Why I‘ll Never Make It

Welcome to Season 7!
One of the joys that can come from being an actor, besides getting to perform on stage, and feeling the energy of a live audience, is that of working with other wonderful actors and collaborating on stage as well as building friendships off stage. Throughout the past six seasons, I’ve had the pleasure of bringing on some of these wonderful castmates, and not only share with you their stories, but I to get to learn a little more about them as well.
This past year I was cast in my second production of 42nd Street, this time at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. You heard from Kate Baldwin last season, and so for this first episode of the season, I wanted to bring on another wonderful performer from that production. 
Blake Stadnik is probably most well known for his role as Jack Damon in NBC’s This Is Us, but he’s actually been performing since his childhood thanks to his mother, who introduced him to dancing and performing after he lost the majority of his eyesight due to Stargardt’s Disease. He went on, though, to get his BFA in musical theater from Penn State University.
In our conversation, Blake will talk more about this disease and how it’s impacted his life on and off stage. We’ll also discuss the responsibilities of being an actor, and how Blake has had to remind himself at times why he is a performer. Lastly, he shares the tragic events that led to his father’s passing, the impact of that loss, and the ways in which he carries on his father’s legacy.
Timeline of this episode's conversation:
03:12 - Blake and Patrick discuss 42nd Street at Goodpseed 
06:54 - How Blake dances with Stargardt's Disease
13:53 - Story #1: Not getting cast because of his disability
19:47 - The limits others place on Blake vs. those he places on himself
33:11 - Story #2: Blake's internal struggle with selfishness for being an actor 
38:55 - Story #3: Losing his father just as he was about to start This Is Us
49:23 - Missing his father and carrying on his legacy
 
 
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Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top 25 Theater Podcast hosted by Off-Broadway actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones, and it is a production of WINMI Media, LLC. Background music in this episode by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
 

Welcome to Season Seven of Why I’ll Never Make It, an award-winning theater podcast. After a few weeks off, I’m so excited to be back for another year of great guests and wonderful discussions. Some of these artists are just getting started in the business, while others are Tony-nominated actors and directors. 
I’m your host and producer, Patrick Oliver Jones, an actor and singer living in New York City with more than 30 years of experience. This season I’ll be talking with guests every other week as they share meaningful stories and experiences that have affected them and their careers. The defining moments uncover personal setbacks as well as professional failures. 
As always your support of this podcast is both needed and appreciated. One of my ongoing efforts is to transcribe each episode for more accessibility to deaf and hard of hearing artists. But that takes time and money, something in short supply as a one-man production team, so please consider a one-time donation or monthly subscription:
Donors will get a shoutout on the podcast.
Subscribers get the added benefit of bonus content as well as early access to every episode.
Subscriber episodes include the full interview along with Audition Stories and the Final Five questions. 
So as you can see there’s a lot to look forward to in 2023! Join me on Mondays every other week for engaging stories and candid conversations as we talk more about Why I’ll Never Make It. 
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Each of us has an inner voice that can be very loud and persuasive. Hopefully, it’s pushing us to do better and reminding us of all we can accomplish. But sometimes it leads us to believe that the theater industry is too hard and constantly tells us we’re not good enough or don’t deserve an amazing acting career.
With an inner critic like that it’s gonna be really difficult to motivate ourselves to keep going, to go to that next audition. The very title of this podcast is an example of the ways in which we can stifle our own potential. Yes, training and talent are certainly important too, but it’s our mindset that is the key to using our training and talent to their fullest extent.
So as we start off this new year, I’m continuing where we left off last week with Brooke McNamara by talking with another psychologist, Alisa Hurwitz. In this episode from 2020, we dive into why mindset is so important, and how we actors can better handle rejection and the challenges we face in this business.
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Timeline of this episode's conversation:
04:25 - Setting Realistic and Aspirational Goals 
15:59 - Defining Success as an Actor
20:17 - The Peter Principle
24:45 - Comparing Ourselves to Others
27:03 - Our Performance Onstage and Online
32:51 - Strategies of How to Push Forward in Life and Career
35:43 - The (Not-So) Secret of Positive Thinking
 
