As You Like It - Bonus Content Episode 4 - Actor Andy Grotelueschen - podcast episode cover

As You Like It - Bonus Content Episode 4 - Actor Andy Grotelueschen

Feb 17, 202547 min
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“He just goes for it!”: Andy Grotelueschen describes how Touchstone inspires us to take chances in life, how a teacher in Iowa inspired him to pursue acting, and why it’s so much easier to be funny on Broadway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Adobe Express makes it quick and easy to create everything I need for my business. From social posts, TikToks and flyers, all in just a few clicks. Get Adobe Express for free. Search for Adobe Express to find out more. Hi, my name is Michael Goodfriend, and I'm the executive producer of the Play On podcast series, As You Like It. Today, I have with me Andy Grotluchin.

Your test, dear listener, is to spell that name. Andy Grotlischen is a seasoned professional actor. He's been on Broadway and Tootsie, where he got a Tony nomination. He's been in Cyrano de Bergerac. He is a core member of the wonderful Fiasco Theater that did Measure for Measure as a play on podcast with us. He's done lots of shows with them. all over New York. He's one of those downtown New York actors, one of those cool guys who gets to work in all the cool theaters in the city.

and on Broadway, and off-Broadway, and regionally. He's been at Yale Rep, the Old Globe, the Guthrie, the McCarter, Trinity Rep. And he has also appeared in lots of films and television shows. The Gilded Age, Driven, Lincoln Rhyme, Elementary, The Good Wife, The Good Cop, The Nick. He went... to Brown Trinity to get his master's in fine arts. And he is with me here today. He plays Touchstone in this wonderful, wonderful series. Andy Grotlushen.

Welcome to the bonus content series for the Play On podcast series as you like it. Huzzah! Thanks for having me. Well, tell us about Touchstone. One of the most interesting characters in all of the Shakespearean canon. Had you ever encountered Touchstone as an actor before this play on podcast series? You know, I think I'd seen a couple of productions of As You Like It. in my adult life. And it's always an interesting spot for a production to choose the period or sort of what the analog is for.

how they're going to tell the story now. And that always directly impacts the sense of humor for a show. And so for Touchstone, in the productions that I'd seen in the past, They were, it was hard to locate. And his humor in particular is already hard to locate.

just on its own but i would often find sort of like i i would ask myself what's going on in those scenes what's what's i don't really know how how it's working there so that was sort of my experience of watching them in the past but then encountering it For this version, I thought that the placement of the sort of like 60s Woodstock sort of feel and the adaptation that we had was really, really helped out with the placement of that stuff.

So it wasn't like you had this challenge of cracking the nut of Touchstone. You felt like it was kind of readily available. Oh, well, I mean, it's still a challenge, but fortunately, I think our adaptation weeded out some of the more gnarly passages that were perhaps more challenging. just in terms of legibility and how people can actually receive it. But yeah, I mean, I just had a blast to it. We did a little side by side. David Ivers was on for an interview with me.

a couple days ago we we did a little side by side the original text of that mustard pancake thing yeah and so his his sort of re well adaptation of that and and then the original text And it's so much easier to understand. It is. But it's also hard because you're sort of trading nonsense for nonsense. Right. But you have to just update the modernity of the nonsense so that we can grasp it. What do you think Touchstone is after in this story? I think he's after a change.

Somebody who's going to sort of willy-nilly hop off into a new life. One, I don't know if he's hopping off into a new life right away. I think that he's just sort of going off with the ladies for an adventure.

but it's going to be fun it's going to be a change of pace and then when he gets out there yeah it's it's a it's a kind of love letter of a travelogue like he falls in love with the spot that he's in and he's like all of a sudden he he can see new possibilities for his future and his life and he just he just goes for it i mean it i i would say i

As an actor, you know, you travel around a lot, so you have all these different experiences in different parts of the world, different parts of the country, and you're like, oh, well, what would it be like if I lived here?

