Flordia - The Sunshine State, A State Play, and Terrance McNally - 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):
Connecticuts. Good job.

Speaker 4 (00:23):
Really, Hello, everybody, welcome to play Z.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'm your co host Justin Borak.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
And I'm your co host Erica Koon and have new.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
For us to you.

Speaker 5 (00:45):
Yeah, this is technically your second episode of the New year,
but it's our first time recording in the new year.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Here we are twenty five. Podcast is still alive.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
What's your what's your New Year's resolution?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Record? To play the Z episode every day? My buddy
Justin can.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Edit every day. No, every single day.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
No, I was playing a trick on you.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Are you sure? No?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
I don't know that I have any like.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I have a news resolution?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Oh that you like want to share?

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah? Why?

Speaker 3 (01:12):
It feels like a birthday wish.

Speaker 5 (01:13):
It's like I'll share my I was gonna say. My
new or resolution is to record two episodes to play
di zeas every day every day for the whole year.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
My okay, wait, so I did remember?

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Actually do you remember it?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
My resolutions actually to every day go back to West
Virginia and record all live on the radio, but still
live in New York, but.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Just every day to do it every day. Yea.

Speaker 5 (01:35):
My well, actually, my new resolution, yeah, is to take
our three better and make it a four bedroom and
make that fourth bedroom a perfect recreation of the United
Two of the Mooses live recording.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Room we should use to do that is one, two
three say it.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
The bathroom, yeah, exactly, the bathroom yea.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
And then if someone's using the bathroom like for bathroom purposes,
there's still that like electronic little light that says on air.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
That's and it's got a fun way to We have a.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Really sketchy bathroom door that is streacherous. Always there's a
bathroom door problem. One time I got trapped in there.
So it is funny to imagine a world where we
don't need to close or locket. But there's just an
honor sign.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
This last time the door was messed up. It was
our fault because we put a really heavy thing on
the top of the door, and I think it was
so heavy that it.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Pulled the door.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
The door also like lax.

Speaker 5 (02:26):
Yeah, it's not great a great door, but I learned
how to fix it. I would go into the bathroom
and put my hands under the door.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Shut the bathroom door.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
If you put your hands under the door and you
lift it up.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, you gotta want it.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
You gotta work. It's hard. It's like a workout.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
You really gotta want it.

Speaker 5 (02:40):
But you can close the door, so there's possible. Don't
be a freaking baby about it, dude.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Just get your hands all up under the door, lift
with all your might. Then simply go in that order.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Happy twenty twenty five. Shout out.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
I did not mean to hit that vibe. I've had
to hit this one. But hey, since we've done it,
shout out, Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Did you have a real resolution you want to share?

Speaker 5 (03:08):
Yeah, I well, I have a bunch of resolutions. I'm
doing really good. I know soda. Oh yeah, you are
doing I'm doing no soda. Yeah, I got you.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
We do need microphone.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
You're gonna have to vamp that. Oh yeah, oh I
did it. That was really easy.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Okay, yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
I put it right back on before I talk so
much on this.

Speaker 5 (03:29):
It's not tight, so just know that I barely put
it back on. Okay, good. Yeah, so you can open it,
but also you shouldn't put it on your like bad.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Do you guys want me sipping lemonade?

Speaker 1 (03:38):
As? Do it really quick? You're bad at asmr okay, wa,
MIC's too far away. They can't hear. No, you're just
moaning into the microphone. You're not even drinking that what
you want. Yeah, that's how you do it.

Speaker 5 (03:57):
You like slurp it a little bit, and you like
gargle and then you swallow. It's not about the the
enjoying the lemonade. It's about hearing the lemonade.

Speaker 6 (04:03):
Here I go, okay, this is the grossest episode of
plate is the ever?

Speaker 1 (04:16):
All right, well, no, my news resolution.

Speaker 5 (04:22):
I have a couple I want to write three full lengths,
which I already know what they are, basically.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Like fresh ones or ones you've already been plotting on.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
They can just they can't have been finished.

Speaker 5 (04:36):
So like like White Walls, Well that's I wrote a
new playhold White Walls. But it's not. Nothing's happenital whatever.
It's not anywhere. You can't read it, but leave me alone.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
But serious guys, stop asking to read White Walls. Shuns.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Keep making me lemonade.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Keep and you keep making her lemonade.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
The off season, they just make my drinks.

Speaker 5 (05:00):
Just make your drink. We were on like a two
or three coiatus. They were just squeezing lemons. Yeah, yeah, No,
I want to write three full lengths and two pilots.
Those are kind of my big ones, and I'm working.
I already kind of know what the full lengths. I
know what two of the three full lengths are, and
the third one is probably like a playscript title, because

(05:21):
I want to try to write a couple of place
script titles. Honestly, I might write more than three. And
then the two pilots I know exactly. I'm working on
one project with a company already and then and then
I'm working on another one for myself. But yeah, nice,
but yeah, Oh, and I can say this, I can't
say like too much, but officially, Hater's gonna hate.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
It's coming to New York. Yeah, New York City. I know.

Speaker 5 (05:49):
I'm really really excited this year with a theater company
called Love Child Theater Company. We're gonna announce the venue
and the kind of the size of the production and
everything really soon. But but yeah, so a lot of
things are happening in twenty twenty five, A lot to
be a big year, so many. Oh and the Scene
podcast is back too, so I'm excited to come out

(06:11):
the podcast.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
No, they don't listen to that show we crossed from
the scene. There's a joke. No, yeah, we just had
a John carry one on, which is cool.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
Yes, yeah, I don't know if I can technically announce that,
but I'm going to on this show and everyone who
listens to plays he gets to know. Yeah, because we're
we're way ahead ahead of the scene. So yeah, there's
a lot more people coming on and we have really
cool people. But that's a little teaser. Season three, we
have John carry on on.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
That's awesome. Yeah, for my mom.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
How do we know John?

Speaker 1 (06:44):
He wrote almost Pain There we go.

Speaker 5 (06:46):
John Kereanni is one of the most produced playwrights in
the world because of here's the thing, because of like
one play that he wrote. Uh, and when I interviewed him,
this is a good little shout out because also, like
we posted all about assault ready, so like people, it's
a public.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
That we had John on.

Speaker 5 (07:03):
Yeah, it's not too much of a spoiler, but his
other plays are also like almost main I feel like
it's a bad rep like like you and I were
talking about it kind of after I did the interview,
I was like, wow, like we talked so much about
like the intricacies of like the scenes within almost Main.
I guess I had him like, it's just it's so
done that I don't think about it a lot critically.

(07:23):
I think about it as almost main, the play that
gets done at every single high school, right. But then
I read his other plays, especially like this play called
the Last Gas. It's so good, Yeah, I can get
you a last Gas. But so he has he has
three other plays. One is like technically published, but he's
like he's very particular about his words, so he like
does It's like it's out, but you can't really like

(07:45):
read it yet. It's like in that weird middle ground.
But like it literally was published and he like took
it off shelves and he did revisions on it and
he put it back.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (07:57):
But the two plays that he that you are out,
you can read and you can produce and everything are
Love Sick, which is just like a little bit of
a grittier, dirtier, more adult almost Main.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
It's like still like high schools do it.

Speaker 5 (08:10):
Like it's not like, hey, you're just gonna hate dirty,
but it's like a little bit more adult, which is cool, okay.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
And then and then the Last Gas.

Speaker 5 (08:19):
Is about is a is a like a story, but
it's just a true full length play about the last
gas station in Maine before you get to Canada, and
this family owns it, and this guy's working there and
hiss like kind of like his like, uh, his whole
family's from that town and they never leave and it's
kind of about like being stuck in this like tradition
and this old home and his like old flame from
high school comes to town.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Which one of us is doing main because we could honestly, oh,
an entire story.

Speaker 5 (08:46):
I hope it's me, because I'm I would got the
lore now it would just be a John carry one episode.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
It to you. Here's the thing.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
If it's I'll tell you right now. If it's not me,
I'd like to do it. And I feel relative because like.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Now we like art have kind of become like buddies.
I feel I feel relatively confident it's you doing it?
All right?

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Do you want to take it?

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Maybe we can.

Speaker 5 (09:06):
Talk about this after, okay, But but I do feel
like pretty confident that even if you do it, I
could get him like to record a voice recording for
like four or five minutes of just talking about main
theater and then just like put it on the show,
we can talk.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
About it, all right, that might be fun. So you
could do the research and you can still do the episode.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
But I can be like, hey, I do this other
podcast where we talk about like states, we're doing Maine.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
And I know because his work is like so like
there's there certain places the.

Speaker 5 (09:30):
Stephen King of Sweet Theater because he very much like
lives within. Yeah, he enjoys living within.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
You can tell where someone like adores where they're from,
and that's where they draw a lot of inspiration from. Yeah,
he is Maine.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
He I don't want to like out against the same podcast.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
It's going to come out in the next couple of
months and I'll promote it everywhere on Instagram and stuff.
But uh, but specifically, like the scene podcast, like the episode,
we talk a lot about how he came to New
York to be an actor, and he was playing a
lot of these like, uh, secondary supporting characters that are
kind of like like the hot actors were like falling

(10:08):
in love and everything, and he was very much like
the goofy, lanky, comedy like comedic relief guy. And he
was like, but like, I look like most of the
people in the world like I like, like most of
the people don't look like Ramin Karamlou and Hugh Jackman,
you know what I mean, Like they're so hot, so
like so like he talking about he was like I
wanted to write plays that one weren't about people in

(10:31):
a city, they were about rural people. They're about people
who were like from a small town.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
And also like I wanted the.

Speaker 5 (10:36):
Right characters that like people could identify as not just
like emotionally, but like also like physically, like like they
like don't have to be the like a perfect looking
person to play this role like this, this can just
be a normal dude.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, And I think he's done a.

Speaker 5 (10:51):
Great job with that across all of his plays, including
Love Sick, including last Gas does a really good job
of writing royal characters. You know, to talk to him
for like he did he was the office for like
four hours.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
We hung out.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
You're trying to say that your best friends or something.

