Podcast

Michael Esposito II

About This Episode:
This week on Stageworthy, host Phil Rickaby is joined by actor, singer, and producer Michael Esposito II. Michael discusses the challenges and rewards of mounting Daniel MacIvor’s solo play, Monster, which he is producing and performing in Kelowna, B.C. He shares the creative process of integrating projections and music into the show to make it feel more like an immersive “monster experience” than a traditional one-person play. Michael also talks about his background in Toronto and New York, the evolving theatre scene in Kelowna, and his other work in the Okanagan Valley, including themed jazz shows at a local speakeasy winery.

This episode explores:

  • Bringing Daniel MacIvor’s Monster to life in Kelowna
  • The creative freedom and risks of solo performance
  • Using projection in live theatre
  • Building independent theatre outside major city centres
  • The importance of community and adaptability for artists
  • The joy and discipline of performing across genres—from MacIvor to musical theatre and jazz

Guest:
🎭 Michael Esposito II

Michael is an international actor and singer. Since graduating from the University of Toronto and Sheridan College, Michael has travelled the world performing on six different continents. His most recent work includes Eddie Birdlace in Dogfight and Monster by Daniel MacIvor. Some of his previous work includes Alan Menken’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Jersey Boys, and Disney Cruise Lines. His work in film includes The One That Got Away, Dive Shop, Adult Adoption, and The Avenue. He has been a featured vocalist on Canada’s Got Talent and Casino Rama. His album “Night and Day” is available on iTunes and Spotify. Find out more about upcoming shows by following @mespo2 on Instagram.

Monster: A chilling one-person play performed by Michael Esposito II and directed by Angela Quinn.

MONSTER intricately peels back the psychological layers of 16 captivating characters, revealing the haunting core of their individual experiences. With a masterful blend of suspense, wit, and raw emotion, MONSTER beckons you to confront your deepest fears and embrace the profound complexities that define our humanity.

~ A finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Drama ~

Connect with Michael:
🌐 Website: kemeproductions.com
📸 Instagram: @monsterplay2025 | @mespo2
🎵 TikTok: @mespo2
🎶 Listen to Michael’s album Night and Day on Apple Music

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Transcript

Transcripts are auto-generated, and may contain minor errors.

[Phil Rickaby]
Hello, welcome to Stageworthy. I’m Phil Rickaby, the host and producer of this podcast. Stageworthy is Canada’s theatre podcast.

And on this show, I talk to theatre makers of all kinds from all across Canada, some of whom are household names and others, I think you should get to know. If you’re watching this on YouTube, tell me what you think by leaving a comment. And if you like what you see, hit the subscribe button and make sure that you also click that bell icon so that you always get notified whenever I put out an episode.

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Ratings and reviews help new people to find this show. I also have a Patreon and the patrons who participate in that people who back this show on Patreon are the reason I’m able to do this. I’m going to talk a little bit more about Patreon at the end.

But if you like this show, consider backing it by going to patreon.com/stageworthy. Also, stick around to the end of the show, because I’m going to tell you about who my guest is next week. But this episode, my guest is Michael Esposito.

The second Michael is an actor, singer and producer, and his production of Daniel McIver’s monster is being produced at the film factory at Kelowna on October 31, and November 1. And now here’s my conversation with Michael Esposito. The second Michael Esposito, thank you so much for joining me.

I really appreciate you making the time. You are currently working on a production of a play by one of my favorite playwrights, the playwright that made me want to do to write and perform solo plays. Daniel McIver, you’re working on monster, which is one of his might be like the last of his solo plays.

What drew you? First off, give us a sense of what monster is about.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, so monster is, it’s a bit of a tough play to describe, but I always describe it as a murder that has occurred with a bunch of characters that kind of surround this incident tangentially. Nobody’s really directly connected with the murder, but it’s somebody that lives next door, and then a person that has a dream about the murder and all of these characters that somehow are related. And it’s really about the struggle of the darkness and the monster that’s kind of inside all of us and how we’re all connected to this darkness that seems to be fighting its way out more and more as we go through life.

[Phil Rickaby]
Is there something in particular about the play that drew you to this play?

[Michael Esposito II]
There’s a few things that drew me to it. One, I’ve always kind of had a taste for the darker side of the arts, just something about them. I’m a big musical theatre fan.

I love something that’s bright and bubbly. I just did the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which is all of the bright and bubbly. It’s a lot of fun.

But there’s something about the darkness in monster that’s really exciting. The challenge of it is also just a really big draw for me as a performer. It’s about 16 characters, I think, I go through in the span of the play, and I just stand on a box for the whole time, so I’m not moving.

So that was also really exciting as a performer to be able to take that on. But it’s just a piece that the story is so interesting. It’s a bit of a whodunit, a bit of a murder mystery, and that’s a lot of fun to play with an audience, especially when it’s just you and them, bringing them through and seeing how many different ways you can shock them and mislead them.

That’s always a fun thing for an artist.

[Phil Rickaby]
What’s interesting is, you bring up misleading them, is the play of his before monster, that he wrote before monster, was a play about lying. Here lies Henry. They’re sometimes performed together just because there’s that dishonesty factor to them.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, absolutely. Actually, I think that might have just been done at Factory a little bit ago. They were done together, I think, maybe.

It was some time ago. I don’t remember. But yeah.

They’re great plays. I mean, he’s such a fantastic playwright and a lot of people that… I did Monster, actually, in May.

