Places, Everyone

Brooklyn Academy of Music is the oldest performing arts venue in America that is continually operating. It presents dance, theater, opera, music, and film, and its performances are known for being contemporary, experimental, global, and unusual, much like Brooklyn itself. Across the river in Manhattan, there’s a new major arts venue on the scene called The Shed - a massive structure on the west side of Manhattan with a movable glass façade that creates a shape-shifting performance space. It cost almost $500 million to build. When I scrolled through their line-up of events, my first thought was: any of these artists could be at BAM, and some already have. Do brand new arts venues pose a challenge to arts venues that already exist? Are there enough deep-pocketed donors and enthusiastic ticket buyers to go around? I decided to ask a producer at BAM, Amy Cassello. She says she’s not worried. Why not? That’s today’s episode. 

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Tony Award winner Itamar Moses is a playwright, a book writer for musicals, and a screenwriter on several TV shows. Each of these art forms is rewarding, he says, but playwriting is thus far the medium that allows him full creative control. Perhaps for that reason, it’s also the arena in which he probes the most personal subject matter. Like many novelists, screenwriters, and playwrights, Itamar draws both directly and indirectly on first-hand experience, and he admits that getting to a place of vulnerability invariably leads to better storytelling. What does it mean for personal excavation to be your livelihood? 

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Michael Zegen has acted in dozens of TV series, films, and plays over the past decade and a half, but he has recently hit a new level of celebrity playing Joel Maisel on the hugely successful series, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. The show offers an exciting challenge for the actor – a multi-layered character that Michael admits he's still discovering. Yet the world of "Maisel" – a distinctly Jewish world – is recognizable and close to home. In this episode, Michael discusses getting into character in a world he knows well. 

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Actress Sarah Steele knows a thing or two about long-term roles: she's had one on TV (on the CBS drama "The Good Wife" and its spin-off, "The Good Fight") as well as on stage (in the award-winning Broadway play, "The Humans", whose original cast took the production to Los Angeles and London). The ability to shape a character over years and years is a great opportunity for an actress, though it comes with complications, among them concern about being typecast and rigid scheduling. In an industry that depends on actors playing many parts, are long-term roles a good thing? 

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What makes a theater festival successful? High-quality art, solid ticket sales, and an enthusiastic audience response. Since 2008, Kelley Girod has worked toward that goal with a festival designed to launch black writers in the early phases of their careers. Many of the festival’s alumni have since risen to prominence. 

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What does risk-taking mean in art? New York Theatre Workshop, a company in downtown Manhattan that's known for taking risks, has an advantage: an enthusiastic audience with an appetite for thought-provoking art. What might be risky at other arts venues is expected here. Which is to say, risk is subjective. In this episode, New York Theatre Workshop's managing director, Jeremy Blocker, talks about how he makes decisions about art that keep his loyal audiences on the edge of their seats.

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A theater producer falls in love with a foreign film and wants to adapt it as a live musical. Fast forward eight years and he's accepting a Tony Award on live television for Best Musical. For that producer, Orin Wolf, and that show, The Band's Visit, the path appeared smooth but was in fact arduous and steeply uphill. With no funding or support, Orin had to get people on board: investors, theater companies, and, perhaps most importantly, the original film's director. When all you've got is an idea, how do you convince the rest of the world?

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Welcome to Places, Everyone: a podcast about the intersection of art and finance. Through interviews with creative people across stage and screen, this podcast explores how artists work the business side.

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