movie theater

Episode 45 – Annie Baker's 'The Flick'

As movie theaters across the country are about to go through another metamorphosis point after having been largely empty this last year, now seems as good a time as any to revisit the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winning play about three workers at a single-screen movie theater in New England. On this episode I’m joined by journalist and former guest, Tyler Coates, and actor Eric Gilde, to talk about:

  • the play,

  • Baker’s career,

  • her collaboration with director Sam Gold,

  • and her creative usages of prosceniums, pauses, and Georges Delurue music.

Also:

  • How the French New Wave and her Criterion top 10 list informs the play,

  • her only produced film/television work on one episode of Amazon’s I Love Dick,

  • speculation about what a film she writes and directs might be like,

  • and how much the play nails about working in a movie theater during the film to digital transition.

Tyler Coates is currently writing for the Hollywood Reporter, while past work has appeared in The Awl, Brooklyn Magazine, EsquireGOOD, Gothamist, Nylon, Out, Town & Country, and the Village Voice. He interviewed Baker in 2013 about The Flick for BlackBook Magazine and also reviewed her play John for Slate.

Eric Gilde is a New York-based actor, playwright, and podcaster. He co-hosts the Take Me In to the Ballgame podcast with his wife, actor and baseball commentator Ellen Adair.

The Flick is available to read or perform from Samuel French, Inc.

Episode 30 – Aaron Smith II

Brockasmithovich returns! On today’s episode, we talk about what it’s like first-hand managing Evansville’s most popular movie theater during the pandemic, how safe he and customers should feel watching a movie, our viewing of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, Showplace’s recent announcement that it’s temporarily re-closing all its locations except for East, what it would take to financially bring back movie theaters across the country, and why Disney should’ve released Mulan in theaters alongside its Disney+ Premier Access route.

Smith is the lead manager at Showplace Cinemas East in Evansville, IN.