Playwrights Else Went, John Patrick Shanley, And More Featured In Playing On Air’s New Season Under New Leadership

Following its leadership transition earlier this year, Playing on Air will launch a new season featuring five short plays from Else Went, Charles Mee, Maleek Rae, John Patrick Shanley, and Mara Nelson-Greenberg. The lineup includes a previously published work, several world premieres, and three commissions, accompanied by monthly mini-episodes programmed to highlight classic and contemporary examples of the short play form. The season will be available on PlayingOnAir.org, Apple Podcasts, Audible, and other major platforms.

Artistic Director Joshua Kahan Brody noted that this year’s selection reflects “a more diverse set of voices — across gender, race, and also age,” adding that the season intentionally spans writers in their late twenties through their eighties. Associate Artistic Director Garlia Cornelia Jones emphasized the company’s shift toward a podcast-first model, saying the new season “represents a real pivot into the podcast era—longer plays, formats that feel contemporary, and new ways of engaging people beyond a single episode drop.”

The season launches Friday, December 5 with 73, SK. by Else Went, followed on December 19 by The Corner Café by Charles Mee. Holiday selections from the Playing on Air archives will run through the end of the year. The series resumes January 9 with A Headspace Meditation by Mara Nelson-Greenberg, followed by Maleek Rae’s Father’s Sin on January 23. The season concludes February 6 with The Red Coat by John Patrick Shanley.

Emma Rosa Went, Goldie E. Patrick, Sarah Lunnie, Tom Dugdale, and John Patrick Shanley will direct episodes throughout the season. “73, SK.” marks the inaugural William W. Lunnie Commission; A Headspace Meditation continues the tradition of the James Stevenson Commission for Short Comedic Plays; and Father’s Sin inaugurates the MC Libby Commission. Conversations with the leadership team and artists will run between episode releases.

Playing on Air episodes are free and can be streamed beginning December 5 on the organization’s website or on any major podcast platform. After The Corner Café, the season takes a holiday break; the final three plays drop bi-weekly from January 9 through February 6. The podcast has logged more than half a million downloads.

The plays include 73, SK. by Else Went, which follows a small group of HAM radio operators as they mourn the loss of one of their members; The Corner Café by Charles Mee, presented as a piece of “society talk”; A Headspace Meditation by Mara Nelson-Greenberg, which offers a guided meditation designed to help listeners slow down; Father’s Sin by Maleek Rae, focused on a father on death row making a final call to his son; and The Red Coat by John Patrick Shanley, about a Bronx teenager waiting outside a party to confess his feelings to a girl he hardly knows.