Podcast appearances and mentions of alexa junge

We want to believe our lives can be changed by the ideas contained in a book. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: When Alexa was seven, she started going through her grandfather's books. Her grandfather was a playwright and teacher, and through the books—and especially through his notes in the margins—she entered the world of 1930's American theater. And she found a book that changed her life: writer Moss Hart's autobiography Act One. (5 minutes)Act One: More of Alexa Junge and how Moss Hart's autobiography changed her life. She followed his path, learned specific lessons, and had a vision of him that was absolutely clear—until she met his widow. (10 minutes)Act Two: A book that changed a family's life—temporarily, and not for the better. David Sedaris on what happened when he found a dirty book in the woods and passed it along to his sisters. (9 minutes)Act Three: Reporter Jeremy Goldstein tells the story of a man who had many books change his life, even though he'd never read them. (14 minutes)Act Four: Writer Meghan Daum travels to De Smet, South Dakota—where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived and set most of her Little House books. What surprises her is how much it matches what she'd imagined. The people there seem to be genuinely living by the values Laura wrote about. (15 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

Season 1, Episode 13 of Friends, "The One with the Boobies", premiered on January 19, 1995. It was written by Alexa Junge and directed by Alan Myerson. Chandler accidentally sees Rachel wandering around topless after her shower, so Rachel tries to even the score; Joey learns that his father is having an affair. Send in any questions, comments, feedback or criticisms to The Postman: 1. On Twitter @asinensky @achester99 @PPPGFriends 2. By Email curbpostman@gmail.com 3. By filling out this ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Give us a 5 Star Rating and Review⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pretty-good-friends/support

We're joined this week by Alexa Junge and returning guest Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. They co-wrote "Disaster Relief," and together, we try to propulgate the backstory of this episode onto the frontstory. Like President Bartlet in Oklahoma, you'll never want to go back to work! For more, visit thewestwingweekly.com/506

Alexa Junge has written for some of America's greatest tv shows. She is currently on Grace and Frankie, and has written for Friends and United States of Tara. Alexa lays out what she's learned about a story in the rooms of some of the very best. “Good story breaking means you’ve looked at the story from every angle, and you know you’re not gonna like hit a dead end and blow everything up.”

One thing about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival that surprises a few newcomers is that only about four or five of the eleven shows they do each year are by William Shakespeare. The festival mixes things up a lot, adding original shows, historical classics, world premieres, musicals and American standards. This year - with four shows open already and more to come as the year unfolds - two non-Shakespeare shows are already clear hits. Such is the case with Frank Loesser’s "Guys and Dolls," a show so popular that no high school and community theater company in the nation can resist taking a crack at it. Everyone knows it. But forget what you think you know about "Guys and Dolls." Director Mary Zimmerman, a card-carrying theatrical magician of the highest order, is known for tackling impossible source material like Ovid’s Metamorphoses, The Notebooks of Leonardo DaVinci, and Kipling’s The Jungle Book. This year, she’s taken on the herculean task of making Guys and Dolls look fresh, fun, and significant - and she’s done it. Behind a mostly bare stage occupied at all times by a wooden table and a portable scale model of New York City, a massive wall occasionally opens up revealing windows that display various scene-setting images like palm trees or sewer grates. Other scene elements roll off and on - or bounce on, in the case of several dozen beach balls that appear in one scene set in Havana, Cuba - but the real razzle-dazzle in this Guys and Dolls is the superb cast. As the confirmed-bachelor and gambler Sky Masterson and the engaged-but-marriage-phobic Nathan Detroit, Jeremy Peter Johnson and Rodney Gardiner are forces of nature, bringing stellar voices and magnificent character work to what could have been nothing but easy-to-phone-in cliché’s. In the hands of such inventive actors, these two cartoonish characters - affable criminals caught in the magnetic pull of love - become richly detailed human beings. The entire cast follows suit, somehow turning these broadly drawn people into folks with real emotions roiling under their skins, and the result is a "Guys and Dolls" that has more than just dynamite singing and dancing and a fluffy, superficial plot - this one has real heart. And that brings us to "Fingersmith." Sarah Waters’ bestselling Victorian crime thriller became the novel to read about ten years ago, fueled by its daring combination of Dickensian detail and heart-pounding lesbian sex. With a sprawling cast of characters, public hangings, Victorian pornography, and that aforementioned girl-on-girl bedroom action, Fingersmith might not sound like an obvious choice for a Shakespeare Festival. So it’s a good thing OSF likes to break rules. This world premiere commission from playwright Alexa Junge brings with it enormous buzz and huge audience awareness. And it pays off. The story - about which little can be revealed - is set in two very different households in 1861 Londonl. Sue Trinder is a pickpocket who’s grown up in the makeshift “family” of the amiable Fagin-like criminal Mrs. Sucksby. When a legendary conman named Gentleman pulls Sue into his scheme to swindle a mentally frail heiress, things, to say the least, take a few unexpected turns. Directed by OSF artistic director Bill Rauch, the story clips along with pacing and polish, its shape-shifting cast augmented by some delightful stagecraft, including boats and carriages sailing or clip-clopping along on a rotating stage. Alternately moving and scary, hilarious and engaging, "Fingersmith" will keep you guessing to last surprise, in a show so full of surprises you’ll lose count. It’s a must see. For the full schedule and information about this year’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival, visit the website at www.osfashland.org I’m David Templeton, Second Row Center, for KRCB.

Jeff Greenstein & Jeff Strauss (season 1; later work includes co-creating Partners), Alexa Junge (seasons 1-5; later work includes Grace and Frankie [with Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman]; United States of Tara; Once and Again), and Adam Chase (seasons 1-6; post-Friends work includes The Crazy Ones; Mom; creating Clone) discuss the earliest days of the ground-breaking sitcom from participating in the punch-up the pilot script with creators Marta Kauffman, David Crane, and Kevin Bright, to getting hired for the writing staff, mining their lives for stories, the long hours, the democracy of the room, arguments, jokes, and lots more. PLUS: Enormous thanks to Rhett Miller (Old 97's), Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek), and Kate Micucci (Garfunkel and Oates) on their musical contributions to this week's show. They are SO GOOD.

Alexa Junge (exec producer, Save Me; Friends); Andrew Miller (Secret Circle); and Josh Friedman (Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Asset). Recorded June 6, 2012.CONNECT W/ BEN BLACKER & THE WRITER'S PANEL:https://twitter.com/BENBLACKERhttps://www.facebook.com/TVWritersPanelTHE WRITER'S PANEL IS A CO-PRODUCTION OF THE FOREVER DOG PODCAST NETWORK AND THE ATX TELEVISION FESTIVAL.http://foreverdogproductions.com/fdpn/podcasts/the-writers-panelhttp://atxfestival.com

Douglas Petrie (Buffy, CSI); Alexa Junge (Friends, United States of Tara); Josh Friedman (Sarah Connor Chronicles); Michael Green (Heroes, Kings, Green Lantern film). Recorded May 29, 2011.CONNECT W/ BEN BLACKER & THE WRITER'S PANEL:https://twitter.com/BENBLACKERhttps://www.facebook.com/TVWritersPanelTHE WRITER'S PANEL IS A CO-PRODUCTION OF THE FOREVER DOG PODCAST NETWORK AND THE ATX TELEVISION FESTIVAL.http://foreverdogproductions.com/fdpn/podcasts/the-writers-panelhttp://atxfestival.com