New Athens Players Podcast

About New Athens Players Podcast

This is the podcast companion to the New Athens Players, a theater company in the Quad Cities -- the home of Susan Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook. The two of them founded the Provincetown Players, a cutting-edge and influential group in the development of American drama. The name "New Athens" is based on a remark Cook made to Floyd Dell, that they should go back to Davenport and make it a "New Athens." The dream was never fulfilled in his lifetime: Cook died in Greece in 1924. This podcast will include audio recordings related to the legacy of Glaspell and the Provincetown Players.

Publisher

New Athens Players

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

19 Mar 2023

Latest episode

19 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

27 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   19 Oct 2026

   Glaspell: His America (1912) [narrated by Mark Garden]

   This story strongly reflects Glaspell's work as a reporter in Des Moines covering the state government. It is one of the most overtly political of her stories, including clear albeit veiled references to the party politics of the time -- yet the specifics of the political shenanigans take a back-seat to the sketching of the personal relationship between a father and a son along with a view of the immigrant experience compared with the experience of the next generation; and to the thoughtful consideration of the prospects for keeping to one's idealism and principles when confronted with the real world. The story was first published in Glaspell's collection of short stories, Lifted Masks, in 1912. It is narrated here by Mark Garden.

2. 

   29 Dec 2025

   The Anarchist: His Dog (1912) [narrated by Michael Callahan]

   Glaspell's story about a plucky little paper boy and the dog he ends up feeling tremendous affection for was originally published as "The Anarchist—His Dog: The Story of Stubby’s Fight for Hero" in American Magazine in June 1912, and was included in Glaspell's collection of short stories, Lifted Masks, in the same year. As often in Glaspell's works, a character's (or a society's) attitude toward an animal illustrates and symbolizes larger themes. The story touches on serious politics without adopting a heavy-handed approach. It is narrated here by Michael Callahan.

3. 

   14 Dec 2025

   Strindberg: The Stronger [featuring Elissa Dynes]

   One of the creative influences on the Provincetown Players, especially on Eugene O'Neill, was the Swedish writer August Strindberg (1849-1912). In January 1924, the company staged Strindberg's one-act play The Spook Sonata (also known as The Ghost Sonata), in the English translation by Edwin Bjorkman. Strindberg's bleak modernism, his highly subjective, expressionistic style and his formal experimentation were all aspects of his approach to theater that made an impression on O'Neill and others. No less a factor was his attention to "chamber" theater pieces, played in the "Intimate Theater" that was active 1907-1910 in Stockholm, one of the direct inspirations for the "Little Theater" movement in the United States of which the Provincetown Players was a part. The present piece, a short play in which there is only one speaking role, although there are two characters on stage, paved the way for Eugene O'Neill's experimental short play / monologue "Before Breakfast," released earlier this season on this podcast. It represents a married woman, "Mrs. X," who meets an unmarried friend, "Ms. Y," in a small café on Christmas Eve, and as Mrs. X talks to her silent companion, she slowly reveals the details of her life and marriage, and ends up making a terrible discovery. The play script was prepared by Mischa Hooker, partly translating, partly adapting from existing public domain translations by E. and W. Oland (1912); E. Björkman (1913); and F. I. Ziegler (1906). Mrs. X is played by Elissa Dynes, and the narrator is Mischa Hooker.

Podcast Authority Score: 13 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

27

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

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Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.