues that I still have not really figured out completely. And I'd be up at 12am having no desire to go to bed. And I would just pick up my guitar and I would write about the things that were on my mind that I couldn't get off. And then after 30-45 minutes of that, I would feel much more ready to go to bed. And so I started doing a little earlier to try and see if I could move up my bedtime. And it helped, it really helped. And I don't always do that with sleep anymore. But it is that kind of track that does help my mind, I guess.

[10:32] Alan Seales: That is really interesting. It's like you found your own little self-medication and this own therapy practice. It sounds like almost a form of meditation too, where you just detach from the problems in a healthy way or channel them somewhere else. That's cool. That's very cool. So when did you pick up the guitar though? And I mean, were you playing instruments first before singing, dancing, acting? Where did it all kind of start?

[10:58] Jason Schmidt: Yeah, the first artistic thing I did was when I was really young, my grandma is a piano teacher, or was a piano teacher. And she taught me and all my cousins piano. It was a requirement in our family to take piano from her. Honestly, I hated it. Honestly, I hated it. It wasn't the piano itself that I had. Once I got a song down, I loved playing the song. But it was, we had the sheet, we were supposed to practice six times a week, we were supposed to practice for half an hour to an hour a day. And I just was not that type of kid. I wanted to be outside, I wanted to be on the trampoline, I wanted to be playing basketball, and I just didn't want to sit down in this one place for 30 minutes for six days a week.

It was crazy. Me and my sisters always have a joke. I have three older sisters and we were all supposed to take piano. My dad would go for a jog once a day. And in that jog, somehow all four of us had practiced piano by the time he got back, because he was, you know, it was his mom, so he would make sure that we were practicing as much as he could come back from the jog. And eventually we got to the point where I was like, okay, I don't think he's going to believe us if all four of us say it. So whoever gets to the piano first and pretends like they're practicing gets to tell me they practice when he gets back. But so that's where it started. It started with piano. And my aunt on that same side is very theatrical and loves theater and art. And she would put up plays in her basement. And that was kind of the next step.

[12:22] Jason Schmidt: And I was a part of all those. And I think at first I was on the younger side of the family, so I had like one or two lines. And then I, you know, made my starring debut as Robin Hood. And she'd probably get like a hundred something people in this basement to come watch us do these shows, which was kind of impressive, to be honest. But this is like a public thing, not a not a for the family thing. Yeah, like she got her friends and her family friends and her work friends to come watch us. It was crazy. Yeah. Wow. And so then from there, I, I picked up guitar because that was like the instrument I was more fascinated by. But even that I didn't practice a whole lot. And it wasn't till later that I was in high school that I was like, dang it, I probably should have because my cousin on my cousin Torian, who I'm actually going to his wedding on Saturday or tomorrow.

He he practiced, you know, religiously through his whole life. And at this point in his life, he's like a brilliant pianist. And so it just gives me a blueprint of what I could have been, you know, if I would have stuck to the the schedule I was supposed to. But I got to a certain point in my life where I where I picked those back up in a real way, you know, where I was like, OK, now I'm gonna make it my own thing, not something someone's telling me to do, but I want to do this. And so I play guitar and piano now. And then singing kind of came after that because it was kind of the last thing to develop. I sang the first kind of real theater thing I did was like at nine. It was like a community theater.

My my older sister did it. It was the Hobbit, the musical that the community theater wrote. It was three hours long. I played Ori the Dwarf, and it was pretty, pretty terrible, to be honest. But I had so much fun. It was so much fun. And at that point, I couldn't really sing yet like I wanted to. I couldn't really. I don't remember when it happened. I think it was somewhere around sixth or seventh grade because I sang all the time. And once I picked up guitar, I would sit in front of a computer and like look up tabs for songs and play them and sing them. And I realized at one point I can't remember, but I remember the feeling of the moment of being like, oh, wait a minute. I think I'm actually getting a little bit good at this.

