Sean Hayes in the One-Man Thriller 'The Unknown'

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "Sean Hayes in the One-Man Thriller 'The Unknown'"

Podcast: All Of It (WNYC)
Host: Alison Stewart
Guests: Sean Hayes (Star), David Kael (Playwright), Leigh Silverman (Director)
Date: March 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into "The Unknown," a new one-man play starring Sean Hayes, written by longtime solo-show creator David Kael and directed by Leigh Silverman. The play follows Eliot, a successful but blocked playwright, whose life spirals after an enigmatic stalker begins shadowing him. Through candid conversation, the trio discusses the craft of solo performance, the psychological underpinnings of writer's block, theatrical design choices, and how the cast and crew created tension in a minimalist setting.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Demands and Allure of the One-Man Show

• Sean Hayes’s Perspective:
  • Hayes shares how daunting and irresistible the challenge of the solo show was once he began reading Kael's script, despite early misgivings.
    • "If it's a solo play, I don't want to do it. ...It's incredibly well written, obviously incredibly well directed, and the whole team...is top notch...I'd be a fool to pass this up." (Sean Hayes, 03:57)
• Leigh Silverman on Directing Solo:
  • Silverman describes the unique requirements of a single-actor performance: holding the audience in a "hypnotic" state, oscillating between surprise, delight, and trust.
    • "They have to hypnotize. Entrance, charm, surprise, delight. They have to earn the trust of the audience right away." (Leigh Silverman, 04:52)
  • She remarks that the audience is essentially a collaborator in the solo-show format, required to make imaginative leaps alongside the actor.

2. David Kael’s Writing Process and Inspiration

• On Solo Shows as Personal Albums:
  • Kael reflects on the intersection between songwriting and monologue-driven performance, noting how his shows often feel "like albums," composed of personal, film-influenced vignettes.
    • "I used to think of myself as like a singer-songwriter...who instead of making albums, I made shows." (David Kael, 06:19)
• Research and Authenticity:
  • He foregrounds the importance of accurate sense of place, recounting his practice of "walking the script" through real-life locations to ensure authenticity.
    • "If the audience hopefully is also visualizing it as the narrator is telling it...it's accurate." (David Kael, 07:49)

3. Technical Craft: Sound, Light, and Restraint

• Creating a Thriller with Sound and Score:
  • Silverman details collaboration with composer Isabel Waller Bridge and sound designer Carolyn Eng to cultivate an atmospheric, "on the edge of what you can hear" soundscape.
    • "I just want to move the air in the room...just on the edge of what you can hear, that sense of unease...to create that thriller feeling." (Leigh Silverman, 09:14)
  • Mention that Isabel is Phoebe Waller-Bridge's sister. (10:51)
• Lighting as Narrative Tool:
  • Silverman praises Chausi, the lighting designer, for using cues of varying length and intensity to alter the audience's perception and mood.
    • "She is painting with light in a way that is so extraordinary..." (Leigh Silverman, 22:59)
• Movement and Minimalism:
  • Hayes recounts Silverman's direction to focus on stillness rather than movement—forcing him to convey character transitions using subtle shifts.
    • "Imagine everything in a close up...and...my pockets...were sewn shut for the play, which was brilliant." (Sean Hayes, 18:24 - 19:58)

4. Story Themes: Writer’s Block and Obsession

• Exploring Identity and Obsession:
  • The play examines the toll that creative block takes on personal identity, and how obsession with one's work (and with those who intrude on it) can drive someone to extremes.
    • "To maintain any kind of career in the arts...you have to be kind of obsessive about it...But then when you can't, like Eliot can't write anymore...who am I?" (David Kael, 13:48)
• Autobiographical Influence:
  • Kael confirms that real-life experiences with an unwanted visitor partially inspired the stalker plotline.
    • "I did have somebody who was buzzing my door from the street at night...it's kind of prompted some of the ideas in the play." (David Kael, 14:28)
• The Intrigue of Danger:
  • Hayes discusses Eliot's shift from fear to fascination in interacting with his stalker, seeing the tension as the possible cure for his creative blockage.
    • "He’s the key to unlocking the writer’s block...I’ve latched onto something that’s going to cure my writer’s block, and I’ll be damned if I let it go." (Sean Hayes, 15:10)

5. Transforming on Stage: Portraying 11 Characters

• Restraint Over Exaggeration:
  • Silverman shares how they deliberately eschewed obvious cues for character-switching, focusing instead on precision and the audience’s imagination.
    • "You can almost see Sean switching between characters just in the eyes, just in the very subtle way that he changes ... his vocal quality...that’s where the virtuosity comes from: not in how much, but in how little." (Leigh Silverman, 16:06)
• Hayes on the Challenge & Joy:
  • While difficult, Hayes remarks on how playing 11 roles—amidst such nuanced direction—was ultimately "exhilarating, exciting and thrilling." (Sean Hayes, 18:08)
• Playwright’s Admiration:
  • Kael is effusive in watching Hayes’ performance, sitting at the back for nearly every show to “watch people gasp and remain completely still.”
    • "It’s such a tour de force ... it looks like from my perspective I’m looking at a photograph because people are so still and then people are gasping at times." (David Kael, 20:04)

6. Meta Elements and Theatrical Surprises

• Design Reflects the Narrative:
  • Silverman hints—without spoilers—at how the play’s “meta” dimension is mirrored in set and lighting design, shifting the audience’s understanding of reality as the show progresses.
    • "You start off and you know exactly where you are, and then I kind of take you on a journey...and then we land you at the end back in a more familiar space ... with a totally different understanding of it." (Leigh Silverman, 22:01)
• Restricting Movement:
  • Hayes recounts how for the first 18 minutes he was not allowed to move, creating deliberate tension and anticipation.
    • "I just want to move...and [Lee] goes, nope, you got to stand there. ...One day, she says, I have a special gift for you. ...You get to move for the very first time today. I was like, wow." (Sean Hayes, 24:01)

7. What Makes a Stage Thriller Work

• Kael’s Influences:
  • The playwright credits his love for movie thrillers as a major influence and challenge—can one actor alone generate that cinematic tension?
    • "I always wanted to see if one person on stage could create the tension of a thriller." (David Kael, 24:53)
• Hayes on Stage Tension:
  • Hayes argues that the secret is not to "play the thriller," but to play every moment authentically.
    • "By not playing it as a thriller…every moment as real as possible…that’s the challenge." (Sean Hayes, 25:41)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "If it's a solo play, I don't want to do it...but I'd be a fool to pass this up."
  — Sean Hayes on turning point for joining the project (03:57)

• "They have to hypnotize. Entrance, charm, surprise, delight. They have to earn the trust of the audience right away."
  — Leigh Silverman on demands of solo performance (04:52)

• "I used to think of myself as like a singer-songwriter...who instead of making albums, I made shows."
  — David Kael on the personal nature of solo work (06:19)

• "She had them [pants pockets] sewn shut for the play, which was brilliant...I go to put my hands in my pocket and I can't because they're sewn shut."
  — Sean Hayes (18:24)

• "It looks like...I’m looking at a photograph because people are so still and then people are gasping at times. It’s just exhilarating to watch."
  — David Kael on audience reaction (20:04)

• "By not playing it as a thriller...every moment as real as possible. That’s it, you know, and truly try to feel it."
  — Sean Hayes’ technique for keeping the story tense (25:41)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:41] — Introduction to the play and guests
• [04:36] — Sean Hayes on agreeing to do a solo show
• [04:52] — Leigh Silverman on the demands of solo performance
• [06:12] — David Kael on the allure of solo work
• [07:49] — Kael on researching real locations for authenticity
• [09:14] — Silverman on creating a thriller through sound
• [10:51] — Isabel Waller Bridge’s music (and family connection)
• [11:36] — Elliott’s (the character) writer’s block and the beginnings of the play’s tension
• [14:28] — Kael on real-life inspiration for the stalker storyline
• [16:06] — Silverman on subtlety in multi-character work
• [18:24] — The story of the sewn-shut pants pockets
• [20:04] — Kael’s admiration for Hayes’ performance and audience response
• [22:01] — Silverman on meta elements and design surprises
• [24:01] — Restricting Hayes’ movement for dramatic effect
• [24:53] — Kael on writing a stage thriller
• [25:41] — Hayes’ approach to sustaining tension

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Overall Tone & Takeaways

The atmosphere is one of collaboration, mutual appreciation, and fascination with the ways theater can forge tension and intimacy with so little. The episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at both the technical and emotional artistry of making a solo thriller for the stage, while championing the necessity of risk, stillness, and precision.

This discussion is essential listening for fans of theater, solo performance, and anyone interested in the psychology of creativity and stagecraft.

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Transcript

[Lee Silverman]

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[Alison Stewart]

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[David Kail]

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[Lee Silverman]

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[David Kail]

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[Lee Silverman]

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[David Kail]

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[Lee Silverman]

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[Alison Stewart]

Hey girl, what's happen? Is that your antiperspirant? Uh, yeah.

[Lee Silverman]

Let me see that can. Aluminum butane. I cannot pronounce that.

[Alison Stewart]

You have to switch to native deodorant.

[Lee Silverman]

Native's simple formula has only clean ingredients.

[Alison Stewart]

It gives you effective 72 hour odor protection with no hydrocarbon propellant. Wow.

[Lee Silverman]

This smells heavenly clean.

[Alison Stewart]

Effective 72 hour odor protection isn't a myth.

[Sean Hayes]

It's native.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in soho. Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. I'm grateful you're here. All that stuff that Brian said was going to be on the show today, that'll be on the show tomorrow. What's going to happen today is we're going to learn about the sets created for the HBO series the Sopranos. We'll hear about the history of the legendary music venue the Bottom Line. And if you spent the week binging the latest season of Bridgerton, you will be excited to hear that Luke Thompson, who plays Benedict Bridgeton, will be here with us in studio. That's the plan. So let's get this started with the Unknown. In the play. The Unknown actor Sean Hayes plays 11 different characters in a unique one man thriller. The main character is Eliot, a successful playwright and lyricist who is struggling with writer's block. But when a stalker turns up in his life, Eliot's fear quickly turns into curiosity. Maybe now have something to write about, but at what cost? The Unknown is written by David Kael, who has been creating acclaimed solo shows for decades. It was directed by Leigh Silverman and star Sean Hayes. All three of them are joining me now. The Unknown known as Running at Studio seaview on West 43rd and 8th through April 12th. Thank you so much for being with us.

[Lee Silverman]

Thank you.

[David Kail]

Thank you.

[Alison Stewart]

And, Sean, I want to say I saw the show yesterday, and you were so sweet at the end because you put your hands like this. I'm making a little prayer sign. And you said, I'm going to sleep now because you are sick. First of all, how are you feeling?

[Sean Hayes]

First of all.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, gosh,

[Sean Hayes]

yeah. But I'm happy to be here. You're making me feel better already.

[Alison Stewart]

All right, I'll do my best. What do you know now about doing a solo show that you didn't know before doing it?

[Sean Hayes]

I'll let you answer that, because you know what I'm gonna say?

[Lee Silverman]

What,

[Sean Hayes]

that I'll never do it again? No, that. What do I know now about doing a solo play? Well, what it takes to do it.

[Lee Silverman]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

My God. You know, the story goes, you know, when Lee and I have been friends for a long time, and we've been looking for something to do together. And she says, I think I found something. And I said, if it's a solo play, I don't want to do it. And she said, well, it's a solo play. She sent me the first 11 pages of the script that David wrote, and I just thought it was incredible. And I was like, oh, I need to see. I want to read more. And so it's almost one of those things where, like, well, I can't not do it. It's incredibly well written, obviously incredibly well directed, and the whole team that Lee put together is top notch. And I just. I thought I'd be a fool to pass this up.

[Alison Stewart]

So you're persuasively.

[Lee Silverman]

Professionally. Professionally persuasive, yes.

[Alison Stewart]

You've directed solo shows before, and when you have one actor on stage, what are the biggest challenges working with one actor, especially one who plays 11 different characters?

[Lee Silverman]

I think the thing about one person is that they have to hypnotize. Entrance, charm, surprise, delight. They have to earn the trust of the audience right away. They have to take them on a ride. And I think as I considered what was tricky about the unknown, I thought we really need someone who can hold multiple truths, who we can trust, who will make us laugh, and ultimately will take us just kind of on the ride of our life.

[Sean Hayes]

And then when they couldn't find that person. Lee. That's right.

[Lee Silverman]

Then I called Sean. I was like, please, please, please. You know, I think one of the amazing things about David's writing is that he really puts the audience in a kind of spell, like people leave their bodies. That's the experience that the audience is having. Certainly that was my experience with Harry Clarke that David and I first did together. And with. And when I've watched David perform his material himself, it's just this incredible experience. And what I love about the solo form in general is the way that it requires audience participation. It requires the audience to collaborate with the performer to go on that ride.

[Alison Stewart]

David, you've been on our show, I think, since the earliest days of our show.

[David Kail]

Yes.

[Alison Stewart]

What keeps you writing and performing solo work?

[David Kail]

I don't know. I really don't know. I mean, I've thought about it recently because I have, I think, 13 solo shows. So I keep coming back to it. I don't know. And I'm not. Yes. So I'm really not sure. I mean, I do other things, but I keep coming back to the solo. I mean, they're very, they're very expressive for me and, and they're. All of them have aspects that are very personal. I. So I, I used to think of myself as like a singer songwriter that inst. Who instead of making albums, I made shows. And they were often an assemblage of 10 or 12 monologues, almost like an album.

[Sean Hayes]

And.

[David Kail]

But now they've kind of shifted their form because they're driven by one character and then the actor plays everybody else around the lead character. So. But I'm not sure why I keep coming back to it, but I do.

[Sean Hayes]

That's interesting, David, that you say they're like albums, because when people say, Sean, how did you. How do you go about memorizing an entire, you know, hour and 70, 75 minute show, whatever it is. And I always say, David, I always say it's like everybody has a favorite album. Yeah, memorize. They memorize every word to every song on that album.

[David Kail]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

Kind of the same thing.

[David Kail]

And then also because I'm so influenced by movies that they're, they're, they're pretty cinematic, all of them. I can see them. And I often will walk the script around town to make sure the locations are accurate. If they're in New York City or with my show Blue Cowbo that took place in Idaho, in Ketchum, Idaho, I'll basically walk it. Same with Harry Clark, that every location has got to be accurate. So if the audience hopefully is also visualizing it as the narrator is telling it, that it's accurate. Like if people know that restaurant that we're talking about or they know Julius's, that takes. Where two of the scenes take place in the unknown. It's not gonna throw them off by thinking, I've been to Julius's, and that's not what Julius is like. So I go round, I check. So I don't want anything to throw it off.

[Alison Stewart]

Lee, There's a really sort of exciting sound in this play. It's also adds to the thrillerness of this play. How did you experiment with how the sound and how the audience would experience the sound, especially in the beginning?

[Lee Silverman]

Yeah, I had the great fortune of working with Isabel Waller Bridge, who did the compositions for the show, and Carolyn Eng, who was our incredible sound designer. And I would say to Caroline, I just want to move the air in the room. I just want to move and not let people really know that it's happening. To sort of create a sense of, like, just on the edge of what you can hear, that sense of unease in the room, that sense of tension, and then let something come into consciousness and then drop away. And she just really leaned into that thriller feeling. And I think there's just an ongoing soundscape throughout the show that I find just so incredible. Cause I think some of it you hear, some of it you don't. Some of it you just feel. There are speakers everywhere in that theater. So you really get a sense of sort of surround sound. And then, really, I had been using Isabel's. Some of her compositions that I had just heard before I even knew her, as a kind of, like, mood board for myself. And then out of just a kind of spontaneous impulse, I was like, maybe she'd want to work on this show. And then we reached out to her. She got totally excited about it and then ended up writing music for us, which was just such an incredible opportunity, new collaboration for me. And I just think her music captures the spirit. I mean, it just, like, goes right to your sternum. And so it just has been that amazing collaboration with her. And Caroline, I think, really solidifies kind of the foundation of this thriller vibe that we have going on there.

