S2E1: Megan Minutillo
In this episode, Hayley and Amy speak with producer, director, writer, and educator Megan Minutillo about the importance of education and mentorship in theatre, womanhood and motherhood as a complex work in progress, and building bridges through collaboration. Scroll down for episode notes and transcript!
Episode Notes
Guest: Megan Minutillo
Hosts: Hayley Goldenberg and Amy Andrews
Music: Chloe Geller
Episode Resources:
Megan’s Upcoming Events:
March 4
Women of the Wings - Vol. 5 at 54 Below
Instagram: @womenofthewings
September 15
Duets: The Concert Series - Vol. 9 at 54 Below
Other Resources Mentioned
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
CODA - 2021 film by Sian Heder
Guest Bio
Megan Minutillo Weiner (she/her) is a theatre producer, director, writer, and educator. Her theatrical work has been seen in theaters across New York, including, but not limited to 54 Below, Birdland Jazz, and Guild Hall of East Hampton. She’s the creator of DUETS: The Concert Series, and Women of The Wings: A Celebration of Female Musical Theatre Writers. Her writing can be found on Medium, Thought Catalog, Hello Giggles, Fertility Rescripted, and Collective World. Megan holds an M.A. in educational theatre and English education from NYU. She lives on Long Island with her husband and son.
Find Megan Online:
Instagram: @meganminutillo
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Episode Transcript
(Music)
Hayley: Hello, beautiful people, welcome to the Women & Theatre Podcast! We're your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: …and Amy Andrews. Grab a cup of coffee and join us as we talk to people in the theatre industry about their experiences with womanhood.
Hayley: On the pod, we interview people with different gender identities, from different backgrounds, with varying levels of industry experience and professional roles.
Amy: Our goal is to build community and pool our collective wisdom to break down the barriers we continue to face.
(Music)
Amy: In today’s episode, we speak with Megan Minutillo Weiner, who is a theatre producer, director, writer, and educator. Her theatrical work has been seen in theaters across New York, including, but not limited to 54 Below, Birdland Jazz, and Guild Hall of East Hampton. Megan is the creator of DUETS: The Concert Series, and Women of The Wings: A Celebration of Female Musical Theatre Writers. Her writing can be found on Medium, Thought Catalog, Hello Giggles, Fertility Rescripted, and Collective World. Megan holds a master’s in educational theatre and English education from NYU. She lives on Long Island with her husband and son.
Amy: Hello, listeners! We are here with the fabulous Megan Minutillo. Megan, thank you so much for being with us. Could you please introduce yourself and share your pronouns and tell us a little bit about what you do in theatre?
Megan: Hi! My name is Megan Minutillo. My pronouns are she, her, and hers. I am so happy to be here. Love the Women & Theatre family. I am one of those multi-hyphenate folks. I am a director. I am a theatre producer. I am a playwright. I am a writer.
Hayley: Megan, I'd love for you to share with our listeners how you came to your creative work.
Megan: My father ran a performing arts theatre program on Long Island. And my whole life, I sort of grew up in the rehearsal room and watching theatre. Fun fact: My first Broadway show was The Secret Garden. To this day, I hear that music and it just takes me to my happy place. And my parents, they said that the curtain went up and I was just completely transfixed. As a six-year-old, I just sat there, like, jaw open, mesmerized the entire time.
So you could say that that's when I got “bit by the bug.” But ever since then - I have always loved theatre. It's a place of happiness and solace and refuge for me. I studied theatre in college and then went on to grad school at NYU for educational theatre. I had dreams of being a theatre educator, and I was gonna live on the Upper West Side, and I was gonna teach.
Hayley: Love that for you.
Megan: And I was going to direct and write and like, produce as I wanted to. But I wasn't going to have to worry about how I was going to eat or pay rent because I had this theatre teaching job. I graduated NYU in 2009, and it was not a great time to get any kind of job. That whole crash not only was terrible for teaching, but LOL, trying to be a theatre teacher was just… like, you couldn't even get a job as a science teacher.
