Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: October 21, 2005 Parents sell off their children like chattel, but the audience gets the last laugh. There’s a whole lotta classic comedy going on. “The Miser” was written in 1668 and “The Mikado” in 1885 – but both still have a lot to say… about power, greed, duplicity, manipulation and ludicrous leaders. Now, the producers of these timeless social satires have made it Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: October 14, 2005 This week, theater takes us to primitive worlds – one current, one futuristic – where violence splits the sky like lightning. Both plays explode the American Dream. The classic, Sam Shepard’s “Curse of the Starving Class,” was written in 1976. But its gritty dissection of a dysfunctional family and the destruction of rural life are as timely and topical Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: July 18, 2003 There are classic musicals and there are music classics. No one would consider "Smokey Joe's Café" a classic musical, but this revue, now playing up in Vista at Moonlight Stage Productions, features a dance-happy nostalgia-trip of early rock 'n' roll songs. There's no story, just an impressive playlist of nearly 40 tunes penned by the prolific, groundbreaking, Grammy-winning duo of Jerry Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: July 11, 2003 Hail, Caesar! The ancient Roman Consul is making a comeback -- onscreen and onstage. First, there was the TNT special, and now Shakespeare's tragic history is back at the Globe. The made-for-TV movie was set in ancient times, but with its smirky, bellicose Caesar, attacking countries unprovoked, it was exceedingly relevant to present leaders, current times. At the Globe, acclaimed guest Read More →
It was fertile but rocky ground to plow. Two fascinating, larger-than-life women. Literary lionesses. Lifelong social-political-personal rivals. Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy. There was just one problem: they'd only been in the same room together once or twice in their lives. Acclaimed screenwriter/director Nora Ephron ("When Harry Met Sally," "Sleepless in Seattle," "You've Got Mail") remained enthralled and undaunted. She'd written about smart, strong women before (Karen Silkwood in Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: June 28, 2002 Forget your preconceptions. If you're one of those people who wince at the words mime or high-concept Shakespeare production, un-scrunch your face. You're in for a theater surprise. "A Feast of Fools" and the all-female "Othello" are not at all what you might expect. Geoff Hoyle is far more than a mime, and the Women's Repertory Theatre isn't just doing the Bard in Read More →