Podcast appearances and mentions of Greg Kotis

Urinetown runs at New York City Center through February 16th. For more information, visit www.nycitycenter.org.  Follow The Present Stage on Instagram at @thepresentstageThe Present Stage: Conversations with Theater Writers is hosted by Dan Rubins, a theater critic for Slant Magazine. You can also find Dan's reviews on Cast Album Reviews and in The New Yorker's Briefly Noted column.The Present Stage supports the national nonprofit Hear Your Song. If you'd like to learn more about Hear Your Song and how to support empowering youth with serious illnesses to make their voices heard though songwriting, please visit www.hearyoursong.org

We've got the Lutherans to thank for this one. It's the worst-ever name for a musical, but Peter & Nathan think that 2001's Urinetown, with music and lyrics by Mark Hollmann & Greg Kotis, is worthy of your attention – and some sustained theological reflection. _________________________________________ We talk about: The show's origin story (thanks, Lutherans!) and its unfortunately timed Broadway debut on the heels of 9/11. The politics of Urinetown – capitalist overlords versus the people's revolution, all painted in broad, satirical brushstrokes. Are there any responsible political figures in this show? What is Urinetown? A prison for malefactors? A way for the powerful to prey on the vulnerable? Death? Despair? "Following your heart" – What does that mean? And what if whatever your heart seems to be telling you turns out to be wrong? The power of music (particularly Gospel music) to move us to action. Who "should" be singing this music, and who is it for?   You'll hear: "Too Much Exposition" / "What is Urinetown?" – satirical take-downs of conventional musical theatre tropes "I See A River" / "Run Freedom, Run" / "Follow Your Heart" – Urinetown asks some complicated questions about love and justice. And the music is pretty dang good. You'll hear Hunter Foster, John Cullum, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Jeff McCarthy, Spencer Kayden and the Original Broadway Cast from the 2001 recording. _________________________________________ Check out some of our all-time favorites! Phantom of the Opera Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Jesus Christ Superstar! Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2) West Side Story! Yentl! Frozen! Barbie! Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

IT'S HAPPENING IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR: Deutero-Fung, a mold spore with big ideas, attempts to rally his fellow mold spores into blooming immediately and take over the apartment-verse, but Hyphae-Fung, a mold spore with even bigger ideas, warns the community that blooming early will be a mistake. Look out! Cuz it's Happening in your Refrigerator! Written by Greg Kotis Directed by Jonathan Cook Performed by Sol Baird as "Deutero-Fung"; Brad King as "Hyphae-Fung"; and the cast of Urinetown the Musical at Le Chat Noir Theatre as the mold spore community. Intro/Outro music: JK/47 About the writer: GREG KOTIS is a two time Tony™ Award winning author of many plays and musicals including Urinetown (Book/Lyrics), The End of All Flesh, I Am Nobody, The Truth About Santa, The Sting (Lyrics), Lunchtime, Give the People What They Want, Michael von Siebenburg Melts Through the Floorboards, Yeast Nation (Book/Lyrics), Pig Farm, Eat the Taste, and Jobey and Katherine. His work has been produced and developed in theaters across the country and around the world, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Conservatory Theater, American Theater Company, The Apollo (West End), The Brick, the Eugene O'Neill National Theater Conference, The Geva Center, Goodspeed, Musicals, Henry Miller's Theatre (Broadway), Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Stage and Film, New Line Theatre, The Old Globe, Perseverance Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Soho Rep, South Coast Rep, The Saint James (Off West End), The Tank, and Village Theatre, among others. Future projects include ZM, an original musical about teenaged fast-food workers trying to survive a zombie plague. Greg co-founded Theater of The Apes with his wife Ayun Halliday (www.theater-of-the-apes.com), and is a member of the Neo-Futurists, the Cardiff Giant Theater Company, ASCAP, and the Dramatists Guild. He grew up in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, lives in New York City, and is the proud father of India and Milo. You can watch the full video of this episode at https://www.youtube.com/@GatherbytheGhostLight Gather by the Ghost Light merch is available at www.ghostlightpubs.com (Ghost Light Publications) If you would like to further support this podcast, please visit Gather by the Ghost Light is increasing public knowledge of emerging writers and actors (buymeacoffee.com) If you enjoy this podcast, please please please leave a rating on your preferred podcast app! For more info or if you wish to contact us, please visit www.gatherbytheghostlight.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WE'RE BACK! After a holiday break full of interviews and grab-bags, Justin and Erika return to their roots with the letter, "K"! And it Kicks butt! Justin tells a heart-warming story, Erika tells a college story about her relationship with a certain tony award-winning play, and the two of them talk about how important the art is and the difficulty with sticking with it sometimes! It's KILLER to be back!SOME BUSINESS: Thank you to the two playwrights we featured in this episode! You can find some of their plays in the links below. Erika's play, Kill The Bird, can be found on her New Play Exchange and you can purchase and produce Justin's play, Community Garden, through his publisher, Playscripts. You can also check out Justijn's new podcast, The Scene: Podcast, which features Erika on the pilot! Finally, you can check out Justin's YouTube channel for more longform theatre content! For any more information, check out Justin's website and Erika's website for more cool stuff!Links to out playwrights:Greg Kotis's WebsiteGreg Kotis's UrinetownStephen Karam's DramatistStephen Karam's WebsiteIf you like the show, feel free to subscribe and give us a five star review! Also, follow us on instagram @justinborak and @actualerikakuhn and Justin on TikTok for any news and notes on upcoming episodes and more theatre reccomendations!

Welcome to Backstage Pass! We're premiering our podcast with a double release that features our conversation with Tony Award Winner Greg Kotis (Urinetown, Yeast Nation) about his new musical The End of All Flesh. Check out Episode 2 for the second part of our conversation. THE END OF ALL FLESH (by Greg Kotis) The End of All Flesh is a rollicking post-apocalyptic fable unfolding on a remote mountain top sometime in America's distant future. Having made it through the End Times, Ma and Pa fight to keep themselves and their son, Boy, alive, by hunting, gathering, and maintaining a healthy distrust of strangers. But Boy's near grown now, and his new friend Girl is putting some mighty funny ideas in his head about familial hierarchies and the Patriarchy. Expect plenty of picking (and some grim grinning) in a concert reading of a new dark comedy that explores environmental collapse, gender norms, generation gaps, survivalist practices, and the creative potential of a pandemic beard...in song! Connect with New York Theatre Barn: Support us: nytheatrebarn.org/give Twitter: @nytheatrebarn Instagram: @newyorktheatrebarn  Facebook.com/nytheatrebarn nytheatrebarn.org Pauls's personal instagram: @paulsmacs Teresa's personal instagram: @terijoyeaux Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second episode of Backstage Pass, we continue our conversation with Tony Award Winner Greg Kotis (Urinetown, Yeast Nation) about his new musical The End of All Flesh. We also play a game we designed just for Greg, Survival: The Musical. THE END OF ALL FLESH (by Greg Kotis) The End of All Flesh is a rollicking post-apocalyptic fable unfolding on a remote mountain top sometime in America's distant future. Having made it through the End Times, Ma and Pa fight to keep themselves and their son, Boy, alive, by hunting, gathering, and maintaining a healthy distrust of strangers. But Boy's near grown now, and his new friend Girl is putting some mighty funny ideas in his head about familial hierarchies and the Patriarchy. Expect plenty of picking (and some grim grinning) in a concert reading of a new dark comedy that explores environmental collapse, gender norms, generation gaps, survivalist practices, and the creative potential of a pandemic beard...in song! Connect with New York Theatre Barn: Support us: nytheatrebarn.org/give Twitter: @nytheatrebarn Instagram: @newyorktheatrebarn  Facebook.com/nytheatrebarn nytheatrebarn.org  Pauls's personal instagram: @paulsmacs Teresa's personal instagram: @terijoyeaux Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stacey joins Jennifer and David on a bridge to talk about her first improv experience in NYC, the source of her creativity, and how improv has greatly affected her life. Stacey Reed Hanlon is originally from Akron, Ohio.  She began her improvisational career in New York City in 1999, where she studied with The Upright Citizens Brigade, Armando Diaz and Gary Austin. In NYC she co-founded improv troupe Late Night Ritalin, wrote for and appeared in Saturday Night Rewritten, and was a performer in Manhattan Comedy Collective's Character Dog Run. She has performed in improv festivals in New York, Austin, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Albuquerque & Phoenix.  Stacey can currently be seen performing with improv troupes Light Rail Pirates and JaxN Reed. Her local theatre credits include Jenna in Tangelico, ensemble performance in the world premiere of Greg Kotis' The Unhappiness Plays and Mabel in A Bloody Mary Christmas, a role that she created through improvisation along with co-creators Jacqueline Arend, Shawna Franks and Denny Guge. Stacey is a founding member of The Torch Theatre and the co-founder of Conducted Stories Improv, a Phoenix-based organization that uses improvisational theatre to foster communication and social skills with neurodivergent populations, including youth on the Autism spectrum and people with Dementia and their caregivers.   Stacey is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and studied abroad with the Institute for American Universities in Avignon, France. https://secondbeatimprov.com/ https://www.bridgeimprovtheater.com/

