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[0:00] Will Armstrong: Welcome to West of Broadway! I'm Will Armstrong.

[0:02] Wendy Rosoff: And I'm Wendy Rosoff. Today, we are shifting our focus slightly away from celebrating musical theater in Los Angeles and on the West Coast to celebrating musical theater from Los Angeles.

[0:15] Will Armstrong: That's right! With the recent announcement that the Broadway industry will be staying closed until 2021, it’s more important than ever that we support arts education.

[0:25] Wendy Rosoff: Today, we have two very special guests joining us. We’re excited to welcome Megan Sikora and James Tabeek from PASSDOOR.

[0:35] Megan Sikora: Hi, everyone! Thanks for having us.

[0:37] James Tabeek: Hi, Will and Wendy! It's great to be here.

[0:40] Will Armstrong: So, Megan, can you tell us a little bit about PASSDOOR and what inspired its creation?

[0:45] Megan Sikora: Absolutely! PASSDOOR is a new virtual platform that offers intimate dance classes taught by seasoned Broadway performers. We launched it in response to the pandemic, as many performers found themselves out of work and looking for ways to connect and share their talents.

[1:05] James Tabeek: We realized that not only could we provide a space for current professional artists to create and share their craft, but we also had an opportunity to educate the young artists of today who might not have access to theater or the arts.

[1:20] Wendy Rosoff: That’s such a fantastic initiative! How many classes are you offering, and what types of dance are included?

[1:30] Megan Sikora: We offer over 40 live dance classes per week, covering a variety of styles including Ballet, Broadway Choreo, Jazz, Hip Hop, Tap, and more. Each class is capped at 20 students, allowing for direct feedback from the instructors.

[1:50] James Tabeek: It’s really about creating an intimate learning environment where students can thrive, regardless of their skill level or age.

[2:00] Will Armstrong: That sounds amazing! What has the response been like from both the students and the instructors?

[2:10] Megan Sikora: The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Students are excited to learn from Broadway’s best, and the instructors love being able to share their knowledge and passion with the next generation of dancers.

[2:25] James Tabeek: It’s been a rewarding experience for everyone involved. We’re building a community that supports and uplifts each other during these challenging times.

[2:40] Wendy Rosoff: I love that! Can you share some of the backgrounds of the instructors you have on the platform?

[2:50] Megan Sikora: Absolutely! Our team consists of A-list Broadway talent who have appeared in over 100 Broadway shows. They bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the classes, which is invaluable for the students.

[3:10] James Tabeek: Plus, the fact that everything is online means we can reach students from all over the country, which is really exciting.

[3:20] Will Armstrong: It sounds like you’re truly changing the landscape of dance education. What do you hope to achieve with PASSDOOR in the long run?

[3:35] Megan Sikora: Our goal is to continue providing high-quality dance education and to inspire young artists to pursue their dreams in the performing arts. We want to help shape the future of Broadway by nurturing the talent of today.

[3:55] James Tabeek: Exactly! We believe that every student deserves access to quality training, and we’re committed to making that happen.

[4:10] Wendy Rosoff: That’s such an important mission. Thank you both for sharing your insights with us today!

[4:20] Will Armstrong: Yes, thank you! We’re excited to see how PASSDOOR continues to grow and impact the theater community.

[4:30] Megan Sikora: Thank you for having us!

[4:35] James Tabeek: It’s been a pleasure!

[14:15] James Tabeek: Taught at BDC for a while and then I'm at Studio School here. And so I have kind of like a, an interesting following of people from kind of like all over the country. And, and so she was like, we'd love to have you on board. I was like, this sounds like really interesting. This was back, what, in March, Megan?

[14:34] Megan Sikora: Yeah, I mean, I came on a little bit later. Jen Frankel and her husband, Brian, they, they came up with the idea. And then they brought on Neely and Jessica McRoberts and Cat Steers. It was like the ultimate rock cat.

