We were lucky to catch up with Ian Melamed recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ian, thanks for joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

Back when I was in college I ran a theatre company. I actually met a lot of the people I currently work with at Psykout! there. It was, without question, the highlight of my college experience because I got hands on experience doing the kinds of things that allow you to have a career in any creative field, the kind of things they don’t teach you in class. Things like leadership, fundraising, communication, and diplomacy. But I think the biggest lesson I learned was that the most important part of your job as the leader is picking the right team. If you have the right team the project moves smoothly. If you have the wrong team, you -personally- have to make for what your team lacks, and that’s how people get overwhelmed and burnt out. The second most important part of your job is maintaining your team. I had a great team in college. Myself, the production manager, and the artistic director did a pretty good job of putting competent people in the positions they could thrive in. That said, I often think back on the latter half of my time there with the feeling that I could have done more. Even little things – like letting people know that you’re in their corner when things get rough – can make a huge impact.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

So right now I’m waist deep in Goodbye Doctor, a play that I’m producing and acting in along with my co-producer, Barbara Riethe. The play was written by the Brazilian author and psychoanalyst Betty Milan, who we’ve been lucky enough to talk to throughout the production process. The play is directed by the Debora Balardini. Debora has extensive experience with exactly the kind of weird experimental shows that we’re putting on, and runs her own theatre company, Group Dot BR. which is the only Brazilian theatre company in NYC. We’re really glad to have her!

My company, Psykout!, is producing the play. We’re a nonprofit theatre company that produces science themed shows, specifically with the aim of subverting public perception about science and people who work in the field. I’ve always had a strong affinity for science. When I was little I would hyper-fixate on something like volcanology, weather, sharks, snakes, and later astronomy, and physics. I’d read every book I could find on the topic, and delight in presenting the knowledge I’d gathered to classmates, or my family, really anyone who would listen. One of my core beliefs is that a scientific understanding of the world makes life more interesting, and that the kind of questioning that scientists use to understand nature is the most useful tool we have for improving our lives, and the lives of other humans.

My goal with Psykout! is to fuse my passion for science with my passion for storytelling. There’s so much untapped potential for telling new stories when you bring in elements of science and technology.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

During college I was working on a show called Describe the Night, by Rajiv Joseph. It’s a fantastic play about the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, so you should absolutely see it or read it if you get the chance. But for us the main challenge was that we were trying to put the show on in the middle of the winter in 2022, and the pandemic was still flaring up at our school. I think it was about two weeks before we planned to open that the school decided to delay the start of the spring semester, which essentially meant that we couldn’t do the show. We were all really on edge, and obviously a little panicked, but myself and the production manager, Angela Braun, who is a fantastic woman with the professional determination of a battleship, managed to talk with the school to get our show moved to match the new calendar. We also worked with the production team to ease their concerns, and adjust rehearsals so that we’d be able to hit the ground running once we got back. We pulled it off, and to this day it’s the most amazing show I’ve ever worked on.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Mmm… I don’t know. I’m always skeptical of people who say “there’s this one one book that fixed all my problems. You should read it!” I feel like part of what makes me so adaptable is that I don’t treat any one source of information with particular reverence. I like to be open to as many perspectives as possible.

That said, there are two books that I find really helped me get to where I am now. The first is So Good They Can’t Ignore You, by Cal Newport. It’s a bit of a controversial read because one of his central arguments is that you shouldn’t follow your passion. But the book actually, paradoxically, fired my motivation to become hyper-competent at the skills that I’m using to build my career.

The second is a book my Dad gave me called The Holy Man, by Susan Trott. It really kept me sane during the long summers where I was stuck at home, or when I was far away and on the verge of being overwhelmed by school, or work, or life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.psykout.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psykouttheatre/
• Other: Tickets for Goodbye Doctor are on sale now at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/psykout-presents-goodbye-doctor-tickets-1005222657027?aff=oddtdtcreator

  Also, since Psykout! is a non profit we pretty much run on donations, so if you’d like to get involved with our company and support our mission you can go to https://www.psykout.com/donations. Every little donation makes a difference for us, so please consider giving if you can.

  The donations are even tax deductible because we’re a 501c3.

Image Credits

Sasha Reist