An Interview with Director: Taylor Reynolds

In this episode, Rachel chats with Taylor Reynolds -  one the most in demand theater directors currently working off-Broadway, and a producing artistic leader of The Movement Theatre Company. This season her work included: Tambo & Bones at Playwrights Horizons, Man Cave by John J. Caswell Jr. presented by P 73, and Songs About Trains playing at the New Ohio Theatre through April 18.

Rachel & Taylor talk about:

• Taylor's approach to these larger than life theatrical new works
• How Taylor made her way as a director, forgoing the assistant/associate route
• Taylor's relationship to the 'white gaze'  and how it's continually changing

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Intro & Outro Music: 
Angle Of Light by David Hilowitz

Underscore:
Arcadia by Dream-Protocol

Transcript

An Interview with Taylor Reynolds

RACHEL: [00:00:00] Hello, this is Rachel Lin and you are listening to upstage left. In this episode, I speak with director Taylor Reynolds. If you saw anything off Broadway, this season, chances are you caught one of her plays. She is the director behind Tambo and Bones at playwrights horizons. Man-cave presented by P 73 at the Connolly and currently playing songs about trains at the new Ohio.
Taylor and I met after one of the previews for Tambo and bones, and I was so excited to learn about her process and how she became one of the most in directors working right now. She is also a producing artistic leader at the movement theater company.

But before we get to the episode, I need to mention that this episode is made possible by the Northwestern university press and Andy Bragen's latest publication: "This is My Office and Notes on My Mother's Decline" and I thought I'd share a tiny piece of [00:01:00] this is my office with you that I so enjoyed reading on the page. So here is, This Is My Office. And now 2013, the year I turned 40 midlife by most standards worse. In my case, since my father and grandfather both died in their early seventies, a decade for gray hairs, belly fat and divorce.

A decade when you no longer buy the lies, you've been telling yourself, maybe it's harder for women with menopause and all with hot flashes, but when things fall apart for men, I feel like it goes deeper. I've seen it a few times with Harold, of course, with my uncle who lost a child with Mary's dad, who's had his challenge.

Something cracks. And these men, they're never the same. I'm so scared of that, of being broken by this life of something happening, something small, perhaps, but significant [00:02:00] an event from which I will never recover. 

dark bleak, but so beautiful. I love that little piece. And if you want to read more. The whole thing, perhaps of Andy's work, you can purchase the plays@ndupressdotnorthwestern.edu, and you can receive a 20% discount on this book or any other title with the promo code pod 20 P O D 20.

All right. Thank you so much for listening as always. If you liked the podcast, please follow us on Instagram. At, at upstage left podcast, we have been getting DMS in our Instagram about the shows that we've been seeing, and we are always 100% honest. So if you want to hear our reviews, just DMS on Instagram here taylor Reynolds.[00:03:00] 

Hi Taylor. 

TAYLOR: Hello, Rachel. I'm glad to be here 

RACHEL: so glad to have you to have the busiest woman in theater. 

TAYLOR: Gosh, here to chat with you. Really trying to lose that title as quickly as possible. So I can be the woman who is sleeps the most. 

RACHEL: That's, that's something to strive for after you finished your next show.

But before we even get to that, congratulations on so many things at Tambo and bones. Off Broadway debut.

TAYLOR: Yes. I mean, technically, so technically my off-Broadway debut was Plano. But, you know, it's like, that's what I consider my off-Broadway debut. Amazing. You know, but it's like, what is off Broadway in relation to off, off in relation to like, you know, however many seats and all of that.

So, [00:04:00] but certainly playwrights horizons is another level of off-Broadway, um, which I'm very glad to be, have to at least temporarily broken.

RACHEL: It was a, it was an amazing show. And also like what a time to be breaking through my height of Omicron. 

TAYLOR: Yes. Yeah. We, we started rehearsals at the beginning of December.

Right. As Omicron was rising and then we went through the peak and then we started previews, I think shortly after. The way we're starting to descend. So yeah, it was really, it was a really wonderful and wild time. And then I just went into another show man-cave and paid 73, uh, right after that. So, you know, writing the tales of the Omicron wave into another show, just getting those lovely swabs every day.

RACHEL: And [00:05:00] man-cave how, how has that been going? 

TAYLOR: Uh, man-cave is great. So we open. Uh, we two weeks, some amount of weeks ago, um, we opened on March 12th and we're running through next weekend, April 2nd. And so it's going super well. I think people are really responding, which is very exciting, responding to.

Verbally at the theater, um, very spooky and scary play. And I think it also, it has a lot of twists and turns both of the earthly and supernatural fences. So it's really been great to experience, you know, that sort of like live response and live reaction with audiences, you know, but like, I think oftentimes you experienced in horror films when you know, people.

Shouting, like, don't go in that room. Don't go in that room. But I feel like there are some [00:06:00] times because in theater, you know, the people are, you know, five in front of you doing the things you're like, I want to shout, but I also don't want to disrupt that person's process. Cause I know they can hear me, but thankfully we've been doing some scary work so that people have no choice, but to break that barrier because it's just really a very visceral and fun.

Time. Um, and you know, being back at the cannoli theater is always a grand old spooky time in a very haunted space. So, uh, so it's been, it's been good. 

RACHEL: Super haunted. Yeah. But the process of making the show, was it different from making Tambo and bones in terms of working in the pandemic? 

TAYLOR: Well, I mean, I felt like very well-versed it was some of the production team and some of the actors first times back and, you know, a full production sense of, of live theater. And so there was a readjustment period for a lot of [00:07:00] folks of getting used to getting tested every day or, you know, feeling comfortable when we can have masks on or when we can take masks off and all of that.

And I felt very much like I was in the weeds. I mean, Tambo and bones was wonderful. Because of a lot of the precautions of, you know, staff trying to work from home too. Protect us, themselves, everybody in New York city, it was oftentimes just the people rehearsing in the room. And so getting into man-cave where, which we started as the Omicron wave was going down, you know, that we were able to have a more.

Full team and scent in the sense of, you know, like the page 73 production staff and having our stage management team and having actors and having like paid 73 has been doing this wonderful docu-series called launch for a few months now, which has really been following. John Caswell Jr. And there are other playwright whose blue [00:08:00] Bedford Darale, who's placed, they're producing and, and really sort of going behind the scenes of what it takes to fully produce a show.

And so, you know, we had a videographer with us on our first day of rehearsal. They did a whole. Beautiful photo shoot of the cast. Like, so it was just really wonderful to be able to experience physical community in the first weeks of man-cave in a way that I think the essence and the spirit of community was very much felt at playwrights horizons.

Through the zoom screen, or it was felt through emails being like, I wish we could all be together, but you know, we also all want to make it through Christmas. Um, but I, I personally really nothing phased me at the time I got to man-cave. So everybody's like, oh, well, are you okay if I keep my mask on, I was like, keep your mask on, take it off when you're acting, you know, do whatever makes you feel comfortable.

Excited to be [00:09:00] here and to continue not having COVID. 

RACHEL: Right, right, right. Yeah. Wow. I saw a man-cave last week. And one of the questions that I was thinking about was creating horror on stage or in the theater is so different than doing it on film, because you don't have the frame, you don't have where to show people.

What did you learn about fear in general and making it happen on stage?

TAYLOR: Well, I've been working on this play with John since I think 2018 is when I first did a reading. And I mean, obviously John had started the play and written it on his own before then. And then we've done multiple readings over the years and workshops to get us to this production.

But even in our initial conversations, John and I were both really interested in. The idea of your question of how do [00:10:00] you create terror and horror in a space where you don't have full control over the visual or the oral sense of what's going on? You know, part of what I really love about theater and why.

Operate in theater as my medium is because you can see everything. And I think it's a really fun challenge to figure out how to direct an audience members, attention, or even really direct actors attention to something specific. When you know, there's literally, you could look at the person next to you, you could be looking at your program.

You could be looking at the proceedings, you know, With the draft of man cave that we ended up with throughout the rehearsal process, which there were a lot of rewrites during this rehearsal process, which was a really like beautiful challenge in the sense of. You know, we, uh, we were [00:11:00] challenging John to rewrite and to sort of go deeper, not only into the sort of terror of the supernatural things that are happening, but really into the terror of the very real.

Experiences that these women are going through. And I think that being aware of the entire space was something that was really interesting and fascinating for me. And again, you know, the cannoli is a very. Cavernous and intimate space in and of itself. And so I think a way that we were really focusing on how we could involve the space was through sound and, you know, sound is its own character in this play.

There's so many specific cues and thoughts written into the stage directions. And then also, you know, having multiple conversations. Uh, John and our sound designer about [00:12:00] how a lot of those punctuations are just starting points or just gestures, or just references to something, you know? So I feel like that really gave us space to play around.

It also provided a great opportunity for us to create this very expansive surrounding spiritual world that we didn't. Necessarily create onstage because, you know, I find with the things that terrify me, especially in horror, that it's, it's so much about the referencing to something or the suggestion of something, you know, the moment you sort of see the monster, it is still terrifying, but now it's real now it's not in your imagination.

Some version of, of a thing that exists that you have to contend with. And I think we really were interested in towing that line as much as possible of, of how much [00:13:00] is there. Uh, supernatural force that is driving what is happening inside this home and how much of this dread that, that we're feeling is really by just existing in this small basement with these women who are contending with questions of their own identity, who are contending with very real realities.

How they exist in relationships. And so for me, in thinking about the horror, that it was really more of a sustained feeling, um, rather than, uh, thinking about like jump scares or rather than thinking about visuals. And I'm, I'm very much about the body experience in. Watching something in, you know, seeing performers do something like how, you know, how is what they're doing or what they're talking about or what their experience affecting them physically.

And, and I think that that so [00:14:00] much of core is just about tension and tension. Manifests itself, very physically, you know, in our bodies of like it's goosebumps, or if you know your heart beats faster, if your muscles tense or whatever that your body is having a reaction, and then your body's reaction informed.

Your mind, you know, so even if you're like, I'm okay, I'm in this dark room, but I'm fine. If your heart's beating faster, you're like, Hmm, am I okay? Or am I terrified? And that's sort of like that, that's the space that, that I, I think we live in, in man-cave at least as much as possible. 

RACHEL: Yeah. That's so interesting.

I do feel like the theater allows for. Experiencing sustained tension versus that like a sudden jump, very hard to achieve that, like, you know, in Vader and also you can see everything. Right. And the other thing I was thinking about in [00:15:00] terms of your making it, I was like, oh, this is interesting because when you do comedy, you know, you get the immediate reward or you're like, is this funny?

You know, because people laugh or they don't. Whereas in this, I was thinking about like, when did you, were you like, this is scary enough. Oh, this is like the amount of fear that we're trying to invoke.

TAYLOR: Yeah. I mean, I think very honestly I wanted to make it even scarier or want to make it even scarier. And I think, but also I think.

The play is actually about the story of the friendship and the reconnection of these four Latino women who have a lot of severed relationships between them and need to come together for safety. And also within that find their strength and will to. Continue living or like search for, you know, reach for a better way of living at the core of it.

That [00:16:00] is more important than the horror, um, which is hard for me to reconcile with because, uh, you know, I was like wanting to make it as. Scary and weird as possible. But I think because this is a story about these four women reconnecting that that wants to take priority in what we're seeing, what we're feeling, what we're engaging with and in order to create space for those nuanced feelings that we then have to calibrate the fear and the terror to.

What they're going through rather than. You know, trying to scare the audience as much as possible, because I think also once you know that you're coming to see something scary and you're expecting to be scared, then it's like, okay, great. I'm going to be scared. And then what else? So [00:17:00] we're going to be terrified.

