Idaho - Seven Devils, Samuel D. Hunter, and the University of Idaho - Play to Z

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

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

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hell, everybody, you welcome to play. I'm your co host
Justin Borak, your host Eric and boil boy Man old Man.
We're talking today about Idaho. Kind you a question in
high school or middle school? Did you do the joke
where when everyone would say states and they someone would

(00:49):
say Idaho, you say yeah, you Daho?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Of course?

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, okay, okay, I didn't know that was all it was,
just of course I made that. Do you guys make
the uranus choke? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Jokes where I was from.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
I love taking I love taking words from school and making.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
The bath so like call you out. But we we
like listened to the interest song too, like as we
start recording, and you always you always close your eyes
and you say good job the same time that I
love it.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
It feels like an okay, I know that night we
were recording that it was so hard for.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Me because it wasn't like that good job wasn't totally
a joke.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, we had recorded it thirty times and it never
sounds and I was always disappointed.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm imagining you like doing hard things in life, like
carrying a suitcase up you know the setisters.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, good job. I wish I could just take our.
I guess I could. I want to just take our,
just take the good job.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Should we make a good job button?

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah? Once I wear for two years, I learned how
to buttons work. Speaking of buttons, last week it took
an hour. This one got it done in just two minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Baby, we course correct if I say something.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Now, we know. I need to make sure Sue's listening
to every episode she is.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh my gosh, she doesn't wait.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
I know.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Sometimes I'm gonna blow them up. Sometimes my parents have
beef with each other because one.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Doesn't wait and they listen about each other.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, and they'll have to listen who unass for My
dad really appreciate that we had to. If we had
to replace all these buttons with just like types of
things that we say, what would you want, We'd have
a good job button.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
There'd be a good job button. There would be there'd
be a good job button. There'd be a oh, eagle screech. Oh,
there'd be we'd have an eagle screech. I mean, there
would be buttons for like the two choosing a lie
and the theme song. I would all say, what was
the bit we did in grad school that was like
we would say a word we would say like like

(02:50):
it was like not like good job, it was like,
oh my gosh, ye had it was like first year.
It was one of our early bits that ran through
the but it was like O boo bogg or go
go google, Oh good goog gog goo goog gog.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, because it was good goof boss.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
And then something happened and it was like it was
good goog boss. And then I just started slurring the
whole thing and saying good good gag and so and
so yeah, good goof boss. Was like if someone maybe
even a good joke, yeah for me, goog for me.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
I would also put a relax button in there, because
I think I say relax a lot. I've been saying
a lot.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
I don't like hearing that from a man, So we
should also include a button that's my scream.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Then if I get a relax button, you'll get a scream.
Or we just have one button and it's relaxed and
then you cut off my relax with a scream. Everything.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
I think we can afford the button because I might
want to scream about something else.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh that's smart, that's true. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, every time,
every time a player comes up that you don't like, we.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Have so many vintage bits that like, I just because
you know, in my family, we already struggle because my
mom makes up fake words that I think are true.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
I love I love when dude, because Eric is so articulate,
Like you'll talk like you know everything, Like you'll talk
in a way that I'm.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Just saying, I'm it's not that other thing. It's I'm
saying exactly how I feel.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
No, I know. But you'll talk in a way that
like when you say things, I'm like, oh, like that's
a thing that she's saying.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
I think maybe my mom is that way too.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
But sometimes you'll say stuff and you'll say a word
that isn't a real word. I'm trying to think of
an example, like yeah, a lot. Yeah, like you'll shay
and you'll say that earnestly.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, because I thought that was a real one.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
It's not shout out, so you can shout out my mom,
shout out your mom. Modern Shakespeare manipulating you from day one.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, one time my mom used to call lazy boys
coma boys, because they'd put you in a coma and
my uncle didn't know that, like that was just kind
of like a thing. She said, yeah, And so he
went to the store and he tried to find he
asked for like coma boys.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Your uncle got him, got him everyone. Remember.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Still there's still co wort bits that I'll I'll just
kind of take as like a phrase, like you know
how you'd say like happy holidays.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, I still walk.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Around like that's a slam d on Thanksgiving. Like when
I have like a good holiday meal, that's a slam
dunk Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
So the slam done Thanksgiving would be a really good
sound effect too. Yeah, yeah, we.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Should have a slam dunk sound effect for like if
one of us doress say something really are we're like, yes, yes,
you got to the bottom, and just yeah, yeah nothing,
but we should have nothing but net we should have
a shooge sound.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, I get to do it.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
It's kind of the equivalent of like someone saying something
really good and you start.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Snapping yeah, yeah, she's something that we don't use, Like
I never use I think this is like the want
wah right, that's the crickets.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
That's because you want green to be crickets green.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
As w Yeah. I my friend at work, like h
keeps hitting buttons whenever I record Rachel as a bit.
But she likes the purple button and she'll hit it.
But she's not listening against her head. My head ones
aren't on, so they're on me, not on the heart,
and she'll hit it, being like it's a purple button,
like it's crickets. It doesn't help me in any way,
like something like if you were to hit this, I

(05:58):
could at least bring me some Joey. I could play Yeah.
If you hit this, I could be like, oh, I
remember Sue, I remember Sue King. I can do something fun.
I'd be like, oh, thinking of the love of my life,
you know what I mean. But instead I get this.
I don't know what to do. It feels like an insult.
It feels hurtful. There's something I don't want to use.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
This.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
I never use this. I never use this, we never
use We don't really used laughter either.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Why is the cricket so long?

Speaker 1 (06:27):
I know forever? This?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
What's up everybody? This is the button we can't get
rid of. But drops to someone who has seen cars
and liked it.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
A lot. Yeah, Yeah, that's what I would.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Do with the cars makes me feel like I know,
it's just like the emotional state of cars. That's what
the red button is to me.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
The cars is so good.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
No, Life's highway?

Speaker 1 (07:00):
How do I get this for your life is a
goddamn highway.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
I have a mix a playlist specifically, I'm gonna blow
up my spot. Yeah, here's the thing. I give away
a lot of hot tips and tricks you send people
in the right directions.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Okay, blow this up.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
I think it's funny to deliver comedic monologues that are
actually just songs, and so I have uh playlist called
Motivational Speaker, which is just songs that would be funny
if you delivered them as monologues. And Life as a
Highway is funny a lot of times. It's gonna sound
like an inspirational ted.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Time you pull up the lyrics life as a Highway
and delivers me as a monologue, all vamp as you
do it. Okay, Yeah, I'm trying to think of like
songs that I could do to that, like I feel
it gives you hell. Could be a good monologue. Yeah,
when you see my face Hobby gives you hell, Hobby
gives you fell when you walk my way? Yeah, give
me it.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
And it's fun because they included the sounds that the
guy makes. Mister flats.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, his name is Rascal. Flats are flats are flat doctor, Rascal.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
F flat doctor Highway.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Doctor Highway doctor, Rascal Highway flat, p HD Highway. Alright
ready PhD highway style.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
What's my tone? What do you want me like?

Speaker 1 (08:12):
What's you're auditioning for? Like a huge like a big drama?
Alright ready yeah, like I'm trying to think like a perfect.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
The opening three lines are good.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, ready, give me it?

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Can I use a chair? No? Okay?

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Sorry Ericacon that you yeah great? Perfect? When have you ready?

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Who? Yeah? Life's like a road that you travel on
when there's one day here and the next day gone.
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand, Sometimes you turn your
back to the wind. There's a door outside, every darkened door.
I goofed my words. Can I start over? No?

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Whoo?

