OUR STORY
With a nod to "Ear Play," the original founding radio series from the 1970’s, HEAR PLAY Audio Theatre approaches radio drama as an art form, creating dramatic theatrical podcasts that utilize the power of the spoken word along with the latest sound design techniques. With skillful acting, nuanced direction, and artful design and editing, HEAR PLAY produces vibrant and engaging listening experiences presented directly to your ear with immediacy and a remarkable intimacy.
Begun during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when theatres were shuttered and theatre artists were floundering at home, HEAR PLAY brings together actors and composers from around the globe to work together virtually. It provides them with creative work and, equally important, compensation for their time and talents.
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Our collective of ARTISTS (actors, writers, composers, directors, sound designers and engineers) come from all over the country, drawn together by a love of the theatre and the spoken word. The SERIES HOST is SIMON JONES.
HEAR PLAY productions are free to enjoy, but we rely on your donations to continue our work. All the money received is shared with the creative artists who work on our productions. So, please consider "buying us a coffee" (or two!) to help us fairly compensate these talented artists and to enable us to continue bringing you excellent work.
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The Hear Play Theme was composed by Joseph Trapanese.
Initial read through with audio cast for THREE WISE GUYS. Pictured: TOP ROW: Dana Smith-Croll, Scott Alan Evans (Co-author, Director), Karl Kenzler, Ron McClary. MIDDLE ROW: Jeffrey C. Hawkins, Joel de la Fuente, Victoria Mack, Jeffrey Couchman (Co-author). BOTTOM ROW: Joseph Trapanese (Composer), Jack Koenig, John Plumpis, Jasmine Rush. NOT PICTURED: Daryl Bornstein, Nora Chester, Steve French.
OUR ARTISTS
JEREMY BECK (Actor - TRIANGLE) LONDON’S WEST END: Shakespeare’s R&J (Arts Theater). OFF-BROADWAY: Conflict, Hindle Wakes (Mint) The Cocktail Party, Widowers’ Houses, She Stoops, The Gravedigger's Lullaby (TACT); Girl Crazy (Encores!); Betrayed (by George Packer, Culture Project); Bury the Dead (Transport Group); Pink (SPF); The President and Her Mistress (Abingdon). OTHER/OFF-OFF: Couriers and Contrabands; Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage; The Ring Cycle; A Dog In The Manger; Forth; The Second Tosca. REGIONAL: Peterborough Players, Williamstown, Huntington, 1812, Keegan. FILM: Gods and Generals; The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead and Roundhead. TELEVISION: Law & Order; Person of Interest; Unforgettable.
JEFFREY COUCHMAN (Co-Authour - THREE WISE GUYS) has worked in Hollywood, collaborating on screenplays for various studios, and has written the book and lyrics for two musicals: BLOOD AND FIRE and BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (most recently performed in Berlin at Gallissas Theaterverlag). He received a commission from Florida Studio Theatre to write a play, MASTER OF THE REVELS, about the eighteenth-century Shakespeare forger William Henry Ireland. His fiction has been published in many literary journals. He is the author of the well-received book THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER: A BIOGRAPHY OF A FILM and editor of an annotated edition of two film scripts by James Agee, THE AFRICAN QUEEN AND THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER: FIRST AND FINAL SCREENPLAYS, part of THE WORKS OF JAMES AGEE, a series published by University of Tennessee Press.
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DARYL BORNSTEIN (Audio Producer, Sound Design, Producer) Mostly Mozart Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, Houston Symphony, Metropolitan Opera, Billy Taylor Trio, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Christmas at Rockefeller Center, Lincoln Center Great Performers., Live from Lincoln Center, PBS Great Performances, MTV Video Awards, Hispanic Heritage Awards, Billboard Latin Music Awards, You Tube Video Awards, Woodstock ‘94, Conan Obrien, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The View, Rachel Ray, Garrison Keillor, Heinekin Jazz Festival, Michael Feinstein on Broadway, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Chicago, Conversations with my Father, Rock of Ages, The Actors Company Theatre, Leonard Bernstein, the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, Roberta Flack, Donnie Osmond, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Jackson, International Barbershop Quartet Society, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, 1997 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies. A.B. Music, Dartmouth College.
NORA CHESTER (Actor - TRIANGLE, Gammer O'Neill - THREE WISE GUYS) has been a member of Actors Equity since 1976 appearing in regional theaters across the US including The Long Wharf, The McCarter, The Alliance, Syracuse Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Alley, The Asolo, The Delaware Theatre Company, GeVA, 25 years of summer stock with The Monomoy Theatre on Cape Cod, and a long time company member of TACT in New York City appearing in over 50 productions. Her directing credits include productions of A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking, The Mousetrap, Steel Magnolias, Death Trap, and Top Girls.
JOEL DE LA FUENTE (The Dutchman - THREE WISE GUYS) On television, Joel can be seen as Chief Inspector Kido on the Amazon Prime series, “The Man in the High Castle.” He recently completed shooting the second season of the European high finance drama, “Devils” (airing on CW), and recurs on the STARZ "Power" spinoff, “Raising Kanan.” In film, Joel will be appearing in the upcoming Amazon Studios feature, “Master" and the Peter Hedges' film about the pandemic, "The Same Storm," opposite Sandra Oh, Jin Ha, and Danny Burstein. Theatrically, the Drama Desk nominated actor has been busy during this unprecedented shutdown, recording several audio plays, including “Macbeth” and “Julius Caesar” to benefit the Actors Fund and Enid Graham’s new play, “Golden,” to benefit the Falconworks Theater Company. For more information, please visit: joeldelafuente.com and @joeldelafuente.
FRANCESCA DI MAURO (Actor - TRIANGLE) is a founding member of The Actors Company Theatre (TACT), appearing in over 30 productions with the company including the world premiere of The Triangle Factory Fire. Other off-Broadway credits include: The Wayfarer, in Obie-winner CAUGHT IN THE ACT directed by John Christopher Jones (HERE); The Seagull, Scenes from an Execution (Blue Light Theatre Co.); We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay; Twelfth Night. Regional: Tartuffe (Depot), Comedy of Errors (GeVa), Scenes from an Execution (Olney), Dracula (Pirate Playhouse); The Matchmaker, Under Milkwood (Dorset). Film: Living in Oblivion, Cherry. Television: Gossip Girl, Rage of Angels, One Life to Live, As the World Turns.
SCOTT ALAN EVANS (Playwright, Adaptation, Director, Producer) is a director, writer, and producer in New York City. For 25 years he served as the Executive Artistic Director of the award winning Off Broadway Company TACT/The Actors Company Theatre. With TACT, Evans unearthed, produced, and/or directed over 200 plays. His Off-Broadway directing credits include acclaimed productions of works by Arthur Miller, T.S. Eliot, A.R. Gurney, David Storey, Edward Bond, a World premiere of a lost work by Sir Noël Coward, and the first New York City revival of Beyond Therapy by Christopher Durang, among others. He conceived, co-wrote and directed the world premiere of The Triangle Factory Project and co-wrote and directed the world premiere of Three Wise Guys based on short stories by Damon Runyon. His other writing credits include Goose! Beyond the Nursery (3 Outer Critic Circle Award nominations), Charlotte & Shaw (Eugene O’Neil finalist), and numerous classical adaptations. He is a member of SDC and the Dramatist Guild and a magna cum laude graduate of Boston University.
STEVE FRENCH (The Narrator - THREE WISE GUYS) is delighted to join THREE WISE GUYS. As a voice actor, he can be heard as the narrator of the official UNSOLVED MYSTERIES podcast, the promo voice of the Disney+ series THE MANDALORIAN, and the in-show announcer of MATCH GAME on ABC. To see and hear more of Steve’s voice over work, visit: www.stevefrenchvo.com
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JEFFREY C. HAWKINS (Actor - TRIANGLE, Dancing Dan - THREE WISE GUYS)Last seen in the Great Lakes Theater production of Sleuth. OFF-BROADWAY: Three Wise Guys, Beyond Therapy, Three Men on a Horse, Memorandum, Incident at Vichy REGIONAL: Inherit the Wind, Wait Until Dark, Millionairess, Mousetrap (REP) Book Club Play (Cincinnati Playhouse) Doubt (Flatrock Playhouse) Peter… Starcatcher, Fall of Heaven (Rep Theatre STL) Romeo and Juliet, She Stoops, Cymbeline (Idaho Shakes) Hound of the Baskervilles (Tahoe Shakes) Boeing Boeing, (Delaware Theatre) CAMERA: Some movies, handful of tv, and most titles for Rockstar Games. TRAINING: PCPA, MFA–University of Delaware.
KARL KENZLER (Blondy Swanson - THREE WISE GUYS) TACT: company member since 2014/2015, six productions with the company, most recently THE DINING ROOM and LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR. Broadway: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, MARY POPPINS, TWELVE ANGRY MEN, THE CARETAKER, DINNER AT EIGHT, THE HEIRESS. NY Theatre includes: ALL OUR CHILDREN (Sheen Center), USUAL GIRLS (Roundabout), CLINTON: THE MUSICAL! (NYMF), PETER & THE STARCATCHER (NYTW), HAMLET and THE TEMPEST (CSC), SPINNING INTO BUTTER (LCT). TV includes: “How To Fix A Drug Scandal”, “FBI: Most Wanted”, “The Blacklist”, “Blue Bloods”, “Madam Secretary”, “Suits”, “Mister Robot”, "House of Cards" (recurring), "Law & Order: SVU" (recurring), "Person of Interest", "Made in Jersey", "The Good Wife", "Fringe", "Rescue Me", Law & Order" and “Darwin” (DarwinTheSeries.com) Film: Irresistible. Training: UE (BFA), NYU (MFA). KarlKenzler.com
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JACK KOENIG (Actor - TRIANGLE, The Cop - THREE WISE GUYS) Broadway: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Oslo; The Lion King; The Pitmen Painters; Accent on Youth. Off Broadway: Tabletop (Drama Desk Award); Incident at Vichy; The Cocktail Party; The Voysey Inheritance; Marco Polo Sings a Solo; Cymbeline; Misalliance; The Grand Manner; Three Days of Rain. Regional: Over three dozen productions, including Macbeth (Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival); Dr. Rank in A Doll’s House (Old Globe); Gordon Page in Present Laughter and Hector Hushabye in Heartbreak House (NH Theatre Awards), both at the Peterborough Players. TV: Boardwalk Empire; Pose; Gotham; The Good Wife; Sex and the City; all three Law & Order programs.
MAIRIN LEE (Actor - TRIANGLE) made her Broadway debut in The Heiress, directed by Moisés Kaufman. Her Off-Broadway credits include shows with The Actors Company Theatre, Cherry Lane, Ars Nova, and Wheelhouse Theater, among others. She has appeared regionally with the McCarter, Two River, Wilma Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, and many more. Mairin has appeared on TV in FBI: Most Wanted, Madam Secretary, Elementary, and The Good Wife and in the films Marcy, Zero Issue, and Ascension. She holds an MFA from A.C.T.
ALLAN LOKOS (Judge Crain - TRIANGLE) With his first professional audition, Allan became a member of the renowned American Savoyards with whom he performed all thirteen Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. He made his Broadway debut in the original US production of Oliver! and was featured in the Broadway musical, Pickwick. Sir Tyrone Guthrie directed him in the Stratford Festival and Broadway productions of The Pirates of Penzance, and for twenty-eight years Allan performed professionally in musicals, opera, operetta, recitals, and concerts. He also produced and directed. He began teaching singers in the early 1980’s when he also met and married his wife, Susanna Weiss. Currently Allan is the first Guiding Teacher at the Community Meditation Center and has written several books on enlightened living.
