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.

Elizagrace Madrone is a dramaturg, writer, fundraiser, & creative producer based in NYC and California. She has worked with theater artists & institutions across the country (including Soho Repertory Theater, the Bushwick Starr, HERE Arts Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, the New Ohio, and the Perelman PAC) and internationally (including Paris’ Théâtre de l'Opprimé). As a fundraiser, she has supported Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Central Park Conservancy, Woodlawn Cemetery, Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, and the José Limón Dance Foundation. Co-curator of the Bushwick Starr Reading Series & founding Co-Artistic Producer at 23.5° Tilt Theater.

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!

Emmy Award winning composer Tom Kochan is also a Drama Desk nominee for his score to Almost, Maine for Transport Group. He wrote the music for Cheryl Stern’s critically acclaimed Off-Broadway one-woman show, Shoes and Baggage. Other career highlights include: The Elephant Man starring Bradley Cooper at Williamstown Theatre Festival, two plays with Arthur Miller: The Man Who Had All the Luck (Broadway) and The Ride Down Mount Morgan (Williamstown), five CD’s with James Galway (on RCA Records), three NYC productions with filmmaker Mike Leigh (including the Obie Award winning Ecstasy), and the Jonathan Larson award winning musical Pretty to the Bone.
Tom composed the theme and scored many of the episodes of Playing On Air since its inception. He recently scored Chris Goutman’s film For Your Love. Tom’s songs are currently featured on The Young and the Restless on CBS and on the Hallmark Channel.

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 converses with each short’s artists about what just went down, and includes 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 150 recordings, plus customized curriculums for educators and their students. All for free, and on demand. In 1993, as Producing Director, she joined Scott Elliott the reorganization of his actors collective into a free-standing producing organization. Their budget was literally zero; by her departure in 1999, it was $850,000. Prior to that Claudia was an actor, a dramaturg, an Associate Publisher at Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, a children's theater producer, and an executive in the garment industry!