Never Say Macbeth

Narrator/actress Rebecca Brokaw-Sands (no relation to Tom Brokaw, apparently) pops by to regale us with stories of her time on The Play That Goes Wrong, among others. What happens when there's a stage accident within an accident? What's planned and what isn't? What is this, Inception?  And, surprise surprise, prop guns continue to be a nuisance. Who'da thunk!

Bienvenue! Today we're in Paris speaking with French performer / educator / writer / Beckett expert (Beckettxpert?) Matthieu Protin about : soliloquys with a mouth full of blood, title characters that go AWOL, saving ailing spectators, and the dangers of classical raked stages -- is it worse to be sliding off the stage, or in the audience waiting to get smushed? Roll with us on this one.

English comedian Paul Savage regales us with many tales of his time at the Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringes, as well as: + that time he kinda almost got kidnapped  + that time he kinda sorta freed a mental patient for a gig + those times his life was almost a rom-com + whether deli meats are romantic + how to murder a comedian + the search for the ever-elusive Lucy, among others. Check out Hopes Und...

Three rays of sunshine named Amy McClain, Molly Kittle, and Michele Korb take a brief break from their Edinburgh Fringe craziness to giggle over a beer and chat about their Wizard of Oz-inspired "midlife musical"  After the Rainbow, and what happens when your journey into Oz doesn't go as smoothly as planned. What if you don't have the budget for a real flying monkey? What do you do when you bonk...

In the next few episodes, we'll chat about onstage goofs with active Edinburgh Fringe performers during the most hectic and exciting theatre festival in the world. What happens when your most important piece of tech fails you onstage, and the audience isn't too forgiving? This episode features Australian stand-up comedian Kurt Sterling, whose show Corporate Chronicles is playing at the Cabaret Vol...

We could all use a laugh about now, right? Guest Tosin Morohunfola tells some tales of his many storied years in Kansas City and Chicago theatre, including the time he could have gotten himself fired for a slipup on a kid's show, and a couple of times where he may or may not have completely screwed up the entire run of a show... @tosin.morohunfola

In this minisode, I chat with Jake Guinn of Havoc Movement about some of his stage stunts. A lot can go wrong when you play with fire... havocmovement.com @havocmovement

Trick? Or treat? Tech gods Lindsey Sharpless and Jeremy Ledbetter chat with me about an immersive horror experience we all did a few years ago, where crew and cast alike had to improvise around spooked audience behavior and unending tech issues. Lindsey's company can be found @vernalandseretheatre. See what Jeremy's cooking @ledbetter_jeremy.

Chicago actor/producer Ben Auxier has bad flashbacks to high school, when a budget version of Beauty and the Beast utterly disregards such trivial things as, oh, actor safety... Find his company @frienddogstudios or on Patreon.com/frienddog. Find Ben at: frienddogstudios.com underscoretheatre.org/lefty-and-crabbe

Our guest Tara Costello gets "pissed off" when a volatile castmate does the unthinkable to sauce up a Shakespeare history play. And speaking of bodily functions... Megan Poole bravely bares her story of when heartbreak and indigestion collide during a gut-wrenching dress tech for 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Do real guns and theatre mix? Not well for our first guest, Adrian Jacobs, who probably shouldn't be alive right now. Matt Clanton of Act Tactical lends his expertise on live firearms and performance. Then, Patrick Croce answers the ever-prevalent question, what do you do when you fall off the horse? ... Now, what about when you're in character and hundreds of people are watching you eat dirt?

Elizabeth Ann Miller drops in to get wine-tipsy with me and talk about her Atlanta-based company, Shakespeare on Draught -- which entails all of the drunken, underrehearsed debauchery characteristic of Billy Shakes' era -- and some of the silly and inspiring stories that have arisen from this colossally successful whim. Actors, if you're more comfortable with prepared, rehearsed, poetic, sanctimon...