WEBVTT - CEDERING FOX: WORDTheatre 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.399 Spring is here, and I am so happy to greet it. 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:11.239 The farm seems to be happy to greet it too. 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:16.680 There are daffodils popping up and poppies popping up in 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:20.079 the now green fields. The plum trees have been in 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:24.040 furling their tiny purple and white blossoms. The rest of 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:27.920 the fruit trees have buds that are plumping out on 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:33.120 their still bare branches. The goats have baby goats, the chickens, 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:38.280 the EMUs are acting especially frisky. We have six emu 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:42.720 eggs in the incubator right now. We've got bird songs 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:46.760 that fill the air during the day. We've got frogs 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:50.960 billions of frogs in the ponds filling the air at night. 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:55.959 And hope, hope is filling my heart. This is my 0:00:56.080 --> 0:01:00.720 wish for you too, that your heart is full of faith, hope, 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:06.200 and charity during this beautiful season of rebirth. I am 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.920 so pleased to be sharing today's episode of Love Someone 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:14.160 with you, and very excited for the conversation that is 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.160 about to take place. You may or may not have 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.679 heard the name of my guest before today, but I 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:27.120 guarantee you won't forget it after this conversation. Cedaring Fox 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:32.800 Isn't that a beautiful name? Cedaring Fox she is a 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.600 trail blazing voice over artist. You've heard her as she 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:41.119 announces major live televised award shows and events such as 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:46.920 the Oscars, the People's Choice Awards, the Democratic National Convention, 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:53.240 and numerous non broadcast events including the Producer's Guild Awards, 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:59.240 the Luminaire Awards, the OSCAR Nominees Luncheon, the Governor's Awards 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.200 for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:09.760 the glad GLAAD Awards. Cededaring Fox has voiced hundreds of 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:17.680 national promotional spots for broadcast networks ABCNBCCBS Fox, and for 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:23.720 international cable networks such as CNN, BBC, ESPN, and Lifetime. 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:30.119 She has voiced award winning documentaries, countless national commercial campaigns, 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:35.320 and is the female voice of numerous local affiliate stations. 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:41.120 She regularly donates her voice to valued charitable organizations and 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:45.760 is featured on the book Secrets of Voiceover Success, Top 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.800 actors reveal how they did it. Her work as a 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:54.320 voice over artists is fascinating, but I am especially interested 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.320 in the amazing organization that she founded called Word Theater. 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:02.520 Word Theater dot Org is the address. They operate in 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.400 Los Angeles, New York, and London since two thousand and three. 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:11.200 Word Theater's mission is to connect people across the globe 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:17.120 with compelling stories delivered through performances by well known actors 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:22.639 from film, television, and theater. The stories reflect the colorful, complicated, 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.800 and fascinating world that we live in and celebrate the 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.920 power of language. We are going to chat with Cedaring. 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.440 I got to find out about that name. I love 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.240 that name, and learn about Word Theater and some of 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.920 their upcoming events, and perhaps you would like to take 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.920 part in that. But before all that, I'm going to 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:47.680 speak to the goodness of one of my favorite podcast sponsors, 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:53.280 the amazing Mercy Ships. Of the few things in life 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.320 that are universal, I believe love is the most powerful. 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.120 I've been talking about mercy ships a lot, and someone 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:07.320 asked me the other day, to Lilah, what is mercy Well, 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:16.960 to me, mercy is unfettered love. Unfettered means boundless, unrestrained, free, 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.800 the very best kind of love there is. There is 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:23.640 so much good in the world if only we train 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:28.320 our focus point upon it. With every surgery, every changed life, 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.880 Mercy ships restores a little bit of humanity, and that 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.520 is why I am such a huge fan. Mercy Ships 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:41.000 just launched the Global Mercy, the world's first custom built 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.520 civilian hospital ship, so they can perform even more surgeries 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:50.240 and change even more lives. Now that inspires me. Go 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:54.560 to Mercyships dot org and see for yourself what unfettered, 0:04:54.839 --> 0:05:01.159 boundless love looks like. Mercyships dot org. Welcome to love 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.800 someone with Delilah Cedaring Fox. A lot of folks don't 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.760 know your name, but they certainly if they have watched 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:14.040 any awards ceremony, I know that voice. You're the voice 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:20.880 of everything like you are. Your voice is so so 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.920 connected with so many things in our society. But it's 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:29.719 not a voice that is shouting over the crowd. You're 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:33.800 just a voice that is strong and present. Thank you 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.840 so much for that, Delilah. I think that a big 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.560 part of your success is your voice, because I think 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:44.720 we have something in common where we're trying to just 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.719 gather people and connect people with our work, and I 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:53.599 do the same thing when I'm doing voice work. I'm 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.760 trying to bring people to see what I'm seeing and 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.719 feeling and thinking. And I think that you're so doing that, 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:05.880 and it's very comforting, the sound of a warm, welcoming voice, 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.680 don't you think, I hope. So that's my intent. So 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:12.839 is ceaedaring the name that your parents gave you or 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.360 is this a name you came upon? Well, my mother 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.200 was born and raised way up north in Sweden, in 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:24.560 thirty kilometers from the Arctic Circle, and they had and 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:27.680 probably still have a tradition in Sweden where normally you 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.520 would become the son or daughter of your father's first 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:36.000 name and her son Andre's daughter. And my mother's father 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:40.280 was Hilding, so she would have been Hilding's daughter. But 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:45.839 there is this option, and there certainly wasn't the nineteen 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:51.480 thirties when my grandfather Hilding married Elvi, where you could 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.320 create your own last name and send it to the 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.719 Swedish government and if no one has it, you get 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.440 to claim it as your own. So what happened is 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:06.279 my grandfather was a beautiful character who ended up owning 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:10.000 thousands of acres in northern Sweden, and he was a 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.240 nature lover. He knew every star, every tree, every flower, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:19.360 every berry, and they took the cedar tree and the 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.440 circle as it was always described to me by my 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:27.200 poet mother of archetypal wholeness, and they made a cedar 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:33.080 ring say that ring? So yeah, wow, well you embody it. Well, 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.920 thank you. This is only a long answer, I know, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.760 but I wanted the story, and that's what I do. 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.520 I love stories. That's my whole life is telling stories 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.160 and listening to stories. Well, we share a lot in 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:49.960 common because my entire life is dedicated to stories. And 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:55.520 we're currently creating a campus for educators and students. It's 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.920 called the Word Theater Campus. So tell me about a 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:04.720 Word Theater twenty year anniversary. So you're a storyteller. I 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.480 mean that's what makes the world go round, bringing people 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:11.920 together by sharing stories of what it means to be human. 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.840 I think your mission and the mission of Word Theater 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:21.160 is extremely similar. I found a diary recently where I 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:23.760 was an actress. I trained as an actress from a 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:26.800 very young age and a dancer, and I was in 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:28.960 a class when I was twenty two years old. It 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.640 was kind of a boot camp for actors to get 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.840 everybody going, and we had to write down our life's 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.080 objective and I thought, oh my god, you know, I 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.160 love dancing, I love acting, I love directing. I love 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:46.200 all these different things. What is my life subjective? And 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.720 I wrote down to bring people together to share stories. 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:57.240 And whether I'm doing a voiceover job or running word theater, 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:03.200 where I gather the world greatest actors, wonderful human beings 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:07.319 are attracted to doing my show. I get a great 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:12.080 actor that I think is the perfect person to inhabit 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:18.040 a particular short story, a beautifully written short story. I 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.360 tend to work with some of the best living writers 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:27.120 in the US and the UK. Very fortunate about that. 