Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: August 18, 1993 What ever happened to the American Dream? These days, it's a full-blown nightmare. It now seems like the only way to turn rags to riches is to win the lottery. It's hardly a matter of perseverance and perspicacity. Hard work often leads to hard times. The apple pie of post-Civil Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: August 11, 1993 We're already on the hinter-side of summer, and it's time to get off the beaten path. Right now, you can stray pretty far, or you stay close to the middle, or you could even bring the kids. Let's start on the fringe. The very fecund UCSD theater department continues Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: August 4, 1993 It isn't quite the way Miss Bresbacker taught it to you in junior high school. She never told you that Ben Franklin was a dirty old man. Or that John Adams was an arrogant S.O.B. Or that young newlywed Tom Jefferson could barely stay out of bed long enough to write the Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: July 28, 1993 "The Hairy Ape" is an unsettling hymn for the disillusioned, disenfranchised, disaffected masses of society. It's about pride and power, class and consciousness, pain and violence. Written in 1922, it's one of Eugene O'Neill's earlier efforts. It isn't easy, and it isn't often done. But it's been tackled anew by 26 Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: July 14, 1993 King Lear visits Jurassic Park. Well, not really, but when you walk into the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park, what you see is this stark, sheer-rock wall fronted by a huge oval boulder that looks like an enormous dinosaur egg. It never hatches, but it rotates around on the turntable stage to no great Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: July 7, 1993 Playwright Alan Ayckbourn once said that a comedy is just a tragedy interrupted. In the folk tale now playing at the Old Globe and the satire running at the La Jolla Playhouse, ponderous themes are cloaked in comic antics. The outdoor setting of "Ballad of the Blacksmith" is perfect for this 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