Stories Found

It’s Micro Monday, and this week we’re bringing you a short comedy where the BPM is high but the emotional stability is low.

It’s The Beat Drop — a hilarious and delightfully awkward one-minute play by Bethany Dickens Assaf.

Bethany Dickens Assaf is an award-winning playwright, director, and dramaturg based in Orlando, Florida. Her latest full-length play, Slaymaker, received a United Arts of Central Florida grant and will premiere in August 2025.

Bethany is both a personal and audience favorite, and we’re thrilled to feature her work on Stories Found again. Keep an eye out for a longer piece by Bethany later this season — be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it.

Find more of her plays on the National New Play Network’s New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/21483/bethany-dickens-assaf

• Written by: Bethany Dickens Assaf

• Logan: Gabriella Headley

• Jay: Manuel Solis-Bauza

Audio Engineer & Sound Designer: Paul Hanna Host & Producer: Ava Love Hanna Episode Art: Ava Love Hanna

Don’t forget to subscribe, review, and share the show — it helps new listeners discover our indie audio dramas.

Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/storiesfound Want to be a featured playwright? Visit: https://storiesfound.com Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.

Stories Found is an independent podcast recorded at ELA Studios in Austin, Texas.

About This Episode

It's Micro Monday and this week we're headed to fair Verona with the wonderfully weird and hilarious short comedy, The Balcony by Allison Page.

About the Playwright

Allison Page is a writer & comedian in Nashville, Tennessee. She was a semifinalist for the 2025 Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission for There Have Been a Series of Miracles at Shrieking Ridge, and was a proud 2024 Tennessee Playwrights Studio Fellow with her play Roberta at the Bottom of the Pool. Her most recently published play, The Pyramid, is available from YouthPLAYS, and she has also been published by Penguin Australia and EXIT Press. You can find many of her scripts on the National New Play Network's New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/3403/allison-page

Follow Allison: Facebook Instagram

Credits:

• Written by Allison Page
• Juliet: Tonie Knight
• Romeo: Joe Llorens

🎧 Audio Engineer & Sound Designer: Paul Hanna

🎙️ Host & Producer: Ava Love Hanna

🎨 Episode Art: Ava Love Hanna

Support + Connect

👉 Don't forget to subscribe, review, and share the show—it helps new listeners find our indie audio dramas!

💛 Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/storiesfound

💛 Want to be a guest? Visit us at https://storiesfound.com

💛 Find us on: Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube!

📍 Stories Found is an independent podcast recorded at ELA Studios in Austin, Texas.

About This Episode

It's Micro Monday, and we're bringing you a fast, funny audio comedy: History in the Making by Clinton Festa! History in the Making was the 2023 Cary Playwrights' Forum Playslam winner.

About the Playwright

Clinton Festa started his career as a cartoonist and writer for his campus humor magazine. His plays have been produced nationally, in Canada, and in the UK, and are published in several anthologies. His scripts for seniors are published with ArtAge Senior Theatre Resource Center. He wrote and directed a seven-episode podcast series called The Malone Family in the Enchanted Forest. He runs an online book drive for inmates at prisons and juvenile detention centers called Sentences Book Donations. Clinton lives in Greensboro, NC with his wife and children.

👉 Check out Clinton's other plays on Stories Found:

• The Experience: https://storiesfound.com/episode-21-the-experience-clinton-festa/
• Picky Zombies: https://storiesfound.com/episode-10-picky-zombies-clinton-festa/

Follow Clinton: Facebook Goodreads NPX

Credits:

• Written by Clinton Festa
• MAX: Joe Llorens
• DAVE: Paul Hanna

🎧 Audio Engineer & Sound Designer: Paul Hanna

🎙️ Host & Producer: Ava Love Hanna

🎨 Episode Art: Ava Love Hanna

Support + Connect

👉 Don't forget to subscribe, review, and share the show—it helps new listeners find our indie audio dramas!

💛 Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/storiesfound

💛 Want to be a guest? Visit us at https://storiesfound.com

💛 Find us on: Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube!

📍 Stories Found is an independent podcast recorded at ELA Studios in Austin, Texas.

About This Episode

This fan-favorite story by the incredible storyteller, Ladi Loera, returns as part of our Best of Stories Found series — now featuring our new format that brings the story right to the front of the episode and then offers a behind-the-scenes interview with the storyteller.

Whether you're hearing this story for the first time or the fifth, 5 Calls, perfectly nails the nerve-wracking, awkward, and hilariously human moments involved in trying (and trying) to make a connection.

About the Storyteller

Ladi Loera is an artist, animal lover and award winning storyteller. He won the Moth with a story about sympathetic nausea and what it teaches us about love and connection. He is a homebody, whose idea of traveling the globe is going to a different HEB. If you're ever looking for him, he's most likely at home.