[Alison Stewart]

And is she related to Phoebe Waller Bridge, Sister? There you go, Sean. It's kind of an intimate theater. Do you get a sense of when the audience is feeling a little scared or.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, well, I think, yeah, for sure. You know, the. Again, it's so brilliantly written that David put the first scare on page one, which is there's someone singing outside of your house that happens on page one. And you're like, wait, what? Something? And that's when the audience, they kind of chuckle because. Just a little chuckles here and there because they're like, oh, wait, am I going on this ride already, you know, and so it, it's, it sucks you in immediately. It's just so smart.

[Alison Stewart]

My guests are actor Sean Hayes, playwright David Kail, and director Lee Silverman. We're talking about their new show, the Unknown, which is a one man thriller about a playwright and his relationship with a stalker. It's running at Studio CV now through April 12th. We first meet Elliot, Sean. He's got serious writer's block.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

Why is he struggling?

[Sean Hayes]

The actor or the character?

[Alison Stewart]

The character.

[Sean Hayes]

The. Elliot is struggling. Why is he struggling with writer's block? Well, he's a pretty well known writer, as his best friend Larry says. But he has hit this stump because. I don't know, David, why is he.

[David Kail]

Why is he all dried up and he's become dependent upon his writing is how he makes a living.

[Sean Hayes]

Living.

[David Kail]

Right. And he's also. He doesn't really know how to do anything else or doesn't have qualifications. And he's not, he's not 19 that he can sort of work into another profession. It's like, you got to make this work, but the ideas have stopped.

[Sean Hayes]

Right. Yeah, I was just going to say the same thing. Yeah. So it's just, it's one of those things that happens to any writer who makes their living from writing is they eventually reach a point where they actually do have a real thing called writer's block. And you're meeting Elliot in the moment that he has that.

[Alison Stewart]

Have you ever had that happen to you, David?

[David Kail]

Not yet.

[Alison Stewart]

Okay.

[David Kail]

I'm hoping this show.

[Alison Stewart]

Not good. Not good.

[David Kail]

This isn't gonna foreshadow my life, but

[Lee Silverman]

I think also the problem of the play is that Eliot has writer's block. That is sort of where we meet Eliot, and that is the problem of the play. And I think actually part of what happens in the play is that we start to uncover and it becomes sort of the catalyzing force for why Elliot engages in this cat and mouse game with this. This other character. But I think that what the play is really about is what and why he's blocked. And that's also one of the twists, I think, that comes up over the course of the play.

[Alison Stewart]

Well, it shows the challenges of being in a creative field and wanting to be on top in a creative field and what you have to go through to be on top in a career.

[Lee Silverman]

Yes.

[David Kail]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

Right.

[David Kail]

And it's also because I think, I think if to maintain any kind of career in the arts, in whatever form, you have to be kind of obsessive about it and. And then you get defined by it. But then when you can't, like he. Eliot, can't write anymore. It's your whole, who am I? Rears its head if you take away my work and my obsessive relationship to my career. Who am I?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah. What's your identity? Yeah.

[David Kail]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

David, did this partially happen to you that you had a certain person interested in your life that you didn't want to have interested in your life?

[David Kail]

I did have somebody who was buzzing my door from the street at night, sometimes all night, who I caught in the end. And that definitely was. That's definitely stayed with me to the point of. It's kind of prompted some of the ideas in the play.

[Alison Stewart]

Sean, when Elliot realizes that this person is kind of stalking him and it seems kind of obsessed with him, at one point, his fear kind of turns to intrigue. What is behind his intrigue in this person who might be bad for him?

[Lee Silverman]

But.

[Sean Hayes]

Well, yeah, no. Well, he's the key to unlocking the writer's block. Right. He's the key to Elliot's drive to know more and to feel more and to experience more is to hopefully write better and write something. It's the whole. Like Lee was saying, it's the whole crux of the play is I've latched onto something that's going to cure my writer's block, and I'll be damned if I let it go. And so that's enough to drive someone to do things they wouldn't normally do. And so when he becomes, you know, I wouldn't say obsessed, but maybe obsessed with his subject. He doesn't know how to stop it.

[Alison Stewart]

Leshawn plays 11 different characters. What advice or feedback did you give him to best approach the 11 different characters on a fairly small stage?

[Lee Silverman]

Yeah, I mean, Sean is so versatile. He's so mercurial. He's so creative. He's so energetic. And really, what we talked about was restraint, and what we talked about was how little could he do to differentiate between the characters and how still could he be. I think people know him as, like, a very exuberant performer and have seen him be very energetic on stage and on television. And I was really interested in showing this different side of him, both as a performer, but also to really, I think, encourage the audience to participate in the imagination piece of the show. And I think that that's less about, you know, the kind of, like, I'm gonna do this funny voice and then this funny voice and this crazy guy as opposed to that. You can almost see Sean switching between characters just in the eyes, just in the very subtle way that he changes his body weight, the gentle change in his vocal quality. And this is. This show has so many different challenges. One of them is that he plays these different characters and then sometimes they're impersonating each other. And that is just like such a crazy mind twisty thing to work on, to perform, to direct. And just the appetite for that kind of nuance was something that Sean really brought into the process. And I think it's part of the delight for the audience is that you're able to see it even though he's actually doing very little. So it's a. It's a real. To me, that's where the. That's where the virtuosity comes from. Not in how much, but in how little and in how specific he could be.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

Was that difficult for you, Sean?

[Sean Hayes]

It wasn't. It's all difficult, but it's. It was actually fun. You know, it was actually fun. The rehearsal prod process was really fun and. And Lee got to witness and still does every day, me being frustrated.

[Alison Stewart]

What does that look like?

[Sean Hayes]

You're looking at it. But yeah, no. So it was exhilarating and exciting and thrilling, but also frustrating when, you know, one of the best thing. Two things that are kind of interesting. One is Lee said at the beginning, she's like, imagine everything in a close up. Which made me understand that instantly. And then the other thing was, which I think is really great is I started, you know, you have pants with pockets in them. And so in the rehearsal process, I would putting my hand in my pockets because I didn't know what to do with them. And I would use them to play over the characters. So she had them sewn shut for the play, which was brilliant. Which is brilliant. So I can't even when I'm standing backstage ready for the curtain to open every night I go to put my hands in my pocket and I can't because they're sewn shut.

[Lee Silverman]

There's real directing for you. Real directing.

[David Kail]

Sew those pockets up. Yes, Ms. Silverman.

[Sean Hayes]

But it really, really was smart. It was really. I've never experienced that before. It was like. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the, obviously the funnier things that Lee's done. And I could bore you with the acting. Directing process by, you know, talking your ear off. But that was just one of the kind of quirky things that I thought was really super smart of her to do because we all want to do that. It's just a natural thing And I thought, never having done a solo show, oh, I'll put my hands in my pockets for one person and take them out for another. It's like, no. You know,

[Alison Stewart]

David, what impresses you most about Sean in this performance when he's going through those 11 characters?

[David Kail]

Oh, God, he's so dazzling. I mean, I've just, I stand at the back of the house. I've seen most of the performances.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, really?

[David Kail]

And I just, I, you know, I think, oh, I'm not gonna go in tonight. I'm gonna take a night off. And then I'm like, no, I'm gonna go in and watch. I mean, it's just so. It's such a tour de force of a performance and it's every, Every night. And that the audience is. There's so I. Cause I step. Because it's full so much of the time. Well, all the times, actually. But the. That I'm standing at the back and people are so wrapped that I said to Sean the other day, it looks like from my perspective, like I'm looking at a photograph because people are so still and then people are gasping at times. And it's just, it's. It's just exhilarating to watch.

[Sean Hayes]

Well, that's the thrill that I get too. I get excited. People are like, you still excited to do the show? I said, I am, because I get so excited to share the story with people who are hearing it for the first time. Just like when I read it for the first time. And that's what gets me really excited. Like, can you believe this story? I mean, it's crazy. I mean, it's really so clever and thrilling and shocking and all of those things. And so I get excited for the audience to hear it.

