The Great Creators with Guy Raz

Audra McDonald: The Power of Taking On Work That Scares You (2022)

Feb 14, 2023

01:04:05

Highlights

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Episode notes

The Last Bit of the Work Is Never Ending

01:54

Did You Have a Great Voice Teacher?

05:53

Zoe Caldwell - What I Learned From Her

04:26

Introduction

4min

Is Audra So Dramatic?

4min

Is Ritalin a Good Thing?

5min

How to Be a Good Audience Member

2min

Is That What You Wanted to Do?

2min

I'm in the Wrong Department, Right?

3min

Psychiatry and ADD - I'm a Young Kid in York, Early 20s

4min

Did You Have a Great Voice Teacher?

6min

The Great Creators Podcast Frozen Head

3min

10.

Zoe Caldwell - What I Learned From Her

4min

11.

The Last Bit of the Work Is Never Ending

2min

12.

You Can't Pull That Off Unless You're an Expert

6min

13.

Audra McDonald's Dream of Getting to the Boardwalk

4min

14.

You're in a Theater and the Camera Is Just Your Audience

3min

15.

I Wanted to Work With Brian Stokes Mitchell, Steve Flaherty, and Lynne Aronson

4min

16.

You're the Greatest Living Theater Actor in English

3min

17.

You Want a Hard Role?

3min

18.

Isn't It About Transformation?

2min

19.

How to Trust Your Instincts

2min

20.

The Great Creators Podcast - Episode 5

3min

Audra McDonald (Master Class, Ragtime, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill) has won six Tony Awards--more performance wins than any other theater actor. (She's also won two Grammys and one Emmy along the way.) Still, each new role she takes scares her. In this episode from the fall of 2022, Audra told Guy why that fear is actually essential to her work, about her never-ending quest to know her characters better, and how it felt to have her friend and mentor Stephen Sondheim publicly pan one of her shows.

Links from the show:

Excerpts of Audra and Zoe Caldwell in Master Class
Audra singing "Summertime" from her role as Bess in The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess
Audra performing Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child" from Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill
Audra performing the song "Say No to This" from Hamilton in the voice of Billie Holiday
Playbill pick of 13 Audra performances on the occasion of her birthday
2020 New Yorker interview with Audra
More on Audra's role in Ohio State Murders

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