Empty Room

[The evening news broadcasts a terrible climbing toll. You start to wonder if your neighbors will ever even know your name. Silence is not an option. Silence is not an option.] A new experimental radio play by poet and essayist JP Seabright. In a dystopia seemingly shuttering in on itself, two companions try to mine meaning from one another's fading memories and desires, hushed by the drone of...

[You know someone might be watching, but not who or why. This room is familiar enough that it could be home, for now. You don't know how long it's been this way. Is it all a show?] A new experimental radio play by poet and essayist JP Seabright. In a dystopia seemingly shuttering in on itself, two companions try to mine meaning from one another's fading memories and desires, hushed by...

[The way here is hard to remember. You work without a break, but don't know what your job is. A nightly lottery is required viewing. Someone familiar is at the door.] A new experimental radio play by poet and essayist JP Seabright. In a dystopia seemingly shuttering in on itself, two companions try to mine meaning from one another's fading memories and desires, hushed by the drone of telev...

Broadcasting April 10th: A NEW PLAY by JP SEABRIGHT A dystopian lottery. Lights flickering on and off according to schedule. Two partners sitting in their usual places, trying to remember how they got there. Presented in three variations, and performed in a randomized order, JP Seabright's modular drama follows a couple's futile and stilted attempts to understand one another in the midst o...

"Well, it's true what they say. Practice makes perfect." An all-night rehearsal that stretches into morning. A pianist straining over their instrument– and their instrument straining back. CHROMATIC SCALE is the first one-act play of poet Leela Raj-Sankar, exploring a musician's relationship to the art that confounds them. Voiced by Claire Wagner, the pianist, and Diego Noll, the...

SIDE B: An interview with Garett Strickland. Empty Salon contributor Garett Strickland meets with the operator to explore Ordealism & Liminalogy; his books UNGULA (2020) and A PLACE BEYOND (forthcoming, 2023). Jarid and Garett discuss the all-encompassing task of struggling to leave a mark on deep-time, the horrors and hopes of technology, the failure of mediation, as well as wonder about what...

SIDE B: An interview with Rebecca Valley.  Empty Salon contributor Rebecca Valley meets with the operator to discuss Place, Performance, and the work of returning– to a body, a home, a piece of art. Despite timezone errors and podcast anxiety, Rebecca and Jarid debate Cornfields, Disneyland, Domestic Theater, as well as explore Rebecca's relationship to her hometown and its presence in her ma...

Jordan is on the edge with her fiancé, when a stranger enters her world and slyly turns it upside down. Insistent on honing his social skills with someone who seems as kind as her, he leads them into an increasingly pointed debate about the tides of culture, love, and Jordan's own looming commitment. Developed from a conversation overhead in a coffee shop, Richard Gustin's SOMEONE LIKE ME is a soc...

SIDE A: Sevilla, Waugh, King, Billingsley, Valley, Hardstark, Strickland, Glinnen, Rose, Galleran, Vincent, March & Georgeson.  An anthology of poetry, drama, sound art, and music. Featuring twelve performances, readings, and improvisations. Addictions, obsessions, swarming bees, shattering glass, gardens and flames. ‘The Failed Sorcerer’ by Karlo Sevilla, voiced by Tamla Quipse ‘Balance...

"But that's the first rule of good writing: kill your darlings, right?"  A short story about the fate of a forthcoming Romance novel being optioned for a Hollywood adaptation. An email from Dawn on behalf of Jacinda. An ill-fated love triangle. A love-letter from the angel Abdiel on behalf of Garett. Some slight editorial concerns. A roomful of imposters.  Written by Jesse Hilson. Voiced...

Duality Apéritif: Two Tao Set Pieces to Play Between One Acts. Meditative radio-mimes of absence and presence. Stage directions toward a question of our own suffering. Agents in the crowd. A decaying tape. Written by S.T. Brant, and performed by Paige Taylor & Spike Pulice. Recorded on-site at the Meadowlark Garage in Anaheim, CA.  Read the full piece: emptyroomradio.com/duality-aperitif-...

"Today, you feel relieved. Your life is simplified. Twelve zodiac signs was too many to keep track of. Why should distant planets guide your life when benevolent corporations are right here on Earth?" Transcripts of daily BATK horoscope podcasts. A work of radio fiction by Marcella Haddad.  Voiced by Tamla Quipse. Directed by Jarid McCarthy. Read the full story: emptyroomradio.com/good-mornin...

SIDE B: Kai Rosales, Joseph Pharr, and Matthew Katterhagen.  Jarid sits down with the cast and playwright of HIGH-RISE (2021) to continue discussing the art and aftermath of J.G. Ballard, their own artistic practices, and recent experiences of the still-reeling theater industry. Mythic afterimages of social decline, the fate of the billionaires, a new musical, an evolutionary Ouroboros, a wom...

SIDE A: Matthew Katterhagen, Ramon Suzara, and Molly Renze. Jarid sits down with the cast and playwright of HIGH-RISE (2021) to discuss the art and aftermath of J.G. Ballard, their own artistic practices, and recent experiences of the still-reeling theater industry. Reflections of rectilinear windows and sleek lobbies, recollections of plague summers, questions of the limits of a community, a feel...

HIGH-RISE by Matthew Katterhagen, adapted from J.G. Ballard's 1975 speculative thriller. Directed and edited by Jarid McCarthy.  Debut production of Empty Room.   Dr. Robert Laing, a medical instructor drowning his recent divorce in monotony and routine, finds his daily rituals shattered when his apartment block rapidly decays around him. As his fellow residents war for their place, floo...