[14:50] James Tabeek: Yeah, I did the first national tour of Victor Victoria with Cat. She's amazing. I love her. And in fact, Cat and Jess are like the brains behind the in-school program. They're coming up with some amazing, inspiring stuff that I'm so excited about. But I, I came on last, but just sort of jumped in. And now I have, like, I've got a toe in every single department.

[15:20] Megan Sikora: Yeah, which with something like this, you kind of have to, you know, I mean, I've been now part of a few of these online programs. Everyone has a different, slightly different format, but it really is an all hands on deck kind of situation.

[15:35] James Tabeek: Yeah. And you know what I'm finding the most challenging? It's so interesting in this time of like social media, where you think you can get a hold of anybody, is getting a hold of people like is advertising. I just feel like everybody's inundated and exhausted. And it's hard to get people to answer your calls or your emails or whatever.

[15:57] Megan Sikora: I also feel like there's a bit of a saturation of, it's, it's calmed down a bit now and equalized. But when we first started, it was like just, yeah, there was like a creative vomit, and there was also a teaching vomit that happened. It was like, how fast can we slap stuff up and just kind of slap a bandaid on this situation, which is awesome, because I think everybody needed a distraction.

[16:19] James Tabeek: 100%. But I think that there also became a real exhaustion that came along with that. So now, how would you say that Passdoor sets itself apart from some of the other online teaching platforms that are happening?

[16:36] Megan Sikora: I think the biggest thing, like I said, is that we're an ongoing school. We're not a summer camp. We're not a one-off workshop, even though we do sponsor those. We have Josh Bergass doing one on Monday. But that's, that's just for fun. Like, those are just for, like, to bring people on to our platform that wouldn't have been there before. We are, we're really interested in educating the young dancers of today in order to change the face of Broadway tomorrow.

[17:04] James Tabeek: Speaking of changing the face of Broadway, so we're in this unbelievable time of not just pandemic, but also complete upheaval of past norms and in a place of searching for equity and equality throughout the face of theater and on Broadway in particular. I know it's been a huge topic of discussion. Can you speak a little bit on that and kind of what you're looking at?

[17:28] Megan Sikora: Yeah, 100%. Like I said, like, that's, I want to get to all the neighborhoods, all the living rooms of the kids that don't, they are, they are stars. They are set designers. They are costume designers. They are directors and they don't know it. They don't know it because nobody is in their life saying, hey, you could do this. It's just not in their, you know, circle. So we want to get in that circle and say, here, we're here for you. Come, we want to, we want to support you. We want to help the artist in you grow to whatever that is.

[18:02] James Tabeek: In case there's anybody listening to the podcast to this kind of, because I literally just got goosebumps when you said that. It's, I mean, just to think about someone who doesn't have access and that immediate, like, oh, that's me moment that we all had at some point. How, if somebody is listening to this and we'll get to contacts later and all that good stuff, but just because it's on my mind, how do people who are in education, how do they reach out to you guys and go, hey, we think we might be a good fit for you?

[18:28] Megan Sikora: Just go to our website and email us at info at pastdoor.com.

[18:34] James Tabeek: Great.

[18:35] Megan Sikora: Okay.

[18:36] James Tabeek: Yeah.

[18:36] Megan Sikora: And because it goes directly to all of us.

[18:38] James Tabeek: Okay, good. We have no like person in Thailand answering our thanks. We're, it's us.

[18:45] Megan Sikora: Just real quick. Can you explain where the name of the past door, where did that come from? Like, what's the.

[18:51] James Tabeek: Absolutely.

[18:52] Megan Sikora: James, do you know this story?

[18:53] James Tabeek: Uh, well, what happened for this or how?

[18:57] Megan Sikora: Well, it's interesting. A lot of people don't know. I didn't know.

[19:01] James Tabeek: I didn't know.

[19:01] Megan Sikora: So Nealey Bassman came up with it. It's quite poetic. I just didn't know, James, if you had heard this story. Um, the, the, the door between the backstage and the house is called the past door.

[19:12] James Tabeek: Never knew.

[19:13] Megan Sikora: Like I always knew that. I don't know. Maybe being a dance captain, you're at like, you're at rehearsal on Thursdays and Fridays and they're like, go through the past door. Like you're talking to the crew more than the average performer might have the opportunity to blah, blah, blah. So like, like Nealey came up with this beautiful, beautiful idea that we are the past door for young creative artists and Broadway.

[19:37] James Tabeek: Yeah.

[19:39] Megan Sikora: Amazing. So we help them come through us and you get there.

[19:42] James Tabeek: Okay. So, uh, I'm a kid in Nebraska and I have a living room and I hear about past door. So James, like say, I want to take your class. What does a class look like? What, how, how am I going to experience that from my living room?

[19:57] James Tabeek: Well, I think it would be different depending on whose class you take. But if I'm, I'll speak for my own process. Um, I, well, first I want to be welcoming to everyone. And then I want to kind of describe like the tone of, of, uh, the choreography for the day. And, and the most important thing for me is that everyone's bringing their humanity and their experience and their emotional life to what I'm choreographing.

[20:22] Megan Sikora: And so I'm very specific to tell all the dancers in all of my classes, if it's live or if it's on past door or wherever it is that I don't need you to mimic me. I don't need you to dance like me. I already know what I look like dancing. And quite frankly, my best years are behind me. So like, I want to see what you look like dancing and we all have a different story.

[20:43] James Tabeek: We all have a different history. We all have different trauma. We all have different baggage. We all, uh, we're all experiencing, um, the, the psychological impacts of, of lockdown and, and the, the kind of social constructs disintegrating right around us in a different way. And so that impacts us emotionally and, and, and kids are incredibly resilient.

[21:09] Megan Sikora: Um, and I, I encourage them to bring whatever is inside them up and to connect to the movement that I'm doing and the music that I'm picking and the lyrics in whatever way they find most authentic in whatever way they find most spontaneous in whatever way they find most organic. And so when you take a class with me, you're getting like a strong technical foundation. You're getting, you know, a warmup where we do like six minutes of abs and, and you're getting technical corrections.

[21:41] James Tabeek: I'm teaching you how to, you know, get on top of your leg. I'm teaching you how to pull up, you know, out of your hips. I'm correcting your alignment. I'm correcting your placement, but I'm also correcting your artistic dynamics. I'm also correcting your, uh, your musicality. I'm also trying to get you to discover a different way of doing the movement this time than you did two minutes ago, because you're a different person two minutes later than you were two minutes ago, especially in this environment. You know what I'm saying?

[22:06] Megan Sikora: So that's kind of like, not just how like I approach, uh, choreography and teaching. It's kind of how I approach acting and writing and everything else that I do. It's, it's, um, you're bringing what, what is most authentic to you. That's your most powerful, um, channel is what is most authentic to you.

[22:26] James Tabeek: You're totally speaking my love language right now. I'm online right now. And that's exactly, you know, we change cellularly every single moment. So there should not be a take that is trying to achieve what the last take just did. We're new and allow yourself to be surprised and in discovery.

[22:47] Megan Sikora: And how do you listen to what the person who is, how are you? And, and, and that all translates into whatever discipline we're exploring.

[22:56] James Tabeek: Right.

[22:57] Megan Sikora: And so I'm sorry, I was just, I was going to say, um, about a month and a half ago, I saw on the today show, um, some dancers from American ballet theater, and they were talking about how they were teaching online classes and how people from all over the world were joining in for these 5,000 people were taking the class.

[23:16] James Tabeek: And although it's beautiful, it's a celebration of community to be able to have that one-on-one creative, like, uh, like, um, tailored experience with your educators.

[23:29] Megan Sikora: Incredible.

[23:30] James Tabeek: It's incredible.

[23:31] Megan Sikora: I cannot tell you, I'm getting chills. I cannot tell you the amount of emails that we get from students praising our teachers, like just big. And we're not asking for it. They're just like, I'm obsessed with Pastor. I love these instructors. I love everything that we're doing. And, and we have a lot of people that like take James's class where he's coming up with authentic choreography.

