January 22, 2025 • 43 mins
Lina welcomes actor, Michael J. Underhill!
Michael’s career spans from his extensive training at the University of San Diego and the Old Globe Shiley Actor Training Program to his impactful contributions in making theater accessible. Michael shares his insights on the craft of acting, emphasizing the importance of routine, mental preparation, and physical warm-ups that help him stay present on stage. He also opens up about his bold move from Boston to San Diego, where he spent five days driving across the country to pursue professional growth. From his work with the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company to his relocation for new opportunities, Michael’s dedication to theater shines through. Tune in for a deeper understanding of acting and the intricate mental and physical practices that fuel success on stage. Whether you’re an aspiring actor or a theater enthusiast, this conversation is packed with valuable tips and inspiration!
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#Theater #ActingCraft #ActorLife #PerformingArts #MichaelUnderhill #TheaterProfessionals
The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:53 - Introduction to Michael Underhill
00:02:41 - Michael's Journey into Acting
00:08:53 - Acting Experience with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
00:10:36 - Transition to San Diego and Graduate Program
00:14:57 - Overcoming Stage Fright
00:18:11 - Embracing Collaborative Arts
00:20:05 - Fun Behind the Scenes
00:22:59 - Importance of Intimacy Coordination
00:29:46 - Preparation Rituals
00:30:31 - Establishing a Daily Routine
00:32:09 - Importance of Visualizing the Play
00:36:23 - Defining Success and Finding Fulfillment
00:37:21 - Future Plans and Moving to New York
00:40:34 - The Candyman Superhero
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:01):
Olas Media.
S2 (00:03):
Mixed grounds is proud to present. I Just wanted to
Push Record celebrating arts, community and culture, part of the
Olas Media Network.
S3 (00:23):
Welcome to. I just wanted to push Record, a producers
podcast where lifestyle, arts, community, culture and production meet two producers,
two cultures, and a whole lot of flavor. Join hosts
Lina and JC for fun conversations, cool interviews, sharing tips,
laughing through production hiccups, and celebrating the art of it all.
(00:45):
Ready to roll? It all starts with pushing record.
S2 (00:53):
All right, well welcome everybody. I just wanted to push
record a producer's podcast, and I'm very thrilled to have
a very special guest today. With me is Michael Underhill.
Michael is an incredible, talented actor and artist associated with
the Old Globe. He has a remarkable background that spans
(01:17):
various artistic endeavors, and I had the pleasure of meeting
Michael at Invictus because I went, so, okay, you guys
need to listen to this. So I my husband is
physical therapist, right? And then he's like, okay, you need
to work out. You need to, you know, get better.
I'm like, okay, I'm going. So he has the clinic
(01:40):
where he works at is at Invictus. And I was like,
oh my gosh, Invictus. Like, that's the place where like
all these, you know, big people and like, it's like
it's so okay. No, I'm scared now. So I went
and then I got to meet him like the owner
I think is the owner. Right? And then I was like, okay,
I'm going to take some classes and then guess what?
(02:03):
Michael was my coach. So it was super great. And
then we got we got to talk and then with
my husband too, like he was introducing me to him.
And then we were like, all right. Like, okay, Michael
is an actor. And I'm like, what? Where? So as
a person that loved arts, music, theater and all that stuff,
(02:25):
I was very interested to know more. So I even
went to watch him in different plays. And this, this
was super exciting. But I don't want to spoil you guys.
I want Michael to tell us about himself. Where is
he from? Like what's everything, you know? So, Michael, thank
(02:47):
you so much for being here today.
S4 (02:48):
Thank you for having me. And thank you for coming
to class as well. It was so great to meet
you in that environment. And my other part of my
other life as a coach as well as actor. Uh,
but yeah, so I guess, I mean, I've been doing
primarily theater for almost all of my life. Uh, I
did it in high school. I think my first well,
(03:11):
my first play was in second grade. I was, uh,
in Annie Get Your Gun musical, and then I took
a five year hiatus because, you know, that was. It
was a lot to do a musical in second grade.
So then I came back to it when I was
in seventh grade and the high school musicals. And I
had a great, uh, teacher in the high school who
(03:31):
was John Quinn, who really, I mean, I think for
anyone who is invested in the arts and interested in
the arts, having, uh, folks who can support that endeavor, um,
and for me, being in a public school, that was
the only outlet that I had. You know, I came
from a family of folks who are businessmen, sales, retail, accountants.
(03:53):
There were no artists, actors in my family, you know,
so I, I didn't really know what a life in
acting or theater was or that it could even be
a job or a career or anything like that. So
I'm super thankful to to my school and to Mr.
Quinn for, for, you know, supporting that to my parents
(04:15):
for supporting that. And I originally applied to my undergrad
program at northeastern as a political science major, because that
felt like that's something logical to go to school for.
S2 (04:29):
Something that you'll make money.
S4 (04:31):
Yeah. Make money. Well, yeah. I don't even know if
that's something you would make money. But I was like,
I want to make a difference in the world. And
that that seems like the place to do it. And
almost immediately after getting into school, I called and was like,
can I transfer to the theater program and kind of
made a deal with myself that I'm going to do
this as long as the world will let me and
(04:52):
let me just pursue this, because I don't, you know,
I don't I don't know what it what it entails
or not. So, uh, so yeah. So that's kind of
where it started. And I, you know, I went to
school at northeastern and got good training there. And I
really formative experience for me in my career, both as
(05:16):
a human but also as an actor. And the things
I'm interested in was one of the first professional things
I did outside of school, which was, uh, apprenticeship with
a company called Commonwealth Shakespeare and, uh, Boston and they.
S2 (05:30):
Oh, Boston. Yes.
S4 (05:31):
So that's where I grew up. Okay.
S2 (05:33):
Yes. Okay.
S4 (05:34):
And, uh, so Commonwealth Shakespeare Company produces a every summer
a Shakespeare play in the Boston Common, which is the
big open park. So there's no ticketing for the show.
There's no, you know, cost for it. It's just if
you want to come see free, it's free for the public.
S2 (05:53):
Yeah.
S4 (05:53):
And so, you know, they get anywhere from two, three, four,
5000 people a night that show up to these shows. Crazy. Yeah.
So that was like, my first professional experience was being
on stage as officer one. Soldier two but in front of,
you know, 4000 people who were showing up just to
(06:13):
see Shakespeare because it was being made accessible to them,
it was available to them. It wasn't exclusively priced. It
wasn't in this dark room that doesn't isn't very welcoming.
It was it was in a place that was for them.
And ever since then, I have held that in the
back of my mind of how do I continue to
(06:35):
create that sense in some way, shape or form? How
can I continue to make theater arts accessible to folks?
Because that was one of the first places that I
was also introduced to it.
S2 (06:47):
Wow, this is amazing. And just like traveling. You know,
in my mind, trying to picture that moment. And that's
just amazing. How did you feel at that moment? Like, oh,
I think I will be like super scared. But then
also like the excitement of being part of such a
big thing. Yeah.
S4 (07:06):
It's it's overwhelming. I mean, to, to walk out and
just see a wave of people that just just stretches
back from where the stage is out and beyond. And,
you know, the way they have the mic set up,
you can just hear your voice being carried out across
the common, bouncing off the walls or on Tremont Street.
And the thing that I definitely will never forget and
(07:30):
remember is the when the audience of that size all
laughs together. Yeah. And you can almost hear the wave
of laughter as it starts, starts in the front and
comes back and, and that kind of energy feedback from
an audience is.
S2 (07:44):
Wow.
S4 (07:45):
You know, and these are Shakespeare shows. They're 2.5 hours long,
but people are out there with their picnics and they're
all engaged that full time, and they're.
S2 (07:54):
Already ready for it because they know what to expect.
Like it's going to be long, but I know I'm
going to enjoy this.
S4 (08:00):
And they start showing up hours before, you know, like
because like because it's again, it's no tickets, no assigned seats.
So you get there when you want to set up your,
you know, your little picnic, your little small low chairs.
And so we're at their like they get there before
most of the people some days where because we don't,
we only show up a half hour or an hour
before the show.
S2 (08:20):
Wow, that is amazing.
S4 (08:21):
2 or 3 hours before.
S2 (08:22):
That makes me like, whew, it's so exciting. You know,
as a person that loves arts and all that stuff,
it's just I cannot imagine that feeling and that fulfillment, right?
S4 (08:32):
No, it's it's an incredibly special, uh, organization and event.
And I've been lucky enough since that first year to
work with them, you know, 5 or 6 times and
will continue to as long as they ask me back
because it's it's and I and I talk that up
all the time to people who say like if you
ever get a chance, this is like the most special experience.
S2 (08:52):
To do it. That's amazing Michael, thanks for sharing that.
