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[0:00] Sean Chandler: Survival, Remembrance, Family, Grace, and Giving. Hi, everyone. I'm your host, Sean Chandler, and you're listening to Your Program Is Your Ticket, a discussion of smaller theater works and the people and organizations that make it happen. My guest today is the multi-talented Laura Lee Botsacos. Laura Lee's career spans television, film, theater, and stand-up comedy, with credits including Law & Order, The Young and the Restless, Living in Exile, and work on such acclaimed New York stages as 59E59, Theater for the New City, and the Players Theater. Today's show will feature Laura Lee discussing her powerful new one-woman show, Tuesday, set to perform at this year's 21st Annual United Solo Theater Festival in New York City.

Tuesday reveals Laura Lee's experience involving September 11, 2001, as she searches for her family in a city overcome by fear, confusion, and uncertainty. When reality begins to fracture, past and present collide, childhood memories resurface, fragments of family life return, and moments once distant become immediate anchors in a day defined by chaos. It's a very compelling story, and here's Laura Lee to tell you all about it. Hi, Laura Lee, and welcome to your program, It's Your Ticket.

[1:17] Laura Lee Botsacos: Hi, how are you? So nice to be here.

[1:17] Sean Chandler: I'm great. How are you today?

[1:24] Laura Lee Botsacos: I'm doing well. I'm doing really well. How are you? You good?

[1:24] Sean Chandler: I'm fine. I'm good. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's a Saturday, and uh, it's a little cloudy outside in New York, but that's all right.

[1:36] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah. Hopefully, it's gonna, hopefully, it's gonna cool off soon. I just, I feel like the weather just can't make up its mind at this point.

[1:38] Sean Chandler: Oh, I know, but it's actually kind of chilly today.

[1:44] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah, yeah, for once, but I feel like the minute I go outside, uh, with, you know, wearing, like, a sweater and all of that, I come back and it's, I'm, you know, soaked in sweat. I don't know what to do.

[1:53] Sean Chandler: I know, me too. It's very confusing.

[1:53] Laura Lee Botsacos: It's very, I know, very confusing.

[1:53] Sean Chandler: Yeah, it's confusing, and it's fickle as well.

[2:00] Laura Lee Botsacos: 100 percent.

[1:58] Sean Chandler: Okay, let's have you introduce yourself to our listeners. Tell us about your life, your background, your passions, everything that makes Laura Lee, Laura Lee.

[2:13] Laura Lee Botsacos: Oh my god, such a huge question. Uh, okay, well, thank you. First of all, thank you so much for having me on here. Um, yeah, so my name is Laura Lee Botsacos. I was born in the Bronx to a, uh, let's see, a very loud, dramatic Greek, uh, Italian-American family. We're very, very colorful. Um, uh, we still are. I was, um, my life, I was very fortunate in that I feel like I was born on this cusp between the old world and the new world. I was trying to actually explain this to somebody the other day, and, you know, it's so funny because sometimes you get nervous about explaining these things because you're like, oh my god, they're going to think, like, you're so old, but, you know, my brother and I grew up, like, on that cusp where, um, you know, our grandparents still had letters in their telephone number.

We still had rotary phones, you know, we, I know, archaic, right? We actually had a television that had, like, an antenna set and, um, all that to say that, you know, I grew up in a neighborhood with, you know, our grandparents and great grandparents and, you know, it was just this, you know, gosh, this just, this, this just tapestry of all different kinds of colorful people and all, of all different backgrounds, um, and, you know, you know, I grew up in a time when, I don't know, you played outside and, you know, prior to all of this technology and you had to build community and you had to learn how to interface with people in, in person, um, and that's, so in terms of my passions, I've always, always gravitated to anything dramatic.

I love theater. Um, when I was younger, my grandfather introduced me to all of the old, I say old, classic actors and actresses. I mean, you know, from Hepburn to Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Burt Lancaster, Barbara Stanwyck. I mean, Natalie Wood is by far my favorite actress of all time. I think Splendor in the Grass is like, I could watch that 150 times. I probably have. Um, and I just always knew from a very young age that I just had this thing inside of me, this compulsion where I just needed to communicate, express myself. Um, so I've been really fortunate in that even though I've worn many different hats throughout my life, I've always had this opportunity to always come back to, I guess, acting and theater. I, I, I genuinely love theater. I don't, did I, did I answer your question?

