Ensemble Studio Theatre (Estefanía Fadul and Graeme Gillis, Co-Artistic Directors) announced EST Re: Members, a new podcast premiering this month, featuring interviews with Ensemble Studio Theatre's member artists, hosted by Rachel Lin. The podcast goes behind the scenes with the theatre makers who've played on the EST stage in New York’s Hell's Kitchen, from the company's founding in 1968 right up to the present. Inaugural season guests include Stephanie Berry, Lois Smith, Lloyd Suh, Leah Nanako Winkler, William Jackson Harper, and Brian Quijada.
“It’s been such a gift to be able to call EST my artistic home for the last several years, and I am thrilled to be embarking on this new collaboration with the artistic team and the community,” said Rachel Lin, Producer of EST Re: Members. “It’s my hope that EST Re: Members will serve as an archive, a source of inspiration, and a place of fond remembrance for our member artists and beyond.”
EST Re: Members podcast will be available on all regular podcasting platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Each episode dropping in August will be about an hour and a new round of episodes will be released later in the season.
Episode 1: Actors Stephanie Berry & Lois Smith (August 1 Release)
Obie Award winners Stephanie Berry and Lois Smith join host, Rachel Lin, to discuss their decades-long careers in the theater. Together, they have over a century of experience combined! The two esteemed performers talk about self-doubt, motherhood, and the differences in their paths as working actors.
Among many other things, EST has long been known as a theatre of extraordinary actors; after many decades between them, Stephanie Berry and Lois Smith remain the epitome of that standard. Stephanie Berry has been a member of EST for over 40 years and remains active on the theatre's stage right up to today. She won an Obie Award for the EST production of her play The Shaneequa Chronicles in 2001 and returned to the EST stage again and again in the years since. Lois Smith has been a member of EST going back to the theatre's earliest days and was a key collaborator in defining EST works in the careers of Horton Foote and Romulus Linney, to name just two.
Episode 2: Playwrights Lloyd Suh & Leah Nanako Winkler (August 15 Release)
Lloyd Suh first came to EST as a member of the Youngblood program for emerging playwrights in the late 90s, and had his first productions through that program, With A Hammer And A Nail and Masha No Home. Since then, Lloyd's work has appeared regularly on the EST stage, including five plays in the EST Marathon over the years. He returns again to EST this fall with the New York premiere of his comedy Franklinland. Leah Nanako Winkler first joined EST through the Youngblood program just a little over a decade ago and quickly became a significant voice in her generation at the theatre, both in the Marathon of One-Act Plays and in her epic, award-winning Kentucky.
Episode 3: Actor-Writers William Jackson Harper & Brian Quijada (August 29 Release)
William Jackson Harper has appeared on the EST stage in countless readings, workshops, and productions since his arrival there in 2006. While rising to acclaim as an actor, Will also worked as a playwright at EST, developing his play Travisville which premiered at the theatre in 2018. Brian Quijada established himself as part of the EST ensemble in the mid-2010s and burst out with the New York premiere of his acclaimed solo show Where Did We Sit On The Bus? in 2017. He's returned to EST regularly since then while appearing as a writer and an actor on stages around the country.
Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) is located at 545 West 52nd Street. For more information, visit www.estnyc.org.
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