Arkansas - TheatreSquared, Approprite, and Candrice Jones - Play to Z

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, welcome to play the Ze.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Please rise for this season's introduction song, Fight through It.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Connecticut. Good job.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hell, Hello, everybody, welcome to play to Zee. I'm your
co host Justin Boran, and I'm your co host Erica,
and we're gonna listen with our ears and watch with
our eyes. Listen with our ears and watch.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
He tries to talk through the interest song.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, because she doesn't edit it. She doesn't realize that nine,
I play the interest songs are hot. I play the
interest song so me and her can get into the vibe.
We can walk, but we take a small break after
the intro song before we start talking, so I can
just cut it out and put in the regular audio,
so like we could just talk through the interest song.
I put it in because I think it's a nice

(01:02):
way to start to start recording.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
I like doing a little arm waggle. Took a little move.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
You know. Do you remember that episode of The Dropout Show, Uh,
The Dropout Show where like Sam, it's like the game
Change Game Changer where JA where they're like, hey, do
something in slow motion and Jacob Wisaki goes up against
a black like a screen and puts both his hands
in front of the black screen and has a camera
and he just smacks his hands around like that.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, that does ring a bell.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
I don't have anything else to say about it.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
That'siscent of that.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
It is reminiscing about that idea.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
I've only ever watched that that content with you.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, I'm happy that you like it.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
I do like it.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, Jacob Isisaki is very funny. Yeah, he cracks me up. Hi,
how are you? I'm good too? Oh good, that's good?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Oh good?

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Do you are? You? You're Erica? You your room? What
am I doing here?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
We recorded my oh my a c is on o
ASMR moment. I'm turning my ac off.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Here's the thing. If we caught that like ten minutes in,
I would make us restart. Now. It's just a fun
little thing for the pod.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
It was just, you know, I'm just showing people the
real deal.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
We're showing people. Look, we have to be cold too.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
We do. We have to.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
We have to be frosty.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
My room flex is the smallest, but with the most windows,
it does have the a little roasty toasty.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Can you get the freaking ire escape? I forgot the
word for it. It's really nice. Have you gone out
there yet?

Speaker 3 (02:37):
No, but my mom shout out to shut out.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Oh wow, yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
I was like, I'm gonna got there. My mom was like,
well maybe or maybe it was my sister. Somebody kind
of spooked me. They were like, maybe I have someone
spot you, because if you haven't seen anyone else doing it,
they might be it might be rickety.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
We haven't. We haven't seen anybody zero people.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, so what do they know that I don't.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
I don't know what we should find out to say.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
I want to tie one end of a rope around
my waist.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Everybody caliber end of rope.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Around your waist.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
I go out there, hang over there.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
What happens happened?

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Who knows?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
But I need all six two of you to keep me,
to keep you in up here.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Can I say something? What if we did the one
hundredth episode recording on the fire scale, I.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Will say sometimes people are yelling down there?

Speaker 1 (03:22):
We ever get it's not the hundredth episode right now? Right?

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Oh my god, I sent you an email with it.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Wait, okay, we did something. We did something yesterday. We
recorded Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, and we were going to record
Arkansas right after. Yeah, and instead this is it.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
I think it's a few more downs.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
I'm gonna I'm gonna have you talk about what I'm
gonna prompt you to talk about, and I'm gonna look
to see what them. Okay, yeah, well, not VAMP. I'm
just saying yesterday we were good. It's not VAMP. I'm
just starting our banter. We're doing. We're doing banter like
we always do.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
And what should I should have?

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Oh my god, shut up. We we did Arizona, and
Arizona went a little bit longer than expected, and we
were saying on Arizona that like, hey, next week when
California or Connecticut comes around, will have seen job. But
instead we took the day off and we were recording
Arkansas the next day. So you saw a job yesterday.
I did so talk about it because I've already seen it,

(04:17):
but I also haven't talked about my thoughts. But this
is your first time seeing it.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yes, Well, it's a little bit hard to discuss because
I know that by the time that this airs, the
show will have like done most of it's run.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
It closes its finally, Stension closes October twenty seventh, and
this episode comes out. What are we talking about Arkansas. Yeah,
this episode I think comes out after that or like
pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
So you know me, I love nothing more than a
deep dive on a play and like telling people about stuff.
Is this the hundredth episode?

Speaker 1 (04:47):
No, so this is the you made the sound? This
is the ninety seventh episode.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
So next week is California and then it's a play though,
and then before we do Connecticut, we keep saying California, Connecticut.
It's californ to Colorado.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
It's counting.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
But but I'm gonna do California next week and then
we'll do Plato and then it'll be the one hundredth episode.
You have no idea. I know we have no idea.
What I haven't We haven't really thought about it too much,
have we.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
I just think we should dress up.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
And let's not do video podcast. No no, no, no video.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Full suits, full suit. But they can tell there's a
change because of our demeanor, because when you're dressed different,
you're acting different.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
There's a thing. And if you come in here, we're
in a big old suit, a little too big for you. You
know what I'm gonna do?

Speaker 3 (05:31):
That's right, what's up, everybody? I'm in my PM comfis
right now but coming soon, Touxedo Black Die. I kind
of changed the accent because I was thinking, that's okay,
I like it. No, we're a little over the place,
but wrapping around.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Okay. Job one hundred episode comes out in a couple
of weeks. This is going to be Arkansas. Yesterday we
saw a job.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yesterday we said a job, which for us was in
the middle of September.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, listen, I've seen it.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
T Yeah. I love nothing more than like literally talking
through beat by beat a play. I absolutely cannot do
that with this play because it would be an asshole
move and also just would It's just not the point
of the script.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
So it's a script that you should definitely see if
you're able to and if you're very very very very
very sure that you're not gonna be able to see it,
then read it.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Can I say something that I love that you don't
get to see a lot for new play specifically, Yes,
Max the playwright went to went to licensing and publishing
a really early shout out Concord. They got it, and
they are selling the script at theater. They are also
some of the script at the dram Bookshop and on
Concord's website. It is fully Availableyeah, you can grab it
any So if you are someone who isn't in New York,
like we are very lucky. We've only been there for

(06:44):
a month or two, but like we're already kind of
reaping the benefits of being in New York and being
theater nerds. This is one of those new plays that
you don't have to Like we were talking about gray
House after the show, how like it was on Broadway
a year and a half ago, closed and it's still no,
we can't get the script. I don't know what's going
on with it. Yeah, this is pretty cool where like
you get to read it and experience it in at

(07:06):
least some way while this hype is still here, while
it's like kind of happening, and people like us are
just talking about the.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Writing is spectacular.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
It's so good.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
I don't I can't prove it, but as someone who's
been reading a lot of plays for like fifteen years,
pretty aggressively, probably fifteen years, there has been this weird
trend where like in contemporary American plays, dramas or comedies,
like the idea of monologuing has just really really gotten minute. Yeah,

(07:34):
It's a lot harder to pull monologues now than it
was for an actor in like the seventies through like
early two thousands. And I don't know why, and I
want someone to like sit down with me and have
eight cups of coffee and like talk with me about
why they think it is. But this play blew that
notion out of the water. There was like this really
intense five years from undergrad of college into first professional

(07:56):
years for me where I was like doing anything to
find chunks of women talking in plays and not getting
interrupted and having the chunk of thought like mean something
culminate in something, be that true little bite sized beginning,
middle and the end that we're all trying to seek
out we all want, you know, to have in our
storytelling arsenal. The Brits were doing it a lot, right,
That's how I got so into Lucy Kirkwood. Yeah, all

(08:16):
that stuff, Jess Butterworth, Alis Birch, Alis Perch exactly like there.
They didn't stop doing it again, Like maybe they're sitting
them all like older and wiser than me can sit
me down and be like, oh, well, that's is the
trend whatever. I don't know what it is, but when
I saw this play, I was so refreshed and also
sidebart you see that in TV film too, Like I
remember when Breaking Bad hit the scene and people were

(08:37):
like freaking out and gushing over the acting in that show,
which is phenomenal. And then I watched it myself, like
I was late. I watched it a few years later
and I was like, Oh, it's it's just because in
the writing they are allowed to monologue. Yeah, so these
actors are very clearly good actors because they're allowed to
speak and the camera just stays on their face. The
focus just stays on someone seeing a thought through. Now

(08:58):
I'm on a soapbox. But all this to say, well,
I don't want to spoil anything about Job, because it's
an awesome play that everyone should, you know, see produce.
Definitely produce. We should talk more about that. The monologues,
it's a two person play. The monologues were so phenomenal,
so good. It was one of those plays where like,
as it's going on and unfolding, I'm like, I don't
know what's about to happen, but I know that I'm

