Arts and Craft
A new chat show that dives into the lives of musicians, filmmakers, performers, and artists from all walks of life, revealing the untold stories and hidden secrets that drive their creativity. Hosted by Nancy Magarill and Peter Michael Marino.
Arts and Craft
Marlo Hunter - film, tv and stage director
Multi-hypenate, Marlo Hunter is a film & tv director; as well as a stage director and choreographer. She’s on the Broadway Women’s Fund list of “Women to Watch,” and her current touring production of “Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical” was a NY Times Critics’ Pick. On this episode we learn about the casting and editing process for Hallmark and other studios, and the perks of working with theater actors on film. www.MarloHunter.com
---------------------
MARLO HUNTER is a theater & film director. She made her feature film directorial debut with American Reject in 2022 (Amazon and Apple+). She’s currently helming the Ever After musical with music by Zina Goldrich, lyrics by Marcy Heisler, and book by Kate Wetherhead, produced by Kevin McCollum (production announcement coming soon!). Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical, which she directed and choreographed Off-Broadway in 2023, was hailed a NY Times Critic's Pick and is currently on a National Tour, including a 6 week run at CTG's Kirk Douglas Theatre in LA. Marlo has directed, choreographed, and developed new work at Second Stage, Long Wharf, Williamstown, Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, EST, Pittsburgh CLO, and Bay Street, among others. She is the winner of the Callaway Award for Unlock’d, which she directed & choreographed Off-Broadway. Marlo recently directed Mystic Christmas for Hallmark, which premiered in winter 2023 (starring Jessy Schram, Chandler Massey & Patti Murin), and Trivia at St. Nick's, which premiered in winter 2024 (starring Tammin Sursok & Brant Daugherty). This past fall she directed and choreographed the World Premiere of A Hanukkah Carol, or Gelt Trip! The Musical at Round House Theatre in DC (Daryl Roth & Jim Kierstead, producers). Upcoming: Director/Choreographer of Millennials Are Killing Musicals by Nico Juber (LA workshop, soon-to-be-announced production). Princeton University.
------------------------
Produced and Edited by Arts and Craft.
Theme Music: Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras.
00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:04.840
<v Marlo Hunter>When you're sitting in that edit and you're nine minutes over, you're thinking, this isn't possible.
00:00:04.840 --> 00:00:07.420
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm not gonna be able to deliver anything that even has a story.
00:00:07.420 --> 00:00:10.240
<v Marlo Hunter>But you are able to deliver something that has a story.
00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:17.900
<v Marlo Hunter>And it's such a great skill to bring to any kind of narrative arc because there is always a way to be leaner.
00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:21.340
<v Nancy Magarill>She's on Broadway Women's Fund list of women to watch.
00:00:21.340 --> 00:00:25.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>Her current touring production of Cat Kid Comic Club, The Musical was a New York Times Critics pick.
00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:32.320
<v Nancy Magarill>Film, TV, stage director and choreographer, Marlo Hunter joins us on today's episode.
00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.060
<v Nancy Magarill>My name is Nancy Magarill.
00:00:34.060 --> 00:00:38.120
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm a singer, songwriter, composer, performer, graphic and web designer.
00:00:38.120 --> 00:00:43.200
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I'm Peter Michael Marino, and I'm a writer, producer, creator, performer and educator.
00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:46.440
<v Nancy Magarill>We are New York based artists you may or may not have heard of.
00:00:46.440 --> 00:00:51.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>And we are here to introduce you to other artists you may or may not have heard of.
00:00:53.040 --> 00:00:55.660
<v Peter Michael Marino>Marlo Hunter, we have so much to discuss and so little time.
00:00:55.760 --> 00:00:56.600
<v Nancy Magarill>You are amazing.
00:00:56.600 --> 00:01:00.640
<v Nancy Magarill>I was looking at your resume and everything you've done, and I'm like, do you ever sleep?
00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:01.440
<v Nancy Magarill>I have to.
00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:02.440
<v Marlo Hunter>I cannot function.
00:01:02.440 --> 00:01:03.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>She does, she does.
00:01:03.160 --> 00:01:08.940
<v Marlo Hunter>I cannot function without sleep, which is tough, especially when you're making a movie and you're not getting any, but...
00:01:08.940 --> 00:01:10.180
<v Peter Michael Marino>And you're a mother.
00:01:10.180 --> 00:01:14.780
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah, and I have to sleep, like more and more I have to.
00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:16.960
<v Marlo Hunter>I won't be able to do anything if I don't.
00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:17.400
<v Marlo Hunter>I can't.
00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:18.660
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm not one of those people.
00:01:18.660 --> 00:01:20.420
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's like, it's considered preparation.
00:01:20.420 --> 00:01:26.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like you do your work, you prepare for your shoot or your audition, whatever, and sleep is part of that preparation.
00:01:26.520 --> 00:01:30.080
<v Marlo Hunter>There are plenty of people out there who can really thrive on like very little sleep.
00:01:30.080 --> 00:01:31.680
<v Marlo Hunter>I have never been one of those people.
00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:33.280
<v Marlo Hunter>I wish I were.
00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:34.340
<v Marlo Hunter>I wish I were.
00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:35.600
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah, but thank you.
00:01:35.600 --> 00:01:37.680
<v Marlo Hunter>That's very kind.
00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:48.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, so we met actually through Sheila Head, and that was at the Williamstown Theatre Festival a thousand years ago, probably early early 90s.
00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:58.300
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I met Marlo and I mean, she probably hates me telling this, but I tell it all the time whenever she's in my company, that when I met Marlo and she was just this little spitfire.
00:01:58.300 --> 00:02:05.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>I mean, she's still a little spitfire, but a young spitfire who just had all these ideas and she was a dancer, choreographer, mover.
00:02:05.960 --> 00:02:13.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>She just had like a spunk, which does not look as good on a podcast as it looks right now in the video.
00:02:13.540 --> 00:02:18.260
<v Peter Michael Marino>But I loved her so much that I was like, I must become friends with her.
00:02:18.300 --> 00:02:24.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>And then when, you know, we kind of, then our world's mixed in New York a little bit, I was like, I'm making her my project.
00:02:24.220 --> 00:02:30.460
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm going to follow Marlo Hunter for the rest of her career and support her in any way I can.
00:02:30.460 --> 00:02:31.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>Cut to now.
00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:36.020
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I'm like, is there a role for me in your Hallmark film?
00:02:36.040 --> 00:02:39.560
<v Peter Michael Marino>Which by the way, which by the way, I did not get cast in the last one.
00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:40.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>It was one line.
00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:41.620
<v Peter Michael Marino>Good morning!
00:02:41.620 --> 00:02:42.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>It was not good enough.
00:02:43.020 --> 00:02:44.840
<v Nancy Magarill>So now you're basically stalking her.
00:02:44.840 --> 00:02:47.300
<v Peter Michael Marino>Marlo doesn't even get to see those auditions, am I right?
00:02:47.880 --> 00:02:51.340
<v Marlo Hunter>I don't generally, but that ended up being no lines.
00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:52.880
<v Marlo Hunter>That person ended up not having a line.
00:02:52.880 --> 00:02:56.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>I think I saw a guy who was exactly like me saying, good morning.
00:02:56.080 --> 00:03:01.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>No, you, okay, let's talk about the Hallmark movies because that's always a great way to start a podcast when we're talking about art.
00:03:01.500 --> 00:03:04.960
<v Nancy Magarill>But real quickly, you just said something that you don't get to see the auditions.
00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:05.920
<v Nancy Magarill>So how does that work?
00:03:05.920 --> 00:03:07.280
<v Nancy Magarill>How do you cast people?
00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:10.640
<v Marlo Hunter>Oh, oh, I mean, I can't speak for every studio, but for Hallmark.
00:03:10.640 --> 00:03:16.440
<v Marlo Hunter>So the casting director will look, that office will look at every submission that comes in.
00:03:16.820 --> 00:03:31.500
<v Marlo Hunter>And if I, if it's for a supporting role, or usually the leads are cast from the jump, but if it's for a supporting role, if I don't, if I haven't made a request to see someone, anybody I request to see, I will absolutely see.
00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:40.100
<v Marlo Hunter>But if I haven't made a request, then I might never know that somebody has submitted because I'm only getting what they think are sort of the best of the group.
00:03:40.100 --> 00:03:42.900
<v Marlo Hunter>Cause I wouldn't have to, I barely have time to watch.
00:03:42.900 --> 00:03:46.580
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm usually already in prep when I'm watching these auditions.
00:03:46.580 --> 00:03:52.900
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah, so I very rarely have time to sit and indulge in everything.
00:03:52.900 --> 00:03:56.540
<v Marlo Hunter>And I would love to watch every submission, but I'm not able to do that.
00:03:56.540 --> 00:04:02.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>But as the director of this, you know, Hallmark, you've done two now, I'm assuming you'll do one every Christmas.
00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:04.120
<v Peter Michael Marino>That would be great.
00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:06.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, I love that.
00:04:06.160 --> 00:04:14.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>That you also aren't really always getting to sit down with who your production designer is going to be, or your costume designer or your DP or any, right?
00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:16.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's very, it's...
00:04:16.180 --> 00:04:17.960
<v Marlo Hunter>It's happening very fast.
00:04:17.960 --> 00:04:19.480
<v Marlo Hunter>Very, very fast.
00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:28.180
<v Marlo Hunter>So in these two instances, I was able to have meetings with them, but we were, you know, moments away from going into prep.
00:04:28.180 --> 00:04:28.440
<v Nancy Magarill>Wow.
00:04:28.440 --> 00:04:28.880
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah.
00:04:28.880 --> 00:04:29.140
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah.
00:04:29.140 --> 00:04:30.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>How did you start doing those?
00:04:30.640 --> 00:04:31.260
<v Marlo Hunter>Hallmark?
00:04:31.260 --> 00:04:32.000
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah.
00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:34.220
<v Marlo Hunter>I had an interview.
00:04:34.780 --> 00:04:41.440
<v Marlo Hunter>It's someone who worked at Hallmark, was very close with my mother-in-law.
