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A podcast from Teachers College, Columbia University about play and pop culture. Professors Haeny Yoon and Nathan Holbert take play seriously. They talk with educators, parents and kids about how they play in their work and their lives, and why play matters.
The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the speaker to whom they are attributed. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the faculty, administration, staff or Trustees either of Teachers College or of Columbia University.
Nathan:
Welcome to Pop and Play, the award-winning podcast. That's right, we're winning award after award. Well, just the one so far, but we're going to win all those other ones soon.
Haeny:
Watch out.
Nathan:
Watch out. The award-winning podcast all about play in its many forms; silly, serious, powerful. I'm Nathan Holbert.
Haeny:
And I'm Haeny Yoon. We are two education researchers that figured it might be fun to hear other people's voices besides our own.
Nathan:
I don't agree with that.
Haeny:
I do. So each week we chat with other scholars, artists, activists, parents and children about the significance of value of play in their lives.
Nathan:
And this season we have been exploring what it means to play roles, whether in games, crafting, theater. We're going to talk theater today, actually.
Haeny:
Yay.
Nathan:
We're going to discuss, what is role playing all about? What compels us to try out new identities?
Haeny:
And today we're talking with some folks that play roles all the time, actors. Our guests, Marah and Chris, are regulars in the community theater scene in San Francisco. And we're excited to talk to them about how they got into theater, what it's like to play on stage, and how their own identity collides with those of characters they play.
Nathan:
Exciting.
Haeny:
But first, let's discuss our own careers as actors. Mine is short-lived.
Nathan:
You start.
Haeny:
Mine is short-lived, so this is going to be a hard-hitting interview with Nathan. I never got as far... The farthest I got in acting is door holder number three. Shout out to TikTok and the little kid who loved doing that.
Nathan:
Wait, I still... I can't get over this. You didn't play a shepherd in some sort of a church nativity scene? Or you didn't during school, you had to do parts to read a play in class?
Haeny:
Yeah, I remember in third grade we did Garbage Pail Kids, The Musical, and I had no part. Okay. I basically just stood up during the song, shift to the left, shift to the right. That was what I did. And nativity scenes I don't remember being anything. I was probably a piece of hay.
Nathan:
You're a piece of hay.
Haeny:
So that was my acting career.
Nathan:
It's amazing to me that Garbage Pail Kids have played such a central role in your life.
Haeny:
I know. I love them.
Nathan:
That's great.
Haeny:
It was my one piece of rebellious behavior.
Nathan:
Yeah. [inaudible 00:02:17] will recognize this discussion of Garbage Pail Kids.
Haeny:
[inaudible 00:02:21]. Yes, yes.
Nathan:
I didn't really start getting into theater or acting or any of that kind of stuff until I was much older, until I was in high school, actually.
Haeny:
Do you remember the first high school play you did?
Nathan:
I do. It was A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Haeny:
Ooh, Shakespeare.
Nathan:
Shakespeare. That was my first play I did in high school. And I did it because I feel like one of my friends was like, "Oh, it's really fun. It's everybody just hanging out being stupid all the time." I was like, "Oh, I want to do that."
Haeny:
Hang around and be stupid. Sign me up.
Nathan:
I'm already doing that. I might as well get some credit for it.
Haeny:
Okay. Do you remember who you played? Not that I would know, because I barely read Shakespeare.
Nathan:
It was Demetrius, I think is his name. So one of the star crossed lovers.
Haeny:
Nice.
Nathan:
And then actually did A Midsummer Night's Dream again later, another year or two later in a summer Shakespeare community theater thing. And played Puck, which was the lead role, which made me feel really like I was good. And I had to dress up in this absolutely absurd costume. And Puck is a fairy, and so I had to be a very dancey and prancy. And it was-
Haeny:
That sounds amazing.
Nathan:
It was just so embarrassing.
Haeny:
That sounds amazing. But you got the lead.
Nathan:
Yeah. But it was fun. And then when I was in college, I actually majored, I was a double major, I was a major in theater and chemistry education.
