LISTEN: Tony Nominee Bobby Steggert Wraps Up Season Three of ANXIETY AND THE ARTIST Podcast

Wrapping up its third season, ANXIETY AND THE ARTIST explores the artist's relationship with anxiety, while offering insight and inspiration. This season's focus was on coping during COVID-19, discovering and redefining our identities as artists, and anxiety and isolation in group dynamics. In this Season Three finale episode, Tony Award-nominee turned psychotherapist, Bobby Steggert (Ragtime, Big Fish) sits down with podcast host Allison Sheff (Smokey Joe's Café) to discuss artists' changing identities and social anxiety in the rehearsal room. Steggert says:

"One of the beautiful things about artists is that they identify their professional contribution as of them as an expression of their most truest selves. So, when that primary central identity is ripped away from you, it can often lead to this understandable feeling of emptiness. "Who am I? What am I here to do? "What is my contribution, especially in a time when people are suffering?". We're asking much bigger questions about who we are as a culture, so it can be devastating to have that identity really threatened. It's been an opportunity in disguise...an opportunity for artists to really invest in other identities."

Listen to the episode below!

Reflecting on this week's interview, writer, director and host Sheff says, "As artists, we have all been struggling with our identities in this new world we are learning to navigate. I found Bobby's insight into the daily anxieties that artists face as well as the bigger questions that we've all been asking ourselves over the past year to be inspiring and informative. He offers some great practical advice on simple steps artists can be taking during this time for their mental health and well-being."

Past guests this season include Tony Award-nominee Caitlin Kinnunen (The Prom, The Bridges of Madison County), Dria Brown (Broadway Advocacy Coalition), Antoinette Comer (Smokey Joe's Café Off-Broadway), and Lisa Gajda (Movin' Out, Tuck Everlasting). Future guests will be announced at a later date.

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