Latest Americanplays Podcast Episodes
PLAYING GOD by Alan Zweibel (Re-Release)
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - September 19, 2021 08:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsIn PLAYING GOD, a divine comedy from SNL's Alan Zweibel (Playing on Air's HAPPY), a self-involved OB-GYN (Scott Adsit of 30 Rock) creates chaos for his pregnant patient (Emily Bergl). Over the objections of a heavenly assistant (Susie Essman of Curb Your Enthusiasm), God himself (Bill Buell) cha...
THE DONOR by Avery Deutsch
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - June 27, 2021 08:30 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsSingle mom Suzanne needs an actor for a discreet personal favor. It should be simple. But when she casts Mike, she grossly underestimates the lengths an out-of-work actor will go to to make an impact. Written by Avery Deutsch and a winner of the 2020 James Stevenson Prize for Short Comedic Pl...
OWNER OCCUPY by Jonathan Spector
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - June 20, 2021 08:30 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsIn Alvin and Mia’s neighborhood, property owners flip houses or parcel them out for AirBnBs. No one’s investing in the community. So they’re thrilled by the arrival of a new homeowner — a tech entrepreneur who’s rich, ambitious, charismatic, and strangely pale. And he’s an excellent drinking com...
REVELATIONS by JuCoby Johnson
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - June 13, 2021 08:30 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsMahalia, a Black trans woman, returns to her hometown of Minneapolis during the tumultuous summer of 2020. Against a backdrop of fire and protest, she and her father tentatively rekindle a long-dormant bond. REVELATIONS is written by JuCoby Johnson (How It’s Gon’ Be) and directed by Goldie E. ...
CAMBERWELL HOUSE by Amelia Roper
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - June 06, 2021 08:30 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsA tale of old age, murder and gingernut biscuits. CAMBERWELL HOUSE, a darkly comic one-woman play by Amelia Roper ("The Great"), stars five-time Tony nominee Dana Ivey (The School for Scandal, “Sex and the City”).
DUMMY DIALOGUE by David Ives
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - May 30, 2021 08:30 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsNorman and Max may be dummies, but they’re no fools. Offstage, ventriloquist dummies are the same as anyone else — smack-talking their bosses, worrying about being behind the times — but beneath their hard wooden exteriors lurk sensitive, philosophical, funny souls. A world premiere by a mast...
REAL AMERICAN DINNER PARTY by Jen Silverman
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - May 23, 2021 08:30 - 15 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsSometimes you lose your keys, sometimes you lose your temper, and sometimes you lose the most unexpected of things. When Marcy and her difficult boyfriend come for a visit, what we know about ourselves can change in the blink of an eye... REAL AMERICAN DINNER PARTY is written by Jen Silverman ...
I THINK IT’S WORTH POINTING OUT THAT I’VE BEEN VERY SERIOUS THROUGHOUT THIS ENTIRE DISCUSSION OR, DAVE AND JULIA ARE STUCK IN A TREE by Mallory Jane Weiss
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - May 16, 2021 08:30 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsWhen runaway snow tubes send a dad and his grown daughter flying off a cliff, they’re left hanging on for dear life -- and testing the limits of a punchline. This winning comedy, recipient of the 2020 James Stevenson Prize for Short Comedic Plays, cheerfully prods family bonds between parents an...
HOW MY GRANDPARENTS FELL IN LOVE by Cary Gitter (Re-Release)
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - February 28, 2021 09:30 - 19 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratings“A gorgeous high note...a Jewish screwball romance… uproarious and beautifully cast, with tone-perfect direction by Colette Robert." — The New York Times It's 1933, and a young Jewish immigrant has returned to his Polish hometown in search of a wife. On a snowy afternoon, he sets his sights ...
NAPOLEON IN EXILE by Daniel Reitz (Re-Release)
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - February 21, 2021 09:30 - 39 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratings“I felt I really had given birth ... rebirth ... to Napoleon.” “So wait. Am I Napoleon? Or do I need to look for a job?” Everyday life is a battlefield for single mother Evelyn and her adult son Corey, who has ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder). But underneath their sparring over Minecraft...
SKIN by Naveen Bahar Choudhury (Re-Release)
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - February 14, 2021 09:30 - 15 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsNobody comes to the campus health clinic looking for love. But as he waits for the nurse to call him in, Robby (Vandit Bhatt) finds himself drawn to Angie (Nitya Vidyasagar), a disenchanted writer with problems of her own. Can two strangers find unexpected poetry in each other? And do they even ...
THE FINAL INTERROGATION OF CEAUSESCU’S DOG by Warren Leight (Re-Release)
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - February 07, 2021 09:30 - 11 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsIn the wake of the 1989 Romanian Revolution, a dictator’s beloved pet must answer for the crimes of his owner. What’s the cost of staying loyal to the hand that feeds you — especially if that hand belongs to a tyrant? Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland, Happy Talk, PoA’s The Blizzard) and Golden Glo...
Winter Mini Season Begins Next Sunday, February 7th!
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - January 31, 2021 09:30 - 46 seconds ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsThroughout February, Playing on Air returns with four episodes from our back catalog starting Sunday, February 7th.
BIRD by Rachel Bonds
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - December 13, 2020 09:30 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsThe year is 2030. On the snowy outskirts of DC, an underground musician (Tony winner Julie White) and her pragmatic teenage daughter (Erin Wilhelmi) battle the forces, seen and unseen, that threaten their survival. Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Colt Coeur, PoA’s 52nd to Bowery…), B...
THIRD GRADE by Dominique Morisseau
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - December 06, 2020 09:30 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsTHIRD GRADE continues Playing on Air’s yearlong celebration of MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ winner Dominique Morisseau (The Detroit Project, Pipeline, Ain't Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations). Elementary school teacher Kai is dedicated to helping her students thrive. But when one o...
THE THOMPSONS by Andrew Massey
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - November 29, 2020 09:30 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsAh, the holiday season! The wine is flowing. In-laws are gossiping in the kitchen. And the Thompson family is indulging in their most bizarre Thanksgiving ritual: the Turkey Trot. Mischievous and tender, THE THOMPSONS by Andrew Massey (EST’s Youngblood) is a comedy about the wacky families we lo...
THANKSGIVING FOR ONE by Hamish Linklater
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - November 22, 2020 09:30 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsAfter his hit Nudity Rider, OBIE winner Hamish Linklater returns for another helping of irresistible comedy: the world-premiere commission THANKSGIVING FOR ONE. Marjorie Mumms (Jean Smart) would rather not be eating her holiday turkey alone at the Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. She can’t get a decent ...
SCRAPS AND THINGS by Melis Aker
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - November 15, 2020 09:30 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsAt a laundromat in Istanbul, a chatty seamstress (Carol Kane) and a guarded, young academic (Melis Aker) discover that they're linked, and haunted, by the myth of the same man. Written by, starring, and featuring original music by Melis Aker (Kilroys List, Ars Nova Play Group), SCRAPS AND ...
SCRAPS AND THINGS by Melis Aker
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - November 15, 2020 09:30 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsAt a laundromat in Istanbul, a chatty seamstress (Carol Kane) and a guarded, young academic (Melis Aker) discover that they're linked, and haunted, by the myth of the same man. Written by, starring, and featuring original music by Melis Aker (Kilroys List, Ars Nova Play Group), SCRAPS AND ...
HOW TO BE A WIDOW by Tori Keenan-Zelt
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - November 08, 2020 09:30 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsOn a sweltering afternoon in 1864, two Civil War widows meet in a graveyard. Mirabelle is trying to paint a pineapple; Annaleigh needs to make sure that her husband hasn’t turned into a vampire. Together, the women begin to imagine the futures that might await them beyond corsets, lockets, and b...
