AN UPSET by David Auburn

Content advisory: this episode contains explicit language and sexual references.

When a cocky, jaded tennis star (David Harbour) loses a pivotal match to an inexperienced Romanian player (Steven Boyer), the two men lock into an unlikely battle for dominance on and off the court. Over the course of three encounters on the Grand Slam circuit, AN UPSET by David Auburn (Tony & Pulitzer winner for Proof) peers irreverently, and explosively, behind the locker room door.

After the play, Tony nominees Harbour ("Stranger Things," Hellboy, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and Boyer (Hand to God, "Trial & Error") join director Michael Wilson (PoA's Wildwood Park, Broadway's The Trip To Bountiful) and host Claudia Catania for an exclusive talk-back about working with your idols and what it means to be an amateur.

AN UPSET was recorded live at the 52nd Street Project in New York City. 

Download on iTunes, Podbay, Player FM, subscribe to our RSS feed, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [29 Minutes 02 Seconds]

TWO CROWS APART by Max Baker

Unwanted house guests. A murder of crows. Is something brewing in the raw, early morning? 

In TWO CROWS APART, Ciarán Hinds (Mance Rayder in "Game of Thrones,"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Geraldine Hughes (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Jerusalem, Playing on Air's The Mandela Effect) paint a virtuosic, unfiltered portrait of marriage. After the play, director and playwright Max Baker (Broadway's 1984, The Mandela Effect) and the cast join host Claudia Catania for a discussion of haters, lovers, and animal instincts. 

Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [21 Minutes 12 Seconds]

THE HELPERS by Cusi Cram

What do you do when your former therapist starts talking to a cat that isn't there?

When Nate meets his longtime psychiatrist in the park, he realizes that she may be losing it.  With tenderness and humor, Cusi Cram's THE HELPERS asks if we can reconnect with the life-altering figures who were  never exactly our friends to begin with. THE HELPERS stars Tony & Emmy winner Jane Alexander (Warm Springs,The Great White Hope) and Peter Jacobson (Dr. Chris Taub on “House,” "The Americans").  After the episode, director Mimi O’Donnell (Executive Director, Scripted at Gimlet), Cram, and the cast join host Claudia Catania to discuss pet loyalty, funding for theater, and the art of costume design.

Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [29 Minutes 21 Seconds]

MILTON BRADLEY by Peter Sagal

How do you eulogize a woman who everybody hated? 

In Peter Sagal's MILTON BRADLEY, Rabbi Schoenberg (Michael Stuhlbarg), faced with this dilemma, turns to a metaphor: the game of Life (the board game, that is). 

Featuring Stuhlbarg (Call Me By Your Name, The Shape of Water) and Bob Balaban (Gosford Park, Christopher Guest & Wes Anderson ensemble regular), MILTON BRADLEY is a darkly funny exploration of where we're all headed one day. Stay tuned after the play for a conversation with playwright Peter Sagal (of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! fame) and the play’s director, host Claudia Catania.

Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [21 Minutes 51 Seconds]

BEYOND GLORY: CLARENCE SASSER by Stephen Lang

BEYOND GLORY  "allows the voices of servicemen to be heard without the filter of the conventions of drama or the prerogatives of deadline-driven journalism" (NY Times).

Since 2004, Tony-nominated actor Stephen Lang (The Speed of Darkness, Avatar) has traveled the nation - and the world - performing BEYOND GLORY, a gripping look into the lives of Medal of Honor-decorated veterans, both on and off the battlefield. A candid, vivid, and unsparing journey behind the front lines, CLARENCE SASSER tells the true story of a young Texan medic on a tour of duty in South Vietnam. 

After the play, Lang discusses his adaptation of BEYOND GLORY from Larry Smith's book of the same title, as well as his experiences performing the show for service members and veterans. 

Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [15 Minutes 13 Seconds]

52ND TO BOWERY TO COBBLE HILL, IN BROOKLYN by Chiara Atik

"I just don't like you very much... Just. Middle of the road not liking you, I think."

In Chiara Atik's 52nd to Bowery to Cobble Hill, in Brooklyn, Halle is taking a late-night cab ride through Manhattan with her bubbly acquaintance Alison. Halle didn't mean to blurt out how she really feels about their "friendship," but now they're stuck in traffic on Broadway and 4th, dealing with it. Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Colt Coeur), Atik's modern comedy features Molly Bernard ("Transparent," "Younger") and Sue Jean Kim (Bachelorette, Playwrights Horizons, Public Theater).

Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [24 Minutes 7 Seconds]

POOF! by Lynn Nottage

Loureen is at the end of her rope. And now, she's just turned her husband into a pile of ashes.

As Lynn Nottage's funny and wrenching POOF! opens, Loureen (Audra McDonald) has inadvertently made her abusive husband (Keith Randolph Smith) disappear. Enter her friend and neighbor Florence (Tonya Pinkins) to help her pick up the pieces and begin to imagine a life post-Samuel. Directed by Seret Scott, POOF! features Tony Award winners Audra McDonald (Porgy and Bess, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill) and Tonya Pinkins (Jelly's Last Jam; Caroline, or Change). Following the play, the 2-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (Sweat, Ruined) joins host Claudia Catania for a conversation about POOF!'s origins - and how she almost never became a playwright.

Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [26 Minutes 15 Seconds]

CARRY THE ZERO by Christopher Sullivan

CARRY THE ZERO  "gets the awkwardness of teenage hookup culture squeamishly right" (NY Times). 

Mark and Nicole just had sex for the first time, and now they're facing the long, embarrassing drive back to Nicole's house. Directed by John Giampietro, Christopher Sullivan's short play stars David Gelles (Graceland at LCT3, NBC's "Deception") and Arielle Goldman ("The Knick," "The Marvelous Ms. Maisel") in an intimate and brutally funny look back at sexual awakening in the age of instant messenger and indie rock. 

This episode contains adult themes that may not be suitable for some younger listeners. 

Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [26 Minutes 25 Seconds]

THE BLIZZARD by David Ives

With a storm raging outside, a horror screenwriter (Jesse Eisenberg) and his wife (Heidi Schreck) are cozying up for a romantic weekend in the middle of nowhere. The weather outside is frightful -- and so is the mysterious couple that just arrived on their doorstep. 

Directed by John Rando and starring Eisenberg (The Social Network, Playing on Air's A Little Part of All of Us), Schreck (What the Constitution Means to Me), Alfredo Narciso (Time and the Conways, PoA's West of Stupid and Mere Mortals), and Sarah Sokolovic ("Homeland," PoA's Anniversary), David Ives's THE BLIZZARD will send a shiver down your spine.

Stay tuned after this special bonus episode for a conversation with host Claudia Catania and the artists about Agatha Christie fandom and what makes art creepy. 

Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [19 Minutes 54 Seconds]

RULES OF COMEDY by Patricia Cotter

Caroline can't find anything funny -- not her awkward love life, not her jaded standup coach Guy, and definitely not the punchlines she's been reading in 101 Dirty Jokes. 

Originally produced at the Humana Festival at the Actors Theater of Louisville, Patricia Cotter's RULES OF COMEDY is a playful, wry look at the lives of comedians when they dare to go offstage and off script. Directed by Jonathan Bernstein, Cotter's short comedy stars Louisa Krause (The Flick, Billions, PoA's Winter Games) and Michael Esper (Trust, The Last Ship, PoA's Anniversary). After the play, stay tuned for an artist interview about the playwright's background in comedy, avoiding the pull towards bitterness, and toeing the line with your material. 

"Cotter's script is lush with the knowledge of standup comedy... this play is a scream" - Todd Zeigler, Broadway World Reviews

Download on iTunes, search ‘Playing on Air’ in your favorite podcasting app – or stream below! [24 Minutes 41 Seconds]