Director's Notes: Episode 248 - Mother Lauren (Patreon)

In October of 2008, I moved to New York City. I had never been to New York, didn't know anyone there, and had nothing lined up. I moved into an apartment in a part of Brooklyn I had never heard of, with two roommates I had never met. This was before google maps, and the cab driver had no idea where the address was, so we had to try to find it together. When I got there, my new roommates were both gone, and I had to wait for two hours on the stoop with all of my possessions for one of them to come back and let me in.

A meeting of current and former SomethingAwful employees in NYC in Dec 2008. I'm in the front left, and peeking his head out in the far back left is Disparition.

Soon after, in January of 2009, I auditioned to be a member of the experimental theater group, the NY Neo-Futurists. I was lucky enough to get past the initial stage of the auditions, and was invited to the callbacks, which was a weekend intensive where we would write and perform several short works. (Incidentally, one of the other people who got called back that year was Kate Jones, who would eventually play Michelle Nguyen in Night Vale.)

I was very insecure about my theatrical abilities , and rightly so. I had no formal training, my acting experience consisted of a Boys and Girls Club production of Grease in high school, and my writing experience mostly consisted of writing snarky comedy articles for an obscure website. One of the first pieces I watched that weekend was by someone named Lauren Sharpe. She threw a surprise birthday party in the room. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember immediately knowing that she would be cast. It was blindingly obvious that she had both the presence and talent for it.

Me doing....something at the Neo-futurist callbacks in January 2009.

We happened to be on the same subway home that day, which is when I learned that she was also an incredibly nice person. And over the following years, almost everyone in that callback room would become some of the first and best friends I had in this new and strange city.

And here, 15 years later, is Lauren Sharpe, still demonstrating an undeniable talent. When you find someone that is both that good (in terms of skill) and good (in terms of human decency) then you keep them in your life.

A note that the double audio technique was borrowed wholesale (with permission) from the incredible podcast Imaginary Advice, whose creator Ross Sutherland has always been on the forefront of innovation in audio fiction.

-Joseph Fink