Playwright Repertory Podcast

In this week's episode, we read Madison Osment's play The Moon, my dearest. and talk to her about coming up with play ideas, the moon landing, and test everyone's patience with Mitchell's jokes. // CAST: Jordan Spena as Arin, Bella Arnold as Lulana.

In this week's episode, we talk about the components of writing plays in specific styles, the style choices of specific playwrights, and debate Mitchell's use of mom jeans.

In this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk about L-O-V-E, abusive archetypes in popular media, and writing healthy relationships.

In this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk about working with directors on new work -- the good, the bad, the ugly, the mansplaining.

In this week's episode, we read Mia Kaplan's play "Paisley and Elijah" and Mitchell and Sarah talk to her about writing your first play, self-criticism, and-- oddly enough-- Supreme Court justices.// CAST LIST: Bella Arnold as Paisley, Jordan Spena as Elijah

In this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk with Madeline Oberle (Northwestern's Spectrum Theatre Company) and Nicolas Ruano (TFT Talks) about activist/accessible theatre, ideas for making theatre more accessible, and proving that-- to paraphrase Mark Twain-- the reports of theatre's death have been greatly exaggerated.

In the first episode of 2021 (and the new season), we read Mitchell's short play "A Meta Mad-Libs Play" with our friends, and Sarah and Mitchell talk about audience interaction in the age of zoom and how to freshen up our Zoom performances.AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Bella Arnold // Kyra Baklayan // Justin Joung // Mia Kaplan // Jordan Spena // Ben Susskind

Back to the basics: in this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk about playwriting software, formatting, and when you can (and arguably) should break the rules for standard play formatting.

In this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk with Jamie Ostmann, the president of Harvard's Hyperion Shakespeare Company, about what defines a classic work, how you can put your own spin on these stories, and Mitchell learns the hard way not to trust the sources he finds online.

In this special episode, Mitchell looks at three iconic games from the previous 18 episodes and gives his commentary on coming up with the games, little quirks about editing, and demonstrating his short-term memory loss when it comes to the answers.

In this episode, we read Kyra Baklayan's play "Four Percent," and Mitchell and Sarah chat with Kyra about life changes in college, writing unstructured, and Timothée Chalamet (of course).CAST LIST: Madeline Oberle as Ragan // Mia Kaplan as Sam // Jessica Yang as Jenna // Sarah Lina Sparks as Stage Directions

In this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk about writer's block, their experiences with it, and how to write through it.

In this episode, we talk with our good friend (and PRP MVP) Ben Susskind about exposition, character-focused plays, and read his play Small Things.CAST LIST: Madeline Oberle as Anna // Hamish Marissen-Clark as David // Mitchell Huntley as Travis // Sarah Lina Sparks as Stage Directions

In this week's special, a brief excerpt (cut for time) from last week's discussion on music. Mitchell, Sarah, and Ben talk about key signatures, "Hey There Delilah," and "Yeah 3x."

In today's episode, Mitchell, Sarah, and (special guest) Ben Susskind discuss incorporating music into your play, how to write music for your play, and how anyone can write music.

In this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk to Cris Eli Blak about persistence, optimism, and his play "The Hollywood Story."CAST LIST: Nic Ruano as Andrew // Bella Arnold as Sarah // Ben Susskind as Hudson.

We're off this week in preparation for next week's reading, but we didn't think the fun should stop, so Mitchell compiled a small montage of goofs, glitches, and gotchas from our first 13 episodes.~Music used in this extras episode: "The Entertainer" by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5765-the-entertainerLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, Sarah and Mitchell talk about the benefits of holding readings with friends, what questions to ask for feedback, and what food is best to incentivize people (when we can finally do in-person readings again).

In this episode Mitchell and Sarah chat with Aurora Behlke and we read her play "Folly."CAST LIST: Ben Susskind as Service/Soapy/Hiker // Hamish Marissen-Clark as Seward/Frank/Hiker // Bella Arnold as Sam // Alyssa Carol as Dan // Wes D'Alelio as Rag Time Man // Mitchell Huntley as Horse // Sarah Lina Sparks as Stage DirectionsMUSIC by: Noah Lovins

In this episode, Sarah and Mitchell have a playwright-to-playwright-to-playwright and talk about rejection, how they've dealt with it, and how useful feedback can be.

In this episode, Sarah and Mitchell take a bit of a deep dive into some important aspects when it comes to high school and college playwriting competitions (including finding competitions, choosing an excerpt, and character lists).

In this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk with Ryan Miller and the Orange County School of the Arts' Dramatic Composition class, who present their play Vibe Check (in the final installment of a 4-part series about collaboration).// FEATURED STUDENTS: Maddie Duran, Audrey Gallegos, Emilie Lafontaine, Lucy Leahy, Wilson Mizell, Makenna Olsen, Grace Osier, Veronica Perez, Jordan Spena, Ava Ulloa, Landon Wouters

In this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk with Ryan Miller and the Orange County School of the Arts' Dramatic Composition class about what it's like to write a play as a class and to collaborate on writing a theatrical piece (in PART 3 of a 4-part series about collaboration).// FEATURED STUDENTS: Maddie Duran, Lucy Leahy, Grace Osier, Jordan Spena, Ava Ulloa

In this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk with Ryan Miller and the Orange County School of the Arts' Dramatic Composition class, who present their play Up in the Air (in PART 2 of a 4-part series about collaboration).// FEATURED STUDENTS: Sarah Anderson, Olivia Curry, Ava Downey, Roni Dvir, Broderick Finken, Annalia Garrett, Zachary Hobbs, Caroline Kennedy, Jodie Kiyokawa, Hadley Miller, Kira Randolph, Zoe Seare, Bella Zoila Smith, Yaya Spitzer-Tilchin, Mackenzie Wrap

In this week's episode, Mitchell and Sarah talk with Ryan Miller and the Orange County School of the Arts' Dramatic Composition class about the process and benefits of devising (in PART 1 of a 4-part series about collaboration). // FEATURED STUDENTS: Sarah Anderson, Annalia Garrett, Zachary Hobbs, Caroline Kennedy, Jodie Kiyokawa, Kira Randolph, Zoe Seare, Mackenzie Wrap

In this episode Mitchell and (guest co-host) Ben Susskind chat with Jared Goudsmit and we read his play "Blacktop Jungle." CAST LIST: Kyra Baklayan as Linda // Kayla Curneen as Becky // Logan Gould as Kurt // Mitchell Huntley as Stage Directions

May the 4th be with you! Listen to Mitchell and Sarah discuss (geek out about) the hero's journey crafted by Joseph Campbell in The Hero With A Thousand Faces. They look closer at how Campbell came up with this groundbreaking storytelling tool and how it has been applied to Star Wars.

In this episode we read Ashley DiLorenzo's piece on dealing with loss, "Someone Shoud've Told Me." CAST LIST: Lauren Dong as Val // Ben Susskind as Ross // Kyra Baklayan as Vera // Bella Arnold as Young Vera // Mitchell Huntley as Stage Directions

Mitchell and Sarah talk about their own experiences and processes with playwriting, in addition to the normal shenanigans. // If you want your play to be featured for a reading on PRP, you can submit your play at tinyurl.com/PRPsubmit !

In this episode, we read through Bella Arnold's play about the college admissions process, "We Regret to Inform You." In addition to an interview, feedback, and games with the playwright. CAST LIST: Lauren Stevens as Lilly // Lauren Dong as Marta/Principal Lennon // Alyssa Carol as Emmy // Liam McHugh as Parker // Liv Drury as Amelie/Charlotte // Ben Susskind as Harrison // Mitchell Huntley as Oliver // Sarah Lina Sparks as Stage Directions