Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: April 25, 2003 The world is a pretty unwelcoming place. And love isn't always a safe refuge. At least, that's how it seems to the graduate student playwrights whose works are being featured in the 4th annual UCSD New Play Festival. Only one of the five world premieres has "Desperados" in its title, but the term could apply to just about all of them. The Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: January 16, 2004 If it’s mid-January, it must be Patté Time. For the 7th year, I happily gave something back to the theater community that gives so much enjoyment to me, and KPBS graciously hosted an elaborate gala here in the Shiley Studios, to celebrate the Patté Awards for Theatre Excellence. It was a stellar evening of theater celebration, musical entertainment, passion and heart. Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: September 24, 2004 Two potent plays from earlier times resonate strongly with our own. "A Raisin in the Sun" was a groundbreaker in 1959, when it dramatized the racism and housing discrimination leveled at a working-class African American family in Chicago. Lee Blessing's "Two Rooms," which was commissioned by the La Jolla Playhouse in 1988, was inspired by the Beirut hostage crisis, Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: June 10, 2005 High parental expectation and public or private humiliation run through two excellent productions on San Diego stages. In both plays, degradation is devastating. In “Amy’s View,” written by acclaimed British playwright David Hare for theatrical darling Judy Dench, the title refers to a childhood newsletter and a belief system – that love Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: February 10, 2006 Women who dream: One wants love and security. Another craves sexual and intellectual freedom. And a third is compelled to liberate the tortured souls of the dead. At UCSD, “Gum” certainly gives you something to chew on. The provocative play by former San Diegan Karen Hartman concerns two well-off young sisters living in an unnamed, Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: September 29, 2006 When you were in school, did they teach you about the Harlem Renaissance? Did you learn about novelists like Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright? What about the ‘poet laureate of Harlem ,” Langston Hughes? Surprisingly, in a recent Q&A with audiences both black and white, few had learned about or read Hughes or the other Read More →
“San Diego is a hotbed of theater. Every year, I see 200-250 productions. This is fertile ground for new work. In addition to the prodigious local talent, theatermakers from around the country come here to premiere their latest creations. San Diego sends more shows to Broadway than nearly any other city in the U.S.”
-Pat Launer