The Frogs

SEASON 3, EPISODE 1: COCO QUEENS

The Frogs!! We back!! Alex and Tobie kick off Season 3 with the artists behind Coco Queens, a play by LaDarrion Williams about four Black women gathering at a beauty shop in 1975 Alabama.

We talk about bringing these friendships to life, what changes from the first table read to the stage, and how the work follows you home.

Catch Coco Queens at Outside In Theatre, with opening performances November 1 and 2 and a run through November 17.

Theatre. Culture. The Frogs.

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Credits 

THE FROGS | SEASON 3, EPISODE 1: COCO QUEENS

Created and hosted by Alex Ubokudom and Tobie Windham 
Executive Produced by Outside In Theatre and The Frogs
Producer: Jessica Hanna
Brand and Digital Producer: Brandon Severs
Technical Producer & Editor: Byron Rogers Jr.
Theme Music: Arlo Sanders

COCO QUEENS
Written by LaDarrion Williams
Directed by Jessica E. Williams
Cast: Julanne Chidi Hill, Mildred Marie Langford, Chanell Bell, and Sierra Nicolette Smith Co-produced by Outside In Theatre and Blackgical Productions

Theatre. Culture. The Frogs.

THE FROGS LIVE: Juneteenth Juke Joint

Hosts Alex Ubokudom and Tobie Windham brought the juke joint spirit to life for this special Juneteenth edition of THE FROGS LIVE, recorded before a live audience at Outside In Theatre that centered on community, artistry, and the radical act of gathering. Joining them were two of contemporary theatre’s most vital voices: Michael Oloyede and Jamila Webb.

The conversation ranged wide and ran deep: what it takes to build authentic artistic communities, how theatre makers balance preserving history with creating new futures, and why showing up consistently and generously for one another may be the most important artistic practice of all. They also talked about mentorship, joy, and why community remains the greatest resource any artist can have.

About the Guests

Michael Oloyede is an actor, theatre maker, and founder of Scene & Heard, a platform dedicated to amplifying theatre artists and fostering global creative exchange. His work spans stage and screen, championing new writing, emerging artists, and stories that center community, culture, and artistic excellence.

Jamila Webb is an artistic leader and founder of First Fifteen, an initiative that supports writers through the crucial opening pages of a new piece. She is widely recognized for championing BIPOC writers, supporting bold new work, and building collaborative spaces where artists can thrive.

Community is built intentionally. Theatre changes lives because it creates shared experience. Theatre continues to evolve because artists keep creating, collaborating, and investing in one another.

Theatre. Culture. Vibe.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Hosted by Alex Ubokudom & Tobie Windham • Producer: Jessica Hanna • Video & Audio Editor: Byron Rogers Jr. & Tyee Tilghman • Social Media & Marketing: Janine Lee Papio • Theme Music: Arlo Sanders • Lights: Andy Hilbrands • Live Music: Jimmy Keys• Produced by Outside In Theatre + The Frogs

The Frogs is a live conversation series where theatre meets culture, bringing together the artists, thinkers, and leaders shaping the future of storytelling.

Simon Rich: SNL, AI, and the rebirth of the live event 

The Frogs sit down with Thurber Prize & Emmy-winning writer Simon Rich for a wide-ranging conversation about comedy, writing rooms, theatre, and what it means to tell stories in the age of AI.

From writing on Saturday Night Live to creating Man Seeking Woman and Miracle Workers, adapting work for Broadway, and exploring absurdity, satire, and live performance. Simon and the Frogs get into the one thing AI still can’t replicate: lived experience.

The conversation moves through absurdity and satire, the electricity of live theatre, and why a room full of humans laughing together still hits different in a world built around algorithms and content.

It’s Funny. It’s Thoughtful. It’s Existential.

Theatre. Culture. Vibe. 

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Hosted by — Alex Ubokudom & Tobie Windham

Producer — Jessica Hanna

Video & Audio Editor — Byron Rogers Jr.

Social Media & Marketing — Janine Lee Papio

Theme Music — Arlo Sanders

Produced by Outside In Theatre + The Frogs

Robert Wisdom: Presence is the Work

Robert Wisdom will next be seen in The Terminal List: Dark Wolf opposite Chris Pratt and Taylor Kitsch, and in Netflix’s Trinity alongside Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Richard Madden, and Marcia Gay Harden.

