We were lucky to catch up with Hannah Kaplan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah , appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on was cofounding a theater company, The Brooklyn Actor’s Troupe, with a former classmate and friend of mine. We reached a point where we were feeling out of touch creatively and professionally having graduated college with a BFA, but the “now what” reality of having to find the acting work ourselves. We had had plenty of education, but no real guidance on how to stay creatively fulfilled and alive once we left our theater cult of academia.

You start to dread the question if you’re “working on anything” any time you mention you’re an actor, and my friend and I both commiserated over the imposter syndrome that was beginning to settle inside of us. We were restless, and burnt out juggling survival jobs gritting through a smile every time someone told us how they “didn’t know how you handled all that rejection” Yup! Super hard! So we decided to host a weekly “actors gym” of sorts. The aim was to create a place where people could be reminded that they are in fact actors even when they’re not working. A place where you could come and stay in the game while you were benched. Using sports metaphors is not my usual vibe but hey it works here! We also wanted to give our friends the freedom to bring in material they had always wanted to play with but might not have had a chance to. Do you want to bring in a scene from the Sopranos? Cool. You have an audition for a CW show and want to work with a reader? Great. You want to do a monologue from South Park? Respect.

In the summer the group morphed into a true troupe where we tried to focus on creating our own work. We came up with the idea to perform Shakespeare in the Park for people who were waiting in line for tickets to Shakespeare In The Park. We abridged Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Night’s Dream, packed a bunch of shitty costumes into a trunk, got on the subway at 6am, and showed up unannounced at Central Park. It was chaotic and silly, and luckily no one told us we weren’t allowed to be forcing our skits on strangers.

This eventually transitioned to a regular monthly show we hosted in the Lower East Side called Theater Throwdown. We put out an ad in Backstage looking for other theater companies who would be interested in performing original sketches they wrote fueled by prompts we provided ahead of time. It opened us up to so many new connections with artists from all over the city and provided the main ingredient that had been missing for so many of us. FUN. Taking performance opportunities into my own hands and creating the space for The Brooklyn Actors Troupe helped me maintain my artistic integrity and motivation.

Hannah , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m an actor, writer, and host originally hailing from Connecticut. No not the fancy Connecticut, the town right in the middle. Boring, basic, nice. I got a BFA in acting and have performed in New York, regionally, and for all the zombies on Instagram. I’ve been featured on Comedy Central, The Cooking Channel, Spoon University, and various commercials. I am also the co-founder of The Brooklyn Actors Troupe Theater Company. These day’s I’m filming self-tape auditions in my basement while supporting myself as a tour guide and live host. I can be found hosting bingo every Thursday night at Chilo’s in Bedstuy, Brooklyn.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

It’s my mission as an artist to make a lasting impact by challenging the status quo of beauty and mess through humor and vulnerability. To make people lean into the human connection by being a creative conduit for optimism and relief. Laughter is food and I’m hungry. When I am fully fed I am able to be my freest, most powerful self, enabling me to share that joy with people around me.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The Artists Way by Julia Cameron has been my greatest resource. It’s a twelve-week self-guided course that’s designed to help you recover your creative self, but it can be for anyone. I always turn to it when I’m feeling blocked, and have done it multiple times. I still to this day utilize the method of writing morning pages which are basically three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing, They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they help to empty your brain before the rest of your day begins. This has been crucial in giving me space to separate from the ‘I’m not talented enough’ way of thinking that can at times hold me back as an artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hannahchloekaplan.com
• Instagram: hannah.c.kaplan