Episode 434
Finding the Magic From Stage to Page, with Seth Panitch, novelist of "Antique"
What happens when an accomplished creative deliberately becomes a beginner again?
On this episode of YOUR WORLD OF CREATIVITY, Mark talks with Seth Panitch, an award-winning actor, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, director, and theatre educator who has added a new creative identity to his 30-year career: novelist.
@sethpanitchauthor on Instagram
https://www.amazon.com/Antique-Novel-Seth-Panitch-ebook/dp/B0FBLVCVPD
Seth's debut novel, Antique, published by Grand Central Publishing in February 2026, follows Grace Schaffer, a once-celebrated antique appraiser whose career, marriage, and sense of identity have fallen apart. When she encounters a mysterious necklace that appears to give her an uncanny ability to predict the value of objects, her journey raises a deeper question: What's the difference between what something is worth—and what we are worth?
In this conversation, Mark and Seth explore:
- Becoming a beginner again — What writing a novel offered Seth that acting, theatre, screenwriting, and filmmaking couldn't, and what he had to learn—or unlearn—to embrace a new creative form.
- Finding the story behind Antique — How antiques, appraisal, mystery, and magic became the setting for a larger exploration of value, identity, and self-worth.
- Balancing magic with emotional truth — How Seth uses mystery and the unexplained without losing sight of the very human story at the center of the novel.
- From stage and screen to the page — How decades of experience with dialogue, pacing, character, and performance shaped Seth's approach to fiction.
- The artist and the teacher — How leading the MFA Acting Program at the University of Alabama influences Seth's creative practice—and how remaining an active artist shapes the way he teaches.
- Feedback, rejection, and creative risk — Knowing when outside feedback strengthens the work and when an artist needs to trust their own instincts.
- Appraising our own creative worth — Separating reviews, sales, awards, rankings, and other external measures from our deeper sense of value as creative people.
Seth's journey is a reminder that a creative career doesn't have to be defined by a single medium. Sometimes the next chapter requires stepping away from what we already know, embracing uncertainty, and giving ourselves permission to become beginners again.
And perhaps Antique offers a question every creative person can consider: Who gets to determine what our work—and ultimately we ourselves—are worth?
Connect with Seth
Learn more about Seth Panitch and Antique at sethpanitch.com. Antique is available from Grand Central Publishing and wherever books are sold.
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Until next time, keep unlocking YOUR WORLD OF CREATIVITY.