00:04:41.440 --> 00:04:52.200
<v Marlo Hunter>And my mother-in-law mentioned to this producer that I was looking to move further into the world of film and TV.
00:04:52.200 --> 00:04:53.380
<v Marlo Hunter>I interviewed with them.
00:04:53.380 --> 00:05:02.760
<v Marlo Hunter>I had a general interview, and then I had one more meeting, and then I was hired to direct a movie maybe nine days later.
00:05:02.760 --> 00:05:05.220
<v Marlo Hunter>I mean, it was so fast the first time.
00:05:05.220 --> 00:05:05.780
<v Nancy Magarill>That's fantastic.
00:05:05.780 --> 00:05:07.860
<v Peter Michael Marino>It wasn't your first time directing a film though at that point.
00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:09.120
<v Marlo Hunter>It was my second.
00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:11.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>The other one was the reality show one?
00:05:11.340 --> 00:05:12.280
<v Marlo Hunter>American Reject.
00:05:12.280 --> 00:05:16.300
<v Marlo Hunter>I had directed an independent feature, but this is the first time I had been hired by the studio.
00:05:16.520 --> 00:05:17.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>That's crazy, right?
00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:19.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>You just did one independent feature.
00:05:19.540 --> 00:05:20.280
<v Marlo Hunter>I did.
00:05:20.280 --> 00:05:25.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm sure it was a lot of work, and then suddenly it's like, okay, I guess I'll just do this Hallmark movie.
00:05:25.220 --> 00:05:29.880
<v Marlo Hunter>Well, yeah, I guessed I would just do this Hallmark movie, but it was five years later.
00:05:31.160 --> 00:05:39.860
<v Marlo Hunter>I had shot two shorts for Disney TV ABC in between, but I had not been on the set of a feature since, you know, 2018.
00:05:39.860 --> 00:05:41.580
<v Marlo Hunter>So it had been a long time in between.
00:05:41.580 --> 00:05:50.000
<v Nancy Magarill>What made you decide you wanted to work in film and TV as opposed to Broadway and theater, which it seems like you were primarily doing before this, right?
00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:50.680
<v Marlo Hunter>Yes.
00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:55.140
<v Marlo Hunter>So I knew I wanted to be a film director when I was five.
00:05:55.140 --> 00:05:56.380
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh!
00:05:56.380 --> 00:05:57.620
<v Nancy Magarill>Wow.
00:05:57.620 --> 00:05:57.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>Why?
00:05:57.940 --> 00:05:59.360
<v Peter Michael Marino>What movie was the one that you were...
00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:00.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>Okay.
00:06:00.220 --> 00:06:00.620
<v Peter Michael Marino>Great.
00:06:00.620 --> 00:06:01.520
<v Marlo Hunter>Fair enough.
00:06:01.520 --> 00:06:09.640
<v Marlo Hunter>And everything in my life was sort of catered towards wanting to do this with my life.
00:06:09.640 --> 00:06:14.180
<v Marlo Hunter>There aren't a lot of directing internships when you're five and six years old.
00:06:14.180 --> 00:06:15.880
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, right.
00:06:15.880 --> 00:06:20.220
<v Marlo Hunter>But I was really determined to be a director.
00:06:20.220 --> 00:06:28.900
<v Marlo Hunter>And so I mostly worked in theater over the summers, and I started directing for theater very young, thanks to Stage Door Manor, which is an incredible place.
00:06:28.900 --> 00:06:30.980
<v Peter Michael Marino>Tell everyone about Stage Door Manor.
00:06:30.980 --> 00:06:39.500
<v Marlo Hunter>Stage Door Manor Theater Camp in Lockshell Drake, NY, where I was really blessed to have the late great Jack Romano as a teacher and a mentor.
00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:43.700
<v Marlo Hunter>And at the age of 12, took my first directing class for stage with him.
00:06:43.700 --> 00:06:46.180
<v Marlo Hunter>And I had been a dancer since I was two.
00:06:46.180 --> 00:06:51.660
<v Marlo Hunter>So simultaneously was also exercising those muscles, literally and figuratively.
00:06:51.660 --> 00:06:56.540
<v Marlo Hunter>And then I went to a boarding school that had a really robust theater program.
00:06:56.680 --> 00:06:57.000
<v Peter Michael Marino>What?
00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:57.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>A boarding school?
00:06:57.960 --> 00:06:59.420
<v Peter Michael Marino>Where was this?
00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:00.960
<v Marlo Hunter>In Exeter, New Hampshire.
00:07:00.960 --> 00:07:02.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>Okay, that sounds New Hampshire-ish.
00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:04.760
<v Marlo Hunter>Yes, Phillips Exeter.
00:07:04.760 --> 00:07:07.660
<v Marlo Hunter>And I started making documentary films while I was there.
00:07:07.660 --> 00:07:08.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>Of course you did.
00:07:08.140 --> 00:07:14.120
<v Marlo Hunter>And then also directing in the Black Box Theatre and choreographing on the main stage.
00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:16.900
<v Marlo Hunter>So I was sort of doing all of these things in tandem.
00:07:16.900 --> 00:07:25.020
<v Marlo Hunter>And then in the summer, I went out to LA and I interned for producer Kerry Woods on the Disney studio lot and I read scripts for him.
00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:29.580
<v Marlo Hunter>And that was a really exciting time because that was the summer of 94 and he was doing Beautiful.
00:07:29.580 --> 00:07:30.500
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah, was it Beautiful?
00:07:30.500 --> 00:07:31.060
<v Nancy Magarill>What was that?
00:07:31.060 --> 00:07:32.300
<v Marlo Hunter>Natalie Portman movie?
00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:33.000
<v Peter Michael Marino>Black Swan?
00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:34.680
<v Marlo Hunter>No, this is way before that.
00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:35.540
<v Marlo Hunter>Way before that.
00:07:35.540 --> 00:07:35.840
<v Nancy Magarill>Sorry.
00:07:35.840 --> 00:07:36.620
<v Marlo Hunter>Beautiful girls.
00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:37.440
<v Marlo Hunter>Beautiful girls.
00:07:37.440 --> 00:07:40.380
<v Marlo Hunter>And we're old and don't remember anything.
00:07:40.380 --> 00:07:44.500
<v Marlo Hunter>He had done Rudy recently and he was just, it was really exciting to be working with him.
00:07:44.500 --> 00:07:48.120
<v Marlo Hunter>And then I worked at Industrial Light and Magic for a summer in post production.
00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:58.380
<v Marlo Hunter>And then this, this is all answering your question ultimately, but this producer I worked for, I finally got his ear at the end of the summer and I said, what do I need to do to be a film director?
00:07:58.380 --> 00:08:00.980
<v Marlo Hunter>And he said, go to a liberal arts college.
00:08:00.980 --> 00:08:02.840
<v Marlo Hunter>You don't need to study the craft of the craft.
00:08:02.840 --> 00:08:05.520
<v Marlo Hunter>Live your life, figure out what you want to put in front of the camera.
00:08:05.520 --> 00:08:07.800
<v Marlo Hunter>And that he's like, that's the best advice I can give you.
00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:09.120
<v Marlo Hunter>And I did do just that.
00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:18.520
<v Marlo Hunter>And I ended up at Princeton, which did not have any kind of a film department, but had a really fantastic, independent theater scene.
00:08:18.520 --> 00:08:22.700
<v Marlo Hunter>And I was able to direct five full-scale shows while I was there, which is really unusual.
00:08:22.700 --> 00:08:28.180
<v Marlo Hunter>So, you know, if you have a school with a theater major, usually you can't do that until you're a senior, but I was able to do it much sooner.
00:08:28.180 --> 00:08:29.940
<v Marlo Hunter>And by the time I graduated, I just-
00:08:29.940 --> 00:08:31.700
<v Marlo Hunter>Were you also choreographing at that time?
00:08:31.700 --> 00:08:33.000
<v Marlo Hunter>I was, I was.
00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:37.600
<v Marlo Hunter>I was directing plays and I was directing musicals and choreographing those musicals.
00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:38.520
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh my God.
00:08:38.520 --> 00:08:46.980
<v Marlo Hunter>And by the time I graduated, you know, I loved New York and I loved theater and I just thought, I think I'm going to put my eggs in this basket right now.
00:08:46.980 --> 00:08:48.040
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm going to go to the city.
00:08:48.040 --> 00:08:54.560
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm going to focus on theater and I'll just hop over into film when I, when I, when I want to try that.
00:08:54.560 --> 00:08:58.220
<v Marlo Hunter>Little did I know that is absolutely not how it works at all.
00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:02.060
<v Marlo Hunter>But my, my primary goal artistically had been film.
00:09:02.060 --> 00:09:09.420
<v Marlo Hunter>But then I went into theater and until 2017, there was no opportunity to just sort of leap over into film and TV.
00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:10.060
<v Marlo Hunter>Wow.
00:09:10.060 --> 00:09:17.100
<v Marlo Hunter>And then Kathleen Montalione, an actress I had cast in a world premiere musical in 2014.
00:09:17.100 --> 00:09:19.680
<v Marlo Hunter>We became very, very close collaborators.
00:09:19.680 --> 00:09:23.740
<v Marlo Hunter>And I worked with her as a director in multiple new musicals.
00:09:23.740 --> 00:09:29.980
<v Marlo Hunter>And then she came to me one day and said, you know, I've, I've written this screenplay and I wonder if you could read it.
00:09:29.980 --> 00:09:32.180
<v Marlo Hunter>And I was like, oh my God, totally give you feedback.
00:09:32.180 --> 00:09:39.180
<v Marlo Hunter>And so I read it, gave her my notes and we met at a pret and she was like, this is really great.
00:09:39.180 --> 00:09:40.540
<v Marlo Hunter>Would you like to direct it?
00:09:40.940 --> 00:09:43.240
<v Marlo Hunter>I thought I was being pumped.
00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:44.480
<v Peter Michael Marino>That's crazy.
00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:45.480
<v Nancy Magarill>Wonderful.
00:09:45.480 --> 00:09:48.360
<v Marlo Hunter>And sure enough, they got the funding and it happened.
00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:52.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>And that was like a lot of, that was a lot of theater people were involved in that, right?
00:09:52.940 --> 00:09:54.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like you drew from the world of theater for that.