Haeny:
Wow. That is something.
Nathan:
Yeah, that's a thing.
Haeny:
So you loved it enough for theater to become a major.
Nathan:
Yeah, I really thought that I might want to do it.
Haeny:
You would want to be a play actor or that you wanted to be a movie star or what? Or be on Friends?
Nathan:
At that age, I didn't care.
Haeny:
Okay.
Nathan:
Stick me in front of people and that would be fun. I can't sing though, so I couldn't do any of the musicals.
Haeny:
Oh, so you're not a triple threat.
Nathan:
I'm not even a single threat, we're going to discover.
Haeny:
So you did want to be an actor.
Nathan:
I thought that'd be fun. Yeah.
Haeny:
Yeah. That's kind of cool. And why did you do the chemistry part then? Because you were-
Nathan:
Because I'm very practical.
Haeny:
Okay.
Nathan:
I'm an extremely practical person. I was like, cool, it would be fun to be an actor, but a bazillion people think that would be fun. I should also have some other skills and things that I would enjoy and that I would like to do. And so I was a high school chemistry teacher and I ended up doing that, and then that led to what I do now.
Haeny:
Did you high school chemistry teach and theater act on the side?
Nathan:
I did. I did.
Haeny:
What did you do? Did any of your students come and watch you?
Nathan:
No. I don't even know if I ever told them I was in a play.
Haeny:
You hid it?
Nathan:
Oh sure. Absolutely.
Haeny:
My God. Well, before we talk to our guests, what do you think are the qualities that make a good actor? Why am I always a piece of hay or door holder number three? What is the thing that I cannot generate in myself?
Nathan:
I don't know. I do think there is something about, as you've said a few times, committing to it and letting yourself be taken into the energy, to the emotion of a scene and then sort of seeing where that goes. And I don't think that's very easy to do. And I think there's been times where I've been able to do that and those times I think I probably did fine. But I think good actors are able to sort of do that on a whim. I can say like, "Oh, try to do this thing," which we're going to do with our guests, and "Try to play this character."
Haeny:
We're going to test them out today.
Nathan:
And they're just able to embody it quickly.
Haeny:
Yeah. But today we had a little discussion about your very short-lived acting career. And we get to talk to two people who actually have had a pretty long-lived acting career who are deep in it and who have played a lot of different roles.
Nathan:
I'm excited to talk to them.
Haeny:
I am too.
Welcome to another episode of Pop and Play. I'm very excited today because I get to have my two good friends, Marah and Chris Sotelo on the pod today. Very, very exciting. Marah and Chris have day jobs that don't have to do with acting, but they do a lot of musical theater and acting and they role play and do lots of cool things around play on the stage, literally playing. So I thought I would introduce them by talking about the four things that they've been in together.
Nathan:
You should note, these are two separate people.
Haeny:
Yes. They're not-
Nathan:
You keep referring to Marah and Chris as if this is one individual.
Haeny:
Yes, that's true. So we have Marah. Marah, you want to say hello?
Marah:
Hi everyone. So happy to be here.
Haeny:
Thanks for being here. And then we have Chris.
Chris:
Yo. I don't even know why... I don't know why I said it.
Nathan:
You nailed it.
Chris:
I don't know why I said it. It was either yo or what up. I'm not sure.
Nathan:
This is like in middle school-
Chris:
Whatever.
Nathan:
They'd do roll. And you couldn't just say "here". You'd be like, "what's up?"
Marah:
I'm kind of surprised he didn't do what he normally does.
Haeny:
Which is?
Nathan:
What do I do? What up fam?
Marah:
What up fam?
Nathan:
We out here?
Marah:
What up? What up fam?
Nathan:
What up fam? We out here. Thank you for inviting me. I was going to do it and then I'm like, no, be professional. And then my brain said, don't be professional. And then that's what came out. So I would've said, "what up fam" is exactly what I would've said first. I apologize.
