I AM THE SPACE WHERE I AM with John Arnone

Patrick Kelly is Professor of Drama Emeritus at University of Dallas where, with Judy his wife, he taught for forty-two years. Besides scores of campus productions he has directed plays at professional theatres around the country. He has also taught in such graduate theatre programs as University of Washington, Denver's National Theatre Conservatory, University of Colorado at Boulder and Southern Methodist University. In addition to classics, Kelly has directed new plays with living playwrights including Eduardo Machado, Thomas Babe and Octavio Solis. The most recent of his many Shakespeare productions was Much Ado About Nothing for Shakespeare Dallas. His Bachelor's degree is from Notre Dame, his MFA from SMU's Meadows School of the Arts. Today Patrick joins us to discuss the genesis and development of the American Resident Theatre.      

Milton Justice is an Academy and Emmy Award winning producer, On Broadway he produced Tennessee Williams' Vieux Carre,. Off Broadway he produced Jack Heifner's, Vanities (which became the longest running play in Off-Broadway history. His book, I Don't Need An Acting Class, was published in November of 2021 and his podcast, also called  I Don't Need An Acting Class, was recently listed at the 9th most popular entertainment podcast in history.

 MARK LAMOS legendary theater and opera director, actor and artistic director joins us today to discuss the Craig Lucas, Norman Renee 1990 film LONG TIME COMPANION in which he co-starred, the first wide-release theatrical film to deal with the subject of AIDS. Mark's performance in Long Time Companion has been hailed as emotionally riveting. Mark Lamos served as artistic director of Connecticut's, Hartford Stage for 17 seasons from 1981 to 1998. He shook up the theatre's traditional repertoire with bolder contemporary dramas and spectacular productions of Shakespeare and the classic cannon. Under his direction Hartford Stage won the 1989 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater. He has been nominated for Tony Awards for his Broadway productions of OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD and Edward Albee's, SEASCAPE. He was appointed the artistic director of Westport Country Playhouse in 2009 and stepped down after 15 years. He has directed On and Off Broadway, The Metropolitan Opera of New York, City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and at Lincoln Center Theater. Please welcome to I AM THE SPACE WHERE I AM my good friend and collaborator Mark Lamos.  

David Schachter was born on September 15, 1961 in Levittown, New York. David received a BFA in drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1982. David worked extensively in Television, Off and Off-Off Broadway, and Regional Theater before landing the lead role of naive typesetter David Bennett in the groundbreaking indie drama Buddies (1985), which was the first theatrical film to address the devastating impact of the AIDS pandemic on the gay community in the 1980's. It was written, directed and produced by Aruthur Bressen Jr. the subject of today's podcast. David began volunteering at GMHC the Gay Men's Health Crisis in 1988 three years after the filming and release of Buddies. He was subsequently hired as a Community Organizer. David went on to earn his Master's Degree in public administration at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service in 1994. He began working at his alma mater NYU Wagner in the year 2000 and is now the Associate Dean of Student Affairs. He is a member of the school's senior leadership team and oversees the student experience including student advisement, student group activities, career services, and alumni relations. Today David joins  us to discuss the life and work of Arthur Bressen,Jr. Arthur Bressen, Jr. known to his friends as “Artie” was born  on May 27, 1943. He was an American director, writer, producer, documentarian, and gay pornographer, best known for pioneering independent queer cinema in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. He wrote and directed the 1985 feature film Buddies, which was the first film to grapple with the subject of the AIDS pandemic. Other directorial endeavors include the largely influential 1977 documentary Gay USA (the first documentary by and about LGBTQ people), and the 1983 feature film Abuse. He died on July 29, 1987, at the age of 44 due to an AIDS-related illness.        

John Weir is the author of two novels, the Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket, winner of the 1989 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men‘s Debut Fiction, and What I Did Wrong. His collection of linked stories  Your Nostalgia Is Killing Me, Linked Stories won  theGrace Paley Prize in Short Fiction.He is an associate professor of English at Queens College CUNY where he teaches in the MFA program in creative writing and literary translation. In 1991 with members of Act Up New York, he interrupted Dan Rather's CBS Evening News to protest government and media neglect of AIDS. His nonfiction pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone,Spin, TriQuarterly, and Gulf Coast and many anthologies, including the Columbia Reader in Lesbian and Gay Studies, Taking Liberties and Beyond Queer He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Today John joins us to discuss his novels and writing during the AIDS pandemic.

