When Dee–a forty-something from Rockford, Illinois–visits Harvard’s namesake statue, she discovers a legacy student, hiding from his parents in the bushes. What could this recently suspended nerd have in common with a Midwestern working-class divorcee? Parents! College! Rules and regulations! Gay or not gay. Gay meanies. What’s a poor little rich boy to do? A Sticky Memento is a world premiere written by Ken Urban (A Guide for the Homesick) and directed by Knud Adams (Primary Trust, English). Th...
Dec 29, 2024•34 min
It’s not easy living with a zealot. Or being at the local supermarket where he prowls. Suppose you like bacon? Suppose disposable diapers? There is interference in the air. Sheila: A Year In The Life Of is a world-premiere James Stevenson commission from Playwright Laureate of Boston Kirsten Greenidge (Milk Like Sugar). Melia Bensussen (Artistic Director of Hartford Stage) directs a terrific ensemble of Seret Scott , Postell Pringle , Nikkole Salter , Brittany Allen , Mary Bacon , Marchánt Davis...
Dec 29, 2024•38 min
What’s with these birthdays that end in a zero? How is it that a mere multiple of ten can wield such power? A touch of wit and love language can help. Crisis Planning is a world premiere James Stevenson commission from Bay Area-playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb (The Making of a Great Moment). Directed by Jason Eagan (Founding Artistic Director of Ars Nova ), the play features Andrew Garman (The Holdovers, “The Gilded Age”) and PoA legend April Matthis (Mary Jane, The Piano Lesson). Stay tuned afte...
Dec 29, 2024•33 min
It’s 1942. WWIl is raging. Mr. Walt Disney is in New York to discuss another propaganda film requested by the US government to boost the wartime effort. At the moment, though, he is in a meeting with a former illustrator from his early days. It’s Gyo Fujikawa. Disney/Fujikawa comes from the mind of 2023 Pulitzer Prize Finalist Lloyd Suh (The Far Country, Franklinland). Directed by Ralph Peña (Among the Dead, ONCE UPON A (korean) TIME), this audio premiere features the talents of Michi Barall (Pe...
Dec 29, 2024•44 min
A woman (Carol Kane) is drawn into a neighborhood church by the sound of music beautifully sung. A marriage is taking place within. Do beautiful music and ceremony make a marriage? Reverie, a world premiere written and directed by Oscar, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Brooklyn Laundry, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea), showcases the talents of Carol Kane (The Princess Bride, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”) and Scarlett Strallen (Cole Porter’s The New Yorkers, S...
Dec 22, 2024•25 min
1976 Kansas or Oz, that is the question. Here's a new spin on a great tale spun. To go, or say no? And in which direction? Kansas? or Oz? Tell me. Anyone? Kansas Anymore, a world premiere from esteemed playwright David Ives (Here We Are, Venus in Fur), features screen legend Lois Smith (Twister, “ER”) and TV star Catherine Curtin (“Orange Is the New Black”, “Stranger Things”). Ives also directs. Stay tuned after the performance for a conversation between the playwright, actors, and Playing on Ai...
Dec 22, 2024•51 min
Parents, Don and Charlotte, summon their adult children, Susanna and Brian, to a meeting at Le Pain Quotidien scheduled smack in the middle of their workday. What’s up? Patricia Cotter’s comedy ensues. Did I Miss Anything Important? is a world-premiere James Stevenson commission from accomplished playwright Patricia Cotter (Mulan, Jr., The Daughters). The cast includes stalwarts David Rasche, Maryanne Plunkett, Zach Appelman, Lesley Fray, and Lakisha May. Marchánt Davis (Reality, Ain’t No Mo’) d...
Dec 22, 2024•40 min
In BONNET, the incredibly talented John Patrick Shanley ’s marital (and sometimes martial) comedy of manners, Dan ( John Turturro ) has a few questions for his wife Ava ( Debra Messing ) when she appears at the breakfast table with a meaningful new accessory. BONNET, written and directed by the Tony Award, Academy Award, and Pulitzer Prize-winning Shanley himself, was recorded live at Playing on Air’s 10th anniversary benefit celebration at 54 Below and features a feisty score by composer Tom Ko...
Aug 27, 2023•20 min
In SECOND SIGHT , a world premiere written and directed by renowned playwright David Ives , a retired historian’s ( Danny Burstein ) minor surgery brings up major questions that his affable surgeon ( Steven Boyer ), bemused wife ( Susie Essman ) and brother ( Lee Wilkof ) can’t seem to answer. Or is he, with the help of an otherworldly stranger ( Brittany K. Allen ), just seeing things clearly for the first time? SECOND SIGHT is directed by Ives and features music by Dan Moses Schreier , musical...
Aug 20, 2023•47 min
It’s 1907 and a typhoid fever outbreak among New York City’s elite families has led zealous sanitation engineer George Soper ( Matt Park ) to the home of the haughty Mr. Winthrop ( Michael Chernus ) and a face-off with Winthrop’s proud, though not very hygienic cook, “Typhoid Mary" Mallon ( Catherine Curtin ). Playwright Rehana Lew Mirza ’s history-inspired comedy, a 2021 Wordsmith Duo Commission supported by the Axe-Houghton Foundation, is directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and features music b...
Aug 13, 2023•33 min
It’s 1915 and another typhoid fever outbreak, this one in a bustling hospital run by an officious Supervisor ( Cindy Cheung ), has once again led dogged sanitation engineer George Soper ( Matt Park ) to the hospital’s newest cook, “Typhoid Mary" Mallon ( Catherine Curtin ). It’s been years since Soper reluctantly released her from a forced quarantine on an inhospitable island. Can Mary finally wash her hands of him for good? Playwright Mike Lew ’s history-inspired comedy TYPHOID MARY , a 2021 Wo...
Aug 13, 2023•33 min
An old school drill sergeant under fire from his very modern and diverse new recruits desperately longs for simpler times. Directed by John Giampietro , James McLindon ’s short satire I DON’T KNOW features stage and screen favorite Jay O. Sanders as the Drill Sergeant and an ensemble cast of Broadway, off-Broadway, and TV regulars as his new recruits: Bobby Moreno , Sue Jean Kim , Jeff Biehl , and Brittany K. Allen . After the play, Producing Artistic Director Claudia Catania moderates a convers...
Aug 06, 2023•24 min
In Lloyd Suh’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. ABERNATHY , a shared story, formerly repressed, begins to bridge the racial and generational distance between a white American centenarian of the Greatest Generation (Len Cariou) and his Asian American great-grandson (Ken Leung). Stay tuned after the play for a poignant conversation between the playwright and Founder and Consulting Director Claudia Catania .
Jul 30, 2023•22 min
It's the summer of 1955, and a new U.S. Army private stationed far away from his New Jersey hometown may have met his match, a very modern Southern belle, at a USO-style dance. Emily Bergl directs a pitch perfect cast— Eli Gelb , Erin Wilhelmi , and Vance Barton —in Cary Gitter ’s THE ARMY DANCE , which also boasts a nifty-fifties-style score by composer Tom Kochan. After the play, host Claudia Catania and executive director Yvie Jones moderate a lively and poignant conversation with the playwri...
Jul 23, 2023•31 min
Hear that? In ECHO AND NARCISSUS , playwright Amanda Quaid 's newfangled take on an infamous myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses , a young woman falls in love with a narcissist after a vengeful wife condemns her to a unique fate. The sprightly production is directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt , stars Sarah Manton , Christian Conn , and Mia Katigbak , and features a kinetic score by composer Tom Kochan . After the play, Playing on Air ( playingonair.org ) founder and consulting director Claudia Catania...
