Director’s Notes: Episode 260 - The December Monologues

Joseph, Brie, and I have had back-and-forths about these Monologue episodes about whether or not they always have to be from the POVs of the Faceless Old Woman, Michelle Nguyen, and Steve Carlsberg. Not sure why we got into that tradition, but we’re 4 of these episodes in, and that’s the structure now.

That said, we’ve decided that it doesn’t always have to be those same 3 characters. We still have 8 more months of the year to cover with Monologues episodes, and who’s to say one couldn’t feature Tamika Flynn or John Peters or even Cecil himself? But we’ll cross that proverbial bridge etc. etc.

So we chose these three characters for episode 260 not because we feel beholden to the past but because we really wanted to write for them. These monologues are incredibly fun to write, and this was the first time Brie worked on one of these with us. In our creative meeting back in October, I asked “who wants to write which character?” We didn’t actually all answer at the same time, but for dramatic effect, I’ll tell you now that we did.

Simultaneously, Brie said Michelle, Joseph said Steve, and I said Faceless Old Woman. Again, not exactly how that went down, but it could have. We all knew which section we wanted to do.

For the Faceless Old Woman, it’s always a thrill knowing that Mara Wilson will be speaking the lines, rather than Cecil Baldwin. Cecil’s great at conveying all of the other character voices, but getting to hear Mara’s scolding, her gleefulness when she speaks of destruction & chaos, and her general confident calm is a joy unlike any other.

Plus, anytime the Faceless Old Woman shows up, we get to write true horror. It still contains comic elements, of course, but dead-eyed effigies lurching toward you, or having teeth yanked out in one’s sleep? These are exciting to write.

Hope you enjoy all three of these monologues as much as we did. Have a spooky holidays! We’ll be back on February 1, with new episodes.

Jeffrey Cranor
December 15, 2024

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