“For a writer of non-fiction or essayist that’s very difficult to work with because we aren’t, or at least some of us don’t consider ourselves journalists. The tools that we are working with aren’t–What your favorite color is. Where you grew up. Or what your favorite number is. If we’re writing a profile of something, the tools that we’re working with are long conversations in which people are sharing anecdotes about themselves. When I do an interview with somebody, I don’t take out a tape recorder. I don’t have a notebook. I invite them on a walk so that we can feel at least that we’re just chatting.”

John D’Agata is the author of Halls of Fame, About a Mountain, and The Lifespan of a Fact, as well as the editor of the 3-volume series  A New History of the Essay, which includes the anthologies The Next American Essay, The Making of the American Essay, and The Lost Origins of the Essay. His work has been supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Howard Foundation Fellowship, an NEA Literature Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Fellowship. He holds a B.A. from Hobart College and two M.F.A.s from the University of Iowa, and recently his essays have appeared in The Believer, Harper's, Gulf Coast, and Conjunctions. John D’Agata lives in Iowa City where he teaches creative writing at the University of Iowa. The Lifespan of Fact was adapted into a Broadway play starring Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones, and Bobby Cannavale.

· www.johndagata.com

· www.creativeprocess.info

John D’Agata is the author of Halls of Fame, About a Mountain, and The Lifespan of a Fact, as well as the editor of the 3-volume series  A New History of the Essay, which includes the anthologies The Next American Essay, The Making of the American Essay, and The Lost Origins of the Essay. His work has been supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Howard Foundation Fellowship, an NEA Literature Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Fellowship. He holds a B.A. from Hobart College and two M.F.A.s from the University of Iowa, and recently his essays have appeared in The Believer, Harper's, Gulf Coast, and Conjunctions. John D’Agata lives in Iowa City where he teaches creative writing at the University of Iowa. The Lifespan of Fact was adapted into a Broadway play starring Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones, and Bobby Cannavale.

· www.johndagata.com

· www.creativeprocess.info

"If you are thinking about too much, you're probably not doing it right. Some nights you do it and you're just like, that just felt like it was ten minutes long and I just was on cloud nine. What was I doing? A great, great American actor George C. Scott had a great quote once, he said, "Every actor worth their salt has one good show a week and spends those other seven shows wondering what they did that made them so good that night." And nobody knows. If you could figure that out and if you could bottle that then, of course, everybody could do it."

John Benjamin Hickey is a veteran of the stage and screen, with a Tony Award-winning performance as Felix Turner in The Normal Heart and his Emmy-nominated role as Sean Tolkey on The Big C.

On stage, he’s had leading roles in Cabaret, The Crucible, The Inheritance - Parts 1 and 2, Six Degrees of Separation, and Love! Valour! Compassion! also starring in the latter’s movie adaptation. His film appearances include The Ice Storm, The Bone Collector, Flags of Our Fathers, Pitch Perfect. On television, he’s had roles in Manhattan, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, The Good Wife, and Marvel's Jessica Jones, among others. Set to make his Broadway directorial debut this spring in a revival of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, the production was postponed due to COVID-19.

· www.imdb.com/name/nm0382632/

· www.creativeprocess.info

John Benjamin Hickey is a veteran of the stage and screen, with a Tony Award-winning performance as Felix Turner in The Normal Heart and his Emmy-nominated role as Sean Tolkey on The Big C.

On stage, he’s had leading roles in Cabaret, The Crucible, The Inheritance - Parts 1 and 2, Six Degrees of Separation, and Love! Valour! Compassion! also starring in the latter’s movie adaptation. His film appearances include The Ice Storm, The Bone Collector, Flags of Our Fathers, Pitch Perfect. On television, he’s had roles in Manhattan, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, The Good Wife, and Marvel's Jessica Jones, among others. Set to make his Broadway directorial debut this spring in a revival of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, the production was postponed due to COVID-19.

· www.imdb.com/name/nm0382632/

· www.creativeprocess.info

Latest ARTS interview from The Creative Process’ MAIN CHANNEL. To listen to more of our interviews across the arts, visit tinyurl.com/thecreativepod, tinyurl.com/thecreativespotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This THEATRE podcast focuses on interviews about theatre and the performing arts, but you can find hundreds more conversations across the arts, culture, society & the environment on our main channel. We hope you’ll check it out!

“One of the things of the things that is dying is our planet. We hear these sirens every single day. We’re being warned daily by experts and concerned people how vast that squandering is going. It’s a case of urgency and it’s astounding and a very sad, a very pathetic comment on modern life that most people are ignoring those signs. As a poet, it seems to me that one of the tasks that the poet takes on, it’s a vocation that’s born with it, it’s this consciousness, this serving as witness.”

Xicana activist, editor, poet, novelist, and artist Ana Castillo, was born and raised in Chicago. She is known for coining the term “xicanisma” which is defined in her book the Massacre of the Dreamers as, “a sociopolitical movement in the United States that analyzes the historical, cultural, spiritual, educational, and economic intersection of Mexican American women that identify as Chicana.” The term cross bred Chicana feminism, which came to include the indigenous ancestry of Mexican Americans, unifying us with our sisters on the other side of the border.

· www.anacastillo.net
· www.creativeprocess.info
· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

EMMA WALTON HAMILTON is a best-selling children’s book author, editor, producer, and arts educator. She has co-authored over thirty children’s books with her mother, Julie Andrews, seven of which have been on the New York Times best-seller list, including The Very Fairy Princess series (#1 NY Times Bestseller), Julie Andrews’ Collection Of Poems, Songs And Lullabies; Julie Andrews’ Treasury: Poems and Songs to Celebrate the Seasons; the Dumpy The Dump Truck series; Simeon’s Gift; The Great American Mousical and THANKS TO YOU – Wisdom From Mother And Child (#1 New York Times Bestseller). She serves as the Editorial Director for The Julie Andrews Collection publishing program, dedicated to quality books for young readers that nurture the imagination and celebrate a sense of wonder.

www.creativeprocess.info

EMMA WALTON HAMILTON is a best-selling children’s book author, editor, producer, and arts educator. She has co-authored over thirty children’s books with her mother, Julie Andrews, seven of which have been on the New York Times best-seller list, including The Very Fairy Princess series (#1 NY Times Bestseller), Julie Andrews’ Collection Of Poems, Songs And Lullabies; Julie Andrews’ Treasury: Poems and Songs to Celebrate the Seasons; the Dumpy The Dump Truck series; Simeon’s Gift; The Great American Mousical and THANKS TO YOU – Wisdom From Mother And Child (#1 New York Times Bestseller). She serves as the Editorial Director for The Julie Andrews Collection publishing program, dedicated to quality books for young readers that nurture the imagination and celebrate a sense of wonder.

www.creativeprocess.info

“All the themes are very contemporary. I think what moves this story is the search for instantaneous celebrity. That’s what the girls are all about, Roxie and Velma. They want to be famous. Of course everything that you cited, corruption, crimes, the press focusing on sensational stories–it’s all there. And I think that’s why the public relates so much to it.”

Paulo Szot won the Tony as Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his Broadway debut at Emile de Becque in the 2008 Tony-winning revival of South Pacific. This performance also netted him Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World awards. Szot’s opera credits include performances at the Metropolitan, Scala di Milano, Paris Opera, Carnegie Hall, and others. He’s currently starring as Billy Flynn in Chicago, the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.
· www.pauloszot.com

· chicagothemusical.com

· chicagothemusical.com/cast/#cast-gallery-3
· www.creativeprocess.info

Paulo Szot won the Tony as Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his Broadway debut at Emile de Becque in the 2008 Tony-winning revival of South Pacific. This performance also netted him Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World awards. Szot’s opera credits include performances at the Metropolitan, Scala di Milano, Paris Opera, Carnegie Hall, and others. He’s currently starring as Billy Flynn in Chicago, the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.

· www.pauloszot.com
· chicagothemusical.com

· chicagothemusical.com/cast/#cast-gallery-3
· www.creativeprocess.info