00:09:54.780 --> 00:10:03.500
<v Marlo Hunter>Well, and Kathleen's Clothes, you know, was very, Annali Ashford and Kay Alice were, were people that Kathleen had worked with and known for a very long time.
00:10:03.500 --> 00:10:04.080
<v Marlo Hunter>They were in the movie.
00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:08.400
<v Marlo Hunter>And, and then we found some other really amazing gems.
00:10:08.400 --> 00:10:11.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>Tell Nancy about this, the plot of this movie.
00:10:11.520 --> 00:10:12.920
<v Nancy Magarill>And the listener.
00:10:12.920 --> 00:10:14.460
<v Marlo Hunter>So American Reject.
00:10:14.460 --> 00:10:16.700
<v Peter Michael Marino>I was trying to leave that out this time.
00:10:16.700 --> 00:10:32.660
<v Marlo Hunter>American Reject is about a 30-something woman named Kay Montgomery, who is at the, at the start of the film, she is eliminated from a competition called Pop Star Now, which is the equivalent of American Idol in our actual world, right?
00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:36.360
<v Marlo Hunter>And immediately basically treated like roadkill.
00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:49.100
<v Marlo Hunter>I mean, just this is based loosely on Kathleen's own experience, having been the third runner up on Greasier, The One That I Want, which was the show that was finding the next Sandy and Danny to be on Broadway.
00:10:49.100 --> 00:10:52.280
<v Marlo Hunter>Kathleen was the third runner up on that show.
00:10:52.280 --> 00:10:53.320
<v Marlo Hunter>And she was just...
00:10:53.320 --> 00:10:54.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>Theater is amazing.
00:10:54.580 --> 00:10:56.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>I love this world so much.
00:10:56.240 --> 00:11:11.000
<v Marlo Hunter>So in American Reject, she's called by the producer and in order to create more content, they offer to send her home to her very small hometown, but with a cameraman following her every move to who's going to trail the losers.
00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:13.940
<v Marlo Hunter>They're doing sort of packages and pieces on the losers.
00:11:13.940 --> 00:11:18.920
<v Marlo Hunter>And it's about what happens when she goes home and is forced to reconnect with her community and her mother.
00:11:18.920 --> 00:11:25.240
<v Marlo Hunter>She has a difficult relationship with and how she wrestles with the idea of fame and identity.
00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:26.240
<v Marlo Hunter>It's an identity piece.
00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:28.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's such a perfect piece for you, I feel.
00:11:28.280 --> 00:11:35.260
<v Marlo Hunter>It was an incredible experience and I still count my lucky stars that I had that opportunity.
00:11:35.260 --> 00:11:39.300
<v Peter Michael Marino>A lot of the actors that you worked with had not done a ton of films either, right?
00:11:39.500 --> 00:11:45.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>Or especially something of this budget and it was indie, but that movie sets look really good and everything in that movie.
00:11:45.100 --> 00:11:47.160
<v Marlo Hunter>Thank you.
00:11:47.160 --> 00:11:48.420
<v Marlo Hunter>That was really important to us.
00:11:48.420 --> 00:11:54.460
<v Marlo Hunter>Rebecca Black and Angelica Hale were two actors who had not done a lot of film or any.
00:11:55.060 --> 00:12:04.260
<v Marlo Hunter>Rebecca had had her own sort of cancellation when she was younger and she had released her song Friday and then she was a very big deal and then people were sending her hate mail.
00:12:04.260 --> 00:12:10.920
<v Marlo Hunter>But so she really identified with the story and then Angelica Hale, who had just won America's Got Talent or she was the first runner up.
00:12:10.920 --> 00:12:14.300
<v Marlo Hunter>Now, she's actually about to be in Boop on Broadway.
00:12:14.300 --> 00:12:15.300
<v Peter Michael Marino>Which I can't wait to see.
00:12:15.300 --> 00:12:15.740
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah.
00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:18.700
<v Marlo Hunter>She's incredibly talented, just an absolute gem.
00:12:18.700 --> 00:12:20.180
<v Marlo Hunter>So we had a really great group.
00:12:20.180 --> 00:12:32.400
<v Nancy Magarill>What are the differences you find as director, directing actors who are theater actors versus film actors, and for you as a director, directing film versus theater?
00:12:32.400 --> 00:12:34.900
<v Nancy Magarill>Because there's such a difference in style, right?
00:12:34.900 --> 00:12:36.960
<v Marlo Hunter>It's a completely different muscle.
00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:42.460
<v Nancy Magarill>What are the hurdles in getting especially theater actors to be able to be in front of a camera in that way?
00:12:42.460 --> 00:12:49.400
<v Marlo Hunter>Theater actors are great in front of a camera, and theater actors have stamina, which is a spectacular thing.
00:12:49.400 --> 00:12:50.680
<v Marlo Hunter>Theater actor is memorized.
00:12:50.760 --> 00:12:51.400
<v Marlo Hunter>Theater actors...
00:12:52.260 --> 00:12:54.640
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm not trying to disparage non-theater actors.
00:12:54.640 --> 00:13:03.060
<v Marlo Hunter>I am merely saying that most theater actors are tremendous to work with, and they have also got a sense of arc, right?
00:13:03.060 --> 00:13:08.620
<v Marlo Hunter>But the difference in process is that you're just jumping from moment to moment.
00:13:09.700 --> 00:13:19.260
<v Marlo Hunter>You could be shooting three different days, film days, on the same day, but it's three different story days, and they don't usually work like that.
00:13:19.780 --> 00:13:25.220
<v Marlo Hunter>If they've primarily worked in theater, but a lot of them now really toggle between the two.
00:13:25.220 --> 00:13:30.500
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, and they kind of learned how to get the flow, even though it's changing up all the time.
00:13:30.500 --> 00:13:32.240
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah, but you sort of...
00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:37.280
<v Marlo Hunter>I mean, I have a shorthand, like I have a shorthand in terms of vocabulary with theater actors.
00:13:37.280 --> 00:13:44.840
<v Marlo Hunter>So for me, it's always a blessing to have them because I can speak about certain kinds of motivations.
00:13:45.680 --> 00:13:51.300
<v Marlo Hunter>I can speak about subtext in a very particular way, you know, it's, I love it.
00:13:51.300 --> 00:13:53.000
<v Marlo Hunter>I love working with theater actors.
00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:55.620
<v Marlo Hunter>And film actors obviously have that facility as well.
00:13:55.620 --> 00:14:07.560
<v Marlo Hunter>It's just, they're very used to jumping around and they kind of know how, they're very amazing at knowing what they need to do for that exact scene and then letting it go.
00:14:07.560 --> 00:14:08.280
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, yeah.
00:14:08.280 --> 00:14:12.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's like a compartmentalized pre-production preparation.
00:14:12.500 --> 00:14:13.420
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's all, yeah.
00:14:13.420 --> 00:14:19.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>And the actors will be like, I spent the week discovering what my character is saying really when they say good morning.
00:14:19.040 --> 00:14:20.980
<v Marlo Hunter>It's also a relationship with the camera, right?
00:14:20.980 --> 00:14:38.160
<v Marlo Hunter>So actors who are really used to being on set, the best of them, they know when you've gotten what you need and they know how to stand, how to put a little bit of weight on their right foot so that they're not in the way of the other actor that you're trying to cover.
00:14:38.160 --> 00:14:46.580
<v Marlo Hunter>They just have a sense of camera and also of continuity, which is like, when theater actors first come into film, that's a learned art, right?
00:14:46.580 --> 00:14:50.180
<v Marlo Hunter>If you're going to fix your hair, if you're going to button your, when are you doing it?
00:14:50.180 --> 00:14:54.380
<v Marlo Hunter>It has to be on the same line every time, otherwise I can't match in the edit.
00:14:54.380 --> 00:14:56.260
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm not going to be able to use it.
00:14:56.260 --> 00:14:58.700
<v Marlo Hunter>So yeah, the sips.
00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:04.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>Sipping that cup, now we, it's a different level of coffee that was there.
00:15:04.340 --> 00:15:09.120
<v Nancy Magarill>So when you're doing Hallmark films, are you, do you have a continuity person?
00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:10.300
<v Nancy Magarill>Is there a difference in those?
00:15:10.580 --> 00:15:14.540
<v Nancy Magarill>So you have a full film staff to give you everything you need.
00:15:14.540 --> 00:15:16.180
<v Marlo Hunter>Oh, an amazing crew.
00:15:16.180 --> 00:15:18.720
<v Peter Michael Marino>You have like what, two weeks to shoot these things, right?
00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:19.400
<v Marlo Hunter>Three.
00:15:19.400 --> 00:15:20.340
<v Marlo Hunter>So yeah, usually.
00:15:20.340 --> 00:15:21.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, I knew it was crazy.
00:15:21.320 --> 00:15:25.680
<v Marlo Hunter>But I shot my last one in 13 and a half days, which was bonkers.
00:15:25.680 --> 00:15:26.500
<v Marlo Hunter>It was bonkers.
00:15:26.500 --> 00:15:28.100
<v Nancy Magarill>And how long are these films?
00:15:28.100 --> 00:15:28.880
<v Nancy Magarill>How long are they?
00:15:28.880 --> 00:15:33.660
<v Marlo Hunter>In actual runtime on, I'm delivering about 86 minutes.
00:15:33.660 --> 00:15:39.300
<v Marlo Hunter>And ultimately it's about 84, I think, when the producers and the network have done their cuts after mine.
00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:40.940
<v Nancy Magarill>Wow.
00:15:40.940 --> 00:15:41.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>What's that like?
00:15:41.680 --> 00:15:45.260
<v Peter Michael Marino>Have you ever just watched something and went, I would not have made that cut there.
00:15:45.260 --> 00:15:48.180
<v Marlo Hunter>That is, you know, I have to say, lost the joke.
00:15:48.180 --> 00:15:50.980
<v Marlo Hunter>But that happens even when you're doing independent.
00:15:50.980 --> 00:15:56.860
<v Marlo Hunter>That happens when any anytime somebody else has a cut after you, it's never going to be exactly what you wanted.
