“I want you to know how grateful I am for Live at the Lortel. Before the quarantine, I can’t describe what it felt like to walk into a space like the Lucille Lortel. What a gift it was to be in the same room as these artists I so admire, whose careers I follow so closely, whose work I have been so fortunate to see across New York. I love your podcast because I believe it is the closest thing we have to the legacy left by James Lipton and Inside the Actors Studio. Nowhere else are we given long-form, deep-dive conversations, by artists, for artists, about craft, career, about what it means to be a human being and an artist, to work and to live making a life in the American theatre.
I’m writing because I have seen the changes you’ve made in Season Two of the podcast, and I know how valuable feedback can be to service delivery—especially in the shifting landscape we’ve found ourselves in. We are witnessing a sea change across the performing arts sector, a call for real transformation within all our platforms—to be intentional about the voices that we are lifting up, about the stories we’re telling and who we’re asking to tell those stories.
This is why I think it’s so important that we’re seeing platforms like Live at the Lortel recognize and so nimbly embrace this call for greater intentionality. I share your belief that we must center those voices we’ve for so long kept at the margins, because we must ultimately be led by those artists towards this future we seek—a more equitable, justice-oriented future. In a moment of true upheaval, I believe Live at the Lortel is chief among the platforms carrying this torch forward for us all.
I think you’re doing important work. We are living through a moment when artists so desperately need to hear from other artists. The hour you give to each of your guests is, without fail, such a rich, nourishing, healing hour of conversation. I look forward to everything you have in store for us in the future. We need you.
Thank you for all you do.”
Donny Repsher via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
12/02/20