Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: April 5, 2002 When I was a kid, if my sisters and I got overly theatrical or melodramatic (a very frequent occurrence), my mother would sarcastically invoke Sarah Bernhardt (actually, she'd call us 'Sarah Heartburn'). The acclaimed Parisian thespian was known for her excesses -- both on and off the stage. D.H. Lawrence considered her acting "the incarnation of violent emotion." She was a legend in Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: March 29, 2002 Everyone knows that "The Merchant of Venice" is controversial and anti-Semitic. It's no secret, and it's always a tricky business to mount the play. Some Jewish theatergoers refuse to see it at all. Some think it should just be shelved and forgotten. So it was a risky selection for the San Diego Rep's artistic director Sam Woodhouse for his first foray into Shakespeare. Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: March 22, 2002 Harold Pinter was walking toward his two-room London flat in 1958 when he peered into the neighbors' apartment and saw two men inside: one rooting around in a bag, the other staring out a window. The image never left him. He found out that one, who had a history of mental illness, had invited the other, a homeless man, to live with him. Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: March 15, 2002 It's got taffeta, tears and tiaras. Big hair, hot talent. And beautiful babes. Nope, it isn't "Beehive," but you'd be hard-pressed to tell those gals from these without the proverbial scorecard. In fact, some audience members even do get a scorecard -- to vote on the evening's winner: Miss Glamouresse of 2002. It's wild, it's musical, it's outrageous -- it's "Pageant." Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: March 8, 2002 Okay, first off, let's get something straight. "The Universal Monster Show" has nothing to do with monsters -- well, not the kind you're imagining, anyway. The original Ringling Brothers Circus was called the United Monster Show. There are villains onstage at Sledgehammer Theatre, but also victims, and heroes in the face of deadly disaster. That's what makes the play especially resonant at this Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: March 1, 2002 For many of us, the '60s was the defining decade of our lifetime. And the seminal events of that era were marked by music. We females went from whiners to young women, from preteens to protesters. After the assassinations and the British invasion, we all lost our innocence -- one way or another. Okay, maybe the all-girl musical revue "Beehive" isn't making any 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