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.

On today’s podcast, we are joined by Shoshanna Ruth Green and Cubby Altobelli of burlesque troupe The Seven Deadly Seas for a little scripted "yes, and-ing." We talk about their upcoming production, The Greater of Two Evils, on the barquentine Gazela, which is once more ready to board after a two-year repair hiatus.

The show, a full-length burlesque play, takes a look at present-day politics through the eyes of real-life pirates Calico Jack Rackham, Anne Bonney, and Mary Reed. At this theater-in-the-round and under-the-stars experience, our antiheroes drink, fight, sing, and, yes, strip. The Seven Deadly Seas are an offshoot of the much-loved and dearly departed Cabaret Red Light. Proceeds from this show will help support the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild’s efforts to restore and maintain the historic Tall Ship Gazela and Tug Jupiter.

In our first podcast with Rep Radio, host Darnelle Radford interviews Tina Brock, artistic director of Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium (IRC), about Into the Absurd, the company's recent staged reading of Samuel Beckett's and Harold Pinter's radio plays. IRC is committed to producing classic absurdist theater, as reflected in their company motto: "We bring good nothingness to life."

Into the Absurd featured Beckett's "Rough for Radio II" and Pinter's "Family Voices." In this podcast, Radford and Brock discuss the relevance of a radio play in today's multimedia-saturated environment. They also look at absurdism in the context of today's political climate. It should surprise no one that absurdism is still a pretty good fit in 2016.