RECALL: Act One

In February 1961, while America watches Cuba on television and tells itself the next war will belong to someone else, a dying military academy in Miami is still teaching boys how to stand straight, take orders, and become men.

Written by Academy Award nominee Bruce Davison, and once optioned and held by the great Al Pacino, RECALL is a funny, savage, deeply human coming-of-age drama about abandoned boys, broken fathers, old soldiers, Cuban exiles, secret weapons, and the first terrible lesson of history: nations do not only go to war with armies. Sometimes they go to war with children who still think they are playing.

Act One begins with Stephen Lishinsky arriving at Miami Military Academy, a bright Pennsylvania kid who volunteered for the brochure version of honor and discipline. What he finds is a parade field, a dying commandant, a school already being swallowed by the future, and two cadets handcuffed to a howitzer before morning formation.

Inside “A” Company, Lishinsky meets the boys who will become his education. Slouch is a Brooklyn-bred survivor with a cigarette in his mouth, a wound behind every joke, and a talent for turning trouble into currency. Bebop is a Cuban refugee carrying the murder of his father and the dream of taking his country back. Wheeler is an eleven-year-old officer with a sword too large for his body and a hunger for command. Sally Barnes is the commandant’s daughter, back from wherever she ran, driving straight through the gates with all the fury of someone returning to a home that has already become a ghost.

And then there is Commander Patterson, a decorated Navy veteran, drunk, wounded, funny, dangerous, and still trying, in his broken way, to protect boys the world has already thrown away.

The academy is collapsing. The boys know it. The adults know more than they are saying. Castro is on the news. Cuban exiles are moving in the shadows. The old munitions bunkers are not empty. And when Slouch pockets a key marked Bunker 3, military school stops being a game and starts becoming the first draft of a war story.

RECALL is about loyalty, damage, sacrifice, performance, class, country, boyhood, and the machinery that turns fear into patriotism. It is about the lie adults tell boys when they call obedience honor, and the moment those boys discover the rifles are real.

Starring Alan Rosenberg, Carson Bolde, Stone Garcia, Wesley Kimmel, Dan Lauria, Kensington Tallman, Roxton Garcia, Bruce Davison, Luca Diaz, Amari O’Neil, Amir O’Neil, David Errigo Jr., Zeke Alton, Gian Franco Rodriguez, Miki Yamashita, Nemil Mudvari, Sofia D’Marco, and Ashley Ciarra.

A portion of proceeds from RECALL will benefit the National Veterans Foundation and the Lifeline for Vets. To support NVF or speak with a Veteran who understands, visit https://nvf.org or call 888-777-4443.

Produced by Table Read Podcast and Manifest Media Productions, LLC.

Executive Produced by Jack Levy, Shaan Sharma, and Mark Knell.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

RECALL trailer

A dying military academy.

A country drifting toward war.

A group of boys told to stand straight, swallow fear, and call it honor.

Set in 1961 Miami, RECALL follows Stephen Lishinsky, a bright-eyed new cadet who volunteers for military school and walks into something far more dangerous than discipline.

Inside Miami Military Academy, abandoned boys become soldiers before they understand what war costs. A Brooklyn hustler steals weapons for Cuban exiles. A Cuban refugee carries the murder of his father and the dream of taking his country back. A decorated Navy hero drinks through old wounds while trying to protect boys the world has already thrown away.

Then Cuba moves closer.

The Bay of Pigs moves closer.

The rifles are not pretend anymore.

Written by Academy Award nominee Bruce Davison, and once optioned and held by the great Al Pacino, RECALL is funny, brutal, beautiful, and dangerous. A coming-of-age story about loyalty, sacrifice, broken institutions, and the moment boys playing soldier discover the adults have been playing something much worse.

Starring Alan Rosenberg, Carson Bolde, Stone Garcia, Wesley Kimmel, Dan Lauria, Kensington Tallman, Roxton Garcia, Bruce Davison, Luca Diaz, Amari O’Neil, Amir O’Neil, David Errigo Jr., Zeke Alton, Gian Franco Rodriguez, Miki Yamashita, Nemil Mudvari, Sofia D’Marco, and Ashley Ciarra.

A portion of proceeds from RECALL will benefit the National Veterans Foundation and the Lifeline for Vets. To donate or get help, visit https://nvf.org or call 888-777-4443.

Because every story has oxygen.

And sometimes the best thing you can do with attention is point it toward someone who needs it more.

RECALL arrives Tuesday, June 16 on Table Read Podcast.

Listen to the trailer now.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MY LADY'S SONG

A limo driver. Two porn stars. A senator with everything to lose.

One night in New York that turns into leverage, betrayal, and war.

ACT ONE

New York. Late-night Eighth Avenue. Strip clubs, neon, and power moving quietly behind tinted glass.

Sal “The Barber” Marino is a former soldier of the streets, a man who did twelve years without talking and now makes a living driving high-end clients through a city he no longer trusts.

One call pulls him back in.

A simple job. Easy money. Drive the girls. Pick up the client. Keep your mouth shut.

But the client is a powerful senator.

The ride is being recorded.

And the job isn’t what it seems.

What starts as routine turns into leverage. a blackmail setup that reaches into politics, unions, and the last remnants of old-school control.

As the night bleeds into morning and the city gives way to the open road, Sal is locked in with Hara; young, sharp, and unpredictable. Two worlds collide. Old code versus new survival.

And then it breaks.

A confrontation. A line crossed.

A slap that lands harder than anything that came before.

That’s the moment everything changes.

Act One ends when business becomes personal... and there’s no going back.

🎭 CAST

SAL – Ronnie Marmo

CHARLIE – Sam McMurray

SENATOR BAXTER / THE JOHN – Joe Mantegna

VINCENT – Dan Lauria

HARA – Gia Mantegna

LOTTA – Ally Dunbar

NARRATOR – Vanessa Richardson

DONNA – Janelle Marmo

CARMELA – Patty McCormack

PORN DIRECTOR – Robert Wuhl

LEO – Zeke Alton

ANTHONY – Alec Leonard

🎬 PRODUCTION

Directed by Mark Knell & Jack Levy

Executive Produced by Shaan Sharma, Jack Levy, and Mark Knell

Table Read is a Manifest Media production.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT 2 / PART 2: Doug confides in Carl that he's cool with being a kid again. It's his second chance to finally get his life on track. Ethan has become like the father Doug never had. Now Carl has to break the bad news to Doug: that's not how the do-over works. When Carl told him he'd stay a child if he didn't change his bad ways, he meant 8 years old FOREVER. No growing up all over again. Doug freaks out. This sucks! This isn't fair! Could things get any worse?

____

LITTLE MAN: 

A hysterical irreverent comedy! "SHALLOW HAL" meets "13 GOING ON 30"...with a generous, dusting of "SUPERBAD." Our all-star cast absolutely destroys this script...guaranteed. You'll laugh out loud!

Imagine a world where karma is a magic blue popsicle. LITTLE MAN is a comedy about a foul-mouthed loser who gets an unwanted "do-over" as an 8 year-old. But to turn back into a grown-up, this little d-bag has 10 days to become a decent human being or he'll stay a kid forever. It's hard to be good when you've been bad for so long. Time's running out. Tick tock!

____

Follow Table Read (@TableReadPodcastLA) on Instagram for more info!

Visit: https://www.tablereadpodcast.com/

Contact: manifestmediaproductions@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT 2 / PART 1: Despite a rough first few days, Doug's life as an 8 year-old is going better for him than his life as an unemployed loser at 30. He's actually making friends, standing up to bullies, has a part in the class play, and is kicking ass in school. Julia, Doug's teacher, thinks he's gifted! Carl has good news: one more day and the do-over is officially over. Doug has proven himself a good person and will change back into a grown up. Doug confides in Carl that he's cool with being a kid again. It's his second chance to finally get his life on track. Ethan has become like the father Doug never had. Now Carl has to break the bad news to Doug: that's not how the do-over works. When Carl told him he'd stay a child if he didn't change his bad ways, he meant 8 years old FOREVER. No growing up all over again. Doug freaks out. This sucks! This isn't fair! Could things get any worse?

____

LITTLE MAN: 

A hysterical irreverent comedy! "SHALLOW HAL" meets "13 GOING ON 30"... with a generous, dusting of "SUPERBAD." Our all-star cast absolutely destroys this script... guaranteed. You'll laugh out loud!

Imagine a world where karma is a magic blue popsicle. LITTLE MAN is a comedy about a foul-mouthed loser who gets an unwanted "do-over" as an 8 year-old. But to turn back into a grown-up, this little d-bag has 10 days to become a decent human being or he'll stay a kid forever. It's hard to be good when you've been bad for so long. Time's running out. Tick tock!

____

Follow Table Read (@TableReadPodcastLA) on Instagram for more info!

Visit: https://www.tablereadpodcast.com/

Contact: manifestmediaproductions@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT 1 / PART 2:

Doug's life is a mess until a popsicle from a strange ice cream man turns him into an eight-year-old. To reverse the curse, he has to become a decent human being in just 10 days. But with time running out, can he save himself and become an adult again? The clock is ticking and the stakes are high!

____

LITTLE MAN: 

A hysterical irreverent comedy! "SHALLOW HAL" meets "13 GOING ON 30"...with a generous, dusting of "SUPERBAD." Our all-star cast absolutely destroys this script...guaranteed. You'll laugh out loud!

Imagine a world where karma is a magic blue popsicle. LITTLE MAN is a comedy about a foul-mouthed loser who gets an unwanted "do-over" as an 8 year-old. But to turn back into a grown-up, this little d-bag has 10 days to become a decent human being or he'll stay a kid forever. It's hard to be good when you've been bad for so long. Time's running out. Tick tock!

____

Follow Table Read (@TableReadPodcastLA) on Instagram for more info!

Visit: https://www.tablereadpodcast.com/

Contact: manifestmediaproductions@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT 1 / PART 1: Doug's life is a mess until a popsicle from a strange ice cream man turns him into an eight-year-old. To reverse the curse, he has to become a decent human being in just 10 days. But with time running out, can he save himself and become an adult again? The clock is ticking and the stakes are high!

____

LITTLE MAN: 

A hysterical irreverent comedy! "SHALLOW HAL" meets "13 GOING ON 30"...with a generous, dusting of "SUPERBAD." Our all-star cast absolutely destroys this script...guaranteed. You'll laugh out loud!

Imagine a world where karma is a magic blue popsicle. LITTLE MAN is a comedy about a foul-mouthed loser who gets an unwanted "do-over" as an 8 year-old. But to turn back into a grown-up, this little d-bag has 10 days to become a decent human being or he'll stay a kid forever. It's hard to be good when you've been bad for so long. Time's running out. Tick tock!

CAST & CREW:

Narrator:        Tim Friedlander - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3418020/

Doug:          Brian Thomas Smith - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1705502/

Little Doug:      Bowie Bundlie - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6717726/

Ethan:          Reuben Uy - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6080777/

Francine:        Anthea Neri Best - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8189822/

Julia:           Jillian Clare - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0163510/

Carl:           Petri Byrd - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0370257/

Priya:          Chhaya Néné - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5847066/

Tyler:           Matt Curtin - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8580549/

Ashford:        Ruben Ray- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8980484/

Natalie:         Savannah Beattie- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8044748/

PRODUCERS / DIRECTORS:

Jack Levy - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0506446/

Mark Knell - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0460673/

Shaan Sharma - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3459555/

WRITER:

Charmaine Colina - https://writers.coverfly.com/profile/writer-41ede17ef-8461

SOUND:

Recording Engineer:     Eric Milos - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-milos-48a6a061/

Mix Engineer:          Torrel Alexis - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2514639/

Sound Design & Music:   Jack Levy - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0506446/

Management:          Jon Brown - Ensemble Entertainment

                     jbrown@ensembleent.com

                     https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0113904/

____

Follow Table Read (@TableReadPodcastLA) on Instagram for more info!

Visit: https://www.tablereadpodcast.com/

Contact: manifestmediaproductions@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT 3: After an alien ship lands on earth and erects a gigantic forcefield, trapping a local renaissance faire inside, high school senior Zoe must face her fear of responsibility and save the world, armed only with medieval weaponry.

____

REN FAIRE VS. ALIENS: 

When high school slacker Zoe Winter signs up to play the princess in her local Renaissance Faire, the last thing she expects is an alien invasion. Soon, however, Zoe finds herself and the Faire trapped inside a massive forcefield, along with her best friend, her crush, a jester who can't break character, and an endless supply of rancid turkey legs. And after the Faire's king is vaporized by an alien laser beam, Zoe is crowned queen. Can she conquer her fear of responsibility and lead a gang of Ren Faire weirdos to save the earth, armed only with medieval weaponry?

Written by Harry Aspinwall

____

Follow Table Read (@TableReadPodcastLA) on Instagram for more info!

Visit: https://www.tablereadpodcast.com/

Contact: manifestmediaproductions@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT 2: After an alien ship lands on earth and erects a gigantic forcefield, trapping a local renaissance faire inside, high school senior Zoe must face her fear of responsibility and save the world, armed only with medieval weaponry.

____

REN FAIRE VS. ALIENS: 

When high school slacker Zoe Winter signs up to play the princess in her local Renaissance Faire, the last thing she expects is an alien invasion. Soon, however, Zoe finds herself and the Faire trapped inside a massive forcefield, along with her best friend, her crush, a jester who can't break character, and an endless supply of rancid turkey legs. And after the Faire's king is vaporized by an alien laser beam, Zoe is crowned queen. Can she conquer her fear of responsibility and lead a gang of Ren Faire weirdos to save the earth, armed only with medieval weaponry?

Written by Harry Aspinwall

____

Follow Table Read (@TableReadPodcastLA) on Instagram for more info!

Visit: https://www.tablereadpodcast.com/

Contact: manifestmediaproductions@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT 1: After an alien ship lands on earth and erects a gigantic forcefield, trapping a local renaissance faire inside, high school senior Zoe must face her fear of responsibility and save the world, armed only with medieval weaponry.

____

REN FAIRE VS. ALIENS:

When high school slacker Zoe Winter signs up to play the princess in her local Renaissance Faire, the last thing she expects is an alien invasion. Soon, however, Zoe finds herself and the Faire trapped inside a massive forcefield, along with her best friend, her crush, a jester who can't break character, and an endless supply of rancid turkey legs. And after the Faire's king is vaporized by an alien laser beam, Zoe is crowned queen. Can she conquer her fear of responsibility and lead a gang of Ren Faire weirdos to save the earth, armed only with medieval weaponry?

Written by Harry Aspinwall

____

Follow Table Read (@TableReadPodcastLA) on Instagram for more info!

Visit: https://www.tablereadpodcast.com/

Contact: manifestmediaproductions@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine a world where karma is a magic blue popsicle. LITTLE MAN is a comedy about a foul-mouthed loser who gets an unwanted "do-over" as an 8-year-old. But to turn back into a grown-up, this little d-bag has 10 days to become a decent human being or he'll stay a kid forever. It's hard to be good when you've been bad for so long. Time's running out. Tick tock!

Absolutely hysterical, "Shallow Hal" meets "BIG" (in reverse).

____

CAST & CREW:
Narrator:               Tim Friedlander - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3418020/
Doug:                    Brian Thomas Smith - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1705502/
Little Doug:           Bowie Bundlie - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6717726/
Ethan:                   Reuben Uy - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6080777/
Francine:               Anthea Neri Best - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8189822/
Julia:                     Jillian Clare - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0163510/
Carl:                      Petri Byrd - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0370257/
Priya:                    Chhaya Néné - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5847066/
Tyler:                     Matt Curtin - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8580549/
Ashford:                Ruben Ray- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8980484/
Natalie:                 Savannah Beattie- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8044748/

PRODUCERS / DIRECTORS:
Jack Levy - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0506446/
Mark Knell - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0460673/
Shaan Sharma  - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3459555/

WRITER:
Charmaine Colina - https://writers.coverfly.com/profile/writer-41ede17ef-8461

SOUND:
Recording Engineer:         Eric Milos - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-milos-48a6a061/
Mix Engineer:                    Torrel Alexis - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2514639/
Sound Design & Music:     Jack Levy - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0506446/

Management:                    Jon Brown - Ensemble Entertainment
                                          jbrown@ensembleent.com
                                          https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0113904/

____

Visit: https://www.tablereadpodcast.com/

Contact: manifestmediaproductions@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When an industrialist is murdered in an impoverished Michigan backwater, a misfit veteran must choose between saving her three idiot brothers from life in jail or escaping her toxic family forever.

Written by: Pearse Lehane

____

Visit: https://www.tablereadpodcast.com/

Contact: manifestmediaproductions@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When high school slacker Zoe Winter signs up to play the princess in her local Renaissance Faire, the last thing she expects is an alien invasion. Soon, however, Zoe finds herself and the Faire trapped inside a massive forcefield, along with her best friend, her crush, a jester who can't break character, and an endless supply of rancid turkey legs. And after the Faire's king is vaporized by an alien laser beam, Zoe is crowned queen. Can she conquer her fear of responsibility and lead a gang of Ren Faire weirdos to save the earth, armed only with medieval weaponry?

Written by Harry Aspinwall

____

Visit: https://www.tablereadpodcast.com/

Contact: manifestmediaproductions@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

🎧 THE G.Y.M.

Welcome to THE G.Y.M.

Not a gym. A situation.

Valerie inherited a neighborhood gym from her mother.

What she actually inherited? Debt, broken equipment, a failing business… and a staff that turns every small problem into a full-blown emergency.

Across the street, a sleek corporate fitness empire is opening with glass walls, perfect lighting, and zero chaos.

Inside The G.Y.M.?

Flooded hot tubs.

Out-of-order bikes.

A spin class that may or may not be a lawsuit waiting to happen.

And a “Grand Re-Opening” that could either save the place… or finally finish it.

This is a workplace comedy where nothing works, nobody communicates, and every attempt to fix things somehow makes them worse.

Think Parks and Recreation meets It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, set inside a failing gym where the stakes are low… until suddenly they’re not.

Recorded live at SXSW /. Podcast Movement, this Austin Film Festival award-winning script by Dani Hanks delivers fast, character-driven comedy with just enough heart to make you root for people who absolutely should not be in charge of anything.

You don’t come here to get fit.

You come here because something is definitely about to go wrong.

🎭 Cast

Allison Dunbar as Valerie

Yasmine Al-Bustami as Kayla

Kensington Tallman as Alexa

Shaan Sharma as Wade

Joe Nemmers as Gary Hughes

Jacob A. Ware as Bryan

Brian Villalobos as Chris

Amy Bailey as Mary

Heather Foster, Narrator

Special appearance by our attorney Scott Hervey as Client Carlin

🎬 From Table Read Podcast

Executive Producers: Jack Levy, Mark Knell, & Shaan Sharma

Produced by Manifest Media Productions

Recorded live at SXSW / Podcast Movement

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TABLE READ: My Lady’s Song

Written by Dan Lauria

New York. Late-night Eighth Avenue. Strip clubs, limos, politicians, porn stars, and ghosts of the old neighborhood.

My Lady’s Song drops you straight into the smoky, blood-soaked underbelly of a city that doesn’t forgive and never forgets.

Sal “The Barber” Marino is an aging ex-soldier of the streets — a limo driver who once did twelve years without talking. Now he drives high-end clients and keeps his head down. But when a powerful senator, a pair of porn stars, and a blackmail tape collide during sensitive union negotiations, Sal is pulled back into a world he thought he left behind.

This is not a nostalgia piece.

This is loyalty versus survival.

Old code versus new money.

Family versus leverage.

Set against a soundtrack style of Billie Holiday, Etta James, Dinah Washington, and Bessie Smith, My Lady’s Song moves like Goodfellas at midnight and feels like The Sopranos when the jokes stop being funny.

What starts as a simple drive to Los Angeles turns into a reckoning — with betrayal, with memory, and with the cost of keeping your mouth shut.

Nobody in podcasting is bringing this level of writing, performance, and cinematic scope.

This is prestige drama.

Performed. Not narrated.

Hollywood caliber. Start to finish.

___________________________________

🎭 FULL CAST

SAL – Ronnie Marmo

An ex-con soldier turned limo driver. Hardened. Loyal. Dangerous when pushed.

CHARLIE – Sam McMurray

La Salle Limo manager. Old-school operator with a sharp tongue.

