podcast – THE CULTIVATED PLAYWRIGHT: Recent Episodes
B McEntire
For a long time, I have had a hang-up about over-sharing. In this age of putting things out there on the over-crowded blackhole that is the internet, sharing aspects of the artist, well beyond the actual finished artworks, is somewhat expected. In this episode, I talk it out. I have been working to reframe some of this stuff, so I don’t… you know… wallow in obscurity for the rest of my life.
https://ia903201.us.archive.org/31/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-43-over-sharing-and-making-things/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2043%20-%20Over-Sharing%20and%20Making%20Things.mp3NOTES | Media/ concepts mentioned:
George Hahn’s website… HERE
Grab my book Crafting the Solo Show
Click HERE for Brad McEntire’s home website.
Click HERE for my playwriting website
Buy any of my books… HERE
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Here are a few of my thoughts on curating and owning a physical media collection (physical books, movies on DVD and music on CDs, etc.) in a time of streaming, the cloud and subscriptions.
https://ia800408.us.archive.org/10/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-42-curation-and-physical-media/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2042%20-%20Curation%20and%20Physical%20Media.mp3NOTES | Media/ concepts mentioned:
My recent book Crafting the Solo Show
Click HERE for Brad McEntire’s home website.
Click HERE for my playwriting website
Buy one of my books… HERE
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
I recently released a book aimed at emerging solo performers putting together an original one-person theatre production. It is called Crafting the Solo Show. In this episode, I read the preface. It explains who I am and why I set out to write the book.
https://ia800500.us.archive.org/33/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-41-crafting-the-solo-show-preface/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2041%20-%20Crafting%20the%20Solo%20Show%20Preface.mp3NOTES | Media/ concepts mentioned:
- My new book Crafting the Solo Show
Click HERE for Brad McEntire’s home website.
Click HERE for my playwriting website
Buy one of my plays… HERE
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
A little catch-up episode about what I’ve been doing since this past summer. Plus, big announcement.
https://ia802708.us.archive.org/0/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-40-end-of-summer-update/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2040%20-%20End%20of%20Summer%20Update.mp3NOTES | Media/ concepts mentioned:
- *Ep. 17 – Creating the Beast of Hyperborea Part 1*
- Ep. 18 – Creating the Beast of Hyperborea Part 2
- My upcoming new book Crafting the Solo Show
Click HERE for Brad McEntire’s home website.
Click HERE for my playwriting website
Buy one of my plays… HERE
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
A few factors over the past several months have prompted me to get my act together career-wise as a playwright. Part of that process has been the creation of a new website.
- The fellow that runs the Playwright’s Spotlight is James Elden (I couldn’t remember while recording the podcast)
https://ia601600.us.archive.org/28/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-38-i-built-a-playwright-website/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2038%20-%20I%20Built%20A%20Playwright%20Website.mp3NOTES | Media/ concepts mentioned:
- My new website: BradMcEntirePlays.com
- Playwright’s Spotlight Podcast (also a YouTube channel)
- My own new ebook The Yeti in the Airport Lounge and Other Holiday Tales
Click HERE for Brad McEntire’s home website
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Stitcher
Buy one of my plays… HERE
In this episode I continue my talk with my indie fantasy author David Hopkins. In this episode we talk about David buckling down and committing to fantasy fiction. We cover a bunch of stuff: David’s experience with Patreon, working with his team of collaborators, how his wife April is essential in offering feedback, how he has learned about his “target audience,” why he doesn’t do book trailers, crafting well-rounded characters, the upcoming release of his 700-word (plus) novel The Dryad’s Crown and a lot more. This is the second and final part of our two-part conversation.
https://ia904703.us.archive.org/31/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-37-david-hopkins-pt-2/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2037%20-%20David%20Hopkins%20Pt%202.mp3NOTES | Media/ concepts mentioned:
- David Hopkins website
- Dryad’s Crown on Amazon
- My own new ebook The Yeti in the Airport Lounge and Other Holiday Tales
Click HERE for Brad McEntire’s website
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Stitcher
Buy one of my plays… HERE
In this super-sized episode I talk with my friend and colleague, David Hopkins. He is an indie fantasy author. Over the last few years, he has built a solid author platform (sleek re-designed website with pop-ups, e-mail newsletters, Patreon, team of kick-ass collaborators, etc.) and is selling his goods as a self-published author. He is growing an expanding community of readers and fans and is set to release his largest, most ambitious project yet later this year. However, his career has been delightfully circuitous and relatable. In this first of a two-part discussion, Hopkins and I talk about his first attempt at playwriting, self-publishing, writing for comics, journalism as a uber skill and 1960s burlesque.
