Why I‘ll Never Make It - An Actor‘s Journey

Sometimes the biggest obstacle standing in our way as actors is ourselves. Whether it’s self-doubt and a disbelief in our own abilities or maybe it’s giving too much weight to the criticism or expectations of others, or maybe a shift in priorities comes along and we have to make life decisions that go against our creative ambitions. To kick off season six, I’m talking with actor and coach Briana Packen about ways we can stop getting in our own way. She brought three stories with her today: one about the importance of training and mastering our craft, a second one how the me too movement still has ramifications today for her as a mother and teacher, and finally the need for balance and stability not only as an actor but as an individual as well.  Sign up for the monthly WINMI Newsletter     Help WINMI Transcribe Every Episode One of my goals this season is to help Deaf/hard-of-hearing actors like John McGinty access the Why I’ll Never Make It podcast by offering transcriptions of each and every episode (I actually did it once). However, this is both time-consuming and would add a major cost to the production of this podcast (approximately $5000 per season). Regardless, I think the effort is worth it, don't you? So I’ll definitely need your financial help to make this a reality. Please consider a one-time donation (via PayPal) or a monthly subscription to bonus episodes (via Supercast), which will help offset the cost of this important service. Whichever way you choose to contribute, your help is so very much appreciated!     This Month's Artist Resource: Movement 4 Everybody For about a decade now, Briana and her colleague Julia Crockett have been teaching movement to actors at conservatory programs and are thrilled to finally offer their classes to people not currently enrolled in an acting or university program. These classes are designed for everyone – artists, non-artists, professionals, unprofessionals, dancers, non-dancers, people afraid of dance, queers, beards, clowns, tops, bottoms, switches, queens, kings, cat AND dog people. You can strengthen your artistic physical practice, crack open your creativity, become more present in your body, or simply have a good time. Whatever your reason for going, you will leave feeling stronger, more connected, more creative, and with a richer connection to your body and others. Contact them for the latest class schedule or follow them on Instagram.     The Final Five For the past few seasons, the Final Five has been a bonus episode to this podcast, but for Season 6 it’s going to be in the form of a blog post where guests will answer five final questions. And Briana starts it off by talking about learning from her mistakes and the ability we have as actors to grow and change throughout our life and career. You can find her Final Five on the WINMI Blog. Follow Briana - YouTube / LinkedIn / IMDb  Follow WINMI - Instagram / Twitter    ---------- Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast hosted by Patrick Oliver Jones and is a production of WINMI Media, LLC.  It is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.  Background music in the episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

After a few weeks off, I’m so excited to be back for another year of great guests and wonderful discussions. As you can see there’s a new look to the WINMI podcast artwork and logo, the WINMI blog is coming back, and live events are coming, so here’s a little preview of what to expect in 2022. Sign up for the monthly WINMI Newsletter. Why I’ll Never Make It Stories This year will offer a slightly different approach to conversations with fellow creatives. Guests will now be sharing three specific stories or experiences that have affected them and their careers. These defining moments will uncover personal setbacks as well as professional failures. We’ll find out what kept them going and how it changed them. WINMI Goes Live Another development coming in 2022 is the introduction of live events. That’s right WINMI is gonna be ON stage. The first of which is a night of conversation and song with Emmy winner Kevin Spirtas. It’ll be January 28th at The Green Room 42 here in NYC, tickets start at $19 and are available for both table seating as well as online streaming for those who can’t be with us in-person. Next up is BroadwayCon, an annual gathering here in New York for all things Broadway. It was originally scheduled for February, but out of an abundance of caution they postponed the conference till July. I’ll be there with 5 other previous podcast guests, hosting a panel discussion about their journeys to Broadway. Reserve your spots now to attend BroadwayCon and The Green Room 42! http://tickets.winmipodcast.com Help WINMI Make It As always your support of this podcast is both needed and appreciated. One of the changes I’d like to bring to the podcast is transcribing each episode for deaf and hard-of-hearing artists. But that costs time and money, and I just don’t have the resources to do it myself at this point. So please consider making a one-time donation or subscribing monthly to help make this goal a reality.  The Final Five For several seasons now guests have answered five final questions at the end of their interviews, first as part of the main feed of episodes, then as bonus episodes for those who supported WINMI. Well, I’m taking a different approach this season by turning those questions into a blog post to coincide with each guest’s episode. The WINMI blog has take a bit of backseat in the past year or so, but not anymore. These Q&A's will provide new ways to reach followers and share these conversations with listeners.  So as you can see there’s a lot to look forward to in 2022. Why I’ll Never Make It is now a production of WINMI Media and is hosted by actor/singer Patrick Oliver Jones. Contact the podcast anytime at whyillnevermakeit@gmail.com. Also, check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter.  

