Onstage/Offstage Theatre Podcast

Kate Busselle is the founder of Heartland Intimacy Design & Training, an intimacy training company which offers academic, accessible, and affordable intimacy training entirely online. She is also Assistant Professor of Movement and Stage Combat at the University of Oklahoma. It's a it like making stage intimacy and illustrating combat safe for all performers? Let's find out! Kate's Website / Heartland Intimacy / Facebook  Instagram / Instagram - Heartland Intimacy

We welcome back a longtime friend and colleague and one of the hardest working theatre professionals, Rachel Feeny-Williams. Rachel's a playwright of no mean ability and a startling fecundity, the mastermind behind one of the first mid-covid zoom theatre gatherings, the Literary and Discourse Society, and now single-handedly produces Theatrical Shenanigans, a podcast that produces short audio plays and panel discussions which is now in its millionth year with how many episodes...? RFW Website / Theatrical Shenanigans / Facebook Instagram / YouTube / New Play Exchange  

Eve Kerrigan and Ana Bess Moyer Bell are part of a team comprised of artists, social workers, language translators, and organizers from Creative Pathways, a program that teaches English as a second language to refugees and newly arrived Americans using theatre. They employ the tools of nonfiction and documentary theatre specifically to help English learners develop their voices literally and figuratively. Genesis Center / Eve's website / Ana - LinkedIn  Eve - Facebook

Ep. 198, February 2026. John Minigan is an award-winning playwright and a former high school teacher whose work Breaking the Shakespeare Code was recently presented by Gather by the Ghostlight at the Aiken Community Theatre in Aiken, South Carolina, and Le Chat Noir in Augusta, Georgia. One of his other works, Out of the Scorpions Nest will have just received a reading at The Barley Sheaf Players Annual Benefit Show: The Refinery in Lionville PA. www.johnminigan.com / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky New Play Exchange 

Joe Swenson is probably one of the busiest people in internet theatre. A playwright/producer/author and owner/president (including film producer/writer/director) at Broken Arts Entertainment. Broken Arts Entertainment | Joe's website | Facebook | New Play Exchange |  

This month our guest is Jesus Granados, a high school coordinator, and english teacher at Complejo Educativo Santa Lucía in Santiago de Puriscal in the canton of San José in Costa Rica. Jesus is also an actor, director, and experienced theatre professional.  

Dave Osmundsen is autistic playwright / dramaturg / actor whose article “Finding Autistic Theatre Artists Is a Challenge (If You Make It a Challenge)” appeared in Howlround this past February. It's a terrific article and I wholly recommend reading it because it will definitely broaden your knowledge base around autism. In the article Dave addresses several questions of how the theatre world could include, accommodate, and better understand autistic theatre artists while also allowing those accommodations to enhance and strengthen not just the needs of autistic theatre artists but the needs of everyone involved in the theatre company. Facebook | New Play Exchange

Robert Weibazahl is a playwright and a teacher whose play "Doughnut Disturb" is the third of our 2025 Diversity/Equity/Inclusion series. Robert's website | Facebook | New Play Exchange | Bluesky 

Nick Maynard is a playwright from the UK who's worked professionally within the performing arts industry for a number of years, both commercially and academically, creating and facilitating over 300 different stage shows as writer, director or producer. His play “Things You See in the Rain” is the second of our 2025 Diversity/Equity/Inclusion-themed plays. Nick's website  |  X/Twitter

Cris Eli Blak is an emerging proud Black playwright and screenwriter whose work has been performed and produced around the world, from Off-Broadway; across the United States; on university stages; as well as in London, Australia, Ireland, and Canada. He is the winner of the first Black Broadway Men Playwriting Intiative, the winner of the 2024 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award, and the first place winner of Atlanta Shakespeare Company's inaugural Muse of Fire BIPOC Playwriting Fesitval.  His short play, “Impact Turn,” was an immediate standout in the tidal wave of submissions for our 2025 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plays. Cris's Website  |  Facebook  |  Instagram   

Our guests are playwright Laura Shamas and multidisciplinary artist Harriette Feliz, who are here to talk about Laura's play “Four Women in Red” which recently finished a run at the Victory Theatre in Burbank, CA. Harriette is one of the four cast members. “Four Women in Red” addresses the ongoing epidemic of violence against Native American women. Some of the material in this podcast may be unsettling to some audience members. "Four Women in Red" review Dept. of Interior - Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Dept. of Interior - Not Invisible Act Commission

