by Kevin Russell Poole, photos by Kevin Russell Poole
This week, I sat down with William Vonada, the Executive Director of Breaking & Entering, to talk about his roots in theatre, his dream projects, and his not-so-secret artistic obsessions. William is one of the sweetest, funniest, and most organized people I have met, and I cannot imagine where Breaking & Entering would be without him. Photographing William in Prospect Park (with the help of his perfect girlfriend, Nikki Cannon, who insisted he smile with teeth) was one of my favorite afternoons of last year. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Kevin Russell Poole: Hi William! How do you define yourself as an artist?
William Vonada: The term I’ve distilled it down to is, “Theatre Artist.” I like to work in a lot of different facets in theatre—mostly acting, but I do stage management, direction, lighting design, technical direction, administration, all of that fun stuff.
Kevin: And producing!
William: Yeah, and producing! So I’ve distilled it down to that.
Kevin: You do it all.
William: Not costume design. I’m terrible. I really do have so much respect for people who are talented at that because I am not.
Kevin: So, you could do an entire production by yourself as long as you brought on a costume designer.
William: I can’t costume it, no! (laughs)
Kevin: What attracted you to theatre? And specifically acting?
William: I started in the theatre world when I was actually quite young. Both of my parents are high school teachers, and a family friend of theirs was the musical theatre and chorus teacher, so when they were doing a production of A Christmas Carol, I ended up doing the Tiny Tim thing, which, you know, kids do. I started there and thoroughly enjoyed it, and then I kept on doing it more as a hobby in high school. I didn’t realize it was what I wanted to do in my life until I stopped doing other things because I didn't have time for them. I just really wanted to do theatre! I liked telling stories in fun and unique and interesting ways and I liked the impact that a story could have on an audience. I did the IB program—a very strong academic program—in high school with the intention of going into the medical field because I wanted to help people. The way that I justified [pursuing theatre] to myself was that I think that stories can be extremely potent and they can ultimately help people in ways beyond just making sure they're not dying in that moment.
Kevin: That is so sweet! First thing’s first: I want to cast you as Tiny Tim now. I think that is my dream role for you.
William: (Laughs) I don't think my voice could do it anymore, I gotta be honest.
Kevin: I don’t care! That is what I want to see! So since you started as an actor, and how did you find your way to all of these other artforms?
William: I started doing the technical theatre thing as a job at my high school theatre. Various people would rent out the space either because it was a dance studio and they wanted to have their recital there, or they were having some assembly and the space was big enough. I ended up working gigs like that backstage, either running sound board or just moving stuff around, being a stagehand, and I sort of ended up building a reputation within my high school theatre department as the guy who knows how these things work. And then when I went to college, I pursued that a little bit more. I'd say in college I grew more as a stage manager, which I really didn't expect when I came into an acting program. And then when I was directing a piece for the new works festival and we were doing load-in, I found that there wasn’t really any structure to how that process went, so being the person that I am, I ended up taking charge. I started calling for the organization I was working with, Florida Players, to create a technical direction position, which I didn't intend to, but I ended up doing the following year. It was sort of by accident and I enjoyed it! I guess the succinct way to put it is: I enjoyed getting to make theatre happen in whatever way I could. Same thing for stage management. I liked being able to help theatre be put up even in—and in some cases, especially in—the ways that people don’t always think about. Or at least lay people don't always think about. But producers, stage managers, designers are thinking about it every day. That was exciting to me! And that’s ultimately how I came to be the Executive Director with Breaking & Entering.
Kevin: You see people not doing the job as well as it could be done and you say—
William: (Laughs) OKAY WELL!
Kevin: “I see a way for this to be better, and I will make it better, and make sure everybody can be better from this.”
William: Yeah, you could probably just say I’m a control freak and I have to do everything myself.
Kevin: Which is admirable!
William: Thank you.
Kevin: I think it’s perfect for Breaking & Entering. That’s exactly what we needed on our admin team, so it ended up being perfect. So that leads me to the question: How did you get involved with Breaking & Entering?
William: I moved to New York—it feels so weird because of the pandemic so I’m trying to make sure I have the right timeline—in August 2019. I moved in with my girlfriend, Nikki, in Hamilton Heights, and I was very much unemployed and trying to find something to do for money. So I found Breaking & Entering’s post on Playbill looking for directors and stage managers and designers, and I applied for all of them (laughs), and I was eventually brought on as a stage manager for PEA Fest in 2019. And I guess you guys liked working with me because Emily approached me about the Executive Director position.
Kevin: I remember watching you run your tech and I said “who’s this person and how can we work with them more?” You’re able to bring so much structure into a place where people are just floating around with their little ideas!
William: I have to give a shout out to my stage management professor, Jenny Goelz. I didn’t realize how good she was and how valuable all of the information that she gave to us was until I went out into the real world and I was like “okay this is so necessary.”
Kevin: Thank god for Jenny Goelz! Okay so what is a dream project for you?
William: My dream project would be a piece of theatre that surrounds AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] artists. As you probably know, AAPI are extremely underrepresented in the arts, particularly theatre, so I’m always really excited to be a part of, or work on projects that focus on them, or us. I’m a very white-presenting half Japanese man, so I’m still sort of coming to terms with the fact that I will probably not be playing an asian man on stage. But, because there are no AAPI stories, there are also no mixed-race AAPI stories. I think that’s certainly a path that the arts are going in right now, which is extremely exciting. Any way I could work on that project would be fantastic.
Kevin: That’s a perfect answer, I love that! As an actor, what is your favorite role that you’ve ever played?
William: I’ll answer this twofold. The role that I found most artistically fulfilling as an actor was my senior project in college, the University of Florida, I played Pierre Laporte in a production of Red Velvet, which is about Ira Aldridge, the first Black man to play Othello on an English stage. And that was just a challenging script, a challenging role, with one of the most--I don't want to say challenging again, but--challenging pieces of scene work that I’ve ever gone through. I feel like I gained a lot from that production in so many ways. But the most fun I had was my sophomore year, when Tilted Windmills, a producing company that worked closely with the University of Florida, put on a production called The Magnificent Revengers. It was actually the same creative team from Puffs! It was a choose your own adventure story where the audience would vote at various points in the show like, “okay you should kill this person,” or “you should spare him,” or what kind of person is this going to be: “oh they're going to be really loud,” “they're going to swear a lot” or “they're going to be really meek” and some of those votes would have lasting effects and some would just be funny things in the moment. I played this dull vaudevillian actor and every night was an adventure. It was just a blast to work on!
Kevin: That sounds like a dream to perform!
William: Yeah, it was really wild. It kept you on it every night because you didn't know if you were going to die! And god bless the stage managers that worked on it, their run notes were an inch thick because they had to plan for so many different possibilities. Entire costumes and props may or may not make it on stage, or would have to make it on stage from a different point. It was just crazy!
Kevin: I feel so jealous! I’m not even a performer but I want to do that.
William: It was a great experience.
Kevin: Okay so do you have any secret artistic obsessions?
William: Secret artistic obsessions… I’m pretty vocal about what I like!
Kevin: Or artistic obsessions that somebody who doesn’t know you very well would be surprised to hear.
William: Yo, I love Lady Gaga. I love everything she does. She’s just a wonderful artist; she’s the best.
Kevin: Yeah!
William: Yep!
Kevin: An incredible answer.
William: Yeah I think she's an incredible artist and she’s a genius.
Kevin: Have you been a Gaga fan from the beginning? What brought you into the fandom?
William: The first album that I bought—like, physical CD that I bought—was her Born This Way album. I was kind of familiar with her work before that, but like in the sense that you’re a middle schooler and Just Dance plays at the dance.
Kevin: Of course.
William: And I didn’t really become super familiar with her work and sit down and listen to it until I bought Born This Way and everything was different from there.
Kevin: And your life changed! Your world was completely different!
William: Justice for Artpop!
Kevin: That makes me feel really happy. Okay last question! What is next for you? What’s coming up?
William: PEA Fest is coming up! Our Pre-Emerging Artist Festival is going up mid-April! And I’m really, really excited to work with all of the artists that we brought on this year. Obviously, it has a special place in my own heart because that’s how I joined the Breaking & Entering family. We have a lot of really great artists and I can’t wait to see the actors that we are bringing on and the work they’ll be doing with these pieces.
Kevin: Me too! I can’t wait to see who the directors cast! Thanks so much for sitting down with me today, I’m super excited for PEA Fest and for my production of A Christmas Carol in which you will be playing Tiny Tim!
William: (Laughs) Oh great I look forward to it.
Kevin: I’ll just put everyone else on stilts so that you are tiny. You are the start of my Christmas Carol.
William: Okay we’ll re-write it!
Kevin: Great! A perfect project. We need to probably start meeting soon if we want to have it ready by Christmastime.
William: We have a deadline to make, so we’ll have a meeting tomorrow.
Kevin: Perfect I’ll see you then! Thanks so much!