Small Acts of Service Over a Sustained Amount of Time with Erika Henningsen

05/02/21 • 40 min

Sunday Pancakes with Celia Keenan-Bolger

ERIKA HENNINGSEN was most recently seen as ‘Cady Heron’ in the original Broadway Cast of Mean Girls, for which she was nominated for an Outer Critics' Circle Award. She made her Broadway debut as ‘Fantine’ in the recent revival of Les Miserables and can be seen as ‘Kim Ravenal’ in the PBS Special of Show Boat: Live from Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic. She is slated to appear in Peacock's upcoming series GIRLS5EVA and Amazon's original comedy Harlem. Graduate of the University Of Michigan BFA Musical Theater Program, Broadway Star of the Year 2019. She recently founded the First Time Voters' Club in partnership with Producing Blue to encourage young voters in involvement in the political sector and is an ambassador for the non-profit organization, She’s The First.

Weekly Round-Up:

Explore this interactive NYTimes piece, “They Believe in Ambitious Women. But They Also See The Costs.”
Read the Forge article, “The Worst Mindset To Have When Fighting Racism” by Emily PG Erikson on how perfectionism can undermine the work of dismantling white supremacy culture.
Listen to this episode of The Cut podcast wherein trans author Torrey Peters discusses her new book, Detransition Baby and how the common feeling of “failing at gender” can bridge divides between cis and trans women.
Buy this incredible butterfly garden with a live cup of caterpillars.
This novel, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, made Erika and Celia realize that they had very similar taste in books.

Weekly Round-Up:

Explore this interactive NYTimes piece, “They Believe in Ambitious Women. But They Also See The Costs.”
Read the Forge article, “The Worst Mindset To Have When Fighting Racism” by Emily PG Erikson on how perfectionism can undermine the work of dismantling white supremacy culture.
Listen to this episode of The Cut podcast wherein trans author Torrey Peters discusses her new book, Detransition Baby and how the common feeling of “failing at gender” can bridge divides between cis and trans women.
Buy this incredible butterfly garden with a live cup of caterpillars.
This novel, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, made Erika and Celia realize that they had very similar taste in books.

Previous Episode

The Possibilities Inside Surrender with Zachary Quinto

ZACHARY QUINTO hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Carnegie Mellon where he received a BFA in Acting. In 2007 he was cast as 'Sylar' on the hit NBC series Heroes. That same year, he was cast as ‘Spock’ in the JJ Abrams directed reboot of the Star Trek franchise. He starred in the first season of American Horror Story in 2011, and then won a Critic’s Choice Award and Emmy Award nomination for his portrayal of ‘Dr. Oliver Thredson’ on American Horror Story: Asylum. Quinto appeared in the 2010 Signature revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels In America, for which he won a Theater World Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination. He made his Broadway debut in the 2013 Tony Award winning production of The Glass Menagerie. He was also seen in Noah Haidle's Smokefall and in the Joe Mantello directed revival of The Boys in The Band, which won the 2019 Tony for Best Revival of a Play. He's hosted the reboot of In Search Of on the History Channel, and starred in the AMC series NOS4A2. Most recently, he reprised his role as 'Harold' in the film adaption of The Boys In The Band on Netflix. Quinto began his production company Before the Door Pictures in 2008 and produced such films as Margin Call, All Is Lost, A Most Violent Year, and Aardvark. At the end of 2019, the new iteration of Before The Door signed first look deals with AMC Studios for scripted projects and with Spoke Studios for unscripted fare.

Weekly Round-Up:

Listen to Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us podcastepisode featuring Sonya Renee Taylor on “The Body is Not An Apology.”
Follow that by reading Sonya Renee Taylor’s book The Body Is Not an Apology.
There are Vedic and Transcendental meditation courses available throughout the US - apps like Ten Percent Happier, Calm, and Insight Timer (I really like the teacher Sarah Blondin) are easily accessible and can travel with you wherever you go.
Listen to Krista Tippet’s On Being podcast episode, “You are not alone across time” with Brian Doerries focused on his public art project, The Theater Of War.
Read Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art which Zach (and Susan Blackwell) recommend.

Next Episode

A Disrupter and a Weaver: Finding Your Place in a Social Change Ecosystem with Karen Olivo

KAREN OLIVO (she/they) is a television, film, and stage actor who most recently played “Satine” in Moulin Rouge, The Musical on Broadway. Olivo is also recognized for her Tony Award winning performance as “Anita” in the acclaimed 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story, a role for which she also earned Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Award nominations. Some of her Broadway theater credits include originating the role of “Vanessa” in the Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights (2008 Astaire Award); starring as “Faith” in the Broadway production of Brooklyn The Musical, and in Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning musical, Rent. Additional theatre credits include Murder Ballad at the Manhattan Theater Club; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage at Second Stage; and The Miracle Brothers directed by Tina Landau at the Vineyard Theatre. Olivo is also recognized for her many television appearances including a series regular, recurring & guest-starring roles on “ Harry’s Law”, “The Good Wife,” “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior,” “Chase,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Conviction,” and “Law & Order.”

Olivo is also an educator teaching at Northwestern University, NYU-Tisch, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as working as a visual artist and writer. In the Spring of 2020, Olivo co-founded the non-for-profit organization, AFECT, Artists for Economic Transparency, in the efforts to educate the industry and promote discussion regarding entertainment industry structures and how they can be altered to better serve marginalized communities. www.AFECTchange.org

Weekly Round-Up:

Listen to this podcast episode of The Ezra Klein Show with Tressie McMillan Cottom and then buy Tressie’s book Thick and lastly, listen to her Hear To Slay podcast, co-hosted with Roxanne Gay.
Review Deepa Iyer’s guide and framework, “Mapping Our Roles in Social Change Ecosystems”, originally introduced to Celia through The Broadway Advocacy Coalition. Attribution: Deepa Iyer, SolidarityIs and Building Movement Project.
Read this New York Magazine article, “Art Doesn’t Need Tyrants” by Tavi Gevinson