[4:58] Sean Chandler: You did. You did great. That was, that was a very, very good answer. And, uh, in solidarity, I can relate to exactly what you're saying about, um, uh, technology. I mean, I think that we, I, I, I'm 61. So I sort of like grew into adulthood with, uh, the advent of tech technology and it's the internet. I mean, I've always telling people, look, um, you don't know how it is. Like you brought up rotary phones and like, you know, you pull up a rotary phone and you stick it in front of somebody and it's like, no, you, you have to stick your finger in this and then run it over and it goes all the way back. And you do that like eight times if you want to call it. And then, you know, it's so funny to that point, like, cause I, we obviously grew up at very similar times, you know, I think about it sometimes.

I mean, do you remember you, I mean, I remember the advent of call waiting and it's like, this is the best thing ever. Cause prior to that, it was busy signals, you know, and I thought about this just the other day, I was saying, I cannot believe that my parents actually like would put me in the car. I would drive up to college by myself, no navigation, no cell phone, like, and you know, I just got in the car and drove for three. Right. I mean, I think, and I can't even wrap my head around that now with like my, my brother has kids, um, kids, they're older children. My sister has a 13 year old daughter. I can't even think of it. I mean, just last night I was with my little niece and I'm like, do you have, do you have your Apple watch? Do you have this? I mean, like tracking her. It's so bizarre. Yeah. So just a very, very different times, different times.

[6:56] Laura Lee Botsacos: Totally. Um, just recently I was, I was watching TikTok and because, you know, I can waste hours on TikTok. That's just me. Um, but they had one of the videos was like, okay, finish this sentence. First of all, they would ask when somebody was born and they're like, Oh, you know, I'm 97 or 2005. And then, okay, well, I want you to finish this sentence. Duran Duran is hungry for what? We're hungry. Like the what? Are you serious? Maybe two people could get it. And I was, I was laughing. Do we tell the listeners that it's like a wolf? The other one was, uh, uh, how did the bangles walk? Like I, so I'm like, Oh my God. And make one or two people got it. I think, Oh my God, it stood with everywhere. But yeah, I know we, you know, kids these days, they need an education and the culture that we grew up with because you're right. We did, we lived through some pivotal times.

[8:04] Sean Chandler: We did. Um, so speaking of, of pivotal times and a big giant pivotal time for everybody and to sort of adjust the tone a little bit. Um, uh, can you talk about, uh, Tuesday, what inspired the creation of, of the show and, uh, it's focused on your specific experience? Um, talk a little bit about the developmental journey of the piece, like what you put it through to get it to where it is today.

[8:39] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. So, Ooh, it, well, first of all, it's crazy because I didn't even know that I had it in me. Right. Like, and I certainly don't want to take anything away from anybody else that experienced that day. And cause there was September 11th. Um, that's what Tuesday is based upon because September 11th took place. 2001 took place on a Tuesday. And, you know, for like so many of the New Yorkers, I just carried this experience with me at the time I was living in battery park city. And I actually had a direct view of the tower. They actually, it was my, they were, it was my neighbor. Um, the twin towers were, and, um, I never really wanted to, I never set out, I should say to write another story about September 11th, because I didn't want to suggest that my experience in any way or shape was somehow, Oh, I don't know, I guess more important than somebody else's. Um, however, you know, I didn't even, like I said, I didn't even realize it was in me.

And then I started journaling and this is, I'm talking like over 15 year period, right? This isn't like something I sat down to write on the 25th anniversary. It's, you know, I think that that's also something that's very human. We don't realize how many doors we have inside of art that dwell within. We don't really realize how many filing cabinets of memories or stories that are inside of us. And I was carrying this around. And then one day I just started, I started journaling and journaling and journaling. And, and then I started looking back at, I'm like, wow, holy, holy guacamole. I didn't even realize that was there. And it just, some kind of, it kind of like to the, to your, to what we're kind of talking about, it just kind of evolved into this, this story of how for me that day, but not only was it pivotal in the essence of the tragedy and the destruction that transpired, but it was a pivotal time in history where I feel like something changed.

Ever since that day, it seems that we are just so far away from when there was a time when your parents put you in a car without navigation and without a cell phone. And somehow you got to your destination safely. You know, it seems like we are so far away from a neighborhood where, you know, everybody wasn't so precious with their identity. Instead, we were a community. We, we rallied together, we had shared differences and that's, so that's how this story started, just started to come alive. And I reflect a lot upon my childhood growing up in the Bronx where everybody was, you know, a different thread of the same cloth, if you will. It was by far very heterogeneous and yet there was something, there was a commonality that ran through us all.

