Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine

Latest Episodes:

Episode 285 - Adam Duritz Feb 21, 2022

Show notes

For more than two decades, the GRAMMY and Academy Award-nominated rock band Counting Crows have enchanted listeners worldwide with their intensely soulful and intricate take on timeless rock & roll. Exploding onto the music scene in 1993 with their multi-platinum breakout album, August and Everything After, the band has gone on to release seven studio albums, selling more than 20 million records worldwide, and is revered as one of the world’s most pre-eminent live touring rock bands.

In October 1996, the band's double-platinum sophomore studio album, Recovering the Satellites, debuted at number one and further solidified their growing reputation as one of the leading American alternative rock bands in the world. A follow up to their early success; Counting Crows went on to release This Desert Life (1999), Hard Candy (2002), Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings (2008), Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation) (2012), Echoes of the Outlaw Roadshow (2013),and Somewhere Under Wonderland (2014.) In 2004, Counting Crows recorded the chart-topping “Accidentally in Love” for the animated motion picture Shrek 2. The instant success of the track earned them an Academy Award nomination for “Best Original Song” at the 2005 Academy Awards, a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Original Song” and a GRAMMY Award nomination for “Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.”

In September 2014, Counting Crows released their critically acclaimed seventh studio album, Somewhere Under Wonderland, which debuted at No. 10 on the charts and was heralded by The Daily Telegraph as “… the best collection of songs since their debut.” The album consisted of nine sprawling tracks around rich sonic tapestries, which yielded some of the most grandiose yet intimate songs Counting Crows had recorded to date. 2018 marked 25 years since the band's inception and sent Adam Duritz, Jim Bogios, David Bryson, Charlie Gillingham, David Immergluck, Millard Powers, and Dan Vickrey back on the road for the “25 YEARS AND COUNTING” tour. In 2021, Counting Crows ranked #8 on Billboards’ “Greatest of All Time: Adult Alternative Artists” 25th anniversary chart.

After seven years, Adam Duritz and Counting Crows have returned with Butter Miracle: Suite One released on May 21,2021.

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Episode 284 - Lorin Latarro Feb 14, 2022

Show notes

Lorin Latarro is the choreographer for Broadway’s MRS. DOUBTFIRE, ALMOST FAMOUS, The Public’s THE VISITOR, and Broadway bound THE OUTSIDERS and LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE.

Lorin choreographed Broadway and London’s WAITRESS and LA TRAVIATA at The Met Opera. Lorin is directing Candace Bushnell’s one woman show, IS THERE STILL SEX IN THE CITY.

Additional Broadway choreography includes Les Liaisons Dangereuse with Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber, and Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. Lorin is the Associate Choreographer of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and American Idiot. Rigoletto at The Met Opera (assoc), Huey Lewis’s Heart of Rock And Roll (Old Globe), Merrily We Roll Along (Roundabout), Chess (The Kennedy Center), Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 21 Chump Street for “This American Life” (Brooklyn Academy of Music), The Public Theater’s Twelfth Night and The Odyssey (Delacorte Theater), Queen of the Night which garnered a Drama Desk Award (Diamond Horseshoe), Assassins, Fanny, and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (City Center Encores!), Superhero (Second Stage), Beaches (Drury Lane Theatre), and A Christmas Carol (McCarter Theatre Center).

Lorin directed #DateMe at The Westside Theatre, A Taste Of Things To Come at Chicago On Broadway and The York.

Lorin performed in fourteen Broadway shows including Twyla Tharp’s Movin’ Out, Fosse, Swing!, Kiss Me Kate, A Chorus Line, and Man Of La Mancha. Lorin danced for Robert Wilson, Martha Graham, and Momix. Lorin has also worked with Pina Bausch, Jiri Kylian, Robert Battle, Frankie Manning, Ryan Francois, Pete Townsend, Green Day, Sara Bareilles, Melissa Etheridge, Cameron Crowe, and Charlize Theron.

Ms. Latarro holds a BFA from The Juilliard School where she is also an adjunct professor. She also holds a degree from NYU Tisch Film And Television Directing Fundamentals. She is a Drama Desk, Lortel, and Chita Rivera nominee. Lorin has traveled to India and Africa multiple times to work with The Gates Foundation in family health and planning. Lorin is the founder of ArtAmmmo.org Artists Against Gun Violence as seen in the NY Times, PBS, Rachel Maddow, BBC.

