Originally from Albany, New York, Cathryn Wake has been on Broadway, television, and—as of the last few months—Twitch. The actor/singer/musician/gamer is talking to me via FaceTime from her apartment in New York.
“I really got interested in theatre through my public school drama club,” she says, “and also through the robust community theatre scene in the Capital Region.”
I’m admittedly biased, being a fellow public school graduate, and the son and brother of public school educators—but Cathryn and I share the belief (and the experience to prove) that one doesn’t need to go to a private performing arts high school to make a career in theatre.
“Now more than ever, schools are struggling for funding, and arts programs are being cut left and right. So it’s especially important to highlight that I’m a theatre professional—and I’m a product of public school arts education. I had my music education and my first intro to musicals through public school.”
It was through her school system that she got the opportunity to study in Japan—after she had finished her senior year in Albany.
“It was an exchange program, but it was a gap year. I was one of the youngest in my grade, and Rotary International had this rule—I don’t know whether it’s still their policy—if you didn’t turn 19 when abroad, you could do the fifth year of high school. So I did four years of high school, and then I took a gap year, like a fifth year of high school. You kind of think about it like, ‘what high school senior would go back to being a high school senior again?’” she laughs.
When Cathryn returned from her year abroad, she knew that she wanted to pursue a career in theatre. There was only one problem: college theatre programs hold auditions in the middle of senior year as part of the application process. Since Cathryn was in Japan during these auditions, she had to wait another year to go to theatre school.
“I came back home, and I went to community college for a year. I’m a big proponent of community college, because it allowed me to afford my education at Pace University. I only went [to Pace] for three years, and I got all my prerequisites out of the way for free.”
Living in Manhattan for her college years made Cathryn’s transition to post-college life easy, and she quickly found herself gainfully employed in the industry she’d set out to be a part of.
“My first professional gig was The Fantasticks off-Broadway, and that’s how I got my Equity card. Things sort of took off from there—I don’t mean to say took off, because we all have dry spells; there are rainy seasons and there’s drought. But Fantasticks really launched my career and got me a bit of a footing in the industry.”
She left The Fantasticks for a new show called The Other Josh Cohen at Papermill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey.
“Other Josh Cohen was my first realization that my musical skill could be used in the theatre…I played nine instruments in the show. I am more of a singing actor; I don’t really dance—but could I be a triple threat as an instrumentalist? I realized: ‘we’ve got something here.’
“And that’s how Glee came about—I was a bassist on a carousel while Amber Riley sang “Natural Woman”. It was fun, it was just a quick costar spot, but it was my way to be on TV for the first time.”
While Cathryn’s special skills got her work as a day player on television, they would also earn her a place in the ensemble of Broadway’s Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.
“They were looking for an ensemble member who also played clarinet,” she says, “and there was only one spot to fill. For the final callback, our choreographer Sam Pinkleton wanted to see us move with our instruments. On the final beat of the final measure, when the entire creative team has come back in to watch—when they’re really adjudicating you—my clarinet came apart in two and came crashing down onto the floor.
“In that moment, how do you recover from that? I grabbed the two pieces, I licked them, and I did a backbend. There’s no other thing you can do! You’re like, ‘my horn is broken, there’s no dignity left here at the final callback for Broadway.’
“And I had to play that horn in front of the team an hour later for the singing and music portion. So then I go back into the hallway at Pearl Studios, and I have about 45 minutes until I go back in front of the team. I put the horn back together, I do a chromatic scale, and I find that two of the keys are stuck. I mean, of course—they crashed down on the hardwood floor. And so then I go through my solo…and I find that I don’t use either of those two keys in the whole solo! And at that point I was like, ‘Come at me! Let’s go!’”
She got the job.
“And the way Great Comet’s ensemble worked—which I loved so much, and I think other shows can really take note of—is that they cast actor-musicians not just to be onstage musicians, but actual ensemble members. Yes, I had my clarinet for a couple numbers, but then I would go dump the clarinet, put on a ball gown, and dance. So the actor-musician ensemble members were fully ensemble members in the show.”
Unfortunately, the show was forced to close after a little less than a year—and rather unexpectedly. The company only received three weeks’ notice that they’d soon be out of work.
“It really opened my eyes to how many people are employed in one given Broadway show, and how ephemeral our art form is. Our art form is as ephemeral as a baker’s art form; after it’s consumed, it’s gone, and so it opened my eyes to how quickly something that you love, your job that you were so sure about, is just gone.”
In other words, Cathryn and her colleagues discovered a few years ago what the entire theatre industry would experience in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced theatre venues to shutter.
At the start of the pandemic, Cathryn was at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, working on the world premiere of Joe DiPietro’s play Conscience.
“I made the mistake of opening my phone,” she says. “Harriet Harris and I shared a dressing room, and we both were like, ‘oh wow, Broadway shut down’—which, of course, set the precedent for everybody. We did the performance, we went home, and I got a phone call at 9pm that night from our director, David Saint, saying that we needed to close the show.
“But what was so wonderful was that they paid our salaries through the end of the run, which not every theater was able to do.”
