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Lauren & Rhonda talk about writing and performing solo theater, doing T.V. as a stepping stone to touring solo theater, the role of personal identifiers in casting, LGBTQIA+ representation, learning from mistakes, being adopted and advice for parents of adopted kids, and so much more. Please take a moment to share Past the Blue Mailbox with your friends, and be sure to follow on your favorite streaming service to be notified of new episodes!

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Lauren Weedman is an award-winning performance artist, playwright, author, painter, teacher and host. She is known for her regular role on the HBO television series Looking (2014–2015) and its subsequent series finale television film Looking: The Movie. She is also known for her roles in films such as Date Night (2010) and The Five-Year Engagement (2012) and for appearing as a guest star on various series - most recently Hacks and Abbott Elementary . She was a correspondent on The Daily Show from 2001 to 2002 and has written and performed several solo shows, including Homecoming, BUST, and The People's Republic of Portland. She is author of two comedic memoirs, A Woman Trapped in a Woman's Body: Tales from a Life of Cringe and Miss Fortune: Fresh Perspectives on Having It All from Someone Who Is Not Okay.

For information about how to apply for her Hudson Valley Summer Intensive on creating solo performance, check out her official website.

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Jake & Rhonda talk about what it is to be a working actor, the sometimes transactional nature of friendships, unions (sort of), our opinions about AI, the complicated and shifting nature of identity, and so much more. Please take a moment to share Past the Blue Mailbox with your friends, and be sure to follow on your favorite streaming service to be notified of new episodes!

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Jake Hart is a professional actor known for Big George, Shades of Blue (2016) and Person of Interest (2011). Find out more on IMDB, Casting Networks, and Actors Access.

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Em & Rhonda talk about being an emerging theater artist in Seattle, making connections, keeping relationships going, directing new work, the power of community, acting our hearts out, gratitude, and so much more. Please take a moment to share Past the Blue Mailbox with your friends, and be sure to follow on your favorite streaming service to be notified of new episodes!

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Em Majewski is a Seattle-based actor, director, and producer. Originally from California, they moved up north to pursue a BFA in Acting and Original Works at Cornish College Of the Arts, graduating Magna Cum Laude in the spring of 2025. Within their work, they have a passion for telling stories that push for progress, and challenge audiences to think deeper about the systems they live in. Em believes the transformative power of theater can radically change an individual’s experience of themselves, their community, and the world at large, and carries this ethos into all of their creative practices. Outside of the theatre, you can find them volunteering as a Teaching Artist with Freehold’s Engaged Theater Program, or caring for their house plants! For more details about Em's past work and upcoming projects, visit https://www.em-majewski.com

Program Director – The PULSE of Union Arts Center

Teaching Artist – Freehold Engaged Theatre Residency

UPCOMING:

Helena - A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bread & Roses Theatre Co. July 2026

Director - Rat Cage by Coco Justino, Annex Theatre October 2026

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Kathleen & Rhonda talk about telling stories, choosing to leave a dream job, teaching the craft, family and career, visiting Germany in the 1980's, the power of the professional reach-out, practical jokes, and so much more. Please take a moment to share Past the Blue Mailbox with your friends, and be sure to follow on your favorite streaming service to be notified of new episodes!

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Kathleen has an M.A. and an M.F.A in Theater from the University of Washington.
She was the Artistic Director of the Honolulu Theater for Youth, the only professional theater in the State of Hawaii where she traveled with her company all over the Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, and the New Orleans World Fair.
Kathleen and her family then moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where Kathleen headed the Actors Company of Pennsylvania at the Historic Fulton Opera House. Kathleen was in charge of a mainstage season for adults and a Youth Touring season. While at the Fulton, Kathleen helped raise 15 million dollars, did a
major remodel of the Fulton and acquired housing for the New York actors who were cast in the shows.

In 1982, Kathleen represented the United States at a conference for Directors in East Berlin. Kathleen returned to Seattle in 1998 where she taught as Professor of Theater in the Original Works Program at Cornish College of the Arts, from which she retired and was awarded Professor Emeritus status.

She has directed in the Pacific Northwest at the Seattle Children’s Theater, for the New Century Theater and readings at ACT and Seattle Rep.

Kathleen traveled to Russia in 1974 as a performer in the Wizard of Oz with her college production. The Cold War was not over and the power of the arts to bring people together was a life-changing experience where she understood the mantra: Art heals.

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Rhonda talks about her journey through the year, the healing and motivating power of memory lane, and so much more. A gift for the listener this holiday season.