And then you get that experience for like a couple of months. And there's definitely been times when I've been in spots when you're like, maybe I'm not going to go back to New York. Maybe I am just going to stay up here. Right. His journey is similar to the... traveling actors troubadours journey yeah and i think also like for just a lot of people in in the world in general like if if you find yourself sort of

in a rutted place and then you have this opportunity that visits you you can either stay with what you know and the comfort of that or like you know i think it's one of the beautiful things of the play is like Get out to the wild open and see what awaits you there. When did you know that you wanted to go out into the wild open, metaphorically, as an actor?

When did you say to yourself, this is it, this is the life for me, I want to do this? I was just in the wild. I was in Syracuse over the last week shooting a film, and I was talking to the young lead who's 20 years old. and she's like she's fairly early on in her journey but you know she was asking me questions about moving to new york and when did you know that you wanted to do this

And it was I haven't had that conversation in a while. And it's different when you frame it up with somebody as impressionable as a 20 year old person is. And it took me back to that time.

It was probably, I mean, I caught the bug in a little town in Iowa, really in high school was when it turned on. And I was fortunate to have an amazing teacher and also just... wonderful group of people and we made some really really wonderful plays in high school and i didn't it's one of those things where you didn't realize how special it was until i left and i heard about other people's experiences and i was like oh

like okay yeah i had a really great time and so i fell in love with it there but i didn't know if it was possible for me to do it being from a small town in iowa and then i went to college in milwaukee at marquette university and with the intention of you know I knew I was going to act in plays and stuff but I didn't know if that was going to be what I could do because I didn't really have any examples of what that would look like.

Aside from like television. I mean, I saw Phantom of the Opera in Chicago on a high school trip. so then when i was in college i was like well let's try to figure that out and then so i i met some of those folks in milwaukee had a scene and but i was still like not sure that i was going to do this for my life because i wasn't sure if that was possible for me

But what I found out was once I started doing plays in college, I just never left the building. So I was like, OK, well, that's what you're going to do. And then but then even from there, I. I would visit friends in Chicago and stuff, and I was like, I don't know that this is the spot for me. And I was like, I visited Los Angeles, but I was like, that I don't think is my vibe.

I was like, I think I have to go east. So then I went to grad school for more training at Brown University slash Trinity Rep, which is a very highly regarded regional theater in Providence, Rhode Island.

And I studied there. That got me out east. And then I moved to New York and I started figuring it out. But I think it was in college that I was like, okay, people are... are pursuing this so i think i'm going to take a chance and back then i i still say it now but back then i was like i'm going to keep doing this as long as i can get away with it and that's

That's still what we're doing. Was Shakespeare a part of your career from the start? Is it something that just kind of orbits in and orbits out in your... acting career i was in a production of the comedy of errors in high school and you're just i i think that I think you're reminding me. I think that that was my first Shakespeare play. I played one of the Dromeos and put shoe polish in my hair.

But yeah, I mean, in my high school experience, again, which was so wonderful, shout out to my drama teacher, Stacey Hansen, who I'm still close with back in Iowa. We did contemporary plays. We did classical plays. I mean, we did Moliere as a high schooler. That's amazing. Yeah. And to have that experience. At a public high school. Yeah. Wow.

That is really unusual. Yeah. And so to have that exposure to these things, to be like, okay, this is possible. And like what classical materials also teaches. an actor's imagination head imagination and physical imagination as well um you know opened up huge doors for me and so i always held it close to my heart

Then I did some more when I was an undergrad. And then, you know, I definitely did a lot more Shakespeare in grad school. But, you know, I wasn't sure that I was going to be a classical actor. whatever that is because you know when i got out of school i was just sort of i did a lot of new work actually at first and then i got myself into the acting company company

The company called The Acting Company. Acting Company, yeah. And I went on tour with them with a production of Henry V that Davis McCallum directed and had an amazing time working on that play with a really wonderful group of people. Folks, and then as it happens, you know, once you sort of pick a path in this business, things start to line up. And so like, you know, this is often like musical theater performers will say, oh, well, that's all I do.

I don't get to do other stuff. Like when I've been in now musical theater shows and I say, oh, I also do a lot of Shakespeare, they're like, oh, how do you go back and forth? And it's kind of like... Well, if you find success at one thing, they're going to say, do you want to do this next thing that's in the same genre? But yeah, I had a great go with that production. And then when I got back...

One of the next things that I did was with Fiasco, and that was our very first production of Cymbeline. And then, I mean, I can tell that story. but we had rampant success with that and then like that put me you know it sort of aligned some it aligned my values with my uh with my career at that stage and I was fortunate enough to do a number of plays, a number of Shakespeare's with Fiasco and with other folks. And then I spent a lot of time doing Shakespeare.

You know, we had Jesse Austrian on long ago. You had played the Duke in Measure for Measure, the play on podcast series, which you did just brilliantly. The Duke is is talks more than. Anybody in that play and navigating that language is so, so challenging. And you did a brilliant job. But Jesse talked a lot about cymbaling. So that production didn't just kind of...

cement things for you as you're describing, but for the entire company of Fiasco. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was amazing. I remember we were doing it. So we done it in a tiny little walk up in Tribeca and then we moved uptown to the new Vic. So we went from I think like 60 seats to 500 seats and then we moved it from there to the Barrow Street Theater.

in the west village which is like 200 seats but we ran it i think for eight months or something and i remember i i don't know if it was our opening or that weekend or something The great Cherry Jones came to see it. And, you know, we were a young, sprightly theater troupe. And there were six of us in the show. And afterwards, she said, hold on to this as long as you can.

Because you're all going to get pulled from this. But what you have is so great. And so hang on to it as long as you can. And fortunately, I mean, we have been able to keep ourselves together. for a number of projects over the years. Are you working on anything with them now? We have a lot of things that are in the pipeline, but we are developing things this year. So the previous two years were pretty...

We're pretty robust seasons for us producerally. And so we need to, we need a year to sort of catch our breath from producing a whole show. Would you call it your home theatrically? Yes, definitely. Yeah. I mean, and it's a rare thing to be a part of an ensemble theater company that really is actor driven.

Meaning that we're all actors, but we make the decisions and we also make those decisions more or less as a collective. We have standing meetings usually once a week where we discuss whatever is going on.

uh what we're working on next we decide what we're going to do all as a group we we read a ton of things together out loud it's a special special spot and it's like you know i've known these people now for 20 years and that's an amazing thing to be able to have in your in any career but especially in an artistic career because that you know those are mirrors with history

Yeah. I mean, being with a collective of artists that you know so well, I mean, there's a holding each other accountable in a sense and knowing each other so very, very well. And just a joy in the playing, I would imagine, because of that intrinsic knowledge that you have of each other and of each other's skills. And the ability to probably just throw things at each other that you know will ignite. The word family always gets thrown around, and I think sometimes it's a...

It's a useful term in other times. I think it's a manipulative one. When it comes from production, it's manipulative. When it comes from the ensemble, it's truth. Yeah.

right in my experience i i think that's probably right if someone's telling you that we're a family you might not be right um um but yeah the the other thing that happens with that too is like with that amount of history you you know that they're seeing you do that stuff and it's like so often in the theater where you show up as a kind of stranger you've been cast by somebody who's from somewhere else and then you're

meeting these various folks and it's like okay so maybe you can just put on your old tricks or whatever but when you're with people that you have a history with you're like well I can't do it that way because I've done it that way before and they know that I'm just resting on my laurels. So it keeps you honest in a different sort of way. It's interesting. to me to hear you say a rarity. It's a rarity for a theater to be actor-driven with just a small group of actors. And yet...

Shakespeare's theater company was just that, right? Yeah. The King's Men, nine actors, right? Maybe 11 or 12, depending.

And Shakespeare was one of them. Yeah. I mean, also call back Moliere as well. This is the model. I mean, I have a lot of actor friends. And one of the things that we love to... kvatch about is you know sometimes like the one the directors the directors have all the power and stuff but also we need to remember that the director in terms of the theater art form is a relatively recent invention yeah and

I don't know if America or capitalism loves verticality. Maybe it's just easier for institutions to elect that one person to be the person who's the project manager, and so therefore that's why they... hold all the power and stuff i imagine that is the case because a lot of these institutions have sort of been corporatized um but yeah it's not it hasn't always been the way and i think that i think that actors

I think that we can also give up a lot of our power or have it taken away from us when so much of that creativity is, especially the lead of it, is put into the hands of somebody who is not in the show that you're doing. And in Fiasco, one of the ways that we've navigated that in the past is the directors have also been acting in the show.

Now that's a crossing of the Rubicon that I just can't imagine. I mean, that's really hard. Have you done that? I have not done it. I don't think they'd let me direct something. Why? Challenge laid down. Jesse Husterman, we hereby declare that Andy Grotlushen shall direct whether he likes it or not. Why haven't they trusted you with it yet, do you think? Oh, I don't know.

Well, I don't know. I worry about my own sensitivities as a director. Perhaps I might say something in the wrong way. And I haven't, you know, other members of Fiasco have flexed that. flex those muscles or develop them in a different way. And they're sort of more drawn to that than I am. And also, I've witnessed what happens with the fiasco director slash actor.

you know it's because you know conceptually I can say like oh well directors are a recent invention but like it's a necessary thing you have to have a point person that's making the decisions and handling these things and like also people don't want to talk to eight people about a decision they just need somebody to make the decision and i've watched you know by uh compatriots when they've been wearing both of those hats bear the burden of that responsibility. And it's a lot.

Olivier did it, right? He was the artistic director, founder of the National Theater and directed the plays that he was in. Randall Duck Kim at American Players Theater, who founded that theater, directing. When he played Prospero, he was directing The Tempest. Just that ability to, I mean, you'd have to have somebody watch you and direct you from the outside. You'd have to trust your peers to do that.

I mean, I would assume. Well, in Fiasco, that's why for many projects, we will do two directors to sort of like help, especially with those situations. Because it gets really dicey in there if you're acting with somebody and they start directing you and you're like, well, who's directing you? Right. The search for truth never ends. Introducing June's Journey, a hidden object mobile game with a captivating story.

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build your brand marketing tools that get your products out there integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time from startups to scale ups online in person and on the go shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you sign up for your one You've worked so much with Fiasco. You've worked in these really scrappy, cool downtown theatres off-Broadway.

But you've also been on Broadway. You got nominated for the Tony in Tootsie. When I saw you, you were last on stage. You were in a huge production, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. And that did go to Broadway, didn't it? Or it became a Broadway contract. How does it change when you're working in commercial theater as opposed to these smaller entities like Fiasco? or does it change does it feel like it's pretty much the same thing

I remember talking with a wonderful actor friend of mine. Her name is Crystal Finn. I don't know if you know her. She's a wonderful actor and playwright and also a very funny person. She was doing a show at the Roundabout on Broadway, and she had some funny things to do in there. And I saw her during that. And she said to me, she's like, it's so much easier to be funny on Broadway. Then off. I had to check myself for a second because of course, you know, well, no, only the best people can make.

funny things on broadway there's so many people you know it's because you're the best doing it but actually what she said it was like it's so much harder to make a small group of people laugh all together than it is you know a relatively a relatively large group of people in a really big group of people. If you're performing for 60 people and you're trying to land a joke and you get 10 people to laugh at that.

You hear 10 people laughing at that. If you're performing for a thousand people, that sounds like a lot of people. And then all of a sudden, all the other people that are around them are like, oh, it really starts to open it up. I thought that was a wonderful insight that in a lot of ways, it's easier to do things on Broadway than it is off because, you know, everybody's everybody's there to have a good time.

They've signed up for it. It's important to them. Yeah, they paid a lot of money, right? They've gone out, had drinks probably. They paid for the sitter. They paid for parking. You know, they are going to have a good time. Was the last one that you did, the last big show, was it Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window? Yeah, that was the last big one. How was that experience for you with Oscar Isaac?

Rachel Brosnahan. It was fantastic. It's one of those dream come true sorts of experiences. So... annie kaufman called she's an amazing director yes and i i i just did a workshop with her but i got a call out of blue for that and and uh and it's like hey do you want to do this this role in this show at bam at the harvey i think it's called the strong now which is my favorite theater in brooklyn i live in brooklyn

It's a 15 minute walk from my house. Peter Brook designed this space. I've seen so many wonderful things there. I'd never... done a show there and so then i got to do this show lorraine hansbury's magnificent uh little known play and little performed play With Annie Kaufman, also Oscar Isaac was going to be in it, and Rachel Brosnahan was going to be in it. These are actors that I admire very much. And also, one of my best friends, Miriam Silverman.

was also going to be in it and we had actually we we went to grad school together we were each other's very first acting scene partners in school and we'd never worked together professionally So putting all these things together was just a dream. We did it at BAM, and it was a really wonderful experience. And then we thought maybe that it would go to Broadway.

But we weren't really sure if it was going to happen. And then the show closed at BAM. And this is funny. Show closed at BAM and we were like, it's closing. That's it. Everybody went on vacation. And then... i think we closed on a saturday and on monday i had a call from miriam that was like i think it might be back on again and was like what and then it was like two days later or i think the next day i got a call from annie and she was like

availability check can you go to broadway in two weeks three weeks it's like yeah okay great great but this happened There was a miscommunication and bam throughout the set. Oh my God. Are you serious? Yes. Oh my God. They had to rebuild the set? They had to rebuild the set in like a week. Oh, my God. What a fiasco.

Wow. I hope that he hired the same carpenters and they got paid overtime. Yeah, me too. Me too. I mean, and it was crazy because when we showed up at the theater, you know, a couple of weeks later.

like it was for us it was like oh so great oh it's gonna be wonderful and the designers were a little harried because because they've been they've been really working their asses off and it was like there was vintage wallpaper it was on the old set that they couldn't reproduce it was all that stuff who didn't send the memo that this might go to broadway oh wow so

Now, so you just described, this is interesting, right? Because it's a play that started out big. I mean, Bam is big, right? Bam is a big house. It's a big reputation. It's like... The RSC or the National in Great Britain or something. It's like Lincoln Center. It's Brooklyn's Lincoln Center. Right. And so you're. You're there and you said it was such a wonderful experience. What was it like then having to cross the river and go to another house and do it in another venue? I wasn't ready for it.

But it was amazing the welcoming spirit of Lorraine Hansberry coming back to Broadway. It just turned the volume of it up. And, you know, the play is about, you know, the West Village in the, you know, early 50s and 60s, mid 50s and 60s. And there's all these references to Manhattan and uptown and downtown. So it just felt like moving the apartment back to where it was originally supposed to be.

also the yeah the the the audience is like at bam bam is also like a little more experimental than a lot of things that happen on broadway and so i think also some of the critical gaze on it from audiences in bam were sort of like huh huh okay huh why are we doing this why are we doing why are we doing this now and on broadway i think it was

Yeah, the reception was so warm and the audiences, they were just receiving the play in such an open way. That was just a real joy to be a part. You know, talking to you, I'm realizing something that I never would have.

expected but it sounds from your description and your experience anyway like Broadway has a sort of an openness and a willingness that you don't find as much in the more scrappy experimental as you said there's there's a little bit more of a critical gaze on the things that aren't on broadway

I hope I don't butcher this too badly, but I have the concept of it. George C. Wolfe had a great thing. I was listening to an interview with him, and he was like, what show was it? Shuffle Along, I think, that he was directing on Broadway. And, you know, this is a guy who used to run the public theater. And so he worked in downtown, but then also, you know, did things uptown as well. And he would say of Broadway, he's like...

The American theater and Broadway are not the same thing. And things that succeed on Broadway can't necessarily succeed in the American theater. And things that succeed at the highest levels of the American theater might not succeed on Broadway. Broadway is its own thing. It's a little more of a Wild West. It's kind of like the restaurant business or something. There's more failures than our successes. I was going to ask you about Tootsie. Yeah.

