Reevaluating Theatre's place in life today speaking with the change makers doing that investigating

I am Adam Marple, Professor of Devising and Directing at UNCSA and the former Co-Artistic Director of The Theatre of Others. My background spans over fifty productions across the Americas, Europe, MENA, Australia, and Asia, with recent work featured at global climate summits (COP27, COP28, COP29, and COP30). I am deeply invested in how theatre can create communities of empathy and foster global conversations.

Together with my co-host, theatre director and educator Budi Miller, we created The Theatre of Others Podcast as an international forum for dialogue about performance, creativity, and community. Our conversations bring together artists, scholars, and cultural workers from around the world to explore the intersection of theatre, politics, identity, and social change.

In addition, I host The Board of Directors podcast, a newer series born from an international gathering of directors I founded. This podcast provides a platform for directors worldwide to share their experiences, practices, and questions about mentorship, belonging, and leadership in the field.

Our listeners are a diverse global community of theatre-makers, students, educators, and arts enthusiasts who are curious about the evolving role of performance in today's world. They are drawn to these podcasts because they combine rigorous artistic inquiry with accessible storytelling, bridging professional practice and broader cultural conversations.
 

I first started The Theatre of Others Podcast in 2020, amidst the pandemic. At the time, we were living and working in different countries, and podcasting offered us a way to stay in conversation, to process our experiences as international artists, and to share those dialogues with a wider community. We had both been listening to podcasts as a way to access deep conversations on the move, and we felt the form was perfectly suited for theatre: intimate, dialogic, and portable across borders.

Our initial motivation was simple but urgent: to create an international commons for theatre-makers to exchange ideas across geography, culture, and practice. We wanted to amplify diverse voices, document global approaches to performance, and create a platform for conversations that rarely happen in the rehearsal room but are vital to the life of the artform. From idea to release, it took us about three months to record, edit, and shape our first episode.

In 2025, I launched The Board of Directors Podcast as an extension of an international gathering I founded by the same name. This newer project is more focused: it brings directors together to reflect on leadership, mentorship, and the evolving role of the director in global contexts. While The Theatre of Others emerged from friendship and dialogue, The Board of Directors emerged from a desire to build a professional fellowship and preserve these conversations for others to access.

Both podcasts continue to grow out of the same impulse that got me started: the belief that theatre is a global conversation, and podcasts are one of the best ways to make that conversation accessible, ongoing, and alive.
 

Finding the time and resources to create these podcasts has always been an act of dedication and balance. Both The Theatre of Others Podcast and The Board of Directors Podcast are passion projects, sustained primarily by myself and my collaborators. We fund them ourselves, covering expenses such as hosting platforms, software, and equipment, with occasional support from our networks of artists and institutions who believe in the work. On average, monthly costs remain modest but consistent, typically covering hosting and production tools.

We released episodes of The Theatre of Others regularly, 280 episodes, every week unbroken for 5 years, with conversations that range from 45 minutes to over an hour, depending on the guest and topic. The Board of Directors is newer and currently releases episodes less frequently, timed to follow the rhythms of our international gatherings of directors, bi-monthly. Producing a single episode—scheduling, recording, editing, sound balancing, and publishing—takes anywhere from 8 to 12 hours of focused work.

Like most working artists and educators, I balance podcasting with a demanding schedule of teaching, directing, and international projects. I’ve found that podcasting folds naturally into my practice rather than competing with it: the conversations I’m already having with collaborators, students, and fellow directors often become the seeds of episodes. In this way, the podcast is both an extension of my professional life and a form of ongoing research and community-building.

Ultimately, the time and resources we invest are outweighed by the connections these podcasts create. They allow us to reach across continents, foster dialogue, and archive the evolving practices of theatre-makers worldwide.
 

Our podcasts have never been primarily revenue-driven; they are self-funded and do not currently take on sponsorships. From the beginning, The Theatre of Others and The Board of Directors have been conceived as platforms for community-building, mentorship, and artistic exchange rather than as commercial ventures. While we remain open to sponsorship opportunities that align with our values and audiences, we have prioritized creative independence and international accessibility over monetization.

What we gain from podcasting is profound in other ways. These conversations have expanded our professional networks, connecting us with artists, thinkers, and cultural workers across the globe. They have strengthened collaborations that feed directly into our teaching, directing, and international projects, creating opportunities that would not have been possible otherwise.

On a personal level, podcasting has deepened friendships and fostered a sense of belonging within a dispersed global theatre community. It has provided a space to reflect publicly on the challenges and joys of making art, and to share that process with listeners who may be searching for connection themselves.

In terms of impact, we reach a consistently international audience of theatre-makers, students, educators, and arts enthusiasts. Our download numbers reflect a dedicated and loyal listenership rather than mass-market scale, and the feedback we receive makes clear that our podcasts function as both inspiration and resource. The true benefit has been the creation of an ongoing archive of voices and practices that testify to the vitality of contemporary theatre worldwide.
 

Our podcasting process is both structured and flexible, shaped by the demands of working internationally. Most of our episodes are recorded remotely via Riverside, allowing us to connect with guests across time zones and continents. When opportunities arise—such as international festivals, conferences, or residencies—we also record conversations in person to capture the energy of face-to-face dialogue.

For hardware, we use professional-quality microphones (Shure) with pop filters, paired with portable recorders when traveling. Software includes Adobe Audition for editing, with additional plug-ins for sound balancing and noise reduction. Hosting is managed through Buzzsprout, which syndicates episodes across platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

Guests are found through our professional networks, international collaborations, and recommendations from previous guests. Because both podcasts are deeply tied to our practice as theatre-makers, many episodes grow out of ongoing conversations we are already having with colleagues, students, and collaborators. We intentionally seek out diverse voices from different geographies and disciplines to expand the dialogue.

Preparation for each episode involves research into the guest’s work, pre-conversations to establish focus, and framing questions that leave space for improvisation and discovery. Our guiding principle is that the conversation should feel like entering an active rehearsal room: grounded in trust, curiosity, and openness.

Editing each episode can take 6–12 hours, depending on length and complexity. We aim to preserve the authenticity of conversation while ensuring a polished listening experience. The end result is an episode that feels both intimate and expansive—an archive of voices that listeners can return to again and again.
 

Our listeners primarily find the podcasts through major platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube, where we maintain wide distribution. While we don’t track an exact percentage breakdown across platforms, Apple Podcasts and Spotify consistently account for the majority of downloads, with additional reach coming through direct website access and embedded players in partner organizations’ newsletters or event pages.

Marketing is a mix of word-of-mouth, social media, and professional networks. For The Theatre of Others, we’ve found Instagram and Facebook to be the most effective channels, since many of our listeners are artists and students who engage visually and conversationally with our content. For The Board of Directors, outreach is more targeted: professional forums, email networks, and direct invitations within the international directing community ensure the episodes reach those who will benefit most from them.

We also benefit from cross-promotion: when guests share episodes with their own networks, it expands our audience in organic ways. Festival appearances, international collaborations, and teaching engagements often function as live marketing, with participants discovering the podcast as an extension of our practice.

Rather than relying on paid advertising, we focus on building authentic communities around the shows. The feedback we receive demonstrates that listeners value the podcasts as more than entertainment—they see them as ongoing resources, and that word-of-mouth remains our strongest form of marketing.
 

The most important advice I can share with new podcasters is to begin with clarity of purpose. Ask yourself: Why am I doing this, and who is it for? Having that compass will carry you through the inevitable challenges of consistency, editing fatigue, or scheduling conflicts. Podcasting is a marathon, not a sprint, and sustainability matters more than polish at the start.

One lesson I learned quickly was that the intimacy of podcasting comes not from perfect production but from authenticity. Listeners value a real conversation more than a perfectly scripted monologue. Don’t wait for everything to be flawless—release your first episode, learn from it, and evolve in public. Growth is part of the process, and your audience will often grow with you.

Another piece of advice: build systems that support you. Recording, editing, publishing, and promoting an episode can easily take 8–12 hours. Break that down into manageable steps and consider what you can batch (e.g., recording multiple interviews in one week, or setting aside a dedicated editing block). If you have collaborators, clarify roles early so the workload doesn’t fall on one person.

In terms of resources, the most valuable resource has been listening widely to other podcasts—both inside and outside the arts—to study structure, pacing, and tone.

Above all, remember that podcasting is about community. Your microphone is an invitation to a conversation. Approach it with curiosity, generosity, and consistency, and you’ll not only build a podcast—you’ll build a practice.
 

You can learn more about me and my work at:
Personal Website: www.adammarple.com
For our podcasts:
The Theatre of Others Podcast
Website: www.theatreofothers.com
Apple Podcasts: The Theatre of Others on Apple
Spotify: The Theatre of Others on Spotify
Instagram: @theatreofothers_
The Board of Directors Podcast
Website: www.boardofdirectors.world
Spotify: The Board of Directors Podcast on Spotify
You can also find me and my work here:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adammarple
Instagram (personal): @boots_and_sunglasses
For direct inquiries or collaborations:
Email: adam@adammarple.com