Joshua Henry and the Plano Symphony Orchestra; Indoor summer activities in North Texas

Thanks for listening to North Texas Now. I'm Miranda Suarez. And I'm Ron Corning. Joshua Henry is both a Grammy and Tony Award winner. He's performed in Hamilton, Into the Woods, and currently stars in Ragtime. But he's stepping away from the Broadway stage for a night and performing with the Plano Symphony Orchestra. He joins us to dive in what to expect this weekend and why winning awards is not his number one goal. Joshua, it's good to have you. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be there this Saturday. What are you most excited about when you're up there center stage? performing solo in front of a big audience. I think what excites me the most about performing live, especially with my band and with a symphony, is that call in response opportunity. Unlike when I'm doing, say, Broadway, you know, the audience is mostly quiet, except for between numbers. In concert, it's literally just me. I'm not playing a character. That's what's really exciting about performing live for me. What type of preview can you give us of the show on Saturday? Well, the name of this show is Get Up, Stand Up. So I will literally invite the audience at some point to Get Up and Stand Up.

Because the music is really uplifting, hopeful, fun songs. I mean, I'm doing music from a lot of the Broadway shows that I've done, from shows like Hamilton, from shows like Waitress Violet on Broadway. And even, you know, we'll see if the spirit moves in the right way. We'll see if we can do a little rag time. And I also will take a moment to... Pull out my six-string guitar. I love that. That's all right. Anything you can strum along for us? I, you know, can show you be a quick little preview. Hey, you brought out the prop. I mean, come on now. You paved the way for this. They say the night's all right. All right. Yeah, y'all. So, you know. Listen, when we talk about the music you've done, the roles you've had, I'm glad you mentioned Ragtime. My friend Velma came back from New York and Ragtime long before the Tony Awards and she said, oh my gosh, Joshua Henry, I've never seen anything like it. You just celebrated, I would think on August 7th, you celebrated the two-month anniversary of your Tony Award win. for reg time. Taking home this award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical for Colehouse Walker Jr. You gave such an impassioned, such an emotionally charged and amazing acceptance speech, including that shout out to your three boys. And to my boys, Samson, the champion, Leo, my hero, Max the Great. This is incredible. But remember, it's the practice that you do when no one is looking. And how you fall down and how you get back up again, that's what makes you great. I want to know what was their reaction. The next day we got home and I was like, did you guys hear the speech? And they're like, yeah, you said my name. You said our names. Because that's literally how I refer to them. Samson, the Champion, Leo, my hero, and Max the Great. I specifically wanted my voice to understand that this is an amazing thing. It's like that that can happen with some hard work. But I just don't want them to fall in love with everybody clapping and the lights shining down on them. And so it's really about what you do in the practice room. It's like I said, falling down and getting back up again. That's what greatness really is. That was the glory of that whole moment for me to be able to shout out my boys, my incredible wife, and my teacher who gave me three lessons over 25 years ago that got me on this journey. And she was there. She was there. She was there. And I think she was the last person that I spoke about. And I always dreamed about what's the biggest way I could say thank you. I never dreamed about winning a Tony Evers. ever. But that was like the perfect moments to say in front of the world.

You're why I'm here. Thank you in the biggest way. Ah, special. Why was winning a Tony kind of not on your radar in terms of your goals? About 15 years ago, I started thinking about growth. Growth is my favorite word. And while, yes, winning an award, you know, puts gas on the fire of whatever you have going on, the journey of rehearsal and of becoming. is very special to me. Doing a character like Cole House Walker Jr., I still, I miss the practice room. I miss the discovery process. For me, literally that when nobody else is around, and then eventually when your cast meets her around and director to help you find and craft and shape an emotional arc and journey. That is the fun for me. Now, Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to give the Tony back. Yeah, you're not like, oh, guys, I don't need it. Sorry. But, you know, winning things amplifies what is actually in an artist, right? So it's not that you win something and then all of a sudden you're going to shoot to the top. confetti, an award, is going to amplify and put gas, like I said, on the flame of what you have going on. Thankfully, I've got this incredible creative life in concerting and also as a writer, now I'm composing. Another thing I'm doing this fall is the Conversation Musical off-Broadway, which I'm excited to bring to audiences. So because I've won that Tony Award, now everyone who saw Ragtime and things i've done over the last 20 years are going to be like oh what's this new thing that you do so as a creative it's exciting to win things but it was never on the list of things because i know getting an award does not necessarily help you grow no that is that is so true i also appreciated in your speech that you mentioned audra mcdonald and brian stokes mitchell and i have to wonder when you take the stage at the meyerson on saturday on the campus of where Cory Booker T. Washington has been for decades, there will be young students there who will come to see you. And they, like you were with your two heroes, Audra and Brian, will be sitting there hoping you're paving the way for them. Are you mindful of that? I'm very mindful of that. And I think that's why, again, I give the messages on social media that I do to young artists who I know are looking to me for some guidance and some sort of mentorship. For me... Brian Stokes Mitchell was one of those mentors and Audra being in shows with them and

and just asking them questions, like, I'm a really introverted person, although I very much seem like I learned how to play the game, trust and believe. But, you know, I talked to Blind Stokes special about, well, how do you go in rooms and how do you continue to share and open yourself up as an artist when you feel like shutting down, you know, when you feel like you just want to share the art, but you don't want to be seen in other ways. I want to talk about that, you know, I want to talk about struggles of having children, which is a beautiful thing, but also can be a hard thing to balance. And I know young artists at some point may want to have a kid. They may want to, and they may hear lots of nose, and they may hear an industry that says, you don't fit into this box. And so I want to just encourage artists who are looking at me as I have looked at Stokes, Stokes, now I can call them, thankfully, and Audrey McDonnell to show them what's possible. with consistent dedication to growth in their craft and in their personal lives. Confetti is not always promised, but fulfillment can be a real tangible thing if you continue to grow. What an inspiring message. And never forget when you have kids, you have to come up with nicknames like Samson the Champion, Leo My Hero, and Max the Great. It's imperative. That's right. That's right. That's right. So you always remember who you are. Joshua Henry, thank you so much. Hey, great to talk to you. I will see you this Saturday. I cannot wait to jam with y'all. If I loved you time and again, I would try to say.

Joshua Henry performing at the Meyerson on Saturday. All right, we're turning our attention to the aquarium. Even though most kids are back in school, there's still time to squeeze in a last-minute adventure with the kids before summer is officially over. Maybe you're wanting to connect with nature, but the triple-digit temperatures are making that a little unappealing, let's say. KERA's Alexis Jay Jones and Trace Jerome Powell found two indoor science and nature excursions to check out instead. Alexis, as my East Texas mom used to say, it's hotter than a blister bug and a pepper patch right now. Yeah, I'm definitely getting a good tan this week. But we found a few spots where you can go to escape the heat, connect with nature, and give the kids one last summer blast. Wow! It's a lot. And they're just a few steps away from each other in Dallas's historic fair park. So you can make a day of it and visit both. At first is the Children's Aquarium, Dallas. Originally known as the Hall of Aquatic Life, it was built for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. Since then, the aquarium has been redesigned with kids in mind. Summer Brandon showed us around. She told us that the touch tanks steal the show here. They can actually touch the animals interact with them. Sometimes they can feed them, like down at our Stingray touch tank you'll see later. So they can kind of get more hands on. And I think for the younger kiddos, that definitely helps give them a better experience. She had us if feed the stingrays. Couldn't pass up that opportunity. They love people. Like we call them our little sea puppies. If you need a little spa treatment near the entrance of the aquarium is a pool with red garaf fish. Stick your hands in and they nibble away dead skin. A little ticklish, but at least you don't have to tip this manicurist. There were lots of exhibits, freshwater fish, lizards, turtles, sharks, but my favorite was a cute little orange freshwater fish named Cheeto, who has a great backstory. Cheetah was caught at Lake Granbury and is a little different. Experts at Texas A&M confirmed he's one of a kind. What they theorize happened is somebody dumped? a pet cichlid that they have and then it bred with a native species of cichlid kind of like the ones you see over there. Yay for being an original Gio! We said goodbye to our fishy friends at the aquarium and took a very short walk across the street to the Texas Discovery Gardens. And like the aquarium it was built for the Centennial. Back then it was known as the Hall of Horticulture. But today it's an eclectic place where you could easily spend an afternoon exploring nature. There's a reptile resort, garden train winding around the mini village, a play scape, and seven and a half acres of outdoor gardens with trails, ponds, and fountains for you to check out. And if you need a break from the heat, head inside of the salmon's butterfly and insectarium. The two-story conservatory is home to hundreds of butterflies that flutter around you when you visit. Ron Natinsky, who's the executive director of Texas Discovery Gardens, gave us a tour.

We fly the butterflies in from all over the world, Indonesia, Malaysia, Colombia, you know, other South American, everywhere that really exotic butterflies live. As we made our way through the butterfly house, we found a sweet surprise. Tiny bobwhite quail that make their home on the ground among the plants. They help out as sort of a cleanup crew by eating seeds and insects and bits of plants that have fallen on the floor of the butterfly house. The butterfly house also has an inside, outside beehide. Visitors can safely watch bees collect nectar from behind a plexiglass window. We found surprises around every corner, and as Ron says, the Texas Discovery Gardens has something for everyone. You know, some people call it a unicorn because we're not really a botanical garden. I mean, we are a botanical garden, but we're not only a botanical garden. It's a place where people tend to have... A lot of fun. So whether it's fish, butterflies, or a unicorn, you can find them all at Texas Discovery Gardens or the Children's Aquarium. So go out and have an adventure. For KERA News, I'm Alexis Jay Jones. And I'm Trace Jerome Powell. My God, I really want to meet Cheeto. Thank you all for listening to North Texas. Now I'm Miranda Svarez. And I'm Ron Corning. Make it a great Thursday. We'll see you tomorrow at 9.