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Listen in as What If They Ate the Baby? playwrights, directors, & performers Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland—Xhloe & Natasha—discuss being fascinated by history, deep absurdity, dressing up in femininity (as opposed to the masculinity of their last NYC show), zooming into a slice of life, true crime re-enactments, green spaghetti, candy-coated plasticky artifice, and not letting anything go to waste. “…my biggest tip when you come see this show is, let it happen to you—don’t hurt yourself trying to get to the bottom, ‘what does this mean?’…just wait for the car ride home…” SoHo Playhouse in collaboration with Xhloe & Natasha present What If They Ate the Baby? written, performed, and directed by Natasha Roland & Xhloe Rice thru December 22, 2025 EXTENDED! thru December 31, 2025 SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam Street Manhattan tickets: $45.50, available via OvationTix photos by Morgan Mcdowell photos by Molly White

Listen in as Dimension Zero co-creators, performers, and Boxcutter Collective members Joe Therrien, Ali Dineen, Darkin Brown, Tom Cunningham, Sam Wilson, & Jason Hicks discuss consensus not compromise, salad bars, writing and shaping earworms, grant-writing as production impetus, outside eyes, reality catching up to dark comedy, “following the giggle,” and how a collective comes together to create an anti-capitalist musical puppet show. “…one of the reasons we made this show, is to not go insane…art allows you to take that thing you can’t deal with, and it allows you to put it into your hands to mess with. For us, with this show, it’s taking this planetary moment of terror…it allows us to at least put it in front of us, and put it in front of the audience, in a way we can feel empowered, and hopeful…” Dimension Zero created by Boxcutter Collective thru October 30, 2025 HERE 145 6th Ave Manhattan tickets: $30, $60, or $120, available via HERE’s website photos by Richard Termine

Listen in as Helen in Her Homeland playwright Alexandra Haddad discusses immersion & implication, fragments of poetry, working outward from dialogue, leaving arts admin jobs, listening without responding, writing as a director, what propels us through the difficulty of production, and “the spectrum between Sarah Ruhl and Sarah Kane.” “…early on, Helen says, ‘you might think you’re above that,’ like, judging people by their appearance, but ‘you have a body, too, you have a face, too,’ and you know that those things have consequences in the world. And so, I do want the audience to feel both invited, and implicated in that conversation…” Frayed Knot Collective presents Helen in Her Homeland written by Alexandra Haddad directed by Jessica Wastchak thru October 26, 2025 Loft Story 748 Manhattan Avenue Brooklyn tickets: $28, available via TicketLeap photos by @jowastchak

Listen in as The Goo director Eliza Palter, along with performers Vena Howard & Kat Quiñones, discuss unintended distance from your friends, efficient vibes, the built-up pressure of your 20s, creating compelling stage pictures on a picnic blanket, activating ideas & notions, sitcom framing, being real & having the hard conversations, and what a modern examination of the themes of The Importance of Being Earnest could look like. “…it’s an ensemble piece, it’s funny, it’s about a bunch of people sitting around and talking about nothing, getting nowhere…and while this play isn’t a one-to-one adaptation…you have this sense that there’s something burbling under the surface that we’re not quite getting at. It’s a meditation on authenticity, on performance…” New Relic Theatre presents The Goo written by K. Rose Dallimore directed by Eliza Palter thru September 28, 2025 The Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th Street, Floor 4 Manhattan tickets: $35-$50, available via HumaniTix photos by Jon Tylor

Listen in as I’ll Take It performer Ryan Shinji & composer Book Kennison, along with director Mark Lonergan, discuss success by proximity, coexisting in small spaces, conceptualization and minimizing, bodies and boxes in space, object manipulation, possible futures, dancing around each other, and what’s going on with this wild ride of a show in a box. “The concept is three friends who are living together in a very tiny apartment, and over the course of the show they drift apart, they come back together…it’s a very classic New York story, and experience, and it’s told through the mediums of circus & physical theatre. So it’s not just people standing and having a relationship…it’s people doing spectacular, extraordinary things with their bodies…” Parallel Exit presents I’ll Take It created & conceived by Joel Jeske directed by Mark Lonergan May 22-24, 2025 3AM Theatre 920 35th Avenue Astoria photos by Maike Schulz

