Some Small Magic

Adam Rose is a dancer based in Chicago, and the Founder and Artistic Director of Antibody Corporation. Topics include the mind-body problem, fragmented adolescent theories, and spirituality.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com.

Corey Smith, an artist and friend, joins me for an informal chat about his recent show The New Prairie School, the Midwest, the Neo-Futurists, objects, capital-P capital-A Performance Art, art galleries, and ambient fish.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com

Erica Mott tells me about overcoming deep fear through joy and surprise, making new objects out of trash, learning from every voice, and the magical elements of presence.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com

Don Share is the editor of Poetry Magazine, the longest-running monthly English language periodical dedicated to poetry. We talk about the idealism of poetry, poetry's durability and portability, editing with a legacy, and the joy of literary magazines.   Music by SJ Roberts. Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com.

Cut from a recording that's being saved for a future project, here's a quick conversation between Christopher Knowlton and I about puppetry and object performance.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com

Lee Mikeska Gardner is the Artistic Director of the Nora Theatre Company in Cambridge, MA. We talk about the differences in Boston and D.C.'s arts scenes, collaborating with scientists, honesty in practice, and how to put the work first.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com.

This week, Meghan Beals, the Artistic Director of Chicago Dramatists, tells me about working with a legacy, being just a part of a process, building the new American canon, and that it's okay not to know.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com

Some Small Magic is back for Season 3! For this season, we're focusing on the "Breadth of New Work," so we're kicking it off with Liz Anderson, a Chicago-based writer and comedian who creates one-of-a-kind theatrical events. Topics include how Liz makes the One Woman No Show, the showmanship of wrestling, and, of course, yelling at ghosts.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com. 

Closing out the 2nd season of Some Small Magic, Walkabout Theater Company's Thom Pasculli and I talk about vitality, making a way to make theatre, learning to touch your toes, the obligation in ritual, and investing in our imaginations.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com.   There won't be a bonus episode between Season 2 and Season 3, so the next episode will be out in 4 weeks instead of 2 on 10/11/17. Thanks for listening!

Vanessa Valliere - a Chicago-based performer with Manual Cinema and Mucca Pazza who toured with Tour de Fat, and now takes her puppet shows around the country - tells me about the pain of creating, swing dancing in Japan, finding one's place in the ensemble, and trying not to eat your puppets.   Music by S.J. Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com

Some context: After interviewing Bonnie Duncan (1.4) back in March, she suggested some other artists I should interview while I was in Boston. This is with Brendan Burns, one of Bonnie's collaborators, recorded at Brookline Music School. Talking points include taking a musical snapshot of a city's scene, confidence as practice, and music as a preferred language. Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com.

Recorded at the 2017 Puppeteers of America National Festival in St. Paul, Yngvild Aspeli (the Artistic Director of Plexus Polaire) and I discuss collaboration, perfection in fragility, starting from the theme, and changing a show with every performance.   Music by SJ Roberts: find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com

Digging an episode out from the March archives, I talk with Boston-based writer Patrick Gabridge about spacial formality, where farming and theatre line up, and how to fill up a box. Among other things.

Onye Ozuzu - creator of Technology of the Circle, founder of Project Tool, and Dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Columbia College - explains a circle's organizing principle, culture as a way, embodied discourse, and preparing to leave.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com.

Mark Jeffery - co-founder of ATOM-r and former company member of the elusive Goat Island Performance Group - describes the importance of duration, how to demand time, working body/thinking brain, and listening for magic.   Music by S.J. Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com

Sara Zalek, a multidisciplinary artist with a focus in Butoh, tells me about biking across the country, taking sharp turns in life, reaching into the beyond through the body, and trying to define the undefinable.   Music by S.J. Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com.

It's the start of the 2nd season of Some Small Magic! Sarah Fornace kicks it off with a fast-paced discussion about shadow puppetry, film, the combination of those two things, systems of magic, and diverolling out of a frame. Come listen.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com.

It's the bonus week between Season 1 and Season 2 of Some Small Magic! I speak with playwright MT Cozzola about her practice, turning dreams into shows, ghosts, and trying to get it right.   Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com

Wrapping up the first season of Some Small Magic, we hop back into the Boston episodes to talk to playwright and dramaturge Walt McGough about the evolution of Boston's theatre scene, Sideshow Theatre and how to fake it 'til you make it, learning the world and the self through playwriting, and trying to make the unreal on stage. I do a bad job of introducing Walt's plays, but he covers for me and explains them during the interview before talking about their background. If you want more of an explanation, there are synopses on Walt's website: https://waltmcgough.com/plays/   Music by S.J. Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com.

New-York based playwright Madhuri Shekar was in Chicago for the process and opening of her show Queen, at Victory Gardens, so I interviewed her! We talk about opening one's eyes to the complexity of the world, finding your friends, and the magic of falling in love, among other things. Music by SJ Roberts: Find more at sjroberts.bandcamp.com