(09:19):
relieved my roommate bought the script already so I can
go home and tear this up. Squeak, squeak, Yeah, squeaks.
I'm on my bed. It takes up most of the room.
We keep it real.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
It was It's a great play. The performance are awesome,
the writing is awesome.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
At the space that was fire wonderful. Yeah, it was amazing.
I really really enjoyed it. I'm so fascinated to like
read and see more now by this play. Right, and
also these actors yea. Also I want to be in it.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
I know there's a part producing it.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Also, go ahead and think about casting me in it,
because I am weirdly well typed for this role. And
Whiles both came home and were like, we found it.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
The first thing we said, so like Eric and I
saw Hills of California this past week. Also, yeah, I
can say it's on the show. Liz is going to Hills, California.
They invited there, like the actual theater. Oh, so like
she's gonna get to see it too soon in like
a very special way, I think.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
But we were there and you were like, oh, this
is a really good role for me, and I didn't
even think about that because Hills in California is across
the street from job and when I walk by that theater,
the first thing I think of is Erica could play
this role over the Oh so, well, it's such a
good role for you. And I don't want to talk
too much about the pot because this is a play
that I'm like, I want. A lot of people won't

(10:29):
be able to see it on Broadway that are listening
to this podcast because it's either about to close. It
it closed on October twenty seventh. I didn't do the math,
but that is either right now or like a week
from now, yeah, or we could go yeah, so like
so I don't really know like how that's gonna look
licensing wise, but it's so producible. It's so producable.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
But there's a very real chance, Like I think there's
a very real chance that I could, you know, go
back to Minneapolis for the holidays and be like mom
or you know, like buddies here, like let's go see
the show like the Jungle or yeah, for sure the show.
You know some are cool. But you see Obama doing it, Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
I think that is.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
I see every man doing it.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
It has oh my gosh, and every man loves that. Yeah,
everyone should be doing this play. I think it's going
to be very manageable and also presents amazing opportunities for
technicians and designers.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Again, not going to give anything away, but just like
it's it's affordable in all the ways it should be,
because where all the money should go to produce this
is on the talent of humans, not on like, you know,
a three story set. Yeah, or fifty costumes for fifty actors.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah, yeah, that was me. I'm a bad guy.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
You're kind of a bad guy. That's okay, But but yeah,
job was excellent.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
It was so good.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
Check it out.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
It was so so good. Yeah, oh god, it was
really really good. Is there anything you're excited about seeing
in the upcoming future?

Speaker 3 (11:50):
So excited to go see the roommate? God, I still
need it's just stereophonic and I'm gonna I'm gonna steal
my wad oh Mary. Yeah, that's my big three, right.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I just had this extension. I think till like mid January.
I think it's like it's final extension, but it's for
a while. I feel like that's a nice extension. I'm
not scared yet.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
Those are the three I want to I want to
lock in. Yeah, and as someone who's about to be
employed again.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
I'm gonna wait. You know what I saw and I
didn't talk about yesterday. I saw once upon a mattress.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
You did see that.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
I saw once upon a freaking mattress. What do you
not like is your toes? It's my snapping toes.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Hey, this is like so much too much information, but
we're bantering. Justin has like really expressive feet.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
I really I never thought i'd explained.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
That on this podcast. But because the room is so small,
like half of Justin's body is on the bed and
half is on a chair. Yeah, and so when his
when he's excited about his.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
Toes start moving and toes flipping flat, I thought.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Something was rumbling the building, and I thought we were
gonna have to finally use that.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Virus scape give an earthquake, and they're my toesies terrifying
little Tutsi's made an earthquake so scary.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
No, do you want to talk about what's a mattress?

Speaker 1 (12:54):
I just want to say it's very fun I made
I made a video about it, and I'm posting it
in the next go. It'll be I'll again have been
posted for any time they hear this. But like I
was just making a video about it, and I was
like thinking, I was like, I literally say that, and
I'm like, people who should see job people should see
Hills of California. But if you want to just laugh
on a Thursday, go see Once Upon a Mattress. It's
so funny. Sutton Foster is like a less problematic and

(13:17):
very talented Jim Carrey. Like she's just so funny. Her
physical comedies are very Aceventura. It's very like the Mask.
It's crazy. Michael yuriy is hilarious, and a Gastyre is hilarious.
Like it's just one of the funniest shows I think
I've ever seen on Broadway. And the funny part was
it came from New York City Center, which I don't
know if you know about New York City Center, but

(13:38):
basically they do like two week runs of musicals and
they have the craziest star studed task because no one
learns their lines. They just have like their book and
it's just like a huge band and it's just them
kind of doing something like walk on, blocking and playing
these roles that they've always wanted to play. And once
in a while, when a New York City Center show
does really really well, it goes to Broadway, and this
one was a New York City Center show. Went to

(13:59):
broad with the entire New York City Center cast or
like a majority of it, which is super cool, but
like it went with this like whole cast. But then
when you go see the show, the set is like
just a platform and like some pillars and then a
huge band behind it. And it's because they were like, oh, well,
we're the I think it's because they were like the
New York City Center. So like you saw the entire

(14:20):
band on like the back half of the stage is
just a huge band and then the front is just
playing space basically. Yeah, like there's very simple props, simple
like sets like you push in a cauldron. She like like,
it's very very easy and simple.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
I'm team see the band.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, I love that. But I liked it because I'd
never seen the New York City Center show. I've always
wanted to and I never have, And this was very
a very cool way to see a Broadway show, knowing
that it was a New York City Center production, because
it's clear that they all they really did for this
was like put more money into it, and everyone learned
their lines and like it's relatively the same as a
New York City Center, and it's crazy that they got
this freaking cast to come into this show. Sun Foster's amazing.

(14:59):
She's one of the funniest people in the world. I
went and saw this and I was like, I want
you to win Best Leading Actress, Tony. I don't know
she will because adra uh is gypsy, but but Sun Foster.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
Very good, very excited. It's so I named my three
that I'm excited to see. What are your top three
that you need to see?

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Still, I'm gonna challenge myself and try to not use
any that you said.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Okay, but I think you do want to see those.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
I want to see O May, I want to see Stereophonic.
I want to see the roommate for sure. But the
things I probably I want I most want to see
that aren't those three are. Oh I'm really excited for
Romeo and Juliet.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Oh ya.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
I think it's gonna be really cool. I think it's
gonna be like It's I think gonna be so cringey,
or it's gonna be like very it's gonna be like
if bodies bodies bodies with the Shakespeare play. Yeah, like
that's the vibe that it's giving, and I'm really excited
about that. I'm a huge athella fan, so I'm gonna
also say, like a fella is gonna be freaking awesome.
I'm so excited about Othello, And then I am, oh, man,
what's another one I'm really excited about. There's a musical

(15:56):
that I don't know a lot about, but it's Jewish
and Idina Menzel's and it's called Red Would and it'll looks
sick and I love Idemonzell and I love Jewish theater,
so I'm really excited about that too. So those are
a few shows that I'm really really pumped about more
than anything though, And it'll again, it'll be open by
the time this episode going, and hopefully knock on wood,
I freaking have seen it by then. I want to

(16:17):
see Good Bones, the New James Iams play at the Public.
I think, oh and Ship Meet Fan and we Robert
O'Hara play at MCC. There's off Broadways crazy right now.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
The best time a year to me is it's so good.
It's an exciting time.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
It's really really good. I'm very excited about it. Also,
everything second stage does, and there's just I don't know,
it's very cool to live in New York and to
be like I remember when we used to like be
like in West Virginia and we would be like if
we go to New York for this one weekend, we
could see this, this, this, and this, and we would.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Like try to drive through the night. We would do
day trips.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah it's not day We were insane, No, we were insane.
And now we can just like come home and relax
for a night and then also like go just get
a rush ticket to go see a random show. You
know what I mean. It's really really cool. But uh
but yeah, dude, it was very very fun.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
What if I pivoted away from New York?

Speaker 1 (17:06):
How dare you tell you about a different state? Oh no,
I'm a pretty New York guy. I kind of only
talk about New York now coastal huh yeah, yeah, I'm
kind of the coastal elite.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Yeah, well, uh we do that again. Yeah, I don't know.
I had to pull the micround.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
I like that you did it kind of gave it
an effect. Do it again, like have a little mute, yeah, wait,
make a noise, but then go like this that was
so stupid. No, it's all going to bed. I'm not
editing a second.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
Recording at night. Hits completely different than recording which we
do both.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
We do both, we do it all.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
The moody PM shift.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
This is the moody pe.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
Nothing says Arkansas like the sunset outside on the fire escape.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
That says Arkansas like New York City at seven fifteen p. Right.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
I don't believe in overhead lighting. I don't like it.
I hate our lighting.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
You have like our lighting is fine.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
I don't want to fight here.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Oh my good, all right, talk about your stick and
get all the yap and going so.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
To start like, what do you know about Arkansas? You
ever been Arkansas?

Speaker 1 (18:11):
I have?

Speaker 3 (18:11):
Wa Have you really?

Speaker 1 (18:12):
I lived there for I lived in Fee for a year. No,
I'm just making it up. Yeah I've never.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
That was a great poll because we're going to talk
about Yeah, I know, yeah, you've never.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
I've been Arkansas a bunch. I grew up there. I'm kidding,
I grew up in Cleveland. But I've been through there.
I got a bunch I have. I've driven through there.
I I well, actually I bought my first dog there.
You did, No, No, no, not not Riley, the first dog
that I had.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
The black liby give me trust issues.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Dude, I swear I got we got our first black
lab sole from Arkansas. I'm making that up too.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
You're not a good liar.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Okay, I'm not a good liar, but that's a good
thing to have as a friend because then you know.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
This is helping me warm up for is the truth
in a lie? Oh yeah, you're helping me, hone in
all the lie?