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.320 But I cast an actor, I direct the actor, and 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.040 I get the author into the room nine out of 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:39.640 ten times to experience their story, been act of the story. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:44.960 And this sounds terrible, but I'm very proud to say 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.319 that nine out of ten times the author bursts into 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:54.480 is that the actor? They're so moved and it is. 0:09:56.320 --> 0:10:02.000 It's a very I can just describe it until you 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:06.520 know the cows come home, But really people need to 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:11.480 experience it. So tell us how they do that. How 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:16.640 can somebody experience just what you just described? How can 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:21.440 they be invited into that circle of stories? Yeah? I 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.680 started doing these stories many many many years ago, and 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.640 there there was a moment where I realized that I 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:30.240 had to commit to this as my life's work, because 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:36.280 the simplicity of an actor inhabiting a story and having 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.560 it be so brilliant is one of the purest forms 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.800 of theater. So I committed my life to this. I'd 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.600 been doing it in different incarnations, in different shows, but 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:50.080 twenty years ago I started Word Theater and we do 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:54.360 live events. We do small events, we do big events. 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:59.680 For example, Saturday, we are commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.280 the end of the war in Vietnam. And what I 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:07.840 did was create an event that we had on March eighteenth, gathering. 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:12.160 This extraordinary group of actors came in from all over, 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.000 and I brought in some of the most important writers 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:20.280 on Vietnam, Tim O'Brien who wrote the Things They Carried, 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:26.280 Tobias Wolfe, who burst into the literary fame with This 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:30.679 Boy's Life, which was made into a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:35.400 Robert de Niro. He has a memoir of his time 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:40.160 in Vietnam called Infaraoh's Army. So it was eleven different 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:46.839 stories by veterans of the Vietnam War, Iraq and Afghanistan. 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:49.760 There wasn't a dry eye in the house. Kathy Baker 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.600 closed with a letter from a Vietnam mother to her 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.800 son that she posted at the wall the Memorial in Washington, 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:04.160 and this everybody got to walk a mile in the 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:09.680 shoes of these veterans who had managed to create these 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:17.439 unbelievably beautiful stories, not necessarily true stories, but authentic stories 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:23.400 that came from their brilliant writing talents about an experience 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:29.160 of war. And so that's one event, that's one themed 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:34.439 event that I would create this summer. For example, we're 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:39.800 doing a big beautiful in an outdoor amphitheater here in 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:44.040 Los Angeles, an event about the history of jazz in 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:48.000 the words of the artists. So we do big shows 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.520 and then we do little shows, like on May sixth, 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:55.520 I'll have three actors reading two stories by two wonderful 0:12:55.559 --> 0:13:00.880 women from their collections. Lisa Kopolo and Dana Johnson are 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:05.840 the authors. So I'm always creating big shows, little shows, 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:11.360 and the public is completely welcome to come. We do 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:16.360 shows in Los Angeles, New York, and London. We also 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:23.760 started we started to record video record these events, and 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.120 we started to get really much more sophisticated about our 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.760 videos in recent years. And so what we do is 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.240 we will film an event like the event that we 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:38.080 did for the veterans, and it will be posted any 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.880 day now. And if you're a member of Word Theater, 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.640 which helps sustain our nonprofit. We're a complete and total nonprofit. 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.960 We visit schools in person. We're just always trying to 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:53.319 do good things and bring people together. But you can 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.760 as a member, an annual member, it's one hundred and 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:01.240 fifty dollars a year. You can access these videos in 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:05.280 the members area at your leisure, so you will see 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:09.840 beautifully filmed events. And we just did a benefit for 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:13.680 Ukraine in London. It's living on the it's living on 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:18.400 the website right now. And we have a weekly audio 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:24.400 podcast where we share a free story each week. Amazing, amazing. 