Her moniker Dr. Drama comes from her many analytical interviews, discussions, and articles on theater, specifically her lifelong passion for musical theater. She’s even consulted on regional and off Broadway productions on elements related to psychological concepts and mental health issues. So she is the perfect person to help us face some of the realities of this make-believe world of theater, a profession that can bring us tremendous joy but also disappointment and frustration.
Follow Alisa: Website / Instagram / Twitter 
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Happy New Year! Thank you for listening to Why I’ll Never Make It!
The next season is just a few weeks away and I wanted to start off the year by going back to conversations I had to with two psychologists in 2020. I think their insights are a good reminder for us as we continue to grow and better ourselves as artists.
The first one you’ll hear from is Brooke MacNamara, Ph.D. We talk about the amount of training, coaching, and practice it takes to continually hone our craft as performers. One often talked about strategy is called the 10,000 Hours Rule, popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, who you’ll also be hearing from throughout this discussion. But Dr. MacNamara, has done research that shows the importance of quality over quantity.
In his 2008 book Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell proposes this 10,000 Hours Rule based on a study of violinists conducted by psychologist Anders Ericcson. And the rule is pretty simple: mastery comes after someone practices one skill, like playing the violin, and according to Gladwell “10,000 hours is the magic number of greatness.” This rewind episode focuses on this rule, its implications, and how or if it can even be applied to us as artists.
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Make a one-time Donation to the podcast
----------
Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top 25 Theater Podcast hosted by Off-Broadway actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones, and it is a production of WINMI Media. Background music in this episode by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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Happy birthday and thank you for joining me as Why I’ll Never Make It turns 5 years old today! It was on December 28, 2017 that this theater podcast began from very humble beginnings and has slowly gained attention and even some accolades in the past five years of talking with actors and creative professionals.
There’s a certain kind of magic in the art of theatre, as the Tony award-winning actor Brian Stokes Mitchell once said, ”It has the power to transform an audience, an individual, or en masse, to transform them and give them an epiphanic experience that changes their life, opens their hearts and their minds and the way they think.” The same can be said of podcasting as well.
Why I’ll Never Make It strives to engage and enlighten with every episode as I have insightful and meaningful conversations with artists who truly share from the heart about their own experiences and challenges in this industry. And in this anniversary episode I’ll be sharing some of those former guests of the past year as well as provide an overview for what this podcast has accomplished in 2022.
Please consider a monthly subscription to bonus episodes OR a one-time donation, which will help offset the cost of producing this podcast. Whichever way you choose to contribute, your support is so very much appreciated!
 
Guests mentioned and featured in this retrospective episode...
Matt Vinson and Matte O'Brien - writers of Anne of Green Gables
Kate Baldwin - Tony-nominated actress
Barton Cowperthwaite - dancer and actor on stage and screen
Elizabeth Swain - acting teacher and Broadway actress
Steven Warner - former child actor and professional ice skater
Brian Patacca - podcaster and life coach for actors
Briana Packen - actress and movement coach
Al Blackstone - Emmy-winning director and choreographer
Judy Tenuta - award-winning comedian
Muriel Miguel - Artistic Director of Native American Spiderwoman Theater Company
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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 John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
 

Back in October of this year we lost a beloved star of the stage and screen, Angela Lansbury. Her performing career spanned 80 years in which she received six Tony Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and one Laurence Olivier Award. And despite her years in television and movies (her last film role was Glass Onion in 2022), theater was always her first love, having appeared in 14 Broadway productions and four national tours.
But as you’ll hear in this special episode (with a big help from fellow podcaster Dan Delgado), it was a long and bumpy journey towards the role in Mame that would cement her Broadway career and earn her that first Tony Award. You'll hear from composer Jerry Herman and from Angela Lansbury herself in this unlikely audition story of how a character actress from the movies became a leading lady on Broadway.
 