00:15:56.860 --> 00:16:00.100
<v Marlo Hunter>But I will say that editing is my favorite part of the process.
00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:06.320
<v Marlo Hunter>And I'm pretty meticulous about delivering something that is really, really clear.
00:16:07.620 --> 00:16:11.220
<v Marlo Hunter>I sort of obsessively go through takes and reaction shots.
00:16:11.220 --> 00:16:18.480
<v Marlo Hunter>And so I have spent usually a great amount of time knowing what my dailies are and knowing what we do and do not have to work with.
00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:26.520
<v Marlo Hunter>So I have to say up to this point, knock wood, because this probably won't last forever, I've been pretty fortunate that my cuts haven't been changed very much.
00:16:26.520 --> 00:16:27.840
<v Nancy Magarill>That's nice.
00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:28.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.
00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:38.860
<v Peter Michael Marino>But also like the kind of stuff that you've done, these three projects in particular, they have a, what's the word, a buoyancy, they have a frisson, right?
00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:46.360
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I imagine that you're, you just have a great sense of timing because of theater, and being a dancer, and being a musician.
00:16:46.920 --> 00:16:49.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>So you're able to transfer that skill of timing.
00:16:49.680 --> 00:16:53.760
<v Peter Michael Marino>Timing is what's going to, we can take something that's and just lift it in some way.
00:16:53.760 --> 00:16:54.500
<v Marlo Hunter>That's right.
00:16:54.820 --> 00:16:56.900
<v Peter Michael Marino>So that comes really, it really comes in handy.
00:16:56.900 --> 00:16:58.920
<v Marlo Hunter>I think that's probably my special skill.
00:16:58.920 --> 00:17:12.200
<v Marlo Hunter>As a comedy director, just the rhythms of that, I have a tendency to like things to be pretty brisk because I like to be able to earn the moments when things are not brisk, but I love keeping things buoyant otherwise.
00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:14.580
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah, wait, you said something else that I wanted to respond to.
00:17:14.580 --> 00:17:15.620
<v Peter Michael Marino>Friissons, was it frisson?
00:17:15.620 --> 00:17:17.600
<v Marlo Hunter>Was it frisson?
00:17:17.600 --> 00:17:18.300
<v Peter Michael Marino>Friissons?
00:17:18.300 --> 00:17:20.960
<v Marlo Hunter>I don't know, yeah, I just keep things pretty tight.
00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:24.980
<v Peter Michael Marino>How are you able to, so that's transferring your theater skills to film.
00:17:24.980 --> 00:17:27.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>What skills do you transfer from film back to theater?
00:17:27.080 --> 00:17:30.360
<v Peter Michael Marino>Because also with stuff you do, it's a lot of development.
00:17:30.360 --> 00:17:32.380
<v Peter Michael Marino>I mean, actually it's all development, right?
00:17:33.120 --> 00:17:35.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>No one's giving you guys and dolls.
00:17:35.080 --> 00:17:36.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're starting from scratch.
00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:37.720
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm not taking guys and dolls.
00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:39.880
<v Marlo Hunter>You are not taking guys and dolls.
00:17:39.880 --> 00:17:40.740
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm a new work director.
00:17:40.740 --> 00:17:43.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>I don't want you to direct that show anyway, but yes.
00:17:44.580 --> 00:17:45.560
<v Peter Michael Marino>That's your flag that you fly?
00:17:45.560 --> 00:17:46.300
<v Marlo Hunter>That's my flag.
00:17:47.060 --> 00:17:49.100
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm a new work comedy director.
00:17:49.720 --> 00:17:51.820
<v Marlo Hunter>Yes, I love development.
00:17:51.820 --> 00:18:08.040
<v Marlo Hunter>I will say that what has been amazing, not just about film, but about something like Hallmark where you have to shave it down to, at first when I was told how many minutes I had to deliver it, I thought when you're sitting in that edit and you're nine minutes over, you're thinking, this isn't possible.
00:18:08.040 --> 00:18:13.600
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm not going to be able to deliver anything that even has a story, but you are able to deliver something that has a story.
00:18:13.600 --> 00:18:26.860
<v Marlo Hunter>It's such a great skill to bring to any kind of narrative arc because there is always a way to be leaner, to be leaner, to be more precise and sure, that's always great when you have the opportunity to sit and indulge in something.
00:18:27.420 --> 00:18:34.160
<v Marlo Hunter>So now I watch TV shows now that don't have limits, because series, it can be any length of time.
00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:36.620
<v Marlo Hunter>Sometimes we'll sit in a shot and I'm like, you need to go.
00:18:37.760 --> 00:18:39.820
<v Marlo Hunter>It's like, why are they sitting in that?
00:18:39.820 --> 00:18:40.800
<v Marlo Hunter>I can't watch this tree.
00:18:40.800 --> 00:18:42.140
<v Marlo Hunter>Who has time for that?
00:18:42.140 --> 00:18:48.400
<v Marlo Hunter>But it has given me a great sense of what is necessary to tell this story.
00:18:48.400 --> 00:19:00.360
<v Marlo Hunter>You don't actually need to sit in all of these moments, but then, like I said, it's nice when you earn the ability to do so, but it's really helped me to fine-tune your narrative arc and get really economical.
00:19:00.360 --> 00:19:02.440
<v Marlo Hunter>That's the word I was looking for, economical.
00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:06.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, I always like economy of movement, economy of words, whenever possible.
00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:09.300
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm actually even learning how to do that in the podcast.
00:19:09.360 --> 00:19:11.060
<v Nancy Magarill>It's really fascinating.
00:19:11.060 --> 00:19:13.920
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm like, I didn't think I could edit that down to its meaning.
00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:14.760
<v Marlo Hunter>But you can.
00:19:14.760 --> 00:19:19.700
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, and with audio editing, you can edit so finely.
00:19:19.700 --> 00:19:24.560
<v Nancy Magarill>It's a little different when you're editing people and video, but it definitely is something I'm learning.
00:19:24.560 --> 00:19:33.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>Well, that's why I'm so glad that this is not one of those podcasts that's on YouTube, because then you have to double, then you have to edit the video as well as the audio.
00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:36.660
<v Nancy Magarill>I think it's a little different when you're looking at people speaking.
00:19:36.660 --> 00:19:54.480
<v Nancy Magarill>You're a little more lenient with what's going on, and you can make edits in a different way, which I wouldn't edit as finely if it was live, if people were looking at us, because I think people are a little more open to seeing the ums and ahs and all that than they are when you're just listening to it.
00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:55.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>Good point.
00:19:55.220 --> 00:19:56.540
<v Nancy Magarill>It's different.
00:19:56.540 --> 00:20:03.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>We started chatting when we were doing our soundcheck that, I thought it was very important to tell Marlo Hunter, I saw Chicago on Broadway this week.
00:20:03.800 --> 00:20:07.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>Actually, I said, I saw Chicago this week, and you said, where?
00:20:07.080 --> 00:20:08.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>On Broadway?
00:20:08.100 --> 00:20:08.720
<v Nancy Magarill>I did.
00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:10.280
<v Marlo Hunter>I saw it in 1997.
00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:13.320
<v Marlo Hunter>That's great.
00:20:13.760 --> 00:20:14.980
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's such a great show.
00:20:14.980 --> 00:20:17.280
<v Peter Michael Marino>That's crazy, right?
00:20:17.280 --> 00:20:21.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>There's a reality star in it, named Erica Jane.
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:23.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>She's from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
00:20:23.220 --> 00:20:26.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>She's just been through a terrible breakup.
00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:27.660
<v Nancy Magarill>Are you a little embarrassed?
00:20:27.660 --> 00:20:29.320
<v Marlo Hunter>You went to support her?
00:20:29.320 --> 00:20:30.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm laughing at myself.
00:20:30.500 --> 00:20:30.980
<v Peter Michael Marino>You know what?
00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:33.000
<v Peter Michael Marino>This is my scotch and water at the end of the day.
00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:36.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>I like watching a little bit of Real Housewives.
00:20:37.140 --> 00:20:38.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>I do appreciate stunt casting.
00:20:38.800 --> 00:20:39.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>I do.
00:20:39.980 --> 00:20:41.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's a curiosity, isn't it?
00:20:43.240 --> 00:20:48.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>She was in it, but also Max von Essen, who was in a workshop of Hollywood Nurses, is playing Billy.
00:20:48.940 --> 00:20:52.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's gorgeous and fabulous, and of course, I want to see him as well.
00:20:52.540 --> 00:20:55.560
<v Peter Michael Marino>Walking by the theater, we're supposed to have a snowstorm, walk right up to the thing.
00:20:55.560 --> 00:20:58.700
<v Peter Michael Marino>Do you have one ticket right now, in six minutes?
00:20:58.700 --> 00:21:00.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's like, yeah, I got standing room, 50 bucks.
00:21:00.220 --> 00:21:01.720
<v Peter Michael Marino>I was like, we are in business.
00:21:01.720 --> 00:21:02.380
<v Nancy Magarill>Wow, that's great.
00:21:02.380 --> 00:21:04.980
<v Peter Michael Marino>I get there and there's plopped down plenty of room.
00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:09.420
<v Peter Michael Marino>These two clearly gay men plopped down next to me.
00:21:09.560 --> 00:21:11.480
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm just like, we're here for Erika Jayne, right?
00:21:11.480 --> 00:21:12.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>They're like, who's that?
00:21:12.600 --> 00:21:14.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm like, oh, you're not that gay at all.
00:21:14.500 --> 00:21:16.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>Damn.
00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:16.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.
00:21:16.600 --> 00:21:18.400
<v Peter Michael Marino>No, he's just a big fan of the show.
00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:19.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>I was just like, and you?
00:21:19.640 --> 00:21:20.740
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's like, it's my first time.
00:21:20.740 --> 00:21:22.700
<v Peter Michael Marino>I was like, enjoy.
00:21:22.700 --> 00:21:27.180
<v Peter Michael Marino>So then she comes out and it's like, she gets a big applause from half the audience.
00:21:27.180 --> 00:21:28.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>Who knows who she is?
00:21:28.500 --> 00:21:31.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>The other half is like, why are they clapping for her?
