REP RADIO

Today on the podcast, we chat with the collaborators of the World Premiere production, The Tattooed lady, A New Musical on stage at Philadelphia Theatre Company. Here is my interview with Max Vernon and Erin Courtney for The Tattooed Lady, A New Musical. The story of The Tattooed Lady highlights one of sideshow’s biggest stars, Ida Gibson, in a moving, fantastical tale that reveals the generational chasms and connections between Ida and her granddaughter Joy. A parade of beguiling characters appear, on a mission to liberate Ida from her self-imposed exile and help Joy find freedom through forgiveness. The musical celebrates the resilience of women whose choices have the power to liberate them. ABOUT THE CREATORS Erin Courtney (Book) is a New York based playwright. Her play, A Map of Virtue, was awarded an Obie and was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York Theater. Her play I Will Be Gone, premiered at the Humana Festival, Actors Theater of Louisville. She has written two operas with Elizabeth Swados: The Nomad and Kaspar Hauser, both commissioned and produced by The Flea Theater. Her other plays, produced by Clubbed Thumb, include Alice the Magnet, directed by Pam MacKinnon, and Demon Baby, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. She is an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb, a member of the Obie Award winning playwrights collective, 13P, as well as the co-founder of the Brooklyn Writers Space. Max Vernon (Book, Music, Lyrics & Orchestrations) is a musical theatre writer, whose works include The View UpStairs, KPOP (opening on Broadway this November!), The Tattooed Lady, and Show & Tell. They are a three-time Drama Desk nominee, Out100 Honoree, two-time MacDowell Fellow, Dramatist Guild Fellow, and recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award, Richard Rodgers Award, Jonathan Larson Grant, Pew Arts and Culture Grant, and New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, among others. They have also written work for Audible, Disney, Virgin Group, and Tyra Banks. Notable concerts include Joe’s Pub, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. They earned an MFA from NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. www.maxvernon.com IG: @frauleinsallybowels FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION: https://philadelphiatheatrecompany.org

A Leg Up By Ken Kaissar Director Amy Kaissar September 20, 2022 – October 9, 2022 A world premiere comedy for the 21st century! Initially slated for its world premiere in the 2019/20 season, this witty and outlandish story is a new comedy for the 21st century written as a traditional farce. In A Leg Up, Charles Griffin III (O’Neil) has staked what’s left of his fortune on the new Miraculous Knee-to-Toe XR-3000 with 3D Helix, an intelligent prosthetic leg, designed for a presidential candidate, Senator Sam Wannamead (Hogan). Unfortunately, his mistress Laurie (Hamilton) announces she’s pregnant, his business partner Stephanie (Alpert) has her eye on his wife Barbara (Maurer), and the Senator is having an affair with the leg designer Rufus (Robbins), and it’s not even lunchtime yet! ABOUT MARLA ALPERT Marla Alpert [She/They] is a seasoned actor and singer, having performed in the national tours of Jekyll and Hyde and Ragtime, as well as with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s The Sorceress, and over a dozen regional shows throughout the country. She is also the host of her own podcast about legendary Broadway flops, Flop of the Heap, and is a regular content creator on TikTok, advocating for transgender representation in media and educating on trans issues. You can find her on Instagram or Tiktok, @thefloorismarlava. For More Information: https://brtstage.org

This September, Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series will present the first career retrospective of theater artist Annie Dorsen titled Algorithmic Theater. The retrospective is part of a residency advancing Dorsen’s work and examining the consequences of digital communications through theater. Algorithmic Theater brings Dorsen’s work to Philadelphia audiences for the first time and features four of her past projects, including Hello Hi There (2010), Spokaoke (2012), A Piece of Work (2013), and Yesterday Tomorrow (2015). Together, these works tell a story about advancing technology, encroaching artificial intelligence, and post-anthropocentric art-making that attempt to reckon with the last decade of history. Dorsen is a New York-based theater director and artist who works at the intersection of algorithmic art and live performance. Since 2010, she has built a body of work in what she’s referred to as “algorithmic theater,” creating custom algorithms that perform in lieu of or alongside human performers. The pieces position the digital world’s influence on our everyday lives in dialogue with classical dramatic forms to confront the consequences of our increasing entanglement with information technologies. Algorithmic Theater will begin with a presentation of A Piece of Work on September 9 at 8 p.m. at McPherson Auditorium. Mixing live performance with algorithms and interfaces, A Piece of Work flips the switch between man and machine in a digital version of Hamlet for a post-humanist age. The spectators are absorbed in a swirl of connections amongst memory, language, and technology, implicating both the past and future of theater itself. New scenes, songs, scores, and visuals emerge from an intricate and ingeniously programmed web of technology that uses Shakespeare’s original text as data. The next piece, Spokaoke, will be hosted on September 10 at 10 p.m. at the Marie Salant Neuberger Centennial Campus Center. Spokaoke is a participatory event that invites people to perform speeches as they would ordinarily perform songs in a karaoke bar. Speeches are, after all, songs of persuasion, argument, consolidation, or motivation. Over 90 speech videos are loaded into a karaoke system and arranged in a catalog for audience members to peruse. Participants will read various forms of public addresses, including political speeches, award acceptance speeches, press conferences, theatrical monologues, eulogies, and trial testimony. An additional presentation of Spokaoke will take place at FringeArts on September 16 at 10 p.m. as a part of this year’s Fringe Festival, featuring a special guest host. The third piece, Hello Hi There, will be presented on September 10 & 11 at 8 p.m. at Hepburn Teaching Theater. Dorsen uses the famous television debate between philosopher Michel Foucault and linguist/activist Noam Chomsky from the 1970s as inspiration for a dialogue between two custom-designed chatbots. Material from the debate, along with additional text culled from YouTube, the Bible, Shakespeare, and western philosophy, is inputted into computer programs designed to mimic human conversation to create a new, “improvised” dialogue at each performance. Finally, Algorithmic Theater will conclude with Yesterday Tomorrow at McPherson Auditorium on September 15 at 8 p.m., September 16 at 6 p.m., and September 17 at 8 p.m. In Yesterday Tomorrow, three singers receive computer-generated music and lyrics both aurally and visually. The algorithmically-produced score begins with the Beatles’ hit song “Yesterday” and slowly transforms into “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie. Inspired by an artificial intelligence known as evolutionary computation, Yesterday Tomorrow gives a unique experience of the complexity and unpredictability of the present tense contrasted with the known past and the imagined future. Each night, the spatial and musical path from the past to the future is different; neither the singers, creative team, nor the audience knows the route the performance will take them. Free tickets will be available to students from the Tri-College Consortium (Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore) and can be reserved by calling 610-526-5300, or emailing reservations@brynmawr.edu. General admission tickets for Algorithmic Theater performances will be available online for $20, $18 for seniors (65+), $10 for students (not from the Tri-College Consortium), and $5 for children under five. In addition to presenting performances, Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series will release an accompanying publication titled Algorithmic Theater: Essays and Interviews, 2012-2022. The publication highlights the last decade of Dorsen’s work, and a limited number of copies will be available to the public for free. Edited by writer and theater critic Tom Sellar, the book features essays by Dorsen as well as illuminating conversations with her collaborators. It also includes a collection of essays previously published in journals, monographs, and anthologies by Miriam Felton-Dansky, Jacob Gallagher-Ross, Sarah Bay-Cheng, W.B. Worthen, and Johannes Birgfeld. ABOUT ANNIE DORSEN: Annie Dorsen is a director and writer whose works explore the intersection of algorithms and live performance. Her most recent project, Infinite Sun (2019), is an algorithmic sound installation commissioned by the Sharjah Biennial 14. Previous performance projects, including The Slow Room (2018), The Great Outdoors (2017), Yesterday Tomorrow (2015), A Piece of Work (2013), Spokaoke (2012), and Hello Hi There (2010), have been widely presented in the US and internationally. FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://anniedorsen.digital.brynmawr.edu and https://anniedorsen.com/

Today on the podcast, GUNNAR MONTANA returns to talk about the latest FringeArts offering, BATHHOUSE. Here is my interview with Gunnar Montana. Designed as a temple to the fluid nature of sexuality, BATH HOUSE is a deeply sensory immersive theatrical experience dripping with erotic energy from start to finish. BATH HOUSE fuses dance and movement to create an atmosphere where guests are free to indulge their deepest desires, and perhaps even discover new ones. VIP Packages Available: The VIP Table Experience is the ultimate way to get up close and personal with Gunnar and the BATH HOUSE cast. The Experience includes (4) VIP table seats, (4) official BATH HOUSE t-shirts, a bottle of champagne for your table, and a post-show meet and greet with the cast. Check ticket page for VIP options. FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.gunnarmontana.com