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Can I say something? I have been in Arkansas, though
I know, I know you don't believe me. Now, No,
I've I've been there for a conference conference and see no,
I'm not kidding. It's I'm trying to remember. It's a
Catholic conference. No, no, no, no, no no. Oh n
c y C National Catholic Youth Convention. I swear to God,
Yeah I went. I made that.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
I think you've gone with that, but not I did it.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
I went to it in Indiana. I went to it
in Indiana twice. No, I really did. Lucas Oil Stadium.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
I don't want to listen to you anymore so.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
When I grew up in Arkansas, though, one of my
favorite diners in Fayeteville.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
So when I built Arkansas from the ground floor up, so.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Look as well, Arkansas, you know you uhould be called Borkansas.
Barkansas for Arkansas, for Kansas. Here's the thing, it kind
of works borak Wait, let's do this, Okay, Arkansas is
a r K, borak ends with a K. What's the
best way for us to make my name Arkansas Borakansas,
bora Kansas borax and saus borackens.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Justin, go on with your episode, all right, I'm going
to dive in lying until the end.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Of the episode that made me so mad.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
All right, I'm gonna run through like highlights. I'm not
even highlights, but just like the things that kind of
like I thought of when I think of Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Okay, fine, I'll tell you what I know about.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
I do have a real question for you.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Give me if I.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
Were to tell you, Hey, Justin, do you know the
states that make up the man in the middle of
the map of the United States?

Speaker 1 (20:26):
I don't even know what you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
Okay, A lot of people don't, and I truly think
that this is a Midwestern issue.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Wait, the man in the United States.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
So did you when you were in like elementary school,
have to like learn all of the states like capitals.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, the song that we do for our intro as well,
that's all I learned.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
And so you have this little map in.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
I know, I know all the states and.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
Did you have devices for how you remembered which states were?
It's about like the states that exist, but on the
map for like remembering which All right, cool, let me
put you guys on Wait, what is it called the
the How do you think it's something you're gonna able
to google?

Speaker 1 (20:58):
I think it's going to be the man in the
United States, the.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Man in the map of the United States of America.
If you are Midwestern, you know what I'm talking about.
And specifically or specifically if you're Iowa, you know what
I'm talking about because Iowa is the head the side
profile face of the man on the map. So when
you're looking at the middle the midwest of a map
of the United States, there's Minnesota on the top and
that's like a big chef hat.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Does he have a dick? I'm I'm not going to
egle that out.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
It depends on if you count Tennessee. But I'm not
counting Tennessee. I don't. I didn't. Oh that's the frying
pan version. Yeah, because the chef hat, so it's not
supposed to be a dick, but it does look like
he's frying something up. If you count Kentucky and Tennessee,
so you've got the Minnesota chef hat, You've got the
state of Iowa is the face, and like that curvy
part by the Mississippi is like the nose, the side profile.

(21:47):
And then you have Arkansas in this scenario is the pants.
Can I say something, Missouri shirt, Arkansas pants, Louisiana boots.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
This doesn't look at all like a guy.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
Okay, can you find any other state that looks more
like a guy?

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Is that? Who was asked that question once in their life?

Speaker 3 (22:02):
I'm just saying as a kid, like we're that.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Like, this isn't that Like this, I'm looking at a
Google and I'm gonna post it on the day of
the episode. Okay, this isn't that. Like that's not a
like I don't agree.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
It's the device that we were talking kind of like
how like there's those four states where you can be
in all four corners like you talked about, and it's like, oh.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
That's no, no, that's not the same thing, because that's
a real thing. This does not look like an elf.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
I didn't say he was an elf.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Everyone is saying online that it's an elf.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
To me, he looks like a little chef because of
his big Minnesota happen.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Okay, is this an Erica thing or did you learn
this in school?

Speaker 3 (22:35):
In school? But I've tried to bring this up to
other people before and they did not know what I
was talking about. So I think it might be a
Midwestern school thing. But to me, there is a chef
and the chef pants in this. You know, capacity is Arkansas.
Arkansas the pants.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Arkansas's the pants. So getting into it, getting into the pants.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Arkansas, I feel like a lot of people probably don't
know a lot about. Yeah, there's a couple of things
that came to mind for me. Natural splendor and be racism,
a little bit like Alaska, a little bit like a
lot of states. Right, So when you're looking at like
the geography of Arkansas, it's very interesting because it's got
like legit mountains, right, It's got the Ozarks. But then

(23:13):
it's also got like the timberlands. It's got the Mississippi
River and the Arkansas Delta. Yeah, there's like a lot
going on. And if you're towards Missouri, you're kind of
in the Midwest. But if you're south, you're kind of southern.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, the whole south, right, you would call it.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yeah, it's like it's it's in the it's the South. Yeah,
I wouldn't call it Midwest anymore. But also it's like
it's where Midwest and South kind of joined together.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
I love the Timberlands, dude, They're so pretty. Yeah, yeah,
they're super pretty. My family is a lake house there.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah, from when you went there, from when I grew
up there and the conference.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Well, I don't, I don't. I haven't been there in
a long time. I haven't been there in a long time.
You built that place when I built, and I've built Barkansas,
but barkansaw.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
For Akansas, all right, whatever. So so, so this was
originally part of the like the Louisiana purchase, right, Napoleon
sold Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Napoleon like the short guy Napole.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
Yeah, Napoleon as played by Woaquin Phoenix, who was not
from Phoenix, as we learned in the last episode.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Are you sure? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (24:15):
No?

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Oh well no, dude, remember I google that he is
from Phoenix.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
No he's not.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yea, he is, stop lying, I'm from Arkansas, gonna.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Help me, Okay, but no, Napoleon he sold it, right, Okay,
let's jump ahead, because that's happening in like the eighteen hundred.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yes, right, Napoleon sells Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
Napoleon's like, I am French and you're gonna have Hey,
I am New York and I'm trying to buy a steak.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
Give me some Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
So it becomes our out perfect And one is Arkansas
known for plantations.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Are they Yeah? So they were in the South there
in the Civil War.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah, okay, so their big kind of like and the
reason I'm kind of laying this context is to give
a little bit of context to when we fast forward
to the future, which is Arkansas's like an amazing, amazing
theaters state. So I kind of knew that offhand, like
from first hand experiences of some of my friends and
stuff like that, which I'll talk about, but I hadn't
done the research, and I was like, oh my god,

(25:08):
like if I had to pick any kind of a
little more of a random state to go, make theater
in Arkansas at the top of the list, but I'm
creating this context because'm to talk about some plaids later.
I think this is relevant to their worst.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Are we gonna move to Arkansas? Hit it? That was
really good idea? Hit a button. I didn't know that.
I just know that this one's Succoon, this one's Liz,
and this one's fun.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
Voice everybody in Arkansas. So all right, So we've got
the American Civil War. So this state that had been
really thriving because of slavery, because of the plantation economy.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
My family, my family wasn't there yet.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
No, this is you had nothing to do with that.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
We had nothing to do with I promise.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
So this gives way obviously into like the area era
of like Jim Crow laws, right, because when you lose
the Civil War, you're not you're not doing great after this.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
Segment is bad.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
Right, So you've got tons of of racism hate happening,
and then the civil rights civil rights movements happens. And
I think the other thing that a lot of people
culturally in America think of this is again fascinating to
our for international listeners like Ireland and Australia, is the

(26:26):
is the integration of schools? Right when segregation was ending
specifically in Little Rock that was like a big battleground
and it became a huge deal. So we had brown
versus the Board of Education, which that was in Kansas, right,
But then does the little the Little Rock nine ring
a bell to you is like black and white photos, right, Yeah,

(26:48):
And so with a Little Rock nine it got a
huge amount of attention nationally because the National Guard actually
had to be sent in to help these like nine
black school children go to school, and Eisenhower had to
send like a thousand troops to protect them. It was
still not effective right away, like the racism round really

(27:09):
really deep in Arkansas, and so the governor actually closed
a lot of the schools. But again by the following
school year, like it did go through, schools were integrated.
So obviously, like on that level, it failed. But I
do think that's like a fascinating baseline for kind of
like what Arkansas is known for. You've got natural splendor,
you've got their affiliations with the Confederacy, and then watching

(27:30):
that play out for the following one hundred years, it's
very interesting. And we're going to get into it, and
the way we're going to get into it is We're
going to talk about three plays that are set in
Arkansas or that are related to Arkansas to start. Okay,
so what's a play. It was very star studded that
was very very very recently on Broadway and it was

(27:52):
by Brandon Jacob Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Appropriate. Oh appropriate is in Arkansas?

Speaker 3 (27:56):
For appropriate in Arkansas? And now asked me, is Brandon Jacob?

Speaker 1 (28:00):
I was about that? He's not from Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
He's not, but you know who is?

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Well? I do.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
But his grandparents, Oh you remember.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
For wait, yeah, that's the Jacob Jenkins I knew. So
they were our neighbors. They were in the Timberlands. No, no, no, no,
they had a second house. His grandparents had a second house. Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
Everybody has two houses.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, both like indignity And that's the mottol exactly two
house state that people have called it for years.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
You know this, you know this.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
That's when I got to Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah, so Brandon Jacob Jenkins if you don't know that
name in Octoroon Gloria about.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
To be Purpose yep, Purpose is on the Broadway.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah, just a huge, awesome, good to know play.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Right. Appropriate Probably you could argue one of the hottest
playwrights training super hot right.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
Now and also like closely linked to Andy Baker, which
I love to see them rock out. I know you
love the little mentioned that makes me so. Appropriate specifically
started at the Humana Festival at actual Theater Louisville. Obviously,
where did it go after that? Wooly Mammoth was one
of them places we know places.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
They just revived the cups at Wily Mammoth, Yes, like
literally a month before this episode came out.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Appropriate goes over to second Stage, then it goes to
Broadway the Blasco right, and the quick synopsis is that
it's this dysfunctional Lafayette family. They're returning home to this
decaying plantation mansion that's in Arkansas to kind of hash
it out over an inheritance.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Right, So Sara Paulson ended up winning a Tony for that.
Actually don't remember ian to look it up.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
It premiered in twenty thirteen, but again this was happening
when did it close?

Speaker 1 (29:33):
Like six months ago on Broady. It premiered off Broadway.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
Then tons of famous people in it, right, yeah, it
was nominated and won a ton of Tony's. And again,
the really interesting thing about it to me is that
it's set in Arkansas, and it was. There's some articles
that kind of imply it was kind of inspired.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Sarah Paulson won it won Best Revival. Yeah, it won
a lot of stuff.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
Yeah, so kind of inspired by his summers visiting his
grandparents there, which generationally, I think a lot of people
like to think that the Little Rock nine, that even
the Civil War is like super super you know, long away.
When you count that out in grandparents in like generations,
that's not that long ago. I just think that that's

(30:17):
not a coincidence. It's worth shouting out. Another play that
is set in Arkansas, which this was not on my radar.
It actually introduced me to a new playwright, so I
wanted to bring it up. Is a play called The
Romance of Magno Rubio and the playwright is named Lonnie Carter.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
I know Lonnie Carter. Lonnie Carter had the house right
next to me and Brenda Jame Jenkins's grandparents, so it
was a coold a sac It was a called a
second Timberlinz.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
But it was like two houses each both dignity exactly.
So the Romance of Magna Rubio the play won like
eight Obi's right, performed by where was it MAYI Theater Company? Yeah,
and it won eight Obi's a bunch of like different award.
What year was this two thousand and two?

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Oh, okay, so it's a little bit older, yeah, a little.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
Bit older, right, Yeah, And it's inspired by it's called
the Romance of Magno Rubio.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
That's a great name for a play.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Well, it's actually inspired by a short story. And the
short story is like eight pages. It's by Carlos Bulosan
and he is a Filipino American author, poet, activist, kind
of guy. He really was into the Filipino American experience,
like thirties through fifties era.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Oh sorry, I'm googled it and I saw something exciting.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
I love googling what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Well, just because I wanted to see. Yeah, I do
can't get enough. I do. I like it.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
He can't get enough. They teach that in Arkansas. Yeah, anyway,
that's who Carlos Bulusan is. But Lonnie adapted that into
this play that won a ton of awards. And actually
it was brief. For a second, I thought I could
watch it. In twenty twenty, they were made it free
to stream. My Youth Theater Company, which was super super good.
But oh, also, I don't think I said this, but
it's it's an eight page short story and the play

(32:02):
is told in rhymed couplets. It's it's like based in
Filipino art forms, and it's about a love sick migrant
farm worker who is entranced by a tall, blonde woman
in the hills of Arkansas who's out to take him
for everything he's worth. Oh my god, this wasn't one
that I've read. So what do I do? I start
googling it, right, and what do you hate to see coming?
That's right, a really good playwrights website, hate to say it.

(32:24):
So I'm like, I don't know who Lonnie Carter is,
but he's got accounts. You know, when you're you guys
all probably if you're listeners, you've done this. You're like
trying to find out more on a playwright, and so
you google them and maybe they have them on a website,
but maybe they also have like a Playwright Center account.
You know, they've got all sorts of weird things where
you can find the same paragraph on. So I go
to the source. I go to Lonnie Carter's website, which
is Lonnie Carter dot com Classic Carter, and when you

(32:46):
go it's l O N N I E. When you
go to Lonnie Carter dot com. The landing page is
my new favorite thing, and I kind of want to steal,
like sending to revamp my website.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Don't look at it, don't look at it it right now.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
But Lonnie Carter's website starts with a playwright snow.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
That's this is nice, and.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
It's like super simple black and white with like career
that's career font.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Right.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah, so it's like typewriter. It's very brity, right, and
he's of a certain generation like it totally makes sense.
And so his landing page is a playwright snow and
it says, this is a collection of long and short
plays I've written. They are all yours to download and
peruse and perhaps puzzle through.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
That's sick.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
If you should be interested in producing any of this
material on any stage or screen, big or small, anywhere, anytime,
please contact me and as the song has it, we
can work it out. Cheers and blessings, Lonnie Carter, which
made me feel so like.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Classic Lonnie Carter. Welcome, That's classic Lonnie car is like
a welcome that.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
To a website, only he put a glass of red
wine in my hand like there was something so like
nice and cozy about.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
It changed my whole website. Again.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
I haven't read Lonnie's work yet, but I'm definitely going to,
especially because when you click on his plays.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Tab, oh my god, there's you.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Can download the complete play. He just mpxs his own website.
But it's really clean. It's a good look. Again, this
is going to completely revolutionize Justin's website. So maybe take
a look at that way.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
You still can, because this guy is awesome.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yeah, and his bio is crazy again is.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
He can't ask something bad? Oh never mind, I don't
feel bad. He's alive, he's.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Still Yeah, he's with us. Yeah, but he's got this
crazy history. Again. This is a play that is set
in Arkansas because it is adapted off of the Carlos
google Son short story. So it's not that Lonnie is
from Arkansas. It's just that when I go down these
research roads, I want to give y'all something, and specifically
for this state with me, for Alaska. My gift to

(34:30):
you is going to be a place that you can
immediately go down on read and also great opportunities for
specifically play rights money.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
Carter's cool.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
He's got a sick website.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Right, I'm very into this.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Okay, but I'm about to give you another name that
you know.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Can I say something and I'm just saying it because
it's on his website. I'm not going to say his email,
but you can go because you see it on there.
I like that his email is a Comcast dot in
that email?

Speaker 3 (34:52):
Oh is it really?

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Because that's my That's what that's I'm pretty sure that's
what my mom says, or almost like Frontier dot net.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
Or something like that.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, exactly, I love it. Nostalgic. I used to, Yeah,
did you get rid of it? I've officially shifted to
Gmail but that but yeah, But but for literally up
until about a year and a half, when I.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Met you in AOL, I was also delighted.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
I was like, I did AOL. If you want to
know why I had an AOL email for so long,
because I why did you do that? Because because there's
a fro Yo place in South Carolina that I liked
and they had a email and they wouldn't let me
change it, and whenever I went there, I wanted to

(35:38):
get cheaper frozen yogurt. I kept my AOL. I'm not kidding.
I kept my new They had such a good system
you couldn't make a new email. I kept my AOL
even all through my entire four US of Chicago and
first year in West Virginia, with the mindset of South
Carolina frozen yogurt.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
I gotta get it.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
I gotta get it just in case I'm back in Charleston.
I gotta be able to grab when you do South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
About that frozen yogurt, Yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Don't remember that. I don't even remember the name. It
sucks story, but I remember the story.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
Okay, you're ready for another play that sent in Alaska? Twist?
It's a musical.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
No, it's not. Yeah, why why are you talking about
a musical? What have you done? My best friend?

Speaker 3 (36:18):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (36:20):
Mask your mask off? You're just a guy. You're another guy.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
Slap of the foot makes me reveal myself. Do you
want to take a guess what musical is set in?

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Give me? Give me one hints at Arkansas?

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Oh yeah, I'll give you. Actually, I'm gonna give you
a really good hint.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
Your backwards ekr. Okay, wait, this is the jbr or
or Nice Cool.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
So a revival of this musical was produced and it
was directed and choreographed by who Jeff Calhoun, and it was.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
On broad Big River, Yeah, it's it's Big River.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
It's Big River. Do you know Big River?

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah? I know pretty well.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
Okay, So big refers one that like I've heard of.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
I do not know why.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
Yeah, it must be that, like maybe someone did a
solo from it when I was in high school. I
don't know, but the name is is in my head,
like like I know there's a there's a.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Did Jeff choreograph it? Two?

Speaker 3 (37:13):
Yeah, I mean that's what Wikipedia said.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Good for him, that's right to be true. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Big River, if you guys don't know, if you're like me,
is based on the Mark Twain eighteen eighty four novel
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It's Got Bluegrass, Got Country had
a nineteen eighty five Broadway production that had like a
thousand performances. Right, super successful. It's like one of the
only successful musicals from the eighties.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, kind of like for a really long time.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
Yeah. It won seven Tony Awards and yeah, Jeff Calhoun,
who directed it.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
In two thousand and three it was the Deaf.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
It was produced actually by a roundabout Yeah, because it
was a deaf West theater and so it featured both
deaf and hearing actors. And they've done that with.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Other other we did next to normal yep.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Yeah, and then yeah, that was just one that I
want to chat out that thought that was interesting. Guess
what other theater didn't know? Wait, we talked about recently. Yeah,
Big River? Good Speed, Oh Speed did it in two
thousand and eight.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Nice, it's a good show. A lot of people will
do it. There's a you know what, there was a
there was a alien came out of him. There is
a poll on Instagram and I literally forget the account.
There's a pull on Instagram saying what do you think
is the next revival that hasn't been announced yet? And
a bunch wheels have Big River.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
That would make sense.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Yeah. Yeah, it's one of those shows that like we
haven't people don't think about it anymore. But he does
have a lot of successful yeah runs.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
Can I give you one less exciting piece of information?

Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yes, you can.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
You met, but it is one of your favorite playwrights.
You just went and saw one of his plays.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Oh my God. I mean, you went to Liz.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
And this playwright is Douglas Lions. Do you want to
know what he has to do with Big River?

Speaker 1 (38:48):
I love Douglas line.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
I know you do.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Doug's a Dog's a great good minds from.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
The Internet, But this is from a Variety article. And
here's a piece of information tying the two together, because
I love tying things together.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
On January sixteenth, twenty twenty four, producers of the original
stage musical and Roger Miller's widow Mary Miller, hired Douglas
Lions to write a screenplay for a feature film adaptation.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Oh I knew that. I remember talking to him about
that in then in the first That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
That is so exciting something you would know about.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah. Are you saying, oh I remember that? Yeah, it's
so fun.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
It all comes back around to Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
God, Doug's great.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
Yeah, very exciting. So those are a few things.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
To kind of music. That's gonna be a really cool movie,
especially r in My Doug. That's gonna be really I mean,
that's the perfect pick.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Okay, Now I'm going to tell you about some places,
and then a little bit of some people in plays,
and then a couple more places, right, Okay. So I
was aware of Arkansas because a friend of mine actually
is getting her MFA down there, and I show her text.
I was like, Hey, what can I miss not miss?

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Is this the friend who's in the Jens Overman play.
Do I have a friend of the Jens Silverman in Agens?

Speaker 3 (39:56):
Oh? Yes, yes she was. She wasn't Witch, which that's
what it was. That was last year.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
I was like, oh my god, I'm blacking out right now.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
I thought that's what we were talking about, and I
was like, how could I forget something?

Speaker 1 (40:07):
No? No, because I remember I remember last year, like
I like when we were at school, like you were
talking about her and we were both so excited.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
Were helped find like the perfect diudition model, which is
so fun.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
We were both so excited because we were like in
an MFA program too, and we were like, you're doing
this work.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
So she sent me a list of like things to
definitely be aware of, which I really appreciated, and honestly,
I was unprepared for how intensely Arkansas would mesh with
my favorite things, which is like new work. So the
first thing I want to talk to you guys about
for Arkansas Theater is the Arkansas New Play Festival. It's
put on by Theater Squared, who I'll talk about, But

(40:42):
I had heard about Theater Squared, and I didn't put
together that a lot of like the plays they were
churning out were through the Arkansas New Play Festival. It
started in two thousand and nine and it's produced like
the development of like dozens and dozens of plays. And
the really cool thing about Theater Squared in general, but
then also this festival is that, like this entire entity
is playwright focused. So what they do is they match

(41:04):
playwrights with the director, a dramatur and a professional cast
for like a very very hardcore two to three week
lab process, and then they do staged readings in different
venues all through Arkansas. Ike wouldn't Sylaska because talked about it.
And then in twenty twenty they did stream online. They're
funded with the National Dumb Up for the Arts. We
love it nice, we see it. And again, their whole

(41:26):
thing is they really really want to give voice to
new playwrights and then also specifically folks who are talking
about like the Mid America and Arkansas experience.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Theater Squared is like the coolest regional in a country,
and like they're.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
Like they're not cool for Arkansas, they're not cool for
the Midwest. Like they are nationally recognized as being one
of the leading kind of venues for Newark creation.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
They've done a bunch of stuff that I love that
I've seen.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
It's truly remarkable and also just the the vibe of
it seems to be just very very like community based.
They've gotten all day open gathering space. I've got like
a little bar and cafe. It seems to be like
a really really awesome spot. One of the plays that
jumped out at me because I looked at the past
several festivals was Flex by Cantris Jones. Candas is awesome,

(42:14):
and I remember hearing about that because think you you
saw to every.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Man, No, I didn't see. I know. I interviewed Cantris,
Candris and I did a thing for the scene together.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Do you want to share anything about that or candors is.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
Just super cool? Candris uh. Candrish Jones wrote, Flex is
just a Lincoln Center. It's it's awesome. Kanvas is also
an Arkansas native. I'm pretty sure, right, I didn't mean
to spoil that. Yeah, yeah, but candas is one of
the flex is a really great play about a female
basketball team, a girl gets pregnant and looks at like
like like black female friendships specifically. And also I didn't

(42:47):
know this fun fact of the day, Candorsh Jones was
a basketball coach like a like a like a like
a actual like real basketball coach. So she also explores
like work ethic in sports and how it affects a
high school athletes day to day, which is something that
is so not looked at in school. And also, and
I'll get off this in a second because this is

(43:07):
your episode, but also I want to say this, I
have a huge bone to pick with people who put
theater on this, people who put theater on the stage,
people who put sports on the people put theater on
the stage are monsters. No, people who put sports on
the stage. It is such a risky endeavor. It's so hard.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
I'm not going to do It's like a dog or
a child.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
It's so tough. It's even tougher though, because like at
least that's a moment. This is the whole theme of
the play. There And I'm not going to call anyone out,
but I want to so bad. There are plays that
I've seen that are have all of the resources they
can and it was bad. It was awful. And it's
just because if you're someone who knows that sport, or
if you're someone who doesn't, you can see through something
really easily. Flex I've seen every video. I haven't been

(43:47):
able to see the sho yet. I've seen every video.
I've read the script multiple times. It is I think
one of the best sports plays ever written.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
It's cool, and also it's relevant right now because the
w NBA is having a huge resurgence right yeah, which
is like, so if you're someone is like thinking about
producing this, I think that that's also very like timely.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
And can I tell a really quick story. Yeah, So
Candris and I were on Zoom and we were doing
this interview and like, I think I'm a pretty charismatic person,
but like there was and I'll say this because like
we've laughed about it ever since. I feel like if
I think Candris listens to play busy. But we were
like doing this episode and it was like twelve minutes
in and it kind of put a little awkward and
like we didn't really know. I didn't know where it

(44:24):
was going, and I was like, oh, like, I hope
this is going well. And then Candris like drops Kaitlyn
Clark's name. Kaitlyn Clark is like she was the first
round draft pick out of Iowa. She is on the
Indiana Fever right now. I think, yeah, she's like one
of the hottest, coolest people ever in basketball. And she
dropped that, and then I dropped a bunch of Kaitlyn
Clark's stats because you know, I'm a huge basketball fan.

(44:45):
H I love it, And like right after that, Candrish
was like, oh, and the rest of the interview was
like my favorite interview I think I've ever done because
it was not about theater. It was just us talking
about basketball, which made me so happy because we learned
that about theater for like the first fifteen minutes, and
then it was just two people who like basketball talking
about how like cool it is that this person created
something where we get to explore and expand on that

(45:05):
love in a place where I never thought I would
be able to do that. Yeah. So yeah, I if
you are a sports fan, yep, And this is what
I tell everybody. If you are a sports fan, read flex.
It is hand to God. And I know I'm a
little biased, but hand to god, it is one of
the best sports plays I've ever read.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
It's awesome. Also, it's set in nineteen ninety seven, which
is super so fun. I pulled just a couple things
from the play Rights Foundation article about Cantris about this,
and she talks about how she wanted the show to
grapple with like the realities and pressures of life for
black women in rural Arkansas. Yeah, she says. There's a
quote from where she says, I wrote Flex because I

(45:46):
want to celebrate young African American women while creating a
nostalgic snapshot of the nineties, which like I'm a child
of the nineties. Like, yeah, that resonates with me. It says.
Flex is a brutally honest love letter to women of
the Americans South. It's just it's very very cool. Candriws
Stones is awesome. She's a player, she's a poet, she's
an educator. She's from dermat, Arkansas, and she also went

