Beckett's Babies

Hello listeners! This week, we had such an incredible time chatting with the one and only Dr. Lisa Quoresimo! In this episode, Lisa tells us all about the voice and how it’s shaped by bodily practices. You don’t want to miss our interview! Lisa is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Southern Utah University, and co-founder and director of Catalyst: a Theatre Think Tank. Her work as a performer and composer has been seen recently in the SF Bay Area at Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, and many more. Her theatrical research has been published in major journals including Theatre Topics and Frontiers, and she has been invited to present her research on voice and gender at the Voice and Speech Teachers' Association, Performance Studies International, and the National Conference on Women’s Studies. To learn more about Lisa and all her incredible research, visit her at: Website - http://quoresimo.com/index.html Catalyst, a Theatre Think Tank - https://catalyst3t.com/ GLISTENS: Sam - Bald Rock Mountain / apple-picking

We return to our Playwright Series where we look at a single playwright and their large body of work. In this episode, we discuss the life and work of NAOMI WALLACE. We read the three plays: In the Heart of America (1994), Slaughter City (1996), and The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (1998) to share our thoughts on Naomi Wallace's craft in playwriting. We hope you will check these plays out and listen in to our conversation! NAOMI WALLACE'S PLAYS: 1. In the Heart of America (1994) 2. Slaughter City (1996) 3. The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (1998) GLISTENS: Sam's: Julius Caesar / Donmar Trilogy dir. By Phyllida Lloyd - Harriet Walter plays Brutus https://stannswarehouse.org/show/donmar-trilogy/ Sarah's: Termites lol gross _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we migh

Hello listeners! This week, we chat with Artistic Producer and resident playwright of Theatre in the Dark, Mack Gordon. He is the co-adapter and performer of “A War of the Worlds”, which will be playing this October 15th until November 21st. Be sure to check out the links below to learn more about the show and how you can get tickets. You're not going to want to miss this incredibly unique audio drama! THEATRE IN THE DARK creates stories through sound. Focused on virtual production until COVID has passed. To learn more and purchase tickets, visit: www.theatreinthedark.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theatre_dark/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/theatredark To follow Mack Gordon and see what he's up to, be sure to follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mackgord Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mackgordon/ GLISTENS: Cho - The fly on Pence’s Head / Amy Sedaris’ Instagram post about evil flies Sam - Covita from the Lincoln Project Mack - Canadian Bands: Aidan Knight, Yukon Blonde / Canadian

Hello listeners! This week, we chat with playwright, actor, producer and director Katrina D. RiChard. Katrina digs deep into playwriting by sharing her thoughts, experience, and encouragement to write. Her new play “Call for the Wailing Women” will premiere as part of Black Lives Black Words International Project, ‘Plays for the People’, an online play season celebrating the diversity of the African-American and African experience in today’s world. Be sure to check it out! Katrina D. RiChard has performed on stages across the city of Chicago and the Chicagoland area as well as worked behind the scenes as a writer, producer, and director. She was born and bred on the South Side of Chicago. The city continues to hold a special place in her heart and is one of the primary places she writes about. Katrina served Chicago Public Schools for over a decade teaching High School Social Science, and she uses her history background in her writing as well. She is working on her MFA in Dramatic Writing at the Universit

As part of our monthly play series, we pick a play to discuss and this month’s play is "Ballyturk" by Enda Walsh. The play was recommended to us by one of our listeners Meredith Bartmon for this month. We discuss what we noticed, what we liked, and questions that came up while reading the play. Note: There are some spoiler alerts! We highly recommend you read the play before listening to this episode! About BALLYTURK: Two unnamed male characters live in a single-room dwelling and discuss an imaginary town in Ireland called Ballyturk. Born in Dublin, Enda Walsh is an Irish Playwright. A multi-award-winning Irish playwright, his work has been translated into over twenty languages and has been performed internationally since 1998. He won Tony Award in 2012 for writing the book for the musical "Once", which went on to play on Broadway, in the West End, and a US tour. He current lives in London with his family. RELATED LINKS: "Review: A Fantasy Town Builds a Wall Against Time in ‘Ballyturk’" by By Ben Brantl

Hello listeners! This week, we chat with Oakland-based playwright JONATHAN SPECTOR and learn about his remarkable journey into theater. We dig deep into his play "Eureka Day" as he shares his thoughts on playwriting. Be sure to read "Eureka Day" when it becomes available! We're so excited for you to listen to this episode. Check it out! Jonathan Spector is a playwright based in Oakland, California. His play "Eureka Day" was a New York Times 'Critics’ Pick' and received all of the San Francisco Bay Area’s new play Awards: Glickman Award, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, Theatre Bay Area Award, and Rella Lossy Award. This and other plays including "This Much I Know", "What Comes Next", and "Siesta Key" have been produced and developed across the country. He is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a Core Writer at Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and a recipient of South Coast Rep's Elizabeth George Commission. In October, his audio drama "The Flats" (co-written with Lauren Gunderson and Cleavon Smith) will pr

Hello listeners! We are so excited for you to listen to this new episode of Beckett's Babies! We had an amazing conversation discussing all-things theater and directing new work with the one and only MARINA J. BERGENSTOCK! Marina J. Bergenstock (she/her) is a director, dramaturg, performer, and educator. She holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Iowa. She formerly was on faculty at Beloit College in Wisconsin. She starts her Ph.D. studies at Stanford University in Theatre and Performance Studies, specializing in Arab Theatre. To learn more about Marina and her work, be sure to check out her website at www.marinabergenstock.com GLISTENS: Sarah - Netflix's Julie and the Anthems / Plays on NPX: beth by Alex Lin, WYWH by Tom Moran, A Murder of Crows by France Beck Sam - Nina Morrison's reading of Hearts on Fire / Gabrielle Calvocoressi reading with Grinnell/Prairie Lights Marina - Netflix's The Babysitter's Club / Google Map Add-On Stanford Gleaning Project / Helpful Advice from her Ph.D. Orienta

This episode is all about receiving and providing notes on our plays. What the heck do you do with all the feedback? What are some best practices when receiving notes? When is it useful? When is it not? Can notes be too prescriptive? Or could it be more prescriptive? We attempt to discuss by sharing our own experiences as note givers and takers to shed some light on best practices. GLISTENS Sarah - HBO Raised by Wolves, Amazon The Boys, learning how to draw, and reading so many scripts on New Play Exchange! Sam - Oven-roasted cherry tomatoes!!! RELATED LINKS: Scriptnotes Podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/71XK4ZPCkZgpN6NbhW4p1w?si=QQ6G9hmGRL6VLcYgEkBEmA Howlround - “Notes to the Note-Givers; or, Embracing the Paradox” essay by Catherine Trieschman https://howlround.com/notes-note-givers-or-embracing-paradox How to Organize Writing Feedback so You Can Rewrite With Confidence by David Safford https://thewritepractice.com/organize-writing-feedback/ ________________________ Please support Beckett's

Hello listeners! We are so excited for you to listen to this new episode of Beckett's Babies! We had an amazing conversation discussing all-things playwriting with fellow Iowa playwright DEBORAH YARCHUN! Deborah Yarchun’s honors include two Jerome Fellowships at the Playwrights’ Center, a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, the 2020 Neukom Literary Arts Award for Playwriting, an EST/Sloan Commission, the Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, and the Kernodle New Play Award. She’s been a playwright-in-residence at the William Inge Center for the Arts and a member of the Civilians’ R&D Group. Deborah’s a graduate of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. GLISTENS: Sarah - Andy Warhol's 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy Sam - Spaulding’s Rock Deborah - HBO’s Lovecraft Country To learn more about Deborah and her work, be sure to check out the following websites: Website: www.DeborahYarchun.com NPX page: https://newplayexchange.org/users/114/deborah-yarchun Be

We return to our Playwright Series where we look at a single playwright and their large body of work. We discuss plays from their early, mid-career, and the latest or most recent play of their career. In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Paula Vogel. We read the three plays: And Baby Makes Seven (1984), How I Learned to Drive (1997), and Indecent (2017) to share our thoughts on Paula Vogel's craft in playwriting. We hope you will check these plays out and listen in to our conversation! PAULA VOGEL’S PLAYS: 1. And Baby Makes Seven (1984) 2. How I Learned to Drive (1997) 3. Indecent (2017) GLISTENS: Sarah's: California Wildfires Sam's: Wired's Five Levels series _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email:

In this episode, we discuss some of the ideas behind writing prompt and playwriting exercises, our own personal experience with prompts, and share a few of our favorites. What do we look for in a prompt that makes for an effective, productive, creative writing exercises? Give this episode a listen and be sure to let us know what you think! GLISTENS: Sarah: A dream Sam: Hand pies LINKS: "Playwrights Teach Playwriting" https://www.amazon.com/Playwrights-Teach-Playwriting-Career-Development/dp/1575254239 by Joan Herrington (Editor), Brian Crystal (Editor) Additional writing prompts: https://pwcenter.org/playwriting-toolkit/5-prompts-jumpstart-your-weekend-writing ________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For

As part of our monthly play series, we pick a play to discuss and this month’s play is a collection of 3 one-act comedy plays called “Power Plays” by Elaine May and Alan Arkin. Instead of looking at the plays individually, we attempt to look at all 3 one-act plays together as it was intended to be performed in a single evening of theater. We are going to discuss what we noticed, what we liked, and questions that came up while reading the play. Note: There are some spoiler alerts! We highly recommend you read the play before listening to this episode! About POWER PLAYS: Power Plays consists of 3 one-act plays called “The Way of All Fish”, “Virtual Reality” and “In and Out of the Light”. These are three short plays about the collision of wills and power that premiered Off-Broadway. Elaine May is an American comedian, film director, screenwriter, and actress. She made her initial impact in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols, performing as Nichols and May. Alan Arkin is an

Hello listeners! We are so excited for you to listen to this new episode of Beckett's Babies! We had an amazing conversation discussing all-things playwriting with playwright, actor, producer MARJORIE MULLER! In this episode, Marjorie shares how she got into playwriting, her tips and tricks, and we also chat about TikTok(uh oh!). We hope you enjoy this episode! Marjorie Muller is a Chicago-based playwright, actor, and producer, whose work has been featured at Urbanite Theater, the Women's Theatre Festival, Impostors Theatre Company, and more. She is currently developing an adaptation of Dracula for young adults called "Lucy Westenra Is Definitely Not (And Will Never Be) a Vampire" that will be performed this Fall at the Latin School of Chicago. She is also producing a live audio drama with Theatre in the Dark based on War of the Worlds which will be happening this upcoming Fall. GLISTENS: Sarah - CSA box Sam - blueberries Marjorie - listening to the entire discography of Led Zeppelin. Find that bass line!

As part of our new monthly play series, we pick a play to discuss and this month’s play is “Sweat" by Lynn Nottage. In this episode, we discuss what we noticed, what we liked, and questions that came up while reading the play. Note: There are some spoilers! We highly recommend you read the play before listening to this episode! About SWEAT: SWEAT tells the story of a group of friends who have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets, and laughs while working together on the factory floor. But when layoffs and picket lines begin to chip away at their trust, the friends find themselves pitted against each other in a heart-wrenching fight to stay afloat. (summary from Dramatist Play Service) SWEAT won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015; it was produced Off-Broadway in 2016 and on Broadway in 2017. Lynn Nottage is an American playwright whose work often deals with the lives of marginalized people. She is a professor of Playwriting at Columbia Univ

How do you think about research when beginning a new play? When do you begin the research process? How do you know when to start writing? In this episode we discuss our own experiences on which plays of ours have required research; how did we do this research; and how do we feel about research. We ask ourselves how do we incorporate research without making the play overly expositional or boring and what are some best practices in organizing all this research? Let us know what you think! We'd love to hear from you. GLISTENS: Sarah: Michelle Obama. Michelle Kwan. Michelle McNamara. Michelle's. Sam: Wool Blankets HELPFUL LINKS: "On the Fine Art of Researching For Fiction" by Jake Wolff https://lithub.com/on-the-fine-art-of-researching-for-fiction/ “Inspiration from artifacts: writing plays for the future inspired by the past” by Katie Bender https://pwcenter.org/playwriting-toolkit/inspiration-artifacts-writing-plays-future-inspired-past On dramaturgy https://howlround.com/research ____________________

Hi listeners! In this episode, we chat with the one and only Playwright, Co-Founder and Managing Curating Producer of Black Lives Black Words International Project Reginald Edmund. Black Lives Black Words International Project launched an online play season celebrating the diversity of the African-American and African experience in today’s world called ‘Plays for the People’. The season features new works from seven cutting-edge black playwrights: Reginald Edmund, Chisa Hutchinson, Anya Pearson, Dominic Taylor, Idris Goodwin, Katrina D. RiChard, and Wole Oguntokun. The season opened on July 8th and will continue to run through November 8th, 2020. Learn more about Black Lives Black Words and be sure to catch a show this season at www.blacklivesblackwords.org/get-tickets To learn more about Reginald's plays, check out his New Play Exchange here: https://newplayexchange.org/users/632/reginald-edmund GLISTENS Sarah: Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries Reginald: Amazon’s Homecoming, Amazon’s The Expanse , and We Buy

We are excited for an all-new series where we look at the work of a single playwright and from their large body of work, we look at the first play they’ve ever written, a play from their mid-career, and the latest or the most recent play of their career. In this first of what we hope to be many series, we discuss the life and work of August Wilson. We read the three plays Jitney, The Piano Lesson, and Radio Golf to discuss our thoughts and August Wilson's craft of playwriting. We hope you will check these plays out and join us! AUGUST WILSON PLAYS: 1. Jitney 2. The Piano Lesson 3. Radio Golf GLISTENS: Sarah's: I hate fireworks. Sam's: Urgent Care + human touch _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contac

Have you ever written an artistic statement? Every playwright, at some point in their career, has to write an artistic statement, or what others might call a “Manifesto”. Whether it be for a playwriting opportunity, or for your website, it might be good to have one in your arsenal ready to go. In this episode, we want to discuss what it is, what’s the purpose, why it may or may not be important, how you could approach to writing one, and questions to help you get started in thinking about what your artistic statement. GLISTENS: Sarah: Sarah Moved to a New Apartment Sam: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee HELPFUL LINKS: Tips for Writing Your Artistic Statement from the Playwrights Corner. https://www.larktheatre.org/blog/tips-writing-your-artistic-statment/ “The Artist Statement - From Playwrights to Artistic Directors, This is What They Said…” from Theaterspeak http://www.theaterspeak.org/2013/08/the-artist-statement-from-playwrights.html "What's Your Brand? Not Having One Is Hurting You" https://blog.finaldraft.

Based in Chicago, Tanuja Jagernauth is an Indo-Caribbean playwright, dramaturg, and ceramic artist who believes in the necessity of creation during times of destruction. We talked with Tanuja a few months ago about her theatrical work, and we have her back on to discuss her work organizing the response of Chicago theaters to the Black Lives Matter movement, the coronavirus pandemic, and this moment in time. She will be working on a musical adaptation of FAUST with Prop Thtr with Olivia Lilley as the director. They start a workshop in July and the production will be in the spring of 2021. Be sure to be on the lookout! GLISTENS: Sarah - Her postponed Wedding Tanuja - Google "racist statues Enya" Sam - Netflix's When They See Us Tanuja's Recommendations, References & Uplifts: WASTED by Free Street Theater https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-street-theater-presents-wasted-tickets-108725549044 "Victory Gardens Boards Windows Against Black Lives, Arts Community Protests Leadership" by Regina Victor https://rescri

Hello, listeners. We hope you are well and staying safe. We are still processing what's happening in the country and the world. In this episode, we discuss some ways theaters are responding to the Black Lives Matter movement. One of which is #openyourlobby. The following theaters have opened their doors in response to the movement. This is not the complete list as more theatres may be opening their doors. Below is what we know so far. We would love to hear what you've experienced and noticing what other theaters are doing. NEW YORK MANHATTAN New York Theatre Workshop - first ART South Oxford Space IRT Theatre The Public Theatre Playwrights Horizons Atlantic Theater Company Signature Theatre Mabou Mines - https://www.maboumines.org New York Live Arts SubCulture Dixon Place EST Club Cumming: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBD_boKhlur/ MoMA PS1 MCC Theater Second Stage Theater Classic Stage Company partnership with Everyman Espresso Collapsable Hole NYU Skirball Soho Rep Cherry Lane Theatre BROOKLYN Bric Irond