WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM
a show by Bill Odenkirk
& a tell by Sarah Edwards
Director
Show&Tell Productions
Virginia Theatre
Featuring Bob Odenkirk, Jill Talley, Ahmed Best, & Avi Loeb
Fall 2026
Photos: Della Perrone Photography
WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM stormed Champaign for two sold-out nights at the 1,500 seat Virginia Theater in October 2026.
The production featured an original play by Bill Odenkirk (writer for “Futurama” and “The Simpsons”) and panel discussion from Sarah Edwards (IL Public Radio), featuring performances by Bob Odenkirk & Jill Talley of HBO’s “Mr. Show”, as well as Stanford University’s Ahmed Best and Harvard University’s Dr. Avi Loeb joining the panel discussion.
Director’s Note:
WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM was a wild ride from start to finish, resulting in two sold-out nights at the 1500-seat Virginia Theater in Champaign, IL in October 2026; and an audio re-broadcast on Halloween 2026 for Illinois Public Radio.
This project combined many things I love about the theatre: large casts, big silly laughs, a beautiful historic space to perform in, and an extremely complex series of logistical requirements that required diligent and accurate navigation from its director.
I found this project highly risky and highly rewarding. The team and group effort were tremendous, which led to a lot of fun in a very condensed timeline.
Behind-The Scenes Photos
queen (of the american nail salon)
by Ryan Vo & Corey Bradberry
Director
Theatrical Outfit (Atlanta)
Launchpad 2.0 New Play Festival
Featuring: Ryan Vo
Workshop Premiere
Summer 2026
Photos: Casey Gardner Ford
Director’s Note:
This project was perfectly suited for Launchpad’s mission as a new-play incubator. Ryan took inspiration from his mother’s struggle as an immigrant from post-war Vietnam in the 1970s to today, owning one of the first nail salons in the American South while raising a family who rebelled against all the beliefs she held closest.
Developing a one-man show with long-time collaborator Ryan Vo was a dream come true. Our goal was to avoid the cliches of one-man shows and present a sequence of scenes brimming with heart, variety, and theatrical inventiveness. This is a very American play. Our show spans 50 years of history, family, and personal struggle; and we were so pleased to see the play resonate with so many people from so many backgrounds.
Shipwrecked! an entertainment
Author: Donald Marguiles
Director
Oil Lamp Theater
2021
Director’s Note
This was the most ambitious production in Oil Lamp’s history, presented outdoors in the midst of the Covid crisis. Three actors portray dozens of characters while performing their own live Foley sound, while pulling all the prop and costume pieces from the set itself. This play showcased several of my strengths: planning for detailed onstage execution, creating an onstage playground for actors to express joy, and sparking the audience’s active imagination through intentional theatrical suggestion.
This production received 2022 Broadway World Chicago Awards for “Best Director” and “Best Production (in-person)”.
three stories up
Author: Mack Gordon
Director & Showcaller
A Theater in the Dark
2019
Director’s Note:
An immersive pitch-black noir thriller performed entirely in darkness, combining live Foley, spatial sound design, and 360-degree audience staging.
This was one of my favorite creative experiences of all time: a 90-minute 2-person neo-noir played entirely in 100% pitch black conditions. Like, “you literally can’t see your hand in front of your face” dark. Along with two actors playing about a dozen characters each, I executed a soundscape of live Foley effects and pre-recorded sound cues alongside them, calling the show entirely blind while moving about the space in 360 degrees around the audience. We had car crashes, chase scenes, and bad guys beaten to a bloody pulp. The audience was (willingly) blindfolded before entering the performance space.
the crucible
Author: Arthur Miller
Director
University of Southern Mississippi
M.F.A. Thesis Project, 2017
Director’s Note:
Our costume designer coined this visual aesthetic “not your Momma’s Crucible”. Rather than aim for 100% historical accuracy, I was interested in creating a cast reflective of our deep-South audience, and our colorblind casting allowed for a Brechtian distancing that complemented the casts’ commitment to their characters. However, our makeup and costume choices revealed the true nature of complex character relationships as a central image of the individual against authoritarianism.
Scenically, we created a “crucible from pressure”: the high wooden planks towering over the audience lowered, so slowly you felt it before you saw it, with the audience tightly packed around the Tatum Theater’s unusual thrust-against-a-proscenium seating—giving the audience an ‘in-the-round’ feeling while benefiting from a beautiful wooden background, signifying the dangers lurking just beyond Salem Village.
Visually, I incorporated swaths of Rodin-style rapturous physicality, blending the line between physical and spiritual, in a world where tradition and community were hallmarks.
moby dick rehearsed
Author: Orson Welles
Director
University of Southern Mississippi
2016
Director’s Note:
Combining my passions for Orson Welles’ theatricality, Shakespeare’s style, and Herman Melville’s story, Moby Dick Rehearsed emerged. This project had me firing on all cylinders and involved an intense physical regiment for our cast, who brought the world to life as a cast of actors assembled to ‘run through the new piece’.
Theatrical minimalism evokes a whale larger than our actual stage. With boxes, ladders, flashlights, single-sourced lighting, an abundance of inventive sound, and a dedicated flexible cast, the show slowly transformed from an uninteresting stage to a fully immersive world that jumped out at you, as the actors used every available inch of theatre space to tell the round-the-world story of Captain Ahab’s monomaniacal obsession with vengeance.
THE DEVIL TREE
Author: James McDougald & Sean Haley
Director
The Collective Project, Inc. & The Goat Farm Arts Center
2012
Director’s Note:
This world premiere blended eight Southern gothic stories by Atlanta authors and playwrights together, all centered around a specific tree in south Georgia. I was hands-on for this production, staged in a non-traditional warehouse at the Goat Farm Arts Center, where we sourced old church pews for seating and built a climbable life-size oak tree out of chicken wire and discarded objects from a south Georgia junkyard. I particularly enjoyed creating the scenes with “Old Man Sumpter”, a masked character who acted as our Devil.
ASSISTANT DIRECTING
the dancing handkerchief
THEATRICAL OUTFIT & FLYING CARPET (2017)
DIR: ADAM KOPLAN
NATIVE GUARD
ALLIANCE THEATRE (2018)
DIR: SUSAN BOOTH
perfect arrangement
THEATRICAL OUTFIT (2018)
DIR: ADAM KOPLAN
