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Schyler Conaway on bearing (almost) all onstage, dating a daddy, & his favorite YouTube binge
Breakout star Schyler Conaway of Off-Broadway's 'Chasing Happy' gets intimate about what turns him on both onstage and off.
Schyler Conaway knows how to make an entrance. In Off-Broadway’s Chasing Happy, the young actor bursts onto the stage wearing little more than… well, we’ll leave that to your imagination, but let’s just say he knows how to keep your attention.
Michael Wellerstein’s new play offers more than eye candy, though. Set in Provincetown, Chasing Happy takes an intimate look at a gay widower’s life after a tragic event, the choices he makes to get himself back on track, and the people who may or may not contribute to his happiness. Conaway, making his Off-Broadway debut, plays an unexpected love interest, opening a Pandora’s Box of complicated emotions that take unexpected twists and turns as his character evolves from eye candy to a young man with agency over his personal and professional life.
Queerty caught up with Conaway just before opening to chat about the play’s themes, his favorite queer inspirations and dream collaborations, and what he learned from dating an older man.
In Chasing Happy, I play a millennial who has a thing for older men. The most unexpected thing I’ve learned from a queer elder in my life is…
My first significant relationship was with a man 10+ years older than me, and I would say the most unexpected thing that taught me was how much we can learn from different perspectives. In general, I feel like we naturally gravitate toward similar things; we hang with people who might have jobs in similar fields or share similar interests, and we may even surround ourselves with people who come from the same locale or culture.
Hailing from a small town in southern Delaware, this was certainly the case for me. He was of a different generation, place, career path, and background. Whenever I found myself in crisis, he countered with his perspective: “I’ve experienced something like this before, and I overcame it by doing this…” “Your experience is different from mine because when I was navigating similar circumstances, my obstacles were…” “I have faith that this will improve for you because these things have shifted for me…”
As a 21-year-old fresh out of college, my world was my world, and I wasn’t great at looking beyond it. He helped to shift that for me. It’s been a lesson that has stayed with me and impacted so many relationships, experiences, and opportunities for the better.
My character is also an artist, and at one point, says, “I believe that art should be felt and not understood.” When I saw ________, I felt it, but I didn’t totally understand it!
Most recently, I caught a performance of the new Sondheim musical, Here We Are, currently playing at The Shed. I loved it! The show is original, thought-provoking and unexpected. It features some excellent performances, and I was hooked from the first note.
However, when it ended, I found myself with a lot of questions, which felt intentional by the musical’s creators. The production feels like it’s relying on the audience to respond to the show with their own personal perspective but then challenges them to take a second (or third or fourth) look at the material through another. It’s one of those shows where you leave the theater, go straight to a quiet corner of your favorite lounge, order a martini, and then dissect it moment-by-moment for about two hours with friends.
Of course, it’s great to see art where you know exactly what the creators were trying to convey, but experiences like mine at Here We Are have personal staying power. As I continue to make art, whether the feeling is good or bad, I hope that audiences always walk away from it feeling something.
The gayest thing about me is…
I am personally responsible for approximately a quarter of the 110,000 views of Christine Ebersole singing “Another Winter in a Summer Town” from Grey Gardens on YouTube.
The one thing they don’t tell you about being nearly naked onstage is…
Let’s just say that the tiny bikini I’m wearing doesn’t leave much to the imagination. That being said, I have been onstage in various states of undress throughout the years. My first professional job was playing Melchior in Spring Awakening, which required me to drop trou at the end of Act I. As the show had onstage seating, audiences got to be very up close and personal with the… experience. I’d say the one thing that they don’t tell you about being naked on stage is that you can’t control the air temperature.
One of the most poignant lines in Chasing Happy is, “Just stay in the moment and pray it stays a while.” if I could go back in time, this is the moment it would be…
Speaking of Spring Awakening, that was an extremely special time in my life. It was my first New York City audition after graduating college. I lined up at 5 a.m. for an open call where they ended up seeing over 800 actors in two days. I booked the show and got my Equity Card, playing a dream role opposite someone who would go on to become one of my closest friends.
The timing of the production came immediately following the unexpected passing of a college friend, and there was something so powerful and cathartic about getting to process that grief through that story and that music. I was so new to New York City that I hadn’t yet come to know the rejection and disappointment that can come with being an actor, and instead, I was so full of hope and excitement for what was next. It is a chapter that I look back on often and fondly.
The LGBTQ+ person I’d love to collaborate with…
I know I’m not the first person to say this, but there is a great admiration and desire to work with Ryan Murphy. Aside from having his hand in so many diverse projects, there is something exciting about how much he has championed queer artists and queer stories. He has provided so many high-profile opportunities for so many queer actors that otherwise may not have been there. Getting the chance to work with him as a supporting or leading character on a new or existing series would be incredible.
Revive _______ so I can star in it!
Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard! This show checks off so many boxes on my list: classic Hollywood glamor, an iconic diva performance, an epic score, a leading man who isn’t what you think he is, an unexpected ending, and a vocal range that doesn’t require the actor to sustain six B Flats per song. Sunset Boulevard leaves the audience wondering who the real “bad guy” is. It’s a piece where maybe there is more than just one villain, and who doesn’t love a good villain?
When I saw _________ onstage, I knew I wanted to be an actor.
Speaking of “the gayest thing about me” — when I was 15 years old, I saw Idina Menzel in Wicked, and as cliché as it is, it changed my life. I vividly remember that following “The Wizard and I,” I had to actively concentrate on smiling to stop myself from bursting into tears. I didn’t move an inch for the entirety of Act 1, and when intermission came, my legs were shaking so badly that I could barely walk to the bathroom. All throughout that next week, I kept thinking to myself, “She got paid to do that!?” And suddenly, I knew what I wanted to be: Elphaba. I mean, an actor.
At my dressing table, you’ll find…
An iced Americano, an endless supply of roasted almonds, and a table lamp because we seriously can’t engage with those overhead fluorescent lights.
As an actor, I dress up for a living, but _______ is where I dream about being naked.
Blue Lagoon, Iceland. Just before sunrise with my partner, Brad.
Chasing Happy plays Off-Broadway at Theatre Row through November 11.
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