So okay. You're from Boston, right? What brought you to
San Diego?
S4 (09:01):
So I came out. So I lived, uh, almost exclusively
in Boston for the first 34 years of my life.
And I coming out of the pandemic and was looking for,
you know, I had been acting for, you know, 12
years outside of, uh, undergrad and felt like I had
(09:22):
reached sort of a plateau of that current part of
my career and being in Boston. And I had always
had in the back of my mind of getting my
graduate degree, getting my master's in fine arts for acting,
and had never just seen the moment to to to
go for it, to take that risk of step away
from the professionals, to go back to school, to to
(09:45):
step out of the professional world and go back into
the training laboratory. And I went through actually a couple
years of, um, auditioning for programs, either getting called back
and ultimately not accepted. And so this last time, this
last time around, it was my third year auditioning. I
was like, okay, this is the last sort of go
(10:07):
for it. We'll see what happens. And I was very
fortunate enough to be accepted by one of my top
two programs that I was interested in as the University
of San Diego and Old Globe, you know, uh, shyly
actor training program. And it's a two year program, very intensive.
And it brought me out here to from Boston to
(10:28):
San Diego. I drove all the way across by myself.
Took five days to do it, you know, before I
had to show up with all my stuff packed in
my car. And, yeah, that's where I've been the last
two years to complete my master's degree, which I just
finished about two months ago. Uh, officially.
S2 (10:45):
Congratulations. That's amazing.
S4 (10:48):
Yeah, and I've been telling people it's it's two years
is not a long time, but, uh, the intensity of
the program I think about, it's hard for me to
imagine the time before I started this program. It's because
it's been such a present. Yes. Experience of just being 50,
60 hours a week, training, rehearsing, performing as well, doing
(11:13):
that all. And it goes pretty much 11 months of
the year that you're in school, in classes and training.
S2 (11:19):
That is crazy. Like, I mean, it always amazed me
to like the the ability of actors, you know, that
they have for remembering everything in what exact moment everything
is happening, what to say like and how to get
out if you don't say it right. Yeah. The right thing.
S4 (11:41):
Oh, absolutely. A muscle, a muscle that you like. Like anything,
like a muscle. The more reps you get with something,
the stronger those muscles become. And it's. I feel like
I've gotten very good at learning things quickly and forgetting
things quickly. So the day after a show or something
is done that I don't need it anymore flushes right out.
I don't need it anymore. So it's just like, make
(12:03):
more space in that, you know?
S2 (12:05):
Uh, that is a really good point because I never
saw I never saw it like that, you know, because
it's like, yes, you have to have that ability to
to forget quickly to, you know, get something new.
S4 (12:17):
To move on.
S2 (12:17):
Yeah. Right. Wow. Yeah. Because we are we are as humans.
We are like have it, you know.
S4 (12:23):
We've got it. We've got a seat. We've got a ceiling.
We've got like a limit on the amount of things
that we can store and focus on at any given point.
And yeah, so when you're working on contracts for eight
weeks at a time, you get really good at and
that's personal relationships as well. You get to know people
really well really quickly, and then they're out of your life.
(12:43):
And you know, it's not that you don't miss them,
but you know that you'll see them again at some point.
But these these relationships are going to be transient. They're
going to be moving very quickly in and out.
S2 (12:53):
Definitely. So, uh, do you have any memorable moments, you know,
from acting or funny moments that you say, like, I
will never forget this.
S4 (13:07):
Uh, I mean, there's there's so, so many. I think, um,
there was a play I was doing with a group
called Imaginary Beasts, and they, uh, the director of this,
this program I worked very closely with for five years,
and it was Matthew Woods. And he would work with, uh,
either familiar playwrights and their unknown plays or unknown playwrights. Uh,
(13:32):
and he wanted to, like, bring unfamiliar work and not
just recreate the things that everyone is doing. And so
there's this playwright and writer who's a British woman, Angela Carter,
and she writes in a very heightened language. It's very
similar to Shakespeare in a lot of ways. It's very poetic,
very lyrical. And I had this line that it was,
there is something numinous about crossing a bridge by bike
(13:58):
at moonlight. And this word numinous is something that's very
it's not something we use every day. And I was
sitting there and my whole bit was I was like
sitting on stage pretending to ride a bike while I
was doing this. All this happening around. And I come
up to this line and there's something and I just
totally forgot my line. I just, I was like, blank.
(14:19):
And this happens all the time. But this particular one,
I was like, what is this line? What is this line?
And so I have to keep keep it going. We
are in front of an audience. So the line that
comes up for me is that there's something cool, which
is not exactly what I think Angela Carter wanted to
(14:40):
be expressed in that moment. But for me, in that
moment was what came up first, to just keep pushing through.
And I think I've gotten better at covering since then.
But that one, that is one particular one that I
will never forget about, you know, dropping a line or
forgetting a line.
S2 (14:57):
Yeah. And it's like, what do I do now? All
the people looking at me, asking me to.
S4 (15:02):
Keep going, you just got to say something.
S2 (15:04):
So you gotta say something and then just keep going
and people waiting for you, okay? What's he going to say? Right.
We already know what we had to do, but what's
he going to do? Yeah.
S4 (15:14):
And honestly, you know, no one there I think was
in Angela Carter, you know, expert. So I don't think
anybody was reading the script before coming in for that show.
So nobody knew. But I knew I knew, yes.
S2 (15:24):
And that's the problem. Like ourselves, we are the most
critical people. Right. And something that normally that we do
is like, okay, I did it wrong. And people are like, yeah,
not really. Like I didn't see it.
S4 (15:39):
I don't know. I have no idea. Yeah. You're like,
I was thinking about that for three weeks afterwards, and
you're like, nobody. Nobody was even thinking about it.
S2 (15:46):
Yeah, exactly. Well, yeah, that's that's funny. But I guess
this is something that happens. All the artists, you know, like,
you always going to have something, you know, that you're
going to forget or that you're not going to do
or how you're supposed to, or in the perfect timing.
So yeah, definitely. I cannot imagine that. Yeah.
S4 (16:07):
It's I mean, it's such an interesting, uh, you know,
pursuit as, as an artist, I think theater is one
that I think I've always been drawn to because it
is so collaborative. I'm always impressed by folks who are
in more individually, uh, driven pursuits as far as, like,
writing or, uh, writing music or, you know, painting or
(16:32):
things like that, that it truly is. You are with
yourself so much. And we do that as actors, for sure.
we need to bring ourselves, but I get the benefit
of having another human to engage with, do all the
work with myself, but then have some feedback loop for it,
and then have an audience that's there as well. I
think that's part of the thing that really makes it, uh,
(16:53):
alive for me. But I have such respect for the
folks who can be with themselves and write and play and, um,
be so at peace with themselves in that because because
I think a huge reason I was driven into the
arts and theater and those collaborative arts is because I
was craving that, that interaction and sort of running away
(17:16):
from the time just with myself, you know, and wanting to,
to have that feedback loop.
S2 (17:21):
Yeah, definitely. That's, it's and that's such a good thing
to say. Like, and you know, I'm a performer myself too.
I dance, I sing, and I always hear this like, okay,
you're there in front of the audience, right? Showing yourself
just you and what's your instrument, your voice, your body.
(17:43):
And that's like really hard, right? Really hard to share,
really hard to get out of your mind and just
show that that you want to express and make the
other people feel. So yes, that's that's amazing. And, um,
so I wonder, for example, when, you know, in all
these classes that you have and this preparation, you guys
(18:06):
have like dance and music and all that, do you
sing to?
S4 (18:11):
I do sing, it's not, not my forte for sure,
but I've done a lot more singing since being in
this graduate program, which has actually been a huge, uh,
bonus for me. Wow. I've gotten to train that muscle. Yeah,
a bit more and feel more comfortable with it now
that I'm getting a chance to to do it more often.
S2 (18:32):
That's nice. It's like singing and. Okay, let me tell
you guys, I saw the play, um, Henry the Sixth.
And let me tell you, there is a scene where
they're all dancing. And then there was Michael, such a
great dancer. I was like, wow, okay, let me. Can
(18:54):
I film this? That was amazing.
S4 (18:59):
That was very fun. That was I have to credit Chelsea,
who was our choreographer for that show. Um, and again,
speaking of like, uh, collaboration, she, she created this environment
of getting everybody in the cast to move and creating, uh, movement,
sort of inspiration, and then pulling from everybody's pieces to,
(19:20):
to create that dance. It wasn't just, oh, she sat
there and was like, this is exactly how we're going
to do it. And I think it really, uh, enabled
everyone to feel comfortable with it.