Speaker 5 (11:03):
Yeah, basically he brought me brioche. What Yeah, he had
brioche and muffins and it was really really nice bread
no like like a chocolate nutella brioche. Oh, it was
like infused. It was really good, beautiful He's a very
nice person, one of the nicest people. I don't know
how we got onto that, but we were talking about
something though.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Main main scene podcast is a scene podcast. Oh that's
what it was.

Speaker 5 (11:29):
We were talking about resolutions, and I was just like
updating people in my twenty twenty five update people in
your twenty twenty five what are your resolutions?

Speaker 1 (11:35):
What are you doing.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Finish scripts as well? Yeah, I'm also trying to do
this thing where like I am someone who kind of
likes to like hone in and do one thing at
a time really aggressively. Yeah, they don't know that that
actually serves me. So like us leaving grad school, which
had so much built in routine and structure, Like, yeah,
I'm trying to nail down how my brain actually likes

(11:56):
to work and kind of like lean into that versus
trying to i don't know, work against my own instincts
and stuff like that. So one of the things I'm
trying to work on is like working on multiple scripts
concurrently instead of feeling like, oh no, I really need
to like draft through this, revise this, to readings of it.
Like my goal is to kind of like wake up
every morning and be able to write every day and

(12:17):
not really care.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
How I go about doing that totally.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
But just like get into more of the flow of it,
because I'm someone who definitely, like anyone who's listening to
this podcast and has listen to me to talk about
writing process has heard me be like yeah, and then
like I figured out the end of the play because
I took a shower and my brain finally went smooth
and I was like, oh, I see it. I got it.
And so I've been kind of like waiting for inspiration
to kind of like drop on me for certain scripts,
and it's something that I really like about my writing processes.

(12:41):
I'm always like, you know, reading someone else's script or
seeing a show away from figuring something about or figuring
something out about what I'm currently working on. Yeah, but
I'd like to kind of like get a little bit
more routined out where there's just something flowing every day,
whether that's like theatrical or not.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Either.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
I was I'm doing some dramaticking for for a friend
of ours, and we were talking about like essentially like
the writer's block of revision of being like I see
this thing as it stands, this draft of a script
or whatever, and I know I want to change it,
but like now it's too big and I don't know
how to like get in there, yeah and nitpick it
or tear it apart, restructure it. And there's like all
sorts of different playwrights interviews you can talk about strategies

(13:21):
and stuff like that. But one of the things I
like to do. And my sister doesn't listen to this podcast,
and she never will, so I'm gonna give a like anecdote,
but yeah, when my sister was in undergrad, she has
a really good knack for like foreign language, and when
she was writing papers, she would to avoid like plagiarism
and paraphrasing, you know, which you're allowed to do, but

(13:42):
you have to not do too closely or whatever. Yeah,
she would just paraphrase what she was writing into Spanish
and then like Spanish to French and then French back
to English. Yeah, which is like such such big brain moves. Obviously,
like our brains are built a little differently where hers
can do that stuff. And so occasionally when I would
then edit her writing future, like for cover letters or
what not, just like helping her out, I'd be like, Oh,

(14:03):
it's so weird because your syntax is different, Like it
almost sounds like English isn't your first language. Because of
this way that, like understanding language kind of changed her
brain and how she structures her writing. And so I've
been playing with the idea lately of like what if
I do that when I'm stuck with the script where
I'm like, I'm too zoomed in on the dialogue. I
don't know if I'm getting anything across. Okay, we'll zoom out,
rewrite this scene as a short story, and then rewrite

(14:24):
that short story as a.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
Poem, and then get back on your dialogue. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
So I'm just kind of like, honestly, I'm just kind
of plan with my writing process. And yeah, that's a
big thing I want to keep doing, is like not
feeling like I have to do things any certain ways,
but just like exploring I don't know, like how I
tick as a writer.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, and then also like sharing my writing because I'm
atrocious at that. I badly sit with something for a
long time before I feel like I wanted anyone to.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Read it or read it out loud.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
So that's something I need to work on.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, you know this, you know this. That's good. Yeah,
that's a great resolution.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
I was gonna say before we start the episode, yeah,
because these are this is the first couple episodes.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Of the new year.

Speaker 5 (15:02):
I thought the when our banter's going along, but I
think people love our banter. I thought today we could
talk about our favorite shows we saw since moved to
New York.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
And Tony twenty for Florida, do you want to do
it right now?

Speaker 3 (15:15):
Well?

Speaker 1 (15:15):
I was going to say, let's do it right now
for Florida and then next week.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Wait are you going first?

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, I'm doing Florida.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
Don't I go first?

Speaker 1 (15:25):
No, ABC D E F Oh g oh my god.
You did Georgia right, Yeah I did? Oh, thank god?
Oh no, oh my god, both in Florida.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Why in my head was like, I'm going first. I
have my stuff all pulled up. Oh no, obviously you're
going first.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Oh god, Yeah, that's okay.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
I don't have to be as.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Like, you don't have to be upright, you can lay back.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
So we recorded my tiny bedroom what you guys know,
which means I have to be on my bed because
there's only physically room for Justin to be on a
chair next to the bed. So my back support situation
is always treacherous. Yeah, dude, I could have been super
com I'm in listening most exactly.

Speaker 5 (15:57):
Oh my gosh, congratulations. But I thought today we could
talk about our favorite shows. We saw this movie to
New York in twenty twenty four. Then next week when
we do Georgia, we talk about the shows we're most
excited about.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Say five, Yeah, is that fun? Okay? Cool?

Speaker 5 (16:11):
So I rip TikTok I made I know rough.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
The worst part is I posted.

Speaker 5 (16:18):
A video that's doing really well and I got like,
I've got like two hundred followers in the last like
twenty four hours.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
I'm like, this is worthless. This is absolutely worthless.

Speaker 5 (16:26):
But let me find this video that I made. So
I made a video that oh god, where are you there?

Speaker 1 (16:33):
You are?

Speaker 5 (16:33):
Okay, I'm made a video or actually I posted on Instagram.
I'm inde a like photo series of my top sixteen
shows that I saw second to New York. I want
to go through them, okay and talk a little about them,
and I want you to tell me what you think
about them as well.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
All right, let's do it, Okay. Why am I on airplane? Oh?

Speaker 5 (16:50):
That's why I'm on airplane mode. I was like, why
is my phone not working and now I know why.
All Right, Top sixteen shows I saw this year, all Right,
hit it. I gave an honor mention to Swives because
I was in that. But I just love that play.
I thought I was wonderful.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Number sixteen, The Hand that Feeds You by Sarah Grastra.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
That's like top for me.

Speaker 5 (17:10):
It's like a top five for you. Yeah, it's a
great play about this guy whose father passes away and
he inherits a meat shop and he has never really
been into this meat shop, so he wants to kind
of part with the family tradition and change it into
a French bistro, and he discovers a sentient pile of meat.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
It's a meat monster, a meat monster.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
That's been in his family for years, and it's kind
of the like the exaggerate, like the like the symbol
for the tradition of the family.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, it's like an inheritance play. And if you're someone
who liked you know, hat Maker's Wife Vigils, sarahral plays
like plays where there's like the magical realism of like
it's a very much a play set in realism, but
there's something weird going on.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
There's something weird, there's.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Something weird going on as my favorite, Like they're great
plays with something weird going on, but you just kind
of roll with it. The cost that feeds you and
I think it's fully accessible on her new play exchange right.

Speaker 5 (18:07):
So yeah, and also this is a little shout out,
shout out thirteen nineteen Press. Yes, Sarah Grastra now a friend.
I'm actually in her new play, The Laundry Play is
going up at the Tank in February, which I'm really
exciting about. But she runs a publication called thirteen nineteen Press.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
It's like a press. It's not about licensing, just about
like buying, like being able to build out.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
A superscript where if you guys want to hold it
in your hand, read it, give it as a gift.

Speaker 5 (18:32):
You can go on their website by go check it
out everything. It's it's really really wonderful. So the Hand
that feeds you their fifteen Hell's Kitchen. You didn't see that.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
No, I might still yet, but it's nice.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
It's fun. I like it a lot.

Speaker 5 (18:44):
When they're like in New York, I'm like, oh, heck, yeah, dude, because.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
We live here.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
That's you.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, that's us. Fourteen Water for Elephants. I honestly would
have put this higher.

Speaker 5 (18:52):
If I'm looking back, it's like one of the things
that I don't see I regret putting so low.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
I dad love that show.

Speaker 5 (18:58):
My dad loved this show. I love this show. I
listened to the soundtrack problem more than anything. It's really really
I love. I love pig Pen Theater Company. I love
like folk music. I've touched Erica's leg with my tone so.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
Cold, and I actually like I kind of give the.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Thirteen is our Town, yep. I loved the art Town
on Broadway.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
We're on the stage train.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
I was on the stage. It was really really cool.
It was it was just very good. And I love the.

Speaker 5 (19:23):
New cut they like the the Thornt Wilder State worked
with Kenny Leon and the cast and Concord to build
a new cut that wasn't like like I think like
the original is like what like two forty five. It's
like pretty long. Yeah, yeah, this is a one. This
is ninety minutes and it's great.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
And also like it probably should be. I don't yeah,
not that there's anything wrong with our Town. I just
like I don't think modern audiences are acclimated to that
pacing anymore.

Speaker 5 (19:49):
Yeah, and I think the casting is like, like I
I wasn't as like super into the casting as everybody else,
but the one cast that the one character that I
was really into. Jim Parsons just does an amazing jobs
in there as the stage manager.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah, it's just so good. Twelve was Cat's Agelical.