$30,000 Fundraising initiative. The funds raised will allow JUNK to provide equitable access for the community by providing free and discounted ticketing for artists and LGBTQIA and HIV+ communities. The SEASON: Luster Thu, Sep 8, 2022 Sat, Sep 17, 2022 Concourse Dance Bar (map) Lust for exposure and success turns… TRAGIC. Set in an underground shopping mall turned nightclub, Junk’s newest experience, Luster, reveals the twisted nature of reality show competition and begs the question, “Where do we draw the line?” Luster gives patrons a behind-the-scenes look into the making of TRAGIC, a streaming show where aspiring reality TV producers are looking to make their mark in the edgy new world of internet reality TV. Luster begins by giving audiences a look behind the camera during a live broadcast of the TRAGIC Season Two finale featuring five competing teams. The plotline begins after Season One, which featured off-the-wall ideas with a cast of circus performers who competed in front of a crowd on equipment and apparatuses they had never used before. Season Two's production team needs to find new ways to create a show filled with even more outrageous and dangerous layers of competition. In the inaugural season of TRAGIC, every on-camera accident made ratings jump. The more the performers suffered mentally and physically, the more people tuned in. This year, producers and sponsors want something sexy and erotic, gritty but graceful. TRAGIC centers on pushing the envelope, with contestants focused on driving high ratings with provocative and daring performances. Emotions will run high as five teams, StripperX, Face Punch, The Inappropriators, Gothic Drip, and the Gayties, battle it out to compete for a top-secret first-place prize. Luster audiences are encouraged to vote for their favorite team but with caution, as there is always a twist on TRAGIC. Snowball, back on ice! Saturday, January 21, 2023 Our annual fundraiser A Modern Carmen Fantasy Fri, Mar 10, 2023 Sun, Mar 12, 2023 The Philadelphia Orchestra Experience the great Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite as never seen before, with the help of the riveting Philadelphia-based dance company Brian Sanders’ JUNK. The dance theme continues with Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, a colorfully melodic and spectacular score written for the Ballets Russes that made an overnight star of the young composer. FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://briansandersjunk.com

"rADicAl ImAgInAtIoN"(and other sorted pandemic musings)Theatre Exile presents rADicAl ImAgInAtIoN (and other sorted pandemic musings); a Paper Wings event featuring original works... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

Today on the podcast,  Director, Jerrell L. Henderson drops in to talk about Azuka Theatre’s 50th production, “Reverie” by newly minted Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, James Ijames. Here is... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

Today is My Birthday is about life with a thousand friends on Facebook and no one to have dinner with on Saturday night. This quirky comedy by award-winning screenwriter and playwright Susan Soon He... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

The 5th Annual Philly Theatre Week April 1-10, 202285 EVENTS ACROSS THE REGION EXCLUSIVE FREE, $15, OR $30 TICKETS ON SALE NOW! WWW.PHILLYTHEATREWEEK.COM Theatre Philadelphia presents... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

ABOUT GOLDEN GIRLS MURDER MYSTERYThank you for being a friend! Especially a Golden Girl friend! Your favorite ladies from the ‘80’s are throwing a party, and you’re invited! Sophia, Blanche, Rose and... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

When Eve gets a promotion, she moves to London in the hopes of having the perfect big city life. But soon she discovers that being one in 9 million can be pretty lonely. Feeling at her lowest, a... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

A protest brought Jesse, an introspective Black playwright, together with his white boyfriend Neil, a Black Lives Matter activist. But as Neil immerses himself deeper in the movement, Jesse finds his... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

GUNNAR MONTANA - “Motel Montana is designed to celebrate everything my grandfather couldn’t express in his life, and in turn, everything I am so unapologetically eager to express now. There’s... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

ABOUT A HOLY SHOW(a holy show: Irish phrase meaning to make a spectacle of oneself)It’s 1981 and Aer Lingus flight 164 to London is about to board. Tina and Joe are on their honeymoon, Bun is off to... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

Margaret’s chance encounter with a wounded fawn in the wild leads her on a dark, magical journey where she’ll learn “The Hazards of Love” firsthand. Join us as we weave this tragic folk-rock... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

Everyone has a story to tell......This piece offers ten confession-like monologues delivered by a group of individuals who talk to us about love, disappointment, and transgression. They yearn to make... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

Written By: Eli Lynn (they/them) | Directed By: Damon Bonetti Royalty clashes with royalty in a duel of dominance as a group of actors take on the Great Speeches from the Great Plays. Epic rhetoric,... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

Written By: Eli Lynn (they/them) | Directed By: Damon Bonetti Royalty clashes with royalty in a duel of dominance as a group of actors take on the Great Speeches from the Great Plays. Epic rhetoric,... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

Ruth & Estelle: On a winter night in 2014, while rehearsing for a holiday cabaret, Amanda Jill Robinson and Jenna Pinchbeck started playing around as two spunky,... Follow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!

This adorable real-life couple will serenade audiences with moving duets, unique interpretations of classical musical theatre pieces, and more. Enjoy a virtual cabaret curated by this adorably...\r\n\n\r\n\nFollow Us on Twitter and Instagram @Rep_Radio - Find us on Facebook @RepRadio - Stay Tuned! REP RADIO is On The Air!