Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Conlon.
Hi Amanda, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was a theatre kid who grew up on Long Island, went to college in Upstate New York and worked at various theatres throughout the Northeast before moving to NYC. My six years in NYC were wonderfully exciting. I hustled and performed wherever possible, self-produced several theatre shows to showcase myself and my friends and got my Equity card doing shows in New Jersey. I also started dabbling in film and commercials which was something I never envisioned for myself but greatly enjoyed. To pay the rent I temped at an office.
I also met my future husband during this time. He’s an entertainment attorney and he always wanted to make the move to Los Angeles, which was also something I never envisioned for myself – all of my friends and family were in New York, the Northeast is all I really knew and yet, at that point, NYC was becoming a grind. The winters, the subways and the cattle call auditions were all particularly challenging. Once I knew he was “the one”, I told him I was on board to make the move. I knew exactly one friend in LA and had never been before, but why not?!
We made the move in December which was mind-blowing to leave NYC in the cold rain and arrive in sunny and 72 LA. Between the weather and reclaiming my personal space by getting around in a car vs. the subway I was immediately hooked. I was lucky to book a few small projects off the bat. I started to hustle with workshops and classes which was great for meeting people and soon was able to join SAG-AFTRA which has opened the door for some exciting bookings.
While my focus had shifted to film, TV and commercials, I still wanted to pursue theatre. I auditioned where possible but wasn’t finding my artistic home. After some time, I decided to create my own theatre group and it was then that Bucket List Theatre was born. The mission being to perform our “bucket list” shows. To date, we’ve produced two plays, three musicals and several cabarets. It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Fun fact: about 95% of our performers moved here from NYC and for several of them, Bucket List was their first LA audition. We’ve since learned we were all in New York at the same time, some of us living blocks away but it took us moving to LA to find one another.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s hard to feel like you have control in such a subjective business. I’ve found great joy in taking creative control, and while I do love it, it can also be very stressful at times, especially when wearing 10 different hats. We’ve also yet to find investors, so all of the projects we produce are out of pocket. It’s the best money I’ve ever spent, but as we grow and would like to expand, the cost of that can be limiting.
A personal struggle I want to share, not for sympathy, but just to bring it visibility, is that I recently learned I have endometriosis. Endometriosis is a debilitating disease that is woefully underresearched and still not even believed by some doctors. On average, it takes someone 7-10 years to get a diagnosis. At least 10% of those with uteruses are afflicted with this. If you think you may have it, I encourage you to seek out a doctor who specializes in it or at least treats it – your pain is real, and I believe you. I’m currently writing an article about my endo journey, but until then if you’d like to know more about what I’ve learned and my personal experience, please feel free to message me.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m an actor-director-choreographer-writer-producer. I specialize in comedy but love to flex my dramatic muscles from time to time. I’m proud that I’m someone who brings people together to create.
All of my projects are my babies and it’s hard to pick a favorite. For Bucket List Theatre, I’m proud of each of our shows for different reasons:
‘All in the Timing’ was our inaugural production. I had first seen the play when I was a kid and my dad and his theatre group performed it. It’s always been a bucket list show for myself and several of our cast members. It was empowering to officially launch our theatre group and it was a successful run.
‘Pageant Play’ was our second production and was lightly attended. We were a cast of four and one night we had three audience members, but they were the BEST audience we had the entire run. It was extremely intimate magic that night. Some of our regular audience members say this is still their favorite show of ours to date even though so few saw it.
‘Missmatch’ was a musical parody I wrote based on my real-life experiences with online dating. It brought me so much joy to have audiences respond and relate so positively to something I’d written. The cast was purely delightful. We performed this at the Hollywood Fringe Festival which was a thrill in and of itself and we took home some accolades to boot!
‘[title of show]’ was at the very top of my bucket list. I couldn’t have asked for a better cast and team to create and perform this show with. I’m really proud of how this one resonated with our audiences and it will forever hold a special place in my heart.
‘Silence! The Musical’ (The Unauthorized Parody of Silence of the Lambs) was one of the funniest, wildest journeys I’ve gone on to date. It was our largest production so far and our audiences were incredible. Some would come knowing the movie, some would come only knowing musicals and so it was always interesting to see where the laughs would come.
‘Bucket List Cabaret’ has been a great avenue to supplement our main stage productions. I thrive on finding uncommonly done material for our shows which goes over great with both the performers and the audience.
‘Drag Race The Musical’ was a quarantine project that I wrote as a love letter to RuPaul’s Drag Race. I love video editing as well, so this project allowed me to flex both my parody writing and editing muscles.
Outside of Bucket List Theatre, I recently performed the Witch in ‘Into the Woods’ which was thrilling.
Several years ago, I created a web series called ‘Orphan Brown’ where I play all 11 Peanuts characters as adults – it’s as ridiculous as it sounds.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I loved, and still love to this day, making my mom laugh. I’m the oldest of four kids, and growing up there was a lot of Barney, Raffi, Sharon Lois & Bram, and other children’s tapes always playing. One of these tapes had a very silly rendition of “There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea”. One day I started lip-synching the whole song as silly as I could, and it made my mom laugh really hard. I think it was in that moment I was officially bit by the acting bug, and I’ve been chasing laughs ever since.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.amandaconlon.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bucketlisttheatre/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bucketlisttheatre
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeGUZkjGVxJwLkYuksq4TPQ
- Other: https://www.bucketlisttheatre.com/
