Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Ketch.
Hi Megan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Let her get up, my pediatrician advised my mom; if she needs to play in the middle of the night, give her safe parameters and let her. Between my parents’ acceptance of my early rhythms and their love, I got an embracive, compassionate start expressing myself. Summer Musicals at Westminster Presbyterian Church, a play at the Arts Council, watching my jazz trumpeter father lead a big band and my backyard treehouse fostered my inner actor. Make believe in the woods between my house and the Johns’, Turner Movie Classic, young adult novels of complex human relationships like Sarah Plain & Tall, Caddie Woodlawn, Bridge to Terabithia, Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, Jacob have I Loved, Ella Fitzgerald’s songbook, some passionate, devoted English and Arts teachers (Mrs. Locket, Mrs. Castello, Ms. Bell) and the luminous actor, Julie Fishell, who I watched transform year after year on stage at Playmakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, NC where I grew up. The Forest Theatre where I played Alice in Wonderland and directed a play I wrote before my first year of college. The Big Little Theatre in Raleigh, the Carrboro Arts Center, Cat’s Cradle, the Jordan High School auditorium under the direction of the mercurial and brilliant Hope Hynes. My artistic imagination got fed by community, expressive adults and the outdoors early on.
That child’s enthusiasm remains vibrant in me. It carried me to NYC after college for thirteen years and through three transformative years getting my MFA at the prestigious NYU Graduate Acting Program (2008-2011). I left grad school with top agents and a manager and got to lead a pilot for ABC, play a detective on a popular procedural on CBS, star in a new play at Williamstown Theatre Festival, do a movie with some of my comedic heroes and meet my future husband at a screen test in Los Angeles. Instant opportunity and buy-in from the industry was both a fairy tale and a gauntlet. Expectations of my competence superseded time to exercise my new skills and hone my voice. Ironically, these high-competing days as a fresh commodity were some of the loneliest and most disorienting of my life. And in turn, they were locomotive, thrilling and at times providential.
My father, the other performer in my family of origin, has reassured me through my nearly twenty years of being an actor with this observation: you love every phase, every aspect of your work. Never lose that. Rehearsal, auditioning, workshops, readings, shooting, publicity, previews, opening, closing, the run of a show. It is all of value. Rejection isn’t friendly. It’s hard and haunting. Something I learned in Al Anon has helped me process rejection: you can’t buy fruit from the hardware store. My takeaway: expectation is what disappoints, not rejection.
Control is bad for the audition and it’s bad for the aftermath. What is yours will be yours. What isn’t yours won’t be yours. Expect to experience the wheel of fortune -up and down, around and around – nothing else.
My clown teacher at NYU, the accomplished actor David Costiable, taught me and my classmates the phrase, no more waiting. He shouted it at us actors when we anticipated, evaded, worried or hid in our scene work. I think it serves beyond side-coaching a scene; I think his advice is vocational too. No more waiting to be proven a fraud or a star. Can I love the work of working it out? The climb, the views, the dark. I think I can.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’ve made a living as an artist for twenty years and I have no firm answers to anything, especially to the obstructive or defeating experiences that often characterize risking and creating. Here are the questions that live in me. I walk with them every day. More and more in my life, I am trying to resist resolution. The most intelligent, soulful, wisest people in my life are very comfortable saying; I don’t know.
I find that when my thinking becomes categorical, tight, unforgiving and pejorative, I suffer. Synapses fire with a lot less elasticity and grace. So here are my personal obstacles and challenges in question form which is – I guess – how I tame what is hard. I try to domesticate what is painful with good questions so I can live with the strain of the unanswerable.
How do I attract and sustain healthy, reciprocal relationships?
How do I become aware of and relieve physical and mental stress?
How do I create boundaries without talking about boundaries?
How can I be a more active learner?
I am a storyteller. Narratives are important to me. How can I let go of the story of my own defeat and support the story of my well-being, my satisfaction, gratitude and fulfillment?
How do I personally define success?
How do I access and nourish joy, belonging and safety in my life?
What is the voice in my head saying? If harsh and discouraging, how can I acknowledge the record scratch and lift the needle?
How can I connect with family and friends I miss who are far away?
How do I grieve?
How do I live with the weight of my student loan debt?
How do I build community?
How do I provide health insurance for myself and my family?
How do I act on faith when a dream (having a baby, making a living acting, owning a home, running a theater festival, etc.) feels out of reach?
What is one true step I can take towards the things I want today?
How do I ask for positive attention from my agents and manager? From anyone?
How do I get people to connect with my writing, my acting, teaching and storytelling?
Right now, what – if anything – am I afraid of?
What parts of myself have I exiled that need to be welcomed back?
How do I play?
How do I rest?
How do I give myself compassion?
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Acting life:
Megan Ketch played Mindy in the Universal Content Productions and Syfy pilot TREMORS opposite Kevin Bacon and was nominated for an Ovation Award for Best Lead Actress in the West Coast Premiere of CRY IT OUT by Molly Smith Metzler at the Echo. She starred in the off-Broadway premiere of Bess Wohl’s CONTINUITY at Manhattan Theatre Club, which she will reprise next year in Los Angeles. Megan led the summer series AMERICAN GOTHIC on CBS and recurred on CW’s hit dramedy, JANE THE VIRGIN. After completing her master’s at NYU Graduate Acting, she was cast as the lead in the ABC pilot GOTHAM, directed by Francis Lawrence and made her feature debut in the comedy THE BIG WEDDING.
Film credits include The Incredible Jessica James and Joachim Trier’s LOUDER THAN BOMBS. She has played recurring roles on The Affair, Reckless, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife and Under the Dome and recently appeared on the CBS breakout drama EVIL and Netflix’s GLOW. She wrote and produced a short film, REMIND ME, directed by Rachel Chavkin, that premiered at Venice Film Festival in 2018.
Writing:
In her blog, Megan writes observations about her life and creativity. A student of mindfulness, she writes most often about nature, art, loss and the work of compassion. Her talisman, the penny – signifying reassurance, luck, confirmation – inspires the form of her essays where she looks for magic in the mundane. Subscribe to receive her essays here.
Megan has written three TV pilots, a short film and a feature screenplay. She is currently writing a vocational book for artists, The Limpet: An Artist’s Stay. The book is a collection of twenty-six essays on resilience, trying and process.
Some of my favorite work as an actor is play development. I’ve had the privilege of workshopping many new plays over the years. Here’s a few projects she’s helped to incubate:
Bay Street Theatre New Work Festival (April 2014) () Attended as an actor, playing role of “Jen” in Molly Smith Metzler’s The May Queen
Chau-Talk-One Series, Chautauqua Theatre Company (August 2015) Commission and Performance of my solo show about Ethel Rosenberg, SING SING, as creator, writer & performer
Middlebury Summer Play Lab (September 2017) Attended as Guest Artist for Screenwriting
Manhattan Theatre Club, New Play Workshop, Continuity by Bess Wohl (November 2018)
Ojai Playwrights Conference (August 2019) Attended as an actor, playing the role of “Penelope” in Kate Cortesi’s play LOVE
The Writer’s Room, Geffen Playhouse (July 2019) Attended as an actor, playing the role of “Nova” in Chelsea Mercantal’s play, The Vanishing Act
Powers New Voices Festival, Old Globe Theatre (January 2019)Attended as an actor, playing the role of “Logan” in Larissa Fasthorse’s The Thanksgiving Play
Echo Theatre Company, New Play Workshop, Breakfast Lunch Dinner by Kira Obolensky (July 2020)
Playmakers Repertory Company, New Play Workshop, The Game by Bekah Brunstetter (December 2022)
Chalk Rep’s Writer’s Group, New Play Workshop, Taboo! by Grace McLeod (June 2023)
Studio:
Founded in the fall of 2019, Studio began as an intimate Monday night scene study in West Hollywood led by actor Megan Ketch and writer/director and casting director Jeremy O’Keefe with ten actors tackling modern American plays. Through the uncertain days of 2020, Megan took full leadership of Studio. She curated Monday night Zoom readings of plays and screenplays until early summer and eventually began teaching a four-week scene study class online until the summer of 2021.
In late October 2020, thanks to an urgent desire to reconvene in person, Megan led an Artist Retreat at the Parkfield Lodge on V6 Ranch in Parkfield, CA. Covid tested and quarantined, twelve actors spent two days in scene study class in the 100-year-old Parkfield Hall, on nature walks, around a fire pit, star-gazing and horseback riding. Seasonal retreats offer Studio actors a holistic reset in a beautiful setting. Five years old, Studio is a referral-only acting community that continues to expand with the committed investment of its members.
Directing / Producing:
Megan adapted, directed and produced an immersive theatre event in April and May 2023 called Chekhov in Love by stringing together the love scenes from Chekhov’s five major plays. The Chekhovian love scenes were complimented by interludes between the characters of Anton Chekhov himself and his wife Olga Knipper. Ketch crafted the interludes from some 800 letters the lovers wrote to one another in the five years they courted and were married before Chekhov’s death at 45. Chekhov in Love, an urgent discourse on artistic sacrifice, change, and loss was co-produced by Studio and 14-Forty at The River LA in Frogtown.
What does success mean to you?
When I was little, I had a treehouse. In my treehouse, there was always something that needed doing as I was always expecting a guest. Mud pies needed making. The (dirt) floor needed sweeping; animals needed rescuing, furniture needed moving, adventures needed taking, the one real window needed cleaning, blackberries needed gathering, on and on and on. Defining success in my life as an artist is no different. It is care-taking, it is staying in process, it is finding joy in the expectancy because some guests never show. It is the survival and daily strengthening of the imagination. And the loosening and softening of self-doubt. Success is practicing; trying again. It’s trusting the usefulness of the wanted and the unwanted.
Pricing:
- Studio Scene Study $250 / month (Four Mondays)
- Artist Retreats $450 / Instruction & Lodging
- Audition Coaching $125 / 75 min session
Contact Info:
- Website: meganketchstudio.com
- Instagram: @meganketch @meganketchstudio
Image Credits
Headshots & Scene Study Shots: Logan Fahey, Fahey Foto Production Photos: Vova Goroshnikov