00:21:31.040 --> 00:21:36.020
<v Peter Michael Marino>And then she opens her mouth and you're like, oh God, it's going to be a long two and a half hours.
00:21:37.260 --> 00:21:39.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>She's got something, she's got something.
00:21:39.540 --> 00:21:44.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>But if you didn't know who she was, you'd be like, oh, I feel so bad that both understudies were sick today.
00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:47.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>This person is not meant to do the show.
00:21:47.080 --> 00:21:49.140
<v Nancy Magarill>And that's sad on Broadway, I'm sorry.
00:21:49.140 --> 00:21:50.300
<v Nancy Magarill>You need to have that.
00:21:50.300 --> 00:21:56.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>But it's also like, you're going to see Chicago and you should know at this point that that's how it works.
00:21:56.640 --> 00:22:00.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>There's going to be a stunt Billy, there's going to be a stunt Roxy, there's going to be a stunt Velma.
00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:01.020
<v Peter Michael Marino>The good news is-
00:22:01.020 --> 00:22:03.820
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, but it still needs someone who can sing and dance.
00:22:03.820 --> 00:22:04.520
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm sorry.
00:22:04.740 --> 00:22:11.880
<v Peter Michael Marino>I think maybe and you know Marlo's a huge fan of Bob Fosse, very much inspired by Bob Fosse, had an animal named Bob Fosse.
00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:12.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>Dead.
00:22:12.580 --> 00:22:13.660
<v Peter Michael Marino>Named Fosse, excuse me.
00:22:13.660 --> 00:22:14.260
<v Peter Michael Marino>And-
00:22:14.260 --> 00:22:16.340
<v Nancy Magarill>Wait, my cat is Mitzi Gainer.
00:22:16.340 --> 00:22:16.660
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.
00:22:16.660 --> 00:22:18.460
<v Marlo Hunter>Oh, I love that.
00:22:19.720 --> 00:22:25.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>And you know, you're like this has to, this has to live up to the level of Bob Fosse's expectations.
00:22:25.540 --> 00:22:30.820
<v Peter Michael Marino>This has to be all the wrist turning and a finger going exactly 75 degree.
00:22:30.820 --> 00:22:32.060
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like it has to be like that.
00:22:32.060 --> 00:22:35.700
<v Peter Michael Marino>And then you watch the show and you're like, you know what, this is just really good storytelling.
00:22:35.700 --> 00:22:37.120
<v Peter Michael Marino>These are really fun performers.
00:22:37.120 --> 00:22:38.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>They are 100% committed.
00:22:38.680 --> 00:22:40.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>Audience having a great time.
00:22:40.040 --> 00:22:46.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>If the big rag that we're all waiting for at the end of the show is not absolutely perfect, the world will not end.
00:22:46.220 --> 00:22:47.820
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's thoroughly enjoyable.
00:22:47.820 --> 00:22:52.560
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, but I still, I have a feeling you're, it's a Broadway show.
00:22:52.560 --> 00:23:02.460
<v Nancy Magarill>And I'm sorry, but what I've noticed over the last couple of years, and maybe it's because of the pandemic, but Broadway, certain shows, not all, the level is going down.
00:23:02.820 --> 00:23:03.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>Come on.
00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:06.100
<v Nancy Magarill>Yes, there's so much amateur.
00:23:06.100 --> 00:23:06.840
<v Peter Michael Marino>What?
00:23:06.840 --> 00:23:09.880
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, there's a lot of stuff where I walk out and I'm like, what's going on?
00:23:09.880 --> 00:23:11.640
<v Nancy Magarill>But then I see something that's fantastic.
00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:13.360
<v Nancy Magarill>In fact, I'm going to Gypsy tonight.
00:23:13.360 --> 00:23:14.560
<v Nancy Magarill>So I'm fingers crossed.
00:23:14.560 --> 00:23:16.080
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm going to love it.
00:23:16.080 --> 00:23:16.620
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm kidding.
00:23:16.620 --> 00:23:17.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's really great.
00:23:17.520 --> 00:23:18.760
<v Nancy Magarill>No, the show's fantastic.
00:23:18.760 --> 00:23:20.300
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm curious to see Audra in it.
00:23:20.300 --> 00:23:21.300
<v Peter Michael Marino>But that's another thing.
00:23:21.300 --> 00:23:27.920
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like, I like to watch something like it's the first time and you're watching Gypsy, and like, people are applauding before a thing happens, you know, or whatever.
00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:30.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>And you're like, it's so hard to appreciate it that way.
00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:40.060
<v Peter Michael Marino>Or as someone who doesn't know it at all, and they're like, they feel like the weirdo at the party, you know, like everyone here knows, it's like seeing Rocky Horror and like not knowing the reactions, you know.
00:23:40.060 --> 00:23:41.900
<v Peter Michael Marino>So there's something strange about that as well.
00:23:41.900 --> 00:23:51.460
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's just, it is called commercial theater, and it's probably why Marlo has made the right choice and the wise choice and the personal choice to develop new material, new things.
00:23:51.460 --> 00:23:51.680
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.
00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:54.340
<v Marlo Hunter>But all of that new material wants a commercial ending.
00:23:54.680 --> 00:23:58.420
<v Marlo Hunter>And I'm very grateful right now that I'm working with commercial producers.
00:23:58.560 --> 00:24:04.760
<v Marlo Hunter>I mean, you know, I believe that commercial theater can have a tremendous amount of artistic integrity.
00:24:04.860 --> 00:24:05.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>100%.
00:24:06.020 --> 00:24:15.940
<v Marlo Hunter>But yes, I mean, I hear what you're saying about taking, taking a piece that people have seen that's been in the lexicon and just, you know, shuttling it back through.
00:24:15.940 --> 00:24:22.880
<v Marlo Hunter>Although sometimes I think, you know, why don't people have a right to see the things that they've loved since they were kids?
00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:25.120
<v Marlo Hunter>I mean, like, somebody should do it.
00:24:25.280 --> 00:24:32.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm very happy I got to see Sunset Boulevard originally, and then I saw some other person do it, and then I saw it with no sets and blood.
00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:33.060
<v Peter Michael Marino>I love that.
00:24:33.060 --> 00:25:01.380
<v Nancy Magarill>I do think, though, that supporting new works and new writers and new creators is really important, because art, yes, it's great to have the classics and all the pieces and revivals are fantastic, but I also think that what's so beautiful about a lot of new art is that it's talking about what's going on and what it's more reflective of our society, although you can say that Chicago actually is pretty reflective.
00:25:01.380 --> 00:25:02.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>Cabaret is pretty reflective.
00:25:02.680 --> 00:25:04.080
<v Nancy Magarill>Cabaret as well, right.
00:25:04.080 --> 00:25:08.640
<v Nancy Magarill>So there are pieces like that that are timeless, you know, like Shakespeare.
00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:10.880
<v Nancy Magarill>I think it's important to develop new works.
00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:13.680
<v Nancy Magarill>I think it's good to have a balance, you know?
00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:27.300
<v Nancy Magarill>My biggest problem with a lot of Broadway is the is the sort of commercialization of it and the stylization of stuff at the expense of story or at the expense of the heart of it.
00:25:27.300 --> 00:25:32.280
<v Nancy Magarill>I do find that some of the newer directors are losing that heart of the piece.
00:25:32.680 --> 00:25:34.400
<v Peter Michael Marino>I need examples, Nancy.
00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:35.840
<v Peter Michael Marino>I will not let you not give me an example.
00:25:37.720 --> 00:25:40.920
<v Peter Michael Marino>The one that had the rain and video effects?
00:25:40.920 --> 00:25:45.840
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, I thought I was like, how can you ruin West Side Story?
00:25:45.840 --> 00:25:47.500
<v Nancy Magarill>That was a good example.
00:25:47.500 --> 00:25:50.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>But for me, it was how can you see it in a different way?
00:25:50.140 --> 00:25:51.600
<v Nancy Magarill>But it just there was no heart.
00:25:51.600 --> 00:25:54.720
<v Nancy Magarill>It was so unemotional and so uninteresting to me.
00:25:55.400 --> 00:26:02.420
<v Nancy Magarill>I thought the performances were great, but you're seeing people all the way at the back of the stage.
00:26:02.420 --> 00:26:03.800
<v Nancy Magarill>It was so ludicrous to me.
00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:07.300
<v Nancy Magarill>I just saw, oh my god, what was...
00:26:07.300 --> 00:26:11.780
<v Nancy Magarill>I mean, Dollhouse was another piece where I was like, I could have cared less about what was going on.
00:26:11.780 --> 00:26:13.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, don't go see Sunset Boulevard.
00:26:13.140 --> 00:26:14.000
<v Peter Michael Marino>For the love of god, don't see that.
00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:17.980
<v Nancy Magarill>I did see Sunset Boulevard, and I loved Nicole Scherzinger.
00:26:17.980 --> 00:26:19.380
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm going to mess her name up.
00:26:19.380 --> 00:26:26.500
<v Nancy Magarill>I thought she was unbelievable, and I have never seen anyone sell a song the way that woman sells a song.
00:26:26.500 --> 00:26:31.100
<v Nancy Magarill>She pulls you in with every note, every syllable.
00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:35.860
<v Nancy Magarill>But at one point, I was like, I could care less about this story.
00:26:36.060 --> 00:26:37.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>I can't.
00:26:37.320 --> 00:26:39.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>We're not ever going to shows together anymore.
00:26:39.440 --> 00:26:40.460
<v Nancy Magarill>I guess not.
00:26:40.460 --> 00:26:45.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>Listener, what you have to know is, we're sitting here in three separate locations, and you might hear an occasional...
00:26:46.800 --> 00:26:52.480
<v Peter Michael Marino>And that is Marlo Hunter taking a deep breath and then pretending she's drinking an enormous glass of wine.
00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:55.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like, Marlo works in this business.
00:26:55.040 --> 00:26:57.700
<v Peter Michael Marino>I do too, but I don't care.
00:26:58.740 --> 00:27:03.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>I don't care about expressing my opinions because generally, I don't like to tear anything down.
00:27:03.560 --> 00:27:10.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>I will say, I did not enjoy it, but I will not make a generalization or generally just put any show down.