(46:09):
I think too. I think she went to Brown for poetry.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
She's got a fascinating.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
Backstory if you want to keep up with her. I
found her Instagram and her at is not easy to find,
so her at is sleepy at nine, the number up
at two, the number not the at science spilled out.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
When I was like tagging her and stuff really hard to.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Find which kind of hard to find her. So just
quick popping off and again these are names that I'm
pulling actually off of Theater Squared for different artists that
they've been working with. But you're gonna recognize some of these.
Candris Jones popped out, Sarah Gantcher popped out. What are
some of the other ones, Rachel Nnette, I'm gonna talk
about a little bit more, Lisa diam Moore, Qui Gwin,

(46:48):
Karen Zacharias.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
Kema Gwinn is from Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
From Arkansas? What that's what I mean, dude, Arkansas look
in the water like there's going on one of.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
The most produced play rates for the last ten years.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
Yeah, he's awesome and he's legit. I'll pull up where
I have somewhere.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Also, also, obviously you all know Keena Gwinn. We did
a full episode about them last season. I mean always
to say she kills monsters, like, yeah, that's a bad egg.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
You know this, you know this. Yeah, one thing I
do want to shout out real quick is that theater
Square it has like an awesome work with us page.
They do. They have stuff for like part time of
full time work right and they're hiring positions all the time,
work study, they've got casting, and then they've also got
information about their new place. Submissions, so they actually accept
full length scripts year round from literary agents and then
people who they already have some sort of relationship with.

(47:34):
But if you're new to them, they do allow you
to submit like a brief bio, a synopsis, and then
like ten pages of sample dialogue. After that they might
invite you to submit a full length work. And then
anyone who currently lives, has lived, has some sort of
like Arkansas flavor to them, they will have a priority
for consideration. So if you're someone who even went to
school there, if you're someone who's like maybe your grandparents

(47:55):
are from there, like mad to Jacob Jenkins, you should
really consider emailing them. The email is at the bottom
of the website, like they let you do it, you
should do it. Rachel Linnette, I want to touch on
real quick because I do primary trust.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
Sorry, I'm looking there, She's I know rocks.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
Rachel Lynnette is a playwright who's so so cool and
want to watch right now. She's a queer Afro LATINX playwright.
She focuses on like dark comedies and specifically kind of
issues around like women of colors and an experience with
the United States. Her play what was the play? You had?

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Me read that? Apologies apologies to Lorraine Hansbury, you too,
August Wilson.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
I read that Waiting for You.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Apologies to August Wilson, you too, Lorraine Hansbury.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
I read that Waiting for You get off work that
some of your worked in Pittsburgh as an impropertistic director.
I borrowed it from you and I read it in
a coffee shop cover to cover.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Amazing, It's one of my It's truly, like, I think,
one of the most underrated plays.

Speaker 3 (48:52):
And what do what do we know ever? And what
have we established? Justin hates to see a good playwrights
website coming. That's right, Rachel Lynette, I.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Know Rachel, I know Rachel's websit.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Yeah, oh yeah, seems to be an amazing human.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
That photo on the front page is the best iconic.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
It's like it inspired me. I'm like, I need to
take better photos of myself. She's got a really really
banger bio there and an artistic statement. And then also
something I want to shout out is she still has
her NPX up. So while some of her published scripts
like Apologies to Leary, to Lariene Hansbury, you two August
Wilson like are taken down, her smaller like maybe less

(49:27):
publish or lesser known scripts you can still download. Yeah,
she's got one called Abortion road Trip that's really hot.
It's a dark comedy. She's got adored you.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Hey, can't you watch Abortion roach? I feel like you
can watch Abortion road Trip somewhere.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
I don't know if so. I didn't find that, but
I would not be surprised if that's true. But again,
Rachel Linnet, it should sound familiar because I believe this
is a player, right, Justin's talked about quite a bit,
probably in season two.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yo.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
Yeah, where is it?

Speaker 1 (49:51):
On Fact of the Day, the Kennedy Senator posted it
two point one thousand views. It's literally a pro shot
of Abortion road Trip from twenty seventeen. That's amazing on YouTube.
You just look up abortion road Trip, Rachel in that
it'll pop up.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
I remember watching this when I first like started, I
think I read I read well intentioned white people. I
read Black Kitchen Sink, or I read well intentioned white people,
White people by the Lake, and then Black Kitchen Sink.
And there's a character in Black Kitchen Sink that's like
just like the one white guy and he's like the
white boyfriend of the main character and he and I

(50:28):
was like, just starting the player, I just got my
Reridor's room grant. I like just started to be a playwright.
I just learned what MPX was. We were the podcast
hasn't even started yet, yeah, and I was like, I
don't know if I'm allowed to do just a monologue
I find on MPX. Now, looking back, I'm like, oh, yeah,
you totally can about it. But it's cool. I still
stand by if you're gonna use something from MPX, you
should hit up the playwright because this time that's the
first time I ever reached out to Rachel, and Rachel

(50:49):
and I have talked a couple times since. She's awesome. Yeah,
but like I was like, hey, I want to use
this monologue. She's like yeah, just like let me know
how it goes only talking about it, and I was
like cool, So like yeah, Rachel have some sick stuff
on cool.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
Don't forget like the people you think are also cool
and heroes are also people who do also want to
get validated for you. And but yeah, when you click
on the plays tab of her website, not her MPX,
the sub, the sub kind of quote under plays by
Rachel Nnette says, first we're going to laugh, then we're
going to talk. And I think that's the perfect encapsulation
of her style. And again, I don't know if she

(51:21):
was if she was like born in Arkansas, but she's
based out of Arkansas right now, is my understanding? Again,
if you're someone who's like into the nuances of like
what does your gender, your race, your identity you have
to do with your americanness or whatever. Just a really
provocative and cool play, right, want to watch? Uh? Just
so excited? So that's great. And then quicken again we
know from.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Yeah, just like somewhere you know copany.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Yes, also from there? Where's he from? El Dorado? Arkansas? Yeah?
So again Arkansas is just churning out some of the
best voices in American theater ever. That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
He just had something off broad too. I'm forgetting what
it was.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
Yeah, And I was gonna ask you this because I
think a lot of these people, while they're not necessarily
talking about Arkansas, most of the playwrights I've mentioned so far,
they are talking about their identity. They're talking about their
sense of belonging. So for you as a playwright, like,
how important is where you're from in your place?

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Yeah, I mean I think it's hugely important. Like I
don't know if I still haven't written like My Owe
to Cleveland yet, but like I do think about that
a lot, And I think about like location a lot,
like like it's not just where like I grew up
in like the super white uppers upstate New York suburbs,
and like hater's gonna hate the basement of that as

(52:41):
very much model off basements that I spent every night
and as a high schooler goofing around with my friends,
So like locations like I'm used to, like like like
Writer's Room was based off of all the sketchy, weird
office buildings I would go for two hundred dollars to
write a couple of jokes for a random company, And
like Community Garden is so based off it is literally
based off a very speci community garden that backs up

(53:01):
to Pizzeria in Chicago Uptown. So, like, I think writing
from where you know, like location wise, is so important.
It's like one of the most important things that you
can do. Yeah, yeah, just cool.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
There's just so many I don't know. I don't want
to say disproportion it because that's a negative connotation. I
was just really shocked by how many names I knew
and was really obsessed with. And they're all happen to
be from Arkansas. It's very cool. Oh yeah, next one
I want to hit on in a similar vein to
Theater Squared's Playwrights Festival is Actress Theater of Little Rocks PIPS,
and PIPS stands for Plays in Progress Series. Oh cool,

(53:36):
let me explain to you what this is, because it's
like very awesome. PIPS offers playwrights an opportunity to develop
their plays in like a really collaborate environment. And here's
what they offer you if you are and it's highly customizable,
but here's what they offer you. Play development meetings with
their leadership, directors, other writers, guest artists, public and private
readings and workshops. At least two public at least one

(53:57):
script in hand stage reading one fully produce production as
part of their main stage season, and their program like,
the length of how long you'd be doing this varies
on how developed your script already is, right, so it
could take over the course of two full seasons with them.
Isn't that amazing? They also like, again it's like collaborative, right,
so you're getting audience feedback. There's posho discussions. Again, this

(54:18):
is another community actress. You get a little rock that
seems very much centered around play rights and play rights needs,
and their goal is to like catapult new plays to
the national stage. Again, it's something you can't submit for,
but there their first sentence they have under how to
submit is the program is intentionally intimate, right, So they're

(54:39):
only choosing one to three every year because they want
it to be that extensive and they also want it
to be that individualized. So they accept full link scripts,
short one acts and ten minutes, and I think for
the twenty twenty four cycle, it's actually closing submissions on
September twenty so by the time you hear this it
will have gone by. But again, if you have any

(54:59):
sort of like really relationship to Arkansas anything like that,
they want you to they want you to be within
kind of fifty miles of them. You should very very
much consider.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
That that sounds sick.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
This is like, oh yeah, a very rich opportunity. And
while it is intimate, again, you're only going up against
people within kind of fifty miles.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
So if you're from Arkansas, you're around Arkansas, you want
to be in Arkansas. You should check that out, very
very very cool. Actress Theater, Little Rock, check it out.
Pips Amazing the next one. I'm just gonna hit on
some quick little theaters. One community theater that I came
upon with like insane seasons is this spot called the

(55:39):
Studio Theater. It's in Little Rock. Their season last year
was Beautiful, The Carol King Musical, Charlie the Chocolate Factory,
Who's Holiday, Judy B. Jones the Musical, choir Boy, Rock
of Ages, Once on This Island, Legally Blonde, the musical
they are.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Doing like they're like banging those out, Oh.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
Bunch The Year before So twenty twenty, twenty twenty three,
Kinky Boots thirteen the Musical, The Best Pageant Ever? Who's Holiday?
Next to Normal? Finding Nemo Constellations, The Color Purple, Jimmy
Buffett Escaped to Margariteville. Oh and Cabaret.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
Can I say wait, can I say something? Yeah? One
of my literally my guilty pleasure of musicals is thirteen
the musical. Yeah, I love it so much. I wanted
to be in as a kid.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
And again, like, look at these production photos.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Those awesome. They look yeah, super cool.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
I like really want to go to Arkansas and visit
my friend already.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
Yeah, have a great week of theater.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
But yeah, like I thought I'd want to go and
see her show, and I'm like, no, I need to
like time this out right. Million another quick one I
want to shout out specifically for an opportunity for any
of our younger listeners. The Argentine the Argenta Contemporary Theater, Yeah,
offers this pre professional program that's actually for eight to
twelfth grade students and it pairs them with professionals and

(56:49):
industry folks to explore different like scene work that's more advanced,
challenging musical theater.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Right.

Speaker 3 (56:56):
It's uh, it's in partnership with Arkansas Rep Theaters kind
of program and they get to perform in a show
in the main stage season if you're selected. Right, But like,
when I think about the moments getting ready to try
and go to college for theater, and I think about
what a program like this would have done for me
crazy let alone if you were involved with it, like
between eighth and twelfth grade. It's very rare to me

(57:19):
that I see like that tasty middle section of like
you're not in college at but you're also not a
little kid. Yeah, Like we love theater for youth youth,
and we love bfas and we love MFAs, but the
eighth to twelfth grade pocket the.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Idea of what it's hard to write for it.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
What if someone had helped you learn how to prep
for your college auditions, it would have been awesome without
like costing an arm of toa like. Anyway, that's our
Jenta contemporary theater something to be aware of. Arkansas rep
Also is like an old and established theater down there.
They've got auditions each year for Equity and non Equity
and Little Rock. But let me show you this haunting
photograph on their website. This is their founding kind of

(57:52):
core group in nineteen seventy six. All of these people
look like hot sexy ghosts who could be in stereophone.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Oh my god, wa, I know that I'm.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
Aware that this is like annoying because this is a podcast,
but there is like a very very haunted, sexy, stereophonic
black and life photo that you should check out. They're
hot ghosts, So Arkansas wrap again. I'm hitting them hard
on him, and I'm hitting them fast. They also have
this quick program they're called the Downtown Playmakers Project, which
actually helps elementary school students get mentorship for playwriting.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
Whoa, I know, which.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
How cool of an art scene do you have to
have in Little Rock, Arkansas that they're like, these elementary
school kids are gonna need.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Fourth graders are gonna need. They're gonna need to.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Figure out the uh.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Third grader comes out and goes, mom, I don't understand
why checkof rights in five x structure?

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Now quick? Justin what else do thriving arts communities have.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Money and big art and cool art?

Speaker 3 (58:46):
Right?

Speaker 1 (58:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (58:47):
What do you love?

Speaker 1 (58:48):
What do you love money? No?

Speaker 3 (58:50):
You love being power art installations of mushrooms.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
I love mushrooms.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
What you're saying? So let me tell the audience where
we're looking at almost so Art one presents in Arkansas. Yeah,
it's a it's a kind of community theater, but it's
also like a visual arts venue, and they have this
really really cool thing going on right now called Humongous
Fungus And it's essentially like a big sculpture fort that's quilted.
It's like textile art, and it's this big, beautiful mushroom

(59:20):
that you can go inside of as up right now
in the middle of September, when you go to Arts
one Presents, you can kind of click on it and
find it. It's by an artist named Gina Galina, which.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
Is also a perfect name.

Speaker 3 (59:30):
But it's super cool. If you like Justin's Instagram, Like
if you've ever been like wow, So it takes fire
pics of him at cool places. This is the type
of place I would take you to photo shoot it out.
But yeah, Gina Galina. There's there's Community theater here. There's
also art check it out, love to see it. There's
the Arkansas Public Theater. The Arkansas Public Theater also has

(59:51):
something really cool, which is the the Rogers Short Film Festival. Yeah,
so if you're someone who's like, I'm an actor, but
I don't just do stage, that's something to have on
your radar. My friend who I asked also said that again,
the dedication to children's theater in Arkansas is like unmatched
Shrike Theater, which their website and and kind of entity
is combined with the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra Amazing, amazing children's theater.

(01:00:14):
That's Strike's billed t R I K E. And then
there's also if you're interested in kind of like opportunities
for children's theater or things to help you produce, there's
what is it called want to make sure you get
it right. At the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, they
have a script library for performing arts, and in their

(01:00:34):
script library for performing arts. Again at a museum, they
have these large they have two script libraries divided up
into large cast scripts and small cast scripts. Oh cool,
really really popular like youth shows that you can go
in and you can read these scripts and you can
see if you'd want to produce them. So that's so cool.
That's how prominent again the arts scene is here.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
One other quick place she wanted me to shout out
because it's new is the Art can Saw Classical Theater.
They did your friend Yeah, yeah, it's a friend of hers. Again,
that's out of Fayetteville. They're new, but really exciting stuff
happening there, and that takes me to do one of
the last things that I want to talk about because
I've talked about cool relevant place, cool relevant people.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
I ran you through some of the theaters and specifically Newark's opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Uh huh, sad, but this is like.

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
An amazing location. There's something in the water. Right. So
if you're someone who's like, hey, I heard Justin and
Erica talk about grad school for three long seasons, quick
shout out to the University of Arkansas's MFA programs. Okay,
it's the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. And again,
they're not paying me for this, and I do not
believe that academia is perfect, right, So, as always with

(01:01:44):
the grain, AsSalt to your own research. But when you
and me were auditioning for grad schools, when you and
me were auditioning for Urda's, I had a really really
specific list of things that I needed to have hit
for me. And this is not for everybody, this is
for me. I needed it to be fully funded, so
I do not pay. In fact, I needed full assistant ships,
meaning you pay me to do this and I get
experience in some capacity. I wanted health insurance. I want

(01:02:06):
an association with a professional theater. There's only a handful
of those in the country. Most of those do not
recruit every year. There's every few years or every other year.
They're very competitive. There's just not that many slots, right,
And I'm not saying that you need to have that list,
But if you were like me, if your circumstances are
like me, I think you can understand why is artists
percent Road University of Arkansas has MFAs and three different concentrations.

(01:02:28):
They've got acting, directing, and playwriting. They're each only about
eight people and about three years same as us, only
they're all working together. So we had MFAs for like
we had like a TV. We had certain you know,
technical designers and stuff like that, but we had actors.
Can you imagine the trouble we would have gotten into
if instead of eight actors we had eight actors.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
Eight playwrights, eight directors.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
I mean you and me were double dip in crazy.
That's essentially a twenty four person cohort. It's sick, super
super cool.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
That's so cool.

Speaker 3 (01:02:57):
Again, something that I'm just trying to lay out, Like
we go back to God School, Arkansas scary, but like
just just quick by the numbers, because school is hard,
academia is scary. And again, this is all on the website.
This is not like tea. If you were to go
to get an MFA play writing from the University of Arkansas,
the starting kind of offer is a free a full

(01:03:18):
tuition waiver. Okay, you don't pay fifteen thousand dollars stipend
each year, plus an opportunity for four thousand more.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Plus you get assistant ships. Right, and then you're right
in the hub of this location that has all of
these theaters, play writing theaters and Newark Development theaters.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
That's so cool.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
I remember when my friend was auditioning for this program,
and I don't I don't want to obviously blow up
anyone's spotter or you know, the vulge anyone's privacy too much.
But like I heard about the logistics of this program
and I was like, that's very, very good. And every
time I talk to my friend and I hear about
the seasons that they're selecting, or just like the stuff
that's going on in the community, it just makes me
feel very, very very inspired. Yeah, someone from the Midwest

(01:04:00):
who went to grad school in West Virginia and now yeah,
now I'm in New York knowing that these kind of
smaller marketplaces exist and are just as vibrant and.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
And doing cool shows.

