Rob Lee: Welcome to the Truth in His Art, your source for conversations connecting arts, culture, and community. These are stories that matter, and I am your host, Rob Lee. Today, I'm excited to welcome my next guest, a performer, playwright, director, and choreographer originally from New York City and now based in Baltimore. My guest serves as the director of education for Everyman Theatre and is directing Everyman's production of Charles Ludlums, The Mystery of Irma Vett. A penny dreadful, please welcome to the program, Joseph Rich.
As we kick things off, I'd like to give you sort of space and opportunity to share a bit about yourself and your background. I'm just going to go dive right in. So if you will, please.
Joseph Ritsch: Sure. Yeah. I mean, I consider myself a director, a choreographer. I'm also a playwright and an arts educator. I really believe in arts education, obviously, particularly theater arts as a passion. And I'm also director of education here at Everyman. So it's a great opportunity to combine my artistic life with my passion for theater education as well.
Rob Lee: It's great to... To be able to combine sort of that creative passion and with sort of maybe giving back and helping that next generation and we'll be diving a bit further into that as we go along. And I say that because in the last year and change, not only from like Dornie's interviews, then the last year in change, I've explored being an educator and podcasting, which is rewarding in a different way because it's usually like a solo effort, like, hey, I'm in this room and I got a microphone. But now it's like, all right, so how did I do this? Let me show my work.
Joseph Ritsch: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's really cool. And I know we're going to talk about some other program stuff that speaks to that. Yeah, and it's pretty rewarding too. Absolutely.
Rob Lee: So I like to... And sort of the initial, I like to go back before going to the present and even the future. So when you think back to maybe your first time on stage, like I think of my first podcast, it was terrible.
It was 16 years ago. But when you think of back to maybe your first time on stage or your first time like performing because there's a checklist of so many things that you do, you went through some of them, but I feel like there's always one that's left out. So when you think back to that first time performer, first time being on stage, what stands out about that experience?
Joseph Ritsch: I mean, we want to go... If we're talking about first time, right? It would have been, I think, eighth grade. And I was cast as the mayor of Munchkinland in a visit of Oz at my church youth group, had a summer theater program. Yeah, I mean, I do remember being a little disappointed at first because I really had my heart set on the scarecrow.
That didn't work out, but I have to say the experience overall was pretty amazing. And yeah, one of my favorite memories was for my hair design, they gave me finger waves. And we had a local couple, a husband and wife who owned a salon who did all the hair and makeup for the show. So I got to go and sit and get finger waves done every day. And the young woman up there, Dorothy, was a redhead, so they would dye her hair brown and put these pig tails in. So I got to sit under a hairdryer next to Dorothy and read Fashion Magazine. So as a young queer person, that was pretty cool.
Rob Lee: That's amazing. You really painted the scene there for us. And yeah, I was going to comment. I was like, that's a strong head of hair you got going on right now. So even then, as a politically challenged individual, look, I can acknowledge a nice head of hair. The hair line was a bit lower back then.
Joseph Ritsch: So thank you. It's always good to go back. It's something about you think of those initial experiences and was like, and I think when we're really young, when we're exploring something creative, it's a purity there.
And I think being able to tap back into that, and that may show up in one of the later questions. But yeah, I think that's really cool that the mayor of Munchkin life.
Joseph Ritsch: He has a much bigger part in the stage musical, by the way. He travels with Dorothy a little bit before a piece enough.
Rob Lee: So I want to talk a bit about, because so this season of The Truth and the Sorrow, this podcast. I'm going back and I'm interviewing guests who have been on before and I'm interviewing just folks I've had relationships with before in terms of creative conversations and such.
And always like the productions at every man. So obviously there's one coming up that I want to like talk about with you. So now that the mystery of Irma Vepa Penny Dreadful is in rehearsal, you're coming from it. You're still wiping the sweat off. And it said to debut in a few weeks. Could you describe the story and what drew you to the project?
Joseph Ritsch: Yeah, maybe I can backtrack a little bit. I've got a long history with every man as an artist, both as a director, choreographer, and a teaching artist. I've been involved with every man for about 15 years.
Pretty much since I moved to Baltimore back in 2008. So, you know, it's an artistic home for me. It's family to me. I consider Vinny Lancizi, the artistic director of my mentor. So it's pretty special to get to work here. And yeah, so this is my third show that I've directed here at Everyman, choreographed a career with an incredible amount of support from him. Yeah, so Mystery of Irma Vepa, it's by Charles Leblum, who was a queer theater artist, started his company in 1967. Thinking about the politics of that, considering that he used drag as a tool in much of his work, if not all of his work. And, you know, in 1967, being in drag in New York was illegal, right?
You can get thrown in jail. So just the kind of courage and bravery to commit to his art and what he was exploring with gender and identity through using drag at that time, it's pretty amazing. And you know, here we are in 2025 with, you know, certain states making drag legal again, rights of trans folks being threatened every day, as well as the rest of the community. There's a timeliness to the piece in a way that I don't think Vinny thought of when he programmed it a year ago, right?
Because seasons get programmed quite far in advance. First talk to me about directing it. So I think there's an added level of passion for me as a queer artist and a queer director doing this piece right now. The thing that's so great about it was Charles took what was going on when he wrote it in the early 80s, right, in the very onset of the AIDS crisis and the horror that the community was feeling and flipped that on its head by writing this very, very funny, very campy spoof of the horror tropes to deal with his feelings, you know, which I'm really fascinated with. So the story, it's about a lord of a manor in Victorian times who, his first wife has died. We see the beginnings of his second marriage and chaos ensues. So yeah, it's part murder mystery, part farce, a lot of drag. It's two actors playing eight different roles with over 30 costume changes. Some of the costume changes happen in a matter of seconds.
They're playing characters of both gender identities. So yeah, it's quite a roller coaster of a ride. But what I think really beautiful about it, you can see those moments that speak about the loss and if you're in the community at that time.
But there's also an incredible celebration of queer love and the love that this couple has for each other that develops over the play that we're left with at the end. That's great.
Rob Lee: That's great. And, you know, I think the last time I've had some weird allergy and health related things. So I've missed a few, not me per se, by my partner. She, as I was saying before we got started, she enjoys theater and I do as well. And I can't go to shows without her.
But it's one of the things where I think the last show there at Everyman 4 was POTUS. So and I was fortunate to do an interview leading up to it and I just found myself like giggling throughout. So I'm definitely looking forward. But also the timeliness of these productions and sort of like this is the thing that we're at for POTUS. At least we were leading into and as you were touching on a moment ago, the timeliness of this production of these things are happening live and in color, almost a return to the negativity that was out there.
Joseph Ritsch: And with POTUS, right, I mean, many of us thought that there was going to be a very different outcome that November, right? And with POTUS happening in September. I think you spoke with Shanae, right? I'm a huge fan. Right. We played the First Lady, right? In that production. So, yeah, it's just interesting to look at where these shows have landed this season in regards to the political landscape that has unfolded before our eyes. Yes, 100%.
Rob Lee: So and so and maybe this is not the terminology, but when I think of sort of making something that already exists, maybe an adaptation or have you, you know, there's a specific process that goes as to could you describe your creative process, you know, from collaboration with the design team to specific staging and pacing? Because there were some numbers that you mentioned, you know, the number of wardrobe changes, there's two actors and I can't put my pants on in a few seconds. So let alone changing to a full fit. So can you talk about the other process and shaping your adaptation of this production?
Joseph Ritsch: Yeah, I mean, as a director, I tend to and it depends whether the play is a comedy or a drama or if it lives somewhere in between. But for the most part, I my entry point is the physical worlds of the play. I often will get a sense of what I think there's there's a temp I think every play has a temperature and that temperature has a color, right? So visually for an audience, what is going to set them there in the tone of the piece?
And with this, particularly working with the costume designer and the scenic designer, starting with the scenic designer, I really wanted to create a world that felt off kilter, because that's what Charles and the community was feeling at the onset of the AIDS crisis, right? So their world is literally turned upside down. So one of the fun things about the set is there's no right angles. Everything is on diagonals and feels very turned almost upside down.
It's kind of got a palace in Wonderland meets Beetlejuice, I think, or lack of better description. So that when the audience comes in and experiences a space, hopefully they're going to feel off kilter, whether it's conscious or not. I mean, I believe an audience feels things right on different kind of different levels of consciousness and there's an energy to that. So I was really invested in how do we throw the audience off physically coming in?
And then with costume design, I was also really interested in how do we mash up, right? The piece takes place in Victorian England. But how do we include 1980s in New York and 1980s pop culture, American pop culture into the piece? So there's a lot of 80 reference in the costumes, you know, Vivian Westwood and then sound. We're including a lot of music from the 80s. So for example, there are some sequences where one of the characters is playing on a toy piano. So instead of using Victorian period music, we're using, you know, Whitney Houston and Donna Summer, right?
Those types of are the songs that were really hot in the 80s. That still feed into thematically what's going on in those moments. But we'll give the audience a sense of the time period. There's a lot of anachronisms in the play anyway, purposely. Right. So I felt like he gave us permission to kind of really push those forward and mash up this idea of, OK, this is what was going on in New York at the time. How are we dealing with this? And then setting it in this kind of Victorian Gothic horror story.
Rob Lee: So those anachronisms there almost made it future-proof in some ways. It's like you can play with us. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. And I like when it's that sort of that that that mashing up of different things like it in, you know, it's gauche, but maybe it's accurate there. It fits for sort of, I think, how Baltimore works. This is a production that's that's in Baltimore with I can't help but think of the John Waters of things. I can't help but think of sort of like, this is quirky. This is off. This is like a VAM a little bit. Yeah.
Joseph Ritsch: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think there is kind of a John Waters. I would imagine that John has had some speaking for John Waters, if I may be so well. But I can't imagine that there hasn't been some inspiration with with Charles's work, particularly drag and divine, right?
And how John Waters uses divine or used divine in his films. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm also really interested in it as a director and the artist that came before us, right?
And the legacy of of history, particularly queer, queer history, which, as we know, is often erased. So I'm very inspired by an artist from the 80s named Klaus Nomey, who was a German immigrant, came to New York. He was a countertenor opera singer, but did pop music in the 80s.
Combined with classical. Yeah, he's you got to look him up. He's it's crazy.
It's insane. But he was working and and he was one of the first known on New York Underground performance in artists to die of AIDS. And he was working on an opera. It's called Unfinished Opera because he never finished it. And it's got a very gothic sound to it, but also a very 80 sound. So we're thinking a lot from that in the piece to again, this kind of idea of mashing up this kind of Gothic Victorian and this 1980s sound and honoring his work as a queer artist. And, you know, most people don't know about him. So I mean, I'm excited about about that as well. Yes.
Rob Lee: And Klaus Nomey, I do I do recognize the aesthetic of a very specific aesthetic.
Joseph Ritsch: And some of the costumes are going to speak to that. One of the characters for costume is very Klaus Nomey and it's black and white angles, bow tie, all that stuff. So those that do now Klaus will, I think, be able to point those things out.
Rob Lee: Because I because like I remember, you know, my partner and I were watching a season. We watch a lot of horror. We're watching a season of American Horror Story.
Joseph Ritsch: And we said that that that's characters based on Klaus Nomey. I mean, they stole his identity and didn't call him Klaus Nomey. But that's another story for another podcast, isn't it?
Rob Lee: Look, I do a whole TV and movie podcast, too. But, you know, it's just like seeing sort of the you touched on it a bit, like sort of this kind of erasure and kind of giving space and acknowledgement of folks from certain eras. It's just like, oh, well, this is who it was. It's like, no, this is actually who the person is. And here's these references. Here's these through lines. And this is the setting of it. This is what was happening in the scene wrapped into this production. Well, yeah.
Joseph Ritsch: And, you know, it's interesting to think about that season of American Horror Story. I mean, the misrepresentation of that is very different. But I do think with that season, there was an exploration of the horror of the AIDS crisis. Right. How do you kind of, you know, again, like flip that on its head stylistically and thematically with the horror trope, right?
Yeah. And, you know, you look at a lot of history of horror films. There's a lot of horror that's coming out of the 80s. I was very much inspired by the horror of the community at that time. So it's just it's something that's in the DNA of the art. Yeah.
Rob Lee: So I want to shift a little bit. It's one of the things that we teased it. We behind the teaser earlier about the Everyman University Observership Program. So can you share what is all about goals, motivations and the inaugural cohort? 16 students, six universities, two of which I have a relationship with, you know, UMBC and I'm a Morgan alum. So talk about what that means to you. Yeah.
Joseph Ritsch: You know, I feel like we, you know, Everyman Theater has a very robust high school matinee program that's been around for, you know, almost as long as the theater has been around. We currently serve 17 high schools that can see up to four out of the six shows every season and their engagement includes school visits where we send teaching artists out and artists from the productions out.
So that's been something that's been around for a really long time. What I realized when I got here, we weren't really fostering the connection between these incredible training programs that are right here in our own backyard on the college university level and helping to build relationships for those young artists coming out of those programs. So with the university observorship program, this cohort is going to be part of the whole process of mounting Hermovap started with us on first read. They're invited to any rehearsal that they want to come to. We have six students here today at rehearsal.
They can observe as much or as little as they want to, depending on, you know, because most of them have full time schedules at school as well. Right. Then they'll be with us through tech all the way through opening night. And then we're planning on kind of break off meetings with different with members of the creative team or the stage management team. So if a student is really interested in doing stage management, we'll set up a coffee date with our stage manager and that student or students are directing.
We'll set up a coffee date with myself. So they really get a chance to engage with the artists. So it's hard observing the process, but it was important for me that there was engagement as well. And, you know, today we took time to check in with them. They had questions, things like that. So, yes, giving them an opportunity to not only really witness a full process of a professional production, but also to kind of get at least a foot in the door was starting to make connections. I was also really invested in, you know, in these programs, right? Students are often siloed within their own program.
They don't get to start make connections. And we know, right? And artists build their community and their work and expands their work by expanding community. So I was really excited about these students from different schools connecting with each other.
So when they get out of school, they say, hey, I met so-and-so. I need a stage manager. She's stage manager or, you know, oh, I met so-and-so. They're a director. Let's connect so that they hopefully will be building community as well as offering an opportunity for student artists to see a full professional process.
Rob Lee: That's wonderful. And, you know, and being around, I finally, you know, I do this. This podcast is over 800 episodes and the five years I've been doing it. And I try to find ways to connect people.
Sometimes it's people in different cities. I've been called a plug, if you will. I'm like, oh, connect this person, that person. And in being there in the sort of student atmosphere, being there, one of the teaching gigs I have is at BSA. And, you know, being there with, I was, there were some theater students and some film students. And I'm seeing the connections. I was like, you should be working together.
Why aren't you working together? And things of that nature, because you're going to see these people later, especially, you know, here and then depending if folks leave and maybe stay in the region or go into different cities, but there's a prospect that you'll encounter each other yet again. And, you know, I do that in doing these podcasts. Like it's a lot of interviews here in Baltimore, obviously, but D.C., Philadelphia, New Orleans. And people will reach out and then I find myself connecting these different cities. It's like that, the visual from like those cop movies with the strings connecting is like that.
And it's something about it. And I find the way that communication is now, you know, I say, say social media for sake of argument, it's harder to do that, to actually make those those connections. And, you know, I think sort of this program, the way you were describing it, kind of mitigates a lot of that of like, you're in the room, you went through this program, there's this sort of access.
Joseph Ritsch: Yeah, I was going to say, it's, for me, it's about hopefully creating that access. And as we all know, in the arts, right, it's one of the biggest challenges is access, you know, particularly, well, I guess for anyone in the theater industry, whether they're an actor, a designer, a director, a technician, a crew person, you know, it's like getting your foot in the door and making those, I mean, I I am where I am at every man because the connection I made when I was in grad school, I'm an Aided New Yorker that moved to Baltimore in 2008 to go to grad school at Towson. And I got an assistant directing job at Center Stage. And the stage manager on that show is best friends with the production manager here at every man who was looking for a choreographer at the time. So I got a choreography gig at every man, you know, and it just, you know, I just built, I built my community because of those connections. So hopefully programs like this will at least be the seed, you know, to start those type of those connections.
Rob Lee: So that brings me, instead that we're talking about this piece, that brings me to the sort of next question. And I'll front load it with this. I, last year, I had the opportunity to be in the behind the scenes of Artscape and, you know, getting a better understanding of the inner workings and so on. And it's being an executive producer of this podcast and all these different things. You know, this is the conversation we got to this stage, but it's formatted in a such a way to make it easier for both of us to do. But there's things that go into it that leads to this actual conversation. And I think a lot of times folks don't see that. And when, you know, I did, did Artscape last year, being behind the scenes and seeing all the stuff that goes into it, it's not just like, Hey, put the art here and get on stage. It's a lot of inner workings.
So I read that Eve Musson, UMBC Theater Department Chair and Associate Director highlights the value of being in a room during a production. And that's kind of touched on in your previous piece there. So for you, you know, how's that kind of behind the scenes exposure helped like shape you? You were touching on it there, but is there a specific thing that comes to mind that this was definitely formative?
Joseph Ritsch: Yeah, I mean, I remember being in an back in undergrad myself, you know, I went to undergrad at the University of Maine in northern Maine. Everybody says, why did you go to Maine? Study theater?
I didn't. I want to be a veterinarian. And stayed because I had really great, really great professors there. But, you know, there were productions where actors were brought in from New York to being cast with us. I was also a dance minor and, you know, dance companies would come through and would give master classes with the dance students. And I just remember those experience being so incredible and so exciting as a young artist being in the room with folks that were they were doing it, you know, they were doing the work. And and in some ways, you know, there was a lot of kind of, you know, fan girl and going on. But there was also a realization like, oh, wow, this is this is like real work.
And they're real people, right? Because we can we can write as young as young people and young artists, we can put professional artists up on pedestals. And I think it was a really great to experience both. Wow, the talent that these artists have, but they're they're doing the thing and they're working really hard. And the generosity that I felt in the exchange between these artists and myself as a student and the other students to share a knowledge, to share experience, to share that energy was just it was invaluable. And also to see folks doing their craft and doing, you know, this actor works this way and this actor works this way. Oh, I can take that from this performer. I can take this from that performer and kind of cobble together my own craft. I felt as the young artist was was just invaluable. Hopefully, you know, like, you know, to quote Linda Manuel being in the room where it happens, right? You know, that these students will have that experience and be able to take away something of value.
Rob Lee: Yeah, it's, you know, I read about it often. It's usually connected to place, but I think place can be a little bit too big and unwieldy, but being just in that room. You know, we we've tried to use, I think, social media at times as a supplement for folks being there. And it just sometimes it just doesn't make sense.
New York costs a lot now, but in the company of other artists or whether it be complimentary, whether it be someone that's just does a completely different type of work. Just getting into the thinking, getting into the head of how do you work? Wow, I am not doing my fullest job. I'm not reaching my potential or wow, that's how they do it. Cool. And it just opens up so many opportunities to explore. Absolutely. Yeah.
Joseph Ritsch: And, you know, and now being where I am, I mean, one of the reasons I love to teach so much is, I mean, I learn something every day, especially if I'm in the club. You know, I teach at UMBC and I have a Towson and Stephenson University. And I, you know, directing and working with young actors makes me a better director. In my opinion, there's really no difference between directing an actor in a BFA program than directing a professional actor. Your language might be different and the approach might be slightly different, right? Because you have someone with much more experience, but at the end of the day, right, we're all doing the same thing and trying to, you know, we're all telling a story.
All right. So what's going to serve the story and how are you going to tell it is really what we're doing, whether you're doing that with a 19 year old actor at UMBC or a 50 year old actor who's been doing it for a long time. So it's one of the reasons why I think I keep teaching because it makes me a better artist myself and I learned. I just learned so much and I'm often challenged to go, wow, I've been doing this this way all along and just watch this young artist do it a very different way. And wow, I'm going to try that instead. So it's, you know, symbiotic in my opinion.
Rob Lee: It's almost that, that almost novice approach of let me go back and see, like, I'm sure I'm overstepping. I'll skip some steps and it's like working with someone who's not had this sort of seasoned thing.
They're not considering themselves to be a master of it. So it helps you maybe fill in some of those gaps that you may have skipped over. I know that happens for me is, yeah, you just do this, this and this. That's like, what do you mean, microphone? Right.
So this is what a microphone is. And having to go back through those steps. So there's two more real questions I want to ask you. And the first is what is, this is more insight and in retrospect, but what is one thing that someone can do to get more of a single play? It could be, you know, they can be this display, obviously.
And what's one step they can take to deepen their engagement with like theater overall? I find, and I say this because I talk to people all the time. They find out I do this and I have a day job. So they found out I do this and they're like, I don't understand art. I don't get theater. I don't get these different things. How can I enjoy it? There's a fair amount of people who encounter that. So what would your thoughts be in that area?
Joseph Ritsch: I mean, you know, it's going to sound. I appreciate it. It sounds corny, but and I always get a little kind of emotional about it. But there's something for me about the power of theater in the sense that, you know, you can have a room, depending on the size of the theater, right? You can have a room of 100 people to, you know, a Broadway house, right? It's 2,400, 3,800 people all take a journey together, right? No matter what our identity is in life and gender and racial or ethnic identity in age, we all go on a journey together. Now, yes, we bring our personal experiences, right?
Because that's who we are in the world. And but, you know, to sit in the theater as a director and see, like it moves me to watch an audience all lean forward together. I think it's a really beautiful and important thing, especially in a world, especially right now.
In this moment where we feel so torn apart that we can have a communal experience, no matter who we are as an individual, super powerful. And I think, right, anyone can experience that, you know, a theater person, a non theater person. So, yeah, it's one of the things that I think is so great about the theater, right? And we all love watching stories, right?
And there's there's lots of different genres, right? For us to experience that. But there's just something for me about being in a live theater experience. That's that's like no other, you know, no shade against film or reading a book or, you know, I'm also really interested in two and how the theater often times is inspired by other art forms, you know, whether it's visual art or music or how those other art forms can kind of come together in theater, right?
I mean, in many ways, right? A set is visual art. It's it's architecture, right? There are sound designs. You're getting music.
You're getting a soundscape. You know, like it it combines so many different sometimes there's film within theater, right? With projections and and, you know, live feed and all that stuff. So I'm just really interested in the the many intersections that theater can create.
Rob Lee: Yeah, even, you know, craft with some of the set design as well. It's a big piece. And, you know, as I was sharing before we got started, I, you know, had that experience, you know, when I go, you know, I mentioned going to see Othello and, you know, just feeling like I've gone to a lot of productions, but like, man, am I supposed to be here? This is like a hollowed place, you know, Broadway. You're like, wow, you know, people to be there. Everyone's allowed there.
Joseph Ritsch: And I know, you know, we have a we have a history in this country where lots of folks feel like they have not belonged. But I do feel like the theater is a place to belong for for everybody. And, you know, for me to getting to witness the story of someone that's very different from me, but seeing something that connects me to that person is, I think, also very important, right? Because we then create empathy. And that's how we're going to survive is, in my opinion, is feeling empathy for each other, even when there's vast differences between us.
Rob Lee: I agree. I agree. And, you know, the one thing I want to say in there is sort of having having that experience as you were describing, sort of this, this shared experience.
And, you know, I've tried to make it a point in doing this to when possible, go to the place, you know, do the interview in person. You connect differently. It's a different energy that's there. I could see a performance, you know, anywhere, you know, as we have streaming now, I've heard go there. And it doesn't hurt to see, you know, sort of big actors, you know, really well off actors saying I need to return to the stage. That experience is raw and that experience is pure and real.
And again, no shade to film, but it is sort of a different animal these days. But when I see something that is reminiscent of a play that happens to be a film, I'm like, oh, this hits this way. I feel like I'm there with these people right now. And not really key in anyone that until I've started to go to see more theatrical productions. Yeah.
Joseph Ritsch: Yeah, it's just it's different, right? It's different being in the room. Like it's it's a totally different thing. And, you know, for a performer to, you know, doing eight shows a week, like that craft that it takes to give every audience in some ways the same show, right? Because that's your job is to do that. So each audience has, again, within their individuality, the same experience, but at the same time, how do you keep it fresh and alive? And when you're doing it, you know, each show.
And, you know, circling back to Irma, that there's a lot of physicality. And, you know, if you don't exit this door in this many footsteps, you're not going to get to the incredible wardrobe team that's standing there waiting to change you out of a suit to a gown, change wigs and hats and fake teeth, right? In a matter of seconds for you to take another 10 steps to come in a different door to land the next joke, right? You don't do that the same way in film, right? Because you have the time, right? And stop, right? Like, um, so yeah, it's just it's just a different experience.
Rob Lee: When you would just just laying that out and describing it, I couldn't help but think of a pit crew and like mass cars. It's like, you got to be there on time. We got to change these tires.
Joseph Ritsch: Oh, yeah. I mean, our crew on, I mean, every crew is important no matter what the show is, but, you know, something like this and it's highly choreographed. I mean, we're doing just as much work now in the rehearsal room in staging the actors on stage as we are in staging with the crew is going to be doing backstage because if those things don't line up, this show literally just doesn't work.
Rob Lee: You know? Yeah. And I know that we're, you know, sort of in the the precursor of of Irma Vep. So, you know, I want to wrap this up with sort of that last question. It's sort of a it's asking for sort of two different sides as a perspective of being involved in a production and the perspective of witnessing and experiencing a production. So, you know, from from the the the actor, director, designer, choreographer, the list goes on and on and on. What's the production that sticks out for you and why? And sort of the same thing as an audience member, what's the production that sticks out for you and why?
Joseph Ritsch: Yeah, I mean, as a as a director, choreographer, it's so hard, right? Because you have so many children and you pick your your favorite. I mean, I know it sounds like a constant answer, but it is so it's so, so, so true. I mean, I guess if I was forced to pick one thing I didn't mention, I was the artistic director at Rep Stage for 10 years, which was a professional. He was at Howard Community College for actually started very much the same time as every man did. And there was lots of community between those two theaters at the start. And unfortunately, that that theater doesn't exist anymore. But I would say probably my last production at Rep Stage, which was the musical falsettos, is special to me for a lot of different reasons. As an audience member, for me, it's Angels in America by Tony Kushner, which I personally think is one of the top five plays in the American canon. And and and Mr. Krishna being a very important voice in contemporary theater, I was lucky enough to see the original Broadway production in the early nineties and was just blown away by it.
And, you know, and being a young queer person in New York in the 90s, you know, early nineties is not that far removed from the onset of the AIDS crisis. And that play deals heavily with that moment in time. And then the recent revival by the by the National Theater in in England. That was transferred to Broadway a few years ago. So seeing those two kind of iconic productions of that play, which is one of my favorite plays, I would have to say. And to even how it informed me as an artist, like what Krishna is doing with text and the visuals of that piece and then how directors take that and make it their own. Both those productions very different, but equally as as moving and inspiring to me as an artist.
Rob Lee: Thank you. That's what we're here for, get that insight, you know? So, you know, as we've been talking, you know, having this great conversation, now it's time to kind of turn it on its head a little bit.
I got a few rapid fire questions for you. There there's nothing to be afraid of. Some people get terrified of like I'm sweating.
I thought you shouldn't sweat, you know, but these rapid fire questions, they're, you know, somewhat related to what we've talked about. So if you had to choose one and I know it's like, you know, choosing children, but if you had to choose one comedy or drama.
Joseph Ritsch: Oh, man. I'm going to go I'm going to go with comedy because I think there's a way to draw people in with humor and then punch them in the gut. I think, you know, Irma, that certainly certainly does in some sense. But yeah, I mean, in some ways, right, you can trick people to go down a certain path with humor to kind of get whether it's your politics, your intention, whatever you whatever vocabulary you want to use. So yeah, I'll go with comedy.
Rob Lee: Yeah, it was a thing that that Rebecca Hofberger said to me. Early in this sort of podcast series, like this is like season two, I barely knew the hell I was doing. And I was doing a different podcast that was sort of news pop culture, but I had a sort of comedic bend to it. And she literally said that she's just like, so you having these stories and using humor to try to get across what your insights or your thoughts on this particular thing. She's like, that's really clever. It's like the jester can get across some things.