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VICTORIA MACK (Actor - TRIANGLE, Miss Clarabelle Cobb - THREE WISE GUYS) Broadway: Venus In Fur. Off-Broadway includes the Mint Theater (The Fatal Weakness, Mr. Pim Passes By, A Little Journey--nominated for a Drama Desk for Best Revival--The Truth About Blayds, Far and Wide); TACT (Three Wise Guys, Hard Love, Natural Affection, Happy Birthday), Peccadillo and the Lucille Lortel. Regional: Originated roles in world premieres of Theresa Rebeck’s The Nest and Dead Accounts. Victoria has also played leading roles at Syracuse Stage, The Denver Center, Pittsburgh Public, Milwaukee Rep, and many roles at The Shakespeare Theatre of NJ. Film and TV includes: The Glorias, “The Good Wife” (recurring), “Boardwalk Empire,” “Orange Is the New Black,” others. Directing credits include The Lacy Project and Sophie Scholl: The Last Days in NYC, and Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit at STNJ. MFA: NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Victoria is a Professor of Performing Arts at SCAD. Victoria is a proud member of the former off-Broadway company, TACT.
RON MCCLARY (Good Time Charley, Myrton - THREE WISE GUYS)  Off-Broadway: Summer ’69 (Douglas Fairbanks Theatre). Off-Off-Broadway: The Lightning Field  (Flea Theatre, Winner– Outstanding Play, 2005 Fringe); Dear Vienna, Idiot’s Delight  (Vital Theatre);  Passion (Dicapo Opera); What You Will (Moonwork); The Cherry Orchard (Ohio Theatre);  Three Sisters (Greenwich Street Theatre). TACT Company member since 2006/07, 19 productions with the company. Regional: Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest, Much Ado, Three Musketeers, Macbeth(Actor’s Shakespeare Company of New Jersey); The Foreigner (Connecticut Rep.); Mamma Mia!(Las Vegas) Film: Neurotica; Crazy Little Thing; The Weatherman; The Pleasure of Your Company. Television: Law & Order; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; Ed; The Carrie Diaries; Late Night with Seth Meyers. ​
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COLIN McGRATH (Composer - TRIANGLE) has won numerous awards, including first place in The Belfast Nashville Songwriters Festival Competition, and The Wildflower Songwriting Competition in Richardson Texas, the prize for which was the Gallagher guitar that he now plays. His cross-disciplinary collaborations include composing and performing music for Madness and Joy, (BAM Outside Art Festival), serving as Musical Director for San Francisco-based sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster (SF Weekly: Best Comedy Group, 2009) and for NY-based TACT (The Actor’s Company Theater). He has worked as a Teaching Artist for over ten years with organizations such as The Lincoln Center Institute, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Brooklyn Philharmonic and The New York Philharmonic. His commissions include: The Central Park Brass Quintet, The Bloomingdale’s School of Music, and he has written music for The New York Philharmonic’s Teaching Artist Ensemble. NPR Music calls Colin McGrath an "itinerant folk orchestrator," saying “his folk songs are steeped in storytelling, with characters and images drawn from old Americana.”
CHRISTOPHER PIEHLER (Co-author - TRIANGLE) is a playwright and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. His produced plays include The Sound Of Muzak (Matrix Theater, LA) and, in New York, The Heartbreak Diet (Theater for a New City), Spin (Blue Light Theater Co.), Lightning White (Ensemble Studio Theater), Marlowe’s Ghost (La Belle Epoque), and The Poet &The Peanut Girl (West Bank Theater). He wrote and directed The Cause Of The Fire and Human Voices at SoHo Rep, and also directed Megan Condit’s The Interview for Reverie
Productions. He has a B.A. in English from Middlebury College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting
from Columbia University.
JOHN PLUMPIS (Actor - TRIANGLE, Heine Schmitz - THREE WISE GUYS) National Companies: “Barrymore,” starring Christopher Plummer, “The Lion King,” and Neil Simon’s “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.” Multiple appearances Off-Broadway, and in a wide variety of comedies, dramas, musicals and Shakespeare at North America’s leading theatres. Recently: “Indecent,” Denver Center, and a number of online ventures with companies from Arizona to Illinois to NYC. Recent television: Little America, Half Life, The Deuce. With NYC's The Actors Company Theatre, 31 productions. Teaching/workshops and at over 50 colleges, and at Montclair State University. MFA University of Delaware. Some of his thoughts on Theatre have been published.
TONY ROACH (Actor - TRIANGLE) made his Broadway debut in Bright Star, and worked at Lincoln Center in their revival of My Fair Lady—including a four-week run as Henry Higgins—and the indefinitely-upcoming new James Lapine (et al.) musical Flying Over Sunset. He has worked in many theaters across the country, and is an Affiliated Artist with the Shakespeare Theatre of DC, where he has done nine productions, including three world premiere plays by David Ives. Off-Broadway he was in TACT’s production of She Stoops to Conquer and Classic Stage Company’s The Liar.
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JASMINE M. RUSH (Miss Muriel O’Neill - THREE WISE GUYS) is a Brooklyn based B L A C K actress, director and writer born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. Classically trained, she has worked nationally on stage, film, and television. She holds a BA from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and earned her MFA in Classical Acting from Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy of Classical Acting at George Washington University. She is a proud member of both SAG-AFTRA and Actor’s Equity Association.
DANA SMITH-CROLL (Bitsy Albright - THREE WISE GUYS) TACT: Company member since 2014/2015, 11 productions with the company, most recently The Dining Room. New York: new plays at 59 E 59; Walker Space; Ohio Theatre; and Urban Stages, most recently, The Actress (The Thespis Festival for New Plays). Regional: Rossi, the Punk-rock, Jewish Feminist Lesbian Kitchen Commando in The Raging.
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JOSEPH TRAPANESE (Composer - THREE WISE GUYS, and HEAR PLAY Theme) is best known for his sleek score work for blockbuster films like: "Tron: Legacy," "Straight Outta Compton," "The Greatest Showman," "Oblivious," and the "Raid" series. As a composer, arranger and producer for movie, television, theatre and video game music, he has collborated with a number of mainstream musical acts such as Daft Punk, Dr. Dre, Kelly Clarkson, M83, Mike Shindoa, and Moby. Solo work includes films such as "Prisoners of Ghostland" (2021), "Finding Ohana" (2021), "Sontaneous" (2020), "Project Power" (2020), "Lady and the Tramp" (2019), "Arctic" (2019), "Robin Hood" (2018), "Only the Brave" (2017), the landmark rap biopic "Straight Outta Compton" (2015), "Earth to Echo" (2014), and the second and third installments of the "Divergent" series, "Insurgent" (2015) and "Allegiant" (2016). His Off-Broadway work includes: "The Sea," "The Runner Stumbles" "Incident at Vichy," "The Cocktail Party," "Memorandum," "Three Men on a Horse," and "Three Wise Guys."
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Series Host
SIMON JONES made his Broadway debut in The Real Thing (1984) and has since appeared in Benefactors, The School for Scandal, Getting Married, Private Lives, The Real Inspector Hound/Hamlet, The Herbal Bed, Ring Round the Moon, Waiting in the Wings, Blithe Spirit and Farinelli and The King. Off-Broadway/regional theatre includes Death takes a Holiday, Long Island Sound, Home, and The Cocktail Party in New York, Quartermaine’s Terms (Williamstown), Hay Fever, The Home Place, and Shadowlands at the Guthrie, Divine Rivalry, and My Fair Lady at Hartford Stage, Blithe Spirit in London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington, DC, The Drowsy Chaperone at Cape Playhouse, and Grey Gardens at Sag Harbor and L.A. Among film credits are Privates on Parade, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, Miracle on 34th Street (the remake), The Devil’s Own, and Downton Abbey (as King George V). He will soon be seen as ‘Bannister' (the butler) in HBO’s new ten-part series “The Gilded Age” by Julian Fellowes, but is still best remembered as ‘Bridey’ in Brideshead Revisited ‘, ‘Arthur Dent’ in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and ‘Sir Walter Raleigh’ in Blackadder. Simon served as co-Artistic Director of TACT (The Actors Company Theatre) for 12 years, and is also an award-winning narrator of audio books.
Website: www.simonjonesinfo.com