Podcasts about I Am My Own Wife

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   William Finn (1951-2025) and James Lapine William Finn, Richard Wolinsky and James Lapine Composer/lyricist William Finn, who died on April 7th, 2025 at the age of 73 and director/librettist James Lapine, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded March 20, 2019 at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco. William Finn is best known for writing the music and lyrics for two Broadway shows, Falsettos, which was the first gay-themed Broadway musical, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which has become a staple of community theatre companies around the world. He also wrote A New Brain, which dealt with his near death experience following brain surgery.  Falsettos was originally three one-act musicals which opened off-Broadway, In Trousers, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland and the latter two became Falsettos, which opened on Broadway in 1992, co-authored and directed by James Lapine, who'd also co-authored Falsettoland. James Lapine is best known for his work with Stephen Sondheim on Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods. Falsettos was revived on Broadway in 2016 and came to San Francisco in spring of 2019. Richard Wolinsnky had a chance to sit down with both William Finn and James Lapine on March 20, 2019 in the lobby of the Golden Gate Theatre to discuss Falsettos, as well as take a brief look at each man's career.   Martin Amis (1949-2023): The Zone of Interest Martin Amis (1949-2023), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studio on a book tour for “The Zone of Interest,” October 29, 2014. The Zone of Interest focuses on the lives of people who ran the concentration camps, as they chose to avoid thinking about their crimes against humanity. A film adaptation received Oscar nominations a couple of years ago. Novelist and essayist Martin Amis died of cancer on May 19, 2023 at the age of 73, leaving behind such novels as The Rachel Papers, London Fields, The Information, and his last memoir-cum-novel, Inside Story. On October 29th, 2014, Richard Wolinsky conducted the last of five interviews with Martin Amis, about Amis's then most recent novel, The Zone of Interest.   Review of “Here There Are Blueberries” at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre through May 11, 2025.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 10th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, June 1-2, 2024. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley.  Summers at John Hinkel Park: Cymbeline opens July 4; The Taming of the Shrew opens August 16. See website for readings and events. Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).   See website for upcoming productions. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Afro-Solo Theatre Company.See website for calendar. American Conservatory Theatre Eddie Izzard Hamlet, April 1-20 Strand. Two Trains Running by August Wilson, April 15 -May 4, and The Comedy of Errors, April 22 – May 3 with The Acting Company, in repertory, Toni Rembe Theater. Aurora Theatre  Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage, April 26-May 25, 2025 Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. Here There Are Blueberries by Moises Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, April 5 – May 11, Roda Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company Julius Caesar, June 13-21, Live Oak Theater, Berkeley. y. See website for upcoming events and productions. Boxcar Theatre. The Illusionist with Kevin Blake, live at the Palace Theatre, through April 27. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Six, April 8-20, Curran; Mamma Mia! April 30 – May 11, Orpheum. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose:  Six. April 22-27. See website for other events. Center Rep: The Roommate by Jen Silverman, March 30 – April 20. Lesher Center. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works  The Last Goat by Gary Graves, June 28 – July 27. Cinnabar Theatre. Bright Star, June 13-29, Sonoma State. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Fiddler on the Roof June 7 – 22. See website for other events. 42nd Street Moon. See website for upcoming productions. Golden Thread  AZAD (The Rabbit and the Wolf) by Sona Tatoyan in collaboration with Jared Mezzocchi, April 11 – May 3. See website for other events. Hillbarn Theatre: Writing Fragments Home by Jeffrey Lo, April 17 – May 4. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Come Thru: A Celebration of Black Artistry, Story Telling and Community, May 5-18, Magic Theatre, Fort Mason. See website for specific workshops and events. Los Altos Stage Company. Cyrano by Edmund Rostand, April 10 – May 4. Lower Bottom Playaz  See website for upcoming productions. Magic Theatre. the boiling by Sunui Chang  April 3 -20, 2025. See website for additional events. Marin Shakespeare Company: See website for calendar. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) Simple Mexican Pleasures by Eric Reyes Loo, April 18 – May 11. New Performance Traditions.  See website for upcoming schedule Oakland Theater Project.  I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, March 21 – April 13, Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Palace of Fine Arts Theater.  See website for event listings. Pear Theater. Henry V by William Shakespeare, April 18 – May 11. See website for staged readings and other events. Playful People Productions. Disney's Frozen Jr., May 16-25, Hoover Theater, San Jose. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Next to Normal. May 30 – June 21. Ross Valley Players: The Book of Will  by Lauren Gunderson, May 9 – June 8. See website for New Works Sunday night readings and other events. San Francisco Playhouse. Fat Ham by James Ijames, March 20 – April 19. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows.  The Day The Sky Turned Orange by Julius Ernesto, Sept 5 – Oct. 5, Z Space. San Jose Stage Company: The Underpants by Steve Martin, April 3 -27. Shotgun Players.  Yellowface by David Henry Hwang, May 10 – June 8. South Bay Musical Theatre:  Brigadoon, May 17-June 7, Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico  Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, April 26 – May 18. LaVal's Subterranean Theatre. Theatre Rhino  Gumiho by Nina Ki, April 17 – May 11. Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. The Heart-Sellers by Lloyd Suh, April 2-27. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2025 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Fort Mason Center. Events calendar. Crushing, live monologue show, Feb. 27-28. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. See schedule for upcoming SFGMC performances. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org                                   .   . The post April 17, 2025: William Finn & James Lapine: Masters of the Musical appeared first on KPFA.

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   David Thomson, Film Critic and Historian David Thomson, film critic and historian, discusses his book, “The Fatal Alliance: A Century of War on Film” with host Richard Wolinsky. Author of over forty books, most of which deal with film and film history, David Thomson here discusses how movies have influenced how our society sees and understands war. In the interview, he talks about how war films rarely focus on the reasons why individual wars are fought, the soldier mentality, the two World Wars on film, fascism and resistance on film, along with such films as Black Hawk Down, The Deer Hunter and A Man Escapes. Recorded a year ago, he also discusses fascism in the United States, and the nature of resistance. Special thanks to AJ Fox and Susan Oxtoby of Pacific Film Archive, where the interview was recorded. Photo of David Thomson: Richard Wolinsky. Complete Interview.   Review of “Eddie Izzard Hamlet” at ACT Strand Theatre through April 20, 2025.   Review of “The Heart Sellers” at TheatreWorks Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts through April 27, 2025.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 10th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, June 1-2, 2024. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley.  Summers at John Hinkel Park: Cymbeline opens July 4; The Taming of the Shrew opens August 16. See website for readings and events. Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).   See website for upcoming productions. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Afro-Solo Theatre Company.See website for calendar. American Conservatory Theatre Eddie Izzard Hamlet, April 1-20 Strand. Two Trains Running by August Wilson, April 15 -May 4, and The Comedy of Errors, April 22 – May 3 with The Acting Company, in repertory, Toni Rembe Theater. Aurora Theatre  Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage, April 26-May 25, 2025 Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. Here There Are Blueberries by Moises Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, April 5 – May 11, Roda Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company Julius Caesar, June 13-21, Live Oak Theater, Berkeley. y. See website for upcoming events and productions. Boxcar Theatre. The Illusionist with Kevin Blake, live at the Palace Theatre, through April 27. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Six, April 8-20, Curran; Mamma Mia! April 30 – May 11, Orpheum. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose:  Six. April 22-27. See website for other events. Center Rep: The Roommate by Jen Silverman, March 30 – April 20. Lesher Center. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works  The Last Goat by Gary Graves, June 28 – July 27. Cinnabar Theatre. Bright Star, June 13-29, Sonoma State. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Fiddler on the Roof June 7 – 22. See website for other events. 42nd Street Moon. See website for upcoming productions. Golden Thread  AZAD (The Rabbit and the Wolf) by Sona Tatoyan in collaboration with Jared Mezzocchi, April 11 – May 3. See website for other events. Hillbarn Theatre: Writing Fragments Home by Jeffrey Lo, April 17 – May 4. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Come Thru: A Celebration of Black Artistry, Story Telling and Community, May 5-18, Magic Theatre, Fort Mason. See website for specific workshops and events. Los Altos Stage Company. Cyrano by Edmund Rostand, April 10 – May 4. Lower Bottom Playaz  See website for upcoming productions. Magic Theatre. the boiling by Sunui Chang  April 3 -20, 2025. See website for additional events. Marin Shakespeare Company: See website for calendar. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) Simple Mexican Pleasures by Eric Reyes Loo, April 18 – May 11. New Performance Traditions.  See website for upcoming schedule Oakland Theater Project.  I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, March 21 – April 13, Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Palace of Fine Arts Theater.  See website for event listings. Pear Theater. Henry V by William Shakespeare, April 18 – May 11. See website for staged readings and other events. Playful People Productions. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, April 10-19. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Next to Normal. May 30 – June 21. Ross Valley Players: The Book of Will  by Lauren Gunderson, May 9 – June 8. See website for New Works Sunday night readings and other events. San Francisco Playhouse. Fat Ham by James Ijames, March 20 – April 19. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: The Underpants by Steve Martin, April 3 -27. Shotgun Players.  Art by Yazmina Reza, through April 12. South Bay Musical Theatre: Titanic, a concert presentation, April 12-13. Brigadoon, May 17-June 7, Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico  Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, April 26 – May 18. LaVal's Subterranean Theatre. Theatre Rhino  Gumiho by Nina Ki, April 17 – May 11.Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. The Heart-Sellers by Lloyd Suh, April 2-27. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2025 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Fort Mason Center. Events calendar. Crushing, live monologue show, Feb. 27-28. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. See schedule for upcoming SFGMC performances. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org                                   .   . The post David Thomson: A Century of War on Film appeared first on KPFA.

