AI till this day continues to grow and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. And that's why right now you need to be an early adopter for all of the possible AI models. There are so many different types of AI models out there that it's hard to pick just one to try to get everything done. There's tons of different AI bots that specialize in certain functions. Now learning how to use these tools to their full potential or at least a bare basics of them can really help you start streamlining different day to day processes so you can save tons of time and money. Now with that being said in this video we're going to be covering the top AI bots to help you start making some more money dropshipping. Let's go ahead and run that intro and let's get started. What's going on everyone? Maro here with AutoDS and if you're one of the tons of people that found our chat GBT video useful then trust me you're going to want to stick around all the way to the end for this one. In this video we're going to cover six different AI models that can help you out in different aspects of your dropshipping business. Now while some of these might have similar functionalities they were each made for a specific purpose and that's what we're going to use them for. We're not going to use each of these models as a generic AI model for pretty much anything. We're going to use it for their specified purpose or at least the closest we can get to their specified purpose. Now before we go ahead and get started make sure you hit that subscribe button as well as ring that little bell notification so you don't miss out on any future videos. In this channel we cover anything and everything dropshipping along with some of the best tips and tricks to help you scale your business. Also to go along with this video I made an easy to reference cheat sheet. Now if you want access to that cheat sheet all you have to do is go ahead and comment down below hashtag AI money along with your favorite AI bot from this list. Once I see that you want to hit and commented I'll go ahead and reply back with a link. Alright so to kick things off the first AI model that we're going to talk about is none other than chat GPT. Chat GPT can pretty much be used for just about anything at this point but we're not going to use it for just anything. In this particular case we're going to use it to come up with a product idea as well as a product title. Now summer's right around the corner and so are a few other holidays such as Mother's Day and Father's Day. But those I think are a bit too close for comfort so I'm going to choose something that's a bit further ahead. Something that we can start preparing for right now and I'm thinking something that's a good few months away. So let's go ahead and look for some Halloween dropshipping products. So I already have chat GPT pulled up in front of me. Now let's go ahead and ask it what some good products would be to dropship for Halloween. So hey chat GPT what are some good dropshipping products for Halloween. Alright so it gave us a few different answers and one of them is Halloween costumes. That's a great option to dropship everyone wants to dress up for Halloween. You also have Halloween decorations which is also great Halloween accessories Halloween party supplies. The party supplies is actually a very good idea and Halloween candy. Now I don't think you can really dropship Halloween candy. I mean you probably can but it's candy it's something that's edible. I don't really think that's something that you want to have in transit for too long. So let's go ahead and just completely skip on that one and let's just rule that out. So from this list I'm going to go ahead and choose Halloween accessories. I think that one's going to be a perfect category to dropship because it just has so many product options. When you're talking about Halloween accessories you can be talking about wigs makeup props and pretty much anything else. Alright so let's narrow it down a bit and let's see what products in Halloween accessories to start dropshipping. So what products are good to dropship in the Halloween accessories category. Enter and let's see what it says. Okay so it gave us a few different answers and to start off we have Halloween masks Halloween wigs makeup props hats jewelry and gloves. Now with this I think I'm going to go with something that is very versatile and that's going to be the Halloween wigs. So we're going with Halloween wigs and just as a quick example I looked it up on CJ dropshipping. So we're going to actually import one of these to our stores really quick. Now looking through these one of the ones that actually stands out to me the most is this one right here because it resembles a particular singer. Now the singer's name is nowhere on here. This is just a wig that has the same hairstyle. Now what I'm going to do is copy over the link and I'm going to go to my platform over at platform.outofds.com and I'm going to simply click on add product and we're just going to import one product. So I'm going to click on single product. Now I'm going to paste in the URL and as you can see down here under the supplier source it actually changed from AliExpress to CJ dropshipping. So now we're going to click on edit now because I actually want to optimize the title and the description. Now that we have the product imported into our drafts I'm going to go back to chat to BT and I'm going to ask it for a product title. So I'm going to tell chat to BT to give me a product title for a wig that is half black and half white that resembles a singer. So for this that actually just gave us one suggestion. If we want more we can easily just ask it for more suggestions but what it gave us is actually pretty spot on. A lot of the times when you go to any Halloween store this is the type of description or title that you're going to see. Black and white split wig inspired by pop stars iconic hairstyle. That's all you need especially for something that's going to be a generic type of thing like a generic wig for a Halloween costume. So let's go ahead and copy that and let's run back over to our product page over at platform.autoDS.com and this title we're going to go ahead and just replace it with black and white split wig inspired by pop stars iconic hairstyle. All right now it's time to move on to our second AI model and that's going to be Google Bard. Now Google Bard is fairly similar to chat to BT in the sense that it can be used for a lot of the same functions that chat to BT can. The biggest difference is the fact that chat to BT's information only goes up to 2021. Google Bard is constantly learning and it's actually updated to quite recently. There's no actual cutoff date for its knowledge base but it is a lot more recent than chat to BT. When I say a lot more recent, I mean this year, Google Bard is constantly learning and constantly being updated. Now in this particular case, we're going to use it to come up with a product description for our black and white wig. So I'm already at the Google Bard website. Now I'm going to tell it to give me a product description for a black and white split wig that is used for Halloween. Let's specify it and let's see what Google Bard is going to give us. Okay. So Google Bard gave us a pretty good product description. This stunning black and white split wig is inspired by the iconic hairstyle of a popular pop star. It is made from high quality synthetic hair. That is heat resistant and easy to style. Now I wouldn't go ahead and say that it's heat resistant. That's just something that Google Bard is adding extra. Always make sure to read these descriptions and make any necessary adjustments which we will do. So heat resistant and easy to style. This wig features a long straight cut with a dramatic black and white split down the middle. It is perfect for Halloween cosplay or any other occasion where you want to make a statement gives you some features high quality synthetic hair heat resistant easy to style long straight and cut dramatic black and white split benefits transform your look on any occasion make a statement at Halloween or cosplay event feel confident and beautiful in your new hairstyle. It even gave us a guarantee which is pretty interesting. So we are so confident that you will love your black and white split wig that we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee if you're not happy with your purchase for any reason simply return it for full refund. Now that's not bad if that's your return policy just again make sure that you make any necessary adjustments order your black and white split wig today and start turning heads. All right. So let's go ahead and copy this product description because I think it came out fantastic and let's go back to auto DS. Now I already have the title on here. I'm just going to jump over to description and I'm going to click on edit product description. I don't want anything that's here currently. So I'm just going to select it all and delete. Now I'm just going to simply paste my copy description from Google Bard. Now let's make our necessary adjustments. It's not a huge change but we just need to get rid of this heat resistant. So let's go ahead and change this a quality synthetic hair that is easy to style. Simple straight to the point next up on this countdown we have quill bot quill bot is perfect for checking your grammar checking pretty much anything that you type and just making sure that everything is correct and even spicing it up a bit. So I already have it here pulled above my screen and I want to show you their paraphraser. So I still have our description copied from Google Bard. Now I'm just going to go ahead and actually paste it on here. So for the free version you're limited to about 144 characters so I deleted everything from the guarantee down. So now you have a few different modes that you can choose from. So you have the standard mode which rewrites the text in a reliable manner to maintain meaning. So pretty much what it does on the standard is just pretty much rewrite everything to make it look and sound better than you have the fluency which inserts text is readable and free of errors. So it gives you the option to fix any errors as well and then you also have the formal simple creative expand and shorten but these are premium features which we're not using right now. We're sticking to the free version. So let's go ahead and do the standard. We have everything pasted already. Now let's just go ahead and click paraphrase. Now as you can see this was actually really fast. It already came up with everything rewritten and it went from this stunning black and white split wig is inspired by the iconic hairstyle to this gorgeous split wig in black and white was modeled after the well-known hairdo of a well-known pop star. So it makes it sound better. It spices it up and it just makes it sound like a more attracting description. Now aside from the paraphraser you also have a grammar checker to check for any grammatical errors. So if you paste it onto here it's going to give you all of the different errors that there are. In this case if it's highlighted in blue it just means that it could be rewritten in a different way to sound better. But for that you're also going to need the premium but aside from that anything that's in red is an actual grammatical error that should be fixed. So let's say in this case over here it's telling us to put a period at the end of occasion. Same thing with event and hairstyle. Now remember that everything that I'm covering in this video is going to be included in the cheat sheet. I'm going to include all of the links to all of the websites and screenshots from all of the answers that I'm receiving from these AI bots. And once again if you want access to that just make sure to comment down below hashtag AI money along with your favorite AI bot from this list. Now the next AI model on this list is going to be Canva. Wait Canva? Yes Canva. Trust me when I found out that Canva was now using AI my mind was also blown. I had no idea and I checked it out and it's actually super useful. So in this case we're going to use it to create a logo for a store. So using it is extremely simple. All we have to do is sign on and you don't even have to have a premium account. For this I'm actually using my free account. Now once you're signed on on the top right go ahead and create a design and just scroll down until we find logo. Now once everything loads up everything's going to look fairly similar everything's going to look the same as it always has but there's going to be one key difference. Navigate down here to where it says apps. Click on that. If it's not the first option just scroll through look for text to image. So go ahead and click on that and then click on use. So first we're going to give a description of what we want. I want a silhouette of a mannequin wearing a wig. Now I obviously butchered that spelling. I did very wrong. So let's go ahead and fix that mannequin and silhouette. All right. So a silhouette of mannequin wearing a wig and what type of style do I want it in? Do I want filmic dream like watercolor retro anime or photo? I think for this case I'm going to go with dream like and the aspect ratio I'm just going to choose a square. So let's create the image and let's see what it comes up with. So it gave us four different options and I actually really like this one right here. I think this works perfect. So we have this and we can easily just make this our logo and that's it. That's pretty much all we have to do. Now if you want to add some text maybe if you want to add our brand name then we can just go ahead and add it through here through the text editor. But in this case we're just going to leave like this. I think it looks perfectly fine at least for demonstration purposes. So this is Canva now using AI. Now I want to show you something else that's actually really cool when it comes to branding your dropshipping store that you can use this Canva AI for. So first let's go ahead and actually download this image. So I'm going to go ahead and share and download the PNG. Now I'm going to run back over to my platform that autods.com and I'm going to go to my settings page. Once I'm in the settings page I'm going to click on over to store settings. Now on here I'm going to upload the logo that I just made. So what this is is a way to be able to brand your dropshipping products that you source from the autods warehouse. So once we're here under store settings all we have to do is select the store that we want to brand or upload our logo to and just click to upload and upload the logo. Then you're going to see a preview of it down here and all you have to do is save. Now this branding won't apply to all of the products in our store. It's only going to apply to products that are fulfilled by the autods warehouse. Now how do you know which ones are fulfilled by the autods warehouse? Well, it's pretty simple. If you take a look over at the screen the first thing that we have to do is just going over to the marketplace over at platform.autods.com. Once we're on here we're going to take a look at the supplier. We're going to click on here and just check off autods suppliers. Now if you scroll down you're going to see a few different options. You're going to see autods suppliers discounted prices and then you're going to see branding logo autods suppliers. Now this is actually a private supplier. So this is a specific supplier that works with autods. Now when you see branding logo these products are actually shipping from the autods warehouse directly. In this case we can brand our products to be able to ship out with our logo on them. Now the printing of the logo itself isn't going to necessarily come on the product itself. Instead your customer is going to receive a customized thank you card with your logo on it. Now in this image you see a thank you card along with a sneak peek of some extras that will be included in the future shipping out your branded products can really help build a brand. It helps build customer trust and will always help build brand recognition. Ultimately branding your drop shipping products can help your customers remember you more and be more likely to come back and make another purchase. Now this next AI tool that I'm going to mention is one that once again totally blew my mind when I found out about it the first thing I thought about was this needs to go in that countdown. Now the one that I'm talking about is dubverse.ai Now what this AI tool does is dub your videos to a different language. So it'll translate them. This tool is absolutely fantastic. It can help you reach a totally new demographic of people. So I'm going to give you a quick demonstration on it. Now I'm currently at the dubverse.ai website and I'm just going to go ahead and click on get started for free. I'm using a free account on this once again. So whatever I'm doing here you can do as well.  Now from here I get to choose the source of my video. So I can either upload one or I can just add a URL. In this case I'm going to add the URL to one of our videos. So I'm going to click on TikTok. Now let's go ahead and click on dub a video and add a video. Now once I'm on here I'm going to go ahead and just paste over the link to one of our YouTube shorts and I'm going to click on next. Then it's going to give me a little thumbnail over here. Then once again I'm just going to click on next and it's going to ask me what my target language is. So what language do I want to translate it to? In this case I'm just going to go ahead and switch it over to Spanish because I know Spanish and I'll be able to understand what it's saying. Then it asks me for a persona. So here I can choose for the voice to sound either like George, Dahlia, Thomas, Alex, Elvira or Alvaro. Now I'm just going to give you a quick sample of two of them so you can hear the difference. So first let's try out George. Hola, mi nombre es Jorge y puedo abrir una audiencia completamente nueva para usted. Sorry, not George. I meant Jorge. All right. So that was Jorge. Now let's try Dahlia. Hagamos que tu video haga pasar por el globo. Hola, mi nombre es Dahlia. I like that one. Let's actually try it tomorrow. I want to try Alvaro. Hola, mi nombre es Álvaro y Dumber se está aquí para cambiar. Elvira. Hagamos que su video sea más accesible. Hola, mi nombre es Elvira. So for this one, I'm going to go ahead and stick with Jorge. Now I'm going to click this little plus sign down here and then on the bottom right, I'm going to click on let's dub. All right. So it finished dubbing and honestly, it didn't even take longer than five minutes. So let's go ahead and check out the result. I'm excited for this one. Let's click on watch and let's go ahead and play. Este producto tiene el potencial de generarle más de 500 pesos en ganancias. Así que este candelado se vende actualmente por 709 pesos con 95 centavos. This is spot on. La parte lo que el vendedor en realidad sólo paga 196 pesos por el mismo candelado. Este vendedor está ganando alrededor de 500 pesos por pedido. Okay. So so far from what I've seen the translation is pretty spot on. I can't really say how it's going to be for other languages but for this one video from English to Spanish it's really good. It even slows down the video so it can match how fast it's talking. Now there's a few other settings that you can try on here to try and get an optimal video and just have everything flow pretty smoothly so you can try different videos or different voices. Now this could be super useful for whenever you're making either a product video or you're reviewing a particular product from your drop shipping store and you want to be able to reach a wider audience or an audience in a different country. Now last but certainly not least we're going to be talking about Mixo. Mixo is a fantastic tool because it helps you make a landing page pretty much in seconds. So let's go ahead and test it out. I already have it open on my screen. Now to get started with this it's super simple. First you just have to go to mixo.io. Once you're on here you're going to click on get started for free. Then it's going to ask you what your startup idea is. For me it's going to be a Halloween store that sells wigs. Let's keep it like that. Let's keep it short and simple and then all we have to do is click on generate site then it's going to start doing its thing and pretty soon you're going to have a full on landing page. So this is what it gives us. So if you can see it's going to start to scroll down and it's pretty much a page dedicated to Halloween. So here we have wigs galore. Now this is all automatically generated. You can go ahead and change whatever you need.  So let's take a quick look at it and see what it came up with. So here we have our title wigs galore transform your look with our Halloween wigs has a couple of Halloween images and here's another cool thing. It gives us a space where our customers can go in and just drop their emails to be added to an email list. And then if you scroll down a little bit more you're going to have a few customer testimonials. So here you see you have wigs galore is my go to store every Halloween their wigs are always untrend and affordable. This is crazy the way it comes up with all this stuff. It's just mind blowing keep scrolling you have a few images with some text find the perfect Halloween look from spooky to glamorous. We have a variety of wigs. It stays on topic really well high quality and affordable wigs exceptional customer service another customer review and another place to be able to sign up. So this is what it makes. This is a perfect sample that you can use to pretty much just start up your store. This is a perfect landing page that you can send your customers to so they can submit their emails and you can start to build an email list. Now I really hope that you were blown away by all of these different A.I. websites because to be completely honest with you. I totally was and honestly this is just the beginning. We are just starting to enter the information age. So A.I. from here is only going to keep getting more advanced. So make sure you start getting your feet wet today. Start learning the different A.I. models start learning what they're good for and start learning at least the bare basics of how some of these models work. Trust me in the long run it's only going to benefit you. Remember that everything that I covered in this video is going to be available for you in an easy to reference cheat sheet and if you want access to that all you have to do is comment down below hashtag A.I. money along with your favorite A.I. bot from this list. Huge thank you to everyone for watching. Once again my name is Mario with AutoDS and I wish you all nothing but success in your dropshipping businesses. If you found this video useful if you found it informational if you found it helpful please make sure to hit that subscribe button as well as ring that little bell notification and leave a like once again thank you for watching and I'll catch you on the next video.


Live from the Sands Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada. Extracting the signal from the noise. It's theCUBE, covering HP Discover 2015. Brought to you by HP. And now your hosts, Dave Vellante and Jeff Frick. Hi everybody, welcome back. This is Dave Vellante with Jeff Frick. Wrapping up day three, three days of coverage, wall-to-wall, with theCUBE, HP Discover. HP Discover.Social is our digital experience site. All the social data floating in, the crowd chats going on, the video, the on-demand video, exclusive content from HP, from Wikibon, from SiliconANGLE, and from all around the web. So check that out. Register, we'll keep in touch with you after the event. Check out wikibon.com, check out siliconangle.com for all the news, SiliconANGLE TV, Jeff, this stuff we do, I don't know how many interviews we did this week. 50 maybe? All up on SiliconANGLE TV within hours. Some of them within hours, it creates a really good job of turning them around. It's really been good. This is our fifth, sorry, sixth year at HP Discover. We've also done the ones overseas. We're seeing the ship slowly turn. Big messaging this year around the idea economy. A lot of people criticizing that, Jeff. John Furrier, all that nailing Jell-O to a wall. Quentin Hardy criticized it. I said, on the other hand, I thought it was the main spring of the digital economy. Ideas are the main spring of the digital economy, but the thing where I do agree with Furrier is HP's still a product company, and they've got to put the products in front of people, but I think they've done a reasonable job of doing that. What's your take been on HP Discover? But I really like today we had a ton of customers on, and I think the idea economy, when Meg introduced it at the keynote, is a little bit tricky, because she's using examples like Uber and Greenfield, where people could build these applications from scratch. But I thought it was interesting, some of the customers we had today that really demonstrate what those idea economy looks like even in a legacy situation. For instance, the 20th Century Fox guest that we had on talking about their entire business moving from physical assets, selling DVDs, to digital assets, transformational, not a new business, not a Greenfield opportunity. The Home Depot guest talking about delivering apps to people on the store, so they can price shop, they can find two by fours, they can buy the Christmas tree in the parking lot. So these are old school, hard goods companies, traditional, that are really seeing this digital transformation, so it can happen and it can happen fast. Now HP is an infrastructure provider, there's still really an infrastructure provider, and as we know, cloud's got to sit somewhere. It's still about compute, it's still about store, and it's still about networking, but I do like the fact that they're embracing this digitization, because I do think it can happen much quicker than a lot of people give credit, either in the case of 20th Century Fox for the entire distribution changed, or again, this customer-driven experience expectation based on the mobile phone. You know, this guest talking about his kid getting insurance for his new house didn't want to talk to anybody. It's a very different kind of interaction when the application is a more increasing interface between companies and their customers. Well, okay, so now the other big, and it is happening, you're absolutely right, the other big news of course is the split between HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. That is big news. HP is splitting, huge company splitting in a $100 billion plus company, splitting into two Fortune 50 companies. This is a big deal. We had the head of operations at HP talk about the complexity of that split. I thought that was kind of interesting, they gave people a little peek back inside. They used it as a marketing vehicle, basically saying, hey, we've learned a lot, we're documenting everything, we'll help you. If you're going through mergers, acquisitions, splits, divestitures, we can help. I think, you know, we'll see how that all goes. I mean, it seems like they're on a very tight schedule, but, and they're managing those risks, HP, IT people working around the clock. But essentially what you have now is the printer and PC company split off the ink company split off, which is going to be a large, predictable, cash flow kind of dividend company. And HP Enterprise is where, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is where all the growth is going to be. Are we going to have to stop calling it HP? That's going to be weird, isn't it? But that's supposed to be the growth company. Now, I have said HP has to shrink to grow. It has been dealing with the shrink part pretty well. The growth part hasn't been there, but there's pockets of growth. The Enterprise Group grew 5% in constant currency. We had Antonio Nereon. He was very excited and positive about the outlook. So that's a positive area. Certainly, 3PAR, 3PAR has been meteoric. The all flash piece has been booming. But the legacy storage business has been in decline and the new stuff is still not big enough to offset the old. So we got to see some growth there. I think you will with 3PAR, networking has been a bummer. The last quarter was a real bummer in networking, but the Aruba Shiny toy could be the next 3PAR for HP. So that's all good. Technology services kind of drag along. The other piece of concern to me has been software. Software's got to grow faster and that's something that I really want to see. Software declined I think 2% in constant currency. Software has to be a growth area for HP. I mean, the fact that software is not growing and software is the growth opportunity for HP, not only because it's a growth market, but also because it's a small portion of HP's portfolio today. It needs to be a bigger software company, Vertica, Autonomy, the whole Haven stuff, infrastructure software. I'm still struggling with HP's software. I've been asking that question. What is your software strategy? It seems like some infrastructure, certainly security, certainly some big data. I can't put my finger on it. I really think that that's something that Robert Young-John's really has to nail. They're going more after open source, which is great. Going to get leverage out of that, but the whole software piece of that business is huge upside for a company like HP and it's got to reach out to developers. That's something that John Furrier would talk about extensively is the developer leverage. So that's something that I'd like to see. Anything else you'd add? I was going to say the interesting thing was some relatively big Greenfield opportunities. SAR was on talking about really going after the legacy telco infrastructure space with really kind of the classic enterprise shift into X86 and commodity hardware and the orchestration of all those components. Big opportunity, no really big installed base. So I think that's a great opportunity. And also I'm interested in your take when we had Milan on first guest of the day talking about how he measures his time at HP from despair, hope, optimism, excitement and now high fives and exuberance. And he made an interesting statement kind of twofold. One that only two to 3% of some of their sales are in this all flash array. So he sees that as a huge opportunity, 97% of the market is still available. And then he also said, you know, they're starting to sell more flash than these 15K drives. How do you take that read? Is this an inflection point in the storage business for them? I think that it is. I mean, I think that the shift is on. I mean, I think David Fleur is right. Now whether or not it happens a year and a half from now which he has predicted where flash costs decline to the point of our disk and actually overtake them or undertake them in this case. We are at an inflection point. Spinning disks are the last bastion of mechanical movement in computers. It's the only piece that moves. That moves. You care about printers, obviously move, but they're not in the path. They're not hitting in your way. Think of a military convoy. All the trucks in the convoy have to slow down so that the slowest truck can keep up. That slowest truck in the convoy is the spinning disk drive. It's everything else is going at like lightning speed and then you got the spinning disk. Even though if you've ever seen a disk drive spin at those shows, it looks like it's really going fast. No, in computer terms, it's so slow. So now flash changes that. And not only does it do that, it catalyzes domino effects to other parts of the stack, the IO stack. So there's these protocols built up knowing that I got this slow spinning disk. Applications are written knowing I got this slow spinning disk. When I do an IO, I can go off and do some other things. All that's going to change. The digital economy is all about real time. It's all about speed. It's all about affecting outcomes. So that's going to change. And it's going to change dramatically. So I think, yes, we are a huge inflection point. No doubt about it. I'm also curious to see how discover the show is going to change. Like I said during one of the breaks, I took a walk around and go to the other side of the show and there's medical equipment and there's all the personal gear. There's huge printers and giant wrapped cars with phenomenal graphics. There's so much different stuff here that again, I can see from kind of a who's here and what they're doing. It makes more sense to not have all these components kind of bunching together. I can see maybe a little bit more smaller, tighter, efficient, focused discover. So it'll be curious to see how that evolves over time. I'm sure London will be more the same. All the plans are well in place. But I would imagine, with this split, what happens to discover as a show? And how's that going to kind of morph? Well, I'm right. I mean, now a very good question is what will happen at Discover in London? Will it be a Hewlett Packard Enterprise show? You know, I mean really that's when Meg gets up and talk, that's the primary content is enterprise content. Right, right. So you would think then the split is going to be complete by then, you would think that the London show would reflect that. I would hope. Yeah, yeah, so. A lot more green. Yeah, good. All right, Jeff, well listen, thanks very much for helping out with John away. Good three days. Good three days, good two days with you. Lots of guests. So yeah, check out SiliconANGLE TV. SiliconANGLE.TV will have all this content up. If it's not already, it'll be up very shortly. Check out hpdiscover.social. That's the digital experience that we've been talking about. All the research lives on wikibon.com. SiliconANGLE.com's got all the news. CrowdChat, crowdchat.net slash hpdiscover. Those crowdchats will be archived. Really appreciate everybody watching. Thanks to Leonard, Patrick, great job. Alex Wilcox, great to have you back. Bert Lattimore hanging back. Andrew. Andrew and John. And Boston, John doing all the stuff that you do. Mark Hopkins and Art and Dean on the hpdiscover. Sam's working on the social site. So huge crew. Sam cranking away on the schedule. Really awesome. Kristen Nicole, all the writers in SiliconANGLE. Real-time blogging. Really appreciate all that. And thank you so much for watching, everybody. This is The Cube. We will be next week. We're at Nutanix. Nutanix. We're also at Hadoop Summit in San Jose. And we're at Hadoop Summit in San Jose. So watch for that. Watch SiliconANGLE.TV for the schedules. And we'll see you next time.


Hi, hello, hello. Welcome to ATAP Online, a virtual reading series presented by Asian-American theater artists of Boston. My name is Sarah Shin. My pronouns are she, her, hers, and I am the lead producer of ATAP Online. ATAP is a social collective that seeks to empower and connect Asian-American, Pacific Islander American, MENA American, and Kanaka Maoli theater artists in the greater Boston area. We've gathered theater artists from the ATAP community, the Boston theater community, and friends across the country to explore plays by Boston-based Asian-American playwrights to present here on Zoom, Facebook Live, and HowlRound TV. Today, you are seeing a reading of Women Behind the Curtain by Michael Lin, directed by Michelle Aguillon. Runtime is approximately 60 minutes, and there will be a five-minute intermission. For this reading, we would like to amplify the official Navajo Nation COVID-19 Relief Fund and Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund. Depending on where you are watching us from, there are links to donate to those organizations on the page or in the comments. We encourage you to engage with us through the chat in the Zoom room, and you can also submit questions into the Q&A, as we will have a brief Q&A after the reading with the cast and creative team. And if you want to know more about ATAP, we're on Facebook and Instagram at a-a-t-a-boston. And now, enjoy the show. Women Behind the Curtain, an original play by Michael Lin. Characters, Alexandra Kuznetsova, a loyal Soviet citizen working as a secretary to a high-ranking bureaucrat, Rani Demilod, a daring French covert operative. Desmond Cleese, a charming British spy. Grigory Leonov, a dangerously intelligent yet bloodthirsty philogen with the KGB. Yvonne Mishkin, corrupt official of the Communist Party, snobbish and distasteful, but amiable in his way. The ensemble played by three actors who portray the various other characters that populate the play. Four writers are arrested today following a political demonstration turned violent in which several storefronts and Soviet-made motor vehicles were damaged. For the instigation of this bloodshed, the dissidents face exile to Siberia. Earlier this afternoon, Minister of Agitation and Propaganda Yvonne Mishkin assured that wrong outside Moscow, Sintra. I hate giving speeches in wintertime. Alexandra. Yes, Minister Mishkin. Alexandra, would you be so kind as to fetch me drink from sideboard? Minister, I'm your secretary.  Sink as I have none above. I thought you might take pity. No matter. I feature myself. If I may speak freely, Minister. If you must. Assisting you in your home like this is highly irregular. But, are you concerned that people will talk? They've been talking in rather shameful terms. They're calling thongs, nothing more. You've been coming to my home every week for almost four months. Often twice a week. And our interactions have always been entirely professional. Weren't that lesson from Beria? I have no intention of making any enemies within secretarial ministry. One of deadliest of all.  Proof of leaking intelligence, treason towards party. Now you simply have state secrets proofed by your eyes and passing through your hands day after day. My dear, if you absolutely cannot abide implications of our working arrangement, then write manifesto. Zet is our way now.  Otherwise, I'm afraid that my reliance on you outweighs your concerns over Ministry gossip. Need so many. Surely you understand. Was there anything official business you wanted to see me about? Ah, yes. My pass is to Bolshoi Ballet. Kindly have some courier to Chairman Andropov's office as soon as possible. Andropov, I didn't realize head of KGB enjoyed ballet so much. He doesn't. But his mystery does. He may be spy master, but I also have my uses for Ministry gossip. I see. Should I set them over after tonight's performance? I said as soon as possible, and I meant it. You're not attending ballet tonight? But you attend every Friday. Like clockwork, yes. But I have too much work to do, dealing with these damn rioters. You mean the demonstrators? I mean subversives. I will not waste my synthesis on them if I were you. In any case, I'm afraid it's to be a long weekend for both of us. I'll get some files from my office. And then we can get to... Don't scream. Come inside.  You shouldn't be here. Did Andropov send you to kill me? Perhaps I should have sent those tickets sooner. You were supposed to be on your way to the ballet by now. State meters took precedence. You should have been listening to radio. You might have guessed it. No matter. Since you're here, I'll ask you directly. Minister Mishkin, you have in your records a dossier containing the code names of Soviet intelligence assets operating in Western Europe. Ah, not assassin. Foreign spy. Cesar Alif. Tell me where the dossier is. And my sidearm and I will be out of your way. I'll even put it down. There's a time for you to catch most of Vermeer and Juliet. Your office was ransacked while you were out. Nothing was your fault.  I would be punished severely for misplacing such document, whether it was my fault or not. My political career would be ruined. My ministry said I worked years to build snitch for my grasp. There's simply no way I could possibly take such a risk. 10,000 rubles. On shelf. Behind Kalina Panova's portrait. Thank you.  As agreed. Excellent. Now, you have what you want. I would ask you to leave. If I'm to attend performance tonight after all, I should change. You're welcome to join me, of course. Enjoy the ballet, Mishkin. Honestly, I prefer Tchaikovsky. Such a mess on my desk.  That hardly seems likely, as I'm leaving out the window.  They should arrive on Andropov's desk within the hour. Minister, who is this? Oh, Ivan, how embarrassing, letting your assistant walk in as your lover is on her way out. A charming effort, but I'm afraid that with my alibi imploded, I will have to present a presidium with you instead. There's no convincing you otherwise. I'd get a medal and promotion for apprehending you. And you're offering pride for me to be reprimanded instead? Not even we do the capitalism that badly. It was worth asking. For your sake. Drop that gun. Drop it.  Don't you sense that? Do something useful. Oh, God! What? This is more horrible than I feared. You needed to have interceded. I had the situation under control. I was trying to help him. An operative of the C-D-E-C-E. That is all you need to know. What? French cantor of Spanoche. Yeah, spy. What's your name? Svetlana. Svetlana. Where did your family live? I don't have a family. I see. Miss Alexandre Kutnetsova. If you wish to see your parents in Odessa again, I have a simple request for you. I... Nothing of what happened tonight. Please do follow Minister Mishkin onto the pavement. Don't test me. Wait! Was that unclear? I can't stay here. I have to leave. My employer just fell out of office window. The police are surely on their way. They'll think I've killed him.  Not on purpose. I'll be first ones they question. How can I possibly keep your secret without being executed? I suppose you can't. Wait, wait. Yes, I can. Let me come with you. If you shoot me here, they'll be looking for an assassin or foreign spy. With only Mishkin, they'll be looking for me. There's no reason not to take you with me. But they'll look for me here in Moscow, in my flat, visiting my friends. That buys you time. If they find my body within the city, they'll be on your track that much sooner. Fine. But I expect you to pull your weight. I've no news for a lost puppy. An asset that I can use. Fine. Starting now. What should I do? We can't leave through the window anymore. We need to find Mishkin's coat closet and his deco cabinet. I am not cleaning it up. But a tragic waste. Such fancy sleepers. Good evening, officers. Who are you? Grigory Leonov, Committee for State Security. Here are my credentials. Of course, Comrade Leonov. Anything for KGB? May I ask what you're doing here? Andropos sent me on personal errand. Some sort of parcel he was supposed to receive is late. Ruined his evening is impression I had. But your assignment seems much more interesting. A bit of boredom would be nice for a change. This colorful jumped out of his window. Jumped? I would wager this man was thrown. There's broken glass all around body. Why would he jump out window first without opening it? What? Well, haven't you ever wondered what would happen if you ran out of window as hard as you could? If you were curious whether you were strong enough to break through and this was your last chance, you might give it a shot. I suppose I could see that. Wait. One moment. Mishkin? Oh, no, no. Pavlenko, hey. And this, this is Officer Rostov.  This is propaganda minister Mishkin. Those files. What? Officers. I believe this man was murdered, assassinated by a foreign agent. If he was thrown from window, then killer might still be in his flat. There is no time to lose. Where are you two going? Elevator, Comrade. Oh, all the lazy. Fine. Take elevator. Make sure assassin does not leave that way. I will take stairs. Sevens four. Somebody is having a party. What do you mean? I could scarcely tell under all those furs. Hey. Wake up. Huh? What? You can't sleep in here. You have to go home. Whether that's here or elsewhere. Yes, yes. Ilana. What? We're at the floor. Let's go. All right. All right. Quickly, quickly. All right. All right. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Can I hear you, Comrade? It's about time. Apologies, Comrade Lionel. We are ready to investigate the flat when you are. No need. I've already seen all that I need to. There is no one here. Mishkin's office was ransacked. There is evidence of struggle and there are two bullet holes involved. There is little doubt that this was work of foreign operative and no sign of them of where they've gone. There will be great deal of paperwork to do when I get back to headquarters. Photon Earth took two of you so long. Oh, when elevator arrived, there were two women drunk and sleeping inside.  What? You let them leave? No sign of them out the window. Damn! I expressly told you not to let assassins escape. Wait, wait, wait. You don't think those two women could have killed Minister Mishkin? They were half asleep. And snagged. Of course they killed Mishkin and they both passed you with a child's trick.  And Soviet Union is greater without you.  You did well back there, Aleksandr. Thank you for not betraying me to those officers. I could scarcely do otherwise since you kept your pistol trained on me under your coat. Yes. Well, even so, three months of reconnaissance and Mishkin take tonight to stay home from the ballet. I should have waited until I saw him leave. Elementary mistake? Overconfidence? Something like that. I suppose I should count myself lucky is that it didn't cost me more dearly. It cost Mishkin. He'd be alive if I hadn't tried to intervene. No, not true. Isn't it? I was gaining the upper hand and it was going to be me or him. Even if I let him alive, he'd be hunted down and executed for letting me get away. He'd never talk his way out of that, no matter how charismatic he thought he was.  Mishkin was doomed, regardless of what you did. You could have been killed instead. I suppose. That's true. Obviously, I'm glad that's not the case. I understand if you disagree. Were you close? Affectionate, perhaps? No, nothing like that. Strictly professional. But he treated me reasonably well, respected my skills at face value, that counted for a great deal. Hmm, where to find such a working situation? In Soviet Union, you mean. I mean anywhere. What's your name? Why? If my life is to be in your hands, I want to know. It's not that simple. I'm a French spy.  There's only so far we can trust each other. I'm also a person. One that you seem to know everything about, and one who is, for the moment, your traveling companion behind the Iron Curtain. Trust has to start somewhere if we are to rely on one another. And my flag does not overrule my humanity. Renee. My name is Renee. It's not even your real name, is it? My arm! What are you? Are you behind us? Don't look! It's been following us for the past five minutes. I believe it may be a Soviet intelligence. How can you know? The registration plate is a diplomatic vehicle, and an ambassador would be far less likely to find an interest in us than an operative. If they are indeed KGB, then our escape may not have been as clean as we thought. Keep to my left between me and the road, and stay calm, Alexander. I can't risk being recognized. Alex is sufficient. I don't think I can just pretend. Remember your cover. Help me here, and you're free to go. All right. All right! You raised your eyes around the land. Good evening, comrades. Where are such charming ladies as yourself going on such bitter evening? Nowhere that concerns such an intrusive one as you. Calm now. I promise I mean you no harm. Perhaps I could drive you to your destination. Yes, it could be called a stolen grave tonight. We'd still know better than to climb into cars with strange men. We were not born yesterday. And if you could not tell by looking at us, you really should not be driving. Now go away. Such lush coats you are wearing. You could forstank warm and stank away from prying guys. Where did you find them? If we tell you, will you leave us alone? You have my word. They were gifts from our sons, serving in the army. As may they return home safely. Ah, I see. I had no idea Minister Mishkin had two mothers. My condolences for your loss. This is where we part ways, Alex. You've been very brave on my signal. Run as fast as you can. What? Now, run! Naster, promise. For our freedom and yours! For our freedom and yours! For our freedom and yours! Comrade, our soldiers are marching across border to stamp out the growing ember of freedom. Won't you stand with us in protest? I'm sorry, I cannot. Be strong. Don't give up. Was that, Alex? Oh no. Comrade, please stay calm. I'm trying. You should not have run. I'm sorry, I was afraid. Relax. Just tell me what you know about woman you were with and you are free to go. She is French, but I only met her tonight. She forced me to help her escape. I see. What was she after? I was too frightened to ask. What about her name? She never told me. She said I did not need to know. And that's everything? Everything. Very good. KGB thanks you for your assistance. As promised, I leave you in peace. Be at peace. So you remember, it's still a trap. We had better get going. Yes, we had better. He's not cold, but probably for no more than an hour or so. Excuse me. Renee, it's just me. This more? Oh, so now you recognize me?  I'm sorry for that. Alito, I don't know what you expected sneaking on up, on us the way you did. What are you doing here? Finished a debris fin at HQ. Back out into the field, you know how it is. Word came down with a western operative and reconnaissance in Moscow so they sent me to see if I could lend a hand. Thankfully, it appears you have the situation under control. Is that? Shall I dispatch him for you? No need. We're lucky, he'll need enough medical attention to delay the authorities further. Enough? Who might you be? A civilian, no one. Please, everyone's someone, it's alright. I'm a friend of Renee's. A colleague. It's fine, go ahead. Aleksandra Koznesova. Desmond Cleese. At Her Majesty's service. Yes, well, Renee's more the sort to keep her cards close to the vest. We all have our operational preferences. Speaking of which, Renee, how goes the mission? A few complications, present company included, but nothing I get done till. Don't suppose you'll tell me what it is you're after. You know better than to ask me that. Alright, alright. In that case, I won't tell you about the vacant MI6 safe house three kilometers west of Moscow city limits. I won't tell you about the car parked there under the snow camouflage or the can of petrol under the sink or the car keys in the rafters. I could have outwired it. I won't tell you any of that because you were so awfully rude to me just now. And so many things you aren't telling me. And I thought I was tight lipped. Hmm, my advice to you both. Go get some rest out of the cold. I do like the sound of that.  Yes, I know. Godspeed, Renee. Did he just say? Yes. He's very English. I must say, I'm surprised you didn't kill that KGB agent earlier. But go early enough. We've tangled in the past. And it was practicality, not mercy. I'm not convinced. Killing him or sparing him both paths add practical elements and you chose one set of complications over another. I thought spies were supposed to be called like the killers.  What did you do? You made a compelling argument in your favor. And you listened? Spies who listen live longer. You really want to know about how I conduct my work, do you? I admit a certain morbid fascination. And it would be helpful distraction. Very well. At his core, covert intelligence is about exactly that. Intelligence. Information. Anything that does not obtain us more and better intelligence is a waste of resources. Some of us may use more distasteful means to that end, but ours tends to be a result-oriented profession. And if the results require bloodshed, including that of innocence? It has been my experience that that happens less often than you might imagine. If one is resourceful enough. Oh, good. We're finally here. And to think, you didn't want to steal these bicycles. I'm still not happy about it. Do you realize how hard bicycles are to come by? We may as well have stones or livelihoods. I'm sure the rightful owners will find them eventually. Russia is only so big. All right. Send back. The door may be trapped. Seems clear. You go first. Very funny. All right. We have the long night. I don't know about you, but I could do with some food. Of grace, yes. I'll have a look around. Make sure the rest of the cabin is clear. See if you can find where the provisions are kept. Gladly. What is it? Come, come, come. Your colleague said this was British safe house, yes? That's right, but I... All of this nonsense. How many cabinets is that?  Would you care for a cup? Oh, God, no. I wouldn't sleep to wink. Oh, thank you for sharing these. I needed that. So did I. Apart from that as a story, it appears we have mostly tinned meat and beans. Some hot bread, but no potatoes. Shane, still better than eating twigs and snow. At least for twigs and snow, there's no line. But true. Well, first things first, lightings the stove. Some of everything. Please. Renee, may I ask you something? Go right ahead. I should warn you, I'm trained to resist interrogation. Why did you become a spy? Well, I spent my childhood in the French resistance. I was a goer delivering commuter case across the countryside. If I was accosted, I charmed my way out. If they didn't believe me, I fought or fled. My country was in shambles after the occupation that ended. Most of our food marched away with the Germans. As a teenager, I became increasingly outspoken about ensuring that the hungry and lost weren't forgotten in the rebuilding. I was recruited not long after. There's much that is wrong with the world. This was the best way I could find to do something about it. I see. But you go where a government tells you to. Do you fully believe that they're only sending you to do what is good and what is right? I wouldn't be serving them this way if I didn't. Just because something makes you feel good to believe does not make it true. That is so. But just because something feels good to doubt does not make it false. As you said, trust has to start somewhere. And if they go wrong, it's better to correct them than a spy.  No more so than whoever led previous regime, or is the one before that. But I don't have to trust them to see some semblance of our ideals at work. My life may not be the smoothest, but it's reasonably comfortable. I may never accumulate the obscene displays of wealth we hear of in the West, but that's hardly a steep price to pay to ensure that all can live with dignity. An oboe go was a fair price, but is it reasonable for you to be the one to pay it? You can't have missed a luxury that surrounds the eye-wrenching party members. Not obscene, but hardly fair either. Find the food, lodge your homes, a lifestyle filled with the trappings of Western living as they claim to be above. I suppose. Is there any point to government then? Yours or mine? Government can be flawed, yes. They can be greedy and corrupt. Not because they are government, but because they are made up of the wrong people. When the wrong people lead, you replace them with better people. And who removes them from power? People like you? Sometimes, often, ideally, people like you. When someone speaks against your government, what happens to them? There was a demonstration in the Red Square tonight. You worked for the propaganda minister. You must have some inkling. You don't have to answer that now. Just something to consider. He's getting late. You should get some rest. I'll take the first watch. Wait, one last question. Last one. What makes a good spy? Someone who can think quickly, who is used to dealing with all types of people, often one after another, and who can be liked or hated or completely ignored by them as the situation requires. Pragmatism. A strong will, intention to detail. A tolerance for discomfort and an intolerance for undoing. So, like a secretary? Yes, exactly like a secretary. Good night, Alex. Good night, Rene. Finally, they turned lights out. Typical woman, staying up late talking about who knows what. Triviality is no doubt. I thought I heard a noise outside. Jilly night for a walk, isn't it? Agent A and A. Agent Rene Vremiard. For your information, I drove here. I had to come and they're associates' cars since you so rudely disabled mine. Well, goodness. If I'd known we were coming to the same place, I might have accepted you off where we lived. If you had, I would have only taken you far out of your way. So it was you who killed Minister Mishkin? You may well not believe me, but that was an accident. So you're not a murderer, only a bumbler? What a comfort that must be to Mishkin? Is that why you're here? To avenge your fellow bureaucrat? Please. There's only one reason that Mishkin would be targeted by foreign operatives. Won't look at me. I couldn't find his ballet tickets anywhere. The dossier. What have you done with it? I don't know what you're talking about. Hmm. It must still be on your person. Far too risky to cash it somewhere and try to send someone for it later. That young woman with you. Who is she? No one, of consequence. Mishkin's lackey is hardly no one. Perhaps. If anything, she was a nuisance. Ah, yes. I do recall that things tend to go badly for you when you attempt to recruit assets in the field. Like, visit boy. 1966. October, wasn't it? Caught in the wrong part of Berlin. He forgot your stretch so quickly. We gave him hot meal and curl for a night. He would have stolen his own master's pearls for us after that. Perhaps if you'd taken him into your own bed, you could have better ensured his loyalty. And then after you were done with him, you liquidated him, didn't you? Why ask questions you already know answers to? Typically to answer the question I didn't ask. A bit more subtle than your preferred methods, I'm sure. Oh, I don't know about that. How much do you really know about your companion? Plenty. Enough to keep her quiet without having to shoot her. Or push her out window. Don't tempt me to itch you a third time. They say the violence gets easier. Is that right? But what you should be concerned with is how easy it was to learn so much about her. Her name, her parents, her childhood home, without corroborating any of it. What? Such hubris. Trusting without verifying. Without considering, Kuzeta, we wanted you comfortable in your knowledge and your certainties that she could be trusted. So you'd believe yourself to be in power and position of power over her. Exactly where she wanted you. Why telling me this? Because in a moment, it won't matter. Desmond, what in God's name did you do that for? I was tired of hearing him prattling on. I'm serious. He was drawing on you. I had me pistol on him. But you weren't going to shoot him first, we both knew it. I beg to differ. Not that it matters now. What are you doing here this time? I did some digging. Grigori's right. Komrad Kuznetsova is not as she appears. She's a KGB agent. No, she isn't. She can't be. I've vetted her myself. Don't be so dense. The party planted her in Mishkin's office to report on him and guarantee his loyalty. They arranged forcified records so neither Mishkin nor anyone else would suspect. I suppose that's possible. You don't have to take my word for it. Just consider why else she would come all this way without attempting to flee. You didn't even have to ask her, did you? Keep an eye on her. You can't let her come back to France with you. She'll only compromise us all. And if you're right, then I must eliminate the threat. It's not pretty, but it must be done. Afterwards, take the car and meet up with me on the road near Redchenko. I'll take Grigori's car and get some forged travel papers for the both of us. We can escape to the USSR. Together. Take care, Renee. You know what you have to do? Trust has to start somewhere. Renee, what are you doing up? I thought I was going to take a second watch. I could not sleep. And I did not dare to wake you up. You can't very well go on road again when you're short on rest. We both need to be on our toes. At least come here and lie down. Rest your eyes for a bit. Why is there ear, Alex? What do you mean? Soviet intelligence knows by now that I was involved in Mishkin's death. And about the dust you have stolen. Even after you had threatened, you had every opportunity to go home. Be free of this. You came with me. Instead, why? I can't very well go back to my old life after everything that's happened. After associating with you. They might not think me as writer, but they'd never trust me again. It would only be matter of time before I was swept up like so much debris and never heard from again. And I thought about what you said last night and I think I'd like to become spy. Is that so? For the KGB? What? No. For the West. For France, if it means I get to learn from you. If we escape the Soviet Union alive, I'm defecting. You're right. There is much wrong with the world. I saw many lies and injustices firsthand while working with Mishkin. I neither know, I know that neither of our nations is perfect, but by staying here with guarantee, I'd never get chance to change mine, was better. Sharing the knowledge and skills I have as only guiding hand I can build, I have to try. Alex, how do I know you're not already a Soviet spy? What? I've thought about it. A high-ranking bureaucrat like Mishkin might well have a covert intelligence operative in his employ. This would result to his knowledge. After Mishkin died attempting to apprehend a foreign spy, such an operative might well beg to accompany that spy for purposes of sabotage, betrayal. They might stage the imminent execution with a colleague to play with her compassion. They might perhaps even seek recruitment into a foreign intelligence organization. Well, what do you have to say? You're wrong. I am a spy for the Americans. What? Yes, I joined Mishkin's employ in order to spy on him. I wanted to accompany you in order to ensure that you safely escaped. Why else would I not have tried to betray you since we met? To try to collaborate with you, to remind you what you're fighting for? Renee, Renee, please. You saved my life once when you could have walked away, and I know you don't want to do this, but you have to believe me. No, I don't believe you. And the devil is that woman? Desma! Get in! What? What's the rush? No time to explain. I think I may be followed by the KGB agents. Coming after Gargoyle. What? That doesn't seem right. Are you getting in or not? Alright, alright, fine. Hang on. Alright, I think we're safe. Do you have the travel papers? Let me see. Yes, yes, yes. Right here. Are they to your satisfaction? Good. Very legitimate slogan. I should have hoped you trusted me more than that. You gave me a fright the way you creamed up here. I take it that's her body under the blankets in the back seat. I'm going to bring myself to leave her there. Besides, the trunk is full of Gargoyle. So you went through with it after all? I'm glad to see that. I was worried you wouldn't have it in you. It wasn't easy. Still ever the squeamish one? Tell me, in all your time in espionage, have you ever actually shot someone before? I've come close. And I've always been prepared to. You don't believe me?   And you'd rather simply shoot them in the head at will. The trials of chaos you've left in your wake. I thought your approach makes your job any easier than my approach does for mine. All I'm saying is that a body count is by proxy still a body count.  That we can agree. I will admit it got very close to that point on this mission. Too close. I am extraordinarily reluctant to say it, but thank you for showing me the truth. You're very welcome. No, I mean it. I could have been returning back to headquarters with the infiltrator and saboteur in tow. I owe you a drink. Please, no vodka. Not too worry. A goblet of red wine for me? No, a bottle. And for you? I'm sure you've taught me before. What is your drinker choice again? Dirty martini, really. How could you forget? Of course, silly me. So, how did you find out the truth about Alexandra? I confronted her in the morning point blank. Point blank? That must have made a mess. I asked her this morning. Good God, you remind me of Agent Lee enough. I spoke to her directly about it. I wanted to see what she would do in response. Typical Renee, always looking to extract more intelligence without, instead of getting on with it. Well, are you going to tell me what she said or not? If you're going to look down your nose at my tactics, I don't see why I should. No, that's just not fair. Fine. I admit it. I want to know. It was the most absurd thing. Alex tried to tell me a story about being not a Soviet spy, but an American one. You can't be serious. I wouldn't have believed that for a second. That was my response as well. Neither you nor I would have tried something so grossly amateur. It's basic spycraft. You can't abandon your cover at the first sign of doubt. When someone confronts you, you play the role harder. A facade tested is a facade doubly convincing. Exactly. But instead, she thought she had first into trying to convince me of that outlandish story. Complete with a simply awful accent. Incredible. Indeed. I will give her credit. It was precisely how I would imagine a civilian with ambitions of becoming a spy would react. Tell me, did Kragoy ever tell you what I stole? What? Kragoy Lenov, the man you wrote last night, do you remember? He was your aunt, though, was he not? I suppose since you liquidated him, you probably meant to be reporting directly to Andropov now.  Did he ever tell you what was in those files? You're talking madness, Renee. No, I suppose he didn't. Typical Soviet compartmentalization. Well, just between you and me, and soon our respective intelligence communities, that's the dossier I stole contained the code names and operation details of Soviet assets active in the West. Well, after this morning debatical, just for fun, I thought I'd look through it and see if I saw any familiar faces. Imagine my surprise. Angela, Kragoy Lenov, status, active, base, London, his inner code name, Dirty Martini. Very clever. What happened to planes of Rolada? Not much of a point since you've gotten it straight from the horse's mouth. And if people like us to live the truth so rarely, we ought to savor it when we can. So I'm right.  I've been for years.  None whatsoever. As far as he knew, I was there in support capacity, in case he was too slow on the draw. He plans to see the doubt in my mind regarding Alex to be cultivated by you.  And disposing of one of the more inconveniently bloodthirsty agents of the KGB, he was getting rather out of hand. I never cared too much for office politics. Neither do I, but orders are orders. And you get me to dispose of Alex for you before I'm killed in our escape attempt. A double-murder would be suspicious. A failed alliance and a failed extraction are nearly another Saturday. However, little I thought of your intestinal fortitude in the field, I always knew you were smart. I must say, I'm surprised at you, portraying your country to the vultures in the Kremlin. Oh, please. The vultures will always be circling where the coffers are largest and lakeiest. Here, they're in the bureaucracy. Back home, they're in the bold rooms. In America, they're in both. True. There's no sense in following a flag that tells you you're the vanguard when in reality you're the decoy. Now, pull over. If you insist. Well, it's been a pleasure stringing you along, Renee, but I'm afraid it's time for me to shoot you. Take the dossier back to Moscow and report back to MI6, tearfully, carrying your corpse in my arms. Let's see that brave face one last time. Toodaloo, Renee. I do. One of me. Only prevent, comrades. Your sense of dramatic timing is impeccable. You make a fine spy yet. I was just sick of hiding under that blanket and listening to you make fun of me. I was only saying what I needed to straw his eagle out. I assume he's the first man you've shot. Are you alright? I tried to track you on the killing me. I'll live. I can't believe you still threw your pistol on me. In my defense, I was short on sleep and it's difficult to trust easily in my...our line of work. Honestly, it's a bit dizzying sometimes. I'm Russian. This trust is my second language. So how are we going to get to France from here?  How would you do it? Welcome to Leningrad Sochenaya International Airport. Please follow all signs and use caution when exiting terminal onto runway.  Welcome to L... Would all Kirov-Delay dancers and staff please report to end of terminal? Your plane is waiting. Kirov-Delay, end of terminal.  Keep a close eye on these bellow e-mails. Oh, I most certainly will. Thank you. Please enjoy your flight. Next. Peepers. Please remove your hat. I am serious. Since nearly have defeated, who knows who could be next. Any one of them could be traitor or spy. Yes, yes. I heard you. Stop worrying. We have photographs of all the ballet people and we are checking their papers. No one's getting through here that isn't supposed to. Peepers, please. Ah, comrade Nikiforova, please remove your hat. Thank you. And now your coat. Boris! Yes. Thank you. Enjoy your flight. Ah, thank you. Enjoy your flight. That's everyone on the passengers list. See? Nothing to worry about. There you are. You are late. The best apologies. Special flight crew for the Kirov-Delay flight to Paris reporting in. Peepers, thank you. What took you so long? 10 bicycle officials. No second identity. Ah, of course. The price we pay for security. Comrade, there is something wrong with this photo of yours. What seems to be the problem? Your hair is much prettier the way it is now. You're too kind. Excited to visit Paris, are we? Not too excited, I hope. All right. All right. You're both cleared. Bon voyage. Merci. Your French is very good. Young lady. Stop. One moment. Yes? It is very dangerous traveling to the west. This exposure to their propaganda. You seem a thruster, this sort. I would ask you to keep an ear open for treasonous talk among the dancers and to report anything you hear to your captain at once. It would be my pleasure. Here's a good girl. Off you go. We've got Vivienne, Lou Summers, we've got Lisa Nguyen, we've got Jude Torres, Angkor Singh, Quentin Nduy and Christina May Chen. And we've got our director, Michelle, and we've got our playwright, Michael, who I believe is here with us too. We also shout out to Bram Zoo for doing all that sound design and Foley sounds. And thank you to Anna Levin for staging with me, Jude. I also want to give a quick thank you to Mavis Menelotto, Michaela Witt who've been helping me out with ATAP stuff, Chuang Stage and also Havi Players for your support tonight. Also HowlRoundTV for you guys to support tonight. Thank you guys so much. We are going to be hanging around kind of celebrating that we did that just now, but if you guys have any questions, please ask us in the Q&A on the Zoom chat or in the chat box. We will be hanging around and would love to hear what you thought. I have a question for Michael. Yeah. Michael, what was your inspiration? I know you do a lot of radio plays, but how did that come about? Well, I had never done an espionage story before and there were a couple of opportunities coming up that I wanted to take a crack at. So I kind of wanted to just see how I did at like plotting together an espionage story and like designing where to set it and see what, see what ended up coming out because I enjoy espionage stories like in the vein of sort of like Burn Notice was a show that I liked for a long time and that was really caught my attention. And I read some John Le Carré in preparation for this. So yeah, that was, and also there was a lot of ongoing political conversation right around 2016, 2017. They wanted to try and capture my reaction to. Well, how did it feel also to, since this was originally a radio play, how like seeing it like with faces, what was that experience for you? And also like Michelle, I'm also curious how that experience directing that was. I can go first or unless Michelle you want to go first. I really enjoyed it. So I'm used to, I'm used to a lot of live radio performance. So like there's still a certain element of physicality and facial acting and all that stuff to go with the scripts that I, that I've done before. But this I really, really enjoyed it. It was nice to see like the added production value and, you know, watch everyone go through the emotional process because of all the various characters. No, it was lovely. Thank you all for doing such a wonderful job. Thank you for writing it. It was super fun. Can you hear me okay? Okay, good. I wanted the challenge of incorporating fully. I've done a few of these already. So we had a few intense rehearsals trying to work in all the sound, which was a great new challenge. And for actors, what was it? What was it like to kind of go with the flow with all of this? I'll speak of it. I think Zoom is always a challenge, like regardless of if it's acting or just having a conversation. So I think the cool part about this was really, you don't really get to look at your scene partner because your scene partners are down here and your camera's up here. And then with the added sound effects, like timing or acting with this, it's a really cool challenge. You get a chance to work both sides of your brain, so it was really fun. And bouncing off of that, one of the challenges for this radio drama in particular was the fact that we were playing Russian or French or English-speaking characters, but it's almost layered in the sense that you have to, like in my case, I was playing two native Russian speakers speaking English. So then I had to filter myself being a native English speaker to say, okay, well, I have to break down Russian phonetics and then apply it to English and then figuring out how well my characters would have spoken English and then figuring out all the little nuances of, like especially with the radio dramas, you don't get the added benefit of being like, oh, that person's a different character. You have to convince the audience that your voice is different or just like inflections. So balancing multiple characters is always a challenge, especially when it comes with a different accent, you know? Yeah, bouncing off what Jude said, my character, she's very intelligent, probably speaks multiple languages and I have to bounce between my French and Russian and then also adding on to Quentin's character who speaks in a British dialect. I'm like, ooh, I got to make sure I don't get lost in it. It's more of a lot of off rehearsal, like dialect lessons to just make sure that the sounds sound consistent and I don't get lost with, you know, the Russian, a lot of the Russian accents are characters that were in this play. Got a shout out to Jude, he was our Russian, our in-house Russian dialect coach. Yeah, it was tricky to, especially scenes with Lisa when she was using her French and I was using my Russian. I'm sure she wanted to do the same, I wanted to speak how she was speaking. I would be the first to admit that it's kind of easy as a playwright sometimes to lose track of how much you're asking of your actors because it's so cheap to put it on the page but then when it comes to putting in actual people's mouths and you don't really realize how much you're asking, I'm so grateful to all of you for being so game and approaching the challenges so willingly. Michael, I actually had a question for you in regards to the use of language. So balancing French, Russian, just British, English, were there certain words or phrases that you thought of and been like, I want to hear a Russian person say that? Or did you just kind of approach the perspective of an English speaker just being like, I'm just going to write it in plain English and then we'll layer on the accents over that? I'm going to noncommittally say somewhere in the middle. I did try to make sure that I could hear it reasonably in that accent in my head and have it sound reasonable and not have it sound like completely out of place. I didn't really try to, I didn't want to lean too, too hard into like, this is like a quintessentially like Russianized English kind of phrase or that kind of thing. So like, with the, so like, Renee never says like u-la-la for any reason whatsoever. These exception being Desmond's extreme Britishness. I have to say something else I wanted, I wanted to challenge for the actors to, these actors of color to try accents that is not expected of them in the real world. I wanted to show that, you know, we can do different accents. Not just Asian ones. I was, when Michelle asked me to be part of this play because I've always wanted to work with accents and I never had the chance to. So, I mean, so it was nice to work with the French accents, the most hardest ones for me. But just to like kind of bounce off that idea, Michael, I wanted to know when you wrote this play, did you have Asian-American actors in mind? Was this an opportunity for Asian-American actors to be involved in a very versatile play and to show their versatility? Not specifically, to be perfectly honest. In this particular instance, I was writing for sort of a general audience, but I was aware that it being a radio play, like the roles would be open to anyone who could tackle these roles because so there's no really specific axis of privilege at work in terms of these characters. So if there were characters that it was important to me that they'd be played by actors of color, then those would be reserved for actors of color. In this case, that level of sort of privilege dynamic didn't exist in my mind. So I figured that this would be open to anyone, whatever axis of marginalization they experienced. But in terms of holding it specifically for actors of Asian ascent, that wasn't something that I was thinking about at the time. I want to say one thing that's really cool is that it's, I know you said that it wasn't intended, but in your play you have Alexandra and Renee talking about the West as if they're not, well Renee is from the West, but so it's very clear like the other characters are from the East and I think that's cool. It's like you don't have to explicitly say it, but it's definitely there, right? And of course you have a array of different color of people in Asia, so it's cool to see and like we have a different, we have all different ethnicities here, like within the Asian American community or just Asian community as well and I think that's awesome that this cast kind of reflects that too. Just like a random comment that I shared with the cast a couple last week, I worked for a boss who was, who's Korean, she looks Korean, but she was actually her first native language was Russian and she was from Russia. She was Korean or well, she looks Korean. She finds herself to be Russian and speaks effluently, which was really interesting. That's really cool. Yeah, like I'm definitely more so now than necessarily when I was originally writing the play, which was some time ago, about how varied the like Russian, like Russian people, how many native ethnic groups and indigenous peoples are sort of encapsulated in that nationality and that includes a lot of sort of people that I think we would encompass within the East Asian diaspora. Because I know that I have a friend who was born in Paris in France and she's Vietnamese and there's a lot of Vietnamese groups that live in France because after the Vietnam War, I mean they're dispersed, I mean everyone is dispersed everywhere, but it was really, but it just shows the audience that I know they are the minority in that country same as America.   Like all these like multitude, like multitudes of assets. Yeah, exactly. It's undeniably true and that's something I think that people tend, like, based on the way that we experience Mita that tends to get glossed over and a lot of people's minds just sort of subconsciously is like, you know, I think we've seen a lot of arguments that like, well, like say, Tolkien-esque fantasy is based on medieval Europe. Clearly everyone should be white because all the works that take place in medieval Europe are all white people, people of color have have existed everywhere throughout time regardless of how of how popular popular works of media whitewash them. We have a question from the audience from Kimberley Klassner. Hi Kim. Hi Kim. The question I'll read it is the how did the production handle the choreography? Did the cast find it difficult to do slash capture via zoom? I guess I can speak to that. That was really fun. Trying to figure out stuff because when we first rehearsed it we were doing things that you you know, like running in place and then we realized we needed to really utilize what we have, you know, like some props to each other. We learned to we hand it to the camera and then the other person they're supposed to be handing it to they take it back like this instead of falling back at it, you know when they're shot they fall forward it's much more effective and then they cover the camera. A little thing that we discovered is instead of doing the video on and off for example it was just faster just put a post-it a little tiny things like that. I think we live in a new world and we're going to be in this situation for a while so we have to be resourceful and figure out different ways of telling stories so that's been a lot of fun. I'm curious off of that too, like there was a lot of I noticed throughout the process that there was choreography adjusting according to whether we had a sound cue for it or not or like how to balance the sound versus like seeing that physically and I'm curious how that was how the process was why don't you take that one? It was definitely an interesting process especially learning a little bit of the capabilities of zoom and what you can do especially when you have multiple sources of people or sound effects going off at the same time and that was certainly a learning experience and it was also definitely interesting to see how far we can push it and how far we can't but then know okay if we can't go at it this way what other direction can we take it from just an interesting thing to note was that even just during testing when we first put it on the sound effects from my computer we discovered that for some reason it was a lot clearer and more understandable to play it off of my laptop left my computer speakers to be then captured off of my microphone that's next to it instead of going straight from my computer to everybody else which was an interesting okay that's an interesting thing to learn with my current setup because every one setup is going to be different and then adjusting sound effects adjusting content creation to okay well what I'm hearing is not exactly what's going to be heard but knowing then and therefore what level of granularity or just the kind of textures that work well and what don't exactly transly and working between the timings and also working timings between what's actors and what's happening here because there is invariably a little bit of a delay with any online media so a little bit working with that just just collaborating with one another about that and certainly learning little things and trying to make adjustments and little compromises of in those little technical things to trying to help zoom don't you hate it when the electrons have finite speed yeah I mean if only they could just latency and all that why do we even need that why do we need physics I don't understand it I don't think we need that how would you say because it felt like there was just sound throughout the whole thing like one continuous cue it felt like it was so seamless how much of it was live and how much of it was a pre-recorded sound how would you say that balance was I mean I think it would be close to it feels like very close to a 50-50 probably closer to maybe a 40-60 in favor of 60 in favor of recorded sound of a playback probably like mostly in terms of there's a lot of guns and I don't have a gun yes yes but I think yeah it felt like a good 40-60 certainly a lot of running around in my middle space and what time is it there again oh so for me it is currently 7.23 in the morning oh my god it's a bit of a it's a bit of a morning my god I'm sorry can I just jump in and say one thing so one thing I've noticed kind of going back to questions is that there's I've only done a few of these like zoom readings during quarantine but there's a certain privilege that comes with being able to pull off like a high quality production because like you're really at the mercy of like whatever your weakest link is technologically and like we've all had problems with like microphones we've had problems with like bandwidth and like I know that theater is slowly switching on to like this online platform but it's just amazing the resilience from like the side of like actors and the people behind the actors to put on a production that like I don't know there's so many things that could go wrong and the fact that you can like pull it off in one collective take in front of an audience like that's something to be proud of so I'm just really stoked about that all right I cannot hear you did I cut off again? oh no oh thanks Viv I'm just kidding and another thing we did I mean we had several rehearsals for this that way we could really figure out what was we wanted to iron out all the issues there were a lot of sound issues for sure but we also gosh we made sure to set up a messenger from Facebook to talk to each other behind the scenes just in case there were any technical issues so those of you that were online saying telling us that there was a problem with Viv's microphone we did know that but we were talking on messenger about that because we wanted to keep make sure that the conversation was completely separate from this platform because you never know sometimes you don't have the right mode on and then everybody can see what you're talking about but that was the way we tried to resolve it as quickly as we could it was like Viv Viv, Mike but little things like that I think that's going to happen and you just learn as you go still it's still even though it's digital still the show must go on yeah same I think if there's any more questions maybe we answer one more but if not that can also be it one for everyone if there's no audience questions let's go it's you it's all you so when I originally wrote this I classified it in my brain as a cold war spy thriller the more I look at it the more I realize just how funny it is how much of it is lean's comedic I'm not going to say it's funny it's eco-centric it definitely leans totally towards the comedic how would you classify it because I'm sort of at a loss I think you have a bunch of goofy actors here in the room and I think we would read any play and really just have fun with it I think I really followed Jude's lead to be honest he has the star of the characters after Viv I think it's I think it can be a dramedy I mean all if you think about Russian if you think about Chekhov's work all of his work is technically they're really sad but they're also hilarious because they're so sad because if you can't laugh at something what are you going to do so I think it's porcain almost does why not both I was thinking the ensemble were kind of like like dog barrier or something very rose and crescent yeah much of it much of it just kind of this or bottom certainly a mix and it was I mean when we were trying out sound effects going with blocking it was hard not to make it comedic but Bram and I want to do a hardcore comedy next so that we can really play with that yeah it was certainly moments where just I just remember moments there was like that's just comedy that doesn't work with the play yeah I just remember there were a lot of moments and it was just a fun discovery also just along with the limitations of zoom and I think Michael going off of what you said how you wrote this is almost a reflection of a lot of things that were happening in the world at the time and so I feel like at the heart of it the play does have a lot of those serious realistic elements but then I guess the magic of theater is that you can just hand script a bunch of actors and somehow for lack of a better word like humanizer find ways to balance out that shift of ying ying of sadness and happiness and so I think that just speaks towards the process of what we do collectively you know I think in general it's just when gathering this fun group of people it's just going to be a fun experience and a fun play and I hope that it was fun for the audience too I think we should wrap it up I think we should all stop looking at a screen for a little bit now but thank you all to the audience that has stuck around to listen in yes please donate if you can I can the links are out there the links are out there we'll share them on the facebook page and on howl round and stuff like that it is the Navajo official Navajo COVID-19 relief fund and the Navajo and Hopi families COVID-19 relief fund thank you guys so so much thank you everybody what a time thank you thanks everyone