All the Webs a Stage

All the Webs a Stage runs on a simple idea. Someone posts a line online, and it becomes the starting point for a short play. Sources named on air range from Hank Green to Paul Miller on Facebook to an X account called at Kevin Terribly. Host Stephen keeps the setup quick. He names the guests at the start, noting who is returning and who is new, then lets some conversation happen before the scripts begin. That chatter has its own flavor, and one exchange turns into a mock eulogy for the word tweet, followed by a firm refusal to use the word skeets. Then the performance takes over. Everything is read aloud, stage directions included, so each scene comes with its set description and entrances intact: a bedroom before dawn with a window over a cityscape, or a manor where the Baron enters from the stairs just as someone is trying to leave. The standalone plays cover a lot of ground. In one, survivors trade barbs on night watch after society's collapse, while Denise, up in the lookout, insists on being awake and just listening in. In another, a character gets a long-neglected vehicle running on the third try and comes back to take over a bar that others couldn't keep going. A third is a sleepy standoff over whether the dark hours before sunrise count as morning. Episode titles use theatre numbering, as in 'Act 3, Scene 3: Driven Too Far and The Turnover'. The show's longer form is Ghost of Gill Manor, a serial spread across several scenes. Its scenes open with a 'previously on' recap. The characters include Baron Gill, the flustered Mr. Gibbing, Molly, Mrs. Perch, Miss Grouper and Xander, along with a housekeeper who went missing and a hiring spree that leaves Gibbing wondering why Molly looks familiar. Knox Fahey, Ariel Noctegal, Tim Ballard and Jesse Ballard are named in its cast, and Stephen introduces Scene 5 as the one that wraps up the story. Other guests include Jasmine Sherman, Zach Jarvis, Joe Kellogg, and Macy and Jasmine, co-creators of Miscast Productions in Missoula, Montana. The recordings keep going past the credits, too. Those outtakes catch actors dividing up roles, tripping over a line about cleaning the landing and wondering aloud about a cat treat machine. For a sample of the post-to-play format, try the Act 3 episodes. For a continuing story, the Gill Manor scenes are best heard in order.