Helen Eisenbach is a novelist, satirist, playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, journalist and editor. Her books include the novel Loonglow and the how-to/cry for help Lesbianism Made Easy, both published shamelessly ahead of their time and now available as ebooks with Open Road Media. Her plays have been produced in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As a book editor, she founded the Plume line of LGBTQ fiction and nonfiction, where she published the subject of today's podcast, Larry Kramer, among others (mostly now dead!); she was also Editorial Director at Arbor House, where she founded a line of trade paperbacks, and Editor in Chief of Alyson Publications on its transition to a mainstream publisher under the Advocate magazine's rule. She was Executive Editor of the late beloved queer weekly magazine QW (where she published Rosanne's first ever queer interview); literary editor of the L.A. magazine Dot 429; an editor at the copy desk of Entertainment Weekly and Time Magazine. In theatre, she assisted writer/director Dick Scanlan, director Michael Mayer and Sherie Rene Scott on the play Whorl Inside a Loop as script editorial supervisor, seeing it from workshop to Off Broadway production for 2ND Stage Theatre; she was also researcher for Scanlan and composer Carmel Dean on their Edna St. Vincent Millay musical Renascence. Helen's reviews, profiles and interviews have appeared in New York magazine, LitHub, the Village Voice, Time Out NY, Newsday, Writer's Digest, The New York Times, Interview, the Daily News, HuffPost, Salonand other tasteful publications. Larry Kramer was a playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist.

Helen Eisenbach is a novelist, satirist, playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, journalist and editor. Her books include the novel Loonglow and the how-to/cry for help Lesbianism Made Easy, both published shamelessly ahead of their time and now available as ebooks with Open Road Media. Her plays have been produced in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As a book editor, she founded the Plume line of LGBTQ fiction and nonfiction, where she published the subject of today's podcast, Larry Kramer, among others (mostly now dead!); she was also Editorial Director at Arbor House, where she founded a line of trade paperbacks, and Editor in Chief of Alyson Publications on its transition to a mainstream publisher under the Advocate magazine's rule. She was Executive Editor of the late beloved queer weekly magazine QW (where she published Rosanne's first ever queer interview); literary editor of the L.A. magazine Dot 429; an editor at the copy desk of Entertainment Weekly and Time Magazine. In theatre, she assisted writer/director Dick Scanlan, director Michael Mayer and Sherie Rene Scott on the play Whorl Inside a Loop as script editorial supervisor, seeing it from workshop to Off Broadway production for 2ND Stage Theatre; she was also researcher for Scanlan and composer Carmel Dean on their Edna St. Vincent Millay musical Renascence. Helen's reviews, profiles and interviews have appeared in New York magazine, LitHub, the Village Voice, Time Out NY, Newsday, Writer's Digest, The New York Times, Interview, the Daily News, HuffPost, Salon and other tasteful publications. Larry Kramer was a playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist. In 1978, Kramer introduced a controversial and confrontational style in his novel FAGGOTS, which earned mixed reviews and emphatic denunciations from elements within the gay community for Kramer's portrayal of what he characterized as shallow, promiscuous gay relationships in the 1970s. Kramer witnessed the spread of the disease known as  Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) among his friends in 1980. He co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis  (GMHC), which has become the world's largest private organization assisting people living with AIDS. His political activism continued with the founding of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power   (ACT UP) in 1987, an influential direct action protest organization with the aim of gaining more public action to fight the AIDS crisis. ACT UP has been widely credited with changing public health policy and the perception of people living with AIDS , and with raising awareness of HIV and AIDS-related diseases.His play The Normal Heart was produced by Joseph Papp at The Public Theater in New York City in 1985. He died from pneumonia on May 27,2020  

DOUG WAGER is the former Artistic Director of the Arena Stage in Washington, DC, succeeding Zelda Fichandler where he served for twenty-five seasons as resident director, producing over two hundred productions and directing over 50 productions from 1975-2000 ranging from large-scale musicals to classics and new plays, world and American premieres. Mr. Wager currently serves as Artistic Director and Head of Directing for Temple University which he joined in 2004. He is the recipient of three Helen Hayes awards. His work has been seen in New York, both on and off Broadway, and at major regional theaters across the country. ZELDA FICHANDLER co-founded Arena Stage on August 16, 1950 with her husband, Thomas Fichandler.  She led Arena Stage for 40 years stepping down in 1991 producing more than 400 shows and directing more than 50 shows. In 1961 she opened the new Arena Stage Theater an 800 in the round building and the Kreeger Theater in 1970 and the Old Vat Room in 1976. She produced productions of Indians by Arthur Kopit, Moon Children by Michael Weller, and The Great White Hope on Broadway. It won a Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. She became head of the Graduate Acting program  at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, a post she held until 2009. She also served as Artistic Director of the Acting Company founded by John Housman. She was awarded a National Medal of Arts by Bill Clinton in 1996, and in 1999 she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.  

JEFF HAMLIN Production Manager for Lincoln Center Theater oversaw more than 150 productions from 1985-2014. For Michael Bennett he served as production stage manager on A CHORUS LINE, BALLROOM, and DREAMGIRLS. Today Jeff joins us to discuss the life and career of Bernard Gersten and Lincoln Center Theater. BERNARD GERSTEN affectionately known as “Bernie” Gersten was born on January 30, 1923. From 1960 to 1978 he worked with Joseph Papp as Associate Producer for the New York Shakespeare Festival. He oversaw productions of Hair, That Championship Season, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Streamers, and A Chorus Line. After leaving NYSF he served as Executive Producer at Lincoln Center Theater from 1985 until he retired in 2013. He over saw over 150 productions for which he received 15 Tony Awards including: House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, Sarafina, and The Coast of Utopia. In 2013 he received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. Mr. Gersten died on April 27, 2020.    

MICHAEL BENNETT conceived, directed, and choreographed A CHORUS LINE which received 9 Tony Awards and ran for 6,137 performances. He followed with productions of BALLROOM and DREAMGIRLS also receiving Tony Awards for Best Choreography. JEFF HAMLIN Production  Manager for Lincoln Center Theater oversaw more than 150 productions from 1985-2014. For Michael Bennett he served as production stage manager on A CHORUS LINE, BALLROOM, and DREAMGIRLS. Today Jeff joins us to discuss the life and career of Michael Bennett. Please welcome my good friend Mr. Jeff Hamlin to I AM THE SPACE WHERE I  AM.        

BOB HOPE was a British born American comedian with a career that spanned nearly 80 years with achievements in Vaudeville, Broadway, Film, Television, Network Radio, and 57 USO tours. He appeared in more than 70 feature films including the series of seven Road To...musical comedy films with long time friend Bing Crosby as his partner. Bob Hope was praised for his comedic timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid fire delivery of jokes that were often self deprecating. He is credited with being the father of "stand up comedy." He died on July 27, 2003 at the age of 100 years old. MILTON JUSTICE is an Academy and Emmy Award winning producer. He has moved between film, television, and theater throughout his career. On Broadway he produced Tennessee Williams' Vieux Carre. Off Broadway he produced Jack Heifner's Vanities ( the longest running play in off-Bway history) and Das Luscitania Songspiel written and starring Sigourney Weaver and Christopher Durang. Milton was mentored by the legendary Stella Adler for whom he taught acting classes and became the first Artistic Director of her theater company in Los Angeles. His best selling book, I Don't Need An Acting Class was published in 2021 and his podcast also titled I Don't Need An Acting Class, was recently listed as the 9th most popular entertainment podcast in history. Milton worked for Bob Hope after becoming the first recipient of SMU Theater's Bob Hope Award.

Tony  Award Nominee, Larry Carpenter is a theater and television director and producer who has won four DGA Awards and Seven Daytime Emmy Awards for his work on One Life to Live, General Hospital and As the World Turns. He has taught at the Juilliard School of Drama, New York University, and American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Today Larry joins us to discuss the life and career of 8 time Tony Award Winner Mr  Gower Champion and his work as associate director on the Broadway productions A Broadway Musical, The Act with Liza Minnelli, Rockabye Hamlet, and Forty Second Street which ran for 3,486 performances.

 Mark Lamos legendary director, actor and artistic director joins us today to discuss the life and work of his good friend and collaborator playwright A.R. “Pete” Gurney whose plays  include The Dining Room, Sylvia, The Cocktail Hour, The Grand Manner, Indian Blood, Black Tie, and Mrs. Farnsworth.  

Dylan Key is a theater artist, director, educator, and producer who has created performances at La Jolla Playhouse, Undermain Theater, Dallas Actors' Lab, Kitchen Dog Theater, and The Dallas Museum of Art. From 2011-2016 Dylan was the associate director and right hand man to Undermain Theater's Artistic Director the late Katherine Owens whose life and career is the subject of today's podcast.

