The Compass

This is the final episode of The Compass Podcast! Creator, host, and actor Leah Walsh is interviewed by artist Kim Miller. Leah shares about her experiences with the dark side, the seven year evolution of The Compass, what she's looking forward to about making room for new creative projects. The extensive archives of episodes will continue to be available on The Broadway Podcast Network, on iTunes or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Please follow and review and share with your friends! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vocalist, violinist, mariachi, entrepreneur, and educator Susie Garcia shares her experiences with the dark side, leading the all female, Los Angeles based mariachi ensemble Las Colibri, growing as a leader, parenting as an artist, and balancing high expectations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Interdisciplinary Artist, Actor/Creator, and Educator Catherine Mueller shares her experiences with the dark side, her love of clown, her journey founding The MAMAs / Mother Artists Making Art and The PAMAS / Pregnant Artists Making Art (www.motherartistsmakingart.com) in 2020 to foreground the value and visibility of Mother+Artists. She also established The Institute for Collaboration and Play (www.ifcap.org) in 2014 as an action-think tank for performers and humans interested in play-based creative practice. Thank you, Catherine! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Multi-hyphenate artist Jessica Blank shares her experiences building a creative life, embracing creative problem solving, restaging the documentary theatre piece Coal Country after having to close at the beginning of the pandemic, parenting as an artist, and collaboration. Get tickets for Coal Country, running till April 17, 2022 at the Cherry Lane Theater at www.coalcountrymusical.com and check out Jessica's work at www.jessicacblank.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor and writer Nikki Massoud shares her experiences with the dark side, how community is changing in the pandemic, time, and delving into playwriting, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor, teacher, and comedian Julia Ogilvie shares her experiences with the dark side, winding up in her home state of Hawaii during the pandemic and the artistic community there, and finding ways to give yourself the green light as an artist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Daniel Morgan Shelley shares his experiences with the dark side, building structure in your life, auditioning, and going through the pandemic as an introvert. Check out what Daniel is up to: www.danielmorganshelley.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Geoffrey Allen Murphy shares his experiences with the dark side, auditioning, finding balance, and understudying on Broadway during the pandemic (in To Kill a Mockingbird). Check out what he's up to at http://www.geoffreyallenmurphy.com/ The Compass Podcast is back after a hiatus, looking forward to sharing 8 bi-weekly episodes in the new season! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Update from host Leah Walsh gives an update on her plans for the podcast, moving to a season format with new episodes being published starting in January, 2022. The pandemic has been hard on all of us, take care of yourself. Talk to you soon, in the mean time take a listen to all the wonderful artists whose stories are chronicled in The Compass archives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Playwright and actor Amy Berryman shares her experiences with the dark side, pivoting to focus on playwriting, building a community and a process, her play being produced in London during the pandemic, day jobs, and trust. http://www.amy-berryman.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Natalie Suzanne is a teacher, craftsperson, naturalist, and musician. She shares her experiences with the dark side, building a creative life in a variety of communities and environments, recording her first album as a singer songwriter, and balancing art and commerce. Check out her recent venture Folkways School at www.folkwaysschool.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Violinist and composer Michelle Ross shares her experiences with the dark side, finding a love of improvisation, expanding your definition of yourself as an artist, and performing Bach all over New York City. www.michellerossviolin.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor and creator Damian Jermaine Thompson shares his experiences with the dark side, community, virtual teaching, overcoming adversity, joining the Actors Equity Association Council in hopes of fighting for our community of artists, Check out his short film BLACK? on youtube now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer, producer, and director Priscila García-Jacquier shares her experiences with the dark side, finding her voice as a writer, using her own immigration story to speak out for others, finding your power in the industry, and embracing extreme honesty. Check out her blog here: https://priscilaelenagj.com and her production company here: http://roundroomimage.org (Originally released on November 3, 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor, writer and teacher Brittany Vicars shares her experiences over the past year with her diagnosis with a rare form of cancer, treatment, and processing and sharing this experience through her writing. We also discuss isolation and community, filmmaking, and artistic drive. Check out her work at https://www.brittvicars.art/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Kenny is a long time theater educator with a focus towards accessibility/disability inclusion, and is currently working on her Masters in Disability Studies at CUNY School of Professional Studies. She shares her experiences with the dark side, how her own disability has clarified her view on where she wants her work to focus, being an artist parent, the power of the arts in kids' lives, and growing inclusion in the arts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor, director and Executive Artistic Director of The Seeing Place Theater shares her experiences with the dark side, continuing to run a theater company and produce work virtually during the pandemic, day jobs, the importance of sharing knowledge and skills with other artists, and finding healing and comfort in creating while living with cancer. Check out what she's working on at: http://www.erincronican.com/ https://www.seeingplacetheater.com/index.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(Re-release, originally published 11/16/17) Actor Chalia La Tour shares her experiences with the dark side, her activist work for equity within the arts/entertainment industry and education, transitioning to New York City after grad school, and making change in a community with your work. Check out what she's up to here: www.chalialatour.com This is Episode 99 of The Compass Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor and dancer Jude Sandy shares his perspective on taking care of yourself in a business that tries to define you, going where the work you want to do is possible, how his art is shaped by his experiences growing up in Trinidad and Tobago as a young gay man, and where he goes in New York City to escape the dark side. Originally released 11/13/2015 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Playwright Lily Houghton shares her experiences with the dark side, building a creative life, establishing herself as a professional playwright on her own terms after growing up in the NYC Off-Broadway community, writing and pitching for television, believing in your voice, and grieving the death of her father. https://www.lilyhoughton.com https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/theater/james-houghton-signature-theater.html https://www.instagram.com/theatrewithouttheater/?hl=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor, activist and labor organizer Jeffrey Omura shares his experiences building a creative life, his current campaign for New York City Council (District 6, Upper West Side), the importance of art advocacy such as Be an #ArtsHero, auditioning, and building community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director, actor, and teacher Vivienne Benesch is the Producing Artistic Director of Playmakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, NC. She shares her experiences with the dark side, collaboration, the countless contingency plans of running a theater through a time of crises, embracing being a multi-hyphenate, and her upcoming Broadway directing debut, which is currently paused due to the pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Chris Myers shares his experiences with the dark side, growing up as an artist in NYC, collaboration, developing the study group series "Anti-Capitalism for Artists" (current title) which gives artists a place to engage with a radical class education, and moving to Los Angeles. Chris also works as a writer, director, producer, and teaching artist, see what he's up to at http://www.chrismyersinc.com Happy New Year, good-bye 2020! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Theatrical maker and teacher Emily Ritger shares her experiences with the dark side, creating community, deciding to go to grad school and invest in herself as an artist, and starting the artist cooperative The Midwives that fosters artists and their work through interlocking circles of support. She is based in Chicago and you can check out her work at www.emilyritger.com and www.themidwives.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Leah Walsh reads from The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chodron Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Christina Rouner shares her experiences with the dark side, resisting the comparison game, becoming a parent, auditioning, starting her own business, and gratitude. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Nija Okoro shares her experiences with the dark side, the power of rituals in daily life, establishing herself in Los Angeles after growing up in NYC, falling in love with independent film, and lessons learned from her recent national tour of August Wilson's Jitney, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor and coach Carolyn Michelle Smith shares her experiences with the dark side, making the move from NYC to LA, constantly learning and pivoting, community, and the embracing the self-tape audition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Leah Walsh reads an excerpt from Untamed by Glennon Doyle, check back soon for a new full episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer and actor Han Tang shares her experiences with the dark side, diving in to playwriting and screenwriting when she encountered the lack of opportunities for asian actors after graduating from Juilliard, teaching artist work, storytelling in China and Los Angeles, community, and self-producing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor and director Claire Karpen shares her experiences with the dark side, getting through this time of isolation, becoming a part of The Actors' Equity Association council and what she's learned behind the scenes, hope for the future of theatre, and the importance just continuing to make art in this time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Casting Producer Sena Rich works in reality tv in Los Angeles. She shares her experiences with the dark side, deciding to pivot away from being an actor, finding her place working in casting, equity and diversity in tv/film, and the importance of empathy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Carmen Zilles shares her experiences with the dark side, auditioning, community and accountability, day jobs, writing, and moving through this time of Covid as an artist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Film, TV, Commercial and Digital Content Director and Producer Delavaga shares his experiences with the dark side, directing a feature film, how parenthood has changed him as an artist, establishing himself in a new city, and meditation. Watch his feature film BookendS now streaming on Amazon Prime, and check out his other work at http://delavega.squarespot.