So I had to sort of regroup and reassess. And I did teach, and I was a substitute teacher for a long time. And then I taught English and theatre for a night school program. And when I was not doing that, I started a website called TheWriteTeachers.com. Through that, I sort of launched all of my creative endeavors with musical theatre. I did a lot of interviews, I started doing a lot of concert series. I met a lot of wonderful people and started making my own work. And almost 10 years later, here we are.
Hayley: And here we are.
Amy: Can you tell us a bit about what you're working on right now that's getting you excited?
Megan: So I am working on the fifth volume of Women of the Wings, which will launch Women's History Month at 54 Below. So that's super exciting. We're gonna feature seven writing slots.
Hayley: I'm so excited. Myself and Julia Sonya Koyfman and Chloe Geller are gonna be in Volume 5, which is…
Megan: It's gonna be wonderful! Their pieces are beautiful, and I can't wait to showcase that. Another writer that is officially on board is G. Victoria Campbell, who found me through Instagram, which is super cool. I really have a soft spot for people who just throw themselves into my inbox and say, “Hey, I want you to listen to this.” There's so much content out there, and it's very hard to get noticed sometimes. And the people who have the initiative to do that… I think I would like to have more initiative myself, so I admire that a great deal. So Vickie is one of those people. So stay tuned, follow us on Instagram @WomenoftheWings for more casting and creative announcements.
Hayley: And come to the show, everybody!
Amy: Can you tell us the date of it?
Megan: March 4th. It is a Saturday at 9:30 PM at 54 Below.
Amy: Amazing.
Hayley: Be there, Women & Theatre squad. Roll up!
Megan: It's gonna be awesome. And then sometime in the spring - a date has yet to be confirmed - but Melissa Rose Hirsch, who is a very dear friend and has also really found her stride as a songwriter and storyteller… I went to her and said, “We need to make a song cycle of your stuff.” Because there's definitely a through line. The way she writes resonates with a lot of people across different walks of life, and it's music that gets me excited. So she was like, “Yeah, let's do it.” And we're gonna try her show out, tentatively called Cycles, sometime in the spring, at 54 Below too.
And then my next concert after that is the infamous Duets, where I pair Broadway hopefuls with their Broadway idols. And it's an evening of duets that really are meant to showcase the hopefuls and where they are in their career and where they hope to go. And that's in September.
Hayley: That's really exciting.
Amy: So Megan, a thing that I love about your work is how you incorporate your education background into the shows that you do. Could you tell us a little about that, please?
Megan: Oh, well, you can take the teacher outta the classroom, but you can't take the teacher out of the teacher. I don't know. That was supposed to be…
I love teaching. I have the utmost respect for public educators. I mean, I am the child of two public educators. And my parents are the type of teachers who still talk to students decades later, the amount of weddings that they've been invited to - my father has actually been the officiant for several people's weddings himself. So I see the power of great teaching and what it can do. And so, I think I bring a little bit of that to everything that I create.
With the concert series in particular, I have found that mentorship is a great angle to bring into things. I am trying to make work that I think I could have used when I was a 20-something. So with Women of the Wings, for example, there's a lot of writers out there who are just like, “Where do I go? What do I do?” And part of Women of the Wings, a component is to give a piece of advice. Each writers team gives a piece of advice, something that they heard and have held onto, something that they wish that they had been told when they were first starting out. And that is the through line of Women of the Wings. I think that has been very powerful. So that's sort of the teaching aspect of that.
I mean, I have former students who will come and perform in a lot of concerts that I do. And it's…that's always a teaching thing for me to teach them like, okay, this is not high school anymore. You are singing with professionals and you must meet them where they're at. So I think that's always fun to teach my former kids. Like, this is how the rehearsal works. This is what the expectations are from you. This is what you should be expecting from me and from people that you're working with.
And then Duets - I mean, Duets is the heart of my educational series, just to have partnerships be formed. The last one in particular, one of the matches was a wonderful actress by the name of Jordan Eagle, and she got to sing with Teal Wicks. And then a couple of weeks later, I got a text message from Jordan that Teal helped her through an audition. She did a coaching session with her. You know, I don't have a million dollars…maybe one day… but this…
Hayley: But I can build this bridge between these two people.
Megan: But I can build this bridge. And this was pretty cool. And it felt like getting a million bucks.
