Podcasts about Broadway

Hey everyone, it's your girl Lisa Bilyeu, and welcome back to another heart-shaking, soul-quaking episode of "Women of Impact." Today, I have the absolute pleasure of bringing back one of my all-time favorite guests, a woman who has not only impacted my life but countless others with her raw, unfiltered honesty and boundless wisdom—the incredible Lisa Nichols.In this episode, Lisa Nichols is bringing the heat and the heart as she takes us on a deeply personal journey through her emotional struggles and the path to rediscovering herself. Imagine battling through toxic relationships, facing the depths of clinical depression, and constantly wrestling with societal pressures that try to tell you who you should be—Lisa has been there, and she's lived to tell the tale in the most empowering way.She opens up about the courageous steps she took to reclaim her life, including relocating to escape a toxic situation and creating practices to rebuild her self-worth. We dive into the transformative power of self-reflection and forgiveness, and Lisa shares the incredible methods she used, from affirmations and mentorship to visual reminders that kept her grounded and focused on her true potential.But that's not all—Lisa and I explore the tough, gritty topics like the internal conflict of intuition versus desire, and the necessity of self-acceptance in a world that often tries to dim our light. She even introduces us to her innovative "boldness quiz," designed to help us all push past our fears and embrace our true, fearless selves.And for those of you who crave a little entertainment mixed with empowerment, Lisa gives us a sneak peek into her latest endeavor—a one-woman Broadway show that's set to inspire and transform lives.SHOWNOTES00:00 Aging affects metabolism; hormones necessitate dietary changes.16:06 Realizations about self-reliance in relationships.29:27 Fear of inadequacy and underrepresentation in media.35:04 Struggling with self-esteem and room dynamics.52:51 Exploring pivotal life choices and decision moments.57:49 Desire to help women in challenging times.01:08:55 Journey to body acceptance after shaming experience.FOLLOW LISA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisabilyeu/Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisabilyeuYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/womenofimpactTik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lisa_bilyeu?lang=enLISTEN AD FREE + BONUS EPISODES on APPLE PODCASTS: apple.co/womenofimpactSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join us for a special conversation presented in partnership with the League of Professional Theatre Women, celebrating the work of five acclaimed theatre artists and authors. Featured guests include playwright Jenny Lyn Bader, playwright and educator Michael angel Johnson, Broadway performer, director, and League President Lynnie Godfrey, theatre historian Alexis Greene, and producer and arts leader Patricia Di Benedetto Snyder. Together they'll discuss their latest books: The Whole Megillah, a witty reimagining of the Purim story; The Goddess of Hygieia, a play about pioneering women Edmonia Lewis and Dr. Harriot Hunt; Sharing Lessons Learned While Seeking the Spotlight, Lynnie Godfrey's reflections on a life in the theatre; Emily Mann: Rebel Artist of the American Theater, a biography of the groundbreaking playwright and director; and Most Of It Was Beautiful, Patricia Di Benedetto Snyder's memoir chronicling the creation of one of America's most influential theatres for young audiences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, it's your girl Lisa Bilyeu, and welcome back to another heart-shaking, soul-quaking episode of "Women of Impact." Today, I have the absolute pleasure of bringing back one of my all-time favorite guests, a woman who has not only impacted my life but countless others with her raw, unfiltered honesty and boundless wisdom—the incredible Lisa Nichols.In this episode, Lisa Nichols is bringing the heat and the heart as she takes us on a deeply personal journey through her emotional struggles and the path to rediscovering herself. Imagine battling through toxic relationships, facing the depths of clinical depression, and constantly wrestling with societal pressures that try to tell you who you should be—Lisa has been there, and she's lived to tell the tale in the most empowering way.She opens up about the courageous steps she took to reclaim her life, including relocating to escape a toxic situation and creating practices to rebuild her self-worth. We dive into the transformative power of self-reflection and forgiveness, and Lisa shares the incredible methods she used, from affirmations and mentorship to visual reminders that kept her grounded and focused on her true potential.But that's not all—Lisa and I explore the tough, gritty topics like the internal conflict of intuition versus desire, and the necessity of self-acceptance in a world that often tries to dim our light. She even introduces us to her innovative "boldness quiz," designed to help us all push past our fears and embrace our true, fearless selves.And for those of you who crave a little entertainment mixed with empowerment, Lisa gives us a sneak peek into her latest endeavor—a one-woman Broadway show that's set to inspire and transform lives.SHOWNOTES00:00 Aging affects metabolism; hormones necessitate dietary changes.16:06 Realizations about self-reliance in relationships.29:27 Fear of inadequacy and underrepresentation in media.35:04 Struggling with self-esteem and room dynamics.52:51 Exploring pivotal life choices and decision moments.57:49 Desire to help women in challenging times.01:08:55 Journey to body acceptance after shaming experience.CHECK OUT OUR SPONSORSShopify: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://shopify.com/lisaNetsuite: Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at https://netsuite.com/womenCaraway: Visit https://www.carawayhome.com/WOI or use code WOI at checkout and get 10% off you your next purchaseFOLLOW LISA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisabilyeu/Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisabilyeuYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/womenofimpactTik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lisa_bilyeu?lang=enLISTEN AD FREE + BONUS EPISODES on APPLE PODCASTS: apple.co/womenofimpactSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Betty Buckley is a legendary, multi-award-winning actress/singer whose career spans theater, film, television and concert halls around the world. She is a 2012 Theatre Hall of Fame inductee and the 2017 recipient of  the Julie Harris Awards from The Actor's Fund for Artistic Achievement and received The Lifetime Achievement Award from The American Songbook Association in 2023. She won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats and received her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a musical for her performance as Hesione in Triumph of Love. She received an Olivier Award nomination for her critically acclaimed interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, which she repeated to more rave reviews on Broadway. Ms. Buckley is featured in the film By Design, written and directed by Amanda Kramer, and it made its debut at The Sundance Film Festival in January 2025. She is also featured in the film Eternity for A24 Studios, starring Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen, released in November 2025. In March 2024, she co-starred in Imaginary for Blumhouse Productions and released by Lionsgate. She co-starred with James McAvoy in the M. Night Shyamalan hit film Split, one of the top international box office hits of 2017. She received a Saturn Award Nomination for Best Featured Actress for her work in the film. Her other films include her debut in Brian de Palma's screen version of Stephen King's Carrie, Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies, Roman Polanski's Frantic, Woody Allen's Another Woman, Lawrence Kasdan's  Wyatt Earp and M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. In 2024, The Mayfly, an animated short film written, produced and narrated by Ms. Buckley played the film festival circuit and won several awards, including Best of Festival, Best Director and Best 2D Character Based Animation at The Los Angeles Animation Festival. The film also won Best Animation at The Lady Filmmakers Festival in Los Angeles. A love letter to New York City and music, The Mayfly is a lyrical tale that was inspired by a true event at the Café Carlyle, with a score composed by seven-time GRAMMY® nominee Christian Jacob. Her other Broadway credits include 1776, Pippin, Song and Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Carrie. She headlined the first National Tour of the new Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! in 2018/2019. Off-Broadway credits include the world premiere of Horton Foote's The Old Friends, for which she received  a Drama Desk Nomination in 2014, White Lies, Lincoln Center's Elegies, the original NYSF production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Eros Trilogy, Juno's Swans. Getting My Act Together and Taking It On  The Road. Regional credits include The Perfectionist, Gypsy, The Threepenny Opera, Camino Real, Buffalo  Gal, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Old Friends at Houston's Alley Theatre and Grey Gardens at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY and The Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles in 2016 for which she received an Ovation Award Nomination. In London, she starred in Promises, Promises for which she was nominated for An Evening Standard Award and in the 2013 British premiere of Dear World. On television, Buckley had a recurring role on Law & Order SVU for NBC. She co-starred in the third season  of AMC's hit series Preacher and has guest starred on the Fox/Warner Bros. TV shows: The Cleaning Lady, The CW hit Supergirl, the NBC Series Chicago Med and ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars. For HBO, she has appeared on Getting On, The Leftovers, The Pacific and for three seasons had a recurring role on OZ. She  starred as Abby Bradford in the hit series Eight is Enough. For more information, visit www.bettybuckley.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Front Row Classics welcomes back our friend Scott Nevins. Scott is an award winning host comedian and interviewer. Brandon and Scott chat about their mutual love of Broadway musicals, Judy Garland and Hollywood history.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) welcomes back The Philadelphia Orchestra for a three-week summer residency from August 5–22 as part of its celebratory 60th anniversary season.Led by Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin,the season pairs classical masterworks with SPAC premieres and performances by world-renowned artists, including Tony, Emmy, and five-time Grammy Award–nominated singer Josh Groban, Grammy Award–nominated indie-folk singer Gregory Alan Isakov, and two-time Tony Award–winning Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell.Christopher Shiley is President of Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Tony Winning Christopher Gattelli shares his views on Schmigadoon, the Broadway show and the TV show he staged prior. What are triple threats? What catches his eye in auditions? What inspires him? GUYS and DOLLS, Jerome Robbins Broadway, the Golden Age of Musicals. Westside Story to Billion Dollar Baby...as a choreographer and director, he looks for people who are "present." Be a "quadruple threat" and that means being kind! Be prepared, show up and be yourself.In this episode, we feature two performers who have valuable questions about the business of show. Tween Emmy is an aspiring actress and dancer who studies in Southern CA and loves musicals! Gabe's base is Nashville and tours all over the US and abroad as a multi-instrumentalist, singer and actor for film & TV. He had questions for Chris Gattelli about "focus."Listen UP! Don't miss a word. You'll get kernels of gold.Shout out to Stephanie Pope, Kenny Ortega, Channing Tatum, the Cohen Brothers, Matt West, Jerry Mitchell, Cynthia Onrubia, Jeff Amsden, and RIP, Scott Salmon who inspired both host, Michelle Zeitlin in her early Broadway audition days and Chris Gatelli who also had his own touching memories of Mr. Salmon. "I've been there...you get more with kindness." Says Gattelliand is kind himself, generous with advice and encouraging and fair to his casts. Follow him on socials and buy a ticket to see a Broadway show! www.passion-power.comwww.morezap.com"Can you do this 8 times a week?"“I think like a multi-hyphenate, my advice is just keep doing what you love and keep exploring all of the different talents. And I think just it's not limiting yourself to just one, and being able to bounce back and forth, hopefully with confidence that you can do all, and then whatever's calling at that time, do. This episode explores the evolution of musical theater, the characteristics of today's triple threats, and the power of mentorship in the arts.Chris Gatelli shares his journey to winning a Tony and his recent projectsThe changing landscape of musical theater The importance of ensemble work and versatile performers in modern productionsReflections on mentorship and the influence of choreographer Scott SalmanBehind-the-scenes stories from Schmigadoon and NewsiesThe impact of theater education and training todayInsights into directing and choreographing for TV vs. BroadwayThe future of musical theater and emerging talent

SEASON: 7 EPISODE: 2 Episode Overview:Welcome back to Becoming Preferred, the podcast for business professionals and entrepreneurs who want to level up their game and become preferred in the markets they serve.If you run a B2B company, there's a high probability you've hit a very specific growth ceiling: you built a fantastic business through relationships and word-of-mouth, but the moment you try to scale beyond referrals, your marketing completely stalls out. You keep tweaking your website, changing ad agencies, and wondering why it's not converting.'Our guest today says the problem isn't your marketing tactics; it's that you are performing the wrong show. Matt Wolfe is a brand strategist, Partner at Brand3, and one of the country's most experienced StoryBrand Certified Guides, having transformed the messaging of over two hundred and fifty organizations across thirty industries.But what makes him truly unique in this space is his background: before moving into full-time marketing, Matt spent twenty-five years on professional stages, including Broadway. He understands better than anyone alive why some scripts grip an audience and others cause them to walk out by intermission. Today, we are unpacking his 'Brand-First Rule,' how to scale a relationship-driven B2B beyond referrals, and how to make your marketing look less digital and significantly more human. Join me for my conversation with Matt Wolfe.Guest Bio: Matt Wolfe spent 25 years on professional stages, including Broadway, before pivoting to full-time marketing. That path looks like a detour until you hear him explain why a business's brand message works the same way a script does. Every word either earns an audience's attention or loses it, and most companies are performing the wrong show.Today, Matt is a Partner at Brand3 and one of the most experienced StoryBrand Certified Guides in the country, with work across 250+ organizations in more than 30 industries. He helps B2B leaders who've built businesses on strong word-of-mouth figure out why their marketing doesn't reflect that fact - and fix it at the source. Brand3's Scale Beyond Referrals program helps relationship-driven B2Bs tell a story that connects with their ideal clients. In a world that's growing more digital, his team makes marketing more human - and makes B2Bs the obvious choice to their ideal clients.Resource Links:Website: https://www.brand3.net/Website: https://www.mattwolfemarketing.com/Product Link: https://www.brand3.net/ways-to-engage/Insight Gold Timestamps:03:40 You have this fantastic phrase where you say that most B2B companies are performing the wrong show with their marketing05:05 That's really all that is at the end of the day, is the right story to the right people06:36 StoryBrand says make your audience the hero of the story07:53 I think StoryBrand has moved the needle on that conversation11:43 I'm going to make this bold statement, and then I'll qualify it: Demographics don't work13:47 At the end of the day, these sales only happen through carefully built trust and relationships17:02 We've been using the phrase: trust recession19:30 You have a strict brand first rule that says, "Stop marketing a message you haven't built yet"21:22 The game's going to be won or lost on that header and whether or not that says to somebody, "I'm telling your story"23:39 Good marketing is shining the spotlight back on the ideal client25:06 If you don't articulate the problem that they're facing, there just is no story26:57 We just have to keep asking the question, how will this digital thing that we're doing now lead to a human encounter?32:36 If you do this right, you're putting more humans in front of the right ideal client humans to have these great encounters36:03 We were like, "Why aren't we telling that story?"38:34 Matt Wolfe, the website is brand3.net38:41 Your personal website as well mattwolfemarketing.com38:58 You can also go to scalebeyondreferrals.com39:13 We have a podcast called The CEO's Heart for ServiceConnect Socially:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/MattWolfeMarketingFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/brand3marketing/The CEO's Heart for Service Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ceos-heart-for-service-scaling-business-without/id1896298694Email: mwolfe@brand3.netSponsors: Rainmaker LeadGen Platform Demo: https://calendar.summit-learning.com/widget/booking/JKItVP7WErmCBjU2cCIxRainmaker Digital Solutions: https://www.rainmakerdigitalsolutions.com/

State of the Arts Episode 296 is now available on Spotify! I'm immensely honored to welcome Ada Zhang, an opera singer turned stage manager to my podcast this week. After attending Peking University, my multitalented guest attended graduate school at Columbia University, majoring in theatre with an emphasis on stage management. She has worked on multiple iconic productions, including the Wicked International Tour, the Kinky Boots Asia Tour and the SIX Aragon Tour. When she's not onstage, this caring creative is a huge advocate for The Tank NYC, an off-off Broadway theatre that supports young artists who are in their early career and curates equity and diversity in the performing arts. It is a privilege to present this accomplished guest on my podcast this week!

James Marino, Peter Filichia, and Michael Portantiere review The Saviors @ Atlantic Theater Company, The Potluck @ Playwrights Horizons, Birthright @ MCC, Last Laugh @ Vino Theater, Gene Frankel Theatre Festival, Walter Paisley, and Are You Now or Have You Ever Been @ City Center “This Week on Broadway” has read more

Send us Fan MailTara and EmKay continue their journey into the bulk of season 7: breaking down each scene of "Wicked: For Good"! In this episode they break down Glinda's tap to bubble scene, favorite moments, and more!Stay tuned for part 2 dropping this Wednesday.Show notes:‘Wicked' actress Scarlett Spears on landing role of young Glinda: ‘I started crying'8-year-old actress and Orlando native Scarlett Spears shines bright in ‘Wicked: For Good'The Morning Show with Scarlett SpearsScarlett Spears on @TheOzVlog"Bunns Rabbit" by Alan Barillaro"Galinda" by Gregory MaguireInstagram: @downtheyellowbrickpod#DownTheYBPTara: @taratagticklesEmKay: www.emilykayshrader.netPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/downtheyellowbrickpodEtsy: https://www.etsy.com/market/down_the_yellow_brick_podMusic by: Shane ChapmanEdited by: Emily Kay ShraderDown the Yellow Brick Pod: A Wizard of Oz Podcast preserving the history and legacy of Oz

This week marks the centenary of America's greatest pop interpreter of the Broadway songbook: Tony Bennett.  Songs from Kismet, Applause, Follies, The Boys from Syracuse, On The Town and more.

The theatre industry has recently seen casting controversy on either side of the Atlantic, with Boy George departing from his planned stint in the West End revival of Jesus Christ Superstar days before he was scheduled to perform, and Geno Segers announced as Broadway's newest Hades in the Tony Award winning musical Hadestown.While the reaction online to political statements from each actor has been decisive, there is a deeper conversation to be had about how he respond to these situations, what level of reprisal is proportionate, and what would be achieved by their dismissal?Share your thoughts as Mickey-Jo's attempt to share his and find some nuance in this challenging topic.sign up to Mickey-Jo's weekly substack newsletter:www.mickeyjotheatre.substack.com•00:00 | introduction04:25 | Boy George / Jesus Christ Superstar09:50 | Geno Segers / Hadestown16:05 | the problems23:39 | further thoughts28:43 | conclusionAbout Mickey-Jo:As one of the leading voices in theatre criticism on a social platform, Mickey-Jo is pioneering a new medium for a dwindling field. His YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MickeyJoTheatre⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is the largest worldwide in terms of dedicated theatre criticism, where he also share features, news and interviews as well as lifestyle content for over 95,000 subscribers. With a viewership that is largely split between the US and the UK he has been fortunate enough to be able to work with PR, Marketing, and Social Media representatives for shows in New York, London, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Toronto, Sao Pãolo, and Paris. His reviews and features have also been published by WhatsOnStage, for whom he was a panelist to help curate nominees for their 2023 and 2024 Awards as well as BroadwayWorldUK, Musicals Magazine and LondonTheatre.co.uk. Instagram/TikTok/X: @MickeyJoTheatre Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's happening PARTY PEOPLE!!! Anothger good time with the QUANTUM LEAP crew. Broadway is about to get a purple makeover and the people are ready. New actors have been added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and does this radio show make it to the highest paid podcasters list? New music from Fat Joe, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Sam R I and more... Click play and take the leap!!!Follow us NOW on YouTube, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spreaker, and more...!!You like what hear..? PROVIDE a donation on @kpft.org (DONATE button)QUANTUM LEAP RADIO broadcasting and streaming live from #HUEston T.X.Every Saturday from 4-6p.m. CST (90.1FM KPFT Houston in HD2) & Thursday 1-3a.m. CST (on the F.M. dial)Worldwide@kpft.org/listen & KPFT APP

Before he was a two-time World Series champion and four-time All-Star, Pepper Martin was jumping freight trains to spring training to save a dime. After he retired, he was choking out an umpire in Havana. In between: smoke bombs disguised as a fire emergency, a painting crew that wasn't hired to paint, a hospital room cowboy band concert nobody asked for, a stint running an Oklahoma City hockey team, and a batting line across two World Series that's still a Major League record today. Jeff traces the full career of Johnny Leonard Roosevelt "Pepper" Martin — the Wild Horse of the Osage — from a cotton farm in Temple, Oklahoma to a fistfight in Cuba, with stops at Comiskey Park, the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel (twice), and Branch Rickey's office.   Also in this episode: Jeff and Mark remember Blue Jays closer Duane Ward, who passed away at 62 during a reunion for Toronto's back-to-back championship teams. A position player picks up a two-RBI single off a catcher making his first career pitching appearance. Mets utility man Jose Iglesias/Canelita heads to Broadway for the Buena Vista Social Club musical. And Wax Pack Heroes returns with a batch of 1972 Topps cards sent in by a listener.   Topics: Pepper Martin, Wild Horse of the Osage, St. Louis Cardinals, Gas House Gang, 1931 World Series, 1934 World Series, Philadelphia Athletics, Connie Mack, Branch Rickey, Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Frankie Frisch, Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, Mississippi Mudcats, Oklahoma City Warriors, Miami Sun Sox, Florida International League, Havana baseball history, Vallie Eaves, Duane Ward, Jose Iglesias, Buena Vista Social Club, 1972 Topps, Wax Pack Heroes   00:00 Cold Open Banter 01:31 Remembering Duane Ward 03:14 Pitcher Gets a Hit 05:41 Jose Iglesias Hits Broadway 08:32 Time Machine to Havana 11:17 Pepper Martin Revealed 12:28 From Oklahoma to the Cards 15:39 1931 Breakout World Series 16:46 Vaudeville and Sophomore Slump 21:07 Pranks and Gas House Gang 25:56 Barnstorming and Hospital Hijinks 27:50 Branch Rickey Lays Down Law 30:30 Final All Star and Mud Cats Band 32:23 Minor League Manager and 1944 Return 33:27 Pepper Martin Later Years 34:55 Freight Train To Spring 36:04 Clubhouse Legend Wrap 36:42 Wax Pack Heroes Begins 56:02 Scoreboard And Fan Poll 57:32 Outro And Socials   Connect With Us: YouTube: www.youtube.com/@twostrikenoise Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/twostrikenoise BlueSky: @twostrikenoise.bsky.social Email: twostrikenoise@gmail.com   Support a Great Cause: Don't let your common cards collect dust! Donate them to help spark a child's interest in the game at http://commons4kids.org/.   #baseballhistory #mlb #baseball #BaseballCards #TwoStrikeNoise #popculture

Spencer Inch is one of those musicians who makes you realize how wide this career can actually be. We talked about his path from Wilton, Connecticut to the national touring circuit, and I kept thinking: this is exactly what Broadway Bound and Beyond is about.Here's what we got into:* Spencer started on drums at age six when his parents bought him a CB700 from a neighbor — he still talks about that kit like it was a Stradivarius* He studied classical percussion at Penn State, then pivoted to jazz drum set at the University of Miami's Frost School — going from big fish to small pond overnight, and what he did about it* He did multiple contracts on cruise ships right out of grad school, playing everything from waltzes to Glenn Miller to German polka with no internet and no time to prepare — and why he says he learned more there than in six years of school* He toured the country opening for the Counting Crows with singer-songwriter Seán Barna — playing to amphitheater crowds of 3,000 to 7,000 people, and the moment the Counting Crows' drummer handed him the sticks to close out a show* He spent a year and a half on the Come From Away national tour playing bodhran — on stage, in the action, 467 shows — after saying yes to an instrument he'd never played before* He's now on the Water for Elephants national tour, a gig that came directly through the music director he built a relationship with on Come From AwayThe throughline in Spencer's story isn't talent. It's relationships, saying yes, and taking every single gig seriously — no matter what it is. The polka gig. The Les Mis at a children's theater. All of it.Watch the full episode above!Clayton Craddock is the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician's Guide to Building a Theater Career.His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Ain't Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.www.claytoncraddock.com Get full access to Broadway Drumming 101 at broadwaydrumming101.substack.com/subscribe

A new day has begun, indeed. The 1980s brought many changes to Broadway, especially the arrival of the London-import megamusical that would run, well, seemingly forever, and its champion, Andrew Lloyd Webber. Join us we talk about how Broadway was changing, how Cats fed into that, and try to pinpoint what, exactly "Memory" -- with lyrics by Trevor Nunn -- is actually about. Editor's note: This is the second (and hopefully final) episode of the same recording session where Shannon's audio was weird. Our apologies. All clips are from the 1983's Cats: Original Broadway Cast Recording featuring Betty Buckley and are protected by the Fair Use guidelines of Section 107 of the Copyright Act for criticism and commentary. All rights reserved to the copyright owners. Listen to the SMSTS playlist on Spotify! Follow SMSTS on Instagram: @somuchstufftosing Email the show: somuchstufftosing@gmail.com Recommended Reading/Viewing: Betty Buckley sings "Memory" at 1983's Tonys "Memory" - Barbra Streisand "Memory" - Heather Headley Who Sang the "Memory" Climax Best? Ethan Mordden, Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theater (Mordden's other volumes are also excellent resources for more in-depth discussion) Broadway: The American Musical

Grab your Comic-Con lanyards and punch your train tickets, because the studio is taking a trip to the underworld! This week on The Filmlosophers, Hosts Eddie and Spencer are joined by the ever-glorious Intern Manager/Managing Intern Amy for a massively packed episode discussing the latest in pop culture and a legendary Broadway hit hitting the big screen. The San Diego Comic-Con Aftermath Before the crew boards the train to the underworld, they unpack the massive, earth-shattering news that rocked their pop-culture hearts at last week's San Diego Comic-Con. With the dust settling from the ultimate nerd Mecca, Eddie, Spencer, and Amy unveil what hit them the hardest from the convention floor. The team geeks out over Marvel's historic Hall H presentation, buzzing over the massive announcements of Ryan Gosling joining the MCU as Ghost Rider and the highly anticipated confirmation of Black Panther 3. The trio also dives into the jaw-dropping Avengers: Doomsday trailer, dissecting Robert Downey Jr.'s terrifying debut as Victor Von Doom and what it means for the future of the cinematic universe. A Cinematic Journey to Hadestown Once the convention hype is unpacked, the team ventures far below to review their cinematic experience of the absolute box-office juggernaut, Hadestown: The Musical. The crew discusses the historic achievement of the professional live stage capture, which was filmed with the original Broadway cast in London and just shattered the theatrical record previously held by Hamilton. Eddie and Amy are Team Hadestown 100%, wholly celebrating the impeccable artistry, the breathtaking musicality of Anaïs Mitchell's score, and the phenomenal performances of stars like Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada. However, things get a little heated as they try to understand Spencer's deep frustrations with the narrative execution of the century-old myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. While the entire table admires the sheer talent in every scene, Spencer reveals a few major reservations before he books his next ticket to ride this train again. Is this pro-shot a masterpiece of modern theater, or does the myth get lost in the music? It's time to raise a cup and find out! You can catch The Filmlosophers podcast now streaming on all major platforms!

Dolly Parton Biography Flash a weekly Biography. In the past few days, Dolly Partons story has been dominated by a deeply personal loss that will resonate in any future biography. Multiple outlets including Page Six, Fox 17 Nashville, Yahoo Entertainment, and the Daily Mail report that her older brother Coy “Denver” Parton died at age 82 in Sevierville, Tennessee, on July 23, with an obituary from Atchley Funeral Home confirming the details and noting that no cause of death has been made public. This follows the March 2025 death of her husband Carl Dean, also 82, and earlier losses of brothers David and Randy, marking an extraordinarily painful chapter of compounded grief in her later years. Reports note the family plans a private memorial, underscoring how Dolly continues to guard some aspects of her mourning from public view. From a long term biographical lens, this cluster of family deaths, combined with her own health struggles, is likely to frame the narrative of Dolly's eighties as an era of resilience under pressure. Page Six and The List recap that over the past year she has battled kidney stone complications and other issues serious enough to cancel her Las Vegas residency and even miss her 80th birthday celebration at the Grand Ole Opry, despite publicly insisting she is “responding really well to meds and treatments” and “improving every day.” More speculative outlets like RadarOnline and NewsBreak claim she feels isolated at her Tennessee ranch and is “trapped” by health woes; these stories rely on unnamed “insiders” and should be treated as unconfirmed gossip rather than verified fact. On the business and public appearance front, Dolly is still very much in motion. Local Knoxville coverage and Dollywoods own advisories report that she is scheduled to appear at Dollywood on August 14 for the dedication of NightFlight Expedition, the parks most expensive ride to date, a first of its kind attraction that fits neatly into her broader legacy as a theme park and tourism mogul. In June, major outlets including The Washington Post and Fox 17 highlighted her surprise, physically fragile but smiling appearance at the grand opening of Dolly's Tennessean Travel Stop in Cornersville, Tennessee, a new chain style travel stop that expands her brand from music and books into roadside hospitality. Creatively, The List and Broadway.com note she is producing “Dolly: A True Original Musical” for Broadway, slated to open later this year, a biographical stage work that will literally codify her life story in another medium and is likely to be a major long term pillar of how future generations encounter Dolly Parton. Social media from her business ventures continues to share upbeat posts tied to the truck stop and the musical, though her personal accounts have remained notably quiet on Coy's death, suggesting she is grieving off line even as the brand machine rolls on. That's the latest chapter in the life of Dolly Parton. Thank you for listening, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an update on Dolly Parton, and search the term Biography Flash for more great biographies. Thanks for listening. This has been a Quiet Please production. Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOta

This is an encore episode of 'The View' — new episodes return Tuesday, September 8! 'The View' co-hosts and guest co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck weigh in as administration officials come under fire for their comments following the deaths of six American soldiers killed in combat, while Pete Hegseth criticizes the media's coverage of the U.S.–Iran conflict. Daniel Radcliffe joins the show to talk about taking on a new comedy role in the series 'The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins,' returning to Broadway in the heartfelt one‑man show 'Every Brilliant Thing,' and reflecting on what it meant to step into Harry Potter's shoes all those years ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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In this episode of The True Fiction Project, actor Rishi Jaiswal walks us through his unlikely leap from aerospace engineering to a national Broadway tour, his lead role in The Revolution's Wife, and the deeply personal story behind his new short film, The Last Waltz. This movie is about a South Asian family confronting their trans daughter's identity and the silence that follows. We also talk about dance, Sundance, and the strange coincidences that shaped this casting. Tune in to hear the trailer of The Last Waltz, highlighting the moment a father finally faces the daughter he can barely name.What You'll Learn in This Episode: ✅ How Rishi Jaiswal traded aerospace engineering for a career on stage and screen, starting with So You Think You Can Dance and a national tour of Life of Pi on Broadway.✅ Why he sent a freedom fighter poem about Gaza to land his role in Revolution's Wife, and how that bold risk paid off during the casting process.✅ How growing up around a family dance studio and Bollywood culture shaped the way Rishi approaches every character he plays on screen and stage.✅ Why The Last Waltz speaks directly to the South Asian community about learning to accept a trans child, even without fully understanding her journey first.Subscribe to Reenita's Storytelling Den on Substack for free at https://substack.com/@reenitahora and to her YouTube channel to watch the video version of this episode! https://www.youtube.com/@reenymalCheck out her website to stay up-to-date on events, book releases and more! https://reenita.com/TIMESTAMPS:  00:00 Rishi Jaiswal shares how he became involved in Revolution's Wife03:25 How a Gaza freedom fighter poem helped Rishi land his role in Reenita's script05:14 Discussion of the Revolution's Wife script07:56 The Sundance Film Festival encounter that unexpectedly brought Nosheen into the cast as Padma11:35 From aerospace engineering to a family dance studio, tracing Rishi's winding path into the arts15:10 Rishi introduces The Last Waltz, his own short film about a trans daughter and her parents22:38 Watch the exclusive trailer for The Last Waltz ahead of its debut at the LA Shorts FestivalKEY TAKEAWAYS: 

[REBROADCAST FROM May 21, 2026] The stars of Broadway's nine-time Tony-nominated musical ‘CATS: The Jellicle Ball' join All Of It with Alison Stewart live in The Greene Space at WNYC. Enjoy live performances from the show's stars, including André de Shields and Tempress Chastity Moore, and hear from co-directors Bill Rauch and Zhailon Levingston as well as co-choreographers Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons about bringing ballroom to Broadway in this celebrated revival. This event is part of All Of It's Broadway on the Radio series. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Defending the Caveman is the longest running comedy on Broadway ever, seen around the world by more than eight million people - and it's coming to Auckland.

21! 21! 21! Our 21st episode starts with Bret admitting his worst quality…remembering names. Then AB shares how her Broadway connections have lead her to a business opportunity that involves her spending $50,000! Hannah then tells the story of how she returned a gift her bestie got her and how she feels guilty about it. The episode ends with Bret sharing the legit worst days in history.

What goes into kicking off, planning out, & sustaining a podcast? The Krewe presented their lived experiences in podcasting, along with recommendations & tips for aspiring content creators in the US-Japan space, during a workshop on July 30, 2026 at the NAJAS (National Association of Japan-America Societies) National Conference. This episode is that workshop! ------ About the Krewe ------ The Krewe of Japan Podcast is a weekly episodic podcast sponsored by the Japan Society of New Orleans. Check them out every Friday afternoon around noon CST on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Want to share your experiences with the Krewe? Or perhaps you have ideas for episodes, feedback, comments, or questions? Let the Krewe know by e-mail at kreweofjapanpodcast@gmail.com or on social media (Twitter: @kreweofjapan, Instagram: @kreweofjapanpodcast, Facebook: Krewe of Japan Podcast Page, TikTok: @kreweofjapanpodcast, LinkedIn: Krewe of Japan LinkedIn Page, Blue Sky Social: @kreweofjapan.bsky.social, & the Krewe of Japan Youtube Channel). Until next time, enjoy! ------ Support the Krewe! Offer Links for Affiliates ------ Use the referral links below & our promo code from the episode! Support your favorite NFL Team AND podcast! Shop NFLShop to gear up for football season! Zencastr Offer Link - Use my special link to save 30% off your 1st month of any Zencastr paid plan!  ------ Links for NAJAS ------ NAJAS Website NAJAS Conference Website ------ JSNO Upcoming Events ------ JSNO Event Calendar Join JSNO Today!

This week our featured guest is Allison Russell, who just released her third solo album, In The Hour of Chaos, earlier this month and returns to SHEROES to tell us all about this next installment of her discography, as well as the myriad projects she has been involved with including her Broadway debut, writing a memoir, and touring with Sarah McLachlan. Listen to the songs featured in this week's episode, and experience Allison's new album with the highest quality streaming on Qobuz. We have a 30-day free trial for you, too! Here's the link: qob.uz/sheroes

Step into the dazzling world of tap shoes, big laughs, and timeless Gershwin melodies as we welcome Paisley Siemens, director and choreographer of Aspire Theatre's upcoming production of Crazy for You, on stage August 6–9. In this episode, Paisley shares what makes this beloved musical such a joyful celebration of the golden age of Broadway. We talk about the magic of directing and choreographing a show packed with energetic dance numbers, classic comedy, and unforgettable songs by George and Ira Gershwin—the kind of tunes that audiences instantly recognize and can't help but hum along with. Whether you're a longtime musical theater fan or someone who simply loves great music and a feel-good night out, this conversation is a reminder of why Crazy for You continues to charm audiences decades after its debut. Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the creativity, hard work, and sheer fun that goes into bringing this sparkling Aspire Theatre production to life. Show times are August 6-8 at 7:30 pm, matinee on August 8 and 9 at 2 pm. For tickets visit aspirecda.com.

In 1940, Martin Beck took a risk. At 71 years old, after financial setbacks and personal betrayal, the Broadway impresario invested his own money into Cabin in the Sky—an ambitious new musical featuring an all-Black cast at a time when opportunities for Black performers on Broadway were severely limited. Starring Ethel Waters and featuring the choreography of George Balanchine, Cabin in the Sky was billed as a “parable of Southern Negro Life” and became the final production Martin Beck ever brought to his namesake theater. But to understand why this musical mattered, we have to look back at the artists who paved the way—from Will Marion Cook and the groundbreaking Shuffle Along to Langston Hughes, Ethel Waters, and the generations of performers who challenged Broadway's expectations. With linguist and writer John McWhorter, this episode explores the complicated legacy of Cabin in the Sky—a show shaped by ambition, limitations, stereotypes, and the undeniable impact of Black artists on American musical theater. Click ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for a transcript with photos, videos, and a list of all resources used. Produced by Patrick Oliver Jones and WINMI Media with Dan Delgado as co-producer and editor. Theme music created by Blake Stadnik. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lizzy's new album ‘Angel' is out September 18th. Pre-order and pre-save here: https://lizzymcalpine.lnk.to/angel Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It out NOW: https://sites.prh.com/phoebe-bermans-gonna-lose-it SUBSCRIBE TO THE BNC CHANNEL: https://bit.ly/45Pspyl Ad Free & Bonus Episodes: https://bit.ly/3OZxwpr This week, Brooke and Connor welcome the one and only Lizzy McAlpine! Lizzy talks about her process writing songs, making her big Broadway debut, and dealing with anxiety while performing on stage. Plus, they plan out a group Prenuvo session! Join our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/5356639204457124/ Popchips is sending you and your +1 to experience pop culture IRL at THAT Austin music fest!Go to https://popchips.com/brookeandconnor and enter for a chance to win a 3-day VIP trip for 2 to THAT Austin Music Fest. If you're between 18 and 24, check out Prime for Young Adults and start earning cash back on the purchases you're already making. Prime for Young Adults is only available for 18–24-year-olds. Terms apply. Join for free at https://rakuten.com or download the Rakuten app to start saving money todayMake your summer wardrobe feel easier. Go to https://Quince.com/bandc for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. B+C IG: https://www.instagram.com/bncmap/ B+C Twitter: https://twitter.com/bncmap TMG Studios YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/tinymeatgang TMG Studios IG: https://www.instagram.com/realtmgstudios/ TMG Studios Twitter: https://twitter.com/realtmgstudios BROOKE https://www.instagram.com/brookeaverick https://twitter.com/ladyefron https://www.tiktok.com/@ladyefron CONNOR https://www.instagram.com/fibula/ https://twitter.com/fibulaa https://www.tiktok.com/@fibulaa Hosted by Brooke Averick & Connor Wood, Created by TMG Studios, Brooke Averick & Connor Wood, and Produced by TMG Studios, Brooke Averick & Connor Wood. Chapters: 0:00 Snack Time!! 0:53 Intro 1:09 Cups Are Flowing With Lizzy!!! 2:20 Girls From The Main Line 5:10 Lizzy's New Album 6:34 Broadway Girls 8:23 Lizzy's Writing Process 9:20 Hunger Games Loopholes 12:34 Working Through Anxiety 18:21 Prime For Young Adults 19:50 Rakuten 20:41 Releasing Medical Records 25:50 Light In The Painting Analysis 32:25 Testing Connor's Broadway Knowledge 36:51 Quince 38:27 Drunk Texting Lizzy 43:00 Responding To Birthday Texts 45:27 How Lizzy Picks Her Track Lists 49:17 Getting Album Inspiration 56:20 Voice Training 1:03:56 Empath IBS on Broadway 1:09:53 Pre-Save Angel & Thank You Lizzy! 1:11:06 See You In Bonus!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aasif Mandvi joins Sam for a major Daily Show catch up, and to talk about juggling his return to Broadway in Fallen Angels with his new TV show The Miniature Wife. They bond over the perfection of theater shows with no intermissions, but disagree about when they first met each other. They talk about meeting Bruce Springsteen at The Daily Show, how Kid Rock used to be a huge fan, and what it would be like if Aasif was still the Senior Middle East Correspondent. They share their concern that AI actors are going to replace extras and actors just starting out, how journalists need to be willing to risk everything to ask the right questions, and how there are no politicians to look up to anymore. Keep up with Samantha Bee @realsambee on Instagram and X. And stay up to date with us @LemonadaMedia on X, Facebook, and Instagram. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors. See ⁠omnystudio.com/listener⁠ for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Luis Valdez has spent his life unapologetically telling Chicano stories. Born in Delano, he found his footing in the Bay Area and went on to produce “Zoot Suit,” the first Chicano play to make it to Broadway, direct “La Bamba,” one of the most successful Latine films ever. In a new documentary, “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez,” director David Alvarado put the camera in front of Valdez to tell his story. Valdez and Alvarado join us to talk about the documentary, the importance of capturing the Chicano experience and the stories they still want to tell.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to get to Scmigadoon? You go to take the long way through. Through Apple TV, then cancellation. Then to the lights of Broadway in a truncated version of the story that just doesn't quite hit as hard as that darn TV Show does. Well, you can't win them all.... OH WAIT YOU CAN! Because this adaptation of a TV Show SWEPT the Tony Awards. Well, I guess we'll have to see what Andrew thought. Credits: Hosts: Jesse McAnally & Andrew DeWolf Podcast Edited By: Jesse McAnally Keeper of the Cheese: Juliet Antonio This show is a part of the Broadway Podcast Network Social Media: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Our WEBSITE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Musicals with Cheese on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Musicals W/ Cheese on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musicaltheatrelives@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merch!!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Jess Socials ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jesse McAnally ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jess McAnally on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Andrew Socials ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Andrew DeWolf on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Andrew DeWolf on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Use our Affiliate Link⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Trudeau has his hands all OVER Katy Perry while celebrating a year together, Usher is feeling Vulnerable and Guliana Rancic promised and delivered on clapping back at her Ex Jerry O'Connell. Plus Matt Damon would like to do Broadway but only will at a very specific time and was there some drama around the casting of the new Black Panther? Tony Romo's police cam footage is out from is OWI arrest and it... is.... something. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When most people hear the name Alexander Hamilton, they probably think of the Broadway musical. But Hamilton's greatest legacy wasn't a Tony Award-winning production. It was helping build the financial foundation of the United States. Today on BullCast, we're not throwing away our shot to uncover how America's first Secretary of the Treasury laid the groundwork for our banking system, national credit, and economy, and why his influence can still be felt more than 230 years later. The List: Fun Facts About Hamilton Visit us online: www.bullcastpodcast.com Produced by Cameron Spann | Powered by Pickler Wealth Advisors Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Hey Dateline fans, here's a special preview of the first episode of Dateline: Missing In America Season 5.  In "The Day Zelig Vanished," Josh Mankiewicz examines the disappearance of Zelig Williams, a 28-year-old Broadway performer who disappeared after leaving his mother's home in Columbia, South Carolina on October 3, 2024, and hasn't been seen since.  Listen to the full episode in the 'Dateline: Missing In America' feed - something you hear might jog a memory that could help authorities find Zelig.   Follow now to get each episode completely free. Or subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or DatelinePremium.com. Subscribers receive ad-free listening and early access to episodes. swap.fm/l/miafdlw Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Louis and Nina break down Netflix's latest true crime documentary A Toxic Love Story, review Charli XCX's latest album, and debate whether or not we need "Purple Rain" on Broadway. Plus, the two chat about which of their favorite albums they'd turn into Broadway musicals.For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com.

Hey Dateline fans, here's a special preview of the first episode of Dateline: Missing In America Season 5.  In "The Day Zelig Vanished," Josh Mankiewicz examines the disappearance of Zelig Williams, a 28-year-old Broadway performer who disappeared after leaving his mother's home in Columbia, South Carolina on October 3, 2024, and hasn't been seen since.  Listen to the full episode in the 'Dateline: Missing In America' feed - something you hear might jog a memory that could help authorities find Zelig.   Follow now to get each episode completely free. Or subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or DatelinePremium.com. Subscribers receive ad-free listening and early access to episodes. swap.fm/l/miafdlw Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today's Mystery: Detective Danny Clover reopens what appeared to be a straightforward suicide after a former bookie claims he witnessed the victim being pushed from a rooftop. When the eyewitness is murdered before he can identify the killer, Clover must untangle a web of jealousy, blackmail, and deception.Original Radio Broadcast: April 5, 1952Originating from HollywoodStarring Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. Also featuring Charles Calvert as Sgt. Gino Tartaglia, Jack Kruschen as Detective Muggavan, Louise Lewis as Margaret Elgin, Bill Bouchey as Ray Ford, Charlotte Lawrence, Billy Halop, and Steve RobertsWritten by Morton Fine and David FriedkinProduced and directed by Elliott LewisMusical score composed and conducted by Alexander CourageSupport the podcast monthly at https://patreon.greatdetectives.netPatreon Supporter of the Day: Catherine, Patreon supporter since November 2025Support the show on a one-time basis at https://support.greatdetectives.netMail a donation to:Adam GrahamPO Box 15913Boise, ID 83715Take our listener survey at https://survey.greatdetectives.netGive us a call: 208-991-4783Follow us on Instagram at https://instagram.com/greatdetectivesFollow us on Twitter/X at https://twitter.com/radiodetectives

After a decade of ideological conformity, is American theater ready to laugh at itself again? This week Meghan is joined by Broadway star, comedian, and producer PJ Adzima, founder of Stage Time NYC and producer of Slam Frank—a mind-melting new musical that reimagines The Diary of Anne Frank through "an intersectional, multi-ethnic, genderqueer, Afro-Latin hip-hop lens." (You read that right.) Slam Frank was conceived by composer and lyricist Andrew Fox, who was stunned and inspired by a Twitter thread in which someone asked, "Did Anne Frank ever examine her white privilege?" (You also read that right.) A play within a play about a progressive theater company twisting itself into knots trying to stay on the right side of history, the show has provoked both walkouts and rave reviews—including in The New York Times. (Again, you read that right.) PJ and Meghan discuss the transformation of the theater world over the past decade, the legacy of The Book of Mormon (in which he starred for many years), the "Dear White American Theater" manifesto, and why he believes great art cannot be created by checking ideological boxes. They also talk about what happens when artists prioritize pleasing everyone over having a point of view—and why live performance still matters in an era dominated by algorithms and social media. PJ was recently added as a guest at The Unspeakeasy's Small Gathering for Big Ideas retreat, Oct 19-21 in Kingston, NY. He joins fellow speakers John McWhorter and Lisa Marchiano. Spaces are filling fast. Info here. Slam Frank opens off-Broadway at New York's Orpheum Theater in September. Guest Bio: PJ Adzima starred on Broadway in The Book of Mormon and is the founder of Stage Time, an underground-style variety theater company and artist collective in New York City. He is also producer of Slam Frank.  

How can building an audience in advance help your stories reach the people who make movies? And how can you prove there's demand for your book or screenplay before you've written it? Brooks Elms shares his advice after more than 20 years as a WGA screenwriter. In the intro, what doesn't work for book marketing and what does [Amy Chan SubStack; Unsingle; Rephonic]; Goodreads giveaway for Bones of the Deep; FutureVision XPrize. This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Brooks Elms is a WGA screenwriter with over 45 scripts, over a dozen sales, and he has directed two indie features. He is the creator of the Answer the Call system and has trained over 1,000 writers. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How to see the opportunity in AI when others only see the threat How to test a story with samples, and what a 16-second movie can do Building the trailer before you write the screenplay Letting your audience finance the film once they have validated the idea Why Hollywood still wants existing IP, and what makes them pay attention Feeling safe enough to write the truth, and finding a concrete path forward You can find Brooks on LinkedIn or email him at brooks@brookselms.com. Transcript of the interview with Brooks Elms Jo: Brooks Elms is a WGA screenwriter with over 45 scripts, over a dozen sales, and he has directed two indie features. He is the creator of the Answer the Call system and has trained over 1,000 writers. So welcome to the show, Brooks. Brooks: Thank you. It's awesome to be here. Jo: Fantastic. So first up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into screenwriting. Brooks: I started filmmaking first. A buddy came up to me in high school and said, “Hey, we're making a karate movie, do you want to help us?” I was like, “Oh my God, yes, that sounds amazing.” So next thing I know, I had this karate outfit on, and we were just making this completely ridiculous and totally fun movie, and it was amazing. It was so fun. Then it went to a whole other level when we shared it with a friend, this guy Jay Sharon, and he watched the movie and he laughed so hard he literally fell out of his chair. I was like, “Oh my God,” the fun I had making it could actually transfer to somebody else. I was hooked. So from there I went to NYU film school, and then made a few independent feature films which were good but not great in terms of how they were received. They were great for me in terms of enjoyment, but I knew I needed to iterate faster at that point. So then I was like, “Well, it's expensive and it takes a long time to make a movie,” at least back then. So I pivoted to screenwriting, and pumped out two, three scripts a year, got signed at UTA, got writing assignments, and basically launched a screenwriting career. Then I still tried to get some stuff going, but it's hard when movies are so expensive. It's not hard, it's just that it takes a lot of precision in the marketing, and a lot of conversations to find the right matches to finance something, and you're either interested in doing that or you're not. I just was like, “Well, I'll just mostly write screenplays.” Then I started teaching at UCLA Extension and then coaching after that, along with writing. Then all the way up to the future. What's great about moving forward is that with AI, shot-making is becoming very close to cinematic quality. You can actually match cinematic quality in moments in some genres, but probably by next year. Right now you could actually do a really good horror movie all AI for 10, 20,000 bucks, depending on how much you're doing yourself or getting other people to do. So the economics are going to absolutely explode. So I'm sitting on dozens of scripts that didn't get through the Hollywood packaging bottleneck because they're too expensive, and I now have this giant slate that's ready to go, and I'm just absolutely thrilled. It's been a lifelong dream for me. Jo: Oh, so much to come back on there. Where to start? I do want to talk about what you just said there, sitting on dozens of scripts and now seeing the opportunity. I actually wrote down in my journal about a year ago, I see what's coming with AI, and I think that the best thing I can do is create as much original IP as possible, so that I can make the most of the opportunity ahead. So let's just get into the AI, because a lot of people feel it's a super bad thing. Talk about the opportunities and the attitude that you've got [around AI], and that you've seen others have around this, for what is ahead in a positive way. Brooks: It's fascinating to see how people respond to AI. I wonder, when the printing press rolled around, if there was some sort of backlash. Books must be handwritten. They can't be mass-produced. Here's one of my theories. At a deep psychological level, it's so profoundly powerful that I think the default setting is, “Oh, crap.” When I was a kid, some things were hard, and that power imbalance, when something big, new and powerful comes along: I'm going to get screwed, and so this is somehow a bad thing. I think that's the base psychological thing going on with most of the noise. Obviously there are some legit problems, in terms of copyright infringement from learning models, or from some of the environmental situation. So I'm not saying it's all rainbows and butterflies, but I think 90% of the noise around it comes from a fear of change. Here's the other one—a fear of, “Oh, yikes, I'm going to get taken advantage of somehow by either robots, or the corporations are going to use the robots against me,” or something like that. I have real empathy for me when I feel that way a little bit, but I don't feel it much, and for other people that do feel it. The other thing is, you know what it is? I think they fear their own empowerment even more. I had a therapist who was really good. He said, people aren't so much afraid of failing as they are afraid of succeeding. Because if we fail, we're stuck in act one and we don't go anywhere. The fear is answering the call and going to act two, when everything effing changes in the new world. So I think people are afraid of how goddamn powerful they're going to be when they can have a team of AI agents helping them do everything they want in business or life or whatever. I think it's the same thing with the internet. People are like, “Oh, I don't like social media, blah, blah, blah.” And I get it. There's a lot of noise and a lot of crap. Yet we have access to billions of people, and the algorithms in social media right now I think are level three out of 10. They're just going to get better and better. Even as it is now, if I do a post about something and it gets ignored, that's on me. The algorithms are trying to match me to my people. So if I'm not unique enough and authentic enough and aware enough of how virality works, that's on me, and it's a learnable skill that I can embrace and then change and then get better at. So I think people then resist that change. They resist the empowerment of learning the art of virality, or learning the art of some sort of social media stuff or whatever. The last thing I'll say about this rant is, I don't want to act like I'm the guru on the hill that has all the answers. I refuse calls all the time. I'm scared about all sorts of things. I'm certainly not perfect. I feel frustrated when I'm trying to put my big ideas into action and I can't get this technology thing to work or that one, and I throw tantrums. I'm trying to come at it from a real human perspective, but by and large, I've got stars in my eyes. I'm like, “This is amazing. This is going to be so powerful.” For so many people, you just have to be ready to embrace it and just go along for the ride, because there's going to be some big-ass changes. There already are, and that's going to accelerate. Jo: You mentioned there learning the art of whatever it is. One of the things is, I've spent 20 years, and so have you, learning our craft and our art, and now it can be done very easily. I'm generating video, as you mentioned, which is a craft I haven't spent 20 years on, but now I can generate. So things have definitely changed in that way. Just coming to the screenwriting side. Probably about a decade ago now, I did my first screenwriting course. I've written screenplays. Then I looked at the game you have to play and, like you said, the conversations you have to have, the events you have to go and network at, all the things that you have to do to put a screenplay in front of the right person at the right time. I was like, “I cannot do that. It's just not going to happen. I can't do that along with everything else.” So I put it aside, but now I feel maybe it's time to bring it back because things are changing. So can you maybe talk about, if someone has a screenplay now that they've written, or some IP like a book that they have now— What would you recommend people do in terms of wanting to get that [IP] in front of somebody, or doing something with it themselves? Brooks: It's such a good question. By the way, not even a screenplay—you could do the same things with a novel. Let me try to be succinct here, which is a good challenge for me. A simple way to look at it is, you're giving samples. Let's say it's a lemonade stand, and you give out a little shot of your… maybe you have cayenne pepper lemonade, some sort of fun lemonade. If you give out a sample and people are into it, they're going to come back and they're going to tell friends. If you give a sample of the lemonade and they're not into it, then you go back to the kitchen and you mix up a different flavour. So that's some basic business, but the internet allows us to do that at scale. So what I like to encourage people to do when I coach them is come up with the minimum viable material. It can be a 10-second clip. There's a writer in my community who made a really beautiful 16-second movie. It's one shot. I love it so much. It's two wine glasses. There's a lipstick smudge on one of the wine glasses. They're half full, and it's just that shot. It's sitting there, and all of a sudden you hear this thundering, thumping down these stairs, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Then you see out of the corner of the frame one person runs by, and then the other person behind her runs by and goes, “Wait.” That's it. That's the whole movie. It's 16 seconds. He did that with his phone. So there's so much going on. There's a couple of basic elements, but he just did it with his phone, and you can evoke enormous emotional impact on people through social media, whether it's just words. You guys have a big advantage as novelists because you're so good with words. Whether it's a little bit longer, like sudden fiction, that's a couple of pages or whatever. Even just copywriters are really in a good position for the future because they're super potent with two words or three words or 10 words. Then novelists are probably really advantageous because it doesn't cost anything to just put some words out on the internet. The point is, if you put something out, it's a signal, and you're talking about billions of people who could find that signal. If you do it and then you look at the response, and then you try again, you look at the response, we can do this iteration infinitely for free. So you can do it already. You've been able to do it for 10, 15, 20 years, just with words. But now you're going to basically be able to do that with movies or clips or trailers. So the thing that I'm leading in my community of writers is having people build trailers in advance, or clips. When a book or a movie is done, how the heck do we get people to see it? One way is a trailer or some sort of behind-the-scenes material. You can just do that stuff now before even writing the screenplay. I saw that you were doing this project, a trailer for this competition. And then you mentioned, “Oh, I've got to write the screenplay.” Not really. You have to develop the story enough to know what you're referring to, and then it's about studying the craft of either trailer construction, or whatever the clips are, or viral clips. They all have a structure, and then you just test it. If you enjoy that testing process, which I find absolutely thrilling, it feels like the filmmaking version of a stand-up comedian. If I did stand-up, I say a joke, they laugh or they don't laugh. It's really beautiful feedback from the universe. Nerve-wracking, right? But we can do that now as storytellers. We put a story out there in any format, and the audience responds. Just like you have to read any room, you have to learn how to read the engagement on social media. What do likes mean? What do shares mean? What do comments mean? How do you deal with trolls? All that is just part of the new art. Once you get good at it, holy smokes, that's the key to the kingdom. You can build audiences in advance, and for movies you could even have them finance your movie in advance, if you've built an email list of 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 people because you kept putting out all these viral clips around your story, novel, or screenplay. Then you go, “Okay, now 30,000 people are on my email list and I tell them about me and my perspective and my world. We're going to make this darn thing with AI for 20,000 bucks. You guys have got to pony up some money. Put in a dollar, five, 10, or you get the VIP $500 experience.” It's like crowdfunding, but much more sophisticated, because most crowdfunding was like begging friends and family to donate to your crazy dream. What I'm talking about is going to the audience directly, developing enough of the story, then going to the audience second, and then only when they validate the idea, to the extent that you're happy with. You could do a crazy idea that's going to have a small audience, and you don't have to have a blockbuster audience. You get to pick the audience size that you want, and then put the samples out there and see if you have a relevant audience size for this next project. Once the audience tells you, “Yes, we want this,” then you go make it. So you're ultimately reducing risk to almost zero. It takes time and you have to learn how to do this stuff, but it's thrilling to me because we just have the capacity to test the material and listen to the audience upfront. The last thing I'll say, and I've rambled a lot, I'm sorry. When I made a movie in 1994, a feature film right out of NYU, it took me three years to find out what the audience thought about that movie. I had to make the damn thing, and then I ran out of money, and that took me years to edit it, and I finally got it, blah, blah, blah. And again, I loved it. I loved every facet of it, and it was fine, but it was super inefficient. Today, I could take those same elements, create an AI trailer this weekend, put it in front of hundreds of thousands of people, and they could tell me right away, “This sucks,” or, “This is interesting,” or, “Holy smokes, this is amazing. I want this.” If it's not, “Holy smokes, this is amazing, I want it,” I can go ahead and re-edit the whole damn trailer, and just keep reiterating at almost no cost. Then once the demand is there, I can take that demand and that audience and go to Hollywood, and that's when they're going to want to work with me. Then it doesn't take a million conversations and finding the needle in the haystack, because Hollywood sees the numbers and they go, “Oh, you're the people we do want to do business with. You've proven demand. We want to do business with you.” Jo: Yes, it's so interesting. I can hear people listening and they're like, “Easier said than done, getting an email list of 40,000 people.” And in fact— It's exactly the same as building up a career as an independent author. This is as a filmmaker, as a visual person, and the industry is visual, so doing a visual trailer is the obvious thing. And as you say, the tools I use just to do this one, I use Midjourney, and I've used Seedance as the main video model. It does take a while, but it is pretty fast now, if you have a visual image of what you want in your head, which obviously you're a visual person as well. But is it… Brooks: Hold on. I want to push back on that a little bit, because I think it's really important. So yes, that's true, but underneath that, my friend, it's a relationship. It's the relationship, and the media is secondary. You have been prolific in connecting with your audience, and that's why I think a lot of people like you, because you share and they get to know you in that sort of cadence. I saw you in another podcast, you mentioned Seth Godin, who just said, “Hey, I want to be the type of person that has this relationship with my audience. I'm going to share some of my thoughts every day.” He happened to do it with words, with his background in marketing, but you could do the same thing with still images. You could do the same thing with a five-second movie clip once a week. It's the relationship you want with your fans. I'm not saying you snap your fingers and you have 50,000 people on your email list. What I'm saying is, what else are you doing? If we're artists and our impulse is to create and share, and if you do it in this way, if I can create and share and inspire trust in this relationship with a stranger because they like my genre thing and they like the way they felt when they experienced my media, words, images, movies, it doesn't matter. They just like the feeling, and they go, “Ooh, I want more of that feeling. How do I get more of that? Oh, this person has this email list or community.” If I can do it with one, then I can scale it out. So getting the first one, or the first 5 or 10 samples, that is a whole process. But then once you do that, scaling up is more of a mechanical thing. It's not even that hard, especially when you can do paid ads. So you can scale up very quickly if you have the sauce. If you don't have the sauce, it doesn't matter who you're related to, you've got to get the sauce right. Jo: Yes, and again, it's so parallel to the indie author community. I've just got to ask you, in the olden days, an author might write a screenplay, or a screenwriter write a screenplay, and then they would send it. They'd find an agent. They'd pitch an agent, and I guess then they'd hope that someone would turn that into a movie. So is that just dead now? Is it realistically that you need to get yourself out there, build the audience in the same way that it often is for authors? Brooks: So, no. I've got two screenplay deals going right now. So here's how it's going to work. Think about Broadway, or the theatre district in Britain. It's like West End or East End or whatever… Jo: The West End. Brooks: Sorry for my American ignorance. West End, okay. So every town on the planet has a stage, but there's only one Broadway, there's only one West End, right? And every town has its own festival, but there are a few significant tastemakers. There's Cannes, there's Sundance, there's Toronto. Hollywood is always going to be a tastemaker in our lifetime, for sure. What they don't have anymore, what they enjoyed for the first 100 years of the industry, is that they had a stranglehold on basically the equipment, the financing, and the audience, and that's all going away. Do you want to hear a fun story about the birth of cinema? Do you know why Hollywood started in Hollywood? Jo: No. Brooks: So Thomas Edison invented the camera, or the type of model camera that they were using in, I don't know, 1910 or something around there. They didn't want to pay his patent. They didn't want to pay the patent to make these movies, so they went all the way across the country, a bunch of outlaws, and they set up shop in California because he couldn't enforce his patent that they were basically stealing. And reason number two, LA enjoys amazing weather almost all year round. The weather here is either nice or really nice. You have mountains, you have beach, you have desert, you have all these different locales. So when it was really important to be on location, LA was the perfect place. Anyway, that is all going away. For many decades, more people could make movies. In the early '90s, Robert Rodriguez made a movie for 9,000 bucks. There was a book in the '80s that I bought that I loved, it was Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices. This guy, Rick Schmidt, I think his name was. There were the independent filmmakers really in the '60s and the '70s. So the cost has been going down and down and down, and now it's less than ever. Once social media came along, now you have access to the audience, so why do you even need Hollywood? That being said, there are tons of people. There are 400,000 people already working in the movie and the TV industry here. And they're voracious. We have a voracious demand. Humans need stories. We need big stories, long stories. We need stories, and Hollywood is so good at giving them stories. And so they have a need for these things, and they're still spending a lot of money on those budgets. So yes, there's still a demand for turning books and optioning them and turning them into movies. Books are great. Any sort of existing IP is great because there are marketing efficiencies there. People already know that stuff, know the vibe of it, and so it's easier to market than something that's totally creative and new. When you're spending that much money, you want those marketing efficiencies. They're really important. So the point being, the power is shifting away from Hollywood. Hollywood will still be a tastemaker, but you and me can reach anybody on the planet now. Almost. Billions of people. If it's making a movie, right now you could make a movie that most people wouldn't realise is an AI movie. If it was a horror film, I know a handful of people that could make a feature-length horror film right now with AI and 99% of the audience couldn't tell, if it was professionally written. Jo: I think the point here though is, I'm an author, the people listening are authors, and we don't want to make movies. We want to license our IP to people who want to make movies. Brooks: Yes. Great. Okay, good. So then you could, if you wanted, build an audience. Hollywood loves when something's already proven, so that's that IP thing, right? So if you just have a great book, then it's all about the sales. You guys have Dragons' Den, we have Shark Tank here. And what's amazing about that show is these are people or entrepreneurs pitching an idea, and there's an amazing rhythm that happens. They say, “We've got this great idea. It's this sort of company.” And the sharks, or the dragons, will listen. And there's a huge turning point when they reveal sales. They're either really excited about the idea and then they go, “Well, how are the sales?” And the person goes, “Well, we don't have any sales yet.” And they go, “Uh,” and they're not interested. Or they might even be like, “Eh, it doesn't seem like a good idea.” And they're like, “Well, how are the sales?” And they're like, “Oh, well, we've sold through the roof.” And then all of a sudden they perk up. So it's all about the sales. So step one is writing something that you want. Step two is making sure other people in your target audience are also loving it as much as you do. Step three is proving in some way at scale that there's real demand for it. So you could do that with trailers, you could do that with clips, you can do that as an indie publisher. There's all sorts of things that you can do. Humans are much more persuaded by concrete data than they are by just vibes. So if you can bring Hollywood concrete data of any type, like viral videos, like audience, like obviously bestsellers. Awards mean something, but not quite as much as sales. Then you're going to get Hollywood's attention because that reduces risk for them. So even now, when Hollywood's definitely shrinking and contracting, there's still very significant money being spent because it's a huge demand. If you ever walk around a studio lot, those things are opulent places. It's stunning. Like, how are they paying for all this stuff? These lots are enormous. It's because humanity is voracious for stories, and movies are one premium type of storytelling. The demand for stories is steady if not going up. It's just that we have a wider variety of types of stories that we can do, whether we're an indie author. So anyway, did I answer the question? You get me too excited with these questions, Jo. It's a problem. Jo: Yes. I think there's a lot of opportunity and a lot of ways in, but the parallels with being an indie author I think are quite clear. One of the things I found interesting about your profile and what you do is that you help clients who are already accomplished but not quite breaking through, and that sounds like a lot of mid-list indie authors, probably a lot of mid-list screenwriters, mid-list filmmakers. This is a hard place to be because, on the one hand, we are grateful for what we have achieved and what we can do, and yet wanting more, wanting that big Hollywood deal or the Netflix deal, or wanting the massive bestseller or whatever. So if someone wants to get to that next level, what are some of the ways that they can perhaps try and get there? Brooks: It's a great question. Coaching is a really wonderful way to learn anything of this sort of complexity and challenge, especially if it's a hyper-competitive business. We need two things, I think, to write a great novel or screenplay or both. A, we need to feel profoundly safe in our space. If we can't really feel deeply authentic about the things that are embarrassing, or that we feel shame about, or just our shadows, or anything that we don't feel completely comfortable saying and sharing in public usually. We need to be able to touch those things, and be articulate about those things, and that's one part of it. Then we need a concrete path forward. Maybe you're thinking about some tragedy that you had in childhood, and how you dealt with it and how difficult that was. So you need to be able to be real precise in those observations about what it felt like, and how you tried to compensate for it, and that didn't work and it made it worse. Whatever your observations are about your life journey, you need to be really specific and really deeply felt. A good coaching relationship allows you to be in that space, to be really honest with yourself and authentic. g Aood coach will push you back and say, “You know what? That sounds interesting, but maybe not quite as true to you deeply.” So that's one piece of it. Then there's a concrete path forward. You need to have the emotional access to that truth, and then you need to know what to do with that truth in a step-by-step way. Because most people, the ones that you're talking about, they're accomplished in something else. What happens is when we first start writing, and maybe this happens with novelists, but for sure it happens to screenwriters, you just start typing words. But you haven't really thought through the theme, the concept, the structure, the character, all the deeper questions that really matter. The milestones, like a North Star: winning a major award, or getting a publisher. That's the direction that we're heading towards, and then you set it and forget it, but you want to keep checking it every week, every month or whatever. But you want it very specific. “I would like to sell a book, or sell a book to Hollywood, or write a screenplay, or get a producer attached to a screenplay.” Whatever the milestone is, make it really specific, really concrete, and then reverse engineer. This is what I do on the concrete path. I reverse engineer every step to get there, starting with a really tiny one we can do today, and I make sure they feel really safe, and then we just walk through. Then what happens is, if you do that, if you feel safe, if you're showing up authentically and you have a process that's repeatable, not just willy-nilly, it's got to be something that's proven to work. It wasn't an accident I wrote 45 scripts. I've got a whole system. But by the way, the first five scripts took me forever. The last movie that I made took me three years to write that script. I can write a better script with those same elements in three months now, because I know I have a concrete path. So if you want to do something new, whether it's playing the piano or getting six-pack abs or writing a screenplay, work with somebody who's got a system that's already proven, and make sure you relate to them, and then just follow the system. Then when the doubts come up, and they will, that's where the feeling safe is really important. Because, oh, I want the six-pack abs, but I don't feel like going to the gym. I want the extra donut. If I'm working with a really good trainer, they go, “Dude, do you want the six-pack abs or not?” And then you go back and forth, and I go, “Okay, now I can make peace with myself and say I can take one tiny bite of the donut and then still do my workout,” and then I'm moving towards that North Star. Does that make sense? Jo: Yes. I think, like many independents, I resist anything that is systematised. I'm a discovery writer, and I follow the muse, and all of that kind of thing. I think I would say something in a similar vein, which is sustainable creativity for the long term, because your 45 scripts are also years of work, and my books are years of work, and we get better at what we do. So my system, I do have a system really, because— My system is that I do the work, and I write my stories, and I get them out there, and I do the marketing. So even if it's not as systematised as such, it's still a process that I have repeated over and over again. Brooks: That's fascinating to me. Would you consider yourself a pantser? You're like, “I've got an idea,” and you just start writing? Jo: I don't use the word pantser. I guess I call it discovery writing, which is… Brooks: That's a better term. Jo: Yes. What I'm writing for this prize, for example, I know the characters, I know now what's happening. When I had the idea, it was very much a vision and a theme, and the competition has a theme: a positive future with AI and technology. But the things that came around that, I then started playing with ideas around the treatment. I haven't written the screenplay yet. I don't do a plot, or I don't follow Save the Cat or any of that kind of thing. When I write a novel, I just explore and I never write in order. Then at some point I stop and then I have to think about the structure and putting it all together, so the edits are quite big. But my fun is in that discovery, really. Brooks: Oh, that's awesome. Okay, so let me ask, that's really fascinating. And by the way, that doesn't, to me, negate the system that I use. The one that I use is ultimately… the thing is, these questions, the audience is wanting your unique answers to. You don't necessarily need to do it in a certain order. I think that's actually really cool that you write out of order and you have a few elements in mind. All that stuff sounds awesome. The only thing that then makes me curious is, how's your pace? Are you actually completing novels at a pace that feels good, or do you feel like you go too fast, too slow? Jo: I do one or two a year at the moment. Well, two a year, really. But I would say I'm not as successful as I'd like to be, so I'm not saying that my system is the best. I'm saying I want to be better. It's just that my fun is this sort of creative chaos, which I then try and control later. One of the things I really like about screenplays and treatments and doing this kind of thing for film is that it is much more structured, I think, than a 70,000-word novel. You can go in all kinds of directions, whereas with screenwriting you do have to be more disciplined really. Brooks: Yes, so this is going to be fun probably, to hear my view for your audience, and the differences as I see them. For starters, you're talking about what, 10, 20, 30 hours reading a novel sometimes, or maybe less, whereas a movie's a 90-minute experience, right? So that's different. Or if it's a TV series, you might see an hour and then an hour. So that's a very different experience. What happens is when it's condensed like that, you're loading up layers. So every scene is stacked with exposition beneath the drama, and done in a certain way. So specifically, movies are only what you can see and only what you hear. Whereas novels, if you can think it, you can write it, it can be in there. So you don't need to have a plot, but if you want to sell your book to Hollywood, it helps. So I was very resistant about structure. I went to NYU film school, where we really just made short films. It was funny, I had friends that were in the dramatic writing department, and I was like, “You guys are wasting your money. You're just learning to write scripts. We learn to write the scripts and make the movies.” What I hadn't realised is it's a different skill set to hold somebody's attention across an hour-long play, or a 90-minute movie, than it is to make a movie that holds their attention for two minutes or five minutes. I found out years later when I made a feature that was like a lot of shorts patched together, and people were not… They liked it, but they didn't love it. I was like, “Well, what's going on?” And so then I learned to really love Save the Cat in particular. It completely changed me. What happened was, I got a big old slice of humble pie. I had made my second feature, and I put everything I had into it, and it had loose structural beginning, middle, end, blah, blah, blah. But I was still, “Eh, Hollywood BS. What do they know? It's all fake.” So I was very anti-Hollywood structure. Then I was like, now I've got two independent films out there, people saw them, liked them, whatever, but it wasn't getting me consistent work. It wasn't really advancing my career in the way that I wanted. And I was like, “Well, maybe there is something to the Save the Cat.” So I went to the Save the Cat workshop with Blake when he was still alive, and he was delightful, a really awesome guy. He's got this kind of cutesy style, for people that don't know. For context, Blake Snyder was a working Hollywood screenwriter, and he had this system called Save the Cat, which actually has some really interesting ideas. He's got this very light, breezy sort of style. A lot of people don't like him and some people really love him, and everything in between. But I took his weekend seminar, and it completely changed me, because at that point, like I said, I took three years to write a script. Then once he had a process and he had a way of thinking about craft that was just much more screenwriter-friendly, I was like, “Oh my God.” It was so much easier, because I was just focused on the right thing at the right time. So it just sped everything up. After that, I was banging out two to three scripts a year, and better and better quality. So for me, because I went from winging it and wrote five scripts in 13 years, and then wrote two to three scripts every year, I became a huge proponent of system and process. Then my own system really came from that, but it's modular. I have a nine-step system, but you don't necessarily have to go in that order, other than the last three steps, but I won't get into the details. Sometimes you kind of jump from two to three and then back to two and then back and forth. So I love that you get the feel for those elements, and then you just felt your way through. But writing screenplay pages doesn't make sense until you really understand concept, you get a deep sense of beginning, middle, end, character arcs, and these other threads. There are just way better tools for those jobs than screenplay format, because it's a really weird format. It's got these weird slug lines at the top that are all in caps, because a screenplay is a blueprint for somebody else to make the movie. It's not an end-user document like a novel. I don't let my clients even go to that format because it just gets them focused on the wrong things. What they really need to know is, what is your perspective about this theme? What happened in your life that you're fascinated with, that you'd even want to write about this? And tell me what your real life lessons are. So we go into… again, I go back to relationship. What's your relationship to the universe? And what's your relationship to your best friends, or where you got your heart broken, or whatever you want to write about. And then we get that clarity, and then I show you how to express it in terms of developing a screenplay. It's really long-form storytelling, and then the structure just makes it build on itself. But with the structure, because you're talking about so much money and people involved to make it, at least traditionally, what ended up happening was narrative structure that was not so much rigid. Because here's the thing, you can look at 50, 100 years of European cinema and you can look at Hollywood cinema, and Hollywood laps them. When I taught at UCLA Extension, I had lots of foreign students. Let's say there'd be two or three students… if there were 12 people in the class, two or three people would be from America, and everybody else would be from other countries. I would go around, I'd be like, “What movies and TV shows have you been watching?” Almost in every single country, they watch half from their own country, half from Hollywood. So Hollywood storytelling works, that's just the data, and they're dominant. The reason it works is what Aristotle was saying thousands of years ago.. There's a way of thinking about beginning, middle, end that just deeply speaks to the psyche, and you can ignore it if you want. I think Godard said, “You need beginning, middle, and end, but not necessarily in that order,” right? Which is great. Just the way we experience life, there's a beginning, a middle, an end to this podcast interview. There's a beginning, middle, end to the day, a beginning, middle, end to me eating lunch. So if you don't lean into the beginning, middle, end psychological aspect of your story, you're going to bore your reader. But to your point, you don't necessarily have to sort that out in the beginning. It's more efficient probably if you do, but you don't have to. Go into it wherever the muse tells you to go, and then at some point, like you do, then you go, “Okay, now I go back and I edit.” If you're saying there's another level, you have another gear in you, then yes, I'd be curious to slowly go through how you're making those decisions. Because what's happening probably is there are ways you're holding back a little bit. There's maybe something you're afraid of being vulnerable about. That's usually where me or other writers are holding themselves back, and we can take a look at that. There are different ways I show writers to do it. Then you can go, “Oh, I was doing it here, and now I can do it there.” And it could be with process, or just a certain creative choice. With story, it's clear and compelling. Those are the simple things. So, is this clear enough? Is it compelling enough? And there are almost always ways to up-level on any facet, whether it's one sentence, or a sentence that describes the whole concept of the book, or a chapter. Each one of those can be looked at with that lens and we can just say, “Hey, this is 70%, 80%,” whatever, and then we say, “Well, how do we get a little bit more?” And then when you do that enough, it piles up. Then especially if you bring in an audience and people are flipping out for your work, they'll tell you. Jo: Yes, I love a challenge, so thank you for everything you've shared today. So where can people find you and everything you do online? Brooks: Well, one way you can find me—if anything I said seemed helpful for you, if you have questions about Hollywood or you have a screenplay in your heart—you can just email me, brooks@brookselms.com. You could look me up on LinkedIn. I'm at Brooks Elms. I also have a Skool community called Screenwriter Marketing, but it's really for any sort of storyteller, and it talks about my favourite way to engage an audience and get through it. So anybody can jump into that if you like my vibe. If you really think anything I've said, or the way I said it, seems like it could be helpful for you, just reach out. Let me know what you're up to, and maybe there's a way I can help you. Jo: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for your time, Brooks. That was great. Brooks: You're welcome. It was a total pleasure. It was lots of fun, and I really appreciate you.The post How To Prove The Demand For Your Stories And Get The Attention Of Hollywood With Brooks Elms first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Host Marina Franklin chats with Emmy-nominated composer Kathryn Bostic & filmmaker Sharaé Nikai. Dive into their stories, career wisdom, and the power of community and vote for Kathryn for the World Soundtrack Awards.  Kathryn Bostic - Award winning, Emmy nominated (The Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat; Amy Tan-Unintended Memoir; Toni Morrison-The Pieces I Am) composer and singer-songwriter Kathryn Bostic is known for her original work on film,TV, Broadway and symphonic music. On Broadway, Bostic worked with iconic playwright August Wilson, creating the score for "Gem of the Ocean." She also created the score for the Broadway production "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" featuring world renowned actor and comedian Robin Williams. She is a recipient of many awards and fellowships including the prestigious BMI "Streaming Media Award"; Hollywood Music in Media Award for "Best Score TV Streamed Movie"; Society of Composers and Lyricists "Outstanding Music for Independent Feature Film"; African American Film Critics Award for "Best Music in Film"; Sundance Time Warner Fellowship; Sundance Fellowship for Feature Film Scoring; and Sundance Documentary Film Scoring. Bostic served as Vice President for the Alliance of Women Film Composers. She is a member of Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Recording Academy, and Bostic is the first African American female composer in the Academy for Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Her end title song "High Above the Water" for the award winning film "Toni Morrison- The Pieces I Am" was Oscar shortlisted. Her work on Sarah's Oil: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is up for the world sound track public choice award. You can vote for Kathryn at worldsoundtrackaward.com . Sharaé Nikai - Against industry odds, Jersey City native Sharaé Nikai wrote, produced, co-directed and starred in her very first feature film, "The Other, Gold." It is a heartfelt dramedy that follows a TV writer living in Little Tokyo as she navigates grief, isolation and the rekindling of a former BFF-ship. Out of 13,016 submissions, TOG was invited to world premiere as one of only 10 films in Tribeca's US Narrative Competition. This acclaim led to Nikai being in consideration for the 2025 Oscars, Spirit Awards and Emmys in the Outstanding Television Movie, Directing & Lead Actress categories. It also makes her the first Black female quadruple threat (sole writer/producer, director & star) to qualify for the Academy Awards with no studio or major production company backing. As a producer, Sharaé secured an exclusive Mental Health Awareness partnership for "The Other, Gold" at FOX-owned Tubi and sponsorship for its launch by Women in Film (WIF) and The Entertainment Community Fund. In March 2026, "The Other, Gold" was released worldwide in celebration of Women's History Month exclusively on Apple TV. In addition to TOG, Nikai appears in numerous ad campaigns, films and TV series including Grey's Anatomy and opposite Alison Brie in Sundance's "Horse Girl" (The DuPlass Bros/Netflix). Currently, she is the 2026 international voice of Nordstrom Rack all while developing her dramedy driven TV/film slate. In her spare time, Sharaé takes serious pride in the accent mark over her "e" and is the reigning (read: self-proclaimed) trap karaoke queen. Always hosted by Marina Franklin - One Hour Comedy Special: Single Black Female ( Amazon Prime, CW Network), TBS's The Last O.G, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Hysterical on FX, The Movie Trainwreck, Louie Season V, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, HBO's Crashing, and The Breaks with Michelle Wolf. Writer for HBO's 'Divorce' and the new Tracy Morgan show on Paramount Plus: 'Crutch      

Trace Adkins is a country musician, songwriter and actor. You can see him live on his 30th anniversary tour now through the end of the year.  Trace joins Theo to talk about his journey from blue collar to Broadway, finding success in multiple eras of country music, and what it really feels like to get shot.  Trace Adkins: https://www.instagram.com/traceadkins/  ------------------------------------------------- Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit https://amzn.to/3HbAtPJ  Chime: Join the millions who are already banking fee free and sign up now at http://Chime.com/THEO Quo: Go to http://quo.com/theo for 20% off your first 6 months. Valor Recovery:   To learn more about Valor Recovery please visit them at https://valorrecoverycoaching.com/  or email them at admin@valorrecoverycoaching.com Perplexity AI: Ask anything at https://pplx.ai/theo  Watch on Spotify. Spotify subscribers get fewer ads on our episodes.  ------------------------------------------------- Music: “Shine” by Bishop Gunn Bishop Gunn - Shine ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: tpwproducer@gmail.com Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Mail stuff to:  ATTN: TPW PO BOX 40137 Nashville TN 37204 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend X: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers Producer: Trevyn https://www.instagram.com/trevyn.s/  Producer: Nick https://www.instagram.com/realnickdavis/ Producer: Andrew https://www.instagram.com/bleachmediaofficial/  Producer: Halston https://www.instagram.com/halstonrays/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey Dateline fans, here's a special preview of the first episode of Dateline: Missing In America Season 5.  In "The Day Zelig Vanished," Josh Mankiewicz examines the disappearance of Zelig Williams, a 28-year-old Broadway performer who disappeared after leaving his mother's home in Columbia, South Carolina on October 3, 2024, and hasn't been seen since.  Listen to the full episode in the 'Dateline: Missing In America' feed - something you hear might jog a memory that could help authorities find Zelig.   Follow now to get each episode completely free. Or subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or DatelinePremium.com. Subscribers receive ad-free listening and early access to episodes. swap.fm/l/miafdlw Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Robach and Holmes cover the latest news headlines and entertainment updates and give perspective on current events in their daily “Morning Run.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey Dateline fans, here's a special preview of the first episode of Dateline: Missing In America Season 5.  In "The Day Zelig Vanished," Josh Mankiewicz examines the disappearance of Zelig Williams, a 28-year-old Broadway performer who disappeared after leaving his mother's home in Columbia, South Carolina on October 3, 2024, and hasn't been seen since.  Listen to the full episode in the 'Dateline: Missing In America' feed - something you hear might jog a memory that could help authorities find Zelig.   Follow now to get each episode completely free. Or subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or DatelinePremium.com. Subscribers receive ad-free listening and early access to episodes. swap.fm/l/miafdlw Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

John D. Rockefeller became the richest man the world had ever known by thinking differently about business, competition, and family.  This episode isn't just the story of Standard Oil. It's about the principles that built one of history's greatest business empires and what they can teach us today.  Along the way, you'll see the rise of Standard Oil, the public backlash that made Rockefeller America's most hated businessman, the breakup of his company, and the philanthropic legacy that continues to shape the world today. Enjoy! ------ Chapters: (00:00) The Making of John D. Rockefeller (04:56) The Search for Belonging (07:33) Business Lessons From his Mother (10:54) The Unlikely Lessons he Learned from His Father (15:09) When Rockefeller Decided to Get Rich (17:50) The Relentless Job Search (21:21) Learning How to Run a Business (29:49) The Power of a Good Reputation (34:57) The American Oil Boom (36:34) Rockefeller's Biggest Early Bet (43:28) Rockefeller and Henry Flagler (46:21) The One-Drop Difference (49:22) Building Standard Oil's Partnership (53:06) How Rockefeller Used Leverage (56:43) From Competition to Cooperation (01:00:43) Why America Turned on Rockefeller (01:08:54) The Cleveland Massacre (01:17:41) Rockefeller's Private Family Life (01:25:45) Rockefeller and the Panic of 1873 (01:29:39) A Private Life, A Public Empire (01:32:50) Standard Oil's Pipeline War (01:38:40) Creating the Standard Oil Trust (01:42:37) The Fortress on Broadway (01:48:07) The Backlash Against Standard Oil (01:54:33) Ida Tarbell Takes On Rockefeller (02:02:00) Rockefeller's Failed Media Strategy (02:14:31) How Standard Oil Stayed One Step Ahead (02:16:06) Breaking Up Standard Oil Made Him Richer (02:19:40) Why Rockefeller Gave It All Away (02:26:28) The Weight of the Rockefeller Name (02:28:52) Rockefeller's Hardest Goodbye (02:34:22) Why Rockefeller Gave Away Dimes (02:38:46) The Richest Man Couldn't Buy Time (02:41:41) John D. Rockefeller's Legacy ------ Newsletter: The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it's completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------ Follow Shane Parrish: X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/shaneparrish⁠ Insta: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet/⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/⁠ ------ Thank you to the sponsors for this episode: +CoinShares: Delivering Reason to Digital Asset Investing. ⁠https://coinshares.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey Dateline fans, here's a special preview of the first episode of Dateline: Missing In America Season 5.  In "The Day Zelig Vanished," Josh Mankiewicz examines the disappearance of Zelig Williams, a 28-year-old Broadway performer who disappeared after leaving his mother's home in Columbia, South Carolina on October 3, 2024, and hasn't been seen since.  Listen to the full episode in the 'Dateline: Missing In America' feed - something you hear might jog a memory that could help authorities find Zelig.   Follow now to get each episode completely free. Or subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or DatelinePremium.com. Subscribers receive ad-free listening and early access to episodes. swap.fm/l/miafdlw Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week: we're talking about CATS: The Jellicle Ball, weddings, maiden name lore, striving for excellence (not perfection), GLP-1 Spelling Bee, Alexia Moore's arrest, sleep for memory, the North Atlantic current, and Broadway bootlegs.  Get tix to the Hot & Healed Comedy Tour ⁠here⁠.  The Monday Edit, now on ⁠YouTube⁠!  Follow us on Instagram ⁠@gettingbetterwithjvn⁠ Jonathan on Instagram ⁠@jvn⁠ and senior producer Chris ⁠@amomentlikechris⁠  Executive Producer, Chris McClure Producer, Editor & Engineer is Nathanael McClure Production support from Chad Hall Our theme music is also composed by Nathanael McClure. Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices