Kate Wetherhead
Interview Highlights
For writers, creative motivation can carry you through tough times.
It is so very important to have support systems you can lean on as a creative artist.
Stay true to the projects you believe in, and keep them moving forward.
People often feel taken care of in rooms run by women because their needs are recognized more regularly.
Find Kate Online:
Instagram: @kwetherhead
Kate’s Most Recent Work:
The Devil Wears Prada at the Nederlander Theatre
Bio
Kate Wetherhead (she/her) is a writer, performer and director who recently wrote the book for the musical adaptation of “The Devil Wears Prada”. She is the co-creator and star of "Submissions Only”, a critically acclaimed comedy series about struggling theater artists, as well as co-author of the young readers' trilogy "Jack and Louisa". As a performer, Kate has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in numerous regional productions. Upcoming book-writing projects include "Ever After" and a new musical about Cass Elliot.
“I should be so lucky to get to do this for a long time. That’s the thing about making art, I don’t wanna ever take it for granted.”
Meet Kate
Hayley: We are here with the ever fabulous multi-hyphenate, Kate Wetherhead! Kate, would you please introduce yourself, share your pronouns, and tell us about what roles you play in the theatre space?
Kate: Hello, everyone. My name is Kate Wetherhead. My pronouns are she/her/hers. I am a writer, performer, director, and I have even produced work in the past.
Amy: Kate, can you tell us about how you came to theatre and your creative work?
Kate: I came to it very early. I was six years old, growing up in Burlington, Vermont. And my parents took me to see a community theatre production of West Side Story - props to Lyric Theater. And that was it - the rest of my life was determined that night... I could barely stay in my seat, I’d never felt anything quite like it before. And thankfully, I had two very supportive parents who found whatever they could for me - whether that was private lessons or after school theater programs, summer camps, child roles at the University of Vermont in their student productions…
My theatre education was such a hodgepodge. I was just trying to gain access to the world. And I also was not a professional child actor, and that started out as a conscious choice made by my parents. Then when I got a little older, it became more of a group discussion. Annie 2 was coming to New York and auditioning for it was on the table for a second. But it wasn't a very long discussion. I think at that point, I was like, “No, I'm kinda digging what's available here. We'll keep the professional part of this out of it until I'm older.”
When it came time to go to college, I had another choice to make, which was to go right into a conservatory program or take a more traditional liberal arts track. And a liberal arts education is ultimately what I chose. For me, becoming a performer felt so predetermined that I was like, “It's gonna happen, so I might as well have the traditional college experience.” Then I’ll move to New York and eat, sleep, and breathe this one thing for the rest of my life.
Amy: That's so healthy.
Current Direction of Creative Energy
Hayley: Kate, can you tell us about what you are excited about creatively right now?
Kate: Oh, gosh. Okay. So I just came off of a very intense summer opening a pre-Broadway production of The Devil Wears Prada in Chicago. It is a Herculean effort to bring a show, any show, to life. But particularly one of this scale. I say that for context, because the truth is, as tired and as raw as I feel after this experience, I am still really creatively motivated. Like, I just wanna keep going. There's so much that we learned. And there was so much that, due to time, due to COVID, due to circumstances beyond our control, we had to leave on the table, and that is a brutal feeling. And yet no less motivating.
So while I need a break like nobody's business, I cannot stop thinking about the show and what I wanna work on, going forward. That's a relatively new feeling for me. As an actor, I think there's a finality that gets trained into you. You have no control; you never did. You have to get comfy with the ephemeral nature of those things.
Being the writer is different because it still feels very much alive. The show is still very much in the lab, bubbling away... We all kind of have to walk away, look at it, stare at it, make decisions, and then go back in and start mixing potions again.
Hayley: Like people in a gallery staring at a giant painting, then backing up and looking at it from a distance, staring at the one dot…
Kate: And then realizing that it actually has nothing to do with that dot and instead has everything to do with the weird tree on the other side that you thought was fine.
Hayley: Yeah, exactly.
Kate: The tree is the real problem.
Amy: What are you doing to deal with that creative energy?
Kate: Talking my husband's ear off about it.
Amy: Great.
Hayley: Yay support systems!
