As You Mic It

PA Shakespeare Festival continues its second season of As You Mic It with a compelling conversation about what love demands when it challenges tradition, authority, and expectation. In this episode, hosts Jason King Jones and Connie Behringer open with a roundtable exploring love as both obligation and choice across the 2026 season. Drawing connections between Romeo and Juliet , Coriolanus , and M...

As You Mic It heads north for a special two-act episode recorded at the annual conference of the Shakespeare Theatre Association in St. John's. Act One opens with a roundtable conversation as hosts Jason King Jones, Kim Carson, and Connie Behringer reflect on why PSF participates in the STA conference, what conversations are shaping the field, and what ideas they’re bringing back to the Festival....

PA Shakespeare Festival continues its second season of As You Mic It with a conversation spotlighting the women of the season and the artists shaping PSF’s work on stage and behind the scenes. Hosts Jason King Jones, Kim Carson, and Connie Behringer open with a roundtable conversation on the women of the season, considering how these characters drive story and perspective across the Festival’s lin...

PA Shakespeare Festival continues the conversation on As You Mic It through the stories we tell and the service that upholds them. In this episode, hosts Jason King Jones, Kim Carson, and Connie Behringer open with a fast-moving roundtable that introduces the 2026 season. They share quick synopses, first impressions, and what they are most eager for audiences to experience this summer. Later, JKJ...

PA Shakespeare Festival continues its second season of As You Mic It with a conversation centered on this year’s theme, Legends and Legacy. In this episode, hosts Jason King Jones, Kim Carson, and Connie Behringer open with a roundtable on what defines a “legend” and how legacy takes shape within an artistic community. Later in the episode, we turn to the next generation of theatre-makers through...

PA Shakespeare Festival continues its second season of As You Mic It with a conversation that explores Shakespeare as "America's Playwright." In this episode, hosts Jason King Jones , Kim Carson , and Connie Behringer reflect on the role of theatre in the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary and how Shakespeare’s work continues to shape our understanding of democracy, identity, and community. Later...

Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival launches its 35th season and the second season of A s You Mic It ! Join Artistic Director Jason King Jones WillPower actors David Andrew Laws, Darin "Frankie" Earl II, and Arrianna Daniels for a conversation about performing Shakespeare for thousands of students each fall. Reflecting on the 25th anniversary of PSF’s WillPower Tour, they share stories from the road...

As the curtain falls on another unforgettable summer, the hosts Jason King Jones, Kim Carson, and Connie Behringer gather around the mic for a warm, reflective, and joy-filled season wrap-up. From moving performances and behind the stage memories, this episode revisits favorite moments on stage and off, and celebrates the artists and audiences who made it all possible. Whether you joined us in the...

As You Mic It: In the Spotlight goes behind the scenes of two uniquely PSF productions in the 2025 Summer Theatre Series. Artistic Director Jason King Jones talks with Greg Wood, Susie Stevens, and Tony Lawton about Timon of Athens , presented through the Festival’s signature Extreme Shakespeare approach. Director Matt Pfeiffer shares his process in finding the fun for this year’s Shakespeare for...

As You Mic It: In the Spotlight shines the light on this season’s repertory production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead . Artistic Director Jason King Jones sits down with actor Ian Merrill Peakes ( The Player ) and scenic designer Brian Sydney Bembridge for an inside look at Tom Stoppard’s witty and mind-bending companion piece to Hamlet . Together, they explore the play’s existential hum...

As You Mic It: In the Spotlight shines the light on this season’s repertory productions of Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Artistic Director Jason King Jones sits down with Biko Eisen-Martin (Hamlet), and David Pica and Pepin (Laertes and Ophelia) to discuss Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy as a profound exploration of grief, revenge, and the boundaries between madness and clarity....

We’re taking the show right into the heart of our community! Recorded in front of a live audience during Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s annual Community Day, this special episode of As You Mic It: In the Spotlight celebrates the people, programs, and performers that make our summer season so extraordinary. In Act 1, we shine a light on the PSF Summer Education Initiative, featuring two of thi...

As You Mic It: In the Spotlight shines the light on this season's production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. It's a powerful American masterwork of dreams, dignity, and generational resilience. Jason King Jones sits down with Brandon Burton and Noelle Dianne Johnson, who portray Walter Lee and Ruth Younger, for a conversation about family, legacy, and what this iconic play still has t...

Big laughs and even bigger personalities take center stage in this episode of As You Mic It: In the Spotlight ! Artistic Director Jason King Jones sits down with director Jennifer Childs to talk about staging Mel Brooks’ outrageous musical comedy The Producers at PSF. Then, Associate Producer Connie Behringer catches up with Scott Greer and Michael Doherty—our fearless Max and Leo—for a behind-the...

Get primed for Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s 2025 Undiscovered Countries Season with our Prologue mini-episodes. In this installment, Director of Education and Community Engagement, Kim Carson unpacks Timon of Athens, Shakespeare’s biting exploration of friendship, generosity, and betrayal. As part of our Extreme Shakespeare series, this production leans into original practices: no director,...

The Bard hits the road in this episode of As You Mic It: In the Spotlight ! Connie Behringer talks with Jason King Jones about PSF’s Play On! Community Tour of Much Ado About Nothing, the lively, family-friendly Shakespeare comedy. Then, Jason chats with India Proffit and Ryan Plunkett , our Beatrice and Benedick, about bringing wit, romance, and Shakespearean banter to parks and public spaces acr...

Get primed for Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s 2025 Undiscovered Countries Season with our Prologue mini-episodes. In this installment, Director of Education and Community Engagement, Kim Carson, guides us through the absurdist adventures, existential quandaries, and comedic pitfalls awaiting Shakespeare’s most famously sidelined duo in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead , a...

Ready to dive into something epic? In this special bonus episode of As You Mic It: In the Spotlight , we’re pulling back the curtain with the brilliant mind behind Penelope —composer and creator Alex Bechtel. Get the inside scoop on how a Greek myth became a bold new musical packed with heart, humor, and haunting melodies.  Penelope opens May 30 at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. ...

Get primed for Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s 2025 “Undiscovered Countries” season with our Prologue mini-episodes. In this installment, Director of Education and Community Engagement, Kim Carson, guides us through the ghostly encounters, existential questions, and the delicate line between madness and truth in Hamlet, Shakespeare’s timeless exploration of fate, identity, and the shadowy path...

Get primed for Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s 2025 “ Undiscovered Countries ” season with our Prologue mini-episodes. In this installment, Director of Education and Community Engagement, Kim Carson, walks us through the dreams deferred, generational tensions, and hard-won hopes at the heart of A Raisin in the Sun, a powerful journey into the uncharted territories of identity, legacy, and home...

Get primed for Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s 2025 “Undiscovered Countries” season with our Prologue mini-episodes.  In this episode, Director of Education and Community Engagement, Kim Carson, guides us through the tap‑dancing accountants, oversized ambitions, and outrageous laughs that make The Producers a dazzling leap into our “Undiscovered Countries.” Tickets are going fast, so get...

Get primed for Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s 2025 “Undiscovered Countries” season with our Prologue mini-episodes.  In this debut, Director of Education and Community Engagement , Kim Carson unpacks Penelope , Alex Bechtel’s genre‑bending musical that finally gives Homer’s steadfast queen her own epic, where waiting becomes heroism and myth meets modern storytelling.  Tickets are n...

Two plays, one castle, countless perspectives. In our final pre‑season episode, director Lindsay Smiling reveals his fresh take on Hamlet , while host‑turned‑guest Jason King Jones flips the script with Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead . Kim Carson pulls back the curtain on outreach programs that carry these stories from the stage to parks, libraries, and classrooms across th...

Welcome to As You Mic It! How winding is the path of love, and what happens when the heart leads us into Undiscovered Countries? In this episode: The Course of True Love , director of Penelope , Eva Steinmetz, joins Jason King Jones, Kim Carson, and Connie Behringer as they explore love’s complexities, comedic missteps, heartfelt sacrifices, and powerful transformations shaping the journeys of our...

Shakespeare understood the human need to gather, connect, and share experiences. In this special episode, Jason King Jones reflects on this concept in his contribution to The Quarto, the journal of the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA). Special Thanks: Gratitude to Chuck Gloman, Jarret Brown, and all of DeSales University for helping us continue this podcast journey. Stay Connected: Follo...