It was the first time we mounted it. This Halloween, actually, we’re going to be remounting it here in Kelowna. The first time we did it, that’s when a lot of people were commenting on the psychology of the writing and how strong and interesting each of the characters are.

[Phil Rickaby]
That’s always been one of Daniel McIver’s strengths, is interesting characters, and also a certain amount of… Poetry is not quite the right word to use for the way that he writes, but he’s very descriptive in the way that he writes. And characters all talk in their own specific way.

[Michael Esposito II]
Very much so.

[Phil Rickaby]
He’s very much like an actor’s writer, I think, probably because he wrote and performed these things.

[Michael Esposito II]
Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, each of the characters is also very specific, which makes memorization both easier and more difficult. Once you understand the character’s patter and the way they speak, it does become a lot easier to memorize because words will appear out of place very quickly.

And once you understand his writing style and his patter, it becomes a lot easier to memorize. But off the bat, yeah, it can be rather intimidating. It’s a lot of text.

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, this is the thing about a solo show is like it’s it it is an intimidating thing, right? Your only scene partner is the audience. And so and also if you know, if you’re on stage and you get lost in the in the script, there is somebody else there to help you find your way back to the story.

And if you lose your way in a solo show, you’ve got to do it all on yourself. You’re on your own.

[Michael Esposito II]
Well, and we’ve in this so Raindrops Keep Falling on Your Head is a song that’s kind of weaved throughout this. And I worked with a fellow musician friend of mine that I work with quite a bit, Tony Cohen, and he he and I arranged a bunch of different versions of this song throughout the show. And some of these tracks are about seven minutes.

So the dialogue is all timed exactly to different sound effects, different sound cues and everything. So if I miss a line or something, all the timing is off. So I really can’t change any of the words at any really.

You’ve really made a bit of a difficult task for yourself there. Yeah, I like to make it simple as possible.

[Phil Rickaby]
Do you have a favorite version of Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head that you’re using in the show?

[Michael Esposito II]
I do. There’s one that’s kind of based on we were watching, obviously, White Lotus when it came out, because I was on that train with everyone else. And, and there’s a version of that that was kind of inspired from that.

And we tie one of the drug sequences throughout one of the characters has a bit of a drug fueled high through it. And this almost Taiwanese-esque Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head is one of the ones that is threaded through the sequence. And I really enjoy that one.

That’s probably my favorite one.

[Phil Rickaby]
I’m looking I’m looking at sort of your bio and some of the things that you’ve done in the past. I mean, you’ve done musical theatre, you’ve done a bunch of stuff. Is this the first time this is this the first time you’ve done a solo play?

[Michael Esposito II]
It is. Yeah, it’s the first time I’ve done a solo play. So I’ve done concerts and stuff before, which are very different.

It’s a very different beast. This is the first time I’ve kind of done a scripted. Yeah, solo.

[Phil Rickaby]
Is there something that you were interested in exploring in doing a solo show?

[Michael Esposito II]
I think a lot of what brought it on was circumstantial within the actual industry. I started kind of working on this during the pandemic, the theory of this production, mostly just because everything was getting canceled so easily. And a one person show gives you as an artist a lot more control over what you’re doing and when you can do it and how you can do it.

So that was kind of when I started working on it. But it is an interesting challenge. I was listening to you speak with Rebecca Perry about how every artist should have to try and do a one person show because it does give you that sense of like, I can entertain you for the period of time that you’ve come to see that.

And I do think there’s a lot of truth to that and a lot of validity in that. I think also part of me for this show in particular is I wanted the show to feel full with just me. I didn’t want people to feel like they were coming to a one person show after they’ve seen it.

I remember being in New York and seeing Jesse Tyler Ferguson do a one person show and it was brilliant. It was so entertaining. But it felt like a one person show because he’s running all over the stage and he’s putting on a bunch of different things.

And I wanted to try and do all that without doing all that. So we work a lot with projections. We work a lot with the music.

We work a lot with the other elements of performance. But I try to make it not feel like you’re watching a one person show. I don’t really know how to describe it other than that.

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, I would love to delve into that a little bit with you because I think that to me, one of the joys of a well-performed one person show is that one person holding the attention of a room full of people. And I’m curious about what the discussions were like to try to bring in all of these elements to fill this space. Was that you who brought that or how did the discussions around that happen?

[Michael Esposito II]
Angela Quinn is our director. When we started conceiving of this project and of this version of it, we talked a lot about what our monster was and what that meant to us. Not only just to the two of us, but also to a 20-25 audience and people in Kelowna versus in Toronto, which does make a pretty big difference.

We came to, through a series of discussions, that AI and technology is the monster of today. It’s what a lot of people become addicted to. It’s what a lot of people become taken over by.

That quickly became our guiding light. All of the decisions that we made, given any of the characters, any of the structure of the piece, all went through that AI filter. We decided pretty quick that we wanted to use projections.

Initially, we had talked about where we did the space. It’s in a film studio, which, again, is kind of appropriate for the piece. It has a lot to do with cinema.

We knew we were going to do it in a film studio and we knew we were going to do it in this giant soundstage space. It’s all just this giant, white-wrapped room. Originally, we wanted to display projections through the entire room, but quickly realized that mapping the entire room was going to be quite the undertaking and quite the feat of computer engineering.

We scrapped that idea and decided to just make me the canvas. And with that, what images would be shown became a lot of the question. If Siri was trying to tell you their origin story, what would that be?

Especially if Siri had some nefarious intent. The story wouldn’t necessarily have a strictly logical conclusion. It would have characters that seemingly overlap.

