Scene in Boston

Fresh off a well-received run at Trinity Rep in Providence, The Getaway Driver is coming to Central Square Theater in Cambridge. The play asks how far is too far in the fight to do what's right—and what accountability and forgiveness can look like afterward. In this episode of Scene in Boston, Laura Amico talks with playwright Deborah Salem Smith, who co-wrote The Getaway Driver with Charlie Thurs...

To Kill a Mockingbird is a story you might think you know well. But at the Huntington, live music adds another dimension to its familiar contours. In this bonus episode of Scene in Boston, Laura Amico talks with violist and composer Ashley Frith, whose presence—and music—caught her attention in the Huntington's production of Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of Harper Lee's novel. Playing viola, violin, a...

It's spooky season—and Greater Boston stages are getting in on the fun. Whether you love a good scare or you're a little scared of being scared, this episode is for you. We talk with Covenant director Dawn M. Simmons and Bat Boy: The Musical director Jeremy Johnson about shadows,unsettling stories, and the exhilaration of experiencing it all together. From a Southern Gothic thriller at SpeakEasy S...

This week on Scene in Boston, we kick off season two with WBUR theater critic Jacquinn Sinclair to talk about what's ahead on Greater Boston stages. From family dramas and Gothic horror to hidden histories, musicals, and mysteries, we explore the connections across a packed theater season—and what might inspire you to try something new. In our conversation, we discuss: • the summer shows that stay...

After ten episodes,  about a dozen interviews, and more theater than we ever expected to see, we're wrapping up Season One of Scene in Boston. In this special season finale, hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Talhamer look back on the productions, conversations, and ideas that shaped the first season. From workshop productions and intimate black box theaters to major musicals and ambitious new works, they...

This week on Scene in Boston, we talk with director Dev Luthra about Weighting the Wait , Open Theater Project's new production created from writing circles with mothers impacted by gun violence. Performed inside St. John's Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain, the production uses movement, storytelling, ritual, and large-scale fabric artwork to transform the audience from observers into witnesses. I...

In this episode of Scene in Boston, hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer are joined by actor Miranda Jonté, who stars in (Re)Dressing Miss Havisham at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. The new solo play, written by John Minigan, reexamines the iconic Great Expectations character from her own perspective — asking what happens when women written off by literature get to tell their own stories. Jonté talk...

In this episode of Scene in Boston, hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer dive into Swept Away, SpeakEasy Stage Company's folk-rock musical set on an 1888 whaling ship leaving New Bedford. Featuring the music of The Avett Brothers, the show follows four survivors of a shipwreck as they confront questions of morality, mortality, and what it means to live a good life. Director Jeremy Johnson and scen...

Hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer step inside the process of writing new plays—how stories move from idea to page to stage, and what it takes to build something that doesn't yet exist. They talk with Boston playwrights about shaping characters, navigating collaboration, and developing work in real time, as scripts evolve through workshops, rehearsals, and conversation with artists and audiences...

In this episode of Scene in Boston, hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer sit down with award-winning actor and educator Kadahj Bennett ahead of his role as Caesar Wilkes in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, produced this spring by Actors Shakespeare Project. The episode is a deep dive into why Wilson's work feels urgently alive right now, and what happens when theater meets the community it's spea...

In this episode of Scene in Boston, hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer take a step back from individual productions to explore a bigger question: what's happening in our brains when we sit in an audience—and how do we get better at it? The episode features neuroscientist Antonia Hamilton, who studies social cognition and communication. She explains how watching live performance activates the par...

How does our idea of immigration change when it's not a journey with a clear destination, but a life spent learning who you are in the space between two homes? In this episode of  Scene in Boston , a Boston theatre podcast, hosts  Laura Amico  and  Lisa Thalhamer  step into the world of playwright  Mfoniso Udofia's Ufot Family Cycle , a nine-play epic tracing one  Nigerian American family  across...

Why are stories from ancient Greece having a moment in Boston theater? In this episode of Scene in Boston , hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer explore a surge of productions inspired by Greek mythology and classical drama appearing across the city this season. Through conversations with two leading directors, the episode examines how these centuries-old stories continue to speak powerfully to co...

In this premiere episode, Scene in Boston hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer dive into how Boston's stages are grappling with trauma in the age of the internet — as content, as labor, and as identity. They start with the world-premiere workshop of Girl Crime , a sharp, funny, and unsettling satire of true crime podcasts and influencer culture, before turning their focus to Job , the psychologica...

In this introductory episode,  Scene in Boston  hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer warm up the feed by previewing the kinds of connections  Scene in Boston  will explore across the season.  Laura and Lisa tease upcoming conversations about theater and online life ( Job  and  The Moderate ), ambitious long-form storytelling like the Ufot Family Cycle, and Boston's fascination with retelling epic...