The Spark File with Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien
Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien
Your one stop shop for creative ideas and inspiration. Sign up for our newsletter HERE. Each week on The Spark File podcast, Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien reach into their spark files and share stories, ideas and fascinations to ignite your imagination. Obsessed with creativity, Blackwell and Camien also talk with artists and makers, movers and shakers who have taken the spark of inspiration and fanned it into a flame. Hear from inspiring creatives like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sara Bareilles, Eric Stonestreet, Jonathan Groff, Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich, Zachary Quinto, Leslie Odom Jr, Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Billy Eichner, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Karen Olivo, Sutton Foster, Michael R. Jackson and many more about their passions and their failures, their inspirations and their aspirations. Refill your creative fish pond with new ideas and fresh perspectives. Listen, then take it and make it! Learn more at thesparkfile.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Dec 30, 2019 • 1h 5min
Creativity Sparks: Our Very First Mailbag Episode!
In this special episode, Susan and Laura reach into the mailbag and share sparks and creative results from our fearless listeners. From the desire to reconnect to that spark of creativity within us to making a creative leap or navigating a creative transition…we respond to your heartfelt and humor-filled letters to us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 26, 2019 • 59min
Makers: Brad Montague: Confetti, a Choir, a T-shirt Canon and a Human Being Who Wants to Be Loved
In this episode of The Spark File, Susan and Laura connect with the magic and the genius that is Brad Montague - Writer, Director, Illustrator, Creator of Kid President, but ultimately, "just a human being who wants to be loved." Join us to hear about Brad's mission to seek good, create good, and celebrate good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 23, 2019 • 1h 40min
Creativity Sparks: Mudlarking + Verbatim Theatre
In this episode of The Spark File, Susan and Laura share a tinderbox of sparks with the treasure-hunting, archeology-digging, historical-fact-finding adventure that is Mudlarking and the use of language as an entry point into character with Anna Deavere Smith's creation of Verbatim Theatre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 19, 2019 • 51min
Makers: Matt Vogel: Getting Booed, Becoming a Muppet, and Retaining Something That's Yours
This week on The Spark File, Susan and Laura curl up with the endlessly creative Matt Vogel. At Sesame Street and in his roles as Kermit the Frog and Big Bird, Matt utilizes his skills as an actor, puppeteer, songwriter, director, and so much more. He shares highlights from his creative journey from getting booed at the high school talent show to debuting triumphantly at the Hollywood Bowl. Matt remains inspired by Jim Henson's mantra to be in service of the best idea, and Kermit's guiding purpose of "making millions of people happy."And he believes that you must always retain something that's yours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 16, 2019 • 1h 29min
Creativity Sparks: Cat Dancers + Teddy Roosevelt
In this episode of The Spark File, Susan and Laura surprise each other with sparks from their personal files -- the tragic story of Ron and Joy Holiday (aka Cat Dancers) and the paradoxes and duality of the Man in the Arena himself, Theodore Roosevelt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 12, 2019 • 1h 6min
Makers: Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus: Beyond The Nanny Diaries; or Clock-watching and Disrespect
In the latest 'makersode' of The Spark File, Susan and Laura talk to the prolific writing duo Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, co-authors of The Nanny Diaries and so much more. With over 6 million copies of their 10 books in print in over 32 languages, Emma and Nicola share their tips and techniques for successful collaborative writing with a partner as well as how it feels to consciously uncouple when the work is done. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 9, 2019 • 1h 45min
Creativity Sparks: Flu Apocalypse + A Storytelling of Writers
In this week's episode of The Spark File, Susan and Laura surprise each other with topics that are sparking their creativity at the moment -- from the flu of 1918 to World War Z, its time to consider the inevitability of the next FLU Apocalypse and the delicate collaboration necessary to participate and thrive in a Storytelling of Writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 5, 2019 • 49min
Makers: Jonathan Groff Part 2: Hear Me, People of Thebes
In this episode of The Spark File, Susan and Laura get another snuggle sesh with the ever-eager Jonathan Groff. Jonathan shares how a bad review of his performance in The Bacchae lead him to bring a new level of BDE to the part. Who's the Greek God now? From his belief that "we're all bad at all different points in the process" to his emerging desire to Pay it Forward, it is impossible to not be inspired by the absolute openess and authenticity of our favorite mindhunter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 2, 2019 • 1h 21min
Creativity Sparks: Bird by Bird + Honey Boy
On this week's episode of The Spark File, Susan and Laura share two sparks from their personal spark files: The infinite wisdom and inspiration of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and the hopeful possibility of redemption and healing of Shia LaBeouf's Honey Boy. Both sparks speak to the bravery of observing life (your own and others'), taking notes and telling the truth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 28, 2019 • 45min
Makers: Jonathan Groff Part 1: Rehearsal Rooms, the O Face, and Telling the Truth
In the latest bonus episode from The Spark File, Susan and Laura snuggle up with actor/singer/dancer/truth-teller, Jonathan Groff. Jonathan shares his visceral responses to most everything, including his approach to choosing roles and relationships. We talk the bravery of coming out, and the importance of telling one's own truth. CONTENT WARNING: Sexually explicit language Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