Out of a job, Cathryn went home to spend some time with family. With her career on pause, she had time on her hands, and she quickly realized how she could spend it.
“I quarantined upstate for a bit and stayed there until May, came back, and that was when I had the idea to start streaming on Twitch.
“I had a feeling that this pandemic was going to go on a lot longer than we thought. I was aching to perform, in a way that wasn’t a Zoom reading, in a way that wasn’t an Instagram Live.
“Streaming on Twitch had been a long time to-do for me. I’m a gamer, and I sort of realized, I want to make my own show. And then the pandemic hit, and I realized that now’s the time.
“My brother [Tyler] got a bunch of streaming equipment back in 2015, ‘cause he was thinking of doing it, and so I said, ‘let’s do this together!’
“He’s a New York City improviser, and of course, all the improv theaters were shut down too. He wasn’t doing any of his art either, and so we teamed up together, and started a thing called Basement Fort.
“That summer was very funny, because I didn’t spend any of it outside. I spent it in my bedroom, setting up my new gaming PC and troubleshooting and turning my old iPhone 6 into a webcam, and trying to figure out how I can cheaply start my own show—not just filming myself playing video games, but starting an actual channel. Building a brand where we can produce digital content in the form of shows, but then hopefully expanding to include an audience of both Broadway fans and video game fans.”
Since Cathryn and Tyler started streaming a few months ago, they’ve gained over a hundred subscribers. And while their content largely revolves around gaming (Twitch is a video game streaming platform, after all), they also use the channel to talk about acting work and to feature interviews with special guests from the realms of Broadway, TV/film, and voiceover.
Cathryn created most of the graphics used for Basement Fort and its social media. The talented actor/singer/musician is also a skilled graphic designer.
“I joke that one of the biggest bang for my buck that I got out of my BFA is the Photoshop class I took! I studied Photoshop and Illustrator, and not only did I have a day job as a web developer for a while—so it sustained me in that way—but I have the skills to create most of our content.
“I feel like theatre students don’t realize that theatre, oftentimes, does not pay the bills; you have to supplement. I think kids think that they’re going to be on Broadway, or book a couple of commercials and be set, and yeah, that’s some folks’ story, but that’s not everyone’s story. It’s a sad but true fact that you’re going to have feast and famine.
“I really think we need to start teaching our arts students basic personal finance, budgeting—we never learned any of that—but then also: what special skills do you have, and how can you use what you already have interest and skill in, to use as your day job?
“Yes, we all could be waitstaff, but I’m terrible at it. I’m five feet, and my wingspan is two feet, and I can maybe carry two plates, and also I have anxiety—I was a terrible waiter. Terrible. So I was so grateful that I was able to find a day job that I had skill in, that I had natural interest in.”
In addition to creating streaming content, Cathryn’s also been able to find some voiceover work to hold her over. But her union-provided health coverage ends in March (coverage is based on weeks worked) and Cathryn is worried about having to face that reality, especially with an unpredictable timeline for when theatre might come back.
“We’re one of the last sectors who can’t get back to work. The very nature of our art involves people congregating in poorly ventilated, close proximity. [Broadway theaters] were built in the last century, and the backstage is cramped, and even the audience seating is tight quarters, so there’s just no possible way—until we’re vaccinated—for us to get back to work.
“I got my BFA in the career that I actually pursued, and I’m unable to work, in any capacity. There is no work for stage actors.
“We are skilled arts workers, and our industry has vanished, and many of us have sustained ourselves in this industry that is gone, that would otherwise be employed—people would otherwise be on Broadway, people would otherwise still be on tour.”
“I see a lot of acting coaches trying to say, ‘be ready for theatre when it comes back.’ And I think we’re all ready. We were doing it before the pandemic, and we will do it again. Now is the time to be cultivating those projects and things that bring you joy —for me, it’s streaming on Twitch. For others, it’s composing; for some, it’s learning a new instrument; for some, it’s knitting and baking and taking hikes—you know, just do what you love right now. Don’t think that you have to hustle any more than you’re hustling. Don’t kick yourself for not having been any further along your journey than you were at the start of the pandemic, because no one could have foreseen this.”
Although nobody could have foreseen the pandemic and nobody really knows when theatre will come back, Cathryn’s not waiting around. Until she’s able to get back onstage, you can find her online, playing video games with her brother and finding a way to keep performing. ↓
Watch Cathryn and Tyler on their Twitch channel, Basement Fort, for excellent video game streaming content (and charming sibling banter). Subscribe to their channel for special perks—you may even get a personally-tailored, improvised song from Cathryn herself.
If you’re a high school student (or you know a high school student) who’s interested in studying abroad, check out Rotary International’s Youth Exchange program.
And remember to thank your teachers. They always work overtime, and this year is no exception. Specific shout-out to my own sister (and lifelong video game buddy) Shayne; she’s remotely teaching high schoolers full-time while raising a two-year-old—and she’s having another baby in a matter of weeks!
Thanks for reading. See you next time.
Photo Credit: Jessica Osber Photography