AUSTIN (KXAN) – Loneliness poses a risk as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, according to a 2023 U.S. Surgeon General report. “We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It’s like hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling the body sends us when somethin g we need for survival is missing,” Dr. Vivek Murthy told The Associated Press in a 2023 interview. “Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that’s not right. That’s why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing.” The advisory Murthy mentioned is when he declared loneliness a public health epidemic. “It's important to really check in on your friends, it's really important to give yourself space to ask for help,” said Seth David Mitchell. Art can bring awareness to social issues, and inspire people to make change. Actor, producer, and singer Mitchell hopes Austinites will walk away from his latest project with a conversation, and emotional release while watching his take on Stephen Sondheim’s Company. The musical is running March 27 – April 6 at the Dell Performing Arts Center. KXAN sat down with Mitchell for a conversation about how this show will not only make people laugh and have a good time but also take time to think about feeling okay to embrace the community. Stephen Sondheim’s Company runs March 27th - April 6th (Photo Resolution Creative) Read an edited transcription of the conversation below. What is the show about?Company is one of my favorite musicals, Bobby, the role that I play is a dream role. But I also, you know the company is, is about Bobby, a single guy who's surrounded by a bunch of married friends, and he's wrestling through kind of, his loneliness and whether or not he should or shouldn't be married. Why is he not married? What is commitment? What is marriage? What is friendship? And even like kind of, kind of the ways that having a beautiful group of friends are both very positive and very negative because people want to keep you in the same box, even, even when they want you to grow and, and so it's, you know, it's a story about a guy figuring out what it means to connect with others and, and I think that's something, especially in a post-COVID world. And I think as a, you know, as a single guy in his early 40s, even like that, that I that I often think about, like, there's a lot of similarities between me and Bobby. I'd like to think I'm a little more mature than he is, but, yeah, and so I just think it's a beautiful show that kind of allows people to walk away thinking about their relationships, their own marriages and kind of what's working and not working. People with different backgrounds will have different perspectives. What do you hope people will take away from the play?As much as it centers around whether Bobby is married or not, I think it is about authenticity and honesty with yourself. It's, about really being able to admit what you need, what you don't know. And I hope it gives people room, because I think Bobby holds on to a lot of secrets with his friends on the emotional side, not necessarily informational secrets, but just I think we all have a hard time asking for help. I think we have a hard time saying, like, I'm feeling anxious, I'm feeling depressed, I'm feeling whatever. And I hope people walk away realizing that it's important to check in on your friends, that it's really important to give yourself space to ask for help. I hope the big takeaway is is the importance of actually being honest and deep within your close relationships. Why do you feel you connect with the role of Bobby?From an artistic standpoint, I feel like Sondheim does a great job of talking about serious subjects as as singleness, loneliness, commitment, and marriage. And yet, there are so many humorous moments. It's kind of, he's able to show the absurdity of all these, these deep things. So it's, you know, one second you're kind of laughing about some issue within one of the marriages. And then there's just a line that hits you as, like, very direct truth and kind of makes you either think or maybe makes you a little bit sad. And I just think Sondheim has a wonderful way of communicating the heart in ways that make you question rather than give you answers or make you think like life has to be a certain way. It just gives you room to kind of have some catharsis and process the big questions on your own as an audience. How will this musical resonate with the audience?The interesting thing for Bobby is that he is going about the journey, he gets kind of like a scene with each of these married couples. And I think in his mind, each of these couples must have something that he doesn't have, and that's why he's not married. And, as he gets to know each couple, he realizes, like, oh well, no, they're struggling with like they're fighting all the time, or, you know, this couple's not being honest with each other. And so I think you begin to realize that, I think some through the show, everyone can relate to it, because we all have issues, regardless of whether on paper, our lives seem like, from a worldly perspective, are like we've checked these boxes. That doesn't mean that you figured out what life is, what it means to the final song it does. You haven't necessarily figured out what it means to be alive. And so I think that's the big question, what does it mean to live your life? Do you feel like you can be vulnerable with people?I think it's a really interesting question, because I, yeah, I feel like I'm someone who's probably most of my friends would say that I'm very vulnerable. But I've, I've even realized that I have a way of being informationally vulnerable, but being emotionally vulnerable, like calling someone up when you're having a bad day, when you really like when you just need to either sit and cry or vent or you know, I'm an anxious person. Putting this show together, triggers every anxiety that I have in myself, and I've really had to learn to not just give people information, but just say, like, I need to sit with you in this emotion for 10 minutes and kind of let it process through and that that is a skill that I'm still learning, that I yeah, that I like to think, that I'm beyond square one, but I yeah, I doing the show like and I'm working through Bobby's story has helped me confront some of the ways that I still hide and try to kind of self-strive through life and just get by, and, yeah, it's, that's something I'm still learning, Taking on this acting and producing role has helped you grow.It's been a great learning experience in developing relationships with the crew. And I would say that's the same with the entire cast and crew. Like, we are blessed with a group of people who are all there to give it their all, and who are very open with each other. And I feel as much as I'm the leader in this, both as the lead actor and as the producer, I know that I have an entire team that's got my back, and that's been a really beautiful thing to learn to trust. What can the audience expect when they walk in?It's fun. We've decided company takes place in New York City, and it's with, generally, an upper crust, the upper crust of New York City, it's usually taking place in everyone's like, everyone's like, condos and that sort of thing. But we've wanted to place this in the grit of New York so as soon as the audience comes into it's that the black box theater at St Andrew's. We've set it up so you have to walk onto the stage to get to your seats. And at the stage is a Columbus Circle subway station. So there's, it has almost this interactive feel to it. As soon as you walk in, you're already going to be in Bobby's world. Because I think a lot of the show is him wandering the streets of New York, pondering his life and being, you know, very melodramatic with himself, but, I feel like, yeah, everyone's going to be able to enter into that kind of that, kind of that grit of New York City as soon as, as soon as you sit down. Seth David Mitchell is staring and producing Stephen Sondheim’s Company (Photo Resolution Creative) What message do you hope people get away from the show?The show ends, I would say, somewhat in an open-ended way. And I hope that people walk away thinking like, What mistakes did Bobby make and and with the realization that he makes in the end, I think there's an ability to kind of reflect on your own life, of where you're holding back, and where even you might know that you're broken, and kind of admit like, oh, I need to work on myself. But what are you going to do about that? Because I think the audience is kind of left with, okay, Bobby, you get it now. You get what you've kind of messed up on. But what do you they don't get to see where he goes with that realization, and I hope the reflection then for the audience is okay. Well, where am I? Where am I seeing my problems, and what am I doing about it? From your perspective, why do you think people hold things in?Well, I think, I think especially as a man, and this is a general generality. It can apply to, any person, but I think we tend to men, tend to only ask for help when there's a practical solution that can be offered. You know, like, if I don't know how to change my tire, it's easy to call up someone and say, like, how do I change my tire? Where I think, for men, it's harder to just say, like, Hey, I'm feeling down or I'm feeling scared or I'm feeling whatever. And we may not even always know exactly what we are feeling. And I think we tend to avoid those conversations because we think that means we need to utterly collapse for days at a time when it's actually like I find more and more in my own life if I call a friend when I'm in one of those emotionally needy places that it's a 10-minute conversation of someone just reflecting and being empathetic and suddenly all the things that have been. Whirling up in my head, calm down, and I can kind of move on with my day. And I just think we as men, like it's just hard for us to ask for help when we don't see that there's a practical response to it, that it's just, it's just taking a moment and being heard. I think we undersell the value of that in our own lives. Is it easier to connect with humans by putting yourself in uncomfortable positions?I think that's the interesting thing about the company because it's both because, you know, something Bobby does is create busyness in his life so that he's surrounded by people. He's distracted from his problems, but he never actually talks about it. But I do think there is an intentionality that is necessary to grow I mean, in anything, if you want to get better at the piano, you have to sit down at the piano, and if you want to get better at relating with other human beings, you need to show up into intentional community and force yourself to be vulnerable. It's not. It's not, you know, it doesn't. And again, that doesn't mean you sit in a trauma dump. It just means that you show up as you are. And if someone says, Hey, how's your day going, you can It's okay. I mean, I feel like we live in this society where someone says, How are you we're supposed to say, good. And they say, great. You can say, like, hey, it's been a busy day. I'm a little bit stressed. Thanks for asking. It doesn't mean you're inviting a full conversation. But I think showing up to an intentional community like that and giving intentional answers to questions like that like that's you've got to practice it if you want vulnerability in your life and connection in your life. For information on tickets, click here. ...read more read less