SENATOR BAXTER / THE JOHN – Joe Mantegna

Powerful, polished, and utterly ruthless. Politics meets leverage.

VINCENT – Dan Lauria

Union boss. Businessman. Architect of control.

HARA – Gia Mantegna

Young, defiant, smarter than everyone assumes.

LOTTA – Ally Dunbar

Savvy operator. Knows how to play both sides of the camera.

NARRATOR – Vanessa Richardson

A true-crime icon brings gravitas and noir elegance to the storytelling spine.

DONNA – Janelle Marmo

CARMELA – Patty McCormack

PORN DIRECTOR – Robert Wuhl

LEO – Zeke Alton

ANTHONY – Alec Leonard

With additional performances from:

Janelle Marmo

Ally Dunbar

Gia Mantegna

Zeke Alton

Alec Leonard

This cast could walk onto a soundstage tomorrow and shoot this for theatrical release. It’s that level.

____________________________________________________________________

Directed by Mark Knell & Jack Levy

Executive Produced by Shaan Sharma, Jack Levy, and Mark Knell

Table Read is a Manifest Media production.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The cage breaks open. Caravaggio breaks with it.

Chained in a torture chamber beneath the fortress, Caravaggio faces the Grand Master one last time. Faith against flesh. Obedience against desire. What follows is an escape down a fortress wall, a boat in the dark, and a fugitive painter running not toward freedom but toward the only thing he has left.

Act Three is the fall. Brutal. Beautiful. Inevitable.

Sicily. Caravaggio paints like a man on fire. In Syracuse, a burial. In Messina, a nativity. Each canvas more desperate than the last. Each one a confession he cannot say out loud. The genius is still there. The man holding the brush is disappearing.

Back in Rome, the news arrives. Lena. The woman whose face launched his greatest work. Gone. Caravaggio learns what it costs to leave someone behind in a city that devours the unprotected.

Cardinal Del Monte makes his final play. A pardon. A real one. Signed by the Pope himself. But the pardon needs a delivery and Caravaggio needs to stay alive long enough to receive it.

Naples. A prison cell. Malaria. Chains. The Grand Master finds him one last time. Two men who could never say what they meant finally say it. It is too late for both of them.

Then a swamp. Bandits. A boiling sun. A beach. A boy. Two nuns. And the Tyrrhenian coast, where the greatest painter of his generation reaches for the light one final time.

The pardon arrives. The man does not.

Act Three is reckoning. Loss. Grace. The moment the fuse runs out.

What you see in the art, you will find in the artist. What you see in the artist, you will find in the man.

Cast

Dennis Kleinman · Narrator

Craig Parker · Caravaggio

Dan Lauria · Cardinal Del Monte

Bruce Davison · Alof de Wignacourt

Shaan Sharma · Stefano della Croce

Catherine Lidstone · Lena

Sarah Elmaleh · Maria

Brendan Bradley · Annibale Carracci

Noah James · Ranuccio Tomassoni

Josh Sterling · Ottavio Tomassoni

Zeke Alton · Giovan Tomassoni

Nick Monteleone · Mancini

Matt Curtin · Toppa

Bjorn Johnson · Pope Paul V

Ray Abruzzo · Pope Clement VIII

Written by Richard Vetere

Executive Produced by Jack Levy, Shaan Sharma, and Mark Knell

Table Read is a Manifest Media production.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Malta. A fortress carved from rock, surrounded by sea, ruled by warrior monks who pray at dawn and kill by noon.

Caravaggio arrives to paint a portrait. He stays because he has no choice. The Grand Master offers sanctuary, admiration, and something neither man is prepared to name. The Captain at Arms offers suspicion, jealousy, and a locked door every night.

Act Two is the cage. Beautiful. Suffocating. Holy.

Caravaggio paints the Grand Master's portrait and captures more than armor and scars. He captures a man's loneliness. The Knights throw a feast in his honor. He dances on tables. He is knighted with a gold sword. He is watched from every window.

Back in Rome, Cardinal Del Monte fights for a papal pardon while the Tomassoni brothers hire bounty hunters. The Pope dies. A new Pope rises. The Church still cannot decide what Caravaggio is worth.

On the beach, the Turks attack. Knights are nailed to crosses and set on fire, floated into the harbor at dawn. Caravaggio picks up a sword for the first time. He gives water to a dying boy. The boy is killed in front of him.

Flashbacks pull him back to Rome. To Lena. To the night Ranuccio came for him with a blade. To the moment that changed everything.

He paints The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist on a chapel wall and signs his name in the blood flowing from the saint's neck. The only painting he ever signed.

Then he paints a Cupid so grotesque it seals his fate.

Act Two is devotion. Desire. Betrayal. The moment a man realizes that the sanctuary he was promised is just a prison with better art on the walls.

The fuse is burning.

Cast

Dennis Kleinman · Narrator

Craig Parker · Caravaggio

Dan Lauria · Cardinal Del Monte

Bruce Davison · Alof de Wignacourt

Shaan Sharma · Stefano della Croce

Catherine Lidstone · Lena

Sarah Elmaleh · Maria

Brendan Bradley · Annibale Carracci

Noah James · Ranuccio Tomassoni

Josh Sterling · Ottavio Tomassoni

Zeke Alton · Giovan Tomassoni

Nick Monteleone · Mancini

Matt Curtin · Toppa

Bjorn Johnson · Pope Paul V

Ray Abruzzo · Pope Clement VIII

Written by

Richard Vetere

Executive Produced by

Jack Levy, Shaan Sharma, and Mark Knell

Table Read is a Manifest Media production.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Caravaggio, the brilliant outlaw painter whose genius made him famous and whose violence made him a fugitive.

Rome, 1610. The city is loud, corrupt, holy, and dangerous. Caravaggio thrives in it.

Act One drops you straight into the night everything breaks. Inside a dark Roman chapel, Caravaggio confronts his greatest rival and exposes a truth the Church is not ready to control. God does not live in perfection. God lives in flesh, shadow, and brutal light.

Outside the church, Rome answers back. Wine turns into provocation. Desire turns into rivalry. Old grudges sharpen. A debt comes due. What begins as swagger spirals into violence, and by dawn Caravaggio’s life in Rome is over.

Wanted. Hunted. Unforgivable.

A carriage slips through the gates. A boat cuts across black water. Behind him, the city that crowned him now wants him dead. Ahead lies Malta, a fortified island ruled by warrior monks, where faith is enforced with steel and survival demands obedience.

Act One is ignition. Art as rebellion. Faith as power. Genius as liability.

This is where the fuse gets lit.

Cast

Dennis Kleinman · Narrator

Craig Parker · Caravaggio

Dan Lauria · Cardinal Del Monte

Bruce Davison · Alof de Wignacourt

Shaan Sharma · Stefano della Croce

Catherine Lidstone · Lena

Sarah Elmaleh · Maria

Brendan Bradley · Annibale Carracci

Noah James · Ranuccio Tomassoni

Josh Sterling · Ottavio Tomassoni

Zeke Alton · Giovan Tomassoni

Nick Monteleone · Mancini

Matt Curtin · Toppa

Bjorn Johnson · Pope Paul V

Ray Abruzzo · Pope Clement VIII

Written by

Richard Vetere

Executive Produced by

Jack Levy, Shaan Sharma, and Mark Knell

Table Read is a Manifest Media production.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rome. 1610. A painter who sees God in the faces of prostitutes and killers is on the run for murder.

His name is Caravaggio. He drinks too much. He loves recklessly. Men, women, it doesn't matter. He picks fights with swordsmen and screams at the heavens in candlelit chapels. He paints the way other men pray, except his prayers are in defiance. And the Catholic Church can't decide whether to pardon him or let the bounty hunters finish the job.

This screenplay by Richard Vetere, a Pulitzer nominee and Golden Palm winner whose work has been produced by Francis Ford Coppola, follows Caravaggio from the brothels of Rome to a besieged fortress on Malta where a scarred Grand Master offers him sanctuary and something that looks a lot like love. But sanctuary has a price. And Caravaggio has never paid what he owes without bleeding for it.

There are popes making deals in candlelight. Brothers hunting him across the Mediterranean for killing their own. A muse he left behind in Rome who can't wait much longer. A rival painter who despises his work and can't stop staring at it. Knights nailed to crosses and set on fire floating into the harbor at dawn. A prison cell carved into rock like a grave. And an escape across open sea in a fishing boat guided by a boy too afraid to speak.

This is not a quiet period piece. This is Game of Thrones in Renaissance Italy with paintbrushes and rapiers.

Craig Parker, who played Haldir in Lord of the Rings, plays Caravaggio. Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Bruce Davison plays the Grand Master. Dan Lauria, America's dad from The Wonder Years, plays the Cardinal pulling every string in Rome. Ray Abruzzo, Little Carmine from The Sopranos, plays the Pope. The cast includes Broadway veterans, stars of The Chosen, the voices behind the biggest video games on the planet, and a former Navy test pilot born in Italy playing an Italian swordsman.

Fourteen actors. One genius who painted like God was guiding his hand and lived like the devil was chasing him. Turns out both were true.

This is Caravaggio. This is Table Read. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BONUS PARTNER TRAILER

Today we’re sharing a sci-fi audio drama trailer from our friends at Voyage Media, creators of multiple #1 fiction podcasts.

HARD DRIVE stars Priah Ferguson (STRANGER THINGS) as a young woman who inherits a hard drive containing her late grandfather’s memories. As she explores them, she uncovers instructions he left behind and discovers she may be the key to stopping a global population-control conspiracy.

Created by the Neese Twins (UMBRELLA ACADEMY) and produced by Voyage Media (SANCTUARY, ELUCIDITY), HARD DRIVE blends mystery, thriller, and sci-fi with an eight-episode first season available now.

Search HARD DRIVE from Voyage Media wherever you listen to podcasts.

Listen now: https://www.voyagemedia.fm/show/hard-drive/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rooms of Experience, Act 3

By Steffany Sommers

Starring Patty McCormack as Ada Wells

and Dan Lauria as DA Harvey Davis

Everything converges.

The courtroom becomes the center of gravity.

Every choice Dana made now has a witness.

Alexis puts Ada on the stand.

And for the first time, the story is told without protection.

No strategy.

No framing.

Just truth.