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Episode 283 - Carla Stickler Feb 07, 2022

Show notes

Carla Stickler is a woman of many talents. She is currently a Software Engineer at G2 in Chicago. She is an advocate for artists looking to make a career change into tech and a member of Artists Who Code. She loves chatting with folks interested in shifting gears from the arts to programming and especially hopes to get more women into the field!She spent over 10 years performing in Broadway musicals, most notably, Wicked. She is a world traveler having performed the role of Liesl in The Sound of Music-Asia Tour and the role of Sophie Sheridan in Mamma Mia! on the National Tour throughout Canada and the US. Carla has headlined as a Guest Entertainer onboard Norwegian Cruise Lines and Disney Cruise Lines.

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Episode 282 - Emma Laird Jan 31, 2022

Show notes

Emma Laird is quickly establishing herself as one to watch with her powerful performances as an actress on the rise. She was most recently recognized by Variety as one of the “Ten Brits To Watch” in 2021.

Laird can currently be seen as a lead in the Paramount + series Mayor of Kingstown opposite Jeremy Renner and Dianne Wiest. The series, co-created by Taylor Sheridan and Antonie Fuqua, follows the McLusky family – power brokers in Kingstown, Michigan where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry. She plays Iris, a dancer who uses her charms to her benefit, until those charms are used against her. The series will drop on the streaming platform November 14th, 2021.

Emma began her acting career starring in various short films, including Florence Kosky’s In Conversation With A Goddess which was a an official selection at Shorts On Tap X Time Out London in 2019.

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Episode 281 - Bess Kalb Jan 24, 2022

Show notes

Bess Kalb is an Emmy-nominated comedy writer and the bestselling author of “Nobody Will Tell You This But Me,” a New York Times Editor’s Choice. She wrote for eight years on Jimmy Kimmel Live. She also writes for The New Yorker's "Daily Shouts." She received a WGA Award in 2016. She has written for the Emmy Awards, the Oscars, and the 2020 DNC. She is the head writer and EP of Yearly Departed on Amazon Prime.

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Episode 280 - Arian Moayed Jan 17, 2022

Show notes

Arian Moayed is an Iranian-born award-winning actor and

the co-founder of Waterwell, a civic-minded and

socially conscious non-profit art and education

company.

With Waterwell, recent productions include The

Flores Exhibits, a series of videos in which artists,

lawyers, advocates, and immigrants read the sworn

testimonies of children held in detention facilities at

the U.S./Mexico border (flores

exhibits.org), The Courtroom: a re-enactment of one

woman’s deportation proceedings, named "Best

Theater of 2019" by The New York Times, and a

dual-language Hamlet (Arian played the title role).

Waterwell also created Fleet Week Follies, an

annual festival of music, food, and kid-friendly

activities, free to military service members and their families.

At the Waterwell Education Program, over 250 students per year receive world-class arts

training and education in advocacy at the Professional Performing Arts School, all free of

charge. He has been a faculty member for nearly 15 years, currently teaching the Artist as

Citizen and Senior Capstone classes.

As a writer/director, Arian has created the Emmy-nominated thriller, The Accidental Wolf,

produced by Topic, starring Tony-winners Kelli O’Hara, Laurie Metcalf, Sahr Nguajah, and

many more. Current writing projects include 28 Mordad (upcoming), a film version of The

Courtroom (Archer Gray/Topic) and a film adaptation of The Man in Red. He is currently

writing an autobiography about his family’s immigration story.

Notable acting credits: Broadway's The Humans (Drama Desk Award), Bengal Tiger at the

Baghdad Zoo (Tony nomination), Guards at the Taj (Obie Award), Emmy-winning Succession

(HBO), and an upcoming Shonda Rhimes’ series, Inventing Anna (Netflix).

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Episode 279 - Todd Almond Jan 10, 2022

Show notes

TODD ALMOND is known for his singular songwriting in addition to his work as an accomplished performer. He recently toured the U.S. in his original musical Kansas City Choir Boy starring alongside rock icon Courtney Love, and starred in three of his original musicals at the famed Delacorte Theater in Central Park (The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, and The Odyssey). His musical Girlfriend – based on the Matthew Sweet album of the same title – is a perennial favorite for theater companies around the country, and he is currently collaborating with producer David Foster on a new, original musical. He has previously collaborated with Sarah Ruhl (Melancholy Play: A Chamber Musical), Jenny Schwartz (Iowa), Laura Benanti (In Constant Search for the Right Kind of Attention), Sherie Rene Scott and Norbert Leo Butz (“Twohander”), Kelli O’Hara (“Live at Carnegie Hall”), and Andrew Rannells (“Live from Lincoln Center”).

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Episode 278 - Andréa Burns Jan 03, 2022

Show notes

ANDRÉA BURNS received an Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination for her portrayal of Gloria Fajardo in Broadway’s On Your Feet! She is a winner of a Drama Desk Award for her creation of the role of Daniela, the saucy hairdresser in the Tony Award-winning musical In The Heights.

