Shows
LA Opera Podcasts: Behind the CurtainThe Paradox of Power and Vulnerability: Akhnaten and BambinO with Phelim McDermott and Gail EichenthalCelebrated director Phelim McDermott has a long relationship with the opera "Akhnaten." In this episode, McDermott and our host, Gail Eichenthal, explore the "paradox of power and vulnerability" in opera, improvisation as the basis of theatre, and how each performance is different every single night. Join us as we get ready to raise the curtain on "Akhnaten," Philip Glass's tribute to a trailblazing pharaoh on February 28; and with ticket demand at an all-time high, we're adding an extra date on March 21st. You can get your tickets now at LAOpera.org.
2026-02-1728 min
My Fourth Act PodcastE151 | Phelim McDermott I How A Celebrated Theatre Director Builds CommunityPhelim McDermott is an actor and director from the UK. In 2023, Phelim was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director for My Neighbor Totoro.Phelim has staged operas in many of the great opera houses of the world, including countless times at The Met (Akhnaten, The Hours, Cosi fan Tutte,The Enchanted Island) and the English National Opera. In addition, he has directed plays and operas in Germany, Spain, and Australia.Phelim is a passionate advocate for the transformational work of Harrison Owen, who originated a simple conversational framework called Open Space Technology.
2025-07-1746 min
La prescription avec Dr Fred LambertÉpisode 140: Rihab ChaiebLa saison actuelle, tout comme celles à venir, sera caractérisée par des jalons importants pour la mezzo tuniso-canadienne Rihab Chaieb, ce qui comprend notamment son rôle-titre dans Carmen au Festival de Glyndebourne, son rôle de Claire dans Melancholia avec le Kungliga Operan, son rôle de Dorabella dans Così fan tutte tutte à la Seiji Ozawa Music Academy, en plus de ses apparitions auprès du Los Angeles Philharmonic, de la Compagnie nationale d’opéra du Canada et de l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec, ainsi que son retour au Metropolitan Opera et à la Bayerische Staatsoper.Rihab C...
2024-10-0859 min
Improv and MagicEpisode 51 - Dan O'ConnorToday's guest is an amazing person to watch and get to know. And his name is Dan O’Connor.
Dan has been performing and teaching improvisation all over the world since 1986. He has developed engaging methods of narrative improvisation to create visceral unscripted theatre experiences. He is one of the co-founders of BATS Improv in San Francisco and LA Theatresports, and he is also the founder of the critically acclaimed Impro Theatre in Los Angeles. Dan has had the opportunity to train and work with some amazing talent including Keith Johnstone, Phelim McDermott, Lee Simps...
2024-09-241h 15
Musicals Magazine PodcastEdward Seckerson Meets... Zachary JamesFor this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Zachary James, who's currently hotting up the Underworld on the other side of that wall in Hadestown. James, who originated the role of Lurch in the Andrew Lippa musicalisation of The Addams Family, is perhaps best known to date – indeed immortalised – as The Scribe/Amenhotep III in Philip Glass's Akhnaten in the jaw-dropping Phelim McDermott, Olivier Award-winning staging at English National Opera in 2016. His work has straddled the opera and Musical Theatre worlds in intriguing ways and as an actor-singer his work is nothing if not diverse. Plus his 6'6" frame make...
2024-03-1328 min
Arts & IdeasMy Neighbour TotoroA world of sprites and spirits encountered by childhood sisters in the 1988 animated feature film by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) and Studio Ghibli has become a hit stage adaptation for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The original composer Joe Hisaishi worked with playwright Tom Morton-Smith and Director Phelim McDermott and the production returns to the Barbican this autumn. Chris Harding and guests look at how this story of Totoro relates to Japanese beliefs about ghosts and nature, and how Miyazaki used ideas of childhood innocence to critique post-War Japanese society.
Chris Harding is joined by the playwright Tom Morton-Smith, Michael...
2023-08-0343 min
British Theatre Guide podcastMei Mac: from 4-year-old to century-old prisoner of Western stereotypesKimber Lee's provocatively titled winner of the first International Award from the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2019, untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play, opened in June 2023 at the Royal Exchange Theatre as part of the Manchester International Festival and will transfer to the Young Vic in London later in the year. In the lead role of Kim is Mei Mac, who was nominated for a Best Actress Olivier Award earlier this year for playing 4-year-old Mei Kusakabe in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican in London. BTG...
