Ana Nogueira is an actor, playwright, and screenwriter whose way with words is just one aspect of her enormous intelligence. She reveals a complex relationship to her intellect, growing up in a family where her emotional and interpersonal understanding of the world were always nurtured, but in school settings where they were minimized. Ana and Bobby explore how artistry requires simultaneous confidence and doubt in one's capacities in order to truly succeed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Krysta Rodriguez (The Collaboration, Smash, Spring Awakening, The Addams Family) explores a complex history of trust (and mistrust) as influenced by many factors in life - religion, family addiction, and a cancer diagnosis at the age of 30. She shares how the journey to self-trust is about continuing to center autonomous choice over reliance on external forces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex Puette (Hadestown) shares his story of addiction with honesty and transparency, exploring both the initial benefits of substance use for coping with life's stressors, and the ultimate shame and isolation that inevitably results from it. Opening up about his experience is a reconnection to the world, and central to his recovery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cara Rose DiPietro is an accomplished performer and advocate whose influence on social media has fostered a career in both musical theater and mental health awareness. She opens up about her struggle with an eating disorder that has been a means of control in otherwise uncontrollable circumstances, and how she has evolved towards a more healthy and sustainable control over her life through sharing her story with the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alexandra Silber guest hosts as Bobby turns the tables on himself - sharing a part of himself that was central to the isolation and struggle that he navigated for much of his life, but that was also the proving ground for his eventual work as a therapist. Bobby and Al share more about friendship, family, shame, success, and the windy road towards healing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Michael R Jackson (A Strange Loop, Teeth) is a writer and composer whose prodigious talent combines with a depth of observation that results in powerful, personal storytelling. He shares how his history of inner criticism has been a response to feeling excluded and on the outside, and how his journey towards self-acceptance has been a complicated one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
John Tartaglia (Avenue Q, Fraggle Rock) grew up with the single-minded goal of one day working for Jim Henson and the Muppets. Now, forty years later, he is the creative supervisor for Fraggle Rock, the very show that helped him heal from his parents' divorce and envision a future of creative success. John shares how his imagination has always guided him with optimism and kindness, allowing him to manifest his childhood dream into reality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gavin Creel is a Tony winner and all-around Broadway royalty, but he is not immune to a history of shame and self-doubt. Bobby and Gavin share a common story of growing up gay and being rejected by a culture that led to patterns of self-rejection that they both still navigate, while also sharing how they've healed through self-acceptance and community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alexandra Silber is a true renaissance woman - an actor, singer, writer, director, teacher, and advocate. She also happens to be one of Bobby's best friends. Al shares her Survival Part - one that she has relied on throughout harrowing experiences of loss and serious illness. Bobby and Al also explore the gift of platonic intimacy in sharing the depths and complexities of their own relationship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gideon Glick (Tony nominee, To Kill a Mockingbird) shares his joyful part - not just a state of being, but a part that consciously shares with others through the simple act of connection. It is a part that he relies on as the antidote to anxiety and isolation, and is a solution that is available to all of us if we choose to recognize the opportunity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ali Stroker (Oklahoma!) is a Tony winning actress and singer, a writer and advocate, a wife and a mother. She also lives with a disability that is the result of a spinal cord injury she sustained when she was two years old. Ali shares her anxious part - one that is universal to the human experience, but that has been informed by a loss of control that few can relate to. Ali shares that her particular experience of isolation and the anxiety that resulted is best overcome through connection - to her work, her voice, her community, and her friends and family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alli Mauzey (Kimberly Akimbo) has a freedom and flexibility on stage that makes her a wonder to watch. She shares her free spirit part, which allows her to risk and bush the boundaries, yet it's not a part of her that always came totally naturally. Alli shares how her free-spiritedness is also something she's had to commit to when anxiety would make it easier to play it safe. Help guide the show with me! Submit your request for guest and/or topic(s) to cover by visiting https://bpn.fm/quietquestions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Brandon Uranowitz (Tony winner, Leopoldstadt) opens up about a legacy of people pleasing that began in childhood as an effort to reach social acceptance and professional success. His current success, however, is only possible through commitment to an authenticity defined on his own terms. Help guide the show with me! Submit your request for guest and/or topic(s) to cover by visiting https://bpn.fm/quietquestions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Celia Keenan-Bolger (Mother Play, The Gilded Age, To Kill a Mockingbird) learned as a young girl that self-sufficiency and a responsibility towards the larger good was what made her belong in a family that valued service above all else. This part has served her extremely well in an already storied career, but she has learned that self-sufficiency is also an obstacle to connection. She is still learning how to risk the intense vulnerability of intimacy with those she's closest, understanding that to reveal herself fully is the only way to create true connection. Help guide the show with me! Submit your request for guest and/or topic(s) to cover by visiting https://bpn.fm/quietquestions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Claybourne Elder (The Gilded Age, Company) is one of the nicest guys in show business. What follows is a surprising and vulnerable conversation about the personal costs of people pleasing, even when it might make others more comfortable. Help guide the show with me! Submit your request for guest and/or topic(s) to cover by visiting https://bpn.fm/quietquestions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Whitney Bashor (MJ, The Bridges of Madison County) has the voice of an angel. And what are angels other than perfect? In this episode, Whitney discusses the origins of her perfectionism, which drove her as a child through obedience, body image, and achievement. She shares the surprising drawbacks of having a talent that others perceive to be so perfect, and the work she has done, both as an individual and as an artist, to banish the impossibility of perfection from the menu, and to replace it with the much more interesting complexity of being human. Help guide the show with me! Submit your request for guest and/or topic(s) to cover by visiting https://bpn.fm/quietquestions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Daniel Isaac just finished a seven year run on the hit TV show Billions. He shares the story of his "good boy" part. He’s the son of a single mother, a Korean immigrant and devout Christian who he felt an intense responsibility to represent. From his from earliest memory, we was not just Daniel, but he was a representative of his family, of immigrants, of Koreans, and literally, of God himself. As an adult, Daniel has found happiness in creating his own value systems, and is still on the quest for how to define goodness on his own terms. Help guide the show with me! Submit your request for guest and/or topic(s) to cover by visiting https://bpn.fm/quietquestions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ben and Bobby met doing the Broadway revival of Ragtime. Ben was 11, Bobby was 27. Fast forward, now Ben is 26 and starring in the Broadway production of Illinoise. He is on the verge of a big moment, one that he is intent on staying present and grateful for, no matter how it unfolds. The actors discuss hard won lessons in leading with expectations that have led to disappointment and loss of core purpose, while sharing how they both returned to values that redefine success in more personal terms. Help guide the show with me! Submit your request for guest and/or topic(s) to cover by visiting https://bpn.fm/quietquestions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Shannon Tyo (2023 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence) is a prolific and versatile actor who can take on just about any role. She shares her experience as a transracial, transnational adoptee, and how the mysterious unknown of her origins was the source of her vivid imagination - something that has led to enormous strengths as an artist, and also something she's had to work on in terms of choosing the narratives that serve us best. Help guide the show with me! Submit your request for guest and/or topic(s) to cover by visiting https://bpn.fm/quietquestions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rory O’Malley (The Book of Mormon, Hamilton) is a fellow performer of inspiring perspective and heart and kindness. In this episode, we discuss the parts of us that are driven by ambition - how powerful it can be in the life of a younger performer, and how that ambition is so often driven by the need to be seen, to be validated, and ultimately, to stave off the pain of shame. Rory shares how his ambitious parts have entirely transformed through his experience as a parent, and as someone whose values have found home in family, health, curiosity for the moment. Help guide the show with me! Submit your request for guest and/or topic(s) to cover by visiting https://bpn.fm/quietquestions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices