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This book party was hosted on May 27, 2023, at Charis Books & More in Decatur, Georgia. It featured esteemed writer Sharon Bridgforth in conversation with ZAMI NOBLA creative director Angela Denise Davis in celebration of bull-jean & dem/dey back. You can view the YouTube video of this event at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EcaVl7dxo The ZNP previous interview of Sharon Bridgforth: https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/zaminobla/id/21629876 Bull-jean & dem/dey back is a collection that unites two performance/novels centered on the southern-Black-butch-heroine, bull-jean. The Lambda Literary Award-winning bull-jean stories was first published by RedBone Press in 1998 and follows the journey of love rekindling throughout the lifetimes of bull-dog-jean. After a twenty-two-year hiatus, bull-dog-jean triumphantly returns in bull-jean/we wake. As the Narrator grieves the loss of their elders and seeks healing, they summon bull-jean for guidance. Be sure not to miss this inspiring event! A 2022 Winner of Yale's Windham Campbell Prize in Drama, Sharon Bridgforth is 2020-2023 Playwrights' Center Core Member, a 2022-2023 McKnight National Fellow and a New Dramatists alumnae. She has received support from The Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, Creative Capital, MAP Fund and the National Performance Network. Her work is featured in Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature, Mouths of Rain an Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought and Feminist Studies Vol 48 Number 1, honoring 40 years of This Bridge Called by Back and But Some of Us Are Brave! Sharon has had the privilege of benefiting from support from the ZAMI NOBLA and Charis Books communities since 1998, when she toured with the RedBone Press edition of the bull-jean stories. In her new book, bull-jean & dem/dey back (53rd State Press) bull-jean returns in two performance/novels - both will be produced as main stage productions at Pillsbury House + Theatre in Minneapolis, MN in 2023. More at: https://www.sharonbridgforth.com
Send us a Text Message.Catherine Filloux dropped into the Playwright's Spotlight before the New York Premiere of her new play How to Eat an Orange. We spoke about her development and involvement in Theatre Without Borders and transitioning from an actor to playwright which would later push her into becoming a librettist for operas. She explained the structure of a libretto, the purpose of arias, developing characters and writing for range. We also touched on the dramatic question, theatrical perspectives, framing and shaping your play, and whether or not there is one thing that all playwrights should be doing. Catherine brings her knowledge and experience to this episode that I think everyone listening will walk away with something. Enjoy! Catherine Filloux is an award-winning playwright who has been writing about human rights and social justice for over twenty-five years. Her plays have been produced around the U.S. and internationally. Filloux was honored with the 2019 Barry Lopez Visiting Writer in Ethics and Community Fellowship; the 2017 Otto René Castillo Award for Political Theatre and the 2015 Planet Activist Award due to her long career as an activist artist in the theater community. She received her M.F.A. at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' Dramatic Writing Program and is a co-founder of Theatre Without Borders as well as an alumna of New Dramatists. She has taught playwriting at many universities and colleges including Vassar College, Wesleyan University and Bennington College. Plays include White Savior, whatdoesfreemean?, Kidnap Road, and How to Eat an Orange.To watch the video format of this episode, visit -https://youtu.be/VZZqwhmP_H8Links to resources mentioned in this episode -Theatre Without Borders -https://theatrewithoutborders.com/Circle in the Square Theatre -https://circlesquare.org/theatre/HB Theatre Foundation - https://www.hbstudio.orgWebsite and Socials for Catherine Filloux -www.catherinefilloux.comIG - @catherinefillouxwriterFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/CFillouxWriter/X - @CFillouxWriterWebsites and socials for James Elden, PMP, and Playwright's Spotlight -Punk Monkey Productions - www.punkmonkeyproductions.comPLAY Noir -www.playnoir.comPLAY Noir Anthology –www.punkmonkeyproductions.com/contact.htmlJames Elden -Twitter - @jameseldensauerIG - @alakardrakeFB - fb.com/jameseldensauerPunk Monkey Productions and PLAY Noir - Twitter - @punkmonkeyprods - @playnoirla IG - @punkmonkeyprods - @playnoir_la FB - fb.com/playnoir - fb.com/punkmonkeyproductionsPlaywright's Spotlight -Twitter - @wrightlightpod IG - @playwrights_spotlightPlaywriting services through Los Angeles Collegiate Playwrights Festivalwww.losangelescollegiateplaywrightsfestival.com/services.htmlSupport the Show.
On this episode, Nick speaks with Susanna Weygandt a scholar studying performance theories of Russian and East European theater. She discusses the work of Anatoly Vasiliev, famed Russian theater director for the Moscow School of Dramatic Arts. Thanks for listening! ABOUT THE GUEST: Elena Susanna Weygandt analyzes and documents performance theories indigenous to Russia and East Europe that have not yet been documented. She draws on methods of interview and ethnography as well as digital display in her research on contemporary topics. In her soon-to-be published book with the University of Wisconsin Press, From Metaphor to Direct Speech: Drama and Performance Theory in Contemporary Russia, she identifies the main writers and performance theories of the vibrant movement, Novaia Drama, and situates this pioneering literature in the contemporary Russian literary canon, the Performance Studies field, and within Post-Soviet studies. The New Dramatists assert that it is precisely in the theatre, with its inherent form of critique and reflection provided by the stage, where the contemporary moment of the present can be held at arm's length away, which creates enough of a distance from the present for a historical perspective about it to emerge. This research has shaped her into a scholar and teacher of visual language, the body, feminist art, gender, exhibition on digital platforms, and all genres of documentary and realism in Russian and East European literature. Her publications on these topics of cultural history in Russia and East Europe from 1953 to the present appear in The Russian Review, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, TDR: The Drama Review, Apparatus: Film, Media, and Digital Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe, and in a co-edited anthology published by Columbia UP. She received her training in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Princeton (PhD 2015; Graduate Certificate in History of Science 2015). At Sewanee: The University of the South she teaches all levels of Russian in the Russian Department and her joint affiliation in the Humanities Program. https://new.sewanee.edu/programs-of-study/russian/faculty-staff/susanna-weygandt/ If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on the show, please email slavxradio@utexas.edu and we will be in touch! PRODUCTION CREDITS Assistant EP: Misha Simanovskyy (@MSimanovskyy) Associate Producer: Cullan Bendig (@cullanwithana) Associate Producer: Eliza Fisher Assistant Producer: Taylor Helmcamp Assistant Producer/Videographer: Basil Fedun Social Media Manager: Faith VanVleet Host/Supervising Producer: Nicholas Pierce Main Theme by Charlie Harper and additional background music by Beat Mekanik, Crowander, Dlay) Executive Producer & Creator: Michelle Daniel (@MSDaniel) www.msdaniel.com DISCLAIMER: Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin. https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/9/9a59b135-7876-4254-b600-3839b3aa3ab1/P1EKcswq.png
On this episode, Nick speaks with Susanna Weygandt a scholar studying performance theories of Russian and East European theater. She discusses the work of Anatoly Vasiliev, famed Russian theater director for the Moscow School of Dramatic Arts. Thanks for listening! ABOUT THE GUEST: Elena Susanna Weygandt analyzes and documents performance theories indigenous to Russia and East Europe that have not yet been documented. She draws on methods of interview and ethnography as well as digital display in her research on contemporary topics. In her soon-to-be published book with the University of Wisconsin Press, From Metaphor to Direct Speech: Drama and Performance Theory in Contemporary Russia, she identifies the main writers and performance theories of the vibrant movement, Novaia Drama, and situates this pioneering literature in the contemporary Russian literary canon, the Performance Studies field, and within Post-Soviet studies. The New Dramatists assert that it is precisely in the theatre, with its inherent form of critique and reflection provided by the stage, where the contemporary moment of the present can be held at arm's length away, which creates enough of a distance from the present for a historical perspective about it to emerge. This research has shaped her into a scholar and teacher of visual language, the body, feminist art, gender, exhibition on digital platforms, and all genres of documentary and realism in Russian and East European literature. Her publications on these topics of cultural history in Russia and East Europe from 1953 to the present appear in The Russian Review, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, TDR: The Drama Review, Apparatus: Film, Media, and Digital Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe, and in a co-edited anthology published by Columbia UP. She received her training in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Princeton (PhD 2015; Graduate Certificate in History of Science 2015). At Sewanee: The University of the South she teaches all levels of Russian in the Russian Department and her joint affiliation in the Humanities Program. https://new.sewanee.edu/programs-of-study/russian/faculty-staff/susanna-weygandt/ If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on the show, please email slavxradio@utexas.edu and we will be in touch! PRODUCTION CREDITSAssistant EP: Misha Simanovskyy (@MSimanovskyy)Associate Producer: Cullan Bendig (@cullanwithana)Associate Producer: Eliza FisherAssistant Producer: Taylor HelmcampAssistant Producer/Videographer: Basil FedunSocial Media Manager: Faith VanVleetHost/Supervising Producer: Nicholas Pierce Main Theme by Charlie Harper and additional background music by Beat Mekanik, Crowander, Dlay) Executive Producer & Creator: Michelle Daniel (@M_S_Daniel) www.msdaniel.com
Jason and Brett continue PRIDE 2024 with celebrated authors. They're joined in conversation with Jen Silverman (There's Going to Be Trouble), David Levithan (Wide Awake Now), and Emma Copley Eisenberg (Housemates) talking about the cyclical nature of history, queer inheritance, intersectionality of arts and queerness, and much more. Jen Silverman is a New York-based writer, playwright, and screenwriter. Jen is the author of novel We Play Ourselves, which is short-listed for a Lambda Literary Award, the story collection The Island Dwellers, which was longlisted for a PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut fiction, and the poetry chapbook Bath, selected by Traci Brimhall for Driftwood Press. Additional work has appeared in Vogue, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, LitHub, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. Jen's plays have been produced across the United States and internationally. Jen is a three-time MacDowell fellow, a member of New Dramatists, and the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Fellowship, the Yale Drama Series Award, and a Playwrights of New York Fellowship. Jen is a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow for Prose and a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow for Drama. Jen also writes for TV and film.When not writing during spare hours on weekends, David Levithan is editorial director at Scholastic and the founding editor of the PUSH imprint, which is devoted to finding new voices and new authors in teen literature. His acclaimed novels Boy Meets Boy and The Realm of Possibility started as stories he wrote for his friends for Valentine's Day (something he's done for the past 22 years and counting) that turned themselves into teen novels. He's often asked if the book is a work of fantasy or a work of reality, and the answer is right down the middle—it's about where we're going, and where we should be.Emma Copley Eisenberg is a queer writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her first book, The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, was named a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Award, among other honors. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, McSweeney's, VQR, American Short Fiction, and other publications. Raised in New York City, she lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts.**BOOKS!** Check out the list of books discussed on each episode on our Bookshop page:https://bookshop.org/shop/gaysreading | By purchasing books through this Bookshop link, you can support both Gays Reading and an independent bookstore of your choice!Join our Patreon for exclusive bonus content! Purchase your Gays Reading podcast Merch! Follow us on Instagram @gaysreading | @bretts.book.stack | @jasonblitmanWhat are you reading? Send us an email or a voice memo at gaysreading@gmail.com
Playwright Boni B. Alvarez stopped by Playwright's Spotlight during the run of his historic play Mix-Mix: The Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy. In such, we discuss approaching historical figures and events and flashbacks on stage. We also discuss his approach to writing "in threads," being married to material, finding momentum, and addressing and giving feedback. We also explore Julliard, his start in playwriting, lessons in playwriting and having a style. We also touch on what is craft, finding an arc, and writing and finding a good antagonist. It's a fascinating episode that explore the evolvement of writing and revision, "taking every single note," making changes and change "requests," as well as content warnings. As always, I hope you walk away with some beautiful insight into the craft of playwriting. Now, sit back and get to work.Boni B. Alvarez is a Los Angeles-based playwright-actor and faculty member at the USC School of Dramatic Arts. He has been a semifinalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and a Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Aurora Theatre's Global Age Project, and Clubbed Thumb's Biennial Commission. He is currently in the Geffen Playhouse's Writer's Room and a Resident Playwright with New Dramatists. His plays include America Adjacent, Bloodletting, Fixed, Nicky, Dallas Non-Stop, Driven, The Debut of Georgia, Emmylu, and Refuge for a Purple Heart. He holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, an MFA (Acting) from A.R.T./MXAT Institute at Harvard University, and an MFA (Dramatic Writing) from USC. His play Mix-Mix: The Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy opens May 18 and runs through June 16 at The Los Angeles Theatre Center. For tickets to Mix-Mix: The Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy visit -https://dola.com/events/2024/6/6/mix-mix-ticketsTo watch the video format of this episode, visit -https://youtu.be/1UzeyRIgdtILinks to resources mentioned in this episode -https://americanrepertorytheater.orgWebsite and Socials for Boni B. Alvarez -https://dramaticarts.usc.edu/boni-b-alvarez/Websites and socials for James Elden, PMP, and Playwright's Spotlight -Punk Monkey Productions - www.punkmonkeyproductions.comPLAY Noir -www.playnoir.comPLAY Noir Anthology –www.punkmonkeyproductions.com/contact.htmlJames Elden -Twitter - @jameseldensauerIG - @alakardrakeFB - fb.com/jameseldensauerPunk Monkey Productions and PLAY Noir - Twitter - @punkmonkeyprods - @playnoirla IG - @punkmonkeyprods - @playnoir_la FB - fb.com/playnoir - fb.com/punkmonkeyproductionsPlaywright's Spotlight -Twitter - @wrightlightpod IG - @playwrights_spotlightPlaywriting services through Los Angeles Collegiate Playwrights Festivalwww.losangelescollegiateplaywrightsfestival.com/services.htmlSupport the Show.
Join The Art of Kindness with Robert Peterpaul live from the New Dramatists 2024 luncheon at the New York Marriott Marquis honoring Tony-nominated director Michael Greif (The Notebook, Dear Evan Hansen and Rent to credit a few). All proceeds benefited New Dramatists' resident playwrights and their work. In this order, Broadway star guests talk what makes a great leader, kindness tips and more: Tony-nominated Stereophonic stars Will Brill and Eli Gelb, Tony-nominated Hell's Kitchen Choreographer Camille A. Brown and star Shoshana Bean, The Who's Tommy star Allison Luff, Tony-nominated Appropriate star Corey Stoll, Tony-nominated Suffs star Nikki M. James, Tony-nominated The Outsiders director Danya Taymor and star Brody Grant. Ps. this just so happens to be coming out on my dear sister Julia's birthday - happy birthday! Follow us: @artofkindnesspod / @robpeterpaul youtube.com/@artofkindnesspodcast Support the show! (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theaok) Music: "Awake" by Ricky Alvarez & "Sunshine" by Lemon Music Studio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
ContemporaryPerformance.com and the Sarah Lawrence College MFA Theatre Program produce the SLC Performance Lab. During the year, visiting artists to the MFA Theatre Program's Performance Lab are interviewed after leading a workshop with the students. Performance Lab is one of the program's core components, where graduate students work with guest artists and develop performance experiments. Sibyl Kempson is interviewed and produced by Julia Duffy (SLC'25) Kempson's plays have been presented in the United States, Germany, and Norway. As a performer she toured internationally from 2000-2011 with Nature Theater of Oklahoma, New York City Players, and Elevator Repair Service. Her own work has received support from the Jerome Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and Dixon Place. She was given four Mondo Cane! commissions from 2002-2011 for The Wytche of Problymm Plantation, Crime or Emergency, Potatoes of August, and The Secret Death of Puppets). She received an MAP Fund grant for her collaboration with Elevator Repair Service (Fondly, Collette Richland) at New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), a 2018 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for American Playwright at Mid-Career (specifically honoring “her fine craft, intertextual approach, and her body of work, including Crime or Emergency and Let Us Now Praise Susan Sontag”), and a 2014 USA Artists Rockefeller fellowship with NYTW and director Sarah Benson. She received a 2013 Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation commission for Kyckling and Screaming (a translation/adaptation of Ibsen's The Wild Duck), a 2013-14 McKnight National residency and commission for a new play (The Securely Conferred, Vouchsafed Keepsakes of Maery S.), a New Dramatists/Full Stage USA commission for a devised piece (From the Pig Pile: The Requisite Gesture(s) of Narrow Approach), and a National Presenters Network Creation Fund Award for the same project. Her second collaboration with David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group, I Understand Everything Better, received a Bessie Award for Outstanding Production in 2015; the first was Restless Eye at New York Live Arts in 2012. Current and upcoming projects include a new opera with David Lang for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston for 2018, Sasquatch Rituals at The Kitchen in April 2018, and The Securely Conferred, Vouchsafed Keepsakes of Maery S. Kempson is a MacDowell Colony fellow; a member of New Dramatists; a USA Artists Rockefeller fellow; an artist-in-residence at the Abrons Arts Center; a 2014 nominee for the Doris Duke Impact Award, the Laurents Hatcher Award, and the Herb Alpert Award; and a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Her plays are published by 53rd State Press, PLAY: Journal of Plays, and Performance & Art Journal (PAJ). Kempson launched the 7 Daughters of Eve Theater & Performance Co. in April 2015 at the Martin E. Segal Center at the City University of New York. The company's inaugural production, Let Us Now Praise Susan Sontag, premiered at Abrons Arts Center in New York City. A new piece, Public People's Enemy, was presented in October 2018 at the Ibsen Awards and Conference in Ibsen's hometown of Skien, Norway. 12 Shouts to the Ten Forgotten Heavens, a three-year cycle of rituals for the Whitney Museum of American Art in the Meatpacking District of New York City, began on the vernal equinox in March 2016 to recur on each solstice and equinox through December 2018
Camille Harris! Musician! Playwright! Performer! Composer! Friend! Delight! More! We are old friends and have a delightful conversation! She also has a new Kickstarter happening RIGHT NOW that you can be a part of. It's a children's book based on the bebop classic "Giant Steps," a story about uncles and aunts and the special bond they share. Also, here are many impressive and accurate words from her website's bio: "She recently completed her Master of Arts in Creative Media and Technology at BerkleeNYC specializing in Songwriting and Production. Her compositions have been featured on projects and commercials for clients such as Nickelodeon, Adobe, Merrill Lynch, and more. She has mixed and mastered multiple singles for clients around the country. She has performed at The Whitney Museum, The Dramatists Guild Foundation, The New Dramatists and The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU. Her musical Muffin Man is published by and available for licensing by Samuel French Inc. and has been performed around the country. Camille has released five albums: Where I Go, Silly Jazz, Beneath the Moon, Three Loves: The Acoustic Session and Baby on the Subway (available on all streaming services). Her cover of the Standard 'The Nearness of You,' recorded with pianist David Linard has more than 1.4 million streams and is featured on multiple Spotify editorial playlists. Her project, The Silly Jazz Band released a critically acclaimed children's album, Baby on the Subway, which won both the Parents' Choice Awards and the Tillywig Toy Awards. Its title track was featured in IFC/College Humor's Comedy Music Hall of Fame. The Silly Jazz Band has performed with the Brooklyn Public Library's 'Stomp Clap and Sing' program for five years and has enjoyed three residencies at the Park Slope Library." And that's not all! We have a wonderful chat and you can have a wonderful listen! AND, this is only the FIRST HALF of our chat. For the second portion, head on over to Patreon and you can listen to more!
Hello listeners! On this episode of BB, we have the one and only SHERRY KRAMER on the show! Sherry Kramer is a playwright and professor who has been writing plays for 50 years and teaching playwriting for 40. Her book about meaning making in timebound art, Writing for Stage and Screen: Creating a Perception Shift in the Audience, was published this summer by Methuen Publishing. In this episode, Sherry shares her knowledge on writing and we know you will want to save this episode to revisit for your playwriting journey! We can't wait for you to listen! Sherry Kramer's plays have been produced here and abroad and include David's RedHaired Death, When Something Wonderful Ends, The Wall of Water, and Three Quarter Inches of Sky. Her work is centered in the personal as political, and often speaks to the power of class and money and philanthropy: The Bay of Fundy, How Water Behaves; the power of a conservative press to distort and sway a people and a country: The Ruling Passion; the power of the beauty myth: A Thing of Beauty; and the power of anti-Semitism: Ivanhoe, MO. Her awards include the Weissberger, a National McKnight, The Jane Chambers Award, an NEA, and a NYFA. She taught regularly in the MFA programs of The Michener Center for Writers, UT Austin, the Iowa Playwrights' Workshop, where she has served as head of the workshop, and currently teaches playwriting at Bennington College. She was the first national member of New Dramatists. Her book Writing for Stage and Screen: Creating a Perception Shift in the Audience was published by Bloomsbury in July, 2023. To learn more about Sherry's work, be sure to check out her website at sherrykramer.net GLISTEN Cho - My baby is teething! Help! Sam - Haunted cornfield Sherry - Israel / Gaza conflict ________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode with your friends, or follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting, and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com Theme Music: "Live Like the Kids" by Samuel Johnson, Laura Robertson, Luke O'Dea (APRA) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beckettsbabies/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beckettsbabies/support
Dana Aber (she/her) is an award-winning theatre performer, producer, collaborator, and creator, with a 20 year career spanning across the country and across the seas. She has been seen in NYC Off-Broadway, at The Dixon Place, NYFringe Festival, NYMF, Apollo Theatre, and FDCAC/Classical Theatre of Harlem. A strong advocate for the development of new musicals, she has been involved in countless presentations at New Dramatists, NYU Tisch, Dramatists Guild, Ars Nova, and across virtual media. Through her Big Thunder Productions company, Dana has created and helmed 8 concert-cabarets, most notably the bi-coastal #YesAllWomen Raise Your Voice concert joining artists within the movement for gender equality. As a theatre writer, Dana's autobiographical 1-woman musical, Baggage at the Door, travels her healing process from trauma-induced PTSD. Baggage at the Door was a finalist in NYC's ONEFest, and earned Dana a month-long artist residency with Elsewhere Studios in Colorado in 2018. Coming up, Baggage at the Door looks forward to its regional premiere in Virginia, and Dana's next soloshow FINAL BLOW, which explores the blame placed on boundary setting, will have its NYC festival debut in November 2021. Dana is currently collaborating with her brother, Broadway's Drew Aber (he/him), on her new play Save/Reload, about identity exploration through video games. She is a survivor and advocate, and is honored to be able to use her voice to share for those who cannot. Four consecutive Januarys with four near-death experiences...um, Happy New Year?
Producer-Director Casey Childs founded Primary Stages, a leading New York City Off-Broadway theater, in 1984. Primary Stages has produced over 175 new plays, giving playwrights the opportunities to see their new works staged, including: Christopher Durang, Tina Howe, John Patrick Shanley, Lee Blessing, David Ives, Donald Margulies, Theresa Rebeck, and A.R. Gurney among many others. Casey directed many of those productions for the company, as well as helming new plays at other Off-Broadway theaters. He served as the Artistic Program Director for the New Dramatists from 1982-1985 where he worked with numerous leading American playwrights in their early years.Casey's the recipient of the Carnegie Mellon University Commitment to New Playwrights Award, as well as the winner of two Emmy Awards and many nominations for his extensive work in television. He's a past Vice President of the Directors Guild of America and a past trustee of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences. At Primary Stages Casey launched the Einhorn School of Performing Arts, the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA in Playwriting program, and the Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project, which has documented over 190 interviews with the leaders of the Off-Broadway movement. Casey's taught at many universities including Duke, Columbia and NYU, and he's currently an Associate Fellow at Grace Hopper College at Yale University.
