Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays

Playground tantrums. Modern angst. Hungarian dance festivals. In Kate Robin's Inside Voice , dive into the secret lives of parents. Directed by Rebecca Taichman (Tony Award winner for Broadway's Indecent, Lincoln Center Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theater, McCarter Theater), the cast features Patch Darragh (Broadway's Our Town , "Weeds," "The Path," Sully ) and the playwright herse...

When she hears his story on a daytime talk show, a Cambodian refugee (Jodi Long) start to exchange letters with a homeless man (Matthew Cowles). From Jacquelyn Reingold ("The Good Fight," "Smash," "Grace and Frankie") comes an unlikely, soulful romance. After the play, join Reingold and host Claudia Catania for a candid conversation about the play, the business of TV, and writing from the news.  

From David Ives ( Venus in Fur ) comes a madcap satire of Brotherly Love and cosmic misunderstandings. Mark thought he woke up in New York City this morning, so why isn't there a cab, a copy of the  Times,  or a cold beer in sight?  You can't always get what you want, and in this clash of the cities, you might only be able to get the complete opposite - plus a cheesesteak. Directed by Tony Award w...

From David Auburn (Pulitzer and Tony winner for PROOF ) comes a riveting, witty world-premiere commission for Playing on Air: GUN SHOW . In the aftershock of a national tragedy, a congenial double-date morphs into a battle of the sexes. As tempers blaze, two couples must reconsider the possibility of safety in a divided nation. Along with Emmy winners Bobby Cannavale ("Will & Grace," "Boardwalk Em...

Winter Games : as stray cats prowl and dough rises, two sardonic twenty-somethings flirt with dreams of Olympic glory - or maybe just escape from the small town bakery where they work. Penned by rising star playwright Rachel Bonds, a recipient of the prestigious Tow Foundation Playwriting Residency grant, it features Louisa Krause (lead of STARZ's "The Girlfriend Experience," Annie Baker's  The Fl...

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 Donald Margulies is a Pulitzer Prize winner for  Dinner with Friends  and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for  Sight Unseen  and  Collected Stories .   Best known for her leading role in  The Big...

The 1840s South. In the thick plantation air, two enslaved sisters spin a poetry of escape. Today's the day: Field Girl is making her run for freedom. Inspired by oral histories of slavery and resistance, the short play Wanting North by Tanya Barfield ("The Americans," HBO's "Here and Now") features Obie winner April Matthis and Rebecca Frank.  After the episode, stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes...

I n Jon Kern's short comedy  Hate the Loser Inside,  a college football coach is tackling a local television commercial and fumbling more than his team ever did - until he finally scores. Kern has written for "The Simpsons" and "Son of Zorn, and his plays include  Modern Terrorism, or They Who Want to Kill Us and How We Learn to Love Them .  Director R.J. Tolan heads EST's Youngblood program and c...

In Tennessee , a small town 20-year-old wannabe musician (Timothée Chalamet) seeks an escape plan from the town's resident psychic (Caitlin FitzGerald).  Featuring Caitlin FitzGerald who stars as Libby Masters in the television series "Masters of Sex" and in "Rectify." Her film credits include It's Complicated, Newlyweds   and Taking Woodstock .  Tennessee  also features Timothée Chalamet who star...

A meet-cute in a coffee shop contains multitudes, in this entertaining, experimental short, now a classic, from David Ives (Venus in Fur). It is from his collection of shorts called IT'S ALL IN THE TIMING and it couldn't be more about how everything in life is indeed all in the timing. But it takes you to another dimension first. Fun.  Sure Thing features comic pros Carson Elrod and Liv Rooth. Dir...

Presents are wrapped, carols are playing - and the department store Santa is asking some awkward questions. In the comedy If We're Using A Surrogate, How Come I'm The One With Morning Sickness?  by Marco Pennette ("Ugly Betty", "Desperate Housewives"). In Motherhood Out Loud , conceived by Susan R. Rose and Joan Stein, a gay dad rants and reminisces about having a baby. Performed by James Lecesne...

For Veterans Day, Memorial Day or any day, NICK BACON is a powerful tribute to military valor, written and performed by stage and screen star Stephen Lang (Colonel Quaritch in Avatar). In this excerpt from his full-length play Beyond Glory, Stephen portrays Nick Bacon, a Vietnam veteran and recipient of the Medal Of Honor. Listen as the soldier recounts, in his own words, the incident that earned...

In  Happy by   Alan Zweibel ("SNL," Curb Your Enthusiasm,"  700 Sundays with Billy Crystal ) a baseball fan (Scott Adsit of "30 Rock" and "Veep") makes a pilgrimage to the home of a former baseball star who is now a janitor in Delray Beach, Florida (Frankie Faison of "The Wire") and asks him to sign a very special ball. After a fair amount of humor and misunderstanding, the power of baseball to bo...

In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness month, please listen to Waking Up,  an insightful short by Cori Thomas. It juxtaposes the experiences of an American urbanite's and an African villager's struggle with breast cancer. Although the details from diagnosis to ultimate triumph are vastly different, their stories underscore the universality of the human spirit. It features Lynnette Freeman and A...

In the comic  TASHA WALKS  by Kim Merrill, a young man (Steven Boyer, Tony nominee for  Hand to God ) returns dejected from his bomb of a vacation with his fiancee who has called the wedding off, to find his neighbor (4 time Academy Award nominee Marsha Mason) has lost his fiancee's cherished cat. Directed by Brian Mertes and recorded live at BRIC Arts Media House in Downtown Brooklyn. Stay tuned...

  In the autobiographical GETTING IN by Pulitzer Prize and Tony winner Frank Gilroy ( The Subject Was Roses ), a scrappy GI, gleefully recalls how he went from truancy, almost flunking high school, the trenches of WWII, to Dartmouth College, on the GI Bill that changed his life.   Getting In by Frank Gilroy (Tony, Pulitzer Prize) featuring eleven! - David Beach, Kim Benheim, Matthew Cowles, Caroli...

The curtain is up. The play is in progress. We hear two stage managers. Calling the show. A man and a woman.  At The Water's Edge, Wet  is written and directed by Jonathan Bernstein, whose plays and musicals have been produced throughout the country. His cast today includes Callie Thorne ("Necessary Roughness," "Rescue Me," "The Wire,") and Jeremy Shamos ( Clybourne Park, Birdman, Noises Off ). St...

For a grammar school assignment a grand-daughter interviews her great-grandma on motherhood. She gets more than she bargained for. Way more.  The illustrious Lois Smith ( Five Easy Pieces , "True Blood," The Nice Guys) plays great-grandmother to her real life grand-daughter, Eliana Saxe-Smith. Written by the inimitable Beth Henley (Pulitzer Prize for  Crimes of the Heart ), stay tuned after the pe...

A young woman 'of ill repute' is grabbing a chance at marriage when a client shows up with some jaw-dropping news. Oscar-winner Chris Cooper, Emmy-winner Margo Martindale and Broadway's Liv Rooth ( Venus in Fur ) star in  Bite  the  Hand , Ara Watson's potent classic, directed by Tony-winner Doug Hughes. Stay tuned after the performance for a conversation moderated by our Producing Artistic Direct...

A BETROTHAL brings you into the cutthroat world of iris breeding, where delicacy meets domination. Lanford Wilson's classic brings us two competitors, two irises--and one ingenious chance to win. Performed by Lisa Emery (Broadway -  Casa Valentina ) and Frank Wood (Tony for  Side-Man ); directed by Bruce McCarty. Stay tuned after the performance for a conversation moderated by our Producing Artist...

In 24 Years by Leslie Ayvazian ( Nine Armenians ) , a couple celebrates their 24th anniversary. Champagne in hand, and huge cast on leg (from an overly enthusiastic soccer mishap), this immobilized husband still manages to stay one step ahead of his exasperated wife and to declare his vows again. Leslie's play features Jessica Hecht (catch her this summer at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Sa...

In  A Man of His Time  by Kate T. Billingsley, a descendant of Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney (who handed down the disastrous 1857 Dred Scott decision) invites a descendant of Dred Scott to meet him at a highway diner halfway between Virginia and Vermont. Scott shows up. It stars Sam Waterston ( The Killing Fields , "Law and Order," "The Newsroom," "Grace and Frankie") as the contemporary Taney...

"As starkly moving as taps at dusk" says the Washington Post about Beyond Glory, a powerful tribute to military valor written and performed by stage and screen star Stephen Lang (Colonel Quaritch in Avatar ). This piece features Stephen Lang portraying Private First Class, 1st Marine Division, Hector Cafferata, Korea, based on his own words. It is a portrait from Stephen Lang's one-man show, Beyon...

In  Goodbye, Howard , a rich comedy by Romulus Linney, three North Carolinian sisters in a total tizzy about their esteemed 85-year-old kid brother's imminent death, avoid an embarrassment worse than death. Three virtuosos: Lois Smith (2 time Obie Winner and 2 time Oscar nominee), Frances Sternhagen (2 time Tony winner), and Dana Ivey (5 time Tony nominee) play Howard's three adoring sisters. They...

In IT'S ALL GOOD, a short play by a master of the form,  David Ives  ( Venus In Fur, All in the Timing ), a Chicago native visits his hometown and encounters his past. Directed by Tony Award winner  John Rando , IT'S ALL GOOD features  Carson Elrod ,  Rick Holmes  and  Kelly Hutchinson . As you'll hear, this is a four character play, but at the last minute, one stellar actress was struck down by e...