https://ia904706.us.archive.org/2/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-36-david-hopkins-pt-1/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2036%20-%20David%20Hopkins%20Pt%201.mp3NOTES | Media/ concepts mentioned:
- David Hopkins website
- T-shaped person
- Brandon Sanderson BYU Writing Lectures on YouTube
- David’s Friends article on Medium.com
- The Wild and Wayward Tales of Tammi True
- David’s TEDx Talk: The Unfortunate Appeal of the Heroic Idiot
- My own new ebook The Yeti in the Airport Lounge and Other Holiday Tales
Click HERE for Brad McEntire’s website
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Stitcher
Buy one of my plays… HERE
Here's how the Summer of Four Plays Project turned out and what I learned from the experience.
Making discoveries about my solo show and a short debriefing of the 2022 Fort Worth Fringe Festival.
June 23-26, 2022 I was in Colorado for the Denver Fringe, a fringe theatre fest in its third year. I took my solo show Robert's Eternal Goldfish. It was really nice to be back out in the world.
The thing that Theatre might excel at in the future is doing the thing machines cannot... asking better questions.
Over the summer of 2022, between mid-May and Mid-September, I am attempting an ambitious challenge, to create four distinct theatre projects completely from scratch.
I recently got a chance to see the 2021 movie Cyrano, a new cinematic adaptation of Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. I have some thoughts.
Sir Antony Sher passed on December 2, 2021. I had the immense pleasure of seeing him perform the title role in an RSC production of Cyrano de Bergerac back in 1998. This little episode is a remembrance and celebration of Sher. The stage has lost a true titan.
https://ia601506.us.archive.org/30/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-27-goodbye-sir-antony-sher/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2027%20-%20Goodbye%20Sir%20Antony%20Sher.mp3
Sher as Richard III (1984) with the RSC Sher as Cyrano (1997) with the RSC NOTES | Media/ concepts mentioned:
- *Y*ear of the King: An Actor’s Diary and Sketchbook by Antony Sher
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A pillow message is a short, pithy statement one might broadcast on a t-shirt, a bumper sticker or have embroidered on a throw pillow. It tends to be a microscopic glimpse of a person's life philosophy.
Just wanted to share this little concept I stumbled upon the other day… Pillow Message. Coined by literary agent Adam Chromy, a pillow message is a short, pithy statement one might broadcast on a t-shirt, a bumper sticker or have embroidered on a throw pillow. It tends to be a microscopic glimpse of a person’s life philosophy.
I thought it might be a neat tool for a playwright to draw upon when creating a character. Additionally, it could help shine a light on how a character’s perspective might tie in to a theme in the play.
https://archive.org/download/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-26-pillow-message/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2026%20-%20Pillow%20Message.mp3
NOTES | Media/ concepts mentioned:
- frequency illusion (or frequency bias)
- Writing Irresistible Kid Lit by Mary Kole
- Brandon Rike, graphic designer
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Listening to an episode of the Freakonomics podcast the other day, I was introduced to the concept of Goal Conflict. I have some thoughts on it.
https://ia601505.us.archive.org/26/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-25-goal-conflict/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2025%20-%20Goal%20Conflict.mp3
NOTES | Media mentioned:
- Freakonomics Radio Podcast Ep 458
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
- Chop: A One-Person Play by Brad McEntire
CHOP ebook promo (if you can’t see it, here’s the link: https://youtu.be/IVKVpI6qvfg) Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Stitcher
I have been thinking about the systems (or lack of systems) of productivity that I have used in the past. I am also considering where I am now and the process I currently use to produce creative projects. I can probably do better…
https://ia601506.us.archive.org/33/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-24-changing-productivity/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2024%20-%20Changing%20Productivity.mp3
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For info on Paul Stein and to see when he has his next workshop visit: https://www.paulstein.net/
I have been thinking about the systems (or lack of systems) of productivity that I have used in the past. I am also considering where I am now and the process I currently use to produce creative projects. I can probably do better...
