Interview: Cupcake Theater's Brayden Hade Directs Your Way to AVENUE Q

Cupcake Theater Company's first full-length production post-pandemic, Tony Award-winning AVENUE Q will open January 8, 2022. Got to throw out some queries to director Brayden Hade on some behind-the-scene's info, as well as his multi-career path to the many hats he currently wears working with Cupcake Theater.

Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Brayden!

Thank you, Gil! Happy you reached out.

What factored into choosing AVENUE Q as Cupcake Theater Company's first full-length production since the lockdown?

There were a few factors that contributed to our decision. First off, AVENUE Q has been a staple at Cupcake for years. It is my first time working with the show, but the theater itself has mounted several different incarnations of it over the years that even got the attention of Jeff Marx. For nostalgia alone, it seemed like a good fit to bring back to the new space. Another major factor was the cast size. COVID is, of course, the elephant in the room, and a large cast for such a long run has a lot more potential for complications. With AVENUE Q, we can keep the cast smaller and require weekly testing so both our cast and our audience can feel more secure in their decision to reenter the theater. We also have two hard working swings and two fantastic standbys that cover all the roles in our show. We are able to keep our group small, but also cover all our bases in a way that would be a lot more difficult in a larger show.

What productions of AVENUE Q have you seen before?

I saw the show on Broadway twice in the original run. I saw the original cast, and the first replacement cast. I also saw the 2018 production at Cupcake Theater.

Was being able to manipulate puppets a definite skill needed to pass the initial round of auctions for AVENUE Q?

It actually was not. Our initial audition was a general audition for everything we do at the theater. This includes our main stage musicals, but also our cabaret nights, children's show TOPSY-TURVY and other projects throughout the year. We were mostly looking to find new great singers and refresh ourselves on some familiar faces. In our callbacks for AVENUE Q, my main focus was on finding really great actors who could find the humanity in these roles and live up to the stakes in this heightened puppet world. A lot of the humor in this show comes out of finding the honesty in the situations. The people we ended up casting had a broad range of puppet experience, but definitely dove in to become adept in a matter of three weeks.

Are all the cast and creatives members of the Cupcake Theater Company?

That is a great question! As of now, we do not have a core company at the Cupcake Theater. We have general auditions as well as show specific auditions as the need arises. Having a core company has been a goal of ours for quite some time, however we do also want to engage the L.A. theater community at large and bring in new people as much as possible. As far as theatre staff, our primary staff is myself, Renée Wylder, Marcos Rodriguez and theater owner Michael Pettenato. We do usually hire a new team creative team for each show. We do hope to figure out this balance in 2022 and finally have a core company, and more full/part-time staff positions as well.

Have you worked with any of the cast or creatives before in a Cupcake Theater Company production or otherwise?

Some of these folks are people I've worked with extensively in the past, and some are brand new to me. I met Michael Pettenato back in my theatre blogger days, and have been in two productions at the Cupcake that he directed (MAMMA MIA! and THE LAST FIVE YEARS). James G. Smith III, our lighting designer, has designed a lot of the Cupcake shows. He did a stunning design for a production of THE LAST FIVE YEARS that I was in a few years back with Renée Wylder. It is my first time working with Dylan Price (our music director) and Rehyan Rivera (choreographer) and they have been a complete joy. In a really fortunate turn of events three of our primary cast members (Connor Bullock, Alex Butte, and Lexi Collins,) are people I collaborated with extensively during lockdown. Because of our living situations we were in a bit of a bubble together, and they starred in my web series The Bubble. I recused myself from final casting decisions for that reason, but I was very excited that they made the impression they did in the audition room, and ultimately, I got to work with them again. Everyone else is new to me, and it has been great getting to know them and their talents.

Is there a puppet wrangler included in your creative staff?

We actually do not. The staff at Cupcake is actually a lot smaller and more bare bones than you'd expect for the kind of shows we do. We all wear a lot of hats, so often you'll see one of us with a piece of velcro, some fabric paste, or a hot glue gun attending to some last-minute repairs. I even ended up building the box puppets in "Purpose," and I refashioned two of our puppets (Mrs. T and Newcomer) from other puppets to give them new life. Our wardrobe supervisor Leah France maintains the puppet costumes and repairs/alters them when needed. Most of our puppets in the show are from the 2015 Australian production created by Promotechnics, and are heavily based on the Rick Lyon originals. They are really sturdy thankfully, but when they get damaged past the point we can take care of in house, we usually find a local business that can help us repair them. As far as puppet supervision, we had a really talented puppeteer who has appeared in past Cupcake shows, Tyler Tafolla, mentor the cast on their puppet work.

What's the first puppet you ever were delighted by?

Kermit the Frog. I was obsessed with The Muppets Take Manhattan as a kid. Heck, I'm still obsessed with it. What a good movie! Kermit taught me how much of an emotional connection we can have with puppets. I was heavily invested in him as one might be with a celebrity they really admire. I remember vividly as a child watching the Muppets mourn the loss of Jim Henson. As a little kid I did not understand and equated that to Kermit dying. I was so relieved when Kermit joined the rest of the Muppets at the end of their tribute (he was still alive!). That clip still gets me. Honestly, if you need a good cry look it up on Youtube.

