And what does SLOC stand for before we even begin?

- Schenectady Light Opera Company.

It's a very old fashioned term.

- There you go.

And it is from 1926.

- 1926, yeah.

- Yeah, so what is SLOC and how did it begin?

- Yeah, so we're now known as SLOC Musical Theater.

Light Opera is kind of a term that's like comedic opera that was used kind of at the turn of the century and a long time ago.

So SLOC Musical Theater provides theater opportunities for people around the capital region specifically, you know, we operate out of Schenectady off of Franklin Street.

We've been around since 1926.

And I think what makes us stand out a little bit, 'cause there there's tons of community theater in our area.

We're very blessed with the amount of talent and whatnot.

What helps us stand out, I think is the volunteer aspect.

We are entirely run by volunteers from the board of directors to our leadership.

Anybody that performs in the show, the directors, it's a great volunteer opportunity.

So you know that the people that are a part of it are super passionate about it.

And we came about around the same time as Proctors and Schenectady Civic Theater.

And I like to think that, you know, organizations like ours kind of lay the groundwork for community theater in the area.

And it's because of the volunteers and their passion that, you know, that kind of persevered through world events like World War II we were around for, and as, as recent as the, the COVID Pandemic, to be able to recover from things like that.

You really need to have people that are passionate about it.

And we are, we're very blessed to have been around as long as we have.

We're going into our 98th season.

- Wow.

98 years old.

- Yeah, I know.

- And I know you've been with SLOC, see I think you started off on the marketing committee and now you are the president of SLOC.

- Yeah.

- How did that journey?

- So I started out actually as a performer I was in, was in my early thirties and kind of trying to find some sort of fulfillment in my life to find myself a little bit.

I was single and I wanted something a little bit different.

And my sister Christine really started encouraging me.

She said, I think musical theater's for you musical.

My sister's been involved in theater for years.

She's been with SLOC since the turn of the century, which sounds like a really old fashioned sentence at this point.

I went into an audition for the first time, and I'm not what anybody would call the songbird of a generation.

I, but apparently I did enough that I was, I was cast in an ensemble role.

The rest is history.

Like I fell instantly in love with the idea of community theater.

And with SLOC specifically, just the camaraderie between the cast, the support we got from the board.

And you mentioned the marketing committee.

My profession is graphic design.

After I did auditions and did a couple of shows, I started dabbling in, you know, our social media and helping out with what can we do to promote our shows from there along the way, somewhere I fell in love with my wife.

We met on the, while we were doing the production of "Curtains" in 2018, and then shortly after that I was tapped, I must have done something right, 'cause they wanted me to, for some reason be on the board of directors.

And I'm like, well, that's a good way to give back.

I can see how this place operates and where we can have improvements.

So I joined the board in 2021 and then was elected vice president in 2022, served two terms and was just recently.

- Now you're president.

Yeah.

- Just kind of climbed the ladder unexpectedly.

I'm honestly very humbled.

I didn't think I would be at this point, but it's really just like a privilege to be able to serve the community and to do anything that I can to help out.

- Yeah and it shows you care, you know?

It shows you care and you have the passion there.

So what type of productions and shows does SLOC put on?

- Oh gosh.

We primarily, we do musical theater, so, you know, we kind of rebranded a while back to SLOC Musical Theater, but we do occasionally do some plays.

We did the complete works of William Shakespeare abridged a couple summers ago.

And we're doing this season we're doing kind of a hybrid.

It's a Peter and the Star Catcher.

It's the tail of the origins of Peter Pan.

- Okay.

- And that is, it's a play with music.

So it's not like a full all out musical, but it's kind of like a hybrid type of thing.

But primarily we do focus on musicals.

- And how do you find like folks to direct and put on these musicals?

- Right, so we have an amazing artistic director, Michael Camella, who's been involved with our organization for years.

He assembles a team each year of so a show selection committee.

It's made up of a diverse group of members from not just SLOC, but sometimes from the community, different backgrounds, different experiences.

And they get together and they try to figure out, Hey, what's gonna work for a season?

They put out a call for directors in the area to submit.

