S2. Ep.5: Big Thinks about Wellness

Robyn & Bonny "flip the script" and are interviewed by Berg on this final episode of the season. Special announcement also included!

In this (comically late) episode, Robyn and Bonny ask some big questions about the wellness industry, the intentions of those involved in it and discuss the future of the podcast.

Robyn and Bonny riff once again this season....this time on purpose! They discuss grounding, cryotherapy, TIP, red light therapy, compression therapy, sensory deprivation floating, 5 senses work, stepping in and out of character, intentionality and more. Neither Robyn nor Bonny know how to spell Wim Hof in this episode, but still think he is cool. Literally. Visit Renew & Restore Wellness at https://www.renewandrestorewellnessva.com/

Holiday Greetings from Robyn & Bonny!! See you in 2025!

Robyn and Bonny welcome Dr. Julia Basso and Rachel Rugh onto the pod to discuss your brain on art....and art on the brain! More on our guests: Dr. Julia C. Basso is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise at Virginia Tech, Director of The Embodied Brain Lab, and Co-Director of The Science and Art of Movement Lab. She also holds affiliate faculty positions in the Virginia Tech School of Neuroscience and is a Fellow at both the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology and the Center for Health Behaviors Research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion. With a PhD in Behavioral and Neural Science, a BA in Dance, and certification as a yoga teacher, Dr. Basso's work bridges the fields of art and science, focusing on the body-brain connection and using movement to enhance brain function and physiology. A Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator, her research has been featured in prominent outlets such as The New York Times, Dance Magazine, Psychology Today, Virginia Living, and on National Public Radio. In addition to her scientific work, Dr. Basso creates dance performances and artistic installations that explore the visualization and sonification of brain activity. www.embodiedbrainlab.com Rachel Rugh is a dancer, teacher, mover and shaker based in Blacksburg, Virginia. A joyful and enthusiastic movement educator, she has over a decade of experience teaching creative dance to all ages and stages of movers, and currently teaches at Virginia Tech. She has presented her work at a variety of national performing arts conferences including the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in America (SEAMUS), the Mid-Atlantic Teaching Artists’ Retreat, the Virginia Tech Gender, Bodies and Technology Conference (GBT), and the American College Dance Association (ACDA). Prior to her position at VT, Rugh taught at Radford University and directed the summer residential dance program at the Virginia Governor's School for Humanities and Visual and Performing Arts from 2017- 2023. She is a faculty fellow at the VT Center for Communicating Science. Her recent research has focused on connections between the brain and body through her work with the Virginia Tech Embodied Brain Laboratory, where she co-directed the first annual Science and Art of Movement Festival in summer 2024. In her *spare* time, she is the director of Blacksburg Dance Theater, which provides the local community with joyful and accessible creative dance training for all ages. She holds a BA in dance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and an MFA in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Sometimes life throws you a curveball....and you have to adapt. In this episode, staring the original duo Robyn and Bonny, your hosts are flying solo due to Mother Nature putting a literal damper on the original plans. Yet, they use the opportunity to discuss how artists are often asked to check and adjust and how we can still do so with wellness top of mind. Special Thanks Berg (music)

