This Town OKC

He’s visible on TV and films in a variety of roles: morning show co-host, doofus Donnie in car spots, and even as a banjo player in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” And you’ve probably heard his banjo playing without realizing who was behind the amphibious performer. Lucas Ross now supplies the music when Kermit the Frog plays. It’s a fascinating story how it came to be from a youngster first hearing the Rainbow Connection on TV to actually playing onstage with Willie Nelson. The kid from Minco, OK did good!

This podcast is a little longer tha...

If anyone was ever destined for their career, it’s Shoshana Wasserman, Deputy Director of the First Americans Museum. Her degrees and early professional life running a Native American dance company that traveled the world, with a couple important stops along the way, prepared her well for her current position. As did her personal connection to Enoch Kelly Haney who was instrumental in creating the FAM.

The saga of how the FAM grew from an idea to a world-class cultural institution exemplifies how much perseverance is required when one chooses to “dream big.”

Post-production by Fred O. Bis...

Normally, This Town OKC highlights the people with decades of experience behind the cultures. This guest, however, barely has two decades of existence on Earth. He’s here because of his potential to enhance the culture of This Town.

Jackson Gifford is one of those people who knew at an early age what they wanted to do with their life, and that is running a professional theatre. Precocious and audacious, his personal drive took him to prestigious schools where he grew as an artist while facing the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, the first production of hi...

As the President & CEO of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame for the past two decades, Shannon Rich has overseen the creation of the Gaylord-Pickens Museum, the formation of programs to involve high school students and young adults, as well the production the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Before that, she started her career in hospitality by talking herself into a postion at the Renaissance Hotel where she worked hand-in-hand with developer John Q. Hammons in opening up several hotels in other states. Her story of why she took up golf is inspriational. Admittedly not a great golfer, she has...

It’s safe to say that one man is responsible for bringing international recognition to This Town’s river sports, and that man is Mike Knopp. Of course, he had help along the way, but from first seeing the U.S. Navy rowing team on Chesapeake Bay to finding a crew at Oklahoma State University to starting rowing teams at both Oklahoma City University and the University of Oklahoma, Mike has had a vision. Considered by many people for many years as fanatical, his vision, and persistence, has resulted in making Oklahoma City a true Olympic city.

Softball notw...

In theatre, the story is told in terms of acts. Legacy plays were all mostly written using the three-act structure; today’s plays have two at best. If one were writing the story of Roberta Sloan’s life, it would take at least five, if not six, acts.

Known locally these days as the founding artistic director of Jewish Theatre of Oklahoma, Roberta was raised and educated in Chicago and eventually earned her PhD. in Theatre from the University of Michigan. Following a year in Israel and a stateside sabbatical in San Francisco, Roberta became the first female prof...

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 staff and eventually retiring in 2022. During that time, Peter coordinated the Arts Commandoes and directed the Festival of the Arts before becoming the executive director. All along the way, he...

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 Carpenter Square Theatre

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 remembers fondly those fabulous years. And the stories of OU Theatre in the 1970s and of doing rep in Odessa, Texas (with most interesting travels on days off)! She also talks about...

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 recalls keeping his metal film camera warm under his armpits in a legendarily cold football game while working at the Stillwater News Press..

Scott worked in the media departments a...

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 when not on stage? She tells the story of a particularly interesting one. She also provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Hollywood casting process. Life and love took her to...

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 tells about his start in the music business booking bands as a university student in upstate New York. A few of them you'll recognize: Billy Joel (whom he danced to w...

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 announce Class 43.

Christy tells of the many cities in which her family lived and how they ultimately returned to this town. She details how the organization came to b...

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 mentioned his name ahead of Willis'. And Jim tells more about the many TV shows his worked including "Justified" and the show he considers to be...

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 another whim, she auditioned and was cast in the Papermill Playhouse production of Follies and the thrill of having to get into makeup in the stuck-in-the-tunnel bus. But they made it! Billie also shares how...

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 and purpose of public broadcasting and the value of a major in broadcasting and journalism. 


Post-production by Fred O. Bishop
Sponsored by Carpenter Square Theatre

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 that took dCFF to the next level and how deadCenter Film Icons came about.

Post-production by Fred O. Bishop
Sponsored by Carpenter Square Theatre

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 was the location of a series of classic radio show recreations, broadcast live on the Carpenter Square Theatre YouTube channel (where they are still available for viewing).

Post-production...

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 Russell), and became involved in the revitalization of The Paseo all while becoming a world-traveling business consultant. You may think you know something about the history of the...

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 the way, he's shard the stage with such greats as the  late, local legend Brenda Williams and a college-aged Kristin Chenowith. In this interview, Terry also reveals important lessons he learned from a couple of his i...

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 reborn Oklahoma Gazette. In this podcast, Leslie tells how the OKCMOA managed to become the nation's lead exhibitor of glass artist Dale Chihuly.


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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 progressed to become a cultural icon in This Town.

Post-production by Fred O. Bishop
Sponsored by Carpenter Square Theatre