Gene Kato is the mastermind behind Next Stage Press, an online boutique publishing house that has grown exponentially over the past few years. Gene has singlehandedly created a showroom for hundreds of playwrights to market their creative opuses. A lively, fun interview with lots to talk about!

NPX / X / Facebook / Genekato.com

#genekato #publishing #playwriting #theatre #nextstagepress

Donald Loftus is a playwright/lyricist whose work has been performed around the globe and is one of the masterminds behind the online play reading group New York Pages. He's has written the book and lyrics to several musicals (Abbey Victoria, Pollyanna, ‘Round Duffy Square, and Illusion), and his one-acts have been presented in over 100 play festivals around the country. Donald's play “Joey” is the last of our 2024 Missing Home series.

DonaldLoftus.com  /  New Play Exchange 

Facebook  / Playwright's Center

Florida-based playwrights/actors/producers of the challenging hit play, "Dissonance," which begs the question, "Can a Black woman and a White woman--who have been friends for 20 years--have an honest, open conversation about race?" #theatre,#race,#friendship,#privilege,#dissonance, #equality, #blacklivesmatter, #racism, #whitefragility, #thisisamerica, #systemicracism, #blm, #america, #socialjustice

Dissonance The Play

Buying a house is taxing enough without Mom's more-than-friendly input. A hilarious family comedy!

Website

David MacGregor's "New Year's Eve" takes us to a bittersweet and funny annual event at a assisted living facility. One hard-working, well-meaning aide (Sylvie Yntema) meets one really cranky patient (Milo Bohack). And an interview with the playwright.

Interview: character development

Playwright/teacher; actor/producer/teacher/voice coach. This month's Onstage/Offstage guests Lauren Singerman and Dano Madden talk about their new web series, "Precious Cargo"! And you thought tutoring was easy? We also discuss producing, directing one's own work, and voice coaching. Its a fun one--tune in! 

danomadden.com / laurensingerman.com / preciouscargowebseries.com

Playwright/producer, actors. Turns out Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had a sister who was an outstanding and well-known talent at the harpsichord and, from the sparse evidence, an able composer as well. Sylvia Milo found this historical omission an unforgivable lapse and decided to let audiences know all about Maria Anna "Nannerl" Mozart. She wrote "The Other Mozart," which stars herself and Jody Christopherson (as well as other actors in rep). 

theothermozart.com / sylviamilo.com / jodychristopherson.wixsite.com

Artistic director, producer. Sam's been around: New York City, Portland Stage, Ithaca, NY. We talk about starting up a new theatre company, building a whole new space to go with it, theatre from non-U.S. sources, the fun and intericacies of translations, and much more.

thecherry.org / buggeln.net

A short play about taking a leap of faith by New Zealander Rex McGregor.

Website

Playwright. We read Atlanta playwright Nedra Pezold Roberts' play "Catatonic," and talk playwright shop with the author.

Website

Producer, teacher. Producer extraordinaire Earl Hughes has been working shows on Off-Broadway, taking Shirley MacLaine and Ann-Margret around the world and discusses what it's like to bring a show to Vegas. Think you have what it takes to be a world-class stage manager? Find out here!

"Underground Episodes" is a series of performance pieces about urban African-American life as it crosses paths on the Philadelphia subway. e talk with the author, Allen Clark (and one of the many performers, Kylia Brooke) about the genesis, interpretation, and style of the show as well as how the performers find their way to each character.

Facebook

Vaudeville Extraordinaire! Vaudeville is alive and thriving in western New York State! Ted Baumhauer, Rich Hughson, and Ward Hartenstein talk about keeping physical comedy fresh and surprising, and how working together utilizes all three of their various strengths.

Website

#vaudeville,#flowercityvaudeville,#syracuseny

Dionne Lea is a Broadway World award nominated actor, singer, producer. She does improv, variety shows, theater, commercials, television, voice-over, film and is currently bringing her show "The Way It Is...Now," an evening of stories and musical numbers, around the united states to enthusiastic audiences. We have a great chat about so many different things--come tune us in!

IMDB  |  Dionne Lea  |  Podcast: The Way I Am Now

Supervisor of Audience Services, Department of Theatre Arts, Ithaca College (Former). How to revitalize a comatose economy with the arts, get experience and education in theatre arts management, and how much we love Ireland!

Playwright/Lawyer/Journalist. She's the author of a fact-based play about the 1998 Kansas City explosion that killed six firefighters. And an outspoken expert, multi-book author, and columnist on diversity.

Website

Playwright/Teacher. Much-produced playwright Daniel Guyton talks about working the submission system, his writing process, and teaching a whole new generation of theatre enthusiasts.

Website

A call from a past changes everything. A short play by David Nicholson and an interview where we discuss the art of play translating.

Playwright/Country music singer/songwriter. Breakups are bad enough, but who gets the bar? A short play by Judy Klass and an interview where we discuss playwriting, country music, and Latin American politics.

Website

Playwright, Earth's funniest mathematician. Creating plays with logic and math, and standardizing submission procedures.

Website

Playwright. Sci-fi, Roving Readings, Popes who may not have existed, feminism, and my favorite fiction book.

Playwright. Elvis, snickerdoodles, starvation, logarithms. Oh, and a breakup.

Playwright. Just when you thought you'd left high school behind you.

Producers - Leela Festival, NYC. Producers of one of New York City's newest play festivals - a festival that ignores casting to type and concentrates on matching the best actor to the emotional content of the parts regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, or size.

Ekaterina Wagner is a playwright, art critic, and editor based in Moscow, Russia. Her articles appeared in Robb Report, ELLE and other media outlets in Russia, Ukraine, and India. She worked as an editor and deputy editor-in-chief of several international publications in Russia, including ELLE Decoration, Harper’s Bazaar Art, and The Art Newspaper. She is currently a deputy editor-in-chief of Art Focus Now, an English-language website on contemporary art in Russia and its neighboring countries.

Playwright/screenwriter/producer. Imagine heading up a theatre group that creates and sponsors 365 plays about notable women. Every YEAR. Gina Scanlon and her partner in crime Jess Eisenberg (not interviewed here) have done exactly that.

Lighting/Scenery Designer. A glimpse inside the tech world of a lighting and scenery designer. Tyler talks about creating the physically visual world of plays and some of the newest technical software (Read: the fun stuff!).

Artistic Director/Managing Director, Hangar Theatre. Jen Waldman, Artistic Director, and Josh Friedman, Managing Director of Ithaca, NY's Hangar Theatre, in the first part of a two-part interview, discuss play selection, working with young theatre students, marketing, and the makeup of current audiences (Hint: It's not solely for older folks).

#hangartheatre

www.hangartheatre.org

Playwright. Award-winning Canadian playwright Katherine Koller writes about important social issues including mining, healthcare, and the police civilian relationship.

Playwrights/composers/actors. Playwrights, composers, actors, Katie Hartmann and Nick Ryan have concocted musical plays combining humor, horror, history, and catchy tunes.

www.thecoldharts.com

#thecoldharts,#macabre,#edgarallanpoe,#edgarallan

Sound designer/composer. Composer and sound designer, Scott O'Brien finds his theatrical challenges in "solving problems" with his musical creations, including how to score a shark.

Actor/producer/director. Dennis Dore tackles the 100-year anniversary of The Spoon River Anthology.

Playwright and Official Playwrights of Facebook guru, Dusty, in addition to creating his own theatrical works, provides generous assistance to his fellow creative types with monthly lists of submission opportunities.

Artistic director of Binghamton, NY's Know Theater Tim Gleason talks about maintaining a community-based theater, Tennessee Williams, and keeping alive the spirits of adventure and experimental works.

Two single people trapped in a speed dating cafe.  What to do??

Welcome to 2024! Jan Carpman and Mary Ann Nichols Hubbard are the movers and shakers behind Playzoomers, an online theatre company founded in 2020. They present 20 live online plays per year on Zoom - from full-length plays to multiple short plays – featuring professional theatre artists. As of this broadcast they will have produced and aired over 100 plays.

Playzoomers  |  Instagram

Playwright, Dramatists Guild representative, cruciverbalist. 

Teacher/actor/director Craig MacDonald discusses his new scene study class, script analysis, Meisner technique, and what it takes to get into character.

Playwright, Dramatists Guild representative, and cruciverbalist Donna Hoke talks about her work, reviews, the process of writing, and how crossword puzzles are made.

The Civic Ensemble specializes in community based plays, works in which interviews or story circles are held, voices are heard, and plays are constructed from what's culled. We talked with Sarah Chalmers Simmons and Godfrey Simmons about this particular process.

We talk with director Amina Omari, assistant director Paige Anderson and actors Judith Andrew and Camilla Schade about what it was like literally stepping into a traditional man's role. (And what it was like having weapons and committing murders onstage!)

The second of our 2014 Halloween play readings, OSOS presents Arthur M. Jolly's “Zombified.”

Our first 2014 Halloween play reading, OSOS presents Diana Lee Woody's  “House Rules.” 

In the 1960s Sue Perlgut had been part of a troupe called It's All Right to be Woman Theatre, which daringly told the stories of women across America, and included lesbianism, a subject that had rarely been talked about in public before.

Playwright/dramaturg/teacher. Lindsay Price has written dozens of plays for middle school and high school students. She also teaches and has her own publishing company.

Playwright/film producer. We talked about his new film, January, which was an adaptation of a section of a play he'd written some time back, called Months On End. OSOS wanted to know what changes may have had to have been made in order to bring the story from one medium to another.

Anne is a true gift to the theatre community. Since 2015 she's run The Depot, a production company featuring Zoom play readings. We talk about teaching, her life in theatre, her writing, and the Coast Guard!

https://www.thedepot.space

#theatre #drama #teaching #writer #thedepot #coastguard #zoom

Ithaca, NY's Kitchen Theatre artistic director discusses play selection, keeping a theatre filled, and the balancing act of writing her own plays and keeping the Kitchen Theatre image.

Actor/director/producer. Film vs theatre; working at Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska; play development.

Who moves across the country to start a theatre group? Rachel Hockett and Arthur Bicknell do.