In the last in our series of podcasts with the playwrights of Plays and Playwrights 2008, Martin Denton brings together three of the authors whose plays deal with serious, timely topics in today’s America. The playwrights are Leslie Bramm (Marvelous Shrine), Thomas Bradshaw (Cleansed), and Elena Hartwell (In Our Name).

Elena describes her play as a triptych in response to the Iraq war and its effect on those left home regardless of their political view. Leslie believes his play is as much about the inability of communication within the family as it is about war in general. Thomas looks into the psyche of a person of mixed race and questions why such a person must take the position of his minority race.

This leads to interesting discussions among the writers on more current topics and their feelings about the reactions of the audience to their work.

Episode Links:

• Plays and Playwrights 2008
• Elena Hartwell’s theatre company website

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This is the second in a three part series to introduce the playwrights of Plays and Playwrights 2008.  Martin Denton is the editor of this volume and enjoys this chance to chat with four of the playwrights he has gotten to know so well while working on the book.  The four playwrights taking part in this episode are: Mac Rogers (Universal Robots), Robert Attenweiler (… and we all wore leather pants), Carolyn Raship (Antarctica), and John Regis (Linnea).

Each of the playwrights talks a bit about his/her play and gives interesting insights such as Mac believes Universal Robots is a mash-up of Capek’s RUR and events in Czechoslovakia in the time of Masaryk; Robert tells how … and we all wore leather pants combines a “white trash” ethos with magic realism; Carolyn reveals that Antarctica is inspired, in part, by the Norse version of the fairy tale, “Beauty and the Beast”; John talks of the autobiographical nature of Linnea.

There is also a great deal of background material in this episode about each of the authors and how they became playwrights. 

The episode ends with an invite to two upcoming free events (at the time the recording went live) – a reading/q&a hosted by Drama Book Shop on March 21 and a launch/party to be held at T. Schreiber Studio on April 3.

Episode Links:

• NYTE Small Press pages for Plays and Playwrights 2008 
• Storm Theatre website
• Disgraced Productions website
• Antarctica myspace page
• Mac Rogers’ blog
• Plays and Playwrights 2008 podcast #1 (Daniel Talbott, Crystal Skillman, Daniel Reitz)
• Free events for Plays and Playwrights 2008

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Leonard Jacobs moderates the first of a series of podcasts to introduce the playwrights of Plays and Playwrights 2008. Meet Crystal Skillman (The Telling Trilogy), Daniel Reitz (Fall Forward) and Daniel Talbott (What Happened When) and gain some insight into these talented folk.

All three are members of Rising Phoenix Rep,  a fairly new theatre company founded by Daniel Talbott.  Leonard became acquainted with the company in his role as chair of the Honorary Awards Committee for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards which in 2007 bestowed the Caffe Cino Fellowship Award to Rising Phoenix Rep.

Extremely comfortable with each other, Daniel, Crystal, and Daniel have lots of opinions and thoughts to share with Leonard and the listening audience.  Find out which one works on their plays early in the morning; which one doesn’t really do re-writes too often, and which one is the newest to playwriting. 

Plays and Playwrights 2008 is the ninth anthology of work by emerging playwrights published by The New York Theatre Experience.  Enjoy this podcast and there will be more to follow for a chance to meet the rest of the playwrights.

Episode Links:

• Info about Plays and Playwrights 2008
• Launch Party at the Kraine
• Purchase Plays and Playwrights 2008
• Rising Phoenix Rep

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nytheatrecast’s latest installment of “The Indie Theater Life” features a one-on-one conversation with actor Debargo Sanyal, whose rapidly growing list of credits includes performances in Port Authority Throwdown, the recent NYMF production of Love Sucks, East Village Chronicles, Vol. 4, and Pulling the Lever (which was published in the NYTE anthology, Plays and Playwrights 2006). His latest project is Charles Mee’s new musical, Queens Boulevard (the musical), which opens this month at Signature Theatre Company.

Debargo talks to moderator Michael Criscuolo about how he first got interested in theatre, and about his start as an actor upon moving to New York. He also talks about the experience of working with both Charles Mee and his fellow castmates on Queens Boulevard. And, he brings up some insightful and fascinating points about the advantages and challenges of being an actor of color in today’s industry.

Debargo also has some surprising responses to our “nytheatrecast Hot Seat” questionnaire. Check out which show he would travel back in time to go see!

And, if that weren’t enough, it should also be pointed out that not only did Debargo appear in Pulling the Lever, but he was also a member of the play’s writing team. Clearly, an all-around talented gentleman.

Episode links:

• Queens Boulevard (the musical) - info on nytheatre.com
• Plays and Playwrights 2006
• Buy Plays and Playwrights 2006

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This is an interview with performer/creator Taylor Mac, who talks to Martin Denton about his upcoming show The Young Ladies Of.

The Young Ladies Of is based on an incident in Taylor’s father’s life: in 1968, when he was serving with the U.S. military in Vietnam, Taylor’s dad placed an ad seeking a woman to meet on leave in Australia. He received thousands of responses. Taylor’s father died when Taylor was young, so he doesn’t know much about what happened next, and this show is not a docudrama: it uses this situation as a way into an exploration of the stratification of American culture.

