The Beat Drop - Bethany Dickens Assaf
Stories Found
It’s Micro Monday, and this week we’re bringing you a short comedy where the BPM is high but the emotional stability is low. It’s The Beat Drop — a hilarious and delightfully awkward one-minute play by Bethany Dickens Assaf. Bethany Dickens Assaf is an award-winning playwright, director, and dramaturg based in Orlando, Florida. Her latest full-length play, Slaymaker, received a United Arts of Central Florida grant and will premiere in August 2025. Bethany is both a personal and audience favorite, and we’re thrilled to feature her work on Stories Found again. Keep an eye out for a...
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The Balcony - Allison Page
Stories Found
About This Episode It’s Micro Monday and this week we're headed to fair Verona with the wonderfully weird and hilarious short comedy, The Balcony by Allison Page. About the Playwright Allison Page is a writer & comedian in Nashville, Tennessee. She was a semifinalist for the 2025 Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission for There Have Been a Series of Miracles at Shrieking Ridge, and was a proud 2024 Tennessee Playwrights Studio Fellow with her play Roberta at the Bottom of the Pool. Her most recently published play, The Pyramid, is available from YouthPLAYS, and she...
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History in the Making - Clinton Festa
Stories Found
About This Episode It’s Micro Monday, and we’re bringing you a fast, funny audio comedy: History in the Making by Clinton Festa! History in the Making was the 2023 Cary Playwrights’ Forum Playslam winner. About the Playwright Clinton Festa started his career as a cartoonist and writer for his campus humor magazine. His plays have been produced nationally, in Canada, and in the UK, and are published in several anthologies. His scripts for seniors are published with ArtAge Senior Theatre Resource Center. He wrote and directed a seven-episode podcast series called...
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Best of Stories Found: 5 Calls - Ladi Loera
Stories Found
About This Episode This fan-favorite story by the incredible storyteller, Ladi Loera, returns as part of our Best of Stories Found series — now featuring our new format that brings the story right to the front of the episode and then offers a behind-the-scenes interview with the storyteller. Whether you're hearing this story for the first time or the fifth, 5 Calls, perfectly nails the nerve-wracking, awkward, and hilariously human moments involved in trying (and trying) to make a connection. About the Storyteller is an artist, animal lover and award winning storyteller. He won the...
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Vows - Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn
Stories Found
About This Episode It's Micro Monday! This week we're featuring the short audio comedy, VOWS by Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn About the Playwright Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn grew up in Selma, Alabama and attended the University of Southern California, where he received both his BFA in Writing for Screen and Television and his Master of Professional Writing degree. He has performed story-telling multiple times at The Moth and for the Two Truths & A Lie podcast. His plays have been produced by the A Light in Dark Places Festival, the Paragon Festival, Exposition Review, Stage Left Theater,...
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The Experience - Clinton Festa
Stories Found
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...
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Burger Bard by Patrick Bates
Stories Found
About This Episode Welcome to Stories Found Micro Monday. This week we've got the one-minute comedy, Burger Bard by Patrick Bates. About the Playwright Pat Bates has been writing plays since he was a kid. Now, he's written for stage and screen, optioned a screenplay, and won some awards along the way. In his spare time, he writes crime/horror/science fiction under the name Jack Bates. About the Cast Manuel Solis-Bauza as Burger Bard Boy Gabriella Headley as Customer About the Crew Audio Engineer - Paul Hanna Let's be BFFs! Want to show your support for Stories Found? Buy us a coffee: ...
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The Brink Of Chaos - Mark Gifford
Stories Found
About This Episode This week we're talking to Mark Gifford and hearing his hilarious story, The Brink of Chaos. About the Storyteller Mark has been a full-time professor of composition and rhetoric at The University of Texas at San Antonio for 18 years and counting. He is also a producer for Testify, a monthly storytelling show in Austin, Texas. Mark is also the co-creator and co-producer for Like Minded Lunatics, where he helps create a weekly television show for Austin Music T.V., as well as short-form video content for the Like Minded Lunatics YouTube channel. When Mark finds himself with...
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The Palatka Museum of Natural History - Kimberly Murray-Patel
Stories Found
About This Episode Welcome to Stories Found Micro Monday -- Halloween Eve edition. This week we've got a special treat, the one minute dark comedy, The Palatka Museum of Natural History by Kimberly Murray-Patel. The Palatka Museum of Natural History recently won the coveted top honor at the 's annual one minute play competition. That means that this play was written in only ten minutes in front of a live audience. It's a phenomenal feat to write anything that quickly, but this play is truly spectacular. About the Playwright: Kimberly Murray-Patel considers herself a Renaissance...
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Spam Calls From Hell - Brian Rust
Stories Found
About This Episode Thanks for joining us for our special Halloween edition of Stories Found! This week we're talking to one of our very favorite playwrights, Brian Rust, and then hearing his eerie dark comedy, Spam Calls from Hell. About the Playwright (he/him) is a Boston-based actor and writer who makes chocolates and searches for cryptids in his spare time. High points of his career include being killed by a pillow during The Robin Hood Faire, appearing on stage with Le Tigre as a member of the Art School Cheerleaders, and using a plunger and ten pounds of jello to create an...
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This week, we're excited to welcome the very talented and funny Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn and then listening to his hilarious story, Off-Target.
About the Storyteller
Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn grew up in Selma, Alabama and attended the University of Southern California, where he received both his BFA in Writing for Screen and Television and his Master of Professional Writing degree.
He has performed story-telling multiple times at The Moth and for the Two Truths & A Lie podcast.
His plays have been produced by the A Light in Dark Places Festival, the Paragon Festival, Exposition Review, Stage Left Theater, Laughing Pig Theatre, Carrollwood Players Theatre, Magnetic Theatre, and Crafton Hills College.
About the Cast
Off-Target was performed by:
The author, Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhn, and a Target Shopping Basket
Featured Organization
826 National helps foster a love of creative writing in children. Their mission is to help young people use writing as a tool to ignite and channel their creativity, explore identity, advocate for themselves and their community, and achieve academic and professional success.
You can help 826 advance this goal by volunteering at a local chapter, buying the children's published works, or shopping at one of their stores which each have a different creative theme. New Orleans offers the The New Orleans Haunting Supply Company. Listeners in Los Angeles can visit The Time Travel Mart, while those in Boston can stop by the Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute. There are currently 9 really cool stores like this in cities across the country.
Visit 826national.org to learn more about this amazing program and to see how you can help them continue to foster a love of creative writing in children.
Featured Sponsors
Magikjaz Creations is a woman, minority, and LGBTQ+ owned business based in Austin, Texas. Jazmyn is a proud Latinx artist who creates jewelry and wearable art and specializes in chainmail and wirework. She offers creative, original pieces that are truly one of a kind. Visit her website at Magikjazcreations.com.
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Stories Found was recorded at ELA Studios, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas.