Actor, writer, casting director, and all-around stellar human Karissa Murrell Myers shares her experiences as an actor and philosophies as a casting director while advocating for diversity across the board.
Karissa Murrell Myers (she/her) is a Filipino-American theatre artist based out of Chicago. She was also named American Theater Magazine's 2020 Roll Call: 13 Theatre Workers You Should Know for her work in casting. In our conversation, we cover the differences between NY, Hawaii, and Chicago theater scenes, why diversity is so important to her, going to college at 16 years old, beating out every white guy who auditioned for Iago in a Chicago production of The Scottish Play, playing Lady Nijo in Top Girls, not just in Chicago but also in Milwaukee, and her dream of creating a theatre company that fosters and grows artists - and how it may have come true!
Trigger Warning: discussions of weight, numbers in pounds, eating disorders, cutting, alcoholism.
Calls to Action:
Asian Americans Advancing Justice:
https://www.advancingjustice-chicago.org
Felines and Canines:
https://www.felinescanines.org
Edited by Amelia Driscoll at Summit Podcasting - https://summitpodcasting.com/
Music by Eric Backus - https://www.ericbackus.com/
Artwork by Meredith Montgomery - https://www.meredithmontgomery.design/
Hi. Welcome to Big Bones, Thick Skin - the podcast that talks to marginalized actors about their experiences in the entertainment industry. I'm your host Claire Alpern. This podcast is near and dear to my heart because I am a plus-size actress and I've had to navigate a very specific journey in the acting world.
Here I'll be holding space and having conversations with other plus-size actors, as well as those who identify as trans, Black, Asian American, queer, gender non-conforming, tall, short, old, young, and more - to tell their stories and share their feelings of being miss- or under-represented in entertainment.
We want it to change. We want to see everyone represented, but we need to talk about it first. And this is the first step in doing so. Welcome to Big Bones, Thick Skin.
It's our responsibility to acknowledge that the land where we live and produce is occupied land. Chicago, Illinois is the territory of the Potawatomi, the Kickapoo, the Miami, and the Peoria peoples. We pay our respects to elders both past and present.