Beloved playwright Annie Baker won the Pulitzer for Drama in 2014 for her play, The Flick. A decade later, she’s releasing her directorial debut, Janet Planet, through A24.

We begin by talking about her striking first feature (7:55): the Western Massachusetts origins of the project (11:00), the mother-daughter love story at its center (13:24), how Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” shaped Baker’s understanding of time (22:55), and why she’s routinely sidestepped the slippery-slope of “confessional” autobiography in her own work (30:30).

On the back-half, we discuss Annie’s early jobs in New York before she turned to the page and the classroom (40:00), the issues of class that continue to plague contemporary theater (45:00), a formative Rainer Maria Rilke poem as read by Sam (55:50), and whether she believes art “matters” in 2024 (1:00:18)

Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.

Beloved playwright <a href="https://talkeasypod.com/annie-baker/">Annie Baker</a> won the Pulitzer for Drama in 2014 for her play, The Flick. A decade later, she’s releasing her directorial debut, Janet Planet, through A24.
We begin by talking about her striking first feature (7:55): the Western Massachusetts origins of the project (11:00), the mother-daughter love story at its center (13:24), how Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” shaped Baker’s understanding of time (22:55), and why she’s routinely sidestepped the slippery-slope of “confessional” autobiography in her own work (30:30).
On the back-half, we discuss Annie’s early jobs in New York before she turned to the page and the classroom (40:00), the issues of class that continue to plague contemporary theater (45:00), a formative Rainer Maria Rilke poem as read by Sam (55:50), and whether she believes art “matters” in 2024 (1:00:18)
Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at <a href="mailto:sf@talkeasypod.com">sf@talkeasypod.com</a>.

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso is a weekly series of intimate conversations with artists, activists, and politicians. Where people sound like people. Hosted by Sam Fragoso. New episodes every Sunday.

Where people sound like people, since 2016.

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

How Playwright Annie Baker Made the Movie of the Summer

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/cb03ea49-0c65-4b90-a674-b198004d3672/transcript

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