About This Episode
This week on Stories Found, we’re talking to one of our favorite playwrights, Clinton Festa, and then hearing his surreal comedy, The Experience. The play follows a couple dining at a restaurant with a twist – instead of food, they serve emotions. Frustration, rejection, nostalgia – it’s all on the menu. With snappy dialogue and excellent pacing, Clinton creates a surreal world where feelings truly become tangible menu items. It’s a thoughtful and hilarious look at the experience of human emotion.
About the Playwright: Clinton Festa
Clinton Festa began his career as a writer and cartoonist for his campus humor magazine. Since then he’s had short plays produced around the U.S. and Canada, comedy sketches that have placed in national competitions, and a novel recently published with CamCat Books.
During the pandemic, he wrote and directed a seven-episode action-comedy podcast called The Malone Family in the Enchanted Forest (produced by the Cary Playwrights’ Forum). Clinton runs an online book drive for inmates in prisons and juvenile detention centers called Sentences Book Donations. He lives in Greensboro, NC with his wife and children.
- Listen to Clinton’s hilarious zombie play in Episode 10: PICKY ZOMBIES.
- Order Clinton’s book, Ancient Canada: a Mythological Tale at CamCat
- Find Clinton on NPX, The New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/74998/clinton-festa
About the Cast
The Experience was performed for us by:
Gabriella Headley as Wife
Gabriella Headley (she/her) is an actor, director, and creative from Orlando, Florida! Frequently drawn to the new play development process, she believes there is nothing like the magic of creating new art. She has performed on various stages across Florida, and has served as a Director, Assistant Director, Choreographer, Dramaturg, and Teaching Artist across the United States.
Joe Llorens as Husband
Joe Llorens has been a performer for over twenty years. In that time, he’s done things. Some of those things he’s liked, even. Joe will keep trying to do things he likes and not be as judgy about the things he doesn’t like because he really should cut himself a bit of a break. He loves his wife, children, and pets, though. A lot.
Tonie Knight as Waitress
Tonie Knight is an award-winning actress in Austin. She has worked in live theater, poetry slam, and educational multi-media, for… (what’s that over there? Huh. Thought I saw something.) years. Like many voice actors, her turn-offs are thunderstorms, barking dogs, and motorcycles. As a proud Cuban American her turn-ons are the smell of a good cigar, cafecito Cubano, and the healing powers of Vicks Vaporub. She has five perfect kids and is wildly in love with her brilliant husband.
Manuel Solis-Bauza as Take Out Customer
A born and raised Puerto Rican native, Manuel Solis-Bauza is a graduate of the Rollins College class of 2020, having acquired a BA in Theatre Studies and Communication Theory. Seen on the Rollins stage as Shu Fu in Good Person of Setzuan and Solomon in Speech and Debate, Manuel has recently performed in a variety of acclaimed Central Florida shows such as Nick in The Wingman, produced by New Generation Theatrical, Nelson in Our Lady of the Tortilla, produced by Descolonizarte Teatro, and most recently as Kennedy in The Vast of Darkness, produced by Whiskey Theatre Factory and voted as Critics’ Choice for Best Drama at Orlando Fringe 2023.
Featured Organization: Sentences Book Donations
Our featured organization this week is Sentences: Book Donations. Their goal is to network readers with prison librarians and juvenile detention centers to determine their needs and donate books for use in their facilities.
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