Speaker 5 (20:03):
Ball, really really great stuff. Jaleen Levinson so so good.
Eleveno's teeth, Oh.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
My god, I forgot you.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah, it was so much. Yeah, the music was great.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yeah, the like the set was insane, like all probably
show it New World stages, like they had every element
you could think of.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
I thought it was like very understated because it was
one of those places where like you're like, there must
be something more going on there, and there was obviously
like it gets there, which which I adore. I don't
want to like, well, no I can't.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Spend you can't.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
I just love. I just love when people knock walls down.
I love it when walls get knocked down. Oh yeah,
it's my favorite. It's such a treat. Guys, knock all
the walls down if you show. I like it so much.
But like pre walls coming down, like they were just
climbing on ship with no acknowledgement. It was so interesting. Yeah,
I really loved it.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
It was cool.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:57):
I did like whenever like someone had to enter the
space and like it was clear they were coming from
like the top, and it was just quicker to do that.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
They just hopped and bopped down.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
It was like very empowering because sometimes I get in
the weeds as like a writer and a director where
I'm trying to like fix problems for both parties and
it's like not always the job, do you know what
I mean? Yeah, I don't know if you have that
when you're writing where you're like, oh, I need to
give them away out of this No, just right, just right,
because someone's just going to have them climb up and
down the walls.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
One thousand percent. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (21:21):
Number ten for me, it was Table seventeen by Douglas
Lions and homage to early two thousands black rom coms.
It was amazing, It was wonderful. I love Doug and
I thought it was a great play by mcc Yeah,
really really good.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Number nine you saw this one job? Yes, really really good.

Speaker 5 (21:42):
The acting was amazing that I love seeing kind of
like a thriller almost horror kind of thing on stage,
Like it just made you kind of get nervous in
the set and the lighting design I thought was super sick.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
And I feel like not enough people talked to me.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
It was killer performances. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very very cool.
That script just gonna feed a lot of people material
for a long time.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Oh yeah, especially young women.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
They're gonna be able to pull monogues from that play
for a long time. Number eight Swept Away. I saw
it twice. Shout out Matt. I think it was a great,
fun musical that I wish lasted longer. Number seven Hades Town.
I know it's very It's been on Broadway for five years,
but I saw it for the first time and I
loved it very much.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Umber six Cult of Love mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
I just saw that. Yeah, so good, crazy because like
I sat in almost the same seat that I saw
a job from.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Oh yeah, in the same space.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Polar opposites, use of that space. Yeah, such a such
a good space mm hmmah.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Helen Hayes is my favorite Broadway theater. Yeah, yeah, it's
the best.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Also, Like I love a family drama because I went
with our friend Christian and there's just certain like ingredients
that go in the recipe of like a family drama
where there's gonna be a dinner table scene. It's you're
like making guesses before the top of the show, like
someone's smoking a cigarette who shouldn't be, someone gets slapped,
like something breaks, you know, And it was like so
fun to see, just just like a good old ash

(23:00):
and the pain of loving your family play.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Oh yeah, so good. I think they're amazing.

Speaker 5 (23:05):
It's actually number five Hills of California. We saw that
one together.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
Still the number one thing I've seen.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
It's a number one you saw.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
Yeah, it's my number one spot. I wish I would
have gone back to to three more times.

Speaker 5 (23:14):
Yeah, it was so good. Number four for me was
a proxy by James Iams. It was a reading of
his new play. But it was really really cool to
see one of my favorite play rights in the world,
like one of the first readings of one of their
first plays. And I loved it. I thought it was great.
I can't want to see what happens with it. Number three Stereophonic,
very very good.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
R I p rip me.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
I've tried to rush it like every day this week.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
I know it's tough but it's on me.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
I knew I should have gone before the New year,
but it was so good.

Speaker 5 (23:43):
Yeah, Number two year, Week of Day, Jonath Inspector, amazing play.
It's political satire, it's about anti vaxers. It's very funny,
it's a great cast. Uh, it's just it's so good.
I loved it very very much. I want to see
it again before closes. And it just got extended again
to I think mid February, which is awesome. My number

(24:04):
one play is Bad Creole by Dominique Moore. So boom
is so good. It's such a good play. Maybe so happy.
I posted a long, long video about it on my TikTok,
which none of you will ever see again. But but yeah,
but it's enjoy it what you can enjoy it, what
you can for the two days after this episode.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Drops, yep, really really absorb it all.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah. But uh, but yeah, that play was amazing. Is
there anything that wasn't on my list that you want
to talk about?

Speaker 3 (24:27):
M I've seen a lot of things that were like
good and interesting, but they I like to go see
like new work, Yeah, and like lesser known straight plays,
and so of the new work and lesser known straight
plays like the one that did just completely like move Me,
was they hand the feeds you so good? I adored
it so much. It was one of those scripts where like,

(24:50):
as you're watching the show, you're just like thinking of,
like who of your friends would knock this out of
the park, Like how would you direct it? How would
you design it? Like it's just really good and it's
so doable, And I get kind of like caught up
sometimes with like the practicality of like how hard it
is to produce theater of like is it a single set,
is it a small cast? Like how would people pull

(25:10):
this off? And it's one of those scripts that like
happens to fall into that category but is completely lovely
and magical moving.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah. Yeah, it's a it's a really really wonderful play.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
I pride myself on the fact that, like I go
and I see a lot of stuff and it doesn't
always hit for me. Yeah, And I don't think that
like with this platform, it's something that I necessarily need
to like critique or and pack here. Yeah, I'm going
to continue doing that for the rest of my life. Yeah,
of course, And I maybe one day I want to
evolve into like my final Pokemon stage as like in
like really crotchy, crotchety, like eight year old theater critic.

(25:39):
But for now, yeah, for like big, big work, you know,
Broadway Houses, Hills of California. Boom, That's a top five
play I've ever seen period for like Newark that I
saw Sarah Sarah Gristas am I saying that right, Grastra
Sarah Graustra, The hand that feeds you amazing, truly, Like
go online order the physical copy. It's also cute as
a button. It's got this adorable illustration on the front.

(26:01):
It's affordable, Yeah, and you'd be supporting a really really cool,
you know, new printing press.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
So yeah.

Speaker 5 (26:05):
Also, I think she just dropped there, like fifth there
they're getting they have thirty plays in their catalog right now. Yeah,
and like they just released some new ones. They're like
five in there. So honestly, go in there, spend sixty bucks,
buy a bunch of new plays and like get a
little collection. They're great copy, like we have we have
a hand that feed They're like made nice, they're really
really cool.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (26:26):
I know, maybe we'll see some of some familiar names
in there in future catalog. Oh no, but yeah, any
other players you want to talk about. I mean, I
feel like we talked about about a lot of shows
after we saw that. We talked about Yeah, we.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Talked about like Mary, Yeah, oh Mary was amazing. Yeah yeah,
Like that's the end of the sentence. Ye, Like I'm
really yeah, I'm glad I saw it when I saw it,
And also like specific specifically watching interviews where Cole talks
about their writing process for it and like I don't know,
like yeah, where they found their courage for it because

(26:59):
it is such a unique thing that like completely blew up,
which I don't think anyone expects typically with Broadway. Broadway
right now is like quite reductive to me. Everything's a
spin off, like or a reboot or something like that. Yeah,
but hearing like they had this interview where they went
off and where they were like yeah, I kept telling
friends and I don't remember who hosted the interview unfortunately,
but they would like sit down with friends and show

(27:19):
them their script and hope that friend would say something like,
oh my god, this is the best thing ever cold
like quick write it down, like we need you, we
need you. And instead they said in this interview that
like everyone was just like supportive and normal. I was like,
that's so fun, Like that's so cool, you should do that,
but like this sense of they were kind of underwhelmed
that no one was demanding their creativity out of them
or like forcing this story out, and so they were like,

(27:41):
then I just had to like sit down and do
it for myself, and like I wasn't sure if it
would work, and like it massively did. Yeah, and so yeah,
as someone who is very much in this year looking
to like explore, unpack and like evolve my own writing process,
hearing them talk about theirs in interviews is so satisfying.
So if you're a writer as well, even if you
couldn't go see Oh Mary, like please go watch every
interview Cole does. About ninety percent of them are like

(28:03):
kind of joky and like deadpan, but the ten percent
of like actual writing content is completely worth your time.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
Also, I will say you can totally still see Oh Mary.
Cole is gone. I think he will be.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Gone very soon. Yeah, and so.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
Is Conrad and everybody, but Betty Gilpin is joining the cast,
which I think is sick. Yeah, that's gonna be so
so cool. And they're doing these interviews the two of
them where like have you seen any haven't seen They're
doing interviews like together where they're like we both think
the same things are funny. They're like they're like being
very deadpan and they're being very very funny, and they're like,

(28:40):
I think we're both very weird, which makes a lot
of sense, Like they're just saying things that make me wa.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
That's what I mean is like you have to have
to like sit through the interviews sometimes to get anything. Yeah,
but they are very enjoyable.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
But yeah, so definitely like come to if you come
to New York, go Mary should be at the top
of your list to see.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
I think, yeah, definitely sure, and it'll be open for
a while so I have really good merch which you
know that great.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
Yeah, I just want to see what I'm excited to
see what happens when the cast leaves and when it's
like new cast members, because in my head, I'm like,
this show's either gonna In my head, i was like,
this show will live and die with Cole or they're
gonna stunt cast it for years. But also I'm like,
I don't know how long this play will last. But
then I'm like, also, like so many people can play

(29:21):
this part, but also so little people can play this part.
I'm like, I'm excited to see what happens, Like I
was talking about, like I want them to bring like
a drag queen in to play like Mary. I think
there are so many great that we'll see. Oh yeah
for sure, but I like, specifically Broadway, I want to
see like how long it lasts and like what kind
of happens, because there's so much they can do with

(29:43):
this cast that it makes it like I absolutely was
not expecting Betty yellin.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Mary who Stanley Tucci see, like I would never think
about that, but you said it, but.

Speaker 5 (29:56):
Yeah it could work. Yeah, I thought hard, but it
could work. Can I tell you who I thought? Would
you think of Paul Giamati?

Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (30:02):
I thought that, like right after we left. There's like
I love to see Paul Giamatti as Marrytime Lincoln. And
then I like thought for something, I was like why
would I say those words?

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Also like I like just kind of like seeing the
stretches of like my imagination, so like just for the
hell of it, you're an unculcan so good, like why not?

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Yeah, I don't know, Yeah, I think it could work.

Speaker 5 (30:21):
I want like like like, I mean, dude, you know
who would be amazing, Like RuPaul would be.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Like crazy amazing.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
If that was like a one night only event, I
would pay a lot of money to get.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah, we've been cantering.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
For a while, for a really long time, and I
have a big state. Do you want to let me
get into it?

Speaker 1 (30:37):
I'm going, oh, oh my god, I keep forgetting.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
How dare you?

Speaker 3 (30:42):
Oh? I got my stuff all pulled up. It's because
it's literally I'm sipping lemonade.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
No, do you want to let me do this? I'm like,
you do it? Here's the thing, jokes on you. I
have just a fine state.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Okay, tell me I thought.

Speaker 5 (30:57):
So, Okay, answer over. We're back baby, play to see
and this year we're starting with Florida. Baby, you make
me want to roll my windows down and cruise. We
sing that song because I'm doing Florida and in the
next episode that we're recording in an hour and but

(31:18):
you'll hear next week, Eric is doing.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
Georgia Florida Jorjia, Carmit the Frog. All right, Yeah, we
were singing a lot, were singing a lot before we started. Yeah,
let me get in Florida. Yeah, tell me about it.

Speaker 5 (31:28):
I thought Florida would have more and it really did it,
and I was like kind of surprised.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
My understanding an assumption as someone who's never like worked
in Florida is like a small bit tight scene.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah understanding. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (31:39):
And there's a lot of like dinner theaters, which I
thought were great. I didn't really talk about them too much,
but I kind of stuck with like the kind of
like cool like new indie theaters.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
That I wanted to talk about and stuff.

Speaker 5 (31:49):
But uh, but yeah, so I'm gonna start the way
I started every episode with the wiki paragraph.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Florida Florida Florida, Florida is a state in the southeastern
rea of the United States. It borders the Gulf of
Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia to
the north, Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Straits
of Florida and Cuba to the south. About two thirds
of Florida occupies a peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico
and the Atlantic Ocean and has the longest coastline in

(32:14):
the continguous United States, spanning approximately three hundred and fifty miles,
not including its Barrier Islands. It is the only state
that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
With a population of over twenty one million, it is
the third most populated state in the United States and
ranks eighth in population density. As of twenty twenty, It's
the third oh that surprises me.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
I know me too. Florida spans sixty five seven hundred
and fifty eight square miles, ringing twenty second area among
the states. The Miami metropolitan Area, anchored by the cities
of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, is the
state's largest metropolitan area, with a population of six point
one three eight million. The most populous city, though, is
Jacksonville for its other most populated centers are Tampa Bay,

(32:59):
Orlando Coral, and the capitol Tallahassee.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Florida.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
All right, next episode, no, so Georgia Florida state symbols.
Of course, we've gone over this right before the episode.
So I'm gonna say, you know, Florida state blank, and
then you'll tell me what it was.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
Okay, I did look at this, and I was looking
at my truth and a lie.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah, totally.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
And guys, remember I just told, like just a couple
of seconds ago, we paused the recording and I told.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
All the answers, this is preliminator. All right, so ready,
Florida state nickname Sunshine State. Yeah that's good. Yeah, okay,
Florida state flower. You should get this. I think I
should get it. No, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Is it white? No, my flower's white.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
That's what I'm Okay, it's the orange blossom.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Oh I would have gotten there.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
Yeah, I thought you would have got there too. Okay,
orange or Florida State shell.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
There's a shell.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
There's a shell shell. No, it's a horse counch.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Oh that was on the you. You know what's funny
is horse conch was my nickname.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
In high school. This one I think you actually should get. Okay,
Florida State beverage wrench juice boom dude. Hell yeah, there
you go.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
What they've got.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
This one surprised me. Florida State dessert. If you get this,
I'll be really surprised. But I think there's a chance
you get it.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
Dessert.

Speaker 5 (34:12):
Yeah, because when I read it, I was like, I
guess that makes sense, but I wouldn't think of it.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Here's the thing. No, but you're kind of close a
little bit. Do you want to give another shot?

Speaker 3 (34:23):
Is it creamy or fruity?

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Fruity with a little bit of cream?

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Oh lemon meringue, No, okay, a.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Little bit of I shouldn't I said a little bit.
It's primarily fruity.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Is it citrus?

Speaker 1 (34:36):
No way, I thought that was a great strawberry shortcake.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
I don't. Yeah, that doesn't make sense to me at all.

Speaker 5 (34:43):
It doesn't at all in my head, just like a
fruity dessert makes sense, like I writ but I.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
Thought maybe they're known for strawberry experts. I just know
them as like citrus.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
Yeah I know. Yeah, but okay, ready for this. This
is my favorite one. Florida state play.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
State play.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
They have a state plan.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
I know what their motto is.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
What's their motto?

Speaker 3 (35:04):
It's like it's another one that's like it's like in
God we Trust. It's something that's kind of like we
see that everywhere. Guys just should have been more specific.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
A yeah, yeah, yeah, but they have a state play.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Is it one you think I've heard of?

Speaker 1 (35:14):
No? Okay, is it not at all? I've never heard
of that. Okay, are going to.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Guess the title. Yeah, Gators. That's it.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
How do you know Gators by Gator mcgaterson.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Oh my god, yeah, I actually I thought I was
doing Florida.

Speaker 5 (35:31):
No, it's called It's called Cross and Sword by Paul Green.
The title is a symphonic drama in apropos to the
subject the colonization and conquest and conversion of the Florida
Peninsula by the Spanish in the sixteenth century and the
establishment of the first parliament settlement in America in Saint Augustine.
It's a play about Florida history. It's a play about

(35:53):
Florida colonization. It's a play about Florida. And it's like
it's it's on concord. You can literally like buy it
and like and like put it up and stuff. It
gets put up every single year in Florida all the time.
But I was, like, I've never seen a place have
like Florida like a state play, which I thought was
really really cool.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
I've seen like references to it, but to be honest,
I think I thought it was like a marketing thing
for the play, right.

Speaker 5 (36:20):
No, Like like I've seen, like I've seen like a
state premiere of a play, but I've never seen like
this is like the state play, like the play at Ohio,
Like that doesn't exist.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
Maybe you should write it, I hope.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
So maybe it doesn't exist because you haven't.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Written the things hear. That's a fun question.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Though we write our state plays.

Speaker 5 (36:35):
We either writer state plays or we try to go
through each state. Maybe like instead of a plato one week,
we go through each state where like this is that
state play? Like for me, like Ohio would be like
King James, Yeah, yeah, easy ps.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Jonan of Ark in a supermarket in California, however.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Would be like it'd be like a vignette play about.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Detasseling, Maine would just be John Kerry Oni. Yeah, yeah,
it would just be him. It just became as a guy. Yeah.
But yeah.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
So that's that's my quick Florida facts, right, But let's
get into some theater stuff.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
Tell me about it.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
One thing, I was kind of looking through this and
there's an article over in nineteen ninety six called one
hundred Years of Florida Theater. I'm just gonna read the
top the beginning part. Theater Miami has coming of age
from the very beginning. The city has always been ahead
of its time. As soon as the tracks came in.
Miami was set with its population exceeding the three hundred
needed to incorporate into a city. Miami was never actually
a town. The city walked first, it skipped on the crawling.

(37:33):
In this centennial year, which was ninety ninety six, one
hundred years of Miami theater, they looked this article like
looks back on all of the theater within this city,
and it looks at like this, like wonderful stuff, like
the like the first ever playhouse, which is Budge's Budge's
Opera House, which is opened in eighteen ninety nine. Well
it started building in eighteen ninety six, obviously one hundred years,
but it opened in eighteen ninety nine. They did a

(37:55):
play called The Picker, Children Love Them and Liam Leave Them.
They did one of the first rush of Candide. They
did a bunch of like wild stuff, but no one
was really going to see theater at all. Social interaction,
and then in nineteen twenties had been core the community
and regional even the national theater. So they started doing
new pieces, including Harvey. They did one of the earlier,

(38:17):
the earliest productions of Harvey by Mary Chase.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
They kept on going.

Speaker 5 (38:22):
They opened a place called the Coconut Grove Playhouse in
nineteen fifty six.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
That sounds re fresh et I know, right, cocktails?

Speaker 5 (38:28):
Oh yeah, dude. They did a strict creditinged desire. They
did an infamous production of Waiting for Goodo that is
still helmed as one of the greatest productions in Florida history,
but as the worst selling show in the theater's history.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
Everything you said makes so much sense.

Speaker 5 (38:43):
Yeah it doesn't. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me. Well,
it makes sense to me, but it's like very confusing
and wild.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
Okay, what I just remembered a dream I had.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Tell me your dream.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
It's a complete cyber but I had a dream where
you were trying to adapt Waiting for GOODO, like you
and me were trying to devise it ourselves. I completely
forgot about this, but like we were really struggling in the.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Dream, like it wasn't good, we weren't doing well.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
No, it must have been like a deep Probably here's
a from that time. We did a scene together from it.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Oh god, I know. Probably a great play though. Yeah,
but yeah.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
Then in the nineteen sixties they started taking on more
Broadway level productions. They did Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf.
They did a funny thing happened on the way to
the Forum.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
This isn't that same opera house.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
This has shifted now still in Miami, but this is
shifted to the Southern Shakespeare Repertory Theater. Okay, which came
from the playoffs I just said, which I'm forgetting the
name of Where are you Coconut? Yeah, Coconut Coconut, Coconut
play coconutte.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
It sounded really beautiful and fresh and fun.

