Kimille Howard & Cezar Williams of The Fire This Time Festival 2025

Season 16 of The Fire This Time Festival, 2025, featuring works by FELISPEAKS, Brittany Fisher, TyLie Shider, Garrett Turner, Jeanette W. Hill, & D.L. Patrick, directed by Kimille Howard, at The Wild ProjectListen in as the Director of the shows in this year’s The Fire This Time Festival, Kimille Howard, along with Producing Artistic Director Cezar Williams, discuss finding balance, discovering musical talent, bringing together black voices in the theatre, finding new collaborators, figuring out the big game of scheduling Tetris, leaning into the practicalities, and making magic.

“…it’s a theatrical event…to amplify the career of black playwrights…we pull together an incredible team of artist…and it’s always a good time.”

Continue reading

Kallan Dana, Julia Greer, and Sarah Blush of “Racecar Racecar Racecar”

The Hearth presents RACECAR RACECAR RACECAR, written by Kallan Dana, directed by Sarah BlushListen in as Racecar Racecar Racecar playwright Kallan Dana, director Sarah Blush, and producer/performer Julia Greer, discuss the open road of a script, symmetry & palindromic structures, complicated father relationships, creating breaks, emergency relocations, and taking road trips with your collaborators.

“…I’m a person who tries to talk and talk until I can get to what I mean, and I’m always failing. The words are always failing you. And so I think that feels like a really emotionally true thing for me, and that was part of the fun for generating the language in this play…”

Continue reading

Ana Mari de Quesada & Tom Escovar of The Wild Project

Listen in as Ana Mari de Quesada (Producing Artistic Director) & Tom Escovar (Producing Director) of The Wild Project discuss venue stability, sustainable architecture, providing opportunities for exciting new work, hoping to find an angel, infamous signage, why this incredible space needs to remain open in the East Village, and how you can help. #savewildproject

“We’re home to many downtown artists…especially since the pandemic […] the number of independent theaters that can house independent artists, give them free space or subsidized space, is shrinking. We really just want to solidify our home, for all the artists that we serve in this community…”

Continue reading

Tim Errickson of “Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves”

Boomerang Theatre Company presents "Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves," written by Gina Femia, directed by Scott Ebersold, at ART/NY's Jeffrey and Paula Gural TheatreListen in as Boomerang Theatre Company Artistic Director Tim Errickson, producer of the world premiere of Gina Femia’s Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves, discusses joy in hindsight, speeches that won’t let you rest, upending the madness, giving some distance to put things into perspective, and turning a tragedy into something celebratory.

“…I think that’s what the play is really trying to capture, is this idea that, unlike Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, who don’t get that moment, because theirs is cut off at the end of the play…our characters get to move forward, and grow and change and experience what it means to have that as part of their history, and their journey…we often see LGBTQ-themed stories on stage that tend to center around some sort of tragedy, violence, bigotry, hatred…and I know that Gina wanted to be able to celebrate the things that are also in the LGBTQ experience, and to show them as powerful, and joyful, and life-changing, and heartfelt, and highly relatable…”

Continue reading

Sara Fellini, Adam Belvo, & Nicholas Thomas of “A Man Among Ye”

Spit & Vigor presents A MAN AMONG YE by Sara Fellini, directed by Sara Fellini and Nicholas Thomas, at The Players TheatreListen in as writer/director/performer Sara Fellini, along with fellow actors Nicholas Thomas (co-director) and Adam Belvo (fight choreographer), discuss adding more balloons, doing the research, breast reveals, rowing in the same direction with your crew, the light with all the knowledge, lambs with faces, interesting translations, Tarantino’ing it, earning your rail jump, leaning into the “mistakes,” awesome wigs, and, of course, lady pirates.

“There’s so much value to it…if you’ve made the set yourself, if you’ve sewn your costume, you’re gonna care about it, you’re gonna know it more. You’re gonna love it. There’s nothing better, as an actor, than saying, ‘I made this’…”

Continue reading

Nia Akilah Robinson & Julia Greer of “Push Party”

TheaterLab and The Hearth present PUSH PARTY written by Nia Akilah Robinson, directed by Chesray DolphaListen in as Push Party playwright Nia Akilah Robinson, along with Producing Artistic Director of The Hearth Julia Greer, discuss just what a “push party” is, high school drama, naming characters, showing unspoken love, enmeshment, making peace with what’s passed down to us, showing up, and how friendship remains.

“…something that The Hearth was born out of is, wanting to make plays for people that may be going to school…that maybe don’t see themselves in a play. How could you pick up this play, and do it with your friends, and it would be accessible to you…”

Continue reading

Melissa Ingle, Emily Conlon, and Sevrin Willinder of “Shakespeare Translate: The Complete Works”

Devon Loves ME! productions presents SHAKESPEARE TRANSLATE THE COMPLETE WORKS as part of the Down to Clown Festival at The Vino Theater, BrooklynListen in as performers Sevrin Willinder and Emily Conlon and director Melissa Ingle, of Shakespeare Translate: The Complete Works, discuss translation order, opening up and exploring the box, post-COVID theatre, playing with the audience, the show’s resident ShakesPEER expert, connecting, and why liveness is so integral to being human.

“…it’s such a funny idea…but it proves the fallacy of technology, how it’s letting us down in some ways. But we still get to bring it into the room, and engage with it, and have fun with the miscommunications, which is very Shakespearean…”

Continue reading

Cezar Williams & Danielle Covington of The Fire This Time Festival

FRIGID New York presents the 2024 Fire This Time Festival, directed by Cezar Williams, at The Wild ProjectListen in as The Fire This Time Artistic Director & the plays’ director Cezar Williams, along with producer & performer Danielle Covington, discuss highlighting the small moments, finding compassion, developing playwrights, and what’s new this time with The Fire This Time.

“I always say that The Fire This Time Festival feels like a family reunion, and it feels like we just added a ton of new people to the family…”

Continue reading

Tjaša Ferme, Nasay Ano, Melody Munitz, Arianne Banda, & Thammie Quach of “BIOADAPTED”

Transforma Theatre Inc presents BIOADAPTED, created and directed by Tjaša Ferme, written by James Yu, Alexis Roblan, & Tjaša Ferme with transcripts and interviews, presented at CultureLab LICListen in as BIOADAPTED creator & director Tjaša Ferme, along with performers Nasay Ano, Melody Munitz, Arianne Banda, & Thammie Quach, discuss the benefits of a long development process, collaborating with AI, learning as an actor just what all these concepts mean, how to welcome an audience of theatre-people into a show about those same difficult tech concepts, the deep space/slow time benefit of a residency, mosaics, and show as meatball.

“…even if you’re someone who doesn’t know a ton about AI, or what’s inside that black box, or how it’s functioning in society right nows on the levels we can’t always see, I think people have a perception about what it is: maybe it’s creepy, maybe it’s robotic […] we had a lot of conversations about playing into the expectations of what an audience would think an AI would be, and how can we bend those expectations and expand on them…”

Continue reading

Garrett Miller, Olivia Hewitt, Sabrina Gómez, Phanie Cherres, & Michael James Duran of “The Motherf**ker With the Hat”

Hats Off Productions presents THE MOTHERFUCKER WITH THE HAT by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Luis-Daniel Morales, at The Chain TheatreListen in as The Motherf**ker With the Hat executive producers Garrett Miller (who also plays “Jackie”) and Olivia Hewitt (who also stage manages the show), along with performers Sabrina Gómez (“Veronica”), Phanie Cherres (“Victoria”), and Michael James Duran (“Ralph D”), discuss self-producing, considering your audience, growth between iterations, seat-filling strategies & guerrilla marketing, taking over postcard stands, and the utmost importance of making sure you’ve got a great show.

“…I think if you’re doing independent theatre, you’re doing it because you really want to do it, and that shows…like, this isn’t as far away as you think. It is accessible. It’s a lot of work…a f*ckton of work. But it’s doable…”

Continue reading