Why We Theater: Recent Episodes
Broadway Podcast Network
Social justice meets theatre in this podcast from Playbill’s former Executive Editor Ruthie Fierberg. Artists and experts unite for curated panels, using plays and musicals (Broadway, Off-Broadway, and works in development) as a jumping-off point to confront societal issues such as racism, colorism, voting rights, fake news, digital technology addiction, the school-to-prison pipeline, anti-Semitism, raising LGBTQIA+ kids, and more. We help listeners grapple with hard questions inside a play or musical in order to create change in our offstage lives. And don’t worry if you haven’t seen an individual episode’s show or if you’re not a theatre buff. Award-winning writers and directors of pieces like SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY and THE PROM break down the message inside their stories and how they created that story. Then, real-world experts in the corresponding field (like NSA Jake Sullivan or THIS AMERICAN LIFE’s Ira Glass) offer advice and action steps (thought patterns to monitor, petitions to sign, organizations to support, etc.) so we can manifest progress. “Theater” is not only a place or a presentation, it is an action. “To theater” is to engage with art presented onstage. Why we theater? We’re about to find out.
In this Season 2 finale, Ruthie recommends currently running Broadway and Off-Broadway shows that speak to Why We Theater.
Paradise Square, now on Broadway
Alex Edelman's Just For Us
Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this week’s mini-episode, Ruthie recommends books—some novels, some memoirs—and television episodes that tell stories about homelessness. Then, taking a page out of Addressless’ book, Ruthie offers guides listeners through three at-home activities to better emotionally comprehend what it means to be at risk for homelessness and to experience it.
Organize a Sleep Out of your own.
Try Covenant House's "What Would You Do?" Activity.
Instructions for Losing Your Identity courtesy of Covenant House
Instructions for Privilege For Sale courtesy of Covenant House
Recommended Reads: My Abandonment by Peter Rock The Motel Life by Willy Vlautin Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey From Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle
Find your local independent bookstore.
Grey's Anatomy, Season 9, Ep 6 Station 19, Season 5, Ep 12
Create the change:
Learn more at the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH)
View homelessness statistics by state
Volunteer with or donate to Covenant House; Organize a Sleep Out in your community
Tell Congress to fund Homeless Assistance Grants (Click to sign a letter)
Read up on current legislation that would impact homelessness
How do we deal with our legislators?
Improve conditions in homeless shelters:
Hire well-trained staff, and hire enough of them
Bring mental health services to the shelters (i.e. have AA meetings on the premises, have mental health counselors on the premises)
What 4 experts have to say
Find a mentorship opportunity
Make cards with contact info to promote nearby shelters to hand out to those who are in need and asking for help
Donate clothes, especially socks, to nearby shelters
Participate in your city’s point-in-time count (signups are generally in Nov/Dec for the upcoming year - Google to find the PIT in your neighborhood)
Try rapid re-housing in your community
Learn about permanent supportive housing
Increase employment opportunities (adjust job applications so they do not require listing a permanent address)
Read the obstacles to solving the homelessness crisis—then counter them
Understand why homelessness is rising
Directory of Homeless Service Organizations by state
Sign up for Advocacy Alerts from the NAEH
Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
ADDRESSLESS: A Walk in Our Shoes played Off-Broadway at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in February 2022 as a virtual, interactive production. The play intimately and personally illustrated what it means to live homeless in New York City. Hungarian director Martin Boross and playwright Jonathan Payne explored this plight through three individuals living unhoused, each on a mission to acquire $1,500 while staying as healthy as they could. Experts Shams Da Baron (aka Da Homeless Hero), Covenant House International President Kevin Ryan, and playwright Jonathan Payne join host Ruthie Fierberg to dissect the play and offer answers to the solvable homelessness crisis in the U.S. View the Digital Program for ADDRESSLESS.
Create the change:
Learn more at the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH)
View homelessness statistics by state
Volunteer with or donate to Covenant House; Organize a Sleep Out in your community
Tell Congress to fund Homeless Assistance Grants (Click to sign a letter)
Read up on current legislation that would impact homelessness
Improve conditions in homeless shelters:
Hire well-trained staff, and hire enough of them
Bring mental health services to the shelters (i.e. have AA meetings on the premises, have mental health counselors on the premises)
What 4 experts have to say
Find a mentorship opportunity
Make cards with contact info to promote nearby shelters to hand out to those who are in need and asking for help
Donate clothes, especially socks, & personal hygience items to nearby shelters
Participate in your city’s point-in-time count (signups are generally in Nov/Dec for the following year - Google to find the PIT in your neighborhood)
Try rapid re-housing in your community
Learn about permanent supportive housing
Increase employment opportunities for those without housing (don't make a permanent address a requirement on job applications)
Read: Obstacles to solving the homelessness crisis—then counter them
Understand why homelessness is rising
Directory of Homeless Service Organizations by state
Sign up for Advocacy Alerts from the NAEH
Referred to in this episode:
What is StereoAKT?
What is Covenant House?
2020 Point-in-Time Count
About the foster care system
What is a group home?
Foster care vs. Group home
What is transitional housing?
Human trafficking and homelessness
Privilege Sleep Out exercise
Legislation for Wifi in all shelters
Shams fact-check: Shams said, “In Harlem, 40% of the students that are in school here are, are in, are either homeless or housing or facing housing instability.” Reports show 1 in 10 NYC public school students is homeless, up to 1 in 5 depending on the area.
Read more on homelessness of NYC public school students & CUNY students
Greater risk of Black and brown, LGBTQ+ youth
What is Community Access?
How real estate development impacts homelessness
How redlining impacts homelessness (more on redlining)
What is the Lucerne and what was the controversy?
Addressless’ How Can I Help? Worksheet (items incorporated in CTT)
The Childcare Tax Credit: How does it reduce child poverty?
How does that help alleviate homelessness?
What is the Poor People’s Movements?
What are Public Assistance Programs?
Open Hearts in NYC
Does shelter living cost money? Short answer: YES.
About Our Guests: Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Jonathan Payne, Playwright @JPayneWrites Shams DaBaron, Performer/Script consultant, Activist @homeless_hero Kevin M. Ryan, President of Covenant House International @CovHousePrez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Last week, American Utopia performer Tendayi Kuumba and experts Drs. Vinoo Alluri and Alejandro Lleras helped host Ruthie Fierberg take step back and welcome a broader perspective to problem-solving, beyond “What are the next steps to create change?” to “How do we find the next steps to create change?”
The human brain is not a muscle, but it does need exercise—so to speak. To change the way we solve problems, we must change the way we approach problems. Change the very way we think. Actor and producer Salma Hayek had this same idea when she produced the 2014 animated film The Prophet, a movie adaptation of Kahlil Gibran’s 1923 eponymous book. Hayek also believed: “We need a new generation that goes into the unknown and finds solutions that we have not seen or heard.” So this week, Ruthie recommends The Prophet as the companion piece to American Utopia—currently on Broadway through April 3, 2022.
Listen to David Byrne’s American Utopia on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music.
Get tickets to David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway.
Watch David Byrne’s American Utopia on HBOMax.
Watch the animated movie The Prophet.
Purchase the book The Prophet from your local independent bookstore.
Sign up for Ruthie’s monthly newsletter at ruthiefierberg.com.
Referred to in this episode
Read: Ways to help those in Ukraine
Help refugees throughout the world
Kahlil Gibran’s book The Prophet
Ruthie’s Parents.com interview with Salma Hayek
Connect with your host! Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Why We Theater is a product of the Broadway Podcast Network produced by Alan Seales and edited by Derek Gunther.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Leigh Silverman, Suzanne Chipkin, Wesley Birdsall, Elena Mayer, Patrick Taylor, and Dori Berinstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
You might think David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway is a concert. It’s not. Yet, it’s not exactly a play or a musical. It’s something else outside the box. The Talking Heads frontman— along with choreographer Annie-B Parsons’ and a band of international musicians, vocalists, and dancers—creates a show about exploring the unconventional, especially when it comes to unconventional thought and thought processes.
American Utopia made host Ruthie Fierberg wonder: How many solutions to society’s conflicts might we be overlooking because we think the way we have always thought? American Utopia performer Tendayi Kuumba and experts Dr. Vinoo Alluri and Dr. Alejandro Lleras join us to explore: What problems could we solve if we used more of our minds and used our minds differently? Could we achieve an American Utopia?
Listen to the album of David Byrne’s American Utopia.
Watch David Byrne’s American Utopia on HBOMax.
Create the Change
Volunteer with Headcount to register voters at a performance of American Utopia
Volunteer with Headcount in general
Cultivate new and varied ways of thinking:
Enhance your own synesthesia
Try any of these “6 Ways to Rewire Your Brain”
If your main way of processing and working is to sit in one spot and concentrate, try talking a walk, dancing, exercising to make your brain work differently by engaging different activity patterns in your brain.
Develop your “openness” (one of the Big 5 personality traits)
Read about how openness can help you see the world differently
Read David Byrne’s How Music Works
Listen to music outside of your normal playlist
Dig into more research on music and cognition
Listen to “happy” music to promote divergent thinking (which leads to increased creativity)
Explore social justice through music, a curriculum
Improve your allyship
Referred to in this episode (in order of mention)
Letter from David Byrne about American Utopia
Listen to “Here” from American Utopia
See American Utopia’s set and costumes
Read about and watch Annie-B Parsons’ American Utopia choreography
Your brain on music
Your brain listening to different genres of music
Grooviness of music
What is embodied cognition?
What is embodied cognition to music?
American Utopia’s partnership with Headcount
Watch Janelle Monae’s official music video for “Hell You Talmbout”
Your brain choreographed movement vs improvised movement
Watch this video debunking the MYTH: “Humans use 10 percent of our brains.”
What is pruning in the brain?
Babies learning language
What is synesthesia?
Research by Berit Brogaard to unlock more of brain’s potential
The truth about left brain vs. right brain
What is dadaism?
Listen to “I Zimbra” from American Utopia
David Byrne Talks Being a Good Ally and American Utopia
How making music can promote brain plasticity
About Our Guests:
Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Tendayi Kuumba, Performer @whostendayi
Dr. Vinoo Alluri PhD, musicologist and neuroscientist
Dr. Alejandro Lleras PhD, psychologist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With the recent controversy surrounding Whoopi Goldberg and her remarks about the Holocaust, with the recent hostage situation at a Texas synagogue, with generational trauma and anti-Semitism on the brain, Why We Theater re-releases this episode from Season 1 with a new intro and new context. Dig into Tony Award winner Steven Levenson's play IF I FORGET with Steven himself and experts Rabbi Shuli Passow (B'nai Jeshurun in New York City) and scholar Judah Isseroff.
Watch IF I FORGET on BroadwayHD. Michael’s monologue, as performed by Tony Award nominee Jeremy Shamos, appears with the permission of Roundabout Theatre Company, which premiered IF I FORGET Off-Broadway in 2017, and Steven Levenson.
Referred to in this new intro
Watch: Whoopi Goldberg shares thoughts on the Holocaust on The View
Debra Messing tweets a helpful response to Goldberg
Banning of "Maus" in schools.... and the subsequent nationwide results
Hostage situation at Texas synagogue
Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA
What is Zionism?
Referred to in this episode
“The Rise of Social Orthodoxy: A Personal Account” by Jay P. Lefkowitz
“The Problem with ‘Social Orthodoxy’” by Joshua R. Fattal, a critical response to Lefkowitz
“What is the Talmud? Definition and Comprehensive Guide”, Yehuda Shurpin
Who is Theodore Herzl?
Who is David Ben-Gurion?
Who is Sheldon Adelson?
Who is “Adolf Eichmann”?
Who is Hannah Arendt
Neveragain.com
Anti-Defamation League: Fighting Hate for Good
What is Jerusalem Syndrome”?
Create the change
Learn more about Judaism — knowledge facilitates compassion with “Introduction to Judaism” OR “The Basics of Judaism”
Name anti-Semitic incidents as such, report them, and speak out against them
Use Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide
Learn about The New Israel Fund, which envisions a Jewish and democratic state
Fight for justice guided by Jewish values with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)
Be aware of your own bias — it’s evolutionarily built in us to be tribal and we need to self-examine our thoughts and introduce dissenting viewpoints
If you are Jewish and looking for ways to become involved:
Choose a small tradition and incorporate that into your home, like lighting candles on Friday night for Shabat or saying the “Shema” before bed each night
Take inspiration from B’nai Jeshurun’s The Jewish Home Project
In COVID, many synagogues have moved services online; explore to find a place that feels right to you
Why We Theater is a product of part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunther, and produced by Alan Seales. Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter. Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com. Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com. Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montenieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin. Connect with Ruthie! RuthieFierberg.com Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg / @whywetheater Twitter: @RuthiesATrain / @whywetheater Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Continuing our discussion about the musical The Color Purple (which is also about to become a movie musical starring Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, and Corey Hakwins), this week Ruthie recommends Joshua Harmon’s new Off-Broadway play Prayer for the French Republic.
The Color Purple—originally a novel by Alice Walker—was adapted into a musical and first opened on Broadway in 2005 and revived in 2015 and depicts the abusive relationship between Celie and Mister (among many other things). But is it as simple as “Mister is a bad guy?” Last week in “THE COLOR PURPLE and Generational Trauma,” we spoke about what it was like for actor Isaiah Johnson to play Mister—why he wanted to, how it was healing, and how it was challenging. Isaiah also pointed out that generational trauma is not unique to Black Americans and Prayer for the French Republic reminded me of that.
Prayer takes place in 2015-2016 Paris and 1945-1946 Paris, depicting multiple generations of French Jews in the same family. Rising anti-Semitism in Paris confronts the present-day Benhamou family, stoking fear and worry, and forcing them to wonder “When do you leave? When are the signs enough to tell you to leave? And where do you go? Where is safe?” Listen to this full episode for the connections between these two theatrical pieces, the communities they portray, and why you should run to see both.
Buy tickets to Prayer for the French Republic at Manhattan Theatre Club.
Visit the website of International Center for Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma
Read the International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma
Explore the work of Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Braveheart
Read On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Connect with your host! Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Why We Theater is a product of the Broadway Podcast Network produced by Alan Seales and edited by Derek Gunther.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Leigh Silverman, Suzanne Chipkin, Wesley Birdsall, Elena Mayer, Patrick Taylor, and Dori Berinstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In all its forms, The Color Purple is a powerful account of generational trauma in the Black community. The novel by Alice Walker was published in 1982 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 before being adapted into a movie by Steven Spielberg starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. In 2005, the musical version opened on Broadway starring LaChanze with a book by Marsha Norman and a score by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. Ten years later, the musical came back to Broadway in a 2015 revival and won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
Actor Isaiah Johnson, who played the role of Mister in the original Broadway cast of the 2015 revival production, opposite Cynthia Erivo, joins us to discuss the musical as we look at the character of Mister and generational trauma. What does it mean to carry the trauma of your ancestors? How does this type of trauma affect people, specifically Black Americans? What tools are there to heal this trauma for those experiencing it? And how can non Black people support Black healing? Experts Curtis Smith, Cymone Fuller, and Dr. Schekeva Hall weigh in, as well.
Create the Change
Begin or deepen your mindfulness practice (resources from Moment of Mindfulness here)
Seek out a therapist with cultural competency training
Search Therapy for Black Girls, Psychology Today, Alma, etc.
Consider a restorative justice process to heal pain and trauma in lieu of punitive justice
For members of the Black community:
Build relationships and unify Black people
Check out the youth organization Jack and Jill of America or any of the 10 on this list
Discover the Black Feminist Project
Tell your truths, your stories, express yourself
For members of non-Black communities: LISTEN.
Read Dr. Yael Danieli’s book International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma
Find more research on generational trauma via the International Center for Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma
Read “Breaking the Chains of Generational Trauma”
Learn more about generational trauma
Explore the work of Dr. Joy DeGruy
Referred to in this episode
Michaela Angela Davis
Clips from the Schomburg Center Color Purple panel
“Lynching Memorial” aka The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama
What is generational trauma?
What is mindfulness?
Moment of Mindfulness LLC
What is restorative justice?
Impact Justice
Statistic: Children of Holocaust survivors over-represented 300 percent
Generational Trauma in Indigenous communities and its impact
Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok writes the story of high-schoolers B & G in Sanctuary City. As undocumented teens, the two lean on each other. When G gets citizenship and B has to choose to stay in New Jersey or return with his mom to their country of origin, questions of identity, friendship, sacrifice, and love emerge.
In Nicola Yoon’s New York Times bestseller The Sun is Also a Star, Natasha and Daniel are also from immigrant families—Daniel a first-generation Korean-American and Natasha an undocumented immigrant from Jamaica. This book is magical. It’s simultaneously a surprising love story, a philosophical exploration about our universe, and a very real fight to survive another day. Listen to find out why if one story intrigues you, so will the other.
Read The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon.
Purchase the book from your local independent bookstore.
Connect with your host! Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Why We Theater is a product of the Broadway Podcast Network produced by Alan Seales and edited by Derek Gunther.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Leigh Silverman, Suzanne Chipkin, Wesley Birdsall, Elena Mayer, Patrick Taylor, and Dori Berinstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok debuted her new play, Sanctuary City, Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop in the fall of 2021. The drama follows B and G, two best friends, both undocumented immigrants. After 9/11, B’s mom decides to return to her country of origin, but the U.S. is the only home B has ever known. As he decides whether to stay or leave, G might be able to offer him a solution. How much are they each willing to sacrifice?
Sanctuary City puts U.S. immigration policy and the people it affects under a microscope and humanizes the stories behind the legalese. Host Ruthie Fierberg, along with Majok and experts Katherine Benton-Cohen (Author Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission & Its Legacy), Carolina Canizales (Immigration Legal Resource Center), and Christian Pinochet-Paul (Presidents’ Alliance) discuss the evolution of immigration policy in the United States to present day, potential reforms to make policies more humane, where immigrants can find support, and more.
Create the change
Support your local immigrant communities
Create a warm and safe space at community centers
Welcome them in the PTA and at school functions
Become a patron of immigrant-owned businesses
Assist in supporting refugees
Dispel myths about immigrants (Read “The 14 Most Common Arguments Against Immigrants and Why They’re Wrong”)
Donate to/partner with TheDream.US
Donate to the International Rescue Committee
Volunteer with/Join a campaign at United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led network
Visit the State Policies map to see the policies of colleges & universities in every state
Advocate for in-state tuition for all students with your state representatives
If you work at a college or university, visit Presidents’ Alliance for resources, research, and tips to support international, immigrant, & undocumented students
If you or someone you know is an immigrant, undocumented or otherwise, who needs support:
Check your eligibility for DACA and apply (DACA toolbox)
Apply for a National Scholarship or Opportunity Scholarship for higher education
Seek support from United We Dream
Reach out to Texas Organizing Project
Contact the Workers Defense Project
Find a Dream Center near you
Referred to in this episode
Timeline of U.S. immigration laws
What is DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals)?
What is DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act)?
The Dillingham Commission
Katie’s book Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission & Its Legacy
Chinese Exclusion Act
1907 Gentlemen's Agreement
1965 Hart-Celler Act
What is the DREAM Act?
Who are Dreamers?
Paul Kramer TED Talk: “Our Immigration Conversation Is Broken”
Section 1325 (Unlawful Entry….) and Section 1326 (Re-entry After Deportation)
Business Insider article on inflation and immigration
Presidents’ Alliance, Best Practices
Gaby Pacheco scholarship (via TheDream.us)
Julian Castro’s proposed immigration policies
Libby Garland’s book After They Closed the Gates: Jewish Illegal Immigration to the United States, 1921-1965
The number of immigrants and undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
About Our Guests: Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Martyna Majok, playwright Twitter: @martynamajok
Katherine Benton-Cohen, PhD, professor of history and author Twitter: @guprofbc
Carolina Canizales, Immigrant Legal Resource Center Twitter: @the_ILRC
Christian Penichet-Paul, Presidents’ Alliance Twitter: @donchristian92 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It can be a challenge to make an episode of Why We Theater in time for you to see every show while it’s running. So here are some recommendations for currently running Broadway and Off-Broadway shows that speak to Why We Theater and some incoming productions to keep an eye on.
From Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong at The Shed to The Tonight Show’s Tariq Trotter and his new Off-Broadway musical, these are recommendations you’ll want to hear and tickets you’ll want to book.
Nervous about going to the theatre? Learn about their safety protocols in this article from Ruthie.
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe Now Off-Broadway at The Shed through Feb 6
Assassins Now Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company through January 29
David Byrne’s American Utopia Now on Broadway - on sale through April 3
Prayer for the French Republic Now Off-Broadway - on sale through February 27
Skeleton Crew Now on Broadway - on sale through February 20
Black No More Coming to Signature Theatre Company Off-Broadway January 18
Confederates Coming to Signature Theatre Company Off-Broadway February 22
English Coming to Atlantic Theatre Company Off-Broadway February 4
Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Building on our episodes about Nadira Simone’s The Killing of Kings, in this mini-episode, Ruthie recommends the documentary The Prison Within. The film reveals the stories of six incarcerated men—their upbringings, their crimes, their humanity—as we watch them go through a restorative justice process. It’s remarkable. A must-see.
In the U.S., 2.2 million people are incarcerated, which costs taxpayers $260 Billion per year. The Killing of Kings put these statistics in a human context for me. Filmmaker Katherin Hervey’s The Prison Within expanded that lens.
Watch The Prison Within
Connect with your host! Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Why We Theater is a product of the Broadway Podcast Network produced by Alan Seales and edited by Derek Gunther.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Leigh Silverman, Suzanne Chipkin, Wesley Birdsall, Elena Mayer, Patrick Taylor, and Dori Berinstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Building upon last week’s episode “THE KILLING OF KINGS and the Transition of Incarcerated Persons From Prison,” host Ruthie Fierberg speaks one-on-one with expert Esther Matthews, PhD, about the practical steps to take to achieve the prison and transition reforms we spoke about in our main episode. As a professor of sociology and criminology with research expertise in re-entry solutions for formerly incarcerated people, Esther answers questions in four key areas: 1. Physical safety inside prisons, 2. Shifting prisons towards transformation and away from retribution, 3. Holding your Department of Corrections (DOC) accountable, and 4. Anti-Discrimination for transitioned citizens.
Create the Change:
Physical safety inside prisons
Examine and lessen frequency of strip searches
Make strip searches more private
Expand training for personnel who perform strip searches to require humane treatment
Counseling and education—not punishment
Shift your ideology to see inmates as people
Amend training of correctional staff so that safety of the people inside (not the institution) is their protective priority
Minimize force
Reach out to head of Department of Corrections—usually called the Secretary—or reach out to the Governor (who appoints the Secretary)
Reach out to state legislators
Find your federal and local representatives
Hold the Department of Corrections and Bureau of Prisons accountable
Through Secretary of DOC, who oversees DOC policies
Reach out to superintendent or warden of local prison for implementation of those policies
Know your Governor/gubernatorial candidates’ position as they appoint the head of the DOC
Department of Justice appoints head of BOP policy in federal facilities
Reach out to your U.S. Senator for federal facility concerns and state legislators for state facility concerns
Anti-Discrimination Work
Tighten policies: Reach out to state and local legislators because they implement laws like Ban-the-Box and state and federal agencies who enforce those laws
Enforce laws that are already on the books (i.e. Ban-the-box)
Contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission if you have been the victim of discrimination
Move burden of proof to employer and landlord when trying to deny a job or housing (rather than burdening the person with the record to prove worthy)
Referred to in this episode
Norway correctional staff training as mentors rather than custodians or officers (original study)
How this can work in the U.S.
North Dakota reforms corrections officer training
Other U.S. states follow Norway’s model
About Our Guests: Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater
Esther Matthews, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology & Criminology, Gonzaga University Esther earned her PhD in the Justice, Law and Criminology program from American University. She holds a Master of Science in Justice, Law and Criminology from American University, and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Oregon State University. Her research focuses on identifying and investigating successful re-entry solutions for returning citizens. She has a particular interest in how race, gender, poverty and mental health intersect, are criminalized and affect reentry efforts. Her research projects include: 1) a field experiment testing outcomes of ban-the-box policies, 2) detection of implicit bias against justice-involved individuals and determining if, and how, it can be altered, 3) ethnographic inquiry of restricted housing units and reentry programs in two Northeastern prisons and 4) qualitative examination of employment programs for returning citizens in the DC area. Esther has been published in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation and has two book chapters scheduled for publication in the Routledge Handbook on American Prisons and Prisons and Community Corrections: Critical Issues and Emerging Controversies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today we welcome artist Nadira Simone, who wrote the breath-stealing new play The Killing of Kings. The drama weaves a tapestry of Black families in America dealing with mass incarceration and police brutality, grappling with Black Lives Matter, and surviving racism. Simone achieves this by homing in on the King family, as patriarch Patrick King returns home from a second stint in prison. But what kind of life awaits Patrick King now that he is out?
We dig into the struggles of transitioning out of incarceration. Experts Anthony Dixon of the Parole Preparation Project and Esther Matthews of Gonzaga University rewind to the conditions that lead to imprisonment and recidivism—the tendency of a formerly incarcerated person to become reincarcerated. We learn why words like “re-entry,” “rehabilitation,” and “reintegration” are inaccurate and counter-productive and reset terminology to use the word “transition.” Simone, Dixon, Matthews, and host Ruthie Fierberg discuss possible reforms inside prisons to transform residents and how we as the receiving communities can facilitate the transition for people who get out to become integrated members of society.
