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Women Power in Voiceover at VO Atlanta

Why Voice Over artists should go to conferences

This year, I have attended a few awesome VO conferences (both in person and virtual) and am excited to go to so many more. They’ve all been terrific, and each one has a different feel and different learning opportunities and people to meet. And I have attended conferences or in areas that intersect with VO — audiodrama festivals, mystery writers conferences, fantasy cons, and more. That’s a lot of conferences. Sure, conference-attending can be overwhelming, tiring, time-consuming, and costly BUT the benefits so incredibly outweigh all that. I have a few guidelines to help you decide when it’s worth going

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Children in Kabul using the masks they made

Arts in Education: Mobile Mini Circus for Children in Afghanistan has returned

Since I visited this incredible program in 2013, they were forced to shut down and seek safety when the Taliban again grew powerful and violent in the Autumn of 2022. Now, once again (as of January 2023), they have 27 teams in 11 provinces, serving children of all ages and genders, with a social circus program that also provides food and other instruction. You can learn more about them on their Facebook page (they post most often on Facebook). Support by sharing or donating if you can. — I am walking down the dirt road, my headscarf up over my

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Mystery & Adventure Agency cemetery photo

Celebrate Halloween with these unique and creative activities

Today is the day! The ghouls and goblins have populated the fronts of houses, the children are excited about “what to be,” and the parents are dreading the sugar crash while sneaking a few king-sized bars. Some of my friends and colleagues bemoan the hype, commercialism, and calories. I personally LOVE Halloween (I’m a theatre person, remember, with an active inner child), but this blog is dedicated to those who don’t. You can make this holiday about something more meaningful. Here are my recommendations for doing something for All Hallows that doesn’t have anything to do with haunted houses or

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A group of students planning out their project

How does the collaboration circle work

As I write this, I pause to quickly grab a pencil and jot down one more thing on my “Bring” list, so I don’t forget when I leave for a foreign country at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. I have more anxiety than I typically do — normally I am happiest and most content moving through space (or preparing to), and love my collaborative-creative projects best of all. So what, I asked myself, was I worried about this time? I had done quite a bit of social, cultural, and language preparation, spent time with friends and colleagues from this country to

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A piece of living art covering a bench

Living Art: creating common beauty

It’s winter, and winter wonderlands bring to mind evergreens and warmer climes — for me, at least! So this blog is focused on Living Art—projects to do with your school or community that engage everyone, are stunningly beautiful, functional, and full of science and history exploration opportunities. What the heck is Living Art? In a nutshell, structures and sculptures made from alive plants (and some people would include running water). These are not just your king’s topiary! I was recently in Texas, and visited the Houston Museum of Natural History  and it’s adjacent Japanese Gardens in Hermann Park . Gracing

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Cover of The State of the Birds 2014 book

Remembering Martha: art, community, and the passenger pigeon

September 1, 2014, marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Martha, the sole surviving Passenger Pigeon. Quite a few interesting, powerful, relevant articles have come out, including ones about “de-extinction” in a Smithsonian article by William Souder, “100 Years After Her Death, Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon, Still Resonates.” However, for me it wasn’t until I saw the paper “pull-out” from my edition of the Smithsonian Magazine, that I felt a real connection. It was printed with the pattern to fold the paper into an origami Passenger Pigeon. Like the origami cranes, gracefully and soulfully keeping us aware of and

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Holly holds up a mask that she made

Why You Should Make Masks

I have given many mask-making workshops, with the adult cast of a show, for toddlers, in school settings, with tweens who have disabilities, and as part of a physical theatre performance at a museum. Each time, the group members have been surprised by the newness of it, then cautious and worried about getting it right as they begin, then delighted and enthusiastic as the masks come into being in their hands. Too often, I think, such exploration of an alien landscape is relegated to an art class when its power and wonder would blossom in sooo many other circumstances. I

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Holly Adams in her studio recording an audiobook

“On the Spectrum” and On the Stage

My wonderful and amazing students from “A Class Act” with The Magic Paintbrush Project performed on April 27th (a play they wrote!) and hit the ball out of the park. They were amazing, they were incredible, they brought the house down. And every single one of them has a disability. I wrote about them last fall, when we were just beginning our process (see “Life is Washable”), but as a result of the show, folks have been asking about children, challenges, and performance, especially children who are on the Asperger-Autism spectrum. I last posted some specific observations and activities about working

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