Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, Lizzie Bowman is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Royce Vavrek (Angel’s Bone with composer Du Yun, Adoration with composer Mary Kouyoumdjian, Lincoln in the Bardo with composer Missy Mazzoli) who grew up on a farm in Alberta, Canada, and is exploding in the international opera scene. We discuss how a childhood of country radio and the rural landscape of Northern Canada shaped his "serpentine" path through film school and eventually into the world of contemporary storytelling.

Serendipitous Release: While this conversation was recorded in December 2025, a few audio technical hurdles (now fixed!) kept it in the vault until now. As it turns out, the timing is perfect. In the interview, we discuss the complexities of the project Indians on Vacation, and this week, on May 9, 2026, that project, in a new form, takes center stage. Against the Grain Theatre (where Royce is Artistic Director) will present "Stories Don’t Die" at the Terminal Theatre in Toronto. This intimate encounter interweaves excerpts from the opera with personal reflections on belonging and identity, featuring a newly commissioned sung land acknowledgement by Ian Cusson and Yvette Nolan.

Also in this conversation:

• The "Energy Ping-Pong": Royce explains why he loves an audience that "talks back"—from $11 tickets at Opera Philly to the electric, "imperfect" magic of live performance.
• Pure Canadiana: A deep dive into our shared love for the Canadian singer-songwriters who define our playlists, including Sarah Slean, Kathleen Edwards, and The Rankin Family.
• Writing for Muses: The joy of creating roles for specific voices like Lauren Worsham, Anne Sophie von Otter, and Thomas Hampson.

All episodes are also available in video form on our YouTube and Spotify Channels. All episodes are hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman.

Don’t forget to subscribe, share the love, and leave us a review to show your support—it means a lot to us!

Don't hesitate to reach out to us with guest ideas, information you'd like covered, or any ideas you might have—the hope is for this to be a continuous resource and dialogue with our listeners.

Visit TheSceneRoom.com for more information.

Send us Fan Mail

This week, we sit down with career and leadership coach Julia Starr to unpack a practical path through professional pivots. Julia isn't just a coach; she is a master of the "bold move." From her time as a Fulbright Fellow in Malaysia and a BCG consultant to her work streamlining a family sawmill business and earning an Ed.M. from Harvard, Julia has navigated the exact inflection points she now helps her clients master.

In this episode, Julia explains why the skills of a performing artist—the discipline of an opera singer (for example), the multilingual adaptability of a touring musician, and the high-stakes presence of a stage actor—are actually elite assets for global business and leadership.

We dive into:

• The Identity Shift: How to separate who you are from what you do.
• Career Design Thinking: Why you should treat your next move like a prototype—testing hypotheses and gathering data rather than guessing.
• The Language of Translation: How to turn your creative "strength stories" into the strategic language that recruiters and CEOs crave.
• The 5 A.M. Test: Why being a "thoughtful, curious colleague" is the ultimate competitive advantage in any industry.

Julia also shares her Value-Strengths-Action method, offering a look at how to use AI to surface adjacent roles you never knew existed. Whether you are an artist looking for your next stage or a professional feeling "stuck," this conversation provides the strategy and the "momentum" needed to build something extraordinary.

All episodes are also available in video form on our YouTube and Spotify Channels. All episodes are hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman.

Don’t forget to subscribe, share the love, and leave us a review to show your support—it means a lot to us!

Don't hesitate to reach out to us with guest ideas, information you'd like covered, or any ideas you might have—the hope is for this to be a continuous resource and dialogue with our listeners.

Visit TheSceneRoom.com for more information.

Send us Fan Mail

What if the most vulnerable part of U.S. arts isn’t creativity, but structure? Brett Egan, president of the DeVos Institute, joins us to unpack why public funding feels shakier than ever, how AI is making the arts more necessary—not less—and what it would take to build a resilient cultural ecosystem that can weather political swings.

We trace the long arc from the NEA’s founding to today’s accelerated attempts to shrink and politicize cultural agencies, with real consequences for stability, planning, and trust. Brett argues for a both‑and approach: defend what’s left while building capacity beyond government. He lays out a practical blueprint for a flexible national arts framework—more constitution than command—that invites thousands of organizations to align around shared pillars like arts education, creative workers’ rights, disability inclusion, community arts practice, and a legal defense fund for creative expression. Imagine collective philanthropy fueling a dozen long‑horizon campaigns that strengthen the whole field.

We also dig into what leadership looks like now. The future belongs to hybrid leaders who blend classic arts administration with AI literacy, policy fluency, and cross‑sector savvy in health, transportation, and education. Brett shares how to move research from the academy into practice, why structural thinking helps decode fast‑moving policy shifts, and how a big‑tent mindset—assuming good faith across differences—can turn overwhelm into coordinated action. If you care about funding stability, audience recovery, and the role of culture in a turbulent world, this conversation offers clarity and a path forward.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, share with a colleague, and leave a review to help more arts leaders find it. Your feedback shapes future episodes and fuels the work.

All episodes are also available in video form on our YouTube and Spotify Channels. All episodes are hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman.

Don’t forget to subscribe, share the love, and leave us a review to show your support—it means a lot to us!

Don't hesitate to reach out to us with guest ideas, information you'd like covered, or any ideas you might have—the hope is for this to be a continuous resource and dialogue with our listeners.

Visit TheSceneRoom.com for more information.