The Ensemblist
The Ensemblist is the online advocate for the talent artists working in theatre ensembles. Through our podcast, website and social presence we are creating conversation what it means to be a successful artist in the theatre. Each of our miniseries highlights a conversation that effects performers in Broadway ensembles, with experts on the topic sharing their insights in candid interviews. The Ensemblist podcast has more than 1.5 million podcast downloads and was recently named one of the Top 50 Best Selling Performing Arts Podcasts of all time.
Episodes
November 7, 2020 • 24 mins
There isn’t a theatre choreographer more associated with their own unique style than Bob Fosse. The infamous Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning director and choreographer created his own signature technique that distinguished shows like Chicago, Pippin, and Damn Yankees into dance masterpieces. This April, FX launches a new limited television series Fosse/Verdon, based on the 2013 biography by Sam Wesson with a focus on his marriage an...
Mark as Played
November 6, 2020 • 24 mins
There isn’t a theatre choreographer more associated with their own unique style than Bob Fosse. The infamous Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning director and choreographer created his own signature technique that distinguished shows like Chicago, Pippin, and Damn Yankees into dance masterpieces. This April, FX launches a new limited television series Fosse/Verdon, based on the 2013 biography by Sam Wesson with a focus on his marriage an...
Mark as Played
November 5, 2020 • 15 mins
Today we chat with Salisha Thomas, a five-year veteran of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical about her new podcast: Black Hair in the Big Leagues. We discuss the dressing room stories her interviews feature and why hair is such an important part of her story.
Listen to Black Hair in the Big Leagues here: https://broadwaypodcastnetwork.com/podcast/black-hair-in-the-big-leagues/
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Mark as Played
November 4, 2020 • 20 mins
A Chorus Line changed everything. It’s a statement theatre lovers have heard time and again. But until this exploration into the proliferation of the line as a theatrical device in musical theatre, I never really understood the depth of what A Chorus Line changed.
For the layman, it was the first time in years that a Broadway musical reached the greater cultural conversation. Musical theatre had drifted from the zeitgeist after dec...
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November 3, 2020 • 26 mins
“Life is a Cabaret” premiered on April 9th, 2019. It was written by Steven Levenson, and directed by Thomas Kail; uniquely for this episode, the show credited Both Mssrs. Levenson and Kail with creating the story, but only one of them for writing the actual teleplay. The two group numbers we saw, “Mein Herr” and “Big Spender,” were both originally choreographed by Bob Fosse, but were reconstructed by Valarie Pettiford and Dana Moor...
Mark as Played
November 2, 2020 • 22 mins
It is November 2nd. That means that TOMORROW is November 3rd, the day that we’ve all been waiting for...the election. In the past few months, we’ve been able to speak with so many incredible artists who are fighting the good fight, and it has been my biggest motivator. Today, with only one day left, I wanted to check back in with some of these brilliant people and see what they’ve accomplished. Stay tuned!
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Mark as Played
October 30, 2020 • 18 mins
Over the years, The Ensemblist has had the privilege of sharing personal stories from hundreds of theatre actors on our blog. In this edition, we spoke with Chicago’s Barrett Martin, who gave us an awe-inspiring testimony of his continental RV roadtrip with his wife and son.
This last summer over the course of just 28 days, Barrett and his family explored an astounding 6,200-plus miles, crossing through 15 states and more than five...
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October 29, 2020 • 11 mins
Over the years, The Ensemblist has had the privilege of sharing personal stories from hundreds of theatre actors on our blog. In this edition, we spoke with Myles McHale of Mean Girls, who recalled a seemingly innocuous wrist injury a year prior that would take him out of the production for six whole months.
In the days and weeks leading up to Myles return to rehearsals, Broadway shut down in the second week of March, sidelining n...
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October 28, 2020 • 23 mins
In my exploration of “the line” and its impact on musical theatre, I wanted to learn more about its use in Hamilton, I reached out to a friend and colleague who has intimate knowledge of the show’s staging. Stephanie Klemons is a noted mover and shaker in the theatre industry, known for her work onstage and off. But her most impressive title is that of Global Dance Supervisor for Hamilton: An American Musical.
Steph was in the roo...
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October 27, 2020 • 15 mins
This fall, we're starting a new collaboration with our friends at Built for the Stage. They've launched a new community for specifically for college students, called Built for the Stage University. One of the benefits of membership is access to personal Q&As with theatre professionals. Today, we are sharing excerpts from our first BFTSU Q&A with Christine Cornish Smith, a grad of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and...
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Today, we remember the life and career of Doreen Montalvo. An ensemblist legend, she created the role of the Bolero Singer in In The Heights and was also an original company member of On Your Feet! Most recently, she created the role of Janet Lundy in Mrs. Doubtfire The Musical. We are honored to share memories and tributes from some of Doreen's friends and colleagues: Jocelyn Bioh, Natalie Caruncho, Linedy Genao, Analise Scarp...
Mark as Played
October 23, 2020 • 30 mins
The 30th Annual Tony Awards were held at the Shubert Theatre, current home of A Chorus Line. As opposed to the usual June ceremonies we are used to, the ceremony took place in April 18, 1976 and broadcast by ABC television. The show featured six hosts, including Richard Burton and Jane Fonda It should be noted that while revivals of My Fair Lady and Hello, Dolly! (featuring Pearl Bailey) ran this season, there was no category for B...
Mark as Played
October 22, 2020 • 20 mins
“Write what you know. All I know is, I don’t know what to write or the right way to write it”. How many of us have started to write an instagram story, a tweet, or tried to talk to family members about the state of the world and have had no idea how to start? This week, I spoke with artists who have figured out what to write, and right way to write it by sending letters to prospective voters all around the country.
Learn more abou...
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October 21, 2020 • 18 mins
For theatre lovers of a certain age… my age… it’s impossible to think about a line onstage without thinking about Rent. The 90s musical which transposes the story of the opera La Boheme onto New York’s Lower East Side is a touchstone for many theatre lovers who grew up at the end of the millennium.
Like A Chorus Line before it, and Hamilton after it, the show was a cultural phenomenon whose impact reached far outside a typical Broa...
Mark as Played
October 20, 2020 • 30 mins
The 30th Annual Tony Awards were held at the Shubert Theatre, current home of A Chorus Line. As opposed to the usual June ceremonies we are used to, the ceremony took place in April 18, 1976 and broadcast by ABC television. The show featured six hosts, including Richard Burton and Jane Fonda It should be noted that while revivals of My Fair Lady and Hello, Dolly! (featuring Pearl Bailey) ran this season, there was no category for B...
Mark as Played
October 19, 2020 • 13 mins
Since March, we've been sharing stories of actors moving out of Broadway theaters - sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. But today we share a story from Natalie Charle Ellis, who as an original cast member of School of Rock and Beetlejuice moved out of the Winter Garden Theatre after five years in the building.
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October 16, 2020 • 32 mins
The 58th Annual Tony Awards were held June 6, 2004 at Radio City Music Hall with Hugh Jackman as the host, also a nominee this year for portraying fellow Aussie Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz. Leading the pack this year was Ozian juggernaut Wicked with 10 nominations, followed by six for Avenue Q, five for The Boy From Oz and six for Caroline, or Change. In a rare year where four productions were nominated for Best Revival of a Mus...
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October 15, 2020 • 20 mins
Just after the 2020 Tony Award Nominations were announced, I chatted with Mary Dina (host of BPN's Page to Stage podcast) about our reactions to the nominees: our co-signs, surprises and snubs.
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October 14, 2020 • 15 mins
In this exploration of the history of musical theatre through one of its most effective devices, I wanted to bring along one of our artforms most knowledgeable and personable historians. Jennifer Ashley Tepper is a theatrical icon of her own, most notably for authoring her book series “The Untold Stories of Broadway.” But she’s also a proverbial vault of theatre history, recognizing the connective tissues of musical theatre in ways...
Mark as Played
October 13, 2020 • 30 mins
The 58th Annual Tony Awards were held June 6, 2004 at Radio City Music Hall with Hugh Jackman as the host, also a nominee this year for portraying fellow Aussie Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz. Leading the pack this year was Ozian juggernaut Wicked with 10 nominations, followed by six for Avenue Q, five for The Boy From Oz and six for Caroline, or Change. In a rare year where four productions were nominated for Best Revival of a Mus...
Mark as Played
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