Podcast Release Date: February 15th, 2024

On this month’s myFace, myStory podcast episode, host Dina Zuckerberg is joined by Kathleen Watt, an opera singer on some of the biggest stages whose life changed when she was diagnosed with bone cancer in her face. She will speak about her memoir, REARRANGED where she writes about coming face-to-face with mortality, disfigurement, having her face reconstructed, and the meaning and uses of beauty. REARRANGED is a tale of letting go to hold on, of putting old pieces to new uses—and of the unlikely arrangements that make it all work out.​

Read about our guest below the video: 

Kathleen Watt sang principal roles with the Boston Lyric Opera, Utah Opera Company, Springfield Regional Opera, and others, and in the Extra Chorus of New York’s Metropolitan Opera before her singing career was summarily ended by osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) in her face.

Since retiring from performing, she has written frequently on performing arts and cultural issues, including features, profiles, and essays. As a writer and cancer survivor Kathleen has collaborated with doctors and artists on a range of projects, including an appearance on a BBC-4 series about facial disfigurement.

Formerly an assistant art director in publishing, Kathleen attended Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and Brigham Young University (earning a double BFA, in Art and Music), with postgraduate studies in opera performance at Boston University.

Kathleen now writes from a windswept hay farm in the Catskill Mountains of New York, where she resides with her partner, ten chickens, three dogs, and on occasion, her two grown stepchildren.