Season 4

On this special bonus episode all about the recent Tony Award Nominations, I’m so happy to introduce music director, conductor, and fellow podcaster Nate Patton. Nate and I first met when he was associate conducting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Broadway. And his podcast called Booked It.
The title to one of his episodes was “Broadway is broken and I alone can fix it.” And it's this kind of witty, tongue in cheek and knowledgeable opinions that I wanted to bring on the show as we talk about these Tony nominations:
The lone best actor nomination of Aaron Tveit
The complete snubbing of the lightning thief
Only plays being nominated for best original score
Nate and I will also get into these topics and more, including what these nominations in general say about the state of theater today, and even make a few Tony predictions.
Broadway reaches for normalcy with Tony Award nominations 
Snubs and Surprises: The Tonys Point a Middle Finger at The Lightning Thief 
Tony Award Snubs, What Ifs And That Strange Case Of Aaron Tveit
The 2020 Tony Award nominations were weird and sad 
Tony Awards Announces 2019-2020 Nominating Committee
Outer Critics Circle Honorees 
Tony Nominee Reactions 
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Music in this episode provided by Chad Crouch and Admiral Bob.
 
 

Meredith and I continue our conversation from the previous episode as she answers the Final Five questions. She shares her national tour ambitions and her love of interior design as well as what she learned from Ali Stroker.
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Quotes and unreleased audio clips: instagram.com/winmipodcast/ 

In honor of Dysautonomia Awareness Month, Meredith Aleigha Wells joins the podcast to share her struggles and challenges onstage and in life all from the vantage point of a wheelchair. After becoming disabled at the age of 19, Meredith performed in a college workshop production of the new musical Donny Johns, making UMass Amherst history as the first actor who uses a wheelchair to perform in a Mainstage production.
Meredith graduated with a Bachelor's Degree with Individualized Concentration in Musical Theatre. Immediately after graduation, Meredith moved to Cleveland, Ohio to dance with Dancing Wheels, a physically integrated touring repertory company.
In this episode, she opens up about the hard-fought lessons she has been through and how much more there is learn, both in herself and for others.
Topics discussed in this episode: - Mayo Clinic Physician Philip Fischer, MD  - 10 Facts about POTS  - Dancing Wheels Company founder Mary Verdi-Fletcher  - What does the 30th anniversary of the ADA mean to youth with disabilities? - Youth Today  - Able-Bodied Actors Play 95% of Disabled Characters - Variety  - Ali Stroker's Tony Award acceptance speech 
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This month’s Recommendation comes from co-hosts Jill Jaracz and Allison Brown and their podcast: Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the greatest sporting event in the world.
Each week, hosts Jill Jaracz and Alison Brown explore the stories of the Olympics, which is basically the Broadway of sports. They talk to athletes and sports writers as well as coaches and organizers. They explore host cities and sporting histories, showcasing different aspects and perspectives of the Olympic Games. 
Here’s a bit of trivia, can you name some Olympians who have appeared on Broadway?  - One received both a Tony nomination and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. She played the role of Peter Pan into her 60s. - Another Olympic gymnast is gold medalist played Patti Simcox in Grease during the late 1990s and then went back to the Olympics for a third time in 2000 and won the bronze. - And in 2014, a world champion figure skater and two-time silver medalist played Billy Flynn in Chicago. 
Another thing I love about Jill and Allison and Keep the Flame Alive is they cover the Paralympics as well. In a recent episode they brought on author David Davis, who wrote the book Wheels of Courage. He talked about how paralyzed veterans from World War II invented wheelchair sports and fought for disability rights.
KEEP THE FLAME ALIVE - https://flamealivepod.com/

British historian and philosopher R.G. Collingwood said, "History is for human self knowledge, the only clue to what men can do is what man has done. So with an ongoing pandemic and theaters shut down for the foreseeable future, what can history teach us about dealing with such hardships and what to expect going forward? That’s what we’ll be exploring in this episode with Professor Charlotte Canning, Ph.D, a theatre and performance historian at the University of Texas at Austin.
Topics discussed in this epiosde:Actor's Equity First Strike - American Theatre Katherine Anne Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider Shakespeare and the Plague - The New Yorker "Finding Hope in Theatre That Hasn’t Happened Yet: How to Survive a Global Pandemic" - Sight Lines Is Merchant of Venice Anti-Semitic? - Smithsonian Magazine Our Students Are Depending on Us - The Atlantic 
For Part 2 of my conversation with Charlotte, go to donate.winmipodcast.com for access to this special episode.
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All music underscoring and segues by Blue Dot Sessions, except for WINMI intro music by Patrick Oliver Jones and "Smooth Actor" by Podington Bear. All licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Bienvenidos y gracias por acompañarnos en esta edición especial de Why I’ll Never Make It!
En esta segunda parte de mi serie sobre historias hispanas, escucharán a mis invitados anteriores compartir sus propias historias y experiencias en español.
Roberto Araujo - 1:06 
Bianca Marroquín - 5:57 
Luis Salgado - 11:50 
Jaime Lozano - 16:59 
Alina Alcántara - 24:43 
Tadeo Martinez - 28:39 
Cecy Trevino - 30:52 
Sin embargo, hay una mujer en este episodio que no ha aparecido anteriormente, Cecy Treviño. De hecho, la conocerás más adelante en esta temporada, pero quería aprovechar esta oportunidad para presentarla.
En este episodio no habrán entrevistas, sólo historias hispanas vividas y contadas por los propios protagonistas.
Sitio Web - whyillnevermakeit.com
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Musica: "Being Together" y "Road Trip" por el artista Borrtex. Licencia bajo Attribution-NonCommercial License.

This is part one in a series of former Hispanic guests coming back to share their stories in their own words. The second part - la segunda parte - comes out tomorrow and will be en espanol.
 
My original idea was to bring back all Hispanic guests for a single Spanish episode. And I ignorantly assumed they would all want to share stories in that language. But Matt Zambrano and Dan Domingues expressed their hesitation at speaking fluently off the cuff about their experiences. While they speak the language, Spanish is not their first language.
 
In the past year there’s been another clear example of this from one of the Democratic Presidential candidates, Julián Castro. He's talked about his own relationship with the Spanish language. 
 
Matt Zambrano was the very first guest on the podcast and he and i did MAN OF LA MANCHA together in Orlando. Dan Domingues is a NY actor who took part in my Spotlight episode on Only Make Believe, a nonprofit that brings interactive theater into children’s hospitals and cafe facilities. They both share insights about the work they do as well as very personal feelings about their own ethnicity and heritage. 
 
In this episode as well as the Spanish one, there are no back and forth questions from me. In fact, I’ve done very little editing to these recordings, just cleaning up sound quality as much as possible and structuring these episodes together. But in general, I’m simply stepping back to let previous guests tell their own story, and say what THEY want to say. 
 
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Your donation will go directly into the podcast, helping to grow the WINMI community and allowing me to do so with greater ease and effectiveness. I wouldn't be here without listeners like you, so your donations are greatly appreciated. All donors will be recognized in a future episode for their generosity.
 
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Music in this episode: "In Paler Skies" and "Lost Shoe" by Blue Dot Sessions and "Smooth Actor" by Podington Bear are licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Welcome back to more conversation with Tadeo Martinez as he answers the Final Five. Tadeo shares two of his favorites pieces of advice and his dream to be on YouTube. He also talks about his award-winning performance in Noises Off in Dallas, Texas.
Would you like to be a part of creating an episode? Find out how you can and support this podcast at the same time: https://ko-fi.com/winmi/commissions 
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For further insights on the topics covered in this episode: twitter.com/winmipodcast/ 
Quotes and unreleased audio clips: instagram.com/winmipodcast/