Stories Found

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:

• Episode 5: The Interview
• Episode 12: A Very Special Hanukkah Special

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.

• Want to chat about this episode? We're here for it! Email: [email protected]
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• 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 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.

• 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

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:

• Episode 7: What's in the Basement, Honey?
• Episode 14: Bird Girl and The Hammer

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.

• 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 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.

• 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

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.

• 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 excited to welcome the amazing storyteller, Ladi Loera, and then listen to his hilarious true story, 5 Calls.

About the Playwright / 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.

• (00:00) Welcome to Stories Found
• (00:31) This week's featured organization is Testify, a live storytelling show in Texas
• (02:17) Tell us a little bit about your story
• (04:41) This story takes place in Houston, and you do such a great job describing the setting
• (05:54) Austin has such a fantastic storytelling scene
• (08:38) When did you tell your first story
• (13:30) How do you personally know when something is a story versus just an anecdote
• (16:59) One thing I have run into is explaining this genre
• (18:12) I do have one final question for you
• (19:55) 5 Calls read by Ladi Loera
• (32:35) Thanks for listening to Stories Found

Featured Organization

Testify is a live storytelling show in Austin, Texas.

All the stories told at Testify are true stories told by the people that lived them. Join them each month to hear folks share a part of their lives with you.

And, if you have a story to tell, they'd love to hear it. They take submissions all year long. They have themes suggested for each month, but they give wide room for interpretation of the themes.

What's your story?

Support the Show

Want to show the world how much you love comedy and supporting the arts? We've got a list of fun ways to help support the show: https://storiesfound.com/support

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

This week, we're excited to welcome the very talented and funny Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn and then listening to his hilarious story, Off-Target.

About the Storyteller

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.

About the Cast

Off-Target was performed by:

The author, Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn, and a Target Shopping Basket

Featured Organization

826 National helps foster a love of creative writing in children. Their mission is to help young people use writing as a tool to ignite and channel their creativity, explore identity, advocate for themselves and their community, and achieve academic and professional success.

You can help 826 advance this goal by volunteering at a local chapter, buying the children's published works, or shopping at one of their stores which each have a different creative theme. New Orleans offers the The New Orleans Haunting Supply Company. Listeners in Los Angeles can visit The Time Travel Mart, while those in Boston can stop by the Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute. There are currently 9 really cool stores like this in cities across the country.

Visit 826national.org to learn more about this amazing program and to see how you can help them continue to foster a love of creative writing in children.

Featured Sponsors

Magikjaz Creations is a woman, minority, and LGBTQ+ owned business based in Austin, Texas. Jazmyn is a proud Latinx artist who creates jewelry and wearable art and specializes in chainmail and wirework. She offers creative, original pieces that are truly one of a kind. Visit her website at Magikjazcreations.com.

Want to see your company name here? Reach out for rates: [email protected]

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

In this episode of Stories Found, we're talking to one of our very favorite playwrights, Bethany Dickens Assaf, and then listening to her ten-minute comedy, Bird Girl and The Hammer.

About the Playwright

Bethany Dickens Assaf is a freelance playwright, dramaturg, and theatre artist, and a co-founder of Whiskey Theatre Factory and the Fragmented Theatre Festival. 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.

Other favorite ideas/themes include female separatism, evangelical Christianity, bisexuality particularly in period settings, gender complementarianism, women in male-dominated spaces (gaming, cosplay), and the exploitation of women's bodies for media such as reality television and true crime podcasts. Almost 100 of her plays have been performed or read across the country including her twisty sci-fi play, The Consciousness, which has been performed at over 10 fringe festivals across the country and won Best Play at the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival (director: Liz Colvert, stage manager: Meghan Pratt). She's also had the amazing honor of working with organizations that are truly making an impact through storytelling such as Threshold Theatre, Theatre Works, FUSION Theatre, Road Theatre, EMBer Women's Theatre, Central Florida Community Arts, Birdhouse Theatre, the Bechdel Group, and more.

You can learn more through Bethany's website: www.BethanyDickens.com.

You can also read more of Bethany's work on NPX, The New Play Exchange.

About the Cast

Kate O'Claire as Bird Girl

Kate O'Claire (she/her/hers) is a performer, producer, public speaker, and social justice mage who has been seen on stages throughout Central Florida, Paris, and her home state of Wisconsin. She is passionate about telling unique stories, amplifying historically excluded voices, fighting the patriarchy, riding Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios, eating Taco Bell, and reducing shame around difficult topics.

Joe Llorens as The Hammer

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.

About the Crew

Engineering by Paul Hanna and ELA Studios.

Featured Organization

Whiskey Theatre Factory is a theatre collective based in Orlando, FL with the mission to produce meaningful theatrical productions that uplift, develop, and celebrate emerging and untapped voices. We challenge our community through provocative, authentic pieces, examining our culture and revealing the grace of humanity. Interested in reading our Credo or connecting with us? Visit WhiskeyTheatreFactory.com to learn more.

Featured Sponsor

Magikjaz Creations is a woman, minority, and LGBTQ+ owned business based in Austin, Texas. Jazmyn is a proud Latinx artist who creates jewelry and wearable art and specializes in chainmail and wirework. She offers creative, original pieces that are truly one of a kind. Visit her website at Magikjazcreations.com.

Want to see your company name here? Reach out for rates: [email protected]

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

It's a special Valentine's Day themed Stories Found Micro Monday! Today, we've got the one-minute play, CRIME of PASSION by Ava Love Hanna

About the Playwright / Storyteller

Ava Love Hanna is a professional writer, published playwright, and award-winning speaker and storyteller. She is continually amazed by how often she is mistaken for a real grown-up.

When she's not co-hosting the Stories Found podcast, Ava can be found producing comedies, hanging out reading plays at NPX, or skulking around these other seedy internet joints: Facebook, Instagram, Post, or Mastodon.

Ava is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild and ScriptWorks.

About the Cast

Viv - Ava Love Hanna

Patrol-Bot - Paul Hanna

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 -- take a super quick break with us to kickstart your week with a laugh. Today, we've got the one-minute play, Lying in a Pine Forest by Greg Romero

About the Playwright / Storyteller

Greg Romero is originally from Louisiana, Cajun blood on both sides. His plays, site-specific projects, and sound-art collaborations have been presented in performance spaces, found spaces, and through the airwaves of the United States as well as Switzerland, Canada, The United Kingdom, and Jamaica. Romero was selected as the first-ever ArtsEdge Resident, was one of three playwrights to inaugurate the Philadelphia Dramatists Center/Plays & Players Playwriting Residency, and was a pilot member of Hyde Park Theatre's Playwright's Group. He may be the only playwright to have presented a play in the bathrooms of Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Humana Festival of New Plays.

He is an alum of the WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory, The Last Frontier/Valdez Theater Conference, The William Inge Theater Festival, The Midwest Dramatists Conference, and his works are published by Heinemann Press, Next Stage Press, YouthPLAYS, and Playscripts. Romero received a BA in Liberal Arts from the Louisiana Scholars' College and an MFA in Playwriting from The University of Texas at Austin where he held the James A. Michener Fellowship.

He is a member of ScriptWorks, The Dramatists Guild of America, and teaches at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, where he visits the alligators. He loves being outside.

He would love for you to find more of his work at the New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/5432/greg-romero

About the Cast

Voice: Ellie McBride

About the Crew

Engineer: Lowell Bartholomee

Featured Organization

Lying in a Pine Forest was originally written for a ScriptWorks fundraiser. ScriptWorks is an Austin based playwriting organization that offers programs to help playwrights in Austin and beyond. Visit them at ScriptWorks.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.