Speaker 3 (01:04:10):
They're doing amazing stuff. This stuff coming out of Arkansas is.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
So so, so so unexpected, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
Sure, honestly, because there's so much going on that I've
missed a lot. So if you're one of those poor
people who maybe you're from Arkansas and you had stuff
to say, but this came out a month late, now
we're on like.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
Let us know, we'll do it in a shout out
at the end.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
Yeah, I'll happily roll it in. I would not be shocked.
But yeah, Arkansas kicks ass.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Yeah, it's got.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
Amazing playwrights coming out of it. It's got amazing theaters.
I legit. Want to do like a vacation in Arkansas
just to go see shows.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
A theater vacation would be sick in Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
We should win the lottery and have a theater vacation,
you know what.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Okay, wait, is this the end of Arkansas? Do you think?

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
So?

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Okay? Then a lot We're going to end it the
way we were supposed to begin at ahuh Bama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas. Yeah,
we didn't do at the beginning, but yeah at the end,
at the end. There here's the thing. Yeah, there's nothing
better than going from one song to another. Just then,
all right, let's lay one down.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
This is play disease, choose and a lie six seven
to cheer, A lie to cheers.

Speaker 3 (01:05:23):
And the last songs tell lies about the states you're
talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
This is the one. This is the one that's right.
It's time for the ok or or or. I know
it's not the e k R, but I miss doing that.
If you I still might just start teachers and alive.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
On the head really hard. And I forgot all those
musicals the second time.

Speaker 1 (01:05:47):
That's right, it's time for the it doesn't sound good.
T wait, that's what it sound for the two t
l l l l l l t A. I could
do that to choose and a lie T T L
T T O is that for me?

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
I have?

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
I have? So I have to choose a lie?

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
Oh okay, good, I teach you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
Why am I in your room?

Speaker 3 (01:06:09):
Oh? Where am I just associated?

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
Whoa, whoa? Sorry, I'm back and I have two very
good truths and one really not a lie.

Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
I hope they're about Channing Tatum.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
So the first one, yeah, Channing Tatum was my next
door neighbor in Arkansas, Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
He had three houses. We all had two.

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
We all had two. It makes sense. No, Okay, so
here they are ready. Number one, the University of Arkansas's
mascot is a razorback.

Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
What is that? What is that?

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
The University of Arkansas's mascot is a razorback?

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
Will you tell me what that means?

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
Number two cheese dogs were invented in nineteen fifty six
at the fink Biner meat Packing Company in Little Rock.

Speaker 3 (01:06:57):
That sounds right, And I have.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
Cheese dogs in nineteen fifty six at the fine at
the fink Burner meat Packing Company in Little Rock.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Number three, Arkansas is home to the largest water bottle
outside of the Dasani Water Facility.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
Okay, here's why that last one could be true. And
I don't think I remember to say this, But the
other weird thing about Arkansas like it had its plantation,
like comeback, Yeah, A bunch of fortune companies are based
on like Walmart is based oteither, I'm pretty sure, Like
like weird mega corporations are like, we love Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
Yeah, which is interesting, So do go over them one
more time. What is the University of Arkansas mascot is
a razorback? Cheese dogs were invented in nineteen fifty six
at the fink Burner meat Packing Company in Little Rock,
and Arkansas is home to the largest water bottle outside
of a Dasani water facility. Can I say something, I
will say. I'll say a Dasani water facility. I don't

(01:07:52):
know if it's like Dasawney Headquarters or something, but I
know it's outide of Theshney.

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
I want to compliment you. Yeah, these were all perfectly
mundane enough that I have no idea. I genuinely have
no idea.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
Good.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
That's you did a really good job.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
The razorbacks. What is that?

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
The University of Arkansas mascot is a razorback? Okay, razor the.

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
Universe Sawny Water. Here's just gonna piss me off.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
If you're like, it was Nestley, it was it was
it was Nestley. It was fi.

Speaker 3 (01:08:27):
I'm gonna say the razor Well, the second one had
like a lot of information that I threw a lot
of information.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
I did think burn Okay, I think it might be
think biner f I n K b E I N e.

Speaker 3 (01:08:40):
R the razor it's not razorback is really the mascot.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
What's the it's the water bottle one. I fully made
that up, just fully made it up. Fully made it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:49):
Though I believed you that's awesome. I will say optics wise,
like it wouldn't be a good look anymore, not arguably
a macro plastic.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
I'm gonna sho you what a razor back is. Okay, okay,
a razorback. So it's the university. Here's the thing. I
thought you were gonna get that one for sure because
you were looking at the University of Arkansas. I was
like m Bay program the sporty parts, but still like
they have like like like on ours, they like still
had like like the logo like WV it's a pick.

Speaker 3 (01:09:15):
Our logo is like a ripped dude with a gun.
He's a little more eye catching.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
That's a razorback.

Speaker 3 (01:09:21):
It's a hog.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
It's like a hog, but it's a hog with like
spikes on its back. Like look at the back. Razorback.
That's like the thing that's ugly. I know, but it's
a little definish University of Arkansas Razorbacks. I think it
sounds sick the Razorbacks. We do it again. I could
do it. You're eating your words.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
I'm eating my words. Hey, you did a really good job.
You got me.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
Thank you. I'm really proud of myself.

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
I caught your less in the beginning none at the end.
You really pulled it together.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
Thank you guys soone for listening to play the z.

Speaker 3 (01:09:57):
Anyone who's from Arkansas like invites me.

Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
Yeah, like my favorite states so far, I.

Speaker 3 (01:10:02):
Gotta go see you. I wonder what my friend's thesis.

Speaker 1 (01:10:04):
Is going to be.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
I'll find out.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Arkansas is absolutely my favorite state so far. It's been
rat It's there's really really cool stuff. It makes me
want to go there for theater. Thank you so much
for listening to the episode. If you want to follow
us on Instagram, follow us at Justin Borak at actual
Erica Coon you follow me on TikTok at Mediocre Jokes,
and check out my YouTube we told you about. Yes,
go download everything. There's material. Yeah you need please go.

(01:10:26):
Like last season, if I'm good about it, there's gonna
be links in the bio of this where you can
click links and go to people's websites and stuff. Yeah,
thank you so much for listening. Please don't forgets to rate, review,
and subscribe to the podcast. While you're downloading and reading
their place, please read our plays. Go read Kill the
Bird on new place Change. It's Eric's wonderful, amazing play.
Go read my plays over on new play Change as well,

(01:10:47):
and check out community guarden and camera chronicles that are
in the playscripts catalog. Do you have anything else we
want to plug? Oh? I have one.

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
I'm producing a play for the New York Theater Festival.
Oh yes, it is called Ain't That the Way Love's
Supposed to Be? I want to make sure I didn't
get it wrong. It's called Ain't That the Way He
Loves Supposed to Be? It's written by Matti Tindall. They're
a really wonderful queer play right here in New York.
It's going up January thirteenth, eighteenth. Yeah. I just gotta
pushed back. But I think that's great because now I
can plug it on the show January thirteenth, fifteenth, and

(01:11:18):
eighteenth at the Hudson Guild Theater. It's a very, very funny,
heartfelt queer love story. That's how it's like set around
a campfire.

Speaker 3 (01:11:25):
You love that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
I love it. It's so up my out. I love camp.
I love camp literal camp. Yeah, I can say Liz loves.

Speaker 3 (01:11:32):
Camp and I love camp swercase camp.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
I love lowercase camp. Liz loves all uppercase camp. Yeah.
But yeah, So I'm really really excited about that project
and I want a lot of people to go, So
go check out. Ain't that the way loves supposed to be?
It's also my New York executive producer debut, so I'm excited.
I'm getting into the producers. Wow, I'm starting to produce it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
And that's why he's buying the suits for the one
hundredth episode exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
Oh yeah, wait, and oh wait, nevermind, we're gonna record it.
Before you start listening. I was gonna say, let let's
know what you think the hundred episodes should be, but
it's gonna be recorded.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
Hey, let us know what the two hundredth episodes should be.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Maybe we'll hold off recording one hundredth episode. And this
is kind of this is thinking on the fly, but
maybe we'll hold off recording one hundredth until season three
actually comes out and we get no, this is too
this would be too late. No, yeah, never mind, don't
worry about it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:17):
We'll figure it out at the warehouse.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Okay, exactly. Next week is California. Yeah, and then it's Plato,
and then it's the one hundredth episode. That's crazy, it's exciting.
Oh my gosh, you're sparklers. We're gonna murder each other.

Speaker 3 (01:12:30):
We're gonna kill each other.

Speaker 1 (01:12:30):
We're gonna kill each other live on air.

Speaker 3 (01:12:32):
We're gonna see it physically best the other.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
We're gonna hire someone to edit the episode. We're gonna
kill each other live on air. I'm gonna end this
episode the way I end every episode, by looking at
my beautiful friend in her beautiful blue eyes, big big
blue eyes, porcelain eyes.

Speaker 3 (01:12:48):
I can make my contacts fall out without my hands.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
That's insane, I know. Erica Kun, thank you for teaching
me about Arkansas today. I love you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
Justin Borak, who lived in Arkansas twice allegedly, I love
you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
Goodbye,

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Arkansas - TheatreSquared, Approprite, and Candrice Jones

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Arkansas - TheatreSquared, Approprite, and Candrice Jones