Let Me Ascertain You: The Civilians Podcast

How do we know what we know when everyone in power seems to be lying? (I Am) Nobody's Lunch was a Civilians investigation asking this question in the early 2000's, during the years of Homeland Security and George W. Bush's "truthiness." Emily Rossell plays a Columbia student who joined a cult, then Donnetta Lavinia Grays performs an interview with a Jamaican facialist. Aysan Celik plays a "remote viewer" who has a special technique for accessing truth. Lastly, Mike Madison plays a song by Michael Friedman inspired by interviews about this topic called "Super Secret Places."

The Civilians' first show ever was Canard, Canard, Goose, created in 2001 to explore alleged geese abuse in the Adirondacks. The investigation, inspired by a rumor about the geese in the feature film Fly Away Home, brought up questions about home, truth, and how we know we know - all themes that were particularly relevant for these New York artists in the post-9/11 winter of 2001. This episode is the concert version of the entire show performed at Joe's Pub in 2011 for our tenth anniversary season performed by Aysan Celik, Matthew Dellapina, Greg McFadden, Jennifer R. Morris, Brandon Miller, Caitlin Miller, and Maria Elena Ramirez. Jenny and Aysan were members of the original cast in 2002. The play includes songs by Michael Friedman, and marks the first show for which he ever wrote songs.

From the Occupy Wall Street Journal to the raid on Zuccotti Park to Occupy Our Homes in East New York to the Lincoln Center Opera House, this week's episode continues to chronicle the events of Occupy Wall Street through performances of interviews with actual protesters. Jordan Mahome plays Jordan (no relation), Garrett Neergaard plays Michael, and Caitlin Miller plays an actress who has been to Occupy protests around New York City. The episode concludes with an audience sing-along recorded during the live performance at Joe's Pub led by Michael Friedman. The song is from his great-grandfather's rebel songbook.

These monologues crafted from interviews with Occupy Wall Street Protesters cover the raid on Zuccotti Park in November and how the movement changed in the weeks after it. Daoud Heidami and Caitlin Miller as Shawn and Laura, who are both Canadian and both librarians in the Zuccotti Park Library. Gretta Lee performs Carrie, discussing the start of #ConcreteIdeas. And Matt Dellapina performs a monologue from a life-long protester.

More Zuccotti Park protesters are featured in this next episode crafted from interviews with Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. Kelly McCreary plays Karen, who discusses what it was like to spend time at Zuccotti Park just before and during the November raid. Quinlan Corbett plays Wezel, a farmer who drove to Zuccotti Park from North Carolina. Then Daniel Jenkins performs his interview with an anarchist named Richard, during which Dan Domingues makes a guest appearance as New York State Senator Tony Avella.

Following our first OWS cabaret in October of 2011, our artists continued to conduct interviews with Occupy protesters about people's reasons for demonstrating and what it has been like participating in the movement. This episode picks up where our last cabaret left off with monologues and a song crafted from interviews with demonstrators. This week features Garrett Neergaard and Dan Domingues as demonstrators Dan and Nelson; Scott Drummond as a key OWS figure; and Michael Friedman's song "Consensus is Hard."

Here is our final adult entertainment podcast episode! Special thanks to our interviewing team: Mia Barron, Laura Nix, Taylor Wilcox, and Matt Maher. In this episode, Emily Ackerman performs an interview with producer Lynn LeMay; Daoud Heidami plays performer Sebastian Silver; next is a particularly filthy round of Porn Charades in which one of our audience members at Joe's Pub tries to act out a porn title while the cast guesses; Nina Hellman plays director and producer Kelly Holland; Dael Orlandersmith as Pamela Peaks; and last up is Gibson Frazier as director, producer, and actor Eli Cross. This material is inspiring Pretty Filthy, a new musical by Bess Wohl and Michael Friedman.

yes

What's it like to be a male adult entertainment performer? Find out in Michael Friedman's doo-wop-like song "Waiting for Wood" performed by Heath Calbert, Robbie Collier Sublett, and Andrew Kober. This week's episode also features interviews with power couple Elizabeth Starr and Tommy Gunn performed by Jennifer R. Morris and Brian Sgambati. Plus, we've got more audience participation in this one: audience answers to the question "What is the dirtiest thing you've ever done in real life?" These recordings are from a live performance at Joe's Pub in New York.

yes

Big adult entertainment stars are featured in this week's episode, including performer and director Avy Scott played by Emily Rossell, POV director Dan Silver played by Greg Hildreth, and performer/director Kylie Ireland performed by Colleen Werthmann. We've also got the winning titles for Pornified Broadway, in which we asked the live audience at Joe's Pub to write down pornified names of Billy Elliot, Phantom of the Opera, and Mary Poppins. Plus Emily Rossell sings "First Contract Girl" by Michael Friedman. All monologues are from interviews conducted by our artists for Pretty Filthy, a new musical by Bess Wohl and Michael Friedman.

yes

The legendary Axel Braun starts off this week's episode. Our interview with him inspired both this monologue, performed by Brad Heberlee, and the song "Squirting 101" in A Pretty Filthy Podcast: Part IV. This week also has Porn Charades, Round 2 (in which an audience member tries to act out a porn movie title and the cast and audience try to guess what it is), Kelly McCreary as Ms. Brown Sugar, and Lexy Fridell singing "ABC, 123" by Michael Friedman. The live performance took place at Joe's Pub. These interviews were conducted by our artists with real adult entertainment professionals for Pretty Filthy, a new musical by Bess Wohl and Michael Friedman.

yes