Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: MARCH 9, 2001 Geniuses and heroes. We love to build them up; we love to bring them down. And perhaps 'twas ever thus. During the Second World War, one of the great minds of the century, English mathematician Alan Turing, created the first computer and cracked the crucial German Enigma code. But, like every classic tragic hero, his fatal flaw became his undoing. He was honest Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: MARCH 2, 2001 Something old, something new: Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" and Sledgehammer's "Devil's River." In other words, a re-construction and a deconstruction. At Lamb's Players Theatre, the 110 year-old Chekhov play is a modern tale, told in a crisply contemporary adaptation by playwright David Mamet. Robert Smyth, precariously balancing two different hats, serves as director and title character. His Vanya is Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: FEBRUARY 23, 2001 The woman in black. Sounds so mysterious. And, at several moments during the play, with the sinister sounds and eerie apparitions, you may just be a bit spooked. But this 1980s thriller, which has been running for 15 years in London, comes with the promise of a roller-coaster ride that ends with a hair-raising jolt. Surely they jest. There is such a Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: FEBRUARY 16, 2001 Echoing from a deep cavern in my mind, I could hear the still, small voice of that budding writer, nipped in the bud -- Anne Frank. "I still believe," she said, "in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart." But that mindset seemed to come from another time, another place, another planet, from the writings of Martin McDonagh and Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: FEBRUARY 9, 2001 Man and machine. Two perspectives on a relationship gone awry. At North Coast Repertory Theatre, there's "Defying Gravity," a history/memory/fantasy about the Challenger Shuttle disaster. Downtown at the ReinCarnation Project, in what's being called the Dairy-Aire Performance Space, there's "Wireless City," a futuristic, cyber-techno-carnival. Both pieces share a theme and a fatal flaw -- there really isn't a hint of subtlety in sight. Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: FEBRUARY 2, 2001 Even if they're buried down deep, we all harbor some romantic notions. Love at first sight. Someone sweeping us off our feet. A deliciously titillating affair. "Romance Romance," an evening of one-act musicals, takes two widely disparate perspectives, and concludes that romantic notions are best left unfulfilled. Act one, based on a play by that love-cynic, Arthur Schnitzler, 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