Maybe I'm not a terrible singer. And then continue to just do it every day. And what I'm grateful for in my life is especially the acting and especially the singing. It all came out of like joy. It wasn't till later till I did it for any type of money or real life application. It was just I did it because I loved it. And my sister and I made a bunch of friends doing it. My sister did it. And my grandma would then take me to all the churches in her area to sing. And that was always just fun. Like it was it was always just fun. And then later I was like, OK, how do I kind of dial this in and make it more take it seriously? But when everything started from fun and it was fun for years before I ever took it seriously.

[15:20] Alan Seales: When did you know that you wanted to take it seriously, though? Because there are so many people that they'll do chorus or they're like you said, they'll be forced by parents to pick up an instrument or do something, join band and in some grade and and then they do it because they have to, not because they love it. And then the actual decision, the switch to say, I'm going to try to focus my whole life on this. That's a bigger decision than that. A lot of people don't ever get to.

[15:41] Jason Schmidt: Yeah. So my freshman year of high school, I was going to quit theater because I was an athlete and I was honestly kind of tired of getting picked on for it. And I had just done a show with the director that tried to get me to take it seriously, but a little bit more in a yelly, hard on me type of way that I just didn't care for. Like at the time, I was like, I am literally here to be around my friends. I have no desire to, you know, make somebody cry. It was, it was, uh, what was the show? It was the sound of music. I was playing Friedrich. And I was like, I, I'm not gonna, this is, I'm just not in a place where I want to take this like incredibly seriously. Um, and you know, I was still doing a good job with it.

It's not like I was, you know, messing around, but cause I did love doing a good job as well. But after all that and the kind of teasing, I was like, you know what, I'm going to focus on basketball. That's going to be the thing I do in college. I'm going to drop the theater thing. I told my mom that. And at first she was like, yeah, that's okay. I think you love it, but that's okay. And then the theater that I always did announce that they're doing Les Mis in the fall. My mom came back to me and she was like, I love the show. It's a beautiful show. You got to do it. And I was like, I don't want to do it. I told you I'm quitting. And she said, I'm your mother. You have no choice. And so of course I had no choice.

And I did the show. And truly though, thanks mom. Because in the course of the show, the assistant director of it later became my mentor, my audition coach for colleges, directed me in a bunch of other things and is now one of my best friends and the other kids that were in it with me. I think there's still like double digits of people in that show who are like doing it now, or in some capacity of like, went to college for it and are now on the professional route of it. And this director knew how to, his name is Matt Seiler. He knew how to frame it for me in a way that was like, we're just having fun here. But if you're interested, like you could kind of affect people with this story. I slowly started to be like, okay, maybe I am a little interested in that.

It is a more serious show. And I was Marius and I had some really serious songs and I'm kind of a perfectionist. So I was trying to figure out how I could do the best I could with those. And he introduced me to videos of Jeremy Jordan and Aaron Tveit and people like that. And I started to get interested in the culture of it and the people who were doing it at the top level. And through the course of those three months, I went from wanting to quit it and my mom forcing me to do the show to then telling my mom at the end of it that I think I wanted to do it for the rest of my life, which was kind of crazy. And it had a lot to do with the fact that post the shows, it's a community theater. We had mostly friends and family coming, but they would come up to us and they would be like, wow, that really affected me.

Or it made me think about my dad differently. Or I texted my brother that I loved him because of the way you guys were on stage. And I was like, well, that's really it's really special to be able to be a part of something like that in somebody's life. And that's kind of what what changed it for me was it was no longer just fun and it was so fun, but it was also something that I could make a difference in people's lives with.

[19:09] Alan Seales: And then your mom got the first bill for Carnegie Mellon and she says, I've made a terrible mistake. Time for a quick commercial break. Hang on a second. Welcome back to the episode.