It would have stories that repeat for some reason because AI decided that it liked those stories. That’s where we mined a lot of our tech and a lot of our encompassing of the technology within the script and within the experience. That’s how we founded a lot of it.

That’s kind of the rock we based a lot of it on.

[Phil Rickaby]
Production mapping is a fascinating thing. I’ve looked into it and decided it was far too much math. It’s very complicated for something that, if you don’t think about it too hard, feels just easy.

Absolutely. Were you disappointed that you couldn’t map the whole room?

[Michael Esposito II]
No, actually. It was one of those things where as we talked about it, the more it made sense that I would be more the canvas. Because again, mapping the room is making it more external.

It’s trying to make the thing bigger than what I wanted it to be. I think that’s kind of how we got away from the one-person show of it all. For me, it felt like almost the smaller we made it, the bigger we made it.

The more we could bring the audience in and make them feel isolated, the better.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. I mean, this play works really well in an intimate space. The more intimate you can make a space feel, the more unsettled the audience is.

Because they are in the room with the monster, right?

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah. It was a blast. Some of the small tricks that you get to play.

Then you figure out if you want to do jump scares and all of the classics of horror that we wanted to incorporate in. Because if you have the opportunity to do a piece that is so structurally sound and that there’s so much creepiness in there, throwing in a few jump scares never hurts anyone.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. I want to break away from Monster for a second. You’ve studied at U of T in Sheridan.

You’ve been all over Canada and other places as an actor. I’m curious, because I live in Toronto and I don’t have the most experience with theatre scenes in other cities. I’m curious about the scene in Kelowna.

Tell me about theatre in Kelowna.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah. It’s definitely up and coming. It’s definitely a new area.

It is a unique part of the country, especially coming out from Ontario. I’m initially from Ontario, where it seems like everywhere you turn, there’s equity houses. There’s theatre companies.

There’s a lot of structural and institutionalized theatre that seems to be in Ontario. In B.C., there’s not so much of that. There is in Vancouver and there’s a few regional houses, but you really do have to build your own space.

There’s some really, really great semi-pro performers that you can work with, but a lot of it comes with film. For me personally, and I do have a background in film, I have a production company with my sister, and it’s finding ways to merge those two. I think if you have a community that has an appetite and has a strong film community, how can you bring some of that into your theatre so that it is more of a familiar space for audiences that are already in the arts, just in a different subsect of them?

[Phil Rickaby]
I think that B.C. is more known as a film hub than a theatre hub. I know that there’s theatre that happens in B.C., Vancouver, and other places, but it is more known as the place where I hate to say it, but the place where American shows go to shoot. I think theatres, when they’re not in a city like Toronto, where there’s a lot of equity houses, a lot of work, the career of the theatre actor looks very different here than there.

I was talking to somebody recently about how one of the things they saw happening for the future of their theatre company was professional, which for them meant occasionally somebody would get paid because that’s just the way that things can happen in the place where they’re in.

[Michael Esposito II]
It’s also, I think, a lot about being smart about what you choose. That was also part of why I looked at a Canadian play and why I’m still continuing to look at more Canadian plays and developing more site-specific theatre. I think, obviously, one of the main goals as an artist is to get paid for your work.

That’s kind of step one. We all need to make a living. Finding ways that you can do that, finding venues that you can work with in order to still be creative, to still add value to your community, but still not just give your work and still value yourself as an artist, is really important.

You’ve got to get smart with that when you’re not in a major centre.

[Phil Rickaby]
You mentioned being from Toronto. So I’m curious, what took you to Kelowna?

[Michael Esposito II]
I was working on a ship that docked in Victoria. I met my partner online, and we started having a standing night Friday date where he’d come and pick me up from the docks. We’d go out for a few hours, and we did that for probably about four or five months.

Then we started dating long distance. He decided to relocate back to Kelowna when we were just planning on moving in together. So I moved to Kelowna.

[Phil Rickaby]
So you went from Toronto to Kelowna?

[Michael Esposito II]
Kind of. Before this contract—it’s very convoluted. My moving life story is always a bit insane.

But I was living in New York before the contract, and then it looked like I might be writing and producing a film in Toronto. So I, after my contract, moved back to Toronto for probably about six months, seven months, and then I moved to Kelowna from there.

[Phil Rickaby]
One of the things that I haven’t heard in your story yet, is the phrase that I hear a lot, is, and then the pandemic happened. Was this all after?

[Michael Esposito II]
This was all after the pandemic, yeah. Sometimes when I describe my life, I’m talking about years and years of things that only happen within two or three years.

[Phil Rickaby]
Listen, the industry can do that. It can really make things happen quickly. While we’re on the topic, I would love to hear about your theatre origin story.

How did you get interested in theatre, in acting, in all of it?

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, absolutely. I got started young. I went to see, when I was six years old, Beauty and the Beast in Toronto.

After the show, we went for lunch, and we went to the food court across the street, and that’s where the cast all happened to go. They were all so nice to us, and sat with us, and signed our programs. That was kind of it.

I liked everyone so much. I was like, I want to do that, and I did.

[Phil Rickaby]
How did you, because it’s one thing to go from being a kid and being like, I want to do that, to figuring out that that’s a career. How did you get to that point?

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, well, I did this Original Kids. It’s a theatre program in London, Ontario. I got into that basically right after.

