On today’s podcast, we catch up with Theatre Exile producing artistic director Deborah Block to talk about Theatre Exile’s 20th anniversary season. We start off with congratulations on Exile's 13 Barrymore Award nominations (which Monday night became five wins for their production of Ayad Akhtar's The Invisible Hand:Production of a Play, Direction of a Play (Matt Pfeiffer), Leading Actor in a Play (Maboud Ebrahimzadeh), Supporting Actor in a Play (J. Paul Nicholas), and Sound Design (Michael Kiley).

We also focus on Exile's next production, Rajiv Joseph's Guards at the Taj and tease with the rest of the season, which includes John Pollono's Lost Girls, and Tracey Scott Wilson's Buzzer, It’s always a pleasure to chat with Deb. I hope you are as excited about their 20th season as I am.

On this episode of the Broad Street Review/REP Radio podcast, we discuss 1812 Productions' annual political satire This Is the Week That Is (TIWTI). Meet Sean Close and new cast member Nia-Samara Benjamin, both of whom appear in TIWTI's "Election Special." Can you guess what we talked about?

Why should Saturday Night Live have all the fun this election cycle? Host Darnelle Radford, Benjamin, and Close give you the local lowdown on how to suck up all the year's dirty politics without getting sick.

On this week's podcast, Darnelle Radford interviews Casabuena Cultural Productions founder Mariangela Saavedra about the Mt. Airy company's inaugural entry into the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The Church Bells All Were Broken, a world premiere by Philadelphia playwright Dave Ebersole, is a fictitious story inspired by the real Westboro Baptist Church and its members. It challenges the audience to see all sides with the assistance of humor, music, and drama.

Jeff and Melissa are part of the infamous MacArthur family, a family known to take their religious beliefs to the extreme by picketing funerals with their offensive signs and parodies of pop songs. They take their messages — “God hates fags” and “America is doomed” — all over the country and even to the Supreme Court. But when Jeff decides to come to terms with his sexuality his whole life changes. He tries to maintain his faith while his family makes him an outcast. Will his sister, who loves him dearly, be able to pull him back into the fold, or will she finally see that she is really part of a cult fueled by hate?

On today’s podcast, we meet Erlina Ortiz. She is a graduate of Temple University and the Resident Playwright of Power Street Theatre Company. We come to know her because she has been selected as one of the 2016 Amtrak Artist Residency recipients. She will travel the country by train and let the beauty of our nation inspire her next piece. Stay Tuned!

About Erlina Ortiz

Erlina Ortiz is a self-defined "everything" artist, and Power Street is the perfect avenue for her to explore all her different passions in the theater. Erlina graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in theater and a concentration in acting. She began dabbling in playwriting and directing when she started working with Power Street. The company produced two of her full-length plays in 2013 and 2014, and her newest work, She Wore Those Shoes, which addresses military rape culture, will receive a full production at the Iron Factory in October, 2016. As an emerging Latina-American playwright, Erlina’s voice is unique and important to the growing landscape of theatre in America and will only continue to become more relevant.