Hello listeners! We were so fortunate to have CHARLY EVON SIMPSON join us on the show! We had such an incredible time chatting with Charly about writing and life as playwright and TV writer. We hope you enjoy!!! Charly Evon Simpson is a playwright, TV writer, and teacher based in Brooklyn. Her plays include Behind the Sheet, sandblasted, Jump, form of a girl unknown, it's not a trip it's a journey, and more. Her work has been seen and/or developed with Vineyard Theatre, WP Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Round House Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, and others. She is a recipient of the Vineyard Theatre's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Dramatists Guild's Lanford Wilson Award. She is currently a resident of New Dramatists. In TV, she has worked on shows for Showtime, HBO, and Netflix including American Rust and Industry. Charly has a BA from Brown University, a master's in Women's Studies from University of Oxford, New College, and her MFA in Playwriting from Hunter College. www.charlyevonsimpson.com GLISTENS: Cho - "How to Sell a Haunted House" by Grady HendrixSam - cherriesCharly - "Yellowface" by R. F. Kuang ________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode with your friends, or follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting, and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com Theme Music: "Live Like the Kids" by Samuel Johnson, Laura Robertson, Luke O'Dea (APRA) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beckettsbabies/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beckettsbabies/support
For episode 211 of the Metta Hour Podcast, we are continuing a special series celebrating Sharon's new book, “Real Life.” In this episode pulled, from the Living An Authentic Life Summit, Sharon and Sarah Ruhl speak about creativity as a spiritual practice and how it naturally emerges from our path. Sarah Ruhl is an award-winning American playwright, author, essayist, and professor. Her plays have been produced on Broadway, nationwide, and internationally. Among her most popular are Eurydice (2003), The Clean House (2004), and In the Next Room (2009). Sarah is a 13P and New Dramatists member and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family. To learn more about Sarah's work, you can visit her website at SarahRuhlPlaywright.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
http://lizduffyadams.com/Liz Duffy Adams' play Born With Teeth, recipient of a 2021 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and Best Play/Production, 2022 Houston Press Awards, had its world premiere at the Alley Theater in 2022, and moved to the Guthrie Theatre in March–April 2023.Her Or, premiered Off Broadway at WP Theater and has been produced some 80 times since, including at the Magic Theater, Seattle Rep, and Roundhouse Theatre. Her work has also premiered or been developed at Contemporary American Theater Festival, Humana Festival, Bay Area Theater Festival, Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Greater Boston Theater Company, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, Crowded Fire, Shotgun Players, and Cutting Ball, and includes Dog Act; The Salonnières; Dear Alien; A Discourse on Wonders of the Invisible World; Buccaneers; Wet or, Isabella the Pirate Queen Enters the Horse Latitude; The Listener; The Reckless Ruthless Brutal Charge of It or, The Train Play; and One Big Lie.She's a New Dramatists alumna and has received a Women of Achievement Award, Lillian Hellman Award, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Weston Playhouse Music-Theater Award, Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship, and the Will Glickman Award for Best New Play. Her Artistic Stamp virtual play in letters, Wild Thyme, was nominated for a 2021 Drama League Award for Outstanding Interactive or Socially-Distanced Theater.Publications include Or, in Smith & Kraus' “Best Plays Of 2010;” Dog Act in “Geek Theater,” Underwords Press 2014; Poodle With Guitar And Dark Glasses in Applause's “Best American Short Plays 2000-2001;” and acting editions by TRW Plays, Playscripts, Inc. and Dramatists Play Service. Adams' portrait appears in Sally Davies' collection, New Yorkers (Ammonite Press 2021). Adams has an MFA from Yale School of Drama and a BFA from New York University, and was the 2012–2013 Briggs-Copeland Visiting Lecturer in Playwriting at Harvard University. She has dual Irish and American citizenship, and lives in New York City on land that once belonged to the Lanape, and in Western Massachusetts on unceded Pocumtuc and Nipmuc land.Now is a great time to act on your dreams! If this episode helped you, please share to a friend!https://www.instagram.com/HyphensHaven/http://www.dreamofdrea.com/Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/DreamofDréa
Madeline and Miriam discuss Lloyd Suh's haunting play The Far Country, currently running at Atlantic Theater Company.For more information about Madeline Sayet and her show Where We Belong check out her website: https://www.madelinesayet.comFind out more about The Far Country and Atlantic Theater Company: https://atlantictheater.org/production/the-far-countryA quick useful bio of playwright Lloyd Suh at New Dramatists:https://newdramatists.org/lloyd-suh
TEENAGE DICK by Mike Lew has been a favorite play of Melissa's ever since she swiped it from her roommate's Dramatist Play Service subscription box. Luckily, it's also an adaptation, so that enabled her to invite Mike to come on the show and discuss this excellent and provocatively-titled play and also to indulge in a moderate amount of fangirling. In this episode, we discuss:How this play fell into Mike's lap and then he sat on it for a year before writingHow Mike collaborated with actors with disabilities during the writing process Mike's philosophy on adaptations Why he's a self-proclaimed "Shakespeare skeptic"And more!Resources MentionedRead Teenage DickDramatists Play ServiceDPS's play subscription box - now known as the Broadway Book ClubDirector Brian BalcomTheater WitTEENAGE DICK on the CBS Evening News (The news source was mis-credited in the episode. We regret the error.)About Our GuestMike Lew's plays include tiny father; Teenage Dick; Tiger Style!; Bike America; and microcrisis. He and Rehana Lew Mirza are Mellon Foundation Playwrights in Residence at Ma-Yi where they cowrote The Colonialism Trilogy and the book to Bhangin' It with composer/lyricist Sam Willmott. Mike is a Dramatists Guild Council member, Tony voter, and New Dramatists resident. His list of honors includes Guggenheim, Lark Venturous and NYFA fellowships and the Kleban, PEN, Lanford Wilson, Helen Merrill, Weissberger, Heideman, and Kendeda awards.Connect with Our Guestwww.mikelew.comTwitter: @MikeLew4Connect with host Melissa Schmitz***Sign up for the 101 Stage Adaptations Newsletter***101 Stage AdaptationsFollow the Podcast on Facebook & InstagramRead Melissa's plays on New Play ExchangeConnect with Melissa on LinkedInWays to support the show:- Buy Me a Coffee- Tell us your thoughts in our Listener Survey!- Give a 5-Star rating- Write a glowing review on Apple Podcasts - Send this episode to a friend- Share on social media (Tag us so we can thank you!)Creators: Host your podcast through Buzzsprout using my affiliate link & get a $20 credit on your paid account. Let your fans directly support you via Buy Me a Coffee (affiliate link).
In this episode, Hayley and Amy speak with new musical theatre writing team Tidtaya Sinutoke and Isabella Dawis. We learn about the development processes for their musicals Half the Sky and Sunwatcher, and we talk about incorporating elements of other cultures into American musical theatre and lessons learned from the pandemic. Click here for a transcript! Episode Notes Guests: Tidtaya Sinutoke and Isabella Dawis Hosts: Hayley Goldenberg and Amy Andrews Music: Chloe Geller See full episode notes here Guest Bios Tidtaya Sinutoke (she/her) is a Jonathan Larson Grant, Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award, International Theatremakers Award and Fred Ebb Award-winning musical theatre composer, writer, and musician. Born in Thailand and now based in NYC, her compositions draw from multiple genres, combining classical music, traditional Thai/world music tonality, and the complexities of contemporary meters and pop hooks. Composition credits include: Half the Sky (The 5th Avenue Theatre's First Draft Commission & 20/21 Digital Season, Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award); Sunwatcher (The Civilians R&D Group, Ancram Play Lab, Global Forms Theater Festival), and Dear Mr. C (NYFA's City Artist Corps Grants, Polyphone Festival, The Crossroads Project). Her works have been developed and supported by the Composer-Librettists Studio at New Dramatists, Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Johnny Mercer Foundation, NYFA IAM Mentoring Program, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Kurt Weill Foundation, Drama League, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, and the American Opera Project. A proud member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild, Maestra, MUSE, and Thai Theatre Foundation. BM: Berklee College of Music; MFA: NYU. tidtayasinutoke.com Isabella Dawis (she/her) is a Filipina-American playwright and performer. As a librettist and lyricist, she is the recipient of the 2022 Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre, the 2021 Fred Ebb Award, and the 2020 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award. She currently holds a Composers and the Voice Fellowship with the American Opera Project. Her musical theatre works include HALF THE SKY (5th Avenue Theatre Digital Radio Play/First Draft Commission, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Mu's New Eyes, Theater Latté Da's NEXT), SUNWATCHER (Civilians' R&D, Goodspeed's Writers Grove, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ancram Opera House, Tofte Lake Center), and BEFORE THE LAST METER (Atlanta Opera). Isabella's writing has been supported by the Primary Stages Rockwell Scholarship, the Kurt Weill Foundation's Lotte Lenya Songbook, Musical Theatre Factory, Coalition of Asian American Leaders, and more. B.M. summa cum laude, piano performance, University of Minnesota, with vocal study at New England Conservatory. Find Tidtaya and Isabella Online: www.tidtayasinutoke.com www.isabelladawis.com Thanks for listening! Who do you want to hear from next on the Women & Theatre Podcast? Nominate someone here. The Women & Theatre Podcast is created and produced by Hayley Goldenberg and Amy Andrews. Please like, comment, subscribe, follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you for listening!
In this episode of The Artist Inclusive Podcast, host Anna Rosa and Shanga Parker are joined by Dominic Taylor. Dominic is a Professor in the UCLA Department of African American Studies, as well as the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies and Professor at the UCLA Department of Theater. Dominic is a scholar of African-American theater and a writer-director whose work has been seen across the country. He is the former associate artistic director of Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul, Minn., one of the premiere African-American theaters in the country. There he utilized his unique culturally specific play development process called OKRA. As a scholar, Taylor's training began under the tutelage of George Houston Bass and his Research to Performance Method (RPM) at Brown's Rites and Reasons Theatre. In the summer of 2014, Taylor was part of the Consortium on African-American Aesthetics at Emory University. Nearly 20 years ago, he was part of the original group of artists and scholars gathered at August Wilson's “The National Black Theatre Summit: On Golden Pond.” Taylor was part of the cohort that presented a paper on aesthetics. Previously, Taylor was an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He has also taught at Bard College and City University in New York; Columbia College of Chicago; Bennington College and Brown University. Taylor is an alumnus member of New Dramatists. He received his bachelor's and master of fine arts degree from Brown University and is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers, a board member of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature and an associate artistic director of America-in-Play. Take a listen to this episode of The Artist Inclusive Podcast for a look into what it means to truly follow artistic impulse.Website: Artist Inclusive https://www.hollandcreative.io daniel@hollandcreative.io IG: https://instagram.com/conversioncopydesign https://www.dashofcopy.com anna@dashofcopy.com IG: Dash of Copy (@dashofcopy) • Instagram photos and videos
The quirky and energetic playwright Nina Mansfield stopped by Playwright's Spotlight, and while she's far from high strung, I can't help but think the female characters she sticks in unusual situations are all a faction of her. It's hard to pinpoint the exact areas of playwriting we cover in this episode, because we cover so many subjects - teaching subtext, building backstory, timing, character development by letting them tell YOU who they are, the 10-minute structure, and revisiting old works that didn't work. We also touch on approaching premise, training later in one's career, and most importantly - having fun writing. Nina's energy comes off strong right from the start, so I hope it inspires and motivates you to hit the pages running. Enjoy the episode.Nina Mansfield is a Connecticut based playwright, fiction writer, and educator. Her ten minute and one-act plays have had over 100 productions having been produced professionally, at colleges, community theaters and high schools as well as throughout the world. He work has appeared at a number of festivals, including - the New York International Fringe Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Boston Theatre Marathon, Vital Theatre's New Works Festival, 20% Theatre Twin Cities, the Six Women Playwriting Festival, Little Fish Theatre's Pick of the Vine Festival, and multiple 8-Minute Madness Festivals in New York. Nina's short plays have been anthologized in Smith and Kraus' The Best Ten-Minute Plays, the Boston Theater Marathon XI, 2009 Anthology, and YouthPlays' Middle Schoolin' It, amongst other publications. She is a member of the The Dramatists Guild, Mystery Writers of America, The Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and Sisters in Crime. To view the video format of this episode, visit the link below -https://youtu.be/S3d5GCmw-moLinks to sites and resources mentioned in this episode - New Dramatists -https://newdramatists.orgSmith and Kraus -https://www.smithandkraus.comKennedy Center Playwriting -https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/opportunities-for-artists/pre-professional-artist-training/kcactf/kcplaywritingint/Stage Partners -https://www.yourstagepartners.comPlaywright's Binge -https://groups.io/g/playwrightbingeContact info and website for Nina Mansfield -www.ninamansfield.comIG - @ninamansfieldTwitter - @ninajmansfield Websites and socials for James Elden, Punk Monkey Productions and Playwright's SpotlightPunk Monkey Productions - www.punkmonkeyproductions.comPLAY Noir -www.playnoir.comPLAY Noir Anthology –www.punkmonkeyproductions.com/contact.htmlJames Elden -Twitter - @jameseldensauerIG - @alakardrakeFB - fb.com/jameseldensauerPunk Monkey Productions and PLAY Noir - Twitter - @punkmonkeyprods - @playnoirla IG - @punkmonkeyprods - @playnoir_la FB - fb.com/playnoir - fb.com/punkmonkeyproductionsPlaywright's Spotlight -Twitter - @wrightlightpod IG - @playwrights_spotlightPlaywriting services through Los Angeles Collegiate Playwrights Festivalwww.losangelescollegiateplaywrightsfestival.com/services.htmlSupport the show
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard PhD talks with Migdalia Cruz master playwright and mentee of Maria Irene Fornes. MIGDALIA CRUZ's BIO MIGDALIA CRUZ is a Bronx-born, award-winning, multi-platform, playwright, lyricist, translator, and librettist of more than 60 works for stage, radio, film, TV, and podcast, performed in 150 venues in 40 cities in 12 countries. An alumna of New Dramatists, her awards include: NEA, McKnight, NYSCA, TCG/Pew, and she was named the 2013 Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwright. María Irene Fornés nurtured her at INTAR and Latino Chicago gave her a home as their playwright-in residence. She is a master teacher of playwriting with the Fornés Institute and various universities and colleges. She is co-chair of the DGF Playwriting Fellows 2020-21; mentors the NYC Latinx Playwrights Circle; and was recently commissioned by Clubbed Thumb, The Flea, INTAR, and Kitchen Dog (Dallas). 2011-22 productions: Dinner With Dee @Kitchen Dog (Dallas), June 2022; a PlayOnShakespeare translation of Macbeth (Sunderland, England) @TheatreSpaceNorthEast, Aug 2021, and in 2022@USD/Old Globe (San Diego), and is now a podcast @Next Chapter Podcasts; YORICK'S LAST LAUGH @Shakespeare Dallas, 2021. Her translations of Macbeth & Richard III were published by ACMRS Press. Migdalia was featured in “Fifty Key Figures in LatinX and Latin American Theatre,” published by Routledge, February 2022. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard Ph.D talks with Brian Herrera, Associate Professor of Theatre at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, and Anne Garcia-Romero, Associate Professor of Theatre in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. BRIAN HERERRA's BIO Brian Herrera is, by turns, a writer, teacher and scholar - presently based in New Jersey, but forever rooted in New Mexico. Brian's work, whether academic or artistic, examines the history of gender, sexuality and race within and through U.S. popular performance. He is author of The Latina/o Theatre Commons 2013 National Convening: A Narrative Report (HowlRound, 2015). His book Latin Numbers: Playing Latino in Twentieth-Century U.S. Popular Performance (Michigan, 2015) was awarded the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and received an Honorable Mention for the John W. Frick Book Award from the American Theatre and Drama Society. With Stephanie Batiste and Robin Bernstein, Brian serves as co-editor of “Performances and American Cultures” series at NYU Press. Also a performer, Brian's autobiographical storywork performances (including I Was the Voice of Democracy and TouchTones) have been presented in venues large and small across the United States, as well as Beirut and Abu Dhabi. Brian is a longstanding contributor to the Fornés Institute, a project committed to preserving and amplifying the legacy of María Irene Fornés. He has also worked closely with ArtEquity, an organization committed to creating and sustaining a culture of equity and inclusion through the arts; with Theatrical Intimacy Education, a group researching, developing, and teaching best practices for staging theatrical intimacy; and with The Sol Project, an initiative dedicated to producing the work of Latinx playwrights in New York City and beyond. He serves on the Director's Council of the DramaLeague and on the boards of Clubbed Thumb and Bard at the Gate. Brian is presently at work on several scholarly book projects: Next! A Brief History of Casting, a historical study of the material practices of casting in US popular performance; Starring Miss Virginia Calhoun, a narrative portrait of a deservedly obscure early 20th century actress/writer/producer; and Fornés in Context, an anthology (co-edited with Anne García Romero and under contract with Cambridge University Press) documenting the life, work and legacy of playwright María Irene Fornés. He also publishes the #TheatreClique Newsletter. ANNE GARCIA-ROMERO'S BIO Anne García-Romero's plays include: Staging the Daffy Dame, Lorca in New York, Mary Domingo, Provenance, Paloma, Earthquake Chica, Mary Peabody in Cuba, Desert Longing, Juanita's Statue, Girlus Equinus and Santa Concepción. Her plays have been developed and produced most notably at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre, the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Goodman Theatre, Denver Center Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, Hartford Stage, Borderlands Theater, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Nevada Repertory Company, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Kitchen Theatre, and South Coast Repertory. She has also written for Peninsula Films, Elysian Films and Disney Creative Entertainment. Her translation of The Gröholm Method by Jordi Galcerán has been produced in Los Angeles and London. She's been a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis as well as a MacDowell Colony fellow. She is an alumna of Chicago Dramatists and of New Dramatists in New York City. She is a founding member of the Latinx Theatre Commons, where she contributes to The María Irene Fornés Institute. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
Joel Kirk is a New York City theatre director and producer who specializes in the development of new plays and musicals. He has worked with New World Stages, Playwrights Horizons, NYMF, The Lark, New Dramatists, Sheen Center, Hudson Guild Theatre, Wide Eyed Productions, WorkShop Theatre, to name a few. Recently he worked with Tony Award Winner Reed Birney and Tony Award Nominee Sydney Lucas on the play CHANGEOVER. He has guest directed for NYU'S Grad Playwriting Program, Ball State University, and Fordham University's Playwriting Program. He is the Chairman/CEO of Joel Kirk Productions. Joel recently launched a non-profit called Discovering Broadway Inc. The New York Times wrote that "Discovering Broadway brings actors and writers to Central Indiana for weeklong retreats to workshop their new musicals." The vision of the organization is to make Indiana the first stop on Broadway's journey. Discovering Broadway Inc. has currently programmed new musicals based on the major motion pictures of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and EVER AFTER. In this fun and exciting episode, Joel talks about the Indianapolis 500, growing up in Carmel, bringing Broadway to central Indiana, silver linings of the pandemic, Enneagram types, a hilarious story about how he met his girlfriend, having a "just ask" mentality, and a moment in 2018 when a song on a playlist changed his life. Learn more about Joel Connect with Joel on LinkedIn Sponsors: Ninety.io Straticos Buy your copy of Level-UP To Professional: Second Edition
Katie checks in with playwright (The Hairy Dutchman, Spuyten Duyvil, Notes on My Mother's Decline, This Is My Office -- Drama Desk nomination), former fellow with Ensemble Studio Theatre, Dramatists' Guild, Berkeley Rep, and New Dramatists, and founder of Andy Bragen Theatre Projects, Andy Bragen.
Award-winning playwright and co-writer of Pixar's TURNING RED, Julia Cho was born and raised in the arid suburbs of Southern California and Arizona. After a fairly uneventful childhood, she unexpectedly discovered theater as a teen and subsequently foiled her parents' expectations of a life of respectability and normalcy.Disney and Pixar's “Turning Red” introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother's dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming (voice of Sandra Oh), is never far from her daughter—an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren't enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda! Directed by Academy Award® winner Domee Shi (Pixar short “Bao”) and produced by Lindsey Collins.Instead, armed with an MFA in writing from NYU and a prestigious fellowship at The Juilliard School, Julia launched herself into the New York theater scene. She soon landed residencies at the Sundance Lab and New Dramatists and productions at high-profile theaters in NYC and across the country. Memorable productions include “The Language Archive” (winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award), “Aubergine” and “Office Hour.” For her body of work, she received the 2020 Windham-Campbell Literary Prize for Drama which wrote: “Alternately lyrical and sharp, rigorous and whimsical, Cho's plays demand that we listen.”Alongside her theatrics, Cho has also cultivated a career as a writer and producer of a broad range of television shows from cult sci-fi (“Fringe”) to character-driven drama (“Big Love,” “Halt and Catch Fire”). She also adapted the critically-acclaimed novel The Madonnas of Echo Park for HBO and Starz, which showcased her ability to transform eloquent fiction into dynamic and propulsive narrative.Driven by keen curiosity and a passion for language, Julia strives to create work that expands our worlds and sparks our deepest empathies. She's currently under commission for South Coast Repertory to write a new play and is a Co-Executive Producer for the Amazon series, “Paper Girls.” In other words, she's following a movie about four thirteen-year-old girls with a series about four twelve-year-old girls. A project about four eleven-year-old girls is forthcoming.
Award-winning playwright and co-writer of Pixar's TURNING RED, Julia Cho was born and raised in the arid suburbs of Southern California and Arizona. After a fairly uneventful childhood, she unexpectedly discovered theater as a teen and subsequently foiled her parents' expectations of a life of respectability and normalcy.Instead, armed with an MFA in writing from NYU and a prestigious fellowship at The Juilliard School, Julia launched herself into the New York theater scene. She soon landed residencies at the Sundance Lab and New Dramatists and productions at high-profile theaters in NYC and across the country. Memorable productions include “The Language Archive” (winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award), “Aubergine” and “Office Hour.” For her body of work, she received the 2020 Windham-Campbell Literary Prize for Drama which wrote: “Alternately lyrical and sharp, rigorous and whimsical, Cho's plays demand that we listen.”Alongside her theatrics, Cho has also cultivated a career as a writer and producer of a broad range of television shows from cult sci-fi (“Fringe”) to character-driven drama (“Big Love,” “Halt and Catch Fire”). She also adapted the critically-acclaimed novel The Madonnas of Echo Park for HBO and Starz, which showcased her ability to transform eloquent fiction into dynamic and propulsive narrative.Driven by keen curiosity and a passion for language, Julia strives to create work that expands our worlds and sparks our deepest empathies. She's currently under commission for South Coast Repertory to write a new play and is a Co-Executive Producer for the Amazon series, “Paper Girls.” In other words, she's following a movie about four thirteen-year-old girls with a series about four twelve-year-old girls. A project about four eleven-year-old girls is forthcoming.
Angela sat down with Sharon Bridgforth on October 8, 2021, to record this interview via video conference. Bridgforth talked about her formative years, her pathway to healing, intergenerational mentoring, and her life as a touring artist in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sharon Bridgforth's website https://www.sharonbridgforth.com/ Twin Cities PBS did a special on Pillsbury House Theatre - who GRACIOUSLY chose to feature "dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/The Show!!!" The special premiered on 7/10/21. https://www.datblackmermaidmanlady.com/the-show A Doris Duke Performing Artist, Sharon Bridgforth is a writer that creates ritual/jazz theatre. A 2020-2023 Playwrights' Center Core Member, Sharon has received support from Creative Capital, MAP Fund, the National Performance Network and is a New Dramatists alumnae. Sharon served as a dramaturg for the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative's Choreographic Fellowship program and has been in residence with: Brown University's MFA Playwriting Program; University of Iowa's MFA Playwrights Program; The Theatre School at DePaul University; allgo, A Texas Statewide QPOC Organization; and The Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. Widely published, Sharon author of the Lambda Literary award winning, the bull-jean stories, and her performance piece, delta dandi, is published in solo/black/woman: scripts, interviews and essays. Sharon is grateful to say that she has been supported by the Zami community since 1998 - when she and RedBone Press Founder and Editor, Lisa C. Moore were first out on the road with the bull-jean stories.
Suli Holum is a theatre artist whose work has been supported by the Orchard Project, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramatists, the Playwright's Center, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and HERE, and presented by FringeArts, The Public Theatre/UTR, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, Z Space and The Gate in London. As a member of Philadelphia's Wilma Hothouse she has appeared in Romeo and Juliet and Dance Nation. Other acting projects include Sweat at Philadelphia Theatre Company, On the Exhale at Theatre Exile, The Few at Theatre Horizon, and Cabaret at the Arden, and an appearance on HBO's Mare of Eastown. As a writer and director, she is a longtime collaborator with choreographer Nichole Canuso and has developed commissions for the National Constitution Center and the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University. A founding member of Pig Iron Theatre Company, she went on to co-found Stein | Holum Projects with Deborah Stein where she co-created and performed the Drama Desk-nominated Chimera, and The Wholehearted. She recently launched Suli Holum/The Work, a Philadelphia-based incubator for live performance. A recipient of a Drama Desk Award, a TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, and a Barrymore Award, she is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College where she was the recipient of the 2020 Engaged Artist Award.
As Artistic Director of Boomerang, Tim Errickson has produced 60 full productions(including 19 outdoor Shakespeare productions)and overseen development workshops and readings for over 70 new plays. Tim has directed Boomerang productions of CANDIDA, HAMLET and BURNING THE OLD MAN, among others. In addition to Boomerang, Tim has been on staff at Lincoln Center Theater and New Dramatists. www.boomerangtheatre.org
"En 1995, mientras desarrollaba una promisoria carrera teatral en Chile, el artista escénico Iván Ojeda es invitado a Nueva York a estudiar en el New Dramatists. Cuando termina, decide quedarse para convertirse en Monalisa y trabajar como prostituta. Diecisiete años después, se reencuentra con la directora de esta película, Nicole, quien llega a vivir a Nueva York. Juntos, inician un viaje cuyo fin es comprender las motivaciones que tuvo Iván para autoexiliarse y marginarse en busca de su identidad." En este #TraficantesDeCultura, conversamos con #IvánMonalisa, protagonista de la película documental #ElViajeDeMonalisa, dirigida por Nicole Costa. Conduce: Humberto Fuentes
Intro: Boz is in the clear!Let Me Run This By You: secrets, scorched earthInterview: We talk to Chisa Hutchinson about her new film The Subject, Vassar, being a high school English teacher, NYU Tisch, The Lark Play Development Center, New Dramatists, having a sleepover with Tina Howe, She Like Girls, Amerikin at the Alley Theatre, NYT reviews, 101 Reasons Not to Breed, Bad Art Friend, Haagen-Dazs, The Evansville Regional Airport, Three Women on Showtime, Lisa Taddeo, Playwrights as Screenwriters, Marsha Norman, Lynn Nottage, Tony Gerber, Richard Wesley, Stephanie Allain, Di Glazer, having an intentional career.COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT:Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (8s):And Jen BosworthGina Pulice (10s):and I'm Gina .Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (11s):We went to theater school together. We survived it, but we didn't quite understand it.Gina Pulice (15s):20 years later, we're digging deep talking to our guests about their experiences and trying to make sense of it all.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (21s):We survived theater school and you will too. Are we famous yet?Gina Pulice (33s):You don't have cancer.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (35s):No, I do not have cancer right now. Do not have cancer at this moment. Who knows the next week. Yeah, no, it was, it's been quite a thing. Like I, I, you know, right. My cousin Dalia, who is what become one of my best friends in our adult lives, which is amazing. I never had any family that like, I truly liked as people know, that sounds so terrible, but I know exactly like good friends. And she says, you know, the brain is a problem making machine and it is that's, you know, it's also solves them, but it also creates them.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (1m 17s):And look, I'm not saying that that the ch that it wasn't possible that I had cancer, but like all the evidence pointed oh, right. The emotional evidence pointed to I had cancer. Like I made an emotional face based on my past and my parent, my mom's past and my dad's path. And I made a really strong case that I had cancer in my head and look, it's possible. So that's the other thing that is so, so compelling about the human condition. Is that like, and what Dr. Oltman used to say to me, it was like, look, you're not, you're not delusional. You're not psychotic. You're not, so you're not making up things that are like, aliens are going to come down and take you, your fears are based in, in things that have happened to you and other people and people you love.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (2m 6s):So it's not as though this idea, this idea of like, you know, right. It can't happen. You know, like it, I know in my body of, you know, my body of work that I've done in my life, that people die all the time of cancer and get cancer all the time, as we all do, I have a more intimate knowledge is because I lost my mom from it and saw the actual process. But I'm here to say, like, if you're freaking out about things, most of the time they're things that have happened to you or other people. So they're valid freak freakouts. It's just that they don't actually happen to be true all the time.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (2m 47s):So like weird.Gina Pulice (2m 49s):It's almost like you want to say, Thank you brain for protecting me because you know, you you've correctly picked up on the fact that when things are Sort of looking like this, it's, it means something bad, but you can relax now. Right. Because it's not that right.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (3m 7s):And it's actually not while I appreciate you brain, you're not always dealing with, with, with what's the reality, the truth. You don't, you don't. Yeah. You don't get an unfortunately brain. You don't get to, you're not a psychic, like you're just not, you have evidence. And then, so, so I had, you know, for, for our listeners, you know, like I had, I've had pain and history of weirdness on my left ovary. And it's really interesting. The cyst that is most, this is so crazy. This is how, this is what the brain does. So I'm like, okay, left side. I'm sure I have cancer on my leftover.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (3m 48s):Like, that's, what's going on. It turns out the right one, the cyst is bigger. I have one on my right. They didn't see me yesterday or two days. And the, and the, the right one is bigger and actually contains more blood and fluid. I feel nothing on my right side. So that is also to goes to show that even if you do have cancer, it could be in a place that I don't. But like, you don't know where it's coming from. So like, even your feelings are wrong, your pain body is wrong. So like, you really don't know. So it was so funny. She was like, yeah, your left side, even though it's more active, there are a lot of simple cysts. So, you know, for this is like a women's health thing. Like people don't do any Reese. I shouldn't say that there's not a ton of research done because it's a woman's issue.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (4m 32s):So it's not like, unless it's breast cancer, like nobody gives a shit about like women's cancers usually. So, cause that that's what, you know, got all the funding. So, so, so cysts grow all the time, all the time and women, they come and they go, those are simple cysts. If you have endometrial cysts or complexes, that is not, they don't come and go. They just stay. So I have several on my left side that come and go one that stays. And one that stays on the right. They don't know what's actually causing the amount of pain, but they think it's probably the left one leaking. The other thing is like, I would have sworn I had a cyst, the size of a grapefruit. If you would've asked me, I would say, it's probably grapefruit size.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (5m 15s):It's that? It's an inch on one of them. That's nothing. Well, I mean, it's not nothing cause the ovaries two inches, but like w it, you just can't always trust what your, what your feelings are. Like, it's valid, you're in pain. But like, you don't know what it looks like until, you know what it looks like. And I think that that's the whole thing I'm coming around to, which is just go to the freaking doctor, please, if you have the resource, even if you don't like find them create, I don't know, like ask somebody, but like, you know, and I've gone to plenty of free clinics and they're not glamorous and they're not exciting, but they, they, they still have an ultrasound machine, you know?Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (5m 56s):So like, get, get it, get shit checked out. If you can easier said than done. But if it's an emotional fear based response, that's stopping you and not a resource-based response, you got to work through it and go, even if it is resource-based, there are, you know, there are ways around that. But like, especially if it's, you have all the resources, but there is something internally in you that is going, I don't want to know, believe me, I get it. But you want to know, you really want to know it's the only way through anything is getting the data. It's so annoying, but it's true.Gina Pulice (6m 35s):I agree. 100% with what you're saying, and this is why people love to join cults because the fantasy, the thing that's being promised in a cult is there is a finite number of answers. I, the cult leader have, there is a clear path to the number of steps that you have to take to get, you know, it's, it's everything we wish life would be predictable or seemingly predictable controlled, highly structured, you know, without a concern like to be in a cult is to not be in a process of discovering what happens next.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (7m 24s):Exactly, Exactly. And it's so compelling. It is so comforting to think, oh my gosh, this person and this entity knows everything. I never have to worry again. That's really what we're saying is I never have to worry about anything. Again, the problem is it's just make believe. And you actually do have to worry because the person is usually a sociopath or psychopath and it doesn't actually do the trick. They think, you think it's going to do the trick. And it usually does the trick for a while for people like our guests, Noel was talking about like, it serves a purpose until you start questioning and then you're in real trouble because then it's like, how the fuck do I get out?Gina Pulice (8m 10s):Yeah, exactly. Well, I am very happy that you, I mean, I'm sorry that you're been in pain, but I'm happy. It's not for some worse reasons.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (8m 19s):The other thing I have to say that is so interesting that I just wanted to, to, to me anyway, that I wanted to bring up was like, okay, I may not have in the Hollywood right now in the Hollywood industry, a team of people that are like on my side, but I'm S I swear to God, my medical team has, is filling that hole. So I just got an email from my cardiologists. Who said, your, your gynecologist thought you were amazing, loves you. How did it go? Like, that's the kind of messages I get from my, of medical experts. And so I read and I like started crying and I realized like, oh, I'm not getting it from my career team.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (9m 3s):Like, I've talked about getting nasty emails from potential managers and stuff like that, but I am getting it from the medical team. They're like, amazing. They're like, you are the best. We love you. And I like,Gina Pulice (9m 17s):What if they gave awards for being a great patient?Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (9m 19s):I would Get something for Shot.Gina Pulice (9m 21s):You would get like a gynie award. I'mJen Bosworth-Ramirez (9m 23s):Like the best guy, knee, patient,Gina Pulice (9m 26s):And the, and the, and the statue is just like, you know, the uterus.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (9m 31s):Yeah. I mean, anyway, so that was really interesting to me. Cause I was really touched this morning when she wrote me. I'm like, who, what doctor, what? It's, she's a, she thought you were amazing. I was like, Hey, that's cool. Well, at least somewhat, you know what I mean? Like, I'll take this. It's so funny.Gina Pulice (9m 46s):Well, the truth is you are amazing. And the difference is with between people who know you and people who don't know you, I mean, that's just what it is. Like when people get to know you, not 10 out of 10 people who know Foz agree. She's amazing. It's just, you know, you have to convince people to get in the door. That'sJen Bosworth-Ramirez (10m 6s):It?Gina Pulice (10m 7s):Yeah. All right.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (10m 9s):I'm with you, my friend. How do you feel about all the post?Gina Pulice (10m 14s):It's just, it goes on. It's done. It's just a saga. Yes, we should.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (10m 22s):We don't have to be explicit, but like you, you,Gina Pulice (10m 24s):I can be explicit because fuck those people,Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (10m 27s):Will you left an organizationGina Pulice (10m 28s):It's called Theatre Artists workshop. And I left them because aside from a handful of members and everybody that was on the board, it was one of the more toxic environments I've ever been a part of. And I quit. And I'm the only one who quit effective immediately. Everybody else is staying. Two people are staying on and then everybody else is staying through through 2021. But when I tell you the way that people are responding, we couldn't have crafted it better ourselves. If we said, let's, let's create, like, if we were making this movie and this whole conflict happened, we'd say now what's a way that people could respond.Gina Pulice (11m 17s):That would exactly prove the point of what they were saying toxic in the first place. And two, that the fact that most people are doing that and have zero awareness. So essentially what's happening is that people are reacting to our letter. That goes step-by-step and explains the ways in which we've been abused, right? People are responding to this with a combination of don't take things. So personallyJen Bosworth-Ramirez (11m 46s):Sure. Of course, that's the number one abuser thing to do,Gina Pulice (11m 49s):And just completely invalidating ignoring what we've said about the abuse. They, everybody finds something that's in the letter to take issue with and makes their whole thing about that or, and says nothing of, and by the way, I'm sorry, you were abused. Or, and by the way, you know, and people are saying, thanks, but I'm into this thing recently. I hollow gratitude. Miss me with your hollow gratitude. I don't care. I do not care. I could wallpaper my bathroom with your thank you is right. It's not what I need. I need you to change your behavior.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (12m 28s):Absolutely.Gina Pulice (12m 29s):Forgive me if I said this to you already, but I'm likening it to, you know, when COVID happened and everybody puts a sign in their front yard saying, thank you, frontline workers. Yeah. And they're banging pots and pans at 5:00 PM in New York city. Like, and the frontline workers are going, I don't think I don't need your sign, like get vaccinated and wear your mask. Right. And everybody's like, I know, I know the,Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (12m 54s):Without a mask on and like at their concert. Right.Gina Pulice (12m 58s):That's exactly it. That's exactly right. And, and, and I shouldn't be surprised. We all myself included are kind of in a way, programmed to not see our own bad behavior and to not want to take responsibility, but it just goes on anyway. So, but it goes on in a way that I can choose how much I want to engage with.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (13m 18s):And also it's like it to me from the outside. It's so clear that you made the right choice. If this is the response, like they just proved, like you said, they proved the exact point there that's insane. And, and too, and you made the right choice. Like why would you stick around and be beaten down after you've made a stand? And then they continue to try to beat down that doesn't, that's insane if you stayed like that's insane.Gina Pulice (13m 44s):Yeah. Yeah. To give one just chef's kiss example. In our letter, we, we, one of the things that we said was when we tried to introduce our DEI policy, the very first thing we decided to introduce was content warnings. And we did it in the most careful way, like to, to hear about a content warning about something you're going to see presented at the workshop. You have to click down the email. Like you can choose not to see the content warning, right. Because everybody was complaining, it's art and we need to slap people in the face with it, whatever you can choose, whether or not.Gina Pulice (14m 25s):So it's literally like if I, if I'm allergic to peanuts, I'm going to read every nutrition label. Cause I want you to make sure that if I'm not allergic to peanuts, which I'm not, then I don't really need that information. It's no different than that. Right. That alone caused our first member to quit saying if he couldn't use, if he could, he could, if he could. I mean, it wasn't even related really to the content or if he couldn't use the N word, he couldn't theater and in that same evening.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (14m 57s):Bye, bye. See you later. You're not going to make theater. We're all not here. You're not gonna do it here. Thank you.Gina Pulice (15m 4s):Oh yeah. Two of our members who are from marginalized, societal groups got stood up or, you know, spoke that night and said the ways in which they've been marginalized at TAW. And that, I mean, it was crickets, not one single person gave any support. And we had listed that in our, in our letter. So this email we received from one of our members last night opened with I'm a board member of a condo complex. And we recently oversaw a renovation that made our building double in value.Gina Pulice (15m 44s):We, as a board, had to sit and listen to a tenant or what resident, whatever. Talk about the color of the paint in the laundry room for 30 minutes. And he bolds and underlines 30 all caps, 30 minutes. Okay. It goes, it goes along with being on the board and I thought, okay, so you're comparing you pace. Exactly. You're comparing.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (16m 15s):Bye bye, byeGina Pulice (16m 34s):Name and saying it all is because the thing I wanted to run by you this week is about secrets. I am. I'm all the way done with secrets. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm not saying like, if you tell me something in confidence, I'm not saying I'm not going to keep that a secret seat. That's not the kind of secret I'm talking about. I'm talking about the kind of secrets where, you know, you know, so I, I have written personal essays that reference my family as personal essays do. And you know, and I'm sure a lot of it has rubbed people the wrong way. I in particular wrote an essay in which I compared somebody in my family to Scott Peterson and, and that person let me know in the creepiest possible way, which is to say this person that, yes, we just happened.Gina Pulice (17m 32s):We are not friends on Facebook. He's not even to my knowledge, this guy has zero social media presence. I receive, I open my phone. There's a notification. So-and-so liked your post. My heart skipped a beat. I mean, it was like my blood turned cold. I went, you had to scroll pretty far down on my timeline to find that post. And it's the only one he liked. Are you kidding me? Your face is exactly your face of surprise. That exactly. Thank you.Gina Pulice (18m 13s):Oh, I really appreciate you validating that. Okay.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (18m 15s):That's so it's because two things you're super intelligent and also we like crime weirdness, but also it's fucking creepy.Gina Pulice (18m 26s):It's fucking creepy. That's weird by the way, about any post, if anybody who I'm not friends with on Facebook likes a post that's way down the feed.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (18m 38s):Well, if that's something you're not friends with on,Gina Pulice (18m 42s):Yeah. The whole thing is creepy. The whole thing is 1000% creepy. So part of the thing that I struggle with in writing personal things is airing the dirty laundry, you know, telling the secrets. And I really do try to tell only the secrets that are mine. I really try not to tell anybody else's secrets, but in general, it's so exhausting to be in this perpetual state of protecting a bunch of people who would never protect.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (19m 16s):There's the key. I mean, like, I think that's the kicker, right? It's like, and I think it speaks to a bigger issue. Like we're all protecting this in these institutional institutions and, and companies and things that are destroying us and we've been projecting them for years. And I think it speaks to why we started the podcast unknowingly is that to protect, we wanted to stop in our way and stop protecting institutions that harmed us whether some are assholes right out some aren't some are, but like institutions harm people. Like I just think that that's the way, right? That's just how it is. It's capitalism, it's democracy, whatever it is, they harm people.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (19m 58s):So I think we're trying to shed some light on that and say, no, we're going to heal from that. And I don't think you can heal from it unless you really process it. And some of that is bringing the secrets into the light and no, and people don't like that.Gina Pulice (20m 12s):People don't like it. And you and I have had many conversations following interviews where we said, do we bleep this person's name? Do we cut this thing out? And with the exception of one person who we interviewed, who then said that they didn't want us to air the interview. Nobody has said, I regret saying that. Can you, and, and when they're here talking, I mean, we've encountered people feel such a freedom and a relief and they have no problem naming names. Right. And so it's been our thing of like, do we protect this person's identity? But the other thing is, here's the, here's the part in the whole dynamic that I'm trying to own for what I do in this, in this situation about the secrets and everything.Gina Pulice (21m 1s):I wrote something personal, I published it on our website. I promoted it on social media. Theoretically. I want everybody in the world to read it, except this one guy. Right? Like that's, that's my logic. There is, it's really flawed, right? Like if you're going to be brave, then you have to be brave. Right. You can't be brave only when it's convenient.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (21m 31s):Right. I totally agree. I mean, I think that, and I think it's really great to have the conversations about like, okay, like who are we bleeping and why? And someone on, you know, on this podcast who we, I don't think we've bleeped, but she gets a lot of bad press as Susan Leigh.Gina Pulice (21m 50s):She really does get a lot of bad press.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (21m 52s):I mean, and, and, and, you know, I'm like, man, should we have been bleeping or out, but,Gina Pulice (21m 59s):But she did it. I mean, it's her, she is the person who should be carrying around the shame for her behavior. Not the people who she harmed the, you know, it's not there. And that's the other thing that we have usually all the way backwards is that we make the people who experienced the pain, shut up about it. Yeah. It to, to protect us. And who did the pain. Yeah. Right.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (22m 25s):Yeah. Just, yeah, it's, it's all backwards. And again, it's like, you know, she works for, she worked for an institution and they, they, you know, they should, she grew upGina Pulice (22m 34s):And a time and she's, and she's probably the victim of a lot of sexism. Like it's only, it's all of a piece, but the fact remains that at, at that time, maybe she's a completely different person now, but the fact remains that at that time, she did and said a lot of really racist thingsJen Bosworth-Ramirez (22m 51s):And hurtful and other ways, like, just, I mean, I think racism is hurtful, but like other types of hurtful besides racism, just like weird shit, you know, that hurt people. And I, I mean, it's just their truth. And I think it's actually up to, yeah. I mean, yeah, it's a co it's a, it's kind of a complicated issue and yet it's not complicated. It's like, you're right. We're just protecting the people that hurt us all the time. That's like when I got, when I got that very nasty email from, from that manager, my first response was in, this is interesting. My first response was to drag him through Twitter.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (23m 31s):Like I was going to put his name and say, I got this. It was so hurtful. And I feel like as a woman, as a Latina, that to get this email about fucking formatting, when I'm trying to break into the business is the condescending. I wanted to drag him. And then I thought, okay, there's a difference between speaking your truth and dragging someone. I don't know the difference exactly. Like, I don't know where the nuances lie that make them different, but dragging someone in Twitter versus, and I don't blame people for dragging people on Twitter, either like that. I'm not saying like dragging people is wrong.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (24m 12s):I think some people need to be dragged. I mean, we've talked about Louis C K's of the world and the Weinsteins do, who deserves to be dragged, who does it. And that's really what I wrote my pilot about, but like, I just didn't feel, I think every person has to decide if they're going to keep secrets, why, or if they're going to drag someone why, or like put it in on social media, straight up, this person did this. You have to be, I have to be prepared to deal with the full consequences if I do that. And I'm just not willing to deal with the full consequences of dragging this guy on Twitter. I'm just not, I'm just not, I don't feel certain.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (24m 51s):Now there are people where if something happened, I would work it out and I might feel certain to drag their ass. But it was interesting. I think everyone has to decide for themselves where the line is of when I'm going to expose someone to the fullest, et cetera, or an institution to the fullest extent and leave the individual out of it. I don't know.Gina Pulice (25m 12s):Right. Well, and you, and you don't want to do anything. That's gonna harm you. I mean, if you, if you were in a certain place in your life and you did like people dragging that guy would never have hurt you, then you could've, you could've made that decision. Yeah. And I'll also just say for anybody listening, who knows me in real life and, and who've, I've hurt and misbehaved, I invite you not to keep that secret. You know, I, I invite you to drag me if it's something that, I mean, for the thing, for my, for the sins of my past, if anybody is, you know, holding on to that and never has told me, or whatever, like I'd rather hear about it, I'd rather know, and try to make amends and to party so that I I'll feel that I have the right to participate in this, keeping those secrets, telling the truth culture that I really try to, you know, I really try to stay within.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (26m 16s):Right, right. So, wow. I forgot. I was going to say something else about That's a lot like that. I just feel like, yeah, this whole, this whole notion of keeping, keeping it, you know, and they say in program, like you're only as sick as your secrets. And I think it's really true. And I think there's a way of, of working through the secret that won't bring further harm to yourself versus versus versus doing something that exposes you further. You know what I mean? And brings, and bring, could bring more abuse or you have to look at, I mean, you know, like it's like, except when to do so would injure yourself for others.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (27m 3s):But, but, but, but, but dragging is about sort of injuring others in a way. I don't know. It's like really interesting. I don't know,Gina Pulice (27m 11s):You know, that saying, or I think, I don't know if you call it, call it a saying, is it kind, is it truthful? Is it necessary? Well, I know you're supposed to aim for all three. Yeah. To my way of thinking, you really just need two out of a three. It can be truthful and necessary, like talking about Harvey Weinstein. It's not kind, but that's okay. It didn't need to be constant. So yeah. So that's, that's, that's that tends to be my barometer is if it can't be kind, at least it has to be truthful in this. Yes.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (27m 43s):Agreed. Agreed. And I think that's, I think for me the necessary part, it's like, okay, well, can I, can I proceed to function as a, you know, trying healthy human being without doing this? Or do I need to do something about this to proceed and live my life and feel like I'm living in integrity and that I'm, I'm doing the right thing by, by me. And sometimes you just, and, and also also, right. Sometimes people, people get, they get hurt. Yeah. But they also didn't think about that when they were abusing others. SoGina Pulice (28m 21s):Yes. Oh yeah. That's the other thing that came out with this board thing, you know, when we were writing the letter, somebody said, okay, so this is, we acknowledge, this is scorched earth. You know, this is a scorched earth thing, which I'm very, that is how I think about things a lot. I, I tend to think about scorched earth, but I, it occurred to me when she said this, how come nobody's ever worried about skirts, scorching the earth with me, right? How come no one's ever worried about burning a bridge with me? You know, like, yeah. Maybe it is scorched earth. But if you, if your takeaway from what I've said to you is that I'm the asshole.Gina Pulice (29m 4s):That's fine. I don't care. That's completely fine. Go. I wish you well on your journey, right? It wasn't for you. I guess for this letter, it was for me to say to you, I mean, if you didn't want to receive it, that's your business. Right?Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (29m 22s):Well, Today on the podcast we're talking with CISA Hutchinson. She says a graduate from Vassar and NYU, and she's a teacher, she's a playwright. She writes for television and we found our conversation with her extremely focusing and motivating. So please enjoy our conversation with CISA Hutchinson. Hi, good morning. Good. Where are you? Which coast are you on? Are you on the east coast?Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (30m 2s):Okay.Gina Pulice (30m 3s):I guess what, I just had to pause, watching to come talk to you, your movie, your amazing movie. Yes. Oh my God. I'm in the scene with the mother right now and it's so good. It's so good.Chisa Hutchinson (30m 23s):Yeah. That's that? Yeah. You know, it's so funny because when I wrote, I wrote it as a play initially, and I was, when I was writing that part, I was like, this is why people don't like theater, just two people talking like whatever, we're going to be full board. But like, I don't know. Everybody seems to like really be engaged by that part. So,Gina Pulice (30m 51s):Oh no. Yeah. There's nothing boring about this movie. It's called the subject. Everybody go check it out. But before I forget, she's the Hutchinson. Congratulations. You survived hotter school. You survived theater school to fancy theater school.Chisa Hutchinson (31m 7s):Well, yeah, sort of. Okay. So I went to Vassar college for undergrad. Yeah. Which was interesting because I knew it was a good theater program, but I didn't know that it was mostly geared toward writers and directors. Because when I, when I sent him down, there was like literally one dramatic writing class taught by a screenwriter who was like, oh yeah, I guess you can write plays if you want. Really like, learned much about the craft of playwriting while I was there.Chisa Hutchinson (31m 46s):But, but I had a good time and I did a lot of independent studies in the English department and the Africana studies department, just to like, you know, learn about plays theater, you know, scripts plays that weren't, you know, Shakespeare or insulin or checkoff or whatever. Right. So that was undergrad. And then I worked for a few years as a high school English teacher.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (32m 21s):My mom was a high school English teacher and it was, it was intense. Where did you teach?Chisa Hutchinson (32m 28s):I taught at Westtown school, which is a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania, like 45 minutes Southwest of Philadelphia. And then I taught at Sage hill school in Southern California, orange county, California, which was like a whole other planet. Okay. Like I felt like a whole ass in orange county, California and teaching there. Yeah.Gina Pulice (32m 60s):I feel like the, the cultural translation from the east coast to orange county might be one of the biggest riffs chasms that there is there. It's quiet.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (33m 13s):I was just going to say, you're the first guests that we've had on. And we've had many that I've been like really sort of, no, not that I'm not excited to talk to everybody else, but your, your, I was telling Gina before this, that your bio is the greatest written bio I've ever read in my life. So I told her I'm the queen of queries. Like I write a bad-ass query letter, like, but you are the baddest ass of bios. Like, I, I love that stuff because for me they're usually so down boring, but you're, and same with queries.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (33m 54s):Like, I, I love to write a good query cause it's kind of a challenge how that bio is. You write it like in a second. I mean, I know it's a little thing, but it's a really important thing to me becauseChisa Hutchinson (34m 7s):So long ago I don't even remember, but I just wanted to, I was like, oh, well, you know, there's going to be plenty of chance to send the short, dry, you know, you know, like formal bio. So I was like, I want my website to be, you know, I went to bio on my website to be, you know, to give a sense of like who I am as a person.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (34m 30s):I feel like I, I was like, I with, and it's an, it's the words are economic. It's not like, it's like this long thing, but it's really short. And it's also so compelling. Anyway, I just, I just that's like my just, just, yeah, I have from zoneGina Pulice (34m 50s):It's on her website, everybody, chisahutchinson.com. You can check it out for yourself. It's veryJen Bosworth-Ramirez (34m 54s):Funny. Very good.Gina Pulice (34m 56s):Okay. So by the time you got to T I mean, so what I understand your grad school choice was rather intentional to be about play writing and you picked maybe probably the, one of the best schools did that. Oh. Or maybe you disagree,Chisa Hutchinson (35m 16s):Funny story about the no, no, I loved it. I knew I absolutely loved NYU. I'd probably learn more in one semester there than I did four years. That I'm sorry. I feel like I'm talking smack about vets. I'm really not trying to like smack talk Vassar. It's just, it's really, I think they're doing better now. They've hired a playwright that I really loved to teach playwriting there. So that's, I think progressJen Bosworth-Ramirez (35m 47s):We've had the thing where it's like, I I'm coming to the, the sort of realization that a lot of undergrads are kind of like, well, we'll give it a shot. We don't have a awesome, we're going to really do something good luck. And then you'll go to grad school and really learn. I mean, that's how I kind of feel. So I know you're not talkingChisa Hutchinson (36m 8s):Because I really had a wonderful time at the ribs of great, the great place. And I learned through experience, just not so much through the cracks. And then NYU, it was literally the only grad school I applied to. And that was because I had, I had a workshop production. It was my very first workshop production of a play ever at a professional theater company or not really the Lark play development center, which has since Closed.Chisa Hutchinson (36m 49s):And it makes me so sad because that police was like American idol for playwrights. And like, it was the place people knew to like go to the Lark, the Lark and new dramas are like the two places that everybody knows like, okay, you want to find the next half play. Right. And go to this place. Right. So I had my very first production of a, of a full length play at the Lark and they hooked me up. Oh, hardcore. I w at me, it was so many different people who I still work with to this day. Like, I, I love the LARC. Like everyone I met at the Lark, I have kept and I keep working with them. But the game changer was they set me up with Tina Howe as a mentor.Gina Pulice (37m 33s):Yeah, I did. I did one of her plays and theater school.Chisa Hutchinson (37m 38s):That woman is a genius as a wacky genius. Okay. First of all, she's like, I think back then she had to be in her late sixties, early seventies. I don't even know. Nobody knows how old you, how so? No. She is like this waspy, like proper wasp of a woman of a certain age, you know, who apparently responded like exuberantly to my, to my plate. She liked girls, which, which is about like, again, you know, teenage inner city lesbians, you know, like, so it was really weird to have her be like this, but what she responded to was like, I have like surreal elements in that play.Chisa Hutchinson (38m 25s):And she was, she knows what she's all about. That surreal stuff. So they sent me up with her. They were like, you should have dinner with her after, you know, your, your presentation. And I was like, yeah, yeah, cool. So I had dinner with Tina, how well we just like talked and talked and talked to this little gas so late that I was like, oh shit. Like, I'm about to miss my last train back to New Jersey. And she was like, oh, oh no, you will do no such thing. You will not, you are not taking the train back this late. You are coming home with me. And I was like, oh, okay. So you know how so I had a Latina, how, when we woke up and she made me breakfast and she's just talking, she's had you, do you have an MFA?Chisa Hutchinson (39m 11s):You need any of that say, and I was like, no. She was like, well, you have to not have to apply to grad programs. If you're going to apply, you should apply to some people at NYU. My best friend works at NYU and used to reply. And I'm going to write you a letter of recommendation and you're going to go to LA. So literally I put together like a found out that the down deadline for the application was literally the next day. So I application together in a day and like hand delivered it to the department of dramatic writing and I, and cross my fingers and was just like, all right, well, I'll tell me to apply.Chisa Hutchinson (39m 55s):So I applied and I got in, I got in with a full, a full ride and yeah, I had just an amazing, I love my professors there. They were so dope. And what they do is they make you write. So I concentrated in playwriting, which was a really smart move apparently, because playwrights are like the hot shit in Hollywood right now. But yeah, I concentrated and play writing, but they make you write in other mediums also, as you know, it's mandatory. You have to also take TV writing. You have to also take screenwriting. Yeah. And that is, turns out is a very smart way to structure your Germany.Chisa Hutchinson (40m 39s):We're all working everywhere now. You know, like if there's no, there's so much, you know, cross fertilization happening.Gina Pulice (40m 50s):Yeah. That's fantastic. So we only know about the playwriting program at, I think one other school. So at Tisch, did you, did you write stuff? They then got produced there by the students? I mean, like acting playsChisa Hutchinson (41m 6s):Is the only thing that they don't, because they're not what they try to do. They do have like one collaboration class where they bring in, they try to bring in as many professionals as possible because they want like the one sort of student variable, like the one factor, you know, to be student and everything else to be professionals. So they would bring in professional directors and professional actors for it. Wasn't yeah, it was, it was a little bizarre because it felt like you were just siloed from these people that you should be probably, you know, it'd be making connections with.Chisa Hutchinson (41m 49s):So it was a little ad in that respect, but I see, I get the philosophy behind it. Like I get that. They're like, we want to minimize the minimize or maximize the professionalism.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (42m 4s):Right. I mean, it's, it's, it's just sounds like a really like super bad-ass program that I have a friend, a playwright friend named Michael Allen Harris. I don't know. He just graduated from loved it, loved it, loved it. And now, and I have this thing of going to a lot of grad schools now I'm like, I have a master's in counseling psych. I started a screenwriting program then dropped out because they were assholes. And then I'm like, now I'm like NYU grad school. I, you know, but anyway, I, I love this idea that you okay. Cause I'm, I'm in LA right now. And there's a lot of people that are like, and playwrights are hot shit in Hollywood.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (42m 47s):Right. But I love the idea that you didn't go into playwriting to try to be a hot shit in Hollywood, unless you did. And I'm just making thatChisa Hutchinson (42m 57s):Like live theater, it just fits a medium that just affords you so much nuance. And like, there's just so many idiosyncrasies, you know, like you can do things. And I literally teach a class at the university of Delaware. I call it writing in 3d. It's just a playwriting class. But what I do is I make them do small, you know, short writing assignments. And each assignment is focused on some aspect. Some, some topics, some themes, some something, right. Some element that just takes on a whole other texture when it's live.Chisa Hutchinson (43m 40s):So like the first assignment that they get is like nudity. Right. Which c'mon, you know, like it's D you know, we see cities all day long on the screen, like, and it's no, no big. Right. But like in a live theater, that's a whole other thing. Right? Like nudity, you suddenly, you're like forced to really think about the significance of the nudity when it's like right there in your face. Right. So nudity, silence, silence in a theater is different from silence anywhere else, you know, like you can't really do silence and I'm novel, you know, it's like, well, it's a blank page. Right.Chisa Hutchinson (44m 19s):So with audience participation, like you literally can't do that anywhere else. You know? So yeah. Each assignment, I really try to get my students thinking the possibilities that, you know, they can take advantage of those in, in theater that they can't really get anywhere else.Gina Pulice (44m 41s):You're just making me think of something that makes me so sad, which is that a lot of us do approach just anything performance-related through theater, because it is so singularly special. And then as you have this line in your bio, you write these plays that have more than five characters and deal with themes of race. So they're probably never going to get produced. And actually the way, the way I met you was at the national new play network in Sacramento. I mean, I met you like passing hello, where they did a staged reading of your play America, which looks amazing. Has that ever been produced?Chisa Hutchinson (45m 19s):That is literally, it has been postponed twice pandemic postpartum, but it's where I'm going to start rehearsing for that in January, at alley theater in Houston.Gina Pulice (45m 30s):Fantastic. I'm really happy to hear that. So, you know, so theater gives us all of these things that we can't find elsewhere, and then there's zero money spent on it so that people like you only end up getting to do, you know, bring their brilliance, not only, but you get paid by bringing your brilliance to film and television, it's just kind of sad. You know, that there's, it's not a viable option to really make your living as a playwright.Chisa Hutchinson (46m 0s):It is. It is. I I'm not, if I knew how to fix it. Right. I, I would, but you know, I think we just need to just do the best we can. And every day I wake up feeling great. I mean, even on a, even on a shitty day, and I've had some pretty shitty days, especially like this past week or so, where, I mean just where you just feel gutted and, you know, come out and, or whatever. And you're like, just want to crawl into a cave. But then I'm like, literally like sitting in a house that you bought with, wow, you're doing, you're doing will pay.Chisa Hutchinson (46m 49s):And the fact that I get to do what I like in whatever capacity really, right. Like, okay, theater doesn't pay me enough to live on, but please screen, you know, screen writing or I get to teach. Like I get to talk to sit around every week, just telling young people, like I hear is why words are cool. And then they get all excited. And then they like present their work in class and then they get all, like, they get attached to each other's characters and things know like when they're reading over beating and workshop and it just, it just like tickles my soul.Chisa Hutchinson (47m 35s):So like, why, you know, why, why would I be sad about really anything?Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (47m 43s):Can I ask you a question about the gutted nearness of, so did you say I, you sort of brushed over it, but like the governess of, did you say reviews like of your films? Okay. Okay. So here's my question. Here's my question. Because you're someone that's working in an industry that I am like, oh my God. You know, because I'm me, I'm like, they've got it made, you know, whatever it's garbage. I know. But when a review, cause we talk a lot about, on this podcast about resilience or, and I'm obsessed with the idea of resilience or bouncing back, whatever you want to call it. What happens inside you that you're able to say, bitch, keep going. Like, what is that moment for you?Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (48m 24s):Because I'm, I had a week where a asshole said some asshole you things as they do. And then I had to like regroup and keep on with my, my situation. So what did for you, how do you do that as someone, you know, how do you do it?Chisa Hutchinson (48m 40s):Okay. So this is a thing that comes with time. This writing shit, like it's a war of attrition is, is really, really only the people who stick around are the ones who get to succeed on any level really. Right. So if you stick around long enough, right. If you just don't let, when someone kicks you in the face, right. You just kind of have to be like, get up and keep walking. What, what, what did it for me? I think it was like the third or fourth, like mixed review that I got in the times for a play prediction.Chisa Hutchinson (49m 28s):And, and then I thought, bitch, this is, this is your fourth review. And the TA, one of them was like really good, you know, like of all the reviews that I've gotten and I'm picking on the times, because of course that's the one that everybody sees. Right. But like whenever, you know, the reviews come out and some of them are like really fuses and wonderful and that's like fuel and it's, it's awesome. They're usually on the, like really rinky-dink like platforms with like 300 followers. Right. But, but you're like, oh, somebody gets it.Chisa Hutchinson (50m 8s):You know, like somebody, somebody out there, guess what I'm trying to do too bad. Those somebodies they're not the ones with the giant platforms, but it's okay. And so you read those and you absorb them, but then like if you just sort of take a step back and like, I, you know, like I didn't realize, you know, these reviews aren't actually keeping me from getting work. I mean, it would certainly help to have a great review right. In some, you know, in the, whatever the Washington post, whatever, right. Like whatever, big, whatever big platform, it would certainly help to have a great review, but I'm still working.Chisa Hutchinson (50m 49s):Like I still get work, even if, you know, I haven't been anointed by the New York times. Right. Like, so it really is just a matter of like hanging in there. Like, I, I hate to sayJen Bosworth-Ramirez (51m 2s):I love that because, because that is something that I, and we have control over is hanging in there versus having control over whether, whoever at whatever paper or whatever, whatever loves me. I have no control over that, but I can control whether I hang in there or whether it's worth it to hang in there or not. So that's actually something you can actually do. So I like that. It's like, I can do thatChisa Hutchinson (51m 26s):And I'll work on the next thing. Just be working on the next, keep writing happens that when I find that I like get over bad routes, the fastest when I'm already in the middle of the next project. Sure. So like right now I'm working at, so you mentioned the subject just got released this past week, last, last week. Oh my God. How's that week. We just had our premiere party a week ago already, but yeah. And the reviews have been mixed, you know, some people like really get it. And some people I'm like, you are completely missing the point. Like you're completely missing the point and it's very frustrating, but I don't even really have time to be too concerned about it because I'm like, I'm literally in a writer's room for a Hulu show right now.Chisa Hutchinson (52m 16s):So I'm really, I'm, I'm my revision actually is due today after like, I'm going to have to like, you know, I was right in that. I have like 10 more pages that I need to trim, but yeah, I, I can't, I don't, I don't have time to while I can just, you just gotta be like all up in the next thing, all that.Gina Pulice (52m 35s):And it does make sense that review, I mean, reviews are, people have feel all kinds of artists have feelings about reviews, but it really makes sense that a writer would have a hard time, you know, just for example, ignoring reviews because your life is about words and that's what that's, what's happening in a review is the people are assembling words to, to decide, you know, pass judgment on whether or not you have something interesting to say,Chisa Hutchinson (53m 3s):When you write about something personal or when you write about something about which you're passionate, that it feels, so it feels like they just took a knife to your heart, you know? Like it feels so like, yeah, let me just swallow my pride with a chaser of napalm, you know, just like BR like, it just burns you on the inside and you, you just, it feels like you're never going to get over it, but you will. You do, you do the next thing and yeah,Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (53m 35s):Really. I mean, ultimately it's like, you know, fuck you and goodbye and good luck and onward, but I love the idea of moving. I always be, cause people used to tell me like, just keep writing and I'd be like, go fuck yourself because I don't want to keep writing. I want someone to like my last project not, but it's true. Like if I can shut up and, and, and stop feeling, sorry for myself, I, I look, it feels good to feel sorry for myself for a little bit. But I feel like if I can actually do something rather than ruminate and create more work, then the steam comes out of it. Just because simply there's not enough space in my brain to keep thinking about what Joe Schmo said in his last email.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (54m 21s):So it is that it's just like focus on the writing, you know, sounds so easy to do, but it's actually, for me, a self preservation thing to keep writing, instead of ruminating on all the things that went wrong with the last, the last project or whatever, you know?Chisa Hutchinson (54m 38s):Yeah. And I'm very lucky also to be doing this in a time where there's Instagram and TikTok because I have like, literally I have like a little collection of videos specifically that I just, that no matter what the hell is going on, like they always make me,Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (54m 59s):I love that made me laugh minus the stone guy shoveling. Have you seen, okay, so this is an old one, but it, if anyone out there has, there's a guy who's trying to shovel snow and he cannot get it together. And he keeps falling and it's sort of a metaphor for my life and he just keeps it at the end. He just goes, fuck it. And show that shovel. And there's someone filming his neighbors filming, cracking up, but quietly not trying to make fun, but like in a way that like, man, we have all been there. The dude cannot shovel to save his life. And I was like that. I relate to that shit because it's just like, you're just shoveling and falling in your own shit and falling and someone's bike going way to go.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (55m 44s):I feel you. So with the Tik-toks, I, I, that's a really good thing to do. You keep them for when you feel bad, you watch them or just whenever.Chisa Hutchinson (55m 52s):And then when I'm just like to set for words, you know, I just need to watch a video of big fluffy dogs ripping down the stairs. No, with the voiceover that's like curse. It just, oh my God. It gets everyJen Bosworth-Ramirez (56m 7s):Time,Chisa Hutchinson (56m 9s):Every timeJen Bosworth-Ramirez (56m 11s):I love it, I want to see it. I'm gonna look it up. It's a dog cursing like a voiceover.Chisa Hutchinson (56m 16s):I really wish. Yeah. And he's like this, there are three, three big fluffy fucking dog. You just want to like squeeze them. They're so fucking big and fluffy, you know? And they're like, there are these concrete cores outdoors right there, like three or four stairs. And they're running along the top, the top stair, I'm about to make their way down. But because the coloring and the, you know, how shallow, because of the way the stairs are built on the color, you don't, if you have no depth perception, right. Which those dogs clear would be not.Chisa Hutchinson (56m 57s):It's hard to know that it's not just like grown, we'll go running along the stairs. And one of them that one in the front is like, oh, I can't wait to the, and then I can't wait to get to the, and then he goes Like tumbles down the,Gina Pulice (57m 18s):Okay, we're going to have to try to link to that in our show notes. So people can check it out.Chisa Hutchinson (57m 23s):I will, we send that to you because it cracks me up.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (57m 29s):I'm obsessed. And you're making me see why fails are so important. Like, I love fail videos. I watch news bloopers all day long because what it is is people trying their best to be sincere and be like, I take themselves so serious. I'm going to do my job. And then all of a sudden, the chair falls out and they're like still trying to do their goddamn job. And they're like, and anyway, I'm the news. And you're like, I love it because I feel like that 90% of my fucking life, I feel like I'm like, I could still do this while my legs are being taken out from under me. So anyway, Tik Toks and fails. Yes. They're worth something. They're really good.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (58m 10s):I'm sorry.Gina Pulice (58m 12s):No, no, no. That's okay. No, but that's how it was. No, but it's, I mean, it's germane it's on the topic of survival is we all have ways of surviving the everyday banalities and everyday horrors of life. So you, right before we talked, started talking to you for the podcast, we always do another section of just us talking before. And we were talking about secrets and we were talking about, you know, especially as it pertains to your profession and personal writing, the dangerous territory that you start navigating when it gets into the territory of like family secrets. And I don't mean, you know, so-and-so whatever cheated on his wife.Gina Pulice (58m 57s):I just mean maybe more like a thematic secret where we're protecting this abusive behavior. We're protecting this abusive personality. And I recently in my life made a decision to stop doing that in, in, in multiple arenas, but specifically in one and my awakening about it is all about, I'm not holding anybody else's secrets anymore. It's not me. If you don't want me, if you don't like that about me, then you probably need to reevaluate your relationship with me. I'm done holding on to other people's secrets and actually your movie touches on that a lot.Gina Pulice (59m 42s):And I'm just curious about your own relationship professionally speaking to secrets and how you navigate that test, the difference between say or the potential chasm between saying something that's really true for you and saying something that could somehow hurt you in the future.Chisa Hutchinson (1h 0m 7s):Wow. That's that sounds serious. That's a serious question. I'm kind of with you as far as like, like my husband, for example, he knows he has known from year one when we first started dating that. Like, if it's happening to you while I know you, like, if it's happening between us, like that should it's part like, like that's like, that's, that's fatter. Like I'm gonna, I will use that. Like as an I don't care if it really sort of is a little unschooled, do you?Chisa Hutchinson (1h 0m 47s):Oh, okay. So for example, I wrote, I wrote a book called 101 reasons to not breed. Yes. Lemon. One of the reasons is like kids, if you miss me, like, they're just messy. It's shit. Right. So what I did was I don't have kids. I don't want kids. I'm very clear on this. Right. But I do have a husband who just doesn't even see mess anymore. Doesn't realize when he's like leaving stuff for, so I literally just spent a good few months just taking pictures and text messages that he left around her.Chisa Hutchinson (1h 1m 33s):I mean, ridiculous fucking message. Like socks on the kitchen, counter, dirty socks on the kitchen. I'm like, fuck. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will take a picture of the toilet that you did not cross blew it up. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, I will put, I will literally put your shit on. I will put your shit out there for the world. See if you don't start cleaning up after yourself. Right. Like, so that's okay. Like that's a kind of a funny, you know, version of, of, of that. Right. But there are some other things, there are other things, I mean, in the same book, I actually talk about my mother and my biological mother who gave me away when I was three.Chisa Hutchinson (1h 2m 19s):But like before that, I mean, some of my earliest memories are of her like beating the shit out of me, you know, her and my stepdad beating the crap out of me at three, you know? So yeah. I don't, I don't, I have never had qualms about putting I'm like, you didn't have qualms about putting your fist to my, my little face. Right. So I'm not going to have qualms about like, putting that out there and trying to turn it into a positive, in case there's someone else out there who is feeling some type of way about the fact that their mother abandoned them or whatever, you know, like, I just want to let you know, like, I'm connecting with you, right. You are not alone.Chisa Hutchinson (1h 2m 59s):Right. And you know, you find your family where you can and that's sort of the message of the book is that you don't actually have to like grow grass root, right. Or, or even honor the fact that someone grew you right. In order to, to have family into it and to feel that that familial love. So that's what the book is, is supposed to doGina Pulice (1h 3m 28s):Truett fruit. Oh crap. Okay.Chisa Hutchinson (1h 3m 32s):I love it. So yeah, I, I will, I don't, there's really no such thing as a secret withGina Pulice (1h 3m 40s):You don't have a, a quandary about it. You just go straight .Chisa Hutchinson (1h 3m 47s):I do. I will let people know though, because I don't want to, you don't want to be bad art friend. Right? LikeGina Pulice (1h 3m 56s):Our friends on this podcast,Chisa Hutchinson (1h 3m 58s):I will let you know. I'm like, Hey look, because I left my husband and I'm like, look, I'm putting, do you see these pictures? You know, you see all these shit, you left around the house. Yeah. I took pictures of all of it and it's going in the book. Right. Like he knows, you know, his step, I just, or I'll ask if there's something like, I'm like, ah, hi, how do you feel about me too? Because here's why I'm thinking it will serve the story really well. Or here's why I think it'll help other people connect with it. Or, you know what I mean? Like, I I'm, I'm very clear on like, why I need a particular thing why I need to expose dirty laundry. Right, right, right.Chisa Hutchinson (1h 4m 39s):So, and as long as I can voice that, like most folks are okay with it. Well, what really cracks me up is when the people don't even recognize themselves in yourGina Pulice (1h 4m 49s):Oh, right. They'll or they'll, they'll tell, they'll tell you the character that they know you meant to be them. And it's not, it's like an admirable character and that's not who you areChisa Hutchinson (1h 4m 60s):Now that ain't too.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (1h 5m 2s):I have a question as it relates to like, and I told you to, before this, I was going to ask you this. So I sent him a letter to someone, a query, and I said like, I'm a Latina, I'm a middle aged woman. I'm getting into television bubble. Anyway, I got a horrific, crazy response. And my initial response was to drag the motherfucker on Twitter, but I didn't do it. What, what do you think about, I don't even know if drags the right word out, whatever it is. It was a terrible situation that I felt. And my first response was, I'm going to get this motherfucker. I did not do it. I did not do it. But what do you feel about people that are go, go on social media or groups or whatever.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (1h 5m 44s):I just, what are your thoughts on saying on, on, on doing that? Cause people are doing it a lot, you know? And, and I don't, I don't necessarily Gina and I talked about like, I'm not sure it's a terrible thing. I just, it wasn't right for me to do in that moment also, becauseChisa Hutchinson (1h 6m 1s):It's not a terrible thing, but it's not a great, I mean, it's not very everyone. Like, I, I don't really do it so much because I feel like it's giving them too much power or it's, it's that thing of like, okay, yeah. Dwell, dwell on it for five minutes and then move on like that, because that's, that's really how you can get back at those motherfuckers, right. Is to just like go on with your life and be happy and, you know, find joy elsewhere. Right? Like that's and, you know, to, to dignify their, their fuckery was, you know, you are strongly worded Facebook posts.Chisa Hutchinson (1h 6m 47s):Right. Is what is it doing? You know? I mean, would you feel better? It might make you feel better just to kind of like, get it out there. It also might help you connect with, you know, other people who have experienced a similar thing. Right. And, you know, maybe they were feeling isolated or alone and they're in their failure or in their, whatever it is. Right. So, I mean, I'm not gonna say it doesn't have its uses. Right. But as far as like, is it getting back at that personJen Bosworth-Ramirez (1h 7m 18s):And also, right.Chisa Hutchinson (1h 7m 22s):I really I'm just, so this is a lesson that I'm really just now getting around to like learning in a, in a sort of visceral way. Is that like nobody cares? No, I literally just today was, well that's right. Post, because I saw on IMD be the subject. There are a couple of, and it's really just a couple, like, there are a couple of really awful, I mean, Pete, just users who were just like, you know, clearly expecting it to be a comedy because Jason business owner or something, Make movies fun again, you know? And I was just like, oh dude.Chisa Hutchinson (1h 8m 3s):And they're the ones who, who will take the time to like post over review or post it's their, I can't even call them props because they would have to be thinking I would have to have brain. Right. But I did, like, I went on Facebook, like the closest I'll come is like, I went on Facebook and was like, Hey, y'all alert if you enjoy the movie, like, please rate it. Please post a review because these guys like their opinions, shouldn't be the stand in for everybody. Else's right. And that's, that's really about as close as I'll come. But even that I'm like, I was torn about doing that because I'm like, doesn't even, does it even matter?Chisa Hutchinson (1h 8m 47s):Like,Gina Pulice (1h 8m 48s):And it gets back to this whole thing about reviews because I saw your post and it's specifically men over 45 or something like that. And I thought, yeah, but who else is writing these things, but men over 45, like I'm guilty of loving something and then not writing it down anywhere that I love it because it's, so it's such an, it has become such an important part of art making, like how are people receiving it? And is it getting enough views? And is it getting enough, you know, clicks. And to me it's always just like the person who ha, who wants to take their time when it's not positive to tell you that you put your heart and soul into something and they didn't care for it.Gina Pulice (1h 9m 31s):And I don't understand the impulse, actually.Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (1h 9m 34s):This is the biggest demographic of voters, by the way. I think too, like I I'm just saying like, these are people that like really when they feel something, they feel really entitled to just like trash it. Or I think the, the, maybe the rest of us are so busy surviving. We don't write nice reviews. I don't know. But I started to write good reviews because I realized that for people, for people in that are trying to make projects, whether it's in the arts or not that it actually matters that the rest of us speak up because those voices, like you're saying don't need to be the loudest. Cause they're not, they're not the only voices out there. There's this is people that take the time to click away. Same with the guy who ran the time to use his time to write me a nasty,Chisa Hutchinson (1h 10m 17s):You know, like they're, they, they have a sense of self-importance that I think the rest of us not. And I'm just like, ah,Jen Bosworth-Ramirez (1h 10m 27s):Right, right. So I think the way to counter it is for the rest of us to start for me anyway. Cause I'm, I'm guilty too, of like not when something is great, not saying like, Hey, I love this product. Even if it's a candle, like we have a friend that makes candles, you know, and Gina, you posted about it. That matters. That's that? It's like, I got to take time out of my day, even though I'm busy hustling and all this stuff to like support the things that I do, like so that the loud, loud ass, old white dudes, don't just get to have the whole market cornered on reviews, like come on or whatever. So I think,Chisa Hutchinson (1h 11m 7s):You know, to bark the thing that I like out of existence, right? Like, because that is a thing that can happen too, when there's a perception that like, oh, well nobody wants this. Right. But the only people who have been, you know, it'sJen Bosworth-Ramirez (1h 11m 22s):And it's like, oh, this movie, this movie, or this project or whatever didn't do well, no, no, it actually did fine. It was just that the people that were screaming the loudest and felt entitled to scream, you know, people, we think that we give them importance. So it's like, we have to take back the, the importance of like, you know, the other voices it's just goes about like other voices in the room that aren't, aren't being heard.Chisa Hutchinson (1h 11m 45s):People kno
“Sacred Stage: Talks with Native Playwrights and Artists” – an in-depth series of interviews with Indigenous activist, artist, actors/actresses, playwrights and more about their legacy work and how their activism intersects with Indigeneity and the contribution across and within Indigenous and non-Indigenous arts. Special Guest Co-Host for today is Albert “Abby” Ybarra (Yaqui Nation). Guest: Ryan Victor Pierce, "Opalanietet," is a member of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Nation of New Jersey. Upon graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Opalanietet has performed in workshops and productions at such renown New York theatrical institutions as New Dramatists, LaMaMa E.T.C. and New York City Opera at Lincoln Center. In 2012, Opalanietet founded Eagle Project, a theater company dedicated to exploring the American identity through the performing arts and our Native American heritage, http://www.eagleprojectarts.org. Through his leadership, Eagle Project has collaborated with and performed at the Public Theater, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and Ashtar Theater in Palestine. In April of 2020, Eagle Project collaborated with the American Indian Community House of New York City and First Nations Theatre Guild to create Native Theatre Thursdays, a virtual reading series of new Native work.
Every month, we pick a play or two to discuss, and this week's episode is a play called "The Two Kids That Blow Shit" by Carla Ching. We discuss what we noticed, what we liked, and questions that came up while reading the play. SPOILER ALERT: There are going to be some spoiler alerts! We highly recommend you read the play before listening to this episode! About the Play: Here's what the play's about which you can read on New Play Exchange: ”As kids, Max and Diana meet on their parents' date, then are kicked out of the house so their parents can get it on. They are forced to play together even though they aren't really that fond of each other. Through over two decades of their parents' tumultuous relationship of getting together, breaking up, getting married and then divorced, Max and Diana are perpetually forced together and become the most unlikely of friends. They see each other through their own marriages and divorces, rehabs and spin-outs, career rejiggerings and epic life fails. But when they actually fall into each other, will they lose the only family they've ever known? A play about falling in and out of love with your best friend.” About the Playwright: An LA native, Carla Ching's other plays include Revenge Porn or the Story of a Body, Nomad Motel, Fast Company, and The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness. Just to name a few-- her full-length plays have been produced or workshopped by Artists at Play, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor, Center Theater Group, The Lark Play Development Center, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, The National New Play Network Showcase of New Plays, and The O'Neill Playwrights Conference. She is a member of New Dramatists and founding member of The Kilroys. Carla wrote on USA's Graceland, AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, Amazon's I Love Dick, Apple's Home Before Dark and the forthcoming Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-created by Francesca Sloane, Phoebe Waller Bridge and Donald Glover. She is currently developing a new project with Netflix. Glistens: Cho - Took a trip to Michigan. Met Nik's extended family. Mosquito bites all over my face… cool. Sam - Walden by Amy Berryman at Theatreworks Hartford ____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode with your friends or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com Theme Music: "Live Like the Kids" by Samuel Johnson, Laura Robertson, Luke O'Dea (APRA) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/beckettsbabies/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/beckettsbabies/support
(S5, EP 7) Trigger Warning: Episode will contain topics on personal Anti-Asian violence. Queer Khmer American playwright Vichet Chum joins me as part of Season 5's "Our Becoming: An LGBTQ Asian Experience" for this week's episode. This episode was recorded back in April 15th during Khmer New Year's. We talk about the ongoing anti-Asian violence and his family's own experience with anti-Asian racism as a child. We discussed the controversy with VICE News and the Tuol Sleng Prison photo controversy, and how cultural appropriation and colonizing harms our Khmer community to learn history and begin the healing process. Vichet shares his excitement over his upcoming plays that he's working on, and the goals that he seeks to amplify the Cambodian-American experience. Check out this episode and follow Vichet on IG @vichetchum . Bio: Vichet Chum is a Cambodian-American playwright and theater maker, originally from Dallas, Texas and now living in New York City. His plays have been workshopped at Steppenwolf Theatre, the Magic Theater, the Alley Theatre, the UCROSS Foundation, Fault Line Theatre, Crowded Outlet, Second Generation Productions, Weston Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, All For One Theater, Amios, Florida State University, Merrimack Repertory Theatre and the New Harmony Project. He received the 2018-19 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting with New Dramatists and is a current board member for the New Harmony Project. Vichet was a part of the 2019-20 Resident Working Farm Group at Space on Ryder Farm, the 2020 Interstate 73 Writer's Group at Page 73 and the 2020 Ars Nova Play Group. In the 2022/23 season, his plays High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest will have its world premiere at the Alley Theatre and Bald Sisters will have its world premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He is a proud graduate of the University of Evansville (BFA) and Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company (MFA). He's represented by Beth Blickers at APA. vichetchum.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/banhmichronicles/support
Napping is a portal. Carolina Đỗ is an actor, playwright, producer and proud daughter of Vietnamese freedom fighters and refugees. She's a community organizer and advocate for art that facilitates healing in marginalized communities. Broadway: NYT's Critics' Pick LINDA VISTA (u/s), GRAND HORIZONS (u/s). She's worked with numerous NYC theater companies, including: PlayCo, The Tank, New Dramatists, New Collectives. Her play, MY MOTHER'S DAUGHTER, was a semifinalist for Space on Ryder Farm and a 2020 finalist for BRICLab. Co-founder & co-Artistic Leader of The Sống Collective. @carolinakaydo, www.carolinado.com
In today's episode, Divinia chats with Will Arbery (he/him). Will's bio: "Will Arbery is a playwright from Texas + Wyoming + seven sisters. His play Heroes of the Fourth Turning was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and the winner of an OBIE for Playwriting, the Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the John Gassner Playwriting Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. He's also the recipient of a Whiting Award for Drama. Other plays: Plano (Clubbed Thumb), Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (New Neighborhood), and Wheelchair (3 Hole Press). Commissions: Playwrights Horizons, Audible, MTC. He's a member/alum of New Dramatists, The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Page 73's Interstate 73, Colt Coeur, Youngblood, and Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers Group. New plays: Corsicana (dir. Sam Gold, developed at Playwrights Horizons/Ojai), and You Hateful Things (developed at The Public/NYTW/SPACE on Ryder Farm). He is currently developing a slate of film/TV projects at HBO, A24, BBC Films, Sight Unseen, and Hulu. MFA: Northwestern. BA: Kenyon College." Will's website: http://willarbery.com/ (http://willarbery.com/) Host: Divinia Shorter Producer: Jacob Zeranko Charity of Choice: Creativity Explored. For more information, check out their website: https://www.creativityexplored.org/ (https://www.creativityexplored.org/) Follow us! Twitter: @greatestcityco Instagram: @greatestcityco Facebook: @greatestcityco Website: https://www.greatestcitycollective.org/ (https://www.greatestcitycollective.org/)
Andres is an actor/writer/director teacher born in Colombia and raised in Miami. On TV, he has been a guest on New Amsterdam, Fear the Walking Dead, and the upcoming final episode of Queen of the South. He lives in Hillsborough, NC with his wife and two kids, and in this episode, he shares how he made it in the acting world, how it helped him overcome social anxiety, and lessons he's learned on using boredom positively. He has taught at Fordham University and currently teaches playwriting through Manhattan Theater Club. He is a recipient of a TCG/Fox Foundation Fellowship at Cornerstone Theater Company and a Bowden Award from New Dramatists for his contributions to new plays developed by Sung Rno, Michael John Garces, Chiori Miyagawa and many others. At the Lark Play Development Center, he worked on plays by Rajiv Joseph, Lynn Nottage, and Kristoffer Diaz. His film work has been seen at Tribeca Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival. Andres holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College and will be directing Noé Morales Muñoz's tentatively titled Tales and Shrapnel at Elon University this fall. You can see his work at https://www.andresmunar.net/.
Thomas Sadoski, Thomas Mazziotti and Face2face host David Peck talk about The Mimic, socio-paths, loss, the old school, mental health issues, rapid fire dialogue, and why you need to keep ringing the bell.TrailerFind out more about the film here.Synopsis:Based on a true story, this clever, intriguing, and hyperbolic comedy follows the main character - the Narrator (Thomas Sadoski) who is befriended by his young new neighbor 'the Kid’ (Jake Robinson), after he joins the local newspaper team. Obsessed with the idea that the Kid may be a sociopath, the Narrator goes to extreme lengths to uncover the truth about him and his wife, a woman he ultimately begins to fancy.Between long walks down the street, a twisted dinner date, and a car drive gone terribly wrong, the Narrator gets closer and closer to the truth about the Kid. But the truth, as he finds, is anything but what he expected. "Sociopaths have been portrayed as a shady bunch up until now. Inspired by true events, this confrontational comedy explores the uncharted territory of the lighter side of a sociopath,” says Mazziotti. “I applaud Gravitas Ventures introducing audiences to an alternate character dynamic which has yet to be portrayed under comedic scrutiny on screen, yet he lives among us all.”About Thomas and Thomas:Thomas Sadoski will next star in the upcoming CBS series Tommy, which stars Edie Falco as the first female chief of police for Los Angeles. Equal parts political, procedural, and family drama, Tommy comes from Paul Attanasio, the creator of Bull and Homicide: Life on the Street. On the big screen, he was most recently featured alongside Shirley MacLaine and Amanda Seyfried in The Last Word, directed by Mark Pellington, and reprised his role as Jimmy in John Wick: Chapter Two, starring Keanu Reeves. He will next star in the independent comedy The Mimic, which also stars Jake Robinson, Gina Gershon and Jessica Walter, and will soon begin production opposite Lucy Liu in the romance drama, The Last Weekend in May, for director Matthew Lillard.A veteran of the stage, Sadoski most recently starred in the Public Theater production of the new Suzan-Lori Parks play, White Noise, directed by Oskar Eustis with Daveed Diggs. Over the course of his stage career, he has starred in and earned raves for his performances in a wide variety of Broadway and off-Broadway productions. His most recent New York stage appearance was opposite Amanda Seyfried in the off-Broadway production of Neil LaBute’s The Way We Get By. His previous collaboration with LaBute on reasons to be pretty earned Sadoski a nomination for a Tony Award in the Leading Actor Category, as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Award nominations. Sadoski’s other Broadway credits include Other Desert Cities for which he won an Obie Award, The House of Blue Leaves with Ben Stiller and Edie Falco, and Reckless, his Broadway debut opposite Mary-Louise Parker.Off-Broadway credits include Sam Mendes’s Bridge Project productions of As You Like It and The Tempest, Becky Shaw for which he won a Lucille Lortel Award, This is Our Youth with Mark Ruffalo, the world premiere of Elizabeth Merriweather’s The Mistakes Madeline Made, Gemini, Stay, Where We’re Born, Jump/Cut, All This Intimacy, and The General From America.Sadoski’s film credits include the critically-acclaimed film I Smile Back with Sarah Silverman and Josh Charles, the award-winning John Marc Vallee film Wild with Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, John Wick with Keanu Reeves, Take Care with Leslie Bibb, and many others.In addition to his role as Don Keefer on HBO’s Golden Globe-nominated Aaron Sorkin series The Newsroom and the hit CBS comedy Life in Pieces, his television credits include the NBC mini-series, The Slap, a recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and guest starring roles on and Ugly Betty, Law & Order: Criminal Intent. A graduate of Circle in the Square Theater School in New York City, Sadoski has worked extensively to help develop new theatrical works at New Dramatists, The Lark, The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center and the Sundance Institute.In his free time, he works closely with the organizations INARA and War Child, which work to support children affected by war. Sadoski resides in Los Angeles.Thomas Mazziotti started in television production at WPIX in New York before graduating both from college and into filmmaking at the same time. He attended the International Film and Television Workshops in Maine, as well as, Laguna Beach, CA.His first effort, The Beep, a 20-minute short film about a killer answering machine received theatrical distribution in N.Y. and L.A. due to a Fast Track article in New York magazine. This attention enabled him to option a play by Neil Bell performed at Playwrights Horizons in N.Y. and bring Sidney Lumet's producer on board to oversee the project. Undertow opened theatrically in N.Y. and garnished much attention due to its controversial subject matter of a young policeman entrapping a gay congressman on videotape. It stars Peter Dobson from Last Exit to Brooklyn.Tom then turned his attention to comedy and optioned a Canadian short story by Peter Sellers. Charlie Hoboken opened theatrically in N.Y. and stars Jennifer Esposito, Amanda Peet, Austin Pendleton, and Tovah Feldshuh. It tells the story of a fast-talking insurance salesman that makes ends meet by being a part-time hit man. The Mimic is Tom's third feature and first original screenplay. Based on a recent true story that happened to him, it reunited him with Austin Pendleton after 20 years. The stylized vision and rapid-fire dialogue enabled him to attract an all-star cast with strong theatrical backgrounds making it possible to shoot fourteen pages of dialogue in one day.Image Copyright and Credit: Thomas Mazziotti and Circus Road Films.F2F Music and Image Copyright: David Peck and Face2Face. Used with permission.For more information about David Peck’s podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.With thanks to Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"Love in the Time of Covid" is six short new plays written by Neva Hutchinson, Bridgette Dutta Portman, and Richard Talavera, produced by the St. Peter's Players, Redwood City. Player favorites Susan Mitchell, John McGill, Alejandro Mejia, Alec Braun and Roseannie Garraud will be appearing, along with Ruth Anne Lambert, Julie Lanesy and Paul Costello. Reserve your Zoom Seats: https://cutt.ly/LoveAndCovid ---Neva Hutchinson has acted in New York, Maine and the Bay Area in over 60 theater productions. She's worked with Francis Ford Coppola, Lee Sankowich, Kevin Malony and Libby Appel. In film, she's worked with Jon Voight and Will Smith. She's trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and with Richard Seyd and Wynn Handman. She recently appeared at the Phoenix Theater in San Francisco in "By The Waters of Babylon" by Robert Schenkkan. Presently, she's appearing in the lead role in "Raptured: the Disappearance and Discovery of Aimee Semple McPherson". Also, she can currently be seen as a dry cleaner in a Buster Posey Toyota commercial. ---Bridgette Dutta Portman is a playwright, teacher, and aspiring novelist in the San Francisco Bay Area. More than two dozen of her plays have been produced locally, nationally, and internationally. She is past president of the Playwrights' Center of San Francisco, was 2018 resident playwright at Custom Made Theatre Co., and is currently a member of Same Boat Theater Collective, the Pear Writers' Guild and the Dramatists' Guild. She has been a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights' Festival, the Theatre Bay Area TITAN award, the PlayPenn Conference, the Kentucky Women's Theatre Conference Prize for Women Writers, the New Dramatists playwrights' residency, and more. She holds a PhD in political science (UC Irvine, 2011) and an MFA in creative writing (Spalding University, 2018). She lives in Fremont, CA with her husband, their 6-year-old son, their baby daughter, and their very sweet dog Snickers. ___________________________________________________________ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts (Itunes) Green Room On Air Web Site: http://greenroomonair.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raysgreenroom/ Opening and Closing Music by Carly Ozard: http://carlyozard.com Contact Ray at Green Room on Air: greenroomonair@gmail.com
Karinne Keithley Syers & Melisa Tien talk about Active Listening, a New Dramatists podcast series that experiments with plays for the ear.
A teaser for Active Listening, a new audio series from New Dramatists, launching December 22, 2020.
Cats (the musical), letters written by 7 year olds, party planning and…Liam Neeson?! This week, we look at the career trajectory of a very talented fellow, Chris Morrissey. We take a gander at the ups and downs of being a young artist, from “knowing what you want to be when you grow up” to surviving a career in the arts in New York City. Chris explains the art of balancing a demanding, high profile marketing job, to creating his own content, and differentiation “professional growth” from “creative growth.” Here’s a little more on Chris:CHRIS MORRISSEY is a NYC-based live entertainment and digital media content producer, director and marketer. In each of these roles, Chris is dedicated to cultivating experiences that engage communities and ignite conversation. Chris is currently the Creative Manager at Marathon Digital, a social media and digital content company representing live entertainment clients including Hamilton, Hadestown, Ain’t Too Proud, Slave Play, Freestyle Love Supreme, Lea Salonga, Center Theatre Group, Atlantic Theater Company and numerous other Broadway shows, companies and influencers. Prior to joining Marathon, Chris served as the Manager of Events & Strategic Partnerships for Tony Award-winning producer Ken Davenport (Once On This Island, 2018 Tony Award for Best Revival). Chris has directed & produced numerous new plays and cabarets across New York including shows at Joe’s Pub, The NYC Fringe Festival, Feinstein’s / 54 Below, New Wave Theatre Collective, NY Short Play Fest and many others. He is a director and co-producer of the award-winning gay web series Queen's English. Chris was a teaching artist and assistant director at Northwestern University’s National High School Institute (Cherubs). He has been an adjudicator for Paper Mill Playhouse's Rising Star Awards and a script reader for New Dramatists. Chris is a graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) with a BFA in Musical Theatre and Public Relations Certification from the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences. Proud recipient of the Lehman Engel Award. Links from our episode: Chris’s Website: https://www.chrismorrisseycreates.com/ Queen’s English Website: https://www.queensenglishtv.com/Queen’s English Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCInBPS5kXGuvufm4Gb0qg3A If you wanted to know what the heck Sarah was talking about with female hormones/cycles, here’s what she was referring to: Everything is the Best- Dear Media, Pia Baroncini, Episode from July 29th- IF YOU HAVE FEMALE HORMONES, LISTEN TO THIS! w/ Alisa Vitti Follow our Instagram page @jackofalltrades_podcast for updates on guests and upcoming episodes! Song title: Strong Written by: Sarah Bishop Arranged and played by: Laura Lynn Crytzer
“When I encounter women who are antifeminist, it’s always disorienting to me. I don’t understand how you can be a successful, happy woman right now unless you are a feminist.” - Kara Lee Corthron Kara Lee Corthron is an author, playwright, and TV-writer based in Los Angeles. Her latest book is DAUGHTERS OF JUBILATION. She’s also the author of THE TRUTH OF RIGHT NOW, winner of the Parents’ Choice Gold Award. Her plays including WHAT ARE YOU WORTH?, WELCOME TO FEAR CITY, ALICEGRACEANON, and HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN, have been performed across the U.S. She writes for the TV drama-thrillers YOU (Netflix), THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT (HBO-Max), and M. Night Shyamalan's SERVANT (Apple TV+). She’s a multiyear MacDowell Fellow and a resident playwright at New Dramatists. Connect with Kara on her website, Instagram, or Twitter. Kara's book recommendation: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds Also mentioned: Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom Shop all our authors' books and book recommendations on our Bookshop.org page! -- Join the #FBCReadathon October 9-11! Sign up to be eligible for prizes. Check out our Read. Resist. Vote. series featuring progressive woman candidates. We donate 5% of all our sales to a different feminist organization each month. Our October charity is March of Dimes. Get $5 off your Feminist Book Club Box with the code PODCAST at feministbookclub.com/shop. Our October book of the month is THE YEAR OF THE WITCHING by Alexis Henderson, who will be joining us for our discussion! -- Website: http://www.feministbookclub.com Instagram: @feministbookclubbox Twitter: @fmnstbookclub Facebook: /feministbookclubbox Pinterest: feministbookclub Goodreads: Renee // Feminist Book Club Box and Podcast Email newsletter: http://bit.ly/FBCemailupdates Bookshop.org shop: Feminist Book Club Bookshop -- This podcast is produced on the native land of the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples. Logo and web design by Shatterboxx Editing support from Phalin Oliver Original music by @iam.onyxrose
Burning Coal Theatre presentsThe 19th Amendment Project, a collection of short plays written by some of the most accomplished women and/or non-binary playwrights working today, writing on the passage of the 19th Amendment 100 years ago and its ongoing impact. The League of Women Voters of Wake County is co-producing this project. For a complete schedule of events and ticket information visit https://burningcoal.org/ (https://burningcoal.org/). About the Guests Dianna Wynn joined the League of Women Voters in 2014 and has served on the LWV-Wake Board since 2015. In addition to serving as LWV-Wake’s president, she co-chairs the Communications Committee, co-chairs the Redistricting Committee, co-chairs the 100th Anniversary Committee, co-facilitated the development of LWV-Wake’s strategic plan, and is a member of several other LWV-Wake committees. Dianna is a communication consultant, textbook author, and a former college professor. For over 30 years Dianna provided communication skills training and assisted in developing strategic messaging strategies for corporate clients and nonprofit organizations. In addition, she has provided advocacy training to litigators, Department of Justice employees, college students, and citizen activists. She has an MS in Communication and Public Address from the University of North Texas and a BA in Speech Communication with a minor in Political Science from California State University Fullerton. Dianna previously served on the Board and as President of the ACLU of North Carolina. She also previously served on the Board of Artspace in Raleigh. Jerome Davis is Burning Coal Theatre Company’s founding artistic director. He has worked at Trinity Repertory Company (Providence), People’s Light & Theatre Company (PA), New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Phoenix Theatre (SUNY/Purhchase), Wellfleet Harbor Actors’ Theatre (Cape Cod), Columbia University, and Soho Rep, New Dramatists, Avalon Rep and MINT Theatre (NYC). Originally from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, he studied in New York with Uta Hagen, Nikos Psacharapolous and Julie Bovasso. He has presented more than two dozen world premieres, providing Raleigh audiences with stimulating new works by local, national and international playwrights and is the recipient of the 2018 Raleigh Medal of the Arts. Hannah Benitez is a writer, actor and musician managed by Writ Large (LA) and represented by Elaine Devlin Literary Inc (NYC). Upcoming Feature Film (Screenplay & supporting character): El Baptismo with Vanguardia Films in Puerto Rico. Upcoming Playwright Productions: GringoLandia with Zoetic Stage, End of the Exodus with New Mexico State University, and The 19th- Burning Coal Theatre. Other recent productions of Hannah’s plays: Dike - developed with The New York Theatre Workshop as Director Tatiana Pandiani’s 2050 Fellowship Project & developmental production with Urbanite Theatre. Ashe In Johannesburg- commission and premiere Burning Coal Theatre. Adaptive Radiation-world premiere Denizen Theater New Paltz, NY. Novel in development: Trains to Hell Go Faster. As an actor/musician Hannah’s select credits include The Album (Tectonic Theatre Project; NYC development, directed by Moisés Kauffman ), Humira-Commercial (Lead-Drummer), Indecent – GableStage, A Fiddler On The Roof – freeFall Theatre, Dogfight - Slowburn Theater, Loves Labor’s Lost - Montana Shakespeare, among others. She’s the recipient of the Playwright Development Grant Program, New Plays on Campus Award, and featured in American Theatre Magazine as one of "6 Theatre Workers You Should Know”. She is a member of Actors Equity and the Dramatist Guild. @hannahbenitezzz Tamara Kissane is a theatre-creator, actor, director, playwright, workshop leader and coach. She is a podcaster for Artist Soapbox, and a founding member and writer... Support this podcast
Damon Kiely is a professional director and writer, as well as a full time professor of directing and acting for DePaul's Theatre School. He has directed for Next Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, A Red Orchid Theatre, American Blues Theatre, Chicago Dramatists and Route 66. His world premiere adaptation of Thieves Like Us was produced by the House Theatre of Chicago and the Theatre School. He served as the Artistic Director of American Theater Company from 2002 to 2007. Prior to moving back to Chicago he produced, directed and taught in New York City. In New York he directed for the Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the Ontological Theater, Adobe Theater Company, PS122, Ensemble Studio Theater and New Dramatists. Damon also served as the Artistic Director for Real Time Theater and was a Producing Director at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater as well as the Associate Artistic Director for the Children's Theater of Maine. He is a winner of the 2000-02 NEA/TCG Career Directing Program, the 2000 Drama League Fall Directing Program and the 1997 Princess Grace Award. He lives in Edgewater with his wife Jennifer and their children, Isabella and Finnegan.
Samuel D. Hunter’s plays include The Whale (Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, GLAAD Media Award, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play), A Bright New Boise (Obie Award, Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), The Few, A Great Wilderness, Rest, Pocatello, Lewiston, Clarkston, and most recently, The Healing and The Harvest. He is the recipient of a 2014 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, a 2012 Whiting Writers Award, the 2013 Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, the 2011 Sky Cooper Prize, the 2008 PONY/Lark Fellowship, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Idaho. His plays have been produced in New York at Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Clubbed Thumb and Page 73, and around the country at such theaters as Seattle Rep, South Coast Rep, Victory Gardens, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Old Globe, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, Marin Theater Company, and elsewhere. Samuel's work has been developed at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, Seven Devils, and PlayPenn. A published anthology of his work, including The Whale and A Bright New Boise, is available from TCG books. He is a member of New Dramatists, an Ensemble Playwright at Victory Gardens, a member of Partial Comfort Productions, and was a 2013 Resident Playwright at Arena Stage. A native of northern Idaho, Sam lives in Inwood, NYC. He holds degrees in playwriting from NYU, The Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and Juilliard. Watch for new Inwood Art Works On Air episodes! Live N' Local episodes drop the first Thursday of each month, and Artist Spotlight episodes drop two weeks later. Subscribe so you don't miss a thing! And please, show local artists (and us!) some love by leaving some stars and a review on Apple Podcasts. Inwood Art Works On Air is produced by Inwood Art Works. If you would like to support this this podcast by setting up a $2 to $20 monthly tax-deductible donation to Inwood Art Works please visit www.inwoodartworks.nyc/support/donate-now. If you would like to feature your small business and support Inwood Art Works On Air by sponsoring an episode, contact us. Corporate and neighborhood small business sponsorships are available; email info@inwooodartworks.nyc for more info.
Revolution, An Artistic Explosion is an exploration of what it means to be an artist and what happens when different forms come together and try to make their voices heard.JESSICA ‘JES’ WASHINGTON is a New York City based actress, dancer, and writer; born and raised in Memphis, TN. She has a true love for storytelling. She is currently receiving her MFA at the Actors Studio Drama School in New York City. Theater credits: Lena in Who Will Sing For Lena, a one-woman show with huge acclaim; performed along the east coast. Awards include: Best Lead Actress in a Drama (3x), People’s Choice, Best Overall Production, winner of AACT National Festival 2019. Procne in Love of the Nightingale, Francine/Lena in Clybourne Park, forwarding an EMACT nomination: Best Supporting Actress in a Drama. Independent film credits: Riley (lead) in feature Uprising, Ealey in action short MAAT (lead), Jasmine in Even, and Young Belinda Royale in Half the History: Belinda Royale Story. Voice Over credits: Isabelle Powell in Greater Boston, becoming winner of Best Supporting Actress in Audio Drama.Anel Carmona is a Mexican actor and playwright based in NYC. She has performed in dozens of plays in both countries including Tales of the White Mountain (Rising Sun Performance Theatre), Catch me in America (Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble), and Ti Jean and His Brothers (Ma’s Playhouse). Her favorite writing credits include Adios Fjord (Off-Broadway), Chocolate en la Estación (Guadalajara, Mexico), and her play A seis pies de distancia was recently published in the Mexican Theatre anthology De Pandemia a Pandemonium. She holds a MFA in Playwriting by the Actors Studio Drama School and is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.Isabel Faith Billinghurst is a freshly-graduated Musical Theatre major from Otterbein University. They moved to NYC this January, and are very excited to hop into their first project here! Past credits include Laura in The Glass Menagerie (French Creek Theatre), Banquo in The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Diana in Next to Normal (Otterbein University). For some laughs, feel free to check out their co-hosting on Did You Find This Helpful? available wherever you listen to your podcasts. Isabelfaithbillinghurst.comMarcina Zaccaria is a Writer, Director, and Arts Administrator. Previous plays include "Village, My Home" performed at the Dream Up Festival at Theater for the New City, and "All About Image/ We Are The Elite" performed at the Fringe Festival in NYC. Monologues from "A Digital Stratosphere Platform for Peace" have been read at Dixon Place and on Salon Radio. Also, the "The Body Politic" and "On Becoming a Mermaid" were available on Amazon. She has directed readings and plays in venues that include New Dramatists, Theaterlab, HERE Arts Center, 13th Street Repertory Company, Soho Rep, Dance Theater Workshop, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Arts administration experience includes Audience Services work at the Roundabout, and providing support for the Executive Director/ Contemporary Programming at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. She is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She has reviewed plays and musicals at TheaterPizzaz.com. Clips can be found on Twitter, Her theater articles have been published in The Theatre Times, Howl Round, and The Brooklyn Rail. https://marcinazac.weebly.com/ CHRISTINA ROSE ASHBY is an Alaskan theater artist living in Brooklyn. She is the founding artistic director of Permafrost Theatre Collective. Christina specializes in new work creation and the reimagining of classics. Christina conceived and directed PTC’s production of Are You Alice: A New Wonderland Tale, a classic reimagining that had several short runs in New York City and made its international debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August of 2019. Select past credits include “Lack of Milk,” “Lost Sock Laundromat Astoria Queens” and “Suspicion Obsession Paranoia Marriage,” all by frequent collaborator Ivan Faute; “Living With an Angel,” a semi-autobiographical clown fantasia by Catherine Restivo-Romito; “Life is a Dream: a New Vintage” by Calderon and adapted by Annie R. Such; and “A Bright Room Called Day” by Tony Kushner. MFA in directing from the Actors Studio Drama School. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @christinaroseashby. www.christinaashby.net
Revolution, An Artistic Explosion is an exploration of what it means to be an artist and what happens when different forms come together and try to make their voices heard.JESSICA ‘JES’ WASHINGTON is a New York City based actress, dancer, and writer; born and raised in Memphis, TN. She has a true love for storytelling. She is currently receiving her MFA at the Actors Studio Drama School in New York City. Theater credits: Lena in Who Will Sing For Lena, a one-woman show with huge acclaim; performed along the east coast. Awards include: Best Lead Actress in a Drama (3x), People’s Choice, Best Overall Production, winner of AACT National Festival 2019. Procne in Love of the Nightingale, Francine/Lena in Clybourne Park, forwarding an EMACT nomination: Best Supporting Actress in a Drama. Independent film credits: Riley (lead) in feature Uprising, Ealey in action short MAAT (lead), Jasmine in Even, and Young Belinda Royale in Half the History: Belinda Royale Story. Voice Over credits: Isabelle Powell in Greater Boston, becoming winner of Best Supporting Actress in Audio Drama.Anel Carmona is a Mexican actor and playwright based in NYC. She has performed in dozens of plays in both countries including Tales of the White Mountain (Rising Sun Performance Theatre), Catch me in America (Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble), and Ti Jean and His Brothers (Ma’s Playhouse). Her favorite writing credits include Adios Fjord (Off-Broadway), Chocolate en la Estación (Guadalajara, Mexico), and her play A seis pies de distancia was recently published in the Mexican Theatre anthology De Pandemia a Pandemonium. She holds a MFA in Playwriting by the Actors Studio Drama School and is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.Isabel Faith Billinghurst is a freshly-graduated Musical Theatre major from Otterbein University. They moved to NYC this January, and are very excited to hop into their first project here! Past credits include Laura in The Glass Menagerie (French Creek Theatre), Banquo in The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Diana in Next to Normal (Otterbein University). For some laughs, feel free to check out their co-hosting on Did You Find This Helpful? available wherever you listen to your podcasts. Isabelfaithbillinghurst.comMarcina Zaccaria is a Writer, Director, and Arts Administrator. Previous plays include "Village, My Home" performed at the Dream Up Festival at Theater for the New City, and "All About Image/ We Are The Elite" performed at the Fringe Festival in NYC. Monologues from "A Digital Stratosphere Platform for Peace" have been read at Dixon Place and on Salon Radio. Also, the "The Body Politic" and "On Becoming a Mermaid" were available on Amazon. She has directed readings and plays in venues that include New Dramatists, Theaterlab, HERE Arts Center, 13th Street Repertory Company, Soho Rep, Dance Theater Workshop, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Arts administration experience includes Audience Services work at the Roundabout, and providing support for the Executive Director/ Contemporary Programming at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. She is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She has reviewed plays and musicals at TheaterPizzaz.com. Clips can be found on Twitter, Her theater articles have been published in The Theatre Times, Howl Round, and The Brooklyn Rail. https://marcinazac.weebly.com/ CHRISTINA ROSE ASHBY is an Alaskan theater artist living in Brooklyn. She is the founding artistic director of Permafrost Theatre Collective. Christina specializes in new work creation and the reimagining of classics. Christina conceived and directed PTC’s production of Are You Alice: A New Wonderland Tale, a classic reimagining that had several short runs in New York City and made its international debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August of 2019. Select past credits include “Lack of Milk,” “Lost Sock Laundromat Astoria Queens” and “Suspicion Obsession Paranoia Marriage,” all by frequent collaborator Ivan Faute; “Living With an Angel,” a semi-autobiographical clown fantasia by Catherine Restivo-Romito; “Life is a Dream: a New Vintage” by Calderon and adapted by Annie R. Such; and “A Bright Room Called Day” by Tony Kushner. MFA in directing from the Actors Studio Drama School. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @christinaroseashby. www.christinaashby.net
follow Carolina: @carolinakaydo follow Adrián: @adrian.burke follow La Mezcla: @lamezclapod About Carolina: Carolina Do is an actor, playwright, producer. She is a firm believer in, and advocate for, art to address and activate change in the community it serves. Co-founder of The Sống Collective. Broadway: Tracy Lett's Linda Vista and Bess Wohl's Grand Horizons. NYC theater: Loading Dock, The Tank, New Dramatists, Primary Stages, The Flea. TV/Film: FBI: Most Wanted, Children of The Dust, Catfight, Queens The Series. Her play, My Mother's Daughter was recently a semifinalist for Space on Ryder Farm and a finalist for BRICLab. www.carolinado.com Upcoming: Collective Stories, May 20th @8pm ET, Streaming Live on Youtube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Anne Washburn's plays include Mr. Burns, The Internationalist, A Devil At Noon, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, I Have Loved Strangers, The Ladies, The Small and a transadaptation of Euripides' Orestes. Her work has been produced by 13P, Actors Theater of Louisville, American Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Folger, London's Gate Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, NYC's Soho Rep, DC's Studio Theater, Two River Theater Company, NYC's Vineyard and Woolly Mammoth. Awards include a Guggenheim, a NYFA Fellowship, a Time Warner Fellowship, Susan Smith Blackburn finalist, and residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. She is an associated artist with The Civilians, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, and is an alumna of New Dramatists and 13P. Currently commissioned by MTC, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, and Yale Rep. Anne's most recent, Shipwreck, just had its U.S. premiere at the Woolly Mammoth in Washington, D.C.
COME TO OUR LIVE SHOW AT CAVEAT IN MANHATTAN: https://www.caveat.nyc/event/la-mezcla--3-19-2020 follow us on IG and Facebook: @lamezclapod follow Adrian: @adrian.burke Andrea Thome is a Chilean/Costa Rican-American playwright. Her play Pinkolandia received the Lark Play Development Center's Launching New Plays fellowship and a rolling world premiere at INTAR, Austin's Salvage Vanguard Theater, Two River Theater (NJ), and 16th Street Theater (Chicago). For the Public Theater, Thome created Troy with Public Works' ACTivate Ensemble. Her plays include Undone (Queens College, Victory Gardens, Lark), Worm Girl (Cherry Red Productions) and her play translations have been produced by the Public, CTG, La Jolla Playhouse and others. Thome co-directs FULANA, an all-Latina satire collective, has directed the Lark's Mexico-U.S. Playwright Exchange Program since 2006, and teaches theater at SUNY Purchase. Residencies include Blue Mountain Center, MacDowell, SPACE on Ryder Farm and Keen Company. She was a New Dramatists resident from 2009-2016. Andrea teaches theater at SUNY Purchase college. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Playwright Chisa Hutchinson stopped by the studio to chat about her experience from her first play, She Like Girls, to her latest, Proof of Love, that was commissioned and produced by Audible. Chisa has worked with The Lark Play Development Center, New Dramatists, Keen Company, Penumbra, Primary Stages, Writers Theatre of New Jersey, NJPAC, and she's currently teaching creative writing at Delaware University and three film projects in development. Also, we had a special guest, her dog Smitty, you get to hear a little from him as well.
Next up at PTC is "Mary Stuart" by Jean Stock Goldstone and John Reich (derived from the text of Friedrich Schiller). Director Shelley Butler talks about how she approaches political intrigue, how she prepares for historical dramas, and about the manufacture of narrative in Elizabethan times and today. **SHELLEY BUTLER (Director) recent productions include the world premieres of Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2 at South Coast Repertory and helming the Japanese premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo. She has developed over two dozen new plays and musicals at companies including Ars Nova, Primary Stages, E.S.T., WP Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, South Coast Repertory, Denver Center Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Geva, New York Stage and Film, The Playwright’s Realm, Keen Company, New Dramatists, and the Lark. She spent two seasons as artistic associate in charge of new play development for Hartford Stage and three seasons as artistic associate for Great Lakes Theater Festival. Upcoming: Arcadia for South Coast Repertory.Support the show (https://www.pioneertheatre.org/donate/)
This week's CitySpeaks podcast features Pittsburgh City Theatre's Director of New Play Development, Clare Drobot, in conversation with director Michael John Garcés and playwright James McManus. Michael John Garcés has been an ensemble member at Cornerstone since 2006, where he's written plays including Magic Fruit, the "bridge" project of the multi-year Hunger Cycle which brought together the many communities of the cycle; Consequence, out of story circles with students, teachers, administrators and parents in South Kern County; Los Illegals, created in residence with communities of day laborers and domestic workers; and The Forked Path, a collaboration with Stut Theatre and the Van der Hoeven Kliniek in the Netherlands, which was performed at the Net Even Anders Festival in Utrecht and The International Community Arts Festival in Rotterdam. Directing credits at other theaters include Wrestling Jerusalem by Aaron Davidman (premiere at Intersection for the Arts; other productions include The Guthrie Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre and Mosaic Theatre), The Arsonists by Max Frisch (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company), District Merchants by Aaron Posner (The Folger Theatre), and Seven Spots on the Sun by Martín Zimmerman (The Theatre @ Boston Court). Michael is a recipient of the Rockwood Arts and Culture Fellowship, the Princess Grace Statue, the Alan Schneider Director Award, a TCG/New Generations Grant, the Non-Profit Excellence Award from the Center of Non-Profit Management, is a Southern California Leadership Network Fellow and a proud alumnus of New Dramatists. He serves as vice president of the executive board of SDC, the theatrical union for stage directors and choreographers. James McManus is the author of ten plays, which have been developed and performed at La Jolla Playhouse, Cornerstone Theater Company, Labyrinth Theater Company, The Road Theatre, Dell’Arte International, Working Theater, Apothecary Theatre Company, The Clockwork Theatre, Glass Umbrella Creative (Sydney), Revolt Theatre (Melbourne), New Dramatists, The Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Barebones Productions, Irish Repertory Theatre, Son of Semele, The Side Project Theatre Company, The Lark Play Development Center and the August Wilson Center for African American Culture. James was the recipient of the Princess Grace Award in Playwriting for Cherry Smoke, which is published by Samuel French. He has also received the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award and is a proud alumnist of New Dramatists. Thanks for listening to Pittsburgh City Theatre's CitySpeaks podcast. Get tickets here: https://citytheatrecompany.org/ Listen to more City Speaks here: https://postindustrial.com/
Episode 3 of City Theatre's CitySpeaks podcast features City Theatre's Clare Drobot in conversation with Lauren Yee, whose play, Cambodian Rock Band, with music by Dengue Fever, premiered at South Coast Rep. and is now at City Theatre on Pittsburgh's Southside.Get your tickets here: https://citytheatre.culturaldistrict.org/production/62854/cambodian-rock-band Lauren and Clare discuss life as a playwright, and how research and a trip to Cambodia inspired an incredible story.More about Lauren: Subsequent productions of Cambodian Rock Band have appeared at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Merrimack Rep, Signature Theatre, Portland Center Stage, and Jungle Theatre. Yee's play The Great Leap, has been produced at the Denver Center, Seattle Repertory, Atlantic Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Arts Club, and InterAct Theatre, with future productions at Steppenwolf, Long Wharf, and Asolo Rep. Honors include the Doris Duke Artists Award, Whiting Award, Steinberg/ATCA Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters literature award, Horton Foote Prize, Kesselring Prize, Primus Prize, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton, and the #1 and #2 plays on the 2017 Kilroys List. She’s a Residency 5 playwright at Signature Theatre, New Dramatists members, Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab member, and Playwrights Realm alumni playwright. TV credits include: PACHINKO (Apple) and SOUNDTRACK (Netflix). Current commissions include Geffen Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Second Stage, South Coast Rep. She received her bachelor's degree from Yale. MFA: UCSD. laurenyee.com
Two phenomenal artist-activists for social justice and the human rights of trans, nonbinary and gender nonconforming (GNC) folks, Ianne Fields Stewart and Maybe Burke, join us to talk about the pervasive experiences of sexual violence and gender oppression within their communities, and ideas that help support healing. Ianne Fields Stewart is a Black queer nonbinary transfeminine New York-based storyteller working at the intersection of theatre and activism. Their work and she are dedicated to interrupting the exclusivity of luxury by making things like entertainment, nourishment, and self care accessible to the most marginalized in their community. In a world that is constantly traumatizing Black bodies she believes that Black queer and trans people should have the space and time to center collective emotional, physical, and sensual pleasure. Ianne is also the founder of The Okra Project which hires Black Trans chefs to cook healthy and culturally specific meals for Black Trans People in their homes or community centers if they’re experiencing homelessness. Most recently, Ianne was named by Gay Star News as one of the 21 non-binary artists including Ezra Miller and Indya Moore who are redefining gender.Maybe Burke s a New York based actor, writer, and human rights advocate interested in telling the stories that haven't been told. Their work has been seen at Joe's Pub, Lincoln Center, Cherry Lane Theatre, Ars Nova, New Dramatists, HERE Arts Center, The NYC LGBTQ Center, and more. Their solo show, Love Letters to Nobody, received the 2017 Fresh Fruit Spirit Award for Fostering Pride, Survival, History, and Progress and earned them a nomination for the 2018 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. Maybe and Ianne are co-founders of the Topics Include Podcast, available on Apple and everywhere.The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted by Hope Singsen--the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival in NYC this Spring. You can watch Maybe Burke's work from the Festival on the episode details page. While there, you can also link to other #HealMeToo Festival performance videos, and sign up on our email list to hear about future pop-up #HealMeToo Festival events.Subscribe now. Let's talk about how we can #HealMeToo.Find the #HealMeToo Podcast on Apple Podcasts at bit.ly/hm2pod. Or visit healmetoopodcast.com to find links to other platforms.The recording facilities and engineer for this episode were provided through the generous support of Fr. James Hauver, Pastor of St. Columba Church, and Fr. Walter Niebrzydowski of The Fr. Walter Outreach, inc., a nonprofit organization working to repair the effects of sexual violence and gender oppression. You can learn more about their mission to promote the true, the good, and the beautiful through spirituality, media, and technology at fatherwaltersparish.org.Recorded & Engineered by Corey KaupEdited by Hope SingsenMusic performed by Micah Burgess:If I Can by Hope Singsen & Dillon KondorRockabye by Hope Singsen, Dillon Kondor & Micah BurgessGorgeoSupport the show (https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/healmetoo-festival)
Gordon Dahlquist is an American playwright and novelist. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Dahlquist has lived and worked in New York City since 1988. His plays, which include Messalina and Delirium Palace (both Garland Playwriting Award winners), have been performed in New York and Los Angeles. Graduate of Reed College and Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists. Dahlquist's debut novel The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, a hybrid of fantasy and sci-fi set in a period similar to the Victorian era, was published on August 1, 2006, to notable critical acclaim.
In this episode, I interview Michael Hollinger, who is a successful playwright based in Philadelphia. We dive into his exciting journey in the arts, the complexities involved in creating dynamic characters for the stage, as well as the importance of human relationships. Be sure to check out Michael's website and learn more about his work at http://michaelhollinger.com/ Michael Hollinger’s plays include Under the Skin, Opus, Ghost-Writer, Tooth and Claw, Red Herring, Incorruptible, An Empty Plate in the Café Du Grand Boeuf, and the musical TouchTones (co-authored with composer Robert Maggio), all of which premiered at Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company and have variously been produced around the U.S., in New York City, and abroad (London, Paris, Tokyo, Athens, Poland and Slovenia). Plays premiered elsewhere include: Hope and Gravity at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre; Cyrano (translated, and co-adapted with Aaron Posner) at Washington’s Folger Theatre; Sing the Body Electric at Philadelphia’s Theatre Exile, and the musical A Wonderful Noise (co-authored with Vance Lehmkuhl) at Creede Rep. Awards include an ATCA/Steinberg New Play Citation, an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, a Mid-Atlantic Emmy, four Barrymore Awards, nominations for Lucille Lortel and John Gassner awards, and multiple fellowships from the Independence Foundation and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Michael is a Professor of Theatre at Villanova University, Artistic Director of Villanova Theatre, and a proud alumnus of New Dramatists. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/relate-patrick-mcandrew/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/relate-patrick-mcandrew/support
Julia Jordan is an American playwright, television writer, and screenwriter. Her plays include St. Paul, Nightswim, Summer Of The Swans, Tatjana in Color, Dark Yellow, and Walk Two Moons. In 2000, her short film "The Hat", debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Her second short won best short film at the Jackson Hole Film Festival in 2008. She is a Lortel Fellow, Juilliard Playwright Fellow, Manhattan Theater Club Fellow, Member of the Dramatists Guild of America Council and New Dramatists. She is a founder and the executive director of The Lillys, created in 2010 to honor female playwrights and address the shortage of plays by women that get produced in America. She founded The Lillys and has been instrumental in The Count. Don’t know what The Count is? Well, listen in and hear her tell you in her own words, as well as . . . How the most important thing her first writing teacher did was NOT discuss the quality of her work. What a Pulitzer Prize winner told her to do with her main character to get her play produced . . . and it worked . . . unfortunately (you’ll hear why). Why she thinks about her audience when she writes. What Broadway means to her . . . and why she doesn’t care if her work gets there. (Which will probably be why she DOES get there, btw.) The shocking statistics about gender in the theater and how she is helping change that (and what you can do to help). This episode of The Producer’s Perspective Podcast is sponsored by Daniel Rader Photo. Daniel Rader is available for production photos, events, and headshots.” Check him out/Reach out to him – www.danielraderphoto.com / @danielraderphoto on Instagram. Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway www.theproducersperspective.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ntozake Shange was a playwright, poet, activist and dancer. As a self-proclaimed black feminist, she addressed intersectional issues of race, gender, sexuality, and activism in much of her work. Shange was born Paulette Linda Williams in Trenton, NJ on October 18, 1948; she died in her sleep on October 27, 2018, aged 70, in Bowie, Maryland. Ntozake Shange was best known for the Obie Award-winning play, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. Publications: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf (Shameless Hussy Press, 1976) Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo (1982) Betsey Brown (St. Martin's Press, 1985) The Black Book (1986, with Robert Mapplethorpe). Liliane (1994) Among her numerous honors and awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund, a Pushcart Prize, the Barnard Medal of Honor, an honorary degree from Oberlin College, a certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, and several City Proclamations in honor of her work. In April 2016, Barnard College announced that it acquired Shange's archive. Movies: For Colored Girls, Whitewash, An Evening with Diana Ross (The Big Event) Her Plays include: From Okra to Greens/A Different Kinda Love Story (1983). Three views of Mt. Fuji (1987). First produced in San Francisco at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre; first New York production at the New Dramatists. Daddy Says (1989). Whitewash (1994). Children's books Coretta Scott (2009) Ellington Was Not a Street (2003) Float Like a Butterfly: Muhammad Ali, the Man Who Could Float Like a Butterfly and Sting Like a Bee (2002) Daddy Says (2003) Whitewash (1997 Guests: Carol Marie Webster, PhD. Dr. Webster is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life at Columbia University. She is also the conductor/Instructor/co-producer of AfrobeatRadio’s ongoing workshops on Critical Joy. Halifu Osumare PhD. Dr. Osumare is Professor Emerita in the Department of African American and African Studies (AAS) at University of California, Davis, and was the Director of AAS from 2011-2014. She has been a dancer, choreographer, arts administrator, and scholar of black popular culture for over forty years. Host: Wuyi Jacobs Credits Live broadcast 2018-11-07 on WBAI 99.5 FM, NYC Pacifica Radio #AfrobeatRadio #NtozakeShange.
Sol Project Artistic Director Jacob G. Padrón interviews playwright Charise Castro Smith and director Laurie Woolery about their Fall 2018 Sol Project production of El Huracán at Yale Repertory Theater, their artistic and professional journeys as Latinx women in the performing arts, and the power of artistry for community. Charise Castro Smith is a playwright, television writer, and actor originally from Miami. She is a recipient of a Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists and is an alumna of Ars Nova’s Play Group and The New Georges Jam. She holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama. Laurie Woolery is a director, playwright, educator, facilitator, producer and is currently the Director of Public Works at The Public Theater, an initiative that seeks to engage the people of New York by making them creators and not just spectators. Learn more about Laurie and her work at www.lauriewoolery.com. Jacob G. Padrón is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Sol Project and Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut. He has previously worked on the artistic staff at The Public Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He is also on faculty at Yale School of Drama where he teaches artistic producing in the graduate theater management program.Originally from Gilroy, California, Padrón is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University (BA) and Yale School of Drama (MFA). Follow us on Facebook at The Sol Project and Instagram and Twitter at @solprojectnyc! // Music by Megumi Katayama, recording by Laura Cornwall, editing by Daniela Hart.
Dana Aber joins our host to talk about how she has used performance art to help heal from narcissistic abuse. Her performances have become about letting anyone know who has been there - they aren't alone. Dana Aber is a performer, producer, collaborator, and creator. Her career in New York City has flung her across the seas to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Thailand, around the oceans on cruise ships, and all through the US on touring shows and with her own productions. She has been seen in NYC Off-Broadway, at the NYFringe Festival, NYMF, Apollo Theatre, Theatre Row, FDCAC/Classical Theatre of Harlem, and The Dixon Place. Passionate about the development of new musicals, she has been involved with multiple presentations at New Dramatists, Feinstein's 54 Below, NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, Dramatists Guild, and Ars Nova. Through her Big Thunder Productions company, Dana has created and helmed 8 concert-cabarets with upwards of 50 contributing musical collaborators, showcasing over 85 performing artists, most notably the bi-coastal #YesAllWomen Raise Your Voice concert that linked artists across the country to the movement for gender equality. Her collaboratively built solo show, Baggage at the Door, explores her synesthesia-soaked healing process from trauma through original songs and video projections. She is a survivor and advocate, and is honored to be able to use her voice to share for those who cannot. She is also a part of the www.healmetoofest.com. www.DanaAber.com
In 1973, tennis champion Arthur Ashe competed in the South African Open. Hear what Jerome Davis, the artistic director of Burning Coal Theatre, has to say about Hannah Benitez’s new play, ASHE in JOHANNESBURG, theater as a vehicle for social change, and why it is important to tell this story right now. About Jerome Davis Jerome Davis is Burning Coal Theatre Company’s founding artistic director. He has worked at Trinity Repertory Company (Providence), People’s Light & Theatre Company (PA), New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Phoenix Theatre (SUNY/Purhchase), Wellfleet Harbor Actors’ Theatre (Cape Cod), Columbia University, and Soho Rep, New Dramatists, Avalon Rep and MINT Theatre (NYC). Originally from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, he studied in New York with Uta Hagen, Nikos Psacharapolous and Julie Bovasso. He has presented more than two dozen world premieres, providing Raleigh audiences with stimulating new works by local, national and international playwrights and is the recipient of the https://www.raleighnc.gov/parks/news/content/CorNews/Articles/PRecArtsOfficeOfRaleighArtsAnnounces2018MedalofArtsRecipients.html (2018 Raleigh Medal of the Arts). https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439189048/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1439189048&linkCode=as2&tag=rduonstage-20&linkId=0aeaf192a97f349166d88e651ea023c4 (For more information on Arthur Ashe or to read an excerpt from the biography, Arthur Ashe: A Life, which includes more information on Ashe’s visit to Johannesburg, click here. ) Connect and Follow! Website: http://www.rduonstage.com/ (www.rduonstage.com) Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rduonstage (@rduonstage) Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/rduonstage (@rduonstage) Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rduonstage (@rduonstage) Support this podcast
Playwright Jack Gilhooley has been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts grants (Individual Playwright and International to Centaur Theatre, Montreal), four Florida Arts Council Playwriting grants, two Fulbright Guest Artist Awards (to Spain and Ireland), a Eugene O’Neill conference playwright residency, two Puffin Foundation awards and a New York Foundation for the arts grant. His plays have been produced with five Ford Foundation development subsidies. He was awarded the very first John Ringling Fund Artistic Fellowship. His myriad productions have been throughout the US, including on the Asolo mainstage, as well as in England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Australia. He’s an alumnus of the famed New Dramatists in New York.
Playwright Jack Gilhooley has been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts grants (Individual Playwright and International to Centaur Theatre, Montreal), four Florida Arts Council Playwriting grants, two Fulbright Guest Artist Awards (to Spain and Ireland), a Eugene O’Neill conference playwright residency, two Puffin Foundation awards and a New York Foundation for the arts grant. His plays have been produced with five Ford Foundation development subsidies. He was awarded the very first John Ringling Fund Artistic Fellowship. His myriad productions have been throughout the US, including on the Asolo mainstage, as well as in England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Australia. He’s an alumnus of the famed New Dramatists in New York.
Jami Brandli is an award-winning playwright based in Los Angeles and a faculty member in Lesley University's MFA in Creative Writing program. In this episode she discusses "making it" as a playwright, writing strong female characters and her trilogy based on Greek mythology with Emily Earle, Lesley's social media specialist. Jami’s plays include Technicolor Life, S.O.E., M-Theory, ¡SOLDADERA!, Sisters Three, Through the Eye of a Needle, Medusa’s Song, O: A Rhapsody in Divorce and BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!) which was named in The Kilroys Top 46 List in 2014. Her work has been produced/developed at New Dramatists, WordBRIDGE, The Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Launch Pad, The Antaeus Company, Chalk REP, The Road, among other venues. Current 2018-2019 Humanitas Prize PLAY LA playwright. Winner of John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award, Holland New Voices Award and Aurora Theatre Company's GAP Prize. Technicolor Life premiered at REP Stage as part of the 2015 Women’s Voices Theater Festival and recently received its Australian premiere at The Depot Theatre. In 2018, BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!) receives a joint-world premiere with Moxie Theatre (San Diego) and Promethean Theatre (Chicago), ending with Moving Arts’ production this fall at Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles (LA Time’s Critic’s Choice). Sisters Three will receive its world premiere with The Inkwell Theater (Los Angeles) in December, and Through the Eye of a Needle also received its world premiere at The Road Theatre (Los Angeles) this past spring. She’s been a finalist for the 2016 PEN Literary Award for Drama, Playwrights’ Center Core Writer Fellowship, Princess Grace Award, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and the Disney ABC TV Fellowship and was also nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. Her short works are published with TCG and Smith & Kraus. A proud member of the Playwrights Union, the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, and The Dramatist Guild, Jami teaches dramatic writing at Lesley University's low-residency MFA program. She is represented by the Robert A Freedman Agency and Gramercy Park Entertainment. For more information, visit our show notes.
Today's episode focuses on the Musical Theater Composition program of the New York Youth Symphony, directed by Anna Jacobs. Her musicals include: POP! (book & lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman) ANYTOWN (book by Jim Jack) TEETH (co-book & lyrics by Michael R. Jackson) CAGE MATCH and MAGIC 8 BALL (Prospect Theatre Company; w/ Sam Salmond & Michael R. Jackson) KAYA: TASTE OF PARADISE, a soon-to-be-released movie musical commissioned by the New York Film Academy and featuring Okieriete Onaodowan (screenplay by Jerome Parker, directed by Paul Warner) Anna was recognized for her work as a composer/lyricist with the prestigious Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award. She’s a former Sundance Fellow and Dramatists Guild Fellow, and has been an Artist in Residence at Ars Nova, New Dramatists, Musical Theatre Factory, Goodspeed, and Barrington Stage Company. Anna holds an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU-Tisch and is on faculty at The New School. www.annakjacobs.com Also featured in this episode are two students in the MT Composition program, Sydney Altbacker and Tate Robinson, along with their new piece "Song for Marilyn" which was written for the class. Follow them on Instagram: Sydney / Tate Watch the full interview with Sydney, Tate, and two other students on the WINMI YouTube Channel. The New York Youth Symphony, founded in 1963 as an orchestra to showcase the metropolitan area's most gifted musicians ages 12-22, has since grown to encompass programs in chamber music, conducting, composition, and jazz, with performances at world class venues including Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Joe's Pub at The Public. --------------- Please consider buying me a coffee to support this work that goes into each episode. Join the WINMI community by following on Instagram or Twitter as well as reaching out to Patrick with any questions or comments: contact.winmipodcast.com -------------------------------Intro music and interludes:"Reverie (small theme)" by _ghost2010 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)
Fathers and sons might forgive, but they never forget. Hear two of Broadway's greatest comedians tackle family drama. A sarcastic alcoholic man in recovery (Steven Boyer) tries to prove himself to his father (Bill Irwin), searching for his own way to say I LOVE YOU. Directed by David Auburn (Proof, Playing on Air's Gun Show & An Upset) and written by Lynn Rosen (co-founder of The Pool, Resident Playwright at New Dramatists), I LOVE YOU features comedic legend Bill Irwin (Tony winner for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Waiting for Godot, co-creator and star of Old Hats) and Tony nominee Steven Boyer (Hand to God, NBC’s "Trial & Error," Time and the Conways). In the after-play discussion with host Claudia Catania, Boyer shares some surprising anecdotes about preshow rituals & his co-star’s past performances.
Tony Award–winning playwright J.T. Rogers (Oslo) and seasoned foreign correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran (National Book Award finalist for Imperial Life in the Emerald City) sat together on June 9, 2018 in the Hawthorne Barn to discuss the intersection of politics, war, journalism, and art. J.T. Rogers’s plays include Oslo, Blood and Gifts, The Overwhelming, White People, and Madagascar. For Oslo he won the Tony, New York Critics, Outer Critics, Drama Desk, Drama League, Lortel, and Obie awards. As one of the playwrights for the Tricycle Theatre of London’s The Great Game: Afghanistan he was nominated for an Olivier Award. His works have been staged throughout the United States and in Germany, Canada, Australia, and Israel. He is a Guggenheim fellow and has received three NYFA fellowships in playwriting. Rogers is a member of the Dramatist Guild, where he is a founding board member of the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund. He is an alum of New Dramatists and holds an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Rajiv Chandrasekaran is a senior vice president for Public Affairs at Starbucks and the executive producer of the company’s social impact media initiatives. Prior to joining Starbucks in 2015, Rajiv was a senior correspondent and associate editor of The Washington Post, where he worked for two decades. During his newspaper career, he reported from more than three dozen countries and was bureau chief in Baghdad, Cairo and Southeast Asia. He also served as the Post’s national editor and as an assistant managing editor. In 2014, he and Howard Schultz wrote the bestselling book, "For Love of Country: What Our Veterans Can Teach Us About Citizenship, Heroism and Sacrifice." He also is the author of two other bestselling books: "Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan" and "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone," which was named one of the 10 best books of 2007 by The New York Times and inspired the movie Green Zone. He is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and a graduate of Stanford University.
For the past 3 years, I have been able to cover the New Dramatist Luncheon, and each time, I am amazed at the people that I get to meet when doing a red carpet. It's nice to see some new faces and a dream to see the familiar ones. This year's honoree is Denzel Washington. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to talk to him, I did meet some fabulous folks. Enjoy Part 2 of my Red Carpet Fun. NEW DRAMATISTS: http://newdramatists.org/ Support Keith Price's Curtain Call on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/keithpricecurtaincall Subscribe to Keith Price's Curtain Call on Itunes: www.keithpricecurtaincall.com Follow @keithpricecurtaincall on Instagram Follow @kpcurtaincall @comedydaddy Like me on FB: https://www.facebook.com/Keith-Prices-Curtain-Call-1380539615593807/ Subscribe on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCduwJ3ytmAwdJMQtGllk1Ig
For the past 3 years, I have been able to cover the New Dramatist Luncheon, and each time, I am amazed at the people that I get to meet when doing a red carpet. It's nice to see some new faces and a dream to see the familiar ones. This year's honoree is Denzel Washington. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to talk to him, I did meet some fabulous folks. Check out my Red Carpet Fun. NEW DRAMATISTS: http://newdramatists.org/ Support Keith Price's Curtain Call on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/keithpricecurtaincall Subscribe to Keith Price's Curtain Call on Itunes: www.keithpricecurtaincall.com Follow @keithpricecurtaincall on Instagram Follow @kpcurtaincall @comedydaddy Like me on FB: https://www.facebook.com/Keith-Prices-Curtain-Call-1380539615593807/ Subscribe on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCduwJ3ytmAwdJMQtGllk1Ig
This week on Love Your Bodd we've got a LIVE recording of the Out of the Box Theatrics' Women in Theater Panel! This live recording was moderated by Love Your Bodd Host, Heather Boddy. She interviewed panelists Elizabeth Flemming, Amiee Turner, Sammi Cannold, Alex Chester, Awoye Timpo about their experiences being a woman in the theater industry. Meet the Panelists: Sammi Cannold is a theater director whose recent credits include Ragtime on Ellis Island and Violet on a moving bus at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.). Sammi recently served as the associate director on the Broadway production of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (dir. Rachel Chavkin) and is currently the associate director on In the Body of the World (dir. Diane Paulus/MTC) as well as Lempicka (dir. Rachel Chavkin/Williamstown). Sammi has directed numerous concerts, workshops, and readings at A.R.T., 54 Below, Playwrights Realm, The Montalban Theater, New York Theatre Barn, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Don’t Tell Mama, and Primary Stages. She has also served as an Artistic Fellow at the A.R.T. and a Sundance Institute Fellow (for which she directed a developmental workshop of a new musical by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire). She holds a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.A. from Harvard University. www.sammicannold.com Alex Chester is a proud member of Broadway Diversity Project. She is a former contributor to HuffPo and currently writes for Onstage Blog and Manhattan Digest. She is the creator of Hapa Mag - an online magazine by Hapas for Everyone, and is the founder/producer of WeSoHapa, a multiracial inclusive theatre company. Alex is also part of the podcast “We’re Not All Ninjas.” Theatre credits include: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” - Madison Square Garden (NYC), Minnie Fay in “Hello Dolly” directed by Lee Roy Reams at NAAP(Off-Broadway), “Bubble Boy” at 54 Below (NYC/Original Cast Recording), “Brass Heart” - Royal Family Productions (NYC). Her resume of commercial work includes campaigns for companies including UPS, H&M, AT&T and Major League Baseball. Follow her on Twitter/Insta @AlexFChester @WeSoHapa @TheHapaMag www.WeSoHapa.com www.HapaMag.com www.AlexChester.com Liz Flemming is the Founding Producing Artistic Director of Out of the Box Theatrics, an Actor's Equity Non Profit Off-Broadway Theater here in NYC. After several years touring and working in the regional circuit as a professional actor, Liz shifted focus to make a difference within our theatre community taking on inclusivity on the stage with the creation of OOTB. With OOTB she produced site-specific immersive productions of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown , "Master Harold"...and the Boys , The Owl and the Pussycat , and Songs for a New World . Along with her completion of two sold out seasons, she produced Alice at Alice's starring Alice Ripley, a series of Open Mics, and several cabarets and special events for OOTB. Independently she was asked to produce the new musical Mommie Dearestwritten by Christina Crawford with music by David Nehls, and Sam’s Room with New York Theater Barn. This year she will join The Cell Theater as Lead Producer along with her development of Out of the Box Theatrics. She hopes to #changethestage one show at a time. Awoye Timpo ’s directing credits include: The Homecoming Queen (Atlantic Theater), Skeleton Crew (Chester Theater), Sister Son/ji (Billie Holiday Theater), Carnaval (National Black Theatre), Ndebele Funeral (59E59, South African tour, Edinburgh Festival); The Libation Bearers (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ), Araby (La MaMa), In the Continuum(Juilliard); Clybourne Park (Farmers Alley), The Vanished (Novisi). Producer: CLASSIX, a reading series exploring classic plays by Black playwrights. Broadway: Associate Director, Jitney ; Assistant Director, Shuffle Along . Other: ABC/Disney, Cherry Lane, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Ma-Yi, New Dramatists, NOW Africa, Page 73, PEN World Voices, Rising Circle, Royal Shakespeare Company, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and WNYC. Amiee Turner began her career at a very young age and never stopped blazing a unique trail. While still a teenager Amiee had already toured as Kristine in A Chorus Line and Cassandra in CATS and made her Broadway debut in David Merrick's 42nd Street . She quickly established herself as a NYC actress and added another five Broadway shows to her list of credits. As an actress, Amiee is a proud member of AEA. She has toured the USA and Europe and played many regional theatres including The Huntington and Goodspeed. Her work as a director began in Connecticut and has taken her up and down the East Coast. As a producer she oversaw 23 productions at Theatre By The Sea, 42 productions at Ocean State Theatre, founded A.I.S.O.P. Theatre Co. in NYC, and produced and starred in the award winning independent film "Sunday on the Rocks" with Tony Award winners Cady Huffman and Julie White. Amiee currently travels across the country as an actor and director and teaches audition workshops at the university level. Other job titles Amiee has held include restaurant manager, Director of Entertainment for an NBA-D League team, Development Director for a major regional theatre, choreographer, and mother of two college age kids. Find Out of the Box Website: ootbtheatrics.com Twitter: @OOTBTheatrics Instagram: @ootbtheatrics Facebook: Out of the Box Theatrics Nocturne Tickets - web.ovationtix.com By Adam Rapp | Directed by Amiee Turner April 24-29 - Extended to May 6th 440 East 9th Street, NYC Open Mic Nights 05/07/18 - 7:30pm–10:00pm ($10 cover charge) - Scone, Tea, and wine available for purchase. Where: Alice’s Tea Cup 220 East 81st street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue) Love Your Bodd Stuffz Email LYB: loveyourboddcast@gmail.com Tweet: @LoveYourBodd Instagram: @love_your_bodd Facebook: Love Your Bodd Find Heather @HeatherBoddy on Snapchat, Twitter & Instagram www.heather-boddy.com/loveyourbodd Get Resources: Love Your Bodd is a proud supporter of the Born This Way Foundation - check out their resources page to get help for whatever issue you might be facing - https://bornthisway.foundation/get-help-now/ Wanna become a Pop Pilates Instructor? Follow this link to find a training near you: https://www.poppilateslife.com/a/527/osBvwVQc Outside of the US? Don’t worry you can get online international training here: https://www.poppilateslife.com/a/528/osBvwVQc Love Popflex Activewear? Buy here and save: http://rwrd.io/bqhuiwv Sign up for your BEACHBODY ON DEMAND 14 DAY FREE TRIAL: https://www.teambeachbody.com/signup/-/signup/club?referringRepId=445873 (Select the bottom right option unless you wanna bite the bullet and sign up for the full monty! Heather will be your coach if you follow the link above!) The views expressed on this podcast are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer(s).
Broadway Bullet: Theatre from Broadway, Off-Broadway and beyond.
In this episode, we talk with four people in the Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship program. DGF Fellows is a year-long development intensive led by esteemed writers. Participants spend a year honing their craft while developing full-length pieces, culminating in an industry presentation at an Off-Broadway theater. The program is highly sought after for its successful format of bringing playwrights and musical theater writers together in the learning process. Keelay Gipson is a multi-disciplinary artist including work as an activist, teaching artist, and award-winning playwright. He is the recipient of the Van Lier Fellowship (2016-2018) at New Dramatists and recently finished work as a Public Artist in Residence for the City of New York’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Administration of Children’s Services working with LGBTQ foster youth. Janine McGuire and Arri Lawton Simon are musical theatre fellows as well as members of the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop. They have collectively written and produced concerts, stage musicals, plays, film scores, orchestral pieces, choral works, and custom songs in addition to teaching musical theatre and performing arts outreach in the community. Riti Sachdeva is an alum of the The Public’s Emerging Writers Group and the Women’s Project. A theater maker and cultural worker, Riti has been creating art in some form for over 25 years. Incorporating text, installation, and dance into her writing and performance, she straddles the conventions of U.S. theater, performance art, and international approaches to theater. All this, inside!
Matthew Freeman is a playwright and director whose work is often steeped in surreal and magical imagery. He has written numerous plays including That Which Isn't, When Is A Clock, and The Listeners. He’s a MacDowell Colony Fellow and a current resident playwright at New Dramatists. He also happens to be Pam’s husband. On this episode, he discusses being in spiritually mixed marriage, crafting a love ritual, and the relationship between theatre and magic.Our sponsors for this episode are The Conjured Saint, Zouz Incense, Chase and Scout, and Mithras Candle.
In Closing Costs by Arlene Hutton, a real estate broker hits her threshold when a client reveals her listing is the 396th co-op he’s seen. It features Amy Ryan (Gone, Baby, Gone;Bridge of Spies,Birdman) and Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man,"Boardwalk Empire"). Playwright Arlene Hutton is an alumna of New Dramatists and author of The Nibroc Trilogy and Gulf View Drive. Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch (Director: Bethany with America Ferrara for The Women's Project, Harper Regan for The Atlantic Theater Company and Stay for Rattlestick Theater). Stay tuned after the performance for a conversation with with the cast and playwright, moderated by our Host, Claudia Catania. Playing on Air is a public radio show and podcast featuring great American short plays with great American actors. We distribute audio productions of contemporary short plays, translating stage works into enduring modern radio theater. We aim to redefine radio drama for today's digital, mobile audience.
We talk with Lauren Gunderson, who is the most produced living playwright in America this year, as well the winner of this year's New Dramatists' Lanford Wilson Award, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation's 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Company. Lauren has written many plays about science, including Ada and the Memory Engine, Leap, and The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog. We discuss the mathematics of playwriting, the powerful effect of metaphors when it comes to scientific discovery, the Bechdel Test (and, spoiler alert: how nearly all of Lauren's plays pass it) and how science makes for thrilling drama. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
While at the New Dramatist Luncheon celebrating the career of 6x Tony Award winner, Audra McDonald, Keith Price met up with Tony Award Winner, Jim Dale, Tony Nominee Nick Cordero, Paul Alexander Nolan, Helene York, and the incomparable, Andrea Burns. New Dramatists : http://newdramatists.org/ Helene York: http://www.heleneyorke.com/ Jim Dale: http://www.jim-dale.com/ Nick Cordero: https://twitter.com/iamnickcordero ANdrea Burns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Burns Keith Price's Curtain Call on I-tunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/keith-prices-curtain-call/id1114172032?mt=2
While at the New Dramatist Luncheon celebrating the career of 6x Tony Award winner, Audra McDonald, Keith Price met up with Tony Award Winner, Laura Benanati, Tony Nominees Jennifer Simmard, Rene Elise Goldsberry, Adrienne Warren, Director Liesl Tommy, New Dramatists : http://newdramatists.org/ Laura Benanti: http://laurabenanti.com/ Liels Tommy: http://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Liesl-Tommy/ Renee Elise Goldsberry: https://twitter.com/reneeelisegolds?lang=en Adrienne Warren: https://twitter.com/adriennelwarren Jennifer Simmard: http://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Jennifer-Simard/ Keith Price's Curtain Call on I-tunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/keith-prices-curtain-call/id1114172032?mt=2
Paid Actor and host, Trena Bolden Fields, welcomes Kristoffer Diaz to the show. Kristoffer Diaz is a playwright and educator living and working in Brooklyn. Full-length titles include The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Welcome to Arroyo’s, The Upstairs Concierge, and The Unfortunates. Awards: 2011 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award; finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; winner, 2011 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play; winner, 2011 OBIE Award, Best New American Play; and the inaugural Gail Merrifield Papp Fellowship from The Public Theater (2011). His work has been produced, commissioned, and developed at The Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, The Goodman, Second Stage, Victory Gardens, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Theater Company, The Atlantic, InterAct, Mixed Blood, The Orchard Project, Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Lark, Summer Play Festival, Donmar Warehouse, and South Coast Repertory, among many others. He has written short work for the 24 Hour Musicals and the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway. Kristoffer was one of the creators of Brink!, the apprentice anthology show at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays. He is a playwright-in-residence at Teatro Vista; a resident playwright at New Dramatists; a co-founder of the Unit Collective (Minneapolis); the creator of the #freescenes project; and a recipient of the Jerome Fellowship, the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant and the Van Lier Fellowship (New Dramatists). Kristoffer holds a BA from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, an MFA from NYU’s Department of Dramatic Writing, and an MFA from Brooklyn College’s Performing Arts Management program.
A View from the Bridge: On December 15, 1986, director Tony Giordano, designers Hugh Landwehr and Dennis Parichy and actors Michael Fischetti, Jennifer Van Dyck and Diane Martella spoke with moderator Amy Saltz at New Dramatists about their work on a traveling co-production of A View From The Bridge, produced by theatres in Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany. Having taken place after two of the four runs, this conversation is a rare opportunity to hear artists from various disciplines talk about a play that is still in progress. Fischetti and Giordano discuss the inception of the play at Syracuse Stage after doing Glengarry Glen Ross, and how it turned into a touring co-production. Giordano speaks of the opportunity to go back into rehearsal and continue to find the life of the play between Buffalo and Syracuse, and his excitement to implement their new discoveries in a smaller theater when they head to Albany. The designers discuss the difficulty of designing one set to work in four different spaces, with three prosceniums and one thrust theatre, and the actors talk about committing to one show in small towns for an extended period of time. At the heart of this discussion is a group of people who are passionate about the work they have been doing and are continuing to do, and the idea that a play is not finished once it's in front of an audience. Originally recorded - December 15, 1986. Running Time - 1:23:33 © 1986 SDCF
Director Playwright Collaboration: On Tuesday, March 29, 1988, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation and New Dramatists hosted a seminar on the director-playwright relationship with directors Tony Giordano, Pamela Berlin, Paul Benedict, and Woodie King, Jr., and writers Steve Carter, Jack Heifner, John Bishop and Reinaldo Povod. This lively ninety-minute conversation includes discussions of the director's role on a new play, what playwrights look for in a director, and colorful nature of the collaboration described as a marriage, an affair and a divorce. Other topics include the role of the producer as mediator and ownership of the play along with several horror stories of disastrous collaborations. Anyone interested in the current national conversation about new play development and playwrights should listen to this podcast to discover just how much and how little the director-playwright relationship has evolved over the past twenty-two years. Originally recorded - March 29, 1988. Running Time - 1:25:49 © 1988 SDCF
Gene Saks: In January of 1987, SDCF brought one of Broadway's most beloved directors to New Dramatists for a conversation about comedy. Collaborators are quoted as saying "I would like to be surgically attached to his hip" and "I wouldn't mind if I never worked with another director again". In this 90 minute interview, you'll learn how Tony Award winner Gene Saks has engineered a career as one the most respected directors in American theatre. He is known for his understanding and protection of the actor's process, stemming from years as a performer on Broadway. Moreover, he is known for the rapport he develops with his casts. In this interview Saks admits that his relationships begin during casting where he looks for actors that he can "fall in love with", albeit for a limited period of time. He also looks for intelligence, and acknowledges that intelligence and a sense of humor go hand in hand. The discussion covers personal relationships with both Neil Simon and Simon's plays. He confronts what has changed about the nature of comedic entertainment as he explains that the world has become "more serious, today". He illuminates his process and his manner of "over-directing" in the early stages of a production, only to later trim down the stage business as a sculptor would excess. He talks of the humoristic mentality and maintains that he is not a director of comedy at all; rather, that he approaches all stories, serious or humorous, with an eye toward conveying its message through the vehicle of comedy. Originally recorded - January 29, 1987. Running Time - 1:11:09 ©1987 SDCF
Howard DaSilva and Alfred Drake: Beginning in January 1985, SDCF held a series of interviews with Actors Who Direct in order to explore with live audiences of theatre enthusiasts, professional theatre artists, and SDC Members and guests the processes, experiences and craft of this brand of professional artistic hybrid. In the first installment of this series, moderator Ike Shambelan met with Alfred Drakeand Howard Da Silva for a discussion about these very issues at New Dramatists. Da Silva and Drake shared a malleable professional relationship, both as cast mates and taking turns directing each other professionally. To get to the bottom of what characteristics define a good director, the pair relayed stories of mentors George Abbott, Arthur Penn and Sidney Lumet. They spoke of the common characteristics of being an effective communicator with the entire production team, while also being eminently prepared before beginning rehearsals. The two admitted that these are the traits they most try to cultivate in their work as directors, and acknowledge that the development of the former has been facilitated by their careers as performers. They speak about their process, the joy of true collaboration, and how they deal with critics as both directors and actors. And as they ruminate on their life in theatre and what they hope for from a successful production, they conclude that the more truly gifted and creative a director is, the more concealed is their contribution to a show. Originally recorded - January 1, 1985. Running Time - 1:27:19 ©1985 SDCF
Directing Shepard: Fritz Ertl sat down with George Ferencz to discuss Sam Shepard at New Dramatists in January of 1985. The conversation begins dominated by questions concerning the musicality of Shepard's earlier work and Ferencz's collaboration with Jazz legend Max Roach to stage them for the ShepardSets in the mid-eighties. The questions drift from the musical toward the more practical as Ferencz covers the nuts and bolts of directing a Shepard piece, his affinity for his newer work and the notion of Shepard's as "American myth maker". At the time of this recording, despite several successful Ferencz productions of Shepard's work, George Ferencz had never met, written or talked with Sam Shepard. Originally recorded - January 1, 1985. Running Time - 1:24:24 ©1985 SDCF
By David Dower, Jackie Sibblies Drury. The Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists has launched some exciting voices.
By David Dower, Brian Otaño. The Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists has launched some exciting voices.
On Tuesday, March 29, 1988, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation and New Dramatists hosted a seminar on the director-playwright relationship with directors Tony Giordano, Pam Berlin, Paul Benedict, and Woodie King, Jr., and writers Steve Carter, Jack Heifner, John Bishop and Reynaldo Povod. This lively ninety-minute conversation includes discussions of the director's role on a new play, what playwrights look for in a director, and colorful nature of the collaboration described as a marriage, an affair and a divorce. Other topics include the role of the producer as mediator and ownership of the play along with several horror stories of disastrous collaborations. Anyone interested in the current national conversation about new play development and playwrights should listen to this podcast to discover just how much and how little the director-playwright relationship has evolved over the past twenty-two years.
On December 15, 1986, director Tony Giordano, designers Hugh Landwehr and Dennis Parichy and actors Michael Fischetti, Jennifer Van Dyck and Diane Martella spoke with moderator Amy Saltz at New Dramatists about their work on a traveling co-production of "A View From The Bridge", produced by theatres in Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany. Having taken place after two of the four runs, this conversation is a rare opportunity to hear artists from various disciplines talk about a play that is still in progress. Fischetti and Giordano discuss the inception of the play at Syracuse Stage after doing "Glengarry Glen Ross", and how it turned into a touring co-production. Giordano speaks of the opportunity to go back into rehearsal and continue to find the life of the play between Buffalo and Syracuse, and his excitement to implement their new discoveries in a smaller theater when they head to Albany. The designers discuss the difficulty of designing one set to work in four different spaces, with three proscenium and one thrust theatre, and the actors talk about committing to one show in small towns for an extended period of time. At the heart of this discussion is a group of people who are passionate about the work they have been doing and are continuing to do, and the idea that a play is not finished once it's in front of an audience.
Beginning in January 1985, SDCF held a series of interviews with Actors Who Direct in order to explore with live audiences of theatre enthusiasts, professional theatre artists, and SDC Members and guests the processes, experiences and craft of this brand of professional artistic hybrid. In the first installment of this series, moderator Ike Shambelan met with Alfred Drake and Howard Da Silva for a discussion about these very issues at New Dramatists. Da Silva and Drake shared a malleable professional relationship, both as cast mates and taking turns directing each other professionally. To get to the bottom of what characteristics define a good director, the pair relayed stories of mentors George Abbott, Arthur Penn and Sidney Lumet. They spoke of the common characteristics of being an effective communicator with the entire production team, while also being eminently prepared before beginning rehearsals. The two admitted that these are the traits they most try to cultivate in their work as directors, and acknowledge that the development of the former has been facilitated by their careers as performers. They speak about their process, the joy of true collaboration, and how they deal with critics as both directors and actors. And as they ruminate on their life in theatre and what they hope for from a successful production, they conclude that the more truly gifted and creative a director is, the more concealed is their contribution to a show.
In June of 1995, SDCF brought one of Broadway's most beloved directors to New Dramatists for a conversation about comedy. Collaborators are quoted as saying "I would like to be surgically attached to his hip" and "I wouldn't mind if I never worked with another director again". In this 90 minute interview, you'll learn how Tony Award winner Gene Saks has engineered a career as one the most respected directors in American theatre. He is known for his understanding and protection of the actor's process, stemming from years as a performer on Broadway. Moreover, he is known for the rapport he develops with his casts. In this interview Saks admits that his relationships begin during casting where he looks for actors that he can "fall in love with", albeit for a limited period of time. He also looks for intelligence, and acknowledges that intelligence and a sense of humor go hand in hand. The discussion covers personal relationships with both Neil Simon and Simon's plays. He confronts what has changed about the nature of comedic entertainment as he explains that the world has become "more serious, today". He illuminates his process and his manner of "over-directing" in the early stages of a production, only to later trim down the stage business as a sculptor would excess. He talks of the humoristic mentality and maintains that he is not a director of comedy at all; rather, that he approaches all stories, serious or humorous, with an eye toward conveying its message through the vehicle of comedy.
Fritz Ertl sat down with George Ferencz to discuss Sam Shepard at New Dramatists in January of 1985. The conversation begins dominated by questions concerning the musicality of Shepard's earlier work and Ferencz's collaboration with Jazz legend Max Roach to stage them for the "ShepardSets" in the mid-eighties. The questions drift from the musical toward the more practical as Ferencz covers the nuts and bolts of directing a Shepard piece, his affinity for his newer work and the notion of Shepard's as "American myth maker". At the time of this recording, despite several successful Ferencz productions of Shepard's work, George Ferencz had never met, written or talked with Sam Shepard.
A panel of current New Dramatists playwrights -- Carlyle Brown, David Grimm, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lucy Thurber -- talk about their differing styles of playwriting, what inspired them to start writing, how the world of the playwright has evolved and changed, what influences their writing and the challenges in getting their work produced. The program also includes an interview with New Dramatists Artistic Director Todd London, discussing how New Dramatists serves as haven for emerging playwrights and describing the new voice of the playwright, the opportunities for playwrights on and off Broadway and the different types of work being written today.