Offscript, American Theatre’s flagship podcast for a number of years, is back as a Facebook Live chat with the magazine’s editors and special guests as well as an audio podcast.
On this week’s episode, the editors are overjoyed to welcome Jon Michael Hill and Namir Smallwood, stars of Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s Pass Over, which opened last Sunday, Aug. 22, to acclaim and celebration as the first Broadway play since the industry-wide shutdown that began in March 2020. It’s a lot of pressure for one play and one small cast to bear, but it’s also an opportunity to “recreate the sacred space of the theatre,” as Smallwood puts it in this conversation. They also talk about the various iterations of the play since its debut in 2017, its publication in this magazine, and now its triumphant run at the August Wilson Theatre; about the difficulty of “radical forgiveness” in a nation still steeped in white supremacy; and about the ways they maintain both mental health and integrity in their work.
You can download the episode here, and watch the original Facebook live chat below.
https://www.facebook.com/AT.magazine/videos/3155540274692519
Subscribe to Offscript, which will get you episodes of all of American Theatre‘s podcast offerings, via RSS, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, or TuneIn.
Creative credits for production photo: Pass Over, written by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu, directed by Danya Taymor, scenic design by Wilson Chin, costume design by Sarafina Bush, lighting design by Marcus Doshi, sound design by Justin Ellington