Thank You, Places!: Recent Episodes
Thank You, Places!
The curtain has dropped and the microphone is hot. Your host Ryan Durkay sits down with musical acts, actors, artists, directors, sculptors. nude models...everything arts related is on the table.
Co-Producers: Jared Robinson and Jose Cabral Theme Song by Eli Bigelow
We have the cast and crew of Gruesome Playground Injuries in to talk about their production that opens Jan 18th at Little Theatre's Firebarn.
Listen to the soundtrack referenced in the show, here!
Happy Christmas! We happy to share this fun episode with performances by
- Nick Casey
- Holly Cardoza and Brian Pereira-Coelho
- Kalee Burrows
- David Mello
and
- a reading by Ryan Durkay
- tracks from The 117 Residents
- and finish that lyric featuring Jared Robinson
Longtime children's librarian David Mello joins The 117 and just like his more recent role of the Ghost of Christmas Present, he uses magic on the guys at the pod and turns some of us into 12 year olds. David Mello is an artist who works in countless mediums and never fails to put a smile on our face. You can join David for his storytimes on Youtube by subscribing to @FallRiverLibraryOrgFRPL
We are joined by former frequenter of The 117 in those pre pod days, Director and Designer Aaron Gendreau-Visco. Aaron is directing both Scrooge and The Normal Heart for Little Theatre of Fall River this year and has recently designed the set for Rock of Ages, Guys and Dolls and Blood Brothers.
Lighting Designer Dean Palmer Jr. joins the pod on this episode and we get a little technical, but focus more on community in theatre!
New friend to the show and community, Kalee Burrows joins Ryan and Jared in The 117 to talk about community in theatre and lifting one another up. A feel good, love fest for sure.
Scrooge The Musical's Choreographer Elle Gendreau and Assistant to the Director Daniel Guay are in The 117 for this episode and you get a real sense for how much fun being on stage with them are!
After a summer of shows, we are finally back in The 117 and, just like Stella, trying to get our groove back. (ep.54)
Ccky Fck Paul E. Kandarian tells us how he went from writing into TV and Film, as well as some opinions along the way.
Co-Host of "Shootin' the Shit with Beefy and Bobbie" Ethan Lazaro chats with us about being a part of Fun Home and Rock of Ages, bar gigs, and maybe how we're doing compared to his college podcast class.
In our first virtually recorded episode, Chris Gleim joins us from NYC. Chris is a working actor who has currently been on the Radio City Christmas Spectacular for 15 years now and counting. He was also on the national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar as Peter and understudied and performed Jesus, the one time in Salt Lake City Ted Neely got sick. This is a fun one, enjoy!
Cruisin' through the Broadway news cycle. We touch on Garth, Waitress and of course, Phantom!
Producer, Artistic Director, Director, Acting Teacher, Casting Director, Life & Career Coach; but mostly, Jared's first kiss, Elyse O'Shaughnessey is visiting from Amsterdam and talks about running Orange Theatre Company of Amsterdam along with so much more! Orange Theatre Company (OTC) is the leading English speaking theatre company in Amsterdam, producing a full season of 3 English language plays throughout the year. OTC provides the Dutch and international community with regular opportunities to connect in a culturally relevant way.
In this episode, we talk about why we haven't been posting as much as we'd like to. This leads to a Guys and Dolls recap and a Fun Home preview.
Resident Music Director at Stadium Theatre Performing Arts Centre & Conservatory Alex Tirrell visits The 117 to talk about his favorite shows, his time with Stadium and of course Journey. And people, we have to get him back on stage!
Musician, Actor, retired teacher, and Uncle to Jared - Dennis Robinson is in The 117 and we have fun chatting about his professional and local work.
Monday nights are hard for us to record because we are all tired from the day and go on some tangents. This is all I could muster to put you through!
We were excited to get to experience Halley's Comet for the first time! Hear us chat about initial thoughts!
Ryan chats about his first audition post-pandemic and asks the guys for their takes on audition for friends vs strangers.
The guys go over the pod's year end wrapped from Spotify and talk about their own as well. We get into listening habits and things that could mess with your algorithm!
We sometimes go off on a tangent. This is one of those times when we all shared a Richard Kind story - well, Jared talks about Alfred Molina and Paul Reiser.
They are still here. We hear two more songs from the show and Mikey is put on the hot seat for the quick change!
The creative team for Halley's Comey: A New Musical is in The 117 today to discuss their project. Where it's been and what's coming up next!
Hocus Pocus the musical is pressing forward, completely disregarding our claim to dibs...so, Ryan decided to cast it. We also talk about how Blood Brothers ended.
Singer, Dancer, fitness fanatic, travel lover, foodie, volunteer and patiently waiting for her next big role, Mom. Jillian comes on the pod and makes us all feel lazy while still lifting our moods. A must listen - we can't wait to have her back!
Steven Manchester is in The 117 today and what an experience it is. With Joe out to illness, we are able to talk to Steve about his process, experiences and so much more. The author of four #1 national bestsellers: Twelve Months, The Rockin' Chair, Pressed Pennies and Gooseberry Island; Steve chats about his time in the Gulf War and his love for evoking emotion from a reader. After you listen, visit StevenManchester.com to order one of his dozen and a half books!
After joking about understudying for every role for all shows to get more stage time, our Joe Cabral is jumping into a lead role in Blood Brothers the musical at the Little Theatre of Fall River. 10 days from getting a script to opening night, we chat about nerves, process and the enormity of the situation!
Little Theatre of Fall River is a 501 c3 non-profit that was established in 1935 and has been running continuously ever since. Erin Cote first performed with the organization when she was 7 years old and has been a staple with the organization since then, 15 -25 years ago, depending on whose math you are using.
