By Stories Found
5
88 ratings
The podcast currently has 31 episodes available.
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.
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!
Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.
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.
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.
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 as Joe
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.
Manuel Solis-Bauza as Brandon
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
Happy Monday and Happy Halloween from all of us at Stories Found!
Let's be BFFs!
Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com
Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.
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.
Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.
About This Episode
Welcome to Stories Found Micro Monday -- Spooky Edition. This week we've got the eerie 1-minute play, A Foggy Day in a Certain Part of Scotland by Mark Harvey Levine.
About the Playwright / Storyteller
Mark Harvey Levine has had over 2000 productions of his short plays everywhere from Bangalore to Bucharest and from Lima to London. His plays have won over 45 awards and been produced in more than ten languages. His work has been published in over two dozen anthologies by Applause, Smith & Kraus, Routledge and Vintage. Full evenings of his ten-minute plays, such as “Cabfare For The Common Man”, “Didn’t See That Coming” and “A Very Special Holiday Special” have been shown around the world, including at the Edinburgh Fringe and in a multi-year tour of Brazil. A Spanish-language film of “The Kiss” (“El Beso”) premiered at Cannes and aired on HBO and DTV (Japan). Two of his plays were adapted for Brazilian television.
Listen to more of Mark's work in these episodes:
About the Cast
Kelly: Liz Bernstein
Terry: Gabriella Headley
About the Crew
Engineer: Paul Hanna and ELA Studios
Let's be BFFs!
Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com
Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.
Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.
About This Episode
This week we’re talking to the uber talented Austin writer and storyteller, Jeff Knight, before hearing his fantastic story, Bella and Blue.
About the Storyteller
Jeff Knight is a storyteller, poet, songwriter, and aspiring novelist in Austin, Texas.
He is currently working on a murder mystery set in the world of craft beer, and featuring an intrepid Great Dane as part of a heroic crime-fighting duo.
Special Thanks
Bella and Blue was performed by the author, Jeff Knight.
This story was recorded live at Testify, a popular storytelling show in Austin, Texas. It was recorded by Mark Gifford. We’re thankful to Ladi Loera, Mark Gifford, and the whole crew at Testify for letting us use it in this episode!
Featured Organization
The mission of the McCallum Fine Arts Academy is to foster and advance a diverse group of student artists who will create, lead, inspire, and contribute to a global community.
If you’re in the Austin area and want to know more about their advanced fine arts curriculum for your student, visit mccallumfinearts.austinschools.org
Support the Show
We know you love Stories Found. But have you ever wondered "how can I let other people know JUST HOW MUCH I love Stories Found?" Fortunately, we're here to help!
Head over to https://storiesfound.com/support
We've got a list of fun free or paid ways to show your support and to help us keep paying our amazingly talented writers and actors. Thanks!
Let's be BFFs!
Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com
Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.
Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.
About This Episode
It's Micro Monday! This week we've got the hilarious one-minute play, Dog Park, by one of our very favorite playwrights, Bethany Dickens Assaf.
About the Playwright / Storyteller
Bethany Dickens Assaf is a freelance playwright, dramaturg, and theatre artist and a co-founder of Whiskey Theatre Factory. As both a writer and producer, she is obsessed with plays that deconstruct and take unusual perspectives on gender and sexuality, challenging audiences and serving untapped artistic voices by creating meaningful roles for women.
Listen to more of Bethany's fantastic work in these episodes:
About the Cast
Jesse: Liz Bernstein
Sam: Gabriella Headley
About the Crew
Audio Engineer: Paul Hanna
Let's be BFFs!
Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com
Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.
Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.
About This Episode
This week we're featuring Christian Missonak and his hilarious ten-minute play, A Great Fall.
About the Playwright
Christian Missonak is a NYC-based playwright originally from Chicago, where he was a graduate of Columbia College and The Second City Conservatory. Plays: Sheridan (Madlab Theatre), Save Ferris (Under the Gun Theatre), Cooperative (Metropolitan Playhouse). Audio: Banana Bread is a Myth (Earworm Audio Theatre podcast, Ep 9). Publication: Nowhere to Go Nights (The High Plains Register), Sheridan excerpt (The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2022 by Smith & Kraus Publishers).
You can also read more of Christian's work on NPX, The New Play Exchange.
About the Cast
Joe Llorens as HD
Manuel Solis-Bauza as Nathan
Liz Bernstein as Alana
About the Crew
Audio Engineer: Paul Hanna NEW! Outtakes from this episode available on YouTube: A Great Fall - Outtakes
Featured Organization
The Catskill Mountain Foundation believes that art can transform the lives of those touched by it and so they aim to combine high-quality performances, artist residencies, and arts education in a multi-faceted program.
Find out more about the Catskill Mountain Foundation, their programs, and how you can help further their vision at catskillmtn.org
Show Your Support!
We know you love Stories Found. But have you ever wondered "how can I let other people know JUST HOW MUCH I love Stories Found?" Fortunately, we're here to help!
Head over to storiesfound.com/support
We've got a list of fun free or paid ways to show your support and to help us keep paying our amazingly talented writers and actors.
Soon, the whole world will know just how much you love comedy and supporting the arts.
storiesfound.com/support
Let's be BFFs!
Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com
Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.
Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.
About This Episode
It's Micro Monday! Just in time for Talk Like A Pirate Day on the 19th, we've got the hilarious one-minute nautical adventure, Color Guard by Ned Eckhardt
Make sure to catch our full episodes every other week featuring some of the most talented humorists in the country. Next week, we've got a fantastic full length episode featuring the ten-minute play, A Great Fall by Christian Missonak.
Find us on your favorite podcast app or at Stories Found.com Happy Monday from all of us at Stories Found!
About the Playwright / Storyteller
Ned Eckhardt is a documentarian and writer based in northern Connecticut. He began his writing career as a playwright in New York City and created a successful career as a practitioner in the writing and visual arts. He is a writer across many genres. Currently, he has been focused on writing plays and opera librettos.
About the Cast
Captain: Joe Llorens
Bosun: Manuel Solis-Bauza
About the Crew
Audio Engineer: Paul Hanna
Let's be BFFs!
Subscribe to our newsletter! storiesfound.substack.com
Thanks for listening to Stories Found! We heart you.
Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.
The podcast currently has 31 episodes available.