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In a recent article titled “Ready to Jumpstart Your Writing Career? Start With These Podcast Episodes” journalist Brittani Samuel recommends The Subtext episode featuring Leah Nanako Winkler and Mark Schultz as one of the ten “best episodes to put in your ears and help jumpstart your writing career.”
Check out the full list here at this link.
Check out The Subtext Podcast archives here at this link.
Each week 3Views on Theater explores 3 productions that were impacted by COVID. This week they included Welcome to Keene, NH, which was to have its world premiere with Chicago’s Strawdog Theatre in April/May of 2020. The production was indefinitely postponed due to the virus.
Thanks to 3Views, the cast, production team, and an excerpt of the play have been archived.
Click here to see the archive page and learn more about this play/production.
I wrote this monologue many years ago as part of the first full length play I ever attempted. It was eventually cut from that play and then added to another and then cut again. Never one to allow my writing to go to waste, I decided to record it as a mini-audiodrama.
Stream the audio below or at this link.
On June 5th from 7:00-8:30pm E.S.T. I will be participating in a live storytelling event with Thrown Stone, which is located in Ridgefield, CT.
Ten writers share their Acts of Fate, a collection of memoir, performance, and poetry about the inflection points in our lives — the moments that changed everything.
I was recently invited to write a monologue for 24 Hour Plays’ #24viralmonologues project they have been running since COVID-19 has kept us all locked up inside.
The way the project works: Each week they select a group of playwrights and actors. After matching them up the actors record a short video giving some idea of what they are capable of pulling off in their given circumstances. Some actors are living in the country and have access to gardens and trees and sky. Others are cooped up inside apartments in their respective cities. Playwrights are given these videos at 6pm and have until 9am the following morning to write a 5 minute (give or take) monologue. The actor then must memorize and record the monologue however they see fit.
I was assigned the actor Ben Ahlers, a theatre and TV actor who already has a ton a credits despite only being out of school a couple years. He’s a big talent and I was lucky to be matched with him. In Ben’s intro video he made some suggestions of things he could pull off (he lives in a NYC apartment). He mentioned a guitar and a park across the street, which I took as inspiration to write a piece about a street musician trying hard to stay positive during this crisis.
The lineup for this week’s monologues included some playwrights I’ve long admired, including Laura Eason, Rebecca Gilman, Itamar Moses, and David Lindsay-Abaire, Donald Margulies, and so many others. The lineup of actors was just as stacked.
You can watch the piece I wrote here:
The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues! New monologues written, rehearsed, recorded and released on IGTV in 24 hours. #24viralmonologues "LOVE/LIKE/LOOK" writte...
The archive of all the others at this link.
Support 24 Hour Plays if you can with a donation at this link.
On May 23rd a play I originally wrote several years ago title What we need at the end of the day… was presented as part of an online festival of short plays called “Overcoming Isolation.” The event was organized and produced by Colvin Theatricals in Grand Rapids, MI and featured writers, actors, and directors from all over the country.
Elizabeth Price as Molly and Michael Emerson as Dean
What we need at the end of the day… was directed by Julia Moriarty and featured Elizabeth Price as Molly and Michael Emerson as Dean.
The event was livestreamed on Facebook as well as GRTV. An archive of the event can be found here at this link. What we need at the end of the day… begins around the 26 minute mark, but all of the plays are excellent so you should watch them all.
I’ve been searching for projects to keep me creatively engaged during the time of COVID-19. When somebody commented on this piece I wrote many years ago I found the next thing I could do.
The Smoking Room began as a short story written in a writing class back in 2006. It became a monologue, mostly because that’s my genre. The writing is the same regardless what I call it. Now it has been recorded as a sort of audio drama. It’s been created for no reason other than I wanted to do it.
Give a listen to the recording here at this link.
CW: This piece includes references to parent/child violence and is not recommended for young people.
I have been working on this podcast for nearly five years, and each of the 50+ episodes involved me sitting down face-to-face with other playwrights and talking about their lives. Due to the fact that essentially everybody is hunkered down and avoiding in-person encounters, The Subtext had to alter course.
For the March 2020 episode I decided to open a voicemail box and have other playwrights call in and leave messages talking about how they are coping in the time of coronavirus. Over 25 playwrights called and the results was the 48-minute special episode of the podcast. You can stream the audio here at this link.
I also made a shorter -15 minute- edit of the episode that you can listen to here at this link.
I was recently interviewed for the podcast Are Your Parents Proud of You?
Episode description: In this episode, Matthew sits down with Brian James Polak. Brian is a playwright whose play, Welcome To Keene, New Hampshire, is having its world debut at Strawdog Theatre. They talk about the inspiration of the play, growing up in New Hampshire, and pasta sauce. NOTE: This episode was recorded before the Coronavirus Crisis. Events and dates may no longer be occurring. Wash Your Hands.
Click here to stream the audio or click here to listen on Apple Podcasts.
Strawdog Theatre Company, which was scheduled to open Welcome to Keene, NH in April, made a postponement announcement (see below). We have been in remote rehearsals for a couple weeks now and will hopefully be able to share this play with the public as soon as we are able.
Dear Strawdog community,
Hope you are safe and doing as well as can be expected.
An update on Strawdog programming in this uncertain time - given current events, we will be unable to start performances of Welcome to Keene, New Hampshire on April 17 as planned and are sadly postponing the production until we are able to gather again. Rehearsals are underway online and we are continuing our work so that we can rehearse in person as soon as it is safe to do so and invite audiences to share in this beautiful new play shortly after.
It has been truly wonderful to dive into this play with this incredible group of artists over the last couple weeks and we look forward to the day we are able to share it with you.
Stay safe!
