Token Theatre Friends

ABOUT

Diep Tran and Jose Solís see a lot of theater per year; 150-300 to be exact (each!). So they’re nerds. Every week, Jose and Diep will bring a POC perspective to the performing arts, and talk about the best thing they’ve seen that week, interview artists they love and talk about how to make the entertainment industry a better, more equitable, place for all. Come pull up a seat next to your friends!

If you want more of Jose and Diep, they are also publishing more artists interviews, theater reviews and op-eds on their website: Token Theatre Friends (www.tokentheatrefriends.com). It’s currently being read by people around the world! You can support for their work by making a monthly donation on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tokentheatrefriends).

WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE

Episodes

Ep 10: “Songs From an Unmade Bed” Is BD Wong’s Gay “Lemonade”

This week, the Friends open the show by talking about Black is King, Beyoncé's new visual album, and folklore, the new album by Taylor Swift that was written and released during quarantine. They talk about how these albums use storytelling as its primary driver, and what other artists ...

August 6, 2020

Ep 9: Audio Dramas and Dating Drama (Feat: Clare Barron)

The Friends discuss two audio plays: Richard II by Shakespeare and Julia Pastrana by Shaun Prendergast. Richard II was presented by the Public Theater and WNYC, and starred André Holland as the king and Miriam A. Hyman as his foe Henry Bolingbroke. It's still available to download. Julia ...

July 23, 2020

Ep 8: How COVID Life and Undocumented Life Aren’t That Different (Feat: Hilary Bettis)

This week, the Friends discuss immigration, or rather, how immigration is portrayed on the stage. First off is a review of The Copper Children by Karen Zacarías, a play that was performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and is now being streamed by the theater. It's about a ...

July 17, 2020

Ep 7: Our “Hamilton” Congress! (Feat: Kelundra Smith and Heath Saunders)

Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's epic (and very expensive) musical has moved from the stage to screen thanks to Disney+. A musical as big as Hamilton deserves a big discussion, a cabinet battle, if you will. The Friends are joined by actor and composer Heath Saunders, and theater critic Kelundra ...

July 10, 2020

Ep 6: Why George Salazar Prefers to Call In, Instead of Call Out

The Friends recorded on June 7. This week is a very special episode because there's not one, but TWO, podcast episodes. In the planning for this week, Diep and Jose realized that they had too much content and they didn't want to cut any of it. So this ...

July 9, 2020

Ep 5: Why Zoom Theater is Giving Us Life! (Feat: Taylor Reynolds)

The Friends recorded on June 29. They open the show by talking about Zoom plays, what's been working about them, what hasn't been working, and things they've seen on Zoom that they love. Then they talk about two shows they've seen. First, To My Distant Love from On ...

July 1, 2020