[23:54] James Tabeek: And then we have people who want to take, they also take, um, like James T. Lane's class where he's doing, um, choreography that from specifically from a Broadway show. So you're getting a mix and match. I'm super excited. I can't wait to take class. I'm just talking to you guys. I'm getting super excited.

[24:14] Megan Sikora: And, and, and so like, what do you see is the age range of your students? What do you, like, where, where are they?

[24:20] James Tabeek: Well, we teach two starting at age two through a professional.

[24:27] Megan Sikora: Wow.

[24:27] James Tabeek: So we have, um, Leslie, Leslie Flesner and, uh, Sheena Morris and, um, uh, Haley Petun. They all have like morning classes for the littles, um, called Playhouse Theater, Children's Playhouse Theater. And it's so fun. It's more about like creativity and telling stories with your body. And sometimes they even read books and they act it out. Super fun.

[24:53] Megan Sikora: And then we have, um, you know, we have fierce, crazy competition kids that, that study with James.

[25:05] James Tabeek: They're so, they're insane.

[25:07] Megan Sikora: They're insane. And, you know, and then we have like college students who are looking for something more who are like musical theater, um, majors. And they're, they want, they want more of like the original choreography stuff or like a basic ballet class to work on their technique. So we have a serious hodgepodge. We've got it all.

[25:28] James Tabeek: Incredible.

[25:28] Megan Sikora: And it's like you, for all intents and purposes, you could be identifying the next big people to influence Broadway and musical theater in America from wherever they are. And giving them the encouragement and the guidance to get here.

[25:42] James Tabeek: And also the context, because I mean, going through your roster, everyone involved in this, these are heavy hitters. These are huge elite Broadway performers that are super connected. And in the real world, you want to work with people that you know, and that you like, and that you appreciate and that, and you're, they're getting one-on-one experience. It's incredible.

[26:00] Megan Sikora: It's a great idea.

[26:01] James Tabeek: It's great.

[26:03] Megan Sikora: I mean, that was the goal. Like that's our, our star are our teachers.

[26:06] James Tabeek: Yeah.

[26:07] Megan Sikora: And, and so in each one of them is inadvertently also a mentor, right? Because like any teacher. And so it's just like, those are bonds that you're creating. Every single person on our roster is dedicated. They are like, I've just, I feel so lucky.

[26:24] James Tabeek: I felt before getting involved in all this, I was feeling, I was unemployed. My off-Broadway show would close before all this. So I was feeling very separated. Like we all do in those moments where you're just like, oh, I miss my people.

[26:38] Megan Sikora: And then when I got involved with this, I was like, my tribe.

[26:41] James Tabeek: Yeah.

[26:42] Megan Sikora: Oh, my tribe. I like, it just felt so good to be communicating with everybody on a regular basis. And these people care so deeply about their art. They care so deeply about their students, about presenting a good class. Like nobody half-asses it ever. It's amazing.

[27:02] James Tabeek: What I love about what you guys are doing as well is that, and we'll talk about what you kind of foresee, you touched on a little bit, but what you foresee Broadway being once we all come back and what that evolution will look like. But I do see a world in which this format coexists with physical classes because you're able to reach out to anyone that's living anywhere else, other than in the city.

[27:30] Megan Sikora: Or if you're in LA, in LA, whatever it is. This has such an incredible reach, especially if you're creating ongoing relationships with your students.

[27:37] James Tabeek: Absolutely.

[27:38] Megan Sikora: If you live in Nebraska on a farm, you could take class from a Broadway star. If you're living in Tokyo, if you're living in New Mexico, if you could be in a major city, you could be in the sticks. As long as you have internet, you have access to us.

[27:58] James Tabeek: And we also, like I have a friend who has a huge dance studio in Florida and they are weirdly having class in person.

[28:08] Megan Sikora: But I'm creating, I know, I'm creating a workshop for them where they're in their studio space with the big TV and we'll have teachers teaching them.

[28:30] Will Armstrong: I'm so proud of you guys. This is incredible. It's really, really cool.

[29:00] Wendy Rosoff: It's very neat. What do you think, Megan, once Broadway comes back, it's going to start, obviously, with the shows that you, you know...

[29:04] Megan Sikora: It's going to start slow. I mean, it's interesting. My husband's in Chicago, the musical on Broadway. And, you know, we were like, oh, it'll come back. It'll be one of the first ones back because the Weisslers, like, no way they're not going to want it to be the longest running show. That's their goal, right? They're trying to get that right. But is it safe? Is it safe for an ensemble to be together in a small space on a Broadway stage? Because even though sitting in the house, it looks like everybody's spread out. We all know that we're all literally spitting on each other. So my feeling is that plays will come back, small musicals. I think new things will get written, which is great. I'm really, I'm so excited to see the art that comes out of this time.

[30:03] James Tabeek: Yeah.

[30:04] Megan Sikora: Especially with Black Lives Matter. I really am excited to see the voices that start popping up and the stories that we get to start hearing because people are finally going to be able to be taken seriously, I hope.

[30:17] Will Armstrong: Yeah.

[30:18] Wendy Rosoff: Yeah, I think the, to piggyback on that, I think the story of when theatre comes back and what it looks like isn't necessarily going to be like, how do we tailor the shows that already kind of exist into like a new kind of like pandemic compliant format? I think it's going to be about what are the new stories that are being told? Like, what is a completely new way to tell a story? How do we, what is a new way for an audience to experience a story? Like, we have such an interesting opportunity as artists with this kind of blank slate that the pandemic has kind of created to redefine what storytelling even looks like and feels like and subject matter and whatnot. And I think part of our job as educators on platforms like Passdoor and whatnot is to inspire young artists and empower them with, to kind of erase any preconceived notion of what storytelling even looks like or feels like or sounds like. Right? And kind of create new rules because we have an opportunity here.

[31:30] Megan Sikora: You know what I mean?

[31:31] James Tabeek: I totally agree.

[31:32] Wendy Rosoff: Yeah.

[31:33] James Tabeek: And I'm also super excited, you know, just on a very personal level. One of the reasons why I left New York and Broadway is because I felt disenchanted. I felt completely, my creativity was just like compressed and dead and I didn't know how to fix it for myself at that time. Do you know what I mean? And a lot of it just had to do with the evolution of what corporate theater had become and how I identified as my place in that. And so for me, and also growing up in New York, I grew up, you know, in the 80s and early 90s with such gritty, exciting, weird theater. You know, and both my parents, I don't know if you know this Megan, but both my parents are Broadway musicians or were Broadway musicians.

[32:21] Megan Sikora: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[32:22] James Tabeek: And so I, from an extraordinarily young age, watched so much theater that was deeply impactful and inspiring and affected me in such a deep way. And I wasn't able to get my ya-ya's out doing what I thought I wanted to do in New York. Do you know what I mean? So for me, this offers, this like wiping the slate clean and starting with a new storytelling idea and also with equality and equity and just this giant shake-up, I think to myself, this has the possibility of just being a renaissance of epic proportions and falling back in love with the idea of what big theater can be. My hope is that we fall, like you said, we fall in love with the story again.

[33:10] Wendy Rosoff: Yeah, exactly. I mean, no offense to lighting designers and set designers and costume designers, but let's all challenge ourselves to do it cheaper and let the story be the star.

[33:22] Megan Sikora: Yes.

[33:23] James Tabeek: Because it's just gotten so out of hand and it's so expensive to see a show.

[33:29] Wendy Rosoff: Yeah. It's like, I just love to see it all pared back a little bit.

[33:34] Megan Sikora: Yeah. Because everybody's afraid to take a chance because they're trying to create the next Wicked or Hamilton.

[33:41] James Tabeek: That's right.

[33:42] Wendy Rosoff: Well, it's about corporate America, right?

[33:44] Megan Sikora: Yes.

[33:45] Wendy Rosoff: Hamilton wasn't trying to be anything other than what it was and that's why it became so out of hand.

