Philip Kenner & James Wyrwicz of “The Mall The Mall The Mall”

Listen in as The Mall The Mall The Mall playwright Philip Kenner and director James Wyrwicz discuss setting the conditions for the tone, early teenage friendships, double-dip playwriting, the benefit of creative restrictions, Scooby-Doo as text, playing in a video-game-like world, reference bombardment, wonderful and horrible moments of transformation, and how when everything is meaningless, anything can have all the meaning in the world.

“…it’s been three years of watching this play become even more itself, sort of like the characters in the play. It started in a place of zaniness and silliness, and it’s only found more depth, and more truth, and brighter colors and louder sounds…it’s just such a blast to be part of that room…”

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Carolina Ðỗ & Isabel Criado of “ExtraO1dinary Aliens!”

Listen in as ExtraO1dinary Aliens! playwright Carolina Ðỗ and assistant director/stage manager Isabel Criado discuss nightmares becoming reality, bureaucratic flattening, telling stories to heal, collaboration & community & education, and growing, changing, & becoming more real.

“It’s about people trying to survive the American government…”
“…while pursuing the American dream. Which is such a paradox. But a reality.”

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Christian Parker of “The First Line of Dante’s Inferno”

Listen in as Christian Parker, producer & director of The First Line of Dante’s Inferno, discusses blank slates, finding a rhythm, getting the audience ahead of what they’re experiencing, letting the humor live, and the weird magic that happens when people get lost in the woods.

“…I think more broadly, the play is about longing, and feeling lost in midlife, and loneliness, and what sort of questions we find ourselves having to answer in the middle of our lives when we’ve already made a bunch of choices, and have to make some decisions about whether we’re going to honor those, or take a totally new direction…”

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Paul Pinto & Kristin Marting of “Mano a Mano”

Listen in as Mano a Mano creator/composer/performer Paul Pinto, along with director Kristin Marting, discuss getting over live performance doomerism, celebrating/questioning/undressing/redressing/exposing masculinity, giving the audience access to the performer, theatrical collaboration, the work of the body in creating vocal sound, a work of art’s relevance in time and space, and giving the audience a good time.

“…I like to see theatre that impresses me…that makes me feel like, when I sit down there, not only can I not believe what’s going on onstage, but I want to jump onstage and take part…”

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Ed Schmidt of “Edward”

Listen in as Ed Schmidt, creator and performer of Edward, discusses melodramatic origins to fictionalized short stories, a “theatrical epistolary novel,” doing what you can do and not what other playwrights do, cutting out the middle men, object—>story vs. story—>object, and finding the sustainable model that works for you.

“…somebody else’s life started to emerge from this, and at a certain point I realized, ‘this is a play, told this way.’ […] And I thought, ‘how could I do this thing, which is really kinda anti-dramatic…and make that theatrical in some way’…”

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Xhloe Rice & Natasha Roland of “What If They Ate the Baby?”

Xhloe & Natasha present WHAT IF THEY ATE THE BABY? at SoHo PlayhouseListen in as What If They Ate the Baby? playwrights, directors, & performers Xhloe Rice and Natasha RolandXhloe & Natasha—discuss being fascinated by history, deep absurdity, dressing up in femininity (as opposed to the masculinity of their last NYC show), zooming into a slice of life, true crime re-enactments, green spaghetti, candy-coated plasticky artifice, and not letting anything go to waste.

“…my biggest tip when you come see this show is, let it happen to you—don’t hurt yourself trying to get to the bottom, ‘what does this mean?’…just wait for the car ride home…”

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Eliza Palter, Vena Howard, & Kat Quiñones of “The Goo”

New Relic Theatre presents THE GOO, written by K. Rose Dallimore, directed by Eliza Palter, at The Chain TheatreListen in as The Goo director Eliza Palter, along with performers Vena Howard & Kat Quiñones, discuss unintended distance from your friends, efficient vibes, the built-up pressure of your 20s, creating compelling stage pictures on a picnic blanket, activating ideas & notions, sitcom framing, being real & having the hard conversations, and what a modern examination of the themes of The Importance of Being Earnest could look like.

“…it’s an ensemble piece, it’s funny, it’s about a bunch of people sitting around and talking about nothing, getting nowhere…and while this play isn’t a one-to-one adaptation…you have this sense that there’s something burbling under the surface that we’re not quite getting at. It’s a meditation on authenticity, on performance…”

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Mark Lonergan, Ryan Shinji, & Book Kennison of “I’ll Take It”

Parallel Exit presents I'LL TAKE IT at 3AM Theatre, created and conceived by Joel Jeske, directed by Mark Lonergan, photo by Maike SchulzListen in as I’ll Take It performer Ryan Shinji & composer Book Kennison, along with director Mark Lonergan, discuss success by proximity, coexisting in small spaces, conceptualization and minimizing, bodies and boxes in space, object manipulation, possible futures, dancing around each other, and what’s going on with this wild ride of a show in a box.

“The concept is three friends who are living together in a very tiny apartment, and over the course of the show they drift apart, they come back together…it’s a very classic New York story, and experience, and it’s told through the mediums of circus & physical theatre. So it’s not just people standing and having a relationship…it’s people doing spectacular, extraordinary things with their bodies…”

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Ned Du, Sissi Chen, Didi Won, Boyu Chen, Tien-Li Wu, John Jiang, Josh Lau, & Hannah Limbrick of “Not Our Home, Not Our Home”

NOT OUR HOME, NOT OUR HOME, preview performance at The Flea Theater as part of The Rogue Theater Festival, written by Ned Du, directed by Sissi ChenListen in as Not Our Home, Not Our Home playwright Ned Du, director Sissi Chen, performers Didi Won, Boyu Chen, Tien-Li Wu, John Jiang, & Josh Lau, and composer Hannah Limbrick, discuss the meaning of family, lost cats, enough or too much, freedom, enmeshment, what twists us apart, “love and responsibility,” mirrors of ourselves, and the purpose of guilt.

“…this show is really about the concept of guilt. How does guilt move us, how does guilt animate us to do very, very silly things. Also, it’s about the question of immigration; who do we leave behind, how does it change us, and more importantly, how do we maintain ourselves as a family despite, for example, straddling the Pacific…”

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Isabel Sanchez, Enrique Huili, and Eliza Palter of “In the Mouth of the Beast”

New Relic Theatre presents IN THE MOUTH OF THE BEAST, written by Baylee Shlichtman, directed by Eliza Palter, at MITU 580Listen in as director Eliza Palter and performers Enrique Huili & Isabel Sanchez of In the Mouth of the Beast discuss spelunking, climate change, father-daughter relationships, highs and lows, worldly stakes vs. the personal, trust, pushing the limits of your resources, life and death, making impossible choices, and what we’re willing to sacrifice.

“…you really get to see how people perceive themselves, as compared to how they really are…”

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