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, we won't hesitate to break down the garden gate.
There's not much time left today. Yeah, life is a highway.
I want to write it all night long. If you're
going my way, well, I want to drive it all night.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
You got the part, you got the part.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Thank you. Honestly, this is a very long song. He
talks about blood something. He talks about highways.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
I thought that was pretty good.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
He's like, this isn't a bit. I have a mix
for this.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
You could do that as a monologue.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
There's a really you know the song un Pretty by TLCA.
You can buy your hair if it won't grow, you
can fixture if he says so motivational speech.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Life is a highway being a monologue.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
That's a dramatic piece.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
So funny. Look, how would you? How would you? How
would you?

Speaker 2 (09:56):
I would take the chair and I'd spin it around
and I'd straddle it and I'd just walk.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
I just lock in on a highway.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
I would say my name is Rakacoon. Today I'll be
delivering a monologue from the film Cars written by Rascal Flats.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Just simple, not true.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
That's how I would do it. I'm not joking.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
I feel like you would have to go in and
saying like, Hi, my name is Ericacoon. I'll be delivering
a monologue from Highway by our flats. My here's so
then it's not it's not as no, my edge kind.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Of like puppet theater is just saying what I'm gonna
do and just doing it.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
And I also people in the room would be like,
is she really doing? Yeah, life is a highway.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
What's going to happen? They laugh, They're gonna remember me.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Remember, you're going to talk about me. They're going to
talk about it.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
I say, first of all, that was a stunning suit.
Did you say the way she maneuvered that chair.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
We told her she couldn't ease those golden buttons? Huh,
those buttons were golden.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
My vest, my hand me down vest for my mom,
does have golden buttons. Good anyway for the fourth pound,
any of you do this and it works, please tell
me because there's a lot of things I've wanted to
try that I haven't yet.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
That's a good one.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's really good.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
It's a really good one. God.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
I hope they don't sue me for saying all those words.
I didn't sing it.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
No, you didn't sing it. You're fine.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
I'm fine.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Also, I've heard way bigger podcast sing full songs.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
I've heard that we can cancel Rascal Flats if we
try hard enough. I heard TIZI versus Rascal.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Flats if we try to have it work together, we
can tabletop Rascal flats.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
And I'm not joking. There are people out there who
have been in plays with me who are like, oh,
the life is a highway curtain call bit, Like yeah,
like this is kind of a kind of a culture
for me.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Oh wait, that's a bite. I would add let's table
top blank, and then we could say the name.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
We surprise them and work together.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
We can tabletop.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
We had this goose talk that we would keep open
to pass notes in class and talk about wrestling. We
would use Look, we didn't always have a good time
in grad school, but we we always tried to have
a fun time.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
We always goofed.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
We always tried to have fun.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
We always tried to have We took our goof story.
Could we groofed where we would? And we goofed where
we could?

Speaker 2 (11:58):
All this to say, what if I closed my life
as a highway lyrics tab and I told you about Idaho?

Speaker 1 (12:04):
I don't know if I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Do you want to mentally prepare?

Speaker 1 (12:08):
I'm ready? Okay, Okay, give me Idaho.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
I'm gonna give you Idaho.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Oh now I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Okay, have you been Idaho? No?

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Okay, I didn't think where is Idaho.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
It's up there.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
It's it's up there.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
It's so I look at a map in my hack
as a child, like learning the States is always like
what shapes do they make? Idaho is like the negative
space of the face of Montana. Do you know what
I'm talking about? So you've got Washington and Oregon over
there kissing, and you've got the Dakotas, and then you
have Montana, Utah. Yeah, and Idaho is Idaho kind of
looks like it could be the shape of an eye

(12:46):
because it's that sort of Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
I thought it was next to Wyoming. It's next to Wyoming.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, yeah, so Idaho. I grew up in Iowa, and
when you tell people who aren't from Iowa where you're from,
they think you mean Idaho or Ohio. That's pretty This
state's actually really personal to me.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Say, I was pretty far away from Idaho.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah, but Iowa, Idaho, Ohio.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Okay, if you don't care, you shouldn't be mad about it,
because together, if they thought you were from Ohio, you
should be proud. Oh has very important.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
You think the Ohio you think Ohio's in the Midwest.
I don't agree.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Where would you say it is?

Speaker 2 (13:18):
You think it's in the Midwest, So we're just nowhere.
What time zone are you in?

Speaker 1 (13:21):
We're we're in the Eastern time zone, but we're not
on the East coast.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
No, but you're not in So what am I?

Speaker 1 (13:27):
So what am I give me a place? Then I don't.
I don't need to.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
I think you and India, You and Indiana don't deserve
like a title.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
That's so mean.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
It's just it's really boring to drive through.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
No, it's not.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
I don't need to see you live it.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
You're from Iowa.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, and I agree, like same there, I was not
fun to drive it's not. But it is definitely in
the Midwest, so is.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
I think so is Ohio. No moment, you can't just
say Ohio doesn't get a title.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
I just don't like it.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
You can't say that.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
I can't because I did.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
No, you can't. I'm from Ohio.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
I will say I like Ohio more than I like Indiana.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
That's not the conversation with how Indiana.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
And Ohio c midwestern, but they're an Eastern time and
like they're over there.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Okay, well then can we be the mid East?

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah? Honestly, we should be calling them that. I'll be
the mid East and I'll be the Midwest.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Okay, that's fine with me, even though here's the thing.
You're more east than your West, aren't you? East of
the Mississippi? Yeah? Yeah, so why are.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
You The Mississippi runs on like the face of Iowa.
If you know how the map is a man for me, Yeah,
the river is carving out our face and our pants
on our front half of.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
The body, on your front half of the body.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, because the middle of the man on the state
map is in profile.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Okay, then I would say, you guys are Midwest as
long as we can be called mid East, and I'm fine,
But until that becomes a legal term, I will continue
to say that we're from the Midwest.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
We can agree to disagree on this one.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
So I was not that different from Ohio.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
We're the same, well, well like in some ways.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, in many ways. Yeah, they're both boring states.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
And our parents live there, and our parents live there.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Parent shout out, shout out Sue, shout out, Kurt, shout
out Jeff and Tracy, and listen to the podcast. They
get the negative ones.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
That layering was really nice though, thank you.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Good audio shout out Jeff and Tracy's the thing.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
If they listened, I'd be like, that's going to really
hurt their feelings. I don't think they're gonna know. I
think we're gonna get away with this.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
I love my parents so much. They don't. They can't
listen to an hour and a half about plays.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
They love you very much.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
I don't think they've read they've they've My mom bought
thirty copies of Community Garden when I first got published. Yeah,
I still don't think she's read it.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Thirty copies.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
I think she's bought them so she could hand them out.
She's bought them so she could go to the hairdresser
and be like, my son's published. There you go. That's sweet, like,
which is super sweet. But I'm like, you could. I
love you to read it. I dare you to read it.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Anyway, I'm gonna stop beefing with you. I'll tell you
about Idaho.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
I'm still kind of mad, but yeah, go on, that's okay,
that's okay.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
So Idaho.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
I don't realize Idaho it's so close to Washington in
the Oregon either.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah, it's very in my head.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
It was over a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, me too. I think that. I think that area
that kind of plains the area is like longer than
it is, but it's not, it's not once you get
past the Dakota's just it's just a race. It's just
a race to the Pacific. So Idaho, Potato state, we
love it. I know. Is some of the oldest evidence
of human remains in the country.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
That's crazy, I know.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
I thought that was a good place to start. The
stuff that they've found there is like, hey, humans were
here like fifteen thousand years ago, like living in this area.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
That's not true. It's not true.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
This isn't too truth in a line that's true, that's
that's true. So here's the thing. It's big. I know,
it's big. You get on the map, you're like, oh,
that's a long. It's long, but it gets big on
the bottom it's weird.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of And it's got a lumpy
bottom and it's.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Got a tight top bottom heavy, I would argue bottom, Yeah,
I would argue, it's just thick like that.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
What's the capital boise Boisey?

