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 Hous...
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 Ho...
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 pr...
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...
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...
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 ot...
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 Broa...
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 Na...
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 ...
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 goin...
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. F...
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 priso...
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...
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 ha...
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 part...
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 y...
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 p...
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 f...
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 c...
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 ...
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 p...
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...
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...
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 (p...
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 t...
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 Gli...
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 ...
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 relatio...
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, sex...