00:27:10.760 --> 00:27:14.780
<v Nancy Magarill>I, on the other hand, don't care and I will tell exactly what I think.
00:27:14.780 --> 00:27:15.760
<v Peter Michael Marino>Exactly.
00:27:15.760 --> 00:27:17.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>Marlo, you are busy.
00:27:17.100 --> 00:27:19.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>You have two kids who are adorable.
00:27:19.080 --> 00:27:21.140
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, he just left you off the hook.
00:27:21.140 --> 00:27:22.820
<v Peter Michael Marino>And a handful.
00:27:22.820 --> 00:27:28.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>And you have a very busy and very attractive husband who is a lawyer.
00:27:28.860 --> 00:27:30.920
<v Nancy Magarill>Is this a non sequitur piece?
00:27:30.920 --> 00:27:31.380
<v Peter Michael Marino>No.
00:27:31.380 --> 00:27:33.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>So you don't have a lot of time to go see stuff.
00:27:33.080 --> 00:27:38.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>So my question is, what is some art that you saw that really just stuck with you?
00:27:39.160 --> 00:27:41.400
<v Peter Michael Marino>It could have been ET, but we already discussed that.
00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:44.360
<v Peter Michael Marino>Something that just like, what's the kind of thing that like turns you on?
00:27:44.360 --> 00:27:45.580
<v Marlo Hunter>You're talking about theater?
00:27:45.580 --> 00:27:45.760
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.
00:27:45.760 --> 00:27:47.400
<v Peter Michael Marino>Let's talk about a Broadway musical.
00:27:47.400 --> 00:27:48.500
<v Nancy Magarill>Sure.
00:27:48.520 --> 00:27:50.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>Or play, or play, or play.
00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:51.400
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah.
00:27:51.400 --> 00:28:04.900
<v Marlo Hunter>I would say that in the last couple of like a year and a half of what I've seen, I'd probably, I'd have to say Stereophonic and Anne Juliette are the two things I've seen that I loved.
00:28:04.900 --> 00:28:07.840
<v Peter Michael Marino>And Juliette's a very much a Marlo Hunter show.
00:28:07.840 --> 00:28:09.960
<v Marlo Hunter>Well, I'll tell you something about Anne Juliette.
00:28:09.960 --> 00:28:10.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>Tell me.
00:28:10.680 --> 00:28:15.040
<v Marlo Hunter>That is a production team that was completely on the same page.
00:28:15.040 --> 00:28:26.840
<v Marlo Hunter>The confluence of every aspect of that design, of the direction, of the use of song, which by the way, it is very hard to have a successful Jude Buck's musical and make those lyrics work in a way that is dramatically compelling.
00:28:26.840 --> 00:28:28.040
<v Marlo Hunter>They made it look easy.
00:28:28.040 --> 00:28:29.480
<v Marlo Hunter>It is not easy.
00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:31.240
<v Marlo Hunter>I thought it was spectacular.
00:28:31.240 --> 00:28:33.220
<v Marlo Hunter>I had the best time.
00:28:33.220 --> 00:28:35.620
<v Marlo Hunter>So I love that.
00:28:35.620 --> 00:28:36.860
<v Peter Michael Marino>Did you bring your kids to that?
00:28:36.860 --> 00:28:37.840
<v Marlo Hunter>I did not.
00:28:37.840 --> 00:28:38.740
<v Nancy Magarill>I want to go see that.
00:28:38.740 --> 00:28:39.600
<v Nancy Magarill>I haven't seen it yet.
00:28:39.600 --> 00:28:41.700
<v Marlo Hunter>I like to go to the theater by myself.
00:28:41.700 --> 00:28:42.860
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:28:42.860 --> 00:28:51.100
<v Marlo Hunter>And I like to sit by myself and not have to be aware of whether I'm reacting or much to many producers dismay.
00:28:51.100 --> 00:28:52.060
<v Marlo Hunter>I don't like applause.
00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:56.540
<v Marlo Hunter>I don't like to give it and I don't like, I don't love the idea of it.
00:28:56.540 --> 00:28:58.140
<v Marlo Hunter>I think it's super weird.
00:28:58.140 --> 00:28:59.980
<v Marlo Hunter>I understand why it's necessary.
00:28:59.980 --> 00:29:05.220
<v Marlo Hunter>I understand why people feel they, I mean, it's a release for the audience and I get it.
00:29:05.220 --> 00:29:20.460
<v Marlo Hunter>It just is such a strange thing to me that like someone who is totally immersed in the story of what they are presenting, that we're supposed to just suddenly like, let them know that we think they did a good job is so strange and like beside the point to me.
00:29:21.120 --> 00:29:22.560
<v Marlo Hunter>I hate it.
00:29:22.560 --> 00:29:29.600
<v Nancy Magarill>Although I want to say I love when I'm brought to a place where I, like I forgot what I was at recently.
00:29:29.600 --> 00:29:34.200
<v Nancy Magarill>I think it was Sunset Boulevard where you just are up on your feet.
00:29:34.200 --> 00:29:37.100
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh no, I was just at the Camille Brown piece of the Joyce.
00:29:37.380 --> 00:29:44.160
<v Nancy Magarill>Literally, we all for 15 minutes were standing just applauding at the end because it was so powerful.
00:29:44.180 --> 00:29:46.200
<v Marlo Hunter>I mean, I'd rather people scream.
00:29:46.200 --> 00:29:50.660
<v Marlo Hunter>I'd rather like, I don't know, yelp than do this weird thing on my hand.
00:29:50.660 --> 00:29:51.820
<v Marlo Hunter>I just, I don't know.
00:29:51.820 --> 00:29:52.980
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's some past life shit.
00:29:52.980 --> 00:29:54.040
<v Marlo Hunter>Listen, I'm so glad.
00:29:54.040 --> 00:30:05.000
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm so glad as a director when people are feeling so moved and so excited that they need to vocalize and share that joy and that excitement, and that they're moved, that's wonderful.
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:07.680
<v Marlo Hunter>I just feel so, it's not my instinct.
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:10.960
<v Marlo Hunter>As I just want to sit and absorb what I'm seeing.
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:11.800
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.
00:30:11.800 --> 00:30:13.160
<v Marlo Hunter>So I'm just not, I don't know.
00:30:13.160 --> 00:30:16.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>What is the one Broadway musicale?
00:30:16.160 --> 00:30:17.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>We're trying to get some more gays to listen to this, Marlo.
00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:18.940
<v Marlo Hunter>So I got to talk about musicals a little bit.
00:30:19.620 --> 00:30:20.340
<v Marlo Hunter>Gays, gays.
00:30:20.340 --> 00:30:24.560
<v Peter Michael Marino>What is a Broadway musicale that has stuck with you forever?
00:30:24.560 --> 00:30:27.180
<v Peter Michael Marino>You were a kid when you saw Annie, isn't that right?
00:30:27.180 --> 00:30:34.060
<v Marlo Hunter>I was a kid when I saw Annie, a chorus line of falsettos.
00:30:34.060 --> 00:30:41.700
<v Peter Michael Marino>A chorus line, let me ask, is that because it's about dancers or is because you were pretty aware that this thing was really well directed?
00:30:41.700 --> 00:30:43.320
<v Nancy Magarill>It's also a great musical.
00:30:43.320 --> 00:30:44.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, it's great music, yeah.
00:30:44.540 --> 00:30:53.080
<v Marlo Hunter>Michael Bennett has probably been from aesthetically the biggest influence on my life as a stager.
00:30:53.080 --> 00:30:54.060
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah.
00:30:54.060 --> 00:31:03.220
<v Marlo Hunter>And I think I immediately understood his sure hand and also just the way that his stage composition, even at a very young age.
00:31:03.220 --> 00:31:24.780
<v Marlo Hunter>But also I think as someone who is really always approaches theater from a place of psychology, that piece, the depths of the psychology of it, the fact that we have access and deep access to so many characters in it, that's very unusual to get to know that many people and have it work in a narrative is amazing.
00:31:24.780 --> 00:31:27.760
<v Marlo Hunter>I mean, it's an amazing piece of theater.
00:31:27.760 --> 00:31:31.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>Well, the thing is the main character, which is everybody, has the same want, which is great too.
00:31:32.100 --> 00:31:33.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>They all have the same want.
00:31:33.140 --> 00:31:36.000
<v Marlo Hunter>And we know exactly what it is in the opening number.
00:31:37.600 --> 00:31:39.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm never going to do this, so I'm just going to give this to you.
00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:42.120
<v Peter Michael Marino>And listener, you can't do this because it's on our thing.
00:31:42.120 --> 00:31:51.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>Okay, someone needs to do a found footage movie that is basically the story of, it's a chorus line, but it's all done through found footage.
00:31:51.540 --> 00:31:57.980
<v Peter Michael Marino>So it's like all the stuff that they had recorded, where it's stuff that like, I can't figure out how it works.
00:31:57.980 --> 00:31:58.220
<v Marlo Hunter>Can they?
00:31:58.220 --> 00:31:59.020
<v Peter Michael Marino>I don't care.
00:31:59.020 --> 00:32:01.400
<v Peter Michael Marino>I don't care if it works or doesn't work.
00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:02.400
<v Peter Michael Marino>Someone has to do it.
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:03.820
<v Marlo Hunter>No, I don't mean will it work.
00:32:03.980 --> 00:32:06.760
<v Marlo Hunter>I mean, who has access to that footage?
00:32:06.760 --> 00:32:07.300
<v Marlo Hunter>There's none.
00:32:07.300 --> 00:32:11.880
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're creating a brand new movie that is done in the style of a found footage thing.
00:32:11.880 --> 00:32:12.720
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm with you now.
00:32:12.860 --> 00:32:14.400
<v Nancy Magarill>Wait, I'm so confused.
00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:14.960
<v Marlo Hunter>It's fictional.
00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:16.300
<v Marlo Hunter>It's fictionalized document.
00:32:16.300 --> 00:32:17.280
<v Marlo Hunter>It's not real.
00:32:17.280 --> 00:32:18.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>But of course.
00:32:18.800 --> 00:32:22.820
<v Peter Michael Marino>Found footage is, yeah, fictionalized documentary.