Joseph Ritsch: I mean, the other detail I've left out about me, I can't believe it is. I've been a professional drag artist for close to 30 years as well. Pre RuPaul's Drag Race when she was a very different thing. You know, I was doing drag in New York in the 90s. And my persona, I would say Liz Moore in I call her a glamour clown, but comedy comedy is a big thing with her. And it's, you know, because it does that, right, you draw people in with that humor and then you can again kind of flip it, right? On once you have them in the palm of your hand. So, yeah, I'll stick with comedy for now. Okay, like it.
Rob Lee: So, you know, I'm about a lot of wardrobe changes that you touched on earlier. So in that vein of wardrobe changes, and you're also a bespectacled individual such as I, how many pairs of glasses do you own?
Joseph Ritsch: Oh, I am a frames freak. I think I own probably about 12 pairs. I'm a separate one for when I do drag because I just I literally can't see without them and I can't wear contacts because of my prescription.
So I have my my drag character's name is Sunrise with a Z like Liza. So she has her own glasses. But then, yeah, for Joseph, I would say, yeah, anywhere between 10 and 12 pair. I'd have a I would have a whole lot more if they weren't so damn expensive. Or at least the frames that I like weren't so damn expensive.
Rob Lee: 100 percent. Like I have three myself and two, I can't do contacts. It's like your prescription is like, and your eyes are shaped weirdly. I was like, that's a lot. And as my partner says, and she reminds me, my partner has like really, like really round, like kind of like larger eyes than I do.
And she would tell me, she was like, you know, if you take your glasses off, your eyes disappear, that's like this is like, I was like, this is this is a little little I'm a little defensive now. Definitely a swap amount. I have ones that are like tortoise like color and they're circular. Those are my I'm going to a gallery. I'm just running and just put it up front.
Joseph Ritsch: Most of mine are very similar. They're kind of oversized. I like an oversized frame, kind of artsy frame, as you will. But they're almost they're pretty much all entirely black or gray. I am most entirely wear black all the time. So yeah, so they kind of all live in that in my black and gray color palette. Nice.
Rob Lee: This is the last one. So there's a there's an alternative universe version of you that would have been a veterinarian. So I have to ask cats or dogs.
Joseph Ritsch: Oh, it's tough. I've had both currently now. Corey and I have two cats. I think we would have a dog if our schedules were different. I mean, we're both so busy because we're both in this industry.
That it's just really it's really hard. But so I mean, kind of cats by default because they're just here with with a busy life. But I've had dogs and I love dogs.
So it's just different responsibility. But I want the dog eating on me now. Like I love a dog. Because you know how it is, Rob, people get really right. They get me too. It worked up over the the cat and dog conversation.
Rob Lee: So I feel like cats by default should be like a deviation of that of that production. That's it, actually, for for today. We've covered a lot and thank you. That's just two things I want to do as we close out here. One, again, thank you for coming on to spend some time with me. It's been great to just have a conversation. And secondly, I want to give you the space and opportunity in these final moments to share any final thoughts, website, dates, anything that you have that you want to cover as we close out here.
Joseph Ritsch: Yeah, I mean, I hope you'll come join us for the mystery of Irma Vep of Penny Dretful. We open on May 23rd and run through middle June. We're also going to be doing as part of our Gay Pride Month being in June. We're doing a Pride night on June 5th, and we're teaming up with a bunch of LGBTQ plus community partners who will be in the lobby sharing resources, including a queer choir that's going to perform before the show. So please join us for that. And then on June 8th, we're doing a big drag branch, which I'm going to be hosting at my drag persona with some incredible other drag performers. And we're transforming our rehearsal room into a drag cabaret. So those are some fun programming things we're doing around Irma Vep. So I hope you'll join us for some, if not all of those.
Rob Lee: And there you have it, folks. I'm going to again thank Joseph Rich for coming on and sharing a bit of his insights on theater and telling us about the mystery of Irma Vep, a Penny Dretful, as well as the Everyman University Observation Program. It's great to hear those things and learn more about his work. And for Joseph Rich, I'm Rob Lee, saying that there's art, culture and community. In and around your neck of the woods, you just have to look forward.