Haeny:
Oh, so they know each other well. Marah just said, "Chris, I'm surprised you didn't do the usual entry." And the reason why they know each other well is because they're also a married couple that also ends-
Nathan:
Ooooh. Is that we're supposed to do? I'm trying to stick to the middle school vibes.
Haeny:
Okay. So far they've been in multiple productions together; Into the Woods, Last Five Years, Allegiance, and currently A Christmas Carol.
Nathan:
So we like to get our conversation started with a bit of a game. And we try to choose a game or design a game that fits with a particular topic or theme. And so what we have today is we have a game where we're going to give you a character and a line and we're going to roll a dice to figure out which character or line to give you. And then we'll figure out what kind of genre or style that we want you to give that line in. Haeny's going to give us an example, an introduction. Okay, so Haeny, your character is Kendall Jenner explaining to her older sister, Kourtney, why she is so athletic. Okay. And you see your line on your document there.
Haeny:
Uh-huh. I see it.
Nathan:
Ready to go? Okay, go for it.
Haeny:
Yes. Oh wait. And I'm supposed to do it in the style of Kendall Jenner.
Nathan:
Yeah.
Haeny:
Because that's the only style I know how to do because that's two degrees away from how I really talk. Okay. So, I'm literally built as an athlete. Every blood test I've ever done has said that I'm over the normal limit of athleticness.
Nathan:
Wow. Crushed it.
Marah:
Athleticness.
Haeny:
I know. I'm sorry.
Nathan:
Crushed it.
Haeny:
I was going to do it more like, I'm literally built as an athlete, but that's like Kourtney. Okay. She's the lazy talker. So I can't do that. Kendall's a little bit more.
Chris:
You got the nuances down, for real.
Haeny:
Because that's how I normally talk, Chris. That's two degrees from how I really talk.
Nathan:
Okay. Okay.
Haeny:
But anyway.
Nathan:
Okay, so who wants to go first?
Marah:
Chris will go first.
Chris:
Marah's going to go first. This is going to be horrible.
Nathan:
Did you want to do the Home Alone scene?
Haeny:
Yes. I think we should. And we should let them choose which one they want to do it in.
Nathan:
Okay. So we have a Home Alone scene.
Chris:
Great.
Nathan:
This is the one that's from the movie within the movie. And here's some options for you, which you can choose from. But if you'd like to do your own style, you can choose off the list. So we have the British period drama, 80s action movie, Western, or a Kristen Wiig character.
Marah:
Oh my God, that's amazing.
Chris:
Okay, can I go? I'm going to go.
Haeny:
Yes.
Chris:
I'm going to do this, but can I do British cockney?
Haeny:
Yes.
Nathan:
Yes.
Chris:
We're going to try my-
Marah:
You stole mine.
Chris:
That's why I took it first. That's why I took it first.
Marah:
Okay.
Chris:
Yeah.
Marah:
You do a cockney and then I'll do proper Downton Abbey.
Chris:
Yeah.
Haeny:
Nice.
Nathan:
Okay. That's great.
Chris:
This is cold, so who knows. Ready? All right. Oye. I'll tell you what I'm going to give you, Snakes. I'm going to give you to the count of 10 to get your ugly, yellow, no good keister off my property before I pump your guts full of lead. One, two, 10. Keep the change you filthy animal.
Haeny:
Oh my God, that was so good.
Marah:
That was amazing. Isn't his cockneys so good?
Nathan:
I love it.
Haeny:
Wow. Wow. That was excellent. Holy cow. I'm crying now.
Chris:
Thank you. Thank you.
Haeny:
Okay.
Chris:
Thank you.
Marah:
My turn?
Nathan:
Yes. Now for the Queen's English.
Haeny:
Now for the Queen's English.
Marah:
Yes, Queen's English.
Chris:
Queen's English. The Queen's English.
Marah:
Okay. Hello. I tell you what I'm going to give you, Snakes. I'm going to give you the count of 10 to get your ugly, sorry. Ugly, yellow, no good keister off my property before I pump your guts full of lead. A one, a two, and 10. Keep the change you filthy animal.
Nathan:
Wonderful.
Marah:
Julia Andrews kind of vibe to it.
Chris:
Yeah.
Haeny:
Wow. Nice little Julie Andrews.
Chris:
That was like Mary Poppins.
Nathan:
So much scarier than the-
Chris:
Mary Poppins.
Marah:
Yes.
Haeny:
Yes.
Nathan:
Thank you for playing that game with us. And I do apologize. We talked about when we were planning this game, I was like, "It feels like we're just making them perform for us." Haeny was like, "That sounds awesome."
Marah:
That is nothing new [inaudible 00:13:15] our relationship with Haeny.
Haeny:
What? Me?
Chris:
That's true.
Haeny:
I never force anyone to do anything.
Nathan:
Never. Never.
Chris:
False.
Haeny:
Okay, so maybe we should just get into it, huh?
Nathan:
I think we're into it already.
Haeny:
I actually don't even know if I know this about either of you guys. I kind of know it about Chris because I know Chris got into the musical theater scene a little later in the game. But maybe we'll start with Marah. Do you want to share with us how you got into theater in the first place?
Marah:
Yeah, sure. I think I started loving theater in grade school, actually. I had these wonderful teachers and our theater department was really good. And Arlington Heights, that's where I grew up. Illinois.
Haeny:
Oh my God. Arlington Heights is where I went to high school. Shout out to Arlington Heights. Anyway, go ahead. Yes.
Marah:
Yeah. And then I went to a really great middle school as well, and that's really where it took off. I auditioned for, it was our middle school had only seventh and eighth graders, and in seventh grade I auditioned for the musical. And it was one of those, it's not even a known musical. They're the ones that are written just for middle school. So it was called Hee-Haw Hay Ride. I believe-
Nathan:
Sounds like a banger.
Marah:
Yeah. And I auditioned thinking maybe I'll get into the ensemble. And then I actually ended up getting a lead role. And I think that gave me the confidence and it just took off from there. So I think around that time it made a big difference having these amazing teachers and a great program.
Nathan:
Well, I'm curious though, Marah, getting started with it is one thing. It sounds like you had some really great experiences when you were young. How did you stay up with it? How did you keep doing it after you moved on in life? That is a different level of difficulty, I feel like.
Marah:
Yeah, I think, well, I took a break for a while during college and then post-college. But then, Haeny knows this, when we were in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, I think that's when it started again for me. I started doing local community theater productions. And then it was just one after the other. There was this season in my life where when I would be done with one production, I would audition for another and get into it. And so I think, yeah, it just stayed that way since then. We live in San Francisco now, and when we moved out here I started auditioning as well. And there was a quiet period and then it started taking off. Yeah.
Haeny:
How about you Chris? How did you get started?
Chris:
I think the earliest memory I have was I saw my cousin, who is several years older than me, lives in Northbrook. He must have been going to middle school and I was in grade school. And it was summertime and I saw him in this production of this musical who I've never heard of or seen since. It's called Ghost Chasers. I still remember the theme song. Even to this day, this is still one of the highest quality productions I've seen. I just remember how it made me feel as a kid. They had projections of ghosts flying around and stuff and it just blew my mind, the stagecraft. And then seeing my cousin have gray hair and he doesn't have gray hair. But it was mind-blowing, man. I remember just being enthralled by the magic of theater then. And I came home being like, what was that? What did I just experience as a kid?
And then hanging onto that feeling. And then, I don't know, I think I did a junior high production, or no, it was junior high production of Jesus Christ Superstar. And it was really pared down. It was so bad. It was just like some of the songs. I was one of the Pharisees and I had this big tall paper black hat that we had to make ourselves. It was awful. But then I remember my first real musical was I auditioned for Little Shop of Horrors, and I was in junior high, but I auditioned for a high school production at this all girls high school. And I got in as an ensemble member. And I was understudying Seymour. And I'm like, I have no business doing this, but okay, this is great. I'm very excited about this. And then I just got bit by the bug.
Haeny:
Do you remember the turning point for you when you were like, "Oh, I actually think I can act"? When do you think that happened? Was it, you got this really rave review? Or you performed in this specific play and you're like, "Oh wait, that was really meaningful for me"? Or what do you think was the thing that turned you a little bit?
Marah:
I did a production of Cabaret here in the Bay Area, and Cabaret is such a special musical because it's almost like a play with music. I know it's considered a musical, but the script is just so juicy. And you have these long almost monologue moments, which you don't really have in a lot of musicals. And I had the privilege of being able to play Sally Bowles. And to this day-
Haeny:
It's one of those roles.
Marah:
Yeah, it's just one of those roles that I would do it again in a heartbeat, because it was just so special. It was so good and so fun. But that was the production that I feel like really gave me the confidence. And I had an amazing director who really worked with me and told me, "Hey, you can act." And I think that's all I needed. Just someone who I really respected to tell me, "You can do this. You're actually quite good." So yeah, I think that's when it happened. So that was a couple of years ago here in the Bay Area.
Nathan:
I like that. I like the play aspect of trying out new, or maybe you've been doing this for a long time, but playing with the piece of it that you want to spend time with. Playing with, "I want to try this other thing out that I haven't really invested as much energy into or haven't really thought of myself as being." Chris, I wondered for you, are there ways in which you still see being part of the musicals or where's the play for you in this part of your life?
Chris:
Yeah, I think backtrack to the previous question and it'll all tie together is that I think I discovered acting before singing in the sense that I was always, I don't know, I had a big imagination as a kid and not shy in front of a camera, that sort of thing. I am very self-conscious about singing roles though. Marah knows. She hears me all the time. I second-guess myself. I'm like, well, I don't sound good. That's not my wheelhouse, that's not what I was trained in. I can do it, but I'm more of an actor, character actor, if you will.
But I've grown as the roles have come. For instance, I did Into the Woods twice now. The first time I was Cinderella's steward and also the baker's understudy in that role. And then the second time I just did this past summer, I was Rapunzel's Prince. Started living out the Prince track life. Trying to embracing the main character energy. And it's scary, man. But my saving grace, what Marah says is I know that there are singers in the audience that probably are like, "That guy's not the best singer." But when you see me act and do these scenes, you're like "Boy, is he charming. Boy, he can really run circles around that and chew on those words." I throw myself into those scenes.
Nathan:
I also wanted to ask if this isn't... This is neither of your jobs, your main professions. So how does that work for you? How this part of... How do you think about this as part of your life? Is it sort of a hobby? Is it a thing that you sort of do when you have the time? Is it a thing that you're wanting to shift more of your energy towards? How do you think about this as your life?
Marah:
For me, it's like therapy. I tell people it's an outlet, but I'm realizing more and more these days it's more than that. Yes, it's an outlet, but it's so healing for me. When I step foot in a theater space, there's just something honestly that happens. I know it sounds cheesy, but my body feels it. And I think more and more these days I'm really embracing this idea of it being this therapeutic healing space for me. And a lot of it is because of the play aspect. I get to be this character for three hours during rehearsal time. I get to just create, not be myself, forget all the other real world stuff, leave that at the door and just be in this space with other artists. And it's just so much fun.
When I leave, I am like, oh, that felt good. It's I feel a lot more relaxed. And people think it's crazy because yeah, I have a nine-to-five job. I leave that, go to the theater space, come back at 11:00 PM and people are like, "That's so crazy. How do you do that?" But I get energy from it. It doesn't drain me the way other things do. So I feel like I need it in my life. Chris knows this. When I am in a production, I am physically tired, but I just feel so much more alive, alert. And then when I'm done, I'm looking for the next thing because I crave that space.
Haeny:
I was thinking that happens so much too with little kids in classrooms. How they get into trouble for playing too much or playing too hard or getting carried away. But I feel like the best kind of play is healing and you get carried away by it. And so obviously your body's going to go to places where it shouldn't. You're going to shout or say things in a volume that probably isn't appropriate for school or whatever it is, but that there's something really... Real play should get you carried away to a different space. So why wouldn't it look like something that you don't necessarily recognize?
Chris:
We have stage managers. They're different for every production. And so we've got this stage manager who has her little catchphrase at the end or at the beginning, the top of every rehearsal. She says, "All right, let's play." And I actually had never had a stage manager say that before. And at first I thought, okay, that's a little hokey. We're here, we got to get this job done. But then the more she said it and the more I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, that's what we're doing. This is supposed to be fun. We're taking you from A to Z of a character and we're all playing together.
To Marah's point, the energy comes from the people that we're all playing. If you think about it, it's like a bunch of, in this case, it's a mix of grown adults and children and everyone running the gamut. And actually that's what I like about theater too. I do like that there's a wide range of people to play with. And I think art imitates life because we've picked up some of those folks that we've played with and they've become friends to us. And I think that we've come to find that our life is richer and made better by people that we can play with. Not just on the stage, but in life.
Marah and I play around with each other in our marriage. It's a thing. We're just playing around. And then we found that the lasting relationships are the people that we play with, that we could laugh with and that we could of course get serious and do life with for sure. But there's this common thread of like, oh, you know how to mess around. It's great to be able to do that on stage, but the bonus is that we've picked up people on the way to be part of our little weird menagerie of friends.
Haeny:
That's a great pivot to the next thing we're going to ask maybe about community. And throughout this whole conversation, I hear you talking about all the different people in your life that come out of the theater and all the different roles that everybody plays and all the different mannerisms and quirky things that they might say that sound cheesy at first, but you're like, oh wow, this is real. This is it. And so talk to us about that community and what that community has meant for you. And I think we said that because there's a lot of stereotypes of what a theater community might look like on television and media. We've all watched Glee, I think.
Nathan:
Hoping it isn't mostly waiting for government.
Chris:
Yeah, there are definitely extremes. I think if you've ever seen Pen15 is an amazing show. That episode where they're putting on the play, or the lead up where they're rehearsing and they put it on.
Marah:
Oh my God. I love that episode.
Chris:
I love that episode. I love the scenes in 21 Jump Street when he's doing Peter Pan. That cracks me up because there's so many kernels of truth to how people are and how they play.
Marah:
Absolutely.
Chris:
And how oftentimes maybe people take themselves very seriously in this play, this form of play. It's like a wide collection of people from every walk of life. And when you do the show together, it's like you go through the crucible of failure, of triumph, of trying to get this thing up. It's just so beautiful because you're almost making... you're making something out of nothing. When do you get to do that? When do you get to do that? And an in structured environment where there's an end goal. And at the end of the day, most of the people that we do this with, they don't do it for the cash. There's no cash in this, even for the professionals. Ain't no cash in this. Why do you do this?
Marah:
Nathan made that very clear to me when he told me that he got a hundred dollars for doing a summer Shakespeareian thing. And then I was like, "A hundred dollars a day." And he's like, "No. The whole summer."
Nathan:
The whole summer, a hundred bucks. Boom.
Chris:
That tracks.
Nathan:
That made it professional. A hundred bucks.
Chris:
A hundred dollars.
Marah:
I think it's gotten a little bit better now, Nathan. But it's still-
Nathan:
You pay to be in the show.
Marah:
You pay to be in the show.
Chris:
Yeah. I don't know what you were going to say, love, but that's the thing that stuck out to me.
Marah:
Yeah, what I love is, and Chris mentioned this earlier, all the different people that we meet, every production that I've been a part of it's like a whole new season of some show. You have your new cast of characters. And in a short amount of time it's this weird thing. You just get close really quickly. Or you get annoyed with people really quickly. I've experienced both. I've experienced both, to be honest.
Chris:
That's facts.
Haeny:
Okay. I feel like one last question that I have that I definitely feel like I should say is I remember when you were doing Into the Woods and I saw on your Instagram all these little girls who were not just Asian, but white girls just gathered around you. So enamored by the fact that you're Cinderella and you're like this... It made me as a fellow Asian person or person of color, it just makes you really proud to see that there's someone in the center of it with a whole bunch of ten-year-olds who are going gaga, waiting to take a picture of you like your Beyonce. So I want to know, what do you think about that? What are some, I don't know, insights or things that you're thinking about as you're stepping into some of these roles that I think are very central and that haven't been very central to us before?
Marah:
That's something that is really important to me because I have nieces and nephews and I always think of them every time I take on a role, because growing up I didn't have that. And I actually struggled a lot with my identity growing up because all I had, when I would watch TV or even go to the theater, I didn't have anyone that looked like me represented in these roles. And so that was one of my biggest goals when I went into theater was I really... We hear it all the time how representation matters and all of that, but it really is important. So I think about my family members that they're so lucky. They're growing up seeing themselves, and that's important. And it feels great to be not just... There's nothing wrong with being in the ensemble, all of that. But to me, there's something special when you are a lead character and these children get to see you and they can imagine themselves in those roles growing up. So, yeah.
Nathan:
That's cool.
Marah:
Yeah, it's special.
Haeny:
Yeah.
Chris:
It makes me proud to see Marah in that way. It's one of the things that brings me real joy when I see that thing happen. And it doesn't just happen when Marah is a princess. It happens when Marah is basically in any role that I've seen her in recent years, people will wait to talk to her at the end. And it brings me so much pride and joy. We grew up looking on the stage for the Asian. What was that person? And then they're back there somewhere. When you're in this principle role, taking that main character energy and making it something attainable for people who are aspiring or don't even know if they're aspiring, but something inside of them gets moved. That's incredible. That's truly, truly remarkable.
And then not only that, but you're giving that main character energy to people in the cast who are currently ensemble who are younger, and they're like, "I'm going to strive for that too. I'm going to give that main character energy as a person of color." I will say even Into the Woods, it was me as Rapunzel's Prince and my fellow actor who's Black, he was Cinderella's Prince. So you had two princes of color taking this amphitheater stage for an entire... One month of an entire summer. And so you're having families come in and they're seeing two princes of color normalized that aren't the hired help. So it's great.
And I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the production that Marah and I are working on right now, which is Larry the Musical. And it's the original Filipino American musical, which is specifically Filipino, where we get to embody these Filipino roles. I say we, but I really mean Marah and the cast. I am the filmmaker for this piece, just documenting as it goes, on a professional level, not just a creeper. But it is super meaningful for our family and our friends to be able to see not just people they know, but themselves represented through us as conduits.
Haeny:
Yeah, I think that's so important. The representation is not only about seeing people, but it's also seeing the stories that are out there. So I like that you brought in Larry the Musical. Because I think it's also about the kinds of stories that we tell and the ones that we don't actually hear about or know about or even learn while we were in school. We can actually learn those things in pop culture and what's out there.
Chris:
Yeah.
Nathan:
That's great. Well, thank you very much for hanging with us to talk about your lives and your play and the ways in which you tinker around and play with these identities. It's been a lot of fun.
Chris:
Yeah. Well, as they say across the pond, you can keep the change you filthy animal.
Nathan:
Perfect.
Marah:
A full circle. Full circle. Bookend.
Nathan:
We do have one more segment though, so you might have to do it again. No, just kidding. We do have one more segment that we like to do on this show that we call, What's Popping. And this is your opportunity to tell us about things that you're into right now. So what are you into? What shows are you watching? What books are you reading? What games are you playing? What plays are you encountering that you'd like to tell others about and get them into it too?
Haeny:
It's really just anything in the pop culture landscape that is popping at the moment.
Nathan:
Doesn't have to... In this show, it also doesn't have to be important. It can just be any drivel that you're loving right now.
Haeny:
Yeah, exactly.
Chris:
We'll start with the lighter offering. The lighter offering is that we are recording this during the winter and Christmas season. And one thing you need to know about me and Marah is that we really do love quality film, quality movies, quality stories, but we also really love Hallmark, holiday, everything. We love it all. We love every single freaking stupid Christmas movie. Every one of them.
Marah:
Haeny is cringing.
Chris:
We love sitting there and predicting what's going to happen. And we love, we just love it. So it's there. It's in the background. It plays. And it's like that-
Haeny:
Do you watch the old Christmas movies that everybody watches? Or do you get into those new Netflix trashy ones? Because I'm into those.
Chris:
All of them. All of them. Love Hard. All of the Vanessa Hudgens ones where she's a twin triplet.
Haeny:
The Lindsay Lohan one.
Chris:
The Lindsay Lohan one.
Marah:
We watched the Lindsay Lohan one last year. It was so bad it was good.
Haeny:
There was one last year with Nina Dobrev, which I watched.
Marah:
Yes.
Chris:
I will say this. The reason we do that, and there's no excuses for it other than like, listen, man, joy is hard to come by. So just get it. Whatever way you can get it, get that joy, fam. So this brings us joy. We getting it. So that's the silly offering. On the more serious offering of things, what did I start recently? What were we just in the theater watching, love? It was great.
Marah:
The Hunger Games. I was going to say that.
Chris:
Okay. Let me say this. Oh, I'll tee it up. The Hunger Games is great, and Marah's going to tell you why. The new Hunger Games is great, and Marah's going to tell you why.
Haeny:
Oh, the new Hunger Games movie? The prequel?
Chris:
Yeah.
Haeny:
Yes.
Marah:
We loved it. We loved it. The acting was phenomenal. Literally every single person.
Chris:
No false notes.
Marah:
It was so good. And the main character that plays Coriolanus Snow, that gut Tom Blyth. Do you know? Is that how you say his last name? I'm kind of obsessed. I'm obsessed. He's my new obsession. And then I don't know how you guys feel about Timothee Chalamet. Have you had any conversations about Timothee Chalamet?
Haeny:
Yes. Yes, I always do.
Marah:
I want to know what your thoughts are.
Haeny:
Right now, why? I don't mind him. I feel like his outfits are good for Willy Wonka.
Chris:
Okay. This is a good segue. Marah is a [inaudible 00:36:45] person.
Haeny:
I also like his statistics. Statistics. Okay. I'm into it. I'm into Timothee Chalamet, the wannabe rapper.
Marah:
Me too. I don't know what it is. But yeah, the new Hunger Games movie is really, really, really good. So highly recommend and yeah. And Timothee Chalamet. I am obsessed with his fashion.
Haeny:
Yeah, me too.
Marah:
Everything he wears, I want to wear.
Haeny:
Yeah, me too.
Marah:
Right? Everything he wears, I'm like, oh my God. I think that would look good on me.
Chris:
A hundred percent.
Haeny:
Okay. This was so much fun. I feel like we can go on and on. Okay. Thank you so much for being here.
Chris:
Hey, thanks for having us.
Haeny:
Pop and Play is produced by Haeny Yoon, Nathan Holbert, Lalitha Vasudevan, Billy Collins and Joe Rena Ferry at Teachers College Columbia University with the Digital Futures Institute. This episode was edited by Billy Collins and Kyle Arlington.
Nathan:
For a transcript and to learn more, visit tc.edu/popandplay. Our music is selections from Leaf Eaters by Pottington Bear. Used here under a creative commons attribution non-commercial license. Blake Danzig provided our social media and outreach support. Follow at Pop and Play Pod on Instagram and TikTok for more of what's popping, like the Trashies with [inaudible 00:38:08]. Thank you to Meyer Clark and Abu Abdulbaghi for support with our website and additional materials. And thanks to you for listening.