Fictional character from Death of a Salesman
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4 episodes with Willy Loman
3 episodes with Willy Loman
4 episodes with Willy Loman
2 episodes with Willy Loman
2 episodes with Willy Loman
2 episodes with Willy Loman
2 episodes with Willy Loman
2 episodes with Willy Loman
2 episodes with Willy Loman
What makes a character so compelling that readers will forgive almost anything about the plot? How do you move beyond vague flaws and generic descriptions to create people who feel pulled from real life? In this solo episode, I share 15 actionable tips for writing deep characters, curated from past interviews on the podcast. In the intro, thoughts from London Book Fair [Instagram reel @jfpennauthor; Publishing Perspectives; Audible; Spotify]; Insights from a 7-figure author business [BookBub]. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community and get articles, discounts, and extra audio and video tutorials on writing craft, author business, and AI tools, at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn This episode has been created from previous episodes of The Creative Penn Podcast, curated by Joanna Penn, as well as chapters from How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book. Links to the individual episodes are included in the transcript below. In this episode: Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' trifecta, how to hook readers on the very first page Define the Dramatic Question: Who is your character when the chips are down? Absolute specificity. Why “she's controlling” isn't good enough Understand the Heroine's Journey, strength through connection, not solo action Use ‘Metaphor Families' to anchor dialogue and give every character a distinctive voice Find the Diagnostic Detail, the moments that prove a character is real Writing pain onto the page without writing memoir Write diverse characters as real people, not stereotypes or plot devices Give your protagonist a morally neutral ‘hero' status. Compelling beats likeable. Build vibrant side characters for series longevity and spin-off potential Use voice as a rhythmic tool Link character and plot until they're inseparable Why discovery writers can write out of order and still build deep character Find the sensory details that make characters live and breathe More help with how to write fiction here, or in my book, How to Write a Novel. Writing Characters: 15 Tips for Writing Deep Character in Your Fiction In today's episode, I'm sharing fifteen tips for writing deep characters, synthesised from some of the most insightful interviews on The Creative Penn Podcast over the past few years, combined with what I've learned across more than forty books of my own. I'll be referencing episodes with Matt Bird, Will Storr, Gail Carriger, Barbara Nickless, and Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer. I'll also draw on my own book, How to Write a Novel, which covers these fundamentals in detail. Whether you're writing your first novel or your fiftieth, whether you're a plotter or a discovery writer like me, these tips will help you create characters that readers believe in, care about, and invest in—and keep coming back for more. Let's get into it. 1. Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' Trifecta When I spoke with Matt Bird on episode 624, he laid out the three things you need to achieve on the very first page of your book or in the first ten minutes of a film. He calls it “Believe, Care, and Invest.” First, the reader must believe the character is a real person, somehow proving they are not a cardboard imitation of a human being, not just a generic type walking through a generic plot. Second, the reader must care about the character's circumstances. And third, the reader must invest in the character's ability to solve the story's central problem. Matt used The Hunger Games as his primary example, and it's brilliant. On the very first page, we believe Katniss's voice. Suzanne Collins writes in first person with a staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short declarative sentences—that immediately grounds us in a survivalist mentality. We care because Katniss is starving. She's protecting her little sister. And we invest because she is out there bow hunting, which Matt pointed out is one of the most badass things a character can do. She even kills a lynx two pages in and sells the pelt. We invest in her resourcefulness and grit before the plot has even begun. Matt was very clear that this has nothing to do with the character being “likable.” He said his subtitle, Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love, doesn't mean the character has to be a good person. He described “hero” as both gender-neutral and morally neutral. A hero can be totally evil or totally good. What matters is that we believe, care, and invest. He demonstrated this beautifully by breaking down the first ten minutes of WeCrashed, where the characters of Adam and Rebekah Neumann are absolutely not likable, but we are completely hooked. Adam steals his neighbour's Chinese food through a carefully orchestrated con involving an imaginary beer. It's not admirable behaviour, but the tradecraft involved, as Matt put it—using a term from spy movies—makes us invest in him. We see a character trying to solve the big problem of his life, which is that he's poor and wants to be rich, and we want to see if he can pull it off. Actionable step: Go to the first page of your current work in progress. Does it achieve all three? Does the reader believe this is a real person with a distinctive voice? Do they care about the character's circumstances? And do they invest in the character's ability to handle what's coming? If even one of those three is missing, that's your revision priority. 2. Define the Dramatic Question: Who Are They Really? Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling, came on episode 490 and gave one of the most powerful frameworks I've ever heard for character-driven fiction. He explained that the human brain evolved language primarily to swap social information—in other words, to gossip. We are wired to monitor other people, to ask the question: who is this person when the chips are down? That's what Will calls the Dramatic Question, and it's what he believes lies at the heart of all compelling storytelling. It's not a question about plot. It's a question about the character's soul. And every scene in your novel should force the character to answer it. His example of Lawrence of Arabia is unforgettable. The Dramatic Question for the entire film is: who are you, Lawrence? Are you ordinary or are you extraordinary? At the beginning, Lawrence is a cocky, rebellious young soldier who believes his rebelliousness makes him superior. Every iconic scene in that three-hour film tests that belief. Sometimes Lawrence acts as though he truly is extraordinary—leading the Arabs into battle, being hailed as a god—and sometimes the world strips him bare and he sees himself as ordinary. Because it's a tragedy, he never overcomes his flaw. He doubles down on his belief that he's extraordinary until he becomes monstrous, culminating in that iconic scene where he lifts a bloody dagger and sees his own reflection with horror. Will also used Jaws to demonstrate how this works in a pure action thriller. Brody's dramatic question is simple: are you going to be old Brody who is terrified of the water, or new Brody who can overcome that fear? Every scene where the shark appears is really asking that question. And the last moment of the film isn't the shark blowing up. It's Brody swimming back through the water, saying he used to be scared of the water and he can't imagine why. Actionable step: Write down the Dramatic Question for your protagonist in a single sentence. Is it “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you brave enough to love again?” or “Will you sacrifice your principles for survival?” If you can't answer this with specificity, your character might still be a sketch rather than a person. 3. Get rid of Vague Flaws, and use Absolute Specificity This was one of Will Storr's most important points. He said that vague thinking about characters is really the enemy. When he teaches workshops and asks writers to describe their character's flaw, most of them say something like “they're very controlling.” And Will's response is: that's not good enough. Everyone is controlling. How are they controlling? What's the specific mechanism? He gave the example of a profile he read of Theresa May during the UK's Brexit chaos. Someone who knew her said that Theresa May's problem was that she always thinks she's the only adult in every room she goes into. Will said that stopped him in his tracks because it's so precise. If you define a character with that level of specificity, you can take them and put them in any genre, any situation—a spaceship, a Victorian drawing room, a school playground—and you will know exactly how they're going to behave. The same applies to Arthur Miller's Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, as Will described it: a man who believes absolutely in capitalistic success and the idea that when you die, you're going to be weighed on a scale, just as God weighs you for sin, but now you're weighed for success. That's not a vague flaw. That's a worldview you can drop into any story and watch it combust. Will made another counterintuitive point that I found really valuable: writers often think that piling on multiple traits will create a complex character, but the opposite is true. Starting with one highly specific flaw and running it through the demands of a relentless plot is what generates complexity. You end up with a far more nuanced, original character than if you'd started with a laundry list of vague attributes. Actionable step: Take your protagonist's flaw and pressure-test it. Is it specific enough that you could place this character in any situation and predict their behaviour? If you're stuck at “she's stubborn” or “he's insecure,” keep pushing. What kind of stubborn? What kind of insecure? Find the diagnostic sentence—the Theresa May level of precision. 4. Understand the Heroine's Journey: Strength Through Connection Gail Carriger came on episode 550 to discuss her nonfiction book, The Heroine's Journey, and it completely reframed how I think about some of my own fiction. Gail explained that the core difference between the Hero's Journey and the Heroine's Journey comes down to how strength and victory are defined. The Hero's Journey is about strength through solo action. The hero must be continually isolated to get stronger. He goes out of civilisation, faces strife alone, and achieves victory through physical prowess and self-actualisation. The Heroine's Journey is the opposite. The heroine achieves her goals by activating a network. She's a delegator, a general. She identifies where she can't do something alone, finds the people who can help, and portions out the work for mutual gain. Gail put it simply: the heroine is very good at asking for help, which our culture tends to devalue but which is actually a powerful form of strength. Crucially, Gail stressed that gender is irrelevant to which journey you're writing. Her go-to examples are striking: the recent Wonder Woman film is practically a beat-for-beat hero's journey—Gilgamesh on screen, as Gail described it. Meanwhile, Harry Potter, both the first book and the series as a whole, is a classic heroine's journey. Harry's power comes from his network—Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix, his friendships with Ron and Hermione. He doesn't defeat Voldemort alone. He defeats Voldemort because of love and connection. This distinction has real practical consequences for writers. If you're writing a hero's journey and you hit writer's block, Gail said, the solution is usually to isolate your hero further and pile on more strife. But if you're writing a heroine's journey, the solution is probably to throw a new character into the scene—someone who has advice to offer or a skill the heroine lacks. The actual solutions to writer's block are different depending on which narrative you're writing. As I reflected on my own work, I realised that my ARKANE thriller protagonist, Morgan Sierra, follows a hero's journey—she's a solo operative, a lone wolf like Jack Reacher or James Bond. But my Mapwalker fantasy series follows a heroine's journey, with Sienna and her group of friends working together. I hadn't consciously chosen those paths; the stories led me there. But understanding the framework helps me write more intentionally now. Actionable step: Identify which journey your protagonist is on. Does your character gain strength by being alone (hero) or by building connections (heroine)? This will inform every plot decision you make, from how they face obstacles to how your story ends. 5. Use ‘Metaphor Families' to Anchor Dialogue and Voice One of the most practical techniques Matt Bird shared on episode 624 is the idea of assigning each character a “metaphor family”—a specific well of language that they draw from. This gives each character a distinctive voice that goes beyond accent or dialect. Matt explained how in The Wire, one of the most beloved TV shows of all time, every character has a different metaphor family. What struck him was that Omar, this iconic character, never utters a single curse word in the entire series. His metaphor family is pirate. He talks about parlays, uses language that feels like it belongs in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it creates this incredible ironic counterpoint against his urban setting. It tells us immediately that this is a character who sees himself in a tradition of people that doesn't match his immediate surroundings. Matt also referenced the UK version of The Office, where Gareth works at a paper company but aspires to the military. So all of his language is drawn from a military metaphor family. He doesn't talk about filing and photocopying; he talks about tactics and discipline and being on the front line. This tells us that the character has a life and dreams beyond the immediate scene—and it's the gap between aspiration and reality that makes him both funny and believable. He pointed out that a metaphor family sometimes comes from a character's background, but it's often more interesting when it comes from their aspirations. What does your character want to be? What world do they fantasise about inhabiting? That's where their language should come from. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a spiritual hermit, but his metaphor family is military. He uses the language of generals and commanders, and that ironic counterpoint is part of what makes him feel so rich. Actionable step: Assign each of your main characters a metaphor family. It could be based on their job, their background, or—more interestingly—their secret aspirations. Then go through your dialogue and make sure each character is consistently drawing from that well of language. If two characters sound the same when you strip away the dialogue tags, this is the fix. 6. Find the Diagnostic Detail: The Diagonal Toast Avoid clichéd character tags—the random scar, the eye patch, the mysterious limp—unless they serve a deep narrative purpose. Matt Bird on episode 624 was very funny about this: he pointed out that Nick Fury, Odin, and eventually Thor all have eye patches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eye patches are done, he said. You cannot do eye patches anymore. Instead, look for what I'm calling the “diagonal toast” detail, after a scene Matt described from Captain Marvel. In the film, Captain Marvel is trying to determine whether Nick Fury is who he says he is. She asks him to prove he isn't a shapeshifting alien. Fury shares biographical details—his history, his mother—but then she pushes further and says, name one more thing you couldn't possibly have made up about yourself. And Fury says: if toast is cut diagonally, I can't eat it. Matt said that detail is gold for a writer because it feels pulled from a real life. You can pull it from your own life and gift it to your characters, and the reader can tell it's not manufactured. He gave another example from The Sopranos: Tony Soprano's mother won't answer the phone after dark. The show's creator, David Chase, confirmed on the DVD commentary that this came from his own mother, who genuinely would not answer the phone after dark and couldn't explain why. Matt's practical advice was to keep a journal. Write down the strange, specific things that people do or say. Mine your own life for those hyper-specific details. You just need one per book. In my own writing, I've used this approach. In my ARKANE thrillers, my character Morgan Sierra has always been Angelina Jolie in my mind—specifically Jolie in Lara Croft or Mr and Mrs Smith. And Blake Daniel in my crime thriller series was based on Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy. I paste pictures of actors into my Scrivener projects. It helps with visuals, but also with the sense of the character, their energy and physicality. But visual details only take you so far. It's the behavioural quirks—the diagonal toast moments—that make a character feel genuinely alive. That said, physical character tags can work brilliantly when they serve the story. As I discuss in How to Write a Novel, Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike is an amputee, and his pain and the physical challenges of his prosthesis are a key part of every story—it's not a cosmetic detail, it's woven into the action and the character's psychology. My character Blake Daniel always wears gloves to cover the scars on his hands, which provides an angle into his wounded past as well as a visual cue for the reader. And of course, Harry Potter's lightning-shaped scar isn't just a mark—it's a direct connection to his nemesis and the mythology of the entire series. The rule of thumb is: if the tag tells us something about the character's interior life or connects to the plot, it's earning its place. If it's just there to make the character visually distinctive, it's probably a crutch. Game of Thrones takes character tags further with the family houses, each with their own mottos and sigils. The Starks say “Winter is coming” and their sigil is a dire wolf. Those aren't just labels—they're worldview made visible. Actionable step: Start a “diagonal toast” notebook. Every time you notice something strange and specific about someone's behaviour—something that feels too real to be made up—write it down. Then gift it to a character who needs more texture. 7. Displace Your Own Trauma into the Work Barbara Nickless shared something deeply personal on episode 732 that fundamentally changed how I think about putting pain onto the page. While starting At First Light, the first book in her Dr. Evan Wilding series, she lost her son to epilepsy—something called SUDEP, Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. One day he was there, and the next day he was gone. Barbara said that writing helped her cope with the trauma, that doing a deep dive into Old English literature and the Viking Age for the book's research became a lifeline. But here's what's important: she didn't give Dr. Evan Wilding her exact trauma. Evan Wilding is four feet five inches, and Barbara described how he has to walk through a world that won't adjust to him. That's its own form of learning to cope when circumstances are beyond your control. She displaced her genuine grief into the character's different but parallel struggle. When I asked her about the difference between writing for therapy and writing for an audience, she drew on her experience teaching creative writing to veterans through a collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the National Endowment for the Arts. She said she's found that she can pour her heartache into her characters and process it through them, even when writing professionally, and that the genuine emotion is what touches readers. We've all been through our own losses and griefs, so seeing how a character copes can be deeply meaningful. I've always found that putting my own pain onto the page is the most direct way to connect with a reader's soul. My character Morgan Sierra's musings on religion and the supernatural are often my own. Her restlessness, her fascination with the darker edges of faith—those come from me. But her Krav Maga fighting skills and her ability to kill the bad guys are definitely her own. That gap between what's mine and what's hers is where the fiction lives. Barbara also said something on that episode that I wrote down and stuck on my wall. She said the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul. I've been thinking about that ever since. On my own wall, I have “Measure your life by what you create.” Different words, same truth. Actionable step: If you're carrying something heavy—grief, anger, fear, regret—consider how you might displace it into a character's different but emotionally parallel struggle. Don't copy your exact situation; transform it. The emotion will be genuine, and the reader will feel it. 8. Write Diverse Characters as Real People When I spoke with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673—Sarah is Choctaw and a historical fiction author honoured by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian—she offered a perspective that every fiction writer needs to hear. The key message was to move away from stereotypes. Don't write your American Indian character as the “Wise Guide” who exists solely to dispense mystic wisdom to the white protagonist. Don't limit diverse characters to historical settings, as though they only exist in the past. Place them in normal, contemporary roles. Your spaceship captain, your forensic scientist, your small-town baker—any of them can be American Indian, or Nigerian, or Japanese, and their heritage should be a lived-in part of their identity, not the sole reason they exist in the story. I write international thrillers and dark fantasy, and my fiction is populated with characters from all over the world. I have a multi-cultural family and I've lived in many places and travelled widely, so I've met, worked with, and had relationships with people from different cultures. I find story ideas through travel, and if I set my books in a certain place, then the story is naturally populated with the people who live there. As I discuss in my book, How to Write a Novel, the world is a diverse place, so your fiction needs to be populated with all kinds of people. If I only populated my fiction with characters like me, they would be boring novels. There are many dimensions of difference—race, nationality, sex, age, body type, ability, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, class, culture, education level—and even then, don't assume that similar types of people think the same way. Some authors worry they will make mistakes. We live in a time of outrage, and some authors have been criticised for writing outside their own experience. So is it too dangerous to try? Of course not. The media amplifies outliers, and most authors include diverse characters in every book without causing offence because they work hard to get it right. It's about awareness, research, and intent. Actionable step: Audit the cast of your current work in progress. Have you written a mono-cultural perspective for all of them? If so, consider who could bring a different background, perspective, or set of cultural specifics to the story. Not as a token addition, but as a real person with a real life. 9. Respect Tribal and Cultural Specificity Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673 was emphatic about one thing: never treat diverse groups as monolithic. If you're writing a Native American character, you must research the specific nation. Choctaw is not Navajo, just as British is not French. Sarah described the distinct cultural markers of the Choctaw people—the diamond pattern you'll see on traditional shirts and dresses, which represents the diamondback rattlesnake. They have distinct dances and songs. She said that if she saw someone in traditional dress at a distance, she would know whether they were Choctaw based on what they were wearing. She encouraged writers who want to write specifically about a nation to get to know those people. Go to events, go to a powwow, learn about the individual culture. She noted that a big misconception is that American Indians exist only in the past—she stressed that they are still here, still living their cultures, and fiction should reflect that present reality. I took a similar approach when writing Destroyer of Worlds, which is set mostly in India. I read books about Hindu myth, watched documentaries about the sadhus, and had one of my Indian readers from Mumbai check my cultural references. For Risen Gods, set in New Zealand with a young Maori protagonist, I studied books about Maori mythology and fiction by Maori authors, and had a male Maori reader check for cultural issues. Research is simply an act of empathy. The practical takeaway is this: if you're going to include a character from a specific cultural background, do the work. Use specific cultural details rather than generic signifiers. Sarah talked about how even she fell into stereotypes when she was first writing, until her mother pointed them out. If someone from within a culture can fall into those traps, the rest of us certainly can. Do the research, try your best, ask for help, and apologise if you need to. Actionable step: If you're writing a character from a specific culture, identify three to five sensory or behavioural details that are particular to that culture—not the generic version, but the real, researched, lived-in version. Consider hiring a sensitivity reader from that community to check your work. 10. Give Your Protagonist a Morally Neutral ‘Hero' Status Matt Bird was clear about this on episode 624: the word “hero” simply means the protagonist, the person we follow through the story. It's a functional role, not a moral label. We don't have to like them. We don't even have to root for their goals in a moral sense. We just have to find them compelling enough to invest our attention in their problem-solving. Think of Succession, where every member of the Roy family is varying degrees of awful, and yet the show was utterly compelling. Or WeCrashed, where Adam Neumann is a narcissistic con artist, but we can't look away because he's trying to solve the enormous problem of building an empire from nothing, and the tradecraft he employs is fascinating. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, readers must want to spend time with your characters. They don't have to be lovable or even likable—that will depend on your genre and story choices—but they have to be captivating enough that we want to spend time with them. A character who is trying to solve a massive problem will naturally draw investment from the audience, even if we wouldn't want to have tea with them. Will Storr extended this idea by pointing out that the audience will actually root for a character to solve their problem even if the audience doesn't actually want the character's goal to be achieved in the real world. We don't really want more billionaires, but we invested in Adam Neumann's rise because that was the problem the story posed, and our brains are wired to invest in problem-solving. This connects to something deeper: what does your character want, and why? As I explore in How to Write a Novel, desire operates on multiple levels. Take a character like Phil, who joins the military during wartime. On the surface, she wants to serve her country. But she also wants to escape her dead-end town and learn new skills. Deeper still, her father and grandfather served, and by joining up, she hopes to finally earn their respect. And perhaps deepest of all, her father died on a mission under mysterious circumstances, and she wants to find out what happened from the inside. That layering of motivation is what turns a flat character into a three-dimensional one. The audience doesn't need to be told all of this explicitly. It can emerge through action, dialogue, and the choices the character makes under pressure. But you, the writer, need to know it. You need to know what your character really wants deep down, because that desire—more than any external plot device—is what drives the story forward. And your antagonist needs the same depth. They also want something, often diametrically opposed to your protagonist, and they need a reason that makes sense to them. In my ARKANE thriller Tree of Life, my antagonist is the heiress of a Brazilian mining empire who wants to restore the Earth to its original state to atone for the destruction caused by her father's company. She's part of a radical ecological group who believe the only way to restore Nature is to end all human life. It's extreme, but in an era of climate change, it's a motivation readers can understand—even if they disagree with the solution. Actionable step: If you're struggling to make a morally grey character work, make sure their problem is big enough and their methods are specific and interesting enough that we invest in the how, even if we're ambivalent about the what. 11. Build Vibrant Side Characters Gail Carriger made a point on episode 550 that was equal parts craft advice and business strategy. In a Heroine's Journey model, side characters aren't just fodder to be killed off to motivate the hero. They form a network. And because you don't have to kill them—unlike in a hero's journey, where allies are often betrayed or removed so the hero can be further isolated—you can pick up those side characters and give them their own books. Gail said this creates a really voracious reader base. You write one series with vivid side characters, and then readers fall in love with those side characters and want their stories. So you write spin-offs. The romance genre does this brilliantly—think of the Bridgerton books, where each sibling gets their own novel. The side character in one book becomes the protagonist in the next. Barbara Nickless experienced this firsthand with her Dr. Evan Wilding series. She has River Wilding, Evan's adventurous brother, and Diana, the axe-throwing research assistant, and her editor has already expressed interest in a spin-off series with those characters. Barbara described creating characters she wants to spend time with, or characters who give her nightmares but also intrigue her. That's the dual test: are they interesting enough for you to write, and interesting enough for readers to demand more? As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, characters that span series can deepen the reader's relationship with them as you expand their backstory into new plots. Readers will remember the character more than the plot or the book title, and look forward to the next instalment because they want more time with those people. British crime author Angela Marsons described it as readers feeling like returning to her characters is like putting on a pair of old slippers. Actionable step: Look at your supporting cast. Is there a side character who is vivid enough to carry their own story? If not, what could you add—a specific hobby, a distinct voice, a compelling backstory—that would make readers want more of them? 12. Use Voice as a Rhythmic Tool Voice is one of the most important elements of novel writing, and Matt Bird helped me think about it in a technical, mechanical way that I found really useful. He pointed out that the ratio of periods to commas defines a character's internal reality. A staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short sentences—suggests a character who is certain, grounded, or perhaps survivalist and traumatised. Katniss in The Hunger Games has a period-heavy voice. She's in survival mode. She doesn't have time for complexity or qualification. A flowing, comma-heavy style suggests someone more academic, more nuanced, or possibly more scattered and manipulative. The character who qualifies everything, who adds sub-clauses and digressions, is a different kind of person from the character who speaks in declarations. This is something you can actually measure. Pull up a passage of your character's dialogue or internal monologue and count the periods versus the commas. If the rhythm doesn't match who the character is supposed to be, you've found a mismatch you can fix. Sentence length is the heartbeat of your character's persona. And voice extends beyond rhythm to the words themselves. As I discussed in the metaphor families tip, each character should draw from a distinctive well of language. But voice also encompasses their relationship to silence. Some characters talk around the thing they mean; others say it straight. Some are self-deprecating; others are blunt to the point of rudeness. All of these choices are character choices, not just style choices. I find it useful to read my dialogue aloud—and not just to check for naturalness, but to hear whether each character sounds distinct. If you could swap dialogue lines between two characters and nobody would notice, you have a voice problem. One practical test: cover the dialogue tags and see if you can tell who's speaking from the words alone. Actionable step: Choose a key passage from your protagonist's point of view and read it aloud. Does the rhythm match the character? A soldier under fire should not sound like a philosophy professor at a wine tasting. Adjust the ratio of periods to commas until the voice feels right. 13. Link Character and Plot Until They're Inseparable Will Storr made the case on episode 490 that the number one problem he sees in the writing he encounters—in workshops, in submissions, even in published books—is that the characters and the plots are unconnected. There's a story happening, and there are people in it, but the story isn't a product of who those people are. He said a story should be like life. In our lives, the plots are intimately connected to who we are as characters. The goals we pursue, the obstacles we face, the same problems that keep recurring—these are products of our personalities, our flaws, our specific ways of being in the world. His framework is that your plot should be designed specifically to plot against your character. You've got a character with a particular flaw; the plot exists to test that flaw over and over until the character either transforms or doubles down and explodes. Jaws is the perfect example. Brody is afraid of water. A shark shows up in the coastal town he's responsible for protecting. The entire plot is engineered to force him to confront the one thing he cannot face. Will pointed out that the whole plot of Jaws is structured around Brody's flaw. It begins with the shark arriving, the midpoint is when Brody finally gets the courage to go into the water, and the very final scene isn't the shark blowing up—it's Brody swimming back through the water. Even a film that's ninety-eight percent action is, at its core, structured around a character with a character flaw. This is the standard I aspire to in my own work, even in my action-heavy thrillers. The external plot should be a mirror of the internal struggle. When those two are aligned, the story becomes irresistible. Will also made an important point about series fiction, which is where most commercial authors live. I asked him how this works when your character can't be transformed at the end of every book because there has to be a next book. His answer was elegant: you don't cure them. Episodic TV characters like Fleabag or David Brent or Basil Fawlty never truly change—and the fact that they don't change is actually the source of the comedy. But every episode throws a new story event at them that tests and exposes their flaw. You just keep throwing story events at them again and again. That's a soap opera, a sitcom, and a book series. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, character flaws are aspects of personality that affect the person so much that facing and overcoming them becomes central to the plot. In Jaws, the protagonist Brody is afraid of the water, but he has to overcome that flaw to destroy the killer shark and save the town. But remember, your characters should feel like real people, so never define them purely by their flaws. The character addicted to painkillers might also be a brilliant and successful female lawyer who gets up at four in the morning to work out at the gym, likes eighties music, and volunteers at the local dog shelter at weekends. Character wounds are different from flaws. They're formed from life experience and are part of your character's backstory—traumatic events that happened before the events of your novel but shape the character's reactions in the present. In my ARKANE thrillers, Morgan Sierra's husband Elian died in her arms during a military operation. This happened before the series begins, but her memories of it recur when she faces a firefight, and she struggles to find happiness again for fear of losing someone she loves once more. And then there's the perennial advice: show, don't tell. Most writers have heard this so many times that it's easy to nod and then promptly write scenes that tell rather than show. Basically, you need to reveal your character through action and dialogue, rather than explanation. In my thriller Day of the Vikings, Morgan Sierra fights a Neo-Viking in the halls of the British Museum and brings him down with Krav Maga. That fight scene isn't just about showing action. It opens up questions about her backstory, demonstrates character, and moves the plot forward. Telling would be something like: “Morgan was an expert in Krav Maga.” Showing is the reader discovering it through the scene itself. Actionable step: Look at the main plot events of your novel. For each major turning point, ask: does this scene specifically test my protagonist's flaw? If not, can you redesign the scene so that it does? The tighter the connection between character and plot, the more powerful the story. 14. The ‘Maestra' Approach: Write Out of Order If you're a discovery writer like me, you may feel like the deep character work I've been describing sounds more suited to plotters. But Barbara Nickless gave me a beautiful metaphor on episode 732 that reframes it entirely. Barbara described her evolving writing process as being like a maestra standing in front of an orchestra. Sometimes you bring in the horns—a certain theme—and sometimes you bring in the strings—a certain character—and sometimes you turn to the soloist. It's a more organic and jumping-around process than linear writing, and Barbara said she's only recently given herself permission to work this way. When I told her that I use Scrivener to write in scenes out of order and then drag and drop them into a structure later, she was genuinely intrigued. And this is how I've always worked. I'll see the story in my mind like a movie trailer—flashes of the big emotional scenes, the pivotal confrontations, the moments of revelation—and I write those first. I don't know how they hang together until quite late in the process. Then I'll move scenes around, print the whole thing out, and figure out the connective tissue. The point is that discovery writers can absolutely build deep characters. Sometimes writing the big emotional scenes first is how you discover who the character is before you fill in the rest. You don't need a twenty-page character worksheet or a 200-page outline like Jeffery Deaver. You need to be willing to follow the character into the unknown and trust that the structure will emerge. As Barbara said, she writes to know what she's thinking. That's the discovery writer's credo. And I would add: I write to know who my characters are. Actionable step: If you're stuck on your current chapter, skip it. Write the scene that's burning in your imagination, even if it's from the middle or the end. That scene might be the key to unlocking who your character really is. 15. Use Research to Help with Empathy Research shouldn't just be about factual accuracy—it's a tool for finding the sensory details that create empathy. Barbara Nickless described research as almost an excuse to explore things that fascinate her, and I feel exactly the same way. I would go so far as to say that writing is an excuse for me to explore the things that interest me. Barbara and I both travel for our stories. For her Dr. Evan Wilding books, she did deep research into Old English literature and the Viking Age. For my thriller End of Days, I transcribed hours of video from Appalachian snake-handling churches on YouTube to understand the worldview of the worshippers, because my antagonist was brought up in that tradition. I couldn't just make that up. I had to hear their language, feel their conviction, understand why they would hold venomous serpents as an act of faith. Barbara also mentioned getting to Israel and the West Bank for research, and I've been to both places too. Finding that one specific sensory detail—the smell of a particular location, the specific way an expert handles a tool, the sound of a particular kind of music—makes the character's life feel lived-in. It's the difference between a character who is described as living in a place and a character who inhabits it. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, don't write what you know. Write what you want to learn about. I love research. It's part of why I'm an author in the first place. I take any excuse to dive into a world different from my own. Research using books, films, podcasts, and travel, and focus particularly on sources produced by people from the worldview you want to understand. Actionable step: For your next piece of character research, go beyond reading. Watch a documentary, visit a location, talk to someone who lives the experience. Find one sensory detail—a smell, a sound, a texture—that you couldn't have invented. That detail will make your character feel real. Bonus: Measure Your Life by What You Create In an age of AI and a tsunami of content, your ultimate brand protection is the quality of your human creation. Barbara Nickless said that the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul, and I believe that with every fibre of my being. Don't be afraid to take that step back, like I did with my deadlifting. Take the time to master these deeper craft skills. It might feel like you're slowing down or going backwards by not chasing the latest marketing trend, but it's the only way to step forward into a sustainable, high-quality career. Your characters are your signature. No AI can replicate the specificity of your lived experience, the emotional truth of your displaced trauma, or the sensory details you've gathered from a life of curiosity and travel. Those are yours. Pour them into your characters, and they will resonate for years to come. Actionable Takeaway: Identify the Dramatic Question for your current protagonist. Can you state it in a single sentence with the kind of specificity Will Storr described? Is it as clear as “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you the only adult in the room?” If you can't answer it with that kind of precision, your character might still be a sketch. Give them a diagonal toast moment today. Find the one hyper-specific detail that proves they are not an imitation of life. And then ask yourself: does your plot test your character's flaw in every major scene? If you can align those two things—a precisely defined character and a plot that exists to test them—you will have a story that readers cannot put down. References and Deep Dives The episodes I've referenced today are all available with full transcripts at TheCreativePenn.com: Episode 732 — Facing Fears, and Writing Unique Characters with Barbara Nickless Episode 673 — Writing Choctaw Characters and Diversity in Fiction with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer Episode 624 — Writing Characters with Matt Bird Episode 550 — The Heroine's Journey with Gail Carriger Episode 490 — How Character Flaws Shape Story with Will Storr Books mentioned: The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love by Matt Bird The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book by Joanna Penn You can find all my books for authors at CreativePennBooks.com and my fiction and memoir at JFPennBooks.com Happy writing! How was this episode created? This episode was initiated created by NotebookLM based on YouTube videos of the episodes linked above from YouTube/TheCreativePenn, plus my text chapters on character from How to Write a Novel. NotebookLM created a blog post from the material and then I expanded it and fact checked it with Claude.ai 4.6 Opus, and then I used my voice clone at ElevenLabs to narrate it. The post Writing Characters: 15 Actionable Tips For Writing Deep Character first appeared on The Creative Penn.
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman premiered in 1949. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. It’s been said that it’s “probably the most successful modern play ever published.” This hour, with a new Broadway revival in previews, and with Peter Jacobson playing the title role in a new production at Hartford Stage, a look at Arthur Miller’s masterpiece of American drama, Death of a Salesman. GUESTS: Melia Bensussen: Artistic director at Hartford Stage and the director of their current production of Death of a Salesman Peter Jacobson: An actor; he’s playing Willy Loman in Hartford Stage’s current production of Death of a Salesman Stephen Marino: Founding editor of The Arthur Miller Journal and the author, most recently, of Arthur Miller’s New York: Visions of the City The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, and Robyn Doyon-Aitken contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Notes and Links to Larry Strauss' Work Larry Strauss is the author of five novels, most recently Light Man and Now's the Time—now an Earphone Award winning audiobook—and numerous non-fiction titles, including Students First and Other Lies, a collection of essays mostly about education, and 2025's A Lasting Impact in the Classroom and Beyond, a guide for new and struggling teachers. His short fiction has appeared in Streetlight, Extract(s), and elsewhere. Op-eds and other non-fiction have appeared in USA Today, for which he is an opinion columnist, and The Guardian, among others. If you grew up in the 1980s, you might have seen some of the episodes he wrote for the first-generation Transformers cartoons. Buy A Lasting Impact in the Classroom and Beyond Larry Strauss' Article Listing The Chills at Will Podcast, Episode 83, with Larry Strauss At about 1:45, Larry highlights positive feedback for his book, including a lawyer who found the book so instructive At about 4:50, Larry recounts a tale from the book's Preface, At about 7:40, Larry talks about the “contagion” that is fun that can and should come with teaching, and how this relates to him wanting to write the book At about 9:20, Larry talks about his first teaching job allowed him to “find [his] way” At about 10:30, Larry reflects on a Catch-22 that balances systematic change and day-to-day work At about 13:10, Larry recounts conversations dealing with guilt for teachers in taking days off At about 15:20, Larry talks about administration and the demands they feel and what they ask of teachers At about 16:00, The two discuss the travails of teaching during the early days of the Covid pandemic-Larry had an active 40 person class! At about 20:30, Larry reflects on ideas of “saving kids” as a teacher At about 23:55, Larry talks about learning, including in literature, as “life-saving” and “writers as the first psychologists" At about 25:30, The two discuss cinematic displays of teaching and “inspirational” teaching At about 28:25, The two reflect on early days for teachers and ideas of teaching “authenticity” At about 33:30, Larry talks about At about 34:25, Larry references Willy Loman in talking about “salesman” as one of the myriad roles that a teacher plays, and Pete cites extracurriculars like basketball and the difference in working with students in a voluntary situation At about 36:20, Larry expands on his first year(s) teaching and ways in which students bought in At about 39:00, The two discuss the importance of passion and enthusiasm and getting to know students At about 40:40, Larry responds to Pete's question about how he came to understand that a loud classroom is not necessarily a bad thing At about 44:10, Larry recounts a story of a former student discovering journalism stories that already existed in his life At about 45:30, Larry reflects on a revelation he had about never surrendering to resistant learners and about how all/most students want to learn At about 47:25, the two talk about being adaptable as students both change and remain the same At about 50:20, Larry draws a distinction between talking about students' incredible qualities versus complaining to other teachers about the students At about 52:45, Larry talks about a second-generation student and parent complaints At about 55:25, Larry and Pete discuss the need for adaptability and “improv” as a teacher, illustrated by a lesson that has become a stalwart At about 57:20, The two discuss the need for joy and empathy in the midst of sadness and the grind of teaching-a great Cain and Abel story! At about 58:50, The two discuss the pros and cons of small schools At about 1:05:15, Pete highlights an early publication of Larry's as the two talk about supporting the students unconditionally At about 1:07:00, The two discuss different ways of being an advocate as a teacher At about 1:08:10, Pete compliments the book's mixture of art and science At about 1:08:45, Larry talks about unique new writing assignments for himself At about 1:11:30, in talking about horrible hires for US Secretary of Education, Larry highlights the way in which John King's fifth-grade teacher “saved his life” through field trips and other ways You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow Pete on IG, where he is @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where he is @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both the YouTube Channel and the podcast while you're checking out this episode. Pete is very excited to have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. His conversation with Jeff Pearlman, a recent guest, is up soon at Chicago Review. Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting Pete's one-man show, DIY podcast and extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This month's Patreon bonus episode features an exploration of formative and transformative writing for children, as Pete surveys wonderful writers on their own influences. Pete has added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show. This is a passion project, a DIY operation, and Pete would love for your help in promoting what he's convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 321 with Carolina Ixta, a writer from Oakland, California. Her debut novel, Shut Up, This Is Serious, was a Morris Award finalist, an LA Times Book Prize finalist, and the winner of the Pura Belpré Award. Few Blue Skies is her sophomore novel, forthcoming from HarperCollins on February 3, 2026. The episode airs on February 3, Pub Day. Please go to ceasefiretoday.org, and/or https://act.uscpr.org/a/letaidin to call your congresspeople and demand an end to the forced famine and destruction of Gaza and the Gazan people.
Send us a textPublished by Granta earlier this autumn, Ben Pester's debut novel is the story of Tom Crowley - a Willy Loman figure for our age - who is slowly and terrifyingly absorbed into the hallucinatory and labyrinthine surroundings of his work. From the deceptive nature of Luke Bird's day-glow cover art to the impenetrability of the novel's work-speak The Expansion Project is deeply unnerving precisely for its recognisable qualities. The alienation, accountability and obsolesce of corporation life at the ever growing 'Capmeadow Business Park,' a dystopic setting that absorbs memory and demands disassociation. ‘A profoundly moving, extraordinary novel … Witty, touching, layered and entirely original'Rose Ruane‘A surrealist nightmare that flows with its own logic, humour, politics and plot energy'Ross Raisin‘This is a luminous and startling novel from a unique new voice.'Samuel FisherGET YOUR COPY HERE https://granta.com/products/the-expansion-project/@fieldzine www.fieldzine.comwww.patreon.com/fieldzine
Send us a textMorris Katz, ad-maker at the Fight media firm, is the lead media strategist for Zohran Mamdani's insurgent campaign that secured the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City in a decisive upset over the long-favored Andrew Cuomo. In this conversation, Morris talks his NYC roots, coming from an artistic family, his accidental path into politics, and a deep dive into the Mamdani campaign's monumental win. We discuss the candidates, the overarching strategy, important tactical decisions, inside the memorable viral and paid media content, the role of outside groups, what is misunderstood about the race, what is replicable for others and much more with a lead operative on one of the most impressive and innovative campaigns in recent memory.IN THIS EPISODEMorris grows up in downtown Manhattan in an artistic household...What diverted Morris from focusing on screenwriting to a career in politics...How a stint in North Carolina politics shaped Morris' trajectory...What is unique about Morris' firm, Fight...How Morris entered the world of Zohran Mamdani & his first impressions of the candidate...Morris breaks down the 3-phase strategy of the Mamdani mayoral campaign...The role the DSA-NY and Working Families Party played in the rise of Zohran Mamdani...How the Mamdani field operation fundamentally changed the race...Was the Free Palestine movement integral to the Mamdani ascent...Inside the Mamdani digital program and why it caught fire...A communication strategy the Mamdani campaign "unlocked"...Technical aspects that made Mamdani video and ad content stand out...What makes Zohran Mamdani an effective political communicator?The paid-media strategy undergirding the campaign's rise...How the Knicks playoff run impacted Mamdani media decisions...Why the campaign invested in :15 second ads...Parallels between Zohran Mamdani and Barack Obama...How Morris views the attacks on Mamdani of anti-semitism and defunding the police...The influential role played by mayoral candidate Brad Lander...Unpacking the winning Mamdani coalition...Morris' most surreal post-election moment...What is most replicable for other campaigns from the Mamdani success?AND AOC, Elle Bisgaard-Church, Eric Bogosian, Jamaal Bowman, Adam Carlson, Josh Charles, Andrew Cuomo, Bill de Blasio, Bob Dylan, Andrew Epstein, eyebrows, halal-flation, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Rebecca Katz, Brett Leonard, Willy Loman, manic energy, Tommy McDonald, Matt McLaughlin, Melted Solids, Arthur Miller, Julian Mulvey, the new brunch, Trey Nix, the politics of sighs, Antonio Reynoso, Katie Riley, Sam Rockwell, John Shanley, Erica Smith, Nydia Velazquez, Yul Vasquez, villains...& more!
Positivity is at the heart of any kind of success. A desire to succeed, paired with a positive mindset, good friends, and hard work, can create momentum and growth in any direction you choose. On this episode of The Unfinished Print, a Mokuhanga Podcast, I speak with Michael Verne, a gallerist specializing in Japanese prints and paintings. Michael shares his approach to success, the power of positivity in business, and how he navigates the ups and downs of running a small, focused gallery. Through rich stories, both his own and those of the artists he represents, Michael offers insight into how storytelling shapes his business, sustains its growth, and supports educating people about mokuhanga and Japanese art. Please follow The Unfinished Print and my own mokuhanga work on Instagram @andrezadoroznyprints or email me theunfinishedprint@gmail.com Notes: may contain a hyperlink. Simply click on the highlighted word or phrase. Artists works follow after the note if available. Pieces are mokuhanga unless otherwise noted. Dimensions are given if known. Print publishers are given if known. Michael Verne and The Verne Collection - website The Metropolitan Museum of Art - is the largest art museum in North and South America. It began to be assembled by John Jay (1817-1894) in the late 19th century. Incorporated in 1870, the museum has collected many essential pieces, such as the works of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). For more information about the MET, you can find it here. Daniel Kelly - is a visual artist and printmaker based in Kyoto, Japan. Daniel Kelly has shown all over the world, and is many museum collections as well. More information can be found, here. Morning Calm (1983) 14.5" x 20.5" Tomikichirō Tokuriki (1902-2000) - was a Kyoto based mokuhanga printmaker and teacher. His work touched on many themes and styles. From “creative prints” or sōsaku hanga in Japanese, and his publisher/printer prints, or shin hanga prints of traditional Japanese landscapes. Dance of Shimazu (1950's) Sanford Smith and Works On Paper Exhibit - Sanford Smith (1939-2024) was one of the more important New York City art promoters of his time. Founding Sanford L. Smith + Associates, Sanford Smith created many art fairs such as the Works On Paper show, now known as Art On Paper which focused on works on paper such as prints, watercolours and photographs. More information can be found, here. Willy Loman - is a fictional character in the novel Death of as Salesman by Arthur Miller, first published in 1949. Sadao Watanabe (1913-1996) - was a stencil and dyeing printmaker (katazome 型染め) from Japan. His works were specifically Biblical in nature. His work was also in stained glass which can be found in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. Eve (1965) John Carroll University - is a private Jesuit University located in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, USA and founded in 1886. New Heights Podcast - is a podcast hosted by American football players Jason and Travis Kelce. It is produced by Michael Verne's son Brian Verne who is the CEO of Wave Sports and Entertainment. The Armoury Show - is an annual international art fair held in New York City, primarily focusing on contemporary art by living artists, but also featuring works by 20th-century masters. Pace Gallery - is a gallery located in New York City and founded in 1960. Today the gallery is a leader in exhibiting some of the top artists in their media. There are galleries in London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Seoul, Geneva and East Hampton. More information can be found, here. Joel Stewart - is an American visual artist based in Kyoto, Japan. Joel works in ceramics, installation, printmaking and mixed media. More information about Joel can be found, here. Karatsu (2016) watercolour on paper 30" x 22" Quiet Elegance - is a book published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company in 1997 written by Betsy Franco and Michael Verne. The Charles E. Tuttle Company is now called simply Tuttle. Dan Rather - is an American journalist who was the head anchor of the CBC Evening News from 1981 - 2005. Joshua Rome - is an American mokuhanga printmaker based Vermont after spending many years in Japan. His themes are of landscapes and the human condition. More information can be found, here. Mixing Hours (1998) shibui (渋い) - is a Japanese concept that refers to a subtle, simple, and refined beauty. Yuko Kimura - is a contemporary printmaker based in California who used etching, aquatint, monotype, indigo dye, and cyanotype on pleated, stitched or twisted paper for her works. Yuko creates process videos on her website so you can see her process of her complex works. More information can be found, here. Fusion no. 22 2010 etching and enamel on copper in abaca handmade paper 8" x 6" wabi sabi - is a traditional Japanese aesthetic concept that embraces the beauty of imperfection, impermanence, and simplicity. Rooted in Zen Buddhism, it values natural materials, asymmetry. Takauchi Seihō (1864 - 1942)- was a painter of Nihonga. His paintings were famous because of his travels to the West and the influences gathered from that. More information can be found, here. Spring and Autumn (left screen) c 1889 Allen Memorial Art Museum - is an art museum located in Oberlin, Ohio and was founded in 1917. Katustori Hamanishi - is a mezzotint artist known for his diptychs , triptychs and quadtychs. More information can be found, here. Cosmos Field (2022) 23.75" x 17.75" mezzotint Shigeki Kuroda - is a visual artist who works in aquatint, mezzotint, drypoint, and etching. For more information about his work can be found, here. Mild Breeze (1953) 25.1" x 18.1" etching and aquatint Clifton Karhu (1927-2007) - was a mokuhanga printmaker based in Japan. Karhu lived in Japan for most of his life after studying with Tetsuo Yamada and Stanton Macdonald-Wright. HIs themes were of his home city of Kyoto, Japan. More information can be found, here. Katsura Moonlight (1982) 15.75" x 11./81" Tollman Collection - is a well known Japanese art gallery located in Daimon, Tokyo, Japan. More information can be found, here. Toko Shinoda (1913-2021) - was a Japanese visual artist who was made famous for her works in Sumi ink paintings and prints. More information can be found, here. Winter Green (1990) ink on paper Hideo Takeda - is a Tokyo based graphic illustrator, mokuhanga printmaker, and all around artist who challenges what it means to be an artist in this modern world. More information can be found, here. Green (2009) Painting 13" x 9.5" Sarah Brayer - is a visual artist who is based in Kyoto, Japan. Her works are predominantly poured Japanese paper (washi). Sarah was the first Western artist to work at the Taki paper mill in Echizen. This is where she currently make her paperworks. Sarah have worked continuously in Echizen since 1986 as the only Western artist to do so. Sarah Brayer has also produced mokuhanga in her career. More information can be found, here. ' Sea Meets Sky (Japan Blue Series) woodblock monotype, chine colle, 16" x 14" Cameron Bailey - is a mokuhanga printmaker based in Queens, New York. His mokuhanga technique is in reduction where Cameron creates beautiful and powerful landscapes. More information can be found, here. Tempest (2025) 16" x 24" Shirō Kasamatsu (1898–1991) was a mokuhanga print designer during the shin-hanga movement of the early 20th century, and later focused on his own mokuhanga printmaking during the sōsaku-hanga period of the 1950's. More information can be found, here. Co Corridor (1960's/1970's) oban 10"x 15" Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) - a watercolorist, oil painter, and woodblock printmaker. Is associated with the resurgence of the woodblock print in Japan, and in the West. It was his early relationship with Watanabe Shōzaburō, having his first seven prints printed by the Shōzaburō atelier. This experience made Hiroshi believe that he could hire his own carvers and printers and produce woodblock prints, which he did in 1925. The Acropolis At Night (1925) 10.13" x 16.5" Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), a designer of more than six hundred woodblock prints, is one of the most famous artists of the shin-hanga movement of the early twentieth century. Hasui began his career under the guidance of Kaburaki Kiyokata (1878-1971), joining several artistic societies early on. However, it wasn't until he joined the Watanabe atelier in 1918 that he began to gain significant recognition. Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962) commissioned Hasui to design landscapes of the Japanese countryside, small towns, and scenes of everyday life. Hasui also worked closely with the carvers and printers to achieve the precise quality he envisioned for his prints. Mishima River, Mutsu (1919) 14" 9" Shibata Zeshin (1807 - 1891) - was a laquer ware painter and print designer during the 19th Century. Album of Lacquer Pictures by the Venerable Zeshin (1887) 6.5" x 7" Kiyoshi Saitō (1907-1997) - was a Japanese woodblock printmaker and artist who worked in the sōsaku hanga style of mokuhanga. HIs fame outside of Japan was fairly comprehensive with his peak fame being in the 1950's and 1960's. For a comprehensive book on his life and times, Saitō Kiyoshi: Graphic Awakening published by The John & Mable Ringling Museum is an excellent source. Can be found, here. Lecture by Dr. Paget about Saitō can be found, here. My interview with Professor Paget can be found, here. Otaru, Hokkaido (1948) 18" x 24" Munakata Shikō (1903-1975) - arguably one of the most famous modern printmakers; Shikō is renowned for his prints of women, animals, the supernatural and Buddhist deities. He made his prints with an esoteric fervour where his philosophies about mokuhanga were just as interesting as his print work. Princess Showing Upper Arm (1958) 9" x 7.5" Sekino Jun'ichirō (1914-1988) - was a mokuhanga printmaker who helped establish the sōsaku hanga, creative print movement in Japan. His themes were of landscapes, animals and the abstract. Sekino exhibited and became a member with Nihon Hanga Kyōkai and studied with Ōnchi Kōshirō (1891-1955) and Maekawa Senpan (1888-1960). Cats and There Kittens (1960) 18" x 13" Katsuyuki Nishijima - is a contemporary mokuhanga printmaker based in Japan who carves and prints his own work. His prints are colourful and focused on the Japanese landscape. More information can be found, here. Moon Over Lake 10.25" x 14.75" Mayumi Oda - is a Buddhist teacher and artist based in Hawai'i. Her artwork has gained international recognition, having traveled worldwide. In addition to her artistic pursuits, Mayumi is an environmental activist and resides and works at Ginger Hill Farm, an eco-retreat on the Big Island of Hawai'i. Explore more about Mayumi Oda's work, here. Bell Telephone (1976) 21" x 15" colour screen print Nicholas Cladis - is an artist and paper historian who teaches and lives in Iowa. He lived in Echizen from 2014-2020 where he studied how to make washi, taught at the Fukui Prefectural University, as well as being the International liaison for the paper making union. More info can be found on his website, here. You can find Nicholas' episode with The Unfinished Print, here. Craig Anczelowtiz - is a mixed media collage artist who splits his time between New York and Japan. Craig's works focus on Japenese themes and nostalgia. More information can be found, here. Meiji Beauty #8 (2025) vintage Japanese papers, gouache, plexi, gold leaf, and ink on thick washi 20" x 28" © Popular Wheat Productions Opening and closing musical credit -Next Journey by Robomoque (2023) on Gunn-R-Rotation Records logo designed and produced by Douglas Batchelor and André Zadorozny Disclaimer: Please do not reproduce or use anything from this podcast without shooting me an email and getting my express written or verbal consent. I'm friendly :) Слава Українi If you find any issue with something in the show notes please let me know. ***The opinions expressed by guests in The Unfinished Print podcast are not necessarily those of André Zadorozny and of Popular Wheat Productions.***
RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey is joined again by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for the next of his regular audio described theatre reviews for 2025. This week we have a fresh new production of Arthur Miller's ‘Death of a Salesman' as the Trafalgar Theatre's touring production visited the Birmingham Repertory Theatre with description by Professional Audio Describer Carolyn Smith. About ‘Death of A Salesman' One of the greatest plays of the twentieth century, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman explodes onto the stage in this fresh new production led by acclaimed actor David Hayman (Sid and Nancy, Dad's Army). This timeless, powerful story takes you on a thrilling journey through the final 24 hours of Willy Loman's life, filled with his memories, dreams, struggles and pitting a Father's expectations against his sons realities. "Powerful and poignant.” For more about the Trafalgar Theatre's touring production of ‘Death of A Salesman' do visit the production's website - https://www.deathofasalesmantour.co.uk And for more about access at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre including details of audio described performances do visit - https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/your-visit/accessibility/ (Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)
RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey is joined again by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for the next of his regular audio described theatre reviews for 2025. This week we have a fresh new production of Arthur Miller's ‘Death of a Salesman' as the Trafalgar Theatre's touring production visited the Birmingham Repertory Theatre with description by Professional Audio Describer Carolyn Smith. About ‘Death of A Salesman' One of the greatest plays of the twentieth century, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman explodes onto the stage in this fresh new production led by acclaimed actor David Hayman (Sid and Nancy, Dad's Army). This timeless, powerful story takes you on a thrilling journey through the final 24 hours of Willy Loman's life, filled with his memories, dreams, struggles and pitting a Father's expectations against his sons realities. "Powerful and poignant.” For more about the Trafalgar Theatre's touring production of ‘Death of A Salesman' do visit the production's website - https://www.deathofasalesmantour.co.uk And for more about access at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre including details of audio described performances do visit - https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/your-visit/accessibility/ (Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is regarded as one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. A new production is touring the UK. BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme spoke to David Hayman, who plays Willy Loman, and director Andy Arnold about the previous production they worked on as well as their current project. Death of a Salesman runs until 3 May. Further information is available at the Trafalgar Entertainment web site.
This week I want to share a project idea that you can use for a ton of different texts - the mock trial. I'll tell you why the mock trial was one of my FAVORITE projects as a student, and one fun way I used it as a teacher. By the time you finish listening to this quick episode, I hope you'll be excited to put a mock trial into play in your own classroom. My senior year of high school, my AP Lit teacher thought of a wonderful way to spice up our Madame Bovary unit. She had us re-enact Gustave Flaubert's obscenity trial. Did you know he stood trial for offending public morals with his novel? Yep. Anyway, we all took on different roles - Flaubert himself, and the lawyers and witnesses - and started meeting in class to plan our arguments, our questions, and our opening and closing statements. As Flaubert's defense lawyer, I thought it would be helpful to have the transcripts of the original trial, so after school I headed for the local University Library to check out the transcript, which I used to create my seven page single spaced opening statement for Flaubert. It was so much fun pulling those transcripts out in class the next day. Needless to say, Flaubert was declared innocent by the trial's end, and the project has always stuck with me as one of my favorites from school. Years later, I decided to put my own spin on it with my 10th graders in Bulgaria as we studied The Crucible. We put the judges, Hawthorne and Danforth, on trial for letting it all happen. Students took the roles of defense and prosecution lawyers, characters in the play who could be called to the stand, and jury members. Everyone had specific tasks to help them prepare, and each witness worked on either the defense or prosecution's team in building a case. The lawyers wrote opening statements and worked to come up with strong questions for each witness. Witnesses worked with their lawyers on their answers to the questions they would know, possible questions the other team might ask, and how they would respond, and reviewed their characters' actions and dialogue in the play. Jury members came up with argument ideas for both sides, as well as evidence to support them, so they'd have a clear picture of the text going into the trial. I was the judge, so I could run the order of the day and keep things moving on schedule. While I felt the judges were to blame for allowing the court to abandon real justice, I believe in the end the jury found Hawthorne and Danforth innocent, after a highly engaging day of official process. I bet there's a mock trial spin waiting to happen for at least one of your class texts… In Romeo and Juliet, you might put the priest on trial for Romeo and Juliet's deaths. In The Great Gatsby, you might put Daisy on trial for Myrtle's death. But it doesn't always have to be about an actual crime. You might let Frankenstein's monster sue him for not creating a mate for him, and decide whether or not to award damages. You could try the insurance case of Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman. While a mock trial isn't right for every book, it's a great way to create engagement and buy-in around building skills with argument, evidence, and analysis while also practicing public speaking. It doesn't hurt that law if a popular career many students may be considering. That's why this week, I want to highly recommend you give a mock trial project a try the next time you've got a project-shaped hole in a whole class novel unit. Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram. Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!
GGACP celebrates 2025's Year of the Snake by revisiting a memorable Milton Berle anecdote, as told by Emmy-winning comedy writer and Thurber Prize-winning author Alan Zweibel. In this episode, Alan discusses (among other topics) the evolution of “Saturday Night Live,” the genius of Larry Gelbart and Neil Simon and the 2018 documentaries about longtime friends and collaborators Gilda Radner and Garry Shandling. Also, Desi Arnaz invents the sitcom, Jay Leno offers sage advice, Buck Henry makes a bad investment and Gilbert makes like Willy Loman. PLUS: Praising Kate McKinnon! Remembering Bruno Kirby (and Herb Sargent)! Mel Brooks comes to dinner! And Alan writes the Paul “Bridge Over Troubled Water” Simon Special! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
TVC 666.5: Robert Crane, eldest son of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane, talks to Ed about how his dad was the “Willy Loman of his own career,” why the failure of his parents' marriage was the byproduct of his dad's desire for advancement, and how he learned the craft of editing by watching his dad edit segments for his KNX radio show every week in the “back room” of the Crane family home. Bob's latest book, My UnHollywood Family, is available now through Oregon Greystone Press.
TVC 666.5: Robert Crane, eldest son of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane, talks to Ed about how his dad was the “Willy Loman of his own career,” why the failure of his parents' marriage was the byproduct of his dad's desire for advancement, and how he learned the craft of editing by watching his dad edit segments for his KNX radio show every week in the “back room” of the Crane family home. Bob's latest book, My UnHollywood Family, is available now through Oregon Greystone Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This week I want to share a fabulous resource I recently discovered, a website full of short video models for acting games you can use in class. The first time I taught a play in class, I sure wished I had more theater background to help my students act out the scenes. Luckily, I was able to connect with a creative theater professional to come and visit my classes for a few days. Soon she had them playing acting games, creating scene sculptures, and generally having a great time while relaxing into the idea of playing new roles. After that week I always incorporated acting games into my theater units, and they never failed as a community-builder and theater-bolsterer. I bought two books to complement what I learned from my theater guest: Acting Games, by Viola Spolin, and Games for Actors and Non-Actors, by Augusto Boal. Which brings me to my recent discovery, a website showcasing many of Viola Spolin's acting games through video demonstrations. With a few minutes on this website, you can easily gather games to use in class and learn how to use them. Let me suggest a short routine similar to what I've used, and then I'll link the activities in the show notes so you can head straight over to the website for the details. OK, so before I ever asked students to act Prospero or Willy Loman, we'd spend five or ten minutes at the start of class with games that would help them loosen up and trust each other a little more. I suggest you start by making space in the center of the room by pushing desks and tables to the side. Then invite students to start walking around, trying to keep a bubble of space around them so they fill the room without ever touching each other. Start slow, then invite them to speed up a little, and a little more, then slow back down, then go into slow motion. Then, perhaps start a game of slow motion tag (linked) or start playing with an invisible ball (linked). After a couple of minutes, you might play a game of lemonade (linked) or invite partners to try mirroring each other (linked). As your students become more comfortable, you can move into more complex games, or you can just stick with this simple routine to break down everyone's “I'm too cool to pretend to be doing anything I'm not actually doing” facades. Remember, while acting comes naturally to a few students, many teenagers are just really nervous about embarrassing themselves around their peers. Acting games help everyone get more relaxed before diving into Shakespeare or O'Neill, and this lovely website will help YOU get more relaxed before diving into acting games! Links: The Mirror: https://spolingamesonline.org/mirror-follow-the-follower/ Lemonade: https://spolingamesonline.org/lemonade-new-york/ Play Ball: https://spolingamesonline.org/play-ball/ Slow Motion Tag: https://spolingamesonline.org/slow-motion-tag/ Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Snag three free weeks of community-building attendance question slides Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram. Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!
GGACP marks the 30th anniversary of the 1994 feature film "North" (released July 22, 1994) with this ENCORE of an interview with the much-maligned movie's writer, Emmy-winner and Thurber Prize winner Alan Zweibel. In this episode, Alan discusses (among other topics) the evolution of “Saturday Night Live,” the genius of Larry Gelbart and Neil Simon and the 2018 documentaries about his longtime friends and collaborators, Gilda Radner and Garry Shandling. Also, Jay Leno offers advice, Buck Henry makes a bad investment, Gilbert makes like Willy Loman and Lorne Michaels locks horns with Uncle Miltie. PLUS: Praising Kate McKinnon! Remembering Bruno Kirby (and Herb Sargent)! Mel Brooks comes to dinner! Desi Arnaz invents the sitcom! And Alan writes the Paul “Bridge Over Troubled Water” Simon Special! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today's poem is Frame Six by Cheswayo Mphanza.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Occasionally, I experience a psychological disconnection between my work, my life, and the world. Finding myself not home, again, my spirit was trending a Willy Loman aesthetic. A ‘disassociation of self' often reminds me I am due for a reboot.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Host Aaron Odom (@TridentTheatre) and guest Tracy Burns continue their conversation about Arthur Miller's most well-known play, its central character, and the many actors who have played him on Broadway.
Host Aaron Odom (@TridentTheatre) and Instructor Tracy Burns discuss the origins of Willy Loman on Broadway, and the many actors who have played the role on Broadway since.
Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.'Death Of A Salesman' by Arthur Miller is a play that showcases the tragic life of a simple man with delusions of grandeur. Willy Loman is nearing the end of his days as a travelling salesman and the return of his son Biff pushes his instability into overdrive. Through a series of flashbacks we see how the whole family is suffering from their excessive pride before reaching an ultimate breaking point.Would love to hear your feedback and appreciate any support you wish to give :)Timeline:(0:00) - Intro(2:49) - Themes/Questions(9:08) - Author & Extras(10:19) - Summary(12:17) - Value 4 Value(16:31) - Join Live!Value 4 Value Support:Boostagram: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/supportPaypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/meremortalspodcastConnect with Mere Mortals:Website: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/Discord: https://discord.gg/jjfq9eGReUTwitter/X: https://twitter.com/meremortalspodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/meremortalspodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meremortalspodcast
It was just a few months ago that Neo-Nazis and white supremacists paraded in front of Disney World in Orlando spreading antisemitic messages, more recently an outbreak of antisemitism on college campuses, war in Israel after a deadly Hamas attack on Jewish settlers and amidst all that Yiddish language is making a comeback due to our guest today on Specifically for Seniors. Avi Hoffman was recently awarded Congressional recognition, was invited to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis and was inducted into the Bronx Jewish Hall of Fame for his lifetime work advancing Jewish culture, Yiddishkayt and Holocaust awareness through the charity he founded - Yiddishkayt Initiative, Inc. (YILoveJewish.org). As an actor, he was nominated for a NY Drama Desk Award for his Yiddish language portrayal of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. He is best known for his Too Jewish Trilogy: Award winning one man shows. On TV, he was featured as Sid Raskin in the Starz TV series Magic City, as well as on Netflix' Bloodline, A&E's The Glades and on the NBC series Law and Order. He recently starred in the Film Festival favorite: You Will Not Play Wagner and the International Award winning short Yiddish Films: Shehita, BOXED and the motion picture – The Imported Bridegroom. He was seen in the PBS documentary They Came For Good: A History of the Jews in the US. Avi has performed all over the world, has numerous acting and directing credits and has received multiple awards and nominations. Avi and I discuss his childhood, his acting background, antisemitism, but, most of all, the comeback of Yiddish Website and Books: https://yilovejewish.org/product-category/books/ Links to interviews, articles: https://yilovejewish.org/yilove-jewish-live/
The actor, director, teacher, and author, John Shepard, began his professional career at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where he was a company member for 4 seasons. Subsequently moving to New York, he worked in regional theatres like The Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Barter Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and many others. Off Broadway, he performed at The Manhattan Theatre Club, Soho Rep, The Public Theatre, Lamb's Theatre, and others. On Broadway, he worked in American Buffalo with Al Pacino, in which he also toured the U.S. and played on London's West End, and John also appeared in A View from the Bridge. Career highlights include the stage version of George Orwell's 1984, in which John played Winston Smith, at the Wilma Theatre, Kennedy Center and Joyce Theatre, and the world premiere of Eduardo Machado's Fabiola at the Theatre for a New City. John spent time in L.A. pursuing TV and Film work, appearing in many episodic TV series including L.A. Law, Spenser: For Hire, Dallas, Quantum Leap and others. John's feature film credits include Sneakers and Patriot Games. After receiving an MFA in Acting from Cal State University, Long Beach, John became a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and finally at Point Park University, where he taught for over 20 years and was the Theatre Department Chair for 10 years. John's book “Auditioning and Acting for the Camera” is used throughout the country. Backstage Magazine named it one of “11 Amazing Books for the On-Camera Actor.” John remains active in the Pittsburgh theater and film community, appearing in many plays for The REP, City Theatre, Quantum, PICT and the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. Highlights include playing Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman for the REP, (for which the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette named him Performer of the Year), and Ralph in A Christmas Story at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. John has also directed numerous productions, including August Osage County for Point Park's professional theatre company, The REP, and Tamara for Quantum; both were named best productions in their respective years by the Post-Gazette. While in Pittsburgh, he's appeared in TV shows like: A League of Their Own and The Chair, and in Films like The Race, Fathers and Daughters, Homemakers, and The Deliverance directed by Lee Daniels.
GGACP celebrates the birthday (July 22, 1928) of the late actor, comedian and raconteur Orson Bean by revisiting this interview from back in 2016. In this episode, Orson recalls his years as a game show and talk show fixture as well as his roles in the popular films "Anatomy of a Murder" and "Being John Malkovich," and shares his memories of working with icons Boris Karloff, Helen Hayes, Jimmy Stewart, Phil Silvers and Dustin Hoffman. Also, Orson discusses his years on the Hollywood blacklist, his friendship with Stan Laurel, his fondness for Ed Sullivan and his personal correspondence with Groucho Marx. PLUS: John McGiver returns! Jack Paar takes a powder! Will Jordan does Sabu! Jack Klugman nails Willy Loman! And Jayne Mansfield upstages Walter Matthau! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome back for another episode of Nick's Non-fiction with your host Nick Muniz In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity—and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room. Subscribe, Share, Mobile links & Time-stamps below! 0:00 Introduction 3:30 About the Author 6:00 Act1: The Lomans 12:30 Act2: Mr. Niceguy 18:30 Act3: Worst Day Ever 24:50 Act4: The Hoes 34:15 Next Time & Goodbye! YouTube: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nicks-non-fiction/id1450771426 Patreon: https://youtu.be/HOW5F1eBmx8
"SmartLess" co-host and Tony Nominee Sean Hayes shares stories about Oscar Levant, the man whose life inspired Sean's new Broadway play, “Good Night, Oscar.” Sean's new book, “Time Out,” is out now (Original Air Date: March 27th, 2023). Wendell Pierce is Tony-nominated for his performance in the Broadway production of "Death of a Salesman," in which his character Willy Loman is African American, serving to heighten the play's message about institutional violence and the unattainable American Dream (Original Air Date: October 11th, 2022). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Uncle Dale finds time between gigs for a chat with Mags and Pat and we break down Willy Loman's shorts, Skid Row fan clubs, Florida rooms, and the siren song of four wheeling. Aunt Pat - Colleen Doyle Auntie Mags - Dana Quercioli Uncle Dale - Adam Peacock Artwork - Jordan Stafford Mauntras - Carol Doyle Editor - Colleen Doyle Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-babymakers/support --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-babymakers/support
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! . . . Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! . . . There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. . . . You will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. . . . Then the King will say . . . , ‘Come, you blessed of My father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Jesus speaks passionately in Matthew 23, 24, and 25. Last March Chip Arnold, a Nashville actor who has played Paul, Jesus, and King Saul as well as Willy Loman (in “Death of a Salesman”), Henrik Ibsen, Henry Potter (in “It's a Wonderful Life”), and many others, presented The Sermon on the Mount to us at NCS. This Thursday Chip will present Jesus's powerful words in three chapters at the end of Matthew. Chip says, “The words I memorized and speak are true. Most important, the words reveal the One who was and is the true source of power and life. I am not the same man.” By the way, if you want to hear Chip's presentation of the Sermon on the Mount, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X6LL8ZMghs&t=11s
[REBROADCAST FROM October 27, 2022] For the first time ever on a Broadway stage, the Loman family of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" are being played by Black actors. Wendell Pierce, who stars as Willy Loman, and Sharon D. Clarke, who stars as Linda Loman, join us to discuss this interpretation of the classic play, which is running now at the Hudson Theater, through January 15.
The Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and Guests
Two entrepreneurs - Gary Levine, founder/CEO of Roaring Brook Art Licensing Company, and Benno, Chief Sherpa/CEO of (re)ALIGN Expansion Sherpas - are talking about how “superpowers” (both personal and a team's or business') are guiding their businesses, about the power of quiet confidence, about not selling but just showing up. 2:23 - “When I think of a person's superpowers…what makes us fire on all eight cylinders?” 3:22 - “For me, that was (when) I showed up prepared, and I remained curious…(not when) I came prepared and I just wanted to preach about what I prepared. That doesn't usually go so well.” 4:14 - “What are the intentions and the reasons for why I'm so prepared?” 6:50 - “No question it takes a village…we're all as a team playing off each other's superpowers.” 7:34 - “There comes a quiet confidence from you, when you put it out there, you're not really selling your stuff… I don't think selling works today anymore…it's just a matter of putting out there, what you believe in, to the right people. And then the magic happens.” 8:43 - “A tangible is a product, but the intangible is that confidence, that's the superpower… putting it into the right context, at the right time, with the right customer.” 13:33 - talking about inhibitors “as much as those are distractions…there are also positive influences from our past experience and even going back to our childhood, so it's a matter of sorting them out…what are the things that are holding us back?” 15:15 - “I grew up in a large family…and that created maybe an obsession to avoid being dismissed…that's probably part of the reason I over-prepare.” 16:06 - “Before I was really conscious that that's what I'm doing… I would show up prepared and preach…preparing is good, but don't preach… show up prepared and stay curious, because then you can really engage.” 17:10 - “The business word for superpowers is Value Proposition.” 21:10 - “There's give and take in making any relationship work, whether it's a marriage, or parent/child, or client-, colleague relationships.” 22:40 - “A big influence in the recent pandemic, there was a shift… about selling…today it's not about Willy Loman, Traveling Salesman going from town to town… because people have made up 50% or 80% of their buying decision before they ever meet Gary Levine or Benno Duenkelsbuehler…they check (us) out online.” 23:37 - “It's not about selling, it's about showing up and…to be prepared and being who we are and having that quiet confidence…because everybody else is taken - be who you are.” You can reach Gary Levine one-on-one by email GLevine@RoaringBrookArt.com
The Critics gather on the couch to catch up this week. We hear some tales of woe regarding home renovations and a crap contractor. We talk a little about the sad sack employee who couldnt sell a meal to a starving man.
For the first time ever on a Broadway stage, the Loman family of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" are being played by Black actors. Wendell Pierce, who stars as Willy Loman, and Sharon D. Clarke, who stars as Linda Loman, join us to discuss this interpretation of the classic play, which is running now at the Hudson Theater.
Wendell Pierce stars in a new Broadway production of "Death of a Salesman," in which his character Willy Loman is African American, serving to heighten the play's message about institutional violence and the unattainable American Dream. "Death of a Salesman" is playing now at the Hudson Theater. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ed talks with actor Wendell Pierce. The veteran actor has made a name for himself on television, in movies and on the stage. From the big screen's Waiting to Exhale, to television's The Wire to his current project, starring as Willy Loman on Broadway in the Arthur Miller Classic, Death of Salesman the actor is a tour de force. They talk about his career, taking on a Broadway classic and the actor's love for his hometown of New Orleans.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams the city needs tents to shelter migrants coming to the city including migrants sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Professor Felipe De La Hoz joins us. Then, "The Wire" and "Treme" actor Wendell Pierce stars as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Death of a Salesman" which, for the first time on Broadway, centers around a Black Loman family. And, women are often seen as either too young or too old in our culture. Host Deepa Fernandes brings together two aging experts to talk about "gendered ageism."
Willy Loman and I are roughly the same age, and we are both used up. I have more in common with Arthur Miller's protagonist than I would have hoped. This is an exploration of societal and personal tragedy. Here's the transcript: https://frededer.home.blog/2022/09/25/willy-loman-and-me/ Help change the world. Join The People on The Porch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/Freds_Front_Porch?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator https://www.patreon.com/Freds_Front_Porch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fredsporch/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fredsporch/support
Todd, Nick, and Percy are joined by Romana Isabella to look at queer theater in relation to queer games and how "queer" can manifest differently in each medium. Topics include queer historiography, Oscar Wilde, Charles Ludlam, Ms. Blakk for President, and how much Willy Loman sucks. Sources include: - "Fucking With Dignity: Public Sex, Queer Intimate Kinship, and How the AIDS Epidemic Bathhouse Closures Constituted a Dignity Taking" - Stephen M. Engel and Timothy S. Lyle - “Discovery and Redefinition: Creating Openness and Agency via Queer Growth Routes” - Sarah Cypher - "The Incidental Queerness of Dungeons and Dragons" - Getting Medieval: Sexualities and Communities, Pre and Postmodern - Carolyn Dinshaw - "Powered by the Apocalypse: How a Rule-System Nurtured a Queer Fanbase" - Maria Fanning - Galatea - John Lyly - Ridiculous Theatre: Scourge of Human Folly: The Essays and Opinions of Charles Ludlam Dungeons and Drama Nerds is produced by Todd Brian Backus, Percival Hornak, and Nicholas Orvis, and is mixed and edited by Anthony Sertel Dean. Season Three features contributions from Christopher Diercksen, Ben Ferber, Kory Flores, Tess Huth, Romana Isabella, Leo Mock, Jon Jon Johnson, and Dex Phan. If you'd like to help us continue exploring the intersection of theatre and tabletop roleplaying games, consider leaving us a review on your podcast app of choice or supporting us - and getting access to our patron-only bonus content - at patreon.com/dungeonsanddramanerds. You can find our social media and website links, including our cast bios, at our linktree. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of Dungeons and Drama Nerds!
Today we bring you yet-another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast as we talk to Tony Cobb, son of acting great Lee J. Cobb. Tony was a great guest, full of stories and also doing a great impression of his dad that still has us laughing today. We talk about the storied career of a man who was known best for his stage and screen persona, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman as well as his roles in classic films of all genres, including The Exorcistin the 1970s, In Like Flint in the 1960s and On The Waterfront in the 1950s. We also touch an uncomfortable subject that we broached in an earlier encore episode, The Blacklist. And while it's absolutely true that Lee J. Cobb in fact, named names during a terrible period in US History during Senator Joseph McCarthy's HUAC witch hunts, it was truly edifying to hear Tony's side of things. Tony was able to crystalize the stress and the heartache of this time period, about the pressure and the stress his father was put under to give the government what they wanted. It's a horrific story about wire-tapping, passports being confiscated, not being allowed to work as an actor and being tailed by the FBI. And that's just the beginning. You'll have to hear Tony's story and for us, that's when we began to see that not everything is so black and white when taken at face value. Thankfully, we get to hear great stories about how Cobb was an obsessive tinkerer in their San Fernando Valley house, but that he was very much a model kit maker and practical joker. We hear how Tony's sister dated a young actor who went on to star in American Graffiti prior to his Academy Award and how his dad's booming voice was both a source of teasing and worry to the adolescent Tony. And lastly, we hear what was one of Tony's best memories of his dad? Seeing a film at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood with his dad and their rolling out of the red carpet when they realized one of paying customers was Lee J. Cobb. It's all next, on this encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast.
Jane Allen shares how she built a brand new category of business by taking a chance on trying to solve a problem she saw lawyers facing every single day. Find out about how Jane grew her initial client base for Counsel on Call, how proactive problem solving can be developed into a growth system for business, and why the most important thing you can do in sales is take a chance and ask for what you want. Mo asks Jane Allen: Tell me of the moment where you realized you wanted to focus on business development. Jane originally went to law school because she had read Death of a Salesman in college, and she didn't want to end up like Willy Loman. It turned out that to be a successful lawyer, you had to be a really good Willy Loman. Jane loved working with clients to solve their problems, and when you do that, they want you to solve more problems. Her natural approach of getting to know her clients in order to solve their problems made her realize that she loves the relationship building aspect of the business. There are a lot of women leaving the profession of being a lawyer. Prior to launching Counsel on Call Jane started looking for women who were exiting the industry to help her solve client problems in a different way. The business became a hybrid solution for meeting a need in the marketplace as well as the lawyers that serviced clients. Jane had three children in three years while also working as a lawyer full time. She was never the person that went to networking events, but she did have the advantage of working with very well-respected partners. Jane started her business by dialing for dollars out of the Nashville Bar Association book. She committed to making ten phone calls each day, started tracking her metrics, and landing meetings. Many said no, but most people said yes and the momentum started to snowball. When it comes to extremely technical professions, many people struggle with asking for help. Jane's approach was the reverse, and focused specifically on asking for help in creating a company that would change her prospect's business for the better. As an entrepreneur trying to solve a problem, Jane needed the voices of people in the industry to understand that a problem really existed and what the possible solution would be. To start off, Jane began with one lawyer and one law firm, and after the first few years the company had three offices helping lawyers practice in a way they couldn't before. By the time Jane sold the company, there were 1,200 lawyers on the team. Jane recalls the story of how she helped one lawyer in particular in a relatively minor way, and how her advice allowed his career to flourish, simply by being willing to help. Mo asks Jane Allen: What is your personal definition of business development? Jane's definition is simply proactive problem solving. If you are trying to sell something, it should be something they need and may not know they need it. It's about showing them a problem they have as well as the solution. People don't like to be sold to, but they do like to buy. If you're struggling with being proactive, realize that it's not the job of the prospect to call you or respond to your email. It's your job to get the meeting. One of the best kinds of meetings is when someone says that they are not going to work with you, then at least you're not going to waste your time. Don't waste their time. Even if you think you have all the answers, you don't. The goal of the first meeting is to ask thought provoking questions and to determine whether you have a solution to their problem. If you can't resolve everything in one meeting, the goal is to secure the next. The prospect should understand the importance of the next meeting and you should give them enough of a cliffhanger that they anticipate it. Mo asks Jane Allen: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? The personality test was the most fascinating element of the GrowBIG Training that completely transformed the way Jane's company thought about meetings and communicating with other people. Jane has a systems mindset that allows her to scale a business that served her very well in Counsel on Call. Efficiency is a major driver for Jane, and she is always looking for ways to grow that don't lose the elements of a personal relationship. Jane set communication as a priority from the start and then developed systems around that central principle. Jane also spent a lot of time developing databases to track metrics like the number of Give-to-Gets completed, objections, and asking for the next steps. Practice and having fun were also built into the system. The business has to be bigger than the individual. You have to capture the data to help you learn and evolve and keep yourself and your team accountable. If you're not meeting people who are decision makers or can't help you get to that point, is it really a good use of your time? You have to get honest about how you spend your time and then get really deliberate about how you spend the time you have. Focus first on how you're different, and then how you're going to eliminate the prospect's risk of change. Measuring the quantity and quality of your business development efforts is the key to seeing an increase in your results. Try to get one metric of each that matches your book of business and relationships you're trying to build. Mo asks Jane Allen: Tell us a business development story that you are really proud of. Jane tells the story from the early 2000's during a time when the people they were serving in corporate America were being overwhelmed by the explosion of data. One fateful dinner and “what if” scenario later, Jane started collaborating with a firm to solve real world problems with a solution that was unheard of at the time. As an entrepreneur, Jane didn't take time to reflect on the success since she was so focused on the execution. Looking back now, finding a partner that was willing to take a risk and then deliver something that enabled her clients to practice law in a completely different way is something she's very proud of. In terms of her career, Jane is most proud of the incredible people she worked with and learned from, as well as being willing to take the chance on herself and her vision for her business. Reach for your goals and take the chance. Rejection is a part of life, but you will never achieve anything if you don't try. Mo asks Jane Allen: If you could record a message to your younger self around business development or growth skills, what would it say? Jane would tell herself to embrace it. Embrace your intrinsic drive to connect with people. Jane wouldn't have referred to herself as an extrovert, but when it came to her work and her business, she committed herself to getting the job done and connecting with people. Jane likes to solve people's problems and connect them with what they need. Creating systems in her life that drive those actions and allow her focus on that has been the key to her success. Before becoming a lawyer, Jane was a school teacher where she loved helping kids understand complex problems. That trait has been a common thread throughout her life. Jane now works with entrepreneurs and helps them find resources and mentors through the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com ec.co jane.allen@ec.co
Jane Allen shares how she built a brand new category of business by taking a chance on trying to solve a problem she saw lawyers facing every single day. Find out about how Jane grew her initial client base for Counsel on Call, how proactive problem solving can be developed into a growth system for business, and why the most important thing you can do in sales is take a chance and ask for what you want. Mo asks Jane Allen: Tell me of the moment where you realized you wanted to focus on business development. Jane originally went to law school because she had read Death of a Salesman in college, and she didn't want to end up like Willy Loman. It turned out that to be a successful lawyer, you had to be a really good Willy Loman. Jane loved working with clients to solve their problems, and when you do that, they want you to solve more problems. Her natural approach of getting to know her clients in order to solve their problems made her realize that she loves the relationship building aspect of the business. There are a lot of women leaving the profession of being a lawyer. Prior to launching Counsel on Call Jane started looking for women who were exiting the industry to help her solve client problems in a different way. The business became a hybrid solution for meeting a need in the marketplace as well as the lawyers that serviced clients. Jane had three children in three years while also working as a lawyer full time. She was never the person that went to networking events, but she did have the advantage of working with very well-respected partners. Jane started her business by dialing for dollars out of the Nashville Bar Association book. She committed to making ten phone calls each day, started tracking her metrics, and landing meetings. Many said no, but most people said yes and the momentum started to snowball. When it comes to extremely technical professions, many people struggle with asking for help. Jane's approach was the reverse, and focused specifically on asking for help in creating a company that would change her prospect's business for the better. As an entrepreneur trying to solve a problem, Jane needed the voices of people in the industry to understand that a problem really existed and what the possible solution would be. To start off, Jane began with one lawyer and one law firm, and after the first few years the company had three offices helping lawyers practice in a way they couldn't before. By the time Jane sold the company, there were 1,200 lawyers on the team. Jane recalls the story of how she helped one lawyer in particular in a relatively minor way, and how her advice allowed his career to flourish, simply by being willing to help. Mo asks Jane Allen: What is your personal definition of business development? Jane's definition is simply proactive problem solving. If you are trying to sell something, it should be something they need and may not know they need it. It's about showing them a problem they have as well as the solution. People don't like to be sold to, but they do like to buy. If you're struggling with being proactive, realize that it's not the job of the prospect to call you or respond to your email. It's your job to get the meeting. One of the best kinds of meetings is when someone says that they are not going to work with you, then at least you're not going to waste your time. Don't waste their time. Even if you think you have all the answers, you don't. The goal of the first meeting is to ask thought provoking questions and to determine whether you have a solution to their problem. If you can't resolve everything in one meeting, the goal is to secure the next. The prospect should understand the importance of the next meeting and you should give them enough of a cliffhanger that they anticipate it. Mo asks Jane Allen: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? The personality test was the most fascinating element of the GrowBIG Training that completely transformed the way Jane's company thought about meetings and communicating with other people. Jane has a systems mindset that allows her to scale a business that served her very well in Counsel on Call. Efficiency is a major driver for Jane, and she is always looking for ways to grow that don't lose the elements of a personal relationship. Jane set communication as a priority from the start and then developed systems around that central principle. Jane also spent a lot of time developing databases to track metrics like the number of Give-to-Gets completed, objections, and asking for the next steps. Practice and having fun were also built into the system. The business has to be bigger than the individual. You have to capture the data to help you learn and evolve and keep yourself and your team accountable. If you're not meeting people who are decision makers or can't help you get to that point, is it really a good use of your time? You have to get honest about how you spend your time and then get really deliberate about how you spend the time you have. Focus first on how you're different, and then how you're going to eliminate the prospect's risk of change. Measuring the quantity and quality of your business development efforts is the key to seeing an increase in your results. Try to get one metric of each that matches your book of business and relationships you're trying to build. Mo asks Jane Allen: Tell us a business development story that you are really proud of. Jane tells the story from the early 2000's during a time when the people they were serving in corporate America were being overwhelmed by the explosion of data. One fateful dinner and “what if” scenario later, Jane started collaborating with a firm to solve real world problems with a solution that was unheard of at the time. As an entrepreneur, Jane didn't take time to reflect on the success since she was so focused on the execution. Looking back now, finding a partner that was willing to take a risk and then deliver something that enabled her clients to practice law in a completely different way is something she's very proud of. In terms of her career, Jane is most proud of the incredible people she worked with and learned from, as well as being willing to take the chance on herself and her vision for her business. Reach for your goals and take the chance. Rejection is a part of life, but you will never achieve anything if you don't try. Mo asks Jane Allen: If you could record a message to your younger self around business development or growth skills, what would it say? Jane would tell herself to embrace it. Embrace your intrinsic drive to connect with people. Jane wouldn't have referred to herself as an extrovert, but when it came to her work and her business, she committed herself to getting the job done and connecting with people. Jane likes to solve people's problems and connect them with what they need. Creating systems in her life that drive those actions and allow her focus on that has been the key to her success. Before becoming a lawyer, Jane was a school teacher where she loved helping kids understand complex problems. That trait has been a common thread throughout her life. Jane now works with entrepreneurs and helps them find resources and mentors through the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com ec.co jane.allen@ec.co
Jane Allen shares how she built a brand new category of business by taking a chance on trying to solve a problem she saw lawyers facing every single day. Find out about how Jane grew her initial client base for Counsel on Call, how proactive problem solving can be developed into a growth system for business, and why the most important thing you can do in sales is take a chance and ask for what you want. Mo asks Jane Allen: Tell me of the moment where you realized you wanted to focus on business development. Jane originally went to law school because she had read Death of a Salesman in college, and she didn't want to end up like Willy Loman. It turned out that to be a successful lawyer, you had to be a really good Willy Loman. Jane loved working with clients to solve their problems, and when you do that, they want you to solve more problems. Her natural approach of getting to know her clients in order to solve their problems made her realize that she loves the relationship building aspect of the business. There are a lot of women leaving the profession of being a lawyer. Prior to launching Counsel on Call Jane started looking for women who were exiting the industry to help her solve client problems in a different way. The business became a hybrid solution for meeting a need in the marketplace as well as the lawyers that serviced clients. Jane had three children in three years while also working as a lawyer full time. She was never the person that went to networking events, but she did have the advantage of working with very well-respected partners. Jane started her business by dialing for dollars out of the Nashville Bar Association book. She committed to making ten phone calls each day, started tracking her metrics, and landing meetings. Many said no, but most people said yes and the momentum started to snowball. When it comes to extremely technical professions, many people struggle with asking for help. Jane's approach was the reverse, and focused specifically on asking for help in creating a company that would change her prospect's business for the better. As an entrepreneur trying to solve a problem, Jane needed the voices of people in the industry to understand that a problem really existed and what the possible solution would be. To start off, Jane began with one lawyer and one law firm, and after the first few years the company had three offices helping lawyers practice in a way they couldn't before. By the time Jane sold the company, there were 1,200 lawyers on the team. Jane recalls the story of how she helped one lawyer in particular in a relatively minor way, and how her advice allowed his career to flourish, simply by being willing to help. Mo asks Jane Allen: What is your personal definition of business development? Jane's definition is simply proactive problem solving. If you are trying to sell something, it should be something they need and may not know they need it. It's about showing them a problem they have as well as the solution. People don't like to be sold to, but they do like to buy. If you're struggling with being proactive, realize that it's not the job of the prospect to call you or respond to your email. It's your job to get the meeting. One of the best kinds of meetings is when someone says that they are not going to work with you, then at least you're not going to waste your time. Don't waste their time. Even if you think you have all the answers, you don't. The goal of the first meeting is to ask thought provoking questions and to determine whether you have a solution to their problem. If you can't resolve everything in one meeting, the goal is to secure the next. The prospect should understand the importance of the next meeting and you should give them enough of a cliffhanger that they anticipate it. Mo asks Jane Allen: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? The personality test was the most fascinating element of the GrowBIG Training that completely transformed the way Jane's company thought about meetings and communicating with other people. Jane has a systems mindset that allows her to scale a business that served her very well in Counsel on Call. Efficiency is a major driver for Jane, and she is always looking for ways to grow that don't lose the elements of a personal relationship. Jane set communication as a priority from the start and then developed systems around that central principle. Jane also spent a lot of time developing databases to track metrics like the number of Give-to-Gets completed, objections, and asking for the next steps. Practice and having fun were also built into the system. The business has to be bigger than the individual. You have to capture the data to help you learn and evolve and keep yourself and your team accountable. If you're not meeting people who are decision makers or can't help you get to that point, is it really a good use of your time? You have to get honest about how you spend your time and then get really deliberate about how you spend the time you have. Focus first on how you're different, and then how you're going to eliminate the prospect's risk of change. Measuring the quantity and quality of your business development efforts is the key to seeing an increase in your results. Try to get one metric of each that matches your book of business and relationships you're trying to build. Mo asks Jane Allen: Tell us a business development story that you are really proud of. Jane tells the story from the early 2000's during a time when the people they were serving in corporate America were being overwhelmed by the explosion of data. One fateful dinner and “what if” scenario later, Jane started collaborating with a firm to solve real world problems with a solution that was unheard of at the time. As an entrepreneur, Jane didn't take time to reflect on the success since she was so focused on the execution. Looking back now, finding a partner that was willing to take a risk and then deliver something that enabled her clients to practice law in a completely different way is something she's very proud of. In terms of her career, Jane is most proud of the incredible people she worked with and learned from, as well as being willing to take the chance on herself and her vision for her business. Reach for your goals and take the chance. Rejection is a part of life, but you will never achieve anything if you don't try. Mo asks Jane Allen: If you could record a message to your younger self around business development or growth skills, what would it say? Jane would tell herself to embrace it. Embrace your intrinsic drive to connect with people. Jane wouldn't have referred to herself as an extrovert, but when it came to her work and her business, she committed herself to getting the job done and connecting with people. Jane likes to solve people's problems and connect them with what they need. Creating systems in her life that drive those actions and allow her focus on that has been the key to her success. Before becoming a lawyer, Jane was a school teacher where she loved helping kids understand complex problems. That trait has been a common thread throughout her life. Jane now works with entrepreneurs and helps them find resources and mentors through the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com ec.co jane.allen@ec.co
Mo asks Jane Allen: Tell me of the moment where you realized you wanted to focus on business development. Jane originally went to law school because she had read Death of a Salesman in college, and she didn't want to end up like Willy Loman. It turned out that to be a successful lawyer, you had to be a really good Willy Loman. Jane loved working with clients to solve their problems, and when you do that, they want you to solve more problems. Her natural approach of getting to know her clients in order to solve their problems made her realize that she loves the relationship building aspect of the business. There are a lot of women leaving the profession of being a lawyer. Prior to launching Counsel on Call Jane started looking for women who were exiting the industry to help her solve client problems in a different way. The business became a hybrid solution for meeting a need in the marketplace as well as the lawyers that serviced clients. Jane had three children in three years while also working as a lawyer full time. She was never the person that went to networking events, but she did have the advantage of working with very well-respected partners. Jane started her business by dialing for dollars out of the Nashville Bar Association book. She committed to making ten phone calls each day, started tracking her metrics, and landing meetings. Many said no, but most people said yes and the momentum started to snowball. When it comes to extremely technical professions, many people struggle with asking for help. Jane's approach was the reverse, and focused specifically on asking for help in creating a company that would change her prospect's business for the better. As an entrepreneur trying to solve a problem, Jane needed the voices of people in the industry to understand that a problem really existed and what the possible solution would be. To start off, Jane began with one lawyer and one law firm, and after the first few years the company had three offices helping lawyers practice in a way they couldn't before. By the time Jane sold the company, there were 1,200 lawyers on the team. Jane recalls the story of how she helped one lawyer in particular in a relatively minor way, and how her advice allowed his career to flourish, simply by being willing to help. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com ec.co jane.allen@ec.co
Mo asks Jane Allen: Tell me of the moment where you realized you wanted to focus on business development. Jane originally went to law school because she had read Death of a Salesman in college, and she didn't want to end up like Willy Loman. It turned out that to be a successful lawyer, you had to be a really good Willy Loman. Jane loved working with clients to solve their problems, and when you do that, they want you to solve more problems. Her natural approach of getting to know her clients in order to solve their problems made her realize that she loves the relationship building aspect of the business. There are a lot of women leaving the profession of being a lawyer. Prior to launching Counsel on Call Jane started looking for women who were exiting the industry to help her solve client problems in a different way. The business became a hybrid solution for meeting a need in the marketplace as well as the lawyers that serviced clients. Jane had three children in three years while also working as a lawyer full time. She was never the person that went to networking events, but she did have the advantage of working with very well-respected partners. Jane started her business by dialing for dollars out of the Nashville Bar Association book. She committed to making ten phone calls each day, started tracking her metrics, and landing meetings. Many said no, but most people said yes and the momentum started to snowball. When it comes to extremely technical professions, many people struggle with asking for help. Jane's approach was the reverse, and focused specifically on asking for help in creating a company that would change her prospect's business for the better. As an entrepreneur trying to solve a problem, Jane needed the voices of people in the industry to understand that a problem really existed and what the possible solution would be. To start off, Jane began with one lawyer and one law firm, and after the first few years the company had three offices helping lawyers practice in a way they couldn't before. By the time Jane sold the company, there were 1,200 lawyers on the team. Jane recalls the story of how she helped one lawyer in particular in a relatively minor way, and how her advice allowed his career to flourish, simply by being willing to help. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com ec.co jane.allen@ec.co
Mo asks Jane Allen: Tell me of the moment where you realized you wanted to focus on business development. Jane originally went to law school because she had read Death of a Salesman in college, and she didn't want to end up like Willy Loman. It turned out that to be a successful lawyer, you had to be a really good Willy Loman. Jane loved working with clients to solve their problems, and when you do that, they want you to solve more problems. Her natural approach of getting to know her clients in order to solve their problems made her realize that she loves the relationship building aspect of the business. There are a lot of women leaving the profession of being a lawyer. Prior to launching Counsel on Call Jane started looking for women who were exiting the industry to help her solve client problems in a different way. The business became a hybrid solution for meeting a need in the marketplace as well as the lawyers that serviced clients. Jane had three children in three years while also working as a lawyer full time. She was never the person that went to networking events, but she did have the advantage of working with very well-respected partners. Jane started her business by dialing for dollars out of the Nashville Bar Association book. She committed to making ten phone calls each day, started tracking her metrics, and landing meetings. Many said no, but most people said yes and the momentum started to snowball. When it comes to extremely technical professions, many people struggle with asking for help. Jane's approach was the reverse, and focused specifically on asking for help in creating a company that would change her prospect's business for the better. As an entrepreneur trying to solve a problem, Jane needed the voices of people in the industry to understand that a problem really existed and what the possible solution would be. To start off, Jane began with one lawyer and one law firm, and after the first few years the company had three offices helping lawyers practice in a way they couldn't before. By the time Jane sold the company, there were 1,200 lawyers on the team. Jane recalls the story of how she helped one lawyer in particular in a relatively minor way, and how her advice allowed his career to flourish, simply by being willing to help. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com ec.co jane.allen@ec.co
Chip Arnold is a Nashville actor who has played Paul, Jesus, and King Saul as well as Willy Loman (in “Death of a Salesman”), Henrik Ibsen, Henry Potter (in “It's A Wonderful Life”), and many others. He was scheduled to be with us on January 6, but that breakfast was cancelled due to snow and ice. This Thursday Chip will present -- as only he can do -- The Sermon on the Mount. Chip explains: “The words I memorized and speak are true. Most important, the words reveal the One who was and is the true source of power and life. I am not the same man.”
Ken Boggis knows about the art of selling. Twenty-five years and a pandemic have taught him many new ideas on sales and selling and how to avoid the “Willie Loman” trap.The Behavioral Corner Podcast is made possible by Retreat Behavioral Health. Learn more - https://www.retreatbehavioralhealth.com
On this episode my guest is acclaimed actor, singer, writer, producer and director Avi Hoffman who specializes in Jewish culture and Yiddish theater. His long running off-Broadway “Too Jewish” trilogy has been seen by millions on PBS and at theater venues around the world, and in 2016 he received rave reviews and a Drama Desk nomination for his performance as "Willy Loman" in the Yiddish language production of Death of Salesman. He is also the founder and CEO of the Yiddishkayt Initiative -- a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving Jewish culture. Nearly 3.5 million Jews emigrated to the United States between 1881 and 1925, and even more than the synagogue or social clubs the Yiddish Theater, became the meeting place and the forum of the Jewish community in America. And it was wildly popular. In 1927, there were 24 Yiddish theaters across America, and most of those were on Second Avenue -- known as the “Yiddish Rialto” – on NYC's Lower East Side. The Yiddish Theater was attended by rich and poor, educated and illiterate, religious and free-thinking, and most importantly for our purposes, it was attended by Irving Berlin, George & Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, Fanny Brice and many, many more of the inventors of Broadway who grew up smack in the center of the Yiddish theater district. I have long known that the Yiddish theater had a tremendous impact on the Broadway musical but surprisingly little has been written or documented about it. I am planning to have other experts like Avi as guests on future episodes of Broadway Nation. Topics covered in this episode include: what exactly is Yiddish? Abraham Goldfaden and the birth of the Yiddish Theater. How the Yiddish Theater came to America. Yiddish Theater around the world. The influence of the Yiddish Theater on Tin Pan Alley. And the stars of the Yiddish Theater: Boris & Bessie Thomashefsky, Maurice Schwartz, Jacob Adler, Molly Picon, Ben Bonus, Fyvush Finkel, Jennie Goldstein, Paul Muni, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Richard Kind knows his face is memorable, but he still thinks he uses it too much. He knows his characters often exude warmth and joy, even though he is personally powered by dread and anxiety. He wants to be more like George Bailey, but worries he's closer to Willy Loman. Maybe this is why Richard and Marc connect so easily. They also talk about Richard being a part of the Coen Brothers' legacy, his friendship with George Clooney, and how he did most of his acting training in front of the camera. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast.
One of the saddest plays ever performed in American theater is Death of a Salesman. It was written by Arthur Miller and first performed on Broadway in 1949. Death of a Salesman tells the story of the last 24 hours in the life of Willy Loman, a salesman who never quite achieves the success he always dreamed of. He has a faithful yet disappointed wife, and two sons who are equally as lost as he is. By the end of the play, you come to understand that Willy's main downfall is that he is unable to truly be himself. On today's episode, you'll learn why it's important to focus on being yourself, not someone else. *** Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community. Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more! Connect with Kent: https://DailyWriterLife.com Facebook: https://facebook.com/kent.sanders Instagram: https://instagram.com/kentsanders LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kent-sanders Twitter: https://twitter.com/kentsanders
Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a two-act tragedy set in the 1940s New York told through a montage of memories, dreams and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a travelling salesman who is disappointed with his life and appears to be slipping into senility. The play contains a variety of themes, such as the American Dream, the anatomy of truth, and betrayal. It explores the psychological chaos of the protagonist and the capitalist society's impact on his life. Venmo's: @jacob-santos-22 ; @rda956 ; @annika-pk
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