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Well, you know what, I popped that off. I guess
I could be wrong.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Well, I can look it out.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
No, it is Bois.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
I'm right, that makes sense. I don't. I can't think
of it. I don't know one other other than Boise Idaho.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
You probably don't, but I'll run you through some eventually.
It's very big, but it's not super populated. It was
claimed by the US in eighteen forty six. The Brits
had been kind of rocking over there.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Oh I've oh, I know, okay, cool, So every sin
sorry you start looking. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done.
I won't look. I won't look.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
I won't look.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
It won't look. I won't look.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
So, oh, here's what I'm building through, don't. So this
is the area, like the part of the US where
like it was a territory, right, and so it eventually
this territory got divided up as like Oregon Washington. Eventually
we divided up okay, no, actually, now this is the Dakotas.
Now this is actually Montana, this is Wyoming, right, and

(17:56):
then we got Idaho out of kind of what was
left besides the indigenous people that are from there and
live there, which there are five that are like federally
recognized Native American tribes. It's like the Shoshone, which are
the Bannock and the Paiut Cordeline, Kut and Eye and
the Nez Pierce, And there's also a lot of fur
traders in there. At a time was also a really
really early influx of Chinese immigrants. So that was the

(18:18):
shape of it. Where it has landed now is there
was a ton of Mormon pioneers. This is like a
huge site for like western expansion, because people would hit
this valley in Idaho planning to go forward and they
would kind of be.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Like, Okay, it's just chill here. Yeah, we found a.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Valley we can grow potatoes, Like, well, we'll camp out.
So it was a huge, huge site for Mormon pioneers,
and there's like a ton of media out there and
stories out there about is it.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Near Utah, Yes it is, Okay, a.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
Lot of stories and stuff out there about like the
clashes between the indigenous people there, Mormon pioneers specifically, and
the federal government because this is when like the Mormons
were like, We're going to come out here, do our thing,
our own roles, and the Feds are.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Like it's like a stopping ground for people doing westward expansion. Basically, yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
And so and that's and like still all of the
cities that are the most populated are in this one valley.
It's the Snake River Plain and it's got all the
major cities Boise, Meridian, Nampa called Well Twin Falls, Idaho Falls,
and Pillo. But yeah, you have this like this land
that's very disputed over because the Mormons are like, we
want a place by anyway.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Iowa.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah there's one in there's one in Iowa, but I
think there's another one somewhere else. Took you have Mormons
there being like we want to be pioneers and come
out here and like leave us alone, and the Feds
are like, no, that's our land, and the indigenous people
are like, no, that's our land. So there's a lot
of that went on in this area, just the region
in general. They get their statehood. Finally, it's very white,

(19:47):
it's very Christian in eighteen ninety and it's one of
the states that's hits hardest by the Great Depression because
they used to be very like ag based ag forestry, agriculture, forestry,
and mining, and now they actually have a huge cients
and tech industry because that's where Hewlett Packard is based.
HP most of the population, like I explained, lives in
that valley. A lot of people just kind of chilled

(20:08):
there who are on like the Oregon Oregon Trail because
once you go past there, you hit like the Blue
Mountains and the Cascades, which is like tough. Yeah, So
it kind of makes sense geographically or geologically why that
was so a couple other things. Has one of the
nation's strictest abortion bands. So if you're someone who listens
to this podcast and is like, oh, I want to

(20:29):
know the vibes for education, I want of the vibes
for a place to live, or I'm from there, be
aware that, like this is a really strict state for that.
They were strict interstate travel. There's a huge loss of
specialized physicians in this part of the country as well
other things that pissed me off. Has two time zones
that would bother the hell out of wait.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
It has two time zones in one state. Oh so
a part of it is like fully West Coast in
the other part or whatever.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
So imagine like I'm in one side of Idaho and
you're in the other, and I'm like, can you meet
at nine And you're like, who's not.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
What do you mean.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, I was on a zoom last night and they're
like nine. I'm like my ten. Imagine we're both in Idaho,
but we have to have that conversation in the podcast.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, yeah, despicable.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
So that all bothers me and other news. One of
the oldest North American ski resorts, Sun Valley, is here,
and it boasts the alleged world's first ski lift that
was made in nineteen thirty six. So if you enjoy
ski lifts, you might have Idaho.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
To thank.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
And you should consider that.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
There you go, There you go.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
So I'm gonna move.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
You went from the abortion man the Times done to ski.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Lifts, so trying to paint broadstro you did then no
one said anything about it yet. Okay.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
So I'm gonna walk you through some of the educations
because there's some good stuff going on here, and then
some companies and then some playwriting. Okay. So I start
digging into degrees and a very fun small world things happens.
I look up kind of education theater training in the state,
and University of Idaho pops out first, and I'm like,
oh great, okay, they've got they've got a BA and
they've got a BFA. Okay, great, they've got scholarships. I

(22:06):
click on this next tab because I wanted to find
information about their MFAs, and on the University of Idaho
MFA landing page there's a picture of this beautiful, smiling
woman and I go, wait, that's my friend. Wait what Yeah,
that's my friend Venetia. And I'm like, wait, did my
friend Venetia live in Idaho and go to the University
of Idaho? So I pause, I pause my looking at

(22:27):
their program and I pull up Venetia's new play exchange,
which is Venisia Coleman, and I see that she got
her MFA and Dramatic Writing and Directing from the University
of Idaho.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Oh my god, I know.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
I'm like, I met her years ago and haven't seen
her in a long time, honestly. Yeah, and so she
probably told me that way back when, but like I remembered,
she had been like working Oregan Shakes for a while.
I think she's based still in Minneapolis, which is where
I met her and worked with her. But I'm gonna
do a plug because this is the opportunity for it.
My friend Venetia Coleman has a new play Exchange you
can download her plays. One that I highly recommend you

(22:59):
download is called Being Black Outside. Let me run you
through her bio that she includes on her NPX because
she is a very to me notable alum of the
University of Idaho and if you're from the Idaho theater scene,
you probably know her. This is her MPX bio. Vinisia
Coleman is a playwright, actor and director based in Minneapolis
Saint Paul whose artistic game as a writer is to
tell stories that focus on the black female experience. Her

(23:21):
plays have been developed at Boise Contemporary Theaters, BIPOC Playwriting Festival,
or Against Shakespeare's Festival's Black Swan Lab in Theaters Seven
Devils Playwrights Conference, also in Idaho. We'll talk about it
Madcuth Theater and others. All of her stuff. She's a
finalist award winner and she got our MFA there. So
Being Black Outside is one that I saw. I think

(23:44):
it got readings and stuff done like that in Minneapolis.
And this is the description of that play, which you
can fully download on her MPX. V and Nissi returned
to their childhood home after their mother dies, just in
time for the end of the world the apocalypse to begin.
While remembering the past and the future, The sisters meet
their mother's neighbor, a well meaning white woman, and are
forced to contend with what it means to be black

(24:05):
dot dot dot outside. This comedic play takes a look
at the absurdities and realities of living in a world
that centers whiteness. So this is an amazing play, and
it's such a specifically amazing play that I want to
plug other plays I've talked about that. If you were like,
I love that stuff. If you heard me talk about
Eleana Pipe's play dream House, right, two sisters in their

(24:27):
dead mother's house. You have this like white outsider, Like
you have some absurdity.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
This is so specifically like Pipes from Idaho. No, no, no,
oh you're because this is like yeah, yeah, like how
I try.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
I try and get people like an idea of like
because here's the thing, sitting down and Reneo play takes time.
This one. If you are an NPX user or know
someone who can download, this is available to you. But
that's that tone.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, And it's beautiful Black Outside.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Being Black Outside by Venishia Coleman. They're watching the two
sisters are watching a horror movie the whole time, and
so there's like a woman screaming and then they're like,
get out, do whatever. But then it starts to like
blood comes out of the pipes, stars start falling outside them,
earthquakes keep happening throughout the play, and this white neighbor
keeps showing up and taking their shit and wearing their
mom's clothes, and yeah, it's amazing. So yeah, shout out

