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Artist Spotlight: Tyler Elliott

Over the past couple years, I’ve talked to a lot of actors, most of which are pretty seasoned.  But, obviously, it’s not just seasoned actors on stage.  There are so many up and coming young people who are dazzling on stage, and are forging a new era of theatre.  I think, now more than ever, we need to be talking about the young actors we’re seeing.  Theatre is something for all ages, and that includes the people we’re seeing acting.


I’ve seen Tyler Elliott a few times over the years, and he’s absolutely phenomenal.  The roles I’ve seen him in are so different from each other, and he totally delivers with each one.  Having such a wide range is always an impressive thing, and Elliott has proven he’s fully capable, from everything I’ve seen him in.  Breaking in is hard.  It’s something that all actors have to face at some point.  And I think this area is really great for that.


I just saw Tyler Elliott in It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play!, and I had such a great time watching him.  I was so excited to get to ask him some questions about the show, life, and his process.  I truly had such a great time watching this show, and Elliott was a big part of that.  His portrayal of multiple characters and transitioning beautifully between them was spectacular.  And thank goodness, he had a lot to say!


What is it like navigating the theatre world as a young actor?

I think a big reason I came to Philadelphia, having grown up in New York, was because I saw this city as being a place where I could carve a path in the theater world as a relative unknown; a city that felt collaborative and challenging and exciting with the art it was curating. I still feel that way. Obviously as a young actor there are a fair number of challenges, as the case is for any young professional getting started, but the community has always felt nurturing and rich in its sense of identity—that sense of pride is so encouraging as a young artist.  



You jump from character to character so well in It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play!  How did you prepare for each role, and not letting one bleed into the next?

It’s a Wonderful Life is one of my mom’s all-time favorite Christmas movies and we watched it every year around the holiday season growing up, so I definitely came into the project intimately familiar with the source material. That being said, creating (and maintaining) a bunch of characters on stage is definitely a skill set I had to work on. I try to keep the characters as distinct as possible by picking specific “bodies,” postures, voices, facial expressions, cadence changes, anything I can do to earmark a character(s) with a “AH this is so-and-so thing.”  For example, Mr. Potter (who is sheepishly my favorite) has a slight down-turned bend in the right side of his mouth that makes him speak a certain way. He also tugs at his tie and bends his back down slightly. Little tricks like this help me keep the characters apart (and hopefully help the audience too). I also made a mini-reel of all of the characters on tape in the first week(s) of rehearsal and watched the tape back to see if I could find similarities/differences I wanted to be more conscious of. 



Radio personalities have a very distinctive way of acting and speaking.  How was embodying this, not just in your voice, but in your body and whole being?

I had a ton of fun with the “radio-personality” aspect(s) of the show. What a joy it is to embody such an iconic period of time; the showmanship, the Mid-Atlantic accents, the costume of it all. I think the accent really sums up the entire aura of the era, an accent that somehow marked a distinction based on nothing at all, a blending of American and British English that just sounded a little fancy and therefore must indicate some fanciness. Everything is so performative during this era, it’s a blast to lean into the showmanship of it all. 



This show is a very specific and unique type of comedy.  I can only imagine the experience was specific and unique as well!  Did you enjoy all the different ways you got to play it?

I think we got a chance to talk about this when you came and saw the show, but this show really felt like one where Pete (the director) and Marcie (artistic director) put a sense of trust in me as a professional to explore and play with characters that I rarely get the opportunity to embody; archetypes of the old-man villain, or the tough-guy bartender, or the omnipresent narrator angel. That kind of trust in an actor is something that is uniquely special in our industry and I’m overwhelmed with gratitude. It made for an experience that was collaborative and unhinged in the best ways and manifested a rehearsal room that felt creatively open. The characters feel very personal and that is something I will cherish in years to come. 


Were there any lines or parts of the show that were difficult to get through?  Whether because you laughed through them, had trouble delivering, or any other reason?

Oh, there were tons of lines and bits that were difficult to get through, mostly because they became a playground for exploration for those of us on stage. I think it’s a real testament to the cast, but we became really close as the production went on and as we became untethered by the “strict rules” of the show, I think we all started to allow our own senses of play color in the bits that make a live radio show different from a staged reading and that’s when it really entered its full swing. A couple of highlights include: the Potter/Sadie Vance scene with Kennedy McCalister, who is just a brilliant performer (and has a pretty brilliant singing voice as well). She is the type of actor you can throw the most ridiculous jokes her way and she’ll throw ‘em back just as hard. Those types of people to share the stage with are special. Also a special shoutout to Ryan Holmes, our wildly talented pianist. I had to make up an introduction for him every night, some that he even had to (unbeknownst to him) join in on and he was so quick to pick up on the joke and make it even better. I often found myself cackling in amusement at how sharp he truly is. One show I had the entire audience sing him Happy Birthday while he stood at the front of the stage. Of course, it wasn’t his real birthday which made it all the funnier for us up on the stage. A couple shows later he got me back by having everyone boo me! That sort of dynamic, of friends on stage, doing professional work is really difficult to predict or curate. When it happens, you hold onto it. It makes for story-telling that you can’t fake. I hope the audience had even half of the fun we had. 


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If there’s one young actor you absolutely must see on stage, it’s Tyler Elliott.  I’m completely certain that he is going to carve that path as a young actor and continue to grow and grow into someone who’s going to make a name for himself.  I can’t wait to see what he does next, and I can’t wait to experience all of that from my end of things.  Elliott is definitely someone who’s going to make a splash in the theatre world.

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