Hayley: I love that, Megan. Do you have a piece of advice that you would share, just in line of Women of the Wings?
Megan: I think my piece of advice is twofold. If you have a vision, I think you have to pursue that, even if the people around you haven't quite caught up yet. You know, if they don't see the movie in your head with the show that you're writing or the song that you're making or the series that you wanna create, you still owe it to yourself to try to pursue that even if the world doesn't get it yet. Because at one point they will.
Another great piece of advice from a book that I was reading called Shoe Dog, and it's the creator of Nike. And he was saying that sometimes creatives think that you have to always keep going, and like quitting is sometimes a form of failure. And he's like, “The most brilliant creative minds know - okay, this is time to put something to rest.” It's kind of like when a show doesn't stop. Like, they keep writing seasons, and it's like, guys, you hit it. Season 6 should have been it.
So I think that's an important lesson that I'm trying to teach myself. I mean, I kind of did that with TheWriteTeachers. That was a labor of love. It gave me a lot of connections. I had some wonderful, wonderful professional experiences and personal relationships that came out of that. But at a certain point, it was not making me money, it was not really taking me to the next creative level. And it was time to say goodbye. But that was okay though. Then it became, really, the launching pad for Duets.
Hayley: Those are some really good pieces of advice.
Megan: Thank you.
Hayley: We were talking about the aspect of your creative mission that involves your educator self. Is there anything else with regards to your creative mission that you wanna talk about? Things that are connected with what you create?
Megan: I do think motherhood is starting to inform a lot of what I do with my writing. I mean, motherhood is starting to inform just a lot of who I am as a human too. Because now, since having my son, I just look at everybody and like, everybody is somebody's child. And that just sort of frames the world a little differently for me. And not just specifically motherhood, but the concept of being more than one thing.
And I think that feeds a lot into the multi-hyphenate world. We go to college or a conservatory - maybe - and are trained to just have a singular focus. And I think the more and more I work, the more and more it's like, it's okay, and it's actually very beneficial to not have a singular focus. So whether that's motherhood and artistry and, I don't know, marriage or partnership, whether that's writing and composing and doing a podcast - to sort of embrace the juggle of that informs a lot of what I'm doing now.
And trying to create spaces that are rooted in collaboration, not competition. I just think there would be so much more movement and growth, especially in the artistic field, if that was forefront. A brilliant friend of mine works in international relations, and she's married and she's got two kids, and she's a daughter and a sister and a friend, and also happened to write a book. She wrote the book with two other people though, and the book would not have been born if she had tried to do it herself.
That's not to say that everybody who has to write a book must do it on a team, but the community and the collaboration aspect of things, I think, is really important and something that a lot of people are hungry for.
Amy: Yeah! So you were talking about motherhood, which is a thing that you and I, I know, could go on about forever.
Megan: On and on.
Amy: There's so much to be said. I would love to hear from you in a broader sense, motherhood and otherwise, about womanhood and what being a woman means to you and how it shows up in your identity.
Megan: The older I get, the more layered that gets. I think there's an element of nurture intrinsically tied with womanhood. And nurture, not necessarily meaning that you have to be a mother - I mean, some of the most nurturing humans I know are not. But I think we care on a deep level. For me at least, it's trying to make the world better. But, you know, sort of shrink that down and say like, “Okay, what am I pouring into the world and the community and the place where I live that sort of softens the hard edges that we all have to deal with?”
And then a strength, man. I mean, birth was one of the hardest things I had to do. So maybe that's it.
Hayley: Both sides of it.
Megan: Both sides! Again, you're more than one thing. You can be soft, but you can also be really strong. Soft and strong sounds better than soft and hard, but that you have to be hard when you need to. And that that's okay.
Hayley: It doesn't, like, make you less of a woman.
Megan: No!
Hayley: If anything, it makes you more. Like, it blooms you.
Megan: Yeah. It blooms you. I think a lot of that gets zeroed in in being a mom. I write a lot about that. There was a poem I wrote that actually resonated with a lot of mom artists, and it was, “I have a baby and I still want,” right? So you know, you have a baby and you're a mother and you want this, but I still want to do these other things. And that both of these can be true, and saying that things are hard does not take away from the gratitude that you have. You're just acknowledging that sometimes stuff is hard. More than one thing can be true at once.
So…womanhood. Maybe the prettier answer is just like, I'm still figuring out what that means.
Hayley/Amy: Yeah!
Megan: One of my favorite books of all time is Becoming by Michelle Obama. I think that really answers a lot of what it means to be an adult and what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a mom and an artist is that it's a constant state of becoming. And you know, we ask kids, like, “What do you wanna be when you grow up?” And it's like, well, when you grow up, that's not the end. You're still becoming. So maybe that answers the question.
Amy: Yeah. In a lot of ways. And all of them beautiful,. and all of them really real.
Hayley: Megan, if you could make one change to the theatre industry, what would that be?
Amy: It can be more than one change, too.
Megan: I think ticket prices are astronomical. I understand that people need a paycheck, but I wish they weren't astronomical. And maybe the way to make ticket prices more accessible is to use the corporate giants to the theatre’s benefit. You know, concession stands, and this, that, and the other thing. I don't know. There seems to be ways to do that, and some of that is just people get into the habit of like, this is how this has been done. And change is weird for people, which is silly, but a thing.
I think people need to take chances on new work. It's like when you go to a job interview, and people are like, “Well, you don't have enough experience, so this other candidate's gonna get the job.” And it's like, “Well, how am I supposed to get the experience?” And nobody's gonna give me a shot. I see a lot of wonderful new work that doesn't get the money that it needs. And I think sometimes it's hard for people in the business chairs to trust the people who are sort of on the ground level doing the work.
So I think people go to theatre, I believe, not necessarily for the sparkle, but for the stories and the songs that they're going to keep thinking about and singing after they leave, you know? It's not about necessarily the spectacle, but it's about…
Amy: Yeah, about human connection.
Hayley: About humanity.
Megan: Yeah. So I would wish that there was more of an opportunity for new work. New work that has life, you know. I'm not talking about a reading, I'm talking about good commercial contracts. And I get it, it's a business, and that's what sometimes I think people forget. ‘Cause I have very often sat in that business chair and you know, you have to put bodies in seats and you have to pay people. But that's everybody's goal, you know? Nobody wants a show to close. That's not good for anyone, so new stories. I just think you need to take chances more.
Hayley: Absolutely. Megan, you have so much going on in your life. You're doing a lot of different things. You're a mom, you're an educator, you wear all these different hats. How do you balance all of that?
Megan: I don't. (laughter) I think you have to redefine what balance means, because you cannot be doing all the things and be all the things to all the people at the same time. It's just physically impossible. There are days where - in the morning, I play with my son and we're dealing with the blocks or whatever toy he has at the moment. And that's it. And then there are days where he's gonna play with the blocks by himself, and I'm gonna sit near him with a laptop and write and do scheduling and answer emails, which… I was never this human that was terrible with emails and now I'm atrocious. And I have actually contemplated just having a perpetual out-of-office email that says “I have a one-year-old and I work from home without a nanny. If you don't hear from me within 72 hours…”
Amy: That's why.
Megan: “Please email me again.”
Amy: But that's such a great idea. Like yes, let's communicate our needs, right?
Hayley: Right. I actually truly love that. Bug me.
Megan: Please bug me. I understand why people get up before a job or before their children wake up. In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert was talking about this author/illustrator couple that she knew that had 9-5 office jobs, but they would go to their studio at like, 5:00 in the morning and paint and draw and storyboard. And I am not a morning person. I'm still not a morning person. But I understand that concept of taking time - and maybe it's just 15 minutes - to do whatever it is you need to do creatively, or business-wise. Whatever doesn't fit within the flow of your day.
Hayley: Or whatever fuels your fire. Whatever you need to do for yourself.
Amy: Well, and as a mom - and I'm sure you feel this too, Megan - I feel like I need to carve out times in the day that are for me as me, where I get to like step outside of that identity as mom, even though there's so much I love about it, you know? But just remind me that I'm a person too, in my own right.
Megan: Yeah!
Hayley: You're not just a vessel to keep this other human alive.
Megan: Which is a very real thing. And that's starting to be another passion of mine, I know there's projects in that subject matter somewhere, but especially though with freelance creative career mothers… I don't think there's a lot of support for that. I don't think there's really a lot of understanding with that. Like, “Oh, you work from home, what's the big deal?” And it's like, no. Working from home with a tiny person…
It's like giving yourself the grace to say, “I cannot do it all at the same time. And that's okay.” And the grace to say, “It's okay to take the 10 minutes to do the yoga, to write in the journal, to walk around the block, whatever it is.” And that makes me a better human. And to work outside of the box, I think, is kind of my jam right now. It's easier to have my phone to write schedules and do emails and write poems and essay pieces from the Notes app. It's really nice to write from the phone. I mean, it would be cool to have this cozy office with, like, a Queen Anne chair and a cup of tea that is still hot.
Hayley: An open window and like, an ocean breeze.
Megan: Exactly. I am not in that season of life at all. But that's okay.
Amy: Cool. Megan, what is something that is not being talked about right now in theatrical spaces that you wish was?
Hayley: I love this question.
Megan: Oh gosh. I really would love to see a play about women's health care. I can't believe there's not a show about abortion rights. Or…
Amy: I'm writing one.
Megan: …or fertility.
Amy: I'm writing one about miscarriage too.
Megan: Miscarriage, yeah.
Amy: I was just telling Hayley this morning, I've been in this space of “People don't want this,” so it's really…
Hayley: And I was like, I want it. I want it!
Megan: No, I think that's really…I think that's really a need. A show that I'm working on that I think still is needed…there’s not enough conversation about the opioid crisis. And how it doesn't - a heroin addict isn't always the sketchy-looking guy in the corner, you know, it's kids who come from otherwise happy, healthy homes. I'm intrigued by stories that depict the shadows and light of humanity, and I would love to see more of that.
Amy: Yeah. I like the shadows and light of humanity.
Megan: That's the kind of work that I'm always drawn to. Television or film. I am intrigued by stories that make you think. I finally saw the movie CODA. It's brilliant. It is a brilliant, brilliant film. And, to the best of my knowledge, I don't think there's any original source material. It's a movie about a deaf family - that does not get a lot of screen time usually. And it was absolutely riveting. And it was a deaf family, but the cool thing about it is it was a family, you know. It was specific, but it was universal. I think sometimes people get scared about talking about specifics and don't realize how the specifics can often have such a universal reach.
I would love if there was a women director mentorship kind of program. I see movement happening for music, like women in music. There's a lot of organizations like that. But not women directors.
Hayley: Megan, we wanna be respectful of your very valuable time. We have one last question for you, which is what are you most proud of in your life and in your work?
Megan: Oh goodness. Right now, I am most proud of my son. He is an IVF baby, and I have been very open about that. And in doing so, it's given me a different kind of voice with my writing and my work, and the guts and the chutzpah. I just think there's so much power when people are able to talk from the scar. So I am incredibly proud of him.
Work-wise, I have gotten to where I am because I have always sent the email and asked the question and like, put myself out there. The tenacity to keep going is something that I pride myself on. And lately, currently, it's a lot of poetry that I've been writing and trying to sort of find my footing with words that are meant to be read and not necessarily spoken aloud.
And my concert series. I know that my concert series have touched a lot of people, because I get those private messages. In the concert series, I form the collaboration and the community that I'm trying to do. And I see how it lasts beyond - I mean, ‘cause they're just one-off nights, right? But seeing people still be connected and seeing people make new partnerships out of that, I love seeing that. That's something I am very proud of.
Hayley: Well, thank you so much, Megan.
Megan: You all are wonderful.
Hayley: You're wonderful.
Amy: Thank you. It’s so nice to talk with you. Yay.
(Music)
Hayley: Thank you for listening to the Women & Theatre Podcast. We’re your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: And Amy Andrews. If you like what you heard, subscribe and give us a 5-star review wherever you listen.
Hayley: You can also follow us on social @womenandtheatreproject to make sure you never miss an episode.
Amy: The music for this show is written by talented Women & Theatre community member Chloe Geller.
Hayley: Thanks again for listening, everyone. See you next time!
Amy: Bye!
(Music)