Create the change
Watch The Prison Within
Question your own biases about incarcerated and formerly incarcerated persons
Approach all people with compassion and humanity
Advocate for prisons that help people change; not just lockup
Support the use of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and peer support in prisons
Find short-term, medium-term, and long-term proposals from Brookings Institute
If you are an employer, consider “banning the box” - raise the bar for disqualification of employment
If you are a landlord, raise the bar for disqualification of rentals
Read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Go to Brennan Center’s “End Mass Incarceration” > Click on an “Issue” > Click “Work & Resources” > Read “Policy Solutions” > Advocate for these, Vote for representatives who include these in their platforms
Support and amplify the “Reverse Mass Incarceration Act”
Read “A Federal Agenda to Reduce Mass Incarceration”
What to look for in activists and candidates
Improve physical conditions in prisons (the jurisdiction of each state’s Department of Corrections)
Support Last Prisoner Project, reach out to them if you are in need
Learn about HOPE for Prisoners
Donate to Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Learn more about the War on Drugs and the number of people imprisoned for non-violent crimes (ACLU, AP, Brennan Center)
Referred to in this episode
Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry, where Anthony spent time in his childhood
Goshen Annex
The War on Drugs and its effect on the Black community
The Prison Within documentary
Washington Post article by Esther Matthews
2.2 million people are incarcerated in the U.S., 40 % no public safety reason (Brennan Center stats)
DOC: Department of Corrections
Data on obstacles to transition (housing, employment, etc.)
Reuben Miller’s book Halfway Home
Megan Kurlycheck research (specifically Comparing the Distributional Properties of Arrest Risk Across Populations of Provisional Employees With and Without a Criminal Record)
What is “Ban the Box”?
Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Learn more about our guests at bpn.fm/whywetheater. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Authenticity was the heart of our last episode “INTERSTATE and Authentic Trans, Queer, and Asian-American Representation.” Our discussion included artists Kit Yan and Melissa Lee and experts AC Dumlao of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and Sheena Brevig of the Center for Scholars and Storytellers. The quintet (including host Ruthie Fierberg) deliberated about how we ensure authentic representation and how we can get producers, theatres, and studios to greenlight projects that have non-white or non-male or non-straight or non-cis central characters. We just need more.
In every mini-episode, Ruthie recommends one piece of art that connects to the previous week’s larger themes. If you INTERSTATE or the conversation around it intrigued you, Ruthie recommends more stories you should explore. In the vein of “more, more, more,” Ruthie decided to offer multiple suggestions of art to put on your list, add to your queue, and place on your shelf.
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
The Crazy Rich Asians trilogy (Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend, Rich People Problems) by Kevin Kwan
Amateur by Thomas Page McBee
Find your nearest Independent Bookstore to purchase.
Never Have I Ever, Netflix
The Sex Lives of College Girls, HBOMax
Connect with your host! Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Why We Theater is a product of the Broadway Podcast Network produced by Alan Seales and edited by Derek Gunther.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Leigh Silverman, Suzanne Chipkin, Wesley Birdsall, Elena Mayer, Patrick Taylor, and Dori Berinstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Representation is the buzzword of the day. But mere presence means nothing if it isn’t accurate and genuine. Authentic representation in storytelling benefits not only members of historically excluded groups like Asian-Americans and trans people but members of every group, including the dominant culture. As of 2019, 69.1 percent of all film roles were white. How do we achieve a greater variety of stories, roles, and jobs in theatre, movies, and television? How do we ensure these stories and parts are written “authentically”? How do we get producers to greenlight projects?
Interstate, a new musical by Kit Yan and Melissa Li, follows two Asian-American artists (one a lesbian and one a trans man) as they embark on a U.S. tour with their band Queer Malady. Meanwhile, trans teen Henry discovers QM’s music and finds his story in theirs. Kit & Melissa join host Ruthie Fierberg and experts Sheena Brevig of the Center for Scholars and Storytellers and AC Dumlao of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund for this discussion about the importance and impact of authentic representation and how we can push for parity.
Hear songs from INTERSTATE here.
Create the change
If you are a studio head, producer, director, greenlight stories about historically excluded characters AND make sure members of that community are part of the creative team.
Use the Kilroys List—the annual industry survey of excellent new works by women, trans, and non-binary playwrights—to find quality stories by underrepresented artists to produce.
Read These Numbers Show How More Diversity on TV Leads to Increased Viewership
If you are an audience member, buy a ticket to a show/movie or watch a series about a community you are not a part of.
Download the Center for Scholars and Storytellers’ “AIR Tip Sheet for Race” to ensure authentic, inclusive representation across races.
Read these storytelling tips to evolve the representation of boys and men.
Enlist CSS to consult on a project or sign your team up for a CSS workshop.
Get in touch with AC Dumlao and enroll in a workshop (i.e. Trans 101).
Watch “Trans Literacy Project” videos from Honest Accomplice Theatre for their Trans 101 series.
If you or someone you know needs help changing their name, visit TLDEF’s Name Change Project.
If you or someone you know needs info about trans health services and access, visit TLDEF’s Trans Health Project.
How to support TLDEF
Follow TLDEF on social: @translegaldefense on IG, @TLDEF on FB and T.
Read this article about the need for and benefits of authentic Asian-American representation.
Read this discussion about trans roles for theater in American Theatre Magazine.
See this graphic on Gender Parity in Children’s Television.
Referred to in this episode
Ruthie’s Playbill interview with Kit and Melissa
“On T” refers to taking testosterone hormone therapy, which some trans men choose this as part of their gender affirmation process
“Het” abbreviation for heterosexual
Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF)
Center for Scholars and Storytellers (CSS)
CSS’ AIR Report
The Vito Russo Test
The Writers Guild of America 2020 Inclusion Report (statistical source)
UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report 2020 (statistical source)
Understand racial bias communicated via television nonverbal behavior
Quote from CSS - “Many believed having a Black president…”
LGBTQ+ lead characters in TV and film stats
API 1 protagonist in top-grossing film
Dr. Sheila Murphy’s study out of USC about the impact of narrative vs non-narrative film on public health outcomes for women. (Correction from the podcast: This study was published in 2015, not 2012.)
DEI workshops through CSS
About Our Guests: Ruthie Fierberg, Host IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater
Melissa Li www.melissali.com/ @melsaboo
Kit Yan www.kityanpoet.com/ @kityanpoet
Sheena Brevig @sheenamidori / CSS IG @scholarsandstorytellers
AC Dumlao IG: @mx.acdumlao/ T: @mxacdumlao Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Host Ruthie Fierberg recommends the most thought-provoking and moving pieces of New York theatre she’s seen to date. These plays and musicals bring to life issues in our society, which make them ripe for discussion. Each is further proof of why we theater. Some of these shows may become full episodes in the future. Some of them relate to past episodes. All of them will appeal to your taste if you love Why We Theater. Ruthie wants to be sure you have the opportunity to see them live onstage if you’re near New York or planning a visit, or that these titles are on your list if there happen to be streaming releases, a regional production, or tour that comes to a theatre near you.
Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord New York Theatre Workshop Off-Broadway Streaming through December 14, 2021 Buy a streaming pass here.
Thoughts of a Colored Man Broadway Tickets on sale through March 20, 2022 Buy tickets here.
Trouble In Mind Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway Tickets on sale through January 9, 2022 Buy tickets here.
The Trevor Musical Stage 42 Off-Broadway Tickets on sale through April 17, 2022 Buy tickets here.
Get in touch with Ruthie! Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Harriet Brown’s memoir Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle With Anorexia is a must-read for anyone looking to better understand eating disorders after last week’s episode “RINSE, REPEAT and Eating Disorders.”
The book serves as a fitting companion to Domenica Feraud’s Off-Broadway play Rinse, Repeat. Though the drama portrays a family’s struggle with this disease, the main perspective is Rachel’s. In our panel last episode, Domenica and expert Johanna Kandel shared personal experiences as people who have struggled with an eating disorder; Dr. Mae Lynn Reyes-Rodriguez offered the point of view of a researcher and clinician who specializes in eating disorders. In Brave Girl Eating, the perspective is that of a mother trying to help her daughter survive this mental illness. Hear more about the book and what you’ll glean from reading it.
Read Rinse, Repeat here.
Find a copy of Brave Girl Eating.
About Our Guests: Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Why We Theater is a product of the Broadway Podcast Network produced by Alan Seales and edited by Derek Gunther.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Leigh Silverman, Suzanne Chipkin, Wesley Birdsall, Elena Mayer, Patrick Taylor, and Dori Berinstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Eating disorders affect 29 million Americans (9 percent of the population). Every 52 minutes, someone in the U.S. dies as a direct result of their eating disorder. Guided by Domenica Feraud’s rapturous play RINSE, REPEAT, this week we delve into eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, orthorexia, and every eating disorder on the spectrum.
Host Ruthie Fierberg and Feraud unite with experts Dr. Mae Lynn Reyes-Rodriguez (researcher and clinical psychologist and fellow at the Academy for Eating Disorders) and Johanna Kandel (founder and CEO of The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness) to understand how to recognize if you or a loved one suffers from an ED; the stigma surrounding EDs; the true spectrum of EDs; the gaps in the medical system in treating EDs; EDs across cultures, particularly in the Latinx community; the economy and effects of diet culture; how and where you can find help for yourself or a loved ones; and legislation that will make ED treatment more accessible.
Read the play here.
About Our Guests: Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Domenica Feraud, playwright domenicaferaud.com
Dr. Mae Lynn Reyes-Rodriguez, PhD., FAED med.unc.edu
Johanna Kandel, founder and CEO of The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness Follow her on Instagram: @johannakandel @allianceforeda
Create the change
Call The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness (866-622-1235 or click here).
Join a free weekly clinician-led support group through the Alliance.
Please do not comment on the way anybody looks.
Do not label food “good” or “bad” or “junk”. All food in moderation.
Listen when someone tells you they are struggling with eating, especially if you are a medical practitioner.
Sign up for Action Alerts from the Eating Disorders Coalition (EDC) to easily sign petitions when legislation reaches Congress.
Donate to the EDC.
Support the bipartisan Nutrition CARE Act. (Learn more here.)
Support the SERVE Act. (Learn more here.)
Advocate for culturally sensitive treatment of eating disorders across cultures.
Learn more about Health At Every Size.
Referred to in this episode
2019 Playbill interview between Ruthie and Domenica
Understanding the word “recovery” relating to EDs
Statistics and research on eating disorders from National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA)
Racial and ethnic bias in ED care, specifically for Latinx people
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beloved medical drama THE GOOD DOCTOR has a lot to teach us. Beyond its premise—following the evolution of Dr. Shaun Murphy, a physician on the autism spectrum, and the hospital and its employees around him—and beyond its weekly case, the ABC television series also demonstrates the use of the strengths model in foreign aid. Expert Ana Jiménez-Bautista taught us the definition and importance of the strengths model in last week’s episode “Witness Uganda and Ethical Foreign Aid.” So this week, we connect musical theatre to television, Witness Uganda to The Good Doctor.
Witness Uganda creator Griffin Matthews also emphasized the importance of international travel during last episode’s discussion. In this mini-episode, we also look to Rick Steves for his decades-worth of thoughts on how traveling is a political act and the greatest weapon against hate.
Watch The Good Doctor on ABC or Hulu.
Read “Rick Steves Wants to Set You Free” by Sam Anderson.
Listen to the full episode on “OSLO and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”
Connect with your host! Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Why We Theater is a product of the Broadway Podcast Network produced by Alan Seales and edited by Derek Gunther.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Special thanks to Leigh Silverman, Suzanne Chipkin, Wesley Birdsall, Elena Mayer, Patrick Taylor, and Dori Berinstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Powerhouse theatre-writing duo Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews join us to talk about their moving and personal musical, Witness Uganda (previously known as Invisible Thread when it premiered Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre). Inspired by couple’s separate real-life experiences traveling to Africa—specifically Griffin’s trip to Uganda—the story follows the character Griffin as he meets and tries to help five Ugandan teens, first by teaching them himself and then by sponsoring their education when he returns to New York. But is this the kind of help they want or need?
The musical asks many questions about altruism, public health, voluntourism, and the ethics of foreign aid. What does it look like to offer aid, particularly from the United States to a developing nation? Experts Afam Onyema of the GEANCO Foundation—which is simultaneously based in the U.S. and Nigeria (where it serves local Afridans)—and Ana Jimenez-Bautista, the director of Field Practice at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, join us for this fascinating conversation about what it really means to help and how we can offer assistance in the most useful ways.
Create the change
Ask how to serve, rather than offering what you think is needed.
Challenge your ideas of what education looks like.
Get a passport and travel!
Support local businesses while traveling.
6 Ways to Travel More Responsibly
Learn more about the ethics of international volunteering.
When choosing a volunteer program, you want to see these words: collaboration, cultural sensitivity, cultural integration, reflection.
Pick up a copy of The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook at your local independent bookstore.
Donate to the GEANCO Foundation, or get in touch to offer other ways to serve.
Read about volunteering and voluntourism.
Find responsible travel guides here.
Avoid poverty tourism.
Read this article about ending colonialism in global health.
Referred to in this episode
Witness Uganda, keep track of the musical and its developments
The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, CA
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Department of Field Practice
What is cultural competence?
The Ibo tribe in Nigeria
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Disney’s animated movie RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON (starring Awkwafina, Kelly Marie Tran, and more) resonates deeply on the themes we discussed last week in our episode “OSLO and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” inspired by Broadway’s Tony Award-winning Best Play OSLO (now also an HBO film).
In Season 2, host Ruthie Fierberg releases a main panel episode every other week. In the off weeks (like this week), she drops mini-episodes in which she recommends another piece of art that relates to the previous week’s topic in an effort to broaden our thinking and encourage the consumption of great stories. This week, Ruthie draws the connections between OSLO and Disney’s RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON.
Watch Raya and the Last Dragon on Disney+.
Listen to the full episode on “OSLO and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”
Connect with your host! Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
Why We Theater is a product of the Broadway Podcast Network produced by Alan Seales and edited by Derek Gunther.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Special thanks to Leigh Silverman, Suzanne Chipkin, Wesley Birdsall, Elena Mayer, Patrick Taylor, and Dori Berinstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East erupted yet again in May 2021. The violence and fight for land and rights goes back thousands of years, though the State of Israel was established in 1948. Meanwhile, thousands have lost their lives and more continue to suffer. It’s considered the unsolvable conflict. But is peace in the Middle East truly impossible?
Tony Award winner J.T. Rogers, experts Aziz Abu Sarah (National Geographic Explorer, TED Fellow, peace-builder) and Libby Lenkinski (New Israel Fund) and host Ruthie Fierberg discuss the approach to peace in the context of Rogers’ play and HBO film Oslo, how things have changed since Oslo Peace Accords, possible solutions, and, most importantly, how to ease the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians now.
Read the play here.
Watch the film adaptation here.
Create the change
Listen to the new podcast “Groundwork”, a collaboration between the NIF and AMEP, to hear current stories from the region and activism on the ground.
Take a MEDJI tour.
Read Aziz’s book “Crossing Boundaries - A Traveler’s Guide To World Peace”
Listen to accounts from the Parents Circle and donate.
Seek out Combatants for Peace and donate.
Watch this discussion between an Israeli woman and Palestinian woman, who each lost a child in the conflict.
Understand the conflict history rather than choosing sides based on religion, ethnicity, or preconceived notions.
Read stories from multiple perspectives.
From Palestinian authors:
Palestinian Walks by Raja Shehadeh
The 100 Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat
Memory For Forgetfulness by Mahmoud Darwish
From Israeli authors:
All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan
The Art of Leaving by Ayelet Tsabari
Sadness is a White Bird by Moriel Rothman
The Wall and the Gate by Michael Sfard
To the End of the Land by David Grossman
From non-Israeli/non-Palestinian authors:
Kingdoms of Olive and Ash edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman
Apiergon by Colum McCann
Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander
Can We Talk About Israel? by Daniel Sokatch (out October 19)
About Our Guests:
Ruthie Fierberg, Host Ruthiefierberg.com IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain
J.T. Rogers, playwright JTRogerswriter.com / Twitter: @stagewriter
Aziz Abu Sarah, guest expert Azizabusarah.com / @AzizAbuSarah
Libby Lenkinski, guest expert NIF.org / @libbylenkinski
Read full bios here.
Referred to in this episode
“Everything You Need to Know About Israel-Palestine” via Vox.com
Map of present-day Israel
Who are Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat?
What were the Intifadas?
New Israel Fund
National Geographic’s “The Conflict Zone” video series hosted by Aziz Abu Sarah
The Elders
South Africa’s Freedom Charter
Aziz’s run for Mayor of Jerusalem
Palestine Walks by Raja Shehadeh
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The audio version of Ruthie’s acclaimed Medium article: “What It Will Take for New York Theater to Come Back as the Industry and Community It Professes to Be.” Originally published March 23, 2021, the article includes quotes from 13 major industry leaders (Amber Iman, Bonnie Comley, Brian Pavilonis, Brandon Michael Nase, Clint Ramos, Damian Bazadona, Eric Ulloa, Gregory Kirsopp, Jess Burns, Jessica Paz, Terry Byrne, Sammi Cannold, and more), statements from Actors Equity and The Broadway League, and oodles of research about how we get Broadway and Off-Broadway (and theater at large) better than it was pre-pandemic. Plus, this exclusive audio version includes an Epilogue on where we are now in July 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our BPN Podcasters bring you exclusive interviews with cast and creatives from In the Heights, in theaters on June 11 2021. Watch the video version of this event here: https://youtu.be/py3YLSt8MSo.
