Exploring the Intersection of Art and Spirituality with Deborah Hazlett

In this episode with the team from Good News!, professional actress Deborah Hazlett shares insights from her extensive career with Everyman Theatre and her teaching of the Alexander Technique. Deborah discusses her experiences in regional theater, the sense of family at Everyman, and the unique demands of live performance. She also delves into the Alexander Technique, explaining its integration into both her acting and personal life. Additionally, Deborah reflects on how her work in theater has deepened her spiritual life and provided a sense of agency. The discussion also touches on the importance of supporting live theater through attendance and contributions.

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:08 Deborah's Acting Journey

00:29 Life at Everyman Theatre

02:27 The Rehearsal Process

03:17 Balancing Teaching and Acting

03:43 Impact of COVID-19

04:33 Exploring the Alexander Technique

05:14 Diverse Roles and Typecasting

07:46 Memorable Roles and Audience Reactions

12:48 Theater's Impact on Spirituality

15:43 Supporting the Arts Post-COVID

20:16 Deep Dive into the Alexander Technique

28:12 Final Thoughts and Advice

30:11 Conclusion and Farewell

Check out Everyman Theatre at https://everymantheatre.org/

The Good News! podcast series is part of the ListeningforClues portfolio. Catch us at https://listeningforclues.com/

© 2025 Listening for Clues

Hello, friends.

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Today we meet Deborah Hazlett for whom

acting is more than just a performance.

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It's part of a personal,

spiritual journey.

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Deborah talks with Good News team

about how her varied experiences

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on stage connect with the Divine

Mystery within herself and the

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collective soul of the audience.

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Join us as we explore this

interplay between art and spirit.

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Jon Shematek: Deborah Hazlett,

welcome to our podcast.

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We're thrilled to have you here today.

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Deborah Hazlett: Thank you.

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I am delighted to be here.

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Jon Shematek: So Deborah, you

are a professional actress.

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You've been part of the Every man theater,

resident acting company for a couple

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of decades plus, you are a teacher of

something that I don't know anything

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about called the Alexander Technique.

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we'd really love to hear about you

your career and the Alexander technique

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Deborah Hazlett: I've been at

Everyman for, this is my 28th year.

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it's been pivotal for my development

as an artist because a lot of people

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in this country, at least people I

run into, don't know that being a

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regional theater actor a full-time job.

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they know a lot about film and

television actors and Broadway,

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but they don't know a lot about

what we call being in the regions.

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I lived in New York for years and

have had an agent there for years and.

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have worked outside of Baltimore and,

had wonderful, wonderful experiences, but

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it's been so important to have an artistic

home where I feel that I have a voice as

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an artist where I feel my opinion and my

journey is important to the folks around

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me who I consider my theater family.

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So it's been my artistic

home now for a long time.

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And the gift of that is that I have,

some agency as an artist, I can

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talk about what's important to me.

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I work with people.

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I consider my family, whether it's

the stage managers the shop, the

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crew, the wonderful administrative

staff, the front of house folks.

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often when you are hired and go

to work in a theater, you just

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don't get to know those people.

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everyone's kind, but you aren't

exposed as an actor to those folks.

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so those people are my theater family.

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but I've also enjoyed, auditioning

in New York and working in theaters

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where I don't know anyone at all,

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Opportunity to start over and recreate

yourself every time you go into a

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new rehearsal hall where you may

only have met the director in New

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York at an audition and a callback.

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some of that is virtual these days

since COVID, a lot of that has changed.

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and then there you are and you show

up and you have an intense eight to 10

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weeks with folks and then you go home.

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So the consistency at Everyman

has really, helped me.

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Develop myself as an artist, artist in

a place where I felt safe and welcomed.

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We talk at every man a lot

about the rehearsal hall.

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I actually like rehearsal

better than I like performance.

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in the rehearsal hall, you get

to risk and fall down and make

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mistakes and we try something and

then we say, oh, that didn't work.

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But then we get to try

again It's great fun.

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It's work too.

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people still ask me after all

these years, what do I actually do?

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the rehearsal week is seven days

a week, eight to 10 hours a day.

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and then you have eight shows

a week, Tuesday, Wednesday,

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Thursday, Friday nights, two shows.

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Saturday, two shows Sunday,

sometimes a matinee during the week.

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So it's an intense process

that requires, a full-time job.

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And this is when you are working

in a union house, which Everyman

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is, it's hard to have another

kind of job when you're working.

