#so i wanted to do this for mischa while its still fun and a creative outlet

[pears-trinkets]

this was my passion project i worked on over the past week! I had these photo albums laying around since 2019 and finally printed out give or take 250 photos and glued them in!

I did it chronologically and it was such a nice trip down memory lane 🥲

[podcake]

Podcast Teatime: The Question Session

A very welcome February day to you all! This is my first Q&A of the new year and I thought no one was better to pick for this beloved series than the creator of The Bright Sessions podcast, Lauren Shippen. 

I’ve been itching to know what this starlet in the podcasting scene has to say about her work on the show, her muses, and what she might have in store for us in the future. 

(The following is a direct copy-and-paste from the email)

Hi PodCake! 

Thanks for reaching out! Here are my answers: 

Question One: What drove you to make the series have therapy as a central plot point? Is it more of a framing device for the overall narrative or is there a more specific reason?

It definitely started as a very convenient framing device. Everyone knows what therapy is, and has an idea of what happens there, so there wasn’t a complicated premise or world that the audience needs to buy into. It also gave me the excuse to keep things confined to two people in one room - those kinds of scenes can be hard to keep active, but with therapy as an activity in of itself, the audience doesn’t get bored (hopefully). 

But ultimately, I wanted to write something that would allow characters to really discuss their feelings and delve into their own emotional lives. People rarely do this in their actual lives, but therapy provides this space. 

Question Two: Is there an ultimate plan you have for your overall story or do you simply make things up as you go along? 

It’s a little bit of both. My writing is always very focused on character, rather than plot, so I usually think about where I want to take the characters and build the plot around that. There are some exceptions to this (which I won’t identify here because: spoilers), but I’m rarely thinking about the big plot machinations first. 

As I start to map out a season, I have a target that I’m trying to hit, whether it’s a reveal about a character, a big change in the dynamic of the group, etc. I then start to write the season with that target in mind, but how I get there is discovered along the way. This has meant that some things have changed pretty drastically from when I started out, but it has also led to some really exciting, organic discoveries about the characters themselves. 

Question Three: Your show has a very interesting cast of characters. Is there a specific character you have the funnest time writing for? Whose the hardest character to put on paper?

I think this shows in his scripts, but I love writing Caleb. That’s why his scripts are usually at least 5 pages longer than everyone else’s. I like getting my brain into that teenage boy voice and I love the contradictions that Caleb contains - he’s smart, but so often oblivious; he’s very caring, but he also has an anger problem; he wants to talk about his feelings, but he can be so bad at communicating. 

I’m also really enjoying writing both Mark and Wadsworth this season. Mark is such a cheery, charismatic person who has been through so much trauma - balancing who he is by nature with what has happened to him is a fun challenge. Wadsworth is just…she’s awesome, and so unbelievably arrogant, but has reason to be, and that’s a lot of fun to write. 

Chloe is definitely the hardest to write. She’s constantly having at least two conversations: the one that’s happening out loud and the one she’s participating in in her head with everyone’s thoughts. Chloe is always at least one step ahead of everyone she’s talking to, so balancing each of those conversations and thinking about how what she’s hearing is affecting her own emotional state can be really difficult. 

Question Four: I tend to use The Bright Sessions as a great example of expressive and effective acting in audio drama and I’m curious as to where you found so many wonderful actors. Did you already know them all or did you seek them out yourself?

I am lucky enough to live in Los Angeles, where I am surrounded by incredible actors that the big shots haven’t discovered yet. Most of the cast are from an acting class I’ve been taking at The BGB Studio for three years. Julia (Dr. Bright), Briggon (Caleb), Charlie (Damien), Andrew (Mark), Phillip (Frank), and Alanna (Rose) all go to that studio and that’s where I met them. 

Anna (Chloe) and I met in a UCB class three years ago, and she introduced me to Ian and Alex M., who play Agent Green and Wadsworth respectively. Briggon, appropriately, introduced me to Alex G., who plays Adam. And then we have Reyn, who plays Charlie Decker, and who I know from ars Paradoxica, which our sound producer, Mischa Stanton, created. So it really is a family affair.

Question Five: The Bright Sessions has been achieving a lot of success in the podcast community over the few years it’s been out. Did you expect it? What do you attribute this success to? 

I definitely did not expect it. I certainly hoped that people would listen, and had lofty goals to have tens of thousands of subscribers, but when we started out I assumed that was a pipe dream. I - and I think this applies to everyone else involved as well - have been delightfully surprised by its success at every turn. In just the 15 months we’ve been doing this, we’ve had so many people listen and send us messages and draw fanart and be enthusiastic, and we are incredibly grateful. 

I wish I could tell you that we followed a very specific set of steps to have a successful podcast, but I honestly have no idea how we’ve gotten to where we are. Obviously, I’m proud of the show - I wouldn’t make it if I thought it wasn’t good - and I think people should listen, but I’m still surprised by how it’s taken off. I spent a lot of time in the early days on Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, etc., just trying to get people to listen and I think putting in those hours really helped. And then I think it’s just been a lot of dumb luck of the right people finding us. 

Being featured in different publications and on iTunes has really helped people find us and those features came up more or less organically - thankfully, there are people out there who actively seek out audio drama and then write about what they like. But mostly, I think the show has done well because we’re telling stories about characters a lot of people can relate to. I’ve certainly made an attempt to write something that is engaging and compelling, but having the actors that we have to bring these characters to life is, I think, our biggest asset. 

Question Six:  What drove you to make this into an audio drama? Do you have any inspirations you’d like to credit?

The reason for making The Bright Sessions an audio drama was two fold. First, there was the practical reason: making an audio drama is far less expensive than making something for film. I needed to be able to do every step myself - the writing, the recording, the post-production - on a tight budget. Audio drama was the solution. 

Second, the creative reason: I like the freedom of interpretation that audio drama provides. I’ve been in fandom spaces for a long time and, though I’ve never been a creator of fan works myself, I’ve always loved consuming them. The wonderful thing about audio dramas is the variety of listener interpretations they spur. Listening to an audio drama is like reading a book - you can fully immerse yourself and imagine the world and the characters however you like. Creating something that encouraged that kind of imagination really appealed to me. There were many creative reasons for sticking to audio, but this was the one I was most excited about.

While there aren’t any direct inspirations for the content of The Bright Sessions, Welcome to Night Vale and BBC Radio’s Cabin Pressure were the two pieces of audio fiction that I listened to before writing The Bright Sessions. WTNV is simple - mostly just one man talking into a microphone, with music. Cabin Pressure is elaborate - multiple scenes with different soundscapes and effects each episode, recorded in front of a live audience, big name actors. I didn’t have the dough for a BBC-like production and I think Night Vale only works as a mostly one-man show because of the magical combination of Cecil Baldwin, Cranor & Fink’s writing, and Disparition’s music. 

That formula is impossible to replicate. When thinking about how I wanted to tell a story through audio, these shows were my two reference points and helped me find the middle ground in which The Bright Sessions exists. 

BONUS: Has creating The Bright Sessions been a major impact in your life? How have things changed for you?

Oh boy, has it ever. The Bright Sessions has become my life. It started as a side project - a way for me to try my hand at writing and do some acting with a couple of friends. It has now turned into a full-time job (or, more accurately, three full-time jobs). On a practical, macro-career level, doing this podcast has completely changed the way I approach my professional life. Whereas before I was mainly an actor, I’m now a “writer/creator”. 

People like the thing I make and they write about it and invite me to come places and talk about it and that could not be more different from the life of general obscurity I lived as an actor. I’m by no means famous or even known outside of podcast circles, but I do feel that I am beginning to experience a level of recognition that is exciting and weird and genuinely a bit confusing. Also on the practical side, the success of the show has opened a lot of doors to me in entertainment that were previously closed. You’ll have to stay tuned on where that leads, because I certainly can’t predict at the moment.

On a personal level, The Bright Sessions has given me so, so much. It’s given me the opportunity to work with people I deeply admire and grow something with them. I cannot ever express how rewarding that is. Beyond the friendships that doing the show has strengthened, and the amazing work I’ve been able to observe in these actors, the show has, funnily enough, been very good for my mental health. Creating the character of Sam was like giving my own anxiety a voice. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend acting out panic attacks for everyone who struggles with anxiety (those scenes are hard) but for me, it has been extremely cathartic. 

Sam and I are very different people in what we want out of life, but our anxieties are the same. It is such a relief to be able to write a scene in which Sam explains why going outside or talking to people or feeling a certain way is terrifying. I now have something to point to and say, “this is who I am, this is how it feels sometimes to just go to the grocery store, these are my fears” and, while that is a vulnerable and frightening thing to lay bare, it has been oddly healing. 

And then to get messages from people saying, “I relate to Sam so much, thank you for her, I feel less alone now” is truly moving for me. It makes me feel less alone and I am unbelievably grateful for that. 

And, mixing the practical and the personal, doing The Bright Sessions finally made me get my act together and actually start going to therapy last year. I thought it was time for me to practice what I preach.

Such elegance. Such confidence. Such charisma towards her field! I want to thank Miss Shippen for doing this Q&A with me and to you all for reading this.

I say you make your appointment pronto and take a listen to The Bright Sessions for yourself. This has been PodCake, end recording.