Our Team
Claudia Catania, founder and CONSULTING director
In 2010, Claudia founded Playing on Air (POA) to supplement a theater lover’s habit, and to cultivate newcomers. By recording unassailable shorts with stellar actors, directors and composers, and distributing them on public radio and newer technologies, an easy to access platform for theater was born. By June of 2012, POA recordings aired on 13 public radio stations. Pulitzer winning playwright David Auburn compared Playing on Air’s recording sessions to pick-up basketball games, only with NBA players. Claudia conversed with each short’s artists about what just went down, and included that conversation with the play’s release. In 2015, PoA launched its podcast. In 2017, with the help of visionary donors, it began commissioning short plays. It now offers listeners everywhere over 135 recordings, plus customized curriculums for educators and their students. All for free, and on demand.
Yvie JONES, Executive Director
Email: yvie@playingonair.org
Yvie Jones is a writer, comedian, and multimedia storyteller based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A Jane of many trades, she has worked as a print and online writer, editor, and producer; theater manager; audio producer; and marketing and development professional for media organizations including National Public Radio, Comcast Interactive Media, the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, and the Sundance Film Festival.
Pre-pandemic, she was fortunate enough to participate in Half Straddle artistic director Tina Satter's Depth of Surfaces playwriting and directing workshop and THREAD at Yale, the renowned university's annual gathering of professional journalists and storytellers who work and play in multiple mediums. She is a sucker for the great outdoors and a great story, well told, in whatever form it chooses to take.
John Kilgore, Sound Engineer
John has been a recording engineer and theater sound designer for many years. He has designed sound for shows both on and off-Broadway as well as in regional theaters. He has worked for directors Des McAnuff, David Esbjornsen, Joe Mantello, Dan Sullivan, Robert Falls and playwrights Len Jenkin and Mac Wellman, to name a few. His recording studio in the Theater District in Manhattan provides recording services to the Broadway, Cabaret, Jazz, Classical and Alternative music worlds. He has been composer Steve Reich's recording engineer since 1993, and often works with other contemporary composers and performers. Playing on Air fulfills a lifelong dream - to bring drama back to the radio.
Lillian Laserson, Legal and Business Affairs, board chair
Lillian, formerly known as Superman's (and Batman's and Wonder Woman's) lawyer, spent 20 years at DC Comics, where she was General Counsel. Before that, she was Kermit and Miss Piggy's go-to girl for all things legal and business affairs at Jim Henson Productions. Now, in her own practice, Lillian represents producers, writers, artists and companies engaged in creative ventures. She loves playing a part in Playing on Air!
EmeritI Staff
Bonnie Antosh, Jess Applebaum, Lila Becker, Lucy Fleming, Shelly Horwitz, Eric Judson, Emily Ludolph, Ashley Minihan, Alessandra Most, Michele O’Brien, Adithya Pratama, Paola Soto, Sacha Spitzer, Quynh Thai, Jude Wetherell
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
David Auburn
Playwright
Claudia Catania
Playing on Air Founder and Consulting Director
Lillian Laserson
Attorney
GLENN SHAEVITZ
Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer,
Playbill
harold sogard
Retired Advertising Executive
Artistic Associates
Steven Boyer
Actor
doug hughes
Director
David Ives
Playwright
Hamish Linklater
Actor and Playwright
John Leguizamo
Actor, Playwright, and Comedian
April Matthis
Actor
Dan Moses Schreier
Composer
Amy Ryan
Actor
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Jesse Eisenberg
Actor and Playwright
LYNN NOTTAGE
Playwright
Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros
Playwright
Julie Halston
Actor
Daryl Roth
Producer
Michael Stuhlbarg
Actor
Sheri Wilner
Playwright
seth gelblum
In Memoriam
Jacquelyn Reingold
Playwright