ACT: a new podcast series with host Dawn A. Westbrook about the craft of acting, the art of directing and embracing the process – Details, episodes & analysis

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ACT: a new podcast series with host Dawn A. Westbrook about the craft of acting, the art of directing and embracing the process

Dawn A. Westbrook

Arts

Frequency: 1 episode/75d. Total Eps: 23

An entertaining weekly interview series with nationally known theatrical and television actors and directors with only three goals in mind: to listen to entertainers. to laugh. to be entertained. :)

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https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1104206/open_sms
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https://granvilleisland.com/venue/waterfront-theatre
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http://www.bobshop.ca
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http://www.hektomeron.com/
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SEASON TWO Episode Eight: Geoffrey Nauffts whose successful career was no accident!

Thursday, December 5, 2024 • Duration 01:37:23

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George Bernard Shaw once said, "Don't wait for opportunity, create it. Geoffrey Nauffts is a Producer, a Broadway and Television Actor, a Tony-award nominated playwright and television scriptwriter, and a director. He has worked as an actor on and off Broadway, regionally, and extensively in film and television. He’s directed plays by Kenneth Lonergan, Frank Pugliese, Theresa Rebeck, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Steven Belber’s critically acclaimed Tape in New York, LA, and London. His writing credits include; Baby Steps, an award-winning short film starring Kathy Bates, Jennifer, a CBS movie of the week, Political Animals, Greg Berlanti’s Emmy-nominated mini-series for USA, and 13 seasons for ABC as a writer/producer on shows such as: Brothers and Sisters, Grand Hotel, Nashville, and A Million Little Things. His critically acclaimed play Next Fall received the Outer Critics Circle’s John Gassner Award in 2010 for Best New American Play which was nominated for a Drama League, Drama Desk, and a Tony Award. He is currently developing an original new musical with the internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke and this month he is directing his best friend of 44 years, Michael Mastro (Season One, Episode One) in Michael's autobiographical one-man show called I WANNA BE GOOD - and I am seeing it next week. I adore these 2 men and this conversation with Geoffrey was a delight. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did recording it.

To learn more about ACT contact Dawn Westbrook by heading over to her website at www.dawnwestbrook.com

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SEASON TWO Episode Seven "Dame" Billie McBride is a woman who thrives!

Wednesday, November 20, 2024 • Duration 01:06:31

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Billie McBride is one of Denver's top theatre personalities. I first saw her when she appeared in LOVE LETTERS at Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company on Valentine's Day. The show was wonderful, but Billie stood out to me as someone I wanted and needed to know; but, it was her immediate & kind response (to this unknown Boulder commodity) that led me to realize, YES, she was as wonderful as I dreamed she would be. Billie NEVER STOPS WORKING. She is currently directing MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET which opens this weekend at Littleton's Town Hall Performing Arts Center. The show opens on November 21 and plays through December. (See below for ticket information)

I also saw her in Heartbeat of the Sun, a world premiere at Cherry Creek Theatre written by the prolific and local playwright Melissa McCarl. She played Joan in The Year of Magical Thinking at the Aurora Fox Theatre, directed for The Denver Center Academy’s One-Act Play Festival, and directed the musical Memphis at the Town Hall Arts Center in Littleton. She spent 20 years in NYC before moving to Colorado to do theatre and Television. Her NY Broadway stage credits include Torch Song Trilogy (Helen Hayes) (just wait until you hear her story about working with the fabulous Harvey Fierstein), Safe Sex (Lyceum), and The Kurt Weill Cabaret (Bijou Theatre). Since moving to Colorado she has worked in many theatres as a director and actress including the DCTC, The Arvada Center, Curious Theatre, Miners Alley Playhouse, And Toto Too, The Denver Children’s Theatre, CSFAC, CCT, and TheatreWorks.

Her TV and film credits include All My Children, Secret Storm, The Return of Ironside, Perry Mason, The Shining, and The Laramie Project.

Billie has won 3 Henry Awards for acting and directing in the Colorado area, The True West Award for Theatre Person of the Year (2016), the Theatre Lifetime Achievement Award in (2014) and a True West Award again in both (2021 and 2023).

To learn more about ACT contact Dawn Westbrook by heading over to her website at www.dawnwestbrook.com

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SEASON TWO Episode Six: Charles Busch is a Leading Lady like no other!

Monday, November 18, 2024 • Duration 01:34:41

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Charles Busch is a creative genius! With his quick wit and hysterical way of weaving stories, he is that person who can make you laugh at times when you think you may never smile again. I have always loved comedians and interviewing Charles Busch was not unlike reading his book LEADING LADY: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy - both were hysterical, informative, and yet extremely moving. I've loved Charles since 1984, he wasn't aware of HOW MUCH until I got to tell him during our interview. Busch is an award-winning actor and playwright who has entertained audiences for over 50 years. To this day, his 2001 Tony-nominated play, THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE, is my favorite comedy, and 24 years later, there hasn't been another to take its place. He has written over 21 plays, 4 screenplays, and 1 novel. (He is currently working on a murder mystery novel). He has received various Drama Desk nominations and career achievement awards. In 2023, he was honored with a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both a performer and a playwright. Busch also received the Flora Roberts Award for Sustained Achievement from the Dramatists Guild Foundation. Charles is a memorable cabaret performer, a comedian, and a masterful storyteller. Tomorrow night (November 18, 2024) at 7:00 p.m. in NYC at the historic Gershwin Theatre, Mr. Busch will be inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. I am sure you join me in personally congratulating him on being recognized with such an esteemed honor as I can think of no one else who is more deserving. Please enjoy this fun interview. Finally, I want to say that I've always felt there is no greater person in the world than someone who can make you laugh. Charles Busch IS the person who can make you laugh a little louder, and smile a little bigger. And IF you're lucky enough to be in his presence (if even in a theatre for 2 hours) you'll feel like your life just got infinitely better.

To learn more about ACT contact Dawn Westbrook by heading over to her website at www.dawnwestbrook.com

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SEASON TWO Episode Five "Living truthfully under imaginary circumstances" with actor/director/playwright Paul Stroili

Season 2 · Episode 5

Thursday, October 31, 2024 • Duration 01:13:42

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Actor/Director/Playwright Paul Stroili takes to the mic for episode 5 in an interview with Dawn. Paul is currently working with Jeff Daniels at the Purple Rose Theatre in OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY GRINCH IN FIGHT WITH RUDOLPH POLICE which is a world premiere both written & directed by Jeff Daniels himself. Paul is a Resident Artist at Jeff Daniels’ Purple Rose Theatre, where his play A Jukebox for the Algonquin, enjoyed a World Premiere in the summer of 2023. It received a Wilde Award for Best New Play. His latest play, My Mother and the Michigan/Ohio War will have its World Premiere at PRTC in April of 2025. Stroili’s autobiographical solo show Straight Up with a Twist toured the U.S. for over nine years, culminating in a twice-extended Off-Broadway run. As an actor, his television credits include Empire, Chicago P.D., and Undercover Bridesmaid along with Malcolm in the Middle, Brother’s Keeper, Getting Personal, Chance of a Lifetime and The Untouchables, as well as the films Only Dance Can Save Us, The Beating, Gratitude, Cold Justice, The Wrong Profile and The Real Whatever. His stage credits include Doll’s House Part 2, God of Carnage, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Fallen Souffle´, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear, Ghosts, Wonder of the World, Confessions of a Catholic Child, Under Milkwood and A Flea in her Ear. A native of Connecticut, he attended the State University of New York at New Paltz. He lives in his adopted hometown of Chicago.

To learn more about ACT contact Dawn Westbrook by heading over to her website at www.dawnwestbrook.com

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SEASON TWO Episode Four Dr. Rick St. Peter "Be Swift. Be Swift. Be NOT Poetical."

Season 2 · Episode 4

Thursday, October 24, 2024 • Duration 01:50:29

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Richard (Rick) St. Peter is an award-winning stage director, producer, and educator with more than 20 years of experience in professional and academic theatre. He has worked internationally with the English Theatre of Ukraine, Prague's MeetFactory, and the National Theatre of Romania in Craiova, Romania. During the height of the Covid Pandemic, he was one of 100 international directors -- and the only American-- to participate in the National Theatre of Romania's (Craiova) Hektomeron(www.hektomeron.com) adapting and directing The Fifth Story from Day the Seventh of Boccaccio's Decameron. The production, billed as 100 Days/100 Stories/100 Directors from 100 Countries was streamed worldwide throughout 2021. During the 2016-2017 academic year, he had the honor of serving as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Craiova in Romania. For the university, he directed Sarah Kane's 4:48 Psychosis (4:48 Psihoza) and also guest-directed a series of new international one-act plays under the title Private Spaces (Spatiu Privat) at the Romanian National Theatre in Craiova. From 2003-2009 he served as the Artistic Director of Kentucky’s Actors Guild of Lexington, where he produced over forty shows and directed more than ten. Notable directing credits include Hamlet (production featured in January 2008 "American Theatre" Magazine), Rabbit Hole, All My Sons, Stop Kiss, Tartuffe(freely adapted by Charles Edward Pogue), and world premiere productions of Long Time Travelling (by New York Times best-selling novelist Silas House) and Checking In (by Brian Hampton). Other regional credits include Avenue Q and The Rocky Horror Show (both at the Warehouse Theatre, SC), the world premiere of Charles Edward Pogue's adaptation of A Flea in Her Ear (SC's Centre Stage), (Cincinnati Shakespeare Company), (Barksdale Theatre), (Theatre IV), and(Theatre IV, Barksdale Theatre and TheatreVirginia). Since 2006, Dr. St. Peter has served as a visiting lecturer at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance in London, England ( He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Theatre Program Coordinator at Virginia Union University in Richmond, VA, He has taught or guest lectured at Trinity College (Dublin), the University of Kentucky, Texas Tech University, Centre College (KY), Christopher Newport University (VA), Virginia Commonwealth University, Clemson University, the University of Toledo, and others. From he served as the inaugural Chair of the Directing Committee of the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC), is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, a 2007 participant in the LaMaMa/Umbria International Directors Symposium held in Spoleto, Italy, and a 2002 recipient of a Princess Grace Foundation Theater Award. He previously served as the Associate Artistic Director of TheatreVirginia and Barksdale Theatre (Virginia). Dr. St. Peter received his M.F.A. in stage directing from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1998 and his Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Texas Tech University in 2013.

SEASON TWO Episode Three with Amanda Berg-Wilson "You Always Want to be the Exporter not the Importer"

Season 2 · Episode 3

Tuesday, October 22, 2024 • Duration 54:45

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Amanda Berg-Wilson is the co-founder and artistic director of The Catamounts Theatre Company, an immersive theatre experience in the Boulder/Denver area. She has directed over fifteen productions, including God’s Ear (2011 Camera Eye Award, Best Director), Failure: A Love Story (2013 True West Nomination, Best Director), and Rausch (2018 True West award, 2019 Henry Award nomination).

Under her direction, The Catamounts have received eight Westword Best of Denver awards, four True West awards, thirteen Colorado Theatre Guild nominations, and six Daily Camera Eye Awards, among other awards. She has also doubled the Catamounts’ operating budget two and a half times in just eight years.

Before The Catamounts, she co-founded and served as Artistic Director of Striding Lion, a Chicago-based performance group that operated for sixteen seasons.

She was a finalist for the 2018 True West Theatre Person of the Year, was highlighted in Westword magazine as one of “100 Colorado Creatives,” received a 2014 BCAA Theatre Fellowship, and her work has been profiled in American Theatre magazine. Elsewhere in Colorado, she has performed with the Curious Theatre Company and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Off-Center wing. She directed the hit immersive staging of The Wild Party and conceived of and created Between Us: The Whiskey Tasting for DCPA’s Off-Center, and is Assistant Director on Off-Center’s Theatre of the Mind, a new immersive theatre piece by Mala Gaonkar and Rock n Roll Hall of Famer David Byrne. She directed 9 to 5 and Pride and Prejudice at Creede Repertory Theatre in Creede, Colorado.

Amanda graduated cum laude with a BA in English and Drama from Kenyon College in Ohio.

To learn more about ACT contact Dawn Westbrook by heading over to her website at www.dawnwestbrook.com

WEEK TWO An energetic conversation with one of Colorado's theatrical gems, the multihypenate theatrical dynamo, Ms. Candace Joice

Season 2 · Episode 2

Monday, September 30, 2024 • Duration 01:10:51

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Humble, Kind. Uber-talented, and Devoted to storytelling since she was a child are just a few takeaways from my interview with Candace Joice. From the moment I met her, I knew she had "IT" - and let me tell you, she has "IT" in spades. She is an avid reader, and ever since her first stage role as a duckling, she relishes the experience of collaborating with a writer's words whether on stage, on film, or in recording an audiobook. Candace holds a master's degree in theater and has over ten years of regional theater credits as an actor and director at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts; Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company; Miners Alley Playhouse and The Catamounts Theatre. Candace draws from a wealth of experience to immerse listeners in compelling storytelling. Onstage, she has played characters as diverse as Elizabeth Bennett and Eddie Van Halen. She's just as versatile in her booth, jumping smoothly from the depth and vulnerability of literary fiction to the many character voices of genre novels, to the focus and authority of nonfiction. And when she's not in her booth or on stage? You'll probably find her playing with her dog or baking bread, macarons, pies, and cakes! Candace most recently assistant directed HAMLET at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts until October 6th and her new audiobook The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana R. Chambers drops on October 21, 2024!

To learn more about ACT contact Dawn Westbrook by heading over to her website at www.dawnwestbrook.com

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SEASON TWO Episode One with Tapping Troy McLaughlin who says "As a performer you must be willing and nice to everybody, because you never know who they might be!"

Season 2 · Episode 1

Tuesday, September 3, 2024 • Duration 01:09:25

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Schmigadoon Season One AND the new season of Virgin River, honey Troy McLaughlin is on a roll!

Troy McLaughlin and I go way back and I knew I wanted him on as a guest on ACT this season and was so happy that he found the time to give to both you and me. We met at Varina High School, in Richmond, Virginia but I was (…ha hem) just a little older than he! I first met him when he was a fabulous trumpet player in the marching band and as I was the drum major. And THEN…Troy broke loose and broke loose he DID! While at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA he decided a communications major wasn’t what he wanted to do – he wanted to be a performer, focusing primarily on tap and theatre dance. So, he transferred to the now-closed University of the Arts in Philadelphia (which makes him very sad) and some 40 years later, Troy has worked with some of the best in the business. From Disney’s THE LION KING (SWING), and SPIDERMAN (Las Vegas), to a 2 year stint in Germany in STARLIGHT EXPRESS (SWING) and you haven’t heard anything until you hear him sing FREIGHT in German! While in New York City he danced with Manhattan Tap, The Radio City Rockettes Show (understudying the late Gregory Hine’s brother Maurice and the great Harold Nicholas YUP of the famous Nicholas Brothers. He met Gregory a couple of times and you’ll hear those stories in the podcast. In Vegas, he worked on the rigging for SPIDERMAN with Julie Taymor and The Siegfried and Roy Show as a CatMan (you don’t want to miss the photo on the FB page!) Troy teaches, and choreographs, he does hip-hop, body percussion, and creative movement. he works in television, theatre, film, and his own dance company Troy’s BobShop. You can find more about it at www.bobshop.ca His main love (besides his family wife and two daughters who are all in the business) is teaching students and teachers of all ages and levels to help them gain the confidence they need to close in on their potential.

If you happen to be in Vancouver Canada this week for the Fringe Festival in the beautiful Granville Island Theatre District, Troy’s Dance Works will be on the stage with the Chuck Taylor Ballet at the Waterfront Theatre in Vancouver to celebrate storytelling through dance. Troy’s piece is about self-acceptance and individuality in a conformist world…all told through multiple styles of dance. For more information, please check out the Waterfront Theatre website at

WEEK FIFTEEN Tony award-winning actor, Frank Wood "Acting gets me out of myself."

Season 1 · Episode 15

Monday, September 28, 2020 • Duration 01:13:53

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Frank Wood was raised in Boston, MA and he comes from a family of politicians. His father was a political scientist who served under the Lyndon Johnson administration and his sister, Maggie Hassan was the 81st Governor of New Hampshire from 2013-2017. She was elected to the senate in 2016 and is a junior US Senator.

His passion for theatre was ignited during his college days at Wesleyan University when he got to act in the Canterbury Tale Shepherd’s plays. It was the challenge of the actor was not only the fun part, but it got me out of myself, in a kind of extravagant, self-parody, satire, falling down comedy, that made us reach out to the audience. And that is the reason he is in theatre.

“When my character says things that I can’t say in real life is not only why I love acting, but why I need it.”

He’s a Tony award winning actor for his work as Gene in Warren Leight’s SIDEMAN which also won the Tony in 1999 for Best Play. On Broadway he has appeared as Bill in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY; Roy Cohn in Tony Kushner’s Pulizer Prize-winning play ANGELS IN AMERICA; the Night Clerk in O’Neill’s HUGHIE opposite Forest Whitaker. He has appeared in numerous television shows such as: Mozart in the Jungle, Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order SVU, Medium, and Modern Family; and films such as: JOKER, POLLACK, & MICHAEL CLAYTON.

I loved talking about the acting process with the very talented and lovely man. Enjoy!

To learn more about ACT contact Dawn Westbrook by heading over to her website at www.dawnwestbrook.com

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WEEK FOURTEEN Steven Skybell's Yiddish Tevye - a miracle of miracles!

Season 1 · Episode 14

Friday, September 11, 2020 • Duration 01:13:54

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Born in the small town of Lubbock, Texas, Steven Skybell knew at the age of 10 as Pavel the peasant boy in the local theatre version of Fiddler on the Roof that the stage was where he belonged. A graduate of both Yale University's undergraduate and graduate theatre studies programs, in 1988 Steven stepped right off the stage at Yale Repertory and onto the boards at the Neil Simon Theatre for his broadway debut in Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness!

Classically trained in Shakespeare, ironically Steven does not think of himself as a musical theatre performer. But to everyone else? His performance as Tevye in the Yiddish version of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF directed by Joel Grey is a tour de force and the performance of a lifetime. The show was sold out and seen by celebrities and politicians such as Hillary Clinton, Hugh Jackman, Baryshnikov, Lin-Manuel Miranda (to name a few).

The production won the 2019 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Revival, the 2019 Critics Circle Special Citation Award and Steven won the 2019 Lucille Lortel for Best Lead Actor in a Musical. The show was the brain child of both Joel Gray and the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene's (NYTF) Artistic Director, Zalmen Mlotek.

Steven has appeared on broadway in shows such as, Love! Valour! Compassion!, WICKED, and The Full Monty. He and his husband, Michael Cole (who is Stephen Schwartz's personal assistant), live a couple of hours north outside the city in a little town known as Mahopac, NY. They have 2 children "fur babies" named MacKenzie and Caleb both are Blue Merle Australian Shepherds. If you ever find yourself on the lake in this lovely little hamlet, you might even see Tevye slaloming across the wakes and doing some tricks.

I will tell you that that Steven is as lovely to converse with as he is on stage. Honest. Charming. Kind. Funny. Interesting. He says the trick to acting is If the thought is clear then the actor's message will get across. Steven Skybell is truly a very rich man!

To learn more about ACT contact Dawn Westbrook by heading over to her website at www.dawnwestbrook.com

ACT: a new podcast series with host Dawn A. Westbrook about the craft of acting, the art of directing and embracing the process – Details, episodes & analysis

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ACT: a new podcast series with host Dawn A. Westbrook about the craft of acting, the art of directing and embracing the process – Details, episodes & analysis

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