This week on I’ll Follow You, I’m delighted to be speaking with a very dear friend, the theatrical impresario and President of NoHo himself, Mr. Paul Storiale.
(You can stream our chat via the embed here, on Anchor, or pretty much anywhere else you source your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and Google Podcasts.)
Paul is the Artistic Director for the Defiance Theatre Company, the President and Founder of the Valley Theatre Awards in Los Angeles, and creator of the award-winning stage play The Columbine Project. He’s also the creator of the web series Gossip Boy, which you can stream on Amazon Prime, and a successful comedic actor in his own right, having performed for many years in the dinner theater phenomenon Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding and having recently toured the country as part of the cast of My Big Gay Italian Wedding.
And if that’s not enough of a full plate, Paul is also a Los Angeles elected public official, currently serving as president of the NoHo Neighborhood Council, an advisory board created by the Los Angeles City Charter to provide improved access to government and make government more responsive to local needs in the North Hollywood community.
Today we chat about how to create a little bit of healthy antagonism among your cast during rehearsals, establishing a container for catharsis in a live theater space, and the secret of never having to audition as an actor ever again.
SHOW NOTES
Follow Paul on Twitter at @paulstoriale.
Follow Paul on Instagram at @therealstoriale.
The NoHo Arts District website.
The NoHo Neighborhood Council website.
Click here to watch the recording of the show that I played with my band, the Felus Cremins Band, at the Sherry Theatre in NoHo in January 2019.
Click here to find out more about the Defiance Theatre Company’s free improv classes.
Click here to read more about the history of the play My Big Gay Italian Wedding.
Here’s The New Yorker’s brief write-up about the production of The Columbine Project that was staged in New York City at the Actors Temple Theatre.
The oral history about Mike Nichols that I read is called Life Isn’t Everything: Mike Nichols, as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends by Ash Carter and Sam Kashner.
More information about The Columbine Project can be found on Twitter at @wearecolumbine or at the website thecolumbineproject.com. For information on staging a production of the show, please contact thecolumbineproject [at] gmail [dot] com.
Find out more about the Valley Theatre Awards by clicking here.
Stream the web series Gossip Boy on Amazon Prime. Season one is available here, and season two is available here.
Queen of Peaches 