This week on Curtain Call, Tom sits down with a remarkable husband-and-wife duo whose work spans classical theatre, regional stages, higher education, and the New York State prison system. Nick López and Jessica López-Barkl bring deeply personal insight into what it means to use theatre as a tool for connection, education, and social impact.

The conversation explores Nick’s long-standing work with Rehabilitation Through the Arts, where creativity plays a central role in dignity and transformation inside correctional facilities, alongside Jessica’s award-winning work as a playwright and theatre-maker whose projects explore grief, neurodiversity, and non-verbal storytelling. Together, they discuss collaboration, teaching, responsibility, and the ways theatre can open space for empathy in unexpected places.

This week on Curtain Call, Tom Candela heads straight to the heart of theatre fandom with a spotlight on BroadwayCon 2026, the three-day celebration where fans, artists, and creators come together in the center of Times Square to share their love of Broadway. Joining the conversation is Melissa Anelli, CEO and founder of Mischief Management, the producing force behind BroadwayCon. With new venues, expanded programming, and the introduction of BroadwayCon’s first-ever Drag Ball benefiting Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, this year’s event marks an exciting new chapter in BroadwayCon’s evolution.

Also joining Tom is actor, writer, and advocate Erin Quill, a member of the original Broadway company of Avenue Q and a longtime voice for equity in casting. This year, Erin takes the BroadwayCon stage not as a panelist, but as a guest performer as part of Friday’s AANHPI-focused event, celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander artists and stories. Together, they explore the power of speaking up, the importance of representation, and how fandom can become a bridge—connecting loving audiences with the artists and stories that inspire them

This week on Curtain Call, Tom sits down with performer Drita Kabashi and director Meghan Finn to talk about A Trojan Woman — a one-woman theatrical adaptation of Euripides’ The Trojan Women, often considered the first anti-war play in Western theatre.

Drita Kabashi carries the entire production in this one woman show, stepping into ten different characters under the direction of Meghan Finn, Artistic Director of The Tank. Together, they share how this ancient story continues to feel urgently modern, and why its message of loss, endurance, and humanity still matters today — making this a powerful way to begin Curtain Call’s first episode of 2026!