I’ve been a big fan of Peter Michael Marino for quite a few years, but recently I’ve been especially fascinated with his seemingly instantaneous move from live to online performances when theaters closed back in March of 2020. We chatted about that transition, his momentum toward helping others with his work, and how the theater landscape might evolve as we adapt to this COVID-19 world. Peter Michael Marino is a New York City native who has worked extensively as a producer, director, developer, writer, teacher, and performer whose work has been seen on five continents. Pete is a Pandemic Pioneer. He gave himself that name. He’s currently live streaming LIVE performances of his solo shows Desperately Seeking the Exit and Show Up, Kids! He is a subject of an early pandemic piece by Peter Marks in the Washington Post. Pete is also the author of a controversial piece for Medium on what theater is. It’s satire, people. Pete is the librettist of the West End musical “Desperately Seeking Susan,” based on the film, and featuring the hit songs of Blondie. The show played at London’s Novello Theatre in 2007, and was presented by Tokyo’s legendary Toho Company at Theatre Creation in 2009. Follow Peter Michael Marino on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will be an extended interview with Pete where we explore a couple of songs from his musical Desperately Seeking Susan.  Learn more right here! If you’d like to check out my other work, order The Animal Book directly from me here and get a free download of the album!Here are some other places you can find the book.Find The Animal Album streaming and downloadable here.Here’s some more merch and music.