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You're not always working.

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So there's lots of in-betweens

and that's where I found my

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teaching to really sustain me.

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I have an MFA, which is a three

year, terminal program for actors.

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It's a funny word, it sounds

like, we die at the end of it, but

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they called it terminal degree.

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It's the last one you can get as

an actor, and that is what you need

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to teach at the university level.

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But also I teach for

theaters when I work there.

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And, but during COVID, as you

know, all the theaters shut down.

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Everything went dark.

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I had just started my, teacher

training for a certificate

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in the Alexander technique.

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There happened to be at

Mid-Atlantic here in Baltimore.

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Happened to be run by a

brilliant woman, Nancy Bermuda.

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And we were able to keep that going.

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And I spent, it's a 1600 hour

certification, so I spent a lot of the one

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and a half years of COVID where theaters

were shut down and then completed my

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training once we started working again.

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This time through studying it has

really transformed my work, but

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also my life in a lot of ways.

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So it's been pretty spectacular.

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Jon Shematek: Wow.

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Well, we sure wanna hear about that.

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I think it's probably a good

time to just tell us a bit more

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about, Alexander Technique.

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And I do wanna loop back, to hear a

bit more about, your acting career

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and the impact that's had on your

life, particularly on your inner

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self, your spiritual life, you were

talking about that wonderful sense

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of family, at Everyman that, that

you've had and, which is awesome.

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I'm also interested in the audience

component of that and the impact?

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I know you've been in a

huge variety of roles.

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I've seen you in several very

different roles and, mm-hmm.

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So, I don't know, you want, you, you

wanna talk about Alexander or talk

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a little bit more about, Everyman

and what, what goes on there?

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Deborah Hazlett: Let's, talk about

every man just to keep a through line.

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so often in this business

you can be, typecast.

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when you don't know folks very well in

New York you're meeting a director, and

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they take one look at you and they believe

this is the type of role you can play

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the gift of being a company member at

every man is that that doesn't happen.

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So I've played everything from, I mean,

I'm a pretty, waspy looking gal, right?

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the focus of my MFA was in, the classics

in Shakespeare That is something I'm very

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passionate about, but at every man I play,

everything from, from Ipsen to, to doing

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Frankie and Johnny at the Clair balloon,

to, playing Tracy and Sweat, which was

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a, a very complicated, difficult play.

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beautiful play.

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I get to play in the classics

in a way that I really love and

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that I'm very passionate about.

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the gift is that the artistic director,

Vince Lancisi, who's just a terrific

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friend and a very talented man,

he's the founding artistic director.

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So he started this theater more

than 30 years ago, I think 35.

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he doesn't look at me

and just see one thing.

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when you work with someone for this

many years, they get to know how

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you can transform and then they

provide a space to make that happen.

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as an artist, it was my dream when

I was in the third grade and my mom,

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we were on a trip from, my dad was

stationed at Shaw Air Force Base.

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We took a family trip to Washington DC.

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We went to all the monuments.

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It was like, fourth row center,

last minute, fourth row center

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tickets at the Ford's Theater.

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We saw Godspell.

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it blew my mind and I said to my mom,

how old are you in the third grade?

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I said,

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That's what I'm doing.

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And she enrolled me in classes

at the Sumter Little theater.

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Where I happened to be taught by Katie

Damron and Jan Taylor, brilliant,

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talented artists who had landed

in Sumter formed this theater.

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And I learned so much about the

real work of a life as an actor.

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and I tried not to do it for a while.

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I worked for Congress for a while.

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I was gonna go to law school.

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But I was afraid.

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So I got my MFA instead,

and I graduated in 94.

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And have been working steadily since.

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my mom says, don't say you're lucky

'cause it's hard work, but stay grateful.

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I'm very grateful to have had

the work that I've had and played

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the roles that I've played.

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Lauren Welch: Deborah did

you have a favorite role that

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you'd like to share with us?

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Deborah Hazlett: You know,

people ask me that a lot.

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One of the gifts too, of every man is

the subscribers that are so, involved.

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they see me do many different things.

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They see all of us do

many different things.

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As a matter of fact, when I first

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were a lot of subscribers there, and

I remember being startled by that.

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it was lovely.

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They feel a bit like children these

roles and it's hard to pick a favorite.

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I've had roles that have

changed me certainly.

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Hedda Gabler.

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It's an Ipsen play.

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she's a complicated woman.

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She's trapped and she's a complicated

woman, but she does this thing in

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the middle of the play where this

manuscript that this person's been

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working on forever, and it's a play

that takes place a long time ago.

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So it was a handwritten manuscript.

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There would've only been one of them.

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She burns it, she throws it

in the oven and burns it.

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somebody in the audience literally

stood up and said, you are a psycho.

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so that kind of relationship with

the audience is something that

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you only get in live theater.

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Hedda was important to me.

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she was very difficult, character.

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But I always make the argument

that I can't judge these people.

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I have to love these people because

when people are behaving badly.

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They rarely think they're behaving badly.

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That's just not how it works.

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So I don't think these are bad people.

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I can't, as an, as I'm playing the

role, I have to find what motivates

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them and why they do what they do.

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sometimes the more difficult

characters the more challenging it

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is, the more satisfying it may be.

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But then, I recently did a Midsummer

Night's Dream, which was nothing

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but delightful the whole time.

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And then I said, I'm never

doing another drama again.

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I only do comedy.

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it was fun and playful and I love

the language people often say to me,

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How do you play these intense roles

and not let it affect your life?

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Well, it does affect your life.

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I always say, I come off stage,

all my sons, for example, beautiful

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play, and the man who plays my

husband commits suicide at the end.

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That's the last scene.

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There's a gunshot and that's it.

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death of a Salesman, where Willie.

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kills himself in the

car at the end, right?

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So I always say, you know, you go off

stage you have the curtain call and

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you go to the dressing room and you

take your wig off, but your body has

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taken a physical emotional journey.

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it's real important to have the tools

and skills to manage that in a way that

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enhances your life thank God my life

is not as dramatic all the time as my

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characters' lives, when we all have times

in our lives where it's terribly dramatic

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either terribly difficult or very joyful,

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Not eight shows a week.

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So it's very important to learn

the discipline of releasing.

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what the journey has

been, if that makes sense.

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Jon Shematek: It does.

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it's making me, think about how

these roles and, have affected you

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personally is the impact that it must

have and does have on audience members.

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we all need the experience of joy, that

you were talking about with midsummer.

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and we need to be thoughtful and provoked.

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As watching Hedda Gabler would

certainly make people think it was

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written a long time ago, but the

themes are so timeless and current.

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Deborah Hazlett: The.

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Theme of a woman feeling trapped

in a marriage and in a system

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where she doesn't have agency.

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And she is expected to behave, and live a

life based on the expectations mostly of

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men in Heda, gobbler, Ibsen writes about

this with Nora and Doll's House with Mrs.

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And Ghosts the themes resonate

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People whether you're a man

or a woman the feeling of not

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having agency in your own life is

something that people can recognize.

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the catharsis between anyone on stage and

the audience is the reason I do the work.

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the audience is another

character in the play.

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We feel you.

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We feel you breathe.

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We hear you laugh.

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We can tell if you're bored.

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We can tell if we're just

not funny that night.

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Sometimes we're just not funny.

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it's tremendous that sort of connectivity.

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I always tell people if you go to a movie

theater and there's nobody in the movie

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theater, you're always really happy.

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'cause you, oh good, I

can just watch the movie.

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If you go into a live performance

theater and there's nobody

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there, it's very disconcerting.

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People want to have that

communal experience.

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It's like being at church when the church

is full and you can just feel all that

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connectivity and shared experience.

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It's the same way, in the theater.

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So I don't think AI can ever replace that.

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Lauren Welch: Deborah, as you're speaking

the connection, the joy that you share,

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how has this experience of acting and

interacting with the audience, how

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has that, helped your spirit, or how

has that affected your spiritual life?

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Deborah Hazlett: I was away

from church for a long time.

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I was raised in the Episcopal church.

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My grandpa was an Episcopal bishop.

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like many folks in my late twenties,

I moved away from the church.

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I struggled with some of the concepts.

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and I found.

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Real spirituality in the theater.

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it feels similar, the shared experience

but also the mystery of the transformation

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that happens in the room is, Something

that I can't explain to anyone, but

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I know it when I am in church, I

often have the same experience of.

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What is actually what, in my mind,

the Holy Spirit, just the work

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of the Holy Spirit in the room.

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And I have a little prayer I say

before I go on stage every night and I

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invite the Holy Spirit to travel with

me to help me be, a vessel for truth.

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that's a phrase I got from

a dear friend of mine.

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as to how it.