To start the new year we have the two-time Tony award-winning writer Greg Kotis over on the show! He chats about his creative process with new shows, both plays and musicals, how he approaches character creation, and his award-winning musical Urinetown. This was a wonderful conversation and I want to do a special shoutout to Stephanie Summerville, thanks to whom I was able to get Greg on the show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To start the new year we have the two-time Tony award-winning writer Greg Kotis over on the show! He chats about his creative process with new shows, both plays and musicals, how he approaches character creation, and his award-winning musical Urinetown. This was a wonderful conversation and I want to do a special shoutout to Stephanie Summerville, thanks to whom I was able to get Greg on the show!

Greg Kotis is the author of many plays and musicals including Yeast Nation (Book/Lyrics), The Truth About Santa, Pig Farm, Eat the Taste, Urinetown (Book/Lyrics, for which he won an Obie Award and two Tony Awards), and Jobey and Katherine. His work has been produced and developed in theaters across the country and around the world, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Conservatory Theater, American Theater Company, Henry Miller's Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Stage and Film, Perseverance Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Soho Rep, South Coast Repertory, and The Old Globe, among others. Mr. Kotis is a member of the Neo-Futurists, the Cardiff Giant Theater Company, ASCAP, and the Dramatists Guild. He grew up in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife Ayun Halliday, his daughter India, and his son Milo.

Jay and Olivia wrestle with Jay's birthday selection: Michael von Siebenburg Melts Through the Floorboards. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/high-brow-theatre/support

Meghan Finn is the Artistic Director of The Tank. Her work has been seen at the Tank, the V&A, Serpentine Galleries, The Wexner Center, SCAD, The Logan Center for the Arts, Museo Jumex Mexico City, The Power Plant, Canadian Stage, Carnegie Mellon, Brooklyn College, MIT, the Great Plains Theater Conference and others. She has directed three world premieres by playwright Mac Wellman, including most recently The Invention of Tragedy at The Flea. Finn is currently directing the world premiere of I am Nobody a new musical by Greg Kotis at The Tank; as well as The Nine Dreams: Blake & the Apocalypse by writer Nick Flynn as an immersive performance installation at The Silos at Sawyer Yards for CounterCurrent Festival, Houston. She is a frequent collaborator of conceptual artist and sculptor Pedro Reyes, and directed DOOMOCRACY for Creative Time. She has collaborated with photographer Mitch Epstein on a live performance with cellist Erik Friedlander as well as premieres by Erin Courtney, Peggy Stafford, Gary Winter, Ben Gassman, Alexandra Collier, Carl Holder, Eliza Bent and Cori Copp. WHEN WE WENT ELECTRONIC by Caitlyn Saylor Stephens which premiered at The Tank in 2018 will tour in 2020 to ART HOUSE, The Koun Theater in Athens Greece and OnStage! Festival Rome. Check out all The Tank has to offer at www.thetanknyc.org Check out The Tank's Podcast, TANKED. Go check out the shows she's working on: I Am Nobody by Greg Kotis | March 5 - 28, 2020 When We Went Electronic by Caitlin Saylor Stephens | March 19 - April 5, 2020 The Nine Dreams: Blake & the Apocalypse by Nick Flynn Follow us: PAGE TO STAGE: Instagram or Facebook MARY DINA: Instagram or Twitter BRIAN SEDITA: Instagram or Website BROADWAY PODCAST NETWORK: Website or Instagram #PageToStagePodcast

We step out of The Tank and head a few blocks north to The Drama Book Shop for this very special live episode of Tanked! Roz & MF sit down and share a cup of eggnog with Tony award-winner Greg Kotis to discuss the 10 year anniversary production of The Truth About Santa. Is there exclusive info about Greg's next show? Only one way to find out! Plus, hear a follow up voicemail from Collin's Corner.

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with lyricist and bookwriter Greg Kotis, about his shows Urinetown and Yeast Nation.

The building across the street was on fire the night we sat down to talk. The entire floor smelled of smoke and if you looked out the window, you might have thought the world was coming to an end. It's probably as good a backdrop as any for a interview that quickly shifts into an impending sense of gloom during this age of Trump. Honestly, I can’t remember what was in the news that week, but I’m sure it was plenty bad. Kotis has a knack for timing. His best known work, the dystopian satire Urinetown: The Musical opened on Broadway September 13th, 2001. Sure, everyone in New York has a 9/11 story, but his seemed strangely appropriate given the subject matter.  As Kotis tells it, that timing sometimes works to his advantage, as the musical was something of a Hail Mary pass for himself and Mark Hollmann, one final shot living the life of a playwright before the realities of adulthood really settled in. Kotis discusses his early days in New York, as a writer turned location scout, and the importance of satire even when it seems that all is lost.

