Speaking of the Arts

The Theresa Rebeck play 'Seminar' opens at Talking Horse Productions on February 17th for a two-weekend run and in this episode Diana Moxon chats with two of its cast members, David McSpadden who plays the fiction guru and hilariously condescending seminar leader, Leonard, and Erin Matteson, the aspiring young writer who has offered to host the 10-week seminar for 3 of her equally aspiring pals. This episode is marked with an E as the scene from the play between Leonard and Kate contains a good amount of fruity expletives.

This week host, Diana Moxon, takes a look back at two conversations she had with Columbia-based poets Lynne Jensen Lampe and Barbara Harris Leonhard in October and November last year. Both Barbara and Lynne had recently released collections of poems, both of which explored their relationships with their mothers and the complications that post partum depression and alzheimers had on their time together. Their collections of poems are eloquent, moving, sad and funny, and both Lynne and Barbara shared the background to their collections with Diana. Opening and closing musical credits with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com)

Once again this week show host, Diana Moxon, is taking a look back at some her favorite chats from the past year. Back in July Diana chatted with two composers who were visiting Columbia as part of the Mizzou International Composers Festival: guest composer Angélica Negrón and resident composer Cassie Wieland. In August the vocalist, spoken word poet, writer, arts educator and community organizer, Josh Runnels aka J. Artiz, was on Speaking of the Arts talking about his passion and purpose, the break up of the band he was a vocalist for - Loose Loose, and future soul. Opening and closing musical credits with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliams.com)

This week Diana Moxon revisits chats with three singer songwriters who were on the show last year. From August, St Louis' Paige Alyssa (https://www.paigealyssamusic.com/) chats about their blend of jazz-new jack swing-R&B and the influence of Sonic the Hedgehog on their music; from September, social justice singer songwriter Crys Matthews (https://www.crysmatthews.com/) talks about the importance of empathy and compassion when inviting listeners into a story; and from October "not your typical singer songwriter" guitarist Miss Molly Simms (http://missmollysimms.com/) who made her singing debut on an airplane at age 6. Opening and closing music with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com)

Each month the Missouri Arts Council features four artists on its website from a variety of arts genres, and on this week's show Diana Moxon checks in (belatedly) with the December artists: St Louis-based Elinor Harrison, a dancer with a national touring resume who is doing pioneering research into how singing can improve the gait of people with Parkinson's Disease; Christine Riutzel from Hollister, a muralist and fine artists whose art is therapy that helps her unpack past traumas, doubts and insecurities caused by an extreme religious upbringing; and a nature/wildlife photographer from Joplin who turned his hobby into a full time job. You can see/hear/learn about the works of this week's guests on their websites: https://www.elinorharrison.com/; https://www.beautyfromlight.com/; https://www.greenheronphoto.com/. Thanks, as always, to guitarist Yasmin Williams (http://www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com/) for the show's opening and closing music entitled, 'Restless Heart'. (Pictured artwork by Christine Riutzel)

For the first show of 2023 Diana Moxon chats with two people who the audience never gets to see on the stage or screen, but whose work has a huge influence on both actors and audiences. Paula Vanlandingham (https://www.accentpaula.com/) is an accent and dialect coach to actors all over the world from her home in Columbia Missouri. She speaks 6 languages plus English and coaches in over 50 global accents including coaching an American actor who doesn't speak any Spanish to speak 19th century Mexican Spanish with an Irish accent. Ryan Zirngibl (http://www.ryanjzirngibl.com/) is the resident scenic designer at the Lyceum Theatre in Arrow Rock and has created hundreds of complex stage sets for theatres across the state and in New York City, including one with 9 rooms and 2 secret passageways, one with moving train cars, and one for a play that had so much fake blood that the set had to have a moppable floor. Opening and closing music credits with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com)

As we close in on the end of 2022, Diana Moxon invites three arts pals to the Speaking of the Arts studio to look back on their favorite moments of the year. Columbia Daily Tribune arts writer Aarik Danielsen remembers some of the music, poetry and sentences that moved him this year. From Ragtag Film Society, Stacie Pottinger, drops in to talk about the year's movie highlights and how meeting a film-maker can really change her opinion about a film. And the woman who sees more theatre productions than anyone else in mid Missouri, Monica Palmer, ponders which of the many plays she saw this year she would love to see again and what plays she would have loved to be in. Opening and closing music credits with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com)

With end of year giving season firmly upon us, on this week's show Diana Moxon chats with 10 arts leaders from 9 local arts agencies to find out about some of the magic and meaningful moments their organizations have inspired, and what they would do with a $100,000 donation.

'Tis the season when stages are awash in figurative tinsel and this week Diana Moxon visits three of them. At the Missouri Symphony Orchestra, their new Music Director Designate, Wilbur Lin, makes his first public performance at this weekend's Symphony of Toys concert and chats about his vision for the orchestra and how he came to found his own orchestra at 18. In Act II, Broadway actor and now Stephens College Conservatory for the Performing Arts associate professor, Lisa Brescia, and associate professor of voice, Nollie Moore, talk about the college's production of White Christmas and what it takes to make it in the performing arts. And in Act III, Diana explores the world of barbershop harmonies with the Heart of Missouri chorus' director Twilla Duvall and bass singer, Heather Vuckovic. Opening and closing music credits with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com)

This week's show is a theatre-fine art-theatre sandwich with host, Diana Moxon, talking to Talking Horse Production theatre directors, DeeDee Farris and Mark Baumgartner about their production of the Larissa Fasthorse comedy satire, 'The Thanksgiving Play' in which the history of Thanksgiving, woke culture, and privilege checking all collide. In Act II of the show, Diana explores Sager Reeves Gallery's 2022 Masters' Exhibit and its theme of love, human connection, courtship and sex, with the show's curator and art historian, Hannah Reeves. And in Act III, it's back to the stage with actors Monica Palmer and Ginger Cawley introducing their M'Lynn Eatenton and Truvy Jones from the upcoming Columbia Entertainment Company production of 'Steel Magnolias'. Opening and closing music with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com) [pictured: Leonor Fini 'Masked Figure' from The Masters' Exhibit]

Each month the Missouri Arts Council features four artists on its website from a variety of arts genres, and on this week's show Diana Moxon checks in with the November artists: portrait photographer Randy Bacon from Springfield whose profoundly moving photographs of unsheltered people has traveled the country and is also a vital viewing short film "The Road I Call Home" (https://www.randybacon.com/the-road-i-call-home-short-film); St Louis-based visual artist and art educator, Simiya Sudduth, whose love of mural painting might have started when they drew their classmates names on their mother's basement ceiling as a first grader; from Cameron, colored pencil artist Wanda Taylor whose paintings of animals appear tactile; and landscape painter Michael McClure from Willow Springs whose vibrant and light-filled paintings are guided by his intuition and his soul. You can see the works of this week's guests on their websites: https://www.randybacon.com/; https://spiritscapes.life/; http://www.wandataylorart.com/; https://www.michaelmcclure.com/. Thanks, as always, to guitarist Yasmin Williams (http://www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com/) for the show's opening and closing music entitled, 'Restless Heart'. (Pictured artwork by Wanda Taylor)

This week two writers explore the lives of two women: one a memoir poetry collection about a mother's Alzheimer's, and the other an original play based on love letters from 100 years ago. Barbara Harris Leonhard's book "Three-Penny Memories A Poetic Memoir" is a love story that explores her relationship with her mother, their mother wounds, entangled journeys, and her mother's Alzheimer's. And in Greenhouse Theatre Project's new, original production in collaboration with the State Historical Society of Missouri, "MO Love: Letters from the Archive", GTP founder, director, actor and playwright, Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri, takes us back in time to the relationship between Missouri adventurer and writer, Olive Gilbreath McLorn, and her long-distance love affair with William Lewis Cazelet, a mysterious widower 20-years her senior who wrote hundreds of love letters to her over two decades between 1915 and the late 1930's. Opening and closing musical credits with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com)

Music is the through line on this week's show with host, Diana Moxon, chatting with Dismal Niche's, Matt Crook, the curator and director of the Columbia Experimental Music Festival about this year's festival and the challenges of overcoming stubbornly conditioned ears. Plus Diana checks in with Joy Powell from the University of Missouri's theatre department about their regional premiere of the heartwarming musical comedy 'The Prom'; and Robert Wells and Lainie Vansant talk about the 2022-23 University Concert Series season and the challenges of managing two huge venues when the world keeps throwing curveballs at you. Opening and closing music with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com)

With the return of Fall into Art this weekend after a 2-year hiatus, Diana Moxon chats with one of the art fair's organizers, Melynda Lotven, about the event's new venue and the challenges of re-starting the festival, plus she chats with two of the exhibiting artists - St Louis-based surreal and fantasy painter, Mollie Chounard, and encaustic artist and jeweler, Jamie Scheppers from Columbia. And as Columbia Entertainment Company moves into the final weekend for its production of the classic 1970's farce 'No Sex Please, We're British' Diana goes behind the scenes with director Terry Schoonover and actor Ginger Cawley and gives them a No Sex Please trivia quiz. Opening and closing music credits with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com)