S2 (19:30):
It was it was amazing. Like, I think that was
one of my favorite scenes of the play. Like, it's
just everyone was doing something different. Everyone was dancing different,
and it was just the lighting, the music, the you know,
the feeling. I was like, I wasn't expecting this in
a Shakespeare play, you know? But it was super fun.
(19:51):
That was I was amazing. Yeah. I love I love
watching Michael in the plays. Every time I know that
he's there, I'm like, okay, we're going, we're going to
watch and support. So this is this is super great. Um,
can you share with us any behind the scenes or
any secrets? Um, uh.
S4 (20:12):
Theater? Well, I think, I mean, it's.
S2 (20:15):
Like something that the aliens might not think about.
S4 (20:18):
Well, I think it's it depends on every show. Every
show kind of has its own flavor and own vibe.
And like I said, you know, you you get three
and a half weeks to work with folks and, you know,
maybe four weeks of performance. So every time there's a
new element, it creates a different, uh, sense of of
(20:42):
community backstage and some, you know, some shows. And again,
depending on what the content of the shows is, sometimes,
you know, there people need to kind of be in
their own space and just be very serious and focused. Um,
but other times there's uh, even I would say even
in serious plays, like having the backstage, you might think that,
(21:03):
like in an incredibly serious, like tragedy, like, like Henry
thinks that like it's very somber backstage that, you know,
that people aren't, uh, going to joke around or kid
around because we're doing something very serious. And no, it's actually,
in fact, that when we go offstage, we are our
own outlets from that, like seriousness on stage. So I
(21:24):
would say that's often where more of the sort of, uh,
games and trickery or just joking is happening. Backstage is
during the really serious shows. Um, and you know, I think, uh,
what one game we've played, which is just fun. So
you'll you'll get actors in on this, you'll get the
(21:45):
stage crew in on this. Um, sound is just throughout
the run of a play. One night, someone might say, okay,
from the text of the play, we're looking for the
best racehorse name. So you're just then you just go
kind of go in through the play, listening to all
the lines, and anything that comes up during the show
(22:07):
is like, oh, could that be a racehorse name? And
then you go tell somebody, see if it's like, is
that one? Is that a good one? No. Okay. And
then you sort of keep track of who comes up
with the best racehorse name from the text of the
play as you go through. And, um, you know, there's
every night there's sort of different, uh, games like that.
There might be like, little talismans, like, uh, like, uh,
(22:27):
one of our cast members had a, uh, would bring
in a different, like, just little animal toy. It would just,
it would just be passed around to different cast members
that would put it in their pocket. And then after
one scene, they would pass it to somebody else to
hold on to. So there's just like these, these like
I would say, just games and things creating a sense
of play backstage, uh, that keeps it, keeps it, you know,
(22:51):
fun and interesting and.
S2 (22:53):
And do you think it helps like also to lower
the tension and the, you know. Absolutely.
S4 (22:58):
Yeah.
S2 (22:59):
Yeah. Sense of like we need to be very strict,
but then it's like, but there is a game, you know.
S4 (23:03):
There's a game. Yeah. It keeps it alive. And then
you know. And then I think it helps that once
you go on stage that laser focus turns on. Right.
It's like, yeah, we're joking joking, joking. But now I
got to go. Yeah. And, uh, and keeping that moment
of coming on stage, uh, alive and, and I think
it helps us also just stay connected with each other
(23:23):
that we're not just being robots coming on and performing
the same thing, the same words, the same blocking that
we did the night before. Like, yes, there's a structure
to it. There's an expectation of recreating the same routes,
but it helps keep alive that sense of connection between
(23:44):
people that we are looking into each other's eyes and
saying words and expecting something rather than just, I'm looking
past you and now I'm going to say my line
and I'm going to wait. Da da da da da
da da my line. And that's and that's where that
can become mechanical and boring. And for an audience, for everybody.
Like losing.
S2 (24:02):
That connection. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was I was wondering
about that, you know. Is it, is there any moments like,
it is hard to actually find that connection to people,
you know, because in acting like you definitely sometimes you
have to be very, you know, close to the other
person on there so many scenes that. Yeah, that are like, okay,
(24:22):
grabbing and, you know, touching others and stuff like that
that some people might not be comfortable with.
S4 (24:29):
Yeah. I mean, for something like that, um, there's been
a rise, thankfully, in the last decade of role in
the process called an intimacy coordinator. So for, you know, long, long,
long time, there's been what's called, you know, fight choreographers
or dance choreographers or, you know, highly specified movement, that
(24:49):
there's someone who is in charge of sort of blocking,
choreographing how this fight or how this dance is going
to go and checking in with each actor's comfort, strengths?
Weaknesses what, like what are you good. How? Okay. How
can we do this? How can this be precise? How
can everybody expect this to be safe and repeatable and
(25:11):
not harmful to anybody? And only very recently is the
the idea of an intimacy coordinator who comes in and
for moments of, you know, kissing, touching, holding, even just
very intimate, you know, conversations, um, that, you know, it's
this idea of theater and acting as it's it's very
(25:34):
close to what we're emoting and feeling, right? So, like
to to have someone there who's responsible for crafting it
safely in a way that everyone knows exactly what is
going to be happening and expecting what's going to be
happening so that there's no power dynamic imbalances, there's nobody
(25:54):
being taken advantage of or afraid to speak up. Um,
and it just creates a much safer environment for everybody
to then relax into that moment where if there is any, uh,
sort of uncertainty or feeling unsafe, like there's going to
be tension, there's going to be, uh, an inability to
(26:15):
be vulnerable and to trust the person in front of you.
You truly do allow yourself to be vulnerable. And that's,
I think, what we go to theater to watch, uh,
film TV for is, is to be vulnerable with people
being vulnerable. Yeah. Because it's, it can be very hard
(26:37):
every day to be vulnerable with other people and to,
to to watch sort of, uh, versions of yourself on stage.
Being vulnerable with other people allows you to just experience
that at a distance and, and maybe realize something that
you haven't realized about yourself or have been avoiding. And
(26:58):
you get to to engage with that on stage in
a way. And so for us as the actors who
are doing that 6 to 8 nights a week, uh,
having someone who is responsible for making sure that our,
you know, emotional well-being is speaking to our mental well-being,
is being taken care of, is incredibly important, and it's
one of the best advancements in the industry in the
(27:19):
last decade, I would say.
S2 (27:21):
That's amazing. I am glad I asked that question because
I didn't know about that. Like it's amazing. I thought
it was just like, you know, you get ready and
then you deal with your emotions. Yeah, I mean, there's
always a safety place, right? But then it's like, I
didn't know that there was someone to be watching over.
You know, those things, like about the intimacy about the,
(27:43):
you know, how you feel, your emotions and your body.
You know, all that. That's amazing.
S4 (27:48):
Yeah. And it gives guardrails to, for for everyone who
comes in because everyone's going to it's not like something that, uh,
not everyone's going to feel the exact same way about
certain things, and not everyone is going to be able
to give in the same exact playbook of this is
how we do this. So it's, uh, incredibly unique and
specific to every individual who's who's engaging with it, which is,
(28:12):
I think, again, super important.
S3 (28:15):
Just taking a quick pause here, enjoying the convo so far.
Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more fun
tips and stories from Lena and Jake.
S2 (28:27):
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(28:47):
wanted to push record on the Oilers Media Network.
S5 (28:51):
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talk fundraising strategies and career experiences with a side of
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Follow or subscribe at Ola's Media.com or wherever you get
(29:13):
your podcasts.
S6 (29:15):
Like we talk about in the show, there are a
lot that goes into a successful podcast more than just
pushing record. Whether you're new or seasoned. If you're looking
for someone to make your great show idea a reality,
then we've got your back. Check us out at media.com
and see how we can help you push record on
your next big project. And we.
S3 (29:37):
Are on. Oh wait, I almost forgot to push record.
Now over to Lena and Jake.
S2 (29:46):
How do you prepare? Do you have any rituals that
you do before you know when you start getting ready
for a play or, you know.
S4 (29:56):
Yeah, I think, you know, uh, it this process of.
So there's, there's, there's the rehearsal process where I think
a big focus is getting the, the, the words in my,
in my brain. Right. Is, is trying to, to get
comfortable with getting the words in my brain and then
allowing myself to not be thinking about that so that
(30:16):
I can just be present again. when we get into
a performance, once we're stopping the create the creation or
the exploratory process, and now we're in the repetition process. Uh,
I like to I love having a routine every day of,
you know, for me, you know, getting to the gym
in the morning, getting the sort of like getting my
(30:39):
body in through sweating, you know, workout some anxiety there. Uh,
allow myself to, like, have my coffee, have a good meal.
And then by the time I get to the theater,
it's particularly if I have a active track that is like,
I'm I'm coming off an on stage a lot. I
like to just walk my track of like, okay, I
(31:01):
enter from here and then I cross stage here, I
exit and then I cross backstage here and I come
back over and this is where I make my next entrance.
And then I exit up here. And for me it
just helps sort of visualize the play, the track, not
just the play, but just, you know, how I'm going
to be going through the evening. I like to find
my rituals of like, okay, this is where I sit
(31:23):
during this break in between scenes. This is where I
sit during this break between scenes. Uh, you know, for me,
I'm I'm very much a creature of habit in that way.
So I like to know if you know, if I
if I start talking to somebody in a space that
is not usually where I am, it's very much more, uh,
vulnerable to missing an entrance or being like, oh, no,
(31:46):
where are we? Um, and it's, uh. Yeah. So that's,
I think, a big ritual of, you know, including, you know,
vocal warmup, physical warmup before the show. But, um, that
walking the track is always very nice visually for me
to just kind of implant myself in the space, in
the environment of what I'm going to be getting into
that night.
S2 (32:07):
Yeah, that is good. That's good. Yeah, I can and
just now that you're mentioning that like. Yeah. And like
going on my brain and imagining like, yeah, in this
scene I need to get in, right? But then not
only walk in, but I need to be saying something
or doing something. So definitely that will help the planning
(32:29):
and the organizing in your in your brain how it's
going to happen. Yeah.
S4 (32:34):
And all the things that allow me to just when
it gets to the time where I'm in front of
an audience that I'm not thinking about that track, I'm
thinking about what it is I'm trying to get from
somebody on stage or get from a character, or what's
my intention? Um, the details and logistics. I can let
fall because it's it's in my muscle memory. It's in
(32:54):
my DNA. Right? I've already walked it once. I don't
need to think about that. I can just be again, present.
That's everything. Every. All the rituals, all the things are
goals to allow myself to just be vulnerable and present
in whatever the moment is.
S2 (33:09):
Wow. That's that's amazing. Thank you for sharing that. That's
super great. It's super great. If you get the chance,
you're here in San Diego. Go to the old Globe
and watch the place where Michael's going to be. Please check,
because it's amazing. I'm telling you, this is really great. So, Michael,
so we're getting close to our wrap up, and I
(33:32):
wanted to know, like outside, you know, acting, coaching. What
does Michael like to do?
S4 (33:40):
Oh, gosh. Uh, when I have when I do have
time and this is, this is actually been a fun
journey of I've like, I think for a big period
of my time of my life, overscheduled myself because free time,
I didn't know what to do with because it being
busy filled me with purpose. Right? And if I wasn't busy,
(34:00):
I felt like I had no purpose. Um, but I've
gotten better lately. Um, I particularly this past year, have
really enjoyed going on long walks and calling my friends
and family back in the East Coast on Saturday or
Sunday mornings. That's been a great, you know, habit of
(34:21):
reconnecting with people. Um, and I also, you know, sports
is a nice, easy watch for me of like, having
my teams. And it's something that, you know, I have
an investment in, but like, I'm not life or death
with it anymore as I was. It's something I was like, okay,
they lost. That's fine. But you know, but it's it's
(34:42):
it's an unexpected outcome. Um, so watching sports, engaging in
sports is, is something playing sports, if you're literally any
sport with, with a ball or something like golf, tennis, basketball.
Like I love to, uh, you know, engage in games
in that way as well. So, um, yeah, I would
(35:03):
say those are the things that I really do enjoy
to do. It's important for everyone to be finding their purpose,
finding their passion, finding the parts of their life that
that give it meaning. And and that can be anything.
And I think it can be. And it doesn't have
and it doesn't have to be anything big or huge
(35:26):
or grandiose. And I just, you know, I think I
spent a long time, even as I was pursuing, uh,
theater as, as something that was my passion, I think
misplaced purpose, you know, within it of the idea of
success was, was there and I think encouraging everyone to
(35:46):
be very honest with themselves about what is it that,
you know, brings you fulfillment and happiness and, and trusting
that and sort of defining what success looks like, looks
like for yourself, rather than relying on anyone else or
any other metric to define that success, like letting yourself
define your success, because that's the only way we're ever
(36:09):
going to feel fulfilled is that if we are in
control of that. So it's something I'm going to I'm
still working on and I think will continue working on
in Into Infinity. But, um, you know, it's something I
think about a lot these days. So I encourage everyone to,
you know, define your own success with that.
S2 (36:27):
Yeah, I, I can relate to you because I always
and always busy and it's like it's hard when you
have some free time. It's like you feel you're missing
something or you forgot to do something. Is that the
type of feeling you got?
S4 (36:40):
Oh yes. That's I should be doing something. I should
be more productive I exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
S2 (36:47):
So I can relate to you on that. And always
doing something and it's like, well when are you going
to stop. Well but well that's where I like to
do or.
S4 (36:56):
Like I like to be busy. I like to be
busy filled with that validation that I'm doing something important. Yes.
When in reality, having just time with yourself is also
Validating and important. And that's a constant, a constant reminder
for myself. Yeah.
S2 (37:14):
No, that's. Yeah. Definitely can relate to that. Um, Micah, what's, um,
a future project for you? What's coming for you?
S4 (37:22):
Well, uh, my current project is As You Like It
with the old Globes Globe for all program, where we
go out to the community and we bring the show
to a different place every day with a community partners,
which has been fantastic. We opened last week and we
run we run through November 24th. Uh, so that will
(37:43):
be my sort of last San Diego project, and then
I will be, uh, going home to Boston for the holidays,
and I will be moving to New York to go.
S2 (37:54):
You're leaving us?
S4 (37:55):
I'm leaving. No. Well, for now, I guess I've discovered
coming from the northeast that San Diego is a really
great place to be in the winter months, so. Oh, yeah.
I am always looking for that, you know, next contract
that will bring me back here for the next two
months at a time, especially in January, February. So but yeah,
(38:16):
that's I'm going to be it's been a long time
goal of like moving to New York and making it,
you know, as an actor. And that's uh, that's going
to be my next my next chapter. Wow.
S2 (38:28):
No. Well, and I'm excited, but I'm sad. It's like. No.
S4 (38:34):
Oh, don't get don't don't get me started. I'm also
very bittersweet about it.
S2 (38:37):
Oh no. No. But I know, I know really good
things that are going to come your way. You're working
super hard. I admire that because you know this this dream.
Because it started as a dream. And then that fulfillment
that you're looking for is not only like, yeah, it's there.
You have to work really hard, really hard for that.
(39:01):
And I admire that because I haven't had the courage
to do it in some. and stone. Things in my life.
And then when I see someone doing it, I'm like, wow,
that takes a lot. That takes sacrifice time. You know,
it's everything. Like, look, you move from another coast to
here chasing that dream, and now you're going to move again.
(39:24):
And leaving us and.
S4 (39:27):
Leaving a very, like, just warm community. I've made a
lot of friends here. And again, I it's hard to
think about the time before I was here. You know,
two years is not a long time, but it is, uh,
it's been a very fulfilling, grateful time for me and I,
and I can't I honestly, I can't wait to come back.
I know that it will be a place that I
(39:47):
do come back to. And knowing that I have so many, uh,
friends and family here to to to come back to. Yeah,
hopefully for work, but otherwise just a visit, uh, would
be great too.
S2 (39:58):
Well, now I need to know. I need to get
in the loop, you know, for your next, uh, you know,
goals in their in a year, maybe I can go
and visit and watch it because I'll be super excited,
you know? That would be amazing. Yeah. Um, well, Micah,
we always have, like, a serious question here in this show. Great.
(40:18):
And I had this one for you. If you were
a superhero whose power was determined by your favorite snack,
what would your superpower be?
S4 (40:34):
Oh, boy. Okay, well, uh, I am it's.
S2 (40:38):
A very serious question.
S4 (40:39):
It's a very, very serious question. I'm taking it very seriously. Uh,
I am a big fan of, uh, cookies and and
chocolate chip cookies. I have a sweet tooth. Um, and
actually limiting limiting it to just cookies would would be
a lie. So I think my superpower would probably would
be having access to any, uh, bit of sweets that
(41:02):
I want, whether it's a gummy bears or chocolate or
something just as good. Like the snap of a finger snap. Yeah, exactly.
I could just make it appear for myself that that
I think would be.
S2 (41:14):
And then all the sweets will come.
S4 (41:15):
Exactly, exactly.
S7 (41:17):
Just, just. I don't have to carry it.
S4 (41:18):
Around with me. I can just whatever is on my mind.
S2 (41:21):
Just what will the what will the name of that
superhero be?
S4 (41:24):
Um, I think it would have to be the Candyman.
S7 (41:28):
The Candyman? Yeah.
