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Lenora Inez Brown is an accomplished American theatre professional, dramaturg, and arts administrator with over two decades of experience. She is the author of two industry-standard books: The Art of Active Dramaturgy (2010) and New Play Development (2015). Her distinguished career includes serving as the former Head of Dramaturgy at DePaul University, Interim Executive Director of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, and Director of New Plays for the Crossroads Theatre Company.

Lenora holds degrees from Dartmouth, the Yale School of Drama, and Cleveland State University, and is noted for her pivotal role in launching Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice and her work at the Sundance Theatre Labs. She emphasizes leveraging dramaturgical training for executive leadership and arts philanthropy. Lenora currently serves as Executive Director for Cleveland Jazz Orchestra.

Books:

Contributor to: Decades of Modern American Drama Volume 6: Playwriting in the 1960s "Adrienne Kennedy" published by Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama

NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT: Facilitating Creativity for Dramaturgs, Playwrights, and Everyone Else, Lenora Inez Brown. (2015) Hackett Publishing.

THE ART OF ACTIVE DRAMATURGY: Transforming Critical Thought into Dramatic Action, Lenora Inez Brown. (2010) Hackett Publishing.

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Paula Baksa Stein shares with us her life in theatre, from being choreographed in Junior high by fellow legend David Chavez (before his Juliet Prowse phase), to her co-starring friendship with Donna Reed's leading man Carl Betz, her 30 years as a high school theatre teacher in Albuquerque, a 50 year involvement with Albuquerque Little Theatre, and the bucket list of shows she's still aspiring to direct. 

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Broadway recently dusted off Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Company”. As one of the earliest musicals of the 20th century that featured a large group of main characters with intertwining stories, Company has been called Shakespearean yet truly modern in its New York storytelling. 

This June, Albuquerque Little Theatre debuts Company to close out its 96th consecutive season. Cast members Megan McCormick and Stevie Nichols take AlternateStages behind the scenes of Company’s opening week.

tickets:

Https://AlbuquerqueLittleTheatre.org

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For the second season of the Alternate Stages podcast, we'll be talking to some influential theater leaders at the national level, including Broadway, academic theater, creative writers, and many others. Don't worry, we'll still continue to bring local theater artists from the Albuquerque area in future episodes and continue to promote Albuquerque and New Mexico-based live theater. We're just broadening our lens to include more of the creative process of brand new show development, including producers and writers. If you're a paid subscriber, you'll have access to bonus episodes including snippets of brand new plays written by community writers. Sign up for the paid tier now so you don't miss these new works.

Today on Alternate Stages, I'm joined by Emmy Award, Drama League, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle winning producers, Drew Desky and Dane Levens of DrewAndDane.com. They've produced past Broadway shows, Dear Evan Hansen, Be More Chill, Merrily We Roll Along, Catch Me If You Can, and Allegiance with George Takei and Lea Salonga. To see the collection of Drew and Dane's many current exciting producing projects, check out drewanddane.com. The following interview was recorded on September 3rd, 2025 before the 2025-2026 Broadway season got fully underway.

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Jessica Osbourne chats with us about playing Shirley Valentine this month for West End Productions at North Fourth Arts Center

video version of this podcast: https://youtu.be/tHua9cEB26s

Aaand We’re Back! (Post hiatus announcements and upcoming special episodes).

Buy Theatre Tickets at:

https://www.westendproductions.org/buytickets/

Contact the podcast team by messaging us above on the Send Us Fanmail button

Follow Jessica on YouTube and Instagram:
https://www.youtube.com/@funkymonty1

https://www.instagram.com/JessicaOsbourne

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This week, everybody’s favorite stage dad and “Quintuple Threat” Zane Barker stops by Alternate Stages podcast to share his thoughts on City of Angels, performing with immediate family members and raising kids backstage, coaching stage combat safely, and creating a positive theatre environment for the next generation of theatre-makers via his important leadership work with the New Mexico High School Musical Theatre Awards, also known as the annual Enchantment Awards ceremony that sends a few local winners to compete in the Jimmy Awards in NYC.

Find more information about volunteering for the Enchantment Awards at NMHSMTA.org https://www.nmhsmta.org/

And we include a short preview of our next long-form interview with a national theatre expert, which we do several times a year here on Alternate Stages. Upcoming episodes will feature topics on fundraising, producing for the commercial theatre, playwriting and how technology has changed designing for the theatre. Last month we sat down for a deep dive with national dramaturgy expert Lenora Inez Brown, author of two books on dramaturgy: “The Art of Active Dramaturgy” and “New Play Development” both available from HackettPublishing.com. The full episode will be available next week

https://hackettpublishing.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=lenora+inez+brown

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This Week on Alternate Stages, Ron Gallegos and Michael Finnegan, the two  leading men of Albuquerque Little Theatre’s jazz musical City of Angels   stop by to talk about the art of singing a male duet while fighting, how to deliver iconic film noir acting on a live stage, the pressures of Hollywood, how to enact stunt violence live onstage without getting injured, their origin stories (hint: they went to the same high school!) and their own bucket list shows.

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Episode 26: City of Angels first-ever opening in Albuquerque. The show’s director (and cinephile/historian) Art Tedesco dishes on must-see film noir classics and their heritage in inspiring the authors of City of Angels. Plus behind-the-scenes interviews with selected stars from the cast of CoA.

Tickets on sale now: 

AlbuquerqueLittleTheatre.org 

Say you heard about it on Alternate Stages Radio!

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Ep. 25 The Six: "Beautiful" stars stop by to chat Costume Envy, 

Cross-dressing, Civil Rights, and How to Play a real-life person without Stress. 

Will they cat-fight over who gets the Dress, and who wore it best? Naaah, when "You've Got A Friend", it's all good!

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Ep.24 CArole King and the Myth of Trauma as being necessary to Art. Consider instead the Art of Healing and the Healing of Art, says Celena Cox, director of Beautiful.

Celena Cox, Certified Intimacy Specialist defines Chemistry on stage: Overwhelming Safety, and wanting to know the other actor in their actual self.

Tickets for Beautiful the Carole King Musical, June 6-22. https://albuquerquelittletheatre.thundertix.com/events/224277

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