Explore every episode of the podcast 101 Stage Adaptations
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Join us a the Bramble Arts Loft!
04 Apr 2024
00:01:24
Bramble Theatre Company is thrilled to open the Bramble Arts Loft, a brand new peformance space in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood.
National Playwriting Month is approaching, and that means it's time for End of Play.®, the Dramatists Guild's annual month-long writing challenge for Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists, and Librettists! This is a segment of the End of Play.® interview Melissa had last year with Lily Dwoskin and Jordan Stovall from the Dramatists Guild.
About Our Guests Lily Dwoskin is a bookwriter, lyricist, & playwright based in New York. She is a graduate of NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Her bookwriter/lyricist credits include Off Broadway: Turtle On A Fencepost at Theater 555 & The Scarlet Savior at St. Luke's Theatre. Other credits include: Hyena in Petticoats and The Aviatrix. Originally, Lily is from the greater Philadelphia region. Lily's work has been performed at St. Luke's, The Laurie Beechman Theatre, The Greenroom 42, Hedgerow Theatre Company, various universities and more. Lily works for & is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America and has worked as a director, dramaturg, teaching artist & stage manager.
Jordan Stovall is a playwright, arts administrator, & drag artist known as Wanda Whatever. They presently serve as the Director of Outreach & Institutional Partnerships for the Dramatists Guild, where they have worked since 2016. Their plays have been shortlisted & selected as Finalists for the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Festival and Relentless Award, with productions in London and the US. As a drag artist, they are the founding producer of Time Out London Award-Nominated cabaret Boulangerie; and Fussy, a series of queer community gatherings. They can be seen on Pistol and Meet the Richardsons. They have performed in Bushwig Berlin & NYC, Sink the Pink, Clapham Grand, Royal Vauxhall Tavern, & other notable venues across London, NYC, & the US.
Disney's BEAUTY & THE BEAST with Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Ep. 56)
11 Jan 2024
01:22:20
For another installment of "When the Production is the Adaptation," Melissa is joined by Marcia Milgrom Dodge aka "MMD" to discuss her production and revival of Disney's Beauty and the Beast at the Olney Theatre Center.
In this episode, we discuss:
The origins of the "MMD" moniker
"Smuggling in deeper meaning"
Redesigning and imagining a Disney-branded show
How MMD has been a constant champion of diverse casting
About Our Guest Marcia Milgrom Dodge is a Tony, Drama Desk & Astaire Award nominated director & choreographer for her “stirring & lovingly staged” Broadway/Kennedy Center revival of Ragtime. Most recently, MMD was the American Show Director for Tokyo Disneyland’s 40th Anniversary Parade Harmony In Color! For Television, MMD appeared as herself in Disney+ Encore!; choreographed The Muppets in an Emmy-winning episode of Sesame Street and choreographed Elmo & The Noodle Family in Elmo’s Wild West video, delighting children of all ages. MMD’s bold new approaches to classic plays & musicals-- plus a few world-premiere musicals-- have been seen worldwide, from major regional theatres throughout the USA & Canada to Fredericia, Denmark to Seoul, S. Korea to Blackpool, England and even Muskat, Oman. Devoted to developing the next generation of theatre artists, her Directing Musicals workshops are geared for early-career Directors and Actors as well as for Theatre Lovers. MMD is also wife to Tony, mother to Natasha & a proud member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society.
In this episode, Melissa guides listeners through a comprehensive goal-setting strategy for playwrights and theatre makers so they can plan for a successful 2024, however they chose to define it.
In this episode, Melissa guides listeners through an end-of-year self-inventory and reflection which will help set the stage for a 2024 goal-setting session.
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19 - A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Lavina Jadhwani (Ep. 53)
19 Dec 2023
01:21:29
Christmas came early this year! We are dropping this episode a few days ahead of schedule to commemorate the 180th anniversary of the release of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
The multi-talented Lavina Jadhwani stops by to discuss her adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which was first produced when her script was discovered on New Play Exchange.
In this episode, we discuss:
Adapting a well-known story for the stage, making it unique, and being faithful to the original text
Lavina's approach to adapting for the stage
How surviving cancer gave her a different perspective of her work
the Bollywood film list Lavina curated for Melissa on the spot
About Our Guest Lavina Jadhwani is a Chicago-based director, playwright, and activist. Directing credits include Guthrie Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, PlayMakers Rep, the Rep of St. Louis, Asolo Rep, Mixed Blood, the Neo-Futurists, the Gift, Teatro Vista, Silk Road Rising, and Rasaka Theatre Company, where she served as Artistic Director for seven years. As a playwright, her work has been seen at the Guthrie, the Goodman, the Gift, East West Players, Cincinnati Shakes, and Indianapolis Shakes, and more. Lavina serves on the boards of the National New Play Network and the Chicago Inclusion Project. She is a proud cancer survivor, dog mom, and child of immigrants. She got her BFA/MA at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and her MFA at The Theatre School at DePaul University.
This week Hollywood screenwriter Greg Taylor stops by the show! Greg wrote the scripts for the 90s kids' classics, Harriet the Spy and Jumanji, as well as one of Melissa's favorite holiday films, Prancer, which Greg later adapted for the stage.
In this episode, we discuss:
How the late great Cloris Leachman influenced Greg's script
The reindeer in the film vs the stage play
How screenwriters and playwrights are treated differently
Adapting novels to screenplays and screenplays to stage plays
***We have a gift for 101 Stage Adaptations listeners! Download a FREE PDF perusal copy of Prancer here using the discount code is 101Prancer. Valid until December 1, 2024 and only valid on Prancer.***
About Our Guest Greg Taylor was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a screenwriter, author and playwright. His screenwriting credits include Prancer, Jumanji, and Harriet the Spy.
Greg is married, with two children, Jessica and Ian, and two grandchildren. From the time he and his wife, Joanne, had their first child, Greg has concentrated on writing stories for families, children and young adults.
For his adaptation of the stage version of Prancer, which premiered at the Rose Children’s Theater in Omaha, Nebraska, in 2016, Greg received the Omaha Theater Arts Guild award for Outstanding New Script. Since Prancer’s premiere and initial run, the play has been performed at community theaters throughout the US.