Interview 1: Daphne Rubin-Vega, interviewed by Salisha Thomas http://bpn.fm/bhbl
Interview 2: Olga Merediz and Jimmy Smitts, interviewed by Dori Berinstein http://bpn.fm/ddb
Interview 3: Quiara Alegría Hudes (screenwriter), interviewed by Jesse McAnally http://bpn.fm/mwc
Interview 4: Scott Sanders (producer), interviewed by Ruthie Fierberg http://bpn.fm/wwt
Interview 5: Gregory Diaz, interviewed by Eli Tokash http://bpn.fm/takeabow
Interview 6: Melissa Barrera, Corey Hawkins and Leslie Grace, interviewed by Alan Seales http://bpn.fm/ttp
For more info about these podcasts and over 100 more, visit http://broadwaypodcastnetwork online, or download our iOS app (http://bpn.fm/app). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What is the current state of theatre? Right now, the theatre industry and the pipeline to it (a.k.a. arts education) needs change. What can you do to save Broadway and hundreds of theatres around the country right now? What can you do to ensure artists can afford stay artists? Why is it necessary for every person to take classes in the arts? (Yes, there is research that says this is vital for everyone.) Where can you study the arts right now? It’s all here in this wrap-up of Season 1.
Referred to in this episode
6 Facts That Show the True Importance of the Arts
22 Online Resources to Learn Performing Arts at Home
Proposed Legislation to Support Those Struggling Due to COVID-19
Learn a new skill:
Sight-reading music
Circus arts
Dialect
Why We Theater is a product of part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunther, and produced by Alan Seales.
Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com.
Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montenieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin.
Connect with Ruthie! Sign up for her newsletter at RuthieFierberg.com/contact Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg Twitter: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Broadway’s THE PROM takes center stage in this raw discussion about LGBTQIA+ teens and the discrimination they often face. After opening on Broadway in the fall of 2018, the musical comedy earned five Tony nominations, including Best Musical, and will debut on Netflix in a musical movie adaptation December 11, 2020. Inspired by true stories, THE PROM spotlights Emma, an Indiana teenager banned from her prom for wanting to take her girlfriend. When aging Broadway stars Dee Dee Allen and Barry Glickman find out (and their show closes due to bad reviews), they decide to rehab their images by becoming celebrity activists and taking up the cause of this “LGBQ-teen.” THE PROM illuminates the issue about acceptance and identity of LGTBQ+ folx, especially youth. Whether you are queer, the parent of a queer child, or a queer ally, this conversation will offer guidance about self-love, the importance of affirming LGBTQIA+ folx, and how we do that.
Tony nominees co-book writer Bob Martin and co-book writer and lyricist Chad Beguelin to talk about the ins and outs of writing THE PROM for Broadway and adapting it for the screen. Plus, policy leader and advocate Jennifer Driver and mental health counselor Isaac Archuleta guide us on healthy and safe practices and policies to aid self-discovery in LGBTQ+ youth; what we can all do to make kids feel safe and loved, to help parents of LGBTQ+ youth respond more healthfully to their kids, and schools and communities embrace kids of all orientations and identities; and policies we need to support to create lasting change for our youth and queer communities of all ages.
Listen to the cast album here! Watch the Netflix movie here!
Referred to in this episode:
Prom discrimination stories from all 50 states
Prom discrimination in Buffalo, NY; French Settlement, LA; Sullivan, IN
The 2011 study Isaac mentions about sexual differentiation in development
That WEST WING scene about biblical hypocrisy
Amaze, video series to teach sex education at all ages
The Trevor Project educational resources
SIECUS Community Action Toolkit: A Guide to Advancing Sex Education in Your Community
CDC facts about mental health, education, and violence for LGBT Youth
Facts about suicide in LGBTQIA+ youth
Create the Change:
If you or someone you know is at risk of harming themselves, call The Trevor Project hotline 1-866-488-7386
How to recognize risk factors of self-harm or suicide; read the simple guide on how to talk about suicide and prevent it
If you or someone you know is struggling with their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, watch this Lifeguard Workshop from The Trevor Project
Understand what it means to come out
Advocate for affirmative counseling
Find a mental health professional specializing in LGBTQIA+ affirmative counseling
Bookmark this guide on being an ally to transgender, non-binary youth
Why We Theater is a product of part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunther, and produced by Alan Seales.
Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com.
Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montenieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin. Connect with Ruthie! RuthieFierberg.com Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg Twitter: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Steven Levenson (DEAR EVAN HANSEN Tony winner) talks about his Off-Broadway play IF I FORGET. Set in 2000, the play focuses on a Jewish family as three adult children (Holly, Michael, and Sharon) return to their parents’ house in Maryland for their father Lou’s 75th birthday. Michael is a Jewish Studies professor who recently wrote a book called “Forgetting the Holocaust” about how Judaism has become a religion haunted by death and ghosts – unified by fear and the phrase “never forget” rather than religious ideals or customs. With experts Rabbi Shuli Passow and scholar Judah Isseroff, we discuss American Jewish identity, the rise of anti-Semitism and how to combat it, Israel and Zionism, and trends of tribalism. If you’ve ever been curious about Judaism or Jewish identity, if you want to learn more about the Holocaust and its impact on Jews today, if you want to explore what all people can learn from the tribalism that caused the Holocaust, this episode is for you.
You can watch IF I FORGET on BroadwayHD.
Michael’s monologue, as performed by Tony Award nominee Jeremy Shamos, appears with the permission of Roundabout Theatre Company, which premiered IF I FORGET Off-Broadway in 2017, and Steven Levenson.
Referred to in this episode
“The Rise of Social Orthodoxy: A Personal Account” by Jay P. Lefkowitz
“The Problem with ‘Social Orthodoxy’” by Joshua R. Fattal, a critical response to Lefkowitz
“What is the Talmud? Definition and Comprehensive Guide”, Yehuda Shurpin
Who is Theodore Herzl?
Who is David Ben-Gurion?
Who is Sheldon Adelson?
Who is “Adolf Eichmann”?
Who is Hannah Arendt
Neveragain.com
Anti-Defamation League: Fighting Hate for Good
What is Jerusalem Syndrome”?
Create the change
Learn more about Judaism — knowledge facilitates compassion with “Introduction to Judaism” OR “The Basics of Judaism”
Name anti-Semitic incidents as such, report them, and speak out against them
Use Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide
Learn about The New Israel Fund, which envisions a Jewish and democratic state
Fight for justice guided by Jewish values with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)
Be aware of your own bias — it’s evolutionarily built in us to be tribal and we need to self-examine our thoughts and introduce dissenting viewpoints
If you are Jewish and looking for ways to become involved:
Choose a small tradition and incorporate that into your home, like lighting candles on Friday night for Shabat or saying the “Shema” before bed each night
Take inspiration from B’nai Jeshurun’s The Jewish Home Project
In COVID, many synagogues have moved services online; explore to find a place that feels right to you
Why We Theater is a product of part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunther, and produced by Alan Seales. Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter. Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com. Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com. Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montenieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin. Connect with Ruthie! RuthieFierberg.com Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg Twitter: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ming Peiffer and our four experts return for more of the unfettered, vulnerable conversation about what it means to be femme and sexual, inspired by the play USUAL GIRLS. The drama premiered in 2018 at Roundabout Underground for an extended, sold-out run. Catalyzed by the allegations against American Apparel’s Dov Charney, playwright Peiffer began to investigate the stories of women and the milestones in the sexual maturation of girls in America that can lead to a fraught and vulnerable relationship to one’s own sexuality. Peiffer put the patriarchy, rape culture, sexism, misogyny, and racism on trial in her professional debut work.
How do we navigate the male gaze? Are women and femmes ready to claim their own pleasure? What are the sexual scripts we live by and who writes them? How do we teach and exercise consent? What does a healthy sex education curriculum look like? What is sex-positivity and sex-normativity?
Peiffer, host Ruthie Fierberg, and experts Dr. Tracie Gilbert, a sex educator, writer, researcher, and consultant with over 25 years experience, specializing in work with Black communities; Professor Lisa Speidel, assistant professor and general faculty in the Gender and Sexuality department at the University of Virginia, and editor of The Edge of Sex; Professor Celine Parrenas Shimizu, Director of the School of Cinema, member of the graduate faculty of Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University, filmmaker, and author; and Justine Ang Fonte, a disruptor in health education and Director of Health and Wellness at an NYC K-12 school, gather to discuss everything from pleasure to self-discovery, recovering from violence to self-defense and all the coming-of-age in between.
Referred to in this episode
Meet Ericka Hart
Consent outside of sex
The stats on sexual assault and rape
CDC’s 16 critical topics in high school sex ed
Music video: WAP
Create the change
Read Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown
Check out K-12 sex education resources from Advocates for Youth
How to teach consent to kids at every age
Practice enthusiastic collaborative consent
Learn to set safe sexual boundaries
Lesson Plan: How to teach accurate reproductive anatomy and physiology to kids
Explore your own pleasure at stores geared towards female pleasure like Babeland or The Smitten Kitten
Learn to know thyself from Audre Lorde
Watch the documentary On The Record
Why We Theater is a product of part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunther, and produced by Alan Seales.
Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com.
Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montenieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin.
Connect with Ruthie! RuthieFierberg.com Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg Twitter: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The first of a critical two-part discussion, this episode focuses on Ming Peiffer’s USUAL GIRLS. The play premiered in 2018 at Roundabout Underground for an extended, sold-out run. Catalyzed by the allegations against American Apparel’s Dov Charney, playwright Peiffer began to investigate the stories of women and the milestones in the sexual maturation of girls in America that can lead to a fraught and vulnerable relationship to one’s own sexuality. Peiffer put the patriarchy, rape culture, sexism, misogyny, and racism on trial in her professional debut work.
What does healthy sexual development look like? How can femmes claim (or reclaim) their own sexuality? Is it possible to shed the culturally imposed shame and guilt and adopt an outlook of pleasure? What should effective sex education teach and when? What sexual stereotypes do we impose upon different communities, be it Black, Latinx, Asian, and how do we counter them? What are the consequences of teaching abstinence-only, medically inaccurate, or emotionally devoid sex ed? Peiffer, host Ruthie Fierberg, and experts Dr. Tracie Gilbert, a sex educator, writer, researcher, and consultant with over 25 years experience, specializing in work with Black communities; Professor Lisa Speidel, assistant professor and general faculty in the Gender and Sexuality department at the University of Virginia, and editor of The Edge of Sex; Professor Celine Parrenas Shimizu, Director of the School of Cinema, member of the graduate faculty of Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University, filmmaker, and author; and Justine Ang Fonte, a disruptor in health education and Director of Health and Wellness at an NYC K-12 school, gather to discuss everything from pleasure to self-discovery, recovering from violence to self-defense and all the coming-of-age in between.
Referred to in this episode
Kinsey Institute
What is a “comfort woman”?
Who gets the most right-swipes on dating apps?
Sexual stereotypes of Black communities and Asian communities
Lesson Plan: How to teach accurate reproductive anatomy and physiology to kids
Only 15 of 50 states required to be medically accurate; and other sex ed laws
What is rape culture? As explained by Marshall University or Buzzfeed
Children’s Book: SEX IS A FUNNY WORD
Music video: WAP
Create the change
Check out K-12 sex education resources from Advocates for Youth
How to teach consent to kids at every age
Explore your own pleasure at stores geared towards female pleasure like Babeland or The Smitten Kitten
Watch Justine Fonte’s “Story”
Read Emily Nagoski’s Come As You Are
Read Celine Parrenas Shimizu’s The Hypersexuality of Race: Performing Asian American Women on Screen and Scene
Read Shimizu’s The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure
Read Lisa Spiedel’s The Edge of Sex: Navigating aa Sexually Confusing Culture From the Margins
Why We Theater is a product of part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunther, and produced by Alan Seales.
Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com.
Special thanks to Genesis Johnson, Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montenieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin.
Connect with Ruthie! RuthieFierberg.com Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg Twitter: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Henry Hwang, three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony-winning playwright, and director Leigh Silverman join former policy director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and U.S. policymaker and now NSA Jake Sullivan and journalist, media consultant, author, and “Asian Pop” columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle Jeff Yang to discuss the musical-within-a-play SOFT POWER. The show illuminates the merits and pitfalls of democracy, the American electoral system, the American campaign system, U.S.-China relations, cultural appropriation, racism and hate crimes in America, soft power itself, and more.
This episode of WHY WE THEATER focuses on democracy, voting rights, and appreciating Asian-American perspectives and culture. Is democracy the best system of government? How do we improve our electoral system now? What must we keep in mind for the November 2020 Presidential Election and beyond? What is soft power and how do we wield it responsibly? Do Americans have a say in how we interact with foreign nations? How? Listen to find out.
Referred to in this episode
What Donald Trump and Dick Cheney Got Wrong About America by Jake Sullivan
The Citizens United Supreme Court Case
What Is Ranked Choice Voting? From FairVote.org
What is the Single Transferable Vote?
Why Was the Electoral College Created? by Dave Roos
Jeff Yang’s podcast “They Call Us Bruce” (co-hosted by Phil Yu)
What is the “model minority” myth?
Building the Transcontinental Railroad: How 20,000 Some Chinese Immigrants Made it Happen by Lesley Kennedy
The history of Asian American for Equality and the Asian American Movement of the 1960s
Create the change
Research and support Automatic Voter Registration
Check your voter registration status and deadlines for registration by zip code
Research your what’s on your ballot and who your candidates are
Contact your representative to support voter rights – SUPER easy with 5calls.org
Watch “We’re Doing Elections Wrong” from Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj
Read Jeff Yang’s Op-Ed “Mr. President, you don’t speak for Asian Americans”
Check out this interactive timeline to understand the history of the U.S. and China’s relations
Read Cathy Park Hong’s poetry and writings on her experience as an Asian American: Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
Read Peter N. Kiang’s “Understanding Our Perceptions of Asian Americans”
Stop hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
Watch panels from the Rise: Asian Pacific America digital conference
Why We Theater is a product of part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunther, and produced by Alan Seales.
Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com.
Special thanks to Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montenieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin.
Connect with Ruthie! RuthieFierberg.com Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg Twitter: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tony nominee Dominique Morisseau (TV’s SHAMELESS, AIN’T TOO PROUD) discusses her groundbreaking play PIPELINE, named for the national crisis of the school-to-prison pipeline. The play follows, Omari, a Black high school student at a predominantly white prep school and his single mother, Nya, who teaches at the district public school. When Omari attacks his teacher in class, Nya’s fears for her son and his future push her to the edge and force audiences to question who is truly at fault. How and why did the school-to-prison pipeline begin? What problems does education inequity and inequality cause? How do we make education more equitable—across public and private institutions? How do we train teachers of all races to relate to students of all races? What is “culturally responsive education” and how can it improve our education crisis? How does this connect to Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, and too many more? Listen to this fascinating and urgent discussion with playwright Morisseau and education experts Tyree Booker of Camelot Education and Matt Gonzales of NYU’s Metro Center.
Purchase the play here.
Referred to in this episode
Watch PIPELINE now on BroadwayHD. (Option for free trial for new users.)
Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson, MO (Read up until “The Law” section, which sources speculative opinions)
THE NEW JIM CROW by Michelle Alexander
ACLU: “School-to-Prison Pipeline”
Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity & the Transformation of Schools, where Gonzales works on education research and policy
Camelot Education, where Booker serves as an Executive Director
Morisseau’s op-ed “Why I Almost Slapped a Fellow Theatre Patron, and What That Says About Our Theatres”
What is “Culturally Responsive Education”?
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright – Buy it from your local Black-owned independent bookstore; find stores here or here.
Hear poet Gwendolyn Brooks read her “We Real Cool”
Key and Peele’s “If We Treated Teachers Like Pro Athletes”
U.S. Department of Education School Discipline Snapshot
2017-2018 School Survey on Crime and Safey
“Racial Disparity in School Discipline” Infographic
Create the change
Stand up for Black lives
Find one-page education reform resources at the EJ-ROC Policy Hub
Read JUST MERCY by Bryan Stevenson; FIERCE CONVERSATIONS by Susan Scott; WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? By Spencer Johnson; THE MISEDUCATION OF THE NEGRO by Carter G. Woodson (Buy from a Black-owned independent bookstore; find stores here or here.)
Follow @integratenyc @CEJNYC @TeensTakeCharge @AQE_NY @CACF
Read i3’s (Integration and Innovation Initiative) plan to integrate NYC schools, take their cues to adapt the policies for your school district
Learn what “defund the police” means
Elect Board of Education reps who:
Support universal early childhood education
Advocate for culturally responsive-sustaining education
Will divest from school policing
Will decriminalize student behavior
Will develop “sanctuary school” models to make school a space safe from police and ICE agents
Provide a model for family engagement in education
Opt for counseling and progressive discipline
Reach out to and collaborate with the Anti-Racist Initiatve at NYU’s Metro Center
Why We Theater is a product of part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunther, and produced by Alan Seales.
Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter.
Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com.
Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com.
Special thanks to Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montenieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin.
Connect with Ruthie! RuthieFierberg.com Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg Twitter: @RuthiesATrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ira Glass, Tony nominee Leigh Silverman, and Barbara Brandon-Croft debate fake news and more, inspired by Broadway’s THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT. Based on the book of the same name, THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT opened cold on Broadway at Studio 54 October 18, 2018, and immediately illuminated issues of journalistic integrity, art versus media, and what the word “truth” actually means. Jim Fingal is an intern at a literary magazine assigned to factcheck an essay by John D’Agata—the kind of piece that, according to editor-in-chief Emily Penrose could be “meaningful” and “pushes the envelope.” Inspired by Jim, John, and their real-life negotiation, the story follows Jim as he investigates every checkable fact in John’s article (excuse me, “essay”) as John fights to preserve the art of the story and the essence of truth.
But are truth and facts the same? What about news and storytelling? Should there be a difference? When should a writer’s perspective surface, if ever? What facts are negotiable, if any? How do you know? In this episode, host Ruthie Fierberg digs into the origins of the play with Leigh Silverman—yielding a surprise twist—before opening up the discussion about facts and their negotiability, or lack thereof, with renowned content creator Ira Glass of THIS AMERICAN LIFE who says facts are black-and-white and Barbara Brandon-Croft, a fact-checker and research director at Parents magazine, who says situations like those portrayed in Lifespan are all too familiar. In the end, these artists and experts advise us all on how to consume reliable media and how to hold journalists and their outlets to ethical standards.
Purchase the play here.
Referred to in this episode
John D’Agata’s story “What Happens Here” that inspired the book THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT, which inspired the play
The July 25, 2008, episode of This American Life “Switched at Birth”
The January 6, 20120, episode of This American Life “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory” and its subsequent retraction, titled “Retraction” released March 16, 2012
Read Ira’s 2012 letter about the retraction here
Study: Distinguishing Between Factual and Opinion Statements in the News (How well can Americans tell the difference?)
Quiz: How well can you tell factual from opinion statements?
Create the change
Take the quiz to see if you know the difference between fact and opinion statements
Learn the difference between fact and opinion statements with this one-sheet
Dive deeper with this lesson plan from The Guardian
Support your local radio station or local television news station
Find your local radio station in one click
Watch Hasan Minhaj explain the importance of local news on PATRIOT ACT
Check the masthead (akin to a staff directory) of your magazines. Look for a “Research Director” or “Head of Research” and/or “Fact-checkers” on the EDITORIAL staff (NOT the Marketing/Sales/Publishing staff).
Stay aware. Always check your sources. (Wikipedia is not a reliable source—though it may lead you to one.)
Examples of reliable sources: government agencies, studies from a journal of repute, doctors and lawyers in their area of specialty, Nielsen and Pew Research Center
Why We Theater is a product of part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunther, and produced by Alan Seales. Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter. Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com. Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com. Special thanks to Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montenieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin. Connect with Ruthie!
RuthieFierberg.com
Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg
Twitter: @RuthiesATrain
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Before Netflix’s THE SOCIAL DILEMMA, the 2019 musical OCTET tackled the harsh reality and trajectory of digital technology addiction and social media. Written by Dave Malloy (THE GREAT COMET) and directed by Annie Tippe, the a cappella chamber musical debuted Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre Center and earned eight Drama Desk Award nominations. Staged as a sort-of AA meeting for tech addicts, each song serves as a share about a different manifestation of tech addiction. Are we all addicted to tech? How dangerous is it? Or, is it not necessarily the tools, but how we use them that can lead us to breakthroughs or breakdowns? Host Ruthie Fierberg delves into the origins of the musical and its roots in research with Tippe before opening up the discussion to three experts. Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang offers the facts about technology’s effects on our brains and socialization; Dr. Hilarie Cash, who treats internet addiction, advises how to recognize true addiction and gives tips to establish a healthy media diet; and software engineer Daphne Larose proposes a new path for responsible tech development and the beneficial uses of software, the Internet, and games. Listen to the live album of OCTET here.
Referred to in this episode
Listen to the OCTET live album
What are QAnon and 4chan?
Research from Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Create the Change
Go grayscale
Turn off push notifications
Never watch the next recommended video; choose your own content
Check out the Center for Humane Technology
Unplug: Go tech-free one day per week, one weekend per month, one week per year
For educators read: The Brain Basis for Integrated Social, Emotional, and Academic Development
Hold tech companies accountable
If you feel concerned that you may have a more severe problem with digital technology, seek additional help.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) is a free national helpline for recovery resources and referrals; 1-800-622-HELP
Find a therapist who specializes in Internet Addiction with this tool
Consider treatment at reSTART
Why We Theater is a product of part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunther, and produced by Alan Seales. Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter. Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com. Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com. Special thanks to Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montenieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin.
Connect with Ruthie!
RuthieFierberg.com
Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg
Twitter: @RuthiesATrain
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What is colorism, and how do we combat it? Who decides what is beautiful? Why are girls raised to compete with each other? Playwright Jocelyn Bioh and experts Afia Ofori-Mensa of Princeton University and Maryann Jacob Macias of National Crittenton join host Ruthie Fierberg to explore the questions raised about the roots of colorism and how to check your own bias, beauty standards and how to advocate for broader definitions of beauty, self-esteem and how to raise girls and women to know our own self-worth in this episode tied to Off-Broadway’s Lortel-winning and Drama Desk-nominated comedy SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY. Purchase the play here. When SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY first hit the stage at MCC Theater in 2017, we witnessed the birth of a new powerhouse voice in the theatre with playwright Jocelyn Bioh. Set in Ghana in 1986, SCHOOL GIRLS is “the African Mean Girls Play” for a reason. It’s got all the comedy and all of the hallway politics of Tina Fey’s MEAN GIRLS. As the five of girls of the in-crowd—led by beauty Paulina—prepare for the Miss Ghana pageant recruiter to scout at their boarding school, things get ugly. The arrival of bi-racial transfer student Ericka (a light-skinned girl who grew up in the States but whose father is Ghanaian) throws a wrench in Paulina’s plans. The recruiter, Eloise, must think about who (and what type of beauty) could elevate Ghana to the worldwide stage in the Miss Universe pageant. Listen for some real talk and actionable steps to create a world with more acceptance and support—because that’s WHY WE THEATER. Referred to in this episode:
TikTok ‘tried to filter out videos from ugly, poor or disabled users’
Peggy Orenstein, watch her TED Talk tied to her book Girls & Sex
The work of Dr. Susan Bordo
Create the Change:
Write letters to the publisher.
Send letters, emails, tweets (as someone who worked for a magazine, yes we really do read it all) either to praise the diversity of people you see in their pages—editorial and advertising—or to point out the lack thereof and demand a change. Letters to the editor will also work.
Put your money where your mouth is.
Buy make-up from brands with a wide spectrum of shades—even if your shade is lighter.
Buy from brands that support your ideals—and let your friends know who these businesses are so they can join you.
Broaden the idea of the protagonist
Read, borrow, and purchase books with protagonists of color. Expand your horizons while showing that the readership for these stories is wide. As this writer observes: Black Books Are for White Children, Too. Here are some lists to get you started: 10 Books With South Asian Characters You Should Read in 2020; Multicultural Book Recommendation for World Travel From the Safety of Home.
Lift up women in front of other women.
Compliment girls for things they’ve done, not how they look.
Why We Theater is part of the Broadway Podcast Network, edited by Derek Gunter, and produced by Alan Seales. Follow us @whywetheater on Instagram & Twitter. Our theme music is by Benjamin Velez. Hear more at BenjaminVelez.com. Our logo is by Christina Minopoli. See more at MinopoliDesign.com. Special thanks to Dori Berinstein, Leigh Silverman, Patrick Taylor, Tony Montinieri, Elena Mayer, Wesley Birdsall, and Suzanne Chipkin. Connect with Ruthie!
RuthieFierberg.com
Instagram: @ruthiefierceberg
Twitter: @RuthiesATrain
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize–winning drama Disgraced changed Ruthie Fierberg’s life. In fact, it’s the whole reason this podcast exists. The play fused theatre and social justice for her. Theatre is not just a mirror to society, it’s a catalyst to change it. Listen to this 2-minute origin story.
Part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices