Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: May 11, 1994 > There are more than just "Movie Queens" onstage in the play of the same name at Diversionary Theatre. All the men fairly fly across the narrowed boards of the fine new Diversionary space. But this piece isn't about men. It's about two fading aging stars of the thirties silver screen who once clawed each Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: May 4, 1994 > "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." Poet Robert Frost and playwright A.R. Gurney, for starters. In his latest endeavor, Gurney, chief chronicler of the wealthy WASP experience in America, has broken down the fourth wall, the imaginary boundary between actor and audience. It's by no means the first time this has been Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: APRIL 27, 1994 Not only does it have a provocative title, "I Hate Hamlet," a play first produced in 1991, already has a place in theater history. During its brief but legendary Broadway run, in the middle of a duel scene, one actor actually tried to injure another, while he ad-libbed a variety of denigrating comments about the younger man's thespian prowess Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: April 20, 1994 Say Happy Birthday to the Bard. This week is William Shakespeare's 430th birthday. To mark the occasion, as well as the 400th anniversary of his most purely romantic comedy, the San Diego State University Drama Department has mounted a thoroughly enjoyable production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The school went all out on Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: April 13, 1994 In "Real Women Have Curves," not all the women are real and not all of them have sufficient curves. When playwright Josefina Lopez wrote the piece five years ago (at the tender age of 19), she intended it to be about five zaftig Latinas, just the kind of big women who never get big roles in interesting plays. Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: April 6, 1994 > "Dirt" can just slip through your fingers. You'd think that playwright Bruce Gooch was on terra firma, with a rock-solid story about the connection between a father, a son and the land. That's a firm foundation for high expectations, but all we get is a sand castle, a gritty little fantasy that washes away before our 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