Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays

There's a lot of money to be made at this funeral.  Friends and flames have gathered to celebrate and remember the WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE of the charismatic, outrageous Sheila (Tony & Emmy winner Debra Monk)  — but the dearly departed still has one more trick up her sleeve.  WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE by Emmy winner Patricia Cotter (PoA's Rules of Comedy, The Daughters) features an ensemble cast of Pl...

Content Warning: Violence   " I don't want you hunting anyone. What if you become the prey ?"   On a night walk in Brooklyn, pregnant Ayanna and her husband Ezra witness a sudden, violent attack. But when they call the police, doubts arise. Did they get a good look at the attacker's face? What color was his sweatshirt? And — why do their memories differ so drastically?    Originally commissioned a...

Tony Shalhoub and Kristine Nielsen star in Amanda Quaid's THE CLAM, the Second Place winner of Playing on Air's 2019 James Stevenson Prize competition.    After a lifetime of playing it safe , a wistful clam (Shalhoub) decides to come out of his shell with help from a therapist (Nielsen). His friends are disappearing without a trace, he's lost touch with thousands of his children, and he's despera...

Playing on Air's Spring 2020 Season is finally here!    Starting next Sunday and continuing every Sunday throughout April and May, we'll be releasing a new short play. We feel extremely fortunate to be able to share our artists' beautiful work with you, even in these uncertain times.   The season is chock-full of incredible short plays, performances, and original music, and features the talents of...

We're announcing some exciting changes to Playing on Air's release calendar! Listen to find out more.

We're re-releasing 5 of our most popular episodes for a 2020 fresh start!   (Psst: keep your eyes open for an exciting announcement, coming soon...) Michael C. Hall ("Dexter," Hedwig and The Angry Inch), Martha Plimpton ("The Good Wife," PoA's Gun Show ) , and actor-playwright Hamish Linklater ( The Big Short, "Legion") star in NUDITY RIDER, a world-premiere comedy by Linklater. The cameras are re...

We're re-releasing 5 of our most popular episodes for a 2020 fresh start! (Psst: keep your eyes open for an exciting announcement, coming soon...) Caroline can't find anything funny -- not her awkward love life, not her jaded standup coach Guy, and definitely not the punchlines she's been reading in  101 Dirty Jokes.  Originally produced at the Humana Festival at the Actors Theater of Louisville,...

We're re-releasing 5 of our most popular episodes for a 2020 fresh start! (Psst: keep your eyes open for an exciting announcement, coming soon...) Two recovering addicts (Rosie Perez, John Leguizamo) have their Saturday night card game interrupted by a love-struck parole officer (Bobby Cannavale) with major boundary issues. Written and directed by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire ( Rabbi...

We're re-releasing 5 of our most popular episodes for a 2020 fresh start! (Psst: keep your eyes open for an exciting announcement, coming soon...) Loureen is at the end of her rope. And now, she's just turned her husband into a pile of ashes. As Lynn Nottage's funny and wrenching POOF! opens, Loureen (Audra McDonald) has inadvertently made her abusive husband (Keith Randolph Smith) disappear. Ente...

We're re-releasing 5 of our most popular episodes for a 2020 fresh start!   (Psst: keep your eyes open for an exciting announcement, coming soon...)   The police picked up teenage Ethan (Timothée Chalamet) for drunkenly wandering down the highway. Now, he's facing the real reckoning for his  Misadventure : the wrath of his big sister (Zoe Kazan.) Playwright and director Donald Margulies is a Pulit...

"Life as usual and then the sky falls in." There's a crater in the middle of the street - again. After a deadly car bomb explodes in the Sha'ab neighborhood of Baghdad, grocery store owner Abu Omar and  his neighbors attempt  to clear the rubble and assess the damage.   Is this the new normal?   Directed by Obie winner Omar Metwally ( Guards at the Taj , "The Affair"), Emma Goldman-Sherman's COUNT...

Content advisory: this episode contains language and themes that may not be appropriate for younger listeners.    "One of the richest, most complex pieces of acting I've seen in my theater going life." -  The Wall Street Journal,  on Stephen Lang's  Beyond   Glory     A special release for Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, BEYOND   GLORY : JOHN WILLIAM FINN  is part of the longer work  Beyond   Glory...

I know I'm not your therapist. I'm your brother. In THE WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING VIOLET by Max Baker, two brothers struggle with three of life's great fears: death, guilt, and the false sparkle of domestic bliss. Brandon Dirden ( All the Way on Broadway) and Jason Dirden ("Greenleaf," Broadway's A Raisin in the Sun) are directed by Carrie Preston ("True Blood," "The Good Wife"). Stay tuned after the...