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   Richard Chamberlain (1934-2025) Richard Wolinsky and Richard Chamberlain outside the KPFA studios, June 10, 2003. Richard Chamberlain, who died on March 29, 2025 two days before his 91st birthday, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded June 10, 2003 while on tour for his memoir, Shattered Love. Richard Chamberlain achieved fame as the heart-throb star of the 1960s medical drama Doctor Kildare, and went on to a successful career as an actor in the TV miniseries The Thorn Birds and the original Shogun, as well as the Richard Lester Three Musketeers films and Peter Weir's The Last Wave, as well as other TV series and films. He also was on the Broadway stage in a revival of My Fair Lady, and toured with several shows. In 2003, he chose to come out of the closet in his memoir, Shattered Love, in which he discussed his years of self-loathing and his later spiritual awakening. The interview concludes with a discussion of the political scene in 2003, which bears a clear relationship with what is happening in Washington D.C. today.   Michael Moran, Co-Artistic Director, Oakland Theater Project Michael Socrates Moran, Executive and Co-Artistic Director of the Oakland Theater Project in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded via computer, March 26,2025. Michael Moran is one of the founders of Oakland Theater Project, formerly Ubuntu Theatre Project. He is also the director of “I Am My Own Wife” by Doug Wright, playing at Oakland Theater Project through April 13, 2025. In this interview he discusses the origins of the company, how it fared during the pandemic, and the upcoming season. Complete Interview   Review of “Fat Ham” at San Francisco Playhouse through April 19, 2025.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 10th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, June 1-2, 2024. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley.  Summers at John Hinkel Park: Cymbeline opens July 4; The Taming of the Shrew opens August 16. See website for readings and events. Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).   See website for upcoming productions. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Afro-Solo Theatre Company.See website for calendar. American Conservatory Theatre Eddie Izzard Hamlet, April 1-20 Strand. Two Trains Running by August Wilson, April 15 -May 4, and The Comedy of Errors, April 22 – May 3 with The Acting Company, in repertory, Toni Rembe Theater. Aurora Theatre  Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage, April 26-May 25, 2025 Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. Here There Are Blueberries by Moises Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, April 5 – May 11, Roda Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare CompanJulius Caesar, June 13-21, Live Oak Theater, Berkeley. y. See website for upcoming events and productions. Boxcar Theatre. The Illusionist with Kevin Blake, live at the Palace Theatre, through April 27. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Six, April 8-20, Curran; Mamma Mia! April 30 – May 11, Orpheum. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose:  Six. April 22-27. See website for other events. Center Rep: The Roommate by Jen Silverman, March 30 – April 20. Lesher Center. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works  Push/Pull by Harry Davis, Extended to April 6, 2025. Cinnabar Theatre. Bright Star, June 13-29, Sonoma State. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Fiddler on the Roof June 7 – 22. See website for other events. 42nd Street Moon. See website for upcoming productions. Golden Thread  AZAD (The Rabbit and the Wolf) by Sona Tatoyan in collaboration with Jared Mezzocchi, April 11 – May 3. See website for other events. Hillbarn Theatre: Writing Fragments Home by Jeffrey Lo, April 17 – May 4. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Come Thru: A Celebration of Black Artistry, Story Telling and Community, May 5-18, Magic Theatre, Fort Mason. See website for specific workshops and events. Los Altos Stage Company. Cyrano by Edmund Rostand, April 10 – May 4. Lower Bottom Playaz  See website for upcoming productions. Magic Theatre. the boiling by Sunui Chang  April 3 -20, 2025. See website for additional events. Marin Shakespeare Company: See website for calendar. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) Wild with Happy by Colman Domingo, March 7 – April 6. New Performance Traditions.  See website for upcoming schedule Oakland Theater Project.  I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, March 21 – April 13, Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Palace of Fine Arts Theater.  See website for event listings. Pear Theater. Henry V by William Shakespeare, April 18 – May 11. See website for staged readings and other events. Playful People Productions. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, April 10-19. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Next to Normal. May 30 – June 21. Ross Valley Players: Pet Lingerie, a new musical, March 21- April 6. See website for New Works Sunday night readings and other events. San Francisco Playhouse. Fat Ham by James Ijames, March 20 – April 19. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: The Underpants by Steve Martin, April 3 -27. Shotgun Players.  Art by Yazmina Reza, through April 12. South Bay Musical Theatre: Titanic, a concert presentation, April 12-13. Brigadoon, May 17-June 7, Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico  Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, April 26 – May 18. LaVal's Subterranean Theatre. Theatre Rhino  Gumiho by Nina Ki, April 17 – May 11.Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. The Heart-Sellers by Lloyd Suh, April 2-27. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2025 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Fort Mason Center. Events calendar. Crushing, live monologue show, Feb. 27-28. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Signs of Life? written and performed by Cheyenne Jackson, 2 performances February 14, Chan National Queer Arts Center. See schedule for upcoming SFGMC performances. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org                                   .   . The post April 3, 2025: Richard Chamberlain – Michael Socrates Moran appeared first on KPFA.

Michael Socrates Moran, Executive and Co-Artistic Director of Oakland Theater Project, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Michael Moran is one of the founders of Oakland Theater Project, formerly Ubuntu Theatre Project. He is also the director of “I Am My Own Wife” by Doug Wright, playing at Oakland Theater Project through April 6, 2025. In this interview he discusses the origins of the company, how it fared during the pandemic, and the upcoming season. The post Michael Socrates Moran, Oakland Theater Project appeared first on KPFA.

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   Walter Mosley Walter Mosley in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded March 5, 2025 discussing his two most recent novels, “Been Wrong So Long It Looks Like Right,”  a Joe King Oliver novel, and “Farewell, Amethystine,” an Easy Rawlins novel. Today, Walter Mosley is one of America's leading authors. He is best known for his series of mystery novels featuring the characters of Easy Rawlins and Mouse. To date, there are now twenty non-series novels by Walter Mosley, the most recent titled Touched, published in 2023, Along with three Fearless Jones novels, six Leonid McGill mysteries, three Socrates Fortlow books, three books in the Crosstown to Oblivion series, three books in the King Oliver series, plus two graphic novels, two plays, and six works of non-fiction. Always Outnumbered became a television film in 1998 starring Laurence Fishburne, and a TV miniseries titled The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray, based on Walter Mosley's book, starring Samuel L. Jackson, on Apple+. At present, an adaptation of his novel The Man in My Basement is in post-production.   Ann Patchett, “Bel Canto,” 2001 Ann Patchett, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studio on a book tour for “Bel Canto,” September 20, 2012. Ann Patchett is the author of nine novels and five works of non-fiction. Her most recent novel, Tom Lake, was published in 2023.  She's best known, though, for her fourth novel, Bel Canto, which became a National Book Award finalist, and was adapted into a film in 2018. There is currently talk about a mini-series in the works.  This interview has not aired in over twenty years. Ann Patchett Wikipedia page.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 10th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, June 1-2, 2024. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley.  Summers at John Hinkel Park: Cymbeline opens July 4; The Taming of the Shrew opens August 16. See website for readings and events. Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).   See website for upcoming productions. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Afro-Solo Theatre Company. Arts Festival 31: Let Freedom Ring, March 28-30, Potrero Stage. American Conservatory Theatre Nobody Loves You, a musical, Feb. 28 – March 30, Toni Rembe Theatre. Aurora Theatre  Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage, April 26-May 25, 2025 Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Conor McPherson, February 14 – March 23, Peets Theatre. Here There Are Blueberries by Moises Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, April 5 – May 11, Roda Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company. See website for upcoming shows. Supergalza: A Shakespeare Cabaret, spring 2025. Boxcar Theatre. The Illusionist with Kevin Blake, live at the Palace Theatre, through April 27. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Six, April 8-20, Curran; Mamma Mia! April 30 – May 11, Orpheum. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose:  The Cher Show. March 18 – 23. Center Rep: The Roommate by Jen Silverman, March 30 – April 20. Lesher Center. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works  Push/Pull by Harry Davis, March 1 – 30, 2025. Cinnabar Theatre. Young Rep: Hamlet, March 15-23, Petaluma SRJC; Bright Star, June 13-29, Sonoma State. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Fiddler on the Roof June 7 – 22. See website for other events. 42nd Street Moon. See website for upcoming productions. Golden Thread  AZAD (The Rabbit and the Wolf) by Sona Tatoyan in collaboration with Jared Mezzocchi, April 11 – May 3. See website for other events. Hillbarn Theatre: Writing Fragments Home by Jeffrey Lo, April 17 – May 4. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. Los Altos Stage Company. Cyrano by Edmund Rostand, April 10 – May 4. Lower Bottom Playaz  See website for upcoming productions. Magic Theatre. the boiling by Sunui Chang  April 3 -20, 2025. See website for additional events. Marin Shakespeare Company: See website for calendar. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) Wild with Happy by Colman Domingo, March 7 – April 6. New Performance Traditions.  See website for upcoming schedule Oakland Theater Project.  I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, March 21 – April 6, Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Palace of Fine Arts Theater.  See website for event listings. Pear Theater. Penelope, a one-woman show written and performed by Ellen McLaughlin, March 27-30. Henry V by William Shakespeare, April 18 – May 11. See website for staged readings and other events. Playful People Productions. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, April 10-19. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Next to Normal. May 30 – June 21. Ross Valley Players: Pet Lingerie, a new musical, March 21- April 6. See website for New Works Sunday night readings and other events. San Francisco Playhouse. Fat Ham by James Ijames, March 20 – April 19. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: The Underpants by Steve Martin, April 3 -27. Shotgun Players.  Art by Yazmina Reza, through April 12. Staged Reading: How to Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla, March 31, April 1, 7 pm. South Bay Musical Theatre: Titanic, a concert presentation, April 12-13. Brigadoon, May 17-June 7, Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico  Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, April 26 – May 18. LaVal's Subterranean Theatre. Theatre Rhino  Gumiho by Nina Ki, April 17 – May 11.Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Happy Pleasant Valley, Book, Music, and Lyrics by Min Kahng, Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto, March 5-30. The Heart-Sellers by Lloyd Suh, April 2-27. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2025 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Fort Mason Center. Events calendar. Crushing, live monologue show, Feb. 27-28. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Signs of Life? written and performed by Cheyenne Jackson, 2 performances February 14, Chan National Queer Arts Center. See schedule for upcoming SFGMC performances. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org                                   .   . The post March 27, 2025: Walter Mosley: The Easy Rawlins and King Oliver novels. appeared first on KPFA.

