Playwright and screenwriter Topher Payne’s 11 Good Things

In this series, ArtsATL asks a member of the Atlanta arts community to share 11 things on their mind. We hope you enjoy getting to know these people better.

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Topher Payne has been writing plays and screenplays from his home in Atlanta for more than 25 years. His latest comedy, A First Lady’s Guide to Killing the President, premieres in September and is produced by The Process Theatre Co. at Onstage Atlanta.

Here, in no particular order, are his 11 good things. 

1.Joy Deficit. On the fourth Monday of every month, Gina Rickicki gathers a motley crew of artists of all stripes at Red Light Café for brief performances designed to generate joy in uncertain times. It is quite literally my happy place.

2. Root Beer Float – JonnyPops. It’s a root beer float in popsicle form. You’re welcome.

3. Dog snarfles. A sound best described as “determined contentment.” And it makes me melt.

4. Kate Hudson’s cover of Voices Carry. She doesn’t re-invent the wheel here, but it has all the delight of your bestie totally crushing it at karaoke. It’s a bop.

5. Mississippi food. I just went home. I gained weight. It was worth it.

6. The And Just Like That … The Writer’s Room podcast. Getting insight into a masterful creative process is always compelling. You know what else is? Hearing when everyone thinks that’s what happened.

7. Kevin Wilson’s Run for the Hills. Do you need a summer book? This is a very good summer book.

8. Everyone finally getting on board with [actor and comic] Cole Escola. I haven’t been this satisfied with a pop culture moment since the sanctification of Sheryl Lee Ralph.

9. The craft box. I do not care how old you are or if you’ve got kids or if you even consider yourself a creative. Keep some glue sticks and googly eyes and pipe cleaners in your house, and I swear you’ll put them to use.

10. York Walker’s Covenant [coming this fall] at the Alliance. I have no relationship with this production; I’m just telling y’all I’ve read the script, and it is tasty Southern Gothic atmospheric spooky weirdness, and I’m real excited to see it on a stage.

11. Coffee. Heard of it? You’ll love it.