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Black artists and activists, if it would be useful to you to use The Compass Podcast to amplify your voice now or in the future, please contact host Leah Walsh at leahwalsh@gmail.com. This can be outside of the format of the podcast or within it, if you feel the need to read something you've written, document, rant, by yourself or in conversation and this small platform would be helpful, please reach out. I will be focusing on having more black guests on the podcast, but this is an immediate way to amplify that I can give if it is of help. If you need something to listen to this week, to take a break from the news or whatever actions you are taking, please go back to past episodes with black artists and leaders, Some that are at the top of my mind today are: Jazz musician Samora Pinderhughs episode 49 (also, if you listen to the end of the 100th episode he performs an incredibly haunting song about Sandra Bland. Please check out his work) Actor Chalia LaTour, Episode 99. Dancer and MOVENYC founder  Nigel Campbell, Episode 47 Actress Liz Jenkins, Episode 44 "Donald Trump has emboldened extremist white voices" by Lynn Nottage, published on www.standard.co.uk on June 1, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Charlie Barnett shares his experiences with the dark side, pushing yourself in auditions, hope for the film and tv industry once things start shooting again, and inhabiting such a dark role in Russian Doll on Netflix, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Murray Bartlett shares his experiences with the dark side, making choices that prioritize your life and not just your career, moving from Australia to New York City as an artist, meditation, and what he took away from working on the HBO show Looking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Producer Sally Cade Holmes (Hadestown, The Inheritance) shares her experiences with the dark side, the importance of mentoring, deciding to strike out on her own as a producer and consultant, staying nimble with your definition of success, and a look at how producers do what they do. http://www.sallycadeholmes.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Leah Walsh and her husband, actor Frankie J. Alvarez, are joined by actors Kathleen McNenny and Boyd Gaines to discuss the ups and downs of parenting in the arts, the necessity of community, keeping things in perspective, making decisions to fuel your creativity as well as support your family, and the importance of patience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor, teacher, and creator Lisa Kitchens shares her experiences with the dark side, starting Earth Stories Initiative which connects young children living in cities to the natural world through storytelling, the importance of community, and applying for residencies and grants as a performing artist. http://www.lisakitchens.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor and writer Inés del Castillo shares her experiences with the dark side, supporting herself as an artist, navigating casting as a bilingual artist, and staying positive. Check out her work at: https://www.inesdelcastillo.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dancer Brandon Cournay shares his experiences with the dark side and building a creative life in the New York dance world, from freelancing to becoming a company member, starting a business, and finding community. Check out what he's up to at http://www.brandoncournay.com and https://www.dancedevicelab.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dancer and performer Giselle O. Alvarez shares her experiences with the dark side, taking care of yourself and staying inspired during a long running show (she just hit her five year anniversary in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway), how being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis has affected her life as an artist, finding freedom in different styles of dance, and pushing yourself to always keep learning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor, musician, and composer Manik Choksi shares his thoughts on the dark side, making your own work, growing in long-term collaborations, and how becoming a parent influences him as an artist. He also shares a song from his new song cycle based on the story of The Ramayan! This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at BroadwayCon, 2020. Follow Manik on Twitter @nickchoksi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Update on The Compass Live from BroadwayCon, Episode 150 with Manik Choksi coming up on January 25, 2020, as well as a few readings from Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke.  “So don't be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known, casting its shadow over all you do. You must think that something is happening within you, and remember that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness, any pain, any depression, since you don't know what work they are accomplishing within you?” ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet “I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thoughts on the New Year by host Leah Walsh and a reading of a poem and reflections by author Neil Gaiman. http://journal.neilgaiman.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor and founder of the Parent Artist Advocacy League Rachel Spencer Hewitt shares her experiences with the dark side, auditioning, becoming a parent as an artist and how that led her to form PAAL and advocate for the support of parents and caregivers in the arts, and the power of community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Seamus Mulcahy shares his experiences with the dark side, auditioning, developing your process as an actor, the importance of community, how dyslexia has influenced his path as an artist and how he approaches the challenges of learning differently. Check out what he's up to at http://seamusmulcahy.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Christopher Ryan Grant shares his experiences with the dark side, finding community, how his work with The Public Theater's Mobile Unit has changed how he tells stories, auditioning, and learning to put things in perspective.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Christopher Livingston shares his experiences with the dark side, trying not to take the work home at the end of the day, mentors, auditioning, and staying positive. You can see him in his first Broadway show, The Great Societyat Lincoln Center or as Wayne Williams on the second season of Mindhunter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Painter, director, and teacher Sharone Halevy shares her experiences with the dark side, her evolution as an artist from performer to painter, process and empathy, being kind to yourself, and building a business plan as a painter. Check out her paintings on Instagram @art_by_sharone or www.sharonehalevy.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices