Beckett's Babies

Writing non-human characters...Why do some playwrights bring non-human characters to life? What’s the draw? What do we achieve when we place human ideas, thoughts, and emotions into a non-human character? Is there a place for it in a serious adult drama? Find out in this episode as we attempt to figure it out! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

"I really want theater to reach in and grab my heart and squeeze. I want to feel something when I’m sitting there." We love to interview playwrights! We love to hear how they discovered playwriting and how they found themselves on this journey into the world of playwriting. We had the immense pleasure to talk to Marisela Treviño Orta and we know you will enjoy this episode, listeners. Marisela is an accidental playwright. She got her MFA in poetry from the University of San Francisco. Graduate of Iowa playwrights workshop, core writer at the playwrights center, and is currently working on a commission for Audible! Her play "Somewhere", which was commissioned by Temple University, will open Feb 1st. GLISTENS: Sam's Glisten - Joy Harjo "Book of poems" Sarah's Glisten - InsideOut Writers Marisela's Glisten - sushi at Hamasaku in LA ABOUT MARISELA TREVIÑO ORTA Marisela Treviño Orta is an accidental playwright. Originally from Lockhart, Texas, she found her way to the genre while completing an MFA in Writi

“Give yourself the gift of working hard and doing the best that you can do in any given moment but taking away comparisons to other people and their work." We had such a great and fun conversation with actor, producer, solo performer, and arts educator Terri Weagant! Based out of Brooklyn, NY, she shared her experiences on performing and how she approaches new work. She will be performing the solo play Bo-Nita by Elizabeth Heffron at the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City on November 6th and 9th, so make sure to check it out! Terri Weagant is an award winning actor, writer, director, producer and dialect coach based in Brooklyn, NY. As an actor she has performed in the US, Canada, Australia and the Czech Republic. Regionally, she worked with such companies as Asolo Repertory Theatre, Urbanite Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Wooden O, Annex Theatre, ACT Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Theater Schmeater, CHAC, Empty Space, Balagan Theatre, Centerstage, Hypnagogia and Consolidated Works.

What the heck are monologues? Don't get it confused with the "kissing disease". In this episode, we discuss the different kinds of monologues in plays, what are they for, what makes a good monologue for a play vs. a standalone monologue, how to write one and when do we use them in our plays. What do you think? Do you have any tips or tricks on writing monologues? If so, send us your thoughts (or questions)and we might discuss it on our upcoming episode! Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

“We are all healthier when we live in a culturally diverse world. When there are more stories that are accessible to us when every voice is part of every cultural conversation. It’s not about excluding traditional voices. It’s about expanding the range of what people know is there." If you are a playwright or someone who is just starting to write plays, then you must know the New Play Exchange. We had the pleasure of interviewing writer, innovator, and arts advocate, Gwydion Suilebhan. He serves as both the Executive Director of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the chief architect and evangelist of the New Play Exchange for the National New Play Network. He is also a co-founder of The Welders, award-winning playwrights collective in Washington DC. He’s the author of several plays, and he has a Master of Arts in poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. His forthcoming series All Souls is currently in post-production. To learn more about Gwydion and his work, you can visit the following l

At some point, playwrights will have to write their biographies. Whether it be for a personal website or to submit themselves to a development opportunity, or even when writing a program for a produced play-- We discuss why we have to write bios, why do we write them the way we do, and can we make them better. We attempt to break this code, let us know if we succeeded or not! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

“We’re an artistic weed. We crop up anywhere there’s a room and a couple of people to tell a story. We’re never going to go away." We had the pleasure of interviewing playwright and coordinator of the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Dawson Moore. He shared incredible stories from his life and how it's lead him to where he is today. He provides us some insight into how he curates the play lab for this week-long theater conference. He’s also an actor, director, and internationally produced playwright and we know you're going to enjoy this episode, folks! Check it out! Dawson Moore lives in Valdez, Alaska, where he works for Prince William Sound College as the Coordinator of the Valdez Last Frontier Theatre Conference (www.theatreconference.org). His plays have been produced across the country, as well as internationally in Australia, Canada, Italy, and Namibia. His play Six Dead Bodies Duct-Taped to a Merry-Go-Round, co-written with Lindsay Mariana Walker, is published in Applause Books' Best American Short

A hot topic issue for so many playwrights. We look at the fees to different development opportunities and weigh the pros and cons. HELPFUL LINKS: Dramatists Guild - DG Statement: Festival Guidelines https://www.dramatistsguild.com/news2/ "TO PAY FEES OR NOT TO PAY FEES… HERE IS MY ANSWER " by Donna Hoke http://blog.donnahoke.com/finally-my-take-on-play-submission-fees-ymmv/ Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

“From your own community, you can create opportunities for yourself.“ New York-based writer and actor Amy Berryman joins us on this episode to share her experience with playwriting and creating new work. It was such a pleasure to have her on the show! Amy shares how she started writing and provides wonderful advice to aspiring playwrights. We hope you'll enjoy this conversation! Amy Berryman is a writer and actor originally from Seattle. She was recently seen off-Broadway in The Convent by Jessica Dickey, directed by Daniel Talbott. Her full length plays include Walden (Premiere Play Festival Runner Up 2019, Title Wave Theatre Festival at Bay Street, Great Plains Theatre Conference), The New Galileos (O'Neill Finalist 2019, Playwrights Realm Fellowship Finalist 2018) Three Year Summer, and The Whole of You (commissioned by Rising Phoenix Rep for Cino Nights). Her work has been developed with Portland Stage, Premiere Stages, Nomad Theatricals, Caltech, Prop Thtr, and Last Frontier Theatre Conference. Her sh

How do we teach playwriting? How do we teach writing in general? In this episode, we discuss what we think are best practices, writing exercises, approaches to workshopping students' new plays, and how do we grade creative work. If teaching playwriting is something you're passionate about or interested in discussing, we'd love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies

Playwright, Dramaturg, Ceramic Artist and former Acupuncturist Tanuja Jagernauth join us on this episode to share her truth on theater and supporting communities through the arts. She also explores the ideas from her current research on fascism to write anti-fascist plays. What an important conversation we all had in this episode. She's incredibly thoughtful, generous, and open to sharing her life with us. We enjoyed having her on the show! We know you'll enjoy this episode too! Tanuja Jagernauth is an Indo-Caribbean playwright, dramaturg, and ceramic artist who believes in the necessity of creation during times of destruction. A former acupuncturist, Tanuja aspires to practice four specific frameworks for collective liberation and wellness through theatre: self/community care, harm reduction, trauma-informed practice, and body positivity. To learn more about Tanuja and her work, follow on Instagram @tanuja_devi _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing,

As playwrights and writers, we must be able to talk about ourselves and our work. In this episode, we get into the idea of self-promotion... the good, the bad, and the ugly. _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com

Playwright, improviser and mental health counselor John Mabey joins us on this episode to discuss all things playwriting, theater, improv, and more. John is a listener of the show who reached out to us and we wanted to reach back to bring him on show! John began writing plays as a child before he knew that’s what he was doing. He’s spent the past 10 years living in New York, London and Amsterdam and now lives in the American South. He studied human behavior, emotion and relationships by earning a master’s degree in Counseling and Psychology, and infuses into his playwriting everything he’s learned about what it means to be human. In addition to plays, he also publishes in academic books and journals on the topics of sexual identity and spirituality. In playwriting, John enjoys experimenting with structure and uses improvisation as a way to generate creative ideas as well as its own art form. He now teaches and performs improvisation around the world with ensembles and as a solo act, and is a regular perform

Sam interviews Sarah Cho.... and you won't believe what she says! Or maybe you do but... listen anyways! Thanks so much for listening to our show! We are a two-woman operation in creating this podcast show. Please help to support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com

Sarah interviews Sam Collier.... and you won't believe what she says! Find out next week when Sam interviews Sarah. Stay tuned! We are a two-woman operation in creating this podcast show. Please help to support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com

What are the plays that have haunted you? In this episode, we discuss plays that we have seen or read that’s stuck with us long after they’ve been seen or read. The plays can also be the ones you haven’t written yet and are stewing in your mind or the ghost-twins of the plays you have written or even bad plays you’ve seen. We attempt to unpack these ideas to think about why some plays stick with us. Related Links & Glistens All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury http://staff.esuhsd.org/danielle/english%20department%20lvillage/rt/short%20stories/all%20summer%20in%20a%20day.pdf Interlochen's "9 to 5 the Musical", High School Musical TV Show 'Misfits" https://www.hulu.com/series/misfits-b75af06c-868a-4983-b648-83762198d22a Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Ema

Playwright Reina Hardy joins us on this episode to discuss all things playwriting, theater, teaching, and more. Reina is a delightful and incredible human being. We also share our pet peeves on rejections so don't miss out on this episode! Reina Hardy's plays, which usually contain magic and sometimes contain science, have been produced in Chicago, NYC and London. They include “Glassheart” (Rorsharch Theater and the Shrewds), “Changelings”, (The Vortex), and “A Map to Somewhere Else” (Everyday Inferno, NYC). Honors include: Michener Fellowship, National New Play Network New Play Showcase, Source Festival, Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop, Interact 20/20 Commission, Kennedy Center ACTF TYA PRIZE. Publications include: “Best American Short Plays, 2012-2013,” and “Best Scenes for Two Actors,” Applause, “Best Stage Monologs for Men,” “60 Seconds to Shine,” and “105 5-Minute Plays for Study and Performance,” from Smith and Kraus. In the 2018-19 and 2019-20 season: the world premiere of "Fanatical" in

In this episode, we share our thoughts on talkbacks and post-show discussions. What are the different approaches or structures to talkbacks? What are talkbacks for? In an ideal world, what would a talkback provide to artists, audience members, and the theater institution? What are the pitfalls of talkbacks? What makes them go wrong? How can we make them better? Well, we attempted to answer these questions the only way we know how-- The BB Way. As always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting or any topics discussed on this show and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com LINKS Advice from Eve Tuck about academic Q & A https://twitter.com/tuckeve/status/1141501422611128320 GLISTENS 1. Staunch Book Prize 2. Sarah's Wedding Dress 3. Sleep Paralysis Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitt

Listeners, sometimes you gotta learn the format to break it. In this episode, we discuss the standard format for playwriting, different writing programs to use for playwriting, and what we love (or sometimes we don't love) about the format. Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies As always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com

Literary Manager (and fellow Iowa alumn) Jenni Page-White joins us on this episode to share her experiences as both a dramaturg and literary manager. This is a great episode for our listeners who are interested in dramaturgy and have been thinking about literary management as a profession! Jenni gives us some thoughtful insight into the world. We hope you'll enjoy it! Jenni Page-White is the literary manager at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she curates and develops new work for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Her dramaturgy credits at Actors Theatre include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Angels in America (Parts One and Two), and the world premieres of We’ve Come to Believe by Kara Lee Corthron, Emily Feldman, and Matthew Paul Olmos; Dave Harris’s Everybody Black; Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s Do You Feel Anger?; Susan Soon He Stanton’s we, the invisibles; Basil Kreimendahl’s We’re Gonna Be Okay; Tasha Gordon-Solmon’s I Now Pronounce; Brendan Pelsue’s Wellesley Girl; and St