EVENING AT ANAHEIM by James Stevenson (Special Release)
From brilliant New Yorker cartoonist, illustrator, and children's book author James Stevenson comes this darkly hilarious reimagining of iconic animated characters - now over the hill and waiting out their golden years at a seedy retirement community in Los Angeles.
Directed by Tony nominee Dana Ivey (The Last Night of Ballyhoo), EVENING AT ANAHEIM features Richard Kind (The Producers, "Spin City"), Karen Ziemba (Tony winner for Contact), Emily Bergl ("Gilmore Girls," Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Brandon Uranowitz (Falsettos), Carson Elrod (Peter and the Starcatcher), Peter Maloney (Requiem for a Dream), and Tom Alan Robbins (The Lion King). Stay tuned after the play for a high spirited conversation with the cast, director, and Playing on Air founder and consulting director Claudia Catania.
EVENING AT ANAHEIM was co-presented with Playwrights Horizons and recorded live in New York City.
This episode was given a special release in honor of James Stevenson.
Download the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting platform—or just stream below! [35 Minutes 58 Seconds]
NAPOLEON IN EXILE by Daniel Reitz (Re-Release)
“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 and job applications, a game-changing crisis is bubbling.
Directed by Golden Globe winner Marsha Mason (“Grace and Frankie,” The Goodbye Girl), NAPOLEON IN EXILE by Daniel Reitz (New Dramatists, Ensemble Studio Theatre) is a moving, unexpectedly funny portrait of a family on the brink. Emmy nominee Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle,” Good People) and Will Dagger (HBO’s “I Know This Much Is True,” PoA’s The Press Conference) star as mother and son. After the performance, the artists join host Claudia Catania to discuss writing for actors and bringing theater chops to the world of sitcom TV.
Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [39 Minutes 23 Seconds]
MISADVENTURE by Donald Margulies (Re-Release)
We're re-releasing 5 of our most popular episodes for a 2020 fresh start!
(Psst: keep your eyes open for an exciting announcement, coming soon...)
The police picked up teenage Ethan (Timothée Chalamet) for drunkenly wandering down the highway. Now, he's facing the real reckoning for his Misadventure: the wrath of his big sister (Zoe Kazan).
Playwright and director Donald Margulies is a Pulitzer Prize winner for Dinner with Friends and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Sight Unseen and Collected Stories.
Best known for her leading role in The Big Sick, Zoe Kazan has also played on Broadway and off in A Behanding in Spokane and Angels in America, among others. Her film credits include It’s Complicated, happythankyoumoreplease, and Ruby Sparks.
Timothée Chalamet has received Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Call Me By Your Name. Other screen credits include Little Women, Lady Bird, and Beautiful Boy. He won acclaim on Broadway in John Patrick Shanley’s Prodigal Son. After the play, host Claudia Catania talks shop with the entire creative team.
Download on iTunes, Podbay, Player FM, subscribe to our RSS feed, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [12 Minutes 11 Seconds]
3:59 AM: A DRAG RACE FOR TWO ACTORS by Marco Ramirez
It's summer in the city, and Laz and Hector are both on the run from something they can't quite name. Maybe the sudden need for speed has something to do with Laz's sister, who took off two weeks ago, or with Hector's wife, who just called from the hospital. Featuring Bobby Moreno ("Homeland," Lazarus, PoA's Acorn) and Sean Carvajal (Broadway's King Lear, Jesus Hopped the A Train), Marco Ramirez's 3:59am: a drag race for two actors paints a blazing, late-night portrait of two young men tearing up the open road - and themselves.
After the play, host Claudia Catania joins director Christian Parker (New Neighborhood, Chair of Graduate Theatre at Columbia) and the cast for a behind-the-mic interview.
Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [21 Minutes 38 Seconds]
A LITTLE PART OF ALL OF US by Jesse Eisenberg
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, PoA's The Blizzard) is both playwright and actor in the satirical short A LITTLE PART OF ALL OF US. Since 9/11, anxious hipster Joey (Eisenberg) has been haunted by survivor's guilt. Or -- maybe he's just co-opting a national tragedy to justify a decade of depression? A LITTLE PART OF ALL OF US also stars Justin Bartha (The Hangover trilogy, “The Good Fight”) as Joey's deadpan friend, who is definitely, totally listening to Joey. Really. Stay tuned after the performance for a conversation between host Claudia Catania and the cast.
Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [16 Minutes 48 Seconds]
MY HUSBAND by Paul Rudnick
A wedding isn't a competition - until the mothers get involved.
After gay marriage is legalized in New York, one meddling matriarch will stop at nothing to get her son to the altar. Starring Michael Urie (Broadway's Torch Song, "Ugly Betty," PoA's A Departure) and Tony winner Harriet Harris ("Frasier," "Desperate Housewives," Phantom Thread), MY HUSBAND by Paul Rudnick (The New Yorker, the upcoming The Devil Wears Prada) is directed by Claudia Weill (Girlfriends, HBO's "Girls," PoA's Hate Baby). After the short comedy, host Claudia Catania joins the artists for a behind-the-scenes discussion.
MY HUSBAND was recorded live at BRIC House in Brooklyn, New York.
Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [19 Minutes 58 Seconds]
AN UPSET by David Auburn
Content advisory: this episode contains explicit language and sexual references.
When a cocky, jaded tennis star (David Harbour) loses a pivotal match to an inexperienced Romanian player (Steven Boyer), the two men lock into an unlikely battle for dominance on and off the court. Over the course of three encounters on the Grand Slam circuit, AN UPSET by David Auburn (Tony & Pulitzer winner for Proof) peers irreverently, and explosively, behind the locker room door.
After the play, Tony nominees Harbour ("Stranger Things," Hellboy, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and Boyer (Hand to God, "Trial & Error") join director Michael Wilson (PoA's Wildwood Park, Broadway's The Trip To Bountiful) and host Claudia Catania for an exclusive talk-back about working with your idols and what it means to be an amateur.
AN UPSET was recorded live at the 52nd Street Project in New York City.
Download on iTunes, Podbay, Player FM, subscribe to our RSS feed, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [29 Minutes 02 Seconds]
52ND TO BOWERY TO COBBLE HILL, IN BROOKLYN by Chiara Atik
"I just don't like you very much... Just. Middle of the road not liking you, I think."
In Chiara Atik's 52nd to Bowery to Cobble Hill, in Brooklyn, Halle is taking a late-night cab ride through Manhattan with her bubbly acquaintance Alison. Halle didn't mean to blurt out how she really feels about their "friendship," but now they're stuck in traffic on Broadway and 4th, dealing with it. Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Colt Coeur), Atik's modern comedy features Molly Bernard ("Transparent," "Younger") and Sue Jean Kim (Bachelorette, Playwrights Horizons, Public Theater).
Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [24 Minutes 7 Seconds]
THE BLIZZARD by David Ives
With a storm raging outside, a horror screenwriter (Jesse Eisenberg) and his wife (Heidi Schreck) are cozying up for a romantic weekend in the middle of nowhere. The weather outside is frightful -- and so is the mysterious couple that just arrived on their doorstep.
Directed by John Rando and starring Eisenberg (The Social Network, Playing on Air's A Little Part of All of Us), Schreck (What the Constitution Means to Me), Alfredo Narciso (Time and the Conways, PoA's West of Stupid and Mere Mortals), and Sarah Sokolovic ("Homeland," PoA's Anniversary), David Ives's THE BLIZZARD will send a shiver down your spine.
Stay tuned after this special bonus episode for a conversation with host Claudia Catania and the artists about Agatha Christie fandom and what makes art creepy.
Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [19 Minutes 54 Seconds]
THE MYSTERY AT TWICKNAM VICARAGE by David Ives
From the beloved narrator of the Harry Potter audiobooks and the playwright of Venus in Fur comes a wickedly clever whodunit.
In THE MYSTERY AT TWICKNAM VICARAGE, by David Ives, Scotland Yard's Inspector Dexter (Jim Dale) arrives at a country parsonage to investigate the murder of Jeremy Thumpington-Fffienes (David Furr). As Jeremy's wife (Kelly Hutchinson), two lovers (Scarlett Strallen and Arnie Burton), and a suspiciously attractive sofa aid in the investigation, the crime crescendos into an uproarious parody of Masterpiece Theater, Sherlock Holmes, and all things British. After the play, Tony-winning director John Rando (Urinetown, On the Town), Ives, and the cast join host Claudia Catania in a behind-the-scenes interview.
Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [29 Minutes 30 Seconds]