00:32:22.820 --> 00:32:27.820
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like what's a great, Blair Witch Project is a found footage movie.
00:32:27.820 --> 00:32:28.940
<v Marlo Hunter>But it's fiction.
00:32:29.020 --> 00:32:34.180
<v Peter Michael Marino>The characters all died and they found their cameras and saw what they were recording, which is perfectly edited, actually, by the way.
00:32:34.180 --> 00:32:35.780
<v Marlo Hunter>But you're saying it would be the score?
00:32:35.780 --> 00:32:36.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>It would be the chorus line?
00:32:36.580 --> 00:32:42.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>I am saying let's stick as close as you possibly can to actually the material of a chorus line.
00:32:42.100 --> 00:32:49.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>But somehow that story is told under, with the envelope, I suppose, or the framing device of it being found footage.
00:32:49.800 --> 00:32:50.640
<v Marlo Hunter>But it's a film.
00:32:50.640 --> 00:32:51.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's a film.
00:32:51.440 --> 00:32:53.360
<v Nancy Magarill>Is that a copyright issue?
00:32:53.360 --> 00:32:54.120
<v Peter Michael Marino>I don't care.
00:32:54.120 --> 00:32:55.380
<v Peter Michael Marino>I just want it to happen, Nancy.
00:32:55.880 --> 00:32:57.560
<v Marlo Hunter>He just wants it to happen.
00:32:57.560 --> 00:32:59.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>Why has no one made it happen?
00:32:59.040 --> 00:32:59.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>I don't know.
00:32:59.460 --> 00:33:02.500
<v Nancy Magarill>And it's kind of like the documentary they did in a way.
00:33:02.500 --> 00:33:04.320
<v Nancy Magarill>They did that whole...
00:33:04.320 --> 00:33:08.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>It is literally going to the estate and going, we want to do the show, but we're making it a movie.
00:33:08.780 --> 00:33:10.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>We're using every single word of dialogue.
00:33:10.780 --> 00:33:11.840
<v Marlo Hunter>I understand what you're saying.
00:33:11.840 --> 00:33:12.300
<v Marlo Hunter>I get it.
00:33:12.300 --> 00:33:13.220
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah, that's a really interesting idea.
00:33:13.220 --> 00:33:13.980
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm still not getting it.
00:33:13.980 --> 00:33:14.740
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're welcome.
00:33:15.080 --> 00:33:16.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>Nancy, I will invite you to opening night.
00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:18.460
<v Nancy Magarill>Okay.
00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:19.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>At the Ziegfeld.
00:33:19.580 --> 00:33:21.380
<v Nancy Magarill>Or maybe you can explain it to me later.
00:33:22.420 --> 00:33:25.240
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm out of my dummy attack because I'm still not seeing it.
00:33:25.240 --> 00:33:26.020
<v Peter Michael Marino>But that's okay.
00:33:27.500 --> 00:33:31.180
<v Peter Michael Marino>What are you looking forward to doing next?
00:33:31.180 --> 00:33:33.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>Because you just finished a big ass family friendly show.
00:33:33.960 --> 00:33:35.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>We don't call them kid shows anymore, people.
00:33:35.540 --> 00:33:36.480
<v Peter Michael Marino>We call them family friendly shows.
00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:37.300
<v Marlo Hunter>You're talking about Cat Kid?
00:33:37.300 --> 00:33:37.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>Cat Kid.
00:33:37.780 --> 00:33:39.020
<v Marlo Hunter>Oh, it's not finished.
00:33:39.020 --> 00:33:39.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, no, no, no.
00:33:39.780 --> 00:33:40.620
<v Nancy Magarill>What is Cat Kid?
00:33:40.620 --> 00:33:42.120
<v Peter Michael Marino>You finished directing that.
00:33:42.120 --> 00:33:44.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>It opened and now it's playing all around the country.
00:33:44.220 --> 00:33:44.920
<v Marlo Hunter>It is on a national tour.
00:33:44.920 --> 00:33:46.480
<v Peter Michael Marino>Tell Nancy and our listeners.
00:33:46.540 --> 00:33:47.380
<v Marlo Hunter>Oh, okay.
00:33:47.380 --> 00:33:50.780
<v Marlo Hunter>Cat Kid Comic Club The Musical, produced by TheatreWorks USA.
00:33:50.780 --> 00:34:01.820
<v Marlo Hunter>It's based on Dave Pilkey's best-selling series, which is an offshoot of his Dog Man series, which has also sold over 60 million copies.
00:34:01.840 --> 00:34:03.000
<v Peter Michael Marino>It is now a film.
00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:03.700
<v Marlo Hunter>Movie just came out.
00:34:03.700 --> 00:34:08.600
<v Marlo Hunter>I was at the screening last week, and my kids got to meet Dave, and that was really, really exciting.
00:34:08.600 --> 00:34:10.200
<v Marlo Hunter>Oh.
00:34:10.200 --> 00:34:15.200
<v Marlo Hunter>So Cat Kid Comic Club ran off Broadway in the summer of 23.
00:34:15.200 --> 00:34:16.200
<v Marlo Hunter>It was in New York's time.
00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:17.700
<v Marlo Hunter>New York Times Critics' Pick.
00:34:17.700 --> 00:34:19.240
<v Marlo Hunter>And now it is on national tour.
00:34:19.240 --> 00:34:22.900
<v Marlo Hunter>It's second year of a national tour, and Dave finally got to come see it.
00:34:22.900 --> 00:34:26.720
<v Marlo Hunter>So he came in January, our closing weekend at CTG in LA.
00:34:26.720 --> 00:34:32.060
<v Marlo Hunter>I flew out there, and he and his wife Sayuri came, and they saw it, and it was really, really special.
00:34:32.060 --> 00:34:37.060
<v Peter Michael Marino>What's cool too is that his designs are part of the show.
00:34:37.060 --> 00:34:51.380
<v Marlo Hunter>Yeah, and I know that our audience can't see this, but my son requested that he signed a book for my son, and my son requested, he said, I want Captain Underpants high-fiving Cat Kid, and I said, he's not a birthday balloon magician.
00:34:51.380 --> 00:34:58.400
<v Marlo Hunter>That's not what he does, but in fact, he did do it, and I'm pretty sure that it's the only picture like this in existence.
00:34:58.400 --> 00:35:00.660
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh my God, that's so wonderful.
00:35:00.660 --> 00:35:02.300
<v Peter Michael Marino>I am crying right now.
00:35:02.300 --> 00:35:04.320
<v Marlo Hunter>It's amazing, and so it's great.
00:35:04.320 --> 00:35:05.760
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, I love that.
00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:06.740
<v Marlo Hunter>But Cat Kid-
00:35:06.740 --> 00:35:08.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>Woman of the Year, Mother of the Year.
00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:11.560
<v Marlo Hunter>I know, I scored a lot of points that day.
00:35:11.580 --> 00:35:24.280
<v Marlo Hunter>But it's a really, really gorgeous piece with a really important message for parents and for children about creativity and about letting your children explore what is intuitive for them.
00:35:24.280 --> 00:35:29.040
<v Marlo Hunter>And it might not look the way you think creativity should look, but it's about perspective.
00:35:29.040 --> 00:35:31.980
<v Marlo Hunter>It's a beautiful, hilarious show.
00:35:31.980 --> 00:35:34.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>It should be required viewing for new parents, actually.
00:35:34.340 --> 00:35:35.200
<v Peter Michael Marino>I think so.
00:35:35.420 --> 00:35:37.020
<v Peter Michael Marino>Or parents who have five-year-olds.
00:35:37.020 --> 00:35:38.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>I mean, it's really, really good.
00:35:38.580 --> 00:35:45.280
<v Peter Michael Marino>You know, one thing I, you know, you're, you do, when we go back to this word frisson, you do have like a quirkiness to your stuff there.
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:49.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>You know, that, you know, you're not a hundred percent quirky, but you have a quirky thing, right?
00:35:49.240 --> 00:35:51.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>That's kind of like what I associate with you.
00:35:51.440 --> 00:35:55.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>And Cat, the Cat Kid, please say it for me.
00:35:55.460 --> 00:35:55.820
<v Marlo Hunter>Cat Kid.
00:35:55.820 --> 00:35:56.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>Comic Club.
00:35:56.440 --> 00:36:00.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>The Cat Kid show was like, it was a hundred percent quirky.
00:36:00.220 --> 00:36:03.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like you just had to accept that these things could happen.
00:36:03.320 --> 00:36:03.600
<v Marlo Hunter>Yes.
00:36:03.600 --> 00:36:04.460
<v Marlo Hunter>It's bonkers.
00:36:04.460 --> 00:36:16.720
<v Peter Michael Marino>So you got to like exercise that trait, that skill of yours, in a big way, but also your natural ability to hone in on the heart of what the thing is infiltrates the whole thing too.
00:36:16.920 --> 00:36:18.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>It is spectacular.
00:36:18.240 --> 00:36:18.460
<v Nancy Magarill>Great job.
00:36:18.460 --> 00:36:19.080
<v Marlo Hunter>Oh, thank you.
00:36:19.080 --> 00:36:20.620
<v Marlo Hunter>It's really special to me.
00:36:20.620 --> 00:36:23.460
<v Nancy Magarill>Have you thought now about doing a film of it?
00:36:23.500 --> 00:36:25.720
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, that looks like a maybe yes.
00:36:25.720 --> 00:36:31.100
<v Marlo Hunter>You know, those things are never off the table in terms of what goes on in my mind.
00:36:31.100 --> 00:36:35.860
<v Nancy Magarill>I mean, it seems like a natural fit for you that you could do a musical film like that.
00:36:36.440 --> 00:36:38.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>You know, you'd be good in that movie.
00:36:38.080 --> 00:36:39.380
<v Peter Michael Marino>I agree.
00:36:39.380 --> 00:36:40.420
<v Peter Michael Marino>Aquafina would be good.
00:36:40.420 --> 00:36:42.140
<v Nancy Magarill>I love her.
00:36:42.140 --> 00:36:43.400
<v Peter Michael Marino>She's literally writing it down.
00:36:43.400 --> 00:36:45.460
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm literally writing it down.