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   Anthony Lewis on the First Amendment Anthony Lewis (1927-2013) discussing “Freedom for the Thought that We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment,” with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded February 4, 2008 in the KPFA studios. In his long career, Anthony Lewis spent time as the Washington Bureau chief of the New York Times, was the author of “Gideon's Trumpet,” about a Supreme Court case that led to free legal counsel for indigent defendants, and spent several years as an op-ed writer for the Times. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for reportage, and wrote five books alone and two books with a co-author. In this segment from a longer interview, he delves into the history of the First Amendment, and freedom of speech in the United States.   Martin Amis (1949-2021) Martin Amis (1949-2023), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studio on a book tour for “Lionel Asbo, State of England,” September 20, 2012. Novelist and essayist Martin Amis died of cancer on May 19, 2023 at the age of 73, leaving behind such novels as The Rachel Papers, London Fields, The Information, and his last memoir-cum-novel, Inside Story. On September 20, 2012, Richard Wolinsky conducted the fourth of five interviews with Martin Amis, discussing this satire about the nature of celebrity and celebrity culture. Complete Interview.     Review of “Art” at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage through April 12, 2025. Review of “Nobody Loves You” at ACT Toni Rembe Theatre through March 30, 2025.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 10th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, June 1-2, 2024. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley.  Summers at John Hinkel Park: Cymbeline opens July 4; The Taming of the Shrew opens August 16. See website for readings and events. Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).   See website for upcoming productions. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Afro-Solo Theatre Company. Arts Festival 31: Let Freedom Ring, March 28-30, Potrero Stage. American Conservatory Theatre Nobody Loves You, a musical, Feb. 28 – March 30, Toni Rembe Theatre. Aurora Theatre  Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage, April 26-May 25, 2025 Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Conor McPherson, February 14 – March 23, Peets Theatre. Here There Are Blueberries by Moises Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, April 5 – May 11, Roda Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company. See website for upcoming shows. Supergalza: A Shakespeare Cabaret, spring 2025. Boxcar Theatre. The Illusionist with Kevin Blake, live at the Palace Theatre, through April 27. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Six, April 8-20, Curran; Mamma Mia! April 30 – May 11, Orpheum. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose:  The Cher Show. March 18 – 23. Center Rep: The Roommate by Jen Silverman, March 30 – April 20. Lesher Center. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works  Push/Pull by Harry Davis, March 1 – 30, 2025. Cinnabar Theatre. Young Rep: Hamlet, March 15-23, Petaluma SRJC; Bright Star, June 13-29, Sonoma State. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Fiddler on the Roof June 7 – 22. See website for other events. 42nd Street Moon. See website for upcoming productions. Golden Thread  AZAD (The Rabbit and the Wolf) by Sona Tatoyan in collaboration with Jared Mezzocchi, April 11 – May 3. See website for other events. Hillbarn Theatre: Fly by Night conceived by Kim Rosenstock Written by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, and Kim Rosenstock, March 6 – 23. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. Los Altos Stage Company. Cyrano by Edmund Rostand, April 10 – May 4. Lower Bottom Playaz  See website for upcoming productions. Magic Theatre. the boiling by Sunui Chang  April 3 -20, 2025. See website for additional events. Marin Shakespeare Company: See website for calendar. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) Wild with Happy by Colman Domingo, March 7 – April 6. New Performance Traditions.  See website for upcoming schedule Oakland Theater Project.  I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, March 21 – April 6, Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Palace of Fine Arts Theater.  See website for event listings. Pear Theater. Penelope, a one-woman show written and performed by Ellen McLaughlin, March 27-30. Henry V by William Shakespeare, April 18 – May 11. See website for staged readings and other events. Playful People Productions. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, April 10-19. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Next to Normal. May 30 – June 21. Ross Valley Players: Pet Lingerie, a new musical, March 21- April 6. See website for New Works Sunday night readings and other events. San Francisco Playhouse. Fat Ham by James Ijames, March 20 – April 19. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: The Underpants by Steve Martin, April 3 -27. Shotgun Players.  Art by Yazmina Reza, through April 12. Staged Reading: How to Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla, March 31, April 1, 7 pm. South Bay Musical Theatre: Titanic, a concert presentation, April 12-13. Brigadoon, May 17-June 7, Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico  Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, April 26 – May 18. LaVal's Subterranean Theatre. Theatre Rhino  Gumiho by Nina Ki, April 17 – May 11.Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Happy Pleasant Valley, Book, Music, and Lyrics by Min Kahng, Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto, March 5-30. The Heart-Sellers by Lloyd Suh, April 2-27. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2025 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Fort Mason Center. Events calendar. Crushing, live monologue show, Feb. 27-28. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Signs of Life? written and performed by Cheyenne Jackson, 2 performances February 14, Chan National Queer Arts Center. See schedule for upcoming SFGMC performances. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org                                   .   . The post March 20, 2025: Anthony Lewis – Martin Amis appeared first on KPFA.

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   Todd Haynes Todd Haynes, independent filmmaker, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. Recorded February 27, 2025. The director of ten feature length films, Todd Haynes is an independent film-maker with his roots in New Queer Cinema. After coming to the attention of the film community with his short film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, in which the “actors” were Barbie Dolls, he achieved fame with his first feature, Poison, which told three stories in different ways, all of which commented on the AIDS epidemic. He followed that with the much-lauded Safe, and then moved on to mainstream success with the lush melodrama, Far from Heaven. His later films include Velvet Goldmine, focusing on the glam rock era, I'm Not There, in which several actors portrayed Bob Dylan, Carol, Dark Waters, Wonderstruck, and his latest film, May December (Netflix). His documentary, Velvet Underground, is available on Apple Plus. Along the way there was a miniseries, Mildred Pierce, starring Kate Winslet, on HBO (streaming on MAX). All his films are available streaming. The films of Todd Haynes will be shown in a retrospective, “Todd Haynes: Far From Safe,”  through April 12th at BAMPFA, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Special thanks to AJ Fox and the staff at Pacific Film Archive. Complete Interview   Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Chimananda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian author of “Americanah” and four other novels, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studios, June 5, 2013. She has written five novels, two collections of short stories, one memoir, and many articles and short stories for many newspapers, magazines, and periodicals. She is widely regarded as a central figure in postcolonial feminist literature. Her latest novel, “Dream Count” has just been published. Complete Interview   Review of “Uncle Vanya” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre through March 23, 2025.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 10th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, June 1-2, 2024. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. See website for specific days and times, and for staged readings at LaVal's Subterranean Theater. Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).   See website for upcoming productions. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Afro-Solo Theatre Company. Arts Festival 31: Let Freedom Ring, March 28-30, Potrero Stage. American Conservatory Theatre Nobody Loves You, a musical, Feb. 28 – March 30, Toni Rembe Theatre. Aurora Theatre  Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage, April 26-May 25, 2025 Awesome Theatre Company. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Conor McPherson, February 14 – March 23, Peets Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company. See website for upcoming shows. Supergalza: A Shakespeare Cabaret, spring 2025. Boxcar Theatre. Magic Man, Jan 3 – June 2, Palace Theatre. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Six, April 8-20, Curran; Mamma Mia! April 30 – May 11, Orpheum. See website for complete listings for the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran Theaters. Broadway San Jose:  The Cher Show. March 18 – 23. Center Rep: The Roommate by Jen Silverman, March 30 – April 20. Lesher Center. Central Stage. See website for upcoming productions, 5221 Central Avenue, Richmond Central Works  Push/Pull by Harry Davis, March 1 – 30, 2025. Cinnabar Theatre. Young Rep: Hamlet, March 15-23, Petaluma SRJC; Bright Star, June 13-29, Sonoma State. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre Fiddler on the Roof June 7 – 22. See website for other events. 42nd Street Moon. See website for upcoming productions. Golden Thread  AZAD (The Rabbit and the Wolf) by Sona Tatoyan in collaboration with Jared Mezzocchi, April 11 – May 3. See website for other events. Hillbarn Theatre: Fly by Night conceived by Kim Rosenstock Written by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, and Kim Rosenstock, March 6 – 23. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. Los Altos Stage Company. Youth Theatre: Greek Mythology Olympiaganza by Dan Zolidis, March 7 -16; Cyrano by Edmund Rostand, April 10 – May 4. Lower Bottom Playaz  See website for upcoming productions. Magic Theatre. the boiling by Sunui Chang  April 3 -20, 2025. See website for additional events. Marin Shakespeare Company: See website for calendar. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) Wild with Happy by Colman Domingo, March 7 – April 6. New Performance Traditions.  See website for upcoming schedule Oakland Theater Project.  I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, March 21 – April 6, Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Palace of Fine Arts Theater.  See website for event listings. Pear Theater. The Gods of Comedy by Ken Ludwig,  Feb. 21 – March 16. See website for staged readings and other events. Playful People Productions. See website for upcoming productions and events. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Next to Normal. June 2025. San Francisco Playhouse. Fat Ham by James Ijames, March 20 – April 19. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: The Underpants by Steve Martin, April 3 -27. Shotgun Players.  Heart Wrench, Feb 14 – 15. Art by Yazmina Reza, starts March 8. South Bay Musical Theatre: Titanic, a concert presentation, April 12-13. Brigadoon, May 17-June 7, Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico  See website for upcoming productions. Theatre Rhino  Gumiho by Nina Ki, April 17 – May 11.Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Happy Pleasant Valley, Book, Music, and Lyrics by Min Kahng, Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto, March 5-30. The Heart-Sellers by Lloyd Suh, April 2-27. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for BAM/PFA. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2025 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Fort Mason Center. Events calendar. Crushing, live monologue show, Feb. 27-28. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Signs of Life? written and performed by Cheyenne Jackson, 2 performances February 14, Chan National Queer Arts Center. See schedule for upcoming SFGMC performances. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org                                   .   . The post March 13, 2025: Todd Haynes, Independent Filmmaker appeared first on KPFA.

Today, I'm thrilled to announce my episode with the brilliant, Tony winning actor Jefferson Mays. Tune in to hear some of the stories of his legendary career, including how three 5-minute plays at the Sundance Theater Festival evolved into I AM MY OWN WIFE, his experience performing that play in Poland, Brazil, and Australia, the backstage game he played with Angela Lansbury during THE BEST MAN, his unique take on Henry Higgins in PYGMALION, why he wishes a film had been made backstage at A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, the greatness of the late Steven Lutvak, a bloody accident during a site-specific ORESTES, why he used a prosthetic nose during THE MUSIC MAN, performing OSLO for the real-life Terje Rod-Larsen, what inspired his solo performance of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, how his vocal chords hemorrhaged during BLOOD AND GIFTS, taking advice from Robert Morse and Nathan Lane during THE FRONT PAGE, his next idea inspired by The Grand Guignol, and so much more. You won't want to miss this episode with a once-in-a-generation talent.

Gregg T. Daniel is best known for his recurring role as David Carter in HBO's show Insecure. In addition, he plays Reverend Daniels on another one of HBO's hit shows True Blood. With over 100 credits in film and television, Gregg's roles span the spectrum from comedy (I Am Not Okay With This) to drama (Insecure) to procedurals (911, Grey's Anatomy), science fiction (Star Trek: Voyager) and children's shows (Austin & Ally, Kickin' It). Big screen credits include Spiderman 3, 7th & Union, and Truth Or Dare. Gregg recurred on HBO's Insecure and starred in the award-winning film 7th And Union. Currently, he is set to be in the upcoming sequel of Joker, Joker: Folie à Deux. Gregg is a very accomplished theater director. He is a founding member and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles-based Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble. He was nominated for a 2013 NAACP Image Award for helming the Los Angeles production of “Kwame Kwei-Armah's Elmina's Kitchen”, also winning the NAACP Award for Best Ensemble for 2013. In addition, he has directed three August Wilson Plays. Prior, his stage direction included 2009's acclaimed production of Tom Stoppard's “Heroes”, Sybyl Walker's “Beneath Rippling Waters”, Lee Blessing's “Cobb”, and Frank McGuinness's “Someone Who'll Watch Over Me”. Gregg also directed Pulitzer Prize-winning author August Wilson's “Seven Guitars” For Theatre 150 in Ojai, California, he directed Athol Fugards' “Sizwe Bansi”, Diana Son's “Stop Kiss”, and the 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner, “I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright”. Gregg has also directed and acted in various theater productions including, “Hamlet”, “Radio Golf”, and “Les Blancs”. He recently directed his fourth August Wilson play, "King Hedley II," at A Noise Within Theatre and is set to direct his fifth. This marks the halfway mark through the playwright's ten-play cycle.   “ATTENTION SPOTIFY LISTENERS: IF you want to WATCH this with VIDEO, you can also subscribe to our video version: https://open.spotify.com/show/5e9KnBRZdjUTXTvCe6Nrqm?si=6639537c61044396” @stagelync Thank you to our sponsor @clear-com The StageLync Podcast is a branch of our larger StageLync Community. Come visit us at www.stagelync.com

Gregg T. Daniel is best known for his recurring role as David Carter in HBO's show Insecure. In addition, he plays Reverend Daniels on another one of HBO's hit shows True Blood. With over 100 credits in film and television, Gregg's roles span the spectrum from comedy (I Am Not Okay With This) to drama (Insecure) to procedurals (911, Grey's Anatomy), science fiction (Star Trek: Voyager) and children's shows (Austin & Ally, Kickin' It). Big screen credits include Spiderman 3, 7th & Union, and Truth Or Dare. Gregg recurred on HBO's Insecure and starred in the award-winning film 7th And Union. Currently, he is set to be in the upcoming sequel of Joker, Joker: Folie à Deux. Gregg is a very accomplished theater director. He is a founding member and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles-based Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble. He was nominated for a 2013 NAACP Image Award for helming the Los Angeles production of “Kwame Kwei-Armah's Elmina's Kitchen”, also winning the NAACP Award for Best Ensemble for 2013. In addition, he has directed three August Wilson Plays. Prior, his stage direction included 2009's acclaimed production of Tom Stoppard's “Heroes”, Sybyl Walker's “Beneath Rippling Waters”, Lee Blessing's “Cobb”, and Frank McGuinness's “Someone Who'll Watch Over Me”. Gregg also directed Pulitzer Prize-winning author August Wilson's “Seven Guitars” For Theatre 150 in Ojai, California, he directed Athol Fugards' “Sizwe Bansi”, Diana Son's “Stop Kiss”, and the 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner, “I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright”. Gregg has also directed and acted in various theater productions including, “Hamlet”, “Radio Golf”, and “Les Blancs”. He recently directed his fourth August Wilson play, "King Hedley II," at A Noise Within Theatre and is set to direct his fifth. This marks the halfway mark through the playwright's ten-play cycle.   @stagelync Thank you to our sponsor @clear-com The StageLync Podcast is a branch of our larger StageLync Community. Come visit us at www.stagelync.com

We are excited to bring you this new episode in our podcast series, The Art of Collaboration. This series focuses on directors and choreographers in conversation with some of their collaborators on a specific production. This series explores the ins and outs of these processes, both the finer details as well as overarching ideas about what goes into a productive collaboration on a show. In the second episode of this two episode arc, Director Alex Timbers, Sound Designer Peter Hylenski, and Scenic Designer Derek McLane are interviewed by Foundation Director Dani Barlow to discuss their experience working together on Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Learn more about this episode's guests below.    Bios: ALEX TIMBERS (Director) is the recipient of Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and London Evening Standard Awards, as well as two Obie and Lortel Awards. Broadway credits include Gutenberg the Musical; Here Lies Love; Moulin Rouge!; Just For Us; Beetlejuice; David Byrne's American Utopia; Oh Hello with Nick Kroll and John Mulaney; The Pee-wee Herman Show; Peter and the Starcatcher; and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (also bookwriter). For television, he co-created Amazon's “Mozart in the Jungle” (Golden Globe Award) and has helmed the Netflix specials “John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous,” “Ben Platt: Live at Radio City,” and most recently “John Mulaney: Baby J” (2023 Emmy Award nomination). His debut picture book, Broadway Bird, set in an all-animal version of Broadway, is published by Macmillan. @alextimbers PETER HYLENSKI (Sound Designer). Peter received a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award Honor for his work on Moulin Rouge! The Musical. A Grammy, Olivier, and eight time Tony nominee, his selected Broadway designs include: Moulin Rouge!, Frozen, Anastasia, Beetlejuice, Once On This Island, Something Rotten, King Kong, Rock of Ages, After Midnight, Motown, The Scottsboro Boys, Side Show, Rocky, Bullets Over Broadway, Shrek the Musical, On A Clear Day, Lend Me A Tenor, Elf.  Other designs: Awakening, Le Rêve and Lake of Dreams at Wynn Las Vegas.  He's designed for Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, London's O2 Arena, and The Kennedy Center.  Peter holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. DEREK MCLANE (Scenic Designer) SELECTED CREDITS: BROADWAY: MJ the Musical, Moulin Rouge!, Purlie Victorious, A Soldier's Play, American Son, The Parisian Woman, Children of a Lesser God, The Price, Noises Off, Fully Committed, Beautiful, Gigi, China Doll, Anything Goes, The Heiress, Nice Work If You Can Get It, The Best Man, Follies, How to Succeed In Business Without Even Trying, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Million Dollar Quartet, Ragtime, 33 Variations The Pajama Game, I Am My Own Wife. OFF-BROADWAY: Black No More, Merrily We Roll Along, The True, Jerry Spring the Opera, If I Forget, The Whirligig, Into The Woods, Love, Love, Love, Sweet Charity, Evening at the Talk House, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Buried Child, The Spoils, Sticks and Bones, The Last Five Years, A Lie of the Mind, Ruined, Hurlyburly. TELEVISION: He designed the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017 Academy Awards as well as the NBC LIVE! Musicals The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, The WIZ & HAIRSPRAY. AWARDS: Winner of 1997 + 2004 OBIE Awards, 2004, 2005, 2007 Lortel Awards; 2009 + 2021 Tony Award, 2011 Drama Desk Award, 2015, 2016 Art Directors Guild Award, 2014 + 2017 Emmy Award.  

Tony and Emmy Winning Production Designer Derek McLane and Eila Mell have come together to create the new hit book Designing Broadway, available wherever books are sold! This episode is incredible for all artists – especially theatre designers who are beginning to explore their multi-hyphenate identities.  Together with other leading set design and theatre talents, McLane invites us into the immersive and exhilarating experience of building the striking visual worlds that have brought so many of our favorite stories to life. Discover how designers generate innovative ideas, research period and place, solve staging challenges, and collaborate with directors, projectionists, costume designers, and other artists to capture the essence of a show in powerful scenic design. With co-writer Eila Mell, McLane and contributors discuss Moulin Rouge!, Hamilton, Hadestown, Beautiful, and many more of the most iconic productions of our generation. Among the Broadway luminaries who contribute are John Lee Beatty, Danny Burstein, Cameron Crowe, Ethan Hawke, Moisés Kaufman, Carole King, Kenny Leon, Santo Loquasto, Kathleen Marshall, Lynn Nottage, David Rabe, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Wallace Shawn, John Leguizamo, and Robin Wagner. Filled with personal sketches and photographs from the artists' archives, this stunningly designed book is truly a behind-the-scenes journey that theatre fans will love. Derek McLane is an Emmy and Tony Award winning production designer for Broadway and television, who's nearly 350 designs include: Broadway credits such as MJ, The Michael Jackson Musical, Moulin Rouge! (Tony Award), A Soldier's Play (Tony Nomination), American Son, Parisian Woman, The Price, Beautiful, Fully Committed, Noises Off, Gigi, 33 Variations (with Jane Fonda) (Tony Award), China Doll (with Al Pacino), How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying (with Daniel Radcliffe), Follies, Anything Goes, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (with Robin Williams), Ragtime, The Pajama Game, I Am My Own Wife. Off-Broadway: Buried Child, Jerry Springer The Opera, Merrily We Roll Along, The Spoils, If I Forget, Love, Love, Love; The Night of the Iguana, Sweet Charity, Buried Child, Into the Woods, Ruined, The Last Five Years, Television 6 years of Academy Awards, NBC Musicals: The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, The Wiz & Hairspray. Derek is the Chairman of the Board of The New Group Theatre. His many awards include: 2 Tony Awards, 2 Emmy's, 2 Obie's, 2 Drama Desks, 3 Lucille Lortel Awards, and 3 Art Directors Guild Awards. @derekmclane Eila Mell is the author of Designing Broadway as well as the official guide to the hit television series Project Runway, titled Project Runway: The Show That Changed Fashion. Among her other books are New York Fashion Week and, with Ty Hunter, Makeover from Within: Lessons in Hardship, Acceptance, and Self-Discovery. Mell has been featured in the New York Times, Marie Claire, Glamour, and CBS's The Insider, as well as in the documentary Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's. She is the co-host of the podcast Jiffy Pop Culture with comedian Frank Liotti. @eilamell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jefferson Mays is currently on Broadway in his original interpretation of "A Christmas Carol" doing perhaps what he does best: playing multiple roles in a single show. Jefferson recalls the strange beginning of how it all started, which was when he and his wife ran smack into Matt Schackman, the Artistic Director of Geffen Playhouse, as they were walking their dogs. He was eventually inspired to base their version on Dickens' original, one-man version. Jefferson also has his parents to thank for reading "A Christmas Carol" to him and his siblings when they were young, which sparked his love for performing and storytelling, thinking it was theatre in its purest form. Decades of experience later, he reflects on how this year has been the year of the understudy and swing, and how their talent and heroism changed his whole idea of what a company means. While performing on stage brings him joy, it's those moments off stage that makes him appreciate the magic of theatre even more. Jefferson admits to gravitating towards storytelling, sharing that this allows him to explore characters and their complexity endlessly. And while he doesn't have a list of roles to play before he reaches a certain age, he enjoys getting "mugged or ambushed by a production" for different kinds of roles. He shares what it's like to grow up with older siblings and the privileges that come with it, hearing the voices of his parents when he's performing on stage, and how his sense of curiosity and wonder motivates him to keep performing. Jefferson Mays is an actor and a three-time Tony Award nominee for his performances in "Oslo", "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder", and "I Am My Own Wife" a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Doug Wright, where he played over 40 different roles and won for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. His other stage credits include "The Front Page", "The Best Man", "Pygmalion", and "Journey's End". His TV credits include "The Americans", "Westworld", "Nurse Jackie", "Law and Order: SVU", "The Closer", "Julia", "Perry Mason", "Hacks" and a guest role on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt". He was most currently seen on Broadway's "The Music Man", and recently completed his one-man rendition of "A Christmas Carol" and is now bringing the same show to Broadway. He has also appeared in numerous films, including "Inherent Vice", "Ned Rifle", "Showing Up", "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs", "Kinsey" "Rebel in the Rye", and "The Giver" among others. Connect with The Theatre Podcast: Support us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheTheatrePodcast Twitter & Instagram: @theatre_podcast TikTok: @thetheatrepodcast Facebook.com/OfficialTheatrePodcast TheTheatrePodcast.com Alan's personal Instagram: @alanseales Email me at feedback@thetheatrepodcast.com. I want to know what you think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Visibility equals donors. The more work you do, the more you're out there, the more people come to see the shows, the more you continue to maintain your lists of who is coming to see the work – the more easy fundraising becomes.” What is the future of theater making? How has creating theater in rehearsal rooms helped cultivate the multi-hyphenate, an economically friendly hiring option for producers? From the point of view from one of the most sought after directors and cultivators, Moisés Kaufman has incredible insight for anyone who wants to found their own company. What are the first steps? What should they be aware of? How do you raise money? Make your company official? Money can scare people – but it's imperative to understand it when creating theatre.  On this episode we discuss being pushed into boxes and how that affected his journey of bringing the Tony Nominated musical Paradise Square to Broadway. Plus, there is a ticket giveaway where you and a guest can see the show! All you have to do are these two is: Follow in IG: @dearmultihyphenate Write a review – as long as you write a review from June 1st to June 13th, that review will be considered an entry! Mention how much you loved this episode with Moisés Kaufman! The winner will be announced on the next episode of Dear Multi-Hyphenate released on June 13th.  Moisés Kaufman is the founder and artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project, a Tony- and Emmy-nominated director and playwright, and a 2015 recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Mr. Kaufman's Broadway directing credits include the revival of Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song, the revival of The Heiress with Jessica Chastain, 33 Variations (which he also wrote) starring Jane Fonda (Five Tony nominations); Rajiv Joseph's Pulitzer Prize finalist Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams; and Doug Wright's Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play I Am My Own Wife with Jefferson Mays. His play The Laramie Project (which he wrote with the Tectonic Theater Project company) is among the most performed plays in America. Kaufman also co-wrote and directed the HBO film adaptation of “The Laramie Project,” which received two Emmy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Writer. He is an Obie Award winner and a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moisés Kaufman is a Tony and Emmy nominated playwright and director, best known for his revolutionizing  plays that sensitively probe questions of culture and sexuality.  As co-founder and Artistic Director of Tectonic Theater Project, Kaufman has been one of the most important voices in American theater over the past three decades.  Born in Venezuela to Orthodox Jewish parents, Kaufman came to New York in 1987 to study experimental theatre at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.  It was during this time of great social upheaval that Kaufman began to consider new ways in which stories could be told on stage.  By exploring and bending traditional formal elements, Kaufman set out to define a new theatrical experience.  This  exploration led to his two groundbreaking debuts -- "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde" and "The Laramie Project".  While Kaufman's work is experimental in nature, his productions have always reached wide audiences and attracted top talent, including Jessica Chastain, Jane Fonda, and Robin Williams.   His Broadway credits include “The Heiress”, “33 Variations”, and the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning “I Am My Own Wife” .  A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Barack Obama in 2016, Kaufman continues to push boundaries on stage while tackling society's crucial issues. 

I'm so excited for you to listen to (or revisit) my conversation with Erica Hemminger, associate set designer of Moulin Rouge. A lot has happened since we recorded this a year ago, but my fascination with the elephant continues. Please enjoy this rebroadcast of episode four of Beyond the Lights.Please note, the next new episode will premiere on Tuesday, September 7th, and then alternate Mondays moving forward.___________________________________________________________This week we have Erica Hemminger an associate set designer on Broadway.  If you've been to a Broadway show within the last 10 years you've probably seen something she's worked on, including but not limited to Anything Goes, Beautiful, American Son, and the biggest one to date Moulin Rouge.  We discuss how she got started in set design, why we should all be discussing our salaries more, and just how many elephants are on the Moulin Rouge set. For a full transcript of today's episode visit beyondthelightspodcast.com.Mentioned in this Episode[00:01:02] Derek McLane[00:03:17] Carnegie Mellon [00:03:22] DePaul University[00:10:17] I Am My Own Wife[00:17:46] Moulin Rouge! The Musical[00:28:52] The Elephant of the Moulin Rouge[00:31:13] Catherine Martin[00:35:14] The Wiz Live[00:35:20] Hairspray Live[00:36:22] Kenny Leon[00:36:25] Harvey Fierstein[00:44:40] Anything Goes[00:45:45] Buffy the Vampire Slayer Musical EpisodeFollow Erica HemmingerInstagramFollow Beyond the LightsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Derek McLane is a Tony Award winning set designer who has designed over 350 productions on Broadway, off-Broadway, internationally, regionally, and for television. A few of his award-winning designs for Broadway include: Moulin Rouge!, American Son, Parisian Woman, Beautiful, Follies, Anything Goes, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Million Dollar Quartet, Ragtime, 33 Variations, Little Women, The Pajama Game, I Am My Own Wife and The Women. He designed the 2013-2018 Academy Awards ceremonies and 4 live musicals for television and he is the winner of multiple Obie, Lucille Lortel, Art Director's Guild, Emmy and Drama Desk Awards.

Gregg Daniel talks about his time on "True Blood", working on "Insecure", his new film "7th & Union", a truly heartbreaking audition mishap, and shares some wonderful advice every actor should hear!About Gregg Daniel:Gregg T. Daniel is best known for his role as Reverend Daniels on HBO’s hit show True Blood. With over 100 credits in film and television, Gregg’s roles span the spectrum from comedy (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Weeds) to drama (The West Wing, Castle, Desperate Housewives) to procedurals (NCIS), science fiction (Star Trek: Voyager) and children’s shows (Austin & Ally, Kickin’ It). Big screen credits include Spiderman 3, Hancock, Mars Attacks, Evan Almighty, Pump Up The Volume, and White Men Can’t Jump. Currently, Gregg is recurring on HBO’s Insecure and stars in the upcoming film 7th And Union.An accomplished theatre director, Gregg is the Artistic Director of the Los Angeles-based Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble, and was nominated for a 2013 NAACP Image Award for helming the Los Angeles production of Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Elmina’s Kitchen, which also won the NAACP Award for Best Ensemble for 2103. Prior to that, his stage direction included 2009’s acclaimed production of Tom Stoppard’s Heroes, Sybyl Walker’s Beneath Rippling Waters, Lee Blessing’s Cobb, and Frank McGuinness’s Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. Gregg also directed the world premiere of solo performance artist Joyce Guy’s War Stories at the Los Angeles Theatre Center and at St. Mark’s Church in New York. For Theatre 150 in Ojai, California, he directed Athol Fugards’ Sizwe Bansi, Diana Son’s Stop Kiss, and the 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner, I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright.Twitter: @RealGreggDanielInstagram: @officialgreggdaniel

Lets goooo Episode 2 Season 2! This week we are bringing you a chat with the incredible Brent Hill (Hamilton, School of Rock) and Meghan O'Shea (Singin' In The Rain, Grease). At the end of 2020 we were lucky enough to work with Brent and Meghan as Director and Choreographer for Merrily We Roll Along at WAAPA. Throughout the process we had extensive discussions on self-care and mental health as a performer, and Brent and Meghan consistently shared with us how important it is to shape an industry where the performers wellbeing is as important as the show itself. Chatting with each other we knew we wanted to bring these discussions to the podcast, so we were so keen to catch up with Brent and Meg as they further shared on this episode their experiences with burnout, boundaries as a performer, and ways of finding your own joy and creativity through long running shows. A little bit about these creatives: Brent Hill has recently been cast as King George III in Hamilton Australia, playing at the Lyric Theatre in 2021. Prior to this, he originated the role of Dewey Finn in the Australian touring cast of School of Rock. Brent has had extensive training in theatre and has been awarded numerous Green Room and Helpmann Awards for his roles in Rock of Ages, Little Shop of Horrors and School of Rock. Some of Brent's other theatre and film credits include: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Chimerica (STC), An Ideal Husband, Vivid White, The Speechmaker (MTC), Mr. Burns: a Post-Electric Play (Belvoir), Seymour/Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors (Luckiest Productions & Tinderbox Productions), Once – Seoul tour (Once UK), Leo Bloom in The Producers (The Production Company), Twelfth Night (Bell Shakespeare Company), Rock of Ages (Rock of Ages Australia),Donnatelegrams (ABC), Laid (ABC)and It's a Date (ABC). Meghan O'Shea is an Australian actor and Musical Theatre performer. In 2009 Meghan graduated from Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) with a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theatre and later graduated from the Film and Television Studio International. Most recently, Meghan graduated from QUT Business School with a graduate certificate in Marketing and Communications. As a musical theatre performer, Meghan has appeared in the Australian tours of Singin' in the Rain, The Rocky Horror Show, A Chorus Line, and most recently as Sandy in Grease. Meghan has also worked in marketing for Crown Resorts in Melbourne, and following this was the Marketing Manager for the award winning play I Am My Own Wife. Additionally, Meghan has worked for the global media agency, OMD. Inspired by these experiences Meghan founded her own company 'Social Butterfly Digital Marketing'. If you would like to find out more about these creatives, you can follow them on instagram @brenthill and @meghan_oshea_ We'd love to hear your thoughts from this episode on our instagram @companypod, or Facebook Company Podcast. Hosted and Created by Giorgia Kennedy and Tiana Catalano Edited and Produced by David Duketis Music by David Duketis Graphic Design by David Duketis

Watch the full video episode here: https://youtu.be/d5uv4cQRIZ4Originally aired on December 18, 2020.Join us for a very special one-on-one conversation with the A Christmas Carol's solo star: acclaimed actor and UC San Diego grad Jefferson Mays, in a performance that was called "a tour de force" and named a "Critic's Pick" by The New York Times. Jefferson, the recipient of multiple awards including the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Obie, starred (again in an extraordinary solo role) in the 2001 Playhouse Page To Stage production, I Am My Own Wife, which went on to a Tony-winning run on Broadway. Other Broadway credits include Oslo and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, as well as many TV and film appearances.Don't forget to subscribe!FOLLOW USFacebook: @LaJollaPlayhouse https://facebook.com/LaJollaPlayhouse/​Instagram: @LaJollaPlayhouse https://instagram.com/LaJollaPlayhouse/​Twitter: @LJPlayhouse https://twitter.com/LJPlayhouse​#AChristmasCarol​ #JeffersonMays​ #LaJollaPlayhouse​ #BroadwayAtHome

It's the second week of Monologue Month, which means Jackson and Jacob are continuing their weekly examinations of one person shows. This week? The Pulitzer Prize-winning play "I Am My Own Wife." Doug Wright's loving portrait of a complicated human being is the stuff of dramatic masterpiece.  ------------------------------ Please consider supporting us on Patreon. For as low as $1/month, you can help to ensure the No Script Podcast can continue.  https://www.patreon.com/noscriptpodcast  ----------------------------- We want to keep the conversation going! Have you read this play? Have you seen it? Comment and tell us your favorite themes, characters, plot points, etc. Did we get something wrong? Let us know. We'd love to hear from you. Find us on social media at:  Email: noscriptpodcast@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/No-Script-The-Podcast-1675491925872541/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noscriptpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/noscriptpodcast/ ------------------------------ Our theme song is “Upbeat Soda Pop” by Purple Planet Music. Credit as follows: Music: http://www.purple-planet.com ------------------------------ Thanks so much for listening! We’ll see you next week.

This week we have Erica Hemminger an associate set designer on Broadway. If you’ve been to a Broadway show within the last 10 years you’ve probably seen something she’s worked on, including but not limited to Anything Goes, Beautiful, American Son, and the biggest one to date Moulin Rouge. We discuss how she got started in set design, why we should all be discussing our salaries more, and just how many elephants are on the Moulin Rouge set. For a full transcript of today's episode visit beyondthelightspodcast.com.Mentioned in this Episode[00:01:02] Derek McLane[00:03:17] Carnegie Mellon [00:03:22] DePaul University[00:10:17] I Am My Own Wife[00:17:46] Moulin Rouge! The Musical[00:28:52] The Elephant of the Moulin Rouge[00:31:13] Catherine Martin[00:35:14] The Wiz Live[00:35:20] Hairspray Live[00:36:22] Kenny Leon[00:36:25] Harvey Fierstein[00:44:40] Anything Goes[00:45:45] Buffy the Vampire Slayer Musical EpisodeFollow Erica HemmingerInstagramFollow Beyond the LightsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Watch the full video episode here: https://youtu.be/p8EcaTX3UBwFor this week's coffee date, Christopher will be joined by two very special guests: Doug Wright, Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of the acclaimed Playhouse Page To Stage production, I Am My Own Wife, as well as the Playhouse-launched Broadway musical Hands on a Hardbody; and Melanie Chen Cole, sound designer of At the Old Place, POP Tours #SuperShinySara​ and Light Years Away, and Digital WOW's auditory series, Walks of Life.Don't forget to subscribe!FOLLOW USFacebook: @LaJollaPlayhouse https://facebook.com/LaJollaPlayhouse/​Instagram: @LaJollaPlayhouse https://instagram.com/LaJollaPlayhouse/​Twitter: @LJPlayhouse https://twitter.com/LJPlayhouse​#CoffeeWithThePlayhouse​ #DigitalWOW​ #LaJollaPlayhouse​ #DougWright​ #IAmMyOwnWife​ #HandsOnAHardbody​ #MelanieChenCole​ #AtTheOldPlace

May 27, 2020: After regional productions, I Am My Own Wife made its Off-Broadway debut in 2003 at Playwrights Horizons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As an accomplished theatre director, Gregg is the Artistic Director of the Los Angeles-based Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble, and was nominated for a 2013 NAACP Image Award for helming the Los Angeles production of Elmina's Kitchen, which also won the NAACP Award for Best Ensemble for 2103. Prior to that, his stage direction included 2009's acclaimed production of Tom Stoppard's Heroes, Sybyl Walker's Beneath Rippling Waters, Lee Blessing's Cobb, and Frank McGuinness's Someone Who'll Watch Over Me.Gregg also directed the world premiere of solo performance artist Joyce Guy's War Stories at the Los Angeles Theatre Center and at St. Mark's Church in New York. For Theatre 150 in Ojai, California, he directed Athol Fugards' Sizwe Bansi, Diana Son's Stop Kiss, and the 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner, I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright. A trained theatre actor from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Gregg's stage acting credits Shakespeare Center of L.A.'s production of Romeo & Juliet, the Williamstown Theatre Festival productions of Back Country Crimes, and Gogol, The Mark Taper Forum's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, the Pasadena Playhouse's Jitney, Actors Theatre of Louisville's Master Harold, Hartford Stage Company's Peer Gynt, and South Coast Repertory's Fences, and Death Of A Salesman.In this episode we discuss the concepts of acting, how its an ever evolving process, and if there is anything else in life you want to do besides acting, do that. We covered these topics and much more!

Doug Wright Interviewed by Rebecca Geminn and Kyrie Ellison Doug Wright (Playwright) earned the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for his play I Am My Own Wife. Other Broadway works include War Paint, Grey Gardens (Tony nomination), The Little Mermaid and Hands on a Hardbody. Film credits include Quills, based on his Obie Award-winning play and nominated for three Academy Awards. Television credits include Tony Bennett: An American Classic, directed by Rob Marshall. Honors include the Benjamin Dank Prize (the American Academy of Arts and Letters), the Tolerance Prize (Kulturforum Europa) and the Paul Selvin Award (Writers Guild of America). He is the president of the Dramatists Guild, a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, a frequent guest at Yaddo, and serves on the board of the New York Theatre Workshop. Mr. Wright is married to singer/songwriter David Clement. Photo Credit: Joan Marcus. Edited and Produced by Kyrie Ellison (SLC21)

Critique of currently running shows – Godspell at ACT, The Lifespan of a Fact at Theaterworks, and I Am My Own Wife at Long Wharf. Participating in this episode are Karen Isaacs, Shore Publishings; Tim Leininger, of the Journal Inquirier; and Stuart Brown, President of the CT Critics Circle.

Today’s podcast is divided into two parts, two conversations with two theater-makers who couldn’t be more different. But the commonality that ties these two together is the subject of representation both on stage and in the theater industry. First up, I chat with Triangle theater-maker Jesse Gephart who is directing the upcoming Theatre Raleigh production of Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play I AM MY OWN WIFE. Based on a true story and inspired by interviews conducted by the playwright over several years, this play tells the story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who managed to survive both the Nazi onslaught and the repressive East German Communist regime while living openly as a transgender woman. Following my conversation with Jesse, I interview Susan Steadman, a playwright based in Wilmington who has spent a lot of time researching and writing about feminism and the theater. Her upcoming play, (ANTI-)MATERIAL(ISM) is being produced as part of the NC 10 by 10 Festival, which features 10 short plays by North Carolina playwrights. About the Guests Jesse Gephart has been performing in the Raleigh-Durham area since 1998 and has been seen in over 35 productions. He has been fortunate enough to have been cast in many different types of roles, from working in the ensembles of THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUES IN TEXAS AND ROBBER BRIDEGROOM; supporting parts in DISTRACTED, AVENUE Q, AND AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY; to leading roles in THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, SLEUTH, and SIGNIFICANT OTHER. Since 2007, he’s directed over 20 productions, including the recent production of GODSPELL at Theatre in the Park. After the Theatre Raleigh production of I AM MY OWN WIFE, Gephart begins work on the North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre production of BE MORE CHILL. Susan M. Steadman, a longtime Dramatists Guild member, has written for and about the stage for several decades. Her 15 produced and/or published plays include THE THING WITH FEATHERS, a finalist in the LaBute Festival, performed at the St. Louis Actors Theatre (2014) and slated for the Eden Prairie Players in September 2019; (ANTI-)MATERIAL(ISM), taking stage in NC 10 x 10 in summer 2019; THE CINDERELLA CHRONICLES (YouthPLAYS), produced in six countries, and WHAT DOESN’T KILL ME…, three one-acts examining women’s roles in society, staged in both metro-Atlanta and Wilmington, NC (2014). She has also contributed to and shaped the production COMMON PLACE, UNCOMMON ENCOUNTERS, which included short work by several playwrights in 2017; penned two audience participation murder mysteries, coauthored with her daughter; and spearheaded several partially devised touring shows for children. In addition, an excerpt from the full-length LOVE IS A SEVEN-LETTER WORD, performed in GA in 1993, was published in BEST SCENES FOR KIDS (2015), and there have been many performances of her ten-minute plays, both fully produced, including NEW AGE FAREWELLS and MUCH MUCH LATER at Onion Man Productions (GA), and in staged readings. Susan has directed over 70 productions and headed two improv troupes. Author of the critically lauded reference work, DRAMATIC RE-VISIONS, which examines theatre and feminism, she has contributed to journals, magazines, and books. She holds a Ph.D. in theatre from LSU and currently serves as Executive Director of the Port City Playwrights’ Project in Wilmington, NC.  Connect with RDU on Stage Facebook – @rduonstage Twitter – @rduonstage Instagram – @rduonstage Web http://www.rduonstage.com/ (www.rduonstage.com) Support this podcast

We're extremely lucky to have some fantastic guests on our Lucky 7th episode! We are honored to welcome this week's first guest, Founding Artistic Director of the Firehouse Theatre Project, Carol Piersol, whose 5th Wall Theatre Company is in the midst of producing three projects: I AM MY OWN WIFE at RTP's Robert Moss Theatre, PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES at TheatreLAB's Basement space and MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT at Maggie Walker High School. Then Richmond favorites Chris Hester and Landon Nagel both talk about their current and upcoming projects: Chris has JOHN AND JEN with HATTheatre and will be doing THE NORMAL HEART for RTP later this Spring, while Landon is appearing in WINGS currently at Firehouse and will be the star of AN OAK TREE, our next show opening in April. These are some busy folks with interesting things to say and lots of cool projects to talk about. It's an overstuffed hour of local theater news and insight!

Actresses Delia Kropp and Penny Slusher join Gary and Frank in the Booth this week. Penny, a longtime favorite of ours, recently appeared in the Steppenwolf Theatre production of The Minutes, the new play from Tracy Letts. Delia was seen last season in a remarkable re-imagining of the Doug Wright play I Am My Own Wife at About Face Theatre, where the 30 characters were played by four actors rather than just one. Hers was a tour-de-force performance as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, born Lothar Berfelde, who survived the Nazi and Communist regimes in East Berlin as a transgender woman, and the first time the role had been played by a transgender actress. Listen to hear the great story about how and why Delia proposed changing the way this Tony & Pulitzer prize winning play was presented. Penny talks about growing up in Bristol, Tennessee, the "birthplace of country music", and the one-woman show she is writing about her childhood experiences and the extended family that raised her. With a working title of "A Porch Song", Penny hopes to capture the essence of Appalachian Bristol and her amazing upbringing among an apartment building full of relatives. Including her Memaw, who was the best friend of Mother Maybelle Carter. Click on the Bristol link above to read about all the cool things happening there. Penny is an acting and auditioning coach with an approach that sounds like it would be not just effective, but fun too. She also does Intuitive Readings, using her innate gift for intuition and the things she learned watching her grandmother do "fortune telling." She is down to earth and positive about people's opportunities and challenges. If you'd like to schedule a session with Penny, go to www.pennyslusher.com and send her an email. Readings are usually done in her home, and she hopes you like cats (she has 2!). Delia speaks candidly about her gender transition, her 10-year hiatus from acting, and the types of roles and opportunities she is now pursuing. Having known Penny since 1991, Delia credits her with helping ease and facilitate her transition, particularly within the Chicago theatre community. The group discusses gender in casting. Here at Booth One, we wonder whether there might be a place for Delia on Amazon's Transparent alongside her friend, the brilliant Alexandra Billings. Delia is at work on an exciting web project to help trans and cisgender theater artists to meet. An online resource site for actors and other members of creative teams to learn about each other. Find out more about Delia on her website Therealdelia.com. Though we didn't talk about it on the episode, part of our Booth One research was to watch a great National Geographic documentary called The Gender Revolution. It is just excellent and we learned so much. Highly recommended! Kiss of Death: Mary Adelman, Fixer of Broken Typewriters, Owner of Osner Business Machines For decades, Mrs. Adelman's shop was an emergency room for typists with bent keys, problematic platens and ruined ribbons. She attended to the typewriters of Isaac Bashivas Singer, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Philip Roth, Joseph Heller, Peter Shaffer and Murray Schisgal. The shop at 393 Amsterdam Avenue became an Upper West Side fixture in the lives of people desperate to keep the words flowing, and Mrs. Adelman was its centerpiece. "Every time you’d go there, it was always filled with people, that little shop — crammed with people,” one longtime customer, the playwright Peter Shaffer, the author of “Equus,” said in 2001. “It was like the cabin scene in ‘A Night at the Opera.’ You couldn’t get in the door.” She was 89. Read James Barron's full NYT Obit here.    

A special episode at Melbourne's 30th Midsumma Festival. Carla and Philip take in two shows from this celebration of queer culture: I Am My Own Wife and The Happy Prince. At intermission, they banter about Hobart's MONA FOMA and the Golden Gaytime Crumb Shed. Happy Midsumma!

Ben Gerrard is an extraordinarily talented performer from Victoria in the lower right hand side of Australia. He's currently playing more than 20 characters all by himself in the brilliant solo show "I Am My Own Wife", which explores transgender issues, human rights, communism, and resilience - it's currently playing at the Old Fitz Theatre in Kings X, Sydney. There's a few shows left, do whatever you can to go and see it. He's also up for a Logie award for his brilliant comedic performances in "Open Slather" the sketch show on Foxtel. Ben came to my house and was nothing but delightful There's a depth and talent to this man that is at first unassuming but gradually radiates out of him, blinding you. He won't be in this country long, as I have the feeling that he's about to be one of our greatest comedic and dramatic actors. I'm very happy that I can bring you this. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Twelve years ago, journalist and playwright Doug Wright unveiled a new one-actor play with a curious name: "I Am My Own Wife." As a member of the Tectonic Theater, which had earlier premiered the ground breaking play "The Laramie Project," Wright was fully adept at the process of creating documentary style theater, a play that built from actual interviews with people who lived the experiences being recreated on stage, actors performing real-life characters using the actual words collected in the interview. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and travel was permitted into East Berlin for the first time since 1961, word began to spread about a woman named Charlotte Von Mahlsdorff, an elderly antique dealer who ran a museum in her home. Charlotte was an openly transgender woman; people then referred to her as a transvestite. When Doug Wright learned that a transgender woman had somehow survived not only the communist regime of East Germany, but the Nazis before that, he set out to build a play around her experiences, using actual interviews, which he taped face-to-face over the course of a few years. Wright decided to emphasize the play’s tale of isolation and endurance by having all 40 characters, including himself and Charlotte, played by one single actor. The result, "I Am My Own Wife," is as much Wright’s journey as it is Charlotte Von Mahlsdorff’s, something much deeper, richer, complex and mysterious than a mere survivor story. It premiered on Broadway in 2003, winning the Tony for Best new play, and going on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 2006, working with director Jennifer King, North Bay Actor Stephen Abbott tackled ‘I Am My Own Wife’ at Sonoma County Repertory Theater, a brilliantly-staged performance that played sell-out crowds. Four years later, Abbott and King remounted the show at Spreckels Performing Arts Center, with similar results. And now, nine years after first playing Charlotte Von Mahlsdorff, Abbott is doing it once again, this time at Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma. While it seems impossible to improve upon perfection, Abbott is doing just that. He is once again working with director King, who recently visited Germany and toured the real-life home and museum of Von Mahsldorff, who died in 2002 at the age of 74. That up-close-and-personal touch has only deepened the show, King introducing tiny details on which Abbott builds his characters, each one a bit more real, more clearly defined and complicated than ever. Regardless of how one ultimately feels about Von Mahlsdorff, and the questions of how she actually survived her years under brutal totalitarian regimes, this is an impressive work of art. Was she telling the truth with stories of killing her Nazi father with a rolling pin and turning a beloved gay friend over to the communists at his request? Did she really operate a gay brothel under the eyes of one of the most oppressive governments in history? Some of her stories are easier to swallow than others. Perhaps it was her ability to tell tall tales, to spin the truth her own way, part of what allowed her to survive in such an impossible set of situations? Either way, Abbott fully embodies the heart and soul of this extraordinary human being, showing her from the inside out, along with scores of the family, friends, soldiers, neighbors, customers, journalists and visitors she met along the way. As an extraordinary feat of first-rate theater, "I am My Own Wife" is a must see. As an inspiring, true-ish tale of living as your heart guides you, existing by your own rules, it could even, for some, be nothing short of life-changing. "I Am My Own Wife" runs through February 22 at Cinnabar theater, cinnabartheater.org.

In Victorian England, the unhappy wife of a repressed doctor yearns to feel alive - and finally takes matters into her own hands. In an imaginary steam-punk version of Victorian England, a band of brave, opera-singing women similarly yearn to be happy, free - and a little bit naughty - and they make it happen through the power of song. In East Berlin, Germany, a mysterious woman with a powerful secret survives against impossible odds, ultimately becoming an inspiration to a young American journalist. She survives through the power of her own belief in herself. In three productions either currently running or about to open in the North Bay, the concept of “gender” is just the tip of the iceberg in stories that challenge us, the audience, to look beneath the surface of some amazing human beings - some real, some fictional - all with something to show us we might not be expecting. Let’s start with "Heroines," opening tomorrow night at Sonoma State University. This one is a brand new original musical review featuring classic operetta tunes from the likes of Bertolt Brecht, Franz Lehar, Gilbert & Sullivan and others. It was created by musical director Lynn Morrow and stage director Jane Irwin Hammett, who appropriately titled their piece, "Heroines." Set during a time of radical change in England, when women were demanding the vote and a whole lot more, the piece pulls famous females from out of other stories and throws them all together. Due to a magical twist of time, these women from various centuries join forces to express their feelings through indelible songs borrowed from shows like "The Threepenny Opera," "The Merry Widow," and other musical masterpieces, and number from the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. In a fantasy version of London, these iconic characters come together in a city blending visuals from Dickens with ideas from Jules Verne, joining their hearts and voices in a revolutionary effort to break the shackles of tradition and inequality. Sounds fun, huh? New shows deserve our support, and SSU, in recent years, has made a strong effort to present at least one original show a year. And with voices recruited from SSU’s Departments of Music and Theater Arts & Dance, this is a production that probably will sound like a blast of pure operatic dynamite - and then some. Meanwhile, At Cinnabar Theater, Doug Wright’s Pulitzer-winning one-actor drama "I Am My Own Wife" introduces audiences to a different kind of heroine: the real-life Charlotte von Mahlsdorff, a transgender woman whose courage - and possibly a bit of treasonous duplicity - allowed her to escape Hitler’s concentration camps, and survive, in her own way, operating a small museum under the noses of her enemies, all during the communist party’s decades-long reign of suspicion and terror. I’ll be reviewing it in full next week. And finally, there’s Sarah Ruhl’s eye-opening drama, "In the Next Room," subtitled, "The Vibrator Play." This is a daring move for the usually fairly reserved Raven Players. The play looks at the marriage of a late Victorian woman and her husband, a doctor specializing in the treatment of hysterical women. He has been using a new treatment, made possible through the power of electricity, which seems to leave his patience extremely happy, and eager for their next appointment. It only his wife could become the focus of his attentions, she - and maybe even he - could find what is missing in their lives. Gorgeously written by Ruhl, it’s a love story with a jolt of raw truth, another story of what happens when strong women are given the power they need to take control of their own destinies, their own happiness, their own world. "I Am My Own Wife" runs February 6-22 at Cinnabar Theater, cinnabartheater.org. "Heroines" runs February 5-15 in the Evert B. Person Theater at Sonoma State University, Sonoma.edu. "In the Next Room" (or "The Vibrator Play") runs through February 14 at Raven Theater, Raventheater.org

Actor Jefferson Mays is only one man, but he’s happy not to limit himself to a single role when he goes on stage. In 2004, Mays won a Tony Award and several other awards for his two-character turn in Doug Wright’s play, I Am My Own Wife. But now he's quadrupled that load in the new musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway. The show is set in Edwardian England, where Mays plays eight members of a high-born family who all fall victim to a distant relative with murder on his mind. The show is directed by Darko Tresnjak, the book is by Robert L. Freedman, the score is by Steven Lutvak, and Freedman and Lutvak collaborated on the lyrics. Is A Gentleman’s Guide a killer entertainment, or merely deadly? New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood offers a review.

Director, artistic director and playwright Moisés Kaufman discusses his newest project, the U.S. premiere of the 1940s opera "El Gato con Botas (Puss in Boots)", a collaboration between his Tectonic Theater Project, Gotham Chamber Opera and London's Blind Summit Theatre puppet troupe, debuting at The New Victory Theater -- whether it's an opera meant for children and why it fits into the Tectonic aesthetic. He also talks about his youth and schooling in Caracas, Venezuela and how an annual festival bringing in work by such artists as Peter Brook and Pina Bausch turned him on to theatre; why he felt he needed to come to the U.S. to become a director; why he was done with his schooling at NYU's Experimental Theater Wing but never actually finished; how and why he came to create the Tectonic Theater Project so quickly after leaving school; the development of "Gross Indecency", "The Laramie Project" (and its epilogue), "I Am My Own Wife" and "33 Variations", including his evolution as a writer; why, as someone who has had such success creating his own works, he also enjoys directing existing texts as well; and the reason he listed "Pixar" as his religion on Facebook. Original air date - September 15, 2010.

Director, artistic director and playwright Moisés Kaufman discusses his newest project, the U.S. premiere of the 1940s opera "El Gato con Botas (Puss in Boots)", a collaboration between his Tectonic Theater Project, Gotham Chamber Opera and London's Blind Summit Theatre puppet troupe, debuting at The New Victory Theater -- whether it's an opera meant for children and why it fits into the Tectonic aesthetic. He also talks about his youth and schooling in Caracas, Venezuela and how an annual festival bringing in work by such artists as Peter Brook and Pina Bausch turned him on to theatre; why he felt he needed to come to the U.S. to become a director; why he was done with his schooling at NYU's Experimental Theater Wing but never actually finished; how and why he came to create the Tectonic Theater Project so quickly after leaving school; the development of "Gross Indecency", "The Laramie Project" (and its epilogue), "I Am My Own Wife" and "33 Variations", including his evolution as a writer; why, as someone who has had such success creating his own works, he also enjoys directing existing texts as well; and the reason he listed "Pixar" as his religion on Facebook. Original air date - September 15, 2010.

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award honored playwright Doug Wright (2004 Tony Award winner for Best Play for “I Am My Own Wife”) discusses his virtually genetic passion for theatre and how that matched up with his conservative Texas childhood; his escape to New Haven and later New York for college and grad school; his early work at the O'Neill Theatre Center and the Yale Repertory Theatre; why he describes his early plays, including “Interrogating the Nude” and “Watbanaland”, as having been fueled by rage; how “Quills” was inspired in part by the political culture wars of the mid-90s; where he found inspiration for the macabre and comic one-acts collected as “Unwrap Your Candy”; how he feels about having personally revealed himself in his writing, both as a character in “I Am My Own Wife” and in his essay for the book “The Play That Changed My Life”; why he signed on to collaborate with Scott Frankel and Michael Korie on the musical of “Grey Gardens” after the failure of his only prior musical, “Buzzsaw Berkeley” with Michael John LaChiusa; what drove him to actively lobby for the position of bookwriter on Disney's “The Little Mermaid”; and whether he plans to do more directing after adapting and staging Strindberg's “Creditors” at the La Jolla Playhouse in the summer of 2009.

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award honored playwright Doug Wright discusses his virtually genetic passion for theatre and how that matched up with his conservative Texas childhood; his escape to New Haven and later New York for college and grad school; his early work at the O'Neill Theatre Center and the Yale Repertory Theatre; why he describes his early plays, including "Interrogating the Nude" and "Watbanaland", as having been fueled by rage; how "Quills" was inspired in part by the political culture wars of the mid-90s; where he found inspiration for the macabre and comic one-acts collected as "Unwrap Your Candy"; how he feels about having personally revealed himself in his writing, both as a character in "I Am My Own Wife" and in his essay for the book "The Play That Changed My Life"; why he signed on to collaborate with Scott Frankel and Michael Korie on the musical of "Grey Gardens" after the failure of his only prior musical, "Buzzsaw Berkeley" with Michael John LaChiusa; what drove him to actively lobby for the position of bookwriter on Disney's "The Little Mermaid"; and whether he plans to do more directing after adapting and staging Strindberg's "Creditors" at the La Jolla Playhouse in the summer of 2009. Original air date - January 25, 2010.

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award honored playwright Doug Wright discusses his virtually genetic passion for theatre and how that matched up with his conservative Texas childhood; his escape to New Haven and later New York for college and grad school; his early work at the O'Neill Theatre Center and the Yale Repertory Theatre; why he describes his early plays, including "Interrogating the Nude" and "Watbanaland", as having been fueled by rage; how "Quills" was inspired in part by the political culture wars of the mid-90s; where he found inspiration for the macabre and comic one-acts collected as "Unwrap Your Candy"; how he feels about having personally revealed himself in his writing, both as a character in "I Am My Own Wife" and in his essay for the book "The Play That Changed My Life"; why he signed on to collaborate with Scott Frankel and Michael Korie on the musical of "Grey Gardens" after the failure of his only prior musical, "Buzzsaw Berkeley" with Michael John LaChiusa; what drove him to actively lobby for the position of bookwriter on Disney's "The Little Mermaid"; and whether he plans to do more directing after adapting and staging Strindberg's "Creditors" at the La Jolla Playhouse in the summer of 2009. Original air date - January 25, 2010.

Although Jefferson Mays continues his international appearances in his Tony-winning role in Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife", this edition of "Downstage Center" finds him reflecting on his one-man triumph early in the Broadway run of the acclaimed show. Original air date - June 25, 2004.

Although Jefferson Mays continues his international appearances in his Tony-winning role in Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife", this edition of "Downstage Center" finds him reflecting on his one-man triumph early in the Broadway run of the acclaimed show. Original air date - June 25, 2004.

Although Jefferson Mays continues his international appearances in his Tony-winning role in Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife", this edition of "Downstage Center" finds him reflecting on his one-man triumph early in the Broadway run of the acclaimed show. Original air date - June 25, 2004.