The show must go on. And, at a time like this, Atlanta theaters have discovered new and innovative ways to make that happen.
During the first year of the pandemic, while empty stages around the country kept on the ghostlight, Actor’s Express sought a way to continue telling stories. Eventually, through a grant from the National New Play Network, the company found itself at a literal “crossroads” after producer Amanda Washington pitched artistic director Freddie Ashley on having the company create a podcast drama using a team of six local playwrights.
“Crossroads,” a seven-episode podcast featuring magical realism and deals with the devil that debuted in February 2021, was so successful that Actor’s Express has committed to regularly produce podcasts as part of its programming.
The overall project is now called “Amplify: Podcast Plays by Actor’s Express.”
“We are committed to these podcast plays because a core mission of our work at AE is to uplift and amplify the local playwright,” said Washington, a National New Play Network Producer in Residence at Actor’s Express. “Now that we’ve done this twice, we’ve created an umbrella where these podcasts can live. So Amplify meets the mission we’re going for, finding playwrights who really are the voice of the community we’re in right now.”
Amplify’s second season program, “Tucker’s Cove,” a new story written and directed by local playwrights Sofia Palmero and Kayla Parker, released its first of six episodes on January 26.
Credit: Courtesy of Actor's Express
Credit: Courtesy of Actor's Express
“Tucker’s Cove” is a wild tale of life on a college campus in the year 2070, where the effects of climate change have ravaged America’s coasts, forever altering the landscape. In the first episodes, the start of a new school year is interrupted by a strange natural disaster, leaving the student characters shaken and seeking answers for how their college will survive.
The nine members of the Actor’s Express 2021-22 intern company comprise the cast of “Tucker’s Cove.” They told the playwrights which topics they wanted to explore and the types of roles they wanted to play. Palmero and Parker developed the story together over seven months, working with Washington to tell a tale that resonated with the performers.
A former Actor’s Express intern in 2020 herself, Parker said that was important to hear.
“In the podcast, we see what these students are going through and how it’s different and similar to what modern-day college is like,” Parker said. “You have interpersonal relationships and all that fun, yet you also have issues that our children and grandchildren will have to deal with.”
The world of “Tucker’s Cove” surprised Washington when she received the scripts. She hadn’t imagined that each episode would incorporate climate change into every aspect of its characters’ lives.
“I definitely did not expect what I got, I will say that,” Washington said. “I love my criminal shows, dark and twisty shadows and stuff, and that’s kind of what I got, except at a college. We got stories about college students, but we also got how all of them are somehow out to save the world or have a positive impact on it. We’re pushing boundaries of what positive impact is and what is helpful in this environment.”
The first character introduced in the podcast is Xavier Jones, a journalism major and truth seeker who is portrayed by intern Tyshawn Gooden.
“Xavier is very bold and audacious about how he asks questions; he’s not afraid at all,” Parker said. “He’s not intimidated by the higher-ups. He probably should be a little more apprehensive and quieter than he is, because you can ask questions and find out the truth without telling everyone in your freshman class.”
Palmero said “Tucker’s Cove” led her to pull out everything she’d ever read about writing episodic series because she’d never made anything like it before.
Credit: Courtesy of Actor's Express
Credit: Courtesy of Actor's Express
“It was like so many firsts,” Palmero said. “It was my first time writing for an ensemble, it was my first time writing something episodic, right? We’re talking six episodes, 30 minutes each. It was my first time writing for a podcast. It was my first time writing for a commission of this size and my second commission ever. It was literally first, first, first, first, first, so it was super intimidating.”
Palmero said that collaborating with Parker — a partnership suggested by Washington — was very different from her usual solitary act of writing.
“It was a constant dialogue,” Palmero said. “It was so challenging and such a blast. I just feel like I’ve never grown so fast as a writer, director, collaborator and artist as I did when we were working on this.”
An actress herself, Palmero played a lovesick college student in Out Front Theatre’s “Bull in a China Shop” in 2020, delivering a passionate monologue at one point. She said that role helped influence “Tucker’s Cove.”
Credit: Courtesy of Actor's Express
Credit: Courtesy of Actor's Express
“Every night when I would go up to do that monologue, I could feel the anxiousness of it because it was just so gigantic, emotional, explosive and intense,” Palmero said. “The feeling that I got when I read that and did it, the exhilaration and the adrenaline, I look to give that to my actors. If my actors aren’t feeling a little tinge of discomfort and anxiety in reading what they’re going to do, I don’t feel like you (as the writer) have dug as deep as you possibly could.”
Parker said the collaboration was one of the best aspects of creating “Tucker’s Cove.”
“For me, the most surprising thing was the way Sofia and I connected through this process,” Parker said. “When we first started, we didn’t know what we were doing and had never worked together or even met before. We found out that we had the same birthday. And we started hanging out, just getting to know each other as people and artists. We figured out how we could support each other through this process. Amanda did a superb job by putting us together.”
Parker said she also loves hearing her ideas come to life.
“Of course, hearing the actors actually say the words, hearing people say out loud the things I put on paper, it’s insane!” she said. “I can’t wait for people to hear it.”
WHERE TO LISTEN
New episodes of Tucker’s Cove release Wednesdays on a variety of podcast platforms, including iTunes and Spotify.
Benjamin Carr is an arts journalist and critic who has contributed to ArtsATL since 2019. His plays have been produced at The Vineyard Theatre in Manhattan, as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and the Center for Puppetry Arts. His first novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant in 2021.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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