It's summer in the city, and Laz and Hector are both on the run from something they can't quite name. Maybe the sudden need for speed has something to do with Laz's sister, who took off two weeks ago, or with Hector's wife, who just called from the hospital. Featuring Bobby Moreno ("Homeland,"  Lazarus , PoA's  Ac orn ) and Sean Carvajal (Broadway's  King Lear , Jesus Hopped the A Train ), Marco R...

Debra Monk, Johanna Day, Katie Finneran, and Zach Appelman star in the world-premiere audio production of LA TRAVIATA by Lisa D'Amour (Pulitzer Prize finalist for Detroit , Airline Highway ).  Outside of New Orleans, three sisters have gathered to celebrate Mother's Day and lament the scandalous fate of their poor, wayward nephew. But beneath their breezy porch gossip, there are family secrets of...

Sometimes, the most seductive offers come from unexpected messengers. Heartbroken on a Friday night, Franny (Jenn Harris) finds herself confronted by a charming bee (William Jackson Harper) with a buzzy - and delicious - proposal.    Recorded live, 2B OR NOT 2B by Jacquelyn Reingold ("The Good Fight," HBO's "In Treatment) features Harper ("The Good Place,"  Midsommar, All the Way ) and Harris ("Hi...

"Have  you  spoken of it?"                           "No. No one."    After 31 years apart, two  widows meet by chance at a concert and consider the whirlwind romance that they didn't dare to pursue - until now.  Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis ( Moonstruck,  Netflix's "Tales of the City) and Tony nominee Maria Tucci ( The Slap,  Broadway's  The Rose Tattoo)  star in  Leslie Ayvazian's  There You Are...

Jesse Eisenberg ( The  Social Network,  PoA's  The  Blizzard ) is both playwright and actor in the satirical short A LITTLE PART OF ALL OF US. Since 9/11, anxious hipster Joey (Eisenberg) has been haunted by survivor's guilt. Or -- maybe he's just co-opting  a  national tragedy to justify  a  decade of depression?  A   LITTLE   PART  OF ALL OF US  also stars Justin Bartha ( The Hangover trilogy, "...

What would you sacrifice for a lifelong pal? A kidney? Your safety? $900 -- for a  very  specific television?  From acclaimed wordsmith David Ives ( Venus in Fur,  PoA's  The Blizzard),  THE GOODNESS OF YOUR HEART asks what the limits of friendship really are. Directed by Tony winner John Rando (Broadway's  On the Town,  PoA's  The Philadelphia),  the cast features comedic favorites Arnie Burton (...

The curtain is up. The show is in progress. But for two stage managers calling the cues behind the scenes, the night's most dazzling romance isn't playing out onstage. Written and directed by Jonathan Bernstein (PoA's  Rules of Comedy  &  A Very Very Short Play),  AT THE WATER'S EDGE, WET  stars Callie Thorne ("Necessary Roughness," "Rescue Me," "The Wire") and Tony nominee Jeremy Shamos (Broadway...

Michael C. Hall ("Dexter,"  Hedwig and The Angry Inch),  Martha Plimpton ("The Good Wife," PoA's  Gun Show) , and actor-playwright Hamish Linklater ( The Big Short,  "Legion") star in  NUDITY   RIDER ,  a world-premiere comedy by Linklater.   The cameras are ready to roll on the set of a New Orleans basic cable show, but the high-strung leading man, Keith Saturday, has a problem: his most up-close...

A wedding isn't a competition - until the mothers get involved.    After gay marriage is legalized in New York, one meddling matriarch will stop at nothing to get her son to the altar. Starring Michael Urie (Broadway's  Torch Song , "Ugly Betty," PoA's A Departure ) and Tony winner Harriet Harris ("Frasier," "Desperate Housewives,"  Phantom Thread ), MY HUSBAND  by Paul Rudnick ( The New Yorker , ...

"It's not luck, it's fate. You, me - a couple of old showbiz pros. At the same place, at the same time..." When a slick comedian (Ed Asner) and leading lady (Elizabeth Ashley), now both in their seventies, meet by chance in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, the retired performers catch a glimmer of the magic they've been missing in their daily lives.  Also featuring Daphne Rubin-Vega and Peter Ja...

Content warning: this play deals with themes of domestic violence.   "You can't really influence them. You can maybe adjust the trajectory a little bit, you can try to guide, but after a certain point? No."   Emmy winner Bobby Cannavale ("Will & Grace," Broadway's  The Lifespan of a Fact , PoA's  Gun Show ) and Tony nominee Peter Gallagher ("Grace and Frankie," "The O.C.") star in a live recording...

"Any words spoken by hedgehogs in this play are in translation.  Please note that all translations are betrayals..."   Emmy winner Carol Kane ( The Princess Bride, Hester Street,  "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt") and Tony nominee Jeremy Shamos ("Better Call Saul,"  Clybourne Park)  star in Lily Akerman's  Hedgehog Years,  the second place winner of Playing on Air's 2018 James Stevenson Prize. When he...