Podcast appearances and mentions of Will Eno

We're taking a bit of a pivot here at the podcast factory with this one, pinching from the season-opening episode of Writer's Bone, our flagship podcast at the Writer's Bone Podcast Network.  “As Told To” producer and Writer's Bone host and founder Daniel Ford featured a conversation with the writing team of Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, co-creators of the enchantingly poignant HBO series “Somebody Somewhere,” starring actress/comedian Bridget Everett—a conversation that brushed up against so many relatable aspects of collaborative writing that we decided to rebroadcast it (to re-podcast it?) here.  “Somebody Somewhere” ended its three-season run in December, shortly after the creators sat with Daniel Ford to discuss the series—hailed by The Los Angeles Times as “epic television”—and we were charmed by their conversation, inviting listeners behind the scenes to reflect on how the show came about, and the singular place it now holds in the annals of bittersweet television.    Paul Thureen is a founder and co-Artistic Director of The Debate Society, a Brooklyn-based theater company.  He received an OBIE Award for his performance in the company's Blood Play. Hannah Bos, also a founder and co-founder of the company, received a Drama Desk Award for her performance in the Signature Theater Company's production of Will Eno's The Open House. Together, they have written for “Mozart in the Jungle” and “High Maintenance,” and developed pilots for HBO, FOX, Amazon and Paramount.  “This has been a dream come true,” Hannah reflected on the duo's “Somebody Somewhere” run as the series came to a close. “It was a dream that they made the pilot. It was a dream that they made the first season, the second season, the third season. And it was a dream that we made it with really fun, good people. So I hope we can do it again.” Paul's reflections were a little less…well, reflective, as he shared what it was like to write for a group of midwestern-ish characters who weren't used to talking about their feelings. “If it gets a little too real,” he said, of the pain and heartache that could often be found at the show's core, “then you have to make a fart joke.”  Indeed.  Learn more about Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen: “Somebody, Somewhere” Season Three Trailer Hannah Bos Website Paul Thureen Instagram The Debate Society Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Actor & improvisor Jacob Dysart finds himself in the clutches of Kevin and Thomas. He tries to slip out by chatting theatrical endeavours and the works of Will Eno before the trio engage in a staring contest. Then Jacob makes the boys dive deep into their outerwear and highlight their favourite pieces. Things get pretty creative as the three chat about Beyblade while they create a cute animal that is definitely not a furry. 00:00 Intro & Check Ins 13:18 Staring Contest 25:02 My Best Jacket 38:30 Forged in the Fire Jacob Dysart: Instagram: www.instagram.com/jacob_dysart The Headgum Podcast 217: https://youtu.be/gWhYLK2erOc?si=__9NdYjeUlsyerJo The Headgum Podcast 229: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_apX1knKswQ Secret Family at the Den Theatre (Chicago) on January 16: https://thedentheatre.com/performances/2025/1/16/secret-family-the-den-theatre-comedy-club Improvised Groundhog Day (Winnipeg) on February 1: https://www.theimprovco.com/season   Check out our DnD show: 'What We Do in the Basement': https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/what-we-do-in-the-basement/id1552947049

In this episode, I take another look at the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once in light of its popularity and controversy – including in the integral community. I also consider how taking one new perspective on the play, The Realistic Joneses by Will Eno, turned it from infuriating to infatuating. And more on the ongoing saga of pronouns. Enjoy the episode! From a Live Fireside Chat at Integral Life, this recording is from earlier in the summer of 2023.

Peter Friedman - has been in the original New York productions of works by Wendy Wasserstein, Simon Gray, C.P. Taylor, Charles Fuller, Annie Baker, Amy Herzog, Max Posner, Greg Pierce, Jennifer Haley, Deborah Zoe Laufer, The Debate Society, Rachel Bonds, Lauren Yee, Will Eno, Michael Mitnick, Kim Rosenstock, Will Connolly, Gunnar Madsen, Joy Gregory, John Lang, Susan Stroman, David Thompson, John Kander, Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens, and Stephen Flaherty. He's performed in NYC revivals of plays by Paddy Chayefsky, Reginald Rose, Donald Margulies, Chekhov, and Shakespeare. Film: The Savages, Safe, Single White Female. TV: “Brooklyn Bridge,” “High Maintenance,” “The Muppet Show,” “The Affair,” “The Path,” “Succession.” Sydney Lemmon - Off-Broadway debut. Broadway: Beau Willimon's The Parisian Woman. Film: TÁR, Firestarter, Velvet Buzzsaw. Television: “Helstrom,” “Succession,” “Fear the Walking Dead” (Saturn Award Nomination). She can next be seen alongside Halle Berry in the forthcoming feature film The Mothership. Sydney is a graduate of Boston University, LAMDA and the Yale School of Drama. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, playwright, poet, and author Pearl Cleage discusses her life and career with Remy Bumppo Theatre Artistic Director Marti Lyons. Remy Bumppo staged Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky in the fall of 2023. This conversation originally took place September 26, 2023 and was recorded live via Zoom. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOME More about the speakers: Pearl Cleage (she/her/hers) is an Atlanta-based writer whose plays include POINTING AT THE MOON, WHAT I LEARNED IN PARIS, FLYIN' WEST, BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY, and BOURBON AT THE BORDER, commissioned and directed by Kenny Leon at the Alliance Theatre. She is also the author of A SONG FOR CORETTA, written in 2007 during Cleage's time as Cosby Professor in Women's Studies at Spelman College. Her play, THE NACIREMA SOCIETY REQUESTS THE HONOR OF YOUR PRESENCE AT A CELEBRATION OF THEIR FIRST ONE HUNDRED YEARS, was commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and premiered in 2010, in a joint production by the ASF and Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, directed by Susan Booth. Her plays have also been performed at Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Huntington Theatre, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Long Wharf Theatre, Just US Theatre, True Colors Theatre, Bushfire Theatre, the Intiman Theatre, St. Louis Black Repertory Company, and Seven Stages. She is also an accomplished performance artist, often working in collaboration with her husband, writer Zaron W. Burnett, Jr. They have performed at the National Black Arts Festival, the National Black Theatre Festival, and colleges and universities across the country. Cleage and Burnett also collaborated with performance artists Idris Ackamoor and Rhodessa Jones on the script for THE LOVE PROJECT, which premiered at the National Black Theatre Festival in 2008, and is currently touring the country. Cleage is also an accomplished novelist. Her novels include “What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day,” a New York Times bestseller and an Oprah Book Club selection, “I Wish I Had a Red Dress,” “Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do,” “Babylon Sisters,” “Baby Brother's Blues,” “Seen It All and Done the Rest,” and “Till You Hear from Me.” She is also the author of “Mad at Miles: A Blackwoman's Guide to Truth,” a groundbreaking work of race and gender, and “We Speak Your Names,” a praise poem commissioned by Oprah Winfrey for her 2005 celebration of legendary African American women and written in collaboration with Zaron Burnett. Cleage has also written for magazines, including “Essence,” “Vibe,” “Rap Pages,” and “Ms.” In addition to her work as the founding editor of “Catalyst” magazine, a literary journal, she was a regular columnist for the Atlanta Tribune for ten years, winning many awards for her thought-provoking columns. She has also written for TheDefendersOnLine.com. Cleage has been awarded grants in support of her work from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulton County Arts Council, the Georgia Council on the Arts, the Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs, and the Coca-Cola Foundation. Her work has earned her many awards and honors, including an NAACP Image Award for fiction in 2008. Pearl Cleage is represented by Ron Gwiazda at Abrams Artists Agency in New York City. Her website is www.PearlCleage.net. She also maintains a Facebook fan page. www.pearlcleage.net. Marti Lyons (she/her/hers) most recently directed the world-premiere of Galileo's Daughter by Jessica Dickey at Remy Bumppo, Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberly at Northlight Theatre, Wife of a Salesman by Eleanor Burgess at Milwaukee Rep, Sense and Sensibility adapted by Jessica Swale at American Players Theatre and the world-premiere of John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower at Studio Theatre in D.C. Marti's other productions include The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess at Writers Theatre; Cymbeline at American Players Theatre; The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe and both the stage and audio productions of Kings by Sarah Burgess at Studio Theatre; the world-premiere of How to Defend Yourself by liliana padilla, a Victory Gardens and Actors Theatre of Louisville co-production; Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee at Victory Gardens and City Theatre; Witch by Jen Silverman at Geffen Playhouse and Writers Theatre (LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Direction); Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías at Victory Gardens; Botticelli in the Fire by Jordan Tannahill at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; I, Banquo at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Title and Deed by Will Eno at Lookingglass Theatre Company; Laura Marks' Bethany and Mine at The Gift Theatre. Marti is also an ensemble member at The Gift Theatre, and a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. martilyons.com

Sam Lipsyte is the author of many beloved books, a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and faculty member at Columbia University's MFA program. Gabe and Sam dig into his recent non-fiction piece in The New Yorker which is, in part, about the classes he took from the legendary editor Gordon Lish.* They also discuss Sam's recent novel, No One Left To Come Looking for You, which is a Gen X masterpiece. Gabe and Sam also talk about Public Enemy, his father's relationship with Muhammad Ali, and Sam's love of the word Antwerp. *Gordon Lish, as editor, is responsible for helping launch many of your favorite writers, including: Amy Hempel, Barry Hannah, Diane Williams, Ben Marcus, Garielle Lutz, Raymond Carver, Christine Schutt, Will Eno, and Brian Evenson. Jude Brewer was executive producer and editor for this episode Buy Sam Lipsyte's recent novel No One Left to Come Looking For You Buy Sam's recent novella Friend of the Pod Read Sam's recent nf piece in The New Yorker, “A Lesson for the Sub” Listen to Sam's noise-punk band Dungbeetle from early 90's Read Sam's By the Book interview in NYT Read Sam's essay about his father, the legendary sportswriter Rate/review Kurt Vonnegut Radio (this is how you help our show live) Find Gabe on Twitter and Instagram and email More episodes: Sinead O'Connor George Saunders Kurt Vonnegut Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10:05 – 10:15 (10 mins) (Friend Of Virginia Kruta) Anthony Wininger -Artistic Director for Political Theatre Group. -In-Studio -The play is Title and Deed by Will Eno, a one man show about an alien. I will perform this play at The Gaslight Theater, the same venue St. Louis Actors Studio presents their shows. I was referred to you and Mr. Vic Porcelli's show because I am a conservative thespian, one could say I'm a MAGA Republican, and there may be interest in hosting a conversation with me. While Title and Deed is not a political show, it has no social commentary, per se, I have accomplished past productions of plays with a conservative bent and intend to complete more in the future. Title and Deed is a touching piece with a hint of philosophy within its themes. I believe people across the political spectrum will enjoy the show. 10:41 – 10:56 (15mins) WEEKLY with Mark Harder, Vice Chair-St. Louis County Council- Vic, Ken and Mark talk about the Fentanyl Epidemic in the St. Louis region.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

10:05 – 10:15 (10 mins) (Friend Of Virginia Kruta) Anthony Wininger -Artistic Director for Political Theatre Group. -In-Studio -The play is Title and Deed by Will Eno, a one man show about an alien. I will perform this play at The Gaslight Theater, the same venue St. Louis Actors Studio presents their shows. I was referred to you and Mr. Vic Porcelli's show because I am a conservative thespian, one could say I'm a MAGA Republican, and there may be interest in hosting a conversation with me. While Title and Deed is not a political show, it has no social commentary, per se, I have accomplished past productions of plays with a conservative bent and intend to complete more in the future. Title and Deed is a touching piece with a hint of philosophy within its themes. I believe people across the political spectrum will enjoy the show. 10:41 – 10:56 (15mins) WEEKLY with Mark Harder, Vice Chair-St. Louis County Council- Vic, Ken and Mark talk about the Fentanyl Epidemic in the St. Louis region.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eno and Al look at the potential impact of some of the new MLB rules on stolen base production. Eno also discusses the new rules and catcher preparation routines with former major league catcher and Mariners bullpen coach and quality control coach Stephen Vogt.Rundown0:21 Some big Rates & Barrels news3:20 Summary of the new rules that could impact stolen bases6:53 How much will the rules really help with steals?9:23 What are the stolen base ceilings for Oneil Cruz and Trea Turner?13:12 Will Eno approach drafting steals differently this season?Eno's interview with Stephen Vogt:16:11 Stephen discusses his new position with the Mariners17:30 Stephen talks about his daily preparation routines as a catcher23:42 Stephen recounts his preparations for containing the running game28:25 Eno and Stephen theorize about how teams will adapt to the rule changes32:20 Stephen talks about his efforts to improve his ability to contain baserunners37:09 Stephen anticipates more stolen base attempts in 202338:29 How much stealing should we expect during spring training?41:07 Does Stephen like the pitch clock?Stolen base expectations for:42:49 Andrés Giménez47:55 Xander Bogaerts50:18 Wander Franco52:32 Javier Báez54:52 Jon Berti/Jorge MateoFollow Eno on Twitter: @enosarrisFollow Al on Twitter: @almelchiorBBe-mail: ratesandbarrels@theathletic.comSubscribe to The Athletic at $2/month for the first year: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eno and Al look at the potential impact of some of the new MLB rules on stolen base production. Eno also discusses the new rules and catcher preparation routines with former major league catcher and Mariners bullpen coach and quality control coach Stephen Vogt. Rundown 0:21 Some big Rates & Barrels news 3:20 Summary of the new rules that could impact stolen bases 6:53 How much will the rules really help with steals? 9:23 What are the stolen base ceilings for Oneil Cruz and Trea Turner? 13:12 Will Eno approach drafting steals differently this season? Eno's interview with Stephen Vogt: 16:11 Stephen discusses his new position with the Mariners 17:30 Stephen talks about his daily preparation routines as a catcher 23:42 Stephen recounts his preparations for containing the running game 28:25 Eno and Stephen theorize about how teams will adapt to the rule changes 32:20 Stephen talks about his efforts to improve his ability to contain baserunners 37:09 Stephen anticipates more stolen base attempts in 2023 38:29 How much stealing should we expect during spring training? 41:07 Does Stephen like the pitch clock? Stolen base expectations for: 42:49 Andrés Giménez 47:55 Xander Bogaerts 50:18 Wander Franco 52:32 Javier Báez 54:52 Jon Berti/Jorge Mateo Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Al on Twitter: @almelchiorBB e-mail: ratesandbarrels@theathletic.com Subscribe to The Athletic at $2/month for the first year: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this conversation, we talk about embodiment from the perspective of acting practice, examining our shared roots in an acting community and the applications and understandings that grew from those roots.  Andy reflects on how the creation of the treatre is a humanizing force, which connects people to themselves and others, crafts shared story and community.  Andy Mangin has been at Wheaton since 2005, teaching students how to produce theater in a liberal arts environment. He manages the productions, designs and builds sets, acts, teaches and directs.  Some of Andy's favorites have been Will Eno's Middletown and Tony Kushner's The Illusion. He teaches Devised Theater, Directing and Acting classes. With an MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University and a hammer in the other hand, Andy crafts the actual sets as well as the performances for Arena Theatre. Mango Woodworks Link :www.instagram.com/p/Clj4lo1OdUu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link An article about Andy's woodworking: www.twohandsinteriors.com/journal-page/2020/4/21/working-with-a-talented-maker Here is a video about Andy's shakesphere in the park project from 2016. https://youtu.be/Eq-FY6Lvnak

In The Realistic Joneses, Will Eno looks at how two suburban couples deal with mortality - Beginning in Karachi, Best of Friends tells the story of two fourteen-year-old girls, as they navigate the teenage years against a background of social surveillance and political upheaval - We review new releases by Björk, Pixies and Sorcha Richardson.

Playful Musings host, Kristin Post, gives an overview of the play Wakey, Wakey by Will Eno.

Some know Josh Randall as the co-creator of the seminal immersive horror production BLACKOUT, others as the director of large-scale promotional activations at Comic-Con and in Hollywood, and yet others as part of the team at Two Bit Circus in LA — some of us even know him as all three. This week he's here to talk about something radically different: his performance in a site-responsive production of Will Eno's Thom Pain (based on nothing) that he's staging in his own garage in Los Angeles.Settle in for an incredibly personal interview with one of the most provocative minds I know.Plus: Kathryn Yu is here with this week's headlines.SHOW NOTESPeabody Award Legacy WinnersPGA Innovation Award WinnerReview RundownCommunity Forum: Expectations & Advisories (Discord; March 31) Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Drew Gasparini is an award-winning  musical theatre composer/lyricist, a singer/songwriter, and a teacher. He is equally committed to forging a new sound in the intersection between theatre and pop, to nurturing the next generation of artists, and to throwing one hell of a party. Drew is currently developing a number of new stage musicals including the Broadway-bound musical adaptation of The Karate Kid for Gorgeous Entertainment (book by screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen), It's Kind of a Funny Story for Universal Theatrical Group (book by Alex Brightman); Night Shift for Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures (book by screenwriters Babaloo Mandel & Lowell Ganz); and The Whipping Boy (book and co-lyrics by Brightman). Other writing projects include the infamous, award-winning Super Bowl publicity stunt, Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical, starring Michael C. Hall (book by Will Eno, lyrics with Nathaniel Lawler, directed by Sarah Benson); We Aren't Kids Anymore (a song cycle); Everything in its Place: The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers, a one-man-show starring Marc Summers, and Make Me Bad (both with scripts by Alex Brightman); Crazy, Just Like Me (2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival “Best of Fest”); Turn of the Screw and #UntitledPopMusical (both with Michael Kimmel); and songs for Hit List on the NBC television series SMASH, the children's cooking program “Monica's Mixing Bowl”, and Hot Mess in Manhattan (“The Text Message Song”). Let's connect! Instagram: @broadwaybrainspod Website: broadwaybrains.com Email: podcast@broadwaybrains.com

On this episode, Matt talks to award-winning director Oliver Butler about the return of Will Eno’s Ibsen adaptation “Gnit.” After being shut down following just a handful of performances in March 2020, Oliver, playwright Will Eno, and a cast made of some returning and some new company members will return read more The post Special Episode: Oliver Butler on Remounting ‘Gnit,’ ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’ appeared first on BroadwayRadio.

Tonight we bid adieu to September, and welcome October - with a return to the theatre! And all kinds of other great things. Will Eno's WAKEY WAKEY at Pacific Theatre, baseball in New York and Toronto and on the schoolyards of Vancouver, surprise election results in Richmond (don't worry, we won't talk politics), a rain dog afternoon at my local strip mall, and of course, great music of all kinds. Not forgetting Canada's first, and long overdue, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. We might run overtime, just a little...

On this episode of Half Hour, Erin Cook, Steppenwolf's universally beloved company manager of more than ten years, joins Caroline Neff for a lovely and lively conversation. Cook shares stories from her path to Steppenwolf, and she talks about what it is like being communicating with, and caring for, the more than fifty actors, writers and directors that constitute the Steppenwolf Ensemble. Plus, Erin reflects on her singular relationships with two of Steppenwolf's visionary artistic directors: Martha Lavey and Anna D. Shapiro.Interview begins at 3:14.  Erin Cook is the Company Manager & Assistant to the Artistic Director at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she has worked since 2008. Previously, Erin has worked at TimeLine, The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and Utah Shakespeare along with a slew of restaurant and coffee shop jobs! Erin's top five shows at Steppenwolf are a combination of the things she has seen and worked on: The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Middletown by Will Eno, The Seafarer by Conor McPherson, Mary Page Marlowe by Tracy Letts and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee.Learn more at Steppenwolf.orgWant to get in touch? Email halfhour@steppenwolf.orgA transcript of this episode can be found HERE

Oliver Butler is a director and theatermaker. He recently directed the Broadway Premiere of What the Constitution Means to Me (Nominations for the Tony Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Drama League Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and Drama Desk Award; Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama) and can be seen on Amazon Prime, West Coast Premiere of Will Eno's Thom Pain (based on nothing) starring Rainn Wilson at The Geffen Playhouse, Thom Pain (based on nothing) starring Michael C. Hall at the Signature Theatre Company, and The Amateurs by Jordan Harrison at The Vineyard, as well as many others. He is a co-founder and co-artistic director of The Debate Society with whom he has directed 10 premieres in 15 years including The Light Years (Playwrights Horizons), Jacuzzi (Ars Nova), and Blood Play (Bushwick Starr). He is a Sundance Institute Fellow and a Bill Foeller Fellow (Williamstown).In this episode we talk about the lessons he learned from hiking the Appalachian trail for 30 days, how hiking mirrors the creative process, the process of making plays with The Debate Society, accessing intuitive ideas, trail magic, TikTok, and possibilities. Creative Resources Mentioned:Breath of the Wild - ZeldaJoe Sacco - Footnotes in Gaza and Paying the LandQueens Liberation ProjectThe People's BodegaConnect with Oliver:thedebatesociety.org@oliverbutlertik tok: oliverbutler0

Guest host Kirsten Vangsness presents four works about fame, celebrity, show biz, and what it takes to survive them. First, actor Cole Escola channels the legendary Joan Crawford in an excerpt from her autobiography, My Way of Life. Author Zadie Smith channels the dauntless spirit of Billie Holiday in “Crazy They Call Me,” performed by Karen Pittman. Will Eno’s “Interview" is a freewheeling monologue which offers both sides of an extensive and confessional outpouring performed by the author. And Bebe Neuwirth dances her way into our hearts playing a carefree child trapped in pretentious dance class in “I Am Narcissus,” by Elizabeth Olmstead. Join and give!: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/symphonyspacenyc?code=Splashpage See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amanda interviews her long-time friend and award-winning actor, Tony Hale. Tony has appeared on numerous films and TV shows, including Veep; Arrested Development; Love, Simon; Toy Story 4; and most recently, he voices the sweet and funny chicken Archibald on Netflix's Archibald's Next Big Thing. Amanda and Tony discuss adapting to life in quarantine, embracing uncomfortable conversations, facing fears and anxieties, the power of a support network, and sports metaphors.  Tony talks about facing a fear of performing live (for the first time in 17 years) when presented with the opportunity to star in the play Wakey Wakey at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. He describes the process of rehearsing and developing the play while feeling nervous. Tony also shares how the emotional experience transformed over time and about facing situations with humor. Amanda and Tony talk about vulnerability, and having a safe space and network with which to be open, and the importance of listening with empathy.  Wakey Wakey was written by Will Eno and directed by Anne Kauffman. It was at the A.C.T. Jan 23 – Feb 16, 2020. Tony's animated show, Archibald's Next Big Thing is available on Netflix and is in its second season. Forky Asks Questions is available on Disney Plus.   Interested in connecting or finding out more about coaching or workshops? Get in touch! @AmandaGHennessey BostonPublicSpeaking.com SanDiegoPublicSpeaking.com   Looking for a handy guide to help you with your confidence and communication? Here you go! Your Guide to Public Speaking: Build Your Confidence: Find Your Voice, Inspire Your Audience (by your host, Amanda Hennessey)