And also I would like to. Feel something, you know, like those are, those are the horror films. And, um, that appealed to me, most of that are very visually beautiful or terrifying or like Ori or whatever, but also have a story that makes me. Care about the people that they're focusing on, rather than it just being about, look at how we can torture people or put people in a dangerous situation for this amount of time, you know?

Cause like that is me, you know, I'm like, we're all in danger of various things. So like I don't really need that kind of reflection.

RACHEL: Right. Right. Where does your process usually begin when you're working on a place?

TAYLOR: My process usually begins in conversation with the playwright. Um, I primarily worked in [00:18:00] new play development and part of that reason is just because I love making playwrights, be my friends.

And then I'm like, yay. Yeah, let's work on this brilliant play. And also let's just get to know each other and be best friends forever. But I, I love having. Resources from playwrights of like whatever they were listening to or thinking about when they were, you know, writing this play or images that come to mind for them, or just like the sort of big questions that they're wrestling with.

So that then I take that information and, you know, sometimes it really leads me in a specific direction and sometimes. That's awesome for you. And like, I gotta go do my own work, but I really like to just collect digital clutter of sorts, you know, I just start to randomly see [00:19:00] images or, or look at things and I just saved them wherever I can remember.

And like, sometimes it's very organized and like, Dropbox folder. And sometimes I just have pictures in my phone that I look at later and I'm like, I don't even know what this is, but I, I am very image based in just thinking about where to start in tackling these sort of impossible, large theatrical plays that I like to really work on.

And, you know, with Tambo and bones and with mankind. Thankfully, they had like, you know, very strong opinions and very strong, a multitude of genres that are better cross and, and delved into in each. But that, you know, there's a particular place to start, you know, of man-cave obviously there's horror and there's the thrillers and terror and just sort of letting that guide me.

Where it might in, in thinking [00:20:00] about my visual research and like with Tambo and bones, you know, it's very three very specific periods of time, um, and performance styles. And so just sort of going down the paths of whatever my mind wants to look at and then compiling all of that and sometimes never looking at it again and sometimes, you know, reference frequently.

RACHEL: Do you do a lot of research? Did you watch a lot of horror movies from man-cave

TAYLOR: ? Yeah, so I, so this is the other great thing about like Tambo and bones and man-cave is like, I love hiphop. And I love horror movies. So it was sort of thing of like, like it's like, could I call it research? I mean, I got more specific in the artists that I was listening to.

Um, and I certainly did look for more specific styles of horror or, you know, it was drawn more to like thrillers or something rather than of course like gory slasher films. [00:21:00] But I. Yeah, I guess like I did technically do a lot of research, but it just felt like deepening a knowledge and a love that they had for two.

Two different art forms and it gets like I did also, you know, I started listening to, um, horror podcasts and interviews with, um, uh, horror film directors. And I, you know, Dave was like, watch these rap battles, you know, like watch these ciphers. And like, so I was like, not certainly not. Uh, an avenue that I really go into on my own, but, but yeah, I, and, and I, you know, even in like thinking about, um, like the minstrelsy in Tambo and bones, again, it's like a performance style that like I'm familiar with and have done my own research on.

But what I really had to think about specifically for Tambo and bone. [00:22:00] Was comedic timing in a way that like I'm not used to, or not that I'm not used to, or like I'm used to experiencing it. I'm not used to really like, thinking about it and trying to be particular about it. You know, like I am, I am not like I don't consider myself a comedian or I don't consider myself like very funny.

I just know good timing, you know, 

RACHEL: very specific when I watched, I was like, oh, this is a clown show. 

TAYLOR: Yeah. And so, you know, and usually I'm very, like, let's feel it out or like, that feels good. That feels funny. Or, you know, in the moment, or like try this and with all three parts of Tambo and bones, like we actually sometimes had to get very precise and surgical, you know, in figuring out how to land those beats or land those punchlines or those rhythms.

Multiple times. And then also to be able to connect everything as a [00:23:00] larger story for these two characters, you know, like thinking about all of the different places that they go in, these plays, like what Tambo and bones hold on to, or like what feels like a constant is their ability to. Have this tennis match back and forth with each other, you know, and like never miss a beat.

And so it was a real fun, it was a very fun challenge, but it was also, you know, sometimes like my style of humor. Very from the actor style of they're like, oh, well, you know, and especially when it was like in our preview process where the audience is such an important part, um, both in response. And then also just in, you know, Tambo and bones spend so much time talking to the audience.

Trey. And Tyler just needed people who were not us in the room to respond to, you know, because I laugh at the same thing every time. [00:24:00] And so eventually very quickly I become not a good audience because you know what the response is going to be before I even give it. So we would have conversations about like, I think the rhythmically, it needs to be this.

And they're like, right. Audiences are responding here. And then if we pause here for the last, then this affects this, or, you know, but it was very based in. Just technicalities and precision, which was really exciting and also felt very surprising at times, because if you read the play on the page or if you just go to experience it, like, it feels just like a wild roller coaster where you're like, who is driving.

Thing, you know, but I think in order to be able to have that feeling internally, so much of the work we did was chiseling it out. [00:25:00] Moment by moment. And I think in a lot of ways we did that with man-cave as well, where it feels like so much of what's happening in these women's lives. And then what happens to them while they're in the basement feels out of their control, but there's actually just specific choreography.

Um, and like very precise response times to the noises, to things falling off the walls, whatever. That is necessary in order to keep them slightly ahead of the audience. And, yeah, and it's just that, that work of just being slightly ahead of the audience in both of these plays that felt and still feels really rich to work on and sort of get to control.

And also I think is incredible. Difficult because it's also, you know, there's so much happening for the actors and there's so much for them to process and they're such emotional depth that these characters go [00:26:00] to, but they're like, okay, but what if we get lost? 

Right, right, right.

Requires deep, deep work and trust 

RACHEL: a little bit of leaping.

TAYLOR: Right. And like, thank you. I was working with incredible actors. So, you know, they did, they just do it and I'm like, I don't know how, but you're doing it and I love you for it.

RACHEL: So I was reading some conversations you were having around Tampa and bones. And one that comes to mind is your interview that you and Dave did for playwrights.

And you talk a lot about when you talk about the white gaze and also it was in the program notes. He talks about that. Do you get tired of talking about that at all?

TAYLOR: I mean, it's there, whether we talk about it or not, you know, so like I, am I tired of the white gaze?

Do I wish they would look at something else? Totally. Um, but I, [00:27:00] I am not tired of talking about it or pointing out. Or addressing it. I am just for myself trying to continue to evaluate and evolve how I am talking about the white days so that we're not just talking about it, but like that there is forward movement in the conversation of, okay, great.

So how can we actually shift that? Or how can we make it? So the white gaze is not a thing anymore. And also just even the question of like, The white gaze is not a thing anymore than like who is looking at me, you know? And like, if it's going to be somebody, you know, cause there's, there's so many her, so many gazes to be, to be seen.

RACHEL: Yeah. You know, there's so many ways to get at it and think about it. And one of the things that I experienced sometimes as an artist is it actually makes me sensor myself [00:28:00] sometimes, or like, it can be kind of inhibited because you look at your own work and you're like, oh wait, am I unknowingly now playing into it? Which Dave talks about in his program notes. How do you get around it? Do you just put it on a shelf and you're like, I'm not even going to think about this. 

TAYLOR: Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of the work that I do is just in conversation with the white gaze or with whiteness. And like, I certainly feel complicated about that sometimes as a person of color, as a, you know, as a black woman.

And I'm like, there is certainly the argument of, well, why are we always talking about. The white gaze. Why do we have to talk about whiteness? I just want to talk about my story, or I just want to talk about these people, you know, and like leave whiteness out of it. We know that whiteness is present in everything, but that doesn't mean we need to address it.

Or I think there's another question of like, by addressing whiteness, by addressing white people, by [00:29:00] addressing the white gaze and being a person of color working on that, then. Are you just making plays for white people or are you just making theater for white people who are the predominant audiences anyway?

So like, what is that doing for the culture? And I'm like, I don't know. And these are all valid questions and these are things that I, you know, have a different answer for myself or whoever sort of every day. But I think for me, for myself, it is something that I just feel very aware of subconsciously all the time.

And so I am interested in like, have been drawn to plays that, incorporate that. Gaze into the storytelling in some type of way that by acknowledging the issue and giving it a name that it can't be denied. [00:30:00] That it's there, you know, like Tambo and bones is about white people wanting to experience black pain and like laugh at it or cry about it or whatever, but it is in service of them.

And then they get to go home and like be safe. Man. Cave is about these four Latino women. Core just amongst themselves who are still sometimes feeling the outward gaze of white men or, you know, existing in this congressman's home. There is just whiteness present. In the space simply by the fact that they are staying in a space that does not belong to them.

RACHEL: Right. 

TAYLOR: And so I think that just in this reflective place of, of it is present, it permeates everything for the lives of people of color that manifests in very different ways for [00:31:00] many people. And I think. I'm at currently is poking at it in the things that I am working on and saying like, I would love to get to the point where, or I would love to be in the new phase of my artistry, where the stories that I'm telling are not focusing on it and I'm not thinking about it.

And I think in order to get to that place, my current path. Okay. Poking at it and being like, look, it's here. I see it. Now you have to see it now, everybody see it. Now let's all shut up about it or destroy it. So I can just, you know, think about flowers or something.

RACHEL: Right, right. Cause one of my questions was, cause I mean Tambo does this, like, what is the future without it?

Right. What are we working towards? And it is just your answer now. It's an unknown, cause we haven't reached it yet. We don't know. 

TAYLOR: Right. 

RACHEL: You have you're in quite, the enviable position of carved very [00:32:00] enviable path for yourself, which is you didn't really do a lot of assisting or associate directing. Did you went straight to directing?

TAYLOR: Yeah. And I just don't know how that happened. Well, I do know how that happened is I was not offered a lot of assistant and associate positions, which is totally fine because I'm not. The, I shouldn't say that, but I'm not really the best I have gotten better, but I'm not a great assistant in the way that I think, you know, that role is traditionally filled any, I mean, even saying like traditionally filled doesn't mean anything because assistant.

Directors and associate directors can do everything from just sitting in the room and observing to directing portions of a production or managing it, you know, once it's open or something like that. So there are so many possibilities. And I was denied so many of them, but I think it was [00:33:00] also harshly because I was and continued to be more, I was more focused on developing relationships with playwrights and it was really trying to figure out how to exist.

As an artist in space with other people. Also, fortunately, like I have very many wonderful people in my corner who suggested me for a lot of opportunities and, you know, I just sort of like thankfully showed up and lived up to the hype, I suppose. And I also have been really fortunate to have many playwrights who.

Do that thing where you're like, let's just be friends or like, let's meet up for a coffee. And like, we don't know what opportunities are and then, you know, playwrights apply for a lot of things and then they get the things and then I get to like, sort of go along with that. So, yeah. So, cause I, I do have, I do have conversations with emerging or young or whatever word you want to say.

[00:34:00] Directors who are like. Should I assist and I'm like, I'm in, I'm no, a bunch of people who've really loved it. And also if that's not something that you want to do, you just have to figure out a different way. And I think at the end of it, associate and assistant directing is about networking and finding collaborators in a way.

And like, that's just what theater is to me. So, but all of that being said at any given moment, if I was offered an associate director position for Broadway would love it. And I would be like, you do know I haven't assisted in years. Right. It just want to make that clear. I'm so sorry, but it's uh, yeah, it's, it's, it is a path that has somehow.

It alluded me, but I'm, I'm grateful for the times that I did get to assist because it, I think it leads me to like a slightly tangential thing, which is [00:35:00] that directing is so often like a solitary position, you know, like I have many director, friends and peers and all of that. And we, you know, talk about directing a lot, or we talk about, you know, answer each other's questions or like offer suggestions or whatever, but it's so rare that I actually get to just see another director work.

And so I think for me, the main appeal of being an assistant is just to get to see that whether you like love the way the person works, you're like I would never do that. You know, it's all information. And I think also anytime. I get to see the inside of a rehearsal room that I'm not in. I think it's just also another really wonderful gift because it reminds me that this weird elusive thing that we do called theater has no one good way.

There is no standard way of [00:36:00] doing a 29 hour reading, even though it seems like there is, you know, it really could be. Anything. And, you know, a reading is different than a production is different than if you're doing a musical, then if you're doing it, you know, whatever. And so I think being in a rehearsal room, especially as a director that you're not leading is just such an interesting exercise that we, that I don't get to often experience.

RACHEL: And I guess part of the reason why I was asking that is since you are one of the busiest people in theater at this moment, for anybody listening, who's trying to be a director is just starting out. What do you feel like is one of the secrets of your success? Well, how did you become the person everybody's calling?

TAYLOR: I think it's like. Be chill, which is not very specific, but I, I think, you know, I've said it in various ways, but like I, when I meet new [00:37:00] people or when I'm looking for new collaborators, I am reaching out with the hope and expectation that it will be like the beginning of a relationship. So it's rarely like, do I read a play by a playwright?

And I'm like, oh, I love this play. I want to do this. That it is that, you know, I'm like, oh, I read this thing. I want to meet you and be your best friend. And also, can I direct this play if it ever goes anywhere, you know, or if they have any other works. Cause I, I try not to operate in like a transactional way.

And so. I think that's usually the sort of basic advice that I give of trying to meet collaborators as people and forming relationships and not just thinking about it in the sense of, of like, oh, well, what can this person do for me? Or what can I get from them? Because it's theater. None of us are really, we don't have anything to [00:38:00] give and when we're having anything to really get so true, but it's like, it's like, and now this, now this would not necessarily applied to like TV and film where it is.

Transactional and like that is a different language and it is understood, but it's just about knowing as many people as you can, because again, like so many of the jobs that I got when I was just starting out where, because people knew somebody who was looking for a director for a one day reading, cause somebody had dropped out and they were like, why don't you take a chance on like this young person who's never done a reading before or in.

Thinking about how I got connected to Dave was actually a friend of mine sent me one of his earlier plays and I was like, this person is incredible. And then I didn't actually meet him for like another year and a half, [00:39:00] but I was. Obsessed with him. So, you know, so it's just that, that connection of just, Hey, my friend who I know and trust, like I'm looking for new people to chat with, you know, me, you know, other people, if you think like, you know, the matchmaking of it, of like, I vibe with anybody, like let me know.

And yeah, and just keeping it in the relationship or friendship or whatever, you know, kind of realm where, you know, I hope and expect that, uh, an artist will be in my life for a while, even if we only collaborate on something once every few years, you know, but that there's a wider community that I have around.

RACHEL: Mm, I love that. That's pretty much a really great note to end on because we met through a friend on Tuesday. So it's amazing that you're here. Thank you so much. And before I end any words about your upcoming project songs about [00:40:00] trains?

TAYLOR: Oh, yeah. Um, it is, it is another project that I have been working on for a while.

I think maybe since 20 18, 20 19. But yes, it is going to be at the new Ohio theater starting in April. I'm co-directing it with Rebecca Martinez, who is an incredible director. This is another way. This is again, the only other way that I see other directors direct, I'm like, let's just do a thing together and then we can learn from each other.

But yeah, it is a celebration of railroad workers and labor through folk songs and movement, and, you know, just all the things that. 

RACHEL: Amazing. So excited. I'm seeing that. I feel like everything I'm seeing you pretty much directed. Oh, well, it's very exciting. Thanks so much for chatting. 

TAYLOR: Yeah. Thank you, Rachel.[00:41:00] 

RACHEL: That was Taylor Reynolds. Thank you so much for listening. I know I've been taking a little while between episodes, but I appreciate your patience. Thank you to everybody who continues to reach out and connect with us. We love it. Have a great day. .