This week's episode brings Jim Mohr into the Rogue Heart Media studio.

Jim wears at least two hats in the Spokane community — one as the interim vice president of student affairs at Spokane Falls Community College, the other as the executive director of the Blue Door Theatre.

He sat down to talk about the second of those, including their Spokane School of Improv, the BOOST center for professional development, their updated schedule for improv shows and the new Yes, And gallery.

We dig into the meaning of that phrase "Yes, And" and why its usefulness transcends the stage.

Thanks to our episode sponsor, the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture. The MAC is currently showing the nationally touring exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven & The Box of Daylight .

On this week's episode, we're in conversation with Jon Kuritz, a video director who co-founded the nonprofit production house Live from Somewhere.

Live from Somewhere is the group behind the music video series of the same name, which got its start during the pandemic by filming regional bands in all kinds of settings. They've since branched out into organizing the new Curators of Sound concert series at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture.

The next Curators of Sound event is on Wednesday, August 20, and features the bands Museum of Light, Kung Fu Vinyl, True Hoods and Hayes Noble.

Jon talks about that event as well as the upcoming Live from Somewhere premieres at the Garland Theater. Those have just been rescheduled to October 8 for Nothing Shameful and November 12 for Museum of Light.

We also get into the rationale for organizing multi-genre concerts and the sheer amount of labor that goes into a labor of love.

Thanks to founding sponsor Rogue Heart Media SPC for their continued support of ALAYT.

For this week's episode, Rachel Bade-McMurphy—jazz musician, composer and music advocate—is in the Rogue Heart Media studio to talk about, among other things, her new project, the Glass Bead Orchestra.

The Glass Bead Orchestra is 10-piece ensemble that received a prestigious and very competitive Chamber Music America grant for women and minority bandleaders.

The group debuts in its full incarnation this weekend (Aug. 10) at the Hamilton Studio's popular Listening Room. After that, they head to Washington State University to record a full-length album.

Rachel outlines all that the CMA grant is enabling them to do, how the project ties into her advocacy and appreciation initiative Imagine Jazz and what it has to do with a Hermann Hesse novel.

Along the way, we get into topics like the local jazz scene, women in jazz as well as spirit animals.

Another heartfelt round of thanks to our episode sponsor, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, where you can catch the nationally touring exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven & The Box of Daylight.

This week we're in conversation with Danny Anderson, a longtime actor who's now leading My Turn Theater, a Spokane-based organization that provides performing arts opportunities to adults with disabilities.

My Turn Theater's new production of The Lion King, Jr. is opening this weekend (Saturday, Aug. 2) at the Spokane Civic Theatre and will run there for a little over a week.

Danny talks about the origins of My Turn Theater, its unique shadow actor model and what's been happening since it went on hiatus in 2023.

He also gives an update on Stage Left Theater's award-winning production of Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over, which is headed to Monaco later this month for an international community theater showcase.

Thanks to sponsor the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture for making yet another ALAYT episode possible. The nationally touring exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven & The Box of Daylight features work by the Seattle glass artist based around Tlingit mythologies and is running at the MAC now.

We sit down this week with visual artist Gwyn Pevonka, who also happens to be the driving force behind the 33 Artists Market.

There's a 33 Artists Market coming up this weekend (Saturday, July 26, 2025). It's in a brand new location at the Pergola Event Center, and the number of participating artists has tripled for this particular event.

Gwyn talks about why she chose to make this her biggest market yet, all the ways that 33 Artists Market has changed since it launched in 2022 as well as the changes that she's making to her own art. The conversation ended up covering everything sororities and the art-buying economy to creative metamorphosis.

A hearty thank you goes out to our episode sponsor, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. The nationally touring exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven & The Box of Daylight features work by the Seattle glass artist based around Tlingit mythologies.

On this week's episode we catch up with Zuill Bailey, who is not only an internationally touring cellist but also artistic director of the Northwest BachFest.

There are three BachFest concerts coming up next week. First, there's Music in Manito on July 22 and 23. That's followed by the Afterglow performance at Barrister Winery on July 24.

All three shows feature the same guest artists — namely, the Brazilian-inspired trio Biribá Union as well as the violinist Helen Hwaya Kim.

But the two different venues mean that the concerts are going be very different experiences. Zuill talks about that as well as his larger vision for BachFest, which might have something to do with the more unexpected songs on his streaming playlist.

A huge thanks our episode sponsor, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. The new nationally touring exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven & The Box of Daylight features work by the Seattle glass artist based around Tlingit mythologies.

This week we're talking with Dominique Betts, the co-founder of Bright Comet Theatre, and Celeste Bidwell-Williams, who has the lead role in BCT's upcoming production of Carrie: The Musical.

Carrie opens Friday, July 18 at Stage Left Theater. More info on the show is available at either the Bright Comet or Stage Left websites (linked in this description).

Dominique and Celeste naturally provided some insight into this staging of Carrie, but they also put the production in the context of Bright Comet's mission to provide opportunities to underrepresented actors.

And we couldn't help but touch on Bright Comet's subtle—or maybe not so subtle—fondness for shows that involve blood.

Massive thanks to our episode sponsor, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. The new nationally touring exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven & The Box of Daylight features work by the Seattle glass artist based around Tlingit mythologies.

This week's episode features another pair of guests: Melody Chang and Andrea Olsen of Spokane Valley Summer Theatre — and by extension the Idaho Central Spokane Valley Performing Arts Center.

Andrea is the organization's associate artistic director, and Melody is the communications & marketing director.

Melody and Andrea came into the Rogue Heart Media studio to reflect on SVST's 10th anniversary and update us on the progress on the new performing arts center.

They also talked about what's in store for the rest of this season, which kicked off in June with Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance.

SVST's next show is Rodgers and Hammerstein's A Grand Night for Singing; it opens on July 11. That's followed by Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in August.

A huge thanks to our episode sponsor, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. The new nationally touring exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven & The Box of Daylight features work by the Seattle glass artist based around Tlingit mythologies.

Our guests this week are Pollyanne Birge of the City of Spokane's Office of Neighborhood Services as well as independent artist Madison Merica.

Pollyanne and Madison came in to talk about This Is Spokane:A Civic Guide for Neighbors, which is a new zine that the city has put out to help residents get a better fix on how local government works. Madison was the lead artist on that project.

We talk about what a zine is, why it was a really good medium for this kind of content, and how it's one a few different arts-related tools that the city's using to increase civic engagement.

A big thanks to our episode sponsor, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. The new nationally touring exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven & The Box of Daylight opens there today. Visit the MAC's website for tickets and more details.

This week's episode features a conversation with author Jess Walter, whose new novel is titled So Far Gone and was just published by HarperCollins.

So Far Gone is set in and around Spokane but its story isn't region-specific. It's meant to be a portrait of a country where people who might be sitting around the same Thanksgiving table can be living in entirely different realities.

Jess and host E.J. Iannelli talk about that phenomenon as well as how much overlap there is between the author and his outspoken protagonist

Many thanks to our founding sponsor, Rogue Heart Media SPC.