Intermission at WMPAC

Two members of the Cascade Quartet, out of Great Falls, Montana, join me for the last podcast of the 2021 Winter Season.

This week, I sit down with James Sewell and Eve Schulte of the James Sewell Ballet to discuss their eight years with the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center.

I speak with two members of Third Coast Percussion ahead of their performance of a show called "Metamorphosis," a collaboration with the dance and movement group Movement Art Is.

We sit down with Maya Davis and Jason McDowell-Green, who are two of the designers of our new immersive theatre experience, Through the Fourth Wall. 

America's most produced playwright, Lauren Gunderson, and Ari Afsar, the original Eliza in Chicago's production of Hamilton, discuss their new work, Jeannette, which tells the story of Jeannette Rankin, America's first Congresswoman.

This week, we spoke about laughter and humor in this difficult year with some incredible comedians from around the country who joined us for the Big Sky Laugh Fest this past weekend at WMPAC. CONTENT WARNING: Not for young kids.

This week, we talk with Hunter Noack about how he decided to take classical music into the wild, and some of the challenges that were presented with WMPAC's December production. We asked Hunter and his brilliant team to bring a 9' Steinway Piano from 1912 out into the middle of a cross country ski course  with sub zero temperatures, while skiers, snowshoers and fat-bikers circled him with six inches of fresh snow on the ground.

This week, we caught up with Kevin Asselin, Executive Artistic Director of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, and sat in on a rehearsal of their upcoming production of Hamlet as a radio play. Hear about how the show came together during COVID, and what it means for 2020.

This week, we caught up with WMPAC Director John Zirkle about why he loves Manual Cinema so much, and spoke over the phone with Manual Cinema Co-Artistic Directors Julia Miller and Sarah Fornace about their adaptation of "A Christmas Carol."

SARAH FORNACE is a director, puppeteer, choreographer, and narrative designer based in Chicago. She is a co-Artistic Director of Manual Cinema. Outside of Manual Cinema, Sarah has worked as a performer or choreographer with Redmoon Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Steppenwolf Garage, and Blair Thomas and Co. Most recently, Sarah wrote the story mode for the video game Rivals of Aether. In 2017, she directed and edited the first episode of the web series, The Doula is IN. In 2016, she directed and devised an “animotion” production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with Rokoko Studios for HamletScen at Kromborg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark.

JULIA MILLER is a director, puppeteer, and puppet designer. With Manual Cinema she has directed Mementos Mori and The End of TV as well as created original roles in Ada/Ava (Ada), Lula del Ray (Lula’s Mother), The Magic City (Helen), and Hansel und Gretel (Hansel). In Chicago she has worked as a performer and puppeteer with Redmoon Theatre and Blair Thomas and Co. She spent several years training in devised theatre, clown and mask with Double Edge Theatre, Carlos García Estevez and at the Academia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. She is a co-producer of the new web series The Doula is IN, and has directed and edited several episodes. 

Broadway star Bobby Conte Thornton and acclaimed music director, arranger, and orchestrator James Sampliner joined us for a conversation about what they're doing during their break while Broadway remains dark in anticipation of their upcoming performance in Big Sky.