Tag Archives: Tennessee

Episode 023 – Steve Sherman – Actor in University of Tennessee Masters Program

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Steve Sherman in Spamalot at the Clarence Brown Theater

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Jessi Blue Gormezano and Steve Sherman in Home of the Great Pecan. Photo by Lee Wexler.

I was introduced to actor Steve Sherman by my buddy Dave Marantz, and he was great in my play, Home of the Great Pecan as Deputy Diggity.  I liked him so much I asked him to be in a workshop to help me develop a new play I’d been working on called Hole.

That was in New York City.  As it happens we are both in Tennessee at the moment, he as a student in University of Tennessee’s graduate acting program which is connected to the Clarence Brown Theater — a LORT Theater.  And he’s in Spamalot which is opening there tonight!

It was great to get the perspective of an actor who had been out in the professional world and had gone back to school.

Topics covered in the interview:

  • Intro  (0:00)
  • Hello Steve! His beginnings and how he got the bug (2:58)
  • Producing his own work in New York City (On Campus) and developing new work (5:44)
  • Improv in LA  (8:31)
  • Going back to school – Grad school at University of Tennessee (10:25)
  • Living in the South, long distance relationship (13:14)
  • The plan – teaching or acting (16:04)
  • Working with the Clarence Brown Theater (18:12)
  • Teaching an improv class and taking classes as a student (23:25)
  • After the masters program (28:58)
  • “Bizarre, Interesting or Horrible Audition Stories” (30:14)

As usual my buddy Sal Clemente (of Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra) who wrote the podcast theme song, “Here We Go Again,” plays us out.  URO has a concert coming up.  Click the link to find out more!

Episode 009 – Storyteller Saundra Kelley of Jonesborough TN

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saundra_kelley_storyteller_03In this episode of Off Off Pod, I interview storyteller, Saundra Kelley.

As many of you probably know, I’ve been staying with my parents in Tennessee for a while since my mother’s been going through treatments for cancer.  And while here, I wanted to find some local artists to interview.  Jonesborough, Tennessee is THE place to go for storytelling.

Saundra is the President of the Storyteller’s Guild, an organization in the Jonesborough area, and she and her group perform in a beautiful complex built just for storytelling.  Besides the local “tellers,” performers come from all over the world to Jonesborough to perform.  The height of the excitement happens in October during a yearly storytelling festival.  There are links below if you want to find out more about the area.

I had asked Saundra if she had any local true ghost stories she could tell, and she delivered.  Afterwards I got a tour of some of the old buildings and locations.

Topics covered in the podcast:

  • The introduction (0:00)
  • Saundra Kelley, The Story Teller’s Guild http://storytellersguild.org (5:05)
  • The Jonesborough Storytelling Center http://www.storytellingcenter.net (6:50)
  • Beautiful Historic Jonesborough, Oldest Town in Tennessee (11:12)
  • A Master’s Degree in Storytelling ETSU (East Tennessee State University) http://www.etsu.edu/coe/stories (14:40)
  • The storytelling festival in October (18:15)
  • How Saundra Kelley made her way to Jonesborough from Florida (20:11)
  • Why I asked her for a ghost story (26:42)
  • Ghost Story: “Blood on the Floor” (32:51)
  • The seasonal ghost (48:41)
  • Andrew Jackson strolls around town (51:58)
  • Some of the mechanics of storytelling — using images (55:54)
  • How to partake in storytelling in your area http://www.storynet.org (1:03:17)

As usual my buddy Sal Clemente (of Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra) who wrote the podcast theme song, “Here We Go Again,” plays us out.