About to get my second vaccination and recent events have me thinking about how fragile our own sense of control is as well as how having some sense of control over what we can, gives us a bit of happiness. Or at least it does for me.
https://archive.org/download/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-23-thinking-about-control/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2023%20-%20Thinking%20About%20Control.mp3 Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Stitcher
Thinking about control... why it makes us feel good when we have it and not so much when we don't...
I sit down with Special Guest Jeff Hernandez to talk about the 2013 Coen Brothers’ film Inside Llewyn Davis. In particular how the titular character represents how the Coens see the role of the artist in society.
We discuss the cat as well as the implicit contrast between success and selling out. This is part 2 of a two-part conversation.
https://ia801405.us.archive.org/16/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-22-inside-inside-llewyn-davis-pt-2/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2022%20-%20Inside%20Inside%20Llewyn%20Davis%20Pt%202.mp3 Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Stitcher
I sit down with Guest Jeff Hernandez to talk about the 2013 Coen Brothers’ film Inside Llewyn Davis. Part 2 or a 2 part series.
I sit down with Special Guest Jeff Hernandez to talk about the 2013 Coen Brothers’ film Inside Llewyn Davis. In particular how the titular character represents how the Coens see the role of the artist in society.
We also touch on how I used to think this film was a horror movie.
This is part 1 of a two-part conversation.
https://ia601401.us.archive.org/27/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-21-inside-inside-llewyn-davis-pt-1/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2021%20-%20Inside%20Inside%20Llewyn%20Davis%20Pt%201.mp3
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Stitcher
I sit down with Special Guest Jeff Hernandez to talk about the 2013 Coen Brothers' film Inside Llewyn Davis.
Theatre needs an audience and that audience needs to be in the same space as the performers for the act of theatre to exist. But with stay-at-home orders and venues shut down for the time being, a lot of theatre makers are finding it hard to stop making stuff. There is a desperate grasping to adapt projects for shoddy online experiements like zoom play readings, facebook live performances, releasing Instagram posts of old footage and production photos to remind subscribers and patrons we’re still here and so on.
Oh, fellow theatre-makers, avoid the low-hanging fruit of online projects and take the opportunity, during the Covid-19 situation, to shake the yoke of creation addiction and chill for a bit. Really reflect on what the future could be.
https://ia801501.us.archive.org/5/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-20-creation-addiction-in-the-time-of-quarantine/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2020%20-%20Creation%20Addiction%20in%20the%20Time%20of%20Quarantine.mp3
NOTES | Media mentioned:
- The Empty Space by Peter Brook
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Theatre needs an audience and that audience needs to be in the same space as the performers for the act of theatre to exist. But with stay-at-home orders and venues shut down for the time being, a lot of theatre makers are finding it hard to stop making stuff. There is a desperate grasping to … Continue reading Ep. 20 – Creation Addiction in the Time of Quarantine
William Shakespeare was one of a kind. He wrote hugely popular works during his lifetime, had an insane work ethic and a stupendous entreprneurial streak. Nowadays, these attributes show up in an unlikely, but fitting counterpart… Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. https://ia601508.us.archive.org/3/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-19-shakespeare-and-the-rock/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2019%20-%20Shakespeare%20and%20The%20Rock.mp3 NOTES | Media mentioned: The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century and the Birth … Continue reading Ep. 19 – Shakespeare and The Rock
William Shakespeare was one of a kind. He wrote hugely popular works during his lifetime, had an insane work ethic and a stupendous entreprneurial streak.
Nowadays, these attributes show up in an unlikely, but fitting counterpart… Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
https://ia601508.us.archive.org/3/items/the-cultivated-playwright-ep.-19-shakespeare-and-the-rock/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2019%20-%20Shakespeare%20and%20The%20Rock.mp3
NOTES | Media mentioned:
- The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind by A. C. Grayling
- 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro
- All Is True (Director: Kenneth Branagh). 2019
- Skyscraper (Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber). 2018
- Dwayne Johnson’s Instagram
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I created a new one-man show recently. I essentially wrote, designed and rehearsed it in about 5 weeks. In this episode I discuss the reception after opening night. I also talk about handling creative burnout.
This is a two-parter. If you haven’t listened to episode 17, I recommend doing that first.
https://ia601509.us.archive.org/3/items/thecultivatedplaywrightep.18creatingthebeastofhyperboreapt2/The%20Cultivated%20Playwright%20Ep.%2018%20-%20Creating%20The%20Beast%20of%20Hyperborea%20Pt%202.mp3
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To read a review of this performance go HERE or HERE