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:28.360 I love the power of the spoken word. A lot 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:33.960 of people don't realize that there are thousands of languages 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:39.640 that don't have a written component, they only have spoken tradition. 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:44.480 When you share a story, you're sharing wisdom. And he's 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.920 so intuitive, Delilah, that's exactly right. I always I always 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:54.800 felt like the traveling minstrels and the storytellers would go 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.360 from town to town back in the day, it's the 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:02.080 oral storytelling or st it would be the King and 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:07.680 the people, and it did. Everybody was included. And I 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:13.359 say word, theater is for everyone, everybody, plumber or the president. 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:19.800 And when you hear someone step into these characters, they 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:22.840 become alive in your head and you see your own movie. 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:28.200 And that's what I love about listening and visualizing what 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:32.760 it is and feeling because the writers are so good 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.760 and they've written and rewritten, but by the time the 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:39.160 actor says it, it sounds like he's just writing it 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.800 in front of you, exactly telling the story. A good 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:47.360 actor is writing it in front of you. Yeah. Yeah, 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:51.760 Bringing to life words on a page is such a gift, 0:15:51.880 --> 0:16:01.360 such a talent. Absolutely, it's beautiful. So tell me about 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.800 the going into schools. The people who are attracted toward 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:11.440 theater are the most wonderful people because they remember that 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.800 they had that one teacher who realized they had a 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.560 spark and they had something, and they want to give back. 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.239 They become successful. They might be winning Emmy's and Oscars, 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:24.760 and they might be the busiest people in the world. 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:29.200 But if you say JK. Simmons, I have a story 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:32.920 for you. Will you come to Venice High School and 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:38.800 perform it for the kids, And he'll say Tuesday, you know, 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:43.280 can we do it on Tuesday? And so we have 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:47.800 been taking for many years, almost since our inception, actors 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:51.360 into schools and it could be one actor like JK. 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:58.040 It was unbelievable. And we'll also film that. And now 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:03.560 we're building a campus online where students can access many 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:08.639 of these stories with curriculum. It will be available digitally 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:13.400 in Seattle and in London. You know, but the going 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:18.000 into the schools having that live performance, I will never 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.960 stop doing that. It's such a joy. It's such a 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.600 joy for the actors to participate. We also bring writers 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:29.840 in and we're just here to make everybody realize that 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.879 those books on a library shelf, they're written by people. 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.720 The only difference between the writers who we focus on 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.320 is that they've rewritten those stories and rewritten those stories, 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.600 and they've shared them with people and gotten comments and feedbacks, 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:49.040 and they work them until they're really exactly right and 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.000 then they end up in a book. We have a 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.440 little project in West Africa that I would love to 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:59.320 talk to you about because I think you could help 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:01.359 us take it to a whole different level, called the 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:05.520 West African Wisdom Project, because all of West Africa is 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:11.439 spoken tradition and there are no written components to most 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:15.080 of the native languages. So for years, for decades, their 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.480 history and their faith and their there everything, they have 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:24.919 these wonderful little like proverbs. But each proverb has a 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:29.240 whole story behind it. Yes, I love learning those things. 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:31.800 So when you hear the proverb, you know it makes 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.320 no sense at all. You know that turtle with a 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.600 crack shell knows not to fly like that? What does 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.119 that mean? But then when you hear the story behind 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:47.040 the proverb, it's amazing and has all this like life 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.560 lessons in it. So what we what we want to 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:56.280 do is these take the stories, record them in the 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:02.080 native language, translate them into other language, have local artists 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:08.679 illustrate them, and then use them as a tool to 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.439 help kids learn how to read, because the kids in 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:14.400 West Africa do not read for pleasure, They only read 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:18.040 for purpose. I absolutely love that idea, you know. I 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:21.320 actually I grew up on Aesop's fables and Greek myths. 