Talking Theater artwork

Talking Theater

38 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 6 years ago - ★★★★★ - 67 ratings

Talking Theater podcast celebrates theater! Your host, Marc Smith, interviews theater makers for theater people who love theatre. Actors, directors, playwrights, designers, stage managers, musicians, and other professionals will share stories about their career, their craft, and their community. You will be introduced each week to artists who make a living in the performing arts. We’re not just talking – we’re talking theater!

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Episodes

Bonus: Tony Award Predictions with Jose Solís

June 08, 2018 08:07 - 32 minutes - 26.1 MB

It's all about Tony Award predictions today on the podcast!  Theater critic Jose Solís comes back to the podcast to make his picks. Jose has been writing about film and theatre since 2003 and his work has appeared in major film and theatre publications including The New York Times, American Theatre, and Backstage.   Jose is a member of the Drama Desk, the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and the Online Film Critics Society. Along with Diep Tran, Jose hosts the popular Token Thea...

Bonus: Tony Award Predictions with Jose Solis

June 08, 2018 08:07 - 32 minutes - 26.1 MB

It's all about Tony Award predictions today on the podcast!  Theater critic Jose Solis comes back to the podcast to make his picks. Jose has been writing about film and theatre since 2003 and his work has appeared in major film and theatre publications including The New York Times, American Theatre, and Backstage.   Jose is a member of the Drama Desk, the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and the Online Film Critics Society. Along with Diep Tran, Jose hosts the popular Token Thea...

34: Isaac Butler - Shakespeare, Angels, and Politics

June 06, 2018 17:10 - 42 minutes - 34.4 MB

Isaac Butler is a writer and theater director, recently of The Trump Card, about the rise of Donald Trump with solo performer Mike Daisey. Isaac also wrote and directed Real Enemies, which was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and named one of the top ten live events of 2015 by The New York Times. Along with Dan Kois, he is the co-author of the critically-acclaimed The World Only Spins Forward, a history of Angels in America which was just released this year. And, most rece...

33: Idris Goodwin - Playwright Spotlight

June 01, 2018 08:15 - 41 minutes - 33.1 MB

Idris Goodwin is an award-winning playwright, poet, performer, and essayist. This summer, he will become the Producing Artistic Director of StageOne Family Theater in Louisville, KY. For StageOne, Idris penned American Tales and the widely produced And In This Corner: Cassius Clay. Other plays include: How We Got On, Bars and Measures, The Raid, Hype Man: a break beat play, Blackademics, The Way the Mountain Moved, commissioned as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s American Revoluti...

32: Ken Urban - Playwright Spotlight

May 08, 2018 20:37 - 51 minutes - 41.1 MB

Ken Urban is a playwright, screenwriter, and musician based in New York. His plays include Sense of an Ending, The Correspondent, A Future Perfect, The Awake, The Happy Sad, Nibbler, A Guide for the Homesick which recently premiered just a few months ago at the Huntington Theater in Boston, and his newest work, a darkly-comic play called The Remains, which opens in May 2018 at Studio Theatre in Washington D.C. His work has been produced Off-Broadway at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 59...

31: Jessica Burr - Bodies Moving Through Space

February 19, 2018 14:40 - 47 minutes - 37.7 MB

Jessica Burr is the artistic director of Blessed Unrest, an ensemble-based experimental theatre company in New York City, co-founded with Matt Opatrny. In 2011, Jessica received the Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women, in recognition of her work as a director and the body of work that Blessed Unrest has created under her leadership. With Blessed Unrest, just a few of the productions she has directed include Body: Anatomies of Being, Eurydice’s Dream (for wh...

30: Dámaso Rodriguez - Transforming Artists Repertory Theatre

February 13, 2018 20:29 - 50 minutes - 40.5 MB

Dámaso Rodriguez is a Cuban American director based in Portland, Oregon, where he serves as artistic director of Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland's longest-running professional theatre company, which became a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) under his leadership. Prior to joining Artists Rep, Dámaso served as the associate artistic director of the Pasadena Playhouse and co-founder and co-artistic director of the Furious Theatre in Los Angeles. And upcoming projects inc...

29: Julia Sirna-Frest - All the Weird, Crazy Stuff Downtown

January 29, 2018 12:23 - 33 minutes - 26.5 MB

Julia Sirna-Frest is an actor and singer based in New York. She was most recently seen as Margit in Seder at Hartford Stage.   And in the title role of: [Porto] which played at The Bushwick Starr last year where it was an NYT Critics Pick and The Times review said it was quote: “an excellent cast led by the wonderful Ms. Sirna-Frest”  Porto makes its Off-Broadway premiere at the WP Theater.  Other productions include: A Tunnel Year (The Chocolate Factory), and The Offending Gesture  ...

28: Jose Solís - Theater Critic Spotlight

January 26, 2018 18:35 - 45 minutes - 36.3 MB

Jose Solís, as a theater critic, has been writing about film and theater since 2003, and his work has appeared in major film and theater publications including (links are reviews or articles): The New York Times, American Theatre, and Backstage.   Jose is a member of the Drama Desk, the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and the Online Film Critics Society. Jose is putting together a panel called Being a Critic of Color for BroadwayCon 2018.  And, when he's not at a show, a screen...

28: Jose Solis - Theater Critic Spotlight

January 26, 2018 18:35 - 45 minutes - 36.3 MB

Jose Solis is the Chief Theater Critic at StageBuddy.com.  He has been writing about film and theater since 2003 and his work has appeared in major film and theater publications including (links are reviews or articles): The New York Times, American Theatre, and Backstage.   Jose is a member of the Drama Desk, the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and the Online Film Critics Society. Jose is putting together a panel called Being a Critic of Color for BroadwayCon 2018.  And, whe...

27: Community Conversations with Jamil Jude

January 25, 2018 13:34 - 52 minutes - 41.9 MB

Jamil Jude is a director, producer, playwright, and dramaturg. Self-identifying as an "Artist Plus", Jamil feels most at home bringing socially relevant art to the community. Jamil is the Associate Artistic Director at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta, GA as well as the Co-Founder of The New Griots Festival. He was a participant in the Leadership U: One-on-One program, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group. The progr...

26: Brendan Hines - Fueled by Performance and Collaboration

December 14, 2017 15:03 - 49 minutes - 39.7 MB

Brendan Hines is a versatile actor and singer-songwriter. He currently stars in Amazon's The Tick as Superian.  The show is based on Ben Edlund's comic book of the same name, with new episodes in February 2018. Brendan is also performing Histrionics, a one-man show at New York's Theater for the New City through mid-December of this year. Brendan has also appeared in fan-favorite shows including Suits, Scandal, and Lie To Me, as well as a number of other films and television shows.  Rec...

25: Inclusivity as a Practice with Rachel Grossman

December 08, 2017 13:15 - 36 minutes - 29.2 MB

Rachel Grossman is the Ensemble Director and a co-founder of dog & pony dc where audience integration is their guiding artistic principle. She is also a theater artist and engagement strategist. She likes to explore the triangulation between art, artist, and audience. Rachel is a member of HowlRound’s National Advisory Committee and is a regular presenter with National Arts Market Project on audience engagement and empowering staff to serve as change-agents. Rachel is responsible for l...

24: Ilana Levine - Little Known Facts and Acting Relationships

November 30, 2017 13:47 - 37 minutes - 30.1 MB

Ilana Levine is an acclaimed actor on Broadway, TV  and film. She’s also a producer, and the amazing host of one of my favorite podcasts, Little Known Facts. Ilana is probably best known to Broadway fans for her comedic turn as "Lucy Van Pelt" in the Broadway revival of You're A Good Man Charlie Brown with Kristen Chenoweth, Anthony Rapp, B.D. Wong, Roger Bart, Stanley Wayne Mathis (directed by Michael Mayer, Choreography by Jerry Mitchell). And she also starred in the Broadway productio...

23: Risky Writing with Andrew Rosendorf, Playwright

November 24, 2017 12:01 - 40 minutes - 32.4 MB

Andrew Rosendorf is a playwright based in Minneapolis. He is a 2016-2017 McKnight Fellow in Playwriting at The Playwrights’ Center. His work has been produced or developed at La Jolla Playhouse, MCC, Luna Stage, American Theater Company, Nashville Rep, City Theatre, Geva Theatre, Actor’s Express, Palm Beach Dramaworks, UglyRhino, and Toftee Lake Center.  Andrew is an alum of terraNOVA Collective’s Groundbreakers Playwrights Group, the Ingram New Works program, National New Plays Network ...

22: Visual, Lyrical Literary Adaptations with Seth Bockley

November 20, 2017 14:18 - 48 minutes - 39 MB

Seth Bockley is a playwright and theater director, specializing in literary adaptation, physical and object theater as well as multimedia works. As a director, Seth has led productions throughout the United States and around the world, including Mexico, Colombia, and Ireland. Just a few of the theatres where he has recently directed include The Goodman Theater, Victory Gardens, Redmoon Theater, Foundry Theater, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. As a playwright, his works include 2666,...

21: Guillermo Reyes - Playwright Spotlight

November 09, 2017 12:54 - 46 minutes - 37.1 MB

Guillermo Reyes has produced and published a variety of plays including Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown and Mother Lolita as off-Broadway productions with Urban Stages, Chilean Holiday and Saints at the Rave at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and many others. Men on the Verge debuted in Los Angeles at the Celebration Theater and won the L.A. Ovation Award for Best World Premiere Play which went on to win the New York Outer Critics’ Circle Award for Best Solo ...

20: Spinning Stories with Deborah Yarchun, Playwright

November 02, 2017 12:09 - 29 minutes - 23.4 MB

Deborah Yarchun is a New York City playwright from Austin, Texas. Her honors include two Jerome Fellowships, an EST/Sloan Commission, The Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award for The Man in the Sukkah, the Kernodle New Play Award for Tectonic Mélange, the Richard Maibaum Playwriting Award, and the Iowa Art Fellowship. Deborah's plays have been developed at places including Ensemble Studio Theatre, The New Harmony Project, Jewish Plays Project, The Great Plains Theatre Co...

19: Writing as Activist and Artist with Lauren Gunderson, Playwright

October 25, 2017 10:24 - 41 minutes - 33.1 MB

Lauren Gunderson is the most-produced living playwright in America for both 2016 and 2017.   Her work has been commissioned, produced and developed at companies across the US including South Coast Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog!), The O’Neill, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Olney Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire and others.  And, her play, The Book of Will, was rec...

18: Making the Classics Her Own with Kate Hamill, Playwright

October 17, 2017 11:46 - 36 minutes - 29.2 MB

Kate Hamill is a playwright and actor based in New York City.  In 2014, her adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility premiered off-Broadway where it was named in the "Top 10 Theater of 2014" by both Ben Brantley of the NY Times and by the Huffington Post, which called it “the greatest stage adaptation of this novel in history.”  Sense and Sensibility was remounted off-Broadway in 2016, and it was nominated for Best Revival by the Drama League, it also received 2 Lortel nominatio...

17: Adam Szymkowicz - Playwright Spotlight

October 10, 2017 11:00 - 34 minutes - 27.5 MB

Adam Szymkowicz is a playwright based in New York City. His plays have been produced throughout the U.S., Canada, England, and around the world. Adam’s plays include The Wooden Heart, Deflowering Waldo, Pretty Theft, Food For Fish, Hearts Like Fists, Kodachrome, Marian (or the True Tale of Robin Hood), Rare Birds, Incendiary, Clown Bar, The Adventures of Super Margaret, The Why Overhead, and many others. Adam received a Playwright’s Diploma from Juilliard, an MFA from Columbia University...

16: Leading the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival with Davis McCallum

July 19, 2017 10:34 - 43 minutes - 34.7 MB

Davis McCallum is the Artistic Director of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, where he’s also directing The Book of Will, which is now playing.  His recent productions in New York include Fashions for Men, which received Drama Desk, Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Nominations for Best Revival; The Whale, winner of the Lortel Award for Best Play, and Davis received a Calloway Nomination for Best Director, Water by the Spoonful, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, February House, nominated fo...

15: Bringing Together Artists to Create 24 Hour Plays with Mark Armstrong

July 11, 2017 21:57 - 34 minutes - 27.5 MB

Mark Armstrong is a Brooklyn-based theater director and the Executive Director for The 24 Hour Plays, where he recently oversaw the 16th annual The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway.  Mark spent four years as the Director of New Work for off-Broadway’s Keen Company, where he created the Keen Playwrights Lab for mid-career playwrights and led Keen Teens. Mark spent three years as the Literary Director for Playscripts, Inc. His writing has appeared in American Theatre, HowlRound and the Brooklyn R...

