No Script: The Podcast

Jacob hosts Eve Bianco, Ana Radice-Morras, and Violet Levinson of Red Door Productions to talk about their upcoming production of "Crimes of the Heart" by Beth Henley.  See the show at Theatre 154 on Christopher Street in NYC (July 15-26, 2026). Get tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/red-door-productions-presents-crimes-of-the-heart-by-beth-henley-tickets-1991060722218 Listen to our previo...

Director Cora Therber joins the podcast to talk about "untitled hamlet play" by Rory O'Neill, which opens this weekend by LOVECHILD Theater in NYC.  See the show at the John DeSotelle Studio, May 29 - 31, 2026.  Get tickets through the LOVECHILD Insta (@lovechildtheaterco) or here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lovechild-presents-untitled-hamlet-play-tickets-1988245208942 --------------------------...

Jackson and Jacob discuss Dave Malloy's hit musical "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812." This fiery piece adapts a small segment of Tolstoy's "War and Peace." Listen in to this final episode of Season 16! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast can continue.  https://www.patreon.com/no...

Rajiv Joseph's play "Mr. Wolf" follows the family of a kidnapped child when that child returns home. It's a poignant, theatrical story in which Joseph assembles the most complicated possible cast of characters to undergo this highly unlikely event. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss Joseph's exploration of messy human relationship... and infinity?  ------------------------------ Please conside...

This season's Themed Month, Paula Vogel Month, wraps up with her most famous play. The incomparable "How I Learned to Drive" is a haunting, hilarious piece of theatre. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob revisit its whirling theatricality and specificity.  ------------------------------ Please enjoy these other conversations on "How I Learned to Drive": Playwright Sarah Ruhl's essay on the play: https:...

Jackson and Jacob discuss Paula Vogel's play on "Othello." "Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief" (great title!) explores the behind-the-scenes action of "Othello." It contains Vogel's characteristic humor and irreverence, while also asking important questions about our relationship to Shakespeare's famous play. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon....

Paula Vogel Month continues! Jackson and Jackson discuss Vogel's hauntingly brilliant one-act play "The Long Christmas Ride Home." The story follows one family across a particularly memorable Christmas holiday. Vogel deploys her characteristic sense of theatrical intimacy, using puppets alongside narrative actors to bring the supernatural to bear on the play. Listen in!   -------------------------...

We kick off Paula Vogel Month with her newest play, "Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions." Jackson and Jacob discuss this theatrical look at a family across time. A semi-autobiographical piece, "Mother Play" is described by Vogel as her way of saying "Hi Mom." Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No...

Lauren Gunderson's adaptation of JM Barrie's famous Peter Pan stories is full of humor, imagination, and robust stage challenges! Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss "Peter Pan and Wendy," a play in which Gunderson refocuses the narrative on Wendy and Tiger Lily, even while she delivers much of what audience's expect from the story of Neverland.  ------------------------------ Our first episode...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss a play which has been called a combination of "Death of a Salesman" and "Our Town." Emily Feldman, a sharp and theatrical emerging playwright, has always wanted to write a play with a Stage Manager character, like in Thorton Wilder's famous play. Now she has. Her play "The Best We Could" explores some of the same themes and structure as Arthur Mill...

In this episode of No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss Irish playwright Marina Carr. Her play "Woman and Scarecrow" is a gallows comedy about a woman on her death bed, and the strange figures (some supernatural!) which surround her. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast can continue....

Jackson and Jacob discuss a play from a pair of plays by popular contemporary playwright Samuel D. Hunter. "Clarkston" is set in a small town along the Lewis and Clark Trail. It follows two men working night shift at a Costco. Listen in as J&J discuss the play's complicated discussions of legacy and society.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low a...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob (finally) discuss a play by Terrence McNally. "Mothers and Sons" is a small, intimate play about two people meeting nearly two decades after they both lost someone close to them. The play also tracks how the world has changed since the AIDS crisis. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month,...

Jackson and Jacob discuss one of America's most influential, profound playwrights: August Wilson. Wilson's play "Two Trains Running" is part of the Century Cycle. This play follows a group of regular's at a diner in the Hill District, a diner which is about to be torn down. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Check out these other voices and their discussions of "Two Trains Running": Interv...

In this episode of No Script, Jackson is joined by Hope College professor Eric Van Tassell and director Dr. Daina Robins in a conversation about Hope's upcoming production of "The Night Witches," a powerful drama by Rachel Bublitz. The play follows the real-life bravery of the Soviet Union’s all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment during World War II. Listen in! ------------------------------ Get y...

This time on No Script, Jackson and Jacob explore Philip Kan Gotanda's play "Ballad of Yachiyo." This powerful and poetic drama is set in the early 19th century in Hawaii. The play follows a young Japanese-American woman whose life is shaped by cultural expectations and personal yearning. She leaves home to live with a family who will teach her the graces of traditional Japanese arts like the tea...

In this episode of No Script, we dive into the fascinating world of "Merrily We Roll Along" — Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s bold musical that turns the traditional Broadway story backward. Based on the 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the show traces the lives of three friends over two decades, but with a twist: it starts at the end and moves in reverse. We explore this reverse...

In the final episode of the season, No Script turns its attention to one of Broadway’s sharpest, wittiest, and most unsettling musical comedies: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Based on Shepherd Mead’s satirical guidebook, How to Succeed skewers mid-century corporate culture while exposing timeless truths about ambition, power, masculinity, and conformity. Jacob and Jackson unpac...

This week on No Script, Jacob sits down with singer-songwriter, composer, and emerging theatre-maker Grace Yurchuk for a rich conversation about Julius Caesar. They, of course, discuss the power of rhetoric in Shakespeare’s original political thriller and how Grace’s bold musical adaptation takes on that challenge. Together, Jacob and Grace unpack what makes Julius Caesar such a gripping and surpr...

This week on No Script: The Podcast, Jackson and Jacob dive into Tina Howe’s lyrical memory play Pride’s Crossing — winner of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play and a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play centers on 90-year-old Mabel Tidings Bigelow, once the first woman to swim the English Channel from England to France. From her croquet party in Pr...

In the finale of Adaptation Month, Jackson and Jacob discuss Bekah Brunstetter's play "The Oregon Trail." You guessed it -- the play is based on the famous video game and follows two sisters in two different timelines as they navigate life's difficult choices. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No S...

Jackson and Jacob continue Adaptation Month by discussing the cult-classic musical adaption of Stephen King's Carrie, by Lawrence D. Cohen, Dean Pitchford, and Michael Gore. Listen as J&J chat about how musicals inherently alter the storytelling, and how Carrie: The Musical gained its infamous reputation.   ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as...

Jackson and Jacob continue their themed month, Adaptation Month, by discussing Kate Hamill's adaptation of one of the most famous novels of all time: "Pride and Prejudice." Listen in as J&J chat about Hamill's unique and brilliant techniques of adaptation.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podc...

Jackson and Jacob kick off Adaptation Month by discussing Kimberly Belflower's recent Broadway hit "John Proctor is the Villian." Based on Arthur Miller's famous play "The Crucible," this contemporary play ignites a fire in a close-knit school community. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss Samuel D. Hunter's play "The Whale." Recently adapted into a film starring Brendan Fraser and Sadie Sink, "The Whale" is a complex play about hard-won hope. Listen in as J&J discuss the way Hunter has layered his themes and questions into masterful dramatic scenes.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as...