S2 (41:30):
All right. Thanks for answering this extremely serious question. Uh,
thank you so much, Michael. Um, where people can find you, like,
do you have social media? Where can they see? Where's
the next?
S4 (41:45):
Yeah. Uh, so, um, I think Instagram is probably the
place that I update the most. It's, uh, Michael James Underhill. Uh,
and then my website, I also post your things as, uh,
Michael J. underhill.com or whereas any any information about upcoming
shows or things that are going on.
S2 (42:06):
Awesome. Well, you know, everybody, I'm going to put all
those links in the show notes. So you can just
click and visit Michael and check what's next for him.
And thank you for tuning in with us. And I
just wanted to push record. Thank you Michael.
S4 (42:22):
Thank you so much, Lina.
S3 (42:26):
Thank you for listening to. I just wanted to push
record a producer's podcast. Be sure to follow and subscribe
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I Just Wanted to push record. A producer's podcast is
(42:47):
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S1 (42:59):
Olas media.
Olas Media.
S2 (00:03):
Mixed grounds is proud to present. I Just wanted to
Push Record celebrating arts, community and culture, part of the
Olas Media Network.
S3 (00:23):
Welcome to. I just wanted to push Record, a producers
podcast where lifestyle, arts, community, culture and production meet two producers,
two cultures, and a whole lot of flavor. Join hosts
Lina and JC for fun conversations, cool interviews, sharing tips,
laughing through production hiccups, and celebrating the art of it all.
(00:45):
Ready to roll? It all starts with pushing record.
S2 (00:53):
All right, well welcome everybody. I just wanted to push
record a producer's podcast, and I'm very thrilled to have
a very special guest today. With me is Michael Underhill.
Michael is an incredible, talented actor and artist associated with
the Old Globe. He has a remarkable background that spans
(01:17):
various artistic endeavors, and I had the pleasure of meeting
Michael at Invictus because I went, so, okay, you guys
need to listen to this. So I my husband is
physical therapist, right? And then he's like, okay, you need
to work out. You need to, you know, get better.
I'm like, okay, I'm going. So he has the clinic
(01:40):
where he works at is at Invictus. And I was like,
oh my gosh, Invictus. Like, that's the place where like
all these, you know, big people and like, it's like
it's so okay. No, I'm scared now. So I went
and then I got to meet him like the owner
I think is the owner. Right? And then I was like, okay,
I'm going to take some classes and then guess what?
(02:03):
Michael was my coach. So it was super great. And
then we got we got to talk and then with
my husband too, like he was introducing me to him.
And then we were like, all right. Like, okay, Michael
is an actor. And I'm like, what? Where? So as
a person that loved arts, music, theater and all that stuff,
(02:25):
I was very interested to know more. So I even
went to watch him in different plays. And this, this
was super exciting. But I don't want to spoil you guys.
I want Michael to tell us about himself. Where is
he from? Like what's everything, you know? So, Michael, thank
(02:47):
you so much for being here today.
S4 (02:48):
Thank you for having me. And thank you for coming
to class as well. It was so great to meet
you in that environment. And my other part of my
other life as a coach as well as actor. Uh,
but yeah, so I guess, I mean, I've been doing
primarily theater for almost all of my life. Uh, I
did it in high school. I think my first well,
(03:11):
my first play was in second grade. I was, uh,
in Annie Get Your Gun musical, and then I took
a five year hiatus because, you know, that was. It
was a lot to do a musical in second grade.
So then I came back to it when I was
in seventh grade and the high school musicals. And I
had a great, uh, teacher in the high school who
(03:31):
was John Quinn, who really, I mean, I think for
anyone who is invested in the arts and interested in
the arts, having, uh, folks who can support that endeavor, um,
and for me, being in a public school, that was
the only outlet that I had. You know, I came
from a family of folks who are businessmen, sales, retail, accountants.
(03:53):
There were no artists, actors in my family, you know,
so I, I didn't really know what a life in
acting or theater was or that it could even be
a job or a career or anything like that. So
I'm super thankful to to my school and to Mr.
Quinn for, for, you know, supporting that to my parents
(04:15):
for supporting that. And I originally applied to my undergrad
program at northeastern as a political science major, because that
felt like that's something logical to go to school for.
S2 (04:29):
Something that you'll make money.
S4 (04:31):
Yeah. Make money. Well, yeah. I don't even know if
that's something you would make money. But I was like,
I want to make a difference in the world. And
that that seems like the place to do it. And
almost immediately after getting into school, I called and was like,
can I transfer to the theater program and kind of
made a deal with myself that I'm going to do
this as long as the world will let me and
(04:52):
let me just pursue this, because I don't, you know,
I don't I don't know what it what it entails
or not. So, uh, so yeah. So that's kind of
where it started. And I, you know, I went to
school at northeastern and got good training there. And I
really formative experience for me in my career, both as
(05:16):
a human but also as an actor. And the things
I'm interested in was one of the first professional things
I did outside of school, which was, uh, apprenticeship with
a company called Commonwealth Shakespeare and, uh, Boston and they.
S2 (05:30):
Oh, Boston. Yes.
S4 (05:31):
So that's where I grew up. Okay.
S2 (05:33):
Yes. Okay.
S4 (05:34):
And, uh, so Commonwealth Shakespeare Company produces a every summer
a Shakespeare play in the Boston Common, which is the
big open park. So there's no ticketing for the show.
There's no, you know, cost for it. It's just if
you want to come see free, it's free for the public.
S2 (05:53):
Yeah.
S4 (05:53):
And so, you know, they get anywhere from two, three, four,
5000 people a night that show up to these shows. Crazy. Yeah.
So that was like, my first professional experience was being
on stage as officer one. Soldier two but in front of,
you know, 4000 people who were showing up just to
(06:13):
see Shakespeare because it was being made accessible to them,
it was available to them. It wasn't exclusively priced. It
wasn't in this dark room that doesn't isn't very welcoming.
It was it was in a place that was for them.
And ever since then, I have held that in the
back of my mind of how do I continue to
(06:35):
create that sense in some way, shape or form? How
can I continue to make theater arts accessible to folks?
Because that was one of the first places that I
was also introduced to it.
S2 (06:47):
Wow, this is amazing. And just like traveling. You know,
in my mind, trying to picture that moment. And that's
just amazing. How did you feel at that moment? Like, oh,
I think I will be like super scared. But then
also like the excitement of being part of such a
big thing. Yeah.
S4 (07:06):
It's it's overwhelming. I mean, to, to walk out and
just see a wave of people that just just stretches
back from where the stage is out and beyond. And,
you know, the way they have the mic set up,
you can just hear your voice being carried out across
the common, bouncing off the walls or on Tremont Street.
And the thing that I definitely will never forget and
(07:30):
remember is the when the audience of that size all
laughs together. Yeah. And you can almost hear the wave
of laughter as it starts, starts in the front and
comes back and, and that kind of energy feedback from
an audience is.
S2 (07:44):
Wow.
S4 (07:45):
You know, and these are Shakespeare shows. They're 2.5 hours long,
but people are out there with their picnics and they're
all engaged that full time, and they're.
S2 (07:54):
Already ready for it because they know what to expect.
Like it's going to be long, but I know I'm
going to enjoy this.
S4 (08:00):
And they start showing up hours before, you know, like
because like because it's again, it's no tickets, no assigned seats.
So you get there when you want to set up your,
you know, your little picnic, your little small low chairs.
And so we're at their like they get there before
most of the people some days where because we don't,
we only show up a half hour or an hour
before the show.
S2 (08:20):
Wow, that is amazing.
S4 (08:21):
2 or 3 hours before.
S2 (08:22):
That makes me like, whew, it's so exciting. You know,
as a person that loves arts and all that stuff,
it's just I cannot imagine that feeling and that fulfillment, right?
S4 (08:32):
No, it's it's an incredibly special, uh, organization and event.
And I've been lucky enough since that first year to
work with them, you know, 5 or 6 times and
will continue to as long as they ask me back
because it's it's and I and I talk that up
all the time to people who say like if you
ever get a chance, this is like the most special experience.
S2 (08:52):
To do it. That's amazing Michael, thanks for sharing that.
So okay. You're from Boston, right? What brought you to
San Diego?
S4 (09:01):
So I came out. So I lived, uh, almost exclusively
in Boston for the first 34 years of my life.
And I coming out of the pandemic and was looking for,
you know, I had been acting for, you know, 12
years outside of, uh, undergrad and felt like I had
(09:22):
reached sort of a plateau of that current part of
my career and being in Boston. And I had always
had in the back of my mind of getting my
graduate degree, getting my master's in fine arts for acting,
and had never just seen the moment to to to
go for it, to take that risk of step away
from the professionals, to go back to school, to to
(09:45):
step out of the professional world and go back into
the training laboratory. And I went through actually a couple
years of, um, auditioning for programs, either getting called back
and ultimately not accepted. And so this last time, this
last time around, it was my third year auditioning. I
was like, okay, this is the last sort of go
(10:07):
for it. We'll see what happens. And I was very
fortunate enough to be accepted by one of my top
two programs that I was interested in as the University
of San Diego and Old Globe, you know, uh, shyly
actor training program. And it's a two year program, very intensive.