[19:22] Jason Schmidt: As soon as I told her that I wanted to do it, she's an accountant. And so as soon as I told her I wanted to be an actor, she said, well, I wanted you to do it again because I thought you loved it, but I didn't want you to go into it. And she said it. She said, you can do it on the side, but you're going to get a degree in something else. And it took a little bit, but she's one of those were like, she's just skeptical and wants the best for me. And so once she was on board with it, I did another show with that same director, I think the following year. And he went to school for it and was more in tune with the industry than other directors like at that community theater level were. And she was like, she took him aside privately and said, do you think he can actually do this?

Because he wants to do it really bad now, but I just don't want to send him down a route that is going to torture his life. And he was like, I do. I do think he could do it. And then he made sure to not tell me that, but to tell me that if I wanted to do anything else, I should do that. He was like, you're very good at this. I think you can succeed if you do it. But if you want to do anything else, do that thing, because this thing is going to be so hard, no matter if you're succeeding at it or not. And I'm grateful for that because, and I tell people the same thing all the time, because first of all, in that moment, I had to decide whether or not I did love it that much. And I still had years in college stuff to do before I really had to decide, but I did make that decision.

I was like, I do think I love it enough. And I have to remake that commitment over and over again, because it's hard. It's hard when you're not working. It's hard when you have a job like this that is so physical, eight shows a week, press stuff during the days, photo shoots, where you don't really get a break. I don't get to see my friends very often. And on top of that, I wouldn't change it for the world. I love it so much. It fills my soul so much to do this thing. And I'm grateful that he set that in my head at the beginning of it, because now instead of being like, oh, why am I doing this? I'm so tired. It's like, yeah, I did this because this was the only thing I wanted to do for real.

[21:29] Alan Seales: I think that is brilliant of him to set that expectation. And it gives you the reverse perspective that a lot of people get falling into this of, I want to do it. I see what we're talking about at the beginning of this, where you're seeing the curated version of people's best lives. It's not the negative. It's not the sad parts, right? So you see the Jeremy Jordans and the Aaron Tveits and the people who have, I'll put in air quotes, made it, right? Even you look at people at the highest level of which you are now among them, of course, you, they have imposter syndrome every day. And they are always, while they're currently working, auditioning for their next job. And this is one of the hardest industries to be in. And I love how you sort of just were like, well, this is what I'm doing. I am the best Marius I can be. That means I can be on The Outsiders, in The Outsiders. That's what I'll do. Because that's the obvious next step.

[22:33] Jason Schmidt: Yeah, right. But there's some years in between there.

[22:36] Alan Seales: Right, right, right. So you're at Carnegie Bell.

[22:41] Jason Schmidt: Right. Well, let's, I would talk about those years though for a second, because you go, you're at Carnegie Melligy.

[22:48] Jason Schmidt: Carnegie Belly.

[22:48] Alan Seales: Carnegie Melligy.

[22:50] Jason Schmidt: Carnegie Belly.

[22:55] Alan Seales: Then walk me through the timeline then of like, of getting through school and like getting on Grease, Rise of the Pink Ladies. That's not a small thing, right? So like you're doing, you're going down the TV route at the same time you're going down the theater route when, you know, up until this point, our conversation has been all about performing in musical theater. So where did like the TV side come in?

[23:12] Jason Schmidt: Yeah. There's a few points to this, if you'll bear with me. First and foremost, I'd say I have no, I had no expectation of getting into Carnegie Mellon. It was the type of thing, I did an audition in Chicago at what they call Unifieds. And I had done my audition for Michigan, University of Michigan, the day before. And they're kind of like in musical theater, the prestigious names. And I walked out of my callback for Michigan, knowing I didn't get into the school. I was like, I didn't do a bad job, but I didn't do a very good job. Like it was just like a very mediocre time through my material. They didn't seem too interested in talking to me. And I was like, okay, I didn't do good enough to get into that school.

