Goddard in the World

Kristi Petersen Schoonover

Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s stories have appeared in many publications, including Generation X-ed, Horror Library Volume 7, Lovecraftian Microfiction Volumes 6 & 7, Wicked Creatures, Crow & Cross Keys, Dancing in the Shadows: An Anne Rice Tribute Anthology, Dead Stars & Stone Arches, and others; work is forthcoming in Out of Time: True Paranormal Encounters. Her novel, Bad Apple, will get a 10th anniversary release this year, and her short story collection, The Shadows Behind, will be followed by a second collection in 2024. She is also currently curating the anthology Wicked Sick for Wicked Creative. She holds an MFA from Goddard College, has held three Norman Mailer Writers Colony residencies, is founding editor of the journal 34 Orchard, is a board member of the New England Horror Writers and is co-chair of the Horror Writers Association’s Connecticut Chapter. She lives in the Connecticut woods, where she enjoys watching birds with her husband, Nathan. 

 

From the time that Kristi was a child, she had full access to the library in her dad’s den which contained  1970s thrillers like Jaws, Stepford Wives, Rosemary’s Baby. We talk about Kristi’s childhood, as she weathered her mother’s illness and death and had to grow up quickly to take care of her siblings. Only later did she come to realize that her childhood “wasn’t normal” - but growing up this way strengthened her multitasking abilities to resiliency in weathering destabilization (which came in handy during the pandemic).  

 

Kristi is an experienced writer and literary magazine editor and this conversation is incredibly valuable for any writer who wants insight from both sides of the submission process. Keep up with her writing, literary journal and news at the links below:

 

Keep up with Kristi

• Website: https://kristipetersenschoonover.com/
• Facebook & Instagram: @kpschoonover

 

Recent:

• “Floor Song Tango” in Out of Time: True Paranormal Encounters by Timber Press
• “Beware Burning Snow” in Siren’s Call

 

Published: 

• The Shadows Behind
• This Poisoned Ground
• “A Bone to Pick” in Toasted Cheese Literary Journal 
• Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole: Tales from Haunted Disney World

 

34 Orchard: https://34orchard.com/

 

Read Kristi’s archive of work online: https://kristipetersenschoonover.com/where-to-read-me/

 

Recommendations: 

Books:

• Jaws, Peter Benchley
• Stepford Wives, Ira Levin
• Rosemary’s Baby, Ira Levin
• The Sweet By and By, Jeanne Mackin

Movies:

• Nope, Jordan Peele
• Get Out, Jordan Peele
• Midsommar, Ari Aster
• Hereditary, Ari Aster
• The Witch, Robert Eggers
• Fire of Love, Sara Dosa

Vince DiPersio

Vince DiPersio is an award-winning documentary film writer, director, and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards, for his films Blues Highway, Death on the Job, and Crack USA: County Under Siege and was nominated for an Emmy award for 5 American Kids – 5 American Handguns. His film, The Kennedy Detail, about the Secret Service Agents who were with JFK the day he was assassinated is streaming now on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Discovery Plus.

Vince tells the stories behind some of his documentaries including Memphis PD: War on the Streets where he rode with a police officer for months; and recently Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project about the inequities of the prison system. Vince sees himself as a funnel or channel for the subjects of his documentaries. He tries to tell stories that are more complicated than what the news would allow and not preach to the converted. We talk about how empathy can get lost when people are siloed and go to their separate corners.

Vince is excited for the future of documentary, from the voices that we’ve been kept from hearing who are finally getting access to make their films post #oscarssowhite.

 

Select Filmography:

The Kennedy Detail, available on Discovery+: https://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Detail-Season-1/dp/B092DP67FF

Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project: https://www.oxygen.com/kim-kardashian-west-the-justice-project

 

Recommendations

Georgetown University Prison Scholars Program: https://prisonsandjustice.georgetown.edu/programs/scholarsprogram/

Harlan County USA: https://www.criterion.com/films/777-harlan-county-usa

George Sapio

George Sapio is a playwright/director/producer/dramaturg. His play “Ghosts” won the 2001 Mildred and Albert Panowski Award. He produces and hosts the podcast “Onstage/Offstage,” now in its tenth year, featuring interviews with theatre professionals from around the world and live readings of new short plays. His book “Workshopping the New Play: A Guide for Playwrights, Directors, and Dramaturgs” is published by Hal Leonard/Applause Books. He was the founder and artistic director of the Ithaca Fringe Festival (2013-2017) and founder of Wolf’s Mouth Theatre Company and Bad Dog! Productions. He is also a photojournalist whose book “Collateral Damage” features his pictures from two trips to Iraq in 2003. He earned his MFA in playwriting at Goddard College.

We talk about George’s childhood in the Bronx and how he got the theater bug in high school, when he would go down to the city and get half-price tickets to shows like Grease and Equus (the latter of which he took his 10^th grade English class to – from his Catholic school. One of George’s early writing teachers gave him advice that he continues to abide by in his playwriting and teaching, “Write the story, don’t write the nonsense that goes with it.” George’s book “Workshopping the New Play: A Guide for Playwrights, Directors, and Dramaturgs,” details the workshop process and how to flesh out the play and “bring it to its best possible fruition.”

George’s dad set an example for what it was like to be a news photographer (as well as introduced George to photojournalism and darkroom techniques), which served George well when he worked at Newsweek. George and his wife Maura (also a Goddard graduate) went to Iraq twice in 2003 and put out a photojournalism book called Collateral Damage, about the people (especially children) who didn’t want to go to war but were the ones who suffered from it.

George’s 10-year-old podcast (and Ithaca radio show) Onstage/Offstage, covers theater people around the world including actors, directors, dramaturgs, set designers, lighting designers, and artistic directors. The podcast addresses current issues in the theater like why women over 40 aren’t getting paid attention to, and “how persons of color are finally getting a very tiny leg up into the opportunities that have always been predominantly for old white guys like myself.” We talk at length about the role of the dramaturg, which George discusses in his book “Workshopping the New Play: A Guide for Playwrights, Directors and Dramaturgs.” He also directs short play readings for the podcast that he puts out open calls for.

FINALLY, George talks about his home and B&B, La Casa de la Luna Feliz (“House of the Smiling Moon”) in Costa Rica, designed for people who are in recovery of any sort, “We cater especially to people recovering from illness, injury, trauma, heartbreak, and activism burnout (and theater recovery).”

 

Keep up with George and his projects:

www.gsapio.com

https://www.facebook.com/george.sapio

https://newplayexchange.org/users/785/george-sapio

 

Onstage/Offstage Podcast: www.onstageoffstage.org

Buy the book: www.workshoppingthenewplay.com

Book a stay: www.casalunafeliz.com

 

Recommendations:

Equus, Peter Shaffer

Drama Bookshop: https://www.dramabookshop.com/

NYC Playwrights: https://www.nycplaywrights.org/

Playwrights Center: https://pwcenter.org/

Honor Roll!: https://www.honorrollplaywrights.org/

Georges Drouin

Georges Drouin is a legacy Goddard graduate having attended Northwood campus at its inception, from 1965 to 1968. He is of French and French-Canadian descent. His work at Goddard focused on psychology, teaching, modern dance, the I’Ching and T’ai Chi. Georges has served on a School Board, served as a small town councilor, founded a soccer school for young people with his two sons, and founded an elite soccer team in Quebec. He has trained in Hatha Yoga, Zen Shiatsu, intuitive T’ai Chi, Meditation and Mindfulness and Therapeutic Touch from the early 1980s up to present day.

We talk about Georges’ early introduction to progressive education from his mother, who was an educator inspired by Montessori and Rudolph Steiner philosophies, to her correspondence with Tim Pitkin. Georges started Goddard before the Northwood campus was built so spent his first year in Goddard San Juan. He remains passionate about the future of Goddard and bringing other legacy alumni back into the fold.

Georges is an experienced meditation teacher and holds regular meditation sitting spaces for Goddard alumni. Please contact him via email for a current schedule of meditation, and for meditation resources.

 

Resources:

Email: georges dot drouin at gmail dot com OR georges dot drouin at goddard dot edu

 

Jewels of Refuge Meditation Group (behind Goddard Alumni Association member wall): https://goddardalumni.com/groups/weekly-on-line-meditation-qa-sessions/

Minisode: Erotica Writing Workshop with Kali Meister

Join Goddard MFA grad Kali Meister and The Chattery for an online Erotica Writing workshop this Saturday, September 3, 2022 from 11 AM - 1:00 PM. $25. Sign up at: https://www.thechattery.org/classes2/2022/9/3/erotica-writing

 

About this event:

Tackle the taboo topic of sex in your writing with a level of understanding and expertise that even some famous and prize-winning writers never achieve. Whether you want to write a single sex scene in a larger work of non-erotica or you want to pen the next version of THE STORY OF O, this workshop is for you.

In this workshop you will learn to overcome the boundaries of failure and move to a place where it is possible to embrace a broader use of language and let go of ideas you have about writing that limit you as a writer. This workshop is a writing workshop, not a sex workshop. It will be a fun environment but not one for children.

 

Supplies needed: Pen, paper or other writing surfaces — the class will participate in writing exercises.

 

For more about Kali, visit kalimeister.com.

Nita Sweeney

Nita Sweeney attended the MFAW program in Port Townsend from 2006 to 2008. She is the award-winning wellness author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator of the writing journal, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving.

 

While Nita always dreamed of being a writer, she didn’t know her own stories had merit. Nita took a path to writing that had stopovers in training dogs, playing the flute, and becoming a partner at a law firm. She was a follower and student of Natalie Goldberg’s, author of Writing Down the Bones, before she became Natalie’s assistant in Taos, New Mexico. At 49 years old, Nita took steps to becoming a marathon runner, chronicled in her memoir Depression Hates a Moving Target. “I thought the story was ‘middle-age woman takes up running,’’ Nita says, “but it was about ‘middle-age woman tries to save her life.’” Nita’s new book, Make Every Move a Meditation is available for pre-order now. In it, she will explore how movement and exercise can be a meditation, “Why not make walking your dog a meditation?”

 

To learn more about Nita visit: https://nitasweeney.com/

Buy the books: https://nitasweeney.com/the-books/

Join her communities:

• https://facebook.com/groups/mindmoodandmovement/
• https://facebook.com/groups/thewritersmind/

Recommendations

Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: https://nataliegoldberg.com/books/writing-down-the-bones/

Shinzen Young: https://www.shinzen.org/

NaNoWriMo: https://nanowrimo.org/

Couch to 5K: http://www.c25k.com/

Writers League of Texas: https://writersleague.org/

Kate Chapman

Kate Chapman is a performer, writer, visual artist, teacher, and coach. Her Broadway performing credits include Mary Poppins, Les Misérables, Pajama Game, Sweet Smell of Success, Saturday Night Fever; also, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Mrs. Claus for 5 seasons), Shakespeare in the Park, Lincoln Center and countless others. A 24-year member of the Tony award-winning Broadway Inspirational Voices (BIV), Kate sings with BIV at many events each year, works with BIV’s outreach programs at Covenant House and The Ronald McDonald House, and is the organization’s copywriter. Kate holds a Bachelor of Music Education (Boston University), a Master of Arts in Health Arts and Sciences (Goddard College), and trained with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and Wayfinder Life Coach Training.

 

Kate is an exuberant spirit who combines her Broadway talents with health and life coach training to help people explore play and make them feel better. We had a very fun conversation that sometimes wanders into different directions!

 

We speak at length about Kate Chapman’s Broadway career and the physical expectations placed on her throughout, whether or not those expectations kept her healthy (spoiler alert: they didn’t). However, because of her Broadway career, Kate was invited to be a part of Broadway Inspirational Voices in her late 20s, discovering gospel music and becoming involved in BIV’s outreach programs that use music to support and inspire homeless and runaway youth, as well as sick children and their families.

 

Kate found Goddard after training with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN). She studied the self-healing model, medical anthropology (“how did we get to…a very harsh medical system that deals with quieting symptoms and not causal issues?”), and how talk shows are created.

 

Kate wrote A Pixie’s Prescription: A Fun Toolkit for a Feel Better Life, available now on Amazon. Her friend told her “it’s a wonderful toilet read.” In the book, Kate explores aspects of her life that she tries to keep at the forefront that make her feel better (such as curiosity, play, relationships, home environment, health, exercise, education). She illustrates each aspect with an anecdote from her life, such as learning play from Marvin Hamlisch (composer of A Chorus Line, Sweet Smell of Success).

 

For more about Kate visit the following:

• Kate’s website: www.thekatechapman.com
• A Pixie’s Prescription: A Fun Toolkit for a Feel Better Life: https://www.amazon.com/Pixies-Prescription-Toolkit-Feel-Better/dp/0692285563
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KateChapman
• Kate Chapman Health: https://www.facebook.com/KateChapmanHealth

Recommendations:

Covenant House: https://www.covenanthouse.org/

Broadway Inspirational Voices: https://broadwayinspirationalvoices.org/

Nancy Norbeck, Follow Your Curiosity: https://fycuriosity.com/noticing-our-patterns-with-kate-chapman/

Matt Mulligan

Matt Mulligan has been a nanny, a professional fundraiser, a para educator in a public school and is now a master’s level mental health counselor. He has lived all over the country, traveled all over the world, and now resides in his hometown of Barre, Vermont. Growing up in Vermont, a relative local to Goddard’s Plainfield campus, Matt appreciated Vermont’s extreme beauty, the physiological effect of having his feet in grass and being able to spend so much time outdoors. While he has had challenges his whole life – from being born early and living with hydrocephalus, to figuring out in high school that he was gay, to learning at age 40 that he has a learning disability – Matt has a positive and giving attitude that he brings to his current work as a mental health counselor in his community. “I get to see people rise,” Matt says. He believes that when we’re struggling, we’re at our strongest.

 

Matt has written an children’s book called Tomatoes and Peppers, available for sale now. In Matt’s words, “Tomatoes and peppers grow side by side, but the tomato needs much more support because of the nature of the tomato and the plant. We don’t think things about the tomato, or make assumptions about the tomato because it needed support.” Matt wrote the book to get people to think differently, especially when working with children. “ I would like to see the question move from what’s wrong and how do we fix it, to what’s different and how do we help?”

 

To snag the book: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/tomatoes-and-peppers

Rachael Rice

Rachael Rice is an artist, writer and certified weirdo who crafts scroll-stopping content for people who want to shape change. We talked about Rachael’s childhood aspirations to her current work as an artist, from drawing in condensation on windows to moving into fine art and acrylic paint, to moving back toward folk art and alternative mediums with salvaged materials and natural earth pigments that may not stand the test of time (like her initial draw towards art making in window condensation).

Originally recorded in June 2021, our conversation still resonates a year later. Though our conversation is placed in time by references to the heat wave in Portland Oregon, the George Floyd racial reckoning, and discussions about the Covid vaccine, so much of what we talk about is still at issue: the planet and how we’re going to solve the climate crisis (according to Rachael: it’s not going to be by rounding up purchases at Whole Foods!); how do we decide to actually sit back and reckon with the connections between racism, power and privilege (according to Rachael: internalized capitalism is a spell, it’s in our bodies now); and how to deal with our/American/white cultural avoidance of death (according to Rachael: we’ve got to befriend death if we want to live and live more deeply; and we need to work across difference with our neighbors  and strengthen community care).

This conversation is incredibly fascinating, and Rachael is an exceptional all-around human. Follow her at:

• https://rachaelrice.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/rachaelrice/

Spoooooky pod with Mike Alvarez and Sam Rebelein

Welcome back to Mike Alvarez and Sam Rebelein for Goddard in the World’s Spooooooooky Halloween episode! We talk about Mike and Sam’s horror inspirations from childhood to present day and how horror stories helped them cope with their own fears and anxieties. Plenty of recommendations to check out to wrap up the spooooky season!

For more on Mike Alvarez:

• Season 1 interview: https://goddardalumni.com/alumni-spotlight-mike-alvarez/
• Website: https://www.mfalvarez.net/
• The Paradox of Suicide and Creativity: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498523820/The-Paradox-of-Suicide-and-Creativity-Authentications-of-Human-Existence

For more on Sam Rebelein:

• Season 1 interview: https://goddardalumni.com/alumni-spotlight-sam-rebelein/
• Website: https://www.srebelein.com/
• Current publications: https://www.srebelein.com/work

Find Mike and Sam on Twitter at @mfalvarez121 and @HillaryScruff.

Recommendations:

Books:

• R. L. Stine, Goosebumps series with special shoutouts to Say Cheese and Die, Stay out of the Basement, and Night of the Living Dummy
• Priya Sharma, All the Fabulous Beasts

Movies:

• Friday the 13^th series, originally created by Victor Miller & Sean S. Cunningham
• Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven
• Hellraiser series, originally created by Clive Barker
• Midsommar, Ari Aster
• Hereditary, Ari Aster
• Saw series, originally created by James Wan & Leigh Whannell
• The Blair Witch Project, Daniel Myric & Eduardo Sanchez
• The Cabin in the Woods, Drew Goddard
• Teeth, Mitchell Lichtenstein
• Fear Street, Leigh Janiak
• The Thing, John Carpenter
• Scream, Wes Craven

Series:

• Caitlin Doughty, Ask a Mortician (YouTube)
• Motherland: Fort Salem, created by Eliot Laurence (Freeform)