Dingbat Theatre Project's Production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Dingbat Theatre Project's Production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Dingbat Theatre Project's Luke McFatrich and Amanda Heisey tell us all about their upcoming production of the groundbreaking show Hedwig and the Angry Inch being performed August 27 through September 11 at the Bazaar on Apricot and Lime.

This Obie and Tony-winning Off-Broadway smash tells the story of "internationally ignored song stylist" Hedwig Schmidt, a fourth-wall smashing East German rock 'n' roll goddess. This outrageous and unexpectedly hilarious story is dazzingly performed by Hedwig (née Hansel) in the form of a rock gig/stand-up comedy routine backed by the hard-rocking band "The Angry Inch."
​Mature Audiences Only - Contains profanity, frank discussions of mature and sexual situations, and partial nudity (playboy centerfolds on the set)
All that and more on this week's episode of the Suncoast Culture Club. Come along and join the club!

• Dingbat Theatre Company Website & Facebook & Instagram

• The Bazaar at Apricot and Lime Website & Facebook & Instagram & YouTube

State College of Florida Music Program Website & Facebook & Instagram

 • SCF Theatre Program Website & Facebook Page & Instagram

Support the show (https://scf-foundation.org/suncoastcultureclub/)

Transcript

 

Robyn Bell: This week, we welcome back the crew from Dingbat Theater Project. This time to tell us all about their upcoming show Hedwig and the Angry Inch being performed at the Bazaar on Apricots and Lime, August 27th through September 11th. And we must add it is for mature audiences only here to tell us more about that is Luke McFatrich, who plays Hedwig and Amanda Heisey, who plays Yitzhak Luke and Amanda. Welcome to the club. Good to have you both here in studio, on the State College of Florida campus. 

Luke McFatrich: It's really cool here. Thank you for the tour. 

Robyn Bell: You're welcome. Yeah. So the three were. Yeah. And we ran into some people, Amanda, you know, Amanda,Schlachter, really well. You've been directed by her and done 

Amanda Heisey: yes. I love her. I am such a fan of her. She's like a role model of mine. I want to be here when I grow up. 

Robyn Bell: Yes. We're lucky to have her here. She and Craig Smith do a great job with our theater program. So now last time we had Dingbat Theater Project on the podcast. We learned all about you, Luke you're trek from Mississippi to the Venice Theater to founding Dingbat Theater Project. But Amanda. You are new to the podcast. So let's start by finding out more about you. What has been your path to theater and the Suncoast? 

Amanda Heisey: So I actually got my degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. And I worked in newspapers, for a while. I also edited some stories for TV stations, websites. But then I got a job at the Observer here in town. So that's what brought me to service. 

Robyn Bell: As a writer journalist. 

Amanda Heisey: Yeah. I was a web editor for the Business Observers specifically. So I did that for a bit. And then I transitioned into marketing through the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County. 

Robyn Bell: Yes. Jim Shirley's little crowd. 

Amanda Heisey: Yes. For a couple of years. And then I sort of transitioned to work for the Player's Center for Performing Arts, 

Robyn Bell: Jeffery Kin's little crowd. 

Amanda Heisey: Yes. So I'm, I'm their marketing director full time. And I also direct some shows there. And I do some of the acting classes. Like I, teach all of the acting classes actually. And I also direct the players teams performance group for like teenagers to do straight plays. Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: okay. I didn't know this, but I'm going to say. If you're their marketing director, you're fabulous because their marketing is really great.

Amanda Heisey: Thanks. Me and Brian, our director for Hedwig is he's a social media manager and I'm the marketing director. So we were together 

Robyn Bell: and I was just so impressed. When I saw online about the move to the mall, I was like, this is genius. Really smart. 

Amanda Heisey: We're really excited to have an indoor space. Cause last season we did all outdoor shows at different places around Sarasota, which was cool. We got to highlight Selby Gardens and the Bizarre on Apricots in Lime, but it'll be nice to have air conditioning and to be inside. 

Robyn Bell: Yes. And, I think the entire community is looking forward to what's happening at Lakewood Ranch. And what's going to be going on with that. Is there a timeframe like 20 years or no, I'm just kidding. totally. 

Amanda Heisey: But we will break ground by 2023. 

