Lit Up! with Nina Alvarez

Interview with Rochester actor/director Jack Simel on a lifetime of loving applause, the much-missed Shipping Dock theater, community theater as it's changed over the past 40 years, and why coming back to Rochester to get back into acting was a good idea. He also discusses his upcoming directorial debut "Deathtrap," produced by the Penfield Players.

Poet and therapist Charlie Cote brings a sense of deep listening to his work and writing. In this interview, Charlie reads some of his recent work, we talk about how he became a poet, and we discuss Poetically Connect, Charlie's on-the-fly poems-on-demand.

This week I interview Dramaturg Claudia Nolan and Playwright Kate Royal on the dynamic, creative, and research-oriented role of the dramaturg in the production of Royal's recent play "Mammoth" and her upcoming staged reading of "Girls Can Tell," a play about sexual assault on college campuses.

Interview with novelist Julian Foster, who has a lot to say about the art of writing, and the realities we live in. Foster is one of those rare people who can speak across dividing lines of class, race, gender, We talk about his book Before I Wake, recent violence among young girls in urban environments, and his next book Beautiful Me.

Interview with Kate Royal on the role of the playwright, director, and actors as conduits in a cycle of channeled humanity; and how her recent play "Mammoth" was her coming out play, even though she didn't know it when she was writing it.

Interview with writer Christine Green on how she got through her writers block using an accountability buddy, intuition, and re-creating the conditions of the last time she felt good about herself as a writer.