Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: FEBRUARY 17, 1999 As a musical, it broke all the rules; adapting a British masterpiece was so risky it was turned down by all the great composers of its day. On top of that, it cast a leading man who couldn’t sing and it didn’t even bother to include a romance. In 1956, that was musical theater Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: FEBRUARY 10, 1999 February 10, 1949. The curtain comes down on complete silence. Long, long pause before the audience rises, as one, in a tumultuous ovation. Stunned, moved beyond being able to move, and then ecstatic. That auspicious moment, exactly 50 years ago today, was the Broadway opening of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: FEBRUARY 3, 1999 It was a big weekend of loss and abandonment for me – not in my personal life, but in the theater. I ventured north to Orange County and L.A. for a theater weekend of three plays in two days. And they all had to do with a search for something lost, and impossible to recapture. Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: JANUARY 27, 1999 If you haven’t had a bellyful of sex, violence and tough talk in the movies or the news, check out the theater – we’re in the midst of a veritable porn-fest. There’s “Making Porn” at Diversionary, “XXX Love Act” at the Fritz, “The Dyke and the Porn Star” and “Ballistic Femme” at 6@ Penn Studio. I thought I’d Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: JANUARY 22, 1998 Repressed desire. Passion seething under the surface. A strait-laced outward existence that belies a sultry, sensual internal urge. Two very different women in two very disparate plays, separated by half a century, share an intense, but suppressed carnal craving. Alma Winemiller is at the heart of Tennessee Williams’ lyrical “Summer and Smoke,” Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: JANUARY 11, 1999 Remember Scheherazade -- who told 1001 stories to keep her husband, the legendary King of Samarkand, from killing her?.... Well, meet a more modern, male version... also trying to save his neck by telling tales. It’s 1943. A train platform 50 miles east of Paris. Sabotage has crippled 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