Robyn Bell: Oh, that's so cool. And it's Waterside community 

Amanda Heisey: Waterside Place. Yeah, you can kind of go out there and there's some stuff there now. So that's pretty exciting. We hope to have some outdoor shows like around our space. 

Robyn Bell: Definitely gonna come see some shows at the mall because, you're not calling it that you even branded it really cool. What, it's 

Amanda Heisey: Studio 1130. Suite 1130. So studio 1130. 

Robyn Bell: I love it. I love it. Well, welcome to the Suncoast Culture club podcast. Amanda, it's nice to meet you and to learn about you and introduce you to our two listeners. So that's there. So that brings us to the Stephen Trask, groundbreaking, Obi and Tony winning. Off Broadway, musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch that you will be starring in at the Bazaar on Apricot and Lime. So Luke, give us the story here. What is this musical about and what roles are the two of you playing in the show? 

Luke McFatrich: Yeah. So the whole show is actually formatted as a punk rock concert. Yeah. It's led by Hedvig, who is a. 

Robyn Bell: Am I saying it wrong when I say Hedwig 

Luke McFatrich: it's you're right. Hedwig, but like Hedwig, Hedwig is German and I'm playing Hedwig. So 

Robyn Bell: you're the lead 

Luke McFatrich: rain. Yes. It's training my brain to say Hedvig because that's how I say it in the show. And if I say it differently, I met change. 

Robyn Bell: Can't have that.

Luke McFatrich: So Hedvig and Grinch, is formatted as a punk rock concert. And. Hedwig basically tells her life story in the form of monologue, standup comedy and song. And it's just Amanda and I and a band. , Amanda plays Hedwig's husband Yitzhak, Hedwig. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. So let me stop you here because I don't know anything about this show and I kind of assumed that Hedwig was a guy, but now I'm learning. Hedwig is a girl played by you, Luke, a young man and Yitzhak is a man played by a man. Uh, young lady. So it's a little gender role stuff there. I love that. 

Luke McFatrich: Yeah. As we call Hedvig, gender obliterating, and the show Hedvig is actually described as more than a woman or a man by someone else. inthe song Wicked Little Town, Hedwig grew up in East Berlin before the wall came down and to get out of East Berlin, she had to make some changes. PC. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. 

Luke McFatrich: So she could get married to a American Sergeant and then moved to America for a better life for herself. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. Okay. There are some transgender undertones here. 

Luke McFatrich: The Hedwig is not transgender because she did not. This is really complicated to talk about 

Robyn Bell: pod. You're doing a great job. Listen, if you explain it and I understand it you're golden.

Luke McFatrich: Right? Okay. I look at it. Hedwig is more of like a non-binary figure or like a gender nonconforming person, because Hedvig didn't want to become a female. That was just something that they had to do to get there situation. Yeah. And whenever I had, we talks about the 

Robyn Bell: ultimate sacrifice right there. 

Amanda Heisey: That's one of the themes.

Luke McFatrich: That's one of the themes. And then a year later after they arrive in America, the wall came down. So it was all for not,

Robyn Bell: oh 

Amanda Heisey: yeah. It's complicated. 

Luke McFatrich: Her husband leaves her, the Sergeant that she married to move to America leaves her. 

Robyn Bell: So, okay. It's a tragedy.

Amanda Heisey: It is, but it's fun. It's not told in a way that's going to be like this whole thing is a downer. 

Luke McFatrich: You might, 

Amanda Heisey: you might, but not the whole time. It's your 

Luke McFatrich: mind crying in the middle. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. Okay. 

Luke McFatrich: So it's really a journey of self discovery and self acceptance for Hedwig because she goes through so much. And so many bad things happen to her, but she has not come to accept that. In order for her to move on, to be the most successful person that she can be.

Robyn Bell: What a great storyline. 

Luke McFatrich: Yeah. It's actually really, really cool. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. Now, Amanda, did you know this show before you audition for it? Or should I say first, did you have to audition? 

Amanda Heisey: No, no, no. 

Robyn Bell: Did you know this show before you took on the role? 

Amanda Heisey: I knew a lot of the songs. I loved a lot of the music in it. I wasn't as intimately familiar with the show as I now am having watched many, many versions and read it a bunch of times and thinking about it in a different way, but I already loved the music. The music is really cool. I'm like really good. So I was aware. Of the storyline ish, but I hadn't really delved into like scene study thinking about it. But I always liked it. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. And you've talked about the music here. You talked about, it's a punk rock thing. And so in reading, like on your website about the show, I assumed that it's like a rock and roll genre, but it's more punk is all of the music. In this fashion and tell us more about sort of the backup band and how the music stuff is working.

Luke McFatrich: Yeah. So Hedwig's band is called the Angry Inch as a four-piece band. And Amanda, who is the backup singer Yitzhak we have a keyboard, we have a guitar, Dorian Boyd is playing our guitar. 

Robyn Bell: Oh, cool.

Luke McFatrich: Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: Cause he works here at the State College of Florida 

Luke McFatrich: plugs, plugs, plugs, uh, Michael Manzini is our bass player and Joel Broom our drummer and all the music is actually really different. There aren't many songs that sound like another one. There's a country song in it. And I'm using the word country loosely and they all correspond to different parts of Hedvig story. So as she's telling her life story, she has all these songs that she has written that correspond to different parts of her story, but don't necessarily move the story forward. So

Robyn Bell: interesting. 

Luke McFatrich: So it's not like we're going to. And we're going to dance. It's not like that. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. I hear a waltz probably. I'm not going to hear, uh, you know, usually in a typical musical, they cover many different styles of music, 

Amanda Heisey: it does cover a lot of different styles of music. Um, there's a couple of ballads. There's a couple of really hard rock songs. There's one that has a more country flare in it. 

Robyn Bell: Okay, cool. 

Amanda Heisey: Span the gamut, but they do fit within like Hedwig is putting on this concert and we're all watching the concert and we're all learning about her life. And, and none of it seems like it's coming out of nowhere, even if they're not the same style, so you won't be bored, but it does still come off as a rock concert.

Luke McFatrich: Part of her story where she's talking about how she felt like she didn't have anything, then she's going to sing as if she has nothing. And that's the Wig in a Box song, where she talks about how. She lets herself keep going and the hope that she has and the things that she has. Like if it's putting on some perfume or putting on a wig. And so that's what that song is about. And then if we come to a point where she's talking about the Sergeant that she marries, who is a Southern person, then we have a country song that fits that.

Robyn Bell: So the music is situational. 

Luke McFatrich: Yes. 

Robyn Bell: Yes. Love it. Now, Luke, did you choose to. Produce this show to do it next. 

Luke McFatrich: I did. I did. I talked to Brian about it a year ago. Back before we'll say Brian Finnerty Brian Finnerty he's directing and choreographing the show. And he's my, um, we called Dingbat a two headed monster and he's the other head? We talked about doing the show a year ago before we even did our Christmas show or Shrek. I was like, I really want to do this show with you. And he's like, cool. Let me know when you want to do it. And I was like, okay, but I'm serious though. I really want to do the show with you. He's like, okay. And when we were doing Shrek, I sent out some applications to a bunch of different shows and we got this one back. 

Robyn Bell: Very cool. And you're like, hey, it was meant to be. 

Luke McFatrich: Yeah. Yeah. You know how we talked about doing this show and he's like, I don't remember that. And he's like, you're doing it. 

Robyn Bell: What strikes me is it really fits sort of Dingbat wacky approach to programming and doing so it was like, it's the perfect show for your theater company? 

Luke McFatrich: It really is. And we are performing indoors at the Bazaar on Apricots in Lime. So they have a newly renovated. Building that they're using as an indoor dining space. And it's a really good show because it's such a small cast for us to start to figure out how we would use that space in the future, because we are producing the SpongeBob musical in there in December.

Robyn Bell: Right.

Luke McFatrich: Which is a bigger show. In terms of scope, in terms of cast size, In terms of length. Hedwig is only 90 minutes, long Sponge Bob is two hours and 15 minutes. So it's a good way for us to get to learn how to use that space. 