HOW TO BE A WIDOW by Tori Keenan-Zelt
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - November 08, 2020 09:30 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsOn a sweltering afternoon in 1864, two Civil War widows meet in a graveyard. Mirabelle is trying to paint a pineapple; Annaleigh needs to make sure that her husband hasn’t turned into a vampire. Together, the women begin to imagine the futures that might await them beyond corsets, lockets, and b...
JEZELLE THE GAZELLE by Dominique Morisseau
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - October 25, 2020 08:30 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsJEZELLE THE GAZELLE continues Playing on Air’s yearlong celebration of MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ winner Dominique Morisseau (The Detroit Project, Pipeline, Ain't Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations). Jezelle is ready to prove that she’s the best runner on her block: young, fie...
THE COURTSHIP OF ANNA NICOLE SMITH by Lucas Hnath
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - October 18, 2020 08:30 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratings“Back when I was a kid my mother took me to see a fortune teller for my 12th birthday… She said that when I am in my 20’s I will reach two paths. Two paths J. And I don’t know which one to pick.” In the parking lot behind a Houston strip club, a young dancer considers a proposal from an octo...
ST. FRANCIS PREACHES TO THE BIRDS by David Ives (Re-Release)
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - August 23, 2020 08:30 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsIn the middle of the desert, two vultures find their lunch interrupted by a man of faith. Now, they have a bone to pick with Saint Francis of Assisi. Full of miraculous and mischievous wit, ST. FRANCIS PREACHES TO THE BIRDS by David Ives (Venus in Fur, PoA’s The Blizzard) features Carson Elro...
CELL by Cassandra Medley (Re-Release)
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - August 16, 2020 08:30 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsTony winner Tonya Pinkins (Jelly’s Last Jam, “Fear the Walking Dead,” PoA’s Poof!), Tony nominee Condola Rashad (Saint Joan, “Billions”), and Melanie Nicholls-King ("The Wire," "Little Fires Everywhere”) star in Cassandra Medley’s CELL. When a jaded supervisor at an immigrant detention center fi...
ANNIVERSARY by Rachel Bonds (Re-Release)
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - August 09, 2020 08:30 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratings“This doesn’t seem like your kind of place - Why? I dunno. You don’t look like you eat a lot of crappy deli meat.” Through a haze of gin, mediocre roast beef, and horrible apartment parties, a grieving New Yorker finds herself drawn to a quirky, flirtatious friend-of-a-friend. Hurtling ...
HAPPY by Alan Zweibel (Re-Release)
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - August 02, 2020 08:30 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsNever underestimate the persistence of a Mets fan. In HAPPY by Alan Zweibel (“SNL,” 700 Sundays with Billy Crystal), a baseball fan shows up at the home of his childhood hero, George "Happy" Halliday. Has the stranger come to pay his respects or to throw a curveball? A comedy for anyone who’...
Getting to Know You!
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - July 26, 2020 08:30 - 1 minute ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsHi Playing on Air listeners! We hope you're all safe and well. If you're willing to give us around 10 minutes of your time, we'd like to get to know you a bit better; it'll help us to program episodes of Playing on Air that you'll love. Go to playingonair.org/survey to fill out our listener s...
G.O.A.T. by Ngozi Anyanwu
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - May 31, 2020 08:30 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsJay, Bonita, and Row have gathered on the rooftop to burn the sage and drink the sacred Gatorade. To pray to the goddess Nike, and the ghosts of Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe. To summon victory for their beloved champion: Serena Williams, the Greatest Of All Time. Directed by Whitney White...
IF YOU WIN by Emily Chadick Weiss
Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays - May 24, 2020 08:30 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 143 ratingsJohn Lithgow ("The Crown," "3rd Rock from the Sun," Hillary and Clinton) and Tony nominee Steven Boyer (Hand to God, PoA's An Upset) star in Emily Chadick Weiss's IF YOU WIN. On the eve of a local election, candidate Hal Wheelwright (Lithgow) receives an unexpected offer from his opponent's s...
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