14: Creating a Supportive and Safe Space with Equity Stage Manager Jared Zeigler

July 03, 2017 19:08 - 36 minutes - 29.1 MB

Jared Zeigler is an Equity stage manager, arts administrator, and theatre artist based in Minneapolis. As a stage manager, Jared has worked with many of the leading professional theaters in Minneapolis, including Dark & Stormy Productions, Frank Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Sod House Theatre, Workhaus Collective, Playwrights' Center, and Theatre Novi Most. He is also the Managing Director of Theatre Novi Most. Jared earned his degree in theatre at the University of Minnesota. Jared shares...

13: Body, Connection, and Collaboration with Fight Director, Musician, and Actor Annie Enneking

June 21, 2017 10:44 - 35 minutes - 28.5 MB

Annie Enneking is an actor, songwriter, musician, teaching artist, and fight director. She started performing at the age of 14, and has acted on or created fights for almost every stage in the Twin Cities. Annie is an associate instructor with Dueling Arts International and teaches the art of stage combat at the University of Minnesota. Annie fronts and founded the rock band, Annie and the Bang Bang, and also has an acoustic singer-songwriter project. She was a 2010 Playwrights’ Cente...

12: Managing Shows at Disney with Annalisa Stahler

June 12, 2017 10:50 - 30 minutes - 24.7 MB

Annalisa Stahler is a production stage manager with Disney based in Orange County, California, and she also works with Disney Studios. Some of the shows she manages or oversees include Fantasmic and Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple. She earned her degree in theatre with an emphasis in stage management at Arizona State University. Annalisa shares with Marc about the role and responsibilities of a stage manager at Disney and how it compares to traditional professional theater, what it t...

11: Growing a Community Theater Into a Professional Repertory Company with Kevin Harris

June 05, 2017 09:59 - 50 minutes - 40.8 MB

Kevin Harris is the Managing Artistic Director of the San Luis Obispo Little Theatre, soon to be San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre. He spent three years at the Atlantic Theatre Company studying acting under David Mamet, William H. Macy, and Felicity Huffman; he also spent a year at CAP 21 learning the finer intricacies of “jazz hands”. In 2005, Kevin traveled to the West Bank and Gaza Strip to co-write and direct an original play with Ashtar Theatre, Palestine’s only professional theatre...

10: Theater as Messy, Exciting, Organic Storytelling with Erin Cronican

May 29, 2017 08:00 - 40 minutes - 32.4 MB

Erin Cronican is an actor, producer and an acting career coach. She belongs to both SAG-AFTRA and Actors Equity with many credits performing in film, TV, plays, and musicals across the country. Erin is the lead producer and managing director of The Seeing Place Theater, an exciting, independent actor-driven ensemble in New York. She’s the founder and coach of The Actors’ Enterprise, a one-on-one coaching service that provides affordable career-coaching to actors who want to feel more ful...

9: Marc Ensign - Musician for RENT (Getting the Broadway Musical Gig)

May 22, 2017 08:00 - 44 minutes - 35.9 MB

Marc Ensign is a musician who played bass guitar for the hit Broadway musical, RENT. Marc is also a marketing specialist. Those outside the world of theatre may not be able to grasp just how far one is willing to go to get the gig or job one really wants. For Marc Ensign, it meant collecting Broadway Playbills and stealing a phone book from a Manhattan bus station to get leads, and, then disguising himself as a journalist so that he could interview other Broadway musicians in his field. ...

8: Bernard Bunye - Advice for Actors from a New York Talent Manager

May 15, 2017 08:00 - 38 minutes - 30.8 MB

Bernard Bunye is a New York talent manager with over 10 years experience in the business. Bernard joined SirenSong Entertainment to work alongside Donna DeStefano in August 2016. He began his career in talent management working for manager/producer Lillian LaSalle at Sweet 180 Talent Management and Production. After three years of learning the business from Ms. LaSalle, Bernard co-created Intrepid Talent Management with Jen Namoff. Building on the success of ITM, Bernard launched Brown...

7: Joseph Megel - Directing New Plays of Diversity and Social Justice

May 08, 2017 08:00 - 32 minutes - 25.8 MB

Joseph Megel focuses on developing and directing new plays and works for theatre, film and video. He is an artist in residence in Performance Studies at the University of North Carolina’s Department of Communication. Joseph is the founder and Artistic Director of the Process Series: New Works in Development, now in its ninth year. He is also Artistic Director of StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance. His most recent directing credits include: Howard L. Craft’s Freight:  The F...

6: Doing Your Best Work On Stage with Suzy Newman

May 01, 2017 08:00 - 25 minutes - 20.3 MB

Suzy Newman resides in San Luis Obispo, California where she is an actor, director, and teacher & coach. She now works frequently on the “Central Coast” for The Great American Melodrama & Vaudeville and the San Luis Obispo Little Theatre, and recently with the Central Coast Shakespeare Festival, Pacific Conservatory Theatre (PCPA) and Oregon Cabaret Theatre. Some of her favorite shows include The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, House of Blue Leaves, Always, Patsy Cl...

5: Directing for Young Audiences at Imagination Stage with Nikki Kaplan

April 24, 2017 08:40 - 29 minutes - 23.8 MB

Nikki Kaplan is the Associate Director of Education at Imagination Stage, one of the largest and most respected theatre arts organizations for young people in the country. Nikki began her career as a performer, studying as an actor, singer, and dancer. After graduating with a B.A. in Acting, she moved to New York and earned her M.A. in Educational Theater from NYU (focusing on Theater for Young Audiences and Directing). She’s also studied at A.C.T. in San Francisco. Nikki has directed ...

4: Amazing Lessons in Theatre with David Vining

April 17, 2017 08:00 - 35 minutes - 28.3 MB

David Vining has been working professionally in theater, since 1972. He has Bachelor of Arts in Theater and Speech Pathology from the University of Redlands and an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota. David shares with Marc some amazing lessons in theater from his experiences as an actor, director, and theatre professor. For most of his life, David has maintained dual careers as an actor and director in the professional theater and as a professor of theater at the University o...

3: Working Film by Day and Theater by Night with Jason Kuykendall

April 10, 2017 08:00 - 29 minutes - 20.4 MB

Jason Kuykendall performs in regional theaters all across the country and has had various roles in television and film. He has been with Cincinnati Playhouse, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre and is currently a member of the B Street Theatre in Sacramento, California. B Street Theater is one of the leading theater companies in Northern California where he has performed in more than 50 shows. Some of these productions include Last Train to Nibroc, The Adventures of Sh...

2: Acting in Broadway National Tours with D. Scott Withers

March 20, 2017 03:00 - 35 minutes - 16.1 MB

D Scott Withers is an award-winning actor and director who began his professional acting career with Childsplay in Tempe, Arizona, where he eventually became an associate artist – a relationship that has lasted 25 years. Scott was the Founder and Managing Director for In Mixed Company. In addition, he served as the interim Artistic Director at the Stagebrush Theatre, and the Artistic Director of Greasepaint Youth Theater. As a playwright, Scott’s original play, Big Dreams, was selected f...

1: Connecting to People with Playwright Trista Baldwin

March 20, 2017 02:57 - 26 minutes - 12.1 MB

Trista Baldwin is a playwright and currently a member of the Writers Group at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. She is also the recipient of Jerome Fellowships, a McKnight Advancement Grant, and a new play development grant from the Saison Foundation International Artist Residency. She is an alum of the Core Writer program at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. Trista’s work has been produced in the States and internationally, and a few of her plays include Eye of the Lamb, American Sex...

000: Starting a Theater Podcast with Marc Smith

March 20, 2017 02:53 - 7 minutes - 6.91 MB

Talking Theater is really a simple idea. It’s about theater professionals talking theater. Each week I’ll talk with actors, directors, playwrights, designers, stage managers, teachers, and many more theater artists and professionals, and I’ll ask them to talk about their career, their craft, and their community. I want this podcast to be for you, a theater lover – either as an artist or a fan – who enjoys hearing stories about the lives of theater artists making a living in theater wor...