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The Drama Book Show!

The Drama Book Show!

Written by: The Drama Book Show! & Broadway Podcast Network
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Welcome to The Drama Book Show! Join hosts David Rigano, Mark-Eugene Garcia, and Dylan Glick- seasoned playwrights and close friends, as they engage in interviews with a diverse array of guests spanning from Broadway to Off-Broadway and beyond. Recording before a live audience at the Drama Book Shop, each week features a theater expert delving into realms both on and off the stage. Follow @dramabookshowpodcast on instagram, check Eventbrite for events, and join our lively audience at the book shop, where drama unfolds! Music by Paul RiganoThe Drama Book Show! Art Entertainment & Performing Arts
Episodes
  • My Excellency — With Jonathan Cohen & Gy Mirano

    My Excellency — With Jonathan Cohen & Gy Mirano
    Aug 9 2026
    In this episode, we explore My Excellency with presenter and reader Jonathan Cohen, an award-winning poet, translator, essayist, and scholar of inter-American literature, whose work has focused extensively on bringing Spanish-language literature to English-speaking audiences. Cohen is the editor of My Excellency, his edition of William Carlos Williams’s translation of the Puerto Rican play, published by Swan Isle Press in 2025. Joining him is actress, voice-over artist, producer, and arts advocate Gy Mirano, whose work spans theater, film, television, and cultural institutions throughout New York. We also look at the remarkable connection between Puerto Rican dramatist Luis Rechani Agrait and American modernist poet William Carlos Williams. Rechani Agrait was one of Puerto Rico’s major dramatists of the twentieth century, and My Excellency was first produced in 1940 by the Sociedad Dramática Areyto, an experimental theater company dedicated to developing a distinctly Puerto Rican national theater. Set in an “imaginary country” resembling Puerto Rico during the Great Depression, My Excellency is a political farce about Buenaventura Padilla, an idealistic but naive man who rises to power through a corrupt election. His pompous language, malapropisms, and hilarious mistakes turn the political satire into a comedy about corruption, materialism, and the corrupting power of success. Williams’s translation preserves the play’s distinctive mixture of popular idiom, nonsense, and verbal invention, bringing Rechani Agrait’s political comedy to a new English-speaking audience. Together, Cohen and Mirano discuss the play, its Puerto Rican theatrical history, and Williams’s fascinating role as translator—connecting two major literary voices across language, culture, and time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    42 mins
  • Acting Professionally: The Essential Guide for the Actor

    Acting Professionally: The Essential Guide for the Actor
    Aug 8 2026
    Join us for a live podcast recording, talkback, and signing with renowned casting director James Calleri, as he discusses the 9th edition of Acting Professionally: The Essential Guide for the Actor. This updated edition reflects the changing landscape of the acting world, including the impacts of BLM, #MeToo, and the Covid-19 pandemic, while providing practical advice for navigating auditions, representation, and opportunities across stage, screen, and digital platforms. With decades of experience launching the careers of actors like Elisabeth Moss, Adam Driver, Jessica Chastain, and Sterling K. Brown, Calleri shares insider knowledge, career-building strategies, and essential guidance for actors at any stage of their journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    55 mins
  • The Hang- With Taylor Mac and Shayok Misha Chowdhury

    The Hang- With Taylor Mac and Shayok Misha Chowdhury
    Aug 7 2026
    In this episode, Taylor Mac joins us to discuss their latest musical-theatrical work, created with composer Matt Ray and set in ancient Athens on the eve of Socrates’ execution. Sentenced to death for “corrupting the youth,” Socrates spends his final hours debating virtue, singing, dancing, and communing with friends, while Plato attempts to record the events. Blending philosophy, history, and theatrical playfulness, the piece celebrates what cannot be written down: the joyous, essential experience of “the hang.” The conversation is moderated by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, an Obie and Whiting Award–winning writer and director who was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Public Obscenities. His multidisciplinary work across theater, music, poetry, and film has earned numerous honors, including a United States Artists Fellowship and a Princess Grace Award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    45 mins
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