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Subscriptions and donations help support the production of this podcast, not only improving audio and recording capabilities, but it also helps create transcripts like the one available for this episode.
 
Episode research and sources:
"Look Back at Angela Lansbury in the Original Broadway Production of Mame" - Playbill
"How Angela Became Mame" - Medium
But Darling, I'm Your Auntie Mame! by Richard Tyler Jordan (2004)
Anyone Can Whistle - Wikipedia
MAME - Wikipedia
Sound bites came from these full interviews:
Angela Lansbury Discusses Mame - Television Academy
Broadway MAME - Sony MasterWorks
Broadway ANYONE CAN WHISTLE - Sony MasterWorks
Jerry Herman with Barbara Walters on 20/20 (1984)
Lansbury with Barbara Walters (1985)
Herman Interview for Musical Theater Guild
Herman on NPR 
“Open a New Window” - 1971 Tonys Awards
"We Need a Little Christmas" Piano Version - Steven C
Opening Night of MAME in 1966 - Fred Robbins, radio reporter
At times certain reports or articles conflicted on particular details or order of events, so best efforts were made to rely on the most reliable sources and err on the side of those who knew more about the events surrounding Lansbury's journey.

Back in September of this year, news came out that both shook and shocked the Broadway theater world: Phantom of the Opera will be closing and have its final performance in February 2023. After 35 years, the longest running Broadway show in history, this iconic show was going to be leaving the Majestic Theater for good. That closing date has since been updated to April 16th, no doubt due to the increase in ticket sales after that initial closing announcement, nonetheless the end of an era is near.
I’ve worked with many a performer who have never known a Broadway without Andrew Lloyd Webber and Phantom of the Opera. This show was the first musical I ever really fell in love with, I mean that cast recording album has sold millions of copies (with an all-new, eight-disc Global Edition recently released). I certainly listened to that original cast recording with Michael Crawford ad nauseam in high school, and it was a big inspiration for me wanting to not only pursue theater but actually set my sights on a Broadway career, which has yet to come to fruition. But my guest today has been on Broadway with this show for 15 years, and he’ll be sharing some fascinating and funny stories from his long tenure with Phantom of the Opera.
Jeremy Stolle is the final guest for season 6, and he and I first met doing Gaston at Disney World down in Florida. Now, if that sounds familiar to you, Will Swenson is another Broadway actor who’s been on the podcast, and he and I also shared Gaston duties during my time at Disney World. But Jeremy left Disney and came to New York a little bit before me, and during his years with Phantom has performed the featured part of Passarino in the ensemble, the supporting role of Piangi, and has also played the two leading roles of Raoul as well as the Phantom himself. We talk about what has kept him at the show for so long and the various opportunities, experiences, and mishaps it’s given him these past 15 years. 
Support this podcast in one of two ways:
Subscribe to WINMI and get Bonus Episodes  
Make a one-time Donation to the podcast
 
Timeline of this episode's conversation:
01:49 - Jeremy and Patrick discuss their Gaston beginnings 
07:07 - Jeremy struggled when he first came to NYC
09:43 - Personal histories with Phantom
19:55 - Story #1: Phantom and the infamous swoosh
28:18 - The pressures of playing the Phantom
33:14 - Story #2: Raoul and the cheeky bow
39:08 - The differences between Phantom and Raoul
43:14 - Story #3: Meeting his idol, Anthony Warlow
48:48 - Sharing a dressing room with Denzel Washington
 
 
Jeremy Stolle Has an Idea...
The stamina of doing 8 shows a week is certainly something that every performer has to train for and be able to maintain, but there is also a stamina for auditioning. Going in, time and time again, to sing 32 bars or perform a monologue, or go through a scene with a reader or another actor. This takes preparation and constant readiness for whatever may come at you in the audition room. This especially true when it’s a role that you have either done before or have auditioned for many times previously, you have bring a fresh energy to it each time.
Well, in this week’s audition story Jeremy talks about one of the many times he has auditioned for Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. Although this time he tried a different take on the character, with hilarious results. To get bonus episodes with Audition Stories and more, become a monthly or yearly subscriber and earn the title of WINMI Producer. You’ll be helping maintain and sustain this podcast while also getting extra conversations with guests like Jeremy. You could even give it as a gift...now there's an idea :)
 
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Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top 25 Theater Podcast hosted by Off-Broadway actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones, and it is a production of WINMI Media, LLC. Background music in this episode by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

During the past 30 years there’s been a growing list of pop and rock musicians trying their hand at musical theater. And they range in style and scope from artists like Cindy Lauper, Dolly Parton, and Elton John to rock bands like The Who, Green Day, and The Go-Go’s. Well, today’s guest has been venturing into musical theater and is from a band you may not have heard of, but their name is certainly one you’re not likely to forget: The Slants.
Simon Tam, founder and bassist of the all-Asian rock band, has recently begun a transition from rock star to musical writer, and he shares why this new artistic endeavor is so important to him. But his path up till now has taken some surprising turns...
We talk about the bullying he faced as a child just because he’s Chinese. He gives the reasons why he and the band turned down not one but two million-dollar contracts. And then there's the famous eight-year trademark battle that ultimately landed him and the band’s name at the Supreme Court. It’s what has branded Simon as a Troublemaker -- a name he now wears as a badge of honor.
Timeline of this episode and relevant weblinks:
01:49 - Welcome and Simon talks about the impact of theater
06:11 - Story #1: Being bullied at a young age
10:03 - Asian racism and his parent's struggles
14:28 - Story #2: The trademark battle and the Supreme Court
24:15 - The impact of the court case on the band
33:51 - Story #3: Turning down million-dollar contracts
46:29 - An NPR feature that put The Slants on the map
48:52 - The growth and reach of The Slants Foundation
 
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Stop Bullying
Bullying has been part of school, and even workplaces, for years. Sometimes it involves physical attacks and intimidation or verbal attacks like what Simon had to deal with when he was young (name calling, teasing, and taunting). But it can also be indirect, such as spreading rumors or trying to make others reject someone. More recently, though, technology and social media have created a new venue for bullying that has expanded its reach. Cyberbullying happens online like YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat, where bullies can send hurtful, ongoing messages 24 hours a day. Adult bullying is a thing, too. 
Preventing and stopping bullying involves a commitment to creating a safe environment where children can thrive, socially and academically, without being afraid. The same can be said of theaters, rehearsal rooms, on-set, and backstage as well and the importance of providing dependable, non-toxic conditions to do the best work possible. Studies done from the early 2000s found that 30 percent of Americans will be bullied over the course of their careers. 
 
 
Audition Story
The Slants took band membership very seriously, and Simon used to make candidates applying for my band fill out a 4 page questionnaire, then audition on stage in an empty venue while being filmed. With a monthly or yearly subscription you not only help WINMI Podcast production, but you also get to listen to more in-depth and behind-the-scenes stories like this one -- all on your favorite podcast app. Become a WINMI Producer today!
The Slants Foundation
In 2018, members of Asian-American dance rock band The Slants decided to expand their cultural work by using their platform, resources, and experience to better serve the community. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to changing culture using arts and activism. They seek to amplify underrepresented voices, especially those within the Asian-American community and those addressing controversial and timely issues through a social justice lens. If you're an AAPI artist or what to join their cause, please learn more about The Slants Foundation.
 
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----------
Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top 25 Theater Podcast hosted by Off-Broadway actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones, and it is a production of WINMI Media, LLC. Background music in this episode by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.