This Town OKC

Very few people in This Town have been so integral in the arts culture as Peter Dolese. Since the 1970s, he's been immersed in music, art, poetry, and food. He was in arts administration before he knew what that was, even showing obscure films for a while. Working with the CETA grant program, he made his way to volunteering with the Arts Council of Oklahoma City (1976-1989) before joining the staf...

In this second part of the interview, Carpenter Square Theatre executive artistic director Rhonda Clark tells of her early days with CST, starting with the first season, and takes us through all of the moves she and the theater endured and the challenges she overcame. Rhonda also recalls many her favorite roles as an actor and her directorial highlights. Edited by Fred O. Bishop Sponsored by Carpe...

Rhonda Clark is a mainstay of theatre in This Town as the executive artistic director of Carpenter Square Theatre. In the first part of this two-part interview, she tells of growing up in the Ozarks and what inspired her to seek a life in theater. From her high school performing, to attending Northeast Oklahoma A&M Junior College, and transferring to the University of Oklahoma, Rhonda remember...

A long-time political reporter and photographer whose byline has appeared in numerous newspapers, M. Scott Carter is also an author of both fiction and non-fiction. Raised in Yale, OK, he began his journalism career at the young age of 12 with a gopher job at the Yale News where he published his first story at 13. Following editor positions at both Northern OK College and OK State University, he r...

Before Ashley Wells became the executive producer of Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, she had an exciting ride to get to Broadway where she appeared in "Hello Dolly" with Carol Channing for several years. You'll be amazed at the differences between a first-run tour and a bus-and-truck one. But the fluke that landed her that job is the stuff of legends! And speaking of jobs, how did she survive in NYC wh...

Chances are that if you've attended the Great State Fair of Oklahoma in the past 3+ decades, you've encountered attractions booked by Scott Munz. As the spokesperson for the Fair, he's in charge of all promotions, so you've probably seen or heard him in media interviews.  In this episode, you'll hear him tell the secret of the Six-foot Man Eating Chicken! But before he gets to that story, Scott te...

Just about everyone who does anything of importance in this town is a Leadership OKC alum. After all, their mission is to develop leaders.  Christy Zelley is the executive director, but she started as the administrative assistant to the first director (only her second job out of college). She became the number two woman in a two-woman shop back when LOKC was in its eighth class. LOKC is about to a...

You've seen him in numerous TV shows and some movies. But as a character actor, you wouldn't know this name. It's Jim Beaver. He tells tales of a working actor - from his college days at Central State University (now UCO) in Edmond to New York City and finally to Los Angeles. He tells a funny story about his big break in Norman Jewison's 1989 "In Country" with Bruce Willis when the director mentio...

Talk about a mainstay in OKC theatre! Billie Thrash came here in the 1970s on a whim and has since graced the stages of many theatre companies as a choreographer, director, and performer. In this podcast, she describes working with Carpenter Square in its inaugural season and choreographing this town's first production of The Rocky Horror Show. Lots of theatre stories here including how, on anothe...

These days, you hear KGOU-FM general manager Dick Pryor on his weekly "Manager's Minute" along with other features. A long-time broadcast journalist, Dick actually started at KGOU while in college. His career began in sports radio in the 1980s and moved to television news where he spent 25 years at OETA with a stint as a lawyer along the way. He tells his story before we get into the philosophy an...

Cacky Poarch has made a name for herself as the executive director of the deadCenter Film Festival - twice. As she retires again after this summer's Festival, she tells her story of growing up in the red dirt, tumbleweed-strewn fields of Quail Creek, performing improv comedy in Aspen, working as a casting director in OKC, and touring the state as Captain Supertooth. And she reminisces on the movie...

We've heard his voice for years on television and radio commercials as well as at sporting events. He got his start in radio at the age of 14 with a live, on-air audition orchestrated by his station manager father. Brought to OKC for a radio job at the old KLTE, for the past several decades he's run his own audio recording studio, RK-One Productions. Back during the covid pandemic, RK-1 Studios wa...

A vibrant city needs an arts district with a unique character. In Oklahoma City, that's The Paseo. And thanks to visionary John Belt and his wife Joy Reed Belt, OKC has the most distinctive district in this town and where Joy runs the JRB Gallery as OKC's preeminent art dealer. In this podcast, Joy tells how she arrived here, via Tulsa to teach returning Vietnam vets (with a little help from Leon...

Terry Veal has performed in virtually every theater in Oklahoma City over the past 40-odd years. He's been a mainstay at Carpenter Square Theatre since its first season. Following college, the Navy, and college again, he started his acting career at Oklahoma Children's Theatre. He moved into education by teaching drama first at Choctaw High School then at Classen School of Advance Studies. Along t...

Leslie Spears has had a front row seat to the culture of Oklahoma City for a few decades now. Starting as a receptionist at a radio station and moving into promotions, she worked at the OKC Chamber of Commerce to promote the first MAPS projects that transformed downtown OKC, then moved to the OKC Museum of Art and later to the Myriad Gardens. She now promotes all of OKC through her position at the...

Ben Hall is an Oklahoma City-based actor, director, writer, and scenic designer. He has appeared in many films both small, independent ones as well as Oscar-winning movies such as "Minari" and "Killers of the Flower Moon." Ben also designs and builds sets for multiple theatre companies, churches, and film production companies. He tells his story - how he landed in Oklahoma City and how his career...