No Script: The Podcast

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss a classic American play. Clifford Odets' "Waiting for Lefty" is a stunningly relevant piece from 1935. Listen in as J&J chat about its remarkable theatrical maturity.  ------------------------------ 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...

"After the Revolution" by Amy Herzog is part of a pair of plays about the same family. Jackson and Jacob discussed the other play ("4000 Miles") early in No Script's history. This week, they discuss "After the Revolution." 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://...

In the final episode of this season's themed month, Jackson and Jacob revisit Stephen Adly Guirgis' play Between Riverside and Crazy. Jackson, now having listened to the LATW production of the play, brings a new view on the incredible performability of Guirgis' work.  Listen to the original episode on Between Riverside and Crazy here: https://noscriptpodcast.podbean.com/e/s8e1-between-riverside-an...

This week, Jacob is joined by special guest Michael Legg to discuss Lucas Hnath's play The Christians. Legg was part of the Humana Festival at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville when The Christians was commissioned.  This discussion is part of Season 9's themed month "New Chats, Old Scripts." Each week, No Script discusses a play that has previously appeared on the podcast, coming at the script fro...

In the second episode of the Season 9 Themed Month, "New Chats, Old Scripts," Jackson and Jacob have an abbreviated follow up conversation about Jaclyn Backhaus' play "Men on Boats."  Listen to the original episode here:  https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-edww2-10ecd71 https://open.spotify.com/episode/4pDBHql3WHSz6Q0nth3pnL?si=IZk1kVtaR7WpBH0yu0X7bQ ------------------------------ Please consider suppo...

In the first episode of the Season 9 Themed Month, Jackson and Jacob have a "new chat" about an "old script." In this month, J&J have short, follow-up conversations covering scripts already discussed in the previous 8 seasons of No Script. This week: "Dinner with Friends" by Donald Margulies, which Jacob directed earlier this summer.  Listen to the original episode here:  https://noscriptpodcast.p...

This week on No Script, a satiric, wildly comedic script by Burglars of Hamm, a writing/performing collective. The musical follows (very loosely) the life of John B. Watson, a scientist whose theory of behaviorism changed psychology as we know it. There's also a talking rat......... Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob talk about one of the most influential playwrights in history: Anton Chekhov. His play "Uncle Vanya" is a brilliant tightrope between comedy and tragedy. The story of a barely-scraping-by farm community visited by an urban professor, "Uncle Vanya" is also a classic "stranger comes to town" play. Listen in as J&J discuss Chekhov! ---------------------------...

It's a play about life... or death? Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' play Everybody is an adaption of the famous morality play "Everyman." In his modernization, Jacobs-Jenkins uses form as a storytelling technique, employing several incredible theatrical devices. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob chat about this smart, engaging script.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon....

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob take on a challenging play about relevant contemporary issues. "Admissions," by Joshua Harmon, is a biting comedy about hypocrisy, and what happens when the things you believe in directly impact you. 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, Jackson and Jacob discuss one of the most famous novel adaptions in recent memory. Simon Stephens' play "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" is an adaption of the best seller novel of the same name by Mark Haddon. Listen in as J&J chat about the theatrical methods Simons used in adapting the novel. ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us...

On this week's episode, Jackson and Jacob take on Karen Zacarías' neighbor-comedy "Native Gardens." The play swept the nation before the pandemic, both for its chuckle-inducing portrayal of warring neighbors and its subtle political commentary. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast ca...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss the work of a theatre legend. Harold Pinter is one of the most profoundly impactful playwrights in history, and his play "No Man's Land" gained recent popularity thanks to incredible performances by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. Listen in as J&J unpack the deep mysteries of this great script by an all-time great playwright.  -------------------...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss Philip Kan Gotanda's play The Wash. In The Wash, Gotanda uses significant props and meaningful actions masterfully. Listen in to hear J&J geek out about Gotanda's skill as a dramatist.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast can continue.  https:/...

After a long holiday weekend, No Script returns with a script about another fall holiday... in Ireland! Brian Friel's "Dancing at Lughnasa" is a memory play about an impoverished family in Ireland, and the joy and sorrows of their lives. Listen in!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast can cont...

Dance Nation by Clare Barron is a visceral, imaginative look back at adolescence. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob celebrate Barron's use of magical realism to offer an uncompromising reflection on the nature - and cost - of excellence.   ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast can continue.  https:...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob double up on musicals. Last week was a fruitful discussion of a musical from the early 80s..... and this week is more of the same! J&J talk about "Little Shop of Horrors" by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast...

No Script is back! In this first episode of Season 9, Jackson and Jacob discuss a product of one of America's strongest theatrical partnerships: Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. Their musical Sunday in the Park with George is often called one of Sondheim's most personal works. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob explore this enthralling, puzzlingn piece.  ------------------------------ Please conside...

In the last episode of the season, Jackson and Jacob discuss a true American classic. Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart is a painful, hilarious family drama set in Mississippi. Kin to plays like Streetcar Named Desire, August: Osage County, and Buried Child, Crimes is another example of the way the American family controls the orbit of the American stage. Listen in to J&J discuss this great play! ...

This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob go back nearly 100 years to discuss a script with massive theatrical daring. Elmer Rice's Street Scene is packed with people and stories, Rice's attempt to capture the pulsing heartbeat of a New York City street. Listen in as J&J admire the craftsmanship, abundance, and bravery of the play!  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on P...

This week on No Script, Jacob welcomes special guest Jeffrey Sweet to the show. Sweet is a playwright and teacher based in New York City. Together, he and Jacob discuss Lanford Wilson's semi-autobiographical play Lemon Sky. Sweet knew Wilson personally, and discussed the play with him on several occasions. Sweet brings these experiences, and many more, to the discussion. Listen in! ---------------...

This week, Jackson and Jacob discuss a heartbreaking play. Eclipsed is Danai Guriria's moving piece about women and their struggle for survival during a civil war in Liberia. Listen in as J&J grapple with this difficult, powerful text.   ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast can continue.  https...

In this week's episode of No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss a semi-autobiographical play (or, more like, theatre event!) that has swept the nation in its half decade of life. What the Constitution Means to Me is a highly comedic, educational, political, deeply personal look at the American Constitution and its evolving relationship to women. Listen in! ------------------------------ Please cons...

One of the famous shows for young actors, Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth follows three people on the cusp of adulthood. With an acerbic wit and total irreverence, Lonergan paints an empathetic portrait. Listen in as Jackson and Jacob discuss this American classic.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No S...

The Gin Game is a witty, irascible drama by D.L. Coburn. It won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This week on No Script, Jackson and Jacob discuss Coburn's tender, irreverent look at the sometimes lonely life inside a senior home.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast can continue.  https://w...