Ada speaks about the years.

The fear.

The promises she made when no one else would.

About loving someone the world was never built for.

The room changes.

Disability rights advocates clash with prosecutors.

Expert testimony collides with lived experience.

The line between justice and cruelty grows thinner by the minute.

Harvey pushes for a conviction.

The system demands closure.

The media waits for a headline.

Dana is forced to decide who she is when the rules stop helping.

Not as a prosecutor.

As a human being.

The verdict comes down.

And nothing about it feels simple.

In the end, there is no victory.

Only consequence.

Only reckoning.

Act Three asks the final question.

What do we owe each other

when love is the only thing left?

Starring Academy Award nominee Patty McCormack (The Bad Seed) as Ada Wells

with Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) as DA Harvey Davis

Craig Parker (The Lord of the Rings) as Detective Curtis

Nicholas Gonzalez (The Good Doctor) as Carter

Nora Zehetner (Heroes, Everwood) as Rebecca

Alyshia Ochse as Dana Jeffries

Candice Coke as Alexis Martinez

Eileen Grubba as Gina Gordon

Alain Uy as Ethan

and narrated by Sarah Elmaleh

Table Read is executive produced by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Sean Sharma.

A Manifest Media production.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rooms of Experience, Act 2

By Steffany Sommers

Starring Patty McCormack as Ada Wells

and Dan Lauria as DA Harvey Davis

The cracks start to spread.

Dana tries to outrun the case. Literally.

But every answer leads to worse questions.

She digs into Teddy’s past.

Talks to doctors.

Families.

People who trusted institutions and paid for it.

What she finds isn’t comforting.

Facilities where the vulnerable disappear.

Bruises explained away.

Medication used as control.

Silence treated like consent.

Ada’s fear wasn’t paranoia.

It was experience.

Meanwhile, the pressure builds.

Disability rights groups mobilize.

The media sharpens its narrative.

And DA Harvey Davis makes it clear.

This case is about optics, not nuance.

“No deal,” he reminds her.

Win at all costs.

Alexis keeps pushing for mercy.

Gina watches Ada waste away.

Funeral grief turns into physical collapse.

The woman who survived everything may not survive this.

Dana stands in the middle.

Her career on one side.

Her conscience on the other.

She starts to see herself in Alexis.

In Ada.

In the choices women make just to survive systems designed without them.

By the end of Act Two, Dana knows.

This trial isn’t about guilt.

It’s about who she becomes when the whole world is watching.

And there’s no clean way out.

_______________________________

Starring Academy Award nominee Patty McCormack (The Bad Seed) as Ada Wells

with Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) as DA Harvey Davis

Craig Parker (The Lord of the Rings) as Detective Curtis

Nicholas Gonzalez (The Good Doctor) as Carter

Nora Zehetner (Heroes, Everwood) as Rebecca

Alyshia Ochse as Dana Jeffries

Candice Coke as Alexis Martinez

Eileen Grubba as Gina Gordon

Alain Uy as Ethan

and narrated by Sarah Elmaleh

Table Read is executive produced by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Sean Sharma. A Manifest Media production.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The deeper we go, the stranger it gets.

GATEWAY: Three & Four is now live.

A missing scientist.

A military experiment losing control.

A government program based on real declassified files that suggests the human mind may not simply imagine other places, other times, or other dimensions.

It may be able to reach them.

At a moment when UAP disclosures, intelligence programs, government secrecy, and the unknown are no longer living at the edge of the conversation, GATEWAY feels less like science fiction and more like a classified question we were never supposed to ask out loud.

Inspired by the real declassified Gateway Process, Three & Four push Lt. Col. Wayne McDonnell beyond investigation and into something far more dangerous.

Itzhak Bentov is pulled into the Monroe Institute to help McDonnell move deeper through the Gateway.

General Addis wants control.

Nurse Fields may know more than she is saying.

McDonnell’s mother reaches across a line she should not be able to cross.

And somewhere between the physical world and the Gateway realm, the experiment stops being theory.

Because once consciousness leaves the body, the question is not where it can go.

The question is who else is already there.

The past is not quiet.

The future is not safe.

And the Gateway is no longer waiting to be opened.

It is open.

Starring Zeke Alton, Petri Hawkins Byrd, Ashley Platz, Cam Clarke, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, and Shaan Sharma.

Written by Dave Pirinelli.

Story by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Dave Pirinelli.

Produced by Table Read Podcast and Manifest Media Productions, LLC.

Executive Produced by Jack Levy, Shaan Sharma, and Mark Knell.

GATEWAY: Three & Four is live now on Table Read Podcast.

Listen now.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rooms of Experience, Act 1

By Steffany Sommers

Starring Patty McCormack as Ada Wells

and Dan Lauria as DA Harvey Davis

The call comes in at night.

An elderly woman.

A dead son.

A tank of helium left in plain sight.

Ada Wells doesn’t deny it.

She wanted his last day to be peaceful.

Enter Dana Jeffries, razor-sharp, undefeated, and hungry to prove herself.

Her boss, Harvey Davis, assigns the case for one reason: optics.

Defense attorney Alexis Martinez pushes back hard.

Detective Curtis starts questioning his own conclusions.

Gina Gordon protects Ada like family.

Carter becomes another pressure point inside the machine.

Rebecca is caught in the ripple effect.

Then Alexis shows Dana the home movies.

The real story.

The years no one saw.

The cost no one counted.

By the end of Act One, Dana walks out of Ada’s house shaken.

No longer sure the law and justice are the same thing.

Starring Academy Award nominee Patty McCormack (The Bad Seed) as Ada Wells

with Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) as DA Harvey Davis

Craig Parker (The Lord of the Rings) as Detective Curtis

Nicholas Gonzalez (The Good Doctor) as Carter

Nora Zehetner (Heroes, Everwood) as Rebecca

Alyshia Ochse as Dana Jeffries

Candice Coke as Alexis Martinez

Eileen Grubba as Gina Gordon

Alain Uy as Ethan

and narrated by Sarah Elmaleh

Table Read is executive produced by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Sean Sharma. A Manifest Media production.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rooms of Experience

By Steffany Sommers

What if the most unforgivable crime came from the purest love?

Ada Wells is eighty-nine.

Her son, Teddy, is autistic.

She has spent sixty years protecting him from a world that never learned how to love him back.

Then one night, she makes a choice that shatters everything.

Now the system wants a conviction.

The media wants a monster.

And rising prosecutor Dana Jeffries is handed the most politically explosive case of her career.

Defense attorney Alexis Martinez knows this isn’t about murder.

It’s about a mother who outlived her child.

About institutions that failed.

About love pushed past the breaking point.

Rooms of Experience is a devastating courtroom drama about motherhood, morality, and the brutal cost of survival.

This isn’t about guilt.

It’s about understanding.

__________________________

Starring Academy Award nominee Patty McCormack (The Bad Seed) as Ada Wells

with Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) as DA Harvey Davis

Craig Parker (The Lord of the Rings) as Detective Curtis

Nicholas Gonzalez (The Good Doctor) as Carter

Nora Zehetner (Heroes, Everwood) as Rebecca

Alyshia Ochse as Dana Jeffries

Candice Coke as Alexis Martinez

Eileen Grubba as Gina Gordon

Alain Uy as Ethan

and narrated by Sarah Elmaleh

Table Read is executive produced by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Shaan Sharma. A Manifest Media production.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The clock runs out.

The curtain comes up.

With opening night looming, the magic begins to fail. Bodies ache. Secrets surface. And the line between who Natalie and Ava were… and who they’ve become… finally disappears.

Natalie must confront what she’s been chasing her entire life — and what it cost her to get there.

Ava must decide whether stepping into the spotlight is worth stepping away from who she is.

The Sugar Plum Fairy is no longer just a role.

It’s a reckoning.

As rivalries peak and loyalties collide, the question is no longer who deserves the part — but who’s willing to let it go. And whether the universe will allow either girl to walk away unchanged.

Act Three is where the story lands.

Where ambition meets consequence.

Where magic demands payment.

Because sometimes you get exactly what you wished for.

And sometimes the bravest thing you can do…

is give it back.

It’s still funny.

It’s still sharp.

But now it’s honest.

Written by award-winning writer Jenna St. John.

Starring:

Kensington Tallman as Natalie Primavera

Logan Laurel as Ava Ross

Konstantin Lavysh as Mr. Constantine

Carson Bolde as Grayson Garcia

Sasha Knight as Trevor

Rita Dos Santos as Kenzie

Samantha A. Smith as Jasmine Kearn

Eva Binder as Zoe Dennings

Adele Abinante as Bean Ross

Avery Clyde as Mrs. Primavera

Katherine Brunk as Ms. Ross

Brandon Potter as Mr. Primavera

Sarah Elmaleh as Miss Lana

Miki Yamashita as Miss Miyako

Paula Tiso as Narrator

Only on Table Read.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The wish came true.

Now the consequences begin.

Natalie Primavera is trapped in a hospital bed, her body broken, her future uncertain — while her mind is stuck inside Ava Ross, a dancer who was never supposed to be good enough for the spotlight.

Ava, meanwhile, is living inside Natalie’s perfect body… and discovering that perfection is a prison with great lighting.

As Nutcracker rehearsals intensify, the magic destabilizes. Roles are threatened. Loyalties fracture. The Sugar Plum Fairy becomes a battleground. And the line between ambition and identity starts to blur.

Friendships turn sharp. Parents get complicated. Romance gets messy. And a Romanian ballet master with secrets of his own begins pushing both girls toward a reckoning neither of them is ready for.

Act Two is where the comedy deepens, the stakes rise, and the story stops being about switching bodies — and starts being about who deserves the life they’re fighting for.

Because wanting something badly doesn’t mean you understand the cost.

It’s still funny.

It’s still chaotic.

But now it hurts in the best way.

Written by award-winning writer Jenna St. John.

Starring:

Kensington Tallman as Natalie Primavera

Logan Laurel as Ava Ross

Konstantin Lavysh as Mr. Constantine

Carson Bolde as Grayson Garcia

Sasha Knight as Trevor

Rita Dos Santos as Kenzie

Samantha A. Smith as Jasmine Kearn

Eva Binder as Zoe Dennings

Adele Abinante as Bean Ross

Avery Clyde as Mrs. Primavera

Katherine Brunk as Ms. Ross

Brandon Potter as Mr. Primavera

Sarah Elmaleh as Miss Lana

Miki Yamashita as Miss Miyako

Paula Tiso as Narrator

Only on Table Read.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when you wish you were someone else… and the universe says bet?