Today, Raye Birk and I will be discussing the life and times of Laird Williamson, noted actor and director. Actor Raye Birk is a celebrated American actor with over 50 years of professional theater experience to his credit. He has worked in every major repertory theater in the United States.. He performed for nine seasons with the American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco and the legendary Guthrie Theater. He joined Sir Mark Rylance and the cast of Nice Fish at St. Anne's Warehouse in Brooklyn and continued the run at the Harold Pinter Theater in London's West End.

Today Adrianne Lobel joins  us to discuss the life and work of distinguished theater designer and her teacher Ming Cho Lee. Adrianne Lobel is an acclaimed scenic designer and painter. Her credits include Broadway productions of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, The Diary of Anne Frank, Leonard Bernstein's On the Town, and A Year with Frog and Toad. Her critically acclaimed paintings have been exhibited extensively in solo exhibitions in New York City.

Today, Brian Webb and I will be discussing the life and times of theater designer Jo Mielziner. Brian Webb is a distinguished international associate set designer working in the theater today. Brian recreated for Mike Nichols' revival of Death of a Salesman on Broadway, Jo Mielziner's original Tony Award-winning designs.

Today David Esbjornson and I will be discussing the life and work of three time Pulitzer prize winning playwright Edward Albee. Acclaimed stage director David Esbjornson is the former artistic director of New York City's Classic Stage Company and Seattle Repertory Theatre. Broadway premieres include Driving Miss Daisy, starring Tony Award-winning actors Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones, Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia with Mercedes Ruehl and Bill Pullman, and Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mount Morgan, starring Mr. Patrick Stewart.    

Today David Gallo joins us to discuss the life and work of playwright August Wilson. David Gallo is a Tony and Emmy Award-winning theater designer and artist. Broadway credits include First Date, Stickfly, The Mountain Top, Memphis, Reasons to Be Pretty, Xanadu, and the Drowsy Chaperone. His long-time association with August Wilson includes designing Broadway productions of King Hedley II, Jitney, Gem of the Ocean, and Radio Golf.

Today Greg Mehrten joins us to discuss the life and work of his good friend and collaborator Lee Breuer. At the instigation of Lee Breuer, actor, playwright and director, Greg Mehrten moved to New York in 1975 to participate in the then thriving avant-garde scene. He is now a senior artistic associate at Mabou Mines.  

Today Patrick Kelly and I will be discussing his long time friendship with legendary costume designer Tanya Moisewitsch and her association with director Sir Tyrone Guthrie. Patrick Kelly is Professor of Drama Emeritus at the University of Dallas where, with Judy Kelly, they taught for forty-two years. Kelly has directed new plays with living playwrights including Eduardo Machado, Thomas Babe and Octavio Solis.

Today Patrick Kelly and I will be discussing his long time friendship with British director William Gaskill. Patrick Kelly is Professor of Drama Emeritus at the University of Dallas where, with Judy Kelly, they taught for forty-two years. Kelly has directed new plays with living playwrights including Eduardo Machado, Thomas Babe and Octavio Solis.  

Today Randy Moore and I will be discussing the life and work of Paul Baker and the Dallas Theatre Center. Actor Randy Moore is a founding member of Paul Baker's Dallas Theater Center and was in residence from 1961 to 1994. From 1995 to 2012, he migrated to the Denver Center Theater. He has performed with Denver's Curious Theater Company, the Alley, the Old Globe, and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

  Today Randy Moore and I will be discussing the life and work of Paul Baker and the Dallas Theater Center. Actor Randy Moore is a founding member of Paul Baker's Dallas Theater Center and was in residence from 1961 to 1994. From 1995 to 2012, he migrated to the Denver Center Theatre. He has performed with Denver's Curious Theatre Company, the Alley, the Old Globe, and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

Today we will be speaking with Milton Justice about one of his favorite subjects, legendary actress and teacher Stella Adler. Milton Justice is an Academy and Emmy Award winning producer, On Broadway he produced Tennessee Williams' Vieux Carre,. Off Broadway he produced Jack Heifner's Vanities (which became the longest running play in off-Bway history. His book, I Don't Need An Acting Class, was published in November of 2021 and his podcast, also called  I Don't Need An Acting Class, was recently listed at the 9th most popular entertainment podcast in history.