dreading the boards

an actors’ nightmare podcast hosted by jen ponton + lillian bustle

Bret Shuford and Stephen Hanna are the Broadway Husbands--openly LGBTQ married working actors, performers, and BroadwayLife coaches. Bret has performed, produced, choreographed and directed dozens of Broadway, Regional, National tours, viral videos, television and film productions from Wicked to the Wolf of Wall Street. His industry insights have been featured in leading outlets like The Huffington Post, Backstage, Today Show, Good Morning America, and America’s Got Talent. Stephen was a soloist and principal dancer with the New York City ballet, going on to perform on Broadway in Billy Elliott, On the Town, An American in Paris, and Hello, Dolly! He has also appeared on television in All My Children, Boardwalk Empire, Forever, and Pose. Broadway Husbands IG | YouTube | From Imposter To Influencer Map

Born in Puerto Rico to a Cuban mom and Mexican dad, Paco was inspired to be an actor after an episode of The Wonder Years where Winnie Cooper plays the lead in “Our Town”, and he hasn’t really looked back since. With a resume that includes costars like Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Morgan Freeman, Hamish Linklater, Julianna Margulies, Ice-T, Pedro Pascal, Tea Leoni, Dave Bautista, and Ed Burns, Paco is a familiar face in New York film and television--but his favorite production thus far is his son. Paco's IG | Paco's Twitter

Hailed by LA Weekly as a “force of nature”, soprano and Fat Politics artist-activist Tracy Cox is a performer whose talent has been recognized across the industry, garnering her a Sullivan Foundation Award, the Birgit Nilsson Prize at Operalia, the Kirsten Flagstad Award from the George London Foundation, a Sarah Tucker Study Grant, and the top prize from the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. She has sung with orchestras around the world, and currently has over 20,000 followers on her Instagram @sparklejams where she centers fat liberation, fat vanity, and fat talent in the performing arts. Tracy’s IG

Doug Plaut is a New York-based Actor and Writer, most known for playing Terry on UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT. Other Credits include DAREDEVIL, VICE PRINCIPALS, HURRICANE BIANCA: FROM RUSSIA WITH HATE, NAOMI AND ELY'S NO KISS LIST, THE PREPPIE CONNECTION and THE MIMIC. He will next be seen in Charles Busch and Carl Andress' THE SIXTH REEL. Doug's IG | Doug's Twitter | Doug's IMDb

Dahlia De Fé is a burlesque performer cheekily known as the 'Witchy Wet Dream.' A darkly sardonic provocateur by night, they are a crew member by day! Dahlia's resume behind the camera includes shows like THE BLACKLIST and several murdery reenactment shows on Discovery ID, as well as behind the scenes at The Public Theatre and Heartbeat Opera. In a particularly poignant moment for labor and union policy, Dahlia tells us all about the sometimes exciting, but mostly deeply exploitative life of a crew person--and why we need our unions to stand up and fight for fair hours, reasonable rest, and balanced lives. Dahlia's IG

Melissa Center is an actor, filmmaker & crowdfunding coach. As an actor she was most recently seen opposite Susan Kelechi Watson on This is Us. Additional credits include Grey’s Anatomy, True Detective, and Masters of Sex. She wrote, produced, and starred in solo show Marrying Jake Gyllenhaal, which was hatched in partnership with Mark Duplass for Seed&Spark's Creative Sustainability Summit & debuted at Edinburgh Fringe as part of their 2021 digital program.  Her feature film All I Want is currently streaming across platforms & her award-winning short R.V., about the threat to women’s reproductive rights, has screened around the world in addition to reaching half a million people online (and counting). www.melissacenter.com | Melissa's IG

Kay Koch is a musical theater actress/singer, puppeteer, classic rock maniac, and general maker-of-geeky-joy! Kay has been collaborating with Jen for (a highly memorable) 5 seasons on original puppet-based webseries THE WEIRDOS NEXT DOOR. She has produced a long-running all-female production of 1776, where she plays Thomas Jefferson. She has similarly gender-bent the role of The Baker in INTO THE WOODS, and just closed a run of THE SOUND OF MUSIC starring as Maria. KayKoch.com | The Weirdos Next Door

Kathy Deitch made her Broadway debut in the original cast of FOOTLOOSE and later created the role of Shen Shen in the smash Broadway hit WICKED. She made her LA acting debut at the Hollywood Bowl in RENT directed by Neil Patrick Harris. Other credits include: SILENCE! THE MUSICAL (LA Weekly Award), AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW, and MAGIC MIKE XXL. She hosts and co-created PLUS THIS! SHOW, a weekly vodcast on UBN GO that highlights fat excellence. She’s a founding member of Fatch Comedy, a fat femme sketch comedy group, and she’s been featured in SLiNK & FabUPlus magazines, SoulPancake, and Home & Family on the Hallmark Channel. Plus This IG

Gianluca Russo is a fashion and culture writer who specializes on the topic of body diversity. His NYLON column “Plus Us” explores the many ways in which larger-bodied individuals are discriminated against in society today. Gianluca’s work has also appeared in GQ, Glamour, InStyle, Teen Vogue, and more. Gianluca is the CEO and co-founder of The Power of Plus, a size-inclusive digital community aimed at promoting love, respect, and style for every BODY. He is currently writing his debut nonfiction book under the same name, which is set for publication in 2022 from Chicago Review Press. For more, visit www.RussoG.com. Gianluca's IG | Gianluca's Twitter

Cara Connors is an LA-based comedian and multifaceted homosexual with an ass that won’t quit. Cara stars on Dating #NoFilter on E! and her feminist investigative comedy series, Cara Takes Up Space, is now streaming on OUTtv. In 2018, she performed at the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal and recently debuted her first hour long stand up show at the New York Comedy Festival as a part of the Upright Citizens Brigade Headliner series. A regular headliner at indie comedy shows across Los Angeles, Cara also hosts a monthly queer showcase, Straight for Pay (on tour in 2022). Cara's IG

Greg Jolley is a New Jersey artist of all mediums. With a stage career that spans over 20 years, as an actor, he specializes in swashbuckling Shakespeare with a vast, storyfilled background in children's theater, musicals, and dance. He enjoys a rich career in photography and filmmaking, and you can check out his most recent film BEEN A WHILE here. Greg's IG | gregjolleycreative.com

Celey is an actor, writer, and comedian, working on both coasts and based primarily in Los Angeles. She's currently in development of a queer romcom feature, and a TV series centered on a women’s college ice hockey team. Most recently, on stage, Celey opened for Michelle Wolf in Burlington, Vermont. On screen, she can be found on Comedy Central, the Travel Channel, and in various commercials including Snickers, Aflac, and Yoplait. She is a lead on the SeekaTV show “Extra/Ordinary”, opposite BBC’s Will Turner Roden and Broadway’s Tiffany Mann, and a series regular in the upcoming digital series “Followers.” Celey’s voice can be heard on the popular nostalgic movie review podcast Still Got It, which she hosts and produces. Celey's IG | Celey's Twitter

Sara Minisquero is a lifelong New Yorker and stage critter of multiple talents: acting, crooning, crafting, stage management, and production design. They’ve worn every hat (plus the Community Contessa apron) for over 15 years. Sara formerly stage managed for FutureProof, and was the stage manager in residence for Funhouse Philosophers at Coney Island USA. Immediately prior to COVID, they co-founded the performance art company Marshmallow Minxes Presents, as well as the monthly variety show Boodoir. Sara also hosts mixed-medium shorts at SongsofSaranalia.com.

Toni Robison-May was raised on Star Trek and Masterpiece Theater in Oklahoma, which as a queer Black girl, gave her the solid sense of being an outsider that feeds mosts artists. She took that and her love of creativity to get her BFA in Theatre, then to NY. After graduating from the William Esper Studio, she started making her own short films. That led her to AFI’s screenwriting program in LA. She’s now living the multi-hyphenate life of acting, writing features, pilots and poetry, and directing. She does all of that while cuddling her cat and her dog, and pushing for the changes in storytelling that we need on screen and on stage - more inclusion, more queerness, more people of the global majority. Toni’s IG

Liza Poor is an actress working in theatre, film, TV, voice-over, and... ...TikTok? (Yup.) She also produces the podcast DVD Deathmatch, where she and her husband cull through their enormous movie collection. Liza’s IG | Liza’s TikTok | lizapoor.com

Tricia Alexandro is a native New Yorker who loves using her art to engender compassion and communication. She writes and performs monologues embodying the unsung heroes of NYC, the women of all ethnicities with whom she grew up and interacted in Queens. She also loves to throw down on the dance floor (she particularly loves swing dance). Tricia is a life coach and personal trainer, to boot, and delights in helping people access and express the greatest version of themselves. Tricia’s IG

Born in NYC, raised in the South, Tanya Perez is a Latinx, performer, writer & filmmaker specializing in short-form comedy. Her films PEEP SHOW and VERONICA have swept festival awards for ‘Best Actress,’ ‘Best Screenplay,’ and ‘Best Latinx Short’. Perez also received an ‘Audioverse Award’ nomination for her audioplay, RINCON. She is a featured writer on the upcoming audio narrative THE LIGHT AHEAD produced by Naomi McDougal Jones, and is a member of Latinx Playwrights Circle & Brown Girls Doc Mafia. Today, Tanya shares with us stories from her early stint as a militant ballerina, to attempting Dirty Dancing for an unappreciative crowd, to clowning at a Shoney's for beer money. Tanya's IG | Tanya's Twitter

Tessa Slovis’ inaugural short film PIZZA PARTY (Director, Writer, Producer) has been featured in 25 international and Academy Qualifying film festivals, garnering her several Jury Mentions and awards. She currently freelances as a bicoastal hyphenated artist: acting, writing, producing, and directing. You can catch her in the SXSW Jury Prize winning film SHITHOUSE as well as onstage around LA and NYC. Today, Tessa shares with us stories of her upbringing in musical theatre--including Very Serious Thespian Children, Very Serious Musical Theatre Camp, and why you probably shouldn't do CATS with teenagers. Tessa's website | PIZZA PARTY Instagram

Duncan's plays have been produced all over, including THE UNDERPANTS GODOT, THE TRAGEDY OF DANDELION, and THE STARSHIP ASTROV, and his STRAPPED FOR DANGER feature films are available to stream. He also created the Naughty Jewish Boys calendar, a love letter to good Jewish Boys who wear their yarmulkes... and often nothing else. Today, Duncan shares stories of local Florida theatre, odious-smelling co-stars, and a very special Burger King barbershop quartet. Duncan's Instagram | Duncan's website