(25:14):
my old friend Venetia, go support her. A University of
Idaho alum so circling back to University of Idaho, their
MFA program is very cool for a few things. They
offer specialized degrees and MFAs that can be learned entirely online,
which is not something I had seen before and is
wildly accessible. We both had to pick up our lives
and like move to.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
West VIRGINIAMFA like and like playwriting and acting.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
This is what it says. It says we offer so
MFA can be. It says we offer this degree, the MFA,
both on campus and fully online, with all full time
online students paying in state tuition WHOA, which is amazing.
It says available online. Emphasies are design, Technology and Management,
which is DTM directing, dramatic writing, and theater pedagogy. So

(25:59):
you couldn't do ana and acting there, not in person,
but say you're like, I really want to do an
MFA in theater pedagogy, but I can't afford to leave
my state. You could get in state tuition at the
University of Idaho to do that and just be full
time student online. That's so rare to see. They also
at their a school do internship opportunities with oh Oregon
Shakespeare Festival and Actress Theater Louisville.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
That's this is like a.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Very well connected university. I think a lot of times,
much like w like some of the smaller places or
places people wouldn't think to live. University of Arkansas one
where people don't think like to go there for education.
This is like I haven't seen this before. Yeah, it's
very very accessible, it's super cool.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Oregon Shakes is an actors the amazing, amazing, amazing.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
So then I'm like, okay, like, let's see what else
we've got. They've got Idaho State and I'm from a
place that also has like names like this. So to
clear these up, the one I just talked about is
University of Idaho. This is Idaho State Hornstown. At Idaho State,
they have a being in theater, Yeah, a simple one.
At the College of Idaho, they have a theater major exactly,

(27:06):
you know, you love it. They have a theater major
with a special specialization in design, tech or performance and
a minor. But then if you go over to b
YU Idaho, which there's an Idaho be well okay, cool.
Yeah again big Mormon area where you can quote develop
as a disciple of Jesus Christ. You can do a
BA in children's theater, design, tech, education, performance, or just

(27:30):
a general theater study. Are you mad? I quoted?

Speaker 1 (27:35):
That's funny, just like where you can Well, I didn't
want people to think that like Christ, that they came
up with that. No, I know, I know. It was
just funny the way you said it was so like
in your classic donation. Yeah, it just it was just funny.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
That's what you can do there. Okay, So that's b
why you Idaho. Okay, so you have a little bit
more options as like an undergrad majoring in theater. But
then here comes along the wild card State University.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, I know, State, it's like a big football. They
were just in the playoffs. They are a big school.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
So now we're walking in a Boise, which, you know,
the capital kind of bustling. So Boise State University has
a Department of Film, Theater and Creative Writing. So that's
one department which totally rocks. And guess who was there
to do a reading of a new work on my
literal birthday last year, Regief Joseph.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Wow Reggief Joseph.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Partnered with Boise State Theater Program and Sun Valley Playwrights
Residency to do a premier reading of his new play Horoscope.
So this is of the programs that you could be
entertaining in Idaho if you're an undergrad. This is a
very specific one for like, if you like new works,
if you like contemporary plays, if you want opportunities to
kind of like professionally network within Idaho, this is a

(28:49):
really good option for that. Yeah, okay, beautiful, you love it.
Let's talk about some theater companies. Heck yeah, the first
on I'm going to talk about I'm talking about because
they have an open position. Unfortunately, this is going to
come out right as that submission closed, but I say
shoot your shot anyway. This theater is called the Liberty
Theater Co. They're a nonprofit. They have information on their website.

(29:11):
Their mission statement is, you know, our company of Storytellers
harnesses the art of live performance for the community. Through
established plays, new works, and dynamic educational programming. We provide
experiences designed to bring Enrichmond to all. It's this very
very cool theater. Yeah, they have a very very cool
artistic director right now. Go check out her bio. Her
name is Naomi McDougall Jones. Great name, cool bio, Check

(29:35):
it out. She was someone who had served as an
artistic director for something called Theater Masters in New York
and in Aspen, Colorado, and she has a kind of
a lifetime experience of nurturing and developing new work. She
oversaw the growth of the National MFA Playwrights Festival.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Oh sick.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Yeah, super super cool stuff. A lot of those people
went on to win Obi's Tony's Emmy's a Pulitzer And
she has a background as an actor. Her job is
opening up and honestly it's a pretty good like ad breakdown,
all just kind of hit the high notes. They want
someone who can live in Idaho, the Wood River Valley,
which is Sun Valley. Yeah, where the freaking ski lived

(30:15):
was invented? Ever heard of it?

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Oh my god? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
So you live in this place full time, which or
like at least like eight or nine months of the year.
It's gorgeous, right, it's beautiful. It's like that ideal like
natural small town kind of vibe. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom
Hanks and Ernest Hemingway houses there. Yeah, so it's like
it's a vibe and if you like skiing, hell yeah.
They have a summer symphony, all great stuff, and they

(30:37):
have like around three to five professional theater companies. They've
had their audience grow and is on track to grow
four hundred to five hundred percent season by season, so
like this season to next they think they're going to
have five hundred percent growth in audiences.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Which if you're an artistic director and you're looking for
a job, like sometimes it feels like theater leadership. Sometimes
you're brought in and you don't know what's going on.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah, I don't know this company.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
I haven't worked there, but I just thought that was
like a really encouraging thing to include in their breakdown.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
That's wild.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
There's three full time employees, one part time. The position
is super cool, and I think they included the compensation,
which is between sixty five and seventy five K. That's dope,
which for us a small town is not, you know,
nothing to look down on. They include how to apply
on their website that says it's going to close on
January thirty first. But again they asked for a cover letter,

(31:32):
a resume, a letter like, you know, the basics. This
is Liberty Theater co and Boise. Much like academia jobs,
ad jobs are really really difficult. If you're someone who
is from there, Hey, you probably know about this. If
you're not, if you'd want to live in an amazing
ski town, do it. But I just wanted to point
that out because that's kind of the point of this season. Yeah,

(31:52):
they've got great seasons. And then if you're not an
ad if you're just an actor, they have open submissions
year round on their website for everybody. So actors, design directors, playwrights,
send them a pdf, send your resume, send any materials
and they will look at it. That's dope, that's amazing.
We love to see it. Another big hitter there is
this place called Boise Contemporary Theater they do these things

(32:14):
called like five by five readings, and they're like very
cool readings. They're doing what the Constitution means to me
right now. Of course, I feel like we like talk
about that every episode. Yeah, Hidershirt comes up every episode.
One of their readings they're doing is The Shark Is Broken.
They're going to do Mother Play by Paula Vogel soon,
Oh heck.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
They also do a free children's readings and you get
free cookies and Bezza huge, which I was just like
still in the student brain a little. I was like, oh,
hell yeah, I'd be there in I know. So, like,
they do programming for everybody. But they're also the home
to the BYPOC Theater Festival, which is that thing that Viniio.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Is gitch with as well.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
This is some boise, this isn't boise, and this is
upcoming in August of twenty twenty five, but they do
it annually. The Boise Contemporary Theater's annual BIPOC Playwrights Festival,
found it twenty one seeks to champion emerging and mid
career playwrights by connecting exceptional works with professional actors, directors,
and technicians. The festival gives play rights of colors the
chance to workshop their script during the week with a

