About Andy Boyd

Andy Boyd is a playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of the playwriting MFA at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Arizona School for the Arts.

NBN Episodes hosted by Andy:

Jackie Lubeck, "To The Good People of Gaza: Theatre for Young People by Jackie Lubeck and Theatre Day Productions" (Methuen Drama, 2022)

December 2, 2023

To The Good People of Gaza

Jackie Lubeck
Hosted by Andy Boyd

To The Good People of Gaza: Theatre for Young People by Jackie Lubeck and Theatre Day Productions (Methuen Drama, 2022) ties together nineteen plays p…

Robert Lashley, "I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" (Demersal, 2023)

October 23, 2023

I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer

Robert Lashley
Hosted by Andy Boyd
Listen:

Poet Robert Lashley's I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer (Demersal, 2023) is a complex and compelling coming-apart-of-age story set in the Hilltop …

John Szwed, "Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith" (FSG, 2023)

September 3, 2023

Cosmic Scholar

John Szwed
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Who was Harry Smith? Was he an anthropologist, a filmmaker, a painter? Was he a charlatan? A genius? Was he a moocher, a schmuck, a bum? As John Szwed…

Kevin Landis, "One Public: New York’s Public Theater in the Era of Oskar Eustis" (Methuen Drama, 2022)

August 19, 2023

One Public

Kevin Landis
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Kevin Landis's One Public: New York’s Public Theater in the Era of Oskar Eustis (Methuen Drama, 2022) tells the story of the remarkable first 17 years…

Howard Fishman, "To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse" (Dutton, 2023)

July 22, 2023

To Anyone Who Ever Asks

Howard Fishman
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Howard Fishman's To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse (Dutton, 2023) is a fascinating hybrid biography that weaves…

Rumi, "Gold" (New York Review of Books, 2022)

June 10, 2023

Gold

Rumi
Hosted by Andy Boyd
Listen:

In this conversation, we discuss Haleh Liza Gafori's masterful new translations of poetry by Rumi, the 13th-century Persian mystic and poet. Rumi's wo…

Xiaomei Chen, "Performing the Socialist State: Modern Chinese Theater and Film Culture" (Columbia UP, 2023)

June 5, 2023

Performing the Socialist State

Xiaomei Chen
Hosted by Andy Boyd
Listen:

Xiaomei Chen's book Performing the Socialist State: Modern Chinese Theater and Film Culture (Columbia UP, 2023) looks at three "founding fathers" of C…

Brad Krumholz, "Why Do Actors Train?: Embodiment for Theatre Makers and Thinkers" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

May 24, 2023

Why Do Actors Train?

Brad Krumholz
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Why Do Actors Train?: Embodiment for Theatre Makers and Thinkers (Bloomsbury, 2023) powerfully demystifies the actor-training process by focusing on a…

Joey Merlo, "On Set with Theda Bara" (1080 Press, 2023)

March 11, 2023

On Set with Theda Bara

Joey Merlo
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Joey Merlo's On Set With Theda Bara is a one-person four-character play about the nearly-forgotten silent film "vamp" Theda Bara, but also about fan c…

Margaret Hall, "Gemignani: Life and Lessons from Broadway and Beyond" (Applause Books, 2022)

March 1, 2023

Gemignani

Margaret Hall
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Margaret Hall's Gemignani: Life and Lessons from Broadway and Beyond (Applause Books, 2022) is the definitive book on Broadway's greatest music direct…

Dana Mills, "Dance and Activism: A Century of Radical Dance Across the World" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

January 14, 2023

Dance and Activism

Dana Mills
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Dance and Activism: A Century of Radical Dance Across the World (Bloomsbury, 2022) by Dana Mills looks at the intersection of dance and radical politi…

Stuart Klawans, "Crooked, But Never Common: The Films of Preston Sturges" (Columbia UP, 2023)

December 25, 2022

Crooked, But Never Common

Stuart Klawans
Hosted by Andy Boyd

In a burst of creativity unmatched in Hollywood history, Preston Sturges directed a string of all-time classic comedies from 1939 through 1948--The Gr…

Elliott H. Powell, "Sounds from the Other Side: Afro-South Asian Collaborations in Black Popular Music" (U Minnesota Press, 2020)

November 21, 2022

Sounds from the Other Side

Elliott H. Powell
Hosted by Andy Boyd

From Beyoncé's South Asian music-inspired Super Bowl Halftime performance, to jazz artists like John and Alice Coltrane's use of Indian song structure…

Annie-B Parson, "The Choreography of Everyday Life" (Verso, 2022)

September 23, 2022

The Choreography of Everyday Life

Annie-B Parson
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Renowned choreographer Annie-B Parson's new book The Choreography of Everyday Life (Verso, 2022) is many things: a pandemic diary, a discourse of Gree…

Karinne Keithley Syers, "Astrs" (53rd State Press, 2022)

September 2, 2022

Astrs

Karinne Keithley Syers
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Karinne Keithley Syers is the founding editor of 53rd State Press, and Astrs is the play that inspired that long-running experiment in publishing avan…

Michael Sidney Fosberg, "Nobody Wants to Talk about It: Race, Identity, and the Difficulties in Forging Meaningful Conversations" (Incognito, 2020)

August 25, 2022

Nobody Wants to Talk about It

Michael Sidney Fosberg
Hosted by Andy Boyd

In Nobody Wants to Talk About It: Race, Identity, and the Difficulties in Forging Meaningful Conversations (Incognito, 2020), Michael Sidney Fosberg d…

Sara Farrington, "The Lost Conversation: Interviews with an Enduring Avant-Garde" (53rd State Press, 2021)

August 10, 2022

The Lost Conversation

Sara Farrington
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Sara Farrington's The Lost Conversation: Interviews with an Enduring Avant-Garde (53rd State Press, 2021) is a collection of interviews with a host of…

Yussef El Guindi, "In a Clear Concise Arabic Tongue" (Broadway Play Publishing, 2021)

July 6, 2022

In a Clear Concise Arabic Tongue

Yussef El Guindi
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Yussef El Guindi's In a Clear Concise Arabic Tongue (Broadway Play Publishing, 2021) collects short plays and monologues from almost twenty years of t…

G. Ronald Murphy, "Brecht and the Bible: A Study of Religious Nihilism and Human Weakness in Brecht's Drama of Morality and the City" (UNC Press, 2020)

June 30, 2022

Brecht and the Bible

G. Ronald Murphy
Hosted by Andy Boyd

In Brecht and the Bible: A Study of Religious Nihilism and Human Weakness in Brecht's Drama of Morality and the City (UNC Press, 2020), Father G. Rona…

José Rivera, "Lovesong (Imperfect) (Broadway Play Publishing, 2021)

June 27, 2022

Lovesong (Imperfect)

José Rivera
Hosted by Andy Boyd

José Rivera's Lovesong (Imperfect) (Broadway Play Publishing, 2021) follows a passionate love triangle in an unusual situation: the US government has …

John Luther Adams, "Silences So Deep: Music, Solitude, Alaska" (FSG, 2020)

June 22, 2022

Silences So Deep

John Luther Adams
Hosted by Andy Boyd

John Luther Adams's Silences So Deep: Music, Solitude, Alaska (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020) is a profound, funny, and enlightening memoir from one…

Brian Kulick, "The Secret Life of Theater: On the Nature and Function of Theatrical Representation" (Routledge, 2019)

June 20, 2022

The Secret Life of Theater

Brian Kulick
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Unlike many books that examine the how of making theater, Brian Kulick's The Secret Life of Theater: On the Nature and Function of Theatrical Represen…

Stan Lai, "Selected Plays of Stan Lai" (U Michigan Press, 2022)

June 14, 2022

Selected Plays of Stan Lai

Stan Lai
Hosted by Andy Boyd

The Selected Plays of Stan Lai (U Michigan Press, 2022) collects a cross-section from the four-decade career of one of the major dramatists of our tim…

Stephen Deusner, "Where the Devil Don't Stay: Traveling the South with the Drive-By Truckers" (U Texas Press, 2021)

June 8, 2022

Where the Devil Don't Stay

Stephen Deusner
Hosted by Andy Boyd

Stephen Deusner's Where the Devil Don't Stay: Traveling the South with the Drive-By Truckers (U Texas Press, 2021) is the book-length study Drive-By T…