They can submit as many shows as they want, and then they kind of pick from there.

But there's just so many variables that come into selecting a season as you can imagine.

You know, we usually aim to have something a little modern, like we're doing "School of Rock" and "Mean Girls" high school version this year, and then you want something classic for some of the older crowds.

So we're doing "Pippen" is closing out our season and then one that tells a story that people may not have heard of before, but has an important message like "Falsettos," which talks about sensitive topics around LGBTQAI rights and the AIDS crisis.

And the exciting thing about this season is it's entirely consists of new directors that are all female.

- Wow.

Okay.

- So step in the right direction.

- That's great.

Definitely excited for that.

So I know you do like a lot of community-based like educational workshops and programming.

So what does that look like to like a newcomer?

Like how do they get involved?

- Yeah, so I mean, one of the productions that we do every season for past decade or so is our youth production.

It's a high school production.

The cast is entirely made of high school students and "Mean Girls."

We just had auditions about a month or so ago, and like 100 local kids came and auditioned.

And the talent in the capital region is absolutely outstanding.

Like, it was really, really tough from what I've heard to really narrow it down.

But aside from that, one thing we started implementing last year was our youth production assistant program.

We've discovered that there are a lot of kids that love musical theater, but they're not really the stage type, but they want to be involved in some way.

Like they just don't want the spotlight on them, believe it or not.

And so we have people assisting with directing, with lighting, with sound, with makeup, stuff like that.

So they get the opportunity to do that.

As far as workshops go, each year we do a series of different workshops.

So this year it's not all set in stone, but we'll usually do something focused on choreography or how to prepare for an audition, how to prepare musically versus acting for an audition, stuff like that.

And it's not always open to just youth that we want you know, put a lot of our focus towards that.

But it's open for adults as well.

Last year we actually had a workshop with Gabby Pizzolo, who, if you don't know her, she played, she was in "Matilda" on Broadway.

"Fun Home" on Broadway.

Two of the shows that we did last season.

She actually has a recurring role now on the show, "Stranger Things" as Suzy, which is Dustin's girlfriend, if you're familiar with the show.

- I do know the name.

- It's Gabby Pizzolo.

She's a SLOC alum.

- Wow.

- Used to be on our stage.

And she was gracious enough to come and run a acting workshop and give some tips to our cast of "Fun Home" and some of the other kids from last season.

So that was really special.

So we're always looking to tap into our alumni and anybody else that can, you know, help educate and promote the community theater.

- That's amazing and I do like how you mentioned like, yeah, how, how do you do an audition if you don't know, like those to me, like.

- I'm still trying to figure that out.

I gotta go to one of these workshops.

- But the career building is so important because you don't know unless you know, and it's not always accessible to get that high knowledge education, you know?

It's really great that you guys are providing that.

- Yeah, we're trying to do it, 'cause you know, there's a lot of passion for it and they gotta go somewhere.

Get a foot in the door and see where you go, 'cause if someone like Gabby can start from Schenectady, New York on our stage and become this, this relatively well-known actress now that means anybody can.

- Exactly.

All right.

So what's some of your upcoming productions and shows that we should look forward to?

What's your new season like?

- Oh yeah, so super exciting season.

I already mentioned it, but I'll get into specifics.

"School of Rock" is our first show.

It opens in a couple weeks.

I got to sneak a little bit of a sneak preview last week.

A little unpolished version.

But it is absolutely outstanding.

It also has a lot of kids in it.

They're the students.

If you're familiar with the movie "School of Rock."

- I am, yeah.

- The musical version I find is even better.

I think it's a lot of fun.

And then we move into our "Mean Girls" High School Version in November, which we're super excited about, followed by "Falsettos" in January.

"Peter and the Star Catcher" in March.

And we close out our season with "Pippen" in May.

And in between there we usually have fundraising events and other things that, you know, kind of develop as the season goes on.

There's always something going on.

- You are always staying busy.

Always staying busy.

Well thank you John for stopping by today.

- Well, thank you so much for having me.

I really appreciate it.

- Appreciate you too.