Tampa Bay Arts Passport Podcast
🎙️ The Arts Passport Podcast
Your backstage pass to Tampa Bay’s boldest stories in art, music, and performance.
Every other week, host Avery Anderson goes beyond the playbill and into the real conversations shaping the cultural life of our region. From the rehearsal rooms where new work is being born, to the neighborhoods where murals meet politics, to the green rooms where artists spill the stories they don’t put on Instagram—this is where Tampa Bay’s creative pulse beats loudest.
Think less press release, more dinner-table talk: honest, funny, sometimes messy, always real. Whether you’re an artist, an audience member, or just arts-curious, the Arts Passport Podcast is your invitation to discover why the local scene matters—and why now.
Listen on:
Episodes
Thursday Sep 18, 2025
Thursday Sep 18, 2025
Actress Susana Cordón joins Avery to talk about starring as Lucy in the Straz Center’s Dracula: A Comedy of Terror—why rooting comedy in truth makes it funnier, what “belonging” in the arts actually feels like, and yes, a healthy amount of Audra McDonald worship. Plus: first impressions of Tampa Bay’s arts scene, from murals to humidity.
Wednesday Sep 03, 2025
Wednesday Sep 03, 2025
What does it feel like to carry an entire Andrew Lloyd Webber show on your back? For hometown artist Julia Rifino, star of Tell Me on a Sunday at freeFall Theatre, the answer is joyfully... a lot of things. In this conversation, Julia opens up about going from shy kid with a sketchbook to singing 26 songs solo onstage, why she refuses the “starving artist” narrative, and what it means to celebrate a breakthrough moment on her own terms.