00:36:45.460 --> 00:36:46.700
<v Peter Michael Marino>She'd be really good in that film.
00:36:46.940 --> 00:36:48.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>Right now.
00:36:48.340 --> 00:36:52.280
<v Marlo Hunter>Pete has given me so many great ideas in my life.
00:36:52.280 --> 00:36:53.340
<v Marlo Hunter>I wrote it down.
00:36:53.340 --> 00:36:54.440
<v Marlo Hunter>It's down.
00:36:54.760 --> 00:37:03.540
<v Marlo Hunter>No, but the Dog Man movie is doing really, really well, and Scholastic has also been really supportive of the Cat Kid Musical.
00:37:03.540 --> 00:37:09.680
<v Marlo Hunter>I should say Brad Alexander is the composer, and Kevin DeLagula wrote book and lyrics, and they're an incredible team.
00:37:09.960 --> 00:37:14.880
<v Peter Michael Marino>And TheaterWorks USA is the premier producing organization in the United States.
00:37:14.880 --> 00:37:16.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>It is where I got my start.
00:37:16.500 --> 00:37:19.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>It is where I met Danny Burstein, who you're seeing tonight, Nancy.
00:37:19.900 --> 00:37:26.660
<v Peter Michael Marino>It is where I mean, I always feel like anybody who did a TheaterWorks USA show became a somebody.
00:37:26.660 --> 00:37:29.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like they knew, they always knew.
00:37:29.680 --> 00:37:31.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>I mean, this is like Jay Harnack auditioning people.
00:37:33.320 --> 00:37:35.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>They just know, they just know.
00:37:35.040 --> 00:37:36.860
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I have the greatest respect for that.
00:37:37.100 --> 00:37:37.900
<v Marlo Hunter>They are.
00:37:37.900 --> 00:37:45.100
<v Marlo Hunter>Barbara Pasternak, artistic director, has just such an, she has such an impeccable eye for development, for quality.
00:37:45.100 --> 00:37:46.760
<v Marlo Hunter>Her taste is unparalleled.
00:37:47.060 --> 00:37:52.120
<v Marlo Hunter>And I just, it's, it's been like the greatest gift of my theatrical life, honestly.
00:37:52.120 --> 00:37:55.680
<v Marlo Hunter>And I just did not anticipate that when I got that job.
00:37:55.680 --> 00:37:57.380
<v Marlo Hunter>I thought it'll be fun.
00:37:57.380 --> 00:37:57.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.
00:37:57.800 --> 00:38:03.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>And you, you will, and I'm sure you did, you will agonize over, over two lines in a song.
00:38:03.500 --> 00:38:04.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>Of course.
00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:13.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's just, it's telling the message the wrong way, or it's not, it's putting it's, it's, they, they are so meticulous, but their stuff looks so free.
00:38:13.640 --> 00:38:22.700
<v Nancy Magarill>What is, what are some of the things that you find with collaborating with writers when you're working on pieces that make it easier for you as a director?
00:38:22.700 --> 00:38:32.540
<v Marlo Hunter>When collaborators understand that they are writing for theater, which you would think when someone is writing a play or writing a musical, that they understand that they are writing for theater.
00:38:32.540 --> 00:38:37.360
<v Marlo Hunter>But oftentimes, especially new writers, they will write cinematically, right?
00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:49.540
<v Marlo Hunter>So the scene will end and the next scene will begin, and you're in a totally different place, and it's a cast of six, and there's no indication on the page, what is the transitional material?
00:38:49.540 --> 00:38:53.220
<v Marlo Hunter>What is the transitional vocabulary of the piece?
00:38:53.220 --> 00:38:55.400
<v Marlo Hunter>And oftentimes, they haven't thought about that, right?
00:38:55.400 --> 00:39:00.720
<v Marlo Hunter>So if you start working with a director early, that can be something that a director starts to have to help shape.
00:39:00.720 --> 00:39:05.260
<v Marlo Hunter>But it is always a gift when a writing team has an idea of staging.
00:39:05.260 --> 00:39:07.420
<v Marlo Hunter>And I say that with the caveat, right?
00:39:07.420 --> 00:39:13.440
<v Marlo Hunter>That not such an idea that it's so prescriptive that they are writing, this person enters stage right.
00:39:13.440 --> 00:39:14.140
<v Marlo Hunter>I don't mean that.
00:39:14.140 --> 00:39:18.560
<v Marlo Hunter>I mean that they have a sense of how their ensemble functions on a stage.
00:39:18.560 --> 00:39:27.040
<v Marlo Hunter>They have a sense of how theatrics work and how storytelling has to happen predominantly through lyric, right?
00:39:27.040 --> 00:39:29.860
<v Marlo Hunter>Through song, not a projection.
00:39:29.860 --> 00:39:35.040
<v Marlo Hunter>Like the second I see a musical script that's like, well, projections will tell us where we are.
00:39:35.040 --> 00:39:37.640
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm like, okay, you need to go back.
00:39:37.640 --> 00:39:38.580
<v Marlo Hunter>You need to go.
00:39:38.580 --> 00:39:40.280
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm not saying that there might not.
00:39:40.280 --> 00:39:42.980
<v Marlo Hunter>I'm not saying there won't be projections in the piece.
00:39:42.980 --> 00:39:49.900
<v Marlo Hunter>But if you're reliant upon it for storytelling, that tells me that maybe you're not thinking about this as a stage play.
00:39:49.900 --> 00:39:51.600
<v Nancy Magarill>And it's not telling a story.
00:39:51.600 --> 00:39:52.740
<v Marlo Hunter>It's not.
00:39:52.740 --> 00:39:54.620
<v Marlo Hunter>You want to make a movie.
00:39:54.620 --> 00:39:56.540
<v Marlo Hunter>So you can write a movie.
00:39:56.540 --> 00:40:00.680
<v Marlo Hunter>But a musical is built in a very, very specific way.
00:40:00.680 --> 00:40:06.780
<v Marlo Hunter>And even people who come from plays, it's a huge learning curve in terms of what drives story forward.
00:40:06.780 --> 00:40:07.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>I agree.
00:40:09.400 --> 00:40:11.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>Having written one.
00:40:11.520 --> 00:40:11.920
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yes.
00:40:11.920 --> 00:40:12.760
<v Marlo Hunter>A great one.
00:40:12.760 --> 00:40:13.060
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.
00:40:13.060 --> 00:40:17.420
<v Peter Michael Marino>The original director, Joe Mantello, best note I ever heard, man, aim for the song.
00:40:17.420 --> 00:40:20.060
<v Peter Michael Marino>When you were writing a scene in a musical, aim for the song.
00:40:20.100 --> 00:40:23.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>We have to, we need to, we need a reason to get aim for the song.
00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:24.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>Really, really good advice.
00:40:24.780 --> 00:40:28.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>But I have to, this might not make it onto the podcast, and we're going to wrap this up soon.
00:40:28.580 --> 00:40:41.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>But so when I wrote the script for Desperately Seeking Susan, and the director who we hired in London got the script and everything, and then we said, we like talked about set pieces and things like this.
00:40:41.040 --> 00:40:50.920
<v Peter Michael Marino>I, as you write, as a writer would write, especially in a show that takes place all over the Lower East Side of New York City, Susan travels to Love Saves the Day.
00:40:50.920 --> 00:40:54.360
<v Peter Michael Marino>Scene happens, she travels to Port Authority.
00:40:54.360 --> 00:41:00.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>She, you write, and of course I would write, you know, while humming one way or, like, I would write these transitions in.
00:41:00.640 --> 00:41:04.480
<v Peter Michael Marino>Set design comes, it's what they call travelators.
00:41:04.480 --> 00:41:12.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>Travelators are moving sidewalks at the airport, but on stage, they were used in, the original Into the Woods used them.
00:41:12.240 --> 00:41:15.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>So it's a platform with a travelator on it, and it can move around.
00:41:15.780 --> 00:41:18.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>So this actually is actually very sexy, a very good idea.
00:41:18.600 --> 00:41:19.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>Andy Blank and Buelish choreographing.
00:41:19.960 --> 00:41:21.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>This makes, this is that world.
00:41:21.240 --> 00:41:22.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>This makes sense.
00:41:22.100 --> 00:41:24.660
<v Peter Michael Marino>You know, one day I was just like, how did you ever think of the travelators?
00:41:24.660 --> 00:41:26.120
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's like, well, I mean, you did.
00:41:26.120 --> 00:41:28.740
<v Peter Michael Marino>I said, I never even heard of a travelator.
00:41:28.740 --> 00:41:32.980
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's like, well, you said Susan Travels, Roberta Travels.
00:41:32.980 --> 00:41:36.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>How else are they going to travel, but without a travelator?
00:41:36.500 --> 00:41:38.820
<v Peter Michael Marino>This is someone who's never directed a musical before.
00:41:38.820 --> 00:41:40.300
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
00:41:40.300 --> 00:41:41.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>Does this story make sense?
00:41:41.800 --> 00:41:42.860
<v Peter Michael Marino>Is this what I'm talking about, Marlo?
00:41:42.940 --> 00:41:44.900
<v Marlo Hunter>Yes, this is what you're talking about.
00:41:44.900 --> 00:41:45.580
<v Marlo Hunter>Yes.
00:41:45.580 --> 00:41:46.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>Is this what I'm talking about?
00:41:46.780 --> 00:41:47.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>This is what I'm talking about.
00:41:47.540 --> 00:41:48.740
<v Marlo Hunter>This is what you're talking about.
00:41:48.740 --> 00:41:49.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.
00:41:49.540 --> 00:41:54.700
<v Nancy Magarill>Well, maybe we need to have Marlo on every podcast so she can translate what you're talking about.
00:41:54.700 --> 00:41:55.520
<v Marlo Hunter>Me too.
00:41:55.520 --> 00:41:57.040
<v Marlo Hunter>Let me know when to be there.
00:41:57.040 --> 00:41:58.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>Hey, thanks for checking us out.
00:41:58.140 --> 00:42:00.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>Links to today's guests can be found in the show notes.
00:42:00.940 --> 00:42:05.940
<v Nancy Magarill>Don't forget to subscribe, like us, rate us, and tell all your friends about arts and craft.