Ms. Burns began her career touring the opera houses of Europe as Maria in West Side Story when she was 18 years old. She has appeared on Broadway as Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, as Vicki Nichols in The Full Monty, as Googie Gomez in The Ritz and has sung concerts at Carnegie Hall. She starred opposite Nathan Lane on Broadway in the Lincoln Center production of The Nance which subsequently broadcast on PBS' "Great Performances". Ms. Burns was in the original company of Jason Robert Brown’s critically acclaimed Songs for a New World and has since become one of the foremost interpreters of his work. Burns portrayed Lucille Frank in the national tour of Jason Robert Brown's Parade, directed by Harold Prince, for which she received a Touring Broadway Awards nomination for Best Actress. She was also selected by Stephen Sondheim to create the role of Celeste in his musical Saturday Night in its New York premiere.

Ms. Burns' debut solo album A Deeper Shade Of Red was described by Playbill as "superb on all counts”. “100 Stories," a single she co-wrote with her brother, music producer Mike Burns, rose to the #2 spot on the 2006 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play charts. A favorite at 54 Below Broadway Supper Club, Andréa performs her one woman show all of over the world, which has been hailed by the New York Times as “ uproarious, ebullient and playful”.

Television credits include Mad About You (Reboot), Jessica Jones, Kevin Can Wait, Blue Bloods, Law & Order: SVU, Rescue Me, The Electric Company (2009 TV series), and Wonder Pets. She can also be heard on the original cast recordings of On Your Feet!, In The Heights, Songs for a New World, This Ordinary Thursday - The Songs of Georgia Stitt, Saturday Night, It’s Only Life, Dear Edwina, Shine, Broadway Bound, and Broadway Musicals of 1953.

Ms. Burns can be heard as the voice of Elaine Stritch in Alexandra Jacob’s new biography, “Still Here - The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch.”

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Episode 277 - Darby Stanchfield Dec 27, 2021

Show notes

Darby Stanchfield stars as ‘Nina Locke’ in the Netflix hit show Locke and Key.

Stanchfield is well-known for her role as ‘Abby Whelan,” the spunky and outspoken investigator on all seven seasons of the Shonda Rhimes hit ABC show “Scandal” alongside ‘Olivia Pope’ (Kerry Washington). She also r stars in the Disney+’s film “Stargirl” which was adapted from the best-selling novel.

Prior to “Scandal,” Darby was featured in season two of AMC’s Emmy ® Award winning drama “Mad Men.” In the hit series, Darby played the role of Helen Bishop, a liberal single mother who relishes in stirring up controversy with Betty Draper, the wife of an iconic advertising guru. Other television credits include starring opposite Nathan Fillion in ABC’s crime thriller “Castle,” a recurring role as Shannon Gibbs on CBS’s military drama “NCIS,” and a spot on CBS’s action packed series Jericho where she played “April Green.” In addition, Darby has appeared in roles across a host of successful television series including “Burn Notice,” “CSI: Miami,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “CSI: New York,” “The Mentalist,” “Private Practice,” “Bones,” “Nip/Tuck,” “Without a Trace,” and Monk .

Her feature film credits include Adrienne Shelley's critically acclaimed “Waitress,” opposite Nathan Fillion and Keri Russell, and an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's “The Picture of Dorian Gray” co-starring opposite Josh Duhamel.

Darby can be heard in a recording of Neil Simon's “Biloxi Blues” with Josh Radnor and Justine Bateman, part of an ongoing series of radio plays that LA Theatre Works produces for NPR.

Originally from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, Darby is a graduate of The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco where she received a Master Of Fine Arts degree

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Episode 276 - Emma Nelson Dec 20, 2021

Show notes

Emma Nelson’s powerful performances have established her as a young actress on the rise.

Nelson can be seen in the Netflix drama film The Unforgiveable alongside Oscar winners Sandra Bullock and Viola Davis. The film follows a woman who attempts to rebuild her life after serving time in prison for committing a violent crime.

Nelson made her big screen debut in the film adaptation of the best-selling novel Where’d You Go Bernadette, helmed by Academy Award nominee Richard Linklater. Emma played the character of Bee, the daughter of the eponymous Bernadette, portrayed by Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett and also starred Billy Crudup, Laurence Fishburne and Kristen Wiig.

A native of the Chicago area, Emma has participated in many local theater productions including a lead role in the pre-Broadway production of Trevor! The Musical, which was produced and directed by the renowned Marc Bruni.

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