I was one of the youngest Original Kids, and started doing shows with them twice a year, basically, until I was 12 or 13. Then I got an agent in Toronto, and started auditioning professionally, and did shows at the Grand Theatre, and little commercials, and pilots, and stuff like that. It just kind of grew organically from there.

How did you decide?

[Phil Rickaby]
You’re working as an actor, basically, from the time you were a child. What made you decide to go to university and start in college?

[Michael Esposito II]
I don’t really know. I know that I had to go. I know I was told that I had to go to university.

My parents were very big on me having a backup plan. I knew I had to go to school in the sense of I had to. I was also excited for it, because I remember being told when I was a fairly young performer, you have to remember that almost every character you play is a human being, so you can’t forget to be a human being, or you’re never going to know how to play one.

No, that’s true. Yeah. I wanted the college experience.

I wanted to go to university. I wanted Frosh Week. I wanted all of that.

University of Toronto was also before Sheridan had the degree program. I really liked that it was an acting training program, although I hear it might be going away now, which is sad.

[Phil Rickaby]
It’s hard to say, because so many colleges and schools are dropping their theatre programs entirely, which is tragic.

[Michael Esposito II]
I want there to be all of the theatre programs, but also I don’t want people training in theatre for no reason. I want studying and the understanding of theatre to be something that everyone can participate in and everyone can learn from, but it’s so much money and time.

[Phil Rickaby]
Part of making theatre as something that people can study and experience comes down to making sure that theatre is affordable for people. Also, let’s face it, we’ve got to put on stuff that people want to see. Yes.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yes, so much. So much.

[Phil Rickaby]
Unless that happens. It’s all well and good to be like, we want to do important theatre, but you get to important people and make important theatre that people want to see.

[Michael Esposito II]
Absolutely. Well, if nobody’s seeing it, then nobody’s going to be getting the message that you’re trying to give them. If all the messages are going over their heads, then you’re not actually speaking to the people.

You’re not actually making any of those connections.

[Phil Rickaby]
I do find it interesting. I had a little internal chuckle when you were like, I went to university, my parents wanted me to have something to fall back on, and he went to the University of Toronto and studied acting. You kind of geeked them out there.

[Michael Esposito II]
I remember having conversations about how that was a backup plan, but to be honest, I don’t remember what it was. Whatever you told them, you did great.

[Phil Rickaby]
Thank you. I remember when I was in high school, it was always like that was, and this is, I’m an old man, so it was a long time ago. At that point, it was like, you’re going to go to university because if you don’t go to university, you will never get a job ever.

And so it was like, you have to do that. And it was almost as if they were saying it was a mandatory thing. Nobody would ever hire you unless you had at least a BA.

And then we all did it and worked in Starbucks.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, basically. That’s always kind of the thing. I mean, again, the amount of things that I learned while going to school were immense.

I had great experiences, although I do think I learned more while traveling. I can’t I can’t overemphasize the importance and the amount that you can get out of getting out of your country, going to other places, meeting other cultures, just seeing how other people do it.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, I mean, it is certainly like I think when you’re in school, it’s so focused. It’s and it’s such a bubble of like, this is what we’re doing that you’re not really when I mean, I went to I went to a college and it was a conservatory program. And so we like it was such a bubble that we didn’t ever experience anything outside of the theatre school experience.

Oh, wow. There were like like drink nights or parties at the main campus that not for us, not for us. It was entirely like the theatre world in the theatre program.

So it was very bubbly.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, I think I remember a bit of that, too. But I was also pretty into languages. I mean, I think that’s the nice thing about U of T is because you’re in your conservatory classes.

You also, though, have to take all these other courses within the university. So you do make or at least I did make some friends outside of my program.

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, it’s so important. And also, I think it’s it’s it’s really good for actors to know people who aren’t in theatre. Oh, yeah.

So that we can like, you know, again, it’s like about about people and knowing people. Right. And that’s what that’s what acting is, is like knowing people.

So if you only know people who are in the theatre, you’re not really you’re only knowing one type of people.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yes, very much so, because I mean, obviously, within the arts, there’s a wide, wide variety of people. But it’s also just a way of thinking. It’s a way of talking.

I just I just did a film a little bit ago and I was playing a doctor and my audition line as I was going through them, I was working at the theatre with it and people were working with me on my lines. And oh, yeah, that’d be great. And I get home and I say my line.

And my partner, who’s in the medical field, goes, you’d never say it like that. I was like, oh, OK, well, thanks. Nobody else said I was doing it wrong.

[Phil Rickaby]
But how would they know? Yeah. How would you know?

You know, I know. I think it’s important to like have a job that’s not theatre, like don’t or even theatre adjacent. I learn how, you know, people who aren’t in theatre talk to each other on the day to day.

[Michael Esposito II]
And it’s fun. I mean, like half of my favorite stories to tell aren’t to do with the arts. They’re to do with random jobs that I had and random people I met through them.

Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
It’s always fascinating when people who aren’t in theatre find out that you’re in theatre. I’m always fascinated by the questions that they ask.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yes. Yeah. It’s very strange.

Also, the the way they then treat you after that, once they know you’re an actor, it’s like you’re some weird alien from some planet that they’ve never heard of.

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, there’s certainly that. There’s certainly that. They’re kind of like some of they’re like, yeah, you’re right.

They do do that. They do kind of treat you a little bit different. Yeah.

It’s small, but clockable. It’s there. It’s there.

Once you realize it, it’s certainly there. You did mention your parents sort of like wanting you to have a fallback. And, you know, you were doing theatre from the time that you were a kid.

