No Script: The Podcast

This week, Jackson and Jacob visit a classic of the stage: Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. This puzzling play defies categorization. With a large ensemble cast, a surprising lack of plot, and several bids for love, Chekhov manages to gorgeously tell a story of human longing. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss a play described as a "companion" to "Topdog/Underdog." Suzan-Lori Parks' "The Book of Grace" is about borders... both those on land and the ones we place, intentionally and fearfully, in our hearts. Listen in.   ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Pod...

A classic example of early twentieth-century expressionism, Sophie Treadwell's Machinal is an evocative depiction of an oppressive society. The 1928 play has recently been produced by companies around the world as its relevance, frighteningly, continues. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss this moving, masterful work.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For...

Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss Sugar in Our Wounds by Donja R. Love. Love's play is both heart wrenching and beautiful. It's a moving portrait of vile oppression and meaningful love.   ------------------------------ Thanks for listening. Check out these other conversations on Sugar in Our Wounds:  Regina Victor's Review for Rescripted: https://rescripted.org/2019/10/28/sugar-wounds-fft/ Ju...

Jackson and Jacob discuss Nilo Cruz's play Two Sisters and a Piano. Cruz, a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, explores the psychology of capture amidst the turbulent politics of communist Cuba. This lyrical, poetic play is beautiful, and terrifying, to witness. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No...

What happens when the countercultural artmakers get old? What happens when their revolutionary criticisms of the establishment become the establishment? Pearl Cleage dives into these deep waters in her play "Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous." Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss this smart, funny, and energetic play.   ------------------------------ Check out these other conversations on...

Jackson and Jacob discuss August Wilson's musical, volatile play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Listen in as they explore how Wilson masterfully links to characters, comparing and contrasting their interactions with an unjust world.  ------------------------------ Check out these other conversations on Ma Rainey's Black Bottom:  George C Wolfe discusses the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6qEaTW...

"Man from Nebraska" by Tracy Letts. Jackson and Jacob discuss this Pulitzer Prize finalist, exploring how different the play is from its headline plot.  ------------------------------ 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/noscriptpodcast  ----------------------------- We want to keep the...

Season 14 begins! Jackson and Jacob discuss the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Eboni Booth: Primary Trust. Listen in as the boys rave about Booth's theatrical imagination -- and debate her main character's affinity for mai tais.  ------------------------------ 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.p...

For the season finale, Jackson and Jacob discuss the hit musical Waitress. With a rocking score by Sara Bareilles and book by Jessie Nelson, Waitress is several love stories all wrapped into one... and there's pie! 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.  https://www.patr...

How does playwright Luis Santeiro imagine a terrible part of Europe's colonial history? With puppets, of course! Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss this wild and wacky take on history.  ------------------------------ 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/noscriptpodcast  ------------...

Jacob is joined by Dr. David Cody to discuss Sondheim's famous musical Into the Woods. Dr. Cody provides a detailed and rich exploration of the music of the show.  David Cody is a professional singer, actor, and musical director primarily in musical theatre and opera. He also teaches courses in voice, musical theatre history, and music theory at The University of Montana. He is a graduate of the J...

In the grand finale of Marriage Month, Jackson and Jacob take on one of the most fractious, combative marriages in the American library... George and Martha in Edward Albee's famous Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. 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.  https://www.patre...

Marriage Month continues with a play that spans a whole relationship, looking at the same couple across decades of their lives. Tanya Barfield's Bright Half Life explores how memory works -- not chronologically, but in moments. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob unravel the many interweaving threads of this excellent play.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For a...

Marriage Month continues with a play by Loy A. Webb. In The Light, a romantic proposal becomes the context for a complicated, emotional discussion of power and abuse. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob explore the way Webb masterfully builds her characters' relationship and points of view.  ------------------------------ Check out these other conversations on The Light:  Sesali Bowen interviews the pl...

Marriage Month is in full swing as Jackson and Jacob discuss Neil Simon's newlyweds play: Barefoot in the Park. Full of physical comedy, well timed jokes, and reflections on close relationships, this play is a perfect addition to our five-part look at marriage on stage. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensu...

MARRIAGE MONTH BEGINS!  For the first episode of their themed month, Jackson and Jacob discuss one of the most famous plays of all time. But Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy -- not a romance! Listen in to learn why.  ------------------------------ 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/noscr...

Oh, the things that happen in the family kitchen. That's the subject of Zora Howard's Stew, a play in which the preparation for an important meal at church brings out hidden family tensions and secrets. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss this Pulitzer Prize finalist!  ------------------------------ Check out these other conversations on Stew: Interview with Zora Howard for Shattered Globe's pr...

A broken apartment buzzer system serves as the basis for terrifying intrusions. Tracey Scott Wilson's Buzzer is about relationships under stress and gentrification. It's also just really good writing. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast can continue.  h...

Stephen Karam's play Speech & Debate takes on censorship in schools. When three high school students find themselves unable to speak truth to power through traditional means, they use the school's new speech and debate club to fight the puritanical adult culture around them.... with the help of a dancing Abraham Lincoln and Mary Warren. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss this play!  ------...

Lydia Diamond's play Smart People took her 7 years to write. It's a character study which boldly explores how race can be an explosive ingredient in contemporary American conversation. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob explore Diamond's smart structuring and theatricality.  ------------------------------ Check out these other conversations on Smart People: Lydia Diamond discusses her Radcliffe Fellow...

A famous musical about a famous piece of English children's literature that might not be for kids? Sounds like a job for No Script. This week, Jackson and Jacob discuss The Secret Garden (Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon), a musical full of ghosts, special effects, and singing orphans. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can...

Jackson and Jacob discuss Madeline Sayet's one person show Where We Belong. Sayet's play explores identity and colonialism in Shakespeare, tracking her journey as a theatre director and an Indigenous Shakespearean scholar. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Check out these other conversations on Where We Belong: Madeline Sayet's website: https://www.madelinesayet.com/ Interview with Sayet...

What if Judas Iscariot was on trial, with all heaven and earth and all history available to call as witnesses? This is the setting for Stephen Adly Guirgis' irreverent, yet deeply insightful play "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot." Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss this wild story!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to...

Insane fame, seemingly infinite money, a feeling of freedom from all consequences... what could go wrong? UK playwright Simon Stephens aks questions about how fame interacts with one's very humanity in his play "Birdland." Listen in for all the rock and roll debauchery as Jackson and Jacob discuss this wild play.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low...