[Alison Stewart]

My guests are actor Sean Hayes, playwright David Kail and director Lee Silverman were talking about their new show, the Unknown, which is a one man thriller about a playwright and his relationship with a stalker. It's running at Studio SEAVIEW now through April 12th. 12th it is. There's a meta element in the show. We won't give it away, but how much were you thinking about that, Lee, as you had to direct this show?

[Lee Silverman]

Oh, all the time. Yeah. I mean, it's. It's one of the really unusual aspects. I'm trying to think about how to talk about it because I don't want to give it away.

[Alison Stewart]

Don't give it away.

[David Kail]

Don't give it away.

[Lee Silverman]

But there's, I think, what I was the most interested in sort of scenically and from a design point of view was that you start off and you know exactly where you are, and then I kind of take you on a journey that has these little surprises here and there, and then there's a moment where you're like, wait, what? What is that on the stage? And then we land you at the end of the play, kind of back in a more familiar space again. And yet you have a totally different understanding of it. And so kind of coming in with that understanding of how I wanted to move through the production from a design point of view, I think was very. Was very helpful. And in some ways, what Sean is doing is separate from what the set is doing, so to speak, and what the lights are doing. And I just really have to shout out our incredible lighting designer, Chausi, who.

[Alison Stewart]

The lighting is amazing, isn't it? It's really good.

[David Kail]

It's incredible.

[Sean Hayes]

I mean, amazing.

[Lee Silverman]

She's a genius. And what she is doing to change our relationship to Shawn all the time and to tell. Some of those cues are very long, Some of them are very short. She is painting with light in a way that is so extraordinary. And it is. And yet Sean moves very little during the course of the show and, in fact, is almost completely still for, like, the first 18 minutes. And so there's this way in which you feel, I think, transported through light and through sound in a way that. And listening. And that's where that, like, amazing collaboration that I'm talking about comes in. And the conversation comes from the gasping and the relationship that people have to what they're hearing and what they're seeing. And yet, if I were to ask you, like, when you saw the show, who were you picturing for? That person or that person? It's probably wildly different than the people sitting on either side of you, but yet it's very, very clear. And that's, like, the specific of the writing and the incredible specificity of the performing.

[David Kail]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

One of the things that Lee did that was so funny, you know, you rehearse in chunks. You rehearse the first five pages of the first ten pages, then you. Then you move on. And so all I wanted to do was move. When we first started, I wanted to move around the stage. Right when the curtain opens, I just want to start walking. I wanted pace. I wanted to talk to the audience. And she goes, nope, you got to stand there. Right there. You stand right there. You don't move. And I was like, I don't know how to do that. She goes, you gotta stand the right. And then one day, like, after, like, I Don't know, several days or maybe even a week. She goes, I have a special gift for you today. I go, what? She goes, you get to move for the very first time today. I was like, wow. I get to actually walk across the stage after 20 minutes.

[Alison Stewart]

You whipped him into shape. That's impressive. David, as we finish up, I'm curious, what does it take to write a thriller? A thriller in 75 minutes?

[David Kail]

You know, I don't. I love movie thrillers, so they're definitely a big influence on me. And I always wanted to see if I could. If one person on stage could create the tension of a thriller. So I just instinctively started this story and. And a large part of it was written very quickly because Sean had read like 11 pages or so, and then you want to know what happened next. So it was. But it was written with such intuition that. But it's really from. I've had such a diet of movie thrillers that I'm sure that fed completely into it.

[Alison Stewart]

Sean, how do you create the tension of a thriller on stage?

[Sean Hayes]

By not playing it as a thriller.

[David Kail]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

It's what's happening.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah. Every moment as real as possible. That's it, you know, and. And. And truly try to feel it. And that's the. That's the challenge of doing, you know, seven shows a week, 70 performances, is. Is keeping it fresh for yourself. But again, it's the excitement of. Of what we all built together as a team, and the presentation of it, of. Of the lighting, the directing, the sound, the. All of it. And so that's how I approach it.

[Alison Stewart]

You go take a nap. First of all, thank you so much for being with us. And thank you, Lee Silverman and David Kail. The Unknown is playing at Studio SEAVIEW now through April 12th. Thank you so much for being with us.

[David Kail]

Oh, my God. Thank you. What a pleasure.

[Lee Silverman]

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