What did you want to be when you grew up? An actor? A director? A writer? A photographer?

WHEN I grow up, I'd like to be all of the above. No honestly that has been a struggle of mine. I've had success and setbacks with each of them. Acting was my first love, but the audition world I entered after college looked very different than it is now. Diversity wasn't necessarily looked at as a positive. I was told by the head of my college theater program that I had to face reality and only look at villain roles because I was darker. As someone of Middle Eastern descent, the options were play a terrorist, or hope to get miscast as some other ethnicity. The latter happened often, and usually to a cringe worthy effect. It's so wonderful that the theater world has evolved relatively quickly. I moved to directing and writing initially out of necessity. I wanted to stay adjacent to the art form. I ended up falling absolutely in love writing and that was my main goal for years. The setback with writing is you never think you're particularly good, and I think that is a general feeling all writers have. It's a whole different set of artistic torture. To me directing is the most exciting because you are collaborating deeply with everyone. Your job is to take what everyone is already doing, the writers, the actors, the production team - edit, filter, and lead everyone to make the most impactful version of the project you can. I love that. Oh yeah, and photography is pretty fun, too...

What gives you greater gratification? Being onstage receiving your accolades at curtain call? Or being offstage watching a cast nail your script or directions? Or seeing a photo you shot published in a national magazine?

Tough question. All three are pretty fantastic. I'd say the biggest rush is when a cast nails something you've written - especially in the beginning stages of the piece. Often, you're wondering if the piece makes sense: if the humor is understandable, if the emotional beats are driving, and if the script even makes sense when read aloud. When the beats land and you get the first laugh, it's pretty magical. When direction is landing, I usually feel a deep sense of appreciation and pride for the actors. Most of my photography is theater photos and headshots, but it is also very exciting to see them appear in print and on websites, but it's more a sense of pride in getting the job done.

What made you move from New York City to Los Angeles? More film and TV opportunities?

I had always planned on eventually moving to Los Angeles but kept putting it off. My friend had a room open up in their townhouse, and since I could work either New York or Los Angeles with Ten Thirty One I decided to take the leap. I had planned on it being temporary, but I'm still here! Film and TV is still on my to-do list.

As a New Yorker, how would you compare the Los Angeles theatre scene with New York's off-Broadway?

I would imagine it being very difficult for an Off-Broadway show to attract the kind of audience it needs to remain open for very long. The sort of work I saw being done Off-Broadway, and even on Broadway had shifted to a more "safe" territory. It seemed that a lot of the really interesting work was coming out of the boroughs rather than Off-Broadway. Queens and Brooklyn were starting to have a pretty vibrant theater renaissance. I'd say the L.A. scene is a lot more similar to the that scene. There are a lot of really interesting theaters out here, with great talent, that have a bit more freedom to try riskier works. Places like Actor's Gang, Rogue Machine, The Road Theater, Echo, The (late) Chromolume, and countless other ones consistently put out great work. I'm biased, but I'd like to say we do some pretty interesting stuff at Cupcake as well, and that is why I started working here.

Besides Cupcake Theater, you're also involved with Bruth Media as their creative director, and Ten Thirty One Productions as their senior casting director. How do you juggle all these responsibilities for these different companies?

Right now, I am just at the Cupcake/Hollywood Majestic. Bruth Media was the production umbrella my close-knit group of New York City artist friends worked under. We produced plays, films, and events, but when I moved to Los Angeles we mostly disbanded. I think a few of the editors might still use the name when working with some of our prior clients, but it is mostly a fond memory at this point. Ten Thirty One Productions (known for the L.A. Haunted Hayride, and Shark Tank) also no longer exists as it was sold to Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group in 2018. However, I left the company in 2016 prior to that. To be honest, the pandemic really had brought many aspects of my career to a grinding halt. Since live theater and events were mostly shut down for over a year, I was unemployed aside from standing video editing gigs with a few schools that had to shift to virtual classrooms. In October 2021, I finally began in person work again and resumed performing with Five Star Theatricals in their production of MAMMA MIA! During this time, I began my work at the Cupcake Theater. There is more than enough to keep busy here, however. We just did a massive renovation, and we're quickly updating our theater's programming and offerings to best serve our audience. There is a lot to look forward to in 2022 and I hope people follow our journey as we reopen the space.

What's in the near future for Brayden Hade?

I'm going to continue to work with Cupcake to develop new and exciting shows, concerts, and events. I hope to continue to direct theater in Los Angeles, as that proved to be very rewarding. It's been a long time since any of us in the theater community have had anything to look forward to- so right now it's just really nice to be back in the theater doing what I love. It's going to be nice to begin dreaming up new projects again in 2022.

Thank you again, Brayden! I look forward to visiting your AVENUE Q.

So excited to have you there. Let me know when you're attending, and I'll be sure to say hi!

For tickets to the live performances of AVENUE Q through February 13, 2022; log onto www.hollywoodmajestic.com