67. Learning to Adapt w/ Spencer Frankeberger

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In Episode 67, Dan Dissinger talks with to Actor, Director, and Board Certified Music Therapist Spencer Frankeberger about adaptability in Music Therapy, how being scared of improv is the best reason to do improv, we discuss systemic ableism in standardized testing from the bar exam to the GREs, and this all somehow ends up in a deep conversation about whether or not theme parks can be a genre.

Hi! I’m Spencer Frankeberger. I’m an actor, improviser, board-certified music therapist, award-winning director, award-winning musical theatre producer, theme park enthusiast, and word nerd based in Los Angeles, straight outta Florida and a graduate of iO West, The Second City Hollywood, and ComedySportz LA.

I live my life like the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding daily as a goofy Greek-American, but that’s not all. I’m also a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC) and am conversational in American Sign Language.

And to top it off, I think I’m the only living human who can say he has been hit in the eye with a baseball, is a board-certified music therapist, finds the art of tattoos fascinating, even though he never wants one, and is the biggest theme park enthusiast who lives vicariously through theme park design, Youtube ride POV’s, and random trivia facts about amusements. spencerfrankeberger.com Follow Spencer on
TikTok | Instagram | YouTube

People and Texts Mentioned in this Episode

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“[Music Therapy] is using music as a therapeutic goal to reach a non-musical goal.” –Spencer Frankeberger

“[With music therapy] adaptability is key, which makes me think of the idea of improv and writing.” –Spencer Frankeberger

“Music is creative. What I’m doing specifically is finding creative ways to use this music in my sessions that are relatively structured for the goals that I need to reach or assess.” –Spencer Frankeberger

“I love exploring where work comes into play and where life comes into play and where I can combine the two.” –Spencer Frankeberger

“[Improv] scared me the first time I did it.” –Spencer Frankeberger

“I think that improv is a great intercrossing of everything because it allows me to kind of pick and pull certain aspects of improv and put it in whatever career path I’m going in, but also whatever thing I’m doing at that moment.” –Spencer Frankeberger

“Every single person learns and processes in a different way.”
–Spencer Frankeberger

“[Standardized testing] is setting certain people up for failure, because their brains are not adapted to that specific type of exam.”
–Spencer Frankeberger

“Things that I can’t do, I’m a lot more fascinated by and have to find a way to discover vicariously how to incorporate that idea.”
–Spencer Frankeberger

“I talk about theme parks as if it’s a genre.” –Spencer Frankeberger

“For me, theme parks are like my Star Wars.” –Spencer Frankeberger

This episode was recorded on June 26th, 2021. Because we recorded via Zoom, there may be occasional audio hiccups. Our theme song is “4 am” by Makaih Beats. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher and follow us on Twitter @WritingRemixPod. 

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