Ethan Lipton is a playwright and songwriter/performer. His plays have been produced in Los Angeles, New York and Edinburgh. He is the recipient of a 2008 NYFA grant for playwriting and was chosen to be part of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group for 2008. His play Luther will be performed as part of the Lark Play Development Center’s Playwright’s Week Festival. With his band, the Ethan Lipton Orchestra, he’s played all over New York, Los Angeles, and the Northeast. He has released two live CDs on indie label Home Office Records and one studio album on his own Muckraker Records.

In this podcast Ethan talks about LA vs. New York, the themes of his writing, and playing with his orchestra for office workers in Bryant Park.

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Rolf Dennemann is the artistic director of the festival and symposium off limits as well as a freelance artist, actor and author. off limits combines interdisciplinary site-specific works with theoretical discourse on different themes every year.

In this interview Rolf talks about two of the works from this year’s festival – Datcha Live and The Future of Death, and how he measures success and funding for festivals like off limits.

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Yatrika Shah-Rais is the Music Director at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California. The Center is one of the premiere cultural institutions in the United States, with a mission to explore the connections between four thousand years of Jewish heritage and the vitality of American democratic ideals. The Sunset Concerts celebrate musical traditions from around the globe every Thursday evening through mid August.

In this podcast Yatrika talks about how she approaches music programming for this series, the increasingly diverse audience Sunset attracts, and why having a radio program keeps you at the forefront of new music.

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Carol Tambor is a visual artist and founder of the Carol Tambor Award, presented annually to the best theater piece at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The award provides for a two-week run in New York, all expenses paid.

In this podcast Carol talks about how she fell in love with the Fringe and why it is so important to support emerging artists in meaningful and lasting ways.

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Claudia Norman is founder of CN Management, a cultural consulting and management agency, and artistic director of the Chase Latino Cultural Festival in Queens, NY. The festival is dedicated to building bridges between the surrounding Latino community and the world of international performing arts.

In this podcast Claudia talks about her approach to programming the festival, why it is important to highlight the transnational nature of audiences and artists, and how she finds the up-and-coming artists of tomorrow.

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