Kate: Yeah, you gotta lean on your support systems. We were on a walk yesterday and I said, “Permission to talk about Prada for the 800th time?” and he stopped me. He said, “Kate, you talk about it as much as you want.” So he's been really awesome. Also, nature is a big one for me... just being outside. I'm really into birds. My dog, trees, animals, husband, food, gin and tonics. Really, really basic stuff. I wish I could be like, “Well, I'm going on a silent retreat,” but no, I'm not.
Amy: No, you’re grounding yourself in your own life. Yeah.
Hayley: One of the things we're trying to do with this project is to get more information out there to artists and creatives-
Amy: About how to take care of yourself while building a career in this industry, basically.
Kate: One of my specific goals for this week is to turn my attention to another project. Cause I actually think that will be really helpful. So it's not about turning things off. It's just redirecting them to another creative outlet, because if I am thinking creatively about something else, when I finally do turn my attention back to the other thing, it will be with a fresher perspective.
Hayley: Can you tell us a little bit about what you're working on creatively? What are those other projects you wanna put time and energy into?
Kate: Sure. I have a commission from the Phoenix Theater Company to write a musical about Cass Elliot. And that's been percolating for a while. So it will be a songbook musical, but not just of the Mamas & the Papas music; there will be songs from her folk years before she joined the Mamas & the Papas, and then some of her solo work after she left the group. It's in its infancy. I'm still in the hunting and gathering phase.
I joined the creative team of Ever After during the pandemic - Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich are the composing team, Marlo Hunter has been helping us develop it as a director. We did a workshop of it last November. This show has been in development and has gone through various iterations over the years. All three of those women are such talented humans. But of course they're all very busy. So right now, the most immediate challenge is just finding the time that all four of us can be together. But I think we're onto something, I like the direction we're headed, so we'll see what happens.
Amy: Awesome. Yeah. We love a team of kickass women working on a project.
Kate’s Creative Mission
Amy: Kate, in all the work that you're doing, do you feel like there's a creative mission that drives you in your career?
Kate: Oh, wow. It would be disingenuous of me to say, “Why, yes, there is a creative mission!” And yet, I feel like the stories that are finding their way to me are female-driven stories with complicated women. But maybe there needs to be a referendum on “complicated” women. Like, is there a simple woman? Is there an “uncomplicated” woman out there? I don't think so. So maybe it’s a dumb thing to say, but if you take into consideration the centuries of one-dimensional, two-dimensional female characters... maybe the whole notion of a “complicated” woman is a relatively new idea.
So, very broadly, female stories are finding their way to me. No one's asking me to write the musical of Glengarry Glen Ross. And it also feels like because my foray into writing took the form of a comedy, there's an expectation that I can bring humor to these stories as well.
Hayley: Because Kate's funny, everyone.
Kate: You know, I wouldn't say that I'm not funny, but I get scared to be too declarative about my humor.
Hayley: I can say you're funny though.
Kate: Fine. I'll let you say it.
Amy: That's super relatable too.
Kate: But you know, it's interesting. I don't go through the world thinking, “I'm the only funny woman around.” And yet, you hear so often, “It's really hard to find a funny lady writer,” and I’m like, “I dunno, I was just laughing my ass off with about six women, so... were they drugged? I don't think so.” Women have been making me laugh my whole life. So it doesn’t feel right to me to say “I'm the funny one.” That's just not true. And nevertheless... it seems to be one of my selling points. Look at me, I'm blushing. I'm getting red at this notion of trying to single myself out.
Hayley: Well, Kate, you're amazing. So you can own it a little bit, but I will certainly keep beating that drum if you don't. I feel like also women get pigeonholed into one thing very easily in this industry. Once you plant that flag and say, “This is my thing,” it's easy to get stuck there.
Kate: Well, I have a couple of opinions about that. Just based on the last couple of years alone, sort of watching how work begets work and how Prada kind of took me by surprise, and then Ever After took me by surprise… It's not like I was sitting on my musical that I have been shaping and crafting in private and have not been able to get out in the world because I've been pigeonholed. If I suddenly was like, “You know what, the real story I wanna tell, the real thing I wanna do is (fill in the blank),” I like to think that I could get at least one person to take that call.
So I guess what I'm saying is, you could look at me right now and be like, “It looks like Kate might be getting pigeonholed,” but I don't really fault the people who are seeking me out for similar projects. I'm at the beginning of this part of my career, and I'm not gonna lose any sleep over the prospect of being pigeonholed. Right now, that feels like a privilege.
Amy: Absolutely
Hayley: That's a great point.
Kate: So talk to me in 10 years when I've done the same thing over and over again - God willing! That's the other thing, I should be so lucky to get to do this for a long time. That's the other thing about making art, it's like I don't wanna ever...
Amy: …take it for granted?
Kate: Exactly. I don't wanna take any of it for granted. But I guess if I was looking at this as advice I could give… Let's take Shaina Taub, for example, who's super prolific and has been writing and starring in her own work for quite some time and is very much in demand. She could have not done Suffs. I'm sure there were doors opening for her at the time that she started to work on Suffs, and yet she was like, "Nope, this is something I have to do." And of course she had the support of the Public Theater, but let's say she didn't... If you've got your Suffs, if you've got your thing that isn't based on a movie, and isn't a songbook musical and isn't being bankrolled by Jeffrey Seller, but it's important to you: Keep that going, keep that alive. I think it's important to stay true to the things that make you feel like:, "I know I’ve got something here. I really wanna see this through."
Thoughts on Womanhood and Identity
Amy: Kate, we'd love to hear about what being a woman means to you and how it fits into your identity.
Kate: Oh, man. Like so many things, my relationship to womanhood is a work in progress and it's a moving target. I recognize more and more how fortunate I was to grow up in the community that I grew up in, in the family that I grew up in, and to have found something that I was so passionate about at such an early age that thrust me into environments and communities of people who valued me for something beyond just my gender. From a very early age, I was leading with my talent - not my gender - in spaces where that was valued and recognized. I had this thing that I liked to do and I was good at, and it was cultivated by the people who cared about me the most.
Then something happened when I started pursuing acting professionally. I was quickly - and then steadily - cast as children, or teenagers. I spent my twenties and early thirties denying my “womanhood” on stage. Hiding it to get work. I would shop for clothing that infantilized me so I’d have things to wear to auditions. Which was fine; it got me work. I was so happy to be working. But it wasn’t until I started getting cast in more age appropriate roles that I realized how starved I’d been for content that I could relate to, identify with… So for more than a decade, the way “being a woman fit into my identity” felt sidelined by my career, which was demanding I stay a “girl.” I remember when I got married, feeling almost defiant. “I may play children on stage, but in real life I have a husband!”
Today, my ‘womanhood’ gets to exist in all areas of my life and that makes me feel like a whole person. It also makes me feel more acutely the ways in which the “business” and society at large marginalize women and doubt our capabilities, especially having branched out into writing and directing. But I am determined to keep pushing against those expectations, to subvert and surprise.
Hayley: How have you felt your gender benefiting you or limiting you as an artist?
Kate: I’ve worked with amazing men, but when I'm in rooms that are run by women, there's an expansiveness to their perspective about what's actually going on, who's there and what everybody needs. And I wanna always carry that into rooms that I get to be in, that spider- eyed approach. It allows you to take care of people more. And when you take care of people, you take care of yourself.
Amy: I love that. I've never heard it put quite like that.
Kate: It feels like a better approach. You get better work out of people. If my head hits the pillow at the end of a long day and I can say, “I took care of people. They had a good time, they did really good work, and we all got what we needed”? Then I’ll sleep well... I suppose the flip side of that, to answer the “limitations” part of the question, is that you risk an emotional toll by keeping yourself too open, too sensitive to the temperature of the room. Oh, and then of course…. Male chauvinism. That feels limiting.
Final Thoughts
Hayley: Kate, what are you most proud of in your life?
Kate: I'm most proud of being someone that people like having in a room, whatever that means. There's lots of talented people who have made extraordinary things, so if I can try to do that AND move through my life and career with integrity? I guess that's it, I'm most proud of my integrity.
Amy: That's great.
Hayley: Thank you so much, Kate, for coming on. We really appreciate it.
