In this episode, Mishu sits down with actor and playwright Jordan Gleaves to talk about the jolt of performing in front of a live audience, the intimacy of forgetting a line onstage, and the focus behind keeping a theater career alive in a city that will happily eat your free time. They get into Jordan’s balancing act between stage work, new play development, and sharpening his on-camera instincts—while staying anchored in why he returns to the theater again and again.

Jordan’s stage credits span Court Theatre, Remy Bumppo, Goodman, TimeLine, and touring with Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and has appeared in the feature film BAM! He holds an MFA from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a BA from Morehouse College.

We talk about:

→ The presence and meditation of live performance
→ The adrenaline spike of going up on a line—and finding your way back
→ How theater instincts translate (and don’t translate) to on-camera auditions
→ Navigating feast-or-famine seasons in Chicago’s creative ecosystem
→ Why he seeks out rooms where collaboration feels like oxygen

Catch Jordan in The Unseen by Craig Wright
Tin Drum Theatre at Bramble Arts Loft (through Nov 23)
Tickets: https://tindrumtheatre.com/the-unseen/

Follow Jordan on Instagram: @justjordan93

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Produced by @ohhmaybemedia