In 2019, producer Michael Shulman invited Gloria Estefan to score a musical he was developing based on ‘Landfill Harmonic,’ a documentary about a children’s orchestra in Paraguay that builds its instruments from recycled trash. Estefan invited her daughter Emily to write alongside her. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Gloria and Emily Estefan — during rehearsals at the Alliance Theatre ahead of the musical’s May 30 premiere — about what it takes to write original music for the stage: the panic, the process, the songs that didn’t survive, and why Atlanta audiences will help shape what ‘Basura’ becomes. 🎭

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Atlanta Fringe Festival opens Wednesday, May 27th. Fifty-one shows. Nearly 250 performances. The lineup is selected by lottery — open to artists of all backgrounds, disciplines, and experience levels.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

🎶 Almost twenty-five years ago, singer-songwriter Donnie released “The Colored Section”, a gospel-rooted concept album that became a touchstone of Atlanta’s indie soul scene. Then he disappeared from public life for nearly two decades. On this episode of WABE Arts, Donnie sits down with WABE Arts & Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott ahead of his performance at the 49th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival to talk about the communities that haped him, the long years away, and what it meant when Atlanta called him back. 🎹

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

🎧 Grammy-nominated saxophonist Kamasi Washington headlines Saturday night of the 49th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival. Before he took to the stage, he sat down for WABE Arts' "What's Feeding You?" series. Washington, talking about where he finds inspiration, what he's reading right now (hint: Ninja Turtles), how he grounds himself, and why Atlanta has a special place in his story. He also names the next generation of jazz musicians he can't stop listening to. 🎵

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

🎭 Georgia Tech historian Matthew Hild spent years researching the woman behind the pop star — and he argues the most iconic thing Olivia Newton-John ever did wasn’t star in “Grease” or sing “Physical.” It was the cancer treatment center she fought to build in Australia, which now draws patients from around the world. Hild talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about why John Travolta compared Newton-John’s star power to Taylor Swift’s, how “Grease” erased her country music legacy, and the Atlanta ties that thread through her story. 🎵

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

🎭 Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” reimagined as a ’90s sitcom, staged outdoors in a Georgia meadow. Producer Lena deLoache had never produced live theatre outside before writer and director Erin Stegeman invited her to help bring “M.A.C.B.E.T.H.” to life at Art Farm at Serenbe in Chattahoochee Hills. The world premiere opened May 8 and runs through May 17. deLoache talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about what the show actually is and what staging a world premiere outdoors in May in Georgia demands — technically, physically, and creatively. 🎭

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

🧵 Atlanta fiber artist Honey Pierre’s solo show “Notions” opened May 2 at One Contemporary Gallery, a survey of six years of work tracing her practice from canvas to punch needle and back to paper. Pierre talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about what people will find when they walk through the door, how she picked up punch-needle on YouTube during the pandemic, and what it means to be part of bringing a craft into fine-art spaces. Plus, One Contemporary Gallery Director and Curator Faron Manuel on why the title “Notions” fits and what the show reveals about where the textile art movement is headed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

🎭 Atlanta Ballet opens the East Coast premiere of "Frida," a full-length narrative ballet about the life of Frida Kahlo, May 8–10 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about how she put Kahlo's pain, resilience, and artistic legacy into movement. Plus, Fernanda Cámara of the Consulate General of Mexico in Atlanta on what the world gets wrong about Frida and what this production gets right.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.