Ladi is also the Artistic Director and Producer of Testify, an incredible live storytelling show in Austin, Texas. Visit https://testifyatx.com

Credits: 5 Calls was written and performed by Ladi Loera Audio Engineer: Paul Hanna Host: Ava Love Hanna

👉 Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review — it helps new listeners find the show!

💛 Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/storiesfound 💛 Want to be a guest? Visit us at https://storiesfound.com 💛 Find us on: Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube!

📍 Stories Found is recorded at ELA Studios in Austin, Texas.

About This Episode

It's Micro Monday! This week we're featuring the short audio comedy, VOWS by Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn

About the Playwright

Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn grew up in Selma, Alabama and attended the University of Southern California, where he received both his BFA in Writing for Screen and Television and his Master of Professional Writing degree. He has performed story-telling multiple times at The Moth and for the Two Truths & A Lie podcast. His plays have been produced by the A Light in Dark Places Festival, the Paragon Festival, Exposition Review, Stage Left Theater, Laughing Pig Theatre, Carrollwood Players Theatre, Magnetic Theatre, and Crafton Hills College. He's also a Stories Found fan favorite with his hilarious story about an ill-fated shopping trip: Off Target.

Credits: Written by Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn

IVAN: Joe Llorens

ANTON: Manuel Solis-Bauza

🎧 Audio Engineer & Sound Designer: Paul Hanna

🎙️ Host & Producer: Ava Love Hanna

🎨 Episode Art: Ava Love Hanna

👉 Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review — it helps new listeners find the show!

💛 Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/storiesfound

💛 Want to be a guest? Visit us at https://storiesfound.com

💛 Find us on: Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube!

📍 Stories Found is recorded at ELA Studios in Austin, Texas.

About This Episode

​This ​week on Stories Found, ​we're ​talking ​to ​one ​of ​our ​favorite ​playwrights, ​Clinton ​Festa, ​and ​then ​hearing ​his ​surreal ​comedy, ​The ​Experience. The play follows a couple dining at a restaurant with a twist - instead of food, they serve emotions. Frustration, rejection, nostalgia - it's all on the menu. With snappy dialogue and excellent pacing, Clinton creates a surreal world where feelings truly become tangible menu items. It's a thoughtful and hilarious look at the experience of human emotion.

About the Playwright

Clinton Festa began his career as a writer and cartoonist for his campus humor magazine. Since then he's had short plays produced around the U.S. and Canada, comedy sketches that have placed in national competitions, and a novel recently published with CamCat Books.

During the pandemic, he wrote and directed a seven-episode action-comedy podcast called The Malone Family in the Enchanted Forest (produced by the Cary Playwrights' Forum). Clinton runs an online book drive for inmates in prisons and juvenile detention centers called Sentences Book Donations. He lives in Greensboro, NC with his wife and children.

• Listen to Clinton's hilarious zombie play in Episode 10: PICKY ZOMBIES.
• Order Clinton's book, Ancient Canada: a Mythological Tale at CamCat
• Find Clinton on NPX, The New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/74998/clinton-festa

About the Cast

The Experience was performed for us by:

Gabriella Headley as Wife

Joe Llorens as Husband

Tonie Knight as Waitress

Manuel Solis-Bauza as Take Out Customer

About the Crew

Audio Engineer: Paul Hanna and ELA Studios

Featured Organization

Our featured organization this week is Sentences: Book Donations. Their goal is to network readers with prison librarians and juvenile detention centers to determine their needs and donate books for use in their facilities.

Let's be BFFs!

• Leave us a 5 Star Review on Apple Pocdasts or Spotify!
• Find out how to Support the Show!
• Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com

Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.

• Find us on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube!
• Want to be a featured guest in a future episode? Let's do it. Email: [email protected]

Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.

About This Episode

Welcome to Stories Found Micro Monday. This week we've got the one-minute comedy, Burger Bard by Patrick Bates.

About the Playwright

Pat Bates has been writing plays since he was a kid. Now, he's written for stage and screen, optioned a screenplay, and won some awards along the way. In his spare time, he writes crime/horror/science fiction under the name Jack Bates.

About the Cast

Manuel Solis-Bauza as Burger Bard Boy

Gabriella Headley as Customer

About the Crew

Audio Engineer - Paul Hanna

Let's be BFFs!

Want to show your support for Stories Found? Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/storiesfound

Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com

Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.

• Want to chat about this episode? We're here for it! Email: [email protected]
• Find us on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube!
• Want to be a featured guest in a future episode? Let's do it. Email: [email protected]

Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.

About This Episode

This week we're talking to Mark Gifford and hearing his hilarious story, The Brink of Chaos.

About the Storyteller

Mark has been a full-time professor of composition and rhetoric at The University of Texas at San Antonio for 18 years and counting. He is also a producer for Testify, a monthly storytelling show in Austin, Texas. Mark is also the co-creator and co-producer for Like Minded Lunatics, where he helps create a weekly television show for Austin Music T.V., as well as short-form video content for the Like Minded Lunatics YouTube channel. When Mark finds himself with free time, he enjoys trying to remember his own name.

About the Cast

Storyteller: Mark Gifford

About the Crew

This version of Mark's story was recorded at the live storytelling show, Testify, in Austin, Texas

Featured Organization

Our featured organization this week, is one of our very favorite shows, TESTIFY - a live storytelling show in Austin, Texas.

The amazing crew at Testify love stories -- hearing them, crafting them, and sharing them. Each month, Testify offers a live show featuring true stories told by the people that lived them.

If you're in the Austin area and have a story to tell, they'd love to hear it.

You can submit your own story to one of their themed opportunities on their website, TestifyATX.com

Let's be BFFs!

Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com

Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.

• Want to chat about this episode? We're here for it! Email: [email protected]
• Find us on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube!
• Want to be a featured guest in a future episode? Let's do it. Email: [email protected]

Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.

About This Episode

Welcome to Stories Found Micro Monday -- Halloween Eve edition. This week we've got a special treat, the one minute dark comedy, The Palatka Museum of Natural History by Kimberly Murray-Patel.

The Palatka Museum of Natural History recently won the coveted top honor at the Whiskey Theater Factory's annual one minute play competition.

That means that this play was written in only ten minutes in front of a live audience. It's a phenomenal feat to write anything that quickly, but this play is truly spectacular.

About the Playwright: Kimberly Murray-Patel

Kimberly Murray Patel considers herself a Renaissance woman in regard to the world of theater, and not just because she is thick and prefers clothing that is lacking in structure. The majority of her time is spent as a freelance costumer for companies in the Central Florida area. When she needs a break from the sewing machine she loves to perform and write short plays. "The Palatka Museum of Natural History" recently won the coveted top honor at the Whiskey Theater Factory's annual one minute play competition.

We'll be featuring Kimberly' ten-minute play, Upgrade, in a future episode, so make sure to subscribe on your favorite app so you don't miss it!

About the Cast

Joe Llorens has been a performer for over twenty years. In that time, he's done things. Some of those things he's liked, even. Joe will keep trying to do things he likes and not be as judgy about the things he doesn't like because he really should cut himself a bit of a break. He loves his wife, children, and pets, though. A lot.

A born and raised Puerto Rican native, Manuel Solis-Bauza is a graduate of the Rollins College class of 2020, having acquired a BA in Theatre Studies and Communication Theory. Seen on the Rollins stage as Shu Fu in Good Person of Setzuan and Solomon in Speech and Debate, Manuel has recently performed in a variety of acclaimed Central Florida shows such as Nick in The Wingman, produced by New Generation Theatrical, Nelson in Our Lady of the Tortilla, produced by Descolonizarte Teatro, and most recently as Kennedy in The Vast of Darkness, produced by Whiskey Theatre Factory and voted as Critics' Choice for Best Drama at Orlando Fringe 2023.

About the Crew

Audio Engineer: Paul Hanna and ELA Studios

Fun Stuff

• We've added this play to our Spooky Stories Found playlist on Spotify. It's the perfect playlist for a dark comedy filled Halloween night!

• If you enjoyed this episode, it'd be the perfect Halloween treat if you left us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

• For more exciting ways to show your support, visit our Support the Show page.

Let's be BFFs!

Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com

Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.

• Want to chat about this episode? We're here for it! Email: [email protected]
• Find us on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube!
• Want to be a featured guest in a future episode? Let's do it. Email: [email protected]

Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.

About This Episode

Thanks for joining us for our special Halloween edition of Stories Found! This week we're talking to one of our very favorite playwrights, Brian Rust, and then hearing his eerie dark comedy, Spam Calls from Hell.

About the Playwright

Brian Rust (he/him) is a Boston-based actor and writer who makes chocolates and searches for cryptids in his spare time.

High points of his career include being killed by a pillow during The Robin Hood Faire, appearing on stage with Le Tigre as a member of the Art School Cheerleaders, and using a plunger and ten pounds of jello to create an unforgettable foley effect for a live radio version of CHICKEN HEART.

Most recently he wrote the audio drama, The View from the Inside, which was selected by Dashingly Quirky for a live performance this November.

About the Cast

Joe Llorens - Dave

Tonie Knight - Ruby

About the Crew

Engineer - Paul Hanna

Featured Organization

Open Air Circus is a is a non-profit community-based group that teaches children circus and performing skills. They offer classes and performances every summer.

To find out more about them and how you can help support their mission, visit them at openaircircus.org

Let's be BFFs!

Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com

Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.

• Want to chat about this episode? We're here for it! Email: [email protected]
• Find us on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube!
• Want to be a featured guest in a future episode? Let's do it. Email: [email protected]

Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.