Quote of the Month
“When I finish a novel, I always have this feeling that I could have started at the same place and written ten different novels.”
- Emily St. John Mandel
In the Spotlight
Actors pictured: Bridget Mundy and Leah Fahim
Earlier this month those of us who ordinarily work front-of-house and other support roles at New World Stages got to take the stage at the off-Broadway venue for the annual staff showcase. I directed a short work for the 24-hour plays portion, in which directors and actors come together the day of the event to stage pieces penned the night before. It was a treat to collaborate with coworkers in a different capacity, and get to know everyone’s artistic work!
Podcast Forecast
Looking toward the fall, I have an abundance of podcast updates on the horizon. First up, the third season of Premiere The Play is releasing new audio plays weekly through early October. This season’s offerings are varied and well-worth a listen, with new scripts dropping each Tuesday and bonus playwright interviews on Thursdays. My directing credit for the season, Mommy-Person by Xavier George, will release on all podcast platforms on September 19. This poignant and original tale follows Anke and Mel, accomplished professional women and unlikely friends whose quest to find love and raise children unfolds in ways they never expected. We recorded this play almost a year ago, and I’m thrilled to finally share the story with listeners!
As Season 3 releases the Premiere The Play team is already working on Season 4, so I am currently in pre-production and will be headed back into casting and rehearsals for a new script as the fall gets underway. Can’t share much about that yet, but I might get to put a little classical theatre dramaturgy to use this year! In addition to these PTP plays, produced by the LA-based Dean Productions Theatre Company, I am also in the early stages of planning for a new audio-based project. Hopefully I will have more to relate about that in the next update…
Hedgepig Harvest
The changing seasons means a change in focus for Expand the Canon, the initiative I work on with the Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre promoting gender parity in classic theatre. With the end of summer we are wrapping up our seasonal work on the research committee, delving into libraries and databases to track down more wide-ranging plays by female and non-binary writers and adding to an index that now numbers over 6,000 titles. In September the spotlight turns to the reveal of the newly-minted 2023 ETC list of featured plays, followed by readings and other special events throughout the fall. You can follow along with all the plays through the Expand the Canon podcast, or attend the new list announcement live on September 29!
End-of-Summer Media Recommendations
Favorite Book: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
(honorable mention to Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which I finally caught up on)
Podcasts: Been listening to Trial by Content and House of R for entertaining pop culture commentary, and looking forward to checking out The Dial-Up and The Case of the Greater Gatsby soon for some narrative podcast storytelling
Virtual Theatre Highlights: The Moss Maidens and Radio Man from the SheNYC Festival