Listen in as Road Kills playwright Sophie McIntosh, along with performers D. B. Milliken & Michael Lepore, discuss dramaturgical road trips, literal roadkill, finding your way to the darker places, tossing props in full dark, radio plays between scenes, “the two worst days of your life,” creating a special environment, and the strange mishaps that bring us closer together, and sometimes push us apart. “…a lot of this play has to do with the ways that we interact with animals, across the spectrum…” “They are us, we are one of them…” Good Apples Collective & ryan duncan-ayala presents Road Kills written by Sophie McIntosh directed by Nina Goodheart thru September 6, 2025 Paradise Factory 64 E. 4th Street Manhattan tickets: $19.50–$53.25 (sliding scale), available via TicketTailor photos by Nina Goodheart

Listen in as Not Our Home, Not Our Home playwright Ned Du, director Sissi Chen, performers Didi Won, Boyu Chen, Tien-Li Wu, John Jiang, & Josh Lau, and composer Hannah Limbrick, discuss the meaning of family, lost cats, enough or too much, freedom, enmeshment, what twists us apart, “love and responsibility,” mirrors of ourselves, and the purpose of guilt. “…this show is really about the concept of guilt. How does guilt move us, how does guilt animate us to do very, very silly things. Also, it’s about the question of immigration; who do we leave behind, how does it change us, and more importantly, how do we maintain ourselves as a family despite, for example, straddling the Pacific…” Not Our Home, Not Our Home written by Ned Du directed by Sissi Chen September 22–28, 2025 Theater for the New City 155 1st Avenue Manhattan https://not-our-home.github.io/play-info/ photos by Meggie Hool Photography

Listen in as director Eliza Palter and performers Enrique Huili & Isabel Sanchez of In the Mouth of the Beast discuss spelunking, climate change, father-daughter relationships, highs and lows, worldly stakes vs. the personal, trust, pushing the limits of your resources, life and death, making impossible choices, and what we’re willing to sacrifice. “…you really get to see how people perceive themselves, as compared to how they really are…” New Relic Theatre presents In the Mouth of the Beast written by Baylee Shlichtman directed by Eliza Palter October 17–20, 2024 MITU 580 580 Sackett Street Brooklyn photos by Jennifer Loo

Listen in as the co-writers of Steve Burns ALIVE—Steve Burns, performer, and Matthew Freeman, director—discuss the performer-audience relationship, going through some weird experiences, holding hands, asking for help, hermit crabs out of their shells, humans & humanity on the internet, having a conversation with an old friend, ancient technological testaments, the “inherent unsatisfactory nature of being alive,” and the kind of show that can only come from a place of deep friendship and creative respect. “…it’s built to be a story for the audience, not just a confessional; it’s thematic, about the nature of the authenticity of our relationships through screens, and our relationships to each other…it’s an exploration of communication…” “…in modern terms, it is really kind of an exploration of what a para-social relationship is, mediated by technology…” Mechanical Raven Productions presents Steve Burns ALIVE written by Steve Burns & Matthew Freeman directed by Matthew Freeman thru July 25, 2025 The Club at La MaMa 74A E. 4th Street Manhattan tickets: $27.32, available via TicketLeap

Listen in as writers/performers David Carl & Katie Hartman of David and Katie Get Re-Married, along with director Michole Biancosino, discuss litigation possibilities, drama school in the ’70s, heading to Edinburgh, psychopathy, wrangling, 9 a.m. dramatic improv (without a director), writing for yourself, confusing your audience, improvising into weird emotional places, and working with your friends and idols. “…this man wears boat shoes, and quotes ‘The Zoo Story’…” “And now I wear crocs!” The Women in Theater Festival presents David and Katie Get Re-Married written by David Carl & Katie Hartman directed by Michole Biancosino thru June 29, 2025 A.R.T./NY Theaters 502 W. 53rd St Manhattan tickets: $28.52, available via EventBrite photo by Mindy Tucker photo by Andrew Patino

Listen in as Xhloe Rice & Natasha Roland, the creators and performers of A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First, discuss doing your own everything, learning curves, making your show mobile, finding a tire, the sinister myth of nostalgia, dressing up in masculinity, chemistry, “becoming people together,” going through a traditional writing process before tearing the script apart, settling disputes with your creative partner, and pulling the rug out from under your audience. “…all of our work is historically influenced. We play a lot with clown, and absurdity…a lot of American movies, especially about the ’60s and ’70s…are so, like, ‘remember when everything was great, and it was the good ol’ days?'” “We call it this ‘mythic American boyhood,’ that everybody wanted, but not necessarily anyone got…” The SoHo Playhouse and Xhloe & Natasha present A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First written & performed by Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland thru June 29, 2025 SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam Street Manhattan tickets: $40, available via OvationTix photos by Morgan McDowell

Listen in as actors Kana Seiki, Celeste Samson, Anuka Sethi, Josie Rose Hand, Mason Forringer of Alexandria discuss “Category-5 dystopia,” clinging to things we shouldn’t, ominous vibes, finding hope in the library, collaboration and trying and exploring weird new things, overnight set changes, post-apocalyptic skills, & how “saying and doing are two very different things.” “…as much as we’re talking about doom and gloom, of survival in an apocalyptic world, I do think that there is a lot of love and humor and kindness that comes out of that. In this play in particular, when you don’t have the fluff of everything that is important to us in 2025, you get to witness people at their rawest, the very human experience…” Pop Up! Productions presents Alexandria written by Markley Bortz directed by Jack Morrill thru May 25, 2025 Dixon Place 161A Chrystie Street Manhattan tickets: $59.50 ($35 for under-35), available via OvationTix photos by Tiffany Zhou

Listen in as Hellish Delights playwright Scott C. Sickles, director Jesse Edward Rosbrow, and performers Amanda LaPergola, Brian Silliman, Alyssa Simon, discuss finding delight in characterizations, humor traps, storytelling, second chances and the effects of time on the work, finding the through-line, puppets, and what it means to be in hell. “…I feel like the plays, parts of them, feel very different now than they did five years ago. I don’t know much of that is just that, our world has changed…how much of it was, it was in the back of our minds, ‘working’ for five years, or, we’re five years older, with five years more experience…” Theatre Beyond Broadway presents Hellish Delights written by Scott C. Sickles directed by Jesse Edward Rosbrow thru May 10, 2025 The Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th Street, 4th Floor Manhattan tickets: $25, $15 students/seniors, available via TicketLeap photos by Kent Meister

Listen in as the cast of this timely production of Fat Cat Killers—Christopher Lee (co-producer), David Carl, & Philip Cruise (co-producer)—discuss bumbling buddies, coincidental Caribbean encounters, the brilliance & great works of playwright Adam Szymkowicz, finding “more murdery” stuff, status shifts, continuous character discovery, and just how two lonely cogs in the corporate wheel could get in way over their heads. “…as soon as we read the play, we were like, ‘we have to do it.’ […] And we don’t promote Luigi, and I don’t think the play does—but I think the play really addresses American exceptionalism…” SparkPlug Productions, in association with Thin Duke Productions and The Gene Frankel Theatre, presents Fat Cat Killers written by Adam Szymkowicz directed by Andrew Block thru May 17, 2025 The Gene Frankel Theatre 24 Bond Street Manhattan tickets: $38.10 (includes all fees), available via OnTheStage photos by Scott Fetterman

Listen in as Bread of Life playwright Frank Pagliario, director Leslie Kincaid Burby, along with the cast of Nikaury Rodriguez, Jesse Castellanos, Miguel K. Reis, Laura Fois, & Cameron Mark Russell, discuss Catholic School upbringing, charismatic cults, Biblical and modern language, vibrant colors, what Jesus asked us to do, and the wreckage that is left behind. “…I just think it’s a really interesting way to look at…a charismatic cult leader, about what happens to women who are left behind when partners go off to do their adventure, and they’re left to somehow hold things together…” UP Theater Company presents Bread of Life written by Frank Pagliaro directed by Leslie Kincaid Burby thru April 12, 2025 Fort Washington Collegiate Church 729 West 181st Street Manhattan tickets: $25 ($15 students/seniors), available via EventBrite photos by Edward Lopez