Interview: CAMP MORNING WOOD Cast Members Bare It All. PART ONE: Leo Ayala

Top notch talent, and a WHOLE LOT MORE, is on display in Prism Theatre’s debut production of CAMP MORNING WOOD, which plays its final weekend in Palm Springs  with just four more performances remaining before the campfire goes out. The show’s premise is about seven characters navigating their inhibitions in the judgement-free, clothing-optional environment of Camp “Morning Wood”. It is far from an evening a high-art or thought provoking theatre but, if you just want to let go of the cerebral and give in to a mindless romp with a wonderfully engaging cast, CAMP MORNING WOOD is the ticket. I had the chance to catch up with Leo Ayala, the actor who plays the musical’s protagonist, Randy, as he was getting “undressed” for e recent matinee performance. (Just kidding about the undressing). Here are a few excerpts from the conversation:

DG: Where are you from and how did your life lead you into a career as an actor?

LA: I was born and raised in Los Angeles, about 5 minutes from the Burbank airport. Performing has always been something that I love doing since I was a kids. I have old home videos of me putting up concerts in my living room for my parents. When my sister was born I threw her a big Barney concert with all the Barney music. It wasn’t until I got into high school that I considered theatre—it’s where I was introduced to theatre. Umm … I was in the show choir program at John Burroughs High School which is one of the top show choir programs in the nation. And, I happened to be in the program during the height of GLEE, so our school was also taken to tour  and perform with the cast of GLEE, so I was on The Oprah Winfrey show back in 2010 with our show choir promoting GLEE. And I started my theatre career there too. My first show that I ever did was Sweet Charity  and I played Vittorio Vidal, and I feel in love with it and I was like, this is something that I want to do. When I graduated high school I didn’t jump into it immediately. I waited about three years before I auditioned for my first big show. It was a production of IN THE HEIGHTS at The Candlelight Pavilion, in Claremont, a dinner theatre. It was my first audition out of high school and I booked it. After that I was hooked, left and right, and since then I’ve been doing it as much as I can.

DG: When did you actually realize this could be a career and not just something you did for fun?

LA: It had to have been 2022. Everything leading up to the pandemic, any theatre job I would do I would think of as a hobby, just something I would do on the side, and I would go to school to do something else. When the pandemic hit and my source of joy and happiness of theatre was no longer being provided for me, and I really sunk into my retail life full time, I started to spiral and go into a little bit of a depression since my outlet was gone. When everything was starting to open up, I told myself “see what happens. Go the first audition, see how far you get. Maybe this is something you can do as well.”  I went to my first audition. It was for a show at Disneyland and made my way all the way to the final round. They brought us in one at a time and sked us why we wanted to work at Disneyland. And, it wasn’t that I wanted to work at Disneyland, it was more of a … I knew that I had this passion and this drive to be a performer, and it was what I was meant to be doing, and the fact that I made it to they very last round just proved to myself that this is what I had to be doing.

DG: Are you now a full-time performer? Is that what you do?

LA: That’s what I do. I also choreograph. I choreographed this production. I started choregraphing for middle school show choirs, specifically the show choir that feeds into my high school, and from there slowly started going into community theatres. I’ve now choreographed two productions of IN THE HEIGHTS, and also URINETOWN. I teach and I perform and my whole world is just arts.

DG: How did you get involved with this production of CAMP MORNING WOOD in Palm Springs?

LA: So, my high school choreographer reached our to me. She said a friend of a friend  know a friend that needs a choreographer. She said this is the rate, they’re rehearsing in Hollywood, are you interested. I said send them my information and we’ll see what happens. That’s when Lance (the director) calls me, explains what the show is, and he says there’s going to be nudity in the show and they were trying to get a choreographer who is a gay man who’s comfortable with nudity and who can come up with choreography very quickly because they were fast-pacing this. And I said, send me the music and I’ll do it.

DG: So, you came on board first as the choreographer.

LA: I came on board as choreographer, not the lead role. When I came on as a choreographer I showed up at the first rehearsal – they had already been rehearsing for a week with the music and the script, but they had two guys that had to drop out of the cast, so I started with a cast of five instead of seven. I said, I can work with this. I started choreographing and said I would start working with this now and whoever we cast later, we will just plug them in. After my first day choreographing, Prince (who plays the character KINCAID in the production) came to pick me up – he and I are together – he came to pick me up and Lance (director) said “You’d be the perfect Kincaid, auditioned him on the spot, booked him – and I thought now by boyfriend is in the show and I’m choreographing and Lance said “since you’re boyfriend is in the show, would you like to stage manage the show. We’re looking for a stage manager”. SO, I said yes. That’s how my journey started. I stage managed the show for the first two weeks of the show and after the second week of the show our lead actor got seriously injured and Lance called me on a Wednesday night and said “we don’t know the severity of it, but try to get off book as much as you can in case you have to go in this week”. On Thursday night it was confirmed and I went in on Friday for the rest of the run.

DG: Was the nudity something you had to think about as an actor?

LA: As an actor --- I think I’m in the stage of my life where nothing phases me anymore. Or, at least I try not to let it phase me. Life is so short. I’ve had many instances where a couple of friends had their lives cut short and so that has changed the way that I lead my life. When I read the script, I thought it was very funny and I thought this is something I have fun with and I’ve never done a part where I was completely naked. I’ve done one where – I did “9 To 5” and I was wearing underwear with a boner in it  -- that’s probably the most extreme I’ve ever done in theater. But this was very much like – are you ready? And I thought I have nothing to hide. I’m very out in the open. Let’s just go for it.

DG: And what about your opening night? What was the feeling like being that “free” in front of an audience?

LA: Oh, my goodness. The applause at the end of the eleven o’clock number just felt so validating that I just let loose, and I thought “this is it”. And, moving forward, if I can do this – picking up the show at the last minute, learning this track in twenty four hours and going up here, getting the support from the cast and feeling that validation from the audience was worth it.

DG: And, what’s next? Do you have an next show waiting in the wings?

LA: I’ll be doing IN THE HEIGHTS at Musical Theatre West. Those rehearsals start two days after this show ends. It’s an ensemble track but I’ll be understudying Usnavi.

DG: If life goes the way you want it to go, what are your professional aspirations?

LA: I do – I mean, well, Broadway has always been on my mind. I have a couple of friends who have made it all the way and I am so proud of them --  waiting for my turn to come. Honestly, the biggest thing for me is letting the work take me places. If I get to travel, and get paid to travel and do what I love to do – that is my goal. I love to travel and explore the world. An international tour would be a dream.

DG: Do you ever have the thought of moving to New York and taking on The Broadway World?

LA: At this moment I’m waiting for my life to take me there. I’m giving myself a five-year timeline. If I don’t make my way there within the next five years, I’m forcing myself to go. That’s my goal.