Natalie Primavera has a million followers, perfect technique, and the lead role in every show.

Ava Ross has a cracked phone, a boyfriend who sings like naked Miley Cyrus, and a work-study job sweeping up after other dancers.

One ancient snow globe. Two desperate wishes. And suddenly they wake up in each other’s bodies.

There’s just one problem: Natalie’s body is now in a hospital bed with a shattered hip. And Ava’s body? It’s about to dance the Sugar Plum Fairy… with ankles like wet spaghetti.

What follows is the funniest, most chaotic Nutcracker rehearsal season in history... zombie cats, possessed dolls, a Romanian ballet master who might actually be a warlock, his terrifying nine-year-old son, and a love triangle nobody ordered.

But underneath the chaos is something real: two girls discovering that the lives they envied aren’t what they seemed.

It’s Freaky Friday meets Center Stage, and it hits.

THE UNDERSTUDY: ACT ONE

Written by award-winning writer Jenna St. John.

Starring:

Kensington Tallman as Natalie Primavera

Logan Laurel as Ava Ross

Konstantin Lavysh as Mr. Constantine

Carson Bolde as Grayson Garcia

Sasha Knight as Trevor

Rita Dos Santos as Kenzie

Samantha A. Smith as Jasmine Kearn

Eva Binder as Zoe Dennings

Adele Abinante as Bean Ross

Avery Clyde as Mrs. Primavera

Katherine Brunk as Ms. Ross

Brandon Potter as Mr. Primavera

Sarah Elmaleh as Miss Lana

Miki Yamashita as Miss Miyako

Paula Tiso as Narrator

Only on Table Read.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THE UNDERSTUDY

What happens when you wish you were someone else... and the universe says bet?

Natalie Primavera has a million Instagram followers, perfect technique, and the lead role in every show. Ava Ross has a cracked phone, a nerdy boyfriend who dresses as naked Miley Cyrus, and a work-study job sweeping the dance studio.

One ancient snow globe. Two desperate wishes. And suddenly they wake up in each other's bodies.

There's just one problem: Natalie's body is now in a hospital bed with a shattered hip. And Ava's body? It's about to dance the Sugar Plum Fairy... with ankles like wet spaghetti.

What follows is the funniest, most chaotic Nutcracker rehearsal season in history. We're talking zombie cats, possessed dolls, a Romanian ballet master with a terrifying nine-year-old son, and a love triangle nobody asked for.

But underneath the chaos is something real: two girls discovering that the lives they envied aren't what they seemed, and that maybe the grass isn't greener, it's just... different grass.

The Understudy. It's Freaky Friday meets Center Stage, and it slaps.

Written by award-winning writer Jenna St. John.

Starring:

Kensington Tallman as Natalie Primavera

Logan Laurel as Ava Ross

Konstantin Lavysh as Mr. Constantine

Carson Bolde as Grayson Garcia

Sasha Knight as Trevor

Rita Dos Santos as Kenzie

Samantha A. Smith as Jasmine

Kearn Eva Binder as Zoe Dennings

Adele Abinante as Bean Ross

Avery Clyde as Mrs. Primavera

Katherine Brunk as Ms. Ross Brandon

Potter as Mr. Primavera

Sarah Elmaleh as Miss

Lana Miki Yamashita as Miss Miyako

Paula Tiso is the Narrator

Only on Table Read.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The countdown to eleven builds like a pressure valve. Dizzy waits in the driveway holding on to hope. Kev hides nerves behind jokes. P keeps tugging at a shirt that has never felt right on his body. Everyone is pretending this morning will fix something they are too scared to name.

A car turns the corner and it is the wrong one. Dizzy breaks. Kev fires the blame at P. The friendship between them starts to shake. P disappears inside and comes back with a Sprite because it is the only comfort he knows how to offer at fourteen.

Then the sound hits. Guitar blasting out of an engine that should not exist in a town this small. The DeLorean pulls in for real. Dizzy lifts his head. Kev goes silent. P feels the world shift. Miss World steps out with a sunflower in her hair and for a moment everything feels possible.

She takes them on the ride they have been imagining all week. Kev laughs in the back. Dizzy shouts for more speed. P sits in the front seat trying to hold himself together. Miss World asks what they want from the future. Dizzy talks about cars. Kev talks about family. P cannot answer. Miss World waits. P finally admits he is afraid to look ahead. Kev jokes that P might not make it to adulthood. Miss World hears something deeper than the joke. She sees him.

When they return, nothing is magically fixed. But something inside P cracks open. He cannot keep disappearing into other people’s expectations. Not after being seen this clearly, even for a moment. Act Three is the ride, the break, and the first honest step toward who P is becoming.

SMALL BLOCK is a feature screenplay by Ashley Lauren, performed live and mixed like a feature film for your ears. From the award-winning team at TABLE READ / Manifest Media Productions.

Content Advisory: This episode contains suicidal ideation, transphobic and homophobic language, and minor fatphobic language, used intentionally to serve the story and its period portrayal.

New episodes drop Tuesdays. Subscribe now.

Cast (Full Feature):

P – Levi Dafferner

Kev – Kosi Eguchi

Bex – Piper Kingston

Dizzy – Deryck Hak

Miss World – Lydia Tinsley

Dad – Adam Pilver

Mrs. D – Gemma Kyle

Mom – Leah Zhang

Britt – Eric Miller

Tiff / Martha – Avery Norris

Mr. Welch / Kev’s Dad – Eddie Aguirre

Dan / Zach – Aidan Dick

Jack – Kellen Rose

James – Michael Amir Nash

Rob – Jack Murphy

Janet / Video Store Clerk – Sabrina Ariss

Narrator – Paula Tiso

Written by Ashley Lauren

Produced by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Shaan Sharma for TABLE READ / Manifest Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The morning after Homecoming week hits different. P wakes up at Dizzy’s house pretending everything is fine, even though nothing is fine. The letter from St. John’s is in his pocket like a weight. The DeLorean didn’t show. The note he wrote is still in his head.

Outside, Kev and Dizzy shoot hoops like the world is normal. P pretends right along with them. The kind of pretending every kid knows too well. Then real life barges in, and the moment they were waiting for disappears before it even starts.

At the video store, things get even tighter. Bex is behind the counter. Kev is cracking jokes that cut deeper than he realizes. P is trying to disappear inside a ruined shirt and a smile that doesn’t fit anymore.

He escapes to the back room, plays a fighting game, and chooses the one character who feels closest to the person he can’t say out loud. For a second, he can breathe. Then everything and everyone he’s avoiding walks right in.

Act Two is where the mask slips. Where jokes stop being jokes. Where P realizes he can’t keep pretending forever.

SMALL BLOCK is a feature screenplay by Ashley Lauren, performed live and mixed like a feature film for your ears. From the award-winning team at TABLE READ / Manifest Media Productions.

Content Advisory: This episode contains suicidal ideation, transphobic and homophobic language, and minor fatphobic language, used intentionally to serve the story and its period portrayal.

New episodes drop Tuesdays. Subscribe now.

Cast (Full Feature):

P - Levi Dafferner

Kev - Kosi Eguchi

Bex - Piper Kingston

Dizzy - Deryck Hak

Miss World - Lydia Tinsley

Dad - Adam Pilver

Mrs. D - Gemma Kyle

Mom - Leah Zhang

Britt - Eric Miller

Tiff / Martha - Avery Norris

Mr. Welch / Kev's Dad - Eddie Aguirre

Dan / Zach - Aidan Dick

Jack - Kellen Rose

James - Michael Amir Nash

Rob - Jack Murphy

Janet / Video Store Clerk - Sabrina Ariss

Narrator - Paula Tiso

Written by Ashley Lauren

Produced by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Shaan Sharma for TABLE READ / Manifest Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's Homecoming Weekend in North Texas, 1994. Fourteen-year-old P is barely holding it together, shaving a single whisker in the bathroom mirror, writing a note he almost can't take back, and dialing his best friend Kev before a Zippo flame turns fear into momentum.

At school, P's movie-trivia fluency sabotages Kev in a "battle of the sexes" quiz, earning heat from Kev and former best friend Bex. After class, the band - P, Kev, and Dizzy - argues Pantera vs. Korn, then mainlines '90s VHS nostalgia with Ace Ventura and The Crow.

Then the impossible slides by in stainless steel: a DeLorean. Its driver, "Miss World," knows her metal, quotes regrets, and won't take three teens on a joyride yet. She'll be back tomorrow at 11 A.M.

Under Friday-night lights, P pulls down a highlight-reel TD in a scrappy eighth-grade pickup game while Dizzy's hustling block saves the play. Back in the stands, P's parents pitch football and fitting in. P keeps tugging his shirt straight and his purple beanie low, but the question won't leave him alone: who is he allowed to be, especially if the words for it don't exist here?

SMALL BLOCK is a feature screenplay by Ashley Lauren, performed live and mixed like a feature film for your ears. From the award-winning team at TABLE READ / Manifest Media Productions.

Content Advisory: This episode contains suicidal ideation, transphobic and homophobic language, and minor fatphobic language, used intentionally to serve the story and its period portrayal.

New episodes drop Tuesdays. Subscribe now.

Cast (Full Feature):

P - Levi Dafferner

Kev - Kosi Eguchi

Bex - Piper Kingston

Dizzy - Deryck Hak

Miss World - Lydia Tinsley

Dad - Adam Pilver

Mrs. D - Gemma Kyle

Mom - Leah Zhang

Britt - Eric Miller

Tiff / Martha - Avery Norris

Mr. Welch / Kev's Dad - Eddie Aguirre

Dan / Zach - Aidan Dick

Jack - Kellen Rose

James - Michael Amir Nash

Rob - Jack Murphy

Janet / Video Store Clerk - Sabrina Ariss

Narrator - Paula Tiso

Written by Ashley Lauren

Produced by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Shaan Sharma for TABLE READ / Manifest Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SMALL BLOCK — Trailer

A 14-year-old kid, a DeLorean, and a 90s world that doesn’t have the words for who he is yet.

Small Block isn’t nostalgia, it’s a gut-check of youth, identity, and music that could save your life or end it.

Performed live by an award-winning cast and mixed like a feature film for your ears.

From the Award-winning team at TABLE READ, this is cinema you can hear.

🎧 Listen now — new episodes drop every Tuesday

CAST

P – Levi Dafferner

Kev – Kosi Eguchi

Bex – Piper Kingston

Dizzy – Deryck Hak

Miss World – Lydia Tinsley

Dad – Adam Pilver

Mrs. D – Gemma Kyle

Mom – Leah Zhang

Britt – Eric Miller

Tiff / Martha – Avery Norris

Mr. Welch / Kev’s Dad – Eddie Aguirre

Dan / Zach – Aidan Dick

Jack – Kellen Rose

James – Michael Amir Nash

Rob – Jack Murphy

Janet / Video Store Clerk – Sabrina Ariss

Narrator – Paula Tiso

Written by Ashley Lauren

🎙️ Produced by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Shaan Sharma for TABLE READ / Manifest Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gateway: One & Two

A classified cockpit recording. A military tragedy wrapped in silence. A secret government experiment that suggests human consciousness may not be confined to the body, the brain, or even time itself.

When Lt. Col. Wayne McDonnell is pulled into an investigation involving Army Intelligence, the CIA, and the mysterious Monroe Institute, he expects a case. What he finds is a threshold.

Inspired by the real declassified Gateway Process, Acts One and Two launch McDonnell into a world where science, espionage, altered consciousness, Hemi-Sync, remote viewing, and time begin to collapse into one terrifying possibility:

The mind may not simply observe reality.

It may be able to enter it.

As the experiment deepens, McDonnell encounters failed subjects, hidden rooms, impossible memories, and visions of the past too vivid to dismiss. What begins as an investigation becomes a journey into the most dangerous frontier ever explored: the human mind.

Because the past may not be gone.

The future may not be waiting.

And the Gateway may already be open.

Starring Zeke Alton, Petri Hawkins Byrd, Ashley Platz, Cam Clarke, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, and Shaan Sharma.

Written by Dave Pirinelli.

Story by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Dave Pirinelli.

Produced by Table Read Podcast and Manifest Media Productions, LLC.

Executive Produced by Jack Levy, Shaan Sharma, and Mark Knell.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The TV clicks on.

Everything else clicks off.

The screen glows like the last church in hell. A newscaster reads order into chaos while the world decomposes behind him. Ben watches like a man staring at his own grave. Barbara, in Olivia Graham’s haunting performance, doesn’t watch at all. She’s already gone.

Then the floor creaks. Harry Cooper climbs out of the basement like ego in human form. Jim Connor gives him every ounce of misplaced authority. Behind him, Helen (Wendy Shapero) and their daughter—pale, bitten, doomed.

Romero stops making a zombie movie and starts the autopsy. The dead don’t kill the living. The living do that themselves.

Ben wants the boards. Harry wants the basement. Tom (Charlie Bodin) just wants peace. Every word is gasoline. Every silence is a match.

When dawn comes, it’s not rescue. It’s rifles.

One shot.

One mistake.

One truth.

Romero didn’t make horror. He made history.

Turn off the lights. Lock the doors.

Remember who the real monsters were.

CAST

Narrator: Jack Daniel

Ben: Zeke Alton

Barbara: Olivia Graham

Harry Cooper: Jim Connor

Helen Cooper: Wendy Shapero

Tom: Charlie Bodin

Sheriff McClelland: Rob Fitzgerald

Announcer: Adam Pilver

Ghouls: Natalia Castellanos & Josh Sterling

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Barbara made it to the house. Barely.

Ben's about to turn it into a war zone.

Ben spins suddenly inside the kitchen door and the movie stops being polite. This is where Romero strips the fantasy out of survival and leaves you with splinters, sweat, and the sound of a man trying to think faster than death moves.

Zeke Alton plays Ben like a man who's already lost but refuses to lie down. He hammers, he plans, he moves. Barbara, still shattered in Olivia Graham's haunting performance, watches him build their coffin and calls it hope. The boards go up. The windows disappear. The house becomes a box.

Then Ben does the unthinkable - he lights the dead on fire.

A corpse burns in the yard like a funeral no one asked for. The flames push back the night, and for thirty seconds, it feels like winning. But fire doesn't last, and the dead don't quit. They just wait.

The radio crackles to life: "Stay inside. Stay calm."

Ben laughs without sound. Calm died an hour ago.

Romero doesn't give you relief. He gives you wood, nails, and the slow realization that every choice Ben makes is the wrong choice and the only choice. Barbara floats through the room like a ghost practicing for the real thing. The house groans. The dead press closer. And somewhere in the static, the world pretends it still has answers.

By the time Ben mutters, "All right, this is your decisions," and they move toward the glow of the television, the farmhouse has stopped being shelter. It's a tomb with a TV set, and the truth is about to crawl out of the screen.

Romero doesn't write escape.

He writes what happens when the walls hold but the people don't.

The dead are patient.

The living are coming apart.

CAST

Narrator: Jack Daniel

Ben / Truck Driver: Zeke Alton

Barbara: Olivia Graham

Harry Tinsdale: Jim Connor

Helen Cooper: Wendy Shapero

Tom: Charlie Bodin

Sheriff McClelland: Rob Fitzgerald

TV Commentator: Adam Pilver

Zombies / Ghouls: Natalia Castellanos & Josh Sterling

Light a match. Lock the door. Press play.

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They say legends never die. Turns out, neither do their zombies.

In this special Table Read Podcast event, featuring a foreword by New York Times bestselling horror author Scott Sigler, we crack open the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead script, the one George A. Romero actually wrote before the edits, the rewrites, the budget, and the chaos. This is Romero raw and unfiltered. Every word, every stage direction, every creeping dread exactly as it hit the page before it hit the lens.

You think you’ve seen Night of the Living Dead? You haven’t. You’ve seen the movie. This is the mind behind the movie. The blueprint that split horror wide open and rewired the genre forever.

ACT ONE: “They’re Coming to Get You, Barbara”

It starts quiet. Too quiet.

A car grinds up a lonely Pennsylvania hill into a cemetery where the dead are supposed to stay dead. Barbara and her brother Johnny, bickering, restless, too human for their own good, walk straight into the kind of dusk where nothing bad has happened yet.

Romero takes his time. He paints dread with daylight. Every cricket, every whisper of grass feels like a countdown. Johnny cracks the line that changed horror forever:

“They’re coming to get you, Barbara.”

And then they do.

The attack is ugly, real, and raw. No slick cuts or Hollywood screams. Just human panic meeting human decay. Barbara’s brother goes down, and the world tilts off its axis. She runs barefoot through the graveyard, through the dark, through the sound of her own heartbeat losing the race.

She stumbles into a farmhouse, the kind of place that used to mean safety in old movies, and finds only silence, blood, and memory. The phone’s dead. The air hums wrong. And in that silence, Romero builds the first true church of modern horror.

Then Ben arrives, played with fire by Zeke Alton, a man caught between survival and sanity. He’s no superhero. He’s sweat, breath, and motion. While Barbara, brought to life by Olivia Graham, unravels, Ben fights back, board by board, nail by nail, until the walls themselves start to shake.

By the end of Act One, the flames are rising, the dead are circling, and two strangers are clinging to the last illusion of safety. The world outside isn’t ending. It already ended.

Romero didn’t just write a horror story.

He wrote America’s bad dream, and we just woke it up.

CAST

Narrator: Jack Daniel

Ben / Truck Driver: Zeke Alton

Barbara: Olivia Graham

Harry Tinsdale: Jim Connor

Helen Cooper: Wendy Shapero

Tom: Charlie Bodin

Sheriff McClelland: Rob Fitzgerald

TV Commentator: Adam Pilver

Zombies / Ghouls: Natalia Castellanos & Josh Sterling

Light a match. Lock the door. Press play.

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NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT A Table Read Podcast Event

Before Duane Jones rewrote cinema history. Before the farmhouse became ground zero for modern horror. Before "They're coming to get you, Barbara" entered the cultural lexicon forever.

There was the script George Romero actually wrote.

And holy shit, it's nothing like what you think you know.

Picture this: Ben wasn't Ben - he was "Truckdriver." Barbara wasn't traumatized - she was practically catatonic from page one. The basement wasn't a refuge - it was barely mentioned. And that ending that scarred you for life? Completely different.

This isn't just some lost draft gathering dust. This is the DNA of every zombie story that followed, in its purest, most unfiltered form.

Jack Daniel narrates this apocalyptic archaeological dig - the SAG-AFTRA powerhouse behind trailers for The Suicide Squad, Ford v Ferrari, and Jackass Forever.

With our killer cast: Zeke Alton as Ben (former Navy Test Pilot, "Eyes of Wakanda") Olivia Graham as Barbara ("Agent") Jim Connor as Harry Tinsdale (the legendary Larry Culpepper!) Wendy Shapero as Helen Cooper ("Robot Chicken") Rob Fitzgerald as Sheriff McClelland (the original "I Love You Man" Johnny) Charlie Bodin as Tom ("Halt and Catch Fire") Adam Pilver as TV Commentator ("Timeless") Natalia Castellanos as Zombies/Ghouls ("Bosch: Legacy") Josh Sterling as Zombies/Ghouls ("Tenants")

Seven strangers. One farmhouse. The birth of modern horror.

But not the way you remember it.

TABLE READ PODCAST Where great stories come alive

Available everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Some resurrections are worth waiting for.

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Henrietta has stopped speaking. At St. Rosalia Indian School in 1905, silence is the only weapon left to her. The nuns mistake it for surrender. They don’t see how compassion slips between the cracks: a blanket to a shivering girl, a crust of bread for a starving boy, a circle of children daring to call magic into being with their hands. When a glowing light answers Henrietta’s defiance, the children learn to believe again—though belief always comes with a cost.

Back in Oak Bluffs, Maya sees the same light. And now she wants answers. Who were Henrietta’s people? What words set her free? With Lupe’s help—and a genealogist who knows the Wampanoag roots of this island—Maya begins a search her father would never understand. Robert, meanwhile, is losing clients, losing patience, and perhaps, losing his grip. He finds Lupe at grief counseling, and their past lives brush against the present in ways neither expected.

At Moonstone Rescue, a golden retriever’s broken leg tests the line between sanctuary and science. At Jean’s art show, Maya enlists her friends in a ridiculous sabotage campaign to keep her dad away from the witch. And at the edge of the farm, Axel Grayson makes his move—sending his realtor with offers of money, sentiment, and thinly veiled threats.

Written by Dominique Mouton.

Starring Vanessa Richardson, Madison Griggs, Rainbow Dickerson, Zeke Alton, Sarah Elmaleh, Angel Harper, Amanda Christine, David Reeves Tordilla, Parker Johnson, Derek Mehn, Felisha Wong, and Sarah Phillips.

This is what happens when light returns to the silenced. When the words of your ancestor call across generations. When Oak Bluffs decides who belongs, and who will be cast out.

Executive Producers: Shaan Sharma, Mark Knell, Jack Levy

TABLE READ A Manifest Media production.

Big thanks to Mood.com our partner in high vibes. Use code TABLEREAD20 for 20% off at Mood.com. Legal THC & CBD. Nationwide. You’re welcome

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Moonstone Rescue (Pilot)

Maya Rhodes hasn’t spoken to her dead mother in two years. Not since the cancer. Not since her veterinarian father started putting down healthy animals and drinking alone at 2 p.m. Not since their black cat, Henrietta, began leading her to a farm everyone swears is cursed.

In Oak Bluffs, where rich men own everything and old women remember longer, lives Lupe McGregor. Part Wampanoag, part nobody’s business. The town calls her widow, witch, killer. Maya calls her the only adult who sees animals the way she does: as messengers carrying old grief and older medicine.

This is a ghost story where the living do more damage than the dead. Where 14-year-old girls inherit their great-great-grandmother’s boarding school traumas through dreams. Where love means teaching someone which plants heal... and which ones help you forget. Where a rose-breasted grosbeak at a cemetery means your mother heard you graduate, even if your father says birds are just birds, and dead means dead.

Written by Dominique Mouton.

Starring Vanessa Richardson, Madison Griggs, Rainbow Dickerson, Zeke Alton, Sarah Elmaleh, Angel Harper, Amanda Christine, David Reeves Tordilla, Parker Johnson, Derek Mehn, Felisha Wong, and Sarah Phillips.

This is what happens when the cat you named after your ancestor starts disappearing. You follow her. Even when she leads you to the witch’s house. Especially then.

Executive Producers: Shaan Sharma, Mark Knell, Jack Levy

TABLE READ A Manifest Media production.

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Moonstone Rescue mixes the sweep of family history with the wild side of magic realism. Moonstone unpacks the tangled lives of a small-town family... think intergenerational secrets, a talking cat with attitude, and ghosts that are way more than memories.

It’s part coming-of-age, part supernatural mystery, all wrapped in a voice that’s equal parts poetic and unfiltered. The story hits that sweet spot where grief collides with hope, and where love... sometimes messy, sometimes fierce... pulls everyone through.

Funny, brave, and a little bit haunted, Moonstone Rescue is for anyone who believes family legends are true, ancestors have unfinished business, and magic is hiding right under your nose.

Written by:

Dominique Mouton

Cast:

NARRATOR Vanessa Richardson

MAYA RHODES Madison Griggs

ROBERT RHODES Zeke Alton

NORAH RHODES/WOMAN. Sarah Elmaleh

JEAN RHODES Angel Harper

LUPE MCGREGOR Rainbow Dickerson

AXEL GRAYSON Ivar Brogger

JACKIE ANDREWS Amanda Christine

HUGO FUENTES David Reeves Tordilla

MAVERICK GRAYSON Parker Johnson

JOSH ROLLINS Derek Mehn

ZARA Felisha Wong

MRS. SILVA Sarah Phillips

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PABLO’S RHINO – ACT THREE

This is it. The rhino’s still dead. Pablo’s still insane. And our three idiots? They’re in way too deep… and now they’re in a musical.

Charlie’s hallucinating. Sam might be in love. Marcus definitely joins a jungle cult. And somehow, everyone’s singing. Yes, even Pablo. Yes, it slaps.

There’s a DEA sting gone sideways. A Colombian jungle rave with ayahuasca and jazz hands. A butt gets shot. A fake rhino gets stolen. And the final scene? Picture Book of Mormon on cocaine—if the choir was armed and one guy’s still pooping in a tree.

It’s sweaty. It’s stupid. It’s glorious.

This is Act Three of Pablo’s Rhino.

And it might just be our masterpiece.

Starring:

• Tim Friedlander as the Narrator
• Jim O'Heir as Charlie Bleeker – the neurotic, reluctant hero
• Darin Toonder as Marcus – the chaos agent with a trust fund and a dream
• Jeff Bergman as Sam – loyal, closeted, and occasionally clairvoyant
• Wayne Lopez as Pablo Escobar – the crime lord-turned-cheesemaker with a soft spot for rhinos
• Andrea Savo as Lucia – a badass Colombian cop who’s more Indiana Jones than law enforcement
• Keylor Leigh as Audrey – Charlie’s sharp-tongued, no-bullshit ex-wife
• Lynette Coll as Maria Chung Escobar – Pablo’s power-tripping wife with a hair-trigger temper
• Dustin Green as Agent Knowles – a DEA cowboy with a chip on his shoulder
• Holden Myers as Agent Martinez – the sidekick who really just wants empanadas

Written by Craig Goodwill & Sam Ruano, Pablo’s Rhino is a tequila-soaked thrill ride full of midlife panic, monkey knife fights, and unexpected heart.

Turn up. Black out. Hit play.

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Our three heroes are officially in over their heads.

After accidentally killing a rhinoceros that belonged to Pablo Escobar (yes, that Pablo Escobar), Charlie, Sam, and Marcus must scramble to replace the beast—or face the wrath of a very-much-alive crime lord.

Act Two turns the volume up on absurdity, as the guys tumble through hallucinogenic jungle rituals, cartel parties, DEA showdowns, a full-on rhino heist, and one unexpected monologue that might just save their lives.

Starring:

• Tim Friedlander as the Narrator
• Jim O'Heir as Charlie Bleeker – the neurotic, reluctant hero
• Darin Toonder as Marcus – the chaos agent with a trust fund and a dream
• Jeff Bergman as Sam – loyal, closeted, and occasionally clairvoyant
• Wayne Lopez as Pablo Escobar – the crime lord-turned-cheesemaker with a soft spot for rhinos
• Andrea Savo as Lucia – a badass Colombian cop who’s more Indiana Jones than law enforcement
• Keylor Leigh as Audrey – Charlie’s sharp-tongued, no-bullshit ex-wife
• Lynette Coll as Maria Chung Escobar – Pablo’s power-tripping wife with a hair-trigger temper
• Dustin Green as Agent Knowles – a DEA cowboy with a chip on his shoulder
• Holden Myers as Agent Martinez – the sidekick who really just wants empanadas

Written by Craig Goodwill & Sam Ruano, Pablo’s Rhino is a tequila-soaked thrill ride full of midlife panic, monkey knife fights, and unexpected heart.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Charlie Bleeker’s life is unraveling—his writing career is stalled, his ex-wife is a cop who can't resist pulling him over, and his teenage son views him as a failure.

When his reckless childhood friend Marcus proposes a dubious investment opportunity in Colombia, Charlie reluctantly agrees, setting off a chain of events that spiral hilariously out of control.

From entanglements with a reformed cartel leader-turned-pastry chef to mishaps involving Pablo Escobar's pet rhino, Act One of Pablo’s Rhino introduces a midlife crisis comedy where absurdity reigns and every decision leads to deeper chaos.

Starring:

• Tim Friedlander as the Narrator
• Jim O'Heir as Charlie, the beleaguered writer seeking redemption
• Darin Toonder as Marcus, the thrill-seeking trust-fund playboy
• Jeff Bergman as Sam, a man embracing his true self amidst the madness
• Wayne Lopez as Pablo Escobar, the notorious crime lord with a surprising new passion
• Andrea Savo as Lucia, the sharp-witted detective entangled in the chaos
• Dustin Green and Holden Myers as DEA agents Knowles & Martinez, whose investigative efforts are as misguided as they are comical
• Keylor Leigh as Audrey, Charlie's no-nonsense ex-wife who keeps him grounded
• Lynette Coll as Maria Chung Escobar, the formidable power behind the throne

Written by Craig Goodwill & Sam Ruano, Pablo’s Rhino is an over-the-top, fast-talking, tequila-soaked thrill ride that blends midlife crises with international escapades, delivering a story as unpredictable as it is entertaining.

Official Table Read Merch: https://thetablereadpodcast.myshopify.com/

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THE G.Y.M. — PILOT, ACTS TWO AND THREE By Dani Hanks

Pick up where Act One left off. Valerie still cannot get her commercial. The film crew is still in her face. The Solstice gym across the street is still winning. And things are about to get considerably worse.

Bryan is teaching group fitness despite not knowing what "happy baby" is, and every senior in the building keeps asking when Reggie is coming back. Kayla is supposed to be training her client. Her client is currently turning purple under a barbell. The cameraman looks weirdly familiar to her and she cannot place it. Chris is somewhere in the locker room going through a smoothie situation he did not ask for. Wade the IT guy is crawling through a server closet stuffed with the unpaid invoices Valerie has been hiding in her clipboard. And Valerie, our hero, has just told the cute IT guy that her anaconda doesn't want his real estate funds.

It's fine. Everything is fine.

By the time we get to the pool, Alexa is jumping off a diving board she has no business being on, Bryan is leading a secret back room of seniors through a yoga pose he learned thirty seconds ago, Wade is sitting next to a soaking wet Valerie holding the worst envelopes she's ever seen in her life, and the truth about who's been filming all day is about to drop in the middle of the room like a brick through a window.

Underneath the chaos, this is what the show is actually about: a woman trying to save the only place she ever felt at home, with a crew of misfits who have nowhere else to go either. Norman Lear would recognize this gym. So would anybody who's ever worked at one.

Meanwhile, across the street, in a chrome office at the new Solstice, a Southern silver fox in a tall cowboy hat is watching the whole thing through binoculars. He is having the time of his life. He is not done with The G.Y.M. Not even close.

Recorded live at Podcast Movement at SXSW in front of a packed house of our peers, and you can hear it in the room. Video version available on YouTube and across our channels.

CAST

Heather Foster - Narrator Allison Dunbar - Valerie Yasmine Al-Bustami - Kayla and Spin Client Kensington Tallman - Alexa and White Trash Spin Diva Shaan Sharma - Wade, Bored EMT, and Johnny Joe Nemmers - Gary Hughes, Cocky Newscaster, Television, and Gruff Driver Jacob A. Ware - Bryan and Sam Brian Villalobos - Chris, Weak-Armed Client, and Handyman Amy Bailey - Mary, Gem, Peppy Newscaster, First AC, and Phone Scott Hervey - Client Carlin (special guest appearance, our attorney from Weintraub Tobin)

Produced by Manifest Media. Created by Jack Levy, Mark Knell, and Shaan Sharma.

This live read benefits Best Friends Animal Society, selected by Allison Dunbar, dedicated to bringing no-kill to every shelter in the country. Save Them All. bestfriends.org/donate

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Pablo’s Rhino

Welcome to the table read that makes international crime, midlife crises, and questionable decision-making look like an art form. A washed-up accountant, a cartel queen, two bumbling DEA agents, and—because why not—Pablo Escobar’s pet rhino collide in a story so absurd, so wildly unpredictable, that even the characters can’t believe they’re in it.

Performed by an all-star cast who bring every unhinged line to life with reckless abandon:

🎙 Tim Friedlander as the Narrator
🎙 Jim O’Heir as Charlie, a brilliant writer turned reluctant action hero
🎙 Darin Toonder as Marcus, a trust-fund playboy with a taste for trouble
🎙 Jeff Bergman as Sam, a closeted man finally stepping into the spotlight (and possibly a fight cage)
🎙 Wayne Lopez as Pablo Escobar, a crime lord-turned-domesticated pastry chef
🎙 Andrea Savo as Lucia, a fierce detective with a soft spot for fools
🎙 Dustin Green & Holden Myers as DEA agents Knowles & Martinez, trying (and failing) to expose the truth
🎙 Keylor Leigh as Audrey, Charlie’s no-nonsense ex-wife who knows exactly how to keep him in line
🎙 Lynette Coll as Maria Chung Escobar, the real power behind the throne

Written by Craig Goodwill & Sam Ruano, Pablo’s Rhino is an over-the-top, fast-talking, bullet-dodging, tequila-soaked thrill ride that should probably come with a warning label.

Fast, smart, and just deranged enough to keep you coming back for more. Hit play before someone puts out a bounty on you too.

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"Table Read Podcast - The Jew Who Saved Christmas Aftershow"

In this spirited aftershow, Team S&M—Selena Warren and Marissa Reed—sit down to unpack the hilarious and heartfelt journey behind The Jew Who Saved Christmas. From crafting the ultimate holiday hybrid story to juggling CGI elves and wild budget dreams, the duo delves into the creative highs and chaotic moments that brought their script to life. They share their unique writing process, the joy of table reads, and the challenges of making their voices heard in a shifting entertainment landscape. Equal parts insightful and irreverent, this episode is a festive deep dive into storytelling, creativity, and what it takes to make a holiday classic that’s anything but traditional.

The Jew Who Saved Christmas

When Bernie Gold, a sarcastic, weed-toting Spirit Airlines agent, accidentally doses Santa Claus with a magical edible, she finds herself on a chaotic, high-flying quest to save Christmas—or risk becoming history’s most hated Jew. Packed with razor-sharp wit, irreverent humor, and surprisingly heartfelt moments, The Jew Who Saved Christmas is a fast-paced holiday comedy that blends absurd mishaps with touching lessons about family, identity, and the power of embracing the unexpected. It’s the ultimate Christmas-Hanukkah hybrid that will leave you laughing, cringing, and maybe even tearing up.

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Act 3: The Jew Who Saved Christmas

Strap in, folks—Act 3 of The Jew Who Saved Christmas takes the chaos of Acts 1 and 2, sprinkles it with some Christmas magic, and cranks it up to “Holy latke, is this really happening?” With Santa still higher than your cousin at a Phish concert, Bernie finds herself fully in charge of the sleigh, a bag of presents, and the fate of Christmas itself. No pressure, right?

From a showdown at TSA (where Bernie proves that saving Christmas sometimes means dodging tasers) to a rooftop brawl with reindeer in full meltdown mode, Bernie’s journey is a mix of slapstick comedy and heartfelt moments. There’s a rogue gingerbread elf screaming on the sleigh radio, Santa pulling Die Hard-level stunts, and Bernie dropping life advice on orphans like she’s a jaded holiday therapist. Did we mention she’s doing this all while rocking a pair of Uggs and the lingering regret of having roofied the big guy in red?

But it’s not all chaos (okay, it’s mostly chaos). Bernie starts to realize that maybe—just maybe—this whole fiasco is more than a holiday disaster. Maybe it’s her chance to prove she’s not the screw-up everyone thinks she is. Or maybe it’s just a chance to survive one more sleigh ride without hurling. Either way, it’s pure comedic gold.

The Cast Still Slaying It:
Jeff Bergman, Selyna Warren, Jim O’Heir, Marissa Read, John Milhiser, Kiel Kennedy, Tiffany Black, Carla Delaney, Ashley Bell, and David Jacks continue to bring their A-game, balancing over-the-top laughs with just the right amount of holiday heart.

✨Act 3 of The Jew Who Saved Christmas is what happens when Elf meets Superbad at a menorah-lighting party. It’s absurd, hilarious, a little sweet, and the perfect ending to a holiday tale that’s anything but traditional. Whether you’re here for the laughs, the feels, or just to see how Bernie gets out of this mess, you won’t be disappointed.🎄🔥

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Act 2: The Jew Who Saved Christmas

So, remember how Bernie accidentally roofied Santa? Yeah, things have escalated. Turns out, when you drug the guy who single-handedly runs Christmas, the universe hands you the reins of a magical sleigh and screams, “Good luck, schmuck!” Act 2 is Bernie’s full-blown trial by (latke) fire as she fumbles her way through saving the holiday while Santa cycles between being zonked out and, uh, aggressively unhinged.

With a sleigh that feels like it’s held together by Hanukkah prayers and duct tape, Bernie somehow manages to deliver presents across the Midwest. We’re talking rooftops, chimneys, and more near-death experiences than a Spirit Airlines landing. Along the way, she’s got to wrangle her stoned passenger (Santa with candy cane nunchucks, anyone?), give some real talk to a tiny sad orphan about divorce (because therapy was booked), and dodge TSA agent Gimble, who’s basically The Terminator if he hated joy instead of Sarah Connor.

And let’s talk about the chaos: reindeer meltdowns. An almost crash landing. Bernie’s sudden realization that “wait, this sleigh doesn’t have seatbelts??” This act is a disaster in the BEST way—like if Seth Rogen got to rewrite The Polar Express. And just when Bernie starts thinking, “Hey, maybe I’m good at this?”—the universe is like, “LOL, nah.” Cue Santa going full Maccabee berserker mode.

And the cast? They’re killing it:

• Jeff Bergman, Selyna Warren, Jim O’Heir, Marissa Read, John Milhiser, Kiel Kennedy, Tiffany Black, Carla Delaney, Ashley Bell, and David Jacks make this ride more fun than watching your drunk uncle try to carve the turkey. Everyone’s bringing their A-game, delivering laughs sharper than Bernie’s wit and just enough heart to keep you invested in this glorious dumpster fire of a Christmas tale.

✨Act 2 of The Jew Who Saved Christmas is snarky, chaotic, and unexpectedly sweet. It’s everything you’d want in a holiday comedy—plus a little weed, some questionable decisions, and a lot of screaming. Who knew saving Christmas could be this messy—or this much fun?

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Act 1: The Jew Who Saved Christmas

Welcome to the holiday chaos you never knew you needed. Meet Bernie Gold—Spirit Airlines check-in clerk, reluctant adult, and connoisseur of bad decisions. It’s Christmas Eve (or, as Bernie will remind you, the seventh night of Hanukkah), and while the rest of O’Hare Airport is brimming with holiday cheer, Bernie’s slouching her way through TSA complaints, confiscated wine bottles, and unsolicited career advice from her aggressively optimistic co-worker, Eve.

Bernie’s life is a snow globe of dysfunction, and someone just shook it—hard. Enter a mysterious piece of "Miracle Gelt" that takes this night from mildly chaotic to “holy crap, is that actually Santa Claus in my parents’ garage?” Let’s just say Santa’s not exactly in prime sleigh-piloting condition, and Bernie might’ve had something to do with it. What follows is a whirlwind of edible-fueled mishaps, family judgment, and a holiday disaster that’s teetering on the edge of redemption.

And the Cast?
This lineup will make you laugh so hard you’ll spill your eggnog:

• Jeff Bergman (@jeffbergmanofficial) – The voice legend who brings magic to every moment.
• Selyna Warren (@selynadoubleya) – Writer, star, and the kind of comedic genius that keeps you hooked.
• Jim O’Heir (@therealjimoheir) – The guy who stole your heart in Parks and Rec steals the show again.
• Marissa Read (@marissalread) – A double-duty powerhouse delivering laughs and heart.
• John Milhiser (@johnmilhiser) – Former SNL dynamo bringing the absurdity to life.
• Kiel Kennedy (@kielkennedy) – The gold standard of comedy chaos.
• Tiffany Black (@tiffanyblackness) – Pure holiday hilarity in human form.
• Carla Delaney (@voicesbycarla) – The kind of voice work that makes you laugh even when you don’t want to.
• Ashley Bell (@ashleymichaelbell) – A scene-stealer who brings charm and mischief in equal measure.
• David Jacks – An actor who makes every moment count.

✨This isn’t your cookie-cutter holiday story. It’s raw, messy, ridiculously funny, and filled with just the right amount of holiday heart.

Elevator Pitch:
In Act 1 of The Jew Who Saved Christmas, you’ll laugh, cringe, and maybe even tear up a little as Bernie Gold stumbles her way through a Hanukkah-Christmas mashup of biblical proportions. With sharp dialogue, hilariously flawed characters, and just enough holiday magic to keep you guessing, this is the start of a holiday tale that’s anything but traditional—and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

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