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In this episode of Bend Don’t Break, we sit down with Kisky Holwerda, the driving force behind Bend, Oregon’s Ponderosa Players. A passionate theater director and educator, Kisky shares how this innovative troupe is fostering creativity, building community, and bringing bold, original performances to life. From the joys of working with young actors to the challenges of independent theater, this conversation dives deep into the power of storytelling and the resilience it takes to keep the arts thriving.

Tune in for an inspiring discussion on the magic of live performance and why theater matters now more than ever!

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This article appears in The Source Weekly March 20, 2025.

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LISTEN: Bend Don’t Break with Kisky Holwerda 🎧

by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon
March 24, 2025

<h1>LISTEN: Bend Don’t Break with Kisky Holwerda 🎧</h1> <p class="byline">by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />March 24, 2025</p> <p>In this episode of Bend Don’t Break, we sit down with Kisky Holwerda, the driving force behind Bend, Oregon’s Ponderosa Players. A passionate theater director and educator, Kisky shares how this innovative troupe is fostering creativity, building community, and bringing bold, original performances to life. From the joys of working with young actors to the challenges of independent theater, this conversation dives deep into the power of storytelling and the resilience it takes to keep the arts thriving. </p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full aligncenter aligncenter"><a href="https://www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/bend_don_t_break_032025_digital.webp"><img src="https://www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/bend_don_t_break_032025_digital.webp" alt="" class="wp-image-3823" /></a></figure> <p> Tune in for an inspiring discussion on the magic of live performance and why theater matters now more than ever!</p> <p>LISTEN: </p> <div class="wp-block-group newspack-embed-container align"> <div style="font-size: 10px;color: #cccccc;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-779383396" title="Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc;text-decoration: none">Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-779383396/bend-dont-break-kisky-holwerda-co-founder-of-ponderosa-players" title="Bend Don&#x27;t Break: Kisky Holwerda, Co-Founder of Ponderosa Players" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc;text-decoration: none">Bend Don&#x27;t Break: Kisky Holwerda, Co-Founder of Ponderosa Players</a></div> </p></div> <p> WATCH: </p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://www.youtube.com/embed/28b2kqZDrvs </div> </figure> <div class="wp-block-group fdn-after-article-related"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Related Stories</h3> </p></div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/listen-bend-dont-break-with-kisky-holwerda-22888735/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=3822&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/listen-bend-dont-break-with-kisky-holwerda-22888735/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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