He appeared in HBO’s Barry opposite Bill Hader and in Apple TV+‘s Black Bird. On the film side, he’s worked with Denzel Washington on A Journal for Jordan and appeared in everything from Motherless Brooklyn to The Dark Knight Rises.

But what defines Robert’s work isn’t the credits. It’s the presence.

From Bunny Colvin on The Wire to rooms across television and film, he brings a lived-in quality that can’t be manufactured. You feel the history. You feel the weight. Nothing is extra.

This is an actor who has moved through life and craft at the same time. Building a body of work that speaks before it explains.

Theatre. Culture. Vibe.

Production Credits:

A production of Outside In Theatre in Highland Park, Los Angeles

Created by Alex Ubokudom & Tobie Windham

Edited by Byron Rogers, Jr.

Recorded & Mixed by Byron Rogers, Jr.

Theme Song by Arlo Sanders

Produced by Jessica Hanna

Angelica Chéri: Writing the Future

Angelica Chéri: playwright, musical theatre writer, screenwriter, poet. Named by Variety as one of Broadway’s Top Ten Stars to Watch in 2025, Angelica is one of the most exciting voices shaping the future of theatre and musical storytelling.

You may know her work from the Prophet’s Cycle Trilogy-The Seeds of Abraham, The Sting of White Roses, and Crowndation: I Will Not Lie to David, as well as plays like Berta, Berta and The Wiring & the Switches. Her musical Wanted, written with collaborator Ross Baum, won the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award, was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and is headed to Broadway in Fall 2026.

We talk about building theatrical worlds that move between history, myth, and prophecy. We get into the impact of family on artistry and the journey of bringing Phenomenal Woman, her biographical play about Maya Angelou, directed by Debbie Allen, toward its Broadway premiere.

Angelica is out here writing plays, musicals, TV, and immersive worlds like the lines between them don’t matter. This is a conversation about big imagination, collaboration, and just a good time.

IG @angelicacheri

Theatre. Culture. Vibe.

Production Credits:

A production of Outside In Theatre in Highland Park, Los Angeles

Created by Alex Ubokudom & Tobie Windham

Technical Production by Byron Rogers, Jr.

Theme Song by Arlo Sanders | Produced by Jessica Hanna​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Johnny Ray Gill: In Every Form

It’s Black History Month, and we’re sitting down with a friend of the pod, Johnny Ray Gill, who is a magnificent actor and storyteller. Season two of Cross dropped February 11th on Prime, and Johnny Ray as Bobby Trey is layered, dangerous, and deeply human. You can feel the weight of history underneath his performance. Johnny doesn’t just play characters. He builds inner lives that carry memory and consequence.

A UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse MFA graduate, Johnny Ray moves fluidly across television, cinema, and music. You’ve seen him as Kerwin in Rectify, Sam in Underground, Gustav in Braindead, and Sex Henry in Grand Crew, alongside work in Snowfall, True Blood, Chicago P.D., and NCIS. Beyond acting, he’s a writer and director under his banner First Flock Pictures, with award-winning projects like Laying Pipe and a debut rap album, Screenplays, led by the haunting “Green Shoe Music.” 

This episode is about story, satire, climate justice, and the responsibility of making art that refuses to be contained

IG & Twitter @JohnnyRayGill

Theatre. Culture. Vibe.

Production Credits:

A production of Outside In Theatre in Highland Park, Los Angeles

Created by Alex Ubokudom & Tobie Windham

Edited by Byron Rogers, Jr.

Recorded & Mixed by Byron Rogers, Jr.

Theme Song by Arlo Sanders

Produced by Brianna Seamster & Jessica Hanna

Kacie Rogers: No Permission Required

Kacie Rogers- actor, writer, producer, and community builder. This is a conversation rooted in theatre, process, and legacy. A two-time NAACP Award winner trained at AMDA, Kacie has worked with many of Los Angeles’ vital theatre companies, including The Robey Theatre Co., IAMA, The Fountain Theatre, Outside In Theatre, Skylight Theatre, A Noise Within, and the Geffen Playhouse, alongside screen work on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Grace & Frankie, Grand Crew, and Home Economics.

We talk about her acclaimed one-woman show I Sell Windows, the emotional and cultural weight of Furlough’s Paradise, as well as the creation of Bottle Tree Theatre Co., an artist-led ecosystem centered on storytelling and community.

