KