Holy moly, it's a great day indeed when you get to talk with, not one, but two of the greatest living composers of musical theatre and opera!! On today’s episode, we talk with 2024 Tony Award-winner Shaina Taub and her mentor, Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeanine Tesori about critique, the importance of community, and, of course, mentorship. Even Alek was moved by our conversation, so you know we were onto something here!!

This week we're sharing an episode from our friends at The Story Pirates. In it, a magnetic, musical manatee (John Legend) tries to convince the Story Pirates to form a marching band, but is he really who he says he is? Featuring two new stories: “Butts,” a song about, well, butts, sung by Broadway star F. Michael Haynie and written by Malachy, a 7 year old from Pennsylvania, and “The Audition,” a story about the trials and tribulations of putting on a brand new musical, written by a 10 year old from Massachusetts named Nora.

On today’s episode, we explore the art of choreography with artist Parker Esse and his mentor, the legendary Baayork Lee. We ask "what do you do as an artist when words aren’t enough?"

The answer?

You dance!!!!

It's the second episode in our ongoing mini-series "Erica & Alek Chats," where our hosts take a deep dive into a specific aspect of arts learning-and-teaching from Erica's book, How the Arts Can Save Education.

This episode is for the thinkers! Join glass artist and PhD student in Materials Science Engineering Aaron Bossen and his mentor, Head of the UW-Madison Glass Lab and United States Artists (USA) Fellow Helen Lee as they talk about the art of making glass and making with glass. We dive into the world of conceptual art, and we talk about glass as both a material and a metaphor for life. Enjoy this incredible food for your artist brain!

More info on Helen here:

https://www.unitedstatesartists.org/artists/helen-lee

And here:

https://pink-noise.org/

And here:

https://www.instagram.com/hotpinknoise/

In this episode, we're sharing our pal Michael Goodfriend's conversation with Dorcas Leung, who plays "Juliet" in the Play On Podcasts production of "Romeo and Juliet." Michael and Dorcas are passionate artists and arts educators who talk about everything from representation in the theatre to the power of HS arts education.

Find more Play On & Next Chapter podcasts at:

https://www.nextchapterpodcasts.com/playonpodcasts

And on Apple Podcasts at:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/play-on-podcasts/id1561429994

This is the first episode in an ongoing mini-series we're calling "Erica & Alek Chats," where our hosts take a deep dive into a specific aspect of arts learning-and-teaching from Erica's book, How the Arts Can Save Education.

Broadway and TV's finest production stage manager Cody Renard Richard reflects with his HS theatre teacher Carrie Wood about their shared love of stage management, HS theatre, rodeo, and Cody's foundation: The Cody Renard Richard Scholarship Foundation, which supports young technical theatre artists of color.

Read about Cody here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/arts/culture-diary-cody-renard-richard.html

And follow Cody on IG here:

https://www.instagram.com/codyrenard/?hl=en

Multimedia artist, teaching artist, and all around badass Carlos Gacharna talks with his high school ceramics teacher Geof Hermann. They explore how the high school ceramics classroom is a life-saving space for both students and teachers.

Follow Carlos on IG here:

https://www.instagram.com/caduphoto/?hl=en

Broadway's reigning Tony-award winner for Best Actor, Jonathan Groff (Merrily We Roll Along, oh yeah, and Frozen, oh yeah, and Hamilton), and his elementary school music teacher, Linda Tough, talk about music-making, education, and their shared passion for "I Love Lucy."