We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melanie Lora And Katie MacNichol. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melanie Lora and Katie MacNichol below.

Melanie Lora and Katie MacNichol, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

We launched our podcast Act Like a Mother last year out of our passion for the work we do as actors and the lives we lead as mothers. Each episode features honest, unscripted conversations with actors about the struggles and joys of the acting business and how parenting and family life intersect with their lives as creatives.

There’s nothing straightforward about what actor moms do, and talking about it makes us feel less like stranded sailors trying to find a life preserver (it can feel like that sometimes!) and more like we might just be swimming in a pool of resourceful, creative and curious women ready to throw each other a line. Sharing these stories can inspire the greater actor- mother community as well as anyone in the business considering parenthood and those curious about the multi-faceted lives of artists. Season 3 arrives this fall.

Melanie Lora and Katie MacNichol, 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?

We are both working actors and mothers. Melanie has four school-age kids and Katie’s two kids are young adults. We work primarily in the theatre but also appear on screen and do voice work. Our careers have spanned decades and along the way we’ve experienced critical success, crushing disappointment and everything in between. The actor’s life is rarely one thing and doesn’t always move in a linear trajectory. The same can be said of parenting!

Balancing the demands of raising children with the uncertainty of the actor’s life takes creativity, stamina and inspiration. This is a business which is often highly competitive. It can be tempting to look at someone else’s success and see it as your own failure. Odd as it may seem, parenting can feel like that too. Someone else’s kids might appear to be thriving just when you’re dealing with a brand new challenge at home. Through the podcast, we are creating a community where we can learn from each other’s experience, celebrate the wins and be a net for one another in our struggles.

We are committed to illuminating women’s stories and helping to normalize pregnancy and motherhood in the performing arts. Many actors worry that their lives are not stable enough to bring children into the picture. Some two-actor couples wonder if one of them will have to give up acting to provide financial stability. Some of us fear that people will not hire us once they learn that we’re moms. We say that it is possible, though not always easy, to continue one’s career while raising a family.

Every episode of Act Like A Mother gives a behind the scenes look at how a different actor parent makes it all work. Every story is different and every story is inspiring in its unique way. There really is no One Way to do the actor/parent juggle!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The actors that we interview deal with the realities of financial instability, stretches of unemployment, long distance parenting while on the road, and the struggle to stay relevant in an ever-changing job market.

Our guests are Broadway leads, regional theatre veterans, television regulars, voice actors, and independent film stars. We have spoken to single mothers about shopping for sperm donors, a widowed mom about how the characters she played on stage prepared her for her own loss, a mom who had her first child in grad school, and a mom who waited until it was almost too late. We hear about caring for special needs kids, infertility and pregnancy loss, the realities of parenting in big cities and what it takes to build a career outside of a metropolitan hub. One episode might bring you to tears and another will have you laughing along with us.

And the podcast isn’t just for actor moms. We’ve had listeners write in who aren’t mothers, aren’t actors, aren’t women, and they tell us that they keep listening because they feel a point of connection in every story. We are deeply interested in the universality of the themes that emerge as we speak with our guests. Moving forward, we plan to interview mothers in other roles in our business as well—directors, writers and women in artistic leadership positions. Our listeners will even hear from some actor dads from time to time. Our recent Father’s Day episode was a highlight of Season Two.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Creativity in any form leads us to deeper wells within ourselves. If we come to an edge we haven’t met before—whether it’s a work-based dilemma or a parenting challenge—we move forward and cross it. Our guests are open hearted, authentic and creative problem solvers who demonstrate how powerful and rewarding it can be to love and nurture not just their children but their creativity as well.

We love the collaborative environment when we’re working on a play and bring the same curiosity and openness to each episode of Act Like A Mother. We share the workload of the podcast between us and fit our recording days and deadlines around last minute auditions, performance schedules, school vacations and kids’ basketball games. If we’re ever tired, we pass the creative ball back and forth and our energy is renewed.

We are grateful for the ever-increasing web of actor parents who generously share their experiences with us and don’t try to pretend that their lives are perfect. In the hyper-edited world of social media we need that! There is so much to learn from each other; so many ideas and experiences to trade back and forth. Working together as actors and parents is infinitely better than going it alone.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @actlikeamotherpodcast
• Facebook: Act Like A Mother Podcast
• Other: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/act-like-a-mother/id1777504064
  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/42nK3P2qIE9DT1NKgXPJIh?si=uMsbDgZfQEaMxQrJlrHdXw

Image Credits

Jim Cox
Henry DiRocco
Jennifer Koskinen
Daniel Reichert
Geoffrey Wade