(33:12):
director in a full cast. Hearing their words read aloud
by professional actors provides value valuable feedback. The festival culminates
in staged readings of their scripts. This experience informs their work,
builds their careers so they can keep telling their stories.
They also last year launched the Young Playwrights Initiative to
include one unproduced work by a writer between eighteen and
twenty five in this lineup as well.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Oh that's dope.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yeah, it's really really great. It's an amazing opportunity. If
this sounds like something you're eligible for, definitely, definitely, definitely
go for this. Yeah, all right. Next up, Idaho Shakespeare Festival.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Oh give me that.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
You know what, you love it. It's giving American Players Theater,
which is in spring Green, Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Okay, So if you if you're like that niche listener,
I know, we probably have like five niche listeners who
are like, I get it, I get the reference. Yeah,
Americans Players Theater. It has this like Gorge is outdoor Amphitheater.
This is a very very similar vibe. They do have
open submissions for actors. On their website, They've got amazing
branding and marketing materials, Like they're doing shit. I'm showing

(34:11):
justin my screen. They're doing Shakespeare that's like fun, juvenated
and colorful and like weird, gorgeous midsummer images on their website.
When we're recording this right.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Now, that looks so cool, so cool.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
They have an apprentice company that charges tuition, so I'm
telling you that, I will say for young people. They
do also do touring programming.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
SORR arguing on a second, yea, quiet in the corner.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Sorry, our apprentice company to pay us. Yea, they started
crying a.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Little too quiet in the corner. Up, try it up,
dry it up.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
We should get a dry it up button.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Okay, So but I Shake does an apprentice company, So if.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
You don't love hating turns and apprentice apprentices, you could
do a touring a touring into with them, which is
it's something a lot of people do, especially right after
undergrad I like, I don't know if this is fair
to say, but I view it as like the straight
play actors like response to mpts going on a cruise
to pay off their debt. Ye it feels like two
straight play actors get in a car and like go,
you know, deal with children and stuff like that. But

(35:20):
they have more kind of like explanations about that on
the website. That's interesting to you. But if you're a professional,
hit those open submissions. I love that these smaller regional
marketplaces are like, yeah, tell us who you are. Ye,
maybe nothing will come of it, but try why not?

Speaker 1 (35:33):
H for sure?

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Amazing they're doing Twelfth Night. It looks like it's going
to be so beautiful and cool. Their Twelfth Night branding
is it's viola like in the water like it's so
that's sick, it's so cool. So that would definitely be
a place I would visit if I was there. Gorgeous amphitheater,
good information about their casting on their site. There's also
a company I couldn't find a lot about it, but
it's the Courdaline Summer Theater Professional Musical Theater, So it's

(35:56):
a summer stock company specific specifically for musical theater. Yeah,
they do have information about some of their auditions and
corruptions on their website. It looks like also they do
virtual auditions. They're closed right now, So if you're someone
who's like I don't know. That's like no risk to you.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Next up, this one's kind of more for the playwrights
is Seven Devils.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Oh yeah, Seven Devils is dope.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yes, it's the Playwriting Conference. It's pretty low key. There's
like a ten dollars submission and really really open parameters
for what you can do. But it's in their twenty
third year. It's a two week conference that brings play
rights directors, dramatics, actors, and theater artists from around the
country to McCall, Idaho for two weeks of rehearsals, readings,
and workshops of new plays. They also do that for
area high school students. There's free workshops all the time

(36:38):
every now an artists. There's an internship program. I couldn't
find out if they abused them, but they didn't say why.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
In the corner Dry it Up, Dry it Up, Dry
it up, Dry it up.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Thank you. And yeah, it's an open submission process, like
you do have to pay a sbmit, but again it's
ten dollars, which, like in the world of what we
do is like not the worst thing you're ever gonna hear. Now,
over the course of their history, they've developed more than
two hundred and fifty new plays by Pulitzer Prize winners,
emerging writers, all sorts of people, everyone in between, and
they really want to empower play rights and keep them

(37:09):
free from the pressures and concerns of full production. Yeah,
more than fifty percent of the plays that they've developed
there have gone on for full production at on Broadway
venues around the country, including the Humana Festival, Actress Theater, Louisville,
Roundabout Theater, Denver, Cenna, Rattlestick, Barrington Gift Theater, Kitchen Theater,
Montana rep like everywhere. So the people who come here
and get their stuff worked, it seems like it goes

(37:30):
very well for them.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
They put up like huge shows, huge shows.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Very very cool. Their conference looks like is going to
take place this year June second to fourteenth in McCall
But these submissions are usually in the fall, so maybe
have that on your radar. It's really great stuff. In
a similar vein, but maybe of a bigger picture level

(37:54):
is Sun Valley play Rights. Sun Valley play Rights Residency
is for what I would consider like established professional and
lauded playwrights. There's some very major names attached to it.
Their mission statement is Sun Valley play Rights Residency is
a nonprofit organization that gives playwrights time and resources to
write in an inspired Idaho setting and provides the local

(38:16):
community events that offer insight into writers' creative processes. We
foster your relationships between theatermakers and Idaho's Wood River Valley
community and fuel the American theater with invigorating new plays
that speak to our collective humanity. And so it's super cool.
It's a residencies where like you come and you work,
and then you get sent away again. Jen Silverman is

(38:37):
on their advisory board. Yeah, there's lots of major players
here and it's going to kind of give way to
one of the big playrights I want to talk about,
which is Samuel D. Hunter. Also, this this one Sun
Valley play Rights Resent Residency takes place in Ketchum. And
some more I found out about Idaho is that they're

(38:59):
very possessed of Ernest Hemingway. And it's not because he's
from there, Yeah, but he did live there for like
twenty years or something and he died there, very famous death,
and so they kind of like they count him as
one of their own because he did spend the last
years of his life there. That's so dump yeah, and
so like that we have a house there, right, yeah,
and you can, like I think you can tour and stuff.

(39:20):
That fact kind of like launched some media about it.
There was this musical called Too Close to the Sun. Yeah,
that was like famously hated and it was a musical
that was based off of a book or a play
or someone else. But if you look up Too Close
to the Sun you will see some of the meanest reviews,

(39:40):
Like people didn't like this play. I can't express that enough.
And it's sort of like telling the last days of
his life and like it's like yeah, and it's two women,
like it's like it's his wife like trying to keep
him in Idaho to be his wife, and then it's
like people who want to like make money off him
and get him to come to only like seducing him
with their second Terry's Like, yeah, it was not well received,

(40:02):
but if you're interested in that dynamic, you can go there.
There's also an Aaron Sorkin play based off of some
like drama that went down in Idaho about the inventor
of the television, which is interesting again, like Hemingway died there,
like you had a very interesting life. You could have
your own podcast about it. And Ernest Hemingway did write
one full length play called The Fifth Column, which I

(40:23):
didn't know and I haven't been able to try and read.
But that Aaron Sorkin play that I talked about, that's
called The Farnsworth Invention, and it seems like it was
like received okay, but nothing really happened with it. But
if you're an Aaron Sorkin fan, hey he wrote a
play set night.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Oh, I was gonna say, I think realized Aaron Sorkin
wrote plays.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, I didn't either, But yeah. The major player that
I'm going to end and talk about here is Samuel D.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
Hunter.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
Huge Samul D Hunter. We know, we love. He was
born in Moscow, Idaho. He lives in New York now.
He boops and bops all around. The major thing you're
gonna know about him, obviously is a bright new boise
The Whale and then I rewt. I ready, I'm like
dying of thirst. I reread both of those because those
are kind of his two big ones. I still haven't

(41:06):
seen the movie of the Whale, but I know it
got kind of like mixed feelings about it. But I
reread both of them and I realized Elder Thomas in
a bright new Boise I'm sorry in the Whale is
from Waterloo, Iowa. That character they make a whole thing
of him being and I was like, I smell something here.
I'm seeing a Gens Silverman connection. Sam's talking about Waterloo.
He got his m f A from the University of Iowa.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
Sorry, weird, dumb. A Few Good Men was written by
Aaron Sorkin the and he did, oh we talked about
Oh we have I was like, Aaron Sorkin writes plays
like he does.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
I always forget that keep going. I can sniff out
like a oh.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Hit in front of a large, very large, a mere crisis.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, I can sniff out like when Iowa has entered
a chat and so that that to me is a
good through line. Like Sam Lee Hunter went to University
of Iowa. So did Jen Silverman. They're now on the
advisory board for the Sun Valley Player Rights Festival that
he went to. And that's why Elder Thomas from Waterloo
because they're probably in Iowa and people were probably like, what,
it's one of those places that people whatever like, Yeah,

(42:14):
it's why the roommate is set and iwa yeah, you
know so Iowa and theater will always speak to me.
And I bring that up because like Samuel D. Hunter
is like a homie. Yeah, he is loyal to his
state in a way that like you don't always see
from playwrights, with the exception of of like John Kriani,
which we talked about briefly. So you've interviewed can say

(42:35):
that you've interviewed John Krianni, who did almost Main obviously,
and a lot of his work is set.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
In Maine, almost all of it.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
It's an homage to where he's from.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
He's just keeping King of Sweet Main Theater.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yes, he can't stop writing about it. That's Samuel D.
Hunter for Idaho. And so my question to you is
do you feel that way about Ohio as a writer?

Speaker 3 (42:54):
No, No, I wanted to ask you about it because
you're a writer and you you come with new ideas
all the time and you go home all the time,
like any of those of her overlap or No.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
I like I like the idea of like one day
being like a Roji Joseph, where like some of like
like maybe I'll write my like Ohio play like King
James or I'll I'll do my I'll have some things
here and there that kind of connect to it. Yeah,
like my I'm trying to because I love like lore
and stuff like that. Like I'm trying to connect on
my playscripts titles, and I think they're slowly kind of

(43:27):
like like one of like my most well known play
that I've written, his Community Garden, and it's based in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
So because you felt a connection there.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Yeah, because I felt connection there. Yeah, but yeah, no,
I don't. I don't have that.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
You're not going to be a sanmity hunter origin.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Maybe like one day, but probably not.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
These guys are obsessed.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
Yeah, I know. I love people like that though. I
love people that like, like I like talking to John
carry Oni and hearing his like feelings about Maine and
his like connection to that is so interesting. Yeah, I
you know, I love Ohio. I I love Ohio.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
You want to fight for it to have its own term.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Middi's baby, But but I do. I am realizing why
we're not called the mid East because he already a
place called the Middle East. Yeah, so I guess we
kind of can't be confusing, dang it. But yeah, but
like I I do think that the that I don't
have that kind of like viber connection with like writing

(44:17):
with Ohio, but like I do think that it's very
It's always interesting to watch these playwrights like John Kriani
like focus so heavily on where they're from and dive
so deep into that, and I think same one Hunter
does it. I've read a couple of his, like a
Bret new Bois and the new one he wrote, I'm
totally blanking on the name.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Was it not Grangel? You probably haven't gotten No, I
haven't seen it yet. Little Bear Ridge Road A Case
for the Existence of the Case for.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
The Existence of God, Little Bear Ridgerard. Do you know
about that one? That play? So okay, I'll give you
a little tame un really quick because it's awesome. So
I was looking at.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
Last He's my stopping point on Okay.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Cool, So I have some readings for you. It's so cool.
So so he is so big that Laurie Metcalf and
Joe Mantello all got together and sent an email to
Steppenwolf and said, we want to do something on your
main stage next year, and Stephanwel said okay. So for

(45:12):
like six months on step now their season. And if
you went to this, it said Untitleddanuel D. Hunter Play
and you clicked it and and it said we received
an email from Sanity Hunter, Laurie Metcalf and Joe Mantello
saying they wanted to do a play. When you received
that email, you don't say no. Yeah, they so they
fully announced their season. I mean, like, we know these

(45:32):
three people are doing a show here, and that's what
Little Bear Rich Road became.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
But I remember that happening. I didn't know that's what
it became.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah. I found out about it, posted about it, and
then a week after I posted about it was when
they announced like the show. So people were going back
in comment to me like it's actually Little Bear Rich Road,
and I was like, look at the dates. I didn't
know that yet. Love to leave me alone, but I
heard it was awesome. Yeah, it was sick.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Also, if this is familiar to you, I do also
want to speak out right now. I slip up all
the time and call Samuel D. Hunter Sam Shepherd.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
If I say that, just know we're talking about the
rest of the episode.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
This is about Samuel D.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Hunter.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
I might call him Sam. If this is sounding familiar
to you and somehow you aren't aware of any of
his kind of heavy hitters. I also did a deep
dive on the play Pocatella last season, which is that
cool play set in a restaurant. Now my kind of
like next little bit here. Playwrights Horizons has a series
of articles and like content about him that was all

(46:33):
made or written or like put together by someone named
Adam Greenfield. I don't know who that is, but my
compliments to you. These were amazing pieces of material and
they really really really helped me understand more about Sam Hunter.
He has an essay, an interview, and then Samuel D.

(46:54):
Hunter has his own essay, And so I'm gonna read first,
just like the opening paragraph from Adam Greenfield's article The
American Voice Your Own Private Idaho. Yeah, because it's talking
about this and I'm so fascinated by writer process. There's
steinbeckensa sorry, where's just located again? This is on Playwrights Horizons.

(47:14):
It's within their kind of collection of essays.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
I want to make sure, which.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
If you're someone who struggles with writing block, if you're
like I want to talk more about theater, learned to
talk good, Go go read the stuff that's out there.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Adam Greenfield.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Adam Greenfield, I'll link this in our thing, okay, sweet.
There's Steinbeck and Selina's Faulkner and Yoknapo Tafa, which I
said badly, Raymond Carver and his stomping ground, the Pacific Northwest,
Philip Roth and Newark. More recently, there's Annie Baker and
her fictional Shirley Vermont. And then there are the settings
of Sam Hunter's plays, which, if you look closely, reveal

(47:47):
a pattern. An olive garden franchise in Pocatello, Idaho, the
inside of a weathered, paper littered, unkept office off of
some random exit on I ninety in Northern Idaho, Lewiston, Idaho,
Northern Idaho, the present various locations en route from Montana
to Iowa via I ninety which would go through Idaho.
A large casino on the Quurdeline Indian Reservation in northern Idaho.

(48:11):
The window is breakroom of a hobby lobby in Boise, Idaho.
The interior of a small ranch style house in Viola,
a small town of about seven hundred people in northern Idaho.
And then this is a quote from Sam and says,
I never sit down and say to myself that I'm
going to write another play that's set in Idaho, a
Hunter told the Idaho Public Television earlier this year. It
always just sort of naturally falls there for anyone. Of course,

(48:33):
the thought of home carries with it a confusing mashup
of emotions and issues chronically unresolved, where the claustrophobia and
disorientation of being a teenager is complicated by the remembrance
of home cooked meals, bicycles, and hanging out. It's not
surprising that Hunter, like so many writers, returns to the
landscape of his youth. The soil there is fertile. When
considering his plays collectively, Sam's Idaho is riddled with paradoxes,

(48:58):
as majestic as it is oppressive, desolate as it is
unexpectedly beautiful. This goes on and on and on and
is amazing and is lovely, and I want to read
them out loud to all of you, but I'm not
going to. I'm going to move ahead to a different essay.
And this is written by Samuel D. Hunter. It's their
Playwrights Perspective series. This is comforting to me because it

(49:20):
tells more about his own writing process and kind of
humanizes the playwright, which I'm always fascinated by because playwrights
in general just seem kind of like really really smart
people who are almost scary to me that they're so
smart and so tapped into the human experience. Play rates
to me like feel and I'm not religious, but they
feel like locked in and ordained with God, that they
were tasked with understanding something super complicated and then just

(49:40):
like being able to parse it out for so simply
it's about him. This essay is about him teaching, and
he has like an adjunct job at Rutgers and he's
teaching freshman how to write an essay. He has a
master's degree in playwriting. That's what he has to tell
them on day one. We both taught undergrad students and