We had family, we had community, we spoke, we held on to certain traditions of our cultures and yet we were all so uniquely American and we all took pride in who and what we are. And this is just, so as far as the developmental process, it just, I started thinking about, well, there's really something extraordinary about the ordinary. I mean, how many Tuesdays do we really all have left? You know, that Tuesday started off for so many people, just a regular Tuesday. You know, I've said earlier to somebody, it's a Tuesday where, you know, maybe, you know, there's a line in my play where I say, you know, you roll over and you hit the snooze button twice. It was just a regular Tuesday. People were rushing to get onto the subway.

Somebody was rushing to get their kid to school. Nobody thought any of this, that this would be, that their lives would change. So that's, so getting back to the developmental process, it just started to kind of come out of me. I started thinking, well, what do I have to give? What do we have to give? How many Tuesdays do we have left? And the significance of that day, that's kind of it.

[12:54] Sean Chandler: Wow. I think that's one of those days where if you were alive, because there's a lot of people, like I have nieces and nephews who weren't even alive at the time, but you pretty much everybody remembers where they were, what they were doing. And I remember I was working in at Sony Studios on the food service management team there. And it was, I remember driving into park my car. I had an awareness of that September 11th and all the tragedies.

[13:36] Laura Lee Botsacos: I woke up early to open up one of the commissaries, and I pulled in and I said to security, who's usually super tight there, "Hey, are you guys doing anything different because of what's going on in New York?" And they looked and they said, "No, no, I don't think so." Now granted, I'm sure that there were 10-20 people in an office watching TV somewhere and watching it happen and coming up with plans. But I went in, I parked, and about 45 minutes later my boss walks in, and for the first time since Frank Sinatra's death, they shut down this entire movie studio. This used to be MGM, the MGM studios, and then Sony bought it and became that. It was just, it was like, whoa! I mean, it was so crazy.

But yeah, it really did shift things so much. Your analysis of it being omnipresent, like it was everywhere, even throughout the globe, you have some great interviews on your Facebook page, including a lady from Poland who was watching it. I love that because it has this sort of dichotomous effect where it's like the world felt it, but everybody felt it individually. It felt intimate and personal at the same time. Did that kind of phenomenon ever come into play with this show as you went through the writing process?

[15:29] Laura Lee Botsacos: Oh, for sure! 100%. It's interesting because the first version of it compared to what ultimately will be up on its feet is essentially the same yet different. I thought it was going to be about this one thing, and now with the help of my incredible director Cheryl Stern and Robbie Roth, who's just helping me with the creativity aspects of it, my social media, it's amazing how it's just taken on a life of its own. To answer your point, absolutely! I didn't realize how all-encompassing it really was. I just want to stress, yes, it is about September 11th, which is the central day in my play "Tuesday," but ultimately, it's more about that. It's about family, it's about faith, and there's a lot of funny moments interwoven. I don't want people to think this is going to be something that's so heavy and solemn because there's also a lot of funny moments about my childhood and my family. So, yes, it was a very impactful day.

[16:59] Laura Lee Botsacos: I had read in your information that your show takes place almost in three different time-space continuums. Can you talk about that?

[17:18] Laura Lee Botsacos: Sure! What I do is I interweave the reflections of my childhood. I play the characters in my childhood—myself as a younger kid, my parents—and then I go back into present day where I'm speaking directly to the audience. Then I go back to that day, that Tuesday, and talk about my experiences being the first residential building to be evacuated, watching both of the planes, the horror of that day. Those are the three timelines, and I try to have a through line. I pose the question, "What have you got to give?" I don't mean just physically, but I mean your presence, your compassion, your empathy, your ability to be fully human. What have you got to give?

[18:27] Laura Lee Botsacos: I think that really started more for me asking myself that—like, "Laura Lee, what do you have to give?" I don't mean just physical; I mean your presence to another human being, your compassion, your empathy, your ability to be fully human. What have you got to give? Your availability. Those are the questions that I pose out there. I think we spend so much time wondering, "What do I need? What do I want? What am I going to get?" But what have you got to give? That's a little bit different. That requires exploration, reflection, and admitting that we've actually been hoarding something and holding something back. The reason that comes up for me in this project is because on that day, people gave without really even knowing they were giving.

People gave to help others survive. Think of all of those rescue workers, the flight attendants, the people that just went down to help. We gave without thinking we were giving because at the core of who we are, humans really want to be fully human and fully alive and fully actualized. That's how that kind of developed. I say, "What do you have to give?" Not when everything is perfect. This isn't a new thought; I'm sure we've all read a plethora of books about living in the moment. But maybe it's something that I know for myself I need constant reminders of. What do you have to give? Not when it's perfect, not when you've lost the 10 pounds, not when you have everything figured out, not when the world is back in peace because it may never be. So during while things are still in dissension, how do you choose to give who and what you are and fully show up? That's what I mean when I ask, "What do you have to give?"

