Podcast appearances and mentions of james grissom

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Booth One's Frank Tourangeau and his husband, filmmaker Dan Pal, who serves as Booth One's film correspondent, have just returned from a trip to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and have much to report! They have been going to film festivals for many years, including several trips to Telluride, Sundance, Toronto, and our very own Chicago Fest. The Chicago Film Festival is happening from October 10 through October 21 at the AMC River East. They also share secrets about how to have a Booth One experience at a festival! Let's cut to the chase. Dan and Frank both LOVED a movie called Roma, written and directed by Alfonso Cuaron, which won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. A story about a domestic worker in Mexico City working for an upper middle-class family, it is said to be the most personal work of Cuaron's career. And also his best. It has a 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Dan, who says it's the best film he's seen this year, thinks it is a shoe-in for Best Foreign Film and also has a chance to win Best Picture. The actress playing the housekeeper has never been in a movie before. So many reasons we can't wait to see it! Frank and Dan saw 14 films in 5 days. The most thrilling thing for them is getting to see movies before anyone else does. Every director was there and did a Q & A. Lots of big time actors too. They shared their reviews and impressions about all the movies they saw, including: Ben is Back, directed by Peter Hedges and starring Julia Roberts & Lucas Hedges. Vox Lux starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law. (They did not like it.) If Beale Street Could Talk, based on a James Baldwin novel, adapted and directed by Oscar winner Barry Jenkins, made its world premiere at Toronto. Dan and Frank say it is an absolute stand-out. Very powerful and more dialogue driven than Moonlight. The score by Nicolas Britell is "spectacular!" One of the stars, Chicago actress Kiki Lane, was in Booth One favorite Byhalia, Mississippi and part of the ensemble of Definition Theatre Company. We are so excited for you. Go Kiki, go! While they weren't able to score tickets to A Star is Born, here's a fun photo of the stars in Toronto: Gary announces that sadly, the wonderful show public access television show, Theater Talk, has ended after 25 years. Because its station wanted to take over editorial control. :( And just after it won an Emmy award! Everyone who's anyone has appeared on Susan Haskins' great interview show, which we think has a lot in common with Booth One. Its last season was distributed to more than a hundred public television stations nationwide. Gary talks about an episode featuring James Grissom, an author who has written a great book called Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog, which is based on his many, many hours of conversation with the playwright about his close relationships with a number of women who influenced him.  Other films that are discussed in this episode: The Hummingbird Project starring Jesse Eisenberg The Front Runner with Hugh Jackman as politician Gary Hart Hotel Mumbai featuring Dev Patel and Armie Hammer. This American-Australian thriller was clearly Frank and Dan's front-running favorite. Gary and Frank attended opening night of Indecent at Victory Gardens Theatre, the Paula Vogal play with music, directed by local favorite Gary Griffin. Though they had a few reservations about the production, it's recommended as a piece of theatrical ingenuity and depth. And the Running now through November 4. Kiss of Death Andre Blay, who revolutionized the film industry by introducing the first consumer grade full-length movies on videocassette. His Magnetic Video Corporation created the Video Club of America where subscribers could buy a movie for about half the going retail price in stores. By 1987, home video was generating more revenue than movie-theater ticket sales. Mr. Blay was 81. Full Obit here.

James Grissom, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. James Grissom is the author of Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog. In 1982, Grissom spent five days with the great playwright, who had a task for him: go to all the actresses who were his muses over the years, and discuss what they meant to Williams. Williams died five months later, and starting in 1989, Grissom began the project of interviewing each of these actresses, plus actors and directors affiliated with Williams. This book, which examines both Williams' work and the nature of acting, is the result. Recorded in August, 2015 in New York City. The book is recently available in trade paperback. An shorter version of this interview aired on Bookwaves on October 15, 2015. The post James Grissom: Follies of God appeared first on KPFA.

On today's show, we sit down with Bill Largess, the Artistic Director of the Washington Stage Guild. Bill also is an Adjunct Professor of Theater at George Washington University and a very generous sponsor of Midshipman at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis MD.  Bill was first impacted by mentorship by the example of his father, George Largess. Bill's father was a 1939 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a Commander in the Navy. In high school his mentor was Micheal Lewis and later in college Bill was mentored by Father Gilbert Hartke.   Bill is motivated by a passage in the bible, Matthew 6 25-27.   25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And also by the following passage by Colleen Dewhurst a great Canadian- American actress:   "Life may be a mess: You may have a hundred crises forcing their way into your mind and your heart. But--and I stress this--the theatre and the person you bring to the theatre must be pure and clear and ready only for the work at hand. Your fellow actors, the stage manager, the dresser--they don't need to know the drama you have at home or in your life. Pour it all into the performance. Blow away the audience with your intensity, but don't alienate or alarm your coworkers with the diary of your life. And the theatre becomes therapy. So does the commute to the theatre. Just wash it all away, store it, command it to sit and be still. You'll work a lot of it out in the performance, so that by the time you face down the problem at home, it's smaller and it knows its place, and it knows that you've been made stronger by giving to others, by prioritizing, by doing the right thing." Colleen Dewhurst/Interview with James Grissom/1990.   You can reach out to Bill and the Washington Stage Guild at    info@stageguild.org

Martha Frankel’s guests this week are Barbara Bash, Steve Gorn, Warren Zanes and James Grissom who will appear on panels at the Woodstock Writers Festival, April 7-10, 2016.

Author James Grissom on his book "Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog," about Williams and the actresses who inspired his greatest work, including Maureen Stapleton, Lillian Gish, Jessica Tandy, Lois Smith & the late Marian Seldes.

Martha Frankel’s guests this week are Sarah Hepola, James Grissom and Joe Randazzo.