Beckett’s Babies

Beckett’s Babies

By Beckett’s BabiesArtsPerforming Arts
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Beckett’s Babies episodes

  • 53. INTERVIEW: Beth Hyland

    In this episode, Sam and Sarah get the opportunity to chat with fellow BB listener, playwright, and songwriter -- Beth Hyland! In this episode she shares her experience in self-producing her own work, staying creative, balancing creative and work life, and her new play ALL-ONE! THE DR. BRONNER'S PLAY which will be getting a "Zoom" staged reading at the end of April. Check it out!

    Beth Hyland is a playwright and songwriter based in Chicago. Her plays and musicals have been produced and developed regionally in the UK at the Stephen Joseph Theatre and Octagon Theatre, and around the US at Steppenwolf LookOut, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Hearth, First Floor, The Passage, Broken Nose, The Sound, and others. She is the playwright-in-residence and co-founder of The Sound.

    To learn more about Beth, be sure to visit her website at www.bethhyland.com

    GLISTENS:

    Sam's: 4-year-old girl found alive and well after 2 days in the woods
    www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/Eve…ssing-found-.html

    Sarah's: Practice joke writing

    Beth's: If you have the means, donate to your local theaters and restaurants no matter how small the donation may be.

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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.

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

    48 min
  • 52. PLAY: Ching Chong Chinaman by Lauren Yee

    As part of our new monthly series, we pick a play to discuss and this month’s play is “Ching Chong Chinaman" by Lauren Yee! 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:

    The ultra-assimilated Wong family is as Chinese-American as apple pie: teenager Upton dreams of World of Warcraft superstardom; his sister Desi dreams of early admission to Princeton. Unfortunately, Upton’s chores and homework get in the way of his 24/7 videogaming, and Desi’s math grades don’t fit the Asian-American stereotype. Then Upton comes up with a novel solution for both problems: he acquires a Chinese indentured servant, who harbors an American dream of his own.

    GLISTENS:

    Sarah's Glisten: Plant Therapy Project
    Sam's Glisten: Fristad

    NEXT MONTH'S PLAY:

    Cost of Living by Martyna Majok

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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.

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

    43 min
  • 51. TOPIC: Plagues and Pandemics in Plays

    Hi, Listeners. We're all going through a crisis and this pandemic has been on all our minds. Initially, we wanted to talk about Lauren Yee's play "Ching Chong Chinaman" but instead, we decided to talk about plagues, pandemics, and outbreaks that exist in plays and popular culture. We hope everyone is hanging in there. We are all thinking about you, listeners. Please take care of yourselves and each other.

    RELATED LINKS:

    "The Infectious Pestilence Did Reign" by Ben Cohen
    slate.com/culture/2020/03/shak…-hand-ben-cohen.html

    "Broadway Is Closed. Write Poems Instead." by Sarah Ruhl

    www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/opinio…-coronavirus.html

    GLISTENS:

    Sarah's Glisten: Trials of Gabriel Fernandez
    Sam's Glisten: "Italians Find ‘a Moment of Joy in This Moment of Anxiety’"
    www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/world/…t-of-anxiety.html

    _____________________________________________

    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.

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

    49 min
  • 50. The Comedy Club: "Let's Talk Comedies" Part I

    An ongoing series about understanding comedies, welcome to "The Comedy Club". In this first part of "possibly many part" series, Sarah dives into what she thinks about comedy and her love/hate relationship with it. In this episode, we introduce the series by asking ourselves why we laugh, what is happening on stage or on the text that is making our audience laugh. Why is laughter so infectious? Why do we NEED to laugh? What makes something funny? 


    GLISTENS:

    Sarah's Glisten: Sarah quits coffee and sleeps really

    Sam's Glisten: Oscar Nominated Shorts - Live-Action


    Listen to the episode and come at us!


    _____________________________________________


    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.

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

    41 min
  • 49. INTERVIEW: Ryan Oliveira

    Playwright, Songwriter, Solo Performer, and Theatrical Jack-of-All-Trades Ryan Oliveira returns to Beckett's Babies! Hear what he has to say about theater, dramaturgy, and presenting new work to an audience as he updates us on what he's been up to since we last interviewed him.

    GLISTENS:

    Sam's - www.thispersondoesnotexist.com
    Sarah's - USA Network's The Sinner, streaming on Netflix
    Ryan's - "The Force of Nonviolence: The Ethical in the Political" by Judith Butler

    _____________________________________________

    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.

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

    1 hr 9 min
  • 48. TOPIC: Creating Play Titles

    In this episode, Sam and Sarah discuss creating titles for our plays. We share some of our favorite titles and discuss why we like certain play titles and why we do not like others. We look to how we create titles for our own work and be inspired by others. Check this episode out and share us your thoughts on creating play titles!

    GLISTENS:

    Sarah's Glisten: Her Arabica Plant
    Sam's Glisten: Kvass

    _____________________________________________

    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.

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

    45 min
  • 47. PLAY: Dance Nation by Clare Barron

    Every month, we pick a play to discuss. This month’s play is “Dance Nation" by Clare Barron. It is one of the winners of 2015 relentless award, a finalist for a Pulitzer, and winner of Susan Smith Blackburn prize. 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:

    “Somewhere in America, a revolution is coming, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plot to take over the world one routine at a time. In Clare Barron’s raucous pageant of ambition and ferocity, these young dancers have more than choreography on their minds, because every plié and jeté is a step toward finding themselves, and a fight to unleash their power.”


    GLISTENS:

    Sarah's Glisten: Crime Junkie Podcast

    https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/

    Sam's Glisten: Goodness: Altruism and the Literary Imagination

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJmVpYZnKTU



    _____________________________________________


    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.

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

    58 min
  • 46. INTERVIEW: Tiana Randall-Quant

    What is "devised theater"? How can one start devising new work? In this week's episode, a fellow Beckett's Babies listener, Tiana Randall-Quant, reached out to us to share her experiences creating new work with The Wallis Studio Ensemble Their show "Lucid" opens on February 20th and we can't wait for you to hear what she has to say about the process. Listen to this episode to learn about Tiana's trajectory into theater, devising and creating new work, and how she feels about when someone says that LA is not a theater town.

    Be sure to grab your tickets to Lucid here!

    bit.ly/LucidTicket

    GLISTENS:

    Sarah's Glisten - American inventor Mary Kenner

    Sam's Glisten - Pedro Almodovar “Pain and Glory"
    Tiana's Glisten - Netflix’s “The Green Frontier"

    ABOUT TIANA RANDALL-QUANT

    Tiana Randall-Quant is a Los Angeles based theatre artist working to change the narrative that LA is “not a theatre town”. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where she studied under theatre makers like Rhodessa Jones of the Medea Project and playwright Philip Kan Gotanda, and geared her education towards making art that centers marginalized communities and community healing. She is working now on her debut performance with the Wallis Studio Ensemble, which opens February 20th at the Hudson Theatres, and is preparing to remount Project Nongenue’s What You Will (or Twelfth Night) as the character Olivia. She is also in the process of becoming a certified teaching artist, and is building a curriculum around Augusta Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.

    To learn more about Tiana Randall-Quant, be sure to follow her on instagram: www.instagram.com/t_quant/

    _____________________________________________

    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.

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

    47 min
  • 45. New Year! New Season! Same Babies!

    Hello, Listeners! WE ARE BACK! In this episode, we check-in, share our own personal goals and resolutions (and how we've failed already), and other exciting plans we have on the horizon for Beckett's Babies. 

    We want to extend special thanks to our listeners for tuning in every week. We appreciate your support!!! THANK YOU!!!


    GLISTENS:

    Sarah's Glistens - Essential Oils, Air Purifier, and Kobe Bryant.

    Sam's Glistens - Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday


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

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

    _____________________________________________

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

    33 min
  • 44. We'll See You in 2020!

    Hello, listeners! It's been an incredible year of discussing all things playwriting and interviewing theater guests from all walks of life on Beckett's Babies. In this episode, we share some of our favorite interviews and highlights from the year. We even share some of our dream goals for guests on our future episodes... Dream Goal Guests. DGG!

    SEASON 1 HIGHLIGHTS - Episodes You Should Check Out If You Haven't!

    1. Alison Ruth's Interview

    2. Jenni Page-White's Interview
    3. Micah Ariel James' Interview
    4. Tanuja Devi's Interview
    5. Chris Leyva's Interview

    But really, you should check out all the episodes! :)


    GLISTENS:
    Sam's Glistens - Rita's Quilt
    Sarah's Glistens - Netflix. Recommend John Leguizamo and Mike Birbiglia's specials.

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

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

    _____________________________________________

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

    SEE YOU IN 2020!

    31 min

About Beckett’s Babies

From the publisher's feed

A podcast by two friends who met at Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Join hosts Sam Collier and Sarah Cho as they try to figure out playwriting 📇