{"id":306,"date":"2016-04-26T16:12:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T16:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mgs.performerstuff.com\/?p=306"},"modified":"2017-09-22T23:15:22","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T23:15:22","slug":"7-essentials-tyler-conrady-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/7-essentials-tyler-conrady-2\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Essentials: Tyler Conrady"},"content":{"rendered":"
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7 Essentials: Tyler Conrady<\/h3>\n
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Written by Ashleigh Gardner<\/p>\n

April 26, 2016<\/p>\n

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Performer Stuff’s Editor, Ashleigh Gardner, sits down with up-and-coming Orlando-based writer, actor, and comedian Tyler Conrady to discuss DIY theatre, the playwriting process, and advice for any writer\/director\/producer staging their own production. Conrady\u2019s first fully produced stage play, a one-man show entitled <\/span>Tommy Kool Presents Kindness Gets a Bad Rap!<\/span><\/i>, premiered at the 2015 Orlando International Fringe Festival to rave reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n


Ashleigh Gardner: Hi, Tyler. So before we started, could you tell me a little bit about yourself, why you chose to go into theatre, and how it\u2019s influenced your life up until this point?<\/b><\/p>\n

Tyler Conrady:<\/strong> I went into theatre in middle school \u2014 that was when I first started. I auditioned for this middle school production of <\/span>Bugsy Malone<\/span><\/i>. And I played \u201cFat Sam, the gangster.\u201d And I was terrible. It was a whole bunch of me just screaming a lot. And then from there I was hooked. I did theatre through middle school and then I went into high school. And I just found that I felt good about it, and other people said that I was good at it. It became my hobby, sort of like sports or…bird watching or something. And theatre was my sports and\/or bird-watching. <\/span>(Laughs.) <\/span><\/i>I\u2019m not doing theatre as much anymore. I\u2019m getting away from theatre a little bit, but I still owe theatre for giving me a bridge into the different mediums that I\u2019m experimenting with currently.<\/span><\/p>\n

AG: So you\u2019re a playwright, but you also produce and act in a lot of your own material. Can you tell me a little bit \u2014 as much as you can without revealing anything forthcoming \u2014 about the past projects that you\u2019ve worked on and your current projects?<\/b><\/p>\n

TC:\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019ve been writing since I was 6. In my senior year [of high school], I wrote, and actually <\/span>finished<\/span><\/i>, my first play. It\u2019s about these three kids that accidentally kill one of their friends and bury him in the desert \u2014 because this takes place in Nevada, in Las Vegas \u2014 and the play takes place afterwards when they\u2019re all being interrogated simultaneously, and the ghost of their dead friend is kind of wandering around aimlessly not realizing that he\u2019s dead. <\/span><\/p>\n

Last year [in 2015] I wrote a show called <\/span>Tommy Kool Presents Kindness Gets a Bad Rap!<\/a> <\/span><\/i>The idea came to me a few months prior when I was in a psychology class…not paying attention. <\/span>(Laughs.) <\/span><\/i>I was thinking about in high school when you had those assemblies. I remember specifically one where there was this wrestler, and he came out to do this show. There was one scene where he was talking about, like… <\/span>(mimics wrestler) \u201cThere I was, at the sixth grade dance and the boys are on one side and the girls are on the other side! And I didn\u2019t know what to do! And then all of a sudden I heard a voice talk to me!\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/i> And then this prerecorded deep booming voice goes, <\/span>\u201cHEY. DANCE.\u201d<\/span><\/i> And then the wrestler goes, <\/span>\u201cGod? Is that you?\u201d<\/span><\/i> And then these background dancers came out dressed as zombies and did a \u201cThriller\u201d dance with this super muscley wrestler guy.<\/span><\/p>\n

AG: This actually happened?<\/b><\/p>\n

TC:<\/strong> This actually happened! And I remembered it while I was sitting in class! And around that time, one of the things I had been experimenting with writing was rap, and I had found that I had a knack for writing comedic rap. And if I was gonna do a show, I would want it to be like Tenacious D. When they do concerts they\u2019re like plays, rather, with music in it. So I got that idea, and I put in an application to the lottery for the Orlando Fringe Festival, and I got in.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

AG: And how was it received at the festival?<\/b><\/p>\n

TC:\u00a0<\/strong>It was interesting. <\/span>(Laughs.) <\/span><\/i>Because being that it was my first show and that I didn\u2019t have a huge following in the Orlando community, and the fact that it was a one-man show \u2014 it wasn\u2019t a big thing \u2014 it was received really well. \u00a0The <\/span>Orlando Sentinel<\/span><\/i> came out and they gave it a really good review, and they pretty harshly reviewed a lot of shows at the Fringe that year. I was really happy to receive a good review that year from them. And I got a standing ovation almost every show. It was really great.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Promotional images from\u00a0Tommy Kool Presents Kindness Gets a Bad Rap!, <\/em>Orlando International Fringe Festival\u00a0(2015). Photos courtesy of Tyler Conrady.<\/h6>\n<\/div>

AG: Why did you choose to start writing when you were younger, but also why did you choose to continue writing? <\/b><\/p>\n

TC:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>When I started writing it was around the time I had learned to read, so I think it was this general excitement of like, \u201cHey, I can read! This is freakin\u2019 tight.\u201d So I kinda wanted to start writing my own things that I could read. Then from there I was <\/span>always<\/span><\/i> writing. I remember in fifth grade I was awarded the superlative \u201cMost Likely to Become an Author,\u201d so that was great. <\/span>(Laughs.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

AG: That sounds very full of promise. Such big shoes to fill when you\u2019re that small.<\/b><\/p>\n

TC:<\/strong> (Laughs.) <\/span><\/i>Yeah, when you\u2019re ten.<\/span><\/p>\n

AG: What\u2019s your stance on writing a character or a story? \u00a0Should they be realistic or fantastical? Or should there be elements of both? <\/b><\/p>\n

TC:\u00a0<\/strong>I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to ever lump any original work into one mold or treat it as being cut and dry. That\u2019s not how the creative medium of writing exists. Any book, any play, any song, any movie, any whatever is always gonna be completely different from anything else. It might fit into an overarching genre of tone, but apart from that, you\u2019re always gonna find drastically different things. So characters can be totally grounded or realistic in a fantastical setting, or fantastical in a grounded setting. So I don\u2019t have any one stance on how any <\/span>one <\/span><\/i>thing should be. I think it should just be a character that <\/span>you<\/span><\/i> feel comfortable writing. Or even working towards a character that you feel comfortable with, or that you could relate to, or that you like.<\/span><\/p>\n

AG: What\u2019s your process like for creating a show or a production? We could talk about <\/b>Tommy Kool…\u00a0<\/i><\/b>if you like.<\/b><\/p>\n

TC:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Sure! It\u2019s a really horrible process. I am the biggest procrastinator that I know. For <\/span>Tommy Kool…,<\/span><\/i>\u00a0for instance, I had this really cool idea and I submitted for Fringe, and I got a couple of people to help me pay for the venue rental fee. I thought, \u201cYeah! This is exciting!\u201d And then I kept going, \u201cEhhh, I got six months to write this.\u201d I did not finish writing the script until, I think, two weeks before Fringe because I kept putting it off. A lot of the time I wouldn\u2019t even let myself write because I would think, \u201cIf I let myself write it right now, it\u2019s not gonna be good.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

I live comfortably in the polishing phase of writing, which is not something that you can jump right to, obviously. It was <\/span>the <\/span><\/i>most miserable time in my entire life, writing that show. I went through the tech rehearsals and the opening night thinking, \u201cThis is the worst thing I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d and then when it was well-received, I thought, \u201cOkay, I guess I was good.\u201d <\/span>(Laughs.) <\/span><\/i>So it wasn\u2019t until after I did it for an audience that I thought, \u201cOh, wow. This stress actually made it all worth it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

AG: What objective advantages would you say come from doing this kind of \u201cdo-it-yourself\u201d theatre?<\/b><\/p>\n

TC:<\/strong> It\u2019s very, very difficult, and it\u2019s very lonely a lot of times. It can also be very \u2014 clich\u00e9 to say \u2014 very rewarding. When you do it all yourself, you can say, \u201cYeah! That was me! I did it all myself.\u201d And it was just me writing it, producing it, directing it, staging it, me doing all this stuff \u2014 with occasional help from friends watching it or reading it, giving me feedback. But for the most part, everything was me, and I was doing all of<\/span> this <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>that <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>this <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>that. <\/span><\/i>It was just so tiresome stretching myself in so many different directions. <\/span>But \u2014 <\/span><\/i>it was really addicting. And that\u2019s why I kind of want to go back to doing do-it-yourself stuff now in other mediums. I want to explore mediums until I find out where my \u201chome\u201d is.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

AG: What’s the most rewarding thing for you personally about writing and producing your own material? <\/b><\/p>\n

TC:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>This is a terrible answer, but…validation. I don\u2019t mean it to be like, \u201cOh, just tell me how <\/span>good <\/span><\/i>I am.\u201d The creative process for me is very miserable. It\u2019s very full of doubt. It\u2019s full of being unsure about everything. So when you finish doing something and you find out that it actually was good, it makes it all worth it. It was just very relieving knowing that people liked it. It was like, \u201cAlright, you validated all my effort and all my work that I put into this. Thank you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

AG: Were there every any setbacks that you encountered with any of your productions? How did end up you overcoming them?<\/b><\/p>\n

TC:\u00a0<\/strong>For <\/span>Tommy Kool\u2026<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> I was my own setback. It was a lot of me waiting until the last minute to do everything, and it was a lot of me bullying myself. If I had to give any advice to someone, it would just be to make sure you give yourself time, and don\u2019t put everything off until the last minute. Because if I had comfortably allotted an hour a day writing or doing some sort of thing to focus on the project starting from when I had gotten into the festival, I probably would have comfortably been doing run-throughs a month or two prior to the actual show. It was literally, you know, everything at the last minute. So there was a lot of poor planning on my part. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s another struggle with do-it-yourself theatre. When you do theatre when someone else is in charge, you don\u2019t have to worry about anything. You just have to listen to them say, \u201cGo here. Do this.\u201d So you kind of have that net to catch you, and if it all goes to hell, it\u2019s not your fault. But when it\u2019s yourself, if something bad happens, it\u2019s because you let yourself down. It was a learning experience, and it was rewarding in that it turned out well \u2014 but it was a learning experience in that I know now what <\/span>not <\/span><\/i>to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

AG: Definitely, and with this experience you can probably offer some advice. A lot of students and professionals in theatre kind of drift toward writing their own material for some reason or another. Can you offer any advice for someone trying this for the very first time? <\/b><\/p>\n

TC:<\/strong> My favorite piece of advice that I ever heard on writing was from a favorite playwright and also one-man show playwright, Eric Bogosian. It kind of sounds like a cop-out answer, and it was so annoying when I first heard it. I saw this link that said, \u201cEric Bogosian gives great advice to budding writers!\u201d And the advice was literally, \u201cWrite.\u201d And that was it. And it is very true. If you like the process of creating something from nothing, then keep trying and keep trying and keep trying and redoing and editing and trying and starting over. When I first heard that advice \u2014 and I was annoyed at it \u2014 in high school and where I am <\/span>now<\/span><\/i>, they are <\/span>light years<\/span><\/i> away from each other. I will say that I\u2019m not this incredible, amazing end-all, be-all playwright or author, but I am much more confident in my abilities and proud of my abilities now than I ever was back then.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

AG: Wow, what a quote, though. It\u2019s definitely paid off. Thank you so much for coming in and talking with me today.<\/b><\/p>\n

TC:<\/strong> Yeah, of course. Thank you for the coffee. <\/span>(Laughs.) <\/span><\/i>I appreciate it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tyler Conrady<\/strong> is an Orlando, FL writer, actor, comedian, and director. His most recent production, <\/span><\/i>Tommy Kool Presents Kindness Gets a Bad Rap!<\/span><\/a> premiered at the 2015 Orlando International Fringe Festival at the Green Venue. His subsequent podcast mini-series, <\/span><\/i>Rap it Up! with Tommy Kool<\/span>, features guest appearances from varied characters and follows the rapper\u2019s life after the events of the stage production. Currently, Tyler is developing a short film of which he can reveal very little, except that it will have been written in full by the first day of principal photography.<\/span><\/i><\/h5>\n
Ashleigh Gardner<\/strong> received her AA in Theatre\/Drama\/Dramatic Arts\u00a0from Valencia College and\u00a0her Bachelors Degree in English Literature and\u00a0Masters Degree in Literary, Cultural, and Textual Studies from\u00a0the University of Central Florida. She is a playwright, an actor, and PerformerStuff.com’s Editor.<\/em><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [...]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[261,260,269,256,263,453],"tags":[317,6,69,18,70,68,335],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}