Each month on The Subtext, Brian speaks with a playwright about life, writing, and whatever itches we are scratching.

This time, he sits down with Sophie McIntosh, the playwright who co-founded Good Apples Collective and recently graduated from Columbia University’s playwriting MFA program. McIntosh discusses her experience learning from Lynn Nottage as her student and Martyna Majok as her assistant, the fraught pressures around being considered “emerging,” her journey from Wisconsin to New York, a love for walking, influences from musical theatre, and setting concrete goals. She also discusses how OCD impacts her life and writing, as well as the importance of ERP therapy. Says McIntosh of her start in playwriting, “I started writing my first play, I think, the day after I saw Hamilton, and I’ve actually written every single day since then.” 

Recent productions of McIntosh’s work include the world premiere of macbitches (New York Times Critic’s Pick), the premieres of Road Kills, cunnicularii, and cityscrape with Good Apples Collective, and Eleven Weeks of Nuclear Summer at Notre Dame University and the University of Michigan. Her plays have also been developed at Pioneer Theatre Company, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, the Bechdel Group, Unicorn Theatre, Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective, The Tank, The Brick, and 24 Hour Plays: Nationals.

This episode can also be found here, and will be available on iTunes and Spotify.