Dr. Natalie Gerber
Two episodes of the “Matching Minds with Sondheim” podcast feature Professor Natalie Gerber as a guest host.
Dr. Gerber’s role coincides with her teaching HONR 302-02 Sondheim: Putting It Together, a course that explores Sondheim’s On- and off-Broadway musicals in the Honors Program, which she also directs.
Both episodes focus on games and puzzles in musicals of Stephen Sondheim, a renowned composer and lyricist whose brilliance in matching words and music in dramatic situations is credited for breaking new ground for Broadway musical theater.
It’s an honor to be included with these guest hosts, who are pretty amazing." - Dr. Natalie Gerber
The podcast series is an open invitation into the puzzle-loving, game-designing mind of Sondheim and is based on the upcoming book, “Matching Minds with Sondheim,” by Barry Joseph. The series can be accessed here and on Spotify.
“It’s an honor to be included with these guest hosts, who are pretty amazing,” Gerber, a member of the Department of English faculty, remarked. “It was also a pleasure to reconnect with Barry, a friend from my grad program in American Studies at NYU. We reconnected when we were both doing Sondheim research at the Paley Center in New York City."
In the series, Gerber joins other Sondheim aficionados, puzzle-makers and game designers in exploring how Sondheim's musicals include examples of games and puzzles, and even some are structured as such.
Other episodes in the series celebrate how Sondheim’s role creating and playing various kinds of board games, parlor games, treasure hunts and cryptic crosswords created clarity and connection for friends, colleagues and anyone who’s ever been captivated by his genius.