About Our Guests Michael Dailey has been a Strawdog company member since 1997. He has appeared as an actor in 24 Strawdog productions. Writing credits include three radio plays presented as part of Radio Theatre 7, co-writer on the late-night series The Adventures of Picklebot and Lawfer and script editor for Strawdog’s productions of 1001 Afternoons in Chicago, Julius Caesar and Measure for Measure. As an actor, he’s enjoyed working around town with Lyric Opera, Stage Left, Steppenwolf, About Face, Shattered Globe, Eclipse and Writer’s Theatre, to name a few. He’s a proud graduate of Illinois State University, the Second City Conservatory and was a Steppenwolf Acting Fellowship recipient.
Jacob Combs is a writer, director, and composer based in Los Angeles. Most recently, he was part of the writers room for the Netflix comedy BLOCKBUSTER, and he is currently developing several TV projects with showrunners Vanessa Ramos and Jackie Clarke. Previously, Jacob spent a 6-year stint at Pixar Animation Studios in a variety of writing, development and production roles. He wrote on an untitled feature in development at Pixar and was part of the writers’ room for an upcoming, original episodic series. He also wrote several episodes of the Emmy-nominated Disney+ documentary series Inside Pixar. A lifelong theater nerd, Jacob wrote the music & lyrics for Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (based on the beloved children’s book by Eric Kimmel), which has been produced annually since 2018 by Chicago’s Strawdog Theatre. Follow Jacob on Instagram.
Kate Hamill stops by the show to talk about Dracula, one of her many stage adpatations. This conversation is a full meal on taking risks, making writing fun, advocacy, and feminism.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Kate became a playwright on a bet with her friend
The dramatic question she crafted for Dracula and some of her other works
Intentionally writing fun characters and feminist plays
Advocacy, unions, and surviving toxic behavior in the industry
And more!
Resources Mentioned Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really Dracula is playing through December 24, 2023 at Portland Center Stage About Our Guest Kate Hamill is an actor/playwright and she was the 2017 Wall Street Journal Playwright of the Year. Her work includes her play Pride & Prejudice, at Primary Stages / HVSF, Sense & Sensibility at Bedlam; Vanity Fair at the Pearl Theatre, Mansfield Park at Northlight , Little Women at Primary Stages and the Jungle Theatre, Dracula at Classic Stage Company, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B at Kansas City Rep, Emma at the Guthrie, and The Scarlet Letter. Her plays have been produced off-Broadway, atA.R.T., the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, PlayMaker’s, Folger, OSF, TrinityRep, Pittsburgh Public, Dorset Theatre Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Dallas Theater Center, Kansas City Rep, Long Wharf, A.C.T., Actors Theater of Louisville, & others.Her play The Little Fellow (or: The Queen of Tarts Tells All) is currently at the Cygnet Theater, and Emma at the Denver Center next year. She is currentlydeveloping a new adaptation of The Odyssey, a Christmas play called Scrooge for Senate; and several original plays including The Piper and The Light and The Dark. Kate has been one of the most-produced playwrights nationwide every season from 2017-2023.
Part 2: The Playwrights' Center with Hannah Joyce & Alayna Jacqueline (Ep. 48)
16 Nov 2023
00:42:44
This week is the conclusion of the interview with Alayna Jacqueline & Hannah Joyce from the Playwrights' Center, who offer so much wisdom and practical advice for playwrights.
About Our Guests Hannah Joyce is the Director of Membership and education programs at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. From 2017 to 2022 she was also the producing artistic director of the William Inge Theater Festival in Kansas. Hannah has developed the new work of some the country’s finest playwrights over the past two decades and had the joy of celebrating visionary American playwrights. Through her work she has produced countless new play development workshops with playwrights from across the country, and worked with hundreds of theater artists in support of those plays. Originally from St. Louis, Hannah has worked and performed with a number of theater companies throughout the Midwest, including the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Company, That Uppity Theater Company, Daleko Arts, and Prison Performing Arts.
Alayna Jacqueline is a Minneapolis-based playwright, dramaturg, and educator born and raised in Buckeye Nation. She’s an instigator for new plays with the Twin Cities Playwright Cabal. In her absurd experimental writing, she loves finding new ways to bend, reshape, and deconstruct stories for the stage. Her writing weaves between themes of identity, mental health, women’s relationships, privilege, and the corruption of power. Alayna’s work has been performed and/or developed at Theater Mu, Phoenix Theater, Market Garden Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, Playwrights’ Center, MadLab Theater, Lincoln Theater, Pythian Theater, and Haybarn Theater. Her play ALL OF THE EVERYTHING was produced at the 2019 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival.
The Playwrights' Center with Hannah Joyce & Alayna Jacqueline (Ep. 47)
09 Nov 2023
00:44:44
This week is Part 1 of 2 where Melissa interviews fellow theatre artists/arts administrators/podcasters Alayna Jacqueline & Hannah Joyce from the Playwrights' Center.
In this episode, we discuss:
The Playwrights' Center and its many programs and offerings
Who can become a member
What the PWC has coming up in the near future
The excitement of working with big name playwrights
About Our Guests Hannah Joyce is the Director of Membership and education programs at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. From 2017 to 2022 she was also the producing artistic director of the William Inge Theater Festival in Kansas. Hannah has developed the new work of some the country’s finest playwrights over the past two decades and had the joy of celebrating visionary American playwrights. Through her work she has produced countless new play development workshops with playwrights from across the country, and worked with hundreds of theater artists in support of those plays. Originally from St. Louis, Hannah has worked and performed with a number of theater companies throughout the Midwest, including the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Company, That Uppity Theater Company, Daleko Arts, and Prison Performing Arts.
Alayna Jacqueline is a Minneapolis-based playwright, dramaturg, and educator born and raised in Buckeye Nation. She’s an instigator for new plays with the Twin Cities Playwright Cabal. In her absurd experimental writing, she loves finding new ways to bend, reshape, and deconstruct stories for the stage. Her writing weaves between themes of identity, mental health, women’s relationships, privilege, and the corruption of power. Alayna’s work has been performed and/or developed at Theater Mu, Phoenix Theater, Market Garden Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, Playwrights’ Center, MadLab Theater, Lincoln Theater, Pythian Theater, and Haybarn Theater. Her play ALL OF THE EVERYTHING was produced at the 2019 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival.
Melissa was elated to chat with Lauren Gunderson about her brand new musical adaptation of The Time Traveller's Wife, which just premiered on London's West End. Lauren wrote the book, & the music & lyrics are by Dave Stewart & Joss Stone.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Lauren got the gig to adapt her favorite book of all time
About Our Guest Lauren Gunderson is one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015 topping the list thrice. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I and You and The Book of Will; the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award, The Jeff Award for New Plays, and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award; and a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Arthur L. Weissberger Award, and John Gassner Award for Playwriting. Revolutionary Women, her new anthology of five plays, is published by Bloomsbury along with I and You, The Catastrophist and anthropology, which recently premiered at Hampstead Theatre. She co-authored the popular Miss Bennet trilogy with Margot Melcon. The Half-Life of Marie Curie was commissioned by Audible Theatre, premiered off-Broadway and can be heard at Audible.com. She just finished her first novel, The Fervor Witch, and will soon premiere several new musicals including Sinister, I and You: A Musical, and Built for This, as well as another musicals with Dave Stewart.
Stage Combat: A Mental Health Story by Sean Hayden (Ep. 45)
26 Oct 2023
01:23:07
Melissa was thrilled to speak with fellow theatre podcaster Sean Hayden. If you are not familiar with his podcast, Stage Combat: A Mental Health Story, it is one of the most important theatre podcasts out there. And if you have listened his podcast, and you're not caught up, be warned that this conversation contains spoilers.
In this episode, we discuss:
Sean's groundbreaking podcast, Stage Combat, that is changing the theatre industry for the better
His process for crafting this complex, multi-layered story
How being an attorney encouraged him bring his mental health story to the public
What he wants theatre management to do when it comes to employee and artist mental health
Sean Hayden is the CEO of Haywood Productions, LLC. As a professional actor, Sean has appeared in two Broadway national tours and in plays and musicals in theaters across the country. He is a proud union member of Actors' Equity Association. He is currently working with theatre departments in higher education institutions to better support the mental health of their students. As a mental health advocate, Sean has provided thought leadership on how employers can better support the mental health of their employees. His op-ed on “Men and Mental Health” appeared in The Economic Times. Sean is also a licensed attorney who has his own law practice is Manhattan. Sean resides in New York City and upstate New York with his husband, a screenwriter.
The delightful Sandy Rustin drops by the podcast to discuss her adaptation of Clue, which is the most-produced play in high schools for many years running. On the way to discovering Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Wrench, Melissa discovers Sandy's place in soap opera history and their mutual love of cooking.
In this episode, we discuss:
How she became the adaptor for Clue
Acquiring dramatic rights and music rights to Clue and Mystic Pizza
Her approach and tips for writing adaptations
How her play Houston has suddenly become more relevant
Sandy Rustin is a Broadway playwright and actress. One of the most produced playwrights in America, Sandy’s adaptation of the film CLUE has enjoyed over 3,500 productions worldwide. Her musical adaptation of MGM’s MYSTIC PIZZA will premiere at La Mirada Playhouse in 2024. Sandy wrote concert adaptations of I MARRIED AN ANGEL and DEAR WORLD for NYCity Center Encores! Her comedy, THE SUFFRAGETTE’S MURDER, will premiere in 2025 at the Denver Center for Performing Arts. Her play, HOUSTON (recipient of the New American Musical Award), is in development with Grammy winner Edie Brickell. Other theatrical works include RATED P … FOR PARENTHOOD, ELIJAH, STRUCK, AMERICAN GIRL LIVE, and others. A Northwestern University graduate, Sandy is a member of ASCAP, SAG, AEA, and The Dramatists Guild and is represented by A3 Artists Agency. She serves on the Advisory Board of NYU’s Camp Kesem chapter. She lives in Maplewood, NJ with her husband and two sons.
13 - HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL by Michael Susko (Ep. 43)
12 Oct 2023
01:13:35
Melissa Schmitz chats with the very talented Michael Susko this week about his world premiere production—which happens to be his first adaptation—and also a story that he's loved for most of his life, House on Haunted Hill.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Michael "got" the dramatic rights to the original film
The changes and updates he made to this adaptation
How a séance show at the Edinburgh Fringe influenced Michael's writing
Current trends in playwriting and our hot takes on them
In NYC, Michael Susko's work as writer and director has been seen at Off-Broadway's THE BIGOT, CROSSING OVER, F*CK, MARRY, KILL - New York Theater Festival, Midtown International Fringe Festival, Alternative Theatre Company, Network Theatre Company, Equity Library Theatre and The New Short Play Festival (Artistic Director). Also, Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, Theatre Under the Stars, Casa Manana, Cider Mill Playhouse, Theatre by the Sea, PaperMill Theatre, Westchester Broadway, Arizona Broadway, Arkansas Repertory, and twelve years as resident director of the New Bedford Festival Theatre where he helmed a variety of musicals, including their Moss Hart Award winning productions of HAIRSPRAY and LES MISERABLES.
As a performer, Michael has been seen in several Broadway national tours, European tours, and countless regional appearances including stints at The Goodspeed Opera House, Paper Mill Playhouse, Walnut Street Theatre, Bristol Riverside, Ogunquit Playhouse, Sacramento Music Circus, Pittsburgh CLO, and Stages St. Louis. Also, many film, television shows and commercials.
As an educator, Michael taught theatre at Chadron State College in Nebraska and served as head of the theatre program at Southern Arkansas University. He teaches playwriting at ATC Studios in Clifton, NJ. MFA i
12 - DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Jeffrey Hatcher (Ep. 42)
05 Oct 2023
00:47:15
Acclaimed writer of stage and screen Jeffrey Hatcher stops by to discuss his adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Melissa recounts the spooky experience she had after seeing the show.
In this episode, we discuss:
How he was commissioned to adapt one of the most-adapted stories of all time
Why he thinks adaptors should bring something new to the story
Why Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde still intrigues and thrills us today
The various times he was on set when A-list stars acted in the films he wrote!
Jeffrey Hatcher’s plays have been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theaters in the United States and around the world. His original plays and adaptations include Three Viewings, Scotland Road, Compleat Female Stage Beauty, A Picasso,The Government Inspector, The Alchemist,Scotland Road, The Turn of the Screw, Tuesdays with Morrie (with Mitch Albom), Mrs. Mannerly, Murderers, Cousin Bette, Smash, Dial M for Murder, Key Largo (with Andy Garcia), Holmes and Watson, A Confederacy of Dunces and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His film and television work include Stage Beauty, Casanova, The Duchess, Mr. Holmes, The Good Liar and episodes of Columbo and The Mentalist. He has won numerous grants, awards and fellowships.
This week Melissa welcomes fellow theatre marketer Julie Nemitz to the show to talk about how playwrights can initiate & improve their marketing strategy.
In this episode, we discuss:
Why having an online presence is essential for getting your plays produced
What a content strategy is and looks like for playwrights
About Our Guest Julie Nemitz is a renowned theatre marketing leader & the force behind Theatre Marketing Lab and the popular podcast "In The Greenroom" where she offers insightful conversations with theatre leaders and actionable marketing advice. She has taken the theatre world by storm, attracting listeners globally, & reached the top #140 performing arts podcasts in the United States. For the past 10 years, Julie has revolutionized how theatres & theatre artists attract audiences through innovative strategies & compelling content. She is passionate about ensuring every community has a thriving performance space, regardless of size. Known for her infectious enthusiasm & deep knowledge of the latest digital marketing trends, Julie helps theatremakers uplevel their strategies and content through personalized consultations, coaching, & classes in the Theatre Marketing Lab. She has a special gift for analyzing what's not working and designing customized solutions to sell more tickets and deepen audience loyalty. Countless clients have experienced record-breaking sales under her guidance. When she's not busy transforming local theatres, you can find Julie rolling up her sleeves & guiding theatre artists into the digital age. Julie is also an adjunct faculty member at Western Michigan University, teaching performing arts marketing to the next generation of theatre artists. julienemitz.com| FB| IG
New Play Exchange Basics with Nan Barnett (Ep. 39)
14 Sep 2023
00:35:59
Inspired by a post in a playwriting group on Facebook, Melissa replays part of her previous conversation with Nan Barnett when they cover New Play Exchange (NPX).
In this episode, we discuss:
What NPX is and how this program got started
Who it's for and how to use it (Hint: anyone who writes plays and reads plays!)
What playwrights can expect from putting their work on NPX
Nan Barnett is a new play developer and producer and an advocate for theater-makers and the theater they make. She is the Executive Director of National New Play Network, the country’s alliance of theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays. While on NNPN’s Executive Committee she worked to create the organization’s revolutionary Rolling World Premiere and Residency programs. She came to the Network full-time in 2013 and guided it through the development and launch of its field-altering database, the New Play Exchange ®, now home to more than 53,000 plays by living writers, and its recent planning process, which resulted in the organization’s much-lauded new governance and membership structure and plan for leading the field towards a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive new play ecosystem. Nan spent 24 seasons at Florida Stage, a LORT theater producing exclusively new and developing work, was a member of the inaugural Helen Hayes Awards’ New Play Panel for the nation’s capital region and Coordinating Producer for the 2015 and 2018 iterations of DC’s Women’s Voices Theater Festival. She serves on the Artistic Council of the O’Neill Theater Center and was inducted into the National Theatre Conference in 2017.
About Our Guest Julie Nemitz is a renowned theatre marketing leader & the force behind Theatre Marketing Lab and the popular podcast "In The Greenroom" where she offers insightful conversations with theatre leaders and actionable marketing advice. She has taken the theatre world by storm, attracting listeners globally, & reached the top #140 performing arts podcasts in the United States.
For the past 10 years, Julie has revolutionized how theatres & theatre artists attract audiences through innovative strategies & compelling content. She is passionate about ensuring every community has a thriving performance space, regardless of size. Known for her infectious enthusiasm & deep knowledge of the latest digital marketing trends, Julie helps theatremakers uplevel their strategies and content through personalized consultations, coaching, & classes in the Theatre Marketing Lab. She has a special gift for analyzing what's not working and designing customized solutions to sell more tickets and deepen audience loyalty. Countless clients have experienced record-breaking sales under her guidance.
When she's not busy transforming local theatres, you can find Julie rolling up her sleeves & guiding theatre artists into the digital age. Julie is also an adjunct faculty member at Western Michigan University, teaching performing arts marketing to the next generation of theatre artists. julienemitz.com Follow Julie on FB and IG
Playwright Submission Binge with Patrick Gabridge (Ep. 37)
31 Aug 2023
00:28:16
September is one day away, and that means it's time once again for the Playwright Submission Binge! Melissa chats with playwright and producer Patrick Gabridge about this twice annual event where playwrights gather in an online community to share submission opportunities with each other and support one another during the intense month of marketing.
This interview is part of a larger conversation from Ep. 18 called Playwright Marketing with Patrick Gabridge. Listen to that episode here.
In this episode, we discuss:
What the Playwright Submission Binge is and how it got started
What he's learned from leading the Submission Binge for years
Patrick Gabridge is an award-winning writer and theatre-maker who has written a number of adaptations and also has a special talent for creating site-specific plays. With his company, Plays in Place, he’s created plays in partnership with many museums and historic sites, including Mount Auburn Cemetery, Boston’s Old State House, the Roosevelt Cottage on Campobello Island, and the MIT Museum. His full-length plays have been produced in the US and South Korea, and his short plays and have received more than 1,000 productions from theatres and schools around the world (16 countries so far). He’s been involved with helping playwrights market their work for many years—he started the publication Market InSight for Playwrights back in 1993, and founded and still runs the Playwright Submission Binge, an online community focused on marketing. He’s also a screenwriter, novelist, and a writer of audio plays. In his spare time, he likes to farm and garden and fix up old houses.
Theatre & Advocacy with Emmanuel Wilson, Part 2 (Ep. 36)
24 Aug 2023
00:47:53
Emmanuel Wilson continues his conversation with Melissa. (Listen to Part 1 here.) This is a gold mine of advice for theatre administrators and artists. Find your notebook and get ready to take notes!
In this episode, we discuss:
What the current writers strike can teach playwrights about their own work
Emmanuel's ideas on how to save theatre - Yes, we're going there!
What theatres get wrong about marketing and what we need to do instead
What playwrights can do when they're stuck in Development Hell
Emmanuel Wilson currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Creative Affairs and Membership at the Dramatists Guild of America. He manages member service and programming for America's professional playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists. Emmanuel also oversees the Guild's industry outreach, strategy, and communications. He developed new strategic partnerships with PlayPenn, Blackboard Plays, EdTA, TCG, 24 Hours Plays, and more. Emmanuel also created the Guild's Young Dramatists Initiative. More recently, his youth theater experience has propelled the Guild's support of the Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence campaign, a national playwrighting competition for young writers.
A playwright, producer, and lifelong resident of New York City, Emmanuel founded The Blue Rose Stage Company at age 18, serving as its Artistic Director for six years. In 2003, he was selected as a New Generations Future Leader by Theater Communications Group, a multi-year fellowship supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He is the proud parent of Faith and Imani Wilson.
Connect with Our Guest Follow the Dramatists Guild on Facebook Follow the Dramatists Guild on
Theatre & Advocacy with Emmanuel Wilson, Part 1 (Ep. 35)
17 Aug 2023
00:41:56
Melissa Schmitz is joined by the one and only Emmanuel Wilson from the Dramatists Guild in a two-episode conversation. Emmanuel drops so much wisdom around theatre and advocacy for playwrights and theatremakers. Take notes, and enjoy the background sounds of Times Square.
In this episode, we discuss:
The play that transformed him and gave him clarity on his career in theatre
Why the Dramatists Guild is a vital resource for playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists
About Our Guest Emmanuel Wilson currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Creative Affairs and Membership at the Dramatists Guild of America. He manages member service and programming for America's professional playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists. Emmanuel also oversees the Guild's industry outreach, strategy, and communications. He developed new strategic partnerships with PlayPenn, Blackboard Plays, EdTA, TCG, 24 Hours Plays, and more. Emmanuel also created the Guild's Young Dramatists Initiative. More recently, his youth theater experience has propelled the Guild's support of the Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence campaign, a national playwrighting competition for young writers.
A playwright, producer, and lifelong resident of New York City, Emmanuel founded The Blue Rose Stage Company at age 18, serving as its Artistic Director for six years. In 2003, he was selected as a New Generations Future Leader by Theater Communications Group, a multi-year fellowship supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He is the proud parent of Faith and Imani Wilson.
Follow the Dramatists Guild on Facebook Follow the Dramatists Guild on Twitter Follow the Dramatists Guild on Instagram
Melissa was thrilled to chat with Karen Zacarías about her world premiere adaptation of Shane, based on the novel by Jack Schaefer, which is now playing (in August 2023) at the Guthrie Theater.
In this episode, we discuss:
How this co-commission and co-production came to be
The challenges of adapting a Western for the stage
Creating a more complete and accurate picture of the American West
KAREN ZACARÍAS was recently hailed by American Theater Magazine as one of the most produced playwrights in the US. Her plays include The Copper Children, Destiny of Desire, Native Gardens, The Book Club Play, Legacy of Light, Mariela in the Desert, The Sins of Sor Juana, and the adaptations of Just Like Us, The Age of Innocence, Into the Beautiful North, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent and a bilingual Romeo y Juliet. She has been produced at The Kennedy Center, The Goodman, The Guthrie, Arena Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, GALA Hispanic Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse, Old Globe, The Alliance Theater, Repertorio Español, The Latino Theater Company, Milagro Theater, and many more. She is the author of ten renowned TYA musicals and the librettist of several Ballets. She is one of the inaugural resident playwrights at Arena Stage, a core founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons- a large national organization of artists seeking to update the American narrative with Latinx stories-, and she is the founder of the award-winning Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT), noted as one of the best arts educational programs by the Obama White House. Karen was voted a 2019 Washingtonian of the Year for her arts advocacy by Washingtonian Magazine. She was awarded the 2019 Sine Fellowship at the American University School of Public Policy for connecting art with policy making. She is a recipient of 2019 Lee-Reynolds-Award for “social, cultural, or political change with theater” awarded by the League of Professio
Bonus Episode! Theatrical Shenanigans: "The Panel Presents" Episode 2
05 Aug 2023
00:52:59
Special drop from Theatrical Shenanigans podcast hosted by Rachel Feeny-Williams.
Theatrical Shenanigans brings you the second episode of "The Panel Presents." Four amazing panelists John Patrick Bray, Jacquelyn Priskorn, Tony Vale & Melissa Schmitz, led by Rachel Feeny-Williams discuss topical questions relating to the world of theatre!
Tune in to all of other Theatrical Shenanigans episodes on:
Rachel Feeny-Williams is a playwright based in Exeter, UK. She has been writing, self-producing and selling plays for just over ten years, following the completion of her degree in Creative and Performing Arts. Over the past ten years, her work has been produced many times in her local area of Devon, as well as nationally and internationally, both live and virtually. In 2021, her piece Believe Me; also won an award for “Best Original Script” in a One Act Play Festival.
Melissa reveals 5 resources playwrights need to know to make their job easier and more fun. These resources include both paid products and free opportunities.
Playwright PSA: Playwrights Welcome Program (Ep. 32)
27 Jul 2023
00:13:02
Melissa breaks down one of the best perks about being a Dramatists Guild member: the free theatre tickets you can get through the Playwrights Welcome program.
In this episode, we discuss:
What the Playwrights Welcome program is and how it works
Achievement unlocked! In this shorty episode, Melissa reveals the major milestone the pocast has passed and offers many thanks to all the listeners to helped make it possible. She even names a few.
World Premiere Wisconsin with Michael Cotey (Ep. 30)
01 Jun 2023
01:35:01
This week Melissa talks with fellow Wisconsinite Michael Cotey about World Premiere Wisconsin, a first-of-its-kind state-wide festival of new plays and musicals.
*The festival currently runs through June 2023, but stay tuned for more on this great project.
In this episode, we discuss:
What World Premiere Wisconsin is and how it started
Where Wisconsin stands in terms of state funding for the arts
What Michael has learned from producing a state-wide theatre festival
Michael's company ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence
Why he thinks college Theatre minors should be mandatory
Ten Chimneys 2 previous podcast guests are mentioned in this episode! Listen to our interview with Mary Zimmerman here and our two interviews with Nan Barnett here and here.
About Our Guest
Michael Cotey is a producer and director based out of Chicago, but was born and raised in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is the creator and Joaquin Oliver Artistic Producer behind ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence, a nationwide playwriting initiative that calls on teens to write short plays that confront gun violence. Now in its third year, ENOUGH! has received more than 500 plays, unfolded in over 100 communities involving more than 2,000 artists and reaching nearly 10,000 audience members, and has been featured on PBS NewsHour, NPR, and the BBC. He is also the festival producer for World Premiere Wisconsin, an inaugural and first-of-its-kind statewide new work festival. In addition to directing regionally, Michael has directed in Wisconsin at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Next Act, First Stage, Third Avenue PlayWorks, UW-Madison, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. From 2009-2013 he was the Founding Artistic Director of Youngblood Theatre in Milwaukee, regularly celebrated by the theater community and the press as one of the most exciting new Milwaukee theater ventures in decades. Michael graduat
Announcement + Your Top 5 + Melissa on Other Podcasts! (Ep. 29)
11 May 2023
00:05:57
Melissa is back with a brief solo episode about what's coming up and other shows she's guested on recently, plus your favorite episodes so far and a special request!
Playwright Marketing Crash Course with Patrick Gabridge (Ep. 60)
07 Mar 2024
00:08:59
In honor of the March 2024 Playwright Marketing Binge, here is the replay of Patrick Gabridge's interview where he describes the ways playwrights can make their submissions stand out.
In this episode, we discuss:
Why he started the Playwright Submission Binge
TONS of tips on how playwrights can market themselves better
About Our Guest Patrick Gabridge is an award-winning writer and theatre-maker who has written a number of adaptations and also has a special talent for creating site-specific plays. With his company, Plays in Place, he’s created plays in partnership with many museums & historic sites, including Mount Auburn Cemetery, Boston’s Old State House, the Roosevelt Cottage on Campobello Island, & the MIT Museum. His full-length plays have been produced in the US & South Korea, and his short plays and have received more than 1,000 productions from theatres and schools around the world. He’s been involved with helping playwrights market their work for many years—he started the publication Market InSight for Playwrights back in 1993, and founded & still runs the Playwright Submission Binge, an online community focused on marketing. He’s also a screenwriter, novelist, & a writer of audio plays.
End of Play.® 2023 - Melissa's Month in Review (Ep. 28)
04 May 2023
00:10:21
National Playwriting Month is complete, and End of Play.® 2023 is in the books. Melissa breaks down how the experience was for her, and some key things she learned about herself and her own playwriting process.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Melissa began the project with a major facepalm moment
Her biggest game-changer when it comes to research
How Melissa made the most of the multiple silent writing sessions and did it her own way
Toward a Brave New Theatre World with Nan Barnett (Ep. 27)
27 Apr 2023
01:08:36
Nan Barnett returns! We are thrilled to have her back because there was so much more to talk about after the last conversation. This time Nan reveals more about her personal story and some of the sacrifices she's made for her work.
In this episode, we discuss:
What NNPN is focused on in terms of equity and diversity
Post-pandemic trends she's seeing in the theatre industry
What 24 seasons of producing new work at Florida Stage taught her about theatre-making
Nan Barnett is a new play developer and producer and an advocate for theater-makers and the theater they make. She is the Executive Director of National New Play Network, the country’s alliance of theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays. While on NNPN’s Executive Committee she worked to create the organization’s revolutionary Rolling World Premiere and Residency programs. She came to the Network full-time in 2013 and guided it through the development and launch of its field-altering database, the New Play Exchange ®, now home to more than 51,000 plays by living writers, and its recent planning process, which resulted in the organization’s much-lauded new governance and membership structure and plan for leading the field towards a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive new play ecosystem. Nan spent 24 seasons at Florida Stage, a LORT theater producing exclusively new and developing work, was a member of the inaugural Helen Hayes Awards’ New Play Panel for the nation’s capital region and Coordinating Producer for the 2015 and 2018 iterations of DC’s Women’s Voices Theater Festival. She serves on the Artistic Council of the O’Neill Theater Center and was inducted into the National Theatre Conference in 2017.
Shakespeare's birthday is coming up, and this week Melissa talks to Oregon Shakespeare Festival's former Director of New Play Development Lue Douthit about the giant playwriting project known as Play On Shakespeare. Grab a Mounds bar and learn how she helped usher the Bard into the 21st Century.
In this episode, we discuss:
What Play On Shakespeare is and does and how the project came to be
Why they are called Shakespeare translations
What's happening now that all 39 plays have been written
The various educational possibilities for the translations
Lue Morgan Douthit is the President/Co-Founder of Play on Shakespeare. Prior to that, she spent 25 seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she was director of new play development and dramaturgy. She also was the Production Dramaturg for more than 50 productions, including 15 world premieres: Hannah and the Dread Gazebo, Head Over Heels; A Wrinkle in Time; Family Album; The Unfortunates; The Tenth Muse; WillFul; Throne of Blood; Equivocation; Don Quixote; Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter; Tracy’s Tiger; By the Waters of Babylon; Continental Divide; and The Magic Fire. She has worked on over a dozen Shakespeare productions, including co-adapting a six-actor Macbeth and seven-actor Measure for Measure, which were both produced at OSF and elsewhere. She was the co-producer and founder of the Black Swan Lab (2009) at OSF and subsequently produced the Lab until 2016. Lue is the recipient of the 1999 Literary Manager & Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) Prize in Dramaturgy and The Elliott Hayes Award for her work on Lorraine Hansberry’s play Les Blancs. She received her PhD from the University of Washington, her MFA from Trinity University, and her MA from University of Arizona.
Play Club with Amy Wheeler and Paul Kruse (Ep. 25)
13 Apr 2023
01:07:51
Amy Wheeler and Paul Kruse, the masterminds behind Play Club, stop by to talk about this new project (prepare for some major name drops) and which of them hails from Melissa's hometown.
In this episode, we discuss:
What Play Club is, how it works, and why they started it
The education initiatives Play Club has begun and will expand upon
Why Amy knows literally everyone in the theatre community
Amy Wheeler is a nationally produced playwright, educator, speaker and nonprofit leader. Wheeler led the beloved Whidbey Island nonprofit Hedgebrook for many years, evolving it into a global community of influential female-identified writers authoring change in the arts, culture and social justice. Celebrating the culmination of her tenure in 2020, Seattle Arts & Lectures recognized Wheeler with the Prowda Literary Champion Award for “demonstrating true commitment to the Pacific Northwest’s community of readers and writers.” She holds an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts, an MFA from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and she studied acting at University of Kansas and in NY. Wheeler’s front burner project is The Last Babushka, a musical she’s creating with first generation Ukrainian-American composer Natalie Nowytski about women living in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone. She founded Play Club: A Book Club with a Theatrical Twist, a venture that’s growing into a movement. Play Club’s community is a cross-generational audience from across the country who are reading, discussing and going to see contemporary plays together. Amy’s father Jim passed away during the pandemic. Play Club is imbued with his spirit, love of community and conversation.
Paul William Kruse tells Queer love stories. As a playwright and media artist from Western Wisconsin, his work flows from his Catholic roots and ever-evolving experience of family. Paul often writes collaboratively, drawing from his years of experience as a videographer and documentarian. He is a cohort member of Audible’s third Emerging Playwrights Fund, and his audio play Once Removed was an official selection a
Adaptations & Playwriting with Eric Coble (Ep. 24)
06 Apr 2023
01:07:46
Eric Coble is back to answer all the playwriting & adaptation questions that Melissa wanted to ask in Episode 1. (If you haven't listened to that one yet, go check it out!)
In this episode, we discuss:
How Hollywood can put an already-written stage adaptation on hold indefinitely
If a playwright really needs to live in New York to get work and make a living
Eric's mountain metaphor as it relates to writing a new play
About Our Guest Eric Coble was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and raised on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado. His scripts have been produced on Broadway (Tony-and Pulitzer-nominated The Velocity of Autumn), Off-Broadway (Bright Ideas, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, Side Effects May Include…), in Disney Theme Parks (Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple), in all fifty states of the U.S., and on several continents, including productions at Manhattan Class Company, The Kennedy Center, Playwrights Horizons, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, Denver Center Theatre Company, Arena Stage, South Coast Rep, Cleveland Play House, Alliance Theatre, New York and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, Habima Theatre (Israel), Pentacion Productions (Spain), Teatr Polski (Poland), Orange Row (Mexico), and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival (U.S.).
Awards include two AATE Distinguished Play Awards for Best Adaptation, an Emmy nomination, the Chorpenning Playwriting Award for Body of Work, the AT&T Onstage Award, National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award, an NEA Playwright in Residence Grant, a TCG Extended Collaboration Grant, the Cleveland Arts Prize, two Cuyahoga Arts and Culture Fellowships, and four Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grants. Thirty of Mr. Coble’s scripts have been published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing, Smith & Krause and others.
End of Play.® with Lily Dwoskin & Jordan Stovall from the Dramatists Guild (Ep. 23)
30 Mar 2023
01:08:47
National Playwriting Month is approaching, and that means it's time for End of Play.®, the Dramatists Guild's annual month-long writing challenge for Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists, and Librettists. Guild staff members Lily Dwoskin and Jordan Stovall stop by to tell us about their work at the Guild and all things End of Play.®.
In this episode, we discuss:
What End of Play.® is and who can participate (Hint: anyone and everyone!)
How working at the Guild helped Lily become a better advocate for her own work
How the pandemic has changed the way drag & musical theatre are created & consumed
About Our Guests Lily Dwoskin is a bookwriter, lyricist, & playwright based in New York. Her bookwriter/lyricist credits include Off Broadway: Turtle On A Fencepost at Theater 555 & The Scarlet Savior at St. Luke's Theatre. Other credits include: Hyena in Petticoats and The Aviatrix. Lily works for & is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America and has worked as a director, dramaturg, teaching artist & stage manager. lilydwoskin.com | NPX | IG
Jordan Stovall is a playwright, arts administrator, & drag artist known as Wanda Whatever. They presently serve as the Director of Outreach & Institutional Partnerships for the Dramatists Guild, where they have worked since 2016. Their plays have been shortlisted & selected as Finalists for the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Festival and Relentless Award, with productions in London and the US. As a drag artist, they are the founding producer of Boulangerie; and Fussy, a series of queer community gatherings. jordanstovall.com | NPX
This week Melissa is joined by her brilliant friend Alex Mallory to talk about her original translation and adaptation of Frank Wedekind's German play, Spring Awakening, which she also produced as an MFA Directing student.
In this episode, we discuss:
Why Alex decided to write this adaptation for her MFA Directing Lab (when she really didn't have to)
What was missing from other English translations of Spring Awakening that prompted Alex to write her own
What German translations Alex wants to tackle in the future
How community-building is the cornerstone of Alex's love of theatre
Alex Mallory is the director of The Metal Shop Performance Lab, founded with the mission to create theatrical events that foster radical community-building and authentic exchange between artists and audiences. She uses intersectional, anti-oppressive rehearsal processes to create conditions for productive conversations on personal and collective histories of violence in both rehearsal and performance spaces. Alex’s directing work investigates personal and political agency and examines the resilience of the mind and body through human connection. Alex also facilitates healing-centered engagement for military veterans as the Chicago Regional Coordinator for DE-CRUIT. She has worked with the veteran community for over a decade with the Veteran Artist Program, The Telling Project, and as director of Takeo Rivera’s choreopoem Goliath, which toured for seven years in New York and California. Alex has served as Co-Artistic Director of Poetic Theater Productions and as Director of Culture Project’s Women Center Stage Initiative. She has an MFA from Northwestern University and a BA from Stanford University. Alex is an Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
9 - EVERYONE'S FINE WITH VIRGINIA WOOLF by Kate Scelsa (Ep. 21)
16 Mar 2023
01:08:50
The enchanting Kate Scelsa stops by the podcast to talk about her hilarious parody adaptation titled Everyone's Fine With Virginia Woolf.
In this episode, we discuss:
How her play was a love letter to Albee's classic, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and that it was also written bespoke for actors at Elevator Repair Service
Just how much Kate is obsessed with WAOVW, particularly the character of Martha
The abundance of Easter eggs and the annotated list she provides in the script
About Our Guest Kate Scelsa is a novelist, playwright, and songwriter. Her debut young adult novel Fans of the Impossible Life was a Fall 2015 Indie Next pick, a Junior Library Guild pick, a 2016 Rainbow List Top Ten Pick, and has been published in ten languages. She is also the author of Improbable Magic for Cynical Witches, a new YA novel from HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray, and Luminary: A Magical Guide to Self-Care from Simon & Schuster. A recipient of a Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant for playwriting, Kate has worked for many years with New York experimental theater company Elevator Repair Service, including a decade spent performing in “Gatz,” their eight-hour-long version of The Great Gatsby. Her play Everyone's Fine with Virginia Woolf was produced in NYC and Dublin in 2018 and has been published by Dramatists Play Service. Kate also writes songs and performs
8 - THE THREE SISTERS OF WEEHAWKEN by Deborah Zoe Laufer (Ep. 20)
09 Mar 2023
00:54:32
Melissa reconnects with playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer. They first met when Melissa interviewed her about her play, Be Here Now. Now we be here again to talk about one of Deb's (apparently many) stage adaptations, The Three Sisters of Weehawken, based of course on Chekhov's Three Sisters.