Thank you for listening to Past The Blue Mailbox Season 2. Make sure you follow us where you get your podcasts, so you'll be notified when Season 3 is on its way.

Talk soon!

Rhonda out.

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Adrian & Rhonda talk about collaboration and time management, salons, line dancing dreams, accessibility of technology, purpose, the power of a supportive audience, and so much more. Please take a moment to share Past the Blue Mailbox with your friends, and be sure to follow on your favorite streaming service to be notified of new episodes!

Adrian Prendergast (they/them) is a Seattle-based director, actor, and playwright.

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Deena & Rhonda talk about dancing, teaching, living without regrets, and so much more. Please take a moment to share Past the Blue Mailbox with your friends, and be sure to follow on your favorite streaming service to be notified of new episodes!

Deena Burke has coached dialects, voice, speech, and text for theatres including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Old Globe Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Intiman Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre DC, Center Stage, and the McCarter Theatre.

She developed the Voice and Speech component of the MFA program at the Old Globe/University of San Diego, served as Head of Voice and Speech at the Cornish College of the Arts for 14 years and has taught at the California Institute of the Arts, University of California-San Diego, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the University of Washington. For 15 years Deena was a faculty member of the University of Delaware Professional Theatre Training Program where she taught voice, speech, text, dialects and coached and directed productions for the gradate students as well as teaching undergraduate non majors.

In private practice Deena has worked with actors, lawyers, business people and other public speakers. She has published articles on voice, speech, text and teaching pedagogy in The Voice and Speech Review, The Complete Voice and Speech Workout and the VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association) Newsletter. She has presented workshops in cities around
the country and in London, Scotland, Thailand, Japan and The Dominican Republic. In addition to working in Theatre Deena has also coached dialects for film and television.

Deena’s acting credits include major roles at the Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, A Contemporary Theatre, and the Resident Ensemble Players (REP). At the REP, Deena played the roles of Ivy in Osage Orange county, Susan in Wait Until Dark, Dorine in Tartuffe, Brooke in Noises Off, Slippy Helen in The Cripple of Inishmaan, Liz Morder in Our Country’s Good, Polly
Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, Sam in the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s Fever, and Miss Casewell in The Mousetrap among others. You can hear her voice on ads for Alaska Airlines, Washington Mutual Bank, The Bon-Marche (Macy’s), Nordstrom and many others as well as on many CD Rom games.

Deena is a graduate of The Juilliard School and loves to dance. While she has studied some ballet, tap and modern her true passion lies in social dance (not to be confused with Ballroom dancing). She has traveled the country and the world to study, dance and occasionally perform the Argentine Tango as well as salsa, bachata and Kizomba.

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Chloe & Rhonda talk about letting go of the push for 'success', the healing powers of animals, liminal phases of a creative life, riding the wave, and so much more. Please take a moment to share Past the Blue Mailbox with your friends, and be sure to follow on your favorite streaming service to be notified of new episodes!

Albuquerque-based solo artist Dandelioness is known for her radioactive falsetto and visceral, hypnotizing stage presence.

Though she was raised on americana and mentored by folk greats Carrie Newcomer and Krista Detor, Dandelioness spent the first half of her life in India. In her writing, the echoes of droning ragas from her years in New Delhi well up under simple folk structures, resulting in an anomalous, otherworldly fusion of disparate cultural lilts and progressions. The sound is further mutated with infectious pop riffs, drips of her mother’s hand-me-down southern drawl, glittering with autotuned vocoder and underscored by spiraling patterns of fingerstyle guitar.

Growling, crooning, generally in an outrageous getup, Dandelioness gives a vulnerable and playful show that tilts in the direction of burlesque- in her words, 'reading pages of my diary up here in front of everyone'- and often, inviting the audience to join in.

The result is turning dive bars into listening rooms across the country.

Her debut album, titled “Scorpio Ballads” out via Three of Swords Records, charts the tumultuous journey of a first love torn in half by long distance. Recorded in London, England, each track on the album contributes to the overall emotional landscape. Whether it’s the mascara-stained visions of the underworld or the apocalyptic American West, Dandelioness invites listeners to explore these dark, whimsical landscapes.

A musical vagabond, Dandelioness is a bohemian goth who has at various times called New Delhi, India, London, England, Taos, New Mexico, and now Albuquerque home.

Since landing in New Mexico several years back, she has shared the stage or the bill with Concepto Tambor and Desert Records artist Betty Benedeadly (Sheverb), among others.

Photo Credit: Kirk Stauffer