PAD podcast episode #20 is another very special one featuring beloved teacher, longtime PAD faculty member, and Professor of Practice Jeffery Matthews! Jeffery will be retiring at the end of the 2025-26 academic year after an astounding THIRTY-EIGHT years of teaching at #WashU. Jeffery has been on the PAD faculty since 1988 teaching courses in Acting, Directing, Voice and Speech and Theatre for Young Audiences. Jeffery was on the artistic staff of The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis for twenty years as Artistic Supervisor of The ImaginaryTheatre Company, the Rep’s touring children’s company. He is a professional director, actor, and dialect specialist. In the interview, Jeffery reflects on all flavors of shows, classes, and colleagues and even finishes the episode with a list of 70 students who come to mind as having made an impact on him over that period of time. In this holiday time of lists both ‘naughty and nice’, there’s only one way to know if you’re on Jeffery’s list and that is to LISTen! ;)

Episode 19 of the PAD Podcast is a very special one featuring longtime beloved PAD faculty member Annamaria Pileggi. After 35 years in the department, Anna will be retiring at the end of the 2025-26 academic year leaving behind a legacy of dedicated teaching, collaborative theatre (and people) making, and a ‘butterfly effect’ of alumni who were inspired by Anna’s teaching and bring that energy to their lives and work all over the world. On the episode, Anna reflects on her training before arriving at WashU, her influences and mentors who helped her along the way, andher favorite productions and collaborations that made her career at WashU, as she says, a “joy”.

If you feel a heartwarming shot of exuberance, wisdom, inspiration, and that distinctive Annamaria Pileggi laugh that has echoed in the PAD hallways for 35 wonderful years is what you need in life right now, then this episode is for you!

Episode 18 of the PAD Podcast features our first Master’s graduate from the WashU Performing Arts Department in Dr. Jenny Kokai. Dr. Kokai is an award-winning educator, playwright, scholar, and administrator. She is currently the Director of the School of Theatre and Dance and Professor of Theatre at the University of South Florida (USF). As a scholar, she is recognized internationally for her work on tourism and performance, with a focus on themed and immersive entertainments. In 2017, she published the well-reviewed monograph Swim Pretty: Aquatic Spectacles and the Performance of Race, Gender, and Nature and in 2019 co-edited the anthology, Performance and the Disney Theme Park Experience: The Tourist as Actor. She also continues topublish as a playwright and her most recent work in that arena just came out in the form or two plays for young audiences: Zombie Thoughts and Ballet for Aliens co-written with her son, Oliver Kokai-Means. Ballet for Aliens toured and was presented to over 10,000 elementary school students throughout Utah in 2022-23 with Plan-B Theatre and Zombie Thoughts was turned into an app game by Riverside in Australia. Don’t miss this enlightening conversation with multidisciplinary artist and administrator Dr. Jenny Kokai!