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On this episode I talked with Austen about her upbringing in a theater family and her initial hesitance to pursue a career in the arts, despite her passion for world-building, pivotal moments from her high school years that solidified her love for theater, influenced by iconic productions like ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Wicked’, the significance of experiential gift-giving, her transformative experience studying Shakespeare in London which deepened her understanding of acting and the relevance of language in performance, the challenges of sustaining performances over extended contracts, her experience understudying multiple roles in Days of Rage off-Broadway, the impact of audience reactions during live theatre, the Diana the Musical timeline, filming Diana for Netflix without a live audience, her audition for Glinda on the national tour of Wicked, Glinda’s complexity and the necessity of staying present during performances to maintain authenticity, how she’s similar to Glinda and how she’s different from Glinda, the organization Arts Ignite and the importance of bringing the arts to everyone, her original music, and much more!
Austen (she/her) is a many-hatted maker. She craves and cultivates spaces of creative incubation that allow for the unveiling of undercurrents and underbellies. In life and in art, she centers collaboration and community, pleasure and play. As an actor, Austen has played on Broadway, on screen, and at theaters around the country, often telling stories through song (she’s currently playing Glinda in the national tour of WICKED). She’s a big believer in the power of live theater (+ music) as a sneaky little conduit to the shared well of human experience. As a teaching artist, Austen has served as one of Arts Ignite’s longest running residents, facilitating learning spaces and devising processes in India, South Africa, and all five boroughs of New York. As a songwriter, she releases tender tunes under the name Plain Austen. As a kooky aunt and trusty pal, she has painted many murals in the homes of loved ones. Austen is a yoga student/teacher, a slow-but-avid reader, an amateur chef, and an in-process-pursuer of decolonial frameworks. She loves dreams, Butoh, David Lynch, and composting.
