No Script: The Podcast

On No Script this week, Jackson and Jacob discuss theatre royalty. August Wilson is one of America's most beloved playwrights. His play Joe Turner's Come and Gone is at once a peek into the everyday operations of a boarding house and a highly symbolic masterpiece on the legacy of slavery in America. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss Rajiv Joseph's incredible world-building skills, on full display in Gruesome Playground Injuries. 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.patreon.com/noscriptpodcast  ----------------------------- We want to ke...

The hit musical Heathers is, perhaps, the definition of "dark comedy." It's acerbic wit and rocking score making for a lively conversation this week on No Script. 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.patreon.com/noscriptpodcast  ---------------------------...

A riff on The Scarlet Letter, Suzan-Lori Parks' play In the Blood is as harrowing as it is rich and poignant. Jackson and Jacob discuss Parks' deliberate doubling and mastery of image. 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.patreon.com/noscriptpodcast  ----...

The first episode of Season 11 is here! Returning to another great No Script tradition, Jackson and Jacob discuss a play by Lynn Nottage. Clyde's is a redemption story set in a mysterious sandwich shop. 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.patreon.com/nosc...

The final episode of Season 10 has arrived! Jackson and Jacob discuss Parade (Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown), which was recently revived on Broadway. 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.patreon.com/noscriptpodcast  ----------------------------- We wa...

This week on No Script, Jackson welcomes Hannah Barker Nickolay as our Season 10 Special Guest! Hannah and Jackson discuss Bryony Lavery's play Frozen, which examines the aftermath of the murder of a 10 year old girl. ------------------------------ 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/n...

No Script returns to the legendary Anna Deavere Smith this week, looking at her empathetic portrait of a neighborhood in crisis: Fires in the Mirror. The play is taken from interviews and woven together into a moving tapestry of specificity. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast can c...

This week on No Script, a celebration of sorts! The Phantom of the Opera just recently closed its historic Broadway run, and that makes it perfect for No Script. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss the spooky ambiance, memorable images, and lasting impact of this Broadway giant.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ens...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss a complicated classic. Strindberg's Miss Julie is a piece of real psychological intrigue where class, power, and desire play out on midsummer's night. 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.patreon.com/noscri...

Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery is a compelling, empathetic portrait of a specific, sequestered community in rural Wyoming. As longtime friends re-gather for a college reunion of sorts, the shared community (a conservative brand of Catholicism) starts to show sharp distinctions. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month,...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss a fast paced, witty sequel to The Importance of Being Earnest. A playful follow up, Montserrat Mendez's Thoroughly Stupid Things takes the premise of the original and spins it out to its wacky conclusion. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script...

Mini Month Part 2 concludes this week with a moving true story. A Thousand Cranes by Kathryn Schultz Miller is about the aftermath of the United States dropping the atom bomb on Japan. Miller uses ritualistic theatrical techniques and an evocative staging of death to tell this powerful tale. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month...

Mini Month: Part 2 continues this week with one of the famous one acts from Ireland. J.M. Synge's Riders to the Sea is a highly moving piece of writing. Synge wrote the play after visiting the Aran Islands. In the script, he earnestly presents a family lamenting the series of painful deaths which have befallen them.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as l...

Themed Month continues!  In the second week of "Mini Month Part 2," Jackson and Jacob continue exploring short plays. "La Muerte" is a frightening, apocalyptic tale of two brothers who confront a monster in the recesses of the subway. Listen in to hear how Ramirez uses theatricality and narrative to stage his epic battle. ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For...

Themed Month begins!  In "Mini Month Part 2" Jackson and Jacob return to the short play form, looking at four plays that run less than a traditional "full length" would. In the first two episodes, J&J discuss 10 minute plays. First up, perhaps the most famous 10 minute play of all time: "Sure Thing" by David Ives. ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss Leah Nanako Winkler's play God Said This. The play follows a family struggling to stay civil as their matriarch receives an aggressive chemo treatment. How does the past live in the present? Is it even possible to let go of old hurts? These questions and more are explored by Winkler in this sharp family drama.  ------------------------------ Please...

The Courtroom is a piece of theatre that tries not to be. Arian Moayed's stages a piece of verbatim theatre that follows one woman's encounters with the American immigration court. This week on No Script, listen in as Jackson and Jacob unravel the theatrical techniques Moayed deftly employs to help you forget you're watching theatre....  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us...

This week on No Script, a sharply funny comedy of bad manners by Gina Gionfriddo. "Becky Shaw" keeps you on your toes through its quick witted comedy and keen class commentary. 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.patreon.com/noscriptpodcast  --------------...

At the quarter mark of Season 10, Jackson and Jacob discuss a riotous, unique piece of storytelling theatre about the wild world of pro wrestling. Kristoffer Diaz's play "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity" is hilarious and pointed, making a strong case for pro wrestling as entrancing populist theatre - and reflecting on the potential dangers of the form. Listen in! -----------------------------...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss a spooky, mind-bending play by American powerhouse Lucas Hnath. The Thin Place is a masterful storytelling experience. Simultaneously haunting and thought provoking, Hnath's minimalist piece offers complex discussions about the nature of storytelling. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob revisit one of the greatest dramatists of all time: Tennessee Williams. His play The Night of the Iguana is a poignant, painful, sincerely moving portrait of lost souls. Set on the veranda of a tropical resort, Williams' play demonstrates his powerful skill. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob dive into a wild romp of a musical, with a satiric twist. The Drowsy Chaperone (Lisa Lambert, Greg Morrison, Bob Martin, and Don McKellar) is about a wedding gone wrong and includes a series of hilarious hijinks! But it's also about the lonely, isolated person listening to the musical on his record player. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please...

No Script returns with Season 10! In this episode, Jackson and Jacob discuss the provocative new Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fat Ham by James Ijames. A contemporary adaption of Hamlet, Fat Ham is witty and engaging - a lovely way to honor the story of Hamlet while, simultaneously, playing on our expectations of it. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon...

In the final episode of Season 9, Jackson and Jacob discuss an incredible piece of drama from contemporary American playwright Robert O'Hara. "Barbecue" is a dramaturgical gem, with several unique theatrical features blended into a stand-alone piece of theatre. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No...