When Lightning Strikes!

There are musicians, composers, arrangers, orchestrators and then there is James Sampliner. He is a pianist, composer, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, music producer, percussionist and music copyist.  Much beloved by the New York theater community, James has collaborated with Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, Leslie Odom Jr., Patina Miller, Chuck Cooper, Shoshana Bean, Annaleigh Ashford, Norm Lewis, Sara Ramirez, Lillias White, Mandy Gonzalez, Rob McClure, Tracie Thoms, Eden Espinosa, James Naughton, Debra Monk, Tituss Burgess, Will Swenson, Bebe Neuwirth, Jason Robert Brown, Susan Stroman, Hal Prince and many others. Most recently he co-produced, arranged and music directed the album “Along the Way” with Bobby Conte Thornton. This episode was recorded on June 2, 2020.  Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his thirty year career Patrick Boll has performed on Broadway, off Broadway and around the country. For nearly three years he starred as Bill Austin in Mamma Mia! on Broadway. Patrick was also in the Coen Brothers film Burn After Reading with George Clooney and Brad Pitt and How to be Single with Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson. A few of his TV credits include FBI, Gossip Girl, Law and Order and their many spin-offs. Patrick has taught acting at Universities and conservatories like Playwrights Horizons at New York University, Western Michigan University and the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. Patrick is also an author. His first book, Product: You - The Workbook and Guide To An Actor's Life, is all about what it takes to be an actor.  This episode was recorded on June 5, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley wrote, Marin Ireland is “one of New York theater’s most inspired and entertaining interpreters of people programmed to self-destruct.” Just a few of her theater credits include Happy Talk, Blue Ridge, Summer and Smoke, Ironbound, On the Exhale, Kill Floor, Marie Antoinette, The Big Knife, Three Sisters, Miss. Julie, A Lie of the Mind, Reasons to Be Pretty, Far Away and Nocturne. On TV, Ireland starred in the series Sneaky Pete and the Umbrella Academy. She was also in Mildred Pierce, Homeland, The Divide, Girls and on and on and on. Next up Ireland stars in The Dark and the Wicked, The Empty Man and the highly anticipated TV series based on the comic, Y: The Last Man. This episode was recorded on June 17, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Astrid Van Wieren is an original cast member of the the hit Broadway musical, Come From Away. She has been in the show since it opened in 2017. Van Wieren also co-wrote, co-produced and stars in the indie feature film, The River You Step In. Her other credits include This Wide Night, Belles Soeurs, The Musical, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Myth of The Ostrich, The Way Back to Thursday and Baal. This episode was recorded in May, 2020, when the world was in a much different place. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly founded Irish Repertory Theatre in 1988. Ever since they have been passionately devoted to bringing Irish and Irish-American works to the stage. The Irish Rep presents everything from classics to contemporary works as they nurture new generations of Irish and Irish-American playwrights. Now in its 31st season, Moore serves as Artistic Director and O'Reilly is Producing director. They have won the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award and the Jujamcyn Theatres Award for their excellence. In 2019, Moore and O’Reilly were both inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame and received Ireland’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad. Irish Repertory Theatre has presented over 190 productions and worked with more than 500 company members. The theater now has entire online component and thriving online summer season.  Love Noël: The Songs And Letters of Noël Coward, starring Steve Ross and KT Sullivan and directed by Charlotte Moore, will be online from August 11 to August 15. For more details visit, https://irishrep.org/show/irish-rep-online-2020/love-noel-2/ This episode was recorded May 19, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Zegen stars as Joel Maisel in the beloved Amazon hit series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. His vast theater resume includes Bad Jews, The Spoils, A View From The Bridge and most recently Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice with The New Group. On Television he had a recurring role as Benny Siege' on HBO's Boardwalk Empire and has also been in The Walking Dead, Girls, How To Make It In America, Happyish and Rescue Me. His film credits includes Frances Ha, Brooklyn, Adventureland, Taking Woodstock and the film adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. Earlier this year, he wrapped production on the independent feature The Stand-In.  This episode was recorded May 19, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tedra Millan appeared on Broadway in Present Laughter. Her Off-Broadway credits include: Happy Talk,The Wolves, On the Shore of the Wide World, Nassim. On television you can see her in Fosse/Verdon, Tales of the City, Almost Family, Katy Keene and The Goldbergs. She is directing the upcoming short film, We Can Voyage There, written by David Lerner Schwartz. This episode was recorded May 11, 2020.  Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katie Brayben won a Olivier Award playing Carole King in the West End premiere of Beautiful. Just a few of her theater credits include Girl from the North Country, Honour, A Walk on The Moon, The Spoils, My Mother Said I Never Should, King Charles III and American Psycho. On television she has appeared in Luther, The Alienist, Doctor Who, King Charles III and Vera, You can see her in the riveting film, A Serial Killer’s Guide To Life which is now streaming online.  This episode was recorded May 18, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aneesa Folds shares how she went from being a student at the Freestyle Love Supreme Academy to starring on Broadway a few months later in Freestyle Love Supreme. Her other theater credits includes Sistas The Musical, Seussical, Freaky Friday and Ragtime. She has performed at North Shore Music Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, Arrow Rock Lyceum. Aneesa also appears in the new documentary, We Are Freestyle Love Supreme, which premiered July 17th on Hulu. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Marc Sherman has been a professional playwright since he was a teenager. At 18 his play, Women and Wallace, was part of the Young Playwrights Festival and directed by James LaPine and then Don Scardino. The play was made for television audiences for PBS-TV's American Playhouse with a cast that included Josh Hamilton, Debra Monk and Cynthia Nixon. Sherman has been writing ever since. (He also has a long list of acting credits which started when he played the Artful Dodger at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera). Most recently Sherman wrote the book for The New Group’s production of Bob and Carol Ted and Alice with music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik. Sherman co-founded Malaparte theater company with Josh Hamilton and Ethan Hawke. His work has been presented at The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown and around the world from Australia to Istanbul to Japan. He has written several pieces for 24 Hour Plays, Viral Monologues including The Conversationalist, the musical Fear of Frying, and Painting  This conversation was recorded May 15, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices