The Context

Our first episode recorded in the Seattle studio! Playwright Roger Q. Mason joins us from his home in Los Angeles -- close enough to my old place that we totally could have recorded together in person if I just had a short-term time machine. We talk about what it's like to be a Santa Monica-born Angelino who doesn't fit most people's image of being "from L.A." and we talk a lot about gay Abraham Lincoln. These are two of my favorite topics, y'all.

I loved loved loved talking to Roger, and I hope that you'll love listening.

Special Guest: Roger Q. Mason.

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Full disclosure: I recorded this episode with Anne Morgan a year ago. The episode is still awesome, but add 1 year to everything she says regarding timelines: She's now been at the American Shakespeare Center for a little over two years instead of a little over one, they're now actually producing plays from the Shakespeare's New Contemporaries program instead of being about to produce plays, Mary Baldwin University went co-ed a couple-three years ago instead of a year or two ago, we're all one year sadder and wiser, etc.

We talked about my pitches for the new state song of Virginia, and, I gotta be honest, the initial delay in production was that I spent waaaaaay too much time arranging the Spotify list with all our (my) submissions for a new state song. That content's just for The Context Patreon subscribers. I would share it with all of you, but my subscribers have been so patient while I dicked them over for the last year, and they really deserve something that's just their own.

This season has a ton of lovely episodes coming your way, most of which were also recorded 4.5 billion years ago, but which still contain eternal truths from your favorite innovators of dramaturgy. Where the hell have I been the last year? Well, that's a mini-episode of it's own. It involves changing my meds a bunch of times and ending up in Seattle.

Thanks for sticking around! I think it will be worth your while.

Special Guest: Anne Morgan.

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Welcome to perhaps my fanciest playwright friend, Yale Drama Prize-winning Jacqueline Goldfinger. "Yale Drama Prize-winning" is such a classy sounding phrase, she could become a crawfish deveiner tomorrow and still be in the running for the title of "Fanciest."

She talks with me about how she developed her newly commercially published play, Bottle Fly, and how developing a play for a commercial script (or even an acting edition) varies from developing a play for performance. We talk about the traditional new play development process, including its strengths and limitations for interdisciplinary and installation-based work.

And we talk a lot about our kids -- or the concept of them -- and how the field is harmed when it creates barriers to full participation in family and civic life for artists, and the resources a person needs to be a working parent in the theatre industry. When Jacqueline was pregnant with her twins, she was advised to keep her pregnancy a secret for as long as possible -- and it sounds like, professionally, it was pretty practical advice. We talk about the assumptions about the limitations of parent-artists, and Jacqueline mentions organizations like Parent Artist Advocacy League and the Sustainable Arts Foundation that are working to make engagement in the artistic world realistic for people with families.

We also spend a lot of time talking about the professional and personal usefulness of happy hours, and a little time talking about why we're so mad at capitalism.

Be sure to check out her newest project, Page By Page, an online newsletter and community for playwrights.

Special Guest: Jacqueline Goldfinger.

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Links:

• Bottle Fly (Yale Drama Series): Jacqueline Goldfinger, Nicholas Wright: 9780300235012: Amazon.com: Books — Jacqueline's Yale Drama Prize-winning play "Bottle Fly," now available from Yale Press.

Seattle and Philadelphia-based dramaturg and director Sally Ollove joins us on the show to get into some of our good "why-"based questions abotu cabaret: Who's if for? What does it do that other forms of entertainment can't? Will anyone be taking their clothes off? She's the Associate Artistic Director of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, and she knows the full depths of Philadelphia's experimental theatre scene. And, like me, she's a reluctant audience participant for any show that breaks the fourth wall, so I feel like I can trust her expertise on how to do these things right, ya know?

Special Guest: Sally Ollove.

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Links:

• In search of the Poison Cookie: John Jarboe explores the far fringes of queer cabaret — In search of the Poison Cookie: John Jarboe explores the far fringes of queer cabaret
• Know Your Beards (@beardedladiescabaret) • Instagram photos and videos — The Bearded Ladies are an experimental cabaret company tackling pop culture and identity with wit, sparkle & cardboard.
• Front Page | LMDA — Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas was founded in 1985 as the volunteer membership organization for the professions of literary management and dramaturgy.
• The Scene of Harlem Cabaret: Race, Sexuality, Performance by Shane Vogel — Harlem's nightclubs in the 1920s and '30s were a crucible for testing society's racial and sexual limits. Normally tacit divisions were there made spectacularly public in the vibrant, but often fraught, relationship between performer and audience. The cabaret scene, Shane Vogel contends, also played a key role in the Harlem Renaissance by offering an alternative to the politics of sexual respectability and racial uplift that sought to dictate the proper subject matter for black arts and letters.
• The Wilma Theater — This is the theatre lobby where Sally's cabaret career began in earnest.
• Azuka Theatre — Telling the stories of outcasts and underdogs

Bernardo Mazón Daher talks to me about life as a theatre-maker living on the border, both in his So-So-SoCal Chula Vista upbringing and in the liminal spaces between English-language and Spanish-language art. We get into about our mutual (if limited) Anaheim roots, historical and cultural significance of the piñata and how to turn that knowledge into theatre, and our theories on the dramaturgy of the queue theming of the Indiana Jones attraction at Disneyland. Bernardo suggested we cut that bit, but it's the most on-brand conversation I think I've had on this podcast yet, so...

Bernardo works with TuYo Theatre (among other places), and he came into dramaturgy as a consultant and as a cultural advocate. We talk about whiteness, language, and race, and I don't edit out any of my super-awkward misprononciations and corrections, because part of dramaturgy is working on stuff together. And also because my technical producer is my spouse, and he ain't getting paid, so there shall be no fancy editing.

We speculate about whether or not all dramaturgs are politically progressive. He says the non-liberal 'turgs are out there, but I've yet to come across one. Conservative dramaturgs, I'm interested to hear from you and about how you approach your work. But, you know, if you're all, "Well, poor people deserve to be poor, what else is going on?" it's gonna be a really contentious episode.

Special Guest: Bernardo Mazón Daher.

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Links:

• TuYo Theatre | HOME

It's the day of the show, y'all!

Winners and Losers is running through November 25th and, if you're in Calgary or can get to Calgary, you should go see it! Buy tickets here. If you're not in or able to get to Calgary, you should still check out the Chromatic Theatre site or the Facebook event for Winners and Losers.

Special Guest: Jenna Rodgers.

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Happy Halloween birthday to our first recorded guest, Paul Draper! He was kind enough to be my Context guinea pig back in August, and what with the birthday and all, today seemed like a great time to share his wisdom with the world. Paul is a stealth dramaturg, but he's best known for his work as a magician and mentalist. He's also a cultural anthropologist! So we talked about the historic role of magic in society and its evolution from religious practice to a form of entertainment and commerce! Because when you have magical anthropologist on-hand, you gotta ask all these questions.

On this episode of The Context, Paul talks to me about:

Learn all about Paul at Mental Mysteries.

Happy halloween and happy dramaturging from all of us at The Context!

Ooh, and today's the last day to get your October Suprise! Which, suprise, is fancy tote bag when you become a sponsor the podcast at any level.

Special Guest: Paul Draper.

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Links:

• Paul's Patreon

Lindsay Barr is the production dramaturg for Everyman Theatre's production of Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Sweat." She's also our administrator and sole staff member at the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas. She also has like 4000 more degrees than I remembered. She's also super insightful. We bumped this episode WAY up the queue. With "Sweat" opening this week and midterm elections just two weeks away, this content feels pressing AF.

We talk about the context of the play and dramaturgy life, including:

...And more!

You can support this podcast, including maybe better call-recording software, at https://www.patreon.com/thecontextpod. And. AND. Everyone who supports this podcast at any level

Special Guest: Lindsey Barr.

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Links:

• Sweat | Everyman Theatre
• Everyman Theatre "Sweat" Program
• LYNN NOTTAGE - Home
• Home | Lindsey R. Barr
• Amazon.com: Sweat (TCG Edition) eBook: Lynn Nottage: Kindle Store
• Lynn Nottage's author page on Amazon

Dr. Karen Jean Martinson takes a deep dive into tiki culture and the vintage racism (and progressivism!) of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "South Pacific."

I intend to fill this in with some real serious dramaturgy notes later, but I don't want to keep you waiting! So dive in now and enjoy.

Special Guest: Karen Jean Martinson.

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Links:

• Amazon.com: Dramaturgy in American Theater: A Source Book (9780155025868): Susan S. Jonas, Geoffrey S. Proehl, Michael Lupu: Books — "This comprehensive work is truly the first textbook in the field of dramaturgy. Most of the material-much of it by leaders in all areas of the theater-was commissioned for this collection, rather than being reprinted. Its currency and importance cannot be overestimated. A review of the history of dramaturgy as a profession, together with its European antecedents, gives students a sense of historical context. Selections from respected and recognized names in theater provoke student interest and communicate the benefits of those experts' experiences."
• tikioasis.com | Tiki Oasis 18 | San Diego, CA | August 8-12, 2018 — Tiki Oasis is an annual 5-day event in San Diego, California for lovers of Island lifestyle and purveyors of Polynesian Pop.
• Amazon.com: South Pacific: Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr, France Nuyen: Amazon Digital Services LLC — Rodgers and Hammerstein's Academy Award-winning "South Pacific" is a towering musical masterpiece and the tender love story of a naive young Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) and an older French Plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi) on a U.S. occupied South Sea island.

It feels a little absurd to launch a fun arts podcast on such a hellscape of a day. For reference, Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court a few hours ago, and every woman I know, myself included, has gone into the pain-fog of whichever ailment or illness is their nearest companion. Migraines! Rheumatoid Arthritis! Fibromyalgia! Pelvic Myofascial Pain! The Raging Sleepies! We've got it all. The public health toll since November 2016 seems significant, particularly when it comes to women's bodies.

Playwright and burlesque performer Natalie Ann Valentine talks to me openly about some stuff that turned out to be totally relevant to today's dystopian dumpster fire, like the necessity of the audience being actively engaged and receiving enthusiastic consent from a burlesque performer in order for the show to work. To put a finer point on it: Nobody gets to see any boobs unless everyone's having fun and into it. THERE'S A LESSON THERE.

Playwriting Stuff

You can help this podcast be more and better. Head to https://www.patreon.com/thecontextpod to see all the ways your sponsorship will support awesome things, AND to see all the treats I'll give you in exchange for money. Bonus treat: Everyone who becomes a Patron of this show during the month of October 2018, at any level, will get a fancy The Context podcast tote bag. Ooh la la!

Special Guest: Natalie Ann Valentine.

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Links:

• Amazon.com: Behind the Burly Q: The Story of Burlesque in America eBook: Blaze Starr Leslie Zemeckis, Blaze Starr: Kindle Store — Burlesque was one of America’s most popular forms of live entertainment in the first half of the twentieth century. Gaudy, bawdy, and spectacular, the shows entertained thousands of paying customers every night of the week. And yet the legacy of burlesque is often vilified, misunderstood, and left out of the history books.