Nov 22, 2022

Reed Birney played Uncle Vanya at SoHo Rep in 2012 in a translation by Annie Baker, with a cast that also included Michael Shannon. He joined us in December 2021 to discuss the character in depth.

You’ll hear Reed and I talk about:

• his ideas going into Chekhov
• what he discovered and connected with about the...

Nov 1, 2022

This is a wonderful follow up to our Chekhov workshop from last episode with an even deeper discussion with the director!

You’ll hear Libby and I talk about what she looks for in auditions, what she expects in rehearsals, her inspirations, what things went well, what scared her, and yes, we have another lighting...

Oct 18, 2022

We have our first workshop scene NOT from Shakespeare, and there’s a great reason! From October 2021, we present a deep dive into the first half of Act 2 from Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya with director Libby Appel - who wrote the translation along with our dramaturg!

Uncle Vanya - excerpt of Act 2

• DIRECTOR: Libby Appel...

Oct 4, 2022

Geoffrey has played Dogberry twice, at very different times in his life, and finds it's a fascinating character to dissect. He first performed it as a student at Amherst College and then again at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.

You’ll hear Geoffrey and I talk about rehearsals, preconceived ideas, and discoveries....

Sep 20, 2022

We have another “all pro” group—all the actors in the scene are professionals, so the work has been so fun and rich! Our dramaturg Philippa said that she found it so mind-blowingly good how fully the actors and director jumped into this scene, that it’s not something she usually experiences—and I don’t think...