The Drama Book Show!

In this episode, we talk with playwright Doug DeVita about his adaptation of E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India, reimagining the classic novel through the lens of hidden desire, forbidden intimacy, and colonial repression. Set in British-ruled India, the play follows Dr. Aziz, Cyril Fielding, and Adela Quested as their tangled attractions challenge the boundaries of culture, class, and empire. Usin...

In this episode, we talk with award-winning playwright and screenwriter Tori Keenan-Zelt about The JonBenét Game, a play exploring the complicated relationship between true crime, violence, grief, and the stories we tell ourselves. The play follows Rae, a school guidance counselor haunted by a childhood game she played with her best friend Molly: reenacting the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. Twenty ye...

In this episode, we talk with members of Fake Friends—Michael Breslin, Patrick Foley, Rory Pelsue, Cat Rodríguez, and Ariel Sibert—about their groundbreaking digital theater work created during the pandemic. Their book collects Circle Jerk, the first digital theater work to be shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and This American Wife. From AI influencers and social media to queer fandom...

In this episode, we talk with Tony Award–winning producer and Broadway Plus founder and CEO Nathaniel Hill about his book The VIP Effect and the art of creating unforgettable experiences. Drawing on his career in theater and experience design, Hill explores how intentional planning, thoughtful hospitality, anticipation, and care can transform everyday interactions into meaningful connections. From...

In this episode, we talk with Nicole Brewer, theater director, educator, and originator of the internationally recognized Antiracist Theatre (ART) model, about her book The Antiracist Theatre and reimagining how artists collaborate. Brewer’s book combines memoir, self-exploration, and practical tools to examine power, privilege, accountability, and care in theatrical spaces. Rooted in transformati...

In this episode, we talk with playwright, songwriter, and educator Ro Reddick about her darkly comedic play Cold War Choir Practice, winner of the 2026 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Set in Ronald Reagan’s America, the play follows a young girl caught up in family intrigue when her estranged uncle, a prominent Black conservative, brings his mysteriously ill wife home for the holidays. Blending music...

In this episode, we talk with Catherine Weidner, actor, director, educator, and author of Acting Heightened Text: The Basics, about bringing heightened language to life onstage. Weidner’s book offers actors, directors, students, and teachers practical tools for working with verse and prose, from text analysis and playing actions to auditions, rehearsals, rhetorical arguments, and rhyming couplets....

In this episode, we explore the third volume of the Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays, featuring nine new works by trans playwrights and centered on young trans characters, from age twelve through their late twenties. The collection highlights a wide range of voices, genres, and theatrical styles while exploring coming of age, family, relationships, athletics, dating, and navigating challenging so...

In this episode, we talk with novelist and actor Michael Golding about new novel, Quick Bright Things, a love letter to Broadway’s Golden Age. Set in New York in 1948, the novel follows a young rehearsal pianist, a visionary director, and his Girl Friday as they race toward opening night with a musical adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Drawing on Golding’s own experiences in the theatre, Qu...

In this episode, we talk with Stefan Sittig, director, choreographer, educator, performer, and author of Latinidad in Musical Theatre, about the lasting influence of Latine artists, music, dance, and choreography on the American musical. From Carmen Miranda to Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sittig traces a century of Latine contributions through shows including West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, In the Heights...

In this episode, we talk with Paige Allen and Stacy Wolf, authors of Feminist Approaches in Musical Theatre, about the relationship between feminism, spectatorship, and the musical theatre canon. Using shows including The Music Man, Evita, Fun Home, and SIX, the book explores how feminist theory can help us understand and analyze musicals, particularly the contradictions of an art form beloved by...

In this episode, we talk with Robert W. Schneider, artistic director of J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company, producer at 54 Below, and host of Behind the Curtain: Broadway’s Living Legends, about his book Queer Musicals. Taking a chronological look at queer musicals from the second half of the twentieth century through today, the book explores how these shows were created, produced, received, and...

In this episode, we talk with award-winning playwright Tom Dugan about Irish Goodbye, the first installment of his Jersey Pub Trilogy. Set in a small New Jersey pub on Christmas Eve, the darkly comic play follows a disgraced cop and an ex-beauty queen who take shelter from a winter storm and form an unexpected connection. Joining the conversation are Broadway veteran Mel Johnson, who serves as mod...

In this episode, we talk with Deborah Jean Templin, award-winning playwright and veteran actor of theatre, film, and television, about her solo work Unsinkable Women: Stories and Songs From the Titanic. Inspired by Templin’s experience touring with the Tony Award-winning musical Titanic, Unsinkable Women explores the lives of nine women who survived the sinking and how the disaster shaped their li...

In this episode, we talk with Dionne O’Dell, artistic director of the MSU Sense-Ability Ensemble, about The Sense-Ability Ensemble’s Guide to Creating Theatre for Audiences That Are Neurodiverse. Part case study and part practical guide, the book explores how theatre makers can create work with neurodiverse audiences in mind—from sensory engagement, live music, and puppetry to design, storytelling...

In this episode we talk with performer and longtime voice teacher Carolyn Marcell Elmore about the art and practice of singing. Elmore’s career spans opera, classical concert performance, and musical theatre, as both a performer and educator. Her book, Uncovering Your True Voice: A Practical Guide for Singers & Teachers, explores the day-to-day process of discovering, creating, and memorizing the...

In this episode, we sit down with Diana Feldman to discuss her book Stuck in a Role: Releasing Trauma in Teens through the ENACT Drama Therapy Method. Drawing on more than 30 years of work in NYC schools, Feldman shares how drama therapy helps adolescents break free from protective roles and reconnect with their authentic selves. Through improvisation, role play, and empathy-driven communication,...

In this episode, we explore What This Place Makes Me, a groundbreaking collection of works by first- and second-generation immigrant playwrights of Lebanese, Nigerian, Korean, Bengali, Polish, and Mexican descent. These seven powerful voices illuminate stories of displacement, alienation, and the search for belonging, weaving together narratives that are both deeply personal and universally resona...

In this episode, we talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-nominated playwright, director, and educator James Ijames about his creative process and the art of making new work. In anticipation of the world premiere of his new play Wilderness Generation at Philadelphia Theatre Company, Ijames joins Nancy Boykin and Kimberly S. Fairbanks for a conversation moderated by PlayPenn Artistic Dire...

In this episode, we celebrate Broadway Poster Art: 1945–1969 by Nicholas van Hoogstraten, a visually stunning tribute to Broadway’s iconic posters—from My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof to rare designs for legendary flops. The book offers an insider’s look at the artists behind the posters, featuring Al Hirschfeld, David Klein, Fay Gage, and more, along with alternate concepts, rejected designs...

In this episode, we explore Over the Shoulder: A Freelancer’s Guide to Telling Stories and Editing Films by Mark Solomon. Drawing on 30+ years in Hollywood, Solomon shares insider insights from editing iconic films like Shrek, Chicken Run, Space Jam, and the Eddie award-nominated Frankenweenie. His book offers a practical roadmap for crafting unforgettable stories, with lessons on suspense, contra...

In This Episode In this episode, we talk with Ronald “Smokey” Stevens, an award-winning performer, director, choreographer, producer, and founder of Capital City Readers Theatre. A veteran of Broadway productions including Bubbling Brown Sugar, Dreamgirls, and his own Rollin’ on the T.O.B.A., Stevens has dedicated much of his career to preserving and celebrating Black theatrical history. His book,...

In this episode, we explore Working Together in Theatre: Collaboration and Leadership with Joel Veenstra, Chair of the Drama Department at UC Irvine and a specialist in stage management, improvisation, and collaborative production. Building on the work of acclaimed theatre educator and director Robert Cohen, this new edition examines what it takes to create great theatre together. From playwrights...

In this episode, acclaimed casting director Joel Thurm shares stories from his remarkable career in Hollywood, chronicled in Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season. From discovering John Travolta and the Phoenix family to shaping iconic TV shows like Cheers, Taxi, The Love Boat, and The Golden Girls, Thurm offers a witty and irreverent insider’s view of the entertainment industry. He also recounts his work...

In this episode, we talk with Julie Gilbert about her new book Giant Love, which explores the life and legacy of trailblazing novelist and playwright Edna Ferber. Ferber, a Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote Giant in 1952—a controversial bestseller that sparked outrage in Texas but went on to inspire George Stevens’ Academy Award-winning epic starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean. Gilbe...