And it brought me out here to from Boston to
(10:28):
San Diego. I drove all the way across by myself.
Took five days to do it, you know, before I
had to show up with all my stuff packed in
my car. And, yeah, that's where I've been the last
two years to complete my master's degree, which I just
finished about two months ago. Uh, officially.
S2 (10:45):
Congratulations. That's amazing.
S4 (10:48):
Yeah, and I've been telling people it's it's two years
is not a long time, but, uh, the intensity of
the program I think about, it's hard for me to
imagine the time before I started this program. It's because
it's been such a present. Yes. Experience of just being 50,
60 hours a week, training, rehearsing, performing as well, doing
(11:13):
that all. And it goes pretty much 11 months of
the year that you're in school, in classes and training.
S2 (11:19):
That is crazy. Like, I mean, it always amazed me
to like the the ability of actors, you know, that
they have for remembering everything in what exact moment everything
is happening, what to say like and how to get
out if you don't say it right. Yeah. The right thing.
S4 (11:41):
Oh, absolutely. A muscle, a muscle that you like. Like anything,
like a muscle. The more reps you get with something,
the stronger those muscles become. And it's. I feel like
I've gotten very good at learning things quickly and forgetting
things quickly. So the day after a show or something
is done that I don't need it anymore flushes right out.
I don't need it anymore. So it's just like, make
(12:03):
more space in that, you know?
S2 (12:05):
Uh, that is a really good point because I never
saw I never saw it like that, you know, because
it's like, yes, you have to have that ability to
to forget quickly to, you know, get something new.
S4 (12:17):
To move on.
S2 (12:17):
Yeah. Right. Wow. Yeah. Because we are we are as humans.
We are like have it, you know.
S4 (12:23):
We've got it. We've got a seat. We've got a ceiling.
We've got like a limit on the amount of things
that we can store and focus on at any given point.
And yeah, so when you're working on contracts for eight
weeks at a time, you get really good at and
that's personal relationships as well. You get to know people
really well really quickly, and then they're out of your life.
(12:43):
And you know, it's not that you don't miss them,
but you know that you'll see them again at some point.
But these these relationships are going to be transient. They're
going to be moving very quickly in and out.
S2 (12:53):
Definitely. So, uh, do you have any memorable moments, you know,
from acting or funny moments that you say, like, I
will never forget this.
S4 (13:07):
Uh, I mean, there's there's so, so many. I think, um,
there was a play I was doing with a group
called Imaginary Beasts, and they, uh, the director of this,
this program I worked very closely with for five years,
and it was Matthew Woods. And he would work with, uh,
either familiar playwrights and their unknown plays or unknown playwrights. Uh,
(13:32):
and he wanted to, like, bring unfamiliar work and not
just recreate the things that everyone is doing. And so
there's this playwright and writer who's a British woman, Angela Carter,
and she writes in a very heightened language. It's very
similar to Shakespeare in a lot of ways. It's very poetic,
very lyrical. And I had this line that it was,
there is something numinous about crossing a bridge by bike
(13:58):
at moonlight. And this word numinous is something that's very
it's not something we use every day. And I was
sitting there and my whole bit was I was like
sitting on stage pretending to ride a bike while I
was doing this. All this happening around. And I come
up to this line and there's something and I just
totally forgot my line. I just, I was like, blank.
(14:19):
And this happens all the time. But this particular one,
I was like, what is this line? What is this line?
And so I have to keep keep it going. We
are in front of an audience. So the line that
comes up for me is that there's something cool, which
is not exactly what I think Angela Carter wanted to
(14:40):
be expressed in that moment. But for me, in that
moment was what came up first, to just keep pushing through.
And I think I've gotten better at covering since then.
But that one, that is one particular one that I
will never forget about, you know, dropping a line or
forgetting a line.
S2 (14:57):
Yeah. And it's like, what do I do now? All
the people looking at me, asking me to.
S4 (15:02):
Keep going, you just got to say something.
S2 (15:04):
So you gotta say something and then just keep going
and people waiting for you, okay? What's he going to say? Right.
We already know what we had to do, but what's
he going to do? Yeah.
S4 (15:14):
And honestly, you know, no one there I think was
in Angela Carter, you know, expert. So I don't think
anybody was reading the script before coming in for that show.
So nobody knew. But I knew I knew, yes.
S2 (15:24):
And that's the problem. Like ourselves, we are the most
critical people. Right. And something that normally that we do
is like, okay, I did it wrong. And people are like, yeah,
not really. Like I didn't see it.
S4 (15:39):
I don't know. I have no idea. Yeah. You're like,
I was thinking about that for three weeks afterwards, and
you're like, nobody. Nobody was even thinking about it.
S2 (15:46):
Yeah, exactly. Well, yeah, that's that's funny. But I guess
this is something that happens. All the artists, you know, like,
you always going to have something, you know, that you're
going to forget or that you're not going to do
or how you're supposed to, or in the perfect timing.
So yeah, definitely. I cannot imagine that. Yeah.
S4 (16:07):
It's I mean, it's such an interesting, uh, you know,
pursuit as, as an artist, I think theater is one
that I think I've always been drawn to because it
is so collaborative. I'm always impressed by folks who are
in more individually, uh, driven pursuits as far as, like,
writing or, uh, writing music or, you know, painting or
(16:32):
things like that, that it truly is. You are with
yourself so much. And we do that as actors, for sure.
we need to bring ourselves, but I get the benefit
of having another human to engage with, do all the
work with myself, but then have some feedback loop for it,
and then have an audience that's there as well. I
think that's part of the thing that really makes it, uh,
(16:53):
alive for me. But I have such respect for the
folks who can be with themselves and write and play and, um,
be so at peace with themselves in that because because
I think a huge reason I was driven into the
arts and theater and those collaborative arts is because I
was craving that, that interaction and sort of running away
(17:16):
from the time just with myself, you know, and wanting to,
to have that feedback loop.
S2 (17:21):
Yeah, definitely. That's, it's and that's such a good thing
to say. Like, and you know, I'm a performer myself too.
I dance, I sing, and I always hear this like, okay,
you're there in front of the audience, right? Showing yourself
just you and what's your instrument, your voice, your body.
(17:43):
And that's like really hard, right? Really hard to share,
really hard to get out of your mind and just
show that that you want to express and make the
other people feel. So yes, that's that's amazing. And, um,
so I wonder, for example, when, you know, in all
these classes that you have and this preparation, you guys
(18:06):
have like dance and music and all that, do you
sing to?
S4 (18:11):
I do sing, it's not, not my forte for sure,
but I've done a lot more singing since being in
this graduate program, which has actually been a huge, uh,
bonus for me. Wow. I've gotten to train that muscle. Yeah,
a bit more and feel more comfortable with it now
that I'm getting a chance to to do it more often.
S2 (18:32):
That's nice. It's like singing and. Okay, let me tell
you guys, I saw the play, um, Henry the Sixth.
And let me tell you, there is a scene where
they're all dancing. And then there was Michael, such a
great dancer. I was like, wow, okay, let me. Can
(18:54):
I film this? That was amazing.
S4 (18:59):
That was very fun. That was I have to credit Chelsea,
who was our choreographer for that show. Um, and again,
speaking of like, uh, collaboration, she, she created this environment
of getting everybody in the cast to move and creating, uh, movement,
sort of inspiration, and then pulling from everybody's pieces to,
(19:20):
to create that dance. It wasn't just, oh, she sat
there and was like, this is exactly how we're going
to do it. And I think it really, uh, enabled
everyone to feel comfortable with it.
S2 (19:30):
It was it was amazing. Like, I think that was
one of my favorite scenes of the play. Like, it's
just everyone was doing something different. Everyone was dancing different,
and it was just the lighting, the music, the you know,
the feeling. I was like, I wasn't expecting this in
a Shakespeare play, you know? But it was super fun.
(19:51):
That was I was amazing. Yeah. I love I love
watching Michael in the plays. Every time I know that
he's there, I'm like, okay, we're going, we're going to
watch and support. So this is this is super great. Um,
can you share with us any behind the scenes or
any secrets? Um, uh.
S4 (20:12):
Theater? Well, I think, I mean, it's.
S2 (20:15):
Like something that the aliens might not think about.
S4 (20:18):
Well, I think it's it depends on every show. Every
show kind of has its own flavor and own vibe.
And like I said, you know, you you get three
and a half weeks to work with folks and, you know,
maybe four weeks of performance. So every time there's a
new element, it creates a different, uh, sense of of
(20:42):
community backstage and some, you know, some shows. And again,
depending on what the content of the shows is, sometimes,
you know, there people need to kind of be in
their own space and just be very serious and focused. Um,
but other times there's uh, even I would say even
in serious plays, like having the backstage, you might think that,
(21:03):
like in an incredibly serious, like tragedy, like, like Henry
thinks that like it's very somber backstage that, you know,
that people aren't, uh, going to joke around or kid
around because we're doing something very serious. And no, it's actually,
in fact, that when we go offstage, we are our
own outlets from that, like seriousness on stage. So I
(21:24):
would say that's often where more of the sort of, uh,
games and trickery or just joking is happening. Backstage is
during the really serious shows. Um, and you know, I think, uh,
what one game we've played, which is just fun. So
you'll you'll get actors in on this, you'll get the
(21:45):
stage crew in on this. Um, sound is just throughout
the run of a play. One night, someone might say, okay,
from the text of the play, we're looking for the
best racehorse name. So you're just then you just go
kind of go in through the play, listening to all
the lines, and anything that comes up during the show
(22:07):
is like, oh, could that be a racehorse name? And
then you go tell somebody, see if it's like, is
that one? Is that a good one? No. Okay. And
then you sort of keep track of who comes up
with the best racehorse name from the text of the
play as you go through. And, um, you know, there's
every night there's sort of different, uh, games like that.
There might be like, little talismans, like, uh, like, uh,
(22:27):
one of our cast members had a, uh, would bring
in a different, like, just little animal toy. It would just,
it would just be passed around to different cast members
that would put it in their pocket. And then after
one scene, they would pass it to somebody else to
hold on to. So there's just like these, these like
I would say, just games and things creating a sense
of play backstage, uh, that keeps it, keeps it, you know,
(22:51):
fun and interesting and.
S2 (22:53):
And do you think it helps like also to lower
the tension and the, you know. Absolutely.
S4 (22:58):
Yeah.
S2 (22:59):
Yeah. Sense of like we need to be very strict,
but then it's like, but there is a game, you know.
S4 (23:03):
There's a game. Yeah. It keeps it alive. And then
you know. And then I think it helps that once
you go on stage that laser focus turns on. Right.
It's like, yeah, we're joking joking, joking. But now I
got to go. Yeah. And, uh, and keeping that moment
of coming on stage, uh, alive and, and I think
it helps us also just stay connected with each other
(23:23):
that we're not just being robots coming on and performing
the same thing, the same words, the same blocking that
we did the night before. Like, yes, there's a structure
to it. There's an expectation of recreating the same routes,
but it helps keep alive that sense of connection between
(23:44):
people that we are looking into each other's eyes and
saying words and expecting something rather than just, I'm looking
past you and now I'm going to say my line
and I'm going to wait. Da da da da da
da da my line. And that's and that's where that
can become mechanical and boring. And for an audience, for everybody.
Like losing.
S2 (24:02):
That connection. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was I was wondering
about that, you know. Is it, is there any moments like,
it is hard to actually find that connection to people,
you know, because in acting like you definitely sometimes you
have to be very, you know, close to the other
person on there so many scenes that. Yeah, that are like, okay,
(24:22):
grabbing and, you know, touching others and stuff like that
that some people might not be comfortable with.
S4 (24:29):
Yeah. I mean, for something like that, um, there's been
a rise, thankfully, in the last decade of role in
the process called an intimacy coordinator. So for, you know, long, long,
long time, there's been what's called, you know, fight choreographers
or dance choreographers or, you know, highly specified movement, that
(24:49):
there's someone who is in charge of sort of blocking,
choreographing how this fight or how this dance is going
to go and checking in with each actor's comfort, strengths?
Weaknesses what, like what are you good. How? Okay. How
can we do this? How can this be precise? How
can everybody expect this to be safe and repeatable and
(25:11):
not harmful to anybody? And only very recently is the
the idea of an intimacy coordinator who comes in and
for moments of, you know, kissing, touching, holding, even just
very intimate, you know, conversations, um, that, you know, it's
this idea of theater and acting as it's it's very
(25:34):
close to what we're emoting and feeling, right? So, like
to to have someone there who's responsible for crafting it
safely in a way that everyone knows exactly what is
going to be happening and expecting what's going to be
happening so that there's no power dynamic imbalances, there's nobody
(25:54):
being taken advantage of or afraid to speak up. Um,
and it just creates a much safer environment for everybody
to then relax into that moment where if there is any, uh,
sort of uncertainty or feeling unsafe, like there's going to
be tension, there's going to be, uh, an inability to
(26:15):
be vulnerable and to trust the person in front of you.
You truly do allow yourself to be vulnerable. And that's,
I think, what we go to theater to watch, uh,
film TV for is, is to be vulnerable with people
being vulnerable. Yeah. Because it's, it can be very hard
(26:37):
every day to be vulnerable with other people and to,
to to watch sort of, uh, versions of yourself on stage.
Being vulnerable with other people allows you to just experience
that at a distance and, and maybe realize something that
you haven't realized about yourself or have been avoiding. And
(26:58):
you get to to engage with that on stage in
a way. And so for us as the actors who
are doing that 6 to 8 nights a week, uh,
having someone who is responsible for making sure that our,
you know, emotional well-being is speaking to our mental well-being,
is being taken care of, is incredibly important, and it's
one of the best advancements in the industry in the
(27:19):
last decade, I would say.
S2 (27:21):
That's amazing. I am glad I asked that question because
I didn't know about that. Like it's amazing. I thought
it was just like, you know, you get ready and
then you deal with your emotions. Yeah, I mean, there's
always a safety place, right? But then it's like, I
didn't know that there was someone to be watching over.
You know, those things, like about the intimacy about the,
(27:43):
you know, how you feel, your emotions and your body.
You know, all that. That's amazing.
S4 (27:48):
Yeah. And it gives guardrails to, for for everyone who
comes in because everyone's going to it's not like something that, uh,
not everyone's going to feel the exact same way about
certain things, and not everyone is going to be able
to give in the same exact playbook of this is
how we do this. So it's, uh, incredibly unique and
specific to every individual who's who's engaging with it, which is,
(28:12):
I think, again, super important.
S3 (28:15):
Just taking a quick pause here, enjoying the convo so far.
Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more fun
tips and stories from Lena and Jake.
S2 (28:27):
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(28:47):
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(29:13):
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S3 (29:37):
Are on. Oh wait, I almost forgot to push record.
Now over to Lena and Jake.
S2 (29:46):
How do you prepare? Do you have any rituals that
you do before you know when you start getting ready
for a play or, you know.
S4 (29:56):
Yeah, I think, you know, uh, it this process of.
So there's, there's, there's the rehearsal process where I think
a big focus is getting the, the, the words in my,
in my brain. Right. Is, is trying to, to get
comfortable with getting the words in my brain and then
allowing myself to not be thinking about that so that
(30:16):
I can just be present again. when we get into
a performance, once we're stopping the create the creation or
the exploratory process, and now we're in the repetition process. Uh,
I like to I love having a routine every day of,
you know, for me, you know, getting to the gym
in the morning, getting the sort of like getting my
(30:39):
body in through sweating, you know, workout some anxiety there. Uh,
allow myself to, like, have my coffee, have a good meal.
And then by the time I get to the theater,
it's particularly if I have a active track that is like,
I'm I'm coming off an on stage a lot. I
like to just walk my track of like, okay, I
(31:01):
enter from here and then I cross stage here, I
exit and then I cross backstage here and I come
back over and this is where I make my next entrance.
And then I exit up here. And for me it
just helps sort of visualize the play, the track, not
just the play, but just, you know, how I'm going
to be going through the evening. I like to find
my rituals of like, okay, this is where I sit
(31:23):
during this break in between scenes. This is where I
sit during this break between scenes. Uh, you know, for me,
I'm I'm very much a creature of habit in that way.
So I like to know if you know, if I
if I start talking to somebody in a space that
is not usually where I am, it's very much more, uh,
vulnerable to missing an entrance or being like, oh, no,
(31:46):
where are we? Um, and it's, uh. Yeah. So that's,
I think, a big ritual of, you know, including, you know,
vocal warmup, physical warmup before the show. But, um, that
walking the track is always very nice visually for me
to just kind of implant myself in the space, in
the environment of what I'm going to be getting into
that night.
S2 (32:07):
Yeah, that is good. That's good. Yeah, I can and
just now that you're mentioning that like. Yeah. And like
going on my brain and imagining like, yeah, in this
scene I need to get in, right? But then not
only walk in, but I need to be saying something
or doing something. So definitely that will help the planning
(32:29):
and the organizing in your in your brain how it's
going to happen. Yeah.
S4 (32:34):
And all the things that allow me to just when
it gets to the time where I'm in front of
an audience that I'm not thinking about that track, I'm
thinking about what it is I'm trying to get from
somebody on stage or get from a character, or what's
my intention? Um, the details and logistics. I can let
fall because it's it's in my muscle memory. It's in
(32:54):
my DNA. Right? I've already walked it once. I don't
need to think about that. I can just be again, present.
That's everything. Every. All the rituals, all the things are
goals to allow myself to just be vulnerable and present
in whatever the moment is.
S2 (33:09):
Wow. That's that's amazing. Thank you for sharing that. That's
super great. It's super great. If you get the chance,
you're here in San Diego. Go to the old Globe
and watch the place where Michael's going to be. Please check,
because it's amazing. I'm telling you, this is really great. So, Michael,
so we're getting close to our wrap up, and I
(33:32):
wanted to know, like outside, you know, acting, coaching. What
does Michael like to do?
S4 (33:40):
Oh, gosh. Uh, when I have when I do have
time and this is, this is actually been a fun
journey of I've like, I think for a big period
of my time of my life, overscheduled myself because free time,
I didn't know what to do with because it being
busy filled me with purpose. Right? And if I wasn't busy,
(34:00):
I felt like I had no purpose. Um, but I've
gotten better lately. Um, I particularly this past year, have
really enjoyed going on long walks and calling my friends
and family back in the East Coast on Saturday or
Sunday mornings. That's been a great, you know, habit of
(34:21):
reconnecting with people. Um, and I also, you know, sports
is a nice, easy watch for me of like, having
my teams. And it's something that, you know, I have
an investment in, but like, I'm not life or death
with it anymore as I was. It's something I was like, okay,
they lost. That's fine. But you know, but it's it's
(34:42):
it's an unexpected outcome. Um, so watching sports, engaging in
sports is, is something playing sports, if you're literally any
sport with, with a ball or something like golf, tennis, basketball.
Like I love to, uh, you know, engage in games
in that way as well. So, um, yeah, I would
(35:03):
say those are the things that I really do enjoy
to do. It's important for everyone to be finding their purpose,
finding their passion, finding the parts of their life that
that give it meaning. And and that can be anything.
And I think it can be. And it doesn't have
and it doesn't have to be anything big or huge
(35:26):
or grandiose. And I just, you know, I think I
spent a long time, even as I was pursuing, uh,
theater as, as something that was my passion, I think
misplaced purpose, you know, within it of the idea of
success was, was there and I think encouraging everyone to
(35:46):
be very honest with themselves about what is it that,
you know, brings you fulfillment and happiness and, and trusting
that and sort of defining what success looks like, looks
like for yourself, rather than relying on anyone else or
any other metric to define that success, like letting yourself
define your success, because that's the only way we're ever
(36:09):
going to feel fulfilled is that if we are in
control of that. So it's something I'm going to I'm
still working on and I think will continue working on
in Into Infinity. But, um, you know, it's something I
think about a lot these days. So I encourage everyone to,
you know, define your own success with that.
S2 (36:27):
Yeah, I, I can relate to you because I always
and always busy and it's like it's hard when you
have some free time. It's like you feel you're missing
something or you forgot to do something. Is that the
type of feeling you got?
S4 (36:40):
Oh yes. That's I should be doing something. I should
be more productive I exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
S2 (36:47):
So I can relate to you on that. And always
doing something and it's like, well when are you going
to stop. Well but well that's where I like to
do or.
S4 (36:56):
Like I like to be busy. I like to be
busy filled with that validation that I'm doing something important. Yes.
When in reality, having just time with yourself is also
Validating and important. And that's a constant, a constant reminder
for myself. Yeah.
S2 (37:14):
No, that's. Yeah. Definitely can relate to that. Um, Micah, what's, um,
a future project for you? What's coming for you?
S4 (37:22):
Well, uh, my current project is As You Like It
with the old Globes Globe for all program, where we
go out to the community and we bring the show
to a different place every day with a community partners,
which has been fantastic. We opened last week and we
run we run through November 24th. Uh, so that will
(37:43):
be my sort of last San Diego project, and then
I will be, uh, going home to Boston for the holidays,
and I will be moving to New York to go.
S2 (37:54):
You're leaving us?
S4 (37:55):
I'm leaving. No. Well, for now, I guess I've discovered
coming from the northeast that San Diego is a really
great place to be in the winter months, so. Oh, yeah.
I am always looking for that, you know, next contract
that will bring me back here for the next two
months at a time, especially in January, February. So but yeah,
(38:16):
that's I'm going to be it's been a long time
goal of like moving to New York and making it,
you know, as an actor. And that's uh, that's going
to be my next my next chapter. Wow.
S2 (38:28):
No. Well, and I'm excited, but I'm sad. It's like. No.
S4 (38:34):
Oh, don't get don't don't get me started. I'm also
very bittersweet about it.
S2 (38:37):
Oh no. No. But I know, I know really good
things that are going to come your way. You're working
super hard. I admire that because you know this this dream.
Because it started as a dream. And then that fulfillment
that you're looking for is not only like, yeah, it's there.
You have to work really hard, really hard for that.
(39:01):
And I admire that because I haven't had the courage
to do it in some. and stone. Things in my life.
And then when I see someone doing it, I'm like, wow,
that takes a lot. That takes sacrifice time. You know,
it's everything. Like, look, you move from another coast to
here chasing that dream, and now you're going to move again.
(39:24):
And leaving us and.
S4 (39:27):
Leaving a very, like, just warm community. I've made a
lot of friends here. And again, I it's hard to
think about the time before I was here. You know,
two years is not a long time, but it is, uh,
it's been a very fulfilling, grateful time for me and I,
and I can't I honestly, I can't wait to come back.
I know that it will be a place that I
(39:47):
do come back to. And knowing that I have so many, uh,
friends and family here to to to come back to. Yeah,
hopefully for work, but otherwise just a visit, uh, would
be great too.
S2 (39:58):
Well, now I need to know. I need to get
in the loop, you know, for your next, uh, you know,
goals in their in a year, maybe I can go
and visit and watch it because I'll be super excited,
you know? That would be amazing. Yeah. Um, well, Micah,
we always have, like, a serious question here in this show. Great.
(40:18):
And I had this one for you. If you were
a superhero whose power was determined by your favorite snack,
what would your superpower be?
S4 (40:34):
Oh, boy. Okay, well, uh, I am it's.
S2 (40:38):
A very serious question.
S4 (40:39):
It's a very, very serious question. I'm taking it very seriously. Uh,
I am a big fan of, uh, cookies and and
chocolate chip cookies. I have a sweet tooth. Um, and
actually limiting limiting it to just cookies would would be
a lie. So I think my superpower would probably would
be having access to any, uh, bit of sweets that
(41:02):
I want, whether it's a gummy bears or chocolate or
something just as good. Like the snap of a finger snap. Yeah, exactly.
I could just make it appear for myself that that
I think would be.
S2 (41:14):
And then all the sweets will come.
S4 (41:15):
Exactly, exactly.
S7 (41:17):
Just, just. I don't have to carry it.
S4 (41:18):
Around with me. I can just whatever is on my mind.
S2 (41:21):
Just what will the what will the name of that
superhero be?
S4 (41:24):
Um, I think it would have to be the Candyman.
S7 (41:28):
The Candyman? Yeah.
S2 (41:30):
All right. Thanks for answering this extremely serious question. Uh,
thank you so much, Michael. Um, where people can find you, like,
do you have social media? Where can they see? Where's
the next?
S4 (41:45):
Yeah. Uh, so, um, I think Instagram is probably the
place that I update the most. It's, uh, Michael James Underhill. Uh,
and then my website, I also post your things as, uh,
Michael J. underhill.com or whereas any any information about upcoming
shows or things that are going on.
S2 (42:06):
Awesome. Well, you know, everybody, I'm going to put all
those links in the show notes. So you can just
click and visit Michael and check what's next for him.
And thank you for tuning in with us. And I
just wanted to push record. Thank you Michael.
S4 (42:22):
Thank you so much, Lina.
S3 (42:26):
Thank you for listening to. I just wanted to push
record a producer's podcast. Be sure to follow and subscribe
wherever you get your podcasts. To hear other episodes or
read the associated blogs, visit Olas Media.com and be sure
to follow us on Instagram with the handle Olas Media Studio.
I Just Wanted to push record. A producer's podcast is
(42:47):
produced in studios in San Diego, California and Tijuana, Baja California.
Olas media is an IVC media company.
S1 (42:59):
Olas media.
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