Taylor talks about some of his other projects. His musical from last season, Red Tide Blooming, is published in NYTE’s anthology Plays and Playwrights 2007.

Episode Links:

• The Young Ladies Of (info on nytheatre.com)
• Taylor Mac’s website
• Interview with Taylor Mac
• Plays and Playwrights 2007 info

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This episode is dedicated to the play Auntie Mayhem. Originally produced in 2003, and then published by NYTE in Plays and Playwrights 2004, this play by David Pumo is being revived at Wings Theater in September 2007.

Pumo and director Donna Jean Fogel talk with Martin Denton about the play. David goes into some detail about the genesis of the play, which deals with a gay couple and their three foster children, all of whom are gay/transgender kids who have been kicked out of their homes. David was working as an attorney dealing with kids like this when he wrote the play, and his experiences inspired this story.

The podcast concludes with a terrific excerpt from Auntie Mayhem, performed by the entire cast: Moe Bertran as Auntie Mayhem, Ivan Davila as Uncle Bobo, Mark Finley as Charlotte, Jason Flores as Dennis, Carl K. Li as Ivan, and Andre Myers as Epiphany.

Episode Links:

• Auntie Mayhem website
• Auntie Mayhem review on nytheatre.com (original 2003 production)
• Plays and Playwrights 2004 info

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In this episode of nytheatrecast, Martin Denton speaks to playwright/director Stephen Svoboda about his new musical Reconstructing Mama. This is an intimate piece about four siblings coming to terms with their mother’s mental illness, and it’s based on actual events in Svoboda’s life. Svoboda’s collaborator on the show is composer N. David Williams.

The discussion also touches on Svoboda’s two earlier New York productions, Odysseus Died From AIDS (which premiered at FringeNYC 2004 and is published in NYTE’s Plays and Playwrights 2005) and The Penguin Tango (FringeNYC 2006).

Svoboda also talks about his process as writer and director of his plays,  as well as the challenges he encountered in writing his first musical.

Episode Links:

• Fresco Productions website (Stephen’s company, based in Miami)
• Reconstructing Mama info on nytheatre.com
• Plays and Playwrights 2005 info
• Interview with Stephen Svoboda

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In this episode, Martin Denton sits down with playwright/director Alec Duffy to talk about his newest theatre piece, Dysphoria, which is coming to the Ontological Theater in August as part of their Incubator series. Dysphoria is about the members of a religious community who are trying to follow the dictates of their former leader, who has recently died but has been cloned.

Alec talks at length about the genesis of Dysphoria, which interestingly began as part of a project for the EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (he also explains what “dysphoria” means, which is fascinating).

Alec also discusses some of his earlier works, including The Top Ten People of the Millennium Sing Their Favorite Schubert Lieder, which NYTE included in their anthology Plays and Playwrights 2006.

He also tells listeners about his new theatre company, Hoi Polloi, and their recent experience presenting a week of the 365 Plays/365 Days project.

Episode Links:

• YouTube video promo for Dysphoria
• Dysphoria’s website (Hoi Polloi Theatre Company)
• Plays and Playwrights 2006
• Buy Plays and Playwrights 2006

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Our latest installment of the nytheatrecast focuses on Swim Shorts 3, a new collection of short plays written to be performed in a swimming pool. Produced by Joe Cecala and Impetuous Theater Group, the production will be playing at an intriguing and most unusual location - the rooftop pool at the Midtown Holiday Inn. Michael Criscuolo talks to Impetuous managing director, Josh Sherman, and actors/playwrights Andy Chmelko and C.L. Weatherstone about the origins of this project, the challenges of doing outdoor summer theatre, and how Impetuous got their name, among other topics.

These three artists are quite entrenched in this project: Josh is the author of one of the plays in Swim Shorts 3. Andy will be performing in another one of the plays. C.L. is doing both.

Andy is also a recent Plays and Playwrights alumni. His play, Office Sonata, was published in Plays and Playwrights 2007.

Episode Links:

• Impetuous Theater Group website
• Impetuous Theater Group’s MySpace Page
• Plays and Playwrights 2007 Interview with Andy Chmelko
• Plays and Playwrights 2007
• Buy Plays and Playwrights 2007

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To help introduce NYTE’s new anthology, Unpredictable Plays, Martin Denton interviews the distinguished playwright/critic/teacher Mario Fratti.  This book has been published in honor of Mario’s 80th birthday.

Mario talks about his 50-year career in the theatre, and shares anecdotes about renowned colleagues like Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Lucille Lortel.  He also talks about some of the plays featured in Unpredictable Plays (there are 28 pieces in the volume, from all of the periods of Mario’s career).

Some of Mario’s most famous works include The Cage and Nine.

NYTE will be celebrating the publication of Unpredictable Plays and Mario’s birthday in a book party at Drama Book Shop on Saturday, July 21 at 4:00pm. The event will feature readings of three of the plays from the book. Mario will be on hand to sign books–and there will be birthday cake! The event is free.

Episode Links:

• Unpredictable Plays
• Buy Unpredictable Plays at shop.nyte.org
• Learn more about the Unpredictable Plays book launch at Drama Book Shop
• Mario Fratti’s website

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