What happens when a corporation becomes a person? In this satire by Tony Award-winning playwright Greg Kotis, we follow a company called Geneva Mutual that becomes a sentient being. Performed by Louis Kornfeld, Rachel Hamilton, Tom Ligon, Chet Siegel, Amy Warren, Ed Herbstman, Christian Paluck, and Rupert Degas. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell.

What happens when a corporation becomes a person? In this satire by Tony Award-winning playwright Greg Kotis, we follow a company called Geneva Mutual that becomes a sentient being. Performed by Louis Kornfeld, Rachel Hamilton, Tom Ligon, Chet Siegel, Amy Warren, Ed Herbstman, Christian Paluck, and Rupert Degas. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell.

What happens when a corporation becomes a person? In this satire by Tony Award-winning playwright Greg Kotis, we follow a company called Geneva Mutual that becomes a sentient being. Performed by Louis Kornfeld, Rachel Hamilton, Tom Ligon, Chet Siegel, Amy Warren, Ed Herbstman, Christian Paluck, and Rupert Degas. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell.

Bob Wilcox, Gerry Kowarsky, and special guest Anna Blair review (1) WAY TO HEAVEN, by Juan Mayoga, at the New Jewish Theatre, (2) PLAYLAND, by Athol Fugard, at Mustard Seed Theatre, (3) URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL, by Mark Hollman & Greg Kotis, at Stray Dog Theatre, (4) ROCK OF AGES, book by Chris d'Arienzo, at the Fox Theatre, (5) ARIADNE AUF NAXOS, by Richard Strauss & Hugo von Hofmannsthal, at Winter Opera St. Louis, and (6) INTIMATE APPAREL, by Lynn Nottage, at Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis. Anna joins Bob in the review of ROCK OF AGES.

Bob Wilcox, Gerry Kowarsky, and special guest Anna Blair review (1) WAY TO HEAVEN, by Juan Mayoga, at the New Jewish Theatre, (2) PLAYLAND, by Athol Fugard, at Mustard Seed Theatre, (3) URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL, by Mark Hollman & Greg Kotis, at Stray Dog Theatre, (4) ROCK OF AGES, book by Chris d'Arienzo, at the Fox Theatre, (5) ARIADNE AUF NAXOS, by Richard Strauss & Hugo von Hofmannsthal, at Winter Opera St. Louis, and (6) INTIMATE APPAREL, by Lynn Nottage, at Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis. Anna joins Bob in the review of ROCK OF AGES.

At its 2002 Musical Theatre Symposium, SDCF hosted a panel on the writer-director relationship featuring "Urinetown" composer/lyricist Greg Kotis, "The Wild Party" composer Andrew Lippa and director Gabriel Barre, "Violet" composer Jeanine Tesori, bookwriter/lyricist Brian Crawley and director Susan H. Schulman, "Side Show" director Robert Longbottom, "Jelly's Last Jam" lyricist Susan Birkenhead, and "tick, tick...BOOM!" and "Bat Boy" director Scott Schwartz, moderated by Manhattan Theatre Club Musical Theatre Program director Clifford Lee Johnson. The panelists discuss the formation of their writer-director relationship on each of these shows: how the initial connection and trust happened, the barriers they had to overcome, and working on an unfinished show with a living writer vs one who has already passed. The conversation is followed by a lively Q&A session about new musical development programs, the director's role in the development of a musical and how to know when a relationship doesn't work. Filled with many humorous stories, this panel offers great insight into this vital relationship as told by some of today's top Broadway talent.

Tony Award-winning choreographers Rob Ashford (for Thoroughly Modern Millie) and Wayne Cilento (for The Who’s Tommy), Tony-winning playwright Michael Frayn (for Copenhagen), playwright/lyricist Greg Kotis (Tony Award for Urinetown), and directors Sean Mathias and Lynne Meadow (who has helmed Manhattan Theatre Club through many Tony wins) discuss various aspects of their respective crafts, including the focus on storytelling, the benefits and challenges of collaboration, bad reviews, and the evolution of the director/choreographer relationship.

Choreographers Rob Ashford and Wayne Cilento, playwright Michael Frayn, playwright/lyricist Greg Kotis, and directors Sean Mathias and Lynne Meadow discuss various aspects of their respective crafts, including the focus on storytelling, the benefits and challenges of collaboration, bad reviews, and the evolution of the director/choreographer relationship.