We also have a team that works really well together, that knows whose turn it is to pick up what someone else can't continue-the five of us work really well together and if someone says, "My plate is too full, I can't handle this," then someone else will always grab onto it.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

Categorized in : Together Team Plates

Where we're telling the story of the history of the ensemblist [in the "Ensemblist Essentials"], using the nine musicals that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as fixed points in time We're going from 1931 to 2016 and using these shows to talk about what the typical show was like for an ensemblist at the time; did this show change anything about that job, while it was changing everything about the way theatre was written and produced and made?

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

theatre jobs drama

I'd like to see the first act of Sunday in the Park with George, and the second act of Hamilton. Every day.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

parks sunday firsts

Showtunes might be able to come back into pop music, which is something we haven't seen since the 50s and 60s. Everything is related to everything else because we're in such a niche industry.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

niche able might

We haven't truly had a zeitgeisty, 'songs on the radio' show, since...I want to say "One Night in Bangkok" was the last musical theatre song that charted. That was so long ago.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

long-ago song night

We're just trying to restore equilibrium to the Universe, that's... by Nikka Graff Lanzarone

We're just trying to restore equilibrium to the Universe, that's all.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

equilibrium universe trying

It [The Esemblist] is also about the generation of audience members that are watching shows and listening to us at the same time; hopefully, in time, when they listen to our show and then go see a show, they'll realize even more what it takes to make a show, and they'll know even more about everybody on stage, rather than just people above the title of the show.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

titles listening people

And as ensemblists start being asked to do more things that require an insane skill set, that inherent value will, I hope, be held up where it deserves to be.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

inherent insane skills

The biggest possible thing that we're trying to do is change the conversation about what it means to be a working artist today, and hopefully, as the generation of performers that is training and listening to our show at the same time comes up, and becomes a working generation of performers listening to our show-hopefully that's going to change some of the ways they're looking at the hierarchy of theatre and start to blur those lines a bit more.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

training artist mean

Time's going to pass anyway, so it's prioritizing what to do with... by Nikka Graff Lanzarone

Time's going to pass anyway, so it's prioritizing what to do with that.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

prioritize

I think that a solid team, solid communication, is the number one... by Nikka Graff Lanzarone

I think that a solid team, solid communication, is the number one thing in life at all times.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

communication team thinking

We don't have a studio, we don't have a radio station, we don't have anybody breathing down our necks to make a budget. We don't have any benchmarks that we have to hit. Our benchmarks are ones that we have set.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

necks breathing radio

If things come up, we can say, "We're not ready for this, let's m... by Nikka Graff Lanzarone

If things come up, we can say, "We're not ready for this, let's move some things around."

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

come-up ready moving

We remind ourselves that it's a hobby [The Esemblist]; nobody is setting these deadlines for us, except us.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

settings hobbies deadline

I've never done Something Rotten either. by Nikka Graff Lanzarone

I've never done Something Rotten either.

Nikka Graff Lanzarone

rotten done