Jul 16, 2023•25 min
A jet-lagged Gen Z couple ( Toney Goins and Kerry Warren ) decides to take an old school taxicab home to Brooklyn instead of an Uber, and their kooky cabbie ( Louis Mustillo ) introduces them to a very different (under)side of New York City. Playwright Aurin Squire ’s otherworldly urban comedy is a James Stevenson Commission for Short Comedic Plays, generously supported by Josie Merck, and boasts an animated score by composer Tom Kochan . Stay tuned after the play for a spirited conversation, st...
Jul 09, 2023•41 min
From brilliant New Yorker cartoonist, illustrator, and children's book author James Stevenson comes this darkly hilarious reimagining of iconic animated characters - now "over the hill" and waiting out their golden years at a seedy retirement community in Los Angeles. Directed by Tony nominee Dana Ivey (The Last Night of Ballyhoo , "Boardwalk Empire"), EVENING AT ANAHEIM features Richard Kind ( The Producers , "Spin City", "American Dad!"), Karen Ziemba (Tony winner for Contact ), Emily Bergl ("...
Sep 04, 2022•37 min
In Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner John Patrick Shanley 's TENNESSEE, a wannabe musician seeking an escape plan and a glimpse at his future approaches a dissatisfied woman who's blessed, and possibly cursed, with the power of foresight. The audio play stars Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet (our audio production of MISADVENTURE , Dune , Beautiful Boy , Call Me By Your Name , Lady Bird , and Shanley's Prodigal Son on Broadway) and Caitlin FitzGerald (“Succession,” “Masters of Sex," It's Compli...
Aug 28, 2022•24 min
Anything can happen when you leave your window open on a warm night. Tony, Oscar and Pulitzer Prize winner John Patrick Shanley ( Doubt, Moonstruck, Outside Mullingar ) wrote and directed this week's summer re-release about a curious banshee, a fantastical Irish spirit, who pays an ailing teacher a visit and makes him an otherworldly proposal. The mystical comedy features Geraldine Hughes ( THE MANDELA EFFECT , TWO CROWS APART , Jerusalem, Gran Torino ) and Aidan Quinn (“Elementary,” Michael Col...
Aug 21, 2022•26 min
In this week's summer re-release, we're doing a bit of time travel. It’s a balmy night in the post-WWII Ozarks, and a young woman is leaving behind her life as a "lady of the evening" for an offer of marriage. Then a client shows up with some jaw-dropping news. Oscar-winner Chris Cooper ( A Doll’s House, Part 2, Adaptation, American Beauty ), Emmy-winner Margo Martindale (“The Good Wife”, "The Americans," "Justified") and Broadway’s Liv Rooth ( SURE THING , To Kill a Mockingbird , Venus in Fur )...
Aug 14, 2022•32 min
This week's summer re-release features Daniel Reitz 's ( NAPOLEON IN EXILE ) affecting one-act YOU BELONG TO ME, featuring Amy Ryan (Oscar nominated for Gone, Baby, Gone, "The Office," "Only Murders in the Building," and a five-time Playing On Air MVP ) and Michael Stuhlbarg (a recent Emmy nominee for "Dopesick," "The Staircase," "Boardwalk Empire," A Serious Man , and four-time Playing On Air veteran ), as former lovers--who've gone very separate ways in the intervening 18 years--having a chanc...
Aug 07, 2022•18 min
The curtain is up. The show is in progress. But for a production stage manager and a sound and light board operator calling the cues behind the scenes, the night's most dazzling romance isn't playing out onstage. Written and directed by Jonathan Bernstein ( RULES OF COMEDY and A VERY VERY SHORT PLAY ), AT THE WATER'S EDGE, WET stars Callie Thorne ("Necessary Roughness," "Rescue Me," "The Wire") and Tony nominee Jeremy Shamos (Broadway's Clybourne Park, " Better Call Saul," HEDGEHOG YEARS ) . Sta...
Jul 31, 2022•20 min
This week's summer re-release features RELATIVE STRANGERS , a bubbly comedic short from playwright Sheri Wilner ( The Miracle of Chanukah , Cake Off , Kingdom City ) about a young woman who, during a flight to South Carolina, decides the woman next to her just might be the mother she never had. She finds an ally in a wacky stewardess who, unlike the reluctant mother figure, thinks these two passengers are a match made in heaven. Directed by founder, consulting director, and host Claudia Catania ...
Jul 24, 2022•32 min
In Open Arms by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros , an impending 50th birthday party sets off calamity over coffee and Kindles. Open Arms is directed by Tony Award winner John Rando and features Julie White ( The Little Dog Laughed , Airline Highway, POTUS: Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive ), and Bill Irwin ( Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Waiting for Godot, King Lear ). Stay tuned after the performance for a conversation between our Founder and Consulting Directo...
Jul 17, 2022•21 min
Tony winner Tonya Pinkins ( Jelly’s Last Jam , “Fear the Walking Dead,” PoA’s Poof! ), Tony nominee Condola Rashad ( Saint Joan , “Billions”), and Melanie Nicholls-King ("The Wire," "Little Fires Everywhere”) star in Cassandra Medley’s CELL. When a jaded supervisor at an immigrant detention center finds jobs there for her sister and niece, family tensions erupt into a battle over home and homeland security. Directed by Diverse City Theater Company founder Victor Lirio, CELL by Cassandra Medley (...
Jul 10, 2022•53 min
From David Auburn (Pulitzer and Tony winner for PROOF ) comes a riveting, witty world-premiere commission for Playing on Air: GUN SHOW . In the aftershock of a national tragedy, a congenial double-date morphs into a battle of the sexes. As tempers blaze, two couples must reconsider the possibility of safety in a divided nation. Along with Emmy winners Bobby Cannavale (“Will & Grace,” “Boardwalk Empire”) and Martha Plimpton (triple Tony nominee, “The Real O’Neals,” “The Good Wife”), the star ...
Jul 03, 2022•32 min
In this holiday dazzler written, directed and produced by Arian Moayed, Santa keeps a closer eye on the naughty and nice lists than we think, especially during "unprecedented times." But maybe Mrs. Claus, the hardworking team at the North Pole, and one melancholy little girl might keep the man in the red suit from singing the blues. THE MAN IN RED , our first musical, features music by Butch Phelps and performances by Brian Cox, Jayne Houdyshell, Phylicia Rashad, Brandon Dirden, Javier Muñoz, Li...
Dec 19, 2021•53 min•Season 3Ep. 8
In the cool, otherworldly confines of a Zoom room, a controversial president's ethereal daughter and hands-on son-in-law surf the choppy waters of chiseled memories, personal responsibility...and elementary school. JARED AND IVANKA’S PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCE AT MAURICE J. FELDMAN JEWISH DAY SCHOOL, our third James Stevenson Commission for Short Comedic Plays, was written by playwright and screenwriter Jonathan Spector (Eureka Day, This Much I Know, The Flats) and directed by Daniel Aukin. It st...
Dec 12, 2021•30 min•Season 3Ep. 7
On the precipice of making a world changing medical breakthrough, Amal visits an old lover and they contend with the uncertain future through the light of a shared, tumultuous past. JACOB AND AMAL, our second Wordsmith Duo play this season supported by the Axe-Houghton Foundation, was written by Dipika Guha (Blown Youth, “Sneaky Pete,” “Black Monday”) and directed by Jo Bonney (Cost of Living, Father Comes Home from the War, Anna in the Tropics). It stars Rita Wolf (What Happened? The Michaels A...
Dec 05, 2021•21 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Amal would like to spend the night hiding from, well, everything. But when her bestie has other ideas - ideas that include a world renowned research university, high heels, and lowered expectations - she agrees to a not-so-scientific exercise that could take her, well, anywhere. All right. Just this once. THE HUMAN EXPERIMENT, a Wordsmith Duo play supported by the Axe-Houghton Foundation, was written by playwright Mfoniso Udofia (Sojourners, “13 Reasons Why,” “Little America”) and directed by Lo...
Nov 28, 2021•31 min•Season 3Ep. 5