And my Carnegie one was the next day. And I had heard that day, unfortunately, like the numbers of getting into Carnegie. And like, they take six, six guys, six girls a year. And I went home and I was kind of bummed about it. And my dad was like, oh, but you're going to get in. And I was like, dad, I really, I'm going to give it my best, but I just think there's no chance. He goes, I think you're going to get in. With Michigan, I really focused on like trying to do my best. And that's never how you do your best work as an actor. And for Carnegie, I was like, I'm going to go in there and I'm not even going to think about getting in the school at all. I'm going to have like, I'm going to just be so loose.

I'm going to do the craziest, weirdest things. And they essentially offered me a spot in my audition. Like, it's just strange, you know, it's like when you want something so bad, they smell it. And they, that's, that's.

[24:43] Jason Schmidt: That neediness that you do, they don't want that. And when you're like going there and you're like, I could care less how this audition goes. It's different, you know. So that's first and foremost. And then Carnegie was it was a great experience. I learned so much there. I did this program link during the winter break of my sophomore year, where I actually met Brody for the first time, who plays Ponyboy. We were both it's like a college program. I was a sophomore, he was a senior. I remember it was during COVID. So we had to quarantine for a week, weekend some before we did anything. And the first day we had all these, I think there was like, 15 different people in the musical theatre, actors, singers section of it.

And the first day we show up, and this is the truth, everyone else is from smaller schools, a lot of schools I hadn't heard of, which was so cool. But the pride of where I was at, at that point in my life was like, I'm gonna show up and they're gonna be blown away with my talent. And I remember sitting through the first three people singing, and it was Brody Grant, it was Alyssa Rae, who was on American Idol and Cal Mitchell, who was a wonderful artist as well. And I remember listening to those three singers. And if you know any of them, they're like, some of the most gifted human beings I've ever had the pleasure of being around in my life. And I remember sitting in my chair like, Oh, no, I don't think I'm gonna do what I thought I was gonna do.

And I got up there and they were all you know, singing the rafters and riffing and all these powerful vocals. And I got up there, I chose my most, my flashiest song, the song I was going to belt the most in. And I really flopped. I flopped the song and it was just for the like the group of people, we were just kind of singing a song for each other. They brought in some press people and Alyssa sang and Cal sang and we need one more person to sing. And the director of it, Danny, asked who else wanted to sing and I shot my hand in the air. And he looks at me and he gives me kind of like, Are you sure you just kind of flopped? Look, and I give him a nod. And he goes, Okay, come on, Jason, get up here.

And I and I pick a different song, I pick a song that was far easier for me to sing. Because at the time I was, I was young, and I was still kind of figuring out my voice. And I was trying to sing the things that Jeremy and Aaron were singing with a voice that wasn't ready for it, you know. And I got up there and I chose a song that was easier for me, but I knew I could really connect and I could act and I could tell a story with. And I remember that experience being so strong for me in that we had two more weeks of that program. And because I wasn't at that point in my life at the vocal level that the other people were at, I had to figure out a different way to stand out within the program.

And so I really bowed down on the acting side of things and was like, that's going to be my route for this. When I got back to school, I rebound down on that. I was like, okay, I think I can be really great at this part of it. And that's kind of where the TV and film came from. And so halfway through my junior year is when I got Grease Rise of the Pink Ladies and left school to go to Vancouver and film that.

[27:47] Alan Seales: Wow. So then you're going, you're in Vancouver. And how do you get back to La Jolla for that production of The Outsiders? Because that seems like the trajectory from that point on much more recent, much more straightforward, I guess. But it first, again, this is one of those things where we always say this controversial, do we need any more jukebox musicals or do we need any more adaptations? Like why can nobody write anything original? And I think there's a place for everything. When you're first starting this, do you think when you're in Vancouver that you're going to go back to acting? And then obviously you do. I mean, acting on theater, in theater, and then obviously you do. But then how does that connect to The Outsiders?

[28:34] Jason Schmidt: I had a desire to do theater, I think, in my career, starting with Grease. And even going forward into now, my focus is definitely more on, or I guess my desire is more focused on the TV and film world of things. I'm just so fascinated by the art form. And truthfully, I've done it less. And so I have a desire to do it and figure it out. And it fascinates me. But I definitely still had a desire to do theater when I was doing Grease. And I got a tape from my agents for The Out of Town of Outsiders, initially for Bob, actually the head Soch. And I had a great time with the audition. The character I played in Grease was not a great guy all the time, but he had good intentions. It was always he's kind with good intentions and he makes mistakes.

Bob, on the opposite end, is kind of a terrible guy. And I had fun doing that because I was like this entire, for seven months now, I've been playing like good intentions. And this is fun to play bad intentions. And so yeah, I ended up auditioning for Bob. I asked my agent if there was auditions for any of the Greasers. And he said they were filled. At the time that I was auditioning, Brody, who plays Ponyboy, was Soda Pop at the time, in the workshop they did before La Jolla. Sure enough, as I'm auditioning, Brody gets moved over to Ponyboy. And I get a tape for Soda instead of Bob, or Soda and Bob rather. And the rest is history, I guess. Did The Out of Town in La Jolla, San Diego, and got the pleasure of moving with it to Broadway.

[30:09] Alan Seales: That's insane. Did you have any exposure to the book, to the movie? Did you know anything about the story beforehand? And I mean, nodding your head yes, but what is it? I guess, how did it speak to you as when you first were exposed to it?

[30:26] Jason Schmidt: Yeah, of course. My dad read the book to me when I was a kid, with my older sisters, which was a special experience in itself. The movie was one of my mom's favorite movies growing up. She was writing that kind of sweet age spot for the Outsiders movie, you know. And I was homeschooled until high school growing up. I always felt like an outsider. I did a lot of sports and activities with people who had the more normalized schooling experience. And so I always felt like an outsider. And I felt more like the greasers and the friends that I had were always kind of on the outside of things. And framing the book in a way that made it feel so natural and human and cool almost to be that was good for me.

Because no kid wants to feel like an outsider. But when a book like that frames it to be everyone's an outsider, you're not alone. And in fact, once you find the other people who feel the same way as you, you'll have a family that is closer than the other people who aren't outsiders because you need each other. Like, it's special. And I think it just made me feel better about myself in a lot of ways. I'm so grateful for.

[31:43] Alan Seales: Yeah, I didn't know you were homeschooled until high school. Was that difficult? Is assimilating the right word? I mean, I know that there's different reasons why different parents and there's no judgment being passed here at all. But I guess first off, I did ask where you actually grew up. Did you mention that? Like what city you were in?

[32:02] Jason Schmidt: Chicago.

[32:03] Alan Seales: Chicago. Okay. Okay. So you're in Chicago, the elementary school, middle school, and some of the, I guess, most formative years of your life, right? Like, was it a desire? Did you know what the high school life could be and therefore were asking your parents to say, all right, put me in high school? Or were they like, all right, yeah, we've taught you the basics. You have a great foundation. Now we're going to put you in high school. And that's where the theater and stuff seems to have blossomed too, from what we've already talked about as well.

[32:32] Jason Schmidt: Yeah. It was definitely the second one. They kind of gave a foundation. I think they felt like they couldn't teach to the extent that they would need to, like the high school level classes. But I grew up with a pretty big community of people who were homeschooled or had a similar experience to me. And we did a lot of stuff together and we did a lot of like groups and stuff and online classes together and things like that. So it was nice because it wasn't like it was just me and my sisters and my dog at home, you know. And I did so many activities, like I did all the sports growing up. I did theater, I did choirs, I did instruments, you know, all these different things. And so by the time I got to the high school itself, I knew pretty much everyone that I was in my class with, you know, from something.

And so it was hard assimilating because the schedule is different and the class expectation can be different in both ways, because in some classes I was, the nice part about homeschooling was the things that I was good at, I got to take way past where other people were able to take the level. Like I was taking college level Spanish classes in eighth grade type of a thing. And then the things that I struggled with more, you could kind of ease it back and take it at your own pace. And so like, I think I was generally kind of above the general level. Like once I got to high school, I was in all like AP and honors classes type of a thing. But there was like a shock in terms of the workload or the way, the thing that I didn't get was like the test formatting that all the other kids grew up doing that now I had to figure out, because there's like little things that you can kind of learn of how to take the test or the way they want answers formatted or the way they can format questions that give you a clue to what the answer might be that I didn't have.

[34:29] Alan Seales: Time for a quick commercial break. Hang on a second. Welcome back to the episode.

[34:35] Jason Schmidt: And also in terms of like the workload of in homeschooling, I could pretty much do my work whenever I wanted to. And if I like two weeks went by and I really slacked on it, then I'd have to for the next week, I'd have to really put my nose to the grindstone. But public school doesn't give you that leeway, you know, and so you're, you have to turn it at this day. And then it's, you know, and so there were the adjustments that I did have to make.

[34:58] Alan Seales: Right. It's like having sort of a private tutor growing up and you can focus on diving into the stuff that you need more help on. And then the stuff you're great at, you can just continue and focus on that and excel. That's so neat. That's a really good outlook on that. So speaking of workload and expectations, The Outsiders, eight times a week on Broadway, their production is one of the most athletic productions I've seen in a while. Anyway, like the, um, the Coopermans, the choreographers, they have a background in martial arts and I can, I didn't know that seeing it the first time, but then after I found that out, I said, Oh, I can see little bits and pieces of that. And it's just sort of a, it's a very controlled yet focused movement in dancing and choreography that truly keeps everyone constantly moving and creating the scene without the need of, uh, uh, of added extra scenery in this massively blown out set.

Right. Cause a lot of times you can rely on a set to sort of cover a week story or a week song or whatever it is. And this is, this just all works perfectly. Everything is on an equal level. The dancing, the singing, the story, the acting, the set, everything just is exactly what it needs to be. And I'm so impressed with it. But anyway, okay. So we'll let you, let you talk for a second, but can you tell I love the outsiders? I love this. I love it. I appreciate it so much. The actual show, like coming to Broadway and you've been doing this for a couple of months now. And are you in a place where it's starting to sort of, you know, settle in and, and I mean, we're in the middle of Tony nomination season as well.

So things just kind of nuts, but being part of a show that your debut that right out of the gate has 12 nominations. What are you, what's going through everything for you? Cause you were talking about like photo shoots and interviews and this and that and all that. And like, yeah, this is not your normal debut.

[37:03] Jason Schmidt: No, no, it's not. It's in a lot of ways. It's not. I mean, I think even just the fact that I get to tell a story.

[38:05] Alan Seales: The expectation of coming into a Broadway show, is it meeting, exceeding, different? Because I know a lot of people are vocal about the intensity of the eight-show schedule and being young and healthy, seemingly healthy. And you're saying you're an athletic person. I mean, are you falling into this sort of schedule more easily or is it like, oh man, I'm just like, I just need a nap every day?

[38:33] Jason Schmidt: I need a nap every day. Yeah. Which I kind of tend to do anyway, so. But it is, yeah, it's really, I don't know if grueling is the right word because that makes it feel like it's work and it's not fun to do. But it's hard. I have so much to learn about the process of it, but I am learning and it is getting easier. Although it's kind of up and down, you know, because it did get easier for a second and then the Tony kind of flood came in and now it really feels like we're back in the trenches of the schedule. And then after that, if the Tonys goes well, I'm sure that's a whole different trench we'll be in. And so, it's an up and down. It definitely is an up and down with like, how I feel day to day.

Because there's some days I'm rolling up to theater and I'm like, yeah, let's get it. We're going to rock this show today. And there's some days I'm showing up and I'm like, okay, I just got to get once I get to that part. Once we get through the rumble, I'll rain on and then I could change my clothes and I won't have to get wet tonight anymore. So, it's a give and a take, but learning a lot.

[39:45] Alan Seales: The rumble, speaking of that for a second, how hard is that to get right every time? Because on the outside, it looks simple with each individual layer, each individual element. And it's not real time. You're going a little bit slow and then pause. It's like doing tableau. It's like pose, move, pose, move. But I want to guess that to get it so precise and as good as it looks, as simple as it looks on the outside, probably means it's incredibly complex and rehearsed on the inside.

[40:17] Jason Schmidt: Yeah. I mean, at this point, it's so rehearsed that I know we've had a lot of people ask us if we're safe, have people gotten hurt? Is it dangerous? And I mean, yeah, it is. It is a little dangerous in terms of the way we're throwing ourselves around in the water and the dirt. But I feel so incredibly safe up there with the partners. It's essentially a dance duet. We're doing a dance duet and we're yelling all sorts of things at each other, but under our breaths, we're yelling, I love you. I hope you're okay. Hope you had a good day. What you said earlier, we're literally just having conversations and stuff and to keep it light and keep it safe feeling. But it is incredibly meticulous. And it was hard for a while because it's like, you got to get these exactly right when things are... Because it's the type of thing when people are running and moving all over the stage.

To make it believable, you have to do it at a speed that looks a little dangerous. But if you don't have it meticulously planned, all of a sudden you're running into each other and also it's raining. So sometimes you can't really see. So I have to have a perfect lane open in the pitch black and have to trust that nobody else is going to go through that lane at the time that I'm supposed to be going through it. But I have not had any trouble in this whole run with running into anybody or messing something up that puts somebody else in danger or me in danger, which is crazy to think about with how dangerous it could be.

[42:00] Alan Seales: I didn't realize that you couldn't see on stage either. Usually the lights are flashing at the audience, which is a trick to get our pupils to constrict real quick, right? So that we don't see what's going on, but really you guys can't see up there either.

[42:11] Jason Schmidt: There's like a slight, okay, so the first kind of violence happens, Ponyboy's kicked by the Socs. They flash the light at the audience. The Socs leave the stage, we come on the stage, or me and Daryl, me and Brent come on the stage. And we can see kind of, but it still is going from light on the stage to dark on the stage. So Brent sometimes will close his eyes and ask me to squeeze his arm so that he can have some type of adjustment to the darkness. But it is still like, I kind of know where my hand goes on this bar to make sure I don't hit the bar. And then I walk out and I can't really see anything, but I can kind of see the bar is darker than the rest of the darkness. So some places on the set, we've put some lighting things that will help you exit or make it safe. If there's a fixture that kind of juts out, we'll put some type of light on it so that when the lights do go out, you're not just walking into something.

[43:16] Alan Seales: I think that's good. You're not hurting your actors running into set pieces. This isn't Spider-Man. Different animation. We don't need to hurt our actors.

[43:22] Jason Schmidt: Yeah, that's fine. So how about we play a little game here as we wind down? Did you listen to any past episodes? Have you heard of Plot in 60 Seconds yet?

[43:28] Alan Seales: No. Tell me.

[43:35] Jason Schmidt: Okay. You sound so nervous. Yeah. So you're going to give me a number one through 13 that corresponds to a list of popular musicals I have here. And then I'll put 60 seconds up on the screen. So then you can give me the plot in 60 seconds. So while I get this up for us, give me your number. I hope I've seen the musical.

[43:58] Alan Seales: Let's go with my favorite number six.

[44:04] Jason Schmidt: All right. That is Beauty and the Beast. Go. 60 seconds remaining. Beauty and the Beast. There's a princess. Well, she's not a princess. She's a normal girl. She likes to read books. She wants something more from her life. And I don't really remember how she gets to the castle, but she gets to this castle and there's lots of live things. And there's this big, scary beast, but he wasn't always a beast. Once upon a time, he was a prince who got cursed to be a beast. And then there's this other guy, Gaston, who thinks he's really great, who wants to marry the girl whose name is Belle. But she doesn't like him because he's really cocky. And then throughout the process, she falls in love with this beast because she sees what's on the inside, which is beautiful.

And everyone should do that. And then he falls in love with her. And then Gaston tries to kill the beast and the beast and her fall in love. And I think she kisses him. Correct me if I'm wrong there. And then he's dying. And then instead of dying, she kisses him and he becomes a real boy again. He turns into Pinocchio. He's a real boy.

[45:07] Alan Seales: All right. So that was wonderful. Thank you. That was wonderful. That was good. Okay. So our three standard questions that I ask everyone to wrap the episodes. The first one just simply is what motivates you?

[45:17] Jason Schmidt: So many things. So many things. My family, my family for a big part. I want to make them proud. I want to give them experiences. I want to, you know, big, big picture goals, would love to support them financially and offer them more comfortability in their lives.

[45:41] Alan Seales: What advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out in a similar path?

[45:44] Jason Schmidt: Try everything. Nothing is wrong. I think there's this idea that there's a right way to act, to sing, to play an instrument. And the people who do it the best have a unique path to finding the way that they do it. And so if you're an actor, try all the different techniques and know that maybe only three of them are going to actually work for you in a way that gives you a truthful, authentic experience with the words. But you got to try all these different ways to find the ways that really do. And once you find those ways, trust them and don't think too much about it.

[46:26] Alan Seales: I like adding on something, calling back to what you said earlier about going to the audition for college and not caring, just making bold choices and leaning into what is you. And I think that relates to what you just said too. If you want it so desperately, you have to want it desperately to continue to do it, but not so much that it oozes off you and that's what you smell like. You can't smell like desperation.

[46:58] Jason Schmidt: Yeah. It's such a fine balance because, yeah, of course, I think I wanted to say earlier that, of course, I wanted it when I was walking into that room. Of course, I wanted it still, but it was the feeling that the outcome of this does not change who I am at all. I'm still going to be the same person walking out of this room if I don't get it or if I do get it. My life's going to be the same. I still have my friends. It's not the make or break thing. And it allows you, it frees you up to really be yourself, which is what... For a long time, I wanted to be the people I looked up to. I wanted to sing like them. I wanted to act like them. And that's okay because I think sometimes copying leads you to your own artistry at a certain point or trying to be like other people starts to help you find your own authentic self. There's a book called Steal Like an Artist that has that good notion in it. But at the end of the day, the people who succeed are the people who are uniquely themselves, whatever that means.

[47:58] Alan Seales: Yeah, agreed. All right, last question. Hardest one. If you can only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[48:02] Jason Schmidt: And I can't say The Outsiders.

[48:10] Alan Seales: Well, you could.

[48:12] Jason Schmidt: I've actually never seen it, so I won't say it. I think Jesus Christ Superstar would be my show. I love the music. I've seen a bunch of different adaptations of it that have been cool. And so, I think there's a lot of things you can do with it other than just the kind of standard version of it. So, yeah.

[48:35] Alan Seales: All right. I'll take it. All right. Where can we connect with you on social media? How do we follow you?

[48:42] Jason Schmidt: Instagram and TikTok, Jason.S.Schmidt, Jason Schmidt on Spotify and Apple Music and wherever else you listen to your music.

[48:47] Alan Seales: All right. I am on Threads, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. This is a podcast. Leave a rating and review wherever you are listening now. And Jason, thank you so much. What's the S stand for, by the way?

[48:58] Jason Schmidt: Jason S. Schmidt. Scott. It's my middle name and my dad's name.

[49:03] Alan Seales: Thank you so much for this lovely conversation. I've really enjoyed talking with you. It was such a pleasure to talk to you.