[20:46] Sean W Chandler: Beautifully said, thank you.

[20:46] Laura Lee Botsacos: You're welcome. I think it was a time when a lot of people really had to start looking at themselves with a lot of introspection and saying, "I think we did have a bit of a paradigm shift in the population of the world." I don't want to say our selfishness versus our selflessness became, "I want to help no matter what." Whether it's donating, whether you're broken and you donate five dollars, if everybody in the world donates five dollars, we could do something to help the people who were in need. It was just so traumatic, and I really love that that's what you're doing. You're shifting the mental paradigm a little bit or featuring the shifting mental paradigm of what occurred on that day and the days following. I think that's marvelous.

[21:50] Laura Lee Botsacos: You mentioned that you lived really close to it. For those who don't know, Battery Park is right there. Recently, as many of us know, it was the 25th anniversary of that day, and I went. It was the first time I went back down there. I'm born and raised in New York, but that was the first time I went back down. When I went back down, I was like, "Oh wow!" I was close. I was on the 32nd floor of my apartment building, and literally the tower was right there. I mean, I know people can't see me, but it was literally right there. I opened my entire apartment, faced that, and of course, I had views of the Hudson as well. It was close; it was probably as close as one could be without, thank God, physically being in one of those buildings.

[22:55] Laura Lee Botsacos: I remember one of the things that I recall because eventually, my husband and I went to New York, and he was very nervous to fly. He's still a very nervous flyer, but we went down to the World Trade Center site. The thing that really struck me and came out with that, I didn't really realize, was that at the time, they had pretty much cleaned up a lot of what occurred with the two trade centers. But I noticed all of the buildings around how much they were affected, how blown out a lot of these buildings were. That really hit me big time.

[23:46] Laura Lee Botsacos: To your point, not everybody's from New York, right? As you start to enter or as you start to go down the island of Manhattan, it gets more narrow and narrow. It's almost as if everything is really all on top of one another. There are all these little streets and alleys that intertwine when you're downtown. It wasn't just that the buildings were affected; the roads, these stores, and these mom-and-pop shops that had been established for years and years were gone, blown out forever. Churches, schools—horrible, horrible.

[24:43] Sean W Chandler: Well, you're really brave for going back and adding some analysis to this. Not just doing that, but putting it in writing. A lot of people just don't really want to look at it, and for you to do this is such a gift to everyone because people need to be reminded and taught. It feels like the show is entertaining because you said there's humor in it.

[25:14] Laura Lee Botsacos: Of course there is! I'm actually really funny.

[25:22] Sean W Chandler: Well, you do stand-up comedy too, right?

[25:22] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah, I haven't done it for a long time, but yes, for sure. Thank you for saying that, calling me brave. I don't feel brave, but I think everybody else on that day was brave. Thank you for saying that. I really did not want to go downtown. I really didn't. It really is Robbie Roth, an actor and playwright himself, who's also the individual that's helping me with all of my tech and social media. He's just wonderful; he's a performer, an artist, a fellow creative. He and Cheryl Stern, my director, were instrumental in getting me to go back down because I came up with every excuse in the book. You know, like when you were younger and the teacher would say something, and you're like, "Oh, but delegate my homework."

I came up with every excuse to avoid going down there during the 25th anniversary, and I'm really glad that I did go because, dare I say this, it was beautiful. The day that I went was so similar to that day because I don't know if you remember, but on that Tuesday, it was such a beautiful day. The sky was clear; it was abnormally warm. It was a beautiful September day, and when I went recently last month, it was equally as beautiful.

[26:54] Laura Lee Botsacos: It was crazy to go back down there. Every time I would say to people that, for the past 25 years, I went downtown, but I went to other areas of downtown, and if I could avoid that part, I completely avoided it.

[27:13] Laura Lee Botsacos: And I avoided it for 25 years, which is crazy, crazy. Yeah, to live in New York City and to avoid that area for 25 years, that's a lot of detouring. Such a great way. I love how you just said that, that's beautiful. Yeah, a lot of detouring, right? Oh, that could make me cry. Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of people that do the same detour, yeah. Yeah, and it's, it really is, it's profound when you go to that area now. Like, it's one of those situations where the history is always in the back of your mind.

[27:53] Sean W Chandler: Sure, and there's a lot of other history to that part of Manhattan, right? That's been there for, obviously, hundreds of years. So it just seems so like, wow, like this, you know, this encapsulation of history, stories.