Robyn Bell: Well, and that's one of the things I was going to talk to you guys about because were you in Shrek? Yeah, cause I was there, but yeah. It was really great. I was amazed at how you guys pulled that off with the, you know, what you needed 30 people and he did it with seven or eight crazy. It was great all outside, at the Bizarre. And now we're taking this one and we're doing. Inside as you, said. And so that's probably opened up a lot more options as far as maybe lighting and staging and this sort of thing talk to us about the difference in performing Shrek outside versus Hedwig inside. 

Amanda Heisey: Well, it was really hot. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. So that's a big difference. 

Amanda Heisey: We were very sweaty 

Luke McFatrich: porta-potties anymore. We have actual bathroom, 

Amanda Heisey: real bathrooms.

Robyn Bell: Huge, huge plus. 

Luke McFatrich: Sorry about that. Robyn. 

Amanda Heisey: We had to store. We had a lot of different costume pieces and a lot of different props in Shrek like a ton. And so that, I mean, it was cool in Shrek, cause you could literally see behind the scaffolding and you could see what everyone was doing. And people thought that was really cool. Cause often you don't get to see that in theater, they go behind the stage or off stage. Right. 

Robyn Bell: We got to see kind of the magic happen right before us. Yeah. Interesting to 

Luke McFatrich: see the strings of the marionette 

Robyn Bell: yeah, there you go. 

Amanda Heisey: But this, I mean the space is smaller, but it's also, like Luke said like 90 minutes, we don't really go off. Like we very rarely. 

Luke McFatrich: We don't do 

Amanda Heisey: I leave for like a sec. 

Luke McFatrich: But do you actually leave or are you just sitting in the house? Looking at me. 

Amanda Heisey: I do like for like a second, but really, we don't leave like Luke is literally on stage the entire time. It's 90 minutes because there's no intermission and it's just like the rock concert. So there's no need to like break it up like that. There's not that sort of thing where you're seeing. The bits and pieces of what's happening backstage or around the stage. And the set, Brian not only is the director and choreographer. He also did the set design and the costumes for the show.

Robyn Bell: I know I read that. I thought, man, he's needed more to do. 

Amanda Heisey: Right. 

Luke McFatrich: We're not sending them to work enough. 

Amanda Heisey: And you start earning that paycheck. So it's just like stationary set. So while Shrek was actually a stationary set to sort of, there were more, 

Luke McFatrich: well, I mean, we brought on pieces and stuff, but it was still stationary. Nothing is off stage because we have no offstage. 

Robyn Bell: Right.

Luke McFatrich: Cause it's all onstage. 

Amanda Heisey: So you see everything that whole time 

Robyn Bell: and Shrek was like, you needed a cast of 30, you did it with eight Hedwig and the angry. Just the two of you 

Amanda Heisey: with the band, 

Robyn Bell: with the band. 

Luke McFatrich: So there's technically six of 

Robyn Bell: us. Okay. So fewer people to manage.

Luke McFatrich: We haven't had the band yet, so it's just been the two of us so far. Yeah. 

Amanda Heisey: And our wonderful, beautiful, amazing music director, Michelle Kasnovsky. 

Robyn Bell: I know you do. Yes, she is. She's really does a great job. So tell us then, cause Shrek was outside. We didn't really have to worry about the masks and stuff, but now that we're inside, because I have tickets, I get your emails. So tell us, yeah. What you guys are following. As far as the CDC guidelines of inside performing 

Luke McFatrich: on the 27th of July, the CDC said that people in areas with high numbers of COVID should wear their masks inside in a public setting, regardless of their vaccination status. So we're making people wear their masks because we're in Florida. And, um, 

Robyn Bell: no, but you do have, because it was my favorite thing about all this. I mean, I enjoy the entertainment factor. Don't get me wrong, but I love Hamlet's Food Truck. So Hamlet's going to be there serving food. 

Luke McFatrich: It was going to be a definite yes. But some things are kind of up in the air and we are hoping, so, but the bar will be okay. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. Well, that's a good point because if I have to wear a mask, I can take it off. Pull it down, I guess, to drink, 

Luke McFatrich: you can take a sipadeedooda put it back on.

Robyn Bell: Okay. That's good. Cause you know, we kind of have some libations and people need to stay hydrated, 

Luke McFatrich: such a drinky show though. 

Amanda Heisey: It's going to make you want to be like yeah. 

Luke McFatrich: I drink in the show. 

Amanda Heisey: Yeah. We talk about Hedwig drinking a lot by me. I mean him, I literally don't talk like at all. 

Luke McFatrich: She has about eight lines. Five of them are one word and it's just her calling me 

Amanda Heisey: bad names, 

Luke McFatrich: bad names, bad names that you would use to describe a, 

Robyn Bell: it was kind of an easy show for you to memorize and 

Amanda Heisey: probably not. Nope, it's actually weird because it's kind of hard for me, but not as hard as Luke because Luke literally talks the entire show. So he's memorized like an hour. Probably a solid hour of dialogue. 

Luke McFatrich: It's 45 minutes of dialogue and 45 minutes of music. We timed it yesterday. 

Amanda Heisey: Okay. So that I don't have to worry about that. So it's not quite as hard for me, 

Robyn Bell: but I, you are, you sing? 

Amanda Heisey: Yeah. So I sang backup for all of the songs. So my biggest thing was having to learn my harmonies, um, and where, and still the lyrics, but learning my harmonies with, Luke and such, but then also, um, 

Luke McFatrich: can relate, which is actually really difficult because it's a rock and roll show written by somebody who doesn't write musicals, because it's not technically a musical, the storytelling piece with rock music. 

Robyn Bell: Got it. 

Luke McFatrich: So the harmonies aren't really written down. It's the music. Yeah. In the piano conductor score is just chord charts. So figuring out what her harmony is are as a musical theater person was kind of a, 

Robyn Bell: it's a guessing game. 

Luke McFatrich: It's a guessing game. 

Amanda Heisey: There's a lot of me listening to versions of it. And like 

Robyn Bell: I was about to say, because since it's not written down every time it's performed. Let me cause there's options for harmony. It could be done differently. 

Amanda Heisey: And it, it is like from the off-Broadway version and the on Broadway version and the movie they're even listening to those different, recordings of it, they're all the kind of pick different harmonies and stuff. So that was a challenge for me.

Robyn Bell: What's your favorite song? 

Amanda Heisey: I think I like singing Sugar Daddy with you the best. I think that's my favorite one to do, but I mean, I don't even really sing in Midnight Radio, which is the last song in the show. Like I just get to sing at the very end of it, but I think that's actually my favorite song that she 

Robyn Bell: Midnight Rodeo 

Amanda Heisey: radio.

Robyn Bell: Well, you know, I'm from Texas, 

Luke McFatrich: I'm from Arkansas. 

Robyn Bell: We know all about them from 

Amanda Heisey: Kansas and Missouri. 

Robyn Bell: Luke. What's your favorite song? 

Luke McFatrich: I like Wicked Little Town a lot. But I also like Long Grift a lot because it's the one song in the show that I don't have to sing, 

Robyn Bell: oh, nice. You get, well, you get a little 

Luke McFatrich: rest, but I get to break. Well, it's sort of, I walk into the audience and cry staring at Amanda as she sings it. Cause I had thought a point in the show where Hedwig she's just so caught up in her emotions that she cannot sing the song. So she literally just walks off the stage.

Amanda Heisey: And I finally get to sing a song. 

Luke McFatrich: Yeah, 

Robyn Bell: there you go. When there. I will make mental note of that. That that's your favorite song? Cause you're not singing yet. 

Luke McFatrich: You're staring at me. He sure likes this doesn't hit. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. We talked about Brian Finnerty as the director and the choreography and the set designer and the costume designer. It was a lot of work for Brian, but who else is working on the show? We talked about Michelle. Kasnovksy being the music director. Who else do you have involved in that? 

Luke McFatrich: Jasmine Deal is our production stage manager and our sound designer. She is the production manager here at Royal Palm Players in Boca Grande.

Robyn Bell: Oh, wow. Okay. 

Luke McFatrich: We also have Ethan Veil is our lighting designer. He works at the Asolo and designed the lights for all their outdoor performances. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. Okay. The last year he was fabulous. That was amazing. 

Amanda Heisey: Yeah. Was amazing. 

Luke McFatrich: Camelot that Christmas show. I think he did Fannie.

Amanda Heisey: He was there. So yes, I saw him there 

Luke McFatrich: and Sophia Maria COSIA is our projection designer. She is a recent graduate of the Booker high school program. And she's going to study, I think she's studying projection design at Carnegie Mellon. 

Robyn Bell: Wow. 

Amanda Heisey: I know it's tech stuff. I'm sorry, Sophia. I don't remember. 

Luke McFatrich: I'm sorry, Sophia, but she's wonderful. She's going to 

Robyn Bell: be a talented young lady. 

Luke McFatrich: She's going to be president of the United States one day. 

Robyn Bell: I'll vote for her. 

Luke McFatrich: Yeah, me too. We have Corey Woomertwho played our Shrek. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. Yeah. 

Luke McFatrich: He's our wig designer. His full-time job is, being a hairstylist. And he's really wonderful at that. And he's going to do our wigs because Hedvig has to their a VIG. 

Robyn Bell: It just makes sense. 

Luke McFatrich: Yes. And there's a bunch of wig changes and wig add-ons for the Wig in a Box song where, there's magnets in the wig that have attachment. So if I'm talking about being Ms. Beehive 1963, there's a beehive attachment.

Robyn Bell: Wow. 

Luke McFatrich: It goes up way high. 

Robyn Bell: How cool. 

Luke McFatrich: It's really fun. And Rachel Knowles is our makeup designer, so we just 

Robyn Bell: had, she has a big. Making you look pretty. 

Amanda Heisey: It's not hard. Luke, look, they did promo shots. Yesterday was the first time to see Luke and Luke looks beautiful and amazing. It was not difficult 

Luke McFatrich: Thanks Mandy 

Robyn Bell: how long have you been in production for the show?

Luke McFatrich: Oh, June. We've been rehearsing the sporadically, this one just because there's the three of us and Amanda and Brian are romantically involved. 

Amanda Heisey: Brian's my partner. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. All right. Perfect. That's why you didn't have to. No, no,

Luke McFatrich: that's a command that actually how it worked was I was saying, we're going to do Hedwig. And then Amanda was like, can I play Yitzhak? And I was like, yes. And then we asked Brian, so me and Amanda were set first. So Brian gets to direct it because he's dating Amanda Robyn. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. Okay. So we've talked, we've talked. The set and the wigs tell me about some of the costumes. What all has transpired with that? Is it one, I mean, you never leave, so you're in one outfit. 

Luke McFatrich: I sort of am in one outfit. I'm under dressed and I have ad-ons that get put on it. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. 

Luke McFatrich: So traditionally Hedwig comes out in like, Denim situation. So I have that denim situation at the beginning, and then I get added on for the song and The Angry Inch where I talk about a certain procedure that did not go the way it should. And I get, 

Robyn Bell: give me my money back. 

Luke McFatrich: Just look up the show com Amanda puts on a hospital gown on me. Song, and we might have something for the Sugar Daddy song. I know I put on a cow bell and I hit the cow bell. And then, so I'm underdressed. So I have something else under the jean thing. So when I take it off at where the act break would be, if we had an intermission, I take it off and then I'm under dressed in like a black thing. 

Robyn Bell: So you, take things off and you add things on and those are the costume changes okay. Okay. So what about Amanda? You're costuming? What are you in? 

Amanda Heisey: Kind of the band and me and stuff. It's sort of eighties to nineties rock kind of like conglomeration. Like grunge sort of, that's where I look more grunge, I think, 

Luke McFatrich: And Hedwig is so conceded that she would want everybody behind her to kind of blend into the background. 

Robyn Bell: So she stands out more, 

Luke McFatrich: so she stands out more, but at the end of the show there's a switch.

Amanda Heisey: We can't tell you though, you could come see it, then you'll know. 

Robyn Bell: I know it's fantastic. Now there's choreography is Brian's done that. Are there like some big dance numbers or no, you're not going to see a kick lot. 

Luke McFatrich: It feels a lot of like headbanging and ripping microphones out of their stands and using the microphone stand and fun ways just because, okay. The stage platform, Robyn is actually 20 feet wide by eight feet deep. 

Robyn Bell: Oh, it's shallow 

Luke McFatrich: teensy weensy. And then we have a foot runway. Well, so we don't have that much space to play. And then I come into the audience at some point, 

Robyn Bell: but it really is going to look like a rock concerts, stage three. Cool. Yeah. Well, we going to be able to marsh pit use or the Carlin, 

Luke McFatrich: but no, cause COVID 

Robyn Bell: oh, mean nasty COVID 

Luke McFatrich: we had to cut a lot of things because originally it was getting better and then it wasn't getting better. It ruined up. So we had a lot of audience participation where I was going through the audience. And at one point I was going to kiss an audience member with consent beforehand, but that wasn't no, that's not happening because people are going to be in their masks.

Robyn Bell: Yeah. That's a smart decision. 

Luke McFatrich: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah, 

Robyn Bell: we're doing a theater show here at SCF where the opening scene is these two people making out the whole time and Amanda Schlachter and Craig Smith, they're like, Hmm, we gotta rethink this one. So yeah, same sort of thing. What I love most about your theater company is that you are doing this wild and outrageous show Hedwig the Angry Inch. And following that up with your next production completely on the other end of the spectrum, like we have Shrek. Hedvig and then SpongeBob the musical. I mean, you guys, it couldn't be more different and we expect that show in December. Yeah. SpongeBob, 

Luke McFatrich: you know, Sponge Bob for Christmas, everyone was under the sea.

Robyn Bell: It's very, very cool. I guess you're to finish this run-up and then you'll start the SpongeBob, right? 

Luke McFatrich: Amanda, Brian and I are all directors elsewhere. So Amanda's directing the Legend of Sleepy Hollow at the Players, which is performing in October. I am directing the Great American Trailer Park Musical in Venice in October.

Robyn Bell: Yep. 

Luke McFatrich: And Brian is choreographing and performing in Title of Show at the Player Center as well. 

Robyn Bell: So we're a busy, you got gotta wait for a little pause to take a breath and do SpongeBob 

Luke McFatrich: The second. Hedwig ends? We go into our own. Projects. We're going away from each other for a month and a half. Okay. 

Amanda Heisey: Let me so hard. We're so used to hanging out with each other all the time. 

Luke McFatrich: It'd be really sad. I'm not looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the projects, but I'm sad. And then we're going to come back together for SpongeBob in November. 

Robyn Bell: So if you are mature and want an amazing evening of one of the most groundbreaking musicals of our time, get your tickets to see Dingbat Theater Projects, production of Hedvig. I'm sending it right now. Luke Hedvig and the Angry Inch showing at the Bazaar on Apricot and Lime starring Luke McFatrich and Amanda Heisey that's August 27th through September 11th. Amanda, how can people get tickets? 

Amanda Heisey: If you go to dingbat theater.org, you can get tickets. 

Robyn Bell: That's it, 

Amanda Heisey: the social media also, it was really fun and funny. So if you just follow that, you can go. Yeah. 

Luke McFatrich: We're at Dingbat Theater on everything. We're fun. 

Robyn Bell: Facebook, Instagram. Twitter. 

Luke McFatrich: We don't have a Twitter 

Robyn Bell: because Twitter is mean don't geton Twitter. 

Luke McFatrich: I don't, I don't know how you advertise a performance on Twitter either, because 

Robyn Bell: I don't know how to do anything on Twitter. I just like delete the app.

Luke McFatrich: I don't understand. 

Robyn Bell: Twitter is not a sponsor of the podcast.

Luke McFatrich: We hate twitter here at Suncoast culture. 

Robyn Bell: Well, people could also go to the calendar. It's on the Suncoast Culture Club podcasts. Cause we have it listed there and they pick the date and they can click right there to your website. And it says buy tickets right on my website to get you there. 

Luke McFatrich: Awesome. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah, I'll show, I'll show you that special feature later, Luke and Amanda, thank you for taking the time to join me today and tell us all about this outrageous show by our very own outrageous local theater company. We have our tickets for August 28th. So looking forward to that and hopefully the awesome blue cheese cheeseburger at Hamlet's food truck. We'll see if that's gonna happen. Yeah. Cause, like I've been saving all my calories for that. 

Luke McFatrich: I haven't eaten anything for three months just so I can eat this burger.

Robyn Bell: That's right. Well, best of luck to both of youon the production. 

Luke McFatrich: Thanks Robyn.