2023-07-1930 minArts & IdeasMy Neighbour TotoroA world of sprites and spirits encountered by childhood sisters in the 1988 animated feature film by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) and Studio Ghibli has been adapted for stage by the original composer Joe Hisaishi working with playwright Tom Morton-Smith and Director Phelim McDermott. Chris Harding and guests look at how this story relates to Japanese beliefs about ghosts and nature, and how Miyazaki used ideas of childhood innocence to critique post-War Japanese society.Chris Harding is joined by Tom Morton-Smith, Michael Leader from the podcast Ghiblioteque, Dr Shiro Yoshioka, Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of...
2022-10-0444 min
The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius79 Welcome To The Clearing: Matilda Leyser from Improbable Theatre - "The Clearing" meets "The Gathering!"Send us a textPlease welcome to The Clearing - to talk about Improbable's "The Gathering" (amongst other things) Matilda Leyser from Improbable Theatre.A Special Episode of "The Good Listening To" where Improbable's "The Gathering" meets The Good Listening To's "The Clearing"!Matilda is Associate Director of the world renowned and much admired Improbable Theatre.She is a Theatre Maker and Director also of "Mothers Who Make" - which is all about "making work - even in the midsts of mothering..."Matilda was a Circus Arialist for 10 years...
2021-10-1255 minThe Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius66 Welcome To The Clearing: Improbable Theatre Director - The Incomparable Phelim McDermott!Send us a textOhhhhh yes!Ladies n' Genminmin (er min...)Welcome to a particularly exciting Episode (in 2 Parts!) of "The Good Listening To Show: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!"Please welcome to "The Clearing" the incomparable Phelim McDermott from Improbable Theatre: Director, Pioneeing Improviser, Theatre Maker & Conversation Starter. With a Flotation Tank as his "Clearing" to assist in his 'going deep' whenever a creative endeavour requires, this is a rich and multi-layered conversation indeed. Includes the "world exclusive reveal" of Phelim and Improbable's desire fo...
2021-08-221h 30
Northern Stage Theatre PodcastEP.20 - Unfolding Theatre with Annie RigbyThis week on the Northern Stage Podcast we talk to Annie Rigby of Unfolding Theatre. Annie talks about figuring out how to make the theatre you want to make, trying to remember the words for Talking Heads songs, and her love of darts. It’s a proper good conversation, packed full of great thinking, laughter and one that will pick you up if you need a little pick me up. Have a listen and a much needed laugh.
Download the transcript here.
Notes:
Unfolding Theatre: https://www.unfoldingtheatre.co.uk/
Hold On...
2020-08-211h 09
Explore the Latest Full Audiobooks in Fiction, LGBTQ+The Masterson Inheritance: Series 1-3 plus specials: A BBC Radio Sketch Comedy by Phelim Mcdermott, Caroline Quentin, Jim Sweeney, Paul Merton, Josie LawrencePlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/404688to listen full audiobooks.
Title: The Masterson Inheritance: Series 1-3 plus specials: A BBC Radio Sketch Comedy
Author: Phelim Mcdermott, Caroline Quentin, Jim Sweeney, Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence
Narrator: Lee Simpson, Phelim Mcdermott, Caroline Quentin, Jim Sweeney, Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 9 hours 47 minutes
Release date: July 16, 2020
Genres: LGBTQ+
Publisher's Summary:
All three series of the improvised family saga starring Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, Caroline Quentin and others – plus two special Christmas episodes Based entirely on audience suggestions, this hysterically funny historical drama tells the thrilling extended story of an aristocratic fa...
2020-07-169h 47Download High-Quality Full Audiobooks in Fiction, HistoricalThe Masterson Inheritance: Series 1-3 plus specials: A BBC Radio Sketch Comedy by Phelim Mcdermott, Caroline Quentin, Jim Sweeney, Paul Merton, Josie LawrencePlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/404688to listen full audiobooks.
Title: The Masterson Inheritance: Series 1-3 plus specials: A BBC Radio Sketch Comedy
Author: Phelim Mcdermott, Caroline Quentin, Jim Sweeney, Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence
Narrator: Lee Simpson, Phelim Mcdermott, Caroline Quentin, Jim Sweeney, Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 9 hours 47 minutes
Release date: July 16, 2020
Genres: Historical
Publisher's Summary:
All three series of the improvised family saga starring Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, Caroline Quentin and others – plus two special Christmas episodes Based entirely on audience suggestions, this hysterically funny historical drama tells the thrilling extended story of an aristocratic fa...
2020-07-169h 47
Hoopla Improv PodcastHoopla Impro Podcast! #004 - Lee SimpsonLee has been performing with The Comedy Store Players since 1989 and also tours with Paul Merton’s Impro Chums.
At Hoopla he performs in The Actor’s Nightmare the improvised play as well as A Very Serious Play with Ruth Bratt.
Lee is the Co-Artistic Director of Improbable, a hugely influential improvisation company that he set up with Phelim McDermott to bring the philosophy and practice of improvisation to performance improv, devised theatre, plays, operas and social activism.
Lee’s TV, Radio and Film credits included Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Drop the Dead Donkey, Paper Mask, Just a Minute, Terry...
2020-05-1600 min
The Classical Music PodEP12: Deserts, Brexit and Errollyn WallenTim talks to Errollyn Wallen about her BBC Proms commission, Beethoven gets his own back on the Brexit party and Sam reviews John Luther Adams’ new disc ‘Become Desert’. Music Credits: Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 1, Mov. 3 performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. ‘Oil in my Lamp’ performed by Timmy Fisher, Nick Clegg, David Cameron and Gordon Brown. Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 Mov. 4 performed by Quatuor Avena. Theme tune from Love Island performed by Timmy Fisher. Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, Mov. 4 performed the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Toscanini. Johannes Brahms, Symphony N...
2019-07-1049 min
British Theatre Guide podcastMIF 2019: John McGrath, Leo Warner and Phelim McDermottThe 2019 Manchester International Festival will take place at various venues around the city in July. An edited version of the main presentation at the MIF launch on 7 March can be heard in a previous British Theatre Guide podcast episode, but we also spoke directly to some of the artists involved. We asked MIF Artistic Director John McGrath for his highlights of the theatre programme and how Manchester has changed since he was head of the city's Contact Theatre. We also spoke to Leo Warner of 59 Productions about his collaboration with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, writer...
2019-04-0527 min
British Theatre Guide podcastMIF launch 2019Highlights of the launch event for the Manchester International Festival 2019, held in Manchester on 7 March 2019. Introduced by MIF artistic director John McGrath, this episode also features announcements from festival participants including Phelim McDermott of Improbable Theatre, Kwame Kwei-Armah of Young Vic Theatre, actors Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson, Leo Warner of 59 Productions, writer Lolita Chakrabarti, choreographer Claire Cunningham, Mary Anne Hobbs of BBC 6 Music and grime artist Skepta. Other artists appearing at the festival include Philip Glass, Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson and David Lynch. Image from MIF launch: Michael Symmons Roberts, Emily...
2019-03-0935 min
TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the HumanitiesThe Heterarchical Director - A Model of Authorship for the Twenty-First CenturyThe keynote talk for 'Collaboration in Theatre symposium' at the University of Oxford, 19 October 2018. Most of the directors presented in David Bradby and David Williams's seminal 1988 volume Directors' Theatre are also renowned as leaders of ensembles. This position has often been problematised in terms of authorship and the implied hierarchies. Simon Shepherd (2012) has noted that director figureheads in ensembles became increasingly unfashionable in the aftermath of poststructuralist anti-authoritarianism. At the turn of the 21st century ensemble directors have sought to emphasise the element of co-authorship in their work or a relativisation of their own authority. Mermikides and Smart (2010) have identified...
2018-12-1854 min
At the Michael Chekhov Schooldream-doorsPHELIM MCDERMOTT on theater as a shamanistic event & on trusting the process. Podcast-conversation with actors during our Immersion 2018. Subscribe on iTunes. [18:27]
2018-05-1131 min
Getting Better AcquaintedGBA 288 - Peta LilyIn GBA 288 we get better acquainted with Peta Lily We talk about making performance from our personal lives, dark clowns and red nose clowns, creating solo shows, gender, identity, movement, memory, memoir, mime, physical theatre, bodies and lots more.
Content note: bereavement, breast cancer
She plugs:
Her workshops: http://www.petalily.com/
Her shows: https://www.facebook.com/Peta-Lily-Shows-301578776530474/
Look out for a development read through of Topless in May
We mention:
Devoted and Disgruntled: https://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/
Camden Peoples Theatre: https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/
D & D:
Making Work That Helps Liberate Men From Patriarchy/Masculinity WITHOUT Dominating...
2017-02-221h 18Getting Better AcquaintedGBA 288 - Peta LilyIn GBA 288 we get better acquainted with Peta Lily We talk about making performance from our personal lives, dark clowns and red nose clowns, creating solo shows, gender, identity, movement, memory, memoir, mime, physical theatre, bodies and lots more.
Content note: bereavement, breast cancer
She plugs:
Her workshops: http://www.petalily.com/
Her shows: https://www.facebook.com/Peta-Lily-Shows-301578776530474/
Look out for a development read through of Topless in May
We mention:
Devoted and Disgruntled: https://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/
Camden Peoples Theatre: https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/
D & D:
Making Work That Helps Liberate Men From Patriarchy/Masculinity WITHOUT Dominating...
2017-02-221h 18WritersGBA 288 - Peta LilyIn GBA 288 we get better acquainted with Peta Lily We talk about making performance from our personal lives, dark clowns and red nose clowns, creating solo shows, gender, identity, movement, memory, memoir, mime, physical theatre, bodies and lots more.
Content note: bereavement, breast cancer
She plugs:
Her workshops: http://www.petalily.com/
Her shows: https://www.facebook.com/Peta-Lily-Shows-301578776530474/
Look out for a development read through of Topless in May
We mention:
Devoted and Disgruntled: https://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/
Camden Peoples Theatre: https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/
D & D:
Making Work That Helps Liberate Men From Patriarchy/Masculinity WITHOUT Dominating...
2017-02-221h 18Love, marriage, relationships and sexGBA 288 - Peta LilyIn GBA 288 we get better acquainted with Peta Lily We talk about making performance from our personal lives, dark clowns and red nose clowns, creating solo shows, gender, identity, movement, memory, memoir, mime, physical theatre, bodies and lots more.
Content note: bereavement, breast cancer
She plugs:
Her workshops: http://www.petalily.com/
Her shows: https://www.facebook.com/Peta-Lily-Shows-301578776530474/
Look out for a development read through of Topless in May
We mention:
Devoted and Disgruntled: https://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/
Camden Peoples Theatre: https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/
D & D:
Making Work That Helps Liberate Men From Patriarchy/Masculinity WITHOUT Dominating...
2017-02-221h 18PerformersGBA 288 - Peta LilyIn GBA 288 we get better acquainted with Peta Lily We talk about making performance from our personal lives, dark clowns and red nose clowns, creating solo shows, gender, identity, movement, memory, memoir, mime, physical theatre, bodies and lots more.
Content note: bereavement, breast cancer
She plugs:
Her workshops: http://www.petalily.com/
Her shows: https://www.facebook.com/Peta-Lily-Shows-301578776530474/
Look out for a development read through of Topless in May
We mention:
Devoted and Disgruntled: https://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/
Camden Peoples Theatre: https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/
D & D:
Making Work That Helps Liberate Men From Patriarchy/Masculinity WITHOUT Dominating...
2017-02-221h 18Teachers and EducatorsGBA 288 - Peta LilyIn GBA 288 we get better acquainted with Peta Lily We talk about making performance from our personal lives, dark clowns and red nose clowns, creating solo shows, gender, identity, movement, memory, memoir, mime, physical theatre, bodies and lots more.
Content note: bereavement, breast cancer
She plugs:
Her workshops: http://www.petalily.com/
Her shows: https://www.facebook.com/Peta-Lily-Shows-301578776530474/
Look out for a development read through of Topless in May
We mention:
Devoted and Disgruntled: https://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/
Camden Peoples Theatre: https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/
D & D:
Making Work That Helps Liberate Men From Patriarchy/Masculinity WITHOUT Dominating...
2017-02-221h 18TheatreGBA 288 - Peta LilyIn GBA 288 we get better acquainted with Peta Lily We talk about making performance from our personal lives, dark clowns and red nose clowns, creating solo shows, gender, identity, movement, memory, memoir, mime, physical theatre, bodies and lots more.
Content note: bereavement, breast cancer
She plugs:
Her workshops: http://www.petalily.com/
Her shows: https://www.facebook.com/Peta-Lily-Shows-301578776530474/
Look out for a development read through of Topless in May
We mention:
Devoted and Disgruntled: https://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/
Camden Peoples Theatre: https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/
D & D:
Making Work That Helps Liberate Men From Patriarchy/Masculinity WITHOUT Dominating...
2017-02-221h 18
A.D.D. Comedy with Dave RazowskyImprobable Phelim McDermottToday’s guest on “ADD Comedy with Dave Razowsky,” is Phelim McDermott. Phelim is an innovative performer and director with productions spanning from improv to Broadway to the Metropolitan Opera, and recently directed LA Opera's spectacular production of Philip Glass's "Akhnaten." Phelim is also co-founder of London’s groundbreaking Improbable Theatre Company. We talk about the tool of tension and the role of improv in our life and work. Improv is a central inspiration for all of Phelim’s work. To quote Improbable’s mission statement:“Whether in performance, rehearsal or development we will use the practice and philosophy of improvisation...
2016-12-311h 00
Living with a Genius InterviewsEpisode 42: Phelim McDermottEpisode 42: Phelim McDermottPhelim is the director of our current production of Akhnaten at LA Opera. I love this show. I also love the passion, conviction, and freedom that Phelim has given us to help deliver a truly powerful emotional message to our audience. Phelim also operates an experimental theater company called, Improbable- look him up at www.improbable.co.uk. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy our chat as much as I did! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
2016-11-1400 min
British Theatre Guide podcastPhelim McDermott talks Improbable and AnimoPhelim McDermott co-founded acclaimed theatre company Improbable in 1996. His directing credits including Shockheaded Peter with Julian Crouch and The Tiger Lillies, Philip Glass's The Perfect American with ENO and Teatro Real in Madrid, The Addams Family on Broadway and, most recently, Jim Broadbent in A Christmas Carol on the West End. Phelim spoke to BTG editor David Chadderton about the origins of Improbable's show Animo that combines improvisation and puppetry, which was revived for the 2016 Latitude Festival led by co-artistic director Lee Simpson. He also looked back on 20 years of Improbable and talked...
2016-08-1132 min
Start the WeekGandhi's Early YearsBridget Kendall looks back at the formative years of Gandhi with the historian Ramachandra Guha and opera director Phelim McDermott. At the turn of the twentieth century Gandhi spent more than twenty years in South Africa and England: Guha argues that these early experiences shaped his future ideas, while McDermott stages Gandhi's spiritual progress towards nonviolent protest in his production of the opera Satyagraha. Gandhi returned to India just after the outbreak of the First World War and the international historian David Reynolds looks at the legacy of the Great War, and its impact on the decision-makers of the...
2013-11-1841 min
Front Row: Archive 2013Philip Glass; Michael Douglas plays Liberace; P D James on Philip LarkinWith Mark LawsonComedian Julian Clary reviews Steven Soderbergh's film Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas as Liberace, with Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson.American composer Philip Glass discusses his latest opera, The Perfect American, which imagines the last few months of Walt Disney's life. It's based on the novel by Peter Stephan Jungk and directed by Phelim McDermott, and is Philip Glass's 24th opera.Novelist P D James reveals her choice for the Cultural Exchange, in which leading creative minds share their passion for a favourite work. She nominates a...
2013-06-0328 min
In Tune HighlightsThe Week's Highlights 27The best bits from last week's In Tune, featuring director Phelim McDermott on Philip Glass's new opera, a newly discovered song by Elgar, conductor Andrew Manze, writer Charles Emmerson, and Persian music from kamanch player Kayhan Kalhor.
2013-06-0331 min