Building Resilience
In this episode, three children (Donovan, Layla, and Ruby) explore the idea of resilience — being able to move through the hard things we face and bounce back or recover afterward. They share times they have had to practice resilience, and then they help a Link-a-deedle friend, LaLeek, who lives in the Land of Qook-a-lackas, learn about resilience.
The guest star in this episode is Marc Grapey, an actor, director, writer and producer. The original song in the episode, “On With The Show,” was written and performed by educator/composer Benjamin Weiner. Sound design and mixing is by Ahmed Ashour, and the ukulele music you hear is by actor and composer Bill English.
Guest Star: Marc Grapey
The role of the Link-a-deedle, LaLeek, is played by Marc Grapey, an actor, director, writer and producer who has been a fixture of the Chicago Theatre community for the last 25 years, often appearing at Victory Gardens, The Goodman, Steppenwolf, and Writer’s Theatre. He has three times been nominated for Joseph Jefferson Awards for best actor and won in 2003 for direction (along with David Cromer) for Famous Door’s epic, two- part, six hour production of The Cider House Rules.
Marc made his Broadway debut in 2005 opposite Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the hit revival of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. His numerous films include SuperBad, Adventureland, The Day Trippers, While You Were Sleeping, At Any Price, Keeping up with the Joneses, and the upcoming Steven Spielberg produced Captive State.
Mr. Grapey has made over 60 guest appearances on television, including the pilot episode of The West Wing, a memorable turn as Rollo the magician on the cult favorite Arrested Development; popped up occasionally as publicist J.J. Mitchell on HBO’s Sex In the City and for the last nine seasons as hospital general counsel Peter Kalmick on NBC’s Chicago Med.
“On With The Show” is an original song composed by Benjamin Weiner for the Little Kids, Big Hearts podcast. It debuts in the episode “Building Resilience,” in which three children (Layla, Donovan, and Ruby) talk about learning resilience and then help LaLeek (a Link-a-deedle friend who lives in the Land of Qook-a-lackas) to practice resilience.
Educator Resources
Explore the topics the episode to learn and build your children’s resilience skills:
- Make Soothing Stones
- Play Resilience Role Play