Our Team

Claudia Catania

Artistic 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.

Garlia Cornelia Jones

Associate Artistic Director & Creative Producer

Jones is a writer, producer, photographer and mother from Detroit, MI.  In 2008, she founded Blackboard Plays, which began as Blackboard Reading Series and was founded with a mission to support Black playwrights across the African Diaspora.  The goal: readings and 20 minutes of feedback for the writer during their developmental process. Its original home was at Nancy Manocherian’s the cell in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood.  It went on to have a regular home in the Mary Rodger’s Room at The Dramatists Guild before the pandemic shifted everything online.  Since its inception, Blackboard has given first readings to Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play and Jordan E. Cooper’s Tony-nominated Ain’t No Mo’,.  During the summer of 2020, the Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival (BMPFest) was born as a partnership between the Parent Artist Advocacy League (PAAL)  (where she sits on the leadership team), and Blackboard Plays.  BMPFest is a national and digital festival uplifting the stories of Black families by Black parents and caregivers.  Its 3rd Season is streaming now. 

A founding producer of Harlem9, OBIE Award winners for 48Hours in…™Harlem, Jones’ essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and American Theatre. She is an MFA graduate in Playwriting from The New School for Drama and has been both a guest artist and Adjunct professor  at Wayne State University and The New School, everything from Playwrighting and Black Theatre to Arts as Entrepreneurship courses.  Her work as a playwright has been supported by the cell, The Fire This Time Festival, The 24-hour plays: #24viralmonologues and Detroit Public Theatre.   She worked on an MA in African American and African Diaspora studies at Indiana University before coming to New York for her MFA in Playwriting which she earned at The New School for Drama. 

Jones’ professional experience also includes serving as Line Producer at The Public Theater, working on productions like Socrates, Much Ado About Nothing (filmed for PBS), and for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. In 2022, she was promoted to Director of Innovation and New Media at The Public, where she relaunched and hosted the podcast Public Square 2.0. Outside of New York, she is Associate Artistic Director and Senior Creative Producer for the Obsidian Theatre Festival in Detroit and Marketing Manager at Detroit Public Theatre. She is a frequent guest / keynote speaker.

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!

Jaclyn Biskup

Development Associate