Roxx Populi: Episode 4
Burnt Out Messiahs
an episodic audio drama
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At the twilight of the Cold War, the man named Atlas was at his political height. A major mover in the Deep State, it was Atlas who kept the vision of the future for his co-conspirators.
But then he had a stroke. It’s decades later and he awakens to his hospital room under siege by the Endling. Now Atlas and John – Roxxie’s ex-manager and “Roxxie Consultant" – have to sift through the wreckage of the hospital and the past to piece together Endling’s goals. But is that really the question everyone’s asking? Or is there another mystery looming in the background: How one man becomes the hegemon of the Free World.
The Creative Team
Taylor Geu, Roxx Populi; Writer
Taylor Geu was born in Yankton, South Dakota. Her first publication was a weekly comic book they passed around the playground in 4th grade. They learned general audiences were philistines. Since then, she’s become passionate about gender abolition and social justice, centering them in her scripts for stage and screen. A surrealist and fantasist, she’s interested in using the weird and spectacular to aid audiences in reconsidering what it means to be human beyond the usual societal script and norms.
Geu’s play Adolsy was produced as part of the “Dream Up Festival” at Theater for the New City in September 2022. As a playwright, Geu is a semifinalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (twice), Bay Area Playwrights Festival (three times), and Blue Ink Playwriting Award; a finalist for the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival One-Act Play Contest; and a Second Rounder in the Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition. Geu voices Roxx Populi.
Sean McDonald, Writer
Sean McDonald writes things sometimes. He is from Los Angeles but saw the sun once and ran away in fear to cower in the shadows of New York, where he picked up an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch that he found lying next to a dead rat in some standing water. The things he sometimes writes have appeared in genre magazine Kaleidotrope, YouTube channel Gametoons from Newscape Studios, educational series SuperDville, and nerd new outlet Comic Book Resources. You can feed him seeds and sugar water but DO NOT make direct eye contact or he may get confused and attack.
Andrew Moorhead, Mantaman; Writer
Andrew Moorhead is a writer and actor from Piedmont, California, currently based in New York City. Favorite acting roles include Karl/Wanda in Adolsy (Theater For The New City) and Polonius in Hamlet (Chapman University). Andrew’s plays include The Colonialists (play/ground theatre LA, Broke People Play Festival) and Loaded Questions (The Sherry Theater). His musical, Bravo, has received workshops and concert productions at New Musicals Inc., Ball State University, and Azusa Pacific University, which he also directed. His new play, This Purple F***ing Pot, will receive a workshop reading early next year. He is currently a Lead Creative at Hello SciCom and the Editorial Assistant for the upcoming book, The Unconquerable Game, which will be published in the fall of 2023. In addition to acting in Roxxie, he is also a staff writer. BFA Chapman University. MFA NYU.
Steven James Schmidt, Sound Designer
Steven Schmidt is a writer, composer, and educator born and raised outside of Los Angeles, currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. He loves theatre, songwriting, and watching Drag Race reruns with his wife. But most of all, he has a passion for art that makes this world into a kinder, more just place to live. Feel free to check out Ghostlight: A Musical or Bravo: A Musical on your preferred streaming platform to listen to some of Steven's work!
John F. Higgins, Atlas
John F. Higgins most recently played FREUD in Dali's Dream at The Frankel on Bond St. Higgins is in the continuing workshop of Gertrude Stein's prescient 1936 play, Listen to Me, playing Hemingway in a cast that includes Kathleen Turner, Alison Fraser, Lou Liberatore under David Kaplan's direction (Tennessee Williams Festival Foundation). As a retired producer and now back on this side of the production table as an older actor, Higgins pharma queue is gratefully chock full (currently Humana, Northwell Group, Tullamore Dew.....). Add to this he's now played a series of Magnates, Patriarchs, CEOs, etc. for the Vertical Film series sweeping the east coast production calendar. Thank you for listening to Roxx Populi!
Mukta Phatak, Endling
Mukta Phatak is an actor, playwright, and teaching artist based in NYC. Mukta is a project-seeker and much of her work blossoms from the creative communities she cultivates. Through her work she strives to be a force for justice, transformation and play. Recent voiceover credits include: The Story Reaper Podcast, Micro-Face: NPR Planet Money, and Crushed Earth - a Binaural Audio Play produced by Vrialto/People’s Light. You can find her animation VO demo as well as other stuff on her instagram @xmukta or at her website www.xmukta.com.
Donathan Walters, John
Donathan Walters was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He received his BFA from Chapman University and is a 2022 graduate of the MFA Acting Program at NYU. Donathan made his TV debut in "Evil", Season 4, Ep. 1. His work can also be seen in NBA 2K19 (2018), NBA 2K18 (2017) and I Wrote This for You (2018).
Roxx Populi is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement,
a regrant program supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in
partnership with the City Council and administered by LMCC.
