Beckett’s Babies

Hello, listeners. We hope you are well and staying safe. We are still processing what's happening in the country and the world. In this episode, we discuss some ways theaters are responding to the Black Lives Matter movement. One of which is #openyourlobby. The following theaters have opened their doors in response to the movement. This is not the complete list as more theatres may be opening their doors. Below is what we know so far. We would love to hear what you've experienced and noticing what other theaters are doing.

NEW YORK

MANHATTAN

BROOKLYN

CALIFORNIA

The Flight Deck (Oakland)

WASHINGTON, DC

Studio Theatre

PENNSYLVANIA

PHILADELPHIA

PITTSBURGH

CHICAGO

AUSTIN

Vortex Repertory Company

HELPFUL LINKS/INFORMATION/RESOURCES/PLACES TO DONATE:

blacklivesmatter.com/

GLISTENS

Sarah: Adopt-A-America

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Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

And as always, we would love to hear from you!

Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode.

Email: [email protected]

For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com

Hello listeners! We want to thank you all so much for your support so far this year. We are truly thankful to you all. We also want to acknowledge the pain and suffering that is happening in our communities. We hear, we understand, and we support everyone that has either donated and protested in support of #blacklivesmatter. Thanks for tuning in and we hope you will enjoy this episode.

Listeners! Boy, are you in for a treat. We discuss all-things playwriting with a fellow graduate of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop... Sean David DeMers! In this episode, we get into the ideas of memory. Sean shares with us memories of his childhood, how he first got into playwriting, and the importance of memory in his work. We even share some fond memories of the Workshop. We hope you will enjoy this very 'memory' themed show. Thank you!

Sean David DeMers is a playwright with New England and New York City roots. Plays include FACULTY PORTRAIT, produced at IRT Theatre in New York City, the musical JULES VERNE'S FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON with FringeNYC, LITTLE BLUE PILL read at the Last Frontier Conference in 2019, and ENCAPSULATED produced by The Navigators as part of their one-act sci-fi play festival. Sean has two short plays published by Samuel French/Concord Theatricals, OFF TACKLE GLIDE and FOUR MOVEMENTS. Sean is a graduate of the Iowa MFA Playwright's Workshop and recently picked up a project started there with the play FAYE by translating and adapting the existing Ancient Greek plays, starting with the most obscure.

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To learn more about Sean and his work, be sure to check out his website: seandemers3.wixsite.com/seandaviddemers

Also! Sean shared with us his favorite playwriting exercise. Go to our website www.beckettsbabies.com to learn more!

Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

And as always, we would love to hear from you!

Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode.

Hello, listeners! Boy, do we have a treat for you! This is an in-depth special episode where we had the greatest pleasure of chatting with one of our favorite people from Iowa... ART BORRECA! He is the Co-Head of the Playwriting Program and Head of the Dramaturgy Program at the University of Iowa (aka where Sam and I met and became friends!). Art talks about his journey into theater and dramaturgy, what he loves about new plays, and shares with us the Iowa Playwrights Workshop program. We are so excited for you to listen to this one. So please, grab your favorite drink, kick your feet up, and listen to this very special episode.

Art Borreca is associate professor of dramaturgy, dramatic literature, and theatre history, co-head of the playwriting program, and head of the dramaturgy program. He has worked as a dramaturg with a number of leading theatre artists, including Athol Fugard, Wole Soyinka, Theodora Skipitares, David Gothard, and Naomi Wallace in such venues as the Yale Repertory Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, LaMama ETC, Oxford Stage Company in the U.K., and T.P.T (Theatre Project Tokyo) in Japan.

His research interests include contemporary British and American theatre, new play dramaturgy, and political dramaturgy. His articles and reviews have appeared in TDR (The Drama Review), Modern Drama, and Theatre Journal; as well as in several books, including Dramaturgy in American Theatre, What is Dramaturgy? and Approaching the Millennium: Essays on Angels in America. Professor Borreca is a contributing editor of the two-volume Norton Anthology of Drama.

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Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

And as always, we would love to hear from you!

Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode.

As part of our new monthly play series, we pick a play to discuss and this month’s play is “The King of Hell's Palace" by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. In this episode, we discuss what we noticed, what we liked, and questions that came up while reading the play. This play was also recommended to us by one of our listeners and we are so glad! Thank you, Mickey! Note: There are some spoiler alerts! We highly recommend you read the play before listening to this episode!

SHORT SUMMARY:

June's Play of the Month: "Power Plays" by Elaine May & Alan Arkin

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Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

And as always, we would love to hear from you!

Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode.

In this episode, Sam and Sarah discuss writing plays for the radio. We bring on a special guest, Nik Frank-Lehrer, to help us kick off the episode by sharing his experience on writing ad copy for radio. We also look at ways in how radio plays have been written and produced. Check out the links below and we'd love to hear your thoughts on writing radio plays.  If you have a page or two that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to send our way. Check this episode out!

GLISTENS:

Sam: How Should A Person Be? By Sheila Heti

BBC’s Radio 4 Drama

Spotify Playlist “Vintage Radio Dramas”

The Renaissance of the Humble Radio Drama by ANGELICA CABRAL

LA Theatre Works’s Catalog of Over 500 plays on Audio

Sam Beckett Radio Plays on Openculture

Sam Beckett Radio Plays on Irish Times

"The Strange Survival of Radio Drama" by Professor David Hendy (BBC)

Playing On Air - Podcast

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Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

And as always, we would love to hear from you!

Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode.

Email: [email protected]

For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com

Hello, listeners! In this episode, we chat with dramaturg, new play doula, and an incredible supporter of Beckett's Babies-- SHAUN LEISHER! He shares his journey into dramaturgy, what he loves about new plays, and how we can best support new work. It was an incredible joy to speak with Shaun. We could all learn a thing or two from his passion to support and advocate for new work. Check it out!

Shaun Leisher (pronouns: he/him/his) is a dramaturg and new play doula based in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. As a dramaturg, he has worked on productions at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA and a workshop production of RAW PASTA by Maya Macdonald at the 2019 Ice Factory Festival at the New Ohio in NYC. In his local theatre community, Shaun is a co-founder and the Literary Manager of Emerge Theatre Company, co-created the Allentown Public Theatre's play reading series, Theatre Cafe, and has produced various readings and new play festivals throughout the region. He is also proud to be a reader/nominator r for a number of organizations dedicated to the advocacy and development of new work including: The Kilroys, Normal Ave, 50 Playwrights Project, and Play Penn. His dream is to one day run a theatre dedicated to bold new plays somewhere remote like Montana.

To follow what Shaun's up to, be sure to follow him on instagram: www.instagram.com/shaunaturgy/

To read Shan's incredible play recommendations, be sure to check out his New Play Exchange: newplayexchange.org/users/1297/shaun-leisher

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Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

And as always, we would love to hear from you!

Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode.

Hey listeners! We had the amazing opportunity to chat with the one and only Paul Michael Thomson. He is an actor, playwright, and co-artistic director of The Story Theatre. He had so much to say about playwriting, theater, and what it means to be an artist. We also got a chance to talk about his hilarious and page-turning play "The G.O.A.T., or Who Is Ximone?". Be sure to look out for it on New Play Exchange!

Paul Michael Thomson is an actor, playwright, and co-artistic director of The Story Theatre in Chicago, IL. As an actor, he has worked with Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, and Windy City Playhouse, among others. His plays have been produced by Avalanche Theatre, The Impostors Theatre Company, Other Theatre, Arc Theatre, and The Story Theatre, of which he is a founding ensemble member. He holds a BFA in Acting and a BA in Africana Studies from The University of Arizona and is passionate about new work, intersectional feminism, and rereading the same books over and over and over again.

To learn more about Paul Michael Thomson, be sure to visit his website www.paulmichaelthomson.com

To learn about the amazing work The Story Theatre is doing, check out the website www.thestorytheatre.org

Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

And as always, we would love to hear from you!

Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode.

In this episode, Sam and Sarah get the opportunity to chat with playwright, director, deviser and artistic director of Prop Theater -- Olivia Lilley!

Olivia Lilley is a playwright, director, and deviser who came up in Chicago's DIY scene. She uses a devised process to create and develop her plays that she's been honing since 2013. Olivia's work often ransacks classic literature or nonfiction with a collective and builds a new story for the current moment. Part Mary Zimmerman, Part John Cassavettes, Olivia's work is actor centric while also boldly multidisciplinary. She often collaborates with choreographer Kelly Anderson. Olivia is Artistic Director of Prop Thtr. She was the founding Artistic Director of The Runaways Lab Theatre and currently sits on their advisory board. She's an Artistic Associate at Pivot Arts, and she's curated at The Museum of Contemporary Art. Olivia attended Carnegie Mellon School of Drama for Directing, and Interlochen Arts Academy for Music Composition.

To learn more about Olivia Lilley and her work, check her New Play Exchange at newplayexchange.org/users/10813/olivia-lilley

To learn more about Prop Theater, visit the website at www.propthtr.org/

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Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

And as always, we would love to hear from you!

Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode.

As part of our new monthly series, we pick a play to discuss and this month’s play is “Cost of Living" by Martyna Majok. It is the winner of 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play. In this episode, we discuss what we noticed, what we liked, and questions that came up while reading the play. Note: There are some spoiler alerts! We highly recommend you read the play before listening to this episode!

SHORT SUMMARY:

“Cost of Living deftly challenges the typical perceptions of those living with disabilities and delves deep into the ways class, race, nationality, and wealth can create gulfs between people, even as they long for the ability to connect. Eddie, an unemployed truck driver, and his estranged ex-wife, Ani, find themselves unexpectedly reunited after a terrible accident leaves her quadriplegic. John, a brilliant PhD student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess, a first-generation recent graduate who has fallen on desperate times, as his new aide..”

GLISTENS:

Sarah's Glisten: Originals by Adam Grant

Sam's Glisten: Two Hong Kong Pandas

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/world/asia/panda-mating-hong-kong.html

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Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

And as always, we would love to hear from you!

Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode.

Email: [email protected]

For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com

In this episode, Sam and Sarah discuss writing character descriptions. We share examples of character descriptions from different plays and look at how we can be inspired to write for our own work. Check this episode out and share us your thoughts on how you approach to writing descriptions for your characters!

GLISTENS:

Sam's Glisten: Little Prince Movie

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Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

And as always, we would love to hear from you!

Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode.