Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: JULY 21, 2000 Dakin Matthews is true to his word. As dramaturge and director, his primary concern has always been clarity. While his Old Globe production of "Henry V" may not be chilling or thrilling, and it probably wouldn't inspire you to follow the charismatic young king into battle, it is textually lucid and precisely articulated. Aside from some finely etched secondary performances, that's Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: JULY 14, 2000 There's a frustrating brilliance to the work of Scott Feldsher. He's a beguiling director, with a wildly imaginative vision. He loves to tantalize and titillate his audience, shock and unnerve them. His work is exciting and unpredictable, but like the kid who taunts or teases or tickles, he always goes just a little too far. By the end, we feel assaulted, Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: JULY 7, 2000 It's been a pretty good year for comedic actor Ron Campbell. First, there was his triumph in "The History and Mystery of the Universe," when he portrayed so magnificently the great philosopher, R. Buckminster Fuller. From there, he jumped immediately into the role of Vladimir, one of the tragically comic tramps in "Waiting for Godot." And now, he's stepped beyond the Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: JUNE 30, 2000 It looks more like a cattle-car than a secret upstairs annex -- raw wood planks slatted from floor to ceiling. But the sense of constraint and confinement is palpable in Christopher Hall's evocative scenic design. Even the audience gets into the act; about a third of the seats in the Lyceum Space are boxed in, with those wood slats underscoring the constriction Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: JUNE 23, 2000 "The Glass Menagerie" is a dazzlingly lyrical play, viewed through the misty haze of memory. It is one of Tennessee Williams' most poetic pieces of theater, and one of his most clearly autobiographical. Like the narrator, Williams was a furtive poet named Tom who was stifled in St. Louis, cooped up with his mother, a faded Read More →
SUBMISSION DATE: JUNE 22, 2000 Online@kpbs.org Composer Randy Newman loves to grate against the grain of society. His songs often set gritty lyrics to sunny melodies, reflecting his jarringly humorous, slyly sarcastic view of America. So one might have hoped that a musical culled from his huge canon would also be amusingly off-kilter. But "The Education of Randy Newman" isn't much of a musical at 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