Do you think there was there a point when you were doing theatre as a kid where your parents were like, no, he’s going to do this forever? We need to like how how do we deal with this?

[Michael Esposito II]
Probably. But also, I had an older sister that that was the same shtick. So I think they were they were pretty supportive.

They drove us to and from Toronto for auditions all the time. You know, they drive us in for a five minute audition, then turn around, drive back to London, which is two hours there, two hours back.

[Phil Rickaby]
So that is not that is not a short drive for an audition. That is pretty impressive.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah. So all the support there. We were very, very are still because they’re still very, very supportive and still lovely.

But growing up, we never had any any kind of fear that that was a bad decision to make or something that we shouldn’t be doing. It was always very much, you know, be smart about it, work hard at it, do it with with integrity. But other than that, yeah, go go do what you love with your life.

[Phil Rickaby]
I want to come back to Monster for a second and ask you about as producing you’re producing this. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. As as producing theatre is always a huge thing. Some people like, you know, fringe at the fringe festivals can be a great like training wheels producing lesson.

And then you go out and you have to have to like produce for real without the support of the fringe festival and other other other things like that. Approaching this as as something that you’re producing, what’s been the the greatest worry or concern that you’ve had in the process of getting the production going?

[Michael Esposito II]
I think it’s just been getting butts in seats for the most point for the most part. I mean, it’s it’s definitely not something that I think people are used to seeing, especially in Kelowna. So there was that bit of a uncertainty whether people would buy in, even just give it a shot.

I’ve I’ve been in the community now for a couple of years and I’ve done some shows here. So I’m starting to build up a bit of a profile so people might take a chance on me. But that’s kind of been the the biggest thing that I’ve noticed.

And the biggest hurdle is getting outside of this theatre sphere where everybody knows everybody and people will come and support. But how do you get Jim that works at the store up the street?

[Phil Rickaby]
How theatres are grappling with forever, right? Like, yeah, small question, right? Easy.

Yeah, just a little question. Just not a little one. But I do think that there’s a lot to be said for the way that we do talk about theatre and that we’re not great in general at getting people to understand what what it’s like seeing a play.

Right. It’s different than seeing a movie. Yeah.

It’s very different than sitting in a movie theatre. It’s more immersive. It’s more immediate.

And and I think that a lot of times we miss talking about that when we’re trying to talk about our shows because that’s an essential part of the play of seeing it.

[Michael Esposito II]
Absolutely. And fortunately, with this one, I mean, you’re right. I always forget about mentioning that.

The only reason I didn’t with monsters, because our director did such a good job at turning the into an experience. So as soon as you walk in, it feels like you’re walking into like a 90s basement. And they turned all the lights down.

And even the way the show begins and ends, there’s no bows, there’s no entrance, it just kind of all of a sudden starts. Because we knew it was going to be something a little more experimental, we tried to sell it as a bit more of the monster experience. We tried to get people to come in and buy into this idea that like, no, no, you’re not just going to see a play, you’re coming for this immersive, one person interactive show thing.

[Phil Rickaby]
I think that’s really fascinating. Because, you know, we know that people will pay for experiences, right? If you can give people a sense of the experience, heck, I don’t know about in BC, but in Toronto, the Van Gogh experience ran for ages, and it’s just projections of Van Gogh paintings on walls.

But because they were really good at communicating, this is what it feels like in the room. This is what it looks like a little bit like, because they’re really good at communicating that people were willing to pay like 50 bucks a pop to go see it or more.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, yeah. And that’s why I think things like reaction videos are really We just released one of those. We’re trying to get the excitement afterwards to be the thing that people are talking about.

Because I think that tends to sell now, especially since COVID. People want novel experiences that they can be in, that they can have all of their senses being stimulated, because otherwise, they’re just going to sit at home and watch it on their big screen TV. Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
And that’s the thing that we have. Again, it’s about communicating why this is different, we, I mean, we had this conversation with somebody a while back, but it’s we’re asking a lot of people to when we get them to go to go to the theatre, like, if they don’t work from home, man to go home, get changed, have dinner, like travel to the theatre. It’s we’re getting them to do a lot on a night when they might prefer or might normally just like sit at home and watch TV.

And we have to be mindful of that. Now, this is this production that you’re doing is sort of is a remount of previous production. What’s different, if anything?

And how do people react the first time?

[Michael Esposito II]
Nothing is different as of yet. I shouldn’t say that quite yet. But so far, nothing is different.

Part of the reason we’re doing it this way is also trying to work with small towns, small markets, confines. We’re wanting to build on the word of mouth for it. So we did it once with it’s only about 50 seats in the in the space.

So it is quite a small space. The reaction was really, really excited. People really were rather moved by it.

A lot of the people that came see it said they wanted to come again, because the story kind of repeats on itself. And if you know the ending, then there’s lots of stuff that you can mine throughout the actual story. So a rewatch is definitely beneficial, and you can definitely get a lot out of that.

But we wanted to kind of space it out. And we’re also looking at trying to tour the production throughout the interior. Because again, it’s made to be portable, and it’s made to be revisited a few times by the audience.

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, it’s always great when there’s something that people can mine and want to see again. Do you know if there are people who saw the first time or who are planning to come to see it again?

[Michael Esposito II]
I do actually. I think almost all of our tickets so far are resales. Yeah, we’ve got about 20% of opening night I think is already sold.

So I don’t think it’s something that if you want to catch, you should be waiting too long, because I don’t think it’s around for too long.

[Phil Rickaby]
Right. Tickets to tickets are literally going quickly.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yes, they are. And hopefully, I don’t want to jinx it. I don’t like saying that, because as soon as I say it, I’m worried tickets are going to stop.

[Phil Rickaby]
No, no, no, no, no. Because once momentum builds for a show, it tends to keep going. Tell me a little bit, just to move on to another topic.

I’m curious about Crown and Thieves jazz shows. Tell me about Crown and Thieves.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, Crown and Thieves is a winery that is in the Okanagan Valley. It’s a great little winery. By little, it’s actually quite big now.

JPC has five different… Jason Parks Customs is the overarching brand, and they have Hatch, Black Swift, Crown and Thieves, Truck 59 Cidery, and Hatching Post Brewery. And in Crown and Thieves, it’s a 1920s speakeasy.

And in there, I do lots of jazz covers, Great American Songbook. And we also go through and do songbooks of different artists and theme nights. So I’m doing an Adele-themed jazz show coming up on October 2nd.

I did a Disney-themed one that will probably be remounting soon. But it’s all very much a vibey, again, just kind of a great night to go out and feel like you’re experiencing something that’s a little different in the Okanagan.

[Phil Rickaby]
Well, who doesn’t want to go down to a little speakeasy and have a fun night with some drinks?

[Michael Esposito II]
Right, right. Who doesn’t want that? It’s a great time.

It’s a great experience. And the whole venue, there’s a rooftop dining room and a tasting room on the main level. It’s just a really fun little spot.

[Phil Rickaby]
Now, these jazz shows that you put together, are you putting them together? Are you deciding on themes? How does that work?

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, so it’s all when it’s me. The other artists, obviously, they do their own shows. But yeah, no, I structure all the shows.

I choose all of the music. I do a lot of the arrangements with my pianist. A lot of them are based on my jazz album, Night and Day, which is on iTunes and Spotify and all of those.

So a lot of them are those versions. But then I like to put my own twist on modern songs as well. I think there’s a lot of value taking them, putting them through a bit of an older lens.

It gives to the vibe.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, I’m kind of a connoisseur of cover songs. I have a whole playlist of cover songs. And my favorite cover songs are ones where the artist has made it their own.

My least favorite are the ones where they just regurgitate what was done before. But if an artist takes a cover song and makes it theirs, I’m all in. I love it.

[Michael Esposito II]
Actually, one of the first shows I co-wrote and produced with my sister in the London Fringe Festival was called Cover Song. And it was all about songs that have been covered throughout the years and the most popular cover songs that have ever been done. Yeah, they’re great.

I think there’s a lot of value to be taking out of something that has been known and enjoyed by the masses and then seeing how you can find your own way of doing it.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, I think it takes a certain creativity to be able to pull the original out of your head and sort of throw it away so that you can you can have this space to see what you would do with it. Because sometimes a song is so indelible that it’s hard to like, pull it out of the brain.

[Michael Esposito II]
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think I saw a few days ago Dolly Parton talking about I Will Always Love You, the Whitney Houston version, and how she didn’t even recognize it the first time she heard it while driving.

[Phil Rickaby]
Right. I mean, conversely, when Johnny Cash covered Trent Reznor’s song, his response was, well, that’s not my song anymore. That’s Johnny Cash’s song, which is incredible.

A complete reinvention of the song kind of transforms the song enough to now it’s owned by the person covering.

[Michael Esposito II]
Absolutely. And I think there’s a lot of inspiration to take from that as an actor, because you’ll see things and people will do a role and you think that’s kind of the only way it can be done. But there’s so much power in finding your version of the character.

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, it comes down kind of to like, again, like if you’ve seen somebody do a role and then you’re going to tackle it, you have to pull that out of your brain. You have to. But you can’t really be like, how am I going to be different?

You just have to like find yours without trying too hard to not do what they did. I mean, I saw this is like way back in the 90s. Again, I’m old.

There was a production of the Rocky Horror Show at the the. The Bathory Street Theatre, Juan Cioran, who’s now at Stratford, was playing Rankenfurter. But they had gone out of their way to be like, this is not the movie.

So much so that the time warp wasn’t the time warp. They were doing dance steps that weren’t the ones that were described in the song. They were like, we’re just not the movie.

It was so far away from it. I was like, they had clearly been like, our goal is to not be the movie. Not to the movie.

[Michael Esposito II]
And it tainted the whole production. I’m actually doing Rocky Horror right now. The two days before I do Monster, the 29th and 30th at the Kelowna Community Theatre, I’ll be doing Rocky Horror.

And who are you? I’m Rocky.

[Phil Rickaby]
Listen, that is that is the Rocky is an unsung role. He’s got one song. And it’s it’s it’s it’s like and then and then he just sort of like is in the background for a lot.

Oh, I’m so excited for it. The one thing that I do remember, and it really was indelible in my head about that production was, it was very clear how the first act of that show is a nonstop juggernaut because it’s just like song after song after song. And what gave like, as everybody was leaving the stage, there were just rivers of sweat, you could see coming up everybody, because there’s no break in that entire first act.

[Michael Esposito II]
No, no, it’s it’s mayhem. I mean, I’m, I’m very excited for it. And again, I like I was saying, I just got off of Spelling Bee, which was wholesome.

It was so wholesome and so much fun. But oh my god, playing a 10 year old is exhausting. Just didn’t stop rocking in my chair for like an hour.

Yeah, so this one is definitely going to be a little lower energy in a sense. But yeah, maybe not. I don’t know.

[Phil Rickaby]
But it’s also I mean, it’s an interesting time to do it considering that the film is 50 years old this year.

[Michael Esposito II]
I know. Yeah, that that’s something I just kind of found out. But I’m very excited to see if audiences resonate with that.

[Phil Rickaby]
I’m gonna have to ask you a question. And this is this is when you may not have the answer to this yet. But are you prepared for people shouting at you?

[Michael Esposito II]
I’m excited for it. He’s really no. I don’t know all the shout outs.

But like, I hope they do it. I hope it’s, it’s a raucous show.

[Phil Rickaby]
I remember they did it at Stratford a few years ago, a number of years ago, and they had to have signs up, kind of telling the regular patrons, it’s okay, when people start shouting, it’s actually part of the show.

[Michael Esposito II]
I love that I went to see it in Puerto Vallarta. And I started yelling things out. I think people at first didn’t know that that’s like, okay.

Oh, no. I felt a little bad. But also I was like, No, you will learn to learn.

Yeah, you also learn to be taught.

[Phil Rickaby]
It’s always fascinating to see how people like I’ve, I’ve seen the show a number of times. And every so often, somebody showed something that breaks everybody.

[Michael Esposito II]
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I saw one. It was at the beginning of make you a man.

When frankenfurter says, Oh, he claimed when 98 pints right before he said that somebody yelled out describe Justin Bieber. Right?

[Phil Rickaby]
These things are just like, like just floor you. So I hope you have a great time with that. And again, like you’re doing this like two days for you open a show.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, yeah, the two days before monster. So it’ll be four days of shows in a row. Just two different shows.

[Phil Rickaby]
Two very different shows. Two very different shows. How as when you’re performing two very different things that close together.

How are you protecting your body and your brain while you’re doing so much?

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah, so just making sure that I really warm up. That’s a big part of it really making sure that I honor my warm ups and that I honor my my rest time. That’s a big one.

I can turn into quite a hermit when I’m in the middle of a run or when I’m getting close to a run, just because I know that it takes up a lot of my bandwidth and a lot of my energy and that’s when you’re the most likely to get sick. So, you know, just really trying to make sure that you prioritize your health.

[Phil Rickaby]
That’s I mean, that and that in in the theatre world has not been showing people have have done historically well. No.

[Michael Esposito II]
And that is one of those things where I think I’ve always been a bit of a homebody to a certain extent. I mean, I like being social. I like chatting with people, but my social battery will run out and then I’m just kind of done.

I always said that I like all of the attention all at once and exactly when I want it and at no other times. Otherwise, I’m more than happy just to be in the background. And that serves me when it comes to these kinds of things, because, yeah, you can’t you need to respect your battery.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I remember this and when you’re doing indie theatre and stuff, the show must go on becomes like a there’s no understudies, that sort of thing. I remember doing a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream and I was cocked and I was so sick that I did the show and I don’t remember that show to this day.

I don’t remember that performance at all. I never did.

[Michael Esposito II]
No. Yeah, I’ve had I’ve had a few of those. It’s just what it is.

Like, really, there’s not really much you can do. It’s just kind of what it is. Yeah, no, it is.

[Phil Rickaby]
You just have to deal with it.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah. I mean, before I did Monster the first time, I was really sick in bed for about three days. And there’s so many voices and stuff in it.

I had to change probably two or three of them because I just couldn’t actually phonate those sounds. Right. Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
Well, I hope that you managed to keep healthy until the until the until after the show as you’re sort of drawing to a close in our conversation. You know, you’re getting ready to do this, this this remount of Monster. Now that you’ve got one kind of under your under your belt once, what are you most looking forward to about about revisiting it in this production?

[Michael Esposito II]
I think I’m most looking forward to really sitting in the characters. The first time I went through it, there’s a lot of a lot of the construction and the creation of it that needed to be done and a lot of the devising of how all of the aspects were going to be put together and how every approach of everything was going to be done. And that was all super rewarding and really exciting.

But now it’s fun to kind of just approach it as an actor, just really get to move from moment to moment and see how it feels to sit in it a little more, not be focusing on, OK, are all the tech things that we prescribed going to happen? They will, you know, now I can trust that a lot more. So that’s what I’m most excited.

[Phil Rickaby]
I remember the when I was performing my solo show the first time, that first run at a fringe. I only maybe near the lot, maybe the last few performances were truly just like being able to sit in it and just like do it without having to worry about lines and this and the other thing. And it’s only after like repeating it a bunch of times that that it becomes that you find that ease when you’re not having to like worry about the technicalities of it, which is a fascinating and a wonderful place to get to.

[Michael Esposito II]
Absolutely. Well, and especially with all of the tech that comes with it, the marriage of that, I’m really excited to really focus on feeling the rhythm of some of these moments. And then again, just the audience reactions, because every time you’re working on a one person show, the audience reactions are slightly different.

Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. It’s it is definitely like the opportunity to really connect with an audience. And it’s the thing that I most love about solo performing is that the way that you I think you mentioned the conversation with Rebecca Perry and how we were talking about that connection and how you could kind of feel what’s going to land for them.

Like if they need a beat, they need this, they like you just feeling how the audience is. It really when you’re in sync with the audience, it’s really quite fascinating and wonderful.

[Michael Esposito II]
Mm hmm. No, it really is. And it does seem to to follow you in other productions, like since having done Monster, I’ve been on stage in two or three other things, and I feel as though I’m I’m better at knowing what audiences before me faster.

I’ve because I’ve gone through so many different people in front of them, I’m more aware of it.

[Phil Rickaby]
It’s such an important skill. And I think that people often forget about that, like being able, especially if you’re doing a comedy or whatever, like it is, you know, you’re not going to you’re not mugging for the audience. But like sometimes if you can sense exactly what this audience, what this audience, because it’s an entity, it’s a real payoff.

[Michael Esposito II]
Oh, yeah. I mean, I I find personally if I’m doing a comedy, I’m far more aware of the audience than any other time. If I’m doing a drama, there are times when I actually don’t even really clock the audience.

I mean, you always are kind of feeling and vibing, but, you know, they’re a lot more at arm’s length. A comedy, I feel like I’m listening to every single breath to make sure I’m timing it right.

[Phil Rickaby]
Well, you kind of need to you to be aware of the audience so that you can like not say the next line while they’re laughing. It becomes very technical. And if you could do that effortlessly without, you know, making it look like it’s technical, it’s a real gift and a real talent to have.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And it is something I think you develop the more you’re on stage.

You can feel a laugh. You can feel when there’s still a bit left in the jar. You know, if the audience feels like they’re done laughing, but you’re like, no, no, I can I can wait.

Another wave is coming.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Yeah. I love I love when an when an actor will trust the silence enough to like let the audience discover, like laugh and then discover the joke behind the joke.

Like if you have the kind of confidence to just wait it out. I remember directing a play that started with a long silence and I kept telling the actors, you have to wait. Like it’s going to be funny and you feel uncomfortable, but it’s the discomfort that’s important.

And if you sit in that discomfort until they laugh, it will be the funniest thing they’ve ever seen.

[Michael Esposito II]
Oh, God, I have to trust it. Yeah. You have to you have to gain confidence and strength in discomfort and in embarrassment as an artist.

I mean, I’ve I’ve said to my partner a few times being an artist is being constantly embarrassed in front of people and being OK with it. Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.

[Michael Esposito II]
You’re just happy. You’re going to forget your lines.

[Phil Rickaby]
You’re going to I mean, there’s there’s everybody’s going to forget their lines at some point. And hopefully they do it when there’s other people on stage with them. There’s always something.

There’s a potential for disaster every time you go on stage. And that is kind of the magic of of live theatre. Some of some of the a lot of actors favorite stories are stories about when something disastrous happened and how it was recovered or if it was recovered and how you got to the point where the play could continue.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah. And it’s OK. I mean, we all care so much about these things and we should.

There’s something you’re putting your time and your passion into. It should be important and you should care about it. But at the end of the day, everybody in that room wants to have a good time.

So if something goes wrong and you need to reset or whatever, you do that. It’ll be fine. But yeah, the the stakes of it and being OK when those stakes are not met, that takes, I think, just experience.

Yeah, for sure.

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, you can often see it in a show, right? Somebody drops a prop or a book or a handkerchief or a pen on the floor. And because it’s not on the blocking.

Everybody sort of like keeps doing what they’re doing and walking around the thing that somebody drops and you can feel the audience like getting tenser and tenser and tenser. And then one person stops, picks up the pen and the entire place just sort of goes.

[Michael Esposito II]
Yeah. Thank God. Yeah.

Because the play became about the pen for those sleeps. Yeah. It was however many minutes it’s on the ground.

The whole play is about that pen from that’s exactly right.

[Phil Rickaby]
And it’s like it’s only because we are so used to this way that we weren’t able to deviate enough to pick up the pen.

[Michael Esposito II]
Oh, yeah. Well, and my favorite is when you as an audience think you’ve seen a mistake, but then it turns out the mistake was placed there for you. That is, I think, my favorite experience as an audience member.

And I got to experience a little of that in Spelling Bee. Do you know Spelling Bee well? Only a little bit.

Only a little bit. Yeah. My character at halfway through the point, for no seeming reason, falls.

Just out of the rare falls. And every single night, I think almost every single person in that audience thought I fell for real until I go into my bag and pull out a helmet to put on. Oh.

And it made me so happy every single night when I pulled out the helmet. That’s when I got the laugh. Almost.

Of course. Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yes. Perfect. Perfect.

Perfect. Yeah, it is. Well, Michael, thank you so much for joining me.

I really appreciate it. And I hope that I hope that people go and see Monster because not only is it a fabulous play, it sounds like a fabulous production.

[Michael Esposito II]
Thank you so much. Thanks. It was really great chatting with you.

[Phil Rickaby]
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I will tell you about next week’s guest in just a minute. But first, let’s talk about Patreon.

Like I said earlier, I’m only able to do this show because of the people who’ve chosen to back me on Patreon. I could not do this show without them because it costs money to create a podcast and to give it away for free. Even though I don’t have any advertising, it still costs me money to do this for you.

So if you like this show and you want to support it, go to patreon.com/stageworthy and become a backer. These are all in Canadian dollars and backers get early access to episodes as well as participate in some conversations about what might be happening about things that are happening in the theatre. And the more people who join, the better the community gets.

Because the people who are backing this podcast are part of the community. They helped me make this show. So if you want to help me make this show, go to patreon.com/stageworthy and become a backer today. I would be forever grateful. Next week, my guest is Emily Dix. Emily is the Artistic Executive Director of Bygone Theatre as well as the lead behind their mixed use Space the Bridge.

So tune in next week for my conversation with Emily Dix.