Kacie also has breaking news: she’s pitching her first feature film and stepping into Octopus’s Garden, an Outside In x Boston Court x Circle X co-production premiering March 7 at Boston Court in Pasadena. This is a conversation about building what you wish existed and inviting others to grow it with you.

 IG @kacie.rogers 

Theatre. Culture. Vibe.

Production Credits:

A production of Outside In Theatre in Highland Park, Los Angeles

Created by Alex Ubokudom & Tobie Windham

Edited by Byron Rogers, Jr.

Recorded & Mixed by Byron Rogers, Jr.

Theme Song by Arlo Sanders

Produced by Brianna Seamster & Jessica Hanna

Adrianna Mitchell - The Holiday’s with a Crutch 

We welcome Adrianna Mitchell to The Frogs podcast, currently starring opposite Tracy Morgan and Kecia Lewis in Crutch on Paramount+.

Adrianna talks about craft, discipline, Spelman, and the body of work she’s been building. We get into process: how grit, presence, and being ready to move from drama to comedy when moment needs it.

We also talk about the rooms that shaped her:

Fat Ham (The Public, Broadway, Geffen), Snowfall, Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Fight, Evil, Law & Order, and Regional theaters credits across the country.

Each role sharpening her instrument.

Each role getting her deeper into her bag.

This conversation is about family. About resilience. About building over time. She’s your favorite actor’s favorite actor.

Adrianna shows us what it looks like when you trust that work begets work.

As always,

Theatre. Culture. Vibe.

Production Credits:

A production of Outside In Theatre in Highland Park, Los Angeles

Created by Alex Ubokudom & Tobie Windham

Edited by Byron Rogers, Jr.

Recorded & Mixed by Byron Rogers, Jr.

Theme Song by Arlo Sanders

Produced by Brianna Seamster & Jessica Hanna

Biko Eisen-Martin: Table 17 and The Bay Area

Season Two rolls on with Biko Eisen-Martin, the force at the center of the Geffen Playhouse’s West Coast Premiere of Table 17.

Biko sits with The Frogs to break down what it means to carry a story this raw. We dive into the emotional architecture behind playing Dallas, both in the new Geffen production and in the original MCC Off-Broadway run.

We also look back at the path that shaped him:

Lift (Off-Broadway), Hamlet, Pac and Biggie Are Dead, Taming of the Shrew, Ruined, King Lear, Radio Golf, The XIXth at The Old Globe, and Topdog/Underdog. 

Each role sharpening his instrument. Each play adding weight to his presence onstage. 

This episode is about discipline and the deep work required to hold space for stories that matter.

Biko shows us what it looks like when an actor is fully alive in the work. 

As always,  Theatre. Culture. Vibe. 

A production of Outside In Theatre in Highland Park, Los Angeles

Created by Alex Ubokudom & Tobie Windham

Edited by Byron Rogers, Jr

Recorded & Mixed by Byron Rogers, Jr

Theme Song by Arlo Sanders

Produced by Brianna Seamster & Jessica Hanna

Executive Produced by The Frogs & Outside In Theatre

Recorded at Outside In Theatre

Roger Guenveur Smith: In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat & The One-Man
Revolution

Season Two keeps jumping with one of American theater’s greatest storytellers, Roger
Guenveur Smith: actor, writer, director, and one-man cultural force. From his iconic
collaborations with Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Get on the Bus) to his Obie
Award–winning solo shows (A Huey P. Newton Story), Roger has built a career bending form,
fusing politics and performance, and refusing to fit in anyone’s box.

Now he’s back on stage with In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, his newest one-man show
exploring his friendship with the extraordinary Basquiat. Running now at Outside In Theatre
through November 9 and headed to the Under the Radar Festival in New York City in January
2026, the piece continues Roger’s legacy of art as both testimony and transformation.
In this episode, Roger sits with The Frogs to talk about brotherhood in art, the risks of telling
history through your own body, and what it means to carry the brilliance and burden of genius
onstage.

This isn’t just a conversation, it’s an excavation, a production, a ritual, church, and a moment.
Raw, poetic, and straight from the source.

Credits:
A production of Outside In Theatre in Highland Park, Los Angeles
Created by Alex Ubokudom & Tobie Windham
Edited by Brianna Seamster & Byron Rogers, Jr.
Recorded & Mixed by Arlo Sanders
Theme Song by Arlo Sanders
Produced by Brianna Seamster & Jessica Hanna
Executive Produced by The Frogs & Outside In Theatre
Recorded at Outside In Theatre