Each month the Missouri Arts Council features four artists on its website from a variety of arts genres, and on this week's show Diana Moxon checks in with the October artists: award-winning author Greg Stout from Cape Girardeau who wrote 22 books on US railroad history and then won a national award for his first work of detective fiction; St Louis-based singer songwriter, Miss Molly Simms, who made her public singing debut at the age of six in an unusual place; artist Nick Gadbois from Kansas City whose multiple bodies of work includes painting in cement and recreating some of the psychedelic surreal colors he discovered through the 1960's counter culture; and Columbia-based painter Cristina Núñez whose work is a balance of color, shape and rhythm. You can see - and hear - the works of this week's guests on their websites: https://www.gregorystoutauthor.com/; http://missmollysimms.com/; http://www.nickgadboisart.com/; https://www.cristinanunezartstudio.com/. Thanks, as always, to guitarist Yasmin Williams (http://www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com/) for the show's opening and closing music entitled, 'Restless Heart'. (Pictured artwork by Nick Gadbois 'Area 51')

This week's show is a theatre-poetry-theatre sandwich. Diana Moxon chats with theatre director Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri and actor Lindsey Oberle about Stephens College's upcoming production of the American classic, 'Our Town', by Thornton Wilder and explores how the play's significance changes as we age. In Act II poet Lynne Jensen Lampe talks about her first full collection of poetry titled 'Talk Smack to a Hurricane' which centers on her relationship with her mother, whose life was irrevocably altered by psychiatric misdiagnosis. And in Act III it's back to the theatre for a look at Talking Horse Production's rock musical 'Murder Ballad' with its director, Trent Rash, and actor, Megan McNew. Opening and closing music with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com)

Keeping it eclectic this week Diana Moxon chats with the two women behind the annual Boone County Art Show: Mary Wilkerson from Central Bank of Boone County (which has hosted the show for 63 years), and Kelsey Hammond from the Columbia Art League. Plus Karen Mareck Grundy talks dance with Diana and about changing the name of her organization from the Missouri Contemporary Ballet to Mareck Dance. Artist Sarah Nguyen talks about the origin and inspiration for her large scroll works intricately carved with an x-acto knife. And St Louis-based flutist, Wendy Hymes, talks about learning to play African rhythms and her upcoming concert at the University of Missouri on October 10th. Opening and closing musical credits with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com).

The Roots n Blues festival returns to Stephens Lake Park from October 7th-9th, and on this week's Speaking of the Arts Diana Moxon chats with the festivals two owners, Tracy Lane and Shay Jasper, about what it takes to make a music festival be a safe, accessible and inclusive space and how centering women is paramount to the festival's identity. There's also a check-in with two of the singer songwriters appearing at this year's festival. Kassi Ashton who released her debut radio single earlier this year, 'Dates in Pickup Trucks' inspired by her granny and grandpa's date night "I was going on dates in pickup trucks when I was 17 and apparently I'll still be doing it when I'm 90, if I'm lucky!". And Jen Norman, whose latest single 'Moon Baby' features Columbia's own Burr Oak tree. Opening and closing musical credits with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com).

Each month the Missouri Arts Council features four artists on its website from a variety of arts genres, and on this week's show Diana Moxon checks in with the September artists: painter Joshua Newth from Cape Girardeau whose art tells the story of the ubiquity of man's litter and environmental impact; Kansas City based wearable art jeweler and sculptor, Clarissa Knighten, whose first sale happened in an elevator and who navigated her own clinical depression and bulimia through her creativity; artist Teri Moore in Augusta whose layered works seek an emotional response from her viewers; and poet Daniel Biegelson in Liberty whose first collection of poems titled 'of being neighbors' has just been published in which he aims to capture the music of thought. You can see the works of this week's guests on their websites: https://jnewthimages.weebly.com/; https://www.rissasartisticdesign.com/; https://teri.pb.online/; https://danielbiegelson.com/. Thanks, as always, to guitarist Yasmin Williams (http://www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com/) for the show's opening and closing music entitled, 'Restless Heart'. (pictured artwork by Joshua Newth 'Paris in Flowers')

This week a rebroadcast of two of Diana Moxon's recent chats: author M O Walsh about his book 'The Big Door Prize' which is this month's Daniel Boone Regional Library One Read book (first broadcast September 1st); and poet Dave Malone about his latest collection of poetry entitled 'Tornado Drill' (first broadcast July 7th). Opening and closing music credits with thanks to guitarist Yasmin Williams (www.yasminwilliamsguitar.com)