Directions and Dialogue

For our Season 2 Premiere, host David McKibbin sits down with Dani Cleveland and Justin Payne, a team of musical theatre writers based in Omaha Nebraska. In this episode, we discuss how Dani and Justin channeled their collective grief during the COVID-19 pandemic to write their musical Heaven Come Home, which will be presented as a staged reading this August at the University of Nebraska Omaha. We also dabble into how gentrification in Omaha influenced their musical Little Brown Boy.

Produced and Hosted by David McKibbin

Guests: Dani Cleveland and Justin Payne

Intro Music: "Talky Beats" by Twin Musicom

Outro Music: "One More Day" from Heaven Come Home, Music and Lyrics by Julie Baker

After a months-long hiatus, Directions and Dialogue returns. Join host David McKibbin as he interviews Rebecca Kane. Rebecca is a playwright, stage manager, indie theatre producer, merch girl, and oat milk enthusiast. Her works have been staged by the Rising Sun Performance Company, Naked Angels Tuesdays@9, New York Theater Festival, The Tank, and the Rouge Theater Festival, among others. Some of her plays include Almost Maimed, Tight (haha nice), and I Name You.

She is one of 500 New York City-based artists to receive $5000 through the City Artists Corps Grants, presented by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) with support from the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) and Queens Theatre.

Her latest play, Crawlspaceblog will be presented in a staged reading on Sunday, October 17 at The Tank, located at 312 W 36th St., New York, NY 10018. Tickets are Free.

Read Rebecca's Tumblr Blog for Crawlspaceblog here. https://crawlspaceplayblog.tumblr.com

Read Rebecca's Plays at the National New Play Network's New Play Exchange.

Host David McKibbin is sitting down with Tara Moses. Hailing from the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Tara has been making waves as a playwright and director, with her works being staged at Native Voices at the Autry, Arena Stage, American Indian Community House, and the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. Some of plays include Sections, He’eo’o, Arbeka, and Patchwork. Tara is the producing artistic director of telatúlsa, co-artistic director in residence at Red Eagle Soaring, and a co-founder of Groundwater Arts. She is also an MFA Candidate in Directing at Brown University, where her works have been integrated into the school’s theatre curriculum. Her plays can be read on the New Play Exchange.

Previously, host David McKibbin sat down with Philip Middleton Williams, author of plays such as The Hunter, Can’t Live Without You and All Together Now. They talked about how his education and life experience shaped his artistic endeavors as a playwright and theatre scholar, along with his personal interactions with writers such as Lanford Wilson and Robert Anderson. This week, they go into greater depth discussing how Philip got the acting bug as a teenager, and the vulnerable experiences that inspired his plays The House by the Side of the Road and A Tree Grows in Longmont.

Watch Silver Tongued Stages' production of A Tree Grows in Longmont on YouTube.

In this two-part episode, host David McKibbin sits down with Philip Middleton Williams, author of plays such as The Hunter, Can’t Live Without You and All Together Now, along with the novel Bobby Cramer. In this first episode, we talk about how his education and life experience shaped his artistic endeavors as a playwright and theatre scholar. We will discuss his personal interactions with writers such as Lanford Wilson and Robert Anderson and explore his latest un-produced works, The Sugar Ridge Rag and The House by the Side of the Road. So let’s take our seats before the curtain rises.

Join host David McKibbin as he speaks with with Deborah Zoe Laufer. Some of Deb’s plays include The Last Schwartz, End Days, Out of Sterno, Leveling Up, and the Three Sisters of Weehakwen. Her works have been produced in regional theaters from The Hippodrome in Gainesville all the way to Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. In this episode, we will be talking about Deb’s journey from actress to playwright, her time studying writing at Juilliard and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, and her prior experience with companies such as Florida Stage and Florida Atlantic University Theatre Lab.