‘Catalyst Sessions’ recap: Paul Wilborn and Eugenie Bondurant

Tuesday on the 40^th installment of The Catalyst Sessions, we turned something of a COVID-corner by welcoming back Paul Wilborn and Eugenie Bondurant, who had been the guests on our inaugural program in late March.

Although the Palladium Theatre unfortunately remains closed for the foreseeable future, Wilborn – the venerable venue’s executive director – said he remains cautiously optimistic.

“In the performing arts concert business, a lot of people are talking about nothing coming back until 2021. I think we may be back, in some form, in August or September, maybe doing our nightclub-type shows upstairs. But we’ve still got a long way to go.”

While sheltering at home, the couple have been biking, kayaking and going for walks. Wilborn has been practicing the piano. They announced the suspension, for the present, of their longtime cabaret combo Blue Roses, and talked about a new quartet they’ have been rehearsing during their neighborhood isolation.

With her husband on piano, Bondurant sang Phoebe Snow’s “Poetry Man” to open The Catalyst Sessions; together, they closed it with “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” dedicating it to the late Rich Rice, a good friend, professor of theater at Eckerd College and a co-founder of St. Pete’s long-running Radio Theatre Project.

In other news, he’s got a new book – a Florida mystery novel – getting shopped around; she’s got a new St. Pete-made film (Fear of Rain) in post-production.

Bondurant discussed the Meisner Method acting courses she’s teaching online via the Andi Matheny Studios; students must first learn how to videotape themselves in solo performance. “Some of the actors that come to us have no idea even how to start doing that,” she said, “so it pushes them in the direction. I’ll look at the tape, and I’ll show it in class – online – and I give them a critique right then and there.”

Today (Wednesday, May 27) on The Catalyst Sessions: Singer Kelli Butler (aka The Opera Geek).

Streaming weekdays at 7 p.m. on the Catalyst Facebook page.