[28:08] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah. Yeah, well, that's, like I said, that is a lot of detouring to go around that area. It's bigger than people think, that area of New York. Yet, it's also, in a way, for me, smaller than I thought when I first saw it. So, which is, that brings up another set of thoughts that come into play. But, discuss the different people you talk about in the story, or the people that you're portraying.

[28:46] Laura Lee Botsacos: Sure, yeah, so when, so I do a lot of portrayal, you know, of my nutty family, my mother. My brother, you know, I have two siblings. I have a brother and a sister. I know it's shocking, I'm the middle child. But in this, you know, and I'm close to both of them, and love them both dearly. But for, you know, in terms of Tuesday, my brother definitely plays a large role in there. So, he's in there. Obviously, I talk about my dad, my sister-in-law, the people from the neighborhood. And then, the reflections of the people that I met on that Tuesday. From, you know, a stranger in the stairwell as we're running down 32. Or, we really couldn't run very well, it was so crowded. But, walking fast, briskly down, you know, down 32 flights of stairs to the people that I, you know, the captain of the boat that allowed me to get on his boat so he would take me over to Liberty State Park. And so, I play all of those roles, yeah. And then, of course, oh, and I talk about, I talk about my Catholic school teachers. So, yeah, all of those people, yeah.

[30:07] Sean W Chandler: Wow.

[30:07] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah, it's cool, it's fun. So, you're enjoying sort of conjuring up those voices and really portraying, building out those personalities and portraying them on stage. Do you get, is it, are more characters, are some characters more fun to play than others? Are some characters like, this is fun because it's funny, but when I portray this character, I don't know, maybe I get a little sad or morose.

[30:41] Laura Lee Botsacos: I don't know, I like playing myself as a little girl. It's kind of fun. It's kind of fun to be, to interpret yourself as a little girl. I like to, you know, do the little, I mean, and it's probably not who I really, maybe fully was as a little girl, but how me now as a grownup, how I experienced that. Does that make sense? So, it's just kind of fun playing some, like a kid and, you know, try and how a kid experiences things. So, I'm enjoying that for sure. That part is fun.

[31:17] Sean W Chandler: Yeah, it's neat. That's fun. I can't imagine what I would do. I mean, I'm not much of an actor, but I can't imagine what it would be like to have to, well, first of all, you have to go back and try and remember what you were like when you were a kid and the people and what your point of view was every day and how you woke up every morning. That's a lot for a writer and an actor as well. But you said that, I think that there's a sweetness to that.

[31:49] Laura Lee Botsacos: Thank you, I appreciate, yeah, it's fun. It's kind of fun.

[31:52] Sean W Chandler: Yeah, yeah. It probably flavors the piece a little bit in that direction as well. And gives it a little bit of levity. I'm sure in a piece like this, every once in a while, you need to let the audience take a breath.

[32:06] Laura Lee Botsacos: Take a breath, yeah. And frankly, I need to take a breath because it's a lot. I mean, you're up there. Even though, quote unquote, these are my words and I wrote it, I mean, it's still a lot. I still have to memorize it as the actor and then still allow my director to form and mold it and allow this thing to come to life and marinate. So there's still like, it's one thing to write it but then when you have to speak it with feeling and emotion, it's like, holy, it changes things. So yeah, and I need a break too. And they definitely do because no, listen, even me, I don't, there's certain movies or shows or even, dare I say, pieces that I sometimes avoid because I'm like, I can't. I can't do anything heavy, right? Like how much more heavy can I, I can't. It feels like, it just feels like the weight of the world is like suffocating us.

[33:06] Sean W Chandler: So how do you write something that's about something that is beyond heavy, it's hubris, it's hubris and yet still bring in some flavors that are innocent and fun and fun-y so that people want to come see it because that's, you want people to come see it.

[33:32] Laura Lee Botsacos: So yeah.

[33:33] Sean W Chandler: Oh, of course.

[33:34] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah.

[33:35] Sean W Chandler: Yeah, and I'm sure that people already want to come see it but you having an awareness of audience psychology is really smart in the creation and development of this in the way you portray it.

[33:50] Laura Lee Botsacos: That's, I always say, pay attention. If you're like me, you go to the theater all the time and when you do that, you start to learn the psychology of the audience. You learn when they start to get fidgety or when they start to get antsy or when it's too much and they're turning off. So I'm glad to see that you're, it sounds like you're using all of that experience in the development of the show. That's, I think that's way more appreciated than the audience actually realizes it is.

[34:25] Sean W Chandler: That's probably, yeah.

[34:28] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah.

[34:28] Sean W Chandler: And also-

[34:29] Laura Lee Botsacos: And you're controlling it.

[34:30] Sean W Chandler: Yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate that.

[34:32] Laura Lee Botsacos: Thank you.

[34:33] Sean W Chandler: Oh, of course. Of course, no problem. I, my husband, David and I, we co-wrote a one-person show. I just kind of want to speak to what you were saying before about the weight of it.

[34:42] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah, yeah.

[34:43] Sean W Chandler: And it's called Out the Flash. It won a major playwriting award and we toured it through, thank you, we toured it through the United States and also in Ireland. And it's the story of five decades in a fictitious gay bar. And yes, I mean, we've written it into like a TV show that we're trying to pitch. It's been so long since we wrote it that I actually had to add a new decade to it.

[35:19] Laura Lee Botsacos: That's hysterical.

[35:21] Sean W Chandler: Anyway, he's, he performed it. He's done every single performance of it. And he will sit there and literally just go, same, same, everything that you said about having the responsibility of having to do it.

[35:37] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah.

[35:38] Sean W Chandler: I mean, he has like a full, when he does it, he has a full on system of what he needs to do physically to go and get up on his feet and do the show. A nap, eating like a power bar before and running his lines. And I really, for like two or three hours, I just stay out of his way, which I think is best.

[36:04] Laura Lee Botsacos: No, it's true. It's a process. It's really true. And I have another dear friend that is doing a one-man show. And I mean, I think he's done like 500 performances and I'm just like, I can't even wrap my head around that. You know, I can't even wrap my head around that. But yeah, it's a big, it's a lot, you know, but.

[36:26] Sean W Chandler: Yeah.

[36:28] Laura Lee Botsacos: And you don't want to take it for granted that, oh, okay, I've been doing this so long. I got it. Cause that's the performance where like, it's going to slip your, you're going to miss chunks of whatever you're doing.

[36:40] Sean W Chandler: No, I know. I mean, I say to my director almost every day, how the hell am I going to memorize all this? Why am I, why did I do this to myself? Why did I do this? Why? Like, couldn't I just like, couldn't I just like keep doing what I've been doing? Like why? Like why?

[36:54] Laura Lee Botsacos: But I don't know. I, you know, look, it's happening. So it is what it is, right? I mean.

[37:00] Sean W Chandler: Well, cause you wanted to come alive and you want people to feel emotionally what it was like to be in that circumstance.

[37:10] Laura Lee Botsacos: And that's so important.

[37:12] Sean W Chandler: It really is what you, what you've got to give. I mean, you're, that's what it is. I mean, you're, it's integrity. You're doing what you say we should do. You're making an example of it.

[37:28] Laura Lee Botsacos: And I really want to like, I don't know if you, if this is your quote, but I think this is brilliant. It's from your, it's your Facebook banner page. It says, truth is you had a purpose before anyone had an opinion. Finish your mission. You're holding yourself accountable for it. And yeah, the nays, anybody who's a naysayer wants to get in after you've done a lot of the difficult work and taken the risk and things like that. That's what I got from that. And I think that's, that's just showing in how, in what you're doing, your dedication.

[38:09] Sean W Chandler: And I think, I think it's, I think this is really amazing.

[38:12] Laura Lee Botsacos: I really appreciate that so much. And, you know, and I think part, thank you for that. I really appreciate that. Yeah, because that's how I also feel, you know, like now at this stage of my life, you know, I feel like I've spent so much time, you know, being on, even as an actor, being concerned about what other people might think, what somebody else is, I mean, as strong as I am, there's, you know, is as sensitive as I am. So it's almost impossible sometimes not to, you know, be worried about like, oh, what do they think? Like, oh, what are they going to think? I mean, you know, on, you know, I have my entire family coming to this show. I've never read it for them. They don't know really much about it, except what I've told them about it.

You know, they're going to learn more about it when they listen to this podcast and ultimately when they come see it. And there's a part of me that sometimes wonders, well, you know what, maybe 10, five, 13, 20 years ago, I wasn't prepared for that. I wasn't ready for them to see me like this. I don't know, but they're going to. And I think maybe to your, to what I just said, yeah. It's like, no, at some point it's okay to, it's okay to tell your story. It's okay. It's actually okay. It's okay.

[39:34] Sean W Chandler: Absolutely.

[39:35] Laura Lee Botsacos: And then people think what they're going to think. You know, you're, like I said, you're the one who's put in a decade plus worth of work on this. And so who gives a flip if people say negative things about it? You're, you are affecting who you can affect. You're controlling what you can with your effect as an artist. And I think that's, that's, that's super cool.