This one hits the ground running. Our longest recording session yet could have been another 3 hours long if we would have allowed it. We cut it down to the highlights for you. We hope you enjoy!
Hailing from the state of Rhode Island, Nick Casey has been performing regularly throughout the Northeast. We discuss good country, slinging drinks with Ryan, and wise words from Nick's dad. Nick is also kind enough to play 2 songs for us, live in studio! Enjoy this show!
Does a draft really happen if you don't breakdown and critique every decision? Nope! Who had the best overall cast? Who had the best picks for each role? and more!
We've decided to bring Forgetting Sarah Marshall to the stage because...we have time to fill and enough memory on the laptop - Ha! We want to get on board with all of the Fantasy Draft fever and thought to ourselves, you know what might be better than picking real players for a team that doesn't really exist to play in a game that isn't really happening? Let's hold a draft to pick a cast for a show where we have no way to judge who really wins! Enjoy!
Ryan shares information about the upcoming Broadway Week(s) and all participating productions. He also shares information about Trinity Rep having auditions for A Christmas Carol...did someone say Christmas? We may go off on a tangent.
Pam got a callback to The 117 from Ryan and wanted to add Seth Chitwood to the conversation. They cover short films, festivals, getting back to the stage and Seth's interesting career writing for both The Standard Times and on numerous projects with Pam and even his own series that is on Amazon!
We tell our pal Jared about Paradise Square Producer Garth Drabinsky and how he ended up the unions Do Not Work List.
Ryan invites friend and longtime Jared babysitter Matt Morin to the pod this week to talk about everything from film festivals to Cats! Matt is an instructor at New England Tech. and can be found helping local community theatres with projections, filming productions or even on stage from time to time.
You can't discuss Broadway without talking about TV and Movies that have been adapted for the stage. Some Broadway classics are adaptations: The Lion King, Little Shop of Horrors and Les Miserables. We are suggesting some things we'd like to see put on the stage, like Alien Vs Predator...obviously.
Roberto Soares is in studio to promote Little Theatre of Fall River's The Fantasticks, opening August 18th. We talk mishaps, personality traits, reviews and more. --- Get that kid a bucket!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6vYVM2XAUOiyaPPRO1rZH1?si=5050968140264be2
Listen along to our Top 5's and honorable mentions at the link above!
Yippity Bippity! Holly Cardoza is in The 117 to promote The Company Theatre's Hair and we take some detours along the way.
Vanessa Medeiros drops into The 117 to talk about going from Catholic School Basketball to touring the globe with The Portuguese Kids. We...are all over the place in this one. Enjoy!
This is the correct version of the episode we meant to post today. But, Pat Taylor is still a thug!
It wouldn't be a proper minisode unless we speak at length about a topic we are poorly prepared for. The Tony Awards are days away and we make predictions with the skill and precision of a drunk cousin throwing darts in a bar, blindfolded.
The Least Influential Man in Community Theatre joins us as we talk about the Spring Awakening doc on HBOMax. Did he watch it? No. Did we ask him too? Nope.
The brains and hands behind the Thank You, Places theme song, Eli Bigelow is in the house for this episode and things get...scattered. We read through an original work by a 14 year old Jared Robinson and it's such a hit that Ryan didn't even bring up his adopted baby "Annie, Too, 3."
This week's minisode has us discussing the new Providence Performing Arts Center season!
We are excited to sit down with Pam and discuss her career in television, film and it's obvious apex, on-stage with Ryan. Visit PamelaJayneMorgan.com to see more about Pam and her career!
“Pamela Jayne Morgan’s Marnie is quite possibly the best character despite limited screen time. There’s just something about her old school Hollywood vibe that’s electric onscreen and her relationship with Marvin is played to perfection.”
–Jeremie Sabourin, cinemasmack.com
This week we discuss what is coming to the area, including productions from Little Theatre of Fall River, Your Theatre, Inc, Theatre by the Sea, Goodspeed Opera House and we even talk about an upcoming episode chatting about the Spring Awakening doc on HBO!
Ryan brings "his" big idea back up to playwright Cam Torres about Annie 2 (which we have now learned would actually be Annie 3) but that is only after some great conversation regarding the state of the industry, what a younger audience demands, and we learn that life is hard out there for a freelance playwright.
The original concept for Thank You, Places was quick 15 minute pods where we just chat about the arts for a quarter of an hour, but we realized that we are very long winded and 15 minutes divided by 3 people and a guest does not lead to hearing our voices as much as we need. This is the first 15 minute mini-sode and we hope to make them a regular occurrence. They will be bulletin boards for local auditions and productions or just another reason for us to record for what ever reason we give ya during the episode.
Ryan seems to think that "the people" (that's you), are clamoring to meet and hear more from The Producers. No, not the the smash Broadway show, the people who bring you the show and chime in here and there, Jared Robinson and Jose Cabral. They discuss how they each got into the arts and their March Madness style Top 4 shows. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Ryan talks to the original Show Ho, Jeff Belanger about acting, dancing, skating, directing, horror stories and takes Jeff's Oscar predictions! We also get Jeff and Ryan's take on Jose's experience watching the touring production of Oklahoma.
This show was produced by Jared Robinson and Jose Cabral from 117 Studios.
The title track, Thank You, Places Theme, was written and recorded by Eli Bigelow.
This weeks quick change bed was Countdown by Alexander Nakarada.
Ryan Durkay sits down with two cast members, Emily Gene Fleet and Sean LaFontaine, from a local production of Ken Ludwig's Baskerville A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. They get into playing multiple characters in a show and holiday movie classics. Thank You Places is hosted by Ryan Durkay and co-produced by Jared Robinson and Jose Cabral. The theme song was written and performed by Eli Bigelow.