Amy Michelle & Zaven Ovian of “Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight”

Duende Productions presents Emilie written by Lauren Gunderson directed by Kathy Gail MacGowan Listen in as Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight actor/producer Amy Michelle, along with fellow cast member Zaven Ovian, discuss physics, inviting the audience in, those plays that follow you around until you put them up, staging opportunities, deep research, love for stage managers, differentiating your multiple character assignments, and exploring “purpose & passion.”

“…the question that Emilie asks at the top of the play, ‘What do we mean?,’ I think is much more existential than ‘what do you mean by that?’ I think it’s actually, ‘what do WE mean? What is our meaning? What does our existence mean?’…I think a lot of people are asking that question since the pandemic…”

Continue reading

Jennifer Fell Hayes & Kate Grimes of “Rosemary and Time”

ROSEMARY AND TIME at Paradise Factory, written by Jennifer Fell Hayes, directed by Kathy Gail MacGowanListen in as playwright Jennifer Fell Hayes and actor Kate Grimes of Rosemary and Time discuss beginning with a true story before letting the playwright’s imagination take over, mastering the Yorkshire accent, figuring out where in time your play begins, issues of class in the U.K. vs. the U.S., throwing in local turns of phrase, and dealing with issues of “shame and grief and connection and the past and guilt.”

“…having met the two women […] I really was very, very touched by what had happened to them, and promised them I would really try to do the best I could…a truthful play that might say something about the human condition, about love and loss and life, all those major, major themes that we try to wrestle with…”

Continue reading