On this first episode of the second season, partners in life and in art, Mary Trotter and Ben Gonzales join us to kick things off. Parents to twin girls, Mary & Ben examine the juggling act that is a life in the theatre while raising children. Mary Trotter (she/her) is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse where she teaches acting and musical theatre, and most recently directed The Wolves! She is an actor, director and intimacy choreographer. Professional credits span the country including Black Hills Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Imagination Theater, Missouri Repertory Theatre, and Idaho Repertory Theatre. In addition to UWL, locally Mary has served as Intimacy Director for Viterbo University, La Crosse Community Theatre and Grey Area Productions. She received her BA from Bradley University and MFA from the University of Idaho, and has extensive training with Patsy Rodenburg, Theatrical Intimacy Education, and the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium. Mary has produced and directed theatre outreach programs such as Las Memorias and The Performance Project, focused on defining and sharing individual stories of participants.    Benjamin Gonzales is an assistant professor teaching in the areas of theatre history and literature at Viterbo University. He has worked for the past 21 years as an instructor/professor, directing, and designing plays and teaching classes in playwriting, lighting, sound, theatrical literature and history, and design fundamentals and aesthetics. Benjamin has earned an MA in teaching from Washington State University, and an MFA in Theatre Arts (focused on dramatic writing) from the University of Idaho. He specializes in writing verbatim plays that highlight the stories of communities who have in some way been marginalized.  Benjamin currently serves as the national chair of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival's (KCACTF) National Playwriting Program (NPP) and has previously served as the representation, equity, and diversity (RED) Coordinator. Plays written by Benjamin include: The Lion and Lamb (2016), Memoria de Oaxaca (2017), Up Chimacum Creek (2018), VOUCHer (2018), The Good Soldier (2018), and Sour Mash (2019).

Robyn and Bonny express gratitude for their first season and preview what's to come in Season 2!

Bonny & Robyn welcome Jon Royal to the podcast for the final episode of Season One! Jon Royal is a director, teaching artist, and facilitator who is based in Nashville, TN. In 2004 he received a fellowship to study with Ming Cho Lee and Constance Hoffman, forever changing his approach to art, work, and life. Since then, he has directed, or appeared in productions for In Other People’s Shoes, First Stage, Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Nashville Children’s Theatre, Nashville Repertory Theatre, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Actor’s Bridge Ensemble, Street Theatre Company, Berry College, Nashville School of the Arts, and other organizations. In 2016, he was a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s National Observership Class, in which he had the privilege of working with Liesel Tommy on the Public Theatre’s production of Party People. In 2019 he was named Best Theatre Director by the Nashville Scene. Recently, he has begun working behind the camera, directing the concert documentary Walk Together Children: The 150th Anniversary of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, which has been distributed nationally by PBS, and producing The Creswell Story, a student driven film project that studies the history of Nashville’s Arts Middle Magnet School for the Performing Arts and its namesake. Jon has been working with youth and students of all ages for over thirty years. He’s currently on the faculty of Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts where he teaches Devising Through Community Building. He’s also a part of a national design team that develops Shakespeare and Social Justice curriculum for high school classrooms around the country. He facilitates workshops for RACE FORWARD’s Government Alliance on Race and Equity cohorts, helping public servants engage with artistic practice to deepen their sense of collaboration in their work. Jon is currently the recipient of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s Lloyd Richards New Futures Residency, where he is an artist in residence at St Louis Black Repertory Company. Special thanks: Berg (music)

An Emmy Award nominated actor who has also graced the boards of Broadway, Eric Petersen talks about working on stage, screen and beyond and how he stays afloat in a challenging industry. Eric Petersen most recently can be seen in High Desert for Apple TV opposite Patricia Arquette, and can next be seen in Nathan Fielder’s The Curse on Showtime. He also recently starred in the AMC series Kevin Can F*** Himself, alongside Annie Murphy.  A dark comedy that mixes single-cam and multi-cam shooting in front of a studio audience to re-examine the trope of the passive sitcom wife.   A veteran of television and the Broadway stage, Petersen’s previous television credits include the TV Land series Kristie, Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, & Chicago Fire amongst many others. Eric was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role of Ant’ney the pigeon on Madagascar: A Little Wild.  He was also seen in the Oscar Nominated Coen Bros. film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.  On stage Petersen has starred in the hit Broadway production and national tour of “Shrek: The Musical,” as Shrek. On Broadway he was seen in “School of Rock” as Dewey Finn and the musical “Escape To Margaritaville,” as Brick.  His additional theatre credits include productions of “Peter and the Starcather” (Broadway) and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (1st National Tour).  He attended Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, where he earned a degree in Acting.  Connect with Eric: @EricPete Insta @ThePortlyGentleman Fashion Insta