(50:01):
he's trying to teach them how to write a good essay,
and he's realizing, like, I don't think I know how.
He assigns them like some really basic stuff and he
kind of comes to terms with what's actually going on here,
and he talks about reading some of their work and
he says, after reading the first couple all these essays
they had written, I had a revelation I've been thinking
that teaching this class would be a process of me

(50:21):
desperately teaching myself how to write essays while simultaneously trying
to teach the same thing to these students. But at
that moment, I realized that I wasn't just teaching them
how to write good essays. I was teaching them how
to think. I was teaching them to come up with
original ideas, give them the ability to have an independent thought,
and put that thought into words on paper. In many ways,
writing a good essay is almost exactly like writing a

(50:42):
good play. It takes original ideas, development, complication, revelation. Perhaps
most importantly, it takes the ability to treat your subject
with respect and a lack of judgment. It takes empathy.
Then he goes on to say about two weeks later,
I started taking notes during my train ride on a
play about connection and empathy that would eventually grow into
The Whale, which, if you remember the Whale, it's this

(51:04):
man who is remotely teaching college students how to write
an essay. And it's so beautiful to see that lived
experience of his so then beautifully characterized on stage. Because
sometimes I think that's my anxiety about parading is I'm like, well,
if I write something too good, you'll know all my secrets.
I write something too good, someone that loves me is
going to feel bad because how would I know to

(51:27):
feel that way or to need to articulate it right?
And so there's something like so human and personal about
how far he's willing to go a with his home
and be with his plays and sharing that with us.
The last thing that Adam Greenfield has that I could
find with specifically Samuel D. Hunter is an interview, and
the opening question Adam Greenfield asks is one of the

(51:48):
first things that one realizes about your plays when looking
at them as a body of work, is that they're
all set in Idaho or around Idaho. And I know
you grew up in Idaho yourself, I believe Moscow. And
he's like yeah, and he asked, can you tell me
a little bit the Idaho you grew up in? Now,
this interview is very long and it's also very gruesome,
So a bit of a trigger warning in general about

(52:08):
Sam Hunter. A lot of his plays deal with themes
of religion and also suicide, and so if you're someone
who's going to look through this article, you're going to
see a lot of that come up, and I think
you see it come up very like graciously and beautifully
and comforting. But you should be aware of that before
he sent you out on this journey. He talks a

(52:32):
lot in this interview about his experience being gay at
a Christian fundamentalist school, right, and you know, friends knowing,
friends not knowing, and that there was this teacher who
was a poet who just kind of saved him, who
you know, directed him towards seeing angels in America at
the University of Idaho. Right, all of these things that
if you looked back in his timeline kind of locked

(52:54):
in him becoming the player he was going to become.
In general, this interview is like really really helpful. I
hear someoneho's feeling hopeless or maybe you're feeling like you
can't see the forest of the trees of your own
artistic evolution or timeline that you're in. And it's also
interesting because I found out that Sam Hunter's yet another
poet to play write pipeline victim, you know what I mean,

(53:14):
Like this is someone who was like a poet and
someone else was like, go see a pla.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
That's so cool.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
That's just always gonna happen. I want to end by
just kind of reading this chunk about him talking about
his home in Idaho, because I think that's like the
biggest takeaway is that we're going through some of these
states and some of them are harder to research to
than other. Yeah, all of them do have something, and
all of them have people that are from there that
wouldn't have been the same if they didn't have that.
So Adam asked to talk a little bit about the

(53:41):
Idaho he grew up in. He says, yeah, I mean,
it bears less and less resemblance to the plays that
I'm writing as I continue to write them. I mean,
obviously set in Idaho, but there's nothing that's really quintessentially
Idahoan about most of my plays. Like there are some
references that sure are Idahoan, but I believe the plays
actually are trying to be sort of non regional in

(54:01):
a way they could be anywhere in America. And so
he kind of goes into this binary of like coastal
city opening shot of the city versus rural America settings
and place. He says, but the Idaho that I grew
up in, I mean I obviously pull from the place
I grew up, and I guess more than just the
place I grew up, it does still feel like home,
like when I go back, I kind of settle into

(54:22):
it in a certain way, in a similar way that
I feel at home in New York, but in both places.
In both Idaho and New York. This speaks to me
so much as someone who's just home for the holiday sidebar,
I think I feel a sense of isolation. I feel
like both New York and Moscow have become homes to me,
but simultaneously, I don't feel completely at home in either place,
and I think the plays are kind of about that.

(54:44):
I don't think a lot of the characters I feel
at home in any way. I don't think they feel
at home in their bodies. I don't think they feel
at home spiritually. There's a sense of disconnect and isolation
that I think a lot of the characters feel, and
I guess maybe that's rooted in my own not that
I'm generally at oppress person, but I've never lived in
a place where it's like, ah, this fits me like
a glove, like everything about this place is exactly what

(55:05):
it needs to be. I always feel a little bit
on the outside in some way. Maybe that's self imposed.
It probably is. Yet when I think about the place
where I grew up, it's very normal, it's very nice.
It's a town of twenty thousand people, a university town.
My parents went to that university, my brother went to
that university, my grandparents went to that university. But there's
something just in the margins, And I think maybe every

(55:26):
small town feels this way that Like, by the time
I graduated high school, I knew three kids who had
killed themselves, the first one in seventh grade. And I'm
not trying to say, you know, oh, there's some kind
of desperation and a loneliness that's not in New York,
because people kill themselves in New York too, But there's
just something a little more fringy or something something that
feels different. And my dad has stories of his hometown.
He grew up ten miles away in this town called

(55:47):
Troy that when he was growing up was mostly Swedish
speaking and had a population of three hundred and fifty people.
And he has incredible stories from that town. And he
works in an emergency room. He's a physician in an
emergency room. In Lewiston, which is the town in a
valley where there's a big paper mill, and paper mills
smell terrible, So the stench just sits in this valley
and it's got a terrible drug problem and a terrible
homelessness problem. And I remember him telling a story of

(56:09):
this guy who came in, this homeless guy in this
small town in Idaho, Idaho, a quadriplegic whose spine was
exposed because the bottom half of his body was rotting
and there were maggots living in his body. And he
has many stories like that. I think I just I
grew up hearing a lot of these stories and being
completely fascinated by them. And they seem so at odds
in a way with our normal concept of what it's

(56:30):
like to live in small town. Like I think in
New York, people sort of accept the fact that there's
a lot of grunge and a lot of weirdness around.
But I think small town America, there's this pride that
doesn't allow people to accept the weirdness. It's like, no, no, no,
we're fine, this is a great town. And so I
even find myself, like, even talking now, I find myself
self censoring and apologizing for my hometown in a way. Again,

(56:51):
it's a great town and a great place to grow up,
but it's it's also a really complex place, like any
place in the country. I guess this goes on for
pages really long, so thank you for being a but
it is so moving, so specifically if you are an
artist and you feel at odds with the identity of
like where you come from and the idea that you

(57:11):
can love where you come from and also kind of
hate it, or the idea that there is no simple
place in America. That people think of New York and
some people when they hear that word, they think wealth,
and they think glamor, and they think Sacks Fifth Avenue,
and some people think about homeless people, and some people
think about drug use, and some people think about poverty,
and the same is true of Idaho. Some people think
of smiling Swedes and university, and some people think about this.

(57:36):
It's just a really, really really moving interview. Shout out
outam Greenfield, whoever you are, I'll buy you coffee. These
are amazing pieces of writing that really lock in on
Sam Hunter and if you're on who he is, and
I don't know, maybe it's like the actor ego in me,
but like putting together the little mystery, like with my
magnifying glass of how someone writes and then who they

(57:58):
are even just the old zigzag paper trail of like well,
of course you know.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Jen Silverman, but especially for a playwright like him, where
like his playwright, his canon is so connected to his
growing up and he's.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Brave about it.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Yeah, here's the thing.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
This is a gay man who grew up in a
Christian fundamental school in Idaho. He has to be brave.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
He has his quote somewhere in this that says, a
few years ago, I kind of realized if I'm gonna
write good plays, I have to really put something on
the line. It has to be a play that's hard
for me to write, where I'm really struggling to work
something out. Because if I'm not doing that, if I'm
not struggling with something, if I'm not engaged in active way,
then I can't expect an audience member to be. And
so if that speaks to you, if you like the mundane,

(58:38):
but it's thinly veiled everything else his plays are beautiful.
They're about empathy, religion, death, beauty, outcasts. It's about the
most beautiful moments of humanity wrapped in shame. That's my
takeaway from it. And again, if Ido speaks to you
in any way, if for some reason you haven't read
Samuel D. Hunter's works, please let this be your your

(58:59):
call less to start do it? Yeah, beautiful work. Yeah, yeah,
that's idaho.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
That's idahoo. Baby oh man. Wait to end on a
perfect note for me to say, justin.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
This is play disease, to choose and a lie six
to true and a lie, and.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
The songs tell lies about the states talking.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
About this is the one. This is the one that's right.
It's time for true and the lie, So I know,
I know. To Choosing a lie is our little mini
game at the end of every episode where the person

(59:52):
who didn't do the research creates three statements too are
true and one is false. A tricky little game, and
we see if the person who did the research will
be able to figure out which one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
The lie is so bad at these, but but do
your worst this one.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
I feel like you'll get probably Yeah, I don't know.
I'm not as proud of this one as I happened
in the past.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Could an game?

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
All right? My three statements. Okay, One, there's a sea
serpent named Charlie that some say live in pay It
Lake near McCall, Idaho. Charlie Charlie s h R A
R L I E.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Well, you love cryptids.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
Okay, I think I'm gonna put a crypto one into
every single one because because you don't know if it's
a true cryptid. Factor of that's a mean strategy, but
it's a good Idaho is one of the top five
states for diamond output.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
That doesn't seem right, but like they were a mining place.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
And then findal one. Edward Norton went to a Boise
State for his undergrad.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Ed Norton also has a master's like in English or.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
Something, right, I think went to Yale. Two.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
So, okay, the diamond thing isn't sitting right because.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
Did you have a master I assumed he had a
master's in acting.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
I saw some interview where he has a master's and
something you wouldn't think. Yeah, diamonds seems wrong because if
they were exporting diamonds, they'd have a ton of money
and honestly, there'd be way more people. They're like trying
to get all the diamonds, and I wouldn't think, oh yeah,
Hewlett Packard, because I'd be thinking diamonds. You know, screw
the forklift, not the forklift, the ski lift. Diamonds.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
That's the one you're going with.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
No, let me let me hear the first one again,
because that one was kind of wordy. That was suspicious.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
Okay, I'm just looking something up.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
Charlie, tell me more about that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
A sea serpent named Charlie. That's some set lives in
pay It Lake near McCall, Idaho.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
I know McCall is real. I bet that lake is real.
To be honest, the best thing you have going for
this one is it's a very Christian area. And like
it makes sense, like the bad I would be a snake.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Yeah, diamonds. Okay, diamonds.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Say the second statement again, because is there something you're
leaving out like in Idaho?

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
No, Idaho is one of the top five states for
diamond output.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Diamond output, like they're mining them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Like people are finding a lot of diamonds in Idaho.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Wouldn't we have a diamond rush? Does that exist?

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
I mean, like, I don't think we're finding a lot
of diamonds anymore anyways, But I think, but, but, but
I think, like in I'm saying in general, one of
the top five states that people have found diamonds and
in the history of the state is Idaho.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
This sucks because if I don't guess the cryptid, you'll
make me feel so dumb over the day.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
I mean, you can guess the cryptid. Then ed Norton's
kind of sea serpent name Charlie. That sounds crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
That seems like you came up with something that sounds
silly on the tongue.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
I do like that. I do like that. It is
a what I didn't realize as a world, as I said,
a sea serpent name Charlie that some say red leather.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
Yellow leather. All right, the diamond thing is fake. I'm
saying it. The diamond thing is fake.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
That's what you're locked in at. Yeah. Sure, yeah, it's
Edward Norton. That was the the Yale. He didn't go
to Boys and State. I made that up fully. That
was just fully made up.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
I thought they would have said that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
I thought of a guy and I just said that
was smart though.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
That was like perfectly random enough.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
That was my Yeah, Idaho. For some reason, they found
a lot of diamonds in Idaho. And the history of Idaho.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Yeah, I feel like that would have come up on
the on the research on it, but it didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
And then yeah, Charlie is one of the highest is
the most famous crypto Charlie. And then there's like Charlie
the Creek Lake Monster or the Bear Lake Monster or
something are the two biggest cryptids. But yeah, Charlie the
sea Serpent lives in a lake in McCall, Idaho.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
I'm glad that I at least had the sense to
like know that one was right. Yeah, yeah, I would
just pick that knowing you.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Yeah, well, I like making up cryptids, but then now
I'm just gonna put in real cryptods sometimes to throw
you off.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
There we go. So we did it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
We did Idaho.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
We did Idaho.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
We did Idaho. Good Stuffy, Yeah, thank you Gus so much.
To listen to the episode, make sure you rate, review,
and subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen. Follow us
on Instagram at actual Erka Koon at justin Borak. We
post about the show. We post about the stuff that
we're doing, so check that out. Read our plays. Go
read Kill the Birds on new play Exchange. Go read
my stuff over a new play changes as well. Also,

(01:04:19):
you can read community garden and cabin chronicles over on.
Playscripts published over are licensed all that junk. Yeah, go
check out our websites. Ericadashcoon dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
It needs to be updated.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Justin Borak dot com. We have websites and we talk.
We have our stuff up there. Yeah, and uh, it's
February seventh. Next week is Valentine's Next week is Valentine's
and the day before Valentine's Day is my dram Bookshop event.
So yeah, Justin wall, go check out Justin's wall. It's
up right now. So go look at my wall on

(01:04:54):
the back of the dram Bookshop and come hear me
talk on February thirteenth at the dram Bookshop. Also super fun. Yeah,
and yeah, I think that's everything. Go, I was go
read a single d Hunter play. All of a lot
of that stuff will be link I'll make sure I
link the player to Horizons articles and stuff down there.
So go read those because I know I'm going to,
and they seem really beautiful and wonderful and important. So yeah,

(01:05:17):
but read the same Hunter play. Oh there's a good
shout out. Grangeville is coming to New York. In like
a week or two.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
Yeah, very soon.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Yeah, in a couple of weeks. We actually I just
got an influencer com so yeah, so it's going to
sig where Bad Creole was where we saw what do
we see in the theater? That was The Seagull by
Thomas Bradshaw. So yeah, they do really really great stuff.
Brandon Fraser was supposed to be in it, but now
he's not, and I forget who's in it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Really was in the marketing, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
He's he he's not in it anymore. I don't know why,
but but I'm still excited. It is the simile to
be Hunter play. It's gonna be awesome. I mean literally,
he's done banger after banger after bangers.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
Brandon Frazier was from Idaho.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
He was in that show you that it's that is Grangeville,
a place in Idaho, like it's just the name of
another city, brand New Boise. He did pook A Tello.
I wonder if that is look that up. We're not
going to look into it. We'll look into it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
We'll let you know, dry up and look it up.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
Dry it up, dry it up, dry it up, and
thank you so much for listening. I'm gonna end this episode,
of the way and every episode, by looking at my friend
down her big blue eyes and saying, Erica Coon, I
love you so much.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
I love you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
Good

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Idaho - Seven Devils, Samuel D. Hunter, and the University of Idaho

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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;}Idaho - Seven Devils, Samuel D. Hunter, and the University of Idaho