Marisa Tomei continues to bridge the gap between rich, dramatic performances and smart, comedic turns. Marisa won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny. Tomei subsequently earned Academy Awards nominations for her performances in In the Bedroomand The Wrestler.  Marisa recently wrapped her run as “Serafina Delle Rose” in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of the acclaimed Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo, which marked Marisa’s return to the Broadway stage. She also recently wrapped production on Netflix’s action film, Sweet Girl, where she will appear alongside Jason Mamoa. Next, she will star alongside Pete Davidson in Universal Pictures’ The King of Staten Island, a comedy film from Judd Apatow. The film will premiere as the opening night film at 2020 SXSW, before releasing nationwide on June 19, 2020. Recently, Marisa returned to the silver screen for ABC’s live special of Live In Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All In The Family & The Jeffersons, where she starred as ‘Edith Bunker’ alongside Woody Harrelson, Jamie Foxx and Wanda Sykes. The one-night only events aired live on ABC on May 22 and December 18, 2019, and garnered three Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Variety Special (Live). Last year, Marisa reunited with Ira Sachs for independent drama, Frankie, which had its world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. She also reprised her role of “Aunt May” in Sony Entertainment and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Far From Home. The film released in theaters on July 2, 2019, dominating the box office weekend. Her other notable film credits include: The Big Short, Love is Strange, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Ides of March, Loitering with Intent, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, What Women Want, Happy Accidents, and Slums of Beverly Hills. She also recently appeared on television in Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and FOX’s “Empire,” among others. A veteran of the theater, Marisa starred as ‘George’ in Sarah Ruhl’s “How To Transcend a Happy Marriage” at Lincoln Center in 2017. Her previous Broadway credits include: Will Eno’s “The Realistic Joneses” (2014 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance), Caryl Churchill's “Top Girls” (Drama Desk Award nomination), “Oh! The Humanity” and “Other Good Intentions,” “Marie and Bruce,” “Design for Living,” “We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!,” “Waiting for Lefty,” “Rocket to the Moon,” “Demonology,” “Dark Rapture,” “Slavs!,” “The Comedy of Errors,” and “The Summer Winds,” among others. Tomei is a founding member of the Naked Angels Theater Company in New York City.

Up next on Adventures in Artslandia, with too much time on her hands and in need of a lift, our fearless host Susannah Mars drops two interviews this week! She chats with Will Eno and Larissa FastHorse — two wonder playwrights, one East Coast and one West, both of whom have produced in Portland. Then, author Kate Ristau and 2009 Librarian of the Year Erin Fitzpatrick Bjorn gather virtually to celebrate the release of Ristau’s new book, “Shadow Queen.” It’s a socially distanced yet audibly intimate party.

Will Eno (left) and Richard Wolinsky. Will Eno is the author of the play “Wakey Wakey” starring Tony Hale, directed by Anne Kauffman, at ACT's Geary Theatre through February 16, 2019. He is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. Will Eno has written several successful plays, including Thom Pain (based on nothing), which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005, The Realistic Joneses, which won a Drama Desk Special Award for its Broadway run in 2014, and Open House, which won an Off-Broadway Obie Award, also in 2014. Wakey, Wakey concerns a guy (named Guy) who is nearing death and looking back on all that life has to offer. In the interview, Will Eno discusses how he came to write the play, as well as highlights from his own career as a playwright. The post Interview: Will Eno, playwright “Wakey Wakey” appeared first on KPFA.

The New York Times has called Harris Yulin "something of the character actor's character actor." You know him from, well... pretty much everything: Scarface, Ghostbusters II, Clear and Present Danger, Bean, The Hurricane, Rush Hour 2, Training Day, The Place Beyond the Pines, 24, Veep, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Ozark. It goes on. Yulin is here playing Righty in the Yale Repertory Theatre's world premiere production of The Plot, which is playwright Will Eno's latest. Eno's previous work includes Middletown; The Open House; The Realistic Joneses, which also premiered at Yale Rep and which went on to Broadway; and Thom Pain (based on nothing), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Yulin and Eno (and Eno's adorable daughter, Albertine) are our guests. GUESTS: Albertine - The adorable daughter of Will Eno and Maria Dizzia Will Eno - An Obie Award-, Drama Desk Award-, and Lucille Lortel Award-winning playwright Harris Yulin - An actor and director who has been appearing on stage and screen for going on 60 years Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe contributed to this show, which includes original music composed by Emily Duncan Wilson, sound designer for Yale Repertory Theatre's production of The Plot.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a podcast of the Talkback after the Sunday matinee at the MATCH with Rob Shimko moderating. The talkback included the director, Tamarie Cooper and the cast:Elizabeth Marshall BlackGreg DeanJovan JacksonBryan KaplunJayden KeySynopsis:As the impending event approaches and chaos builds, the broadcasters reveal themselves to be all too human. In an era during which many have come to question the veracity of the news media, Catastrophic favorite Will Eno hilariously transcends fact-and-fiction in search of universal truths about the world we live in.Thursday, Oct. 3 7:30 PM Buy TicketsFriday, Oct. 4 8:00 PM Buy TicketsSaturday, Oct. 5 8:00 PM Buy TicketsSunday, Oct. 6 2:30 PM Buy Tickets TalkbackMonday, Oct. 7 7:30 PM Buy Tickets Industry NightThursday, Oct. 10 7:30 PM Buy TicketsFriday, Oct. 11 8:00 PM Buy TicketsSaturday, Oct. 12 8:00 PM Buy TicketsSunday, Oct. 13 2:30 PM Buy Tickets TalkbackThursday, Oct. 17 7:30 PM Buy TicketsFriday, Oct. 18 8:00 PM Buy TicketsSaturday, Oct. 19 8:00 PM Buy TicketsSunday, Oct. 20 2:30 PM Buy TicketsHere is a promotional video:https://youtu.be/IN3hK5z96dIMATCHtix: 713-521-4533ofc: 713-325-53703400 Main StreetHouston TX 77002 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Stream podcast episodes on demand from www.bitesz.com (mobile friendly). Wakey, Wakey (Red Stitch Theatre, Melbourne, Australia) (review)Will Eno’s evocative imagery and preoccupation with the nature of being has been compared to that of Samuel Beckett and Edward Albee. His latest play is both a celebration and a meditation on life; a stand-up style provocation that prompts us to re-examine our relationship to the world.Wakey, Wakey explores how human dignity and our eloquence in the face of annihilation are the most powerful and affecting theatrical story there is. Intelligent, clear-sighted and utterly devoid of sentimentality, this exciting new play is an immersive, transforming spectacle.For more information visit  https://redstitch.net/gallery/wakey-wakey/Theatre First RSS feed:   https://feeds.megaphone.fm/ivetheatrereviews Subscribe, rate and review Theatre First at all good podcatcher apps, including Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes), Stitcher, Pocket Casts, CastBox.FM, Podbean, ACast etc.If you're enjoying Theatre First podcast, please share and tell your friends. Your support would be appreciated...thank you.#theatre #stage #reviews #melbourne #australia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

MUSIQA welcomes Kate Soper to perform her own Voices from the Killing Jar.

Danielle Weathers and Jason Glick talk about Milwaukie's own Chapel Theatre Collective https://chapeltheatremilwaukie.comTheir first production will be Kat Ramsburg's An Anatomy of a Hug; don't miss this chat about their juicy upcoming season ANDCaptivating playwright Will Eno talks about his play Wakey Wakey, which will be opening at Portland Playhouse on September 26th. www.portlandplayhouse.org

What are we here for? Is time a friend or an enemy? Do we all eventually end up in the same place, but take different routes to get there? This is a funny, moving, and thought-provoking piece and you don't want to miss listening to Will Eno talk about his artistic process and zest for life. Wakey Wakey, opens at Portland Playhouseon September 26th.

One of the oddest plays I’ve seen in a while, Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses isn’t particularly real in its examination of two suburban couples who share the same surname. It does, however, often ring true. Set in an unnamed town, Bob and Jennifer Jones (Chris Schloemp and Melissa Claire) are spending a quiet evening in their backyard talking about nothing (and talking about talking about nothing) when some new neighbors come over to introduce themselves. John and Pony Jones (Chris Ginesi and Paige Picard) have rented a house down the street and bring a bottle of wine over to break the ice. The awkward conversation that comes with meeting new people is really awkward as it veers into the personal. It seems that Bob and Jennifer are there because it’s the best place for Bob to receive treatment for a degenerative neurological disease characterized by pain, bouts of blindness, and loss of memory. Bob deals with it by not dealing with it. Jennifer deals with it daily and is beginning to crack under the strain. John and Pony have just picked up and moved there on a whim, but it soon becomes clear the two couples have something in common. The subject matter doesn’t seem ripe for humor, but it is. Its marvelously quirky dialogue is often absurd, and yet it feels genuine. In one of the plays best scenes, the two male Joneses have a late-night conversation: John: “Arrrgh!’ Bob: “What?” John: “Nothing. Ice cream headache.” Bob: “Did you just have ice cream?” John: “I wish.” Delivery of dialogue like this can be a challenge and in the hands of lesser talents can come off cheaply, but director Argo Thompson has a cast that can handle it. Schloemp is excellent as the “everyman” struggling to deal with a failing body. Claire’s role as the put-upon wife borders on the stock, but she gives it just enough variance – particularly in her moments with John – to keep it interesting. Ginesi and Picard garner most of the laughs as neither’s character seems to possess much of an internal filter with Picard’s Pony having the verbal metabolism of a hummingbird. The Realistic Joneses is difficult to categorize. It’s tough to find meaning in a play about the meaningless of meaning and for a play as funny as it is, an overwhelming sense of melancholy hangs over it. Highly original, it makes for a wonderfully weird evening of theater. ‘The Realistic Joneses’ runs through Mar. 25 at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre at the Luther Burbank Center for the Performing Arts; Thursday through Saturday evenings at 8pm; Sunday matinees at 2pm. For more information, go to leftedgetheatre.com

The co-creator and co-writer of the #1 international hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale and New York Times bestselling co-author of the novel of same name, Jeffrey Cranor, dropped by the show to talk about the importance of collaboration, deadlines, and bad writing. In addition to producing and touring with the theater ensemble The New York Neo-Futurists, the playwright and author tours with live shows for the Night Vale Presents production banner, co-created with Joseph Fink. Night Vale Presents now produces four podcasts that regularly sit at the top of the charts — including Within the Wires, also created by the author — and recently published two volumes of episode transcripts that include extras for fans of their original show. Welcome to Night Vale has been described as “NPR meets The Twilight Zone,” a sci-fi broadcast about a small desert community where strange mythologies abound, and all conspiracy theory is potentially real. If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews. If you missed the first half you can find it right here. In Part Two of this file Jeffrey Cranor and I discuss: The power of productive procrastination How ‘making the familiar strange’ produces great writing Why it’s really hard to be good all the time How the battle against expectation can surprise readers The art of great audiobooks as performance Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ... Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes Audible is Offering a Free Audiobook Download with a 30-day Trial: Grab Your Free Audiobook Here – audibletrial.com/rainmaker Welcome To Night Vale Welcome To Night Vale on Facebook Night Vale Presents Jeffrey Cranor on Amazon Jeffrey Cranor’s website NY Neo-Futurists Theater Company Jeffrey Cranor on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter The Transcript How #1 Hit Podcast Welcome to Night Vale Co-Creator Jeffrey Cranor Writes: Part Two Voiceover: Rainmaker FM Kelton Reid: And welcome back to the Writer Files. I’m still your host, Kelton Reid, here to take you on yet another tour of the habits, habitats, and brains of renowned scribes. In part two of this file, the co-creator and co-writer of the number one international hit podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, and New York Times best selling co-author of the novel of the same name, Jeffrey Cranor, returned to talk to me about the importance of collaboration, deadlines, and bad writing. In addition to producing and touring with the theater ensemble, The New York Neo-Futurists, the playwright and author tours with live shows for the Night Vale Presents production banner, co-created with Joseph Fink. Night Vale Presents now produces four podcasts that sit atop the charts, including Within the Wires, also created by the author. They’ve recently published two volumes of episode transcripts that include extras for fans of their original show. Welcome to Night Vale has been described as NPR meets The Twilight Zone, a sci-fi broadcast about a small desert community where strange mythologies abound and all conspiracy theory is potentially real. In part two of this file, Jeffrey and I discuss the power of productive procrastination, how making the familiar strange produces great writing, why it’s really hard to be good all the time, how the battle against expectation can surprise readers, and the art of great audio books as performance. If you’re a fan of the Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews as soon as they’re published. If you missed the first half of this show, you can find it in the archives on iTunes, on WriterFiles.FM, and in the show notes . This episode of The Writer Files is brought to you by Audible. I’ll have more on their special offer later in the show, but if you love audiobooks or you’ve always wanted to give them a try, you can check out over 180,000 titles right now at Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. The Power of Productive Procrastination Kelton Reid: That’s cool, I like that. Do you lean into procrastination or do you kind of have some tricks for beating it? Jeffrey Cranor: Oh, I definitely lean into procrastination. I’m really bad at procrastination. I think the number one thing that helps me with procrastination is allowing myself to put something off, as long as I am doing something else productive in its stead. I think that if I find myself, I don’t know, spending too long, just like, “Oh, you know what? I’m just going to hang out and play a game while listening to a podcast,” or something, like really unproductive things. Not that those are bad for you, but over too much time, they do become unproductive because they’re taking away from writing time or actual work. But I think there’s always some business to be done as a writer. For Joseph and me doing Night Vale Presents, there’s a lot. It’s a business, right? So we do have to respond to emails, and do make decisions, and go back and forth. A lot of times I’ll take some time away from writing to just get myself in front of a computer, do those little things. Return some emails, check everything, play the game of, Can I get to inbox zero? Stuff like that. Those are good procrastination things, because they’re in front of the computer, which is where you should be writing. They’re still kind of writing, even if they’re not finishing the novel or the new episode, but just kind of get your body into the framework of what you should be doing. Those are the main things. Because sometimes, I don’t know. Sometimes you just look at your computer from 20 feet away and you’re like, “I don’t want to go near that thing. I just am not feeling it. I don’t want to do that.” Kelton Reid: Yeah, and your brain likes those little victories, doesn’t it? I think Austin Kleon, and I’m sure lots of other people, call it productive procrastination, where you’re just switching modes so your brain can focus on something else in the background, do that incubation stuff that it likes so much. Cool, man. I’d love to pick your brain a little bit about creativity if you’ve got some more time. Jeffrey Cranor: Sure. How Making the Familiar Strange Produces Great Writing Kelton Reid: How do you define creativity in your own words? Jeffrey Cranor: I think it’s just, for me, it’s about original expression. Creativity is, I guess, a combination of finding your own voice within the confines of everything else that helped to shape it. So I think, for me, creativity is walking that balance of creating an original thing, something that is all yours, but using all of the tools and all of the components and tropes and devices that have come before. It is kind of like recycling, in some ways. You’re taking old soda bottles and melting them down and repacking them as something else. I think you can’t be truly creative without having consumed a lot of other art in the past. You have to have a lot of that experience and know how to make a certain thing. But there’s always a part of you that is truly unique and original. Everybody grows up differently. We may have a lot of similar experiences, but everybody has their own unique take on the world. Creativity, to me, is taking your standard mystery novel or your standard sitcom, or whatever your real, like set structure, and then adding your own unique viewpoint inside of that whenever you write that yourself. I think, to me, it’s building out structures that are familiar, and then finding a new way to present them that the people haven’t done before. Kelton Reid: Yeah, yeah. You definitely do that with Welcome to Night Vale, and I’ve heard it described as NPR meets The Twilight Zone. It definitely has that. Has anyone ever used the adjective phantasmagoric? Jeffrey Cranor: I don’t know. Kelton Reid: Okay, good. Jeffrey Cranor: Yeah, that’s good. Kelton Reid: I want to be the first. Jeffrey Cranor: Do it. Kelton Reid: I don’t know why it came to mind, but it’s got those elements of the Theater of the Absurd meets kind of like X-Files, and then procedural, and then beautiful, small-town NPR stuff, which is all just an amazing remix of stuff we know, but it’s so different. It’s truly brilliant. Sorry to digress there back to that. When do you think you feel the most creative? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s a really good question. I feel the most creative … The cheeky way of saying that, I think, is after I’ve created something really good, then I look back and say, “Oh, I was in a really creative mood! I was really, really feeling it then.” It’s a little bit true that a lot of times I don’t know how creative I feel until later, after I’ve made a thing. Then I can look back on it and sort of feel that. Because some days, I don’t know. Some days I feel like I just created lackluster garbage. That’s harsh, that’s not what I meant to say. Some days I feel like I created something that just isn’t as special as other days. Then, when I go back and look at it later, I’m like, “Oh, this is fine. This is good. This is completely usable. I like this.” And feel like, “Oh, I was feeling very creative.” Some days you feel like, “Man, I’m really killing this!” And you go look at it later and you’re like, “Wow, this is completely overwrought. Super overwritten.” It is a little tough. I think usually the feeling itself of feeling creative usually happens about half an hour to an hour into working on something. It usually, if I feel myself on a roll … A couple days ago I really cranked through like 6,000 words, and I did it over a course of a long stretch of an afternoon. I just felt, “Man, I’m really, really working through this. This is flowing really, really well. Man, I just had a really good joke to insert into this paragraph,” and, “Oh, this really feels good.” A lot of it is just getting into a rhythm, and if I can get myself into the rhythm, I’m feeling very creative. Now, whether or not that stuff is any good I’ll know a few days later when I go look at it again. Kelton Reid: I think sci-fi author Andy Weir had a very similar thought on it, and it was just that he looks back on these … He just makes sure that he writes it. He doesn’t always feel awesome when he’s writing it, but looking back, it didn’t matter. That those things were equally as important to the process. That’s cool. Do you have a creative muse at the moment? Jeffrey Cranor: I don’t. Oh, no. I really don’t. I try to put myself in an environment that feels ergonomic and positive, like a good energy. I just finished setting up an office space. We have a guest bedroom that’s pretty large and it faces out towards the trees and the hills out here in Hudson Valley, New York, so I have a really nice view of the mountains from where I sit, which is really great. It provides a nice thing of every now and then you just look up and you’re like, “Oh, look, there’s a blue jay! That’s really great. I think for me, my muse is mostly just having a positive environment. It’s very hard for me to write when I am traveling. We tour a lot for Welcome to Night Vale. In tour times, Joseph and I have gotten to the point now where, we have written things on tour, but on tour we’ve learned to not pretend like we’re going to get anything done when we’re traveling. Because when you’re on an airplane, airplanes are inherently uncomfortable and stressful. It’s hard to sit and write in that little tiny cramped seat where somebody leans back into your lap. Hotel rooms, equally so. Especially when what you’re doing is touring, so you arrive at a hotel at three in the afternoon. You have an hour and a half before you then have to go the theater and do soundcheck. Then you’re backstage at a theater, and while you’re not on stage the whole time, you’re just around a bunch of people and eventually you’re going to have to pack everything up, Maybe go out and meet fans. By eleven o’clock that night you’re like, “Well, I got to go to sleep and get up at nine in the morning and do this all over again.” It’s really hard to find that time to be like, “I have this really relaxing positive environment to really focus.” Yeah, so my muse is quiet and peace. Why It s Really Hard to Be Good All the Time Kelton Reid: Nice, nice. What do you think, in your estimation, makes a writer great? Jeffrey Cranor: Doing it a lot. I think more than anything else, that’s it. I remember reading … Oh, God, I’m going to forget the name of it … Steve Martin’s last book, basically his memoir about his stand-up career. He has some moment in it where he talked about doing stand-up comedy, and he didn’t do it for very long and he was great at it. But he did talk about the idea of greatness. He says if you’re naturally inclined to comedy and you’re really good at it, you will find that it becomes easy to be great. What’s really hard is being good all the time, because in doing your stand-up act, you can’t just be great and have a great show and then the next night be okay. Everybody there needs to laugh. That’s the whole point of your job. So you need to find a way to be good all the time. I think that comes from constant experience. In fact, when I’ve gone to see stand-up comedy … I remember going one night to the Comedy Cellar in New York City, and I remember the night that I was there there was some really great comedians. Aziz Ansari performed, and Amy Schumer performed that night. This was a couple years ago. They were great. I really love them. They’re super funny. But I remember at the end of the night, the last comedian was a guy named Allan Havey, who I’ve never seen in person before but I knew who he was. He’s in his 50’s, if not 60. He’s been at it since I was a kid. I remember him on Short Attention Span Theater and Comedy Central when I was in High School. He was amazing! I think what made him amazing wasn’t the jokes, because if you’re going to ask comedians of that night to write down their jokes, I’m probably gravitating towards Aziz Ansari and Amy Schumer, and just the quality of the craftsmanship of the joke. But what made Allan Havey great is that he could tell you any joke and it would have been brilliant, because he knew how to work the crowd. He was doing a full-on performance. I think that’s the sign of a really, really great comedian that can do that night after night, no matter the crowd that he’s in. He knows what people are saying and what people are doing, and how to use their energy back at them. I think with a writer, while it’s not performative, I think being able to write all the time and publish as much as you can, even if it’s just a blog, even if it’s just jokes on Twitter, just getting something out there and constantly making a thing is really, really vital. I think when you do that a lot, you get really, really good at it. Even if you’re not making best selling hits, right? Even if you’re not creating the next Gone Girl, or Between the World and Me, or something. You are still creating great things that people will truly enjoy reading. Kelton Reid: Those authors wrote some bad stuff at the beginning. All writers do. Jeffrey Cranor: Sure. Kelton Reid: To start out, it’s that iterative process. You got to ship to know what you’re dealing with and forge that. Jeffrey Cranor: It’s a very hard career to come at late. I mean, most careers are hard to come at late, but it’s not one you can easily fake. It’s like weight lifting. You can’t just suddenly be an offensive linemen. You really have to work for years and years to do that. Kelton Reid: That’s crushing my dream, but yeah, no, it’s true. The overnight successes we hear about in any of the major writing fields, so often have cut their teeth, even if they’re just the best selling debut novelist in their 40s or 50s, they cut their teeth in writing, but maybe not in a way that you might imagine it. They weren’t writing novel after novel. They might have been copywriters, or journalists, or playwrights, or whatever. But you see that so often, that kind of, “Oh, overnight success! Debut novelist! Jeffrey Cranor: Nope! And sometimes, even if it’s a very first novel they’ve ever written, which there’s a lot of people who, in their first novel, have a huge success with it, but I would also counter that, yeah, just like you said, they’ve probably done a lot of other things prior to that. In addition to that, I bet that novel took a lot of iterations to get right. Kelton Reid: Absolutely. Jeffrey Cranor: There’s just a lot that goes into it. Kelton Reid: So many novels start with a short story, or just an idea, and obviously become take on a life of their own. We will be right back after a very short break. Thanks so much for listening to The Writer Files. This episode of The Writer Files is brought to you by Audible, offering over 180,000 audiobook titles to choose from. Audible seamlessly delivers the world’s both fiction and nonfiction to your iPhone, Android, Kindle or computer. For Rainmaker FM listeners, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a 30 day trial to give you the opportunity to check them out. Grab your free audiobook right now by visiting Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. I just hopped over there to grab Stephen King’s epic novel 11/22/63, about an English teacher who goes back in time to prevent the assassination of JFK. You can download your pick or any other audiobook free by heading over to Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. To download your free audiobook today, go to Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. How the Battle Against Expectation Can Surprise Readers Kelton Reid: Do you have a couple favorite authors sitting on your nightstand, or playing in your headphones? Jeffrey Cranor: Let me try to answer that. I’m going to turn to my left and look at my shelf. I do. One of my favorite authors is a playwright named Will Eno. I love Will Eno’s work, and I feel like, when we write and when we first start really getting into writing, or a style of writing, we like to emulate other writers, and Will Eno’s a person I think I’ve always wanted to emulate. He writes plays, he writes dialog plays, but he also has a whole bunch of monologue pieces. The first of those that I read was a play called Thom Pain (based on nothing), and it is a solo performance. It was originally performed in New York by the actor James Urbaniak, who’s been on Welcome to Night Vale since, which is really exciting for me. Will Eno’s work has this ability to be, when you look at it on a page, it’s very simple. The writing structure is simple, but it’s deeply poetic, and very introverted, and it uses the audience really, really well. He’s very confrontational without saying controversial things. There’s some of that in there, but mostly he just always, always makes the audience battle against expectations. He does some really fascinating things with his writing in Thom Pain. There’s a moment when he asks a member of the audience to come up on stage, “I need you for something. Just stand right there.” Then proceeds to continue out the rest of the show without ever using them. So just leaves the person on stage throughout the rest of the show without anything to do, always expecting something about to happen. It’s kind of, you’re used to the improv comedian or the magician needing a volunteer to come up and do a thing, and then you find yourself never used again, and it becomes this really amazing thing for the rest of the audience to watch that happen. Another writer I really, really love is Helen DeWitt. She wrote one of my favorite books of all time, called The Last Samurai. Do you know this book? Kelton Reid: I do, yeah. It’s one I found when I was in creative writing school, and I think it had a limited release, right? Then it went out of print and then it came back. They republished it recently. Jeffrey Cranor: Oh, it might have. I have no idea. I bought it way back in 2003, I think. But yeah, I didn’t know if it went out of print or not. I found out after I read it back then that it was big, hot stuff in the literary world. As in like, here’s a first time novelist and here’s this brilliant novel. All these publishers really want it. And it took her a long, long time to write a second book. Last Samurai, I thought, was so beautiful and immersive. I think it does a similar thing to what Will Eno does, which is to create a fairly simple vocabulary, a fairly simple language. Describing things in not lavish detail, but in enough detail to allow you as the reader, or the viewer in the case of Will, to build out your own world. Some of the really heartfelt moments, or the really scary moments in both of those writers’ work is what they’re not telling you, and what they’re not revealing. Anyways, but yeah, I felt Last Samurai was absolutely beautiful and stunning. Kelton Reid: For sure. Jeffrey Cranor: I just read last year, for the first time, If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino. It was brilliant. I’ve never read Calvino’s work and I finally got around to reading it, so I can’t claim him as a favorite author, but that was one of the best things I ve ever read, and it’s tremendous. So welcome to me finally discovering Italo in 2015. Kelton Reid: Yeah, Calvino’s fantastic. And so is Helen DeWitt, and I look forward to checking out the other author you mentioned. Do you have a favorite quote? A lot of writers have a quote just kind of floating over their desk somewhere, or memorized. Do you have one you want to share with writers? Jeffrey Cranor: I do. I guess people still do this with email. I don’t know if you do this with your email or anything. I don’t really notice signatures on email anymore because Gmail usually truncates that stuff, but back in the day people kind of devised a personalized signature at the bottom of their emails and a lot of times it would be a quote. Especially all of my writer and theater friends would have a quote from somebody at the bottom. My friend Joey Rizzolo, who was a member of The New York Neo-Futurists theater company, had a quote at the bottom of his. So when you’d get an email from Joey Rizzolo you’d have the email, and he’d just put ‘Joey,’ and then at the bottom, it would have this quote. The quote said, “We’re writers. Why are we always quoting some other writer? We’re writers, after all. -Joey Rizzolo.” That’s my favorite quote. Kelton Reid: I hope Joey hears this and takes a bow. Jeffrey Cranor: It’s tremendous, and it was so good I wanted to steal it and knew that I couldn’t, and that made me sad. Kelton Reid: Love it. It’s too meta, so I’m going to have to steal it and put it over my desk now. The Art of Great Audiobooks as Performance Kelton Reid: I know we need to wrap here pretty quick. I got a couple fun ones for you. I have this question; do you prefer paper or eBook? I guess I should add, or audiobook? Do you have a preference? Jeffrey Cranor: I love audiobooks. I’ve always loved radio. I’ve always loved listening to things. I hope that’s not heretical to say, but I love audiobooks. There’s a real distinct art to them. I’m much more willing to give up on an audiobook then I am on a printed book, because a printed book, it’s all your fault if you can’t get it right. Whereas the audiobook, sometimes they just don’t translate well for me. Sometimes the performance is just not quite there, or the book doesn’t work as an audiobook. I think, guaranteed, getting a good quality is going to be much better in a book book than in an audiobook, because there’s just so many other moving parts to audiobooks. I just love them. It’s so great when you find great narrators, like Robertson Dean, or George Guidall. There are just so many really good narrators out there that do a fantastic job. Definitely prefer a printed book over an eBook, just because it’s more lasting. It feels more memorable to me. There’s the physical weight and the touch of the pages. I don’t even think I’m being romantic when I say that, I think that’s just physiology. I just think your body is more likely to hold on to information that’s tangible, that you’ve actually touched. That being said, I’m not opposed to eBooks. I travel a lot, so I definitely have to go eBook quite a bit. That’s fine. They’re great. They’re super excellent for travelling, because I don’t have to have five pounds of books in my bag. Kelton Reid: Yeah, yeah. Hybrid medium is the message. Jeffrey Cranor: Add Marshall McLuhan to my list of people I really love as writers. Kelton Reid: Oh, yeah. The Medium is the Massage. Jeffrey Cranor: Yes. I have that book, too. It’s great. Kelton Reid: My mom recently gave me a vintage copy of that, and I was like, “I think they spelled it wrong. Oh wait, that was intentional.” All right, if you could choose one author from any era for an all-expense paid dinner to your favorite spot in the world, who would you choose and where would you take them? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s a great question. I feel like I might I would one of two things. Partially, there’s a person like Will Eno that I just mentioned a little bit ago, who’s living, not that far from my own age, maybe we’re ten years apart. That’s somebody that I just think, professionally, I would just love to meet, because he’s had such a profound influence on my life. That being said, I don’t know how comfortable I am with meeting people I’m a big fan of. There’s a lot of people I enjoy meeting that I really appreciate their work, but sometimes when you reach the level of “I’m a fan of you,” you just can’t not have shake-voice when you do actually meet them. So I feel like maybe that would be counterproductive. I would be really interested in someone like Jane Austen, if only for the fact of, you have a person who managed to write quite a bit given the time-frame she wrote in, but did not write for a very long time. I think I’m always curious about the level of writing that she was at, which was, we’re talking the upper echelon of Western writers. She was absolutely brilliant. And of that era, there’s so little known. There’s a lot know, but there’s so much that’s been repressed about women’s histories in the history of humankind, and I think that we’re missing so much of her story because we didn’t canonize women the same way we did men. Like, any average man from then. Some just spare Earl or Viscount gets pages in an encyclopedia, and there’s so many women who did not. I think we’re missing a lot of her life, and I would be very interested to know more about her, and more about her writing process, and about who she was during that era. Kelton Reid: Interesting. And where would you go for dinner? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s a great question. Oh, man, there’s a really great restaurant and brewery in Athens, New York, called Crossroads that I really, really enjoy. They always have really excellent stuff, so maybe we’ll go there. My knowledge of restaurants in England is much more limited. Kelton Reid: I skipped over one earlier, but maybe before we get to your writing advice for fellow scribes, you could tell us how Jeffrey Cranor unwinds at the end of a long writing day.? Jeffrey Cranor: I’ll tell you what I did last night after the end of a long writing day, which was, my wife Jillian had gone to the store and got some food, and I finished up right around the time she got home and started making dinner, so I went upstairs and helped make dinner. Chopped up some peppers, and grated some cheese, and made some bread. We poured some wine and had a go at making a flourless chocolate cake, which we hadn’t tried before. I think we over baked it a little bit, but for the most part came out really tasty. It wasn’t super dense, which was really great, if only slightly dry on top. That was a problem. But yeah, cooking and having wine, or a bourbon, something like that. I can’t do that every night, make a flourless chocolate cake and throw back a bunch of wine, stuff like that. I think cooking, having an evening to just cook and have nice food, and things like that, is one of my favorite things to do to unwind. Kelton Reid: Well, to wrap it up here, do you have some advice for your fellow writers on how to keep the ink flowing and cursor moving? Jeffrey Cranor: I think you have to make opportunities for yourself. Self publish, self produce whenever you can. Always give yourself a reason to have to make a thing. Not just you want to make a thing, but make a path that you have to make a thing. If you have a blog, tell people that you put out a new post every 48 hours. At noon every other day, or at Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at three PM, you will have a brand new post about this subject. Make those paths for yourself. Make yourself have to make a thing. When you do that, you feel like you are indebted to more than just yourself. I think that’s the number one thing. Kelton Reid: Lock, stock, and barrel with Jeffrey Cranor, best-selling author, co-creator Welcome to Night Vale and Night Vale Presents worlds. Lots of stuff going on to find out there. Is the best way to connect with that world at welcometonightvale.com? Jeffrey Cranor: I think that’s the best way. Also, we put a lot of updates on our Facebook page and Twitter account, too. Look for all that there. Kelton Reid: I will link to all of those in the show notes. Congrats on the new show Within the Wires, which is fantastic. You can find those wherever fine podcasts are consumed. Does that sound awful? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s great. Wherever you get podcasts. iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever. Kelton Reid: Yeah, absolutely. There’s so much out there to find. What’s your next stop in the live show, the tour? What’s next for you? Jeffrey Cranor: We just started a Europe tour. We’re two shows in. I’m not on that tour yet, but they just did a show in Paris on Monday night and a show in Madrid last night. Tomorrow night they’ll be in Cologne and going on over to Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Prague, Warsaw, and then I’m going to join up on October 20th in Dublin. We’re going to go to Dublin, Brighton, London, and Manchester to close out the month. Kelton Reid: Amazing. Amazing. Jeffrey Cranor: It’s really exciting. Kelton Reid: Seems like you have fans all over the world, and congratulations on all of your successes. I really appreciate you chatting with us about your process. Feel free to come back any time. Jeffrey Cranor: Thanks so much, Kelton. Kelton Reid: Thank you so much for joining me for this half of a tour through the writer’s process. If you enjoy The Writer Files podcast, please subscribe to the show and leave us a rating or a review on iTunes to help other writers find us. For more episodes, or to just leave a comment or a question, you can drop by WriterFiles.FM. You can always chat with me on Twitter @KeltonReid. Cheers. Talk to you next week.

Reviews of (1) FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, & Joseph Stein, at The Muny, (2) TOSCA, by Giacomo Puccini, at Union Avenue Opera, (3) THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, by Lisa Lambert & Greg Morrison, Bob Martin & Don McKellar, at Stages St. Louis, (4) THOM PAIN (BASED ON NOTHING), by Will Eno, at The Midnight Company, (5) LABUTE NEW THEATER FESTIVAL, by several playwrights, at St. Louis Actors’ Studio, (6) XANADU, by Douglas Carter Bean, Jeff Lynner & John Farrar, at Take Two Productions, (7) MANMA MIA!, by Catherine Johnson, Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus, at The Muny.

NOTE: This show contains language that may not be appropriate for young audiences. This week's show features two segments from the 2013 season of the Organist. Actor, writer, and artist James Franco (Spring Breakers, Palo Alto) performs a radio play by playwright Will Eno (Thom Pain (based on nothing), The Realistic Joneses) written exclusively for the Organist. Filmmaker Harmony Korine discusses his novel, A Crackup at the Race Riots, and some unreleased songs he wrote and recorded as a child for the sole purpose of annoying his grandmother.  The untitled radio play was written by Will Eno and performed by James Franco. This episode was produced by Ross Simonini, Jenna Weiss-Berman and Andrew Leland.      Banner Image Credit: Harmony Korine

A star-packed cast — Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts and Marisa Tomei — is assembled for the Broadway debut of a playwright known for “experimental theater.” Will Eno’s previous plays have found audiences Off-Broadway, but his new play, The Realistic Joneses, is his first outing on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre. Directed by Sam Gold, the play is about two couples who meet and confront questions of relationships, life, death and deeper meaning. New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood assesses the play, the cast and the prospects of Eno’s distinctive voice finding a Broadway audience willing to listen.

Bob Wilcox and Gerry Kowarsky interview Bobby Miller and Wayne Salomon after reviewing (1) SHIRLEY VALENTINE, by Willy Russell, at Dramatic License Productions; (2) THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS, adapted from Isabel Allende by Caridad Svich, at Webster Univ. Conservatory; (3) JERSEY BOYS, by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice, Bob Gaudio & Bob Crewe, at the Fox Theatre; (4) MIDDLETOWN, by Will Eno, at Saint Louis Univ.; and (5) YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, by George S. Kaufman & Moss, at Washington Univ.