Onstage/Offstage Theatre Podcast

#192: Cris Eli Blak

Cris Eli Blak is an emerging proud Black playwright and screenwriter whose work has been performed and produced around the world, from Off-Broadway; across the United States; on university stages; as well as in London, Australia, Ireland, and Canada.
He is the winner of the first Black Broadway Men Playwriting Intiative, the winner of the 2024 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award, and the first place winner of Atlanta Shakespeare Company's inaugural Muse of Fire BIPOC Playwriting Fesitval. 
His short play, “Impact Turn,” was an immediate standout in the tidal wave of submissions for our 2025 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plays.

Cris's Website  |  Facebook  |  Instagram 

 

#191: Laura Shamas / Harriette Feliz

Our guests are playwright Laura Shamas and multidisciplinary artist Harriette Feliz, who are here to talk about Laura's play “Four Women in Red” which recently finished a run at the Victory Theatre in Burbank, CA. Harriette is one of the four cast members. “Four Women in Red” addresses the ongoing epidemic of violence against Native American women. Some of the material in this podcast may be unsettling to some audience members.

"Four Women in Red" review

Dept. of Interior - Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples

Dept. of Interior - Not Invisible Act Commission

#190: Philip Middleton Williams

Philip Middleton WIlliams has been produced around the world and published in many anthologies and seven of his plays by Next Stage Press. He has an MFA in playwriting from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in playwriting and dramatic criticism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He also serves on the national advisory board of the William Inge Theatre Festival and the board of directors of the Midwest Dramatists Center. 

Philip's website / Facebook / New Play Exchange

#189: Diane Quinn and Bill Fuller - Unseen Theatre

This month's guests are Diane Quinn and Bill Fuller, co-founders and driving force behind Unseen Theatre, an audio podcast showcasing (unproduced), original plays, featuring---something very much after my own heart---strong female protagonists, performed by SAG-AFTRA actors. Diane is Artistic Director/Co-Producer, and also has been an actor and playwright for Unseen Theatre, (and is additionally the podcast's marketing director). Bill, her Co-Producer, audio engineers every sonic second, composes and arranges the podcast's original music,(and handles web design, graphics) and is also a playwright.

Unseen Theatre website
Bill's website

To LISTEN to A Romance in the Air: https://tinyurl.com/43rbxmaw

To VOTE for A Romance in the Air

For the Full Festival listening for all the productions heard at the UK International Audio Drama Festival 

#188: Svetlana Arestova

Svetlana Arestova is a literary translator and professor of translation at HSE University in Moscow, Russia. Her list of accomplishments is extensive, including translations of books by Andrew Sean Greer, Daniel Mason and Elizabeth Strout. We talk about the intricacies of translating not just words, but intent, meaning, and finding ways to make the differences of two linguistic cultures meet, especially for rthe genre of theatre, where the words—or is it the story?--are paramount.

Find her on Facebook!

#translation #playwriting #theatre #russian #svetlanaarestova

#187: Scott C. Sickles

Scott is an LGBTQ/neurodivergent/biracial Korean American writer. He has received five consecutive Writers Guild of America Awards for the daytime serial General Hospital, and numerous Emmy Award nominations. For over thirty years, his plays have been performed in New York City, his native Pittsburgh, across the United States, as well as internationally in Canada, Australia, the UK, Hungary, Singapore, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Dubai. His "Second World Trilogy," a speculative alt-history political/environmental love story, consists of three full-length plays spanning nearly 50 years. In addition, his sequence of short plays, "Playing on the Periphery," which tells the story of four LGBTQ+ third-graders, was previously presented as a concert reading by Reading Theatre Project, deep in red Pennsylvania. Monologues and scenes from the piece have been performed in “Don’t Say Gay” Florida.

Scott's website / Instagram / New Play Exchange 

#186: Gene Kato

Gene Kato is the mastermind behind Next Stage Press, an online boutique publishing house that has grown exponentially over the past few years. Gene has singlehandedly created a showroom for hundreds of playwrights to market their creative opuses. A lively, fun interview with lots to talk about!

NPX / X / Facebook / Genekato.com

#genekato #publishing #playwriting #theatre #nextstagepress

 

#185: Play reading - Joey - Donald Loftus

Donald Loftus is a playwright/lyricist whose work has been performed around the globe and is one of the masterminds behind the online play reading group New York Pages. He's has written the book and lyrics to several musicals (Abbey Victoria, Pollyanna, ‘Round Duffy Square, and Illusion), and his one-acts have been presented in over 100 play festivals around the country. Donald's play “Joey” is the last of our 2024 Missing Home series.

DonaldLoftus.com  /  New Play Exchange 

Facebook  / Playwright's Center

#184: Play reading - Melting the Ice - JB Alexander

JB Alexander is a playwright, an actor, and sometimes he directs. This month we present his exceptional play “Melting the Ice,” a face-off between an ICE officer and a lawyer who won't take no for an answer. This is the third in our 2024 "Missing Home” series.

#jbalexander #playwriting #theatre #ice #detention #separatedfamily #refugees #immigration

#183: Play reading - "Where Do We Go?" / Raymond Alvin

Danny's on the run and hiding out from a guy who should never have been crossed. Good thing he's got his best friend Charlie with him. Featuring Sean Kimber as Danny and George Sapio as Charlie. Plus, we have a very down-to-Earth talk with the playwright, Raymond Alvin. Come join us!

Raymond's Facebook page

#182: Play reading - Shakespeare Lives! - Mark Harvey Levine

Mark is well known throughout the theatre world, having had over 2100 productions of his short plays everywhere from Bangalore to Bucharest and from Seoul to Sao Paulo. His plays have won over 45 awards, been produced in more than ten languages and have been published in over two dozen anthologies. His comedy “Shakespeare Lives!” is one of our two selections for our scary-themed October slots.

#markharveylevine #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #playwriting #shakespearelives

MarkHarveyLevine.com / NPX / Facebook / Instagram

#181: Gregg T. Daniel

Gregg T. Daniel is an actor, director, and educator who is currently midway through the mammoth journey of directing all of August Wilson's American Century Cycle, ten plays that reflect the African-American experience in the United States. This October he'll present Wilson's Pulitzer prize winning “The Piano Lesson.” We also chat about his extensive 30+ year career on stage, television, movies, and teaching at USC.

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