Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays

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, She Loves Me). Stay tuned after the performance for a conversation between the playwright, actors, and Playing on Air's founder, Claudia Catania. Please be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn or visit us at www.playingonair.org, where you'll find our complete collection of audio plays.

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') directs. Music by Tom Kochan Stay tuned after the performance for a conversation between the playwright, actors, and Playing on Air's founder, Claudia Catania. Please be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn or visit us at www.playingonair.org, where you'll find our complete collection of audio plays.

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 direction and piano by Alan Johnson, and special guest vocals by Chloe Holgate, Hai-Ting Chinn, Gregory Purnhagen, and Barbara Rearick. Stay tuned after the play for an insightful conversation with Ives, the actors, Founder and Consulting Director Claudia Catania, and Executive Director Yvie Jones.

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 Wordsmith Duo Commission supported by the Axe-Houghton Foundation, is directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and features music by composer Tom Kochan. Stay tuned after the play for a lively conversation with Executive Director Yvie Jones and all the featured artists.

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.

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 and executive director Yvie Jones dive into conversation with the playwright, director, and actors.

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 ("Gilmore Girls," Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Brandon Uranowitz (Falsettos), Carson Elrod (Peter and the Starcatcher), Peter Maloney (Requiem for a Dream), and Tom Alan Robbins (The Lion King). Stay tuned after the play for a high spirited conversation with the cast, director, and Playing on Air founder and consulting director Claudia Catania. EVENING AT ANAHEIM was co-presented with Playwrights Horizons and recorded live in New York City.

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 Collins, Desperately Seeking Susan). Stay tuned after the performance for a conversation between the playwright, actors, and founder and consulting director Claudia Catania that includes a few delightfully surprising responses.