Speaker 5 (39:42):
Right down the street from the Coconut plaoffs. They opened
the Southern Shakespeare Repertory Theater and they start bringing Shakespeare
to Florida. In the nineteen sixties when Juliette as you
like It Hardy the Fourth Merchant of Venice. All these
shows were brought up and we're done very like cool, weird.
They started doing musicals like Anything Goes and a Vida
forty Second Street.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
They were doing very very fun, cool stuff.

Speaker 5 (40:02):
They also did Mandela Mancha nineteen ninety five that ended
up spurring the Broadway revival. So like Miami Theater has
been going hard for like over a hundred years.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
Miami, No neither, I've been to Florida, but not my I've.

Speaker 5 (40:15):
Been a Florida. I've been at Orlando. I'm a big
Disney boy. Yeah, I've been to Disney, and I have
family in Tampa.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
I went to Florida once with some friends who graduated
before me and became travel agents and could get us
like really cheap accommodations and travel. And we were like,
let's go to the beach. And this one girl who
like organized a trip. I'm not Gonnay. Her name was like,
my grandma lives in Cocoa Beach, Like, let's go visit her.
And we got to Cocoa Beach and her grandma actually
lived in like kissing me the town her grandma lived in.

(40:41):
But we went to the beach and get this, I'm
grew up in Iowa. Yeah, I'm at Cocoa Beach in Florida.
Obviously on the beach, and I run into my best
friend from high.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
School from Iowa. Wait what yeah, because one of.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
His sisters lives in Florida.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
No.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
I just ran into him all this, ran into him
walking and I thought, that looks like my best friend Zach.
And then he was like, what are you doing here?
And I was like, oh, oh, my god, it was
such a random thing. That's like, actually, but that's like
my favorite Florida memory is accidentally going to the wrong
beach and then running into your rest friend. That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Insane? Are that It's like actually insane? I know. Okay, Well,
if what I've been.

Speaker 5 (41:13):
Talking about get you excited at all and you're like, wow,
I'll just spend some time in Florida.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
Tell me about Florida.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
There are two.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
There's more than two, but there's two big graduate programs
that I know are fully funded, like FIU and FAU Florida.
FIU and FAU like have mas or m fas, but
I couldn't find.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
If they were, Like, like f SU is like one
of the things I think of Florida for well.

Speaker 5 (41:35):
So yeah, so I'm going to talk about two Florida schools.
One also our start with the University of Florida great
fully funded program. It's the Florida Gators. The Gators, you know,
they have a really really great season. They're doing you know,
the Importance of being Earnest. They're doing uh, where are you?
They're doing the Music Man, they're doing Macers, they're doing

(41:56):
Pipeline by Dominique Moore. So they're doing a new play,
the Perfect Arrangement. They're doing Everybody at Brandon Jacob Jenkins.
They have a lot of really really cool like stuff
going up, which they're doing Potus, So so yeah, they're
like a really really wonderful They also have something called
The Radar Theater Festival, which is similar to the Under
the Radar Theater Festival here in New York, but it's

(42:18):
just a lot of new works that come into Florida
and then they like to u University of Florida and
then the students get to like perform all of them.
So I think it's great. They're doing one play though,
called Dog Act by Liz Duffy Adams.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
Have you heard of this play?

Speaker 3 (42:31):
No, but I know was Duffie Adams.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (42:33):
So it's a new play called dog Act and it
sounds insane and I read it like a couple of
weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
But I'm gonna read you this synopsis because it's truly.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
You read the play.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
I read the play.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
You have the play.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
Yeah, it's oh, it's on New Play Change, so everybody
can read this play.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
So dog Act by Lizaffia Adam. I'm gonna read you
this synopsis. It's insane.

Speaker 5 (42:51):
Zetta Stone, a traveling performer and her companion dog, a
young man undergoing a voluntary species emotion.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Another couple have lost.

Speaker 5 (43:00):
Villians and joined forces in their quest for an audience,
stalked all the while through the post apocalyptic wilderness by
a pair of ferocious and hungry lost boys. A future
mythic comedy with music for acting additions and production writing
contract playscripts. So it's on playscripts, like you can actually
license it and do the show. And one of the
first productions is happening at University of Florida.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
But voluntary species demotions.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
So funny. So this guy, this guy like is who
just talks the whole time.

Speaker 5 (43:27):
He's just a guy. Yeah, but he barks sometimes, and
like in the notes of the play, uh, Liz says, like,
this is not a man playing a dog. This is
a man who is a man who is choosing to
have the title of dog as a demotion on his life.

(43:50):
So when he barks, he shouldn't bark. He should just
say the word bark. And it is crazy. It's in
saying it's so fun that's a really good monologue for
dog that I love so much. That I honestly want
to do. There's also great scenes for Zea and Dog.
There's great scenes for this other couple that they meet.

(44:11):
It's it's a really really wonderful play. If you're in uh, Florida,
let me see, I just had the dates up. If
you're in Florida, you should go see this if you can,
because it's really really wonderful.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Also, Florida do literally so much stuff Florida.

Speaker 5 (44:27):
No, I don't think so. I think they're just doing
this play. But I thought it was cool that they
were doing like one of the new like like like
a weird new piece Fair and Night four to fifty one. God,
they do so much stuff, Dude, I can't find Dog.
Oh there it is. They're doing it on They're doing
it in like a.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
In September of twenty twenty five. Yeah, I think so.
But yeah, but but yeah, Dog act very good, very weird.

Speaker 5 (44:51):
Yeah, very cool. I'm super excited about it. But the
other school, I want to talk about m FA program
Florida State, Yes, SSU to State the MFA Acting Program
Florida State's University also center of the Actor Training. Looking
in Sara Side of Florida is a three year graduate
program culminating in an MFA degree through FSU of Theater.
Considered to be one of the America's leading acting schools,

(45:13):
the Conservatory trains actors at the highest caliber and a
professional theater environment through class and work in production experience.
It's like, very very cool, I will flex here. I've
been accepted in this program twice.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
That's so so funny. I almost dropped the screache. So
funny to me that like twice you narrowly escaped living
in Florida.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
But it is such a good program, Like, no, it's
so good. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
The only reason why I didn't go the first time
was because I got into Yukon and I decided to
go there, and then I and then I stayed in Chicago.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
You know why, Yeah, because you had to wait to
meet me.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
I had to wait to meet your WV.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
You really had to wait at all to meet me.

Speaker 5 (45:55):
But then the second time, I chose WV because it's
close to my family and also like.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
And also I went there and even though we didn't
know you just you heard the call.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
I would also say, like I.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
Was going into grad school as like a writer first,
and I was going to acting school and I told
everyone that. I was like, hey, like I really want
opportunities to write. I want to act, but like I
want opportunities to write. W View is kind of one
of the only places that was like yeah, like totally like, well,
you'll be able to do stuff in your free time
and we will give you spaces and stuff, which they
did be but like fu Osla, like they were very

(46:28):
much like, yo, when you come here, you will be
an actor, and like, I think that's awesome for people
who want that, Like I'm that's sick. I also like
think they do the coolest stuff ever. We're talking about
ASCO rapping a little bit, but like they do amazing
dope plays, so like like it. It's one of tho
schools that like not only are they connected to ASCO,
which is like one of the one of the like
and I have a regional Tony Award. I think, like

(46:50):
you when you leave, when you graduate, you graduate equity.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
Yeah you get your points through the production. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
Yeah, you literally graduate with an equity card of like all.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
The fully funded programs. I was looking at Affiliation with
like a very very good professional program that's like one
of the top schools in the country for.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
It for me, it was like them. It was like
Case Western Cleveland Playhouse. You know, Yale.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Obviously, Yale Brown, Yeah, all that stuff.

Speaker 5 (47:12):
Yeah, really crazy stuff. But yeah, so Florida State. But
but now, let's let's get into some theaters.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
Let's take a look.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Let's get into some theaters in Florida.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
Okay, tell me about it.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
I will say a lot of them are similar in
a really fun way.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
They all have coconut in the name, exactly.

Speaker 5 (47:30):
No, they all have like similar seasons and they do
similar stuff. One theater that I haven't talked about but
I'm gonna talk about right now or I I obviously
haven't talked about it. I don't have on my computer,
but I'm going to shout them out really quick is
Titus Still Playhouse. And the reason why I'm going to
shout that out is because our friend Anthony right now
is down there as an apprentice.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
Shout out Anthony.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
You're out of applause for Anthony.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
He's currently in Jersey Boys.

Speaker 5 (47:53):
He's one of the four boys every which one but yeah,
but god, yeah, he's one. He the Jersey one. But
but you know, he did Batboy down there. He did
Anastasia down there. They do really really cool stuff. They're
a cool small theater. So if you're near try to
Field Playhouse and you want to go see a show.
Go see a show and afterwards find Anthony and say

(48:14):
Justin and Erica say shut up the mountains.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
They say go. They say horns down. Down, they say
horns down.

Speaker 5 (48:20):
But yeah, there's a bunch of really really great ones,
like like the Actors Playhouse at the Miracle Theater, they're
doing Jersey Boys and waitress Jersey Boys. Uh, the Girl
on the Train step by Stead.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
It's not gonna shock me if every theater in Florida
it's doing this.

Speaker 5 (48:32):
Next theater is doing Jersey Boys and ways. They also
did Jennibe Jones. They don't have like too many like
wild stuff. They have like theater classes and they have
auditions to do kind of like stuff in their season.
But but yeah, Actors Theater at the Miracle Playhouse they look.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
Very cool and legit. The American Stage looks really really cool.
They're a theater. Oh what city are they in? Where
are you?

Speaker 5 (48:54):
You are in Saint Petersburg, which I think is near Tampa.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
But they're doing fat Ham, are doing hair, they're doing.

Speaker 5 (49:02):
The Girl laughs, this girl, this girl laughs, this girl cries,
this girl, this girl does Nothing, which is a new
play by Finningan Kershmeier. But it looks really really really cool.
They're doing the Mountaintop, They're doing Bring on Fire, which
is the musical song cycle of Johnny Cash. So yeah,
they they do really really cool stuff. They seem more
like into new plays. They don't have like a lot

(49:26):
of like they don't have a lot of like, uh,
oh wait, where is it?