Philip Middleton WIlliams has been produced around the world and published in many anthologies and seven of his plays by Next Stage Press. He has an MFA in playwriting from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in playwriting and dramatic criticism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He also serves on the national advisory board of the William Inge Theatre Festival and the board of directors of the Midwest Dramatists Center.  Philip's website / Facebook / New Play Exchange

This month's guests are Diane Quinn and Bill Fuller, co-founders and driving force behind Unseen Theatre, an audio podcast showcasing (unproduced), original plays, featuring---something very much after my own heart---strong female protagonists, performed by SAG-AFTRA actors. Diane is Artistic Director/Co-Producer, and also has been an actor and playwright for Unseen Theatre, (and is additionally the podcast's marketing director). Bill, her Co-Producer, audio engineers every sonic second, composes and arranges the podcast's original music,(and handles web design, graphics) and is also a playwright. Unseen Theatre website Bill's website To LISTEN to A Romance in the Air: https://tinyurl.com/43rbxmaw To VOTE for A Romance in the Air For the Full Festival listening for all the productions heard at the UK International Audio Drama Festival 

Svetlana Arestova is a literary translator and professor of translation at HSE University in Moscow, Russia. Her list of accomplishments is extensive, including translations of books by Andrew Sean Greer, Daniel Mason and Elizabeth Strout. We talk about the intricacies of translating not just words, but intent, meaning, and finding ways to make the differences of two linguistic cultures meet, especially for rthe genre of theatre, where the words—or is it the story?--are paramount. Find her on Facebook! #translation #playwriting #theatre #russian #svetlanaarestova

Scott is an LGBTQ/neurodivergent/biracial Korean American writer. He has received five consecutive Writers Guild of America Awards for the daytime serial General Hospital, and numerous Emmy Award nominations. For over thirty years, his plays have been performed in New York City, his native Pittsburgh, across the United States, as well as internationally in Canada, Australia, the UK, Hungary, Singapore, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Dubai. His "Second World Trilogy," a speculative alt-history political/environmental love story, consists of three full-length plays spanning nearly 50 years. In addition, his sequence of short plays, "Playing on the Periphery," which tells the story of four LGBTQ+ third-graders, was previously presented as a concert reading by Reading Theatre Project, deep in red Pennsylvania. Monologues and scenes from the piece have been performed in “Don’t Say Gay” Florida. Scott's website / Instagram / New Play Exchange 

Gene Kato is the mastermind behind Next Stage Press, an online boutique publishing house that has grown exponentially over the past few years. Gene has singlehandedly created a showroom for hundreds of playwrights to market their creative opuses. A lively, fun interview with lots to talk about! NPX / X / Facebook / Genekato.com #genekato #publishing #playwriting #theatre #nextstagepress  

Donald Loftus is a playwright/lyricist whose work has been performed around the globe and is one of the masterminds behind the online play reading group New York Pages. He's has written the book and lyrics to several musicals (Abbey Victoria, Pollyanna, ‘Round Duffy Square, and Illusion), and his one-acts have been presented in over 100 play festivals around the country. Donald's play “Joey” is the last of our 2024 Missing Home series. DonaldLoftus.com  /  New Play Exchange  Facebook  / Playwright's Center

JB Alexander is a playwright, an actor, and sometimes he directs. This month we present his exceptional play “Melting the Ice,” a face-off between an ICE officer and a lawyer who won't take no for an answer. This is the third in our 2024 "Missing Home” series. #jbalexander #playwriting #theatre #ice #detention #separatedfamily #refugees #immigration

Danny's on the run and hiding out from a guy who should never have been crossed. Good thing he's got his best friend Charlie with him. Featuring Sean Kimber as Danny and George Sapio as Charlie. Plus, we have a very down-to-Earth talk with the playwright, Raymond Alvin. Come join us! Raymond's Facebook page

Mark is well known throughout the theatre world, having had over 2100 productions of his short plays everywhere from Bangalore to Bucharest and from Seoul to Sao Paulo. His plays have won over 45 awards, been produced in more than ten languages and have been published in over two dozen anthologies. His comedy “Shakespeare Lives!” is one of our two selections for our scary-themed October slots. #markharveylevine #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #playwriting #shakespearelives MarkHarveyLevine.com / NPX / Facebook / Instagram

Gregg T. Daniel is an actor, director, and educator who is currently midway through the mammoth journey of directing all of August Wilson's American Century Cycle, ten plays that reflect the African-American experience in the United States. This October he'll present Wilson's Pulitzer prize winning “The Piano Lesson.” We also chat about his extensive 30+ year career on stage, television, movies, and teaching at USC.  IMDB | Facebook | Lower Depth Theatre Co. | Instagram | Wikipedia

#180! "Silver Linings" is the next play in our 2024 "Missing Home" series. Alicia Ana Hernandez-Roulet is the playwright and we have a marvelous conversation with her about the play, her work, the importance of family, and (of course) chicharrones!  Alicia's NPX page

Chloe Riederich is a playwright, director, and theatre practitioner, whose play "Decisions, Decisions," a sensitive, humorous comedy, is the first of our 2024 "Missing Home" plays. Catch our production and a way-fun interview with Chloe themselves! Chloe's Homepage  |  Facebook

Isaiah St. Cyr, Enoch Chapman, and Montana Miller are three of the members of the Native American theatre company Natives of the Apocalypse. In the summer of 2023, this Santa Fe troupe produced an indigenized version of Lyle Kessler's "Orphans." Being one of the very few Native American theatre groups in the U.S., NOTA now embarks on a five-year plan to not only bring theatre to native Americans but enable more indigenous folks to embrace theatre as a way of preserving their heritages through storytelling. NOTA Home page

Lily is a theatre critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. I came across an article she wrote back in October of 2023 entitled “What responsibility do critics bear when a theater company closes?” I was struck that anyone, let alone a theatre critic, would voice that out loud. But it's a legitimate question, especially after Covid-19 ravaged the theatre scene worldwide.

Florida-based playwrights/actors/producers of the challenging hit play, "Dissonance," which begs the question, "Can a Black woman and a White woman--who have been friends for 20 years--have an honest, open conversation about race?" #theatre,#race,#friendship,#privilege,#dissonance, #equality, #blacklivesmatter, #racism, #whitefragility, #thisisamerica, #systemicracism, #blm, #america, #socialjustice Dissonance The Play

Dionne Lea is a Broadway World award nominated actor, singer, producer. She does improv, variety shows, theater, commercials, television, voice-over, film and is currently bringing her show "The Way It Is...Now," an evening of stories and musical numbers, around the united states to enthusiastic audiences. We have a great chat about so many different things--come tune us in! IMDB  |  Dionne Lea  |  Podcast: The Way I Am Now

Ekaterina Wagner is a playwright, art critic, and editor based in Moscow, Russia. Her articles appeared in Robb Report, ELLE and other media outlets in Russia, Ukraine, and India. She worked as an editor and deputy editor-in-chief of several international publications in Russia, including ELLE Decoration, Harper’s Bazaar Art, and The Art Newspaper. She is currently a deputy editor-in-chief of Art Focus Now, an English-language website on contemporary art in Russia and its neighboring countries.

Welcome to 2024! Jan Carpman and Mary Ann Nichols Hubbard are the movers and shakers behind Playzoomers, an online theatre company founded in 2020. They present 20 live online plays per year on Zoom - from full-length plays to multiple short plays – featuring professional theatre artists. As of this broadcast they will have produced and aired over 100 plays. Playzoomers  |  Instagram

Anne is a true gift to the theatre community. Since 2015 she's run The Depot, a production company featuring Zoom play readings. We talk about teaching, her life in theatre, her writing, and the Coast Guard! https://www.thedepot.space #theatre #drama #teaching #writer #thedepot #coastguard #zoom

Kelly is a playwright whose work explores various cultures and belief systems. Her full-length plays are about, as she says, women and events you’ve likely never heard of. She goes on to say that she's lived in a few different places, and enjoys getting to know a place through its often obscure history. She has at least one play for every region she's lived in. New Play Exchange |  Facebook

This month our guest is Michael Burgan, a playwright, novelist, and professional writer with over 250 published books. (We will explain that impressive number!) His short play, "Nothing to Declare," is our October '23 play selection. And we talk with Michael about his other work, including textbooks and “Celebrating Survival,” an evening of staged readings of short plays about cancer, benefitting the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico.

In the waiting room of a DNA testing laboratory, Oliver and Larry meet to hear results of their DNA tests. Plus an interview with Christine Benvenuto.

is a playwright and junior in high school from Houston, Texas. I had the privilege of reading her play Tell Us Your Story (A Tale of Family Lost and Found) not long ago. Tell Us Your Story describes what it's like for one young woman when she discovers that her birth mother has been looking for her. Sophie is also a theatre enthusiast and has been learning all of what it takes to make the magic happen.

FJ Hartland is a playwright, director, and professional actor whose plays have won awards too numerous to mention. His play "For the Record," the next selection in our 2023 theme of Exploration, is a story of two people finding a way to connect and reach an understanding. Join us for a great conversation after the play!

Playwright / reading. When is a gift worth twice as much? When it includes your partner and helps you conquer a phobia.  Facebook / Twitter / Unborn Children of America / Heuer Publications

Midge Guerrera is a playwright, blogger, travel consultant, memoirist, university education planner, arts management/public relations and much more. Our talk this month is chock full of stories, anecdotes, and inspiration. midgeguerrera.com / New Play Exchange / Facebook / Cars, Castles, Cows, and Chaos / Nonna's Mulberry Tree

Playwright, public defender. Claude Jackson's play “Cashed Out” recently had its world premiere at the San Francisco Playhouse. The play deals with Rocky, a mother and an accountant, who has a gambling addiction. Gila River Indian Community / BroadwayWorld article

Playwright, producer, novelist. Patrick Gabridge is a busy man; he writes site-specific plays, historical novels, and runs the PlaywrightBinge, an online group for playwrights to share information and support. Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter  / New Play Exchange / Plays in Place

Claire Lebowitz King's play "Outside the Gates", about two mothers, one Iranian, the other American, appeared at the '22 Edinburgh Fringe. An indomitable activist, Claire has also written other insightful social works as well as being a co-founder of Occupy Broadway. Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / TikTok / Wired / DC Theatre Arts / IMDB

Happy New Year, all! We bring you a thrilling talk with playwright Sarah Shourd. Her play "The Box," about prisoners in solitary confinement, toured the US and Europe and was so impactful, it helped changed laws in California. www.sarahshourd.com / The Box / Of Two Minds / End of Isolation Tour Mother Jones: How We Survived Two Years of Hell As Hostages in Tehran

Producer--New Plays for Young Audiences Associate Professor, Bronx Community College. Facebook / New Plays For Young Audiences Twitter: @NYUEdTheatre / Instagram: @nyuedtheatre

Play reading: "Jokers in the Pack"--an inside look at what dogs really talk about while we sip our soy lattes. And a lovely convo with Tony about writing and community activism!

Playwright, teacher.  We read Dierdre's play, "Letting Go, our final "Pets" play, and talk about commissions and wooooo...horror-themed plays! New Play Exchange

Playwright/Actor/Director. We have a smashing conversation with Lisa Villamil about her play "Sirens," getting started in writing, producing work, and making it in today's theatre world! New Play Exchange

Playwright Rand Higbee joins us for the first of our 2022 plays based on "Pets." Facebook / New Play Exchange

Playwright, Actor, Storyteller, Journalist, Community Activist. Mike Sockol and I talk about many things: arts in education, journalism, play critique, his play "In Danger of Falling in Love," and his fight against cancer.

Playwrights, actors, producers. Joshua Fardon, Patricia Mario, and Connie Kuntz are the driving forces behind Naked Angels (Chicago branch) which hosts Tuesdays@9, a forum for reading new works. www.nakedangels.com / Facebook / Instagram

Theatre Maker!/Playwright/Actor/Musician. Katie Hartman is many things: a playwright, actor, singer, musician. Her career has taken her around the world (as one-half of The Coldharts) with such macabre works as Edgar Allan and the Unrepentant Necrophile (a musical). Now she's taken the production reins of the Cincinnati Fringe. The Coldharts / Facebook / Twitter: @cincyfringe / Instagram @cincyfringe / Instagram @katiehartmankatiehartman /  Instagram @thecoldharts    

Playwright/Editor/Teaching Artist. Debbie is the editor for Smith and Kraus's books: Best 10-Minute Plays of 2021, Best Women's Monologues 2021, Best Men's Monologues 2021. She also writes plays for young adults! www.debbielamedman.com / New Play Exchange