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:26.800 My grandmother Lillian, who read read all those stories to me, 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:31.080 and those have been passed down for thousands of years. 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:35.359 That is, would anything I can do to help you, Delilah, 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.560 please call me. You know, it's one of the important things. 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.800 It was a late addition to the Honor in Their 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:47.159 Words program that we did commemorating the end of the 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.119 Vietnam War. I was driving along a couple of weeks 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.560 before the live show and realize that we didn't have 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:59.480 any Native Americans represented. And I started doing my research 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:02.719 and did you you know that Native Americans were the 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:10.679 number one largest demographic in Vietnam. Eighty two thousand Native 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:16.400 Americans fought in Vietnam. And I found a poem that 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:21.760 was so profound and I feel very, very lucky. I'd 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:26.119 never worked with this actor before, but Zon mclarnan, who 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:30.600 he was in Longmeyer Far Ago. He's starring in his 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:35.800 own TV series right now. Beautiful Native American actor called 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:41.439 his agent. He made himself available and came in and 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:45.680 it was such a collaboration rehearsing with him because there 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.040 were sounds and he said, you know, what do you 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:49.800 think this sound is? I mean it was at a 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:54.040 pow wow and he ended up calling I said, I said, 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.600 I need to I need help from you to help 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:00.159 me find this this sound. He called his friend who 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:04.359 runs pow Wows, did her recording, sent me the recording. 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:09.480 He you know, anybody who watches a show Atword Theater 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:15.919 dot org. He just honoring these cultures. Delilah is so important. 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:18.720 I don't feel that the show would have been the 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:22.320 same if Zon hadn't been there doing that poem. If 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:27.000 he moved me so profoundly, and to represent the men 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:30.000 and women who have been part of the armed forces 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:36.560 was really important. Internationally known voiceover artist Cedaring Fox is 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:41.160 with us today sharing all sorts of fascinating information. We've 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.560 got much more to talk about right after I spend 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:48.479 some time with you talking about today's podcast. Sponsor Eyes 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:53.080 of Faith. If you're going to wear glasses, there's one 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:56.520 brand of frames I recommend you have to look for it, 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:01.679 but it's worth it. The brand is called of Faith Optical. 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.600 I discovered this brand, I fell in love with their 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.800 style of frames. I wear them every day now and 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:12.200 get so many compliments. It was only after I discovered 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:16.000 the beauty of their frames did I discover the subtle 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:20.400 message hidden on the inside of every frame, a scripture 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:23.680 from the Bible. Their purpose is not only to provide 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:27.000 you with a great frame, but to help others too. 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:30.639 Eyes of Faith Optical shares a generous amount of the 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:34.919 money they earn to improve the lives and eyesight of 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.399 so many others, many of them less fortunate than you. 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.879 And I see their frames and choose the ones that 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:46.280 make you feel great when you wear them. Eof optical 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:50.000 dot Com is their website. You're gonna love what you discover. 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:55.679 Eof optical dot com. Well, I'm going to talk to 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:59.440 you about a favorite writer of mine. His name is 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:08.400 Brian Doyle, and Brian Doyle lived in Portland, Oregon and 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:12.600 worked at the university. He was a newspaperman, a writer, 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:17.240 ended up being a very prolific, very prolific writer. And 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:21.840 I found one of his stories, which was really an essay, 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:25.800 and it starts out the hummingbird's heart beats this many 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:29.160 times a minute, and it goes on. It's three pages long, 0:23:29.280 --> 0:23:33.639 and it goes on to the heart of a blue whale, etc. 0:23:34.280 --> 0:23:38.439 And it is the most fascinating little piece and at 0:23:38.480 --> 0:23:41.960 the end you're in a flood of tears. And I 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:44.199 had read this thing, I called him. I tracked him 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:47.840 down in Oregon asked him for permission to have it 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:53.800 read at a benefit in Easthampton, New York, and he 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:58.720 said sure absolutely, and the actor Linus Roach and I 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:02.919 were going, we just kept stopping going this guy, what 0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:06.040 is he channeling? What planet is? This is so beautiful. 