Beckett’s Babies

In this episode, Sam and Sarah discuss creating titles for our plays. We share some of our favorite titles and discuss why we like certain play titles and why we do not like others. We look to how we create titles for our own work and be inspired by others. Check this episode out and share us your thoughts on creating play titles! GLISTENS: Sarah's Glisten: Her Arabica Plant Sam's Glisten: Kvass _...

Every month, we pick a play to discuss. This month’s play is “Dance Nation" by Clare Barron. It is one of the winners of 2015 relentless award, a finalist for a Pulitzer, and winner of Susan Smith Blackburn prize. In this episode we discuss what we noticed, what we liked, and questions that came up while reading the play. Note: There are some spoiler alerts! We highly recommend you read the play b...

What is "devised theater"? How can one start devising new work? In this week's episode, a fellow Beckett's Babies listener, Tiana Randall-Quant, reached out to us to share her experiences creating new work with The Wallis Studio Ensemble Their show "Lucid" opens on February 20th and we can't wait for you to hear what she has to say about the process. Listen to this episode to learn about Tiana's t...

Hello, Listeners! WE ARE BACK! In this episode, we check-in, share our own personal goals and resolutions (and how we've failed already), and other exciting plans we have on the horizon for Beckett's Babies.  We want to extend special thanks to our listeners for tuning in every week. We appreciate your support!!! THANK YOU!!! GLISTENS: Sarah's Glistens - Essential Oils, Air Purifier, and Kobe...

Hello, listeners! It's been an incredible year of discussing all things playwriting and interviewing theater guests from all walks of life on Beckett's Babies. In this episode, we share some of our favorite interviews and highlights from the year. We even share some of our dream goals for guests on our future episodes... Dream Goal Guests. DGG! SEASON 1 HIGHLIGHTS - Episodes You Should Check Out I...

"Process is all." "The difference between an entrepreneur and artist is that the entrepreneur is focused on product, the artist is focused on process." "Every play teaches me what I need to make a new play." "Creativity and productivity are yin and yang." "We’re party planners, playwrights. We’re planning experiences. Experiences can not be captured and can not be recreated easily. They’re unique...

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 in our next ep...

"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...

“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...

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 q...

“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...

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 question...

“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...

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 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…sion-fees-ymmv/ Send us your questions or thoughts on playwr...

“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...

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...

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...

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...

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 Amste...

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 fro...

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...

What are the plays that have haunted you? In this episode we discuss plays that we have seen or read that’s stucked 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...

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” (Rorsha...

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 q...

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...