Cerise Lim Jacobs is the librettist and creative force behind the pioneering new opera Madame White Snake, an adaptation of a 1,000 year old Chinese legend. The opera is the first commissioned work for Opera Boston and is co-commissioned with the Beijing International Music Festival. Cerise Jacobs received a degree in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

In this podcast she talks about how she came to write the narrative that would become the opera, the underlying Buddhist philosophy of the legend and why her years as a trial lawyer prepared her for the drama of theatre.

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Deborah Stein’s plays have been produced and developed nationally at Seattle Rep, the Guthrie, Women’s Project, Stages Rep, the Wilma, Live Girls, Dance Theatre Workshop, and Theatre Artaud; and internationally in Poland, Ireland, Edinburgh (the Traverse) and Prague. Between 2000 and 2006, she collaborated with Pig Iron on six new works, for which she was twice nominated for the Barrymore for Best New Play. Her writing is published in Theatre Forum, Play: A Journal of Plays, and The Best American Poetry of 1996. Current commissions include Children’s Theatre Company and Actors Theatre of Louisville.

In this podcast Deborah talks about Minneapolis and the Workhaus Collective, her Bush Artist Fellowship and the play she brought to the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival.

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Sam Bush is the co-founder of the genre-breaking band New Grass Revival, an in-demand musician who has played with Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett and Joshua Bell, and a master mandolin player. He has received a lifetime achievement award from the American Music Association, and his recently released album Circles Around Me has met with critical acclaim.

In this interview Sam talks with us about his early experiments with music, why he’s never bought a song from iTunes, and why festivals keep the flames of friendship alive.

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Jake Shimabukuro is one of the most innovative ukulele players and composers today. Jake started performing at a local Honolulu cafe as a teenager, and has gone on to play festivals across the U.S, Europe, Japan and Australia. His most recent CD release, Live, represents the best of the best of his live playing.

In this podcast Jake talks about what makes the ukulele such a magical instrument, how he developed his playing technique, and why it is important to have a passion for what you do.

Photo Credit: Brandon Ching

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Doug Cox is a master of the slide guitar and dobro and a prolific recording artist and touring musician. Doug has played every major roots festival in Canada and served as artistic director for multiple festivals, including the Vancouver Island Music Festival. His most recent collaboration is Slide to Freedom 2: Make a Better World, a musical exploration with Indian classical slide icon Salil Bhatt.

In this interview, Doug talks with us about changes in the sources of folk music, and the nature of the dobro.

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