Welcome to episode 2 of the Stageworthy Podcast, with host Phil Rickaby. This episode’s guest is Sam Rosenthal,an actor, director and was the Artistic Director of Tribal Productions which was the resident theatre company of the Toronto Centre for the Arts (Studio Theatre). As a director, Sam’s work includes The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ( City Playhouse) , War of the Worlds ( City Playhouse), The Marketeer ( Theatre New Brunswick) , Misery ,The Wild Guys, The Possibilities, A Doll’s House , Death Defying Acts, Office Hours, Dangerous Liaisons, War of the Worlds ( Tribal Productions ). Acting credits include Mr. Cohen in The World Premiere of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz ( Segal Centre) ,Time Stands Still ( TSS Collective ) On The Other Side of The World ( Harley Dog Productions – Next Stage Festival), Too Many Cooks (Drayton Entertainment).
Sam is directing Hogtown, a new and exciting immersive theatrical experience coming to Toronto’s Historic Campbell House Museum this January, 2016. Incorporating drama, music and dance, HOGTOWN aims to create a completely immersive environment where the audience has the power to create their own adventure and discover the dark secrets of Toronto’s past.
Check out Hogtown:
http://www.hogtownexperience.com/
Twitter: @hogtownlive
Instagram: hogtownlive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hogtownexperience
Stageworthy:
Twitter @stageworthyPod
Facebook: facebook.com/stageworthyPod
Transcript
Transcript auto generated.
Phil Rickaby 0:04
Welcome to episode two of stage where the podcast I’m your host, Phil Rickaby. On stage where the I interview people who make theatre from actors to directors, to playwrights to stage managers and more, you can find stage worthy on Facebook and Twitter at stage where the pod and you can find a website at stage where the podcast.com If you like what you hear, I hope you’ll subscribe on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use and consider leaving a comment or rating. My guest today is Sam Rosenthal, and he joined me to talk about the Hogtown experience an immersive theatrical experience playing for one week at the end of January at Toronto’s Campbell host, as well as his experience in the recent Montreal production of the Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. This is unfortunately a shorter episode than I’d rather since we were recording this in the Campbell house, and they started closing up about 25 minutes in, you’ll hear the curator come in and tell us she’s closing up in fact, check out Hogtown at Hogtown experienced.com, and at Hogtown lived on Twitter, and Instagram.
think the first question that I want to ask because you’re working on
Sam Rosenthal 1:37
Hogtown live? That’s right. Called the hot Hogtown experience. Okay,
Phil Rickaby 1:42
what kind of experience which is an immersive theatrical performance? What was your like what made you want to explore this kind of immersive theatre? As some of the you wanted to do?
Sam Rosenthal 2:00
My first experience with it, I credit the inspiration fully on the shoulders of Sleep No More. And I make no bones about saying that I had never experienced immersive theatre of this nature went there three years ago, was so taken with not only their performance, the idea, but also the experience stayed with me for like, a year and a half after. And I left thinking wouldn’t it be great? If we could do something like that in Toronto? And then my next question is, well, well, how do you make it? How do you take someone else’s amazing idea be inspired by it, but then make it your own? Yeah. But that’s so that’s where it came from. And then followed up with, you know, getting this little green book from my father, saying, This is what your grandfather and grandmother, this is an organisation they belong to. And he handed me this book. And it was actually from an organisation that shall remain nameless, because it’s basically like a stone masons organisation. And we don’t use their secrets, but the template of who they are what said about fascinated me. So I started to think, what would it be like if you could experience that in a safe environment, which led me to then start thinking about, well, wait a second, you know, this is a book from 1928. Now, let’s see, you know, I love prohibition. I love the 20s. And I sat down with all of this in my head thinking, There’s something here and for the last year and a half, myself and my co writer drew Karn with sat down and started creating an experience, you know, that would take place in one venue, that you could essentially be a ghost and walk through and see what it would be like to be in this in our case now in the show in a speakeasy in 1920s. Toronto. Add to that fact. Okay, that’s all interesting. I said to myself, but what makes it Toronto? What makes it Hogtown? Well, let’s make it about the actual election that took place in 1926. Let’s, let’s put historical figures in there. We put our own spin on it. Yeah. But you know, who was the mayor in 1926? You know, let’s, let’s see the genesis of where the TTC and the CNE and where did these ideas come from? And that’s so that’s the genesis of where that all came from.
Phil Rickaby 4:39
The election at that time was that on New Year’s Day,
Sam Rosenthal 4:43
that happened on New Year’s Day, and it happened between Thomas Foster who, who was the current mayor at the time, and he was running up against the incumbent San MacBride and without giving anything away, it’s all historical fact. Sam McBride loses by 3000 votes that he but it’s I mean, by 3000 votes, I still pretty close. Yeah. But what’s interesting to me about those two guys is you have the sort of Rob Ford at the time without the other issues that he’s famous for when I mean, Rob Ford, I mean, the, you know, let’s, let’s clamp down, let’s Penny pinch, let’s, you know, and versus the other. The other Let’s spend, let’s grow, let’s build this town. And so what was relevant today was definitely, you know, happening back then, as well. So.
Phil Rickaby 5:34
So is it is the set the timeframe? Is that New Year’s
Sam Rosenthal 5:37
Eve? Yes. So when you arrive at the Campbell house, you’re coming into a speakeasy on New Year’s Eve, the night before the election, and you’re entering what essentially is a pre election party for Sam McBride, who has feeling pretty confident he’s gonna win the next day. And this is his sort of big, you know, come on, let’s, let’s, let’s look, let’s have a great bash on on New Year’s Eve. Complications into and when Thomas Foster, the current mayor decides to crash the party as well, because all the biggest names in town are here. Yeah. And that’s when things get finding it interesting. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby 6:24
So how, I mean, as somebody who’s writing from a rights plays and things like that, how do you approach writing something as immersive as this when there’s, there isn’t a stage, per se, there’s not one spot where people can focus. So how do you approach the writing, of funding?
Sam Rosenthal 6:44
So full disclosure, since this is my first immersive piece, what we did was we looked at each room in the house as a stage. So you know, what happens in what we call the get the adult games room, all all the characters that enter all the things that happen in that space, let’s look at that as one stage. And we did that with all the other six playing areas in the house. And of course, the challenge then becomes, so if one character is downstairs in this scene, and you need him upstairs for 20 minutes later, right? It’s it starts to become a sort of game of Jenga and jigsaw, how do you so we made a big chart, and we start, you know, we wrote 34, storylines for 34 characters, and how they interacted and then just over the years, started putting it together. And it really is, it’s quite challenging, because sometimes you found yourself creating something for a character to do, just for the sake of having that character do something in our earlier drafts. And that’s when we got into trouble. And my co writer would call me on it and say, Well, what, what’s driving this character forward? What’s interesting about this moment, yeah, you know, and I had to throw my hands up and say, You’re right, and we had to go back then and say, you know, this character is pursuing this and that, and then all of a sudden, some things really started to click, you know, for example, the mayor’s wife, who is based on a certain mayor, which I won’t say Mel Lastman, who is who’s, you know, who’s whose wife was notorious for her partying ways, let’s say. And so we have a character in the show who, who has the same proclivity for alcohol. Now, what’s what’s interesting about watching someone who may be a become inebriated? Well, I think at this point in all of our lives, probably nothing much unless she’s got something really interesting and honest to say, and the alcohol, or the honesty comes through that. That’s what I find interesting, not an actor stumbling around playing drunk, but someone who’s unafraid to say what they feel the alcohol just happens to bring that out. So it was those kinds of things, as opposed to me saying, well, let’s have this actor drink. What? Why? Yeah, let’s have her start to release what she’s been holding in for a year as her husband has been, you know, going through this campaign. And so it’s, it’s really been an interesting journey. And as I mentioned to you before we started the interview, you know, you’ve come today and today was the first time we hit print on the computer and out came all these scenes. And, you know, the script is 200 pages. And, you know, handing it to the stage management team today. There’s four of them on saying No, good luck helped me schedule this. I mean, it’s,
Phil Rickaby 9:44
well, that I mean, I guess it you know, it’s 200 pages because it’s not linear. It’s like, so many things like there can be scenes. There’s scenes going on on the seat. Absolutely. It’s not 200 hours of stuff. Well, it’s 200 hours of stuff but you couldn’t possibly write C at
Sam Rosenthal 10:01
all? No, you can’t. And even though we’ve, we’ve done some interesting things to make sure that you’re going to see a good chunk of it, you would have to come back several times to catch all the stories, you can’t see everything in one,
Phil Rickaby 10:14
no more like that. More people go back multiple times just to see
Sam Rosenthal 10:17
it very much. And one of the things that I was overwhelmed with when I went to New York is seeing the lineup of the people who are going to see the show and the Democratic demographic was 20 to 35. And they were dropping $120 us to see the show. And when I talked to some of these younger folks in line, they had seen it three or four times. Now that could be the future of theatre here in Toronto, that could revolutionise how the younger generation see theatre, right, because we talked about that. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby 10:51
I mean, one of the major questions that people in theatre have his hand wringing about the future of, of our audience and things like that. And I’ve heard lots of conversations, there was a town hall sort of thing last winter of all kinds of people from all kinds of spots and independent theatre, talking about where’s the audience? Do you? Do you think that the the traditional type of theatre is uninteresting, to the 20 to 30? demographic? Or is that is that? Are they just looking for something different?
Sam Rosenthal 11:29
No, I wouldn’t sell them. I wouldn’t sell them short. And I and I know that the theatre that I grew up with, that I know that you grew up with to is still very much alive and well in certain communities and cities. But I think that there has to be like the iPads and iPhones we have, there has to be new options for theatre. And I think that’s what I’m what I’m saying is that people want a more visceral experience. I’m not suggesting that you can’t get that from a typical stage performance. But I’m saying that what I want to do is take a couple of wires and sort of supercharged the battery here in Toronto and say, Okay, great. And how about this? Well, it’s interesting, because I mean,
Phil Rickaby 12:15
I can only think of a handful of times when I’ve seen something on a traditional stage that was really that I found visceral. So it’s interesting to think about how, how a completely immersive spiral theatre might work. Now, there may be people who aren’t familiar with the stick no more. Yeah, also, was at Humber did their the brandwood.
Sam Rosenthal 12:41
Last year, which I didn’t get to see saw twice.
Phil Rickaby 12:44
I mean, that was a lot of people were spectacular, spectacular. What is this kind of this kind of theatre.
Sam Rosenthal 12:51
So it’s the kind of theatre where forget about the notion of coming in and sitting down and watching. And that’s why I use the term being a ghost, it is about going to an environment, whether it’s under a bridge or in a house, and you begin to walk the rooms of the house, and there will be people, there will be scenes happening, there will be conversations happening, you’ll walk into a room, and two actors, three actors, for actors will be having a conversation. And the way it is staged, it’s obviously a little more than a conversation. It’s a dramatic scene. And you were going to you were going to be welcomed and invited to to listen and and see what’s happening. way that I would say it becomes immersive. Someone could say to me, Well, it sounds like I’ll just sit on the side of the room and watch the conversation. What’s the difference, the differences is that an actor could turn to you. And, you know, go over and speak with you could take your hand and ask you to join the conversation, to breast to put the fears of the audience at rest. This isn’t a murder mystery, where you’re then going to have to, as an audience, come up with clever conversation. What we do to allay the fears of the audiences, we established the rules at the top and saying, You don’t need to speak this is about you experiencing. So what that means is that you can just sit in silence and and become part of the conversation. That means that two politicians could be having a heated conversation and all of a sudden, you’re the adviser meaning you know, you’re a silent adviser and one one actor has his hand on your shoulder. If you have to really great actors in a really well written scene having this conversation. Only thing I can describe is that you as the audience member feel like you’re there with them. You’re part of that conversation. And I guess that’s what I mean by immersive. For example, in the games room without giving too much away. It’s a room where, you know, the still is because it’s a speakeasy. It’s a room where the rum runners are and there are different As you know, there’s a craps game that happens in there. And as an audience member, you could stand at that craps table, which is dice, by the way, if you’re not a gambler like myself, and you could take part in that game, and you could take part in it, what does that mean? From there? You have to come to the show and find out but you’re definitely not a bystander in the show.
Phil Rickaby 15:19
So no point it’s not like you are you’re not a passive participant in the way you I mean, you could, you could be you could be, but you can also find your way into the action. Yeah, if you
Sam Rosenthal 15:31
if you choose. And again, it’s not about how clever do you have to be with comebacks, it’s not about the audience talking, it’s about you being emotionally invested. There’s, you know, in the, the Northern Light, that’s my, when I refer to the stonemasons, that’s the group, that’s our group, we call it the Northern Light. And they’re going to, you know, if you’re brave enough to step in that room, you’re going to go through some rituals, and you’re going to be an active participant in those, you know, you know, again, this isn’t a haunted house or not dipping your hands and cabbage and doing silly things. It’s actual, emotional and visceral, a journey that I want the audience to take, you know. And so we’ve tried that a number of interesting ways. And, you know, if you’re my father, for example, who’s 85 years old, who perhaps doesn’t want to wander into every room, we also have a white hot, 1920s Jazz Band, that someone could just sit in the speakeasy and listen to the band. You know, maybe someone doesn’t want to wander the house, I just want to experience the period, right? Because we are in this beautiful this house that was built in 1822. Yeah, you know. So I think that, as I hear myself ramble on about what it means to be an immersive experience, you really have to come and experience it for yourself. And good luck. And I say that tongue in cheek to the audience members who do because you’re gonna have to cross the line of temperates women who are marching up and down the fence, and they’re gonna give you grief for coming in and drinking. Because don’t forget prohibition in Ontario ends in 1927. So we’re just at the end of it. So that’s also an interesting time where prohibition was enforced. And and people really believe that, you know, you shouldn’t be drinking alcohol. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby 17:17
So of course, something like this. Is this can’t be like this. You obviously we have a team of people, both your co writer you said you have four statements
Sam Rosenthal 17:28
for stage managers. Yeah. Cast is how big 34 cast members are the forecast Yeah, and, and a band of the fantastic Jenny Burke, Michael Barber, and Bobby, too, and I hope I’m saying your name right, Bobby, who’s playing on the sax and, and they’re going to be burning up the joint and a couple amazing flappers. So the full experience, I’ve called in favours, I’m not gonna lie, I’ve worked with most of these people over the course of my life. This is an equity collective. And I would say, we’re not going to use the word workshop because a collective can’t be a workshop. But so it’s not a workshop, we’ll call it a phase one of what we hope will be a permanent ongoing show here at the Campbell house. That’s the goal. That’s that’s to
Phil Rickaby 18:16
be able to just sort of like, because you’re only this is only like, a week that it’s a
Sam Rosenthal 18:21
five day sort of, how are we doing Toronto? How does this feel for you? And what I’m hoping is that most people will say, this was spectacular. We want more, and if they do, there’s an opportunity here to run this all summer long for every summer thereafter. And that’s that’s the dream kind of excited to have somebody could could do that. I think so. I mean, I think Listen, that you know, in the summer, that’s a full fledged production where all hands on deck need to be fully compensated as everybody should be. So the goal is how do you do that? How do you get a cast of that many being you know, an answer is you better do something great, inspire people and get grants and you know, and see what you can do so
Phil Rickaby 19:12
the exciting thing of having like this, this short trial is the kind of thing that people can see and feel and say one more right so there’s more opportunity to sort of like showing off and get people interested and in fact
Sam Rosenthal 19:29
Well that’s right. And you know what I’m hoping in the summer is what I wanted to do for the the this production in January but I can’t is the show is written to start on a streetcar, so you would get on a streetcar down at Queen Coxwell as an audience member and as you come across the actor start boarding the car and the show begins posts out there front of Campbell House and in the account right
Phil Rickaby 19:53
to write it like that Yeah. And meet people even before you to
Sam Rosenthal 19:57
the right so you’re you’re really part of The show right at the beginning, you know, but that’s a partnership. I have to work with the TTC, the old streetcars, you can rent them, right. So these are things that we we this is just the tip of the iceberg for this
Phil Rickaby 20:11
experience, right? In terms of these, these 34 people with a 200 page script, that’s, that’s quite the rehearsal, just learning the job to rehearse. You’re hoping that the stage
Sam Rosenthal 20:29
managers can be figured out how to the stage managers are thankfully, the images of what I want are so clear, not how the actors are going to act. That’s the journey. But the stage pictures of what I see in each room are so clear that I’m hoping with the talented actors we have that yes, if the stage managers helped me organise the rehearsal schedule, the actors aren’t gonna have tonnes of time, it’s only two week rehearsal. Right? So, but they also don’t have piles and piles of lines, again, part of the immersive experience, you could go into a room and watch our woman doctor, played by the very talented Laurie Nancy Kaminski. And you could just watch her prepare a procedure that she’s going to do, right and again, without giving too much away, just to watch someone and not what’s a woman, Dr. 1926, right, what is she? What does she carry? What does she do, and just even watching that experience, you know, so, in other words, the actors are going to have to bring a lot to this. It’s not about you know, trying to rehearse a Shakespeare play where lines themselves become the issue, it’s more of the sense of who they are in the
Phil Rickaby 21:41
space. There’s also I mean, there’s also the, the audience interaction is not necessarily something you can, you don’t know what the audience is gonna say. So you have to be a little bit flexible with being able to respond to them. Absolutely. And
Sam Rosenthal 21:54
I can only build in so much in the scenes. It’s not about blocking of ucross here, while you could be in a room with 30 people you would be able to draw, right, so it’s about telling the actors, you know, helping them with, what are you going after in this scene? Really? What What is your intention here? What do you need to get done before your 15 minute scene is up? And how can you how can you play it with 20 people milling about in the room watching? You know,
Phil Rickaby 22:23
you mentioned to me earlier? And that was about how to get somebody downstairs? Who’s got to be upstairs. Yep. And like 10 minutes? How does that person even know that they have what time it is?
Sam Rosenthal 22:36
Well, your listeners can’t see this due to the joy of radio. But I can tell you, I’m holding what I call the Hogtown character timeline. So for example, I’m holding Tommy Burton, and he was the team captain of the Oscars. If I’m saying that correctly, they were the baseball team before the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now for Tommy Burt, the character of Tommy Burke, we’ve actually written out in 15 minute increments where he is. So an actor, I’m holding a sheet that basically says from seven to 715. He’s here and then 715 to 730. So if I’m an actor, I’m starting with this template to say, right, I’m going to be in the upper ballroom at eight o’clock, I’m going to be down in the games room. So we’re building timelines. That’s that’s one way to not overwhelm actors to say, here’s where you are overall. Now, they’re not walking around with stop watches. Yeah, so we have we’ve introduced a lot of music in the show. And so music plays a big role in time, right. So you’ll hear a lot of wonderful ukulele playing and there’s a lot of signals in the houses for the actors. No better move on to the next scene.
Phil Rickaby 23:45
Yeah. Oh, that’s, that’s interesting. That’s very clever. Yeah. Can we leave? I want to leave Hogtown for sure. I’d like to talk about democratics. Sure. And you were in the world premiere. It was
Sam Rosenthal 24:03
the it was the world premiere of this new version, okay, a version that that had been done. The same team had done this 20 years ago, 30 years ago. And but this one now, this version that I did had Alan Menken writing the music, so the music was different. The script was also changed. And so of this particular form, yes, this was the world premiere. And as an actor, it was probably one of the best experiences of my life, because I got to work with Austin Pendleton, who, you know, I was completely intimidated by this director from New York and this actor who I admired, who ended up being a sweet, gentle, wonderful man filled with passion and intelligence and all of us would go to the wall for him. That’s and the experience is beautiful and, and they were so clever to do it in Montreal because the audience is there. It was their story they were watching their story on stage about growing up in for those who don’t know the story but a young man growing up in the Montreal suburbs and and what what an incredible experience in the sequel centre, what a great theatre I had never worked there before. And they and they have a wonderful production team. And it’s, it was extraordinary.
Phil Rickaby 25:30
And did you find I mean, the audience obviously, was very invested in the story that you do you did? Was it that they were familiar with the story or just happy to see their story?
Sam Rosenthal 25:44
I would say that most were familiar with it. But But I, but what I saw from the wings, when I would peek out is is the pride of that’s our story. You know, that’s me as a kid growing up in this town, you know, and and I think that some of the music that Alan Menken wrote, was just the man who just made you weep to listen to, you know, the, the younger cast members would tease me as I would stand and watch some of these beautiful songs that my fellows would sing on stage. And I would literally cry every night. And watch, you know, some of the songs because it was beautiful, you know, and it moved me. It moved me because of, of what the story was, but also because, you know, I’m, I was playing a middle aged Jewish businessman, so, you know, playing part of who I am. And it had a lot to say, often good and often bad about people in business. And so it was a great journey was a very, very cool journey.
Phil Rickaby 26:54
Is there anything that you can point to that you learned through the production of demographics that you that you didn’t know before?
Sam Rosenthal 27:05
I think I learned I’m modelling my directing behaviour. Funny enough on what I learned from duty Kravitz, and Austin Pendleton, which is walk softly, but actually carry, don’t even carry a stick. Carry that love and grace in your heart and your actors will really respect you. I, I just I just learned that. And I also learned that you don’t have to have all the answers as the director right away. There was times when Austin was building a scene. And, you know, the stage management would team would say, you know, Austin, you you’ve left that table on from the scene before and that chair and asked me would say, I know, I know. And they say, well, don’t you want us to move it out? And he would say, stop thinking. So, you know, in this, you know, naturalistic fashion. He said, I don’t know what’s going to happen to that table, leave it. And then you’d have the ghost of the mother appeared a week later on that table? And we’d say, what, where did you come up with that? And he would say, I don’t know, I don’t have all the answers. And I thought, okay, so so you don’t have to know everything, you have to have a vision. But I learned from him to just have faith in the actors, have faith in your crew, and just have faith and how things develop, which maybe as a younger director, and someone who’s still learning, I need to do more, as opposed to I need this right now, today, you know,
Phil Rickaby 28:31
I think there’s a lot of cases where directors are finding that they think they have to know everything. And what do you do when you don’t know? Or you struggle to find it? And maybe it doesn’t work? When everybody’s actually doing that I used to work with a director years ago, who worked out everything on paper, before you would start rehearsal. And then you get to this point in rehearsal, where it wasn’t working for the actors. And he’d be like, I don’t know what you’re What’s wrong with you. It works on the paper. It has to work here.
Sam Rosenthal 29:04
Yeah. And that’s, and that’s, I think, something that I did when I came out of directing from York thinking that won’t the actors think I’m a professional, with all my papers in front of me. And then of course, as you get older, you learn that, you know what actors think you’re a professional by you acting like one, which really means to me, being present for the actors in the room, what do they need to make the scene work, and putting aside your preconceived notions of the scene because they’re individuals bringing you bringing you bringing you and as an actor, if someone’s directing me, I want guidance and but I also want to give them options, you
Phil Rickaby 29:46
know, you want to bring what you bring
Sam Rosenthal 29:49
to the table. And it’s invaluable because I think the biggest thing I learned from doody Kravitz was that you know, when you’re working on a new show, you’ve got to be open to every I think and this is the year of that I’m going to do a show at the Elgin theatre this year, my first time stepping on that stage, I’m doing a show called dancer, okay, being produced by Marlene Smith. And it’s about the story of Northern dancer. Okay. And, and, you know, without really talking about the show, I can just say that it’s, it’s an incredible, incredible story. And it’s a large cast. And, you know, it’s going to be done like duty in terms of have faith with, with all the new things that are coming up before you I just say to myself, it’s the year of world premieres. And I guess Hogtown will fit into that somehow.
Phil Rickaby 30:44
You find that stage, but intimidating is that because it’s a big stage? It’s a famous stage.
Sam Rosenthal 30:49
Oh, I I’m, you know, I’m talking about it, like the little boy that I am inside going, Wow, do I really get to step on there? And it’s an It’s a musical and, you know, yeah, it is intimidating. And but but I think, again, you stick to what you’re doing in the moment on stage. And I learned that that, you know, talking with you or talking before with people, you can have that off. And then you get into rehearsal, like with some of the other actors I’m with, which I can’t talk about now. But there’s some really big people in this show that I’m with. And I’m looking around going, Wow, I get to work with that actor and that actor. But when you get into rehearsal, then it’s just about, you know, it’s just work. It’s just work, right? Yeah.
Phil Rickaby 31:34
I find there’s something about the Yep.
Unknown Speaker 31:39
I’m just starting. Because it’s such a big hex it takes me time to shut it down and keep upstairs. Because I’m up somewhere last time.
Phil Rickaby 31:48
I was sick, though.
Sam Rosenthal 31:49
Thank you. We’ll be wrapping up in a couple of minutes. Thank you. In terms
Phil Rickaby 31:53
of like, I don’t I don’t have a clue. But but I’ve often had that experience that even if I know not working on that stage, there’s the feeling of like, what happens when you get on that stage? For the first time? And there’s that bar? I think that probably draws us all to the stage. Of course. Yeah. Now, this building the rendering Campbell house, right, that’s right. For for where I see some props, I think probably for for Hogtown. What I mean, obviously, the setting was just just perfect for, for for Hogtown. Is there anything aside from that, that really drew you to this building, as, as a venue,
Sam Rosenthal 32:37
I just what I really loved about it was that the rooms are so different. So so you know what we’re sitting in here in the room called the Robinet where the bar is going to be with wood flooring. And it’s perfect for a small intimate cabaret. And then you go across the look across. And there’s what they call the kitchenette with the old kitchen with a stone floor and big fireplace and a ballroom upstairs. So he was just a venue with the soap, so many different rooms, in the style, the period that we needed that that really drew me to it, you know, and the ability to have it on different floors is really important. You know, for this sort of Yeah, people
Phil Rickaby 33:18
to be able to, to move and to have one scene happen and not necessarily effects infect another. Absolutely,
Sam Rosenthal 33:23
absolutely. What are the dates for how Hogtown opens on the 27th of January, and we close on the 31st? It really is a short little week. And we’re sold out on on on Friday night already. And, and we want to sell out. Obviously, we hope to sell out the five days. Absolutely. Yeah. Where can people get tickets, they can just go to Hogtown experience. that’s all one word, Hogtown experience. And on there, there’ll be a link to get tickets. You can also type in Campbell house and go to the the through the link through there. And it’s right online.
Phil Rickaby 34:05
Is there anything else that you’d like to say about the show
Sam Rosenthal 34:09
just that we want, we want you to come and we want you to be vocal about what you liked about the show and what you didn’t like. And I want and I’m looking forward to speaking with people after about their experience, because it’s going to be coming for a longer time.
Phil Rickaby 34:23
We should definitely talk before it happens in the summer. I’d love to talk more for a little bit longer, especially about what you’ve learned from this from this upcoming
Sam Rosenthal 34:35
performance. Oh, that would be I look forward to that conversation. So thank you.
Phil Rickaby 34:39
Thank you so much for coming on today.
Sam Rosenthal 34:41
Thanks so much.
Phil Rickaby 34:42
Got it