Happy birthday, WINMI! Welcome to the 4th Anniversary Episode of Why I'll Never Make It. Normally at the end of each season I take a chance to look back at the guests and conversations we’ve had throughout the year. But for this special episode you aren’t gonna be getting some "best-of" retrospective (although I will be counting down the Top 5 guests of 2021). Instead I’m bringing back two former guests and introducing you to a new creative as we talk about what this year has meant for theater in general as well as special events coming up next year. Featured in this episode... Clayton Howe and his podcast Entertainment(X)  Justin Guarini, MoonAmie Productions, Terry Knickerbocker, Will Swenson, and Brad Oscar & Diego Prieto  Check out Season Five on Why I’ll Never Make It's YouTube Channel  Matthew Stern and Broadway Stage Manager Symposium Anna Robb and TheaterArtLife EPIC Event - use promo code EPICPODCAST for 15% off tickets at https://www.globalepicevent.com  Sign up for the WINMI Newsletter and check out Artist Resources on the website ---------- Podcast hosted by Patrick Oliver Jones - https://www.pojones.com  Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.  Music in the episode by Kai Engel and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The experiences of our lives affect the paths we choose and help make us who we are today. In part one of my conversation with Debra Ann Byrd, she revealed the ups and downs of her own life that eventually ignited a desire to perform and pursue a life on the stage. But just as it was with her personal journey, Debra’s path toward becoming an actor was slow but steady and her first steps as a producer started from very meager beginnings. Sign up for the monthly WINMI Newsletter.  At her very core, Debra is a storyteller and that is on full display in this episode as she talks about taking on Shakespeare’s iconic role of Othello as well as the early years of forming her own company…Take Wing and Soar Productions.  Podcast hosted by Patrick Oliver Jones - https://www.pojones.com Learn more about WINMI podcast - http://whyillnevermakeit.com Follow Debra - Becoming Othello / Instagram / IMDb  Support WINMI and get access to Members-Only Episodes on Supercast. Check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter. ---------- Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.  Music in the episode by Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

I first found out about Debra Ann Byrd through an article in the Guardian titled “Black Shakespeare champion working to change views on color blind casting.” She was just starting a residency at Stratford upon Avon, and this article talked about one of Debra's college professors who discouraged her from getting into classical theater. That story alone piqued my interest, so I reached out to her and the conversation that we ended up with certainly had many more stories than that one instance. Sign up for the monthly WINMI Newsletter.  Most actors can talk about how they got into theater and then trained and grew from there. But for Debra it was definitely a start-and-stop journey that veered off course several times throughout her life due to personal, medical, and racial issues that she had to face and deal with. Her story has so many interesting twists and turns that I just couldn’t fit it into one single episode.  So we start off Part One with a unique story of who Debra looked up to as a child. But as we continue our conversation you’ll hear an array of hardships and challenges that would cause any of us to question ourselves and wonder what to do next. But listen carefully, and you’ll also hear an inner strength and a hope infused into each one of those struggles. It is certainly inspiring and a true testament to the strength of Debra’s character and spirit. Podcast hosted by Patrick Oliver Jones - https://www.pojones.com  Follow Debra - Website / Instagram / IMDb  Support WINMI and get access to Members-Only Episodes on Supercast. Check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter. ---------- Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.  Music in the episode by Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

In this day and age of everything going digital, and especially with zoom becoming an important part of both personal and professional connections, it’s a very rare moment when I have to have a phone interview. But back in August of 2021 I had the privilege of calling up a wonderfully talented actress both on stage and on screen, four-time Emmy winner Michael Learned. Though she is best known for playing Olivia Walton, on the long-running 70's TV show The Waltons, it’s important to point out that she has had a stellar Broadway career as well, which began in 1969 with a production of Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, produced in association with the San Francisco-based American Conservatory Theater. Sign up for the monthly WINMI Newsletter.  But as you’ll hear in this intimate and revealing Interview, she’s also had to face her own struggles and disappointments. She opens up about divorce, alcoholism, and regret. We also discuss the evolution of women’s roles on television and the stage, and Michael confesses her true feelings of playing Olivia all those years on The Waltons. She has such depth of knowledge and experience so we start off talking about her about longevity as an actress and what has kept her going for 60 years.  Podcast hosted by Patrick Oliver Jones - https://www.pojones.com  Support WINMI and get access to Members-Only Episodes on Supercast. Check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter. ---------- Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.  Music in the episode by Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Music in this episode by John Bartmann is Public Domain.