Ursula Meyer, head of Graduate Acting at UC San Diego, recounts the gifts of life with a creative mother and the clear path to teaching that opened before her. When she and her husband found themselves on the path to adoption, a conversation with a theatre friend led them to their child. Through years of teaching and single parenting while her actor husband was on the road to the moment her child came out as transgender, Ursula's story affirms, as Shakespeare said, "There is no jewel in the world so prized as a mother's love".

Ursula's Ted Talk: Shakespeare Plays With Words

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eseWDHXkvPw

UCSD Department of Theatre and Dance

https://theatre.ucsd.edu/

Adoption Support Resources:

https://resolve.org/

Trans Family Support

https://thecentersd.org/

https://transfamilysos.org/

Ursula's Book Recs:

The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Parents and Professionals by Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper

The Transgender Teen by Stephanie Brill and Lisa Kenney

This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel

Found in Transition by Paria Hassouri

She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Conundrum by Jan Morris

Actor, educator and single mom Mercedes Herrero shares her story of suddenly and unexpectedly wanting a child in her early 40s, and the creative way she solved that as a single woman. (Hint: in any company of actors, there is usually one gent willing to help a lady out...) After several years of taking her baby with her to auditions, spending most of her Broadway paycheck on childcare, and surrounding herself with loving actor friends willing to help, Mercedes' single-parenting life took a bittersweet turn. When her aging parents needed care, she left New York at the height of her career and returned home. This is a beautiful episode just in time for the holidays that includes the miracle birth of an extraordinary child, a family's love and acceptance, and one woman's unwavering faith to live life fully, fiercely and unapologetically.

For more on Mercedes:

www.mercedesherrero.com

To find amazing female playwrights over 40:

www.honorrollplaywrights.org

Kate Rose Reynolds is an actor, director, producer and about to be a mama. At 8 months pregnant, she feels she's in tech week all the time, and shares how being an actor has prepared her for the bittersweet ephemerality of pregnancy and new motherhood. She gets honest about her fears of finding the work/mothering balance, even though she herself is a child of the theatre, and her wishes for her child as s/he grows up in this world. She vows to read Shakespeare's entire canon to the baby and teach the little one some excellent Elizabethan playground insults.

More about Kate:

katerosereynolds.com

@krred

loudfridge.com

@loudfridgetheatre

Actor, director, producer and educator Tracy Hill Williams takes us back to the 80s. She talks about what it was like as a pregnant grad student loosening her corset in As You Like It, being uncast from a big production, and finding a way to come out on top despite the sexism and misogyny of the time. From her days as a young mother of three balancing acting jobs and a marriage on the rocks, to her current incarnation as an inspiring educator and department chair, Tracy tells it like it is with grace, humor and her trademark charm.

Info about Tracy's program :

https://www.miracosta.edu/academics/degree-and-certificate-programs/creative-and-applied-arts/dramatic-arts/index.html

A few of the poems living in Tracy's head:

"I'm Nobody" by Emily Dickinson

"Her Story" by Naomi Long Madgett

"Patterns" by Amy Lowell

"Eldorado" by Edgar Allen Poe

"The Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll

Sonnets 18, 27 and 29 by William Shakespeare

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne

Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendak

Crescent City Stage co-founder Elizabeth Newcomer speaks with Katie and Melanie about building a theatre and a well-rounded life in New Orleans. Through her work as an Enneagram coach, Liz digs deep into what motivates the characters she plays and directs. Hear what her #1 concern was while filming Black Panther with Chadwick Boseman, and how inspired leadership and a family-first approach guide her theatre company and nurture her as a mama and an artist.

Liz's links:

elizabethnewcomer.com

@liz.newcomer

crescentcitystage.com

LOVE liz podcast

Parent Artist Advocacy League:

paaltheatre.com

CSI: NY star Anna Belknap speaks with Melanie and Katie about navigating two pregnancies while playing Detective Lindsay Monroe and what it was like to give birth to her TV baby just weeks after delivering her own. She recalls her extreme exhaustion as a working mom, the struggle to find a work-life balance and what led to her decision to mover her family away from LA. Hear what Anna is up to these days, what brings her joy and why her neighbors might think she's in the CIA.

Anna's Book Recommendations:

All Fours by Miranda July

Making Comics by Lynda Barry

Midlife: A Philosophical Guide by Kieran Setiya

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

and

The School of Life APP

https://www.theschooloflife.com

Note before: in this episode we talk about pregnancy loss which may be a sensitive subject for some.

Actor-singer-songwriter Lenne Klingaman speaks to Katie and Melanie about her journey to becoming a mother and how creativity supported and saved her. She shares the grief and pain of multiple miscarriages, how she advocated for herself as a pregnant actor in the workplace, and what her artistic life looks like now as the mom of a healthy baby boy.

More on Lenne and her recommendations:

lenneklingaman.com

@lenneklingaman

Phoenix

listen on all platforms and find it here:

https://lenneklingaman.bandcamp.com/album/phoenix

Matrescence by Lucy Jones

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=matrescence+lucy+jones&crid=36GMT7HDJFJSO&sprefix=matresc%2Caps%2C279&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_7

Fertile Hope Yoga

https://fertilehopeyoga.com/

Award-winning actor Francesca Faridany speaks with Melanie and Katie about progesterone shots, pregnancy fatigue and what happens when the dream job comes at the same time as the baby. She shares how she's learned to let go of expectations as a mother and an actor while bringing to her work the fierceness and fire that only a woman over 50 can.

For more about Frankie:

www.francescafaridany.com

@faridanyf