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Helps my continued work on

my own connectivity to God

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and my own spirituality.

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It's a strong reminder of staying

present and listening and staying

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open to what is before you.

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as an actor, you have to listen.

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pay attention to the beauty

and the miracles that are

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happening all around you.

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The courage of the people

around you to do what they do.

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I think more than anything, it's helped

me to be open to what's possible.

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And when I came back to church in

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ex-musical theater actor from New York.

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I was like, oh, I found

my place, I found my home.

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I feel very grateful to organize the

reader's ministry and do those trainings

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because I hope I can bring some of

these gifts to that ministry, and

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invite other people to use themselves.

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To tell the story even in a shorter way.

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bringing who you are as a

reader to tell the story.

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'cause that's what's important.

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It's important because you are

the person telling the story.

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So it's been a real, gift

for me to integrate that.

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I hope that was clear.

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Jon Shematek: It absolutely was.

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it's great to see that, integration.

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I just find this whole

discussion so irresistible.

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I do wanna get to Alexander

technique, honest, but I did wanna,

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Deborah Hazlett: we could

do another one about at, we,

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Jon Shematek: this might be long enough

to split into two, right, Lauren?

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anyway.

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the thing I'm, I'm, thinking about,

you know, the theater and Everyman

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in particular, I'm so grateful

that it survived COVID 'cause that

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certainly killed a lot of art, and

live performance venues and so on.

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these days, the theater and all

arts, are really under, additional

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threats, in terms of funding.

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Yeah.

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and so on.

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And I assume that Everyman theater

has, is being affected, by all that.

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And I don't know if you wanna

comment on that, but I certainly

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want to let our viewers and listeners

know how they can be supportive.

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of the work that Everyman's

doing and that, that you and

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your actor colleagues are doing.

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Deborah Hazlett: Go to the theater,

buy a ticket, People have stopped.

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It really took a hit during COVID

and for some reason, I don't know

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if people just wanna stay home

and watch TV at night 'cause they

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came to know what that feels like.

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But.

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The only way we can tell the story

is if there are people in the

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theater to tell the story too.

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And, the ticket sales are they're so

important to keeping theaters alive,

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but it's a ti it'd be surprised at what

a small portion it is of the actual

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money that keeps the theaters going.

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Resources right now are not as available

as they have been in the past for

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all kinds of complicated reasons.

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So go to the theater, bring

a friend to the theater.

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The other thing is, one of the nice things

about the subscription model is that you

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can pick the plays you want to go to.

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this subscription model is great because

you are not gonna, like every play that

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you see But you're gonna learn something.

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my favorite, theater goers and subscribers

are people that go to see a new play.

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Maybe they don't like it, but

there's something about it that

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touched them or moved them, or

we can talk about it afterwards.

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I don't like every play I'm in, but,

taking the risk on a new play, exposing

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yourself to something unexpected.

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we actually talk in the Alexander

technique, although it's not, it's

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not, only from the Alexander technique

is coming with a beginner's mind.

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I.

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So that whatever is in front of

you, you're able to stay open to

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and see what you can discover.

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I say to people, go to the theater.

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Go to the the go.

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To Everyman.

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Subscribe to Everyman.

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But there's wonderful

community theater in this city.

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the DIY theaters, these young artists

that are doing extraordinary work.

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So just leave home, go to the

theater at Everyman, for example,

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and this is a national trend.

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we've moved the evening curtains from

seven to eight and the matinees on

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Saturdays and Sundays from two to one.

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Now people like the seven o'clock,

but they like the two o'clock.

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But the union has a rule that there has

to be a certain amount of time between

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shows so the actors can eat and rest.

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So if we're gonna move it to

seven, we can't do the two o'clock.

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seven o'clock and you can be home and

in bed by nine 30 if you want to be.

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lots of theaters are doing

that 'cause people just don't

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stay out like they used to.

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I have a friend who runs a restaurant

and they're dealing with the same thing.

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people don't go out to

eat at 10 o'clock anymore.

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so go to the theater, take classes.

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There's a wonderful education

department at Everyman.

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I just taught a new class for, the

Alexander Technique and actors, I'm

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still so excited about it because I was

working on this particular syllabus and

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curriculum to see if I could integrate

these two passions in a way that,

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would help expand what's possible for

the actors in the class, and their

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agency around their performances

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How they can use their bodies to

tell the story they want to tell.

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And after six weeks with this

glorious group of students, worked.

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It was so exciting.

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most theaters have an education component.

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We have, summer classes all

summer for young kids to get

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them interested in theater.

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the education department is a

great way to help support, how

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we bring money into the theater.

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You can just go online

and donate if you want to.

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Jon Shematek: Great.

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Deborah Hazlett: gonna stay

alive if audiences don't go.

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That we know for sure that

we learned during COVID.

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We knew it anyway, but

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Jon Shematek: yeah.

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So, Debra, we will have the

everyman, website in our show

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notes so people can find it easily.

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Great.

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and buy tickets, subscribe.

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Look at the educational offerings.

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I'm sure there's a donate

button on that site.

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And I know, Lauren, you're just itching

to ask about Alexander techniques,

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so I'll be quiet it's been a teaser.

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It's come in like four times already.

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And you alluded to it

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Lauren Welch: certainly has.

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and, Deborah, I'm like, Jon,

I don't know much about it.

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I had a friend who did, practice it,

but, tell us what Alexandra technique

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is and, how you use it in your own life.

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Deborah Hazlett: It's basically

a reeducation process for

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change, but for the body, right?

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a lot of people know about,

mindfulness these days.

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A lot of us meditate, and AT

is mindfulness for the body

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because we often leave our bodies

out that mindfulness journey.

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and it was, we study it as actors.

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It was developed by a man named

Frederick Matthias Alexander.

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He, in the late 18 hundreds into

the early 19 hundreds, he was an

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Australian actor in a time where the,

performance style was very declarative.

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They would come down to the

edge of the stage and sort of.

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Declare.

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he found he kept losing his voice

and he was an actor in demand, but

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he would lose his voice all the time.

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So he finally quit for a year, he studied

himself in the mirror and found that he

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didn't lose his voice in life, but every

time he would perform, he would throw

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his head back and expand his chest he

was putting so much compression in the

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back of his neck and on his vocal cords

that he would, he would lose his voice.

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So he came to discover the

importance of the head, neck, spine,

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relationship, and performance.

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We studied as actors because

we have to do eight shows a

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week without losing our voices.

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it's become a practice For the

whole body and its basic idea

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is that it helps through we say

it's not a do, it's a think.

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it's a gentle practice of

non-judgmental noticing of habituated

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physical response to stimulus.

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developing your sensory awareness

so that you are noticing physical

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habit and learning to inhibit

that habituated response.

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in that moment of pause is where

you have the agency to direct, and

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that's where you direct yourself

in the way that you would like.

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To respond so that you are in

your best use, we talk about.

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the means whereby we do something.

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We forget that part.

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The means whereby we get from the

first floor to the second floor.

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At my age anyway, I shouldn't be doing

anything else on the stairs except

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thinking about being on the stairs,

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But we're so busy with all these other

things that we make mistakes, we trip and

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so it's an example of the being mindful

of the means whereby we move through life.

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And it can help enormously with habituated

patterns of tension back trouble.

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For me, my jaw, I, I have to, I think I

have to clench my jaw to pick up a pen.

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I think I have to clench my jaw to pull a

coffee cup off the cupboard shelf, so it's

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about identifying where you habituate.

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Tension and holding through

a hands-on somatic practice.

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I work with a massage table with

clients, and help people learn to

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create and maintain ease in the body.

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The biggest thing that I have found in

my work is that component of inhibition,

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the pause that allows for choice,

the pause that allows for change.

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it turns into, a thought that

affects, not just your body,

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but also your emotional state.

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If you allow yourself to pause, then I

can be much more open to what is coming.

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my instrument is very fluttery and

unless I'm in a wig in a costume, I can

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get quite nervous and uncomfortable,

and then I talk really fast and get

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distracted and don't finish sentences

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And AT has helped me.

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It's slow.

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Change is slow, but it is, it's

helping me just learn to go through

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my basic directions and to find ease.

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the basic Alexander, the directions

he came up with were free the neck

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to allow the spine to lengthen,

to allow the torso to widen.

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Directions for the body that create ease,

the head and neck spine relationship.

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This is really cool.

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do you have an idea of where your

head actually meets your spine?

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If you do, put your hand where

you think your head attaches

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to the top of your spine.

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I can't see Jon, but Lauren is here.

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It actually attaches to the spine

at the Atlantic occipital joint.

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Don't have to worry about that.

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But if you put your fingers, like

you're gonna plug your ears and

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you nod here, that's how high up.

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That is where the skull sits

at the top of the spine, almost

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like a mortar and pestle.

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So we think that we have to

involve the, we compress the

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backs of our necks like this.

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That is 60 pounds of pressure on

the spine when you tilt your head

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like this and look at your phone.

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So the head, neck, spine relationship

is really about learning to get

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that head to sit on the spine

in a way that creates space.

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And when we say free the neck,

it's releasing all those muscles

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in the neck that allow the spine

to lengthen and the torso to widen.

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That is basically what it's about.

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Then there's many other things

that we learn, but it's an approach

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that for me, has invited change

in my body that has been profe.

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I haven't thrown my back out

since I finished my studying.

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it's great for chronic pain because you

identify the use of your body that is

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maybe contributing to that chronic pain.

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It's a teacher student model because

I'm not a medical practitioner

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and we don't pretend to be.

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So we call it a lesson, which

I think is really, important

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because I can help a lot with use.

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there's structural injury that a

doctor would have to deal with.

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But teachers can usually help

because there's a release of

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muscle that can happen with this

work that might give you some help

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around a structural injury as well.

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But we don't pretend to

be medical practitioners.

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, That's sort of it in a nutshell, but

it's so much cooler than that nutshell.

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Jon Shematek: That's, it sounds

very, intriguing and promising.

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Like it really, could be helpful.

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Now, you mentioned you've been teaching

this in classes to actors, but you

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also, have one-on-one instruction,

how do people find out about that?

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Deborah Hazlett: so far people are finding

me through the theater at Everyman.

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But they are not responsible for my pro.

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That's if you want coaching or

want to take a class at Everyman.

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Okay.

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I'm in the process of getting

a website up and running.

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So people will be able to

find me through my name.

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but right now Everyman does

not, I have anything to do with

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scheduling, my private work.

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but for coaching, for audition and

things like that I, we go through

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the education department there.

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Jon Shematek: so what I'd say is when you

get your website, let us know and we will

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attach that to this podcast, as well.

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Lauren, did you have any other, questions

for Deborah about, or anything else?

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Lauren Welch: Deborah.

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Yes.

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I mean, you have shared

so much with us today.

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your joy and passion for acting

and, finding the mystery, the divine

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mystery in acting as well as in church.

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and How it has enhanced your spiritual

life, and you've just shared with

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us, how, the Alexander technique

can help us embody mind and spirit.

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What other advice would you

like to share with those who

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are watching and listing now?

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Deborah Hazlett: It is an interesting

time in my life, to be getting

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older in this business and, to

coming out of COVID, getting

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older, and the Alexander technique.

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All of those things have helped me

develop an agency for myself in how.

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I want to experience this

next part of my life.

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as actors, we often feel

we don't have any agency.

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we audition for a director.

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We don't get to pick the plays.

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But we do have agency about what

we say yes to and what we say no

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to about how we are in the room

about how we treat our colleagues.

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And this is really

interesting to me, Lauren.

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I've been thinking so much lately

about the intersection of my spiritual

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life and my work and my acting work,

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I think that we can all find agency in

ways that we possibly haven't thought

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possible, and it all just has to do

with how we choose to be in community

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and how we choose to respond with

hopefully grace and kindness and a

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beginner's mind, we don't have to think.

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We know everything.

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We know the things we know, but there's

so much else out there and at a time where

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people are really not listening very well.

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I think that if we just.

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Take a pause and allow for breath and

let go of the holding and the fear and

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the tension so that we can stay present.

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Then maybe we can help affect change

and create a loving community.

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So I'm still working on this intersection.

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I've been thinking a lot about it.

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I'm experiencing it into pretty

profound places in my life, the

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church and, and the theater.

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I don't know if that's advice, but

that's what I'm thinking about.

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Jon Shematek: It sounded like

great advice to me, Deborah.

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So Deborah Hazlett, thank you so much

for being with us on our podcast.

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We have enjoyed spending this time

with you, your wisdom, your presence.

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Thanks.

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Deborah Hazlett: Well, I am

delighted to be with both of you

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and I'm sure I'll see you soon,

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Lauren Welch: Jon and I want to thank

all who are watching and listening for

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the gift of your time with us today.

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Until next time, peace and blessings.

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Lynn Shematek: This episode

of Good News has been brought

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to you by Listening for Clues.

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For more podcasts, check out

our YouTube channel or our

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website listening for clues.com.