Top of the Pods
From the TBA Awards to Chicago’s literary slam WRITE Club, this week’s theatre podcasts hit close to home.
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Top of the Pods
This week on the (virtual) air, the focus was on L.A. and New York.
Offscript: The Land of Breakout Songs and Butt Wiggles
It’s the all-Public-Theater edition of Offscript! Senior editor Eliza Bent joins us to discuss Young Jean Lee’s newest show “Straight White Men” at the Public Theater. Then Suzy, Rob and Eliza sound off on “Fortress of Solitude,” also at the Public, and why some musical conventions work sometimes but not others. (We promise next edition of Offscript will be a little less NY-centric.)
Top of the Pods
Brass tacks and emotional outbursts highlight this week on the nation’s theatre podcasts.
Top of the Pods
Gender parity, theatre awards, the mystery of QR codes and our robot future are some of the themes hit by this week’s top podcasts.
Offscript: Anna & Julian in the Jacuzzi
This episode of OffScript features an interview with James McNeel, managing director of Contemporary American Theatre Festival in West Virginia. He was in town/New York City for the Off-Broadway premiere of CATF’s “Uncanny Valley,” by Thomas Gibbons. Assistant editor Diep Tran talks with him about new plays and robots.
Also, the editors of AMERICAN THEATRE discuss succession of Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, and Suzy and Diep get into a heated debate over a “Jacuzzi.” Come on in, the water’s warm!
Top of the Pods
Theatre podcasts worth listening to this week.
Offscript: Awake & Online
“It’s the bitch of living.” Except not really. In this episode of Offscript, we talk to arts reporter Linda Buchwald about “Spring Awakening” at Deaf West Theatre, which uses deaf actors and sign language to add a new dimension to the Duncan Sheik/Steven Sater musical about teenage desires in 19th-century Germany. Plus our editors argue over gender parity and the politics of representation.
Offscript: Vanya & Sonia & Critics & Chris
Let’s Durang it up! In this revamp of AMERICAN THEATRE’s Offscript podcast, we talk to Christopher Durang, whose play “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” is the most-produced play of the 2014-15 season.
Offscript: Humana Festival Edition
AMERICAN THEATRE looks back on the 38th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, which featured new plays by Kimber Lee, Lucas Hnath and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. AMERICAN THEATRE’s senior editor Rob Weinert-Kendt sat down over Skype for a podcast conversation with two theatre critics: Erin Keane—arts reporter and theatre critic from Louisville’s NPR station WFPL—and Bill Hirschman, editor and critic of Florida Theater On Stage. They discussed the festival’s offerings, if art for art’s sake is a good idea and the critic’s obligation to the playwright.