Inside the Making of a New Play: Girl Crime, Lifted, The Outsiders, and more
Scene in Boston
Hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer step inside the process of writing new plays—how stories move from idea to page to stage, and what it takes to build something that doesn’t yet exist. They talk with Boston playwrights about shaping characters, navigating collaboration, and developing work in real time, as scripts evolve through workshops, rehearsals, and conversation with artists and audiences. The discussion opens up the often-invisible work behind new theater: revision, risk, and the challenge of writing something that feels urgent and alive. Along the way, Laura and Lisa connect...
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Setting, Place, and Belonging in Boston Theater: Actor’s Shakespeare Project’s Gem of the Ocean
Scene in Boston
In this episode of Scene in Boston, hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer sit down with award-winning actor and educator Kadahj Bennett ahead of his role as Caesar Wilkes in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, produced this spring by Actors Shakespeare Project. The episode is a deep dive into why Wilson's work feels urgently alive right now, and what happens when theater meets the community it's speaking to. Kadahj — who chairs the theater department at Boston Arts Academy and has performed at the Huntington, Speakeasy Stage, and ART — unpacks the themes that make Gem of the Ocean feel...
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How Watching Theater Trains Your Brain: Inside the Neuroscience of Live Performance
Scene in Boston
In this episode of Scene in Boston, hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer take a step back from individual productions to explore a bigger question: what’s happening in our brains when we sit in an audience—and how do we get better at it? The episode features neuroscientist Antonia Hamilton, who studies social cognition and communication. She explains how watching live performance activates the parts of our brains responsible for reading emotion, intention, and behavior—and why those skills aren’t passive, but learned. Theater, she argues, becomes a kind of training ground for attention...
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Immigrant Stories on Boston Stages: Inside the Ufot Family Cycle
Scene in Boston
How does our idea of immigration change when it’s not a journey with a clear destination, but a life spent learning who you are in the space between two homes? In this episode of Scene in Boston, a Boston theatre podcast, hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer step into the world of playwright Mfoniso Udofia’s Ufot Family Cycle, a nine-play epic tracing one Nigerian American family across 100 years, continents, and generations. Guest Kevin Becerra of The Huntington Theatre Company reveals how these plays shimmer with easter eggs,...
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Rage, Revenge, and Homecoming: Greek Theater Returns to Boston Stages
Scene in Boston
Why are stories from ancient Greece having a moment in Boston theater? In this episode of Scene in Boston, hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer explore a surge of productions inspired by Greek mythology and classical drama appearing across the city this season. Through conversations with two leading directors, the episode examines how these centuries-old stories continue to speak powerfully to contemporary audiences. , director of Boston University’s upcoming production of Medea, discusses how Greek tragedy connects personal stories to larger historical and political crises — themes...
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On the Edge of Our Seats: Job at SpeakEasy Theater and Girl Crime at Boston Center for the Arts
Scene in Boston
In this premiere episode, Scene in Boston hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer dive into how Boston’s stages are grappling with trauma in the age of the internet — as content, as labor, and as identity. They start with the world-premiere workshop of , a sharp, funny, and unsettling satire of true crime podcasts and influencer culture, before turning their focus to , the psychological thriller now playing at SpeakEasy Stage. Laura and Lisa talk with Job actors and about building complicated, sometimes unsettling characters, performing in intense proximity to the audience, and what makes...
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Welcome to Scene in Boston
Scene in Boston
In this introductory episode, Scene in Boston hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer warm up the feed by previewing the kinds of connections Scene in Boston will explore across the season. Laura and Lisa tease upcoming conversations about theater and online life (Job and The Moderate), ambitious long-form storytelling like the Ufot Family Cycle, and Boston’s fascination with retelling epic myths—from Penelope to Hadestown to Oedipus El Rey. Scene in Boston is about orientation, connection, and making Boston’s remarkable...
info_outlineIn this introductory episode, Scene in Boston hosts Laura Amico and Lisa Thalhamer warm up the feed by previewing the kinds of connections Scene in Boston will explore across the season.
Laura and Lisa tease upcoming conversations about theater and online life (Job and The Moderate), ambitious long-form storytelling like the Ufot Family Cycle, and Boston’s fascination with retelling epic myths—from Penelope to Hadestown to Oedipus El Rey.
Scene in Boston is about orientation, connection, and making Boston’s remarkable theater scene feel accessible, alive, and worth talking about.