BRIGHT SHENG

BRIGHT SHENG

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MacArthur & ASCAP Award-Winning Composer, Conductor & Pianist

I try to preserve the Chinese music flavor. So, you imagine in Chinese band, the country music that people usually reserve for weddings or for big moments or for funerals. That kind of a feeling. Drums and music playing. I try to preserve it from my memory because what we have now is just a tune. You can probably recognize the tune, but the execution of translating that for a Western orchestra and make it sound like it’s a Chinese band playing Chinese instruments.

(Highlights) GAVIN JAMES CREEL

(Highlights) GAVIN JAMES CREEL

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Tony & Olivier Award-Winning Actor, Singer & Songwriter

To not honor that we are all creative, beautiful, interesting deep, rich individuals. We’re not zeros and ones on a spreadsheet. We’re not scientifically explained. We are not mathematically judged. We are imperfect blobs of emotion and bone and spirit and life and when we come together there is nothing greater than the chemistry and the alchemy of musical theater… There’s a joy, there’s a bounce, there’s an effervescence that’s part of that music. I had a great teacher in college, the head of our program Brent Wagner said, 'With lyrics, I can tell you to open the door, but with music I can tell you how.’ Lyrics are information and music is emotion.

GAVIN JAMES CREEL

GAVIN JAMES CREEL

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Tony & Olivier Award-Winning Actor, Singer & Songwriter

To not honor that we are all creative, beautiful, interesting deep, rich individuals. We’re not zeros and ones on a spreadsheet. We’re not scientifically explained. We are not mathematically judged. We are imperfect blobs of emotion and bone and spirit and life and when we come together there is nothing greater than the chemistry and the alchemy of musical theater… There’s a joy, there’s a bounce, there’s an effervescence that’s part of that music. I had a great teacher in college, the head of our program Brent Wagner said, 'With lyrics, I can tell you to open the door, but with music I can tell you how.’ Lyrics are information and music is emotion.

DR. FRANÇOIS CLEMMONS

DR. FRANÇOIS CLEMMONS

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Singer · Author
1st African American Actor on Children’s TV · Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

I always find it an ironic thing to think about the fact that Fred Rogers was colour-blind. He could barely tell a blue from a grey. I was young and to him I was a child and I certainly played the role of a child and he played the role of parent… He was profoundly patient.

(Highlights) DR. FRANÇOIS CLEMMONS

(Highlights) DR. FRANÇOIS CLEMMONS

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Singer · Author
1st African American Actor on Children’s TV · Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

I always find it an ironic thing to think about the fact that Fred Rogers was colour-blind. He could barely tell a blue from a grey. I was young and to him I was a child and I certainly played the role of a child and he played the role of parent… He was profoundly patient.

(Highlights) TAL HEVER-CHYBOWSKI

(Highlights) TAL HEVER-CHYBOWSKI

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Director of the Paris Yiddish Center (Maison de la Culture Yiddish) & Medem Library

A lot of people in my family and among my friends when they heard that I study Yiddish and that later made it my livelihood, they are very surprised. Yiddish? How come Yiddish? Why Yiddish? They even laugh sometimes, they are very surprised. And what I answer to them is that there is nothing surprising about the fact that I study or speak Yiddish. The real surprise, the real question that has to be asked is how come my parents, this last generation, didn’t speak Yiddish? Because, if you consider my family, for hundreds of years on all sides they spoke Yiddish.

TAL HEVER-CHYBOWSKI

TAL HEVER-CHYBOWSKI

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Director of the Paris Yiddish Center (Maison de la Culture Yiddish) & Medem Library

A lot of people in my family and among my friends when they heard that I study Yiddish and that later made it my livelihood, they are very surprised. Yiddish? How come Yiddish? Why Yiddish? They even laugh sometimes, they are very surprised. And what I answer to them is that there is nothing surprising about the fact that I study or speak Yiddish. The real surprise, the real question that has to be asked is how come my parents, this last generation, didn’t speak Yiddish? Because, if you consider my family, for hundreds of years on all sides they spoke Yiddish.

(Highlights) AVRA SIDIROPOULOU

(Highlights) AVRA SIDIROPOULOU

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Author & Artistic Director of Athens-based Persona Theatre Company

Unless it starts from within you, then you’re not going to set the same amount of investment. So there are moments when I feel I’m suffocating within the limits of those roles I have to play, and sometimes I feel like I’m failing them all. I’m always on the lookout for the next thing to quench the desire to create.

AVRA SIDIROPOULOU

AVRA SIDIROPOULOU

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Author & Artistic Director of Athens-based Persona Theatre Company

Unless it starts from within you, then you’re not going to set the same amount of investment. So there are moments when I feel I’m suffocating within the limits of those roles I have to play, and sometimes I feel like I’m failing them all. I’m always on the lookout for the next thing to quench the desire to create.

DOUG WRIGHT

DOUG WRIGHT

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Playwright & President of the Dramatists Guild of America

I think we have to look to find the voices of women and marginalized people because sometimes it's the most disenfranchised people in the culture that are the most articulate about it and most aware of the innate injustice in certain social systems. So I think we really have examine our canon and broaden and deepen it to include more voices.

(Highlights) KATE MUETH

(Highlights) KATE MUETH

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Actress, Choreographer, Artistic Director - Neo-Political Cowgirls

I care very deeply about the arts, theater arts. So I had a choice to make, either leave entirely or be the change, as they say. So I started Neo-Political Cowgirls to embrace women in their story, in our story.

KATE MUETH

KATE MUETH

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Actress, Choreographer, Artistic Director - Neo-Political Cowgirls

I care very deeply about the arts, theater arts. So I had a choice to make, either leave entirely or be the change, as they say. So I started Neo-Political Cowgirls to embrace women in their story, in our story.