Hey Playwright Hey Playwright
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- Arts
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Have you ever thought about writing a play but had no idea where to start? Each week, join playwrights and teaching artist pals Tori and Mabelle as they discuss playwriting and life, and leave you with a prompt to get to work. Whether you want to learn how to write a play or just need a little creative inspiration and cheerleading, this podcast is for you.
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Active Disruption with Steven Dietz (Part Two)
In this two-part season finale, Tori and Mabelle talk with the extraordinary Steven Dietz about his 40+ years in the theater. He shares how his 11 years of directing workshops and readings of new plays served as his grad school, teaching him how the theater works in space. He shares tactics and tools of the craft, including his idea of plays as alive (The Living Play), the importance of inviting scrutiny, why inspiration is a con, how victories can be complicated, and his strategies for talkbacks.
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Active Disruption with Steven Dietz (Part One)
In this two-part season finale, Tori and Mabelle talk with the extraordinary Steven Dietz about his 40+ years in the theater. He shares how his 11 years of directing workshops and readings of new plays served as his grad school, teaching him how the theater works in space. He shares tactics and tools of the craft, including his idea of plays as alive (The Living Play), the importance of inviting scrutiny, why inspiration is a con, how victories can be complicated, and his strategies for talkbacks.
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Heart Space with Hansol Jung
Tori and Mabelle talk with accomplished storyteller Hansol Jung about her jump from politics to theater. She shares her trajectory from translating plays into Korean, to an MFA in Musical Theater Directing (at Penn State), and then to another MFA in Playwriting (Yale School of Drama). She also shares about her experience collaborating on “Wolf Play” in the midst of the pandemic, and how it changed her artistic process. Other topics include Hansol’s new collaborative theater group (the Pack), reimagining collaboration, and The Kilroys.
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Brian Quijada is The Sauce
Tori and Mabelle talk with multihyphenate Brian Quijada about how a production of “Cabaret” showed him the power of political theater and set him on his theatrical journey. He shares his artist’s mission and goes in depth on the inspiration and development of “Where Did We Sit on the Bus?,” “Kid Prince and Pablo,” “Somewhere Over the Border,” and his new work, “Mexodus.” Find out why Brian never takes anything for granted, why he doesn’t ask permission to create, the magic of starting with something you know, and why we say "all roads lead to Brian Quijada."
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An Honest Place with Anna Ouyang Moench
Tori and Mabelle talk with award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Anna Ouyang Moench, about grad school, motherhood, and her incredible catalog of plays. Anna shares about juggling life as an MFA Playwriting student at UCSD with teaching assistant work and parenting a newborn. The episode includes in-depth discussions of Anna’s plays “Mothers,” “Man of God,” “Birds of North America,” and her most recent play “Your Local Theater Presents: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, Again.”
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Opening the Gate with Ramón Esquivel
Tori and Mabelle talk with playwright, director, and educator, Ramón Esquivel, about his path into theater through teaching, including the development of his first play at 30 years old. Other topics include Ramón’s quest to introduce young people to all aspects of theater, his revision strategy, key ways that theaters can uplift local playwrights, and practical tips he shares with his students.
Customer Reviews
Fun and informative
Listening to Hey Playwright is like having two fun, funny friends (Tori and Mabelle) wave you over after a show and introduce you to interesting, thoughtful playwrights and theater makers that you’d never work up the courage to talk to on your own. And then, they ask all the questions you’ve got running about your head so you can just listen in. If it were merely the informative, interesting, and educational resource they’ve made, it would be great, but then they go and let you in on the fun time they’re having and it transforms from podcast to party. And even if theater isn’t your thing, try it anyway, you may get swayed.
A wonderful collection of insights
Tori and Mabelle’s Hey Playwright is a gift to those who want to know more about playwrights and playwriting.
It goes in depth and creates what may well become a reference and guide into the lives and minds of contemporary dramatists.
This is a podcast not be missed out on.
Fun, interesting, inspiring!
Things I love about Hey Playwright!
-In-depth interviews with new (to me) playwrights whose work I’m eager to see and read.
-Tori and Mabelle’s personable, upbeat energy!
-It’s about playwriting AND life, and as such, is both inspirational and grounded.