[40:00] Sean W Chandler: You're welcome. Now, when I was writing At the Flash with David and when he performs it too, and he was writing as well, when I'm writing, I'm thinking of, it's based on an actual bar that we both went to at separate times we met after it closed, but there is a physical world that I can see in my head. And I know that he can see, probably different for him, the same, but different in perspective, but when he's performing it and when he's, and so do you, can you talk about your onstage physical world, the show, even if right now it's just laid out in your imagination and you've got three different planks going on. How are you, how are you and your director?

[40:52] Laura Lee Botsacos: Great question. So when I first wrote the script Tuesday, I really had like a specific idea that I really didn't want quote, unquote, like a realistic set. And so that's really what we're working off of where we are using black boxes, you know, to indicate different times. And I would say that the second character, if you will, is a video projection. And so we use a video projection to show and sound and light and projection to interweave these three times and these people, lots of pictures, lots of sound cues. But in terms of the actual physical stage, it's black with these black boxes as, you know, indicative of timelines of demarcation, if you will. And I did that, and I think we both did that, you know, purposefully, Cheryl and I, because that's, it's more about, I think, the words and the experience.

And, you know, because at some point time, like, you know, not to get too like philosophical, but past, present and future all exist at the same time, right? It's just that right now you're here, you know, the past has already happened and the future you haven't gotten to, but time isn't linear. It's not like a rubber band that you can stretch out. That's not what time is. Time is a rubber band that's all crumpled up in your hand. All time, so everything kind of is interwoven, your past, your present and the future. So we want, so I wanted everything to just kind of exist incompetently.

[42:50] Sean W Chandler: Wow. You know, it's one of the things that I realized is that my focus in, when I was writing at The Flash is not to continue to take it back to me, but it's just, I just feel like I've been there. I get a lot of what you're saying, so it's inspiring me to bring up my own stuff. I love it.

[43:10] Laura Lee Botsacos: Oh, thank you. Is that if we're doing our job properly, the audience, I always said, if I'm doing my job properly as a writer and same with David as a writer and an actor, that we're building the bar in the mind of the audience, in the imagination of the audience. Right. So if you're doing your show, then you, I would imagine the audience will understand, plus there's a lot of imagery that has gone on as well. So, and I think that's like a really powerful plus in using that with projections and multimedia. I think that's great. Plus that's, we've been emotionally affected by that for so long.

[44:00] Sean W Chandler: Sure, I agree.

[44:02] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah. Now, have you, with the writing of the piece, have you taken it to, have you done like any readings? Like somebody called it a pizza reading one time where it's like you go, you invite a bunch of people to your house and you get a pizza and then you read it out loud or any workshops or taking it through writers groups. I know that you have Robbie Roth. It sounds like Robbie might be a, just a tremendous, it is a tremendous support with you.

[44:35] Sean W Chandler: It might be sort of like a dramaturge kind of.

[44:38] Laura Lee Botsacos: No, so Robbie's not, but they are both, both Cheryl and Robbie are definitely helping me in terms of reading. Like I've done a couple of readings of pieces of it in Cheryl Stern's acting class. And we were actually talking just, we're actually having rehearsal right after this. So we were actually talking about maybe doing a little piece of it somewhere, but in terms of getting it on its legs for the first, real performance will be at the solo festival, yeah.

[45:11] Sean W Chandler: Good. Yeah, I mean, that's, no, no, that's important. I mean, it's interesting because I was recently, this last week, I went and saw Copperfield, the musical at the Duke theater out here, which I really liked, I liked it a lot. Anyways, I was there and I was sitting by these three gentlemen and one of them leaned over and said, what do you, what do you, what brought you to the show? I said, I just, you know, I see a lot of theater and I thought it would be interesting to see this made into a musical. And so there, and I said, what brought you guys? And they said, we're writing a show that is now being developed and is going to hopefully be presented in New York if we can make it happen. And they said, they told me they've, they said we had no idea how long it took and the process of writing. Like when we started, we didn't realize about things like readings and workshops and all the different runs in the building, in the building, so that's why I asked about that.

[46:17] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah.

[46:19] Sean W Chandler: Okay, what would you like audiences to take away from the show?

[46:26] Laura Lee Botsacos: Oh my God, that's such a good question. Thank you, not my first time. Well, I think, I think the most, I think one of the things that I would really like people, I want them to leave maybe remembering and reflecting, you know, remember the people we lost, remember who we were, remember, you know, that there were, you know, remember those days following September 11th when we showed up for one another. I want people to leave, you know, feeling like, you know, as I say, towards the end of the play, you know, to give what you have, right? As I said earlier, you know, there's something extraordinary in the ordinary. I mean, the sheer fact that every single one of us, I mean, the chances of us all becoming, being alive and being born, you know, it's a huge, like, what did I, just today I was reading something and let me just see, and it said, let me just, cause I don't want to misquote even myself, that, you know, what is it? You know, that, you get it? Oh man, I'm going to screw it up, sorry.

[47:57] Sean W Chandler: You're doing great.

[47:58] Laura Lee Botsacos: Thanks. You know, what is it that I, oh yeah, that genetically speaking there's this, that our parents could have created over 70 trillion different combinations of us, 70 trillion. And somehow each one of us ended up being who we are. So why would you spend the rest of your life trying to be somebody else that you're not? Why not just give who you are, you know, write the play, call that person, even when it's vulnerable, even when it hurts, even with the fear of rejection, even, you know, do it, do it. And I know once again, that that sounds like so easy breezy. We hear it all the time. We see it in commercials, but for whatever reason, we still don't do it. And I think, so I guess my big thing about, here with Tuesday is just remembering, remembering that how many Tuesdays do you really have left?

And every mundane day is something extraordinary. And to give, to show up for somebody, you know, to give with compassion, to give with grace. I think that's another message in the play that's huge because grace is completely unearned and undeserved. And yet sometimes it shows up anyway.

[49:24] Sean W Chandler: Wow, that's, that itself is a wonderful, lovely quote. I love that. Whether it's from Tuesday or you just made it up on the fly, way to go.

[49:36] Laura Lee Botsacos: You're welcome.

[49:39] Sean W Chandler: Are there any future projects that you're working on that you can and would like to talk about before we wrap up?

[49:44] Laura Lee Botsacos: Sure, thank you. Well, actually, I mean, at the moment, Tuesday's taking my full focus. I'm really hoping that, you know, it's that what we're about to experience in the next couple of weeks is just the beginning of something greater. I hope to take this to, I hope this is, you know, yeah, I believe that this is the focus of what I'm working on right now. And hopefully it's just the beginning.

[50:12] Sean W Chandler: Yeah.

[50:14] Laura Lee Botsacos: Yeah, it sounds like you have like a great attitude about the development of it. And, you know, and it really sort of like talks about your approach to the development of the show. Talks about what you, something that you talked about earlier in the show about staying in the present. Just you're enjoying the present of just the development as of this as an artist and a production. And that's so, we get so focused on what the critics said and, you know.

[50:45] Sean W Chandler: The results.

[50:47] Laura Lee Botsacos: Results, are there awards? Am I gonna get the next level? Just staying in. It's almost meta, like you're, it's like you're stay in today. And that's exactly what you just said you're doing as you develop this piece, that's really lovely.

[51:06] Sean W Chandler: Before we go, please give our audience your social media information so they can keep up with you. If you have one point of connection that houses all your social media elements, that would be most helpful.

[51:23] Laura Lee Botsacos: Sure, so they can follow us at Tuesday the Play on Instagram. Also, I do have a personal website, which is just my name, lauraleebotsakis.com. And of course, at lauraleebotsakis on Instagram, everything's there, yeah.

[51:40] Sean W Chandler: Very, very cool. Well, Laura, this has been wonderful. I really appreciate you being on the show. Your mission with this piece of theater is like so well placed and it's, it is, maybe it took this long for this to be the time, but I feel like that's okay. I mean, I feel like your perspective is different and it's more, there's more scope and depth to it. That means so, so much. It really does.

[52:20] Laura Lee Botsacos: I appreciate it. Just even being able to have the privilege of being able to communicate on your podcast and talk about it, it really means a lot. So thank you so much.

[52:33] Sean W Chandler: It's my pleasure. Again, it seems like such an incredibly powerful and emotional piece of theater. And I wish you many, many broken legs for the show, as well as all your wonderful work in the future.

[52:47] Laura Lee Botsacos: Thank you so much, Laura Lee. You've been amazing.

[52:51] Sean W Chandler: You've been amazing too.

[52:52] Laura Lee Botsacos: Oh, appreciate that.

[52:55] Sean W Chandler: Okay, have a great day and I look forward to seeing the show. Well, folks, the 11 o'clock number has been sung and the bows have been taken. So it's time to lower the curtain. Once again, a big thanks to my guest, Laura Lee Botsacos. It was great to hear all about her new show, Tuesday. And a major thanks to all you listeners. I very much appreciate you. You can find more episodes of Your Program Is Your Ticket on the Broadway Podcast Network, who has honored me with a place on their incredible theater podcast platform. Broadway Podcast Network is all about creating an engaging, immersive, user-friendly experience where theater stories of all kinds can be easily found, shared, and enjoyed. Please visit them on my landing page at bpn.fm/ypiyt.

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