Exclusive: Oh My Pod U Guys- Women+ On The Edge of Democracy with Sarah Mantell

The latest episode of Oh My Pod U Guys (hosted by Jayke Workman) is here! Oh My Pod U Guys is a weekly musical theater and pop culture chat show, in which Jayke discusses current events in the world of theater and the arts, and interviews some of your favorite Broadway personalities and members of the LGBTQ+ community! 

U Guys, this week’s episode features the incredible playwright, Sarah Mantell! We talk about their amazing new play, Aggressively Soothing Whale Sounds, written for the new writing collective, Women+ On The Edge of Democracy, initiated by The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, in association with the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Sarah is the first non-binary playwright to be awarded the Blackburn Prize, and we touch on our shared experiences with gender dynamics in the arts. Sarah is a delight, U don’t wanna miss this episode!

Sarah is the recipient of the 2023 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot (Playwrights Horizons). Their other plays include Everything That Never Happened (Baltimore Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Boston Court Pasadena), The Good Guys (Second Stage, PlayPenn), Tiny (Seven Devils, Seattle Rep), and Fight Call (Artists Repertory Theatre, Breaking the Binary) They have been first-runner up for the Leah Ryan Award, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, nominated for the Pulitzer, and longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize. Sarah is a two-time MacDowell fellow and Yaddo resident and a Colt Coeur company member. They have also received residencies at Hedgebrook, Fresh Ground Pepper, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Wildacres, and SPACE on Ryder Farm, as well as a Toulmin grant, an Edgerton Foundation grant, and a Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship.

Sarah began their career in literary offices at the Magic Theatre, Geva Theatre, PlayPenn, and People’s Light. They have been a judge for new work submissions across the country including The Public Theater, Hedgebrook, Sewanee Writers Conference, The Lambda Literary Award, MIT, Breaking the Binary, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Essays on supporting new work include “Touch the Wound, But Don’t Live There” in American Theatre Magazine and “Read This Before You Have a Reading” for Playwrights Realm.