The following is Magnolia Scotch’s post-show interview with the stars of “Naked and Crazy,” Sascha Alexander and Meghan Gambling, and the show’s director, Elissa Weinzimmer. Read a review of the show here.
Magnolia Scotch: Tell me a bit about the show and how your pieces came about.
Sascha Alexander: It’s an almost directly auto-biographical, chronological piece. In fact, the way that Elissa coached me, she was a huge help in the writing process. She just kept telling me to write the whole story, because I kept leaving out chunks. And once we finally got it all down, we actually left everything in.
Elissa Weinzimmer: I think there were whole chunks of things you realized you didn’t need.
Sascha: Yeah, that was helpful.
Magnolia: What’s it like as a solo-performer, working with a director?
Sascha: It was easy for me. I knew I needed help, so I asked Elissa for help right away. I’m glad I brought her into the process. I’m really, really grateful … Elissa would give me notes that were so right, but I was just so pissed off about them because it’s about my life and about my writing. So, it’s a challenge, but I would never have been able to do what I did without direction.
Meghan Gambling: I think, for me, my writer brain is so much stronger than my actor brain. I mean, I was rewriting until last night. Like, I never stopped writing. Today, I was writing. There was never a point at which I was like ‘OK, the script is done! Now, I’m going to put on my actor hat.’ I never really realized how obsessive I am about that aspect of it. I’d never done this process before and had no idea what the process would be like. I haven’t done a lot of acting out here and if I do, it’s only stuff I write for myself. I’ve never enjoyed it like I did tonight.
Elissa Weinzimmer, DirectorSascha: This was like a massive buffet. We were so excited about it.
Meghan: I was ready to walk out.
Sascha: What she overcame in the dressing room was epic.
Magnolia: Unlike stand-up, it feels like you’ve crossed a wall between performer and audience, it’s very open and free. Can you talk about that?
Sascha: You know, Elissa told me that the most important relationship in my play was the relationship with the audience. That was the first huge step-up that I took. That’s why we’re here. It’s that connection.
Magnolia: What was it like dancing on a pole on stage in front of your dad?
Sascha: You know, at that point, I didn’t think about it. I worried about it coming up to this point. I think what’s cool about my piece is by the time you arrive at that, you have a different understanding of what it means for me. At least, that’s what I hope. I told my dad what it meant to me a couple of months ago. He was like, ‘This is something you should be teaching! This is something you should keep in your life.’ My parents are wonderful, they’ve seen what it’s done for me.
Meghan: I think that the show is really about your own voice. You know, I think so much of what Sascha is saying, and I guess what I’ve discovered, is that every piece of material, be it a solo show or a play or a film or whatever, is a very unique voice and part of coming into your own person as an artist and as a professional is being able to grab onto that voice and not apologize for it. For me, that was the biggest struggle with this; feeling like I had something that anyone would want to hear.
Sascha: That’s the biggest fear, that you’re going to be boring. Life isn’t boring! People underestimate the power of the tiny things that you do.
Meghan: And truth.
Sascha: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and how you feel! And when you reveal that, I think we all breathe a sigh of relief. I think that’s why audiences love solo shows, they’re like ‘Oh, thank god, someone’s just being real.’
Elissa: Writing a solo show, being the writer and the performer at the same time, I mean, this is something I’m drawn to and have now done on a repeated basis, and I think I’m drawn to it because of the challenge of it. Because I’m talking to the writer, but the writer has to have a conversation with the actor, but, oh wait, they already did, they’re in the same brain. I think the challenge that poses for me as an artist talking to that person and also the challenge that poses for [them] is so monumental, but also the thing that you gain out of having that person be the same person is, you know, in acting class, we have practice speaking Shakespeare’s words, but when you are speaking your own words, there’s such a different engagement. There’s such a different level of truth. There’s a different way to access the truth that’s huge in finding your voice.
Sascha: I think what’s exciting about that, taking it into other areas, is it’s hard when you run a show like this to then start acting and make it false. You know how truth feels.
Magnolia: Thank you, ladies, for your time and an amazing show!
For more giggles from Sascha, see her new ArthurORmarthA sketch, “Bitches!”