Tootsie had the same feel that you're describing of just that, was it a delight or did you feel like you were punching the clock? Like it's, you know, did it get to be a grind that, I mean, you're doing eight shows a week. Right, and Tootsie ran a long time. Yeah, I mean, you really do sort of live at the theater. It feels that way. So I had been on Broadway before in Cyrano de Bergerac, which is classical, so I kind of felt like I felt comfortable there.

you know and i was like hey great classical thing on broadway wonderful i was just happy to be there but tootsie when it first came up i was like they're remaking a really beloved by me and by everybody by so many beloved film classic they're gonna put it into a musical and i was like i think that sounds terrible and you know they were like

come in for the workshop and let's read it stuff and I was you know first I was just reading the script at home and some of these jokes and I was like shit this is really funny And then I got in the room, but I was still like, this is going to be hokey. And the people that Scott Ellis, the director, got into that room are so funny. And I was there with them. And, you know, and these jokes by Robert Horn, who also wrote a really lovely script. They're so funny.

And we just had such a great time. And I was like, holy shit, I think I might want to be in this remake of a classic film into a stupid Broadway musical. And basically I was just... i was just happy that they let me keep doing it and so that yeah i really had a really wonderful time on that a very unique experience and so grateful for it

You're doing some film and television now. You just said you did a film that you were shooting upstate. Is that something you want to do more of? All actors are interested in doing...

TV and film. All actors are mostly interested in doing as much as they can to make as much money as they can. And you really have to diversify the different aspects of your career. And they are also, well... theater work isn't necessarily complementary to your tv and film stuff um it definitely nourishes the soul and your creativity and your imagination and things and sometimes your wallet but you got you gotta

find a balance so always trying to hunt down to other opportunities as well but i'm sure you've heard this too but the experience largely working in tv and film it's not as organic or as fulfilling as like doing a play the play is like it's being performed by the people who are doing it and

you know you're all there for a few hours every night making the world happen in tv and film it's like that camera is really taking everything and you know the director is really the one who's responsible for how everything is getting put in there

and you know there's 20 people that are behind the scenes while you're shooting this thing and and then you do it you know eight 10 different ways and then hope that they got whatever it is that they need and then you don't know you have no control over it like what's gonna happen on the other side and oh they decided to use that one i wouldn't have i remember doing that one i wouldn't have used that one but you know so it's nothing's nothing's better than plays nothing except podcasts

Of course. I mean, that's, of course. No, but it was, so our podcast sort of the, at least this experience with the, as you like it, do you feel like it's a sort of. The medium between the two theater and like television or film. Yeah. Or, or, I mean, you can be honest or you don't have to dress it up just because. We're talking about the podcast because you're in it. On a podcast? Right. Don't bite the hand that feeds.

Yes, all the podcast money that you'll lose if you don't craze us. But I'm curious to know, did it feel like you were doing television or did it feel like going to the set or did it feel more theater-y? Um, I guess it does feel like an odd sort of hybrid, especially with something like this, because it's like, obviously, well, I've been working on Shakespeare plays with you guys. So, um...

it's kind of like casting the theater into a new space. But as I've said before, I think when we've talked about it, it's like it has it... it definitely has a different theatricality when like you know that you're speaking into people's heads like when you're talking into their ears and in the fidelity is

so high that you know you can whisper and do some very small things um on the podcast that can really reach where on stage you could never do it So I guess in that way, it feels a little filmic because of the intimacy of the microphone, but also with the theatricality of like... Because you have to do so much sound design also around it to create the world. So that's a sort of different theatrical space too. You had said to me...

Where else can you do takes of Shakespeare? I mean, like even more, even more, I think on a podcast than like a film shoot or something. Right. You know, if you just give me, again, it takes, like, to get the shot, you can't do a thing. I mean, unless you're Tarantino or something. You can't do a thing, you know.

10 12 15 times right um but on a podcast recording like you'd be like oh do this do this do this do this do this and it's and it's great because you know you can bang it out in a half an hour would you like to do this roll on stage touchstone yeah what do you think is what you know there's a part of the whole touchstone journey that i'm like why how did this happen and it's the audrey

relationship what is going on for touchstone there do you think is he just smitten by i mean is it what is it about audrey that turns his head i think it's the fish out of water story and then You know, when you discover yourself in kind of new culture and then there's a possibility of a partnering that's inside of that is constantly surprising.

It's the sign of commitment for him. You know, he's not just, he's sort of like, he's not just gaga and outside of himself. He's still got a lot of self-awareness and ego. So I think that she may also be the... the commitment the the the sign to himself that like i am doing this i'm actually doing this i'm committing to living in this in this new world and this person is the representation of that

in our partnership because i'm really going for it even though he's not really sure if that's the best idea or what you know he's he's just going for it it's such a an endearing story. And it's, you know, I mean, I always wonder, like, does he, do you think he stays?

Do you think he'll ever go? Do you think he'll bring Audrey back? I mean, do you ever think past the end? You know what happens or do you just kind of leave it like that's all she wrote? There's a melancholy that's laced into the story and it's. You know, we're often greeted to it by Jaquies. There's no running away from the problems. That's another part of the play. It follows us, you know, life will follow you around.

it's life so i mean what happens afterwards you know all the complexities will will come i i i would hope that things go well but i'm sure that it will also go quite poorly at some times. And those kinds of, when we make those kinds of decisions, you know, you're really opening up some big space for possible regret that you're going to have to deal with. I never should have done.

but also you know you know that audrey is going to be like i want to go to the city take me down to the city yeah and then he'll see what she's like there right And is he going to be embarrassed about her? Or is he going to embrace her? Will she leave him when she gets there? She'll meet a city guy.

And they'll be like, damn it, that's exactly what I knew was going to happen. I mean, we get a little hint of it at the end, right? When the Duke is back and everybody's together and you tell Audrey to cover up, cover up, right? make yourself more senior well we hope we hope that it works out for both of them yes It has to. What's next for you? Do you know? Do you have things lined up that you're looking forward to digging into or that you're working on now?

What's next? I'm going to jump back on the boards with Theatre for a New Audience. That's a New York theatre company. They did a production of Merchant of Venice a few years ago, starring John Douglas Thompson. And they're taking that show to Scotland in January. So that's the next, I think that's probably going to be my next stage production. I didn't do their production a few years ago, but I'm going to do it. And you'll get to go to Scotland.

yeah yeah edinburgh glasgow edinburgh i strangely i was just there this past summer my girlfriend was doing a play at the fringe festival which is the biggest fringe festival in the world so i was there for a week in august and i just i it was it was it was really amazing really amazing the city's so beautiful and then this came up a couple of weeks ago and i was like yes i will go back

Well, make sure you take a weekend and go to the Highlands. Yes. We went back in August. We spent a week up there. It was just gorgeous. I mean, other world. Well, Andy Grublishan, thank you so much. It's great to talk to you. It's great to talk about Touchstone and to talk about all the work that you've done. It's such an incredible... journey you've had and you're in the middle of just a phenomenal, exciting, wonderful career. It's an honor to have you as part of the whole

thing here as you like it and measure for measure. I hope we get you to do more. It's a pleasure. Thanks for the conversation and thanks for the work. You've been listening to the Play On Podcast bonus content series. You can learn more about the Play On Podcast at Next Chapter Podcast website. nextchapterpodcasts.com where you can find other play on podcast series and interviews along with talk podcasts like The 500, Indecent with Kiki Anderson, Beef with Bridget Todd,

Our New South, and a whole lot more. I'd like to thank Jeremiah Tittle, the founder of Next Chapter Podcast, and my producer, Pete Musto. Our audio engineer, editor, and sound designer is Justin Cortese. Be sure to subscribe to Next Chapter Podcast for updates on all the latest content, and don't forget to rate and review our shows. I'm Michael Goodfriend, and I look forward to sharing more incredible works.

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