On July 15, Ruthie Fierberg, in association with the Broadway Podcast Network, launches the new podcast Why We Theater.
The premiere episode will be available July 15, with new episodes released every subsequent Thursday for a limited season. Find it now at BPN.FM/WWT.
An intersection of theatre and social justice, Why We Theater digs into today’s most thought-provoking and urgent onstage works with the artists who made them and real-world experts who advise us on how we can create impactful change in our offstage lives. “I like to think of ‘theatre’ not just as a place or a presentation but as an action,” Fierberg says. “‘To theater’ is to engage with art presented onstage. The curtain call of a play or musical is not the end of the experience; it’s the beginning.”
Each episode begins with a one-on-one discussion between Fierberg and the artist behind the theatrical piece at hand and then opens up to include real-world experts in that field to offer advice and steps to help us all take actions (re-wire a thought pattern, sign a petition, donate to a related charity, volunteer for a related organization, etc.) and manifest progress.
Fierberg also tackles Octet and internet addiction with the musical’s Drama Desk-nominated director Annie Tippe, USC Professor of Neurology, Psychology, and Education Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, co-founder and Chief Clinical Director at reSTART Dr. Hilarie Cash, and Senior Software Engineer at Niantic Inc. Daphne Larose; Soft Power, democracy, U.S.-China relations, and Asian-American culture with three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist David Henry Hwang, director Silverman, author and “Asian Pop” columnist Jeff Yang, and senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign Jake Sullivan; and Pipeline, education inequity, and the school-to-prison pipeline with Obie-winning playwright Dominique Morisseau, Director of Integration and Innovation Initiative at NYU Metro Center Matt Gonzales, and Executive Director of Camelot Education Tyree Booker.