The Shotgun Players Podcast

Regina Morones is one of my favorite Bay Area actors. She has so much range. I've seen her excel in slapstick comedies and be fearless in tragedies. She can sing she can dance and she can handle classical text. More importantly she brings a spirit of integrity and authenticity to all of her characters. Unsurprisingly, she's also an incredibly kind person and fantastic storyteller!   If you don't k...

Wow. I just finished an inspiring conversation with Bay Area Theater royalty, the incomparable Margo Hall. As an actress, she had made her presence felt on every major Bay Area stage from the rough and tumble Intersection for the Arts in the Mission to the big houses at ACT, BRep, and Cal Shakes. She's taught and mentored hundreds of theatre artists and directed over two dozen plays. Perhaps more...

So, this is something a little different. I just had the pleasure of being interviewed by Richard Wolinsky. Most folks in the Bay Area will know him from his 50+ years at KPFA, Berkeley's flagship public radio station. He recently reviewed our production of Edward Albee's The Goat, closing on Sunday, May 3rd, and he wanted the opportunity to spend some time discussing the history of Shotgun Player...

Jon Tracy  is one of the most prolific theater artists in the Bay Area. By sheer force of will and a determined, workmanlike approach, he has carved out a career that has put his prodigious skills to work in nearly every mid-sized theatre in town. Remarkably, he is also that rare breed of theater maker who spends more time listening than talking when he's in a room. He epitomizes the expression, "...

Joy Carlin is the closest thing the Bay Area has to theatre royalty. She has held leadership positions in our two flagship organizations, as interim Artistic Director of Berkeley Rep and as the Associate Artistic Director at ACT. She has also acted and directed in nearly every other mid-sized to large theatre company around.    Throughout this time, she's also made it a priority to attend shows an...

After dabbling in theater for years as an artist and administrator,  Lily Janiak  finally found her calling: crrrritic. After a few short stints at the SF Weekly and SF Bay Times, 10  years ago this spring, she stepped onto the biggest stage for theater criticism in Northern California: the San Francisco Chronicle. In our most recent Spotlight,  Lily  generously pulled back the curtain on the uniq...

Marin Theatre's Artistic Director, Lance Gardner, is a busy man. In the last couple of months, he has directed and starred in back-to-back productions. If our  Bay Area theater scene is going to continue its resurgence, we'll need more visionaries like Lance in leadership positions. I'll be interviewing many interesting folks in the coming months, but I have to say it's been a real treat to interv...

The motivation for this podcast is personal. While I've loved every minute of my 30+ years as Shotgun's artistic director, the all-consuming nature of the work hasn't left much time to get to know other theater makers. The best way to change that was to make meeting other theater makers part of my job! My hope with these interviews is to learn a little bit about what motivates and inspires, and to...

Patrick Dooley talks to playwright Adam Bock and director Mary Ann Rodgers about childhood theatre companies, writing process, and Shotgun's upcoming production of Bock's play A Small Fire .

Leigh Rondon-Davis talks to Babes in Ho-lland playwright Deneen Reynolds-Knott about Riot Grrrl, starting college, and the Black experience in predominately white environments. Deneen's "Babes" playlist ! Check out Shoebox Picnic Road Side at Alabama Shakes if you're in Montgomery!

Leigh Rondon-Davis talks about spectacle, spite, and HGTV with Dream Hou$e playwright Eliana Pipes and director Karina Gutiérrez.   Music: Welcome to the Show" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Join Tony Award-winning creator of 'Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812' creator Dave Malloy in conversation with co-directors Patrick Dooley and Erin Mei-Ling Stuart as they discuss the genesis of the musical and Malloy's start in theatre. More cool stuff: Dave's website: http://davemalloy.com/ Erin's website: https://www.erinmstuart.com/   Music is "Shack" by Dave Malloy from Beardo at the...

Let's Talk About Theatre will feature interviews with playwrights and other contributing artists of past and future shows. The interviews will be focused on shows from our upcoming 30th Anniversary Season as well as conversations about past programming. The program will be offered as a video series and an audio podcast. 'The Cassandra Sessions: Recording This World' creators Beth Wilmurt and Jake...