Deborah Zoe Laufer’s plays have been produced at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Playhouse, Geva, The Humana Festival, Everyman, Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and hundreds of other theaters around the world. Plays include Be Here Now, End Days, Rooted, Informed Consent which was a NYTimes critic’s pick, Leveling Up, Out of Sterno, The Last Schwartz, Sirens, Meta, The Three Sisters of Weehawken, Fortune, dozens of short plays, and the musicals, Window Treatment, and By Any Other Name, written with composer, Daniel Green. Deb is a recipient of the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, the Lilly Award, The ATCA Steinberg citation, and grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Edgerton Foundation, The National New Play Network, and the Lincoln Center Foundation. Her work has been developed by The Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Theatre Lab, PlayPenn, The Cherry Lane Alternative, The Missoula Colony, LOCAL Theatre, Asolo Rep, The Baltic Playwrights Conference, and more. Her plays are published or recorded by Concord/Samuel French, Smith and Kraus, Playscripts, LA Theatreworks, and Premieres. She is a graduate of Juilliard, an alumna of the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical T
Playwright Marketing with Patrick Gabridge (Ep. 18)
23 Feb 2023
00:55:53
Patrick Gabridge came highly recommended because of his Playwright Marketing Binge, which he leads twice a year with many other playwrights as a way to get their name and work seen & potentially produced. He was kind enough to stop by the show & tell us about that & also how he created a niche genre and production opportunities with his company, Plays in Place.
(And some behind-the-scenes scoop: Melissa's sound cut out with just a few minutes to go, & Patrick was a total pro and answered the remaining questions that Melissa typed to him, & the audio was seamlessly edited in post. Whew.)
In this episode, we discuss:
How Patrick got started with site-specific historical plays
Why sometimes it's better to write plays that can only be produced under a full moon
Why he started the Playwright Submission Binge
TONS of tips on how playwrights can market themselves better
About Our Guest Patrick Gabridge is an award-winning writer and theatre-maker who has written a number of adaptations and also has a special talent for creating site-specific plays. With his company, Plays in Place, he’s created plays in partnership with many museums & historic sites, including Mount Auburn Cemetery, Boston’s Old State House, the Roosevelt Cottage on Campobello Island, & the MIT Museum. His full-length plays have been produced in the US & South Korea, and his short plays and have received more than 1,000 productions from theatres and schools around the world. He’s been involved with helping playwrights market their work for many years—he started the publication Market InSight for Playwrights back in 1993, and founded & still runs the Playwright Submission Binge, an online community focused on marketing. He’s also a screenwriter, novelist, & a writer of audio plays.
Taking Matters Into Your Own Hands with Rachel Lynett (Ep. 17)
16 Feb 2023
00:49:59
When Melissa got the chance to interview Rachel Lynett, there was so much she wanted to talk about, mainly Rachel's recent foray into self-publishing and their ambitious Shakespeare Project. They touched on so many topics, but the through line was really the many ways Rachel took matters back into their own hands.
In this episode, we discuss:
Why Rachel started to self-publish their work and what that has to do with David Tennant
The advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing
Rachel Lynett is a queer Afro-Latine playwright, producer, and teaching artist. Their plays have been featured at San Diego Rep, Magic Theatre, Mirrorbox Theatre, Laboratory Theatre of Florida, Barrington Stage Company, Theatre Lab, Theatre Prometheus, Florida Studio Theatre, Laughing Pig Theatre Company, Capital Repertory Theatre, Teatro Espejo, the Kennedy Center Page to Stage festival, Theatresquared, Equity Library Theatre, Chicago, Talk Back Theatre, American Stage Theatre Company, Indiana University at Bloomington, Edgewood College, and Orlando Shakespeare Theatre. Their plays Last Night and HE DID IT made the 2020 Kilroy’s List. Rachel Lynett is also the 2021 recipient of the Yale Drama Prize for their play, Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson). Lynett was 2021 recipient of the National Latinx Playwriting award and the runner-up for the 2022 Miranda Family Voces Latinx Playwriting Competition for their play, Black Mexican. Their play, White People by the Lake was also a 2022 Blue Ink Award finalist.They have previously taught at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Alfred University. Lynett was recently a staff writer for The Winchesters and is working on an upcoming feature.
7 - UNTITLED CHRISTMAS PRODUCTION by Rachel Feeny-Williams (Ep. 15)
15 Dec 2022
00:46:48
In our first interview with a guest from "across the pond," it's only fitting that the play in question is from one of the most famous and most adapted stories to come out of England. The delightful Rachel Feeny-Williams is here to talk about her adaptation of A Christmas Carol, except this one has a female Scrooge and no official title.
In this episode, we discuss:
Why this play is still untitled
How writing a female Scrooge was a "challenge accepted" moment
Ways the theatre industry in the U.K. is different and also similar to the U.S.
Rachel's philosophy and approach to being a "prolific" writer and reader of plays
Rachel Feeny-Williams is a playwright based in Exeter, UK. She has been writing, self-producing and selling plays for just over ten years, following the completion of her degree in Creative and Performing Arts. Over the past ten years, her work has been produced many times in her local area of Devon, as well as nationally and internationally, both live and virtually. In 2021, her piece Believe Me; also won an award for “Best Original Script” in a One Act Play Festival.
Believe Me has also gone on to become a self-produced four-part audio series and joined other audio plays on her YouTube Channel.
She also runs a group called ‘The Literary and Discourse Society’. The society has been running weekly since June 2020 and now has a following of writers from across the world who gather to read and have their work read.
Her main love of writing is to challenge herself and for that reason she has completed five “play a day” challenges since February 2021. She’s also self-published two collections of ten plays that she’s sold independently.
Connect with Our Guest
Rachel's website Read & Recommend Rachel's plays on