[33:50] James Tabeek: Exactly. Which kind of circles back around to what we were talking about with what you guys are doing in your classes and James, how you were talking about your style of teaching where it's honoring who you are, honoring your individual voice, honoring your artistry, telling the story in a way that feels real for you and being given the space to do that because I feel like for a very long time, we have all, every, you know, lighting designers, costume designers, I mean, everybody and the artists themselves have gone, here's the lane, get in the lane or, you know.

[34:25] Wendy Rosoff: To that, with your classes, James, what's something unexpected that you, or what's a challenge that you, or something funny that you're faced with that you didn't expect with teaching in this way, through this medium?

[34:40] James Tabeek: Oh, my. In this specific format, I think I very much kind of like let go of, this sounds so silly, but I mean, this is just like inherent in the format that we're in, right? I've kind of like let go of needing to see people mirror what I'm doing in terms of like right and left because some people learn, some people learn in an actual studio, they're learning by watching you in the mirror or they're learning by standing behind you. Do you know what I mean? So I've kind of like let go of needing to see, I'll tell people while I'm teaching, this is my right leg or this is my downstage arm or this is how, or now I'm facing my piano or now I'm facing, now I'm facing the Ritz Carlton, but I've kind of let go of needing to see like a reproduction of the actual kind of like image of what I'm doing and I'm more focused on tailoring the experience to what I'm actually seeing.

So like if you're standing, if my standing leg is my left leg and I'm correcting you and it's your right leg, I can correct you on your right leg. So it seems so like kind of silly to think about something so small like that. I don't know, I'm not even sure if I was answering.

[35:56] Wendy Rosoff: No, I don't think.

[35:57] James Tabeek: I don't know what's going on.

[35:58] Wendy Rosoff: I think it's freeing.

[36:01] James Tabeek: You know what I mean? As long as you're getting both sides eventually, you're getting a warm up or whatever, then it doesn't matter. And also like in, let's say, you know, when I'm teaching in the studio and I want like a step done a certain way and now here I am on Passdoor and someone needs to modify that step because their refrigerator is there. I'm like, well, you know what, since you're doing it like that, anyhow, why don't you hit this line? Or why don't you, you know, find a new way to travel into the, you know what I mean, like there's just.

[36:32] Wendy Rosoff: Why don't you explore your leftovers?

[36:34] James Tabeek: Yeah.

[36:36] Wendy Rosoff: Well, and to that effect, you're creating a generation of kids or young dancers who don't have the mirror as a crutch.

[36:45] Megan Sikora: Yes.

[36:46] Wendy Rosoff: Which is very interesting for them. I'm a rare dancer that hates a mirror. I can't remember choreography if I have a mirror. I have to like close my eyes and be in my body to understand, which goes along with what James was saying about knowing. Once I started doing that, I figured out how I dance and how to stop trying to look like other people. That's a huge discovery.

[37:10] James Tabeek: Yeah.

[37:11] Megan Sikora: And I, and I have to say my, another hope of mine for Passdoor is that for universities, we can be the cherry on top. I don't want to take away from anybody's experience. I want to be the cherry on top. And I want, I want people like James to be able to say to these students, you don't have to look like so-and-so you don't have to sound like Sutton Foster. You have to be you because a lot of these universities, although they offer amazing programs, it's a little too cookie cutter for my liking. And it's damaging. It's damaging for young artists. That's still finding what their voice is.

[37:48] James Tabeek: I think so.

[37:49] Wendy Rosoff: It's very stilting.

[37:50] James Tabeek: Yeah, I agree. Well, we all come, we, we, we come from the generation of do they have the look, you know, and thank God we're putting that away. And like the look is whatever you are, you know, and celebrating that individuality, which I think is so important.

[38:04] Megan Sikora: Yeah. I'm super excited for this. I'm again, I'm looking forward to taking your class and I'm also super excited to see where this goes. How it develops during this time, but also after and, and it being a cherry on top because it really does seem like an incredible addition, a good yes. And, and something that so many folks would not have access to, which is incredibly important.

