Five Acts with Leta Harris Neustaedter - Part 2

photo credit: Mika Belle

Welcome to the "Five Acts with..." series, featuring artists, performers, musicians, and more from around the Treasure Valley. In this series, Arts Boise presented them with five questions (or, in this case, Acts) and below, the answers, in their own words.

Thanks to Leta Harris Neustaedter for taking time out of their busy schedule to participate. The following is part two of their interview. You can read part one here.

ACT IV: Where do you see the future of theater/performing arts/music scene headed?

I think we will see way more grassroots theater, guerilla theater, smaller collectives instead of juggernaut theater orgs. This is already starting to happen because I think a lot of creatives feel the way I do in that they can’t find a traditional theater that wants to tell the stories they want to tell, either because they are original works, or they are more obscure or less commercial. I wish the public understood how much they influence the freedom that artists have to experiment. When people don’t go see a show because they aren’t familiar with it, the org is less willing to invest in lesser-known shows. If the community supported creative risks, the donor would support it, and the orgs would get the approval and nudging to do it. So, artists are taking things into their hands more and more and producing things in ways where the overhead is much less than if it were done through a traditional theater. I understand this deeply after spending several years running the Idaho AntiRacism Coalition for Arts and Culture Orgs. There are so many rigid systems and rigid mindsets in place within the arts community, it can drain your soul trying to shift them. Looking for alternatives is like flowing around boulders.

In addition, we have the current upheaval in our country and the attack on arts organizations with deep funding cuts resulting in a dramatic decrease in the exploration of topics deemed controversial like race, sexual orientation, gender identity, class, immigration etc. Movements like the Fall Of Freedom organized by artists including Lynn Nottage are emerging as a form resistance, and this is just the beginning of a wave of efforts to find alternative funding sources and ways to come together to keep the arts thriving despite the suffocating blanket of oppressive thought policing and anti-DEI targeting that currently hangs over the country.

ACT V: What's up next for you? What are you currently working on? Favorite projects in last 5 - 10 years?

I am in my fourth draft of an autobiographical musical about my adolescence growing up here in Idaho. Over the past year and a half, I have held three listening sessions to try out different storytelling strategies and get feedback. The next step will be a staged performance, hopefully in 2026. That project is a doozy, with storytelling, writing, musical performance, musical notation and a gazillion technical things that have to be learned, plus recording and production. Huge learning curves while wearing all the hats, but I was one of 10 people selected for a national musical theater grant based on 3 of the songs, so that was incredibly validating and pushes me to see it through to completion.

On the immediate horizon I am directing and performing in award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage’s tender play Intimate Apparel for Boise Little Theater’s Black Box. It has been a rocky journey to get this play to a stage, and I am thrilled to finally be here.

Highlights from the last few years in film, theater and music would be: FILM: the movie I was filming a few weeks ago in Utah. I got to share the screen with two actors I have admired for decades so it was a bit surreal. And bringing things full circle, on the first day of filming after we ran a scene a few times the director told us to improv the scene. And even though I was still a little starstruck by some of the actors in the room, there was no glass bridge. My heart did not leap into my throat. I felt excited and capable and grounded, and I held my own. We’ll see if any of that makes the final cut. THEATER: A few years ago, I finally got to do my one and only bucket list theater role – The Witch in Into the Woods, on the Morrison Center Stage with Boise Music Week. The physicality of that character was such a blast, and I felt deeply connected to her frustration about how she was treated, and the idea that she was villainized, but she was not necessarily a villain. MUSIC: Last year I finally got a chance to be in the pit as the band leader and pianist for Stagecoach’s production of Lizzie the Musical. Being in the pit is a big deal because you have to be really good to do that kind of work. It has been a goal of mine for years. For six weeks leading up to rehearsals I was clocking 4 hours per day of practice to get my skills where they needed to be. And the sense of accomplishment when I listen to the recordings is like a bolt of electricity surging through me, it lights me up. It was a year ago and I still miss it. Being in the pit is not for the faint of heart but I am seeking my next opportunity!