Episode #1 with Andrew Bray
Andrew shares in this first episode of the Rethinking Learning Podcast series how creativity, entrepreneurship, and teaching helped him learn. He explains how acting, music, teaching and beekeeping helped him find his purpose.
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Andrew Bray is multi-talented. I always knew that and thought I knew him well. You see, he’s my son. When I asked him to help me set up the Rethinking Learning podcast series, we created a practice podcast that was fun and I learned some things I never knew about him. So we decided to make this podcast our first podcast of the series. Listen and you’ll understand why. Below is a little about Andrew to frame what we talked about in the podcast.
As a young boy, Andrew wanted to be a filmmaker and helped me with my claymation workshops in schools and conferences. I taught him about storyboarding, and he took it to another level. I knew Andrew had many talents, but I was not sure which one he would choose. In high school, he loved acting and decided that was the road he wanted to take. He attended the Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts in Santa Maria, CA. He acted, sang, and danced his way through school and then decided to start his acting journey in Portland, Oregon. An annual festival he participates in is the Original Practice Shakespeare Festival
Andrew joined the company Staged Productions in 2007, and even before that he acted in many roles. Some of his favorite roles include Jake in Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom (Defunkt Theatre), Lt. Cable in South Pacific (Lakewood Theater), Matt in Red Light Winter (Bad Badger Productions), and Leo Frank in Parade (Staged with picture on right).
Because of his gift for music, he also became a music director. Some of his favorite plays where he was the music director included Stage’s Les Miserables, Big River, and 13, and A Civil War Christmas (Portland ART). Here’s a picture of Andrew directing a 22 piece orchestra above the red flag on the stage for Les Miserables. Yes, above the stage.
Andrew is also teaching acting and is a music director at middle and high schools in the Portland area. He also loves sound design and was just nominated for a Drammy for his sound design on the play Assistance.
During our conversation, Andrew started talking about another direction he is taking: beekeeping. He started with one hive and working at a local beekeeping store. He now has six hives, builds a unique style of a hive, moves swarms, and teaches beekeeping.
Hope you listen to the podcast and follow Andrew on Facebook.
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Interested in checking out the Rethinking Learning podcasts and reflections, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below, or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/
For more information about Barbara’s book, Define Your WHY, go to this page or click on the image of the book for resources, questions, and links.