[38:31] Will Armstrong: Super. And so if people, if aspiring actors or professional dancers and want to get involved with Passdoor, it's pass-door.com.

[38:40] Megan Sikora: Yeah.

[38:41] Will Armstrong: Dot com. Okay. We'll make sure to share all of that in the conference with everything with this. Or you can follow us on Instagram. It's at.

[38:50] Megan Sikora: On Passdoor.

[38:52] Will Armstrong: Say that again.

[38:53] Megan Sikora: On Passdoor.

[38:54] Will Armstrong: Okay. Great. I'll make sure to put all of the social media handles below. And so we have all of that as well with the corresponding write-up for this interview, which has been wonderful. You all, I mean, in this era, in this time of that, we're also disconnected. Thank you so much for connecting with us and sharing this and just. I just love seeing your face and James. This is all over. We'll have to have a, an in-person meeting. I feel like we are.

[39:20] James Tabeek: We are kindred spirits.

[39:21] Will Armstrong: Yes. Can we please have coffee?

[39:25] Megan Sikora: Yes. Yes. And yes.

[39:27] Will Armstrong: Right. Once it's on one side and you're like, Hey.

[39:29] Megan Sikora: Yeah, exactly.

[39:31] Will Armstrong: There's no traffic in LA. I can get, I can get to studio city in like.

[40:06] Megan Sikora: 10 minutes.

[40:07] Will Armstrong: It's so lovely.

[40:08] Megan Sikora: Exactly. For you all. Thank you so much for your time. Enjoy the rest of your day. And good luck with everything with Passdoor.

[40:13] Megan Sikora: Oh, my God. Thank you. Be safe.

[40:15] James Tabeek: That felt really good.

[40:17] Megan Sikora: That was so nice. Like in this time where we're also separated to have like a really wonderful conversation about something that.

[40:25] James Tabeek: I care so much about.

[40:26] Megan Sikora: Yeah, that was wonderful. I really enjoyed that. I hope everybody enjoyed listening to that.

[40:30] Will Armstrong: I hope everybody enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed talking to those two magical people. I can't believe I had never met James before because we're running in such parallel lines, but Megan is just one of my.

[40:40] Wendy Rosoff: What they're doing. And I love the amount of access that allows for young artists who may not otherwise have that.

[40:49] Will Armstrong: So special. I mean, if this at all is interesting to you, I encourage you to go to our website. We have a lot of great content there. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us. We'll be happy to answer them. Thank you so much. Bye.

[41:00] Wendy Rosoff: Bye.

[41:01] James Tabeek: Bye.

[41:02] Will Armstrong: Bye.

[41:03] Megan Sikora: Bye.

[41:04] Will Armstrong: Bye.

[41:05] Wendy Rosoff: Bye.

[41:06] James Tabeek: Bye.

[41:07] Will Armstrong: Really really great stuff. Very, very meaningful and very special. I mean, if this at all is interesting to you, I encourage you to go to pass-door.com and just take a look at their roster of teachers. And it is just incredible. And just to have that kind of access. It's a dream, you know, it's incredible. And it gives me, like I said, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful about what's going to happen in the future. I'm hopeful about how we take lemons and turn them into lemonade.

[41:47] Wendy Rosoff: Yes.

[41:48] Will Armstrong: And I love the conversation that we talked about what the new face of theater will look like, because I do, I truly believe that this is forcing us into completely changing the landscape of what theater is and what an incredible. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.

[42:05] Wendy Rosoff: Yeah.

[42:06] Will Armstrong: Renaissance. I'm psyched.

[42:08] Wendy Rosoff: Cool. Yeah, absolutely. Well, this is, has been a, I feel like a six. We're trying, we're learning, we're changing, we're growing. And I feel like this was a really successful episode. If you want to check out past episodes of West of Broadway, we're on part of the Broadway Podcast Network. And you can find West of Broadway along with a host of other incredible podcasts. And remember if you're looking for us, you can always find us just West of Broadway.