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Oh? There it is, my computer's being annoying. No, okay,
there we go. Okay.

Speaker 5 (49:35):
So I was kind of looking for like either like
apprenticeships or like new play development things, which I found
for a lot of these theaters. Yeah, but this theater
has something really cool which they put up insane. They
put up all of their like dramaturgy packets publicly.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
Oh wait, will you remind us which theater this is?

Speaker 5 (49:57):
This is called American Stage and Saint Petersburg, Florida. Maybe
go to their website and you hit the little tab
that says arts Guide. There's a ton of like articles
that they've written about shows that they've done, and featured
posts and stuff. But if you scroll through, you can
find like dramaturgical packets.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
That's sweet.

Speaker 5 (50:12):
Yeah, Like where is it like, or so you can
find dramaturgicalackets on there or if you go to education
the most recently that they're doing, they have something called
the Study Guide, which is like a kid's version of
it kind of, so you can go to like, uh,
like they're doing the Mountaintop right now, and I don't
want to pull any plugs out he's.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
Trying to show you, but like but it's cool.

Speaker 5 (50:32):
So like it's like the Mountaintop and then you like
download the Study Guide and then they have like all
of this like really wonderful information about the play if
you're like a student and you're coming to see the
show for the first time.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
So I said, it's actually accessible.

Speaker 5 (50:43):
Like look like they have like Martin Luther King Junior's
life and legacy. Like it's like really like really well
put together. So from an educational standpoint in the American
stage has like some really really cool stuff going on.
And I think, like, God, if you're like a high
school teacher or something in Saint Petersburg, WHI would be
such a specific listener to the show. But if you are,
like it's I haven't seen a lot of theaters like

(51:04):
put up publicly on their website, like a like kids
version of the study Guide where you get to like
learn about this show going in.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
So yeah, that's really really cool.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
I know, like I kind of put one together for
when I did Dramaturgy for Narnia for West Virginian Public Theater,
the musical version of Narnia, but it wasn't anything like
I mean, it wasn't anything like this.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
This is very very cool what they do.

Speaker 5 (51:26):
So yeah, But the next thing I'm gonna talk about
is the Osclo Rep. Obviously connected to Florida State. There's
some really really cool stuff going on. They're always doing,
like very cool shows they're doing right now, A Lady
Molly of Scotland Yard, the Ken Ludwig play. They're doing
where Are You Season, they had Beautiful to Carol Kane Musical.

(51:46):
They're doing Anna in the Tropics, good Night oscar which
is really really great. I saw that play on Broadways,
Wonderful Jews, christ Superstar, all Is Calm, The Christmas Truth
of nineteen fourteen, very very cool plays. One thing that
I didn't realize that they had because I was like, oh, also,
a Rep is like known for being a fancy theater
and being connected to Florida State. They have one of
the best career development programs I've ever seen. And it's

(52:10):
not for actors because they have the Florida State like
the MFA program, So they have these apprenticeships that like
pay really really well.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
You don't always see no, Yeah, they actually have to
pay us.

Speaker 5 (52:24):
Yeah, they stand in the corner, they they squeeze lemons
and then they pay us a grand a week. But
these guys so like they have an arts admin apprenticeship,
they have a stage management apprenticeship, they have a directing
fellowship the art as the art admin pays five hundred
dollars a week. You get travel down there and you
get housing and the food, you get internet, you get

(52:46):
basic utilities. You're with you're within six miles of the theater,
and they like show you how like they give you
like commute payment and everything. Five dollars for stage management
as well, and it's five fifty for their directors. And yeah,
it's just like it's very cool.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
To see these like.

Speaker 5 (53:07):
Really wonderful because I know that they're known for having
these actors at the MFA program. It's cool that they
like didn't forget about the tech side and the directing
and all that, and at arts admin and they have
these really wonderful opportunities that I never would have known about.
So yeah, So if you are a stage manager, if
you're someone looking to get into the arts admin, if
you're someone looking into directing, and you want to go
somewhere for like eight months and like be an ad

(53:28):
on a couple of really cool new shows, work with
Broadway actors, be an asm, and a bunch of stuff
like work in arts admin. Like this is like really
cool opportunity that I haven't heard of before.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
I feel like so many companies used to have opportunities
like that, and then they just reduce them and reduce
them and reduce them over time to where they don't
exist very much.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Yeah, or it's just like good to know about, yeah, exactly.
So yeah.

Speaker 5 (53:48):
Also Wrap has some great great it's under their career
development program if you going in there about section. But yeah,
really really cool stuff from them, which I thought was rad.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (53:58):
Yeah, this other one I wanted to talk about, a
free Fall theater company is broken and I'm furious. It
literally is still on a blue bar loading.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
That's weird.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
I want you to know an hour ago when we
started prepping this episode, I don't know why, and I.

Speaker 5 (54:15):
Like went by and I started doing other stuff, and
I'm like, oh, it'll load like after this or whatever.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
It'll be fine websites.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Fine.

Speaker 5 (54:22):
But I wrote in my notes, I literally wrote out loud.
I wrote in my notes. I wrote my notes their season,
oh my god.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
Which you know, just gives me a ton of anticipations.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
I know.

Speaker 5 (54:34):
It makes me go like, I don't know what this
could mean. I don't know what this could be, which
makes me very sad.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Do you want to assign that as homework to to use? Well?

Speaker 1 (54:45):
What if it's a bad season? What if? What if
I said, Oh my god, and I was going to
like make fun of.

Speaker 3 (54:49):
Their that's something you do.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
No, it's not. Oh wait, oh wait.

Speaker 5 (54:53):
Something came up doing Matt and Ben, the nybe Kaling
play about Matt and Beneflec.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Yeah. Yeah. They're doing a new musical called Oz.

Speaker 5 (55:04):
They're doing a road show. They're doing a new play
called Foreclosure. They're doing Oh this is It. They're doing
a new play called The House of Future Memory, which
I thought seemed.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
Really really cool.

Speaker 5 (55:14):
It's devised by Eric Davis An Ensemble and you. The
surprising and innovative performance will bring together the talents and
imagination of the performers, but the dreams, fears, and desires
of the audience to create a unique evening of storytelling
in theater that can only happen once. Through improvisation, traditional
storytelling and innovative effects, the audience will be transported to
an uncanting place where anything is possible, where dreams become real,

(55:37):
and the future looms like a memory waiting to take shape.
I just thought this seemed super cool. Yeah, it was
like a live, devised piece every night. And also the
name the House of Future Memory is really really dope.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
It gives like sci fi Blockbuster.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
Yeah yeah, but yeah, so that was so.

Speaker 5 (55:55):
I know there's more for a Freefall, but their website's
being weird, so I'm sorry, but go check out Freefall
Theater Company if you want to go check out your website.
Go check out your website if you need to. One
of the biggest theaters in all of Florida is Orlando.
Shakes really really great stuff. They obviously do some amazing
Shakespeare work. They're currently doing I believe they're doing Henry

(56:19):
the Fifth right now, and they're doing Taming of the Shoe.
They're doing what the Constitution means to me, they're doing cabaret.
They're doing really cool stuff. But they also have like
developed new work a lot, which is really really cool.
They developed new work. They have two big things that
they can develop work in right. They have one thing
that's their smaller program called Playfest and currently submissions are

(56:42):
open right now for everybody. Playfasts twenty twenty five will
present five to six new readings of plays in the
twenty twenty five twenty twenty six Orlando Shakes season. Each
reading will receive about twenty hours of rehearsal professional actors
and directors with the public reading all with the playwright
and attendance. Super super cool. They'll bring you in, they'll
do all that stuff. They have really really wonderful pieces

(57:02):
that I've gone up here. But it's a really great
opportunity for playwrights. Like literally, I was reading this today
and I'm like, oh cool, it's still open. I'm fully
gonna submit, so yeah, so very very exciting stuff. And
then but the other thing is that they have a
new play commission program at Orlando Shakes where every year
they bring in a playwright and they pay them a
large commission to write something new. One of my favorite

(57:24):
plays ever written was commissioned here, which one in apologies
to Lorraine Hansbury, you too, August Wilson Regionallynnette, that was
written there. Yeah, it was written there in twenty two
and then it was in their full season in twenty
twenty three, which is really really cool.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
I have that happen in my research for Georgia as well.
I love the small world of like wait, I talked
about this person all the time or I know that person.

Speaker 5 (57:45):
Yeah, and it won the Yale Jama Prize, Like I mean,
it's it's just really really cool. So I think Orlando
Shakes has really become one of the theaters most associated
with like new works and new play development in Florida.
So if you are someone who is like listen to
our podcast and really really enjoy that type of theater,
keep your eye on Orlando Shakes.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
They're really doing both ends of the spectrum.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
They really are.

Speaker 5 (58:08):
They're doing Shakespeare. Yeah, they truly are doing everything, which
is awesome. Let me see if I missed anything in
their season, because I remember they're doing what the Constitution
means to me, Uh, they're doing Oh, they're they're continuing
the they're doing the entire Henry trilogy. So right now
they're doing Henry four, Part two. They're doing cabaret. They're

(58:29):
doing a play called Welcome to Madison, which was a
part of the Orlando Shaks Playfast in twenty twenty. So
they're really really good about like these plays that like
you might go to a reading too, if you like
live in Florida and you go on the rest and
you're like, oh, they're doing one of their like playfest
readings tonight. Yeah, three years from now, it could be
on their main stage and then you know, a year
later it could win the Yale Drama Prize. So it's
very they have a really really great like background for

(58:51):
this kind of stuff. But yeah, Welcome to Madison don't
miss a dark comedy.

Speaker 6 (58:55):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (58:56):
Patricia and Gerald are quite proud of their life that
they live in suburban Madison, Illinois. They host a welcome
to the neighborhood party for their new neighbors, Regina and Corey,
and everything falls apart. It's really fun, like seeming play,
but it it is cool to see them support this
playwright into Craig Gallivan, like from twenty twenty till twenty

(59:17):
twenty five, Like they have supported this play for five years,
which is so so cool. So yeah, if you're someone
who's been really into new work's, Orlando Shakes one of
the best places to go.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
I'm sure the last ones I wanted to talk about.

Speaker 5 (59:32):
Really, The Riverside Theater in Vera Beach, Florida is cool,
But the big reasonhy I'm talking about them is because
they're doing Mystic Pizza and Sandy Rstner wrote that I
love Sandy and I love that musical is very, very fun.
So if you are in the area, you should definitely
go see it. Let me see what else I got here. Oh,
the City Theater in Miami has some really really cool stuff,
just in playwrights that they've worked with in the past, Amy,

(59:54):
Amy Berryman, David Lindsay, A Bear, Amber Palmer, John Milligan,
Stephen Kaplan, Andrew Hunter. They've worked with like really really
cool stuff. They were The World from Webster's Bitch, that
play about the Dictionary.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
People.

Speaker 5 (01:00:09):
They just like do like very cool pieces. They're kind
of like the Obama or like the Everyman of Florida.
It felt like, uh, they do something called the NSU
where Are You MSU from page to stage where they
take like the this college NSU in the area will
take like very very cool plays by player. It's getting

(01:00:30):
contact with the playwright and gets.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Like put it up. And this year they're doing something
by Eliana Pipes.

Speaker 5 (01:00:37):
Yeah, who wrote Bite Me, which is like one of
my favorite plays I read in the last year. Yeah,
so so good. They also I think they have a
relationship with David Lindsay Bear because they're doing a play
called Miss Dial by David Lindsay a Bear, which is
from I don't know, he's not from Florida. I think
he's just done stuff at Miami inter City Theater. Maybe
he is from Florida. I didn't say anything. I looked.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
I looked up too, So that a good try and
lighty about something I didn't see.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
That that makes sense.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
But also something if you this is for Florida people. Specifically,
there's something called the Homegrown Playwright Development Program. City Theater's
Homegrown play Right Development Program is designed to nurture, elevate,
and promote writers from historically marginalized communities. It provides the time,
tools and training needed to create their own body of
work able to diversify our professional playwright community in Miami
and beyond. CODA play Rights collaborates with the homegrown lead

(01:01:21):
playwright engaging in creative instruction and professional development. It seems
like super super cool. It's the for play Rights this
year are BK King, Malia Nasir, Narissa Street, and Brandon Urrita.
And Yeah, I think that if you're in the Miami area,

(01:01:42):
this is going to be like the place for new
work and new plays.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
So go check it out. Nice And the last time
I'm going to talk about on this big long monologue about.

Speaker 5 (01:01:50):
Florida Theater, tell me about it. Florida Studio Theater. Oh yeah, yeah,
which is a place where I feel like everyone a
lot of people like go and get their first like
apprenticeship or there's like a lot of like like good
gigs there. Ever, they're doing a lot of stuff like
the heart Sellers or waitress or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Sellers is everywhere. I know, it's crazy, it's on like
half of the seasons I've looked at.

Speaker 5 (01:02:08):
It's insane that it's just it happens so much. But
one cool thing I wanted to talk about, Oh you
know what else, they're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
What Jersey boys? Are you joking? No, they literally are.
They literally are what they say.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
You know that old, that old saying. If it's not
Jersey boys.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
It's Jersey boys the heart sellers.

Speaker 5 (01:02:32):
The last thing I wanted to talk about is this
article from Sara Soda magazine that announced last April that
Florida Studio Theater and the most famous I think shout
out to Matthew Lopez wrote the Inheritance, who I also
think is brilliant, but the biggest playwright to come out
of Florida Terrence McNally, r I P Florida Studio Theater

(01:02:54):
in the terms McNally Foundation have created a new commission
for artists and recovery. So Florida Student Theater has this
program called the Florida Studio Theater's Recovery Project that would
bring in play rights to write plays about addiction, about
overcoming addiction, about recovery, all that stuff. And Terrence McNally
passed away from COVID in twenty twenty, struggled with alcoholism

(01:03:17):
his whole life and his estate which is his family,
So still in Florida, saw what Florida State, Florida Studio
theater was doing with the Recovery project, and I agree
to donate ten thousand dollars a year to put towards
the commission for the player coming in and doing it.
And I know the most recent play that happened was

(01:03:37):
Sean Daniels played The White Chip, which is about you know,
getting your chips in.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
AA and everything from the fact of the day. It
had an off Broadway premiere. It freaking killed.

Speaker 5 (01:03:48):
Dramatists bought it. We just did an essaye of it.
It's really really cool. You can buy at the Drawbackshop.
It's a great play.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
I've never heard of anything like that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
It's very specific, it's very cool.

Speaker 5 (01:03:58):
I think it's so dope that, like the Terrence mcdowlly Foundation,
is like putting money from the estate towards something that
I think Terrence like he would be very into and
excited about, because I know that I read a lot
about him during my research and he struggled with it
a lot towards the end of his life. But his
families come out and said, you know, the last couple
years of his life were his favorite, which I think.

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
Is so well.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
That sentence makes me so sad.

Speaker 5 (01:04:23):
I know, yeah, And passed away during from COVID. I
think in like when was it?

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
It was in God, it was in like it was
early in like the time. Yeah, it was March March
twenty twenty. Wow, literally March nineteen twenty twenty. He passed
away from COVID and Sara Sota right at the beginning. Oh,
I remember that happening too.

Speaker 5 (01:04:44):
I remember like so many like people passed away, Like
they tell a story like I'm at a birthday party
for Steven Sometime mcdonnely spilled a drink on the actress
Lauren McCall. Andrew Lansberry, who saw the whole thing happened,
walked over to mcdally and told him in a loving
and concerned tone, I don't you very well, but every
time I see you're drunk and it bothers me. And
from there on out, he like, that's that's what made

(01:05:05):
him get sober.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
Oh my god, I know. Isn't that a crazy story?

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
Insane sentence.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
That's an insane sentence. Oh and now I got sober.

Speaker 5 (01:05:13):
In the nineteen eighties, became a public champion of sobriety
and recovery, and Lansbury's words stayed with him. The experience
with her was profound, he recalled in an interview in
the documentary Every Act for Life. I'm glad it's been
recorded because I think it might help other young people
who are struggling with substance abuse. And after you pass
away in twenty twenty a year or just three or
four years later, the estate got connected with what A

(01:05:33):
Studio Theater and now it's putting ten thousand dollars to
them towards the commission for the recovery project that they're doing. Yeah,
which I think is maybe one of the coolest projects
I've heard of so far. Doing this, I feel like
I'm ending this episode a little bit on a downer,
but also like no.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
But I mean again, that's very it's very interesting. I've
never heard of a of something like.

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
That's that's pasific.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
I don't know that it's like, uh, what's the word
I want to use. It's like reverence. It's because there's
a lot of things that are like, hey, if you're
if you're from Florida, or if you're from Florida and
you're identified this way, but like to have it be
for something that is so stigmatized, Yeah, is like very
beautiful and rare and cool.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Yeah, yeah, it's cool, even.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
Though like it is a down or like that's a
very special and unique opportunity. I had no idea existed.

Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
Yeah, and I'm gonna read this last article or this
last paragraph shot of magazine's article.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
All linked the article to in the description.

Speaker 5 (01:06:24):
But McNally's views echo those of Florida Studio Theater's Recovery Project,
which was created the help and the stigma around addiction
through play commissions, productions, and workshops. The theater also offers
educational resources and a warm Line confidential free phone service
offering mental health support for artists, for artists, and recovery.
Part of the myth of being an artist is burn

(01:06:45):
Bright die Young, says Sean Daniels, who performed his play
The White Chip, the one I was talking about about
his own recovery from alcoholism at Florida Studio Theater earlier
this year. None of that is true, Burn Bright die
Young doesn't have to be true.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
Yeah, it's really really dope.

Speaker 5 (01:07:01):
I'm pretty sure Sean Daniels was the first person to
be in the in the Recovery project that benefited from
the Terrence Retalite estate. So it's like officially a thing,
and every year, you know, ten thousand dollars towards it
afinue Florida Studio Theater either use it to you know,
commission a player for a full production, or split it
up between a couple different readings or whatever. They do
something different every year, and the most recent was this

(01:07:21):
you know, the White Chip, which obviously all went all
the way to Off Broadway and is now published through Dramatists,
and it's one of I mean, as someone who works
at Dramatists, like, I know, it sells really well. It's
like people are doing it, which I think is awesome,
and it's one of my favorite new plays that I've read.
So yeah, it was like Florida is a lot of
theaters that do jersey boys and waitress and but I

(01:07:45):
do think that they have really wonderful pockets of things
like Orlando Shakes commissioning Rachel Lonnette to write one of
the one of my favorite plays ever written that won
a Yale Drama Prize, or Miami City Theater putting up some.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
Of the weirdest, coolest theater ever.

Speaker 5 (01:08:01):
Or Florida Studio Theater, the theater that everyone knows as
like the place where like oh, people will go get
their like first acting apprenticeship there and do like Juni
by Jones and like Miss Piggy the Musical or something.
They also are doing this one of the coolest things
I've ever seen. That is getting the attention of the
Terrence mcnalley Foundation, and like they're getting to like really
put this like one of the most important playwrights I

(01:08:23):
think ever.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
Like he's getting he's getting his name like.

Speaker 5 (01:08:28):
Put onto a program that I think like aligns perfectly
with what he was echoing in his life after the
alleged and Angela Lansberry Angela Incident, Angela Gate nineteen eighty,
nineteen seventy nine. But yeah, yeah, so that's my Florida.

(01:08:50):
That's everything.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
It's that's Florida. That's our Florida. Is that cool though?

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
That is very cool?

Speaker 5 (01:08:55):
Yeah, it was one of my but I wanted to
end it with that because it was just one of
my favorite facts that I read.

Speaker 3 (01:09:00):
I like it because it's it's a cool thing, but
it's also wrapped in lower Yeah, and it's very bittersweet.

Speaker 5 (01:09:06):
Yeah, it is bitter sweet, but it is like I
like that the first year because I never heard of
this recovery project, yeah, that they're doing and the first
year that Terence McNally's team is like putting funds into it,
and like this is like a thing that he's now
officially like associated with. The play went all the way
to Off Broadway and then got published by dramatists. Like
that's that's huge. That's a massive that's like a very

(01:09:29):
big step for this like very small or this like
project that Florid Studio Theater is probably doing as like
a passion project. And now it gets to be it
gets to taking more of a front line and who knows,
now that it got published and all this stuff is
happening with it. Terce McNally's ten thousand dollars that they're
putting into it every year might just be the start,
and maybe it'll become one of like a bigger and

(01:09:50):
bigger and bigger commission for this very specific type of
theater that I don't think a lot of people are
doing or thinking about. Yeah, yeah, I'm excited what they
do next. I know that I followed I followed Florida
Studio Theater on Instagram right after I read that because
I want to see what the next play that comes
out of the recovery project is and uh yeah, I
would implore all of you to do the same.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
Yeah, that's my Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:10:13):
Hey, that's Florida, baby.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
I bet you didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:10:15):
Expect it to have such a bittersweet ending, so I thought.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
That your entire thing would smell like Santanocean.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
It's a lot of waitress and Jersey boys and heart sellers.
It's a ton of waitress and Jersey boys and heart sellers.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
I mean, everyone's doing heart sellers. That's not necessarily Florida specific,
but the Jersey Jersey Boys epidemic is. Yeah, I think
it is based in Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:10:38):
Based in Florida for sure.

Speaker 5 (01:10:39):
Percent Well, because you know, speaking of Titus wille Playhouse
from earlier on, I'm pretty sure they were doing waitress
later in their season.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Of course they are, Yeah, exactly, it makes sense.

Speaker 3 (01:10:48):
Are you ready for our next final segment?

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
I don't know, but justin why don't you hit the music?
All right, let's lay one down. This is disease Choose
and a lie six s A lie tell lies about

(01:11:15):
the states you're talking about? This is the one, this
is the one.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
That's right. It's time for the two truth and lie. Okay,
so famously Justin's better at this than me. But you know,
it's a new.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Year, you're better try to trick me.

Speaker 3 (01:11:37):
Yeah, and I don't think I understand the rules and
the tricks.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
Your immediate go to is I'm going to get him.

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
Yeah, I rarely do.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
Yeah, I just find two truths and then I make
up a lie.

Speaker 3 (01:11:47):
That's what I did this time.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
Okay, Okay, I'm excited.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
I'm scared.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
It's about Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:11:52):
This is about Florida. Are you ready?

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
Is there a theme too? Is just Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:11:55):
It's just facts. I'm gonna tell you.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
You're gonna tell me about Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
The state Florida. Yeah, is the only place in the
world where alligators and crocodiles coexist.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
That doesn't feel true at all, but okay, keep going.

Speaker 3 (01:12:11):
Crocodiles, alligators hanging out together.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
Best friends in Florida, the bed their best friends.

Speaker 3 (01:12:17):
So picture us.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
But crocodiles alligators? Wait, who's who i'd be? An alligator?
You're a crocodile. You're longer, yeah, yeah, because you're longer. Yeah? Yeah, okay,
go yeah, okay, get we're there, all right?

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
This one I'm not gonna say anything. Flow Rida isn't
actually from Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
I don't think he is. I think that's true.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
You don't know it's no okay. Florida is known as
the lightning capital.

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
As the lightning Capital.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
Yeah, I think because of like the climate and the
beaches and the way it is with the sea. There's
a lot of thunderstorms.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
Here's a thing capital, here's the thing.

Speaker 5 (01:12:52):
I want to say it's the last one because I
feel like I would have seen that in my research,
because it sounds like something that would have been on
like one of the sites that has like state flowers
or whatever that I look through at the beginning of
every like research thing. But I don't think crocodiles and
alligators can coexist.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
So what's your final answer?

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
The first one is a lie.

Speaker 3 (01:13:11):
You don't think that alligators and crocodiles exist.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
I don't think so, because in my head I was like,
I thought no co existed.

Speaker 5 (01:13:17):
They don't exist. I thought Allecai and crocodiles were just
big skunks.

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
They're kind of Florida skunk.

Speaker 1 (01:13:24):
Yeah. I don't think they co exist.

Speaker 3 (01:13:25):
They do. No way the alligators are on the coast
and the crocodiles are inland.

Speaker 5 (01:13:32):
In my head, like, okay, this is gonna sound so dumb.
In my head, crocodiles were like in Australia.

Speaker 3 (01:13:38):
Crocs are swampy, and I think gators are less.

Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
I don't know, I justin they both live in Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:13:44):
Yeah, they both live in Florida. That's crazy and in
most places in the world it's one or the other.

Speaker 1 (01:13:47):
I guess.

Speaker 5 (01:13:48):
Wait, you know why I think I thought they were Australian.
Why just because I think about hiche. Yeah, I think
about the word krikeys crocodile.

Speaker 3 (01:13:56):
Well, like, yeah, they would have crocodiles with it. I
guess they wouldn't have alligators unless us I will say,
I use a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:14:01):
Of like Fox fun facts, I do the same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
There's a real that makes.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
Absolutely one's a lie?

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
Do you want a second guess? Even though I win
this round, which I don't think has ever happened before.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
Congratulations twenty five, Thank you huge for huge. Wait, okay,
the other two.

Speaker 3 (01:14:20):
Were Flower isn't actually from Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:14:23):
So if it was, and.

Speaker 3 (01:14:25):
Florida is known as the lightning capital.

Speaker 5 (01:14:29):
So so the lie would be flow Rider is from Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
Yeah, he's from Florida. Of course he's from Florida. His
name's flow Rider. Do you think he'd lie about that
a little bit?

Speaker 6 (01:14:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
Do you think I'd ever lie about that?

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
Yeah? I do. I did Florida so dumb. I was
like that.

Speaker 3 (01:14:50):
I was like, I need something so dumb. At first,
my lie was like I.

Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
Didn't even consider it. I know. I fully was like,
it is either lightning or.

Speaker 3 (01:14:59):
The process. I followed my instincts to their end. Then
I remember, for this, my instincts are always wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
I cut it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:05):
I did the opposite. My original lie was like this
really long winded, like almost like story problem of how
power Aid and Gatorade are like competitors. And then I
was like, no, because that's something I would do.

Speaker 1 (01:15:15):
Yeah, it's dumber than that. Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
Yeah he's not from there.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
That's so funny.

Speaker 5 (01:15:19):
Yeah, dude, shout out to the time floradek in the
WVU And I looked at my Instagram story and like
half of the theater program was like on stage.

Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
Dancing with him.

Speaker 3 (01:15:27):
Why wasn't I there?

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:15:29):
We were pretty sure we were watching like WWE at home.

Speaker 3 (01:15:32):
We should have been there.

Speaker 1 (01:15:33):
We should have been there. Oh that was good.

Speaker 3 (01:15:35):
You gotta me good, Siri, play My House by Florido.

Speaker 1 (01:15:39):
No no, no, no no no no no no no.

Speaker 3 (01:15:42):
We already crossed Florida line twenty times of this episode. Wow,
so I went, we're kind of ending this on a
high note.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
That's huge for you, ending on a high note for you.

Speaker 3 (01:15:50):
Yeah, hell yeah next time.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
Well, thank you so much for listening to play to Zwive.
Make sure you follow us on Instagram at actual Erica
koon at Justin Borak. Will be updating you guys on
episodes every every week.

Speaker 5 (01:16:02):
Obviously, we go read our plays, check out our new
play exchange, go read Kill.

Speaker 1 (01:16:07):
The Bird, read some of my stuff. It's up there.
If you're in New York, we have some stuff coming
up coming. See.

Speaker 5 (01:16:13):
Well, I guess if you're listening to this right now,
there's a show tomorrow that I'm producing that Lizen is
in called Anthon the Way that's supposed to be but
it's literally tomorrow, six forty five. But but yeah, but
come see. Oh, I'm on an improv team called No Shots.
We're with the Armory Theater Companies Go or the Armory
Comedy collective, So go check out them and come see
one of our improv shows.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
Come see Hater's Gonna Hate when it's in New York,
which mean a lot to med Yeah, tbd. Keep checking
out our instagram for that stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:16:39):
Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast.
I think TikTok is dead, but if it's not following
me over there at mediocre jokes.

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
We'll see, we'll see. Who knows.

Speaker 5 (01:16:48):
I'm pretty sure it's dead though, But but yeah, is
there anything else we want to plug?

Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
Go see theater, especially in Florida?

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:16:56):
Yeah, go see especially in Florida. Go see theater.

Speaker 3 (01:16:59):
If croc aisles and alligators can hang out and get along,
you can.

Speaker 1 (01:17:03):
You can theater. You can go see a play in Florida.
All right, yeah, exactly? Is there anything else you want
to plug? No?

Speaker 3 (01:17:09):
But if we were a more merchy group, I would
say that we should do a new coexist bumper sticker.
But instead of it being all of the different like
religious symbols, it's an alligator and a crocodile, like spelling
out the shapes.

Speaker 1 (01:17:20):
Of the letters stupid to exist.

Speaker 5 (01:17:25):
Think your way for listening. I'm gonna end this episode
of the Way and a never episode. I look at
my dumb friend and her big blue eyes and saying, ericon,
you got me for the first time and I love
you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:17:36):
Justin Borak, my alligator friend. Baby, You're a song. You
make me want to roll my windows down and cruise.
Thanks for listening, everybody. I love you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
Bye.

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Flordia - The Sunshine State, A State Play, and Terrance McNally

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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;}Flordia - The Sunshine State, A State Play, and Terrance McNally