Let's Talk About Theatre will feature interviews with playwrights and other contributing artists of past and future shows. The interviews will be focused on shows from our upcoming 30th Anniversary Season as well as conversations about past programming. Tune in on YouTube or listen to the audio version right here! 'My H8 Letter to the Gr8 American Theatre' playwright Diana Oh appears live with dir...

Hanah talks with Celeste Martore, set designer of  Kill Move Paradise  and  The Niceties , about the architecture and set design, what makes an oppressive space, and figuring out how to design in the wild world of Zoom.  Don't miss our live digital production of  The Niceties,  this weekend only! Tickets are pay-what-you-can and available here .  To see Celeste's design for  Kill Move Paradise , a...

Hanah talks with Brooke Jennings, designer of Arcadia, V inegar Tom, Henry V, and assistant on Iron Shoes . Learn about helping actors find characters, why you should be kind to costume shop managers, how to make a fake pregnancy belly, and that one time Brooke threw together a whole Regency gown in 48 hours. To see some of Brooke's work at Shotgun, visit our show pages below: Iron Shoes (assistin...

Hanah talks with Ray Oppenheimer about lighting at the Ashby Stage, from The Coast of Utopia to the 2016 Season in Rep . Listen through the end for a meditation on the ethereal nature of light and sound and hot tips for getting the best lighting for your next Zoom call.  We talk about a lot of shows and gear in this episode!   Click here to see photos. If you haven't heard the The Claim yet, check...

Hanah talks with Sara Witsch ( The Claim ) and Elton Bradman ( Kill Move Paradise) about their recent experiences designing radio plays in quarantine, missing their in-person theater collaborators, and their attempts to compose in harmony with the Ashby Stage air conditioner.   If you haven't heard the The Claim yet, check it out here ! For more of Elton's work, visit eltonsounds.com  and Bass Mag...

We are proud to present this w orkshop   audio   performance of The Claim by Tim Cowbury, directed by Rebecca Novick. A bold, imaginative response to the stories of African refugees seeking asylum in the UK, The Claim asks what happens when your life is at stake and all you have to save it are your words. While the theater is closed, we are continuing to pay artists to create online content like t...

Hanah talks Beth Wilmurt and Mark Jackson about what we carry forward from the past into the future, trying to stay in the present, and how theater may present more opportunities than basketball.  To watch the video that inspired this podcast, check out Remember Theatre?    It's not required for listening, but it is pretty damn charming. The full-length version of Mark and Beth's production of Kil...

Hanah talks with Kenny Toll and Megan Trout about water slides, backflips, buckets, and even acting in Shotgun Players' 2015 production of Eurydice . For pics from onstage and off ,   click here . Please support Shotgun Players during our 2-week Sassafras fundraiser right now! Proceeds go to artists creating work on our online platforms until we can get back to the Ashby Stage! Visit shotgunplayer...

Hanah talks with Leigh Rondon-Davis about the joys and challenges of doing a million theater jobs, how they got started at Shotgun Players, and one particular night when all the lights went out at the Ashby Stage.   For pics, including some never-before-seen from the 2016 "flashlight performance" of  Caught,   click here . Intro music by Dave Malloy, davemalloy.com Outro music by Misner & Smith, m...

Hanah talks with Heather Kelly-Laws and Nikita Kadam - the Stage Management team from our 2016 Hamlet and many other shows - about the joys of a difficult show, and how some very adept actors saved the day every time.  For pics and videos from onstage and off, click here . For the charts that guided the Hamlets (And Ghosts and Gertrudes), click below: Actors' Progress Character Breakdown Scene-Tim...

This week, Hanah is talking with Devon LaBelle about beets and bleach and consulting medical professionals - all part of producing blood effects on stage. Plus - find out exactly how the wedding turned bloody during our 2017 production of  Black Rider.  For pics and videos related to the podcast, click here . (Warning: contains graphic images of stage blood.)  Finally, as promised, the beet-blood...

We are so pleased to offer  The  Big   Picture  by Madeleine George ( Watson Intelligence ,  Precious Little ) for this week's episode of The Shotgun Players Podcast. This workplace comedy/tragedy explores the relationship one man has to himself, his human resources manager, humanity, and a very unlucky raccoon. Featuring Joe Estlack ( Bonnie and Clyde ,  Woyzeck ,  Blasted ) and Adam Niemann ( He...