A Line Around Your Thoughts

On this week's episode, our guests are Jeni Riplinger and Jaiden Haley of the arts incubator Emerge Coeur d'Alene.

Jaiden is the nonprofit organization's operations manager, and Jeni is the executive director.

Emerge just had its annual Block Party in July, and it's now gearing up for the INK! Print Rally on September 13, 2025. That community event, which is themed "Portals," will gather nearly two dozen artists to create large-scale block prints with the help of an asphalt roller.

Jeni and Jaiden highlight all the ways they're augmenting that event this year, and we also explore the why's and how's of Emerge's Ceramic Throwdown, its YOURS retail shop, its pottery studio and its gallery.

Thanks once again to our episode sponsor, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.

We have two guests on this week's episode: Joe and Sienna Henson of Hitchhiker's Theatre.

The two of them co-founded Hitchhiker's Theatre last year with a view to bringing live performances to unconventional spaces.

The nomadic troupe's second season opens next week with a two-evening (Sept. 5 & 6, 2025) performance of the play 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche at The Guardian in Spokane.

We definitely get into the details of that play as well as the opportunities Hitchhiker's Theatre is opening up for new talent — not to mention some digressions about audience interaction and clown college.

Thanks to our episode sponsor, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, for their continued support of these conversations.

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.