A conversation with playwrights Kurt Robert Engh and Dave Osmundsen

About this episode

This episode features a conversation with playwrights Kurt Robert Engh and Dave Osmundsen about their innovative approaches to theater and playwriting.

Kurt Robert Engh is a theater-maker with the goal to expand the framework of what "theater" is in order to adapt the art form to a twenty-first century audience. He transposes experimental practices to narrative stories, addressing how contemporary audiences consume live performance. He is specifically interested in exploring Midwestern identity, creating characters as complicated as real people, and taking advantage of the metaphysical space of the stage. He likes testing the endurance of audiences and uncovering ways to contextualize a physical space in a digital culture. He borrows more from concerts, obscure YouTube videos, contemporary film, restaurants, clubs, and social media than he does classical theater. Kurt wrote and self-produced an anti-romcom "Only Ugly Guys" in June 2024 at Open Eye Theatre, which reviewer Cherry and Spoon called "funny, clever, inventive, and very modern." He produced, adapted and directed "Naïve. Super" at Norway House in September 2023, with a new actor at each performance, experiencing the play for the first time. He hosts "Running Errands," a short-play incubator for writers/directors/actors to experiment with new ideas at Bryant Lake Bowl…

People in this episode

Host: Everwood Farmstead Foundation

Guests: Kurt Robert Engh, Dave Osmundsen

Topics covered

• theater
• playwriting
• Midwestern identity
• experimental performance
• queer representation

Keywords

• theater
• playwright
• experimental
• Midwestern identity
• queer theater
• live performance
• audience engagement

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: BLUEBARN Theatre, Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop, Purple Crayon Players, Great Plains Theatre Conference

Books & works: Only Ugly Guys, Naïve. Super

Places: Open Eye Theatre, Norway House, Bryant Lake Bowl

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