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:09.800 So I asked Brian, I said, thank you for permission 0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:11.919 to do the story. Can you tell me where it 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:16.600 came from? And he said, oh, well, I have twin boys, 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:19.439 and when they were born, one of them had a 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:23.320 heart problem and had to have open heart surgery. And 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:26.040 this was my way of dealing with this. This story 0:24:26.160 --> 0:24:31.960 is called joyous voladoras. Anyway, it just it stops traffic 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:34.320 when you when you read this story out loud, I'll 0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:37.879 send you I'll send you a copy. So he ended up, 0:24:39.400 --> 0:24:41.480 you know, I ended up doing many of his stories, 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:44.880 and then he started sending me stories. And now we've 0:24:44.880 --> 0:24:48.200 done shows with his stories and people just walk out 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:51.160 of these shows. We're doing another show with his stories 0:24:51.920 --> 0:24:55.679 on June first. I was working with his stories for 0:24:55.720 --> 0:24:58.400 twelve years before I finally met him, and he came 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:01.960 to Los Angeles in twenty sixteen with his wife and 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:04.120 we had a three day you know, we had events 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:07.200 and he had a book signing and things like that, 0:25:07.440 --> 0:25:12.400 and that's where J. K. Simmons is so in love 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:15.120 with him. He'll be part of this show at at 0:25:15.160 --> 0:25:19.120 the Grammy Museum on June one, the Grammy Museum Theater 0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:24.119 at La Live. At the end, he just stood up 0:25:24.119 --> 0:25:28.480 and talked about stories. There's the power of stories. They 0:25:28.480 --> 0:25:33.840 are food for the soul. He went home and I 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:36.200 got a call a month later that he had developed 0:25:36.200 --> 0:25:41.720 a glioblastoma and he died. And I told his wife, 0:25:41.880 --> 0:25:45.080 I am on a mission to get everybody in the 0:25:45.119 --> 0:25:49.439 world to hear these stories. You will be so moved 0:25:49.720 --> 0:25:54.200 when you hear. When I send you Joyce Voladorus this story, 0:25:54.320 --> 0:25:57.680 every story he written and their essays there at least 0:25:58.000 --> 0:26:01.480 two page things that make you look at the world 0:26:02.359 --> 0:26:06.400 completely differently. And you are all about heart stories. These 0:26:06.400 --> 0:26:10.000 are all open your heart stories he had, and they're 0:26:10.040 --> 0:26:14.280 so unpretentious. Tobias Wolf, who's a you know, he taught 0:26:14.280 --> 0:26:17.960 at Stamford for years. He's nurtured George Sanders and Adam 0:26:18.040 --> 0:26:23.520 Johnson and all these really great writers. I showed him 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:28.200 Brian Doyle's book. It was one of his many books. 0:26:28.200 --> 0:26:31.159 It was published posthumously called One Long River of Song, 0:26:31.960 --> 0:26:34.120 and he just was in tears. He goes, You've made 0:26:34.160 --> 0:26:38.639 me cry. It's a Sunday morning. It's like I'm sitting 0:26:38.640 --> 0:26:41.440 here crying. Thank you for introducing me to this writer. 0:26:42.000 --> 0:26:45.479 I just want to say to everybody out there, Brian Doyle, 0:26:45.760 --> 0:26:49.600 One Long River of Song, go find this book and 0:26:50.040 --> 0:26:53.680 find all his books. But if anybody is anywhere near 0:26:53.760 --> 0:26:56.960 Los Angeles on June first, come see this show. We 0:26:57.000 --> 0:27:03.560 have a remarkable cast coming together and these are it 0:27:03.680 --> 0:27:11.560 also they're they're just so accessible and they're so human. Wow. Wow. 0:27:12.200 --> 0:27:16.560 So Wordtheater dot com or dot org. We're a dot org. 0:27:16.720 --> 0:27:19.760 We're a five O one C three nonprofit in the 0:27:19.840 --> 0:27:22.919 United States and we're on the cusp of getting our 0:27:23.040 --> 0:27:26.840 charitable status in the UK. This has just been such 0:27:26.840 --> 0:27:29.359 a pleasure of speaking with you, and I hope that 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:33.120 your listeners will go check out our free Word Theater 0:27:33.240 --> 0:27:37.520 short story podcast. Yes indeed and join Word Theater. And 0:27:37.600 --> 0:27:41.359 if you're anywhere near any of your big events trying 0:27:41.359 --> 0:27:45.639 to get ticket little events or little events, yeah, these 0:27:45.720 --> 0:27:51.480 talents give their time, the amount of rehearsal that they do. 0:27:51.600 --> 0:27:56.160 They people work so hard and when they get off 0:27:56.240 --> 0:27:59.720 that stage, they feel proud and they know that they've 0:27:59.760 --> 0:28:04.119 touched people, They've reached people, They've done something that is 0:28:04.160 --> 0:28:09.760 not about commercial success. It's about giving, giving culture that 0:28:09.840 --> 0:28:13.879 we live in and receiving the love back, knowing that 0:28:13.920 --> 0:28:20.719 you've moved people and engendered empathy and compassion for you. 0:28:20.960 --> 0:28:23.000 All of the things I try to do are just 0:28:24.200 --> 0:28:27.320 that bring people together, just like what you're doing. So 0:28:27.400 --> 0:28:30.760 I just thank you so much for this opportunity. On 0:28:31.000 --> 0:28:35.560 June first, a new selection of stories by beloved Oregon 0:28:35.640 --> 0:28:41.040 author Brian Doyle brought to life by extraordinary actors including JK. 0:28:41.400 --> 0:28:47.800 Simmons and Moore at the Grammy Museum Theater, Los Angeles, California. 0:28:48.120 --> 0:28:52.360 Whether voicing a thirty second promo, announcing an award show live, 0:28:53.240 --> 0:28:56.040 or directing an actor to give voice to a finely 0:28:56.120 --> 0:29:01.120 crafted short story, Seating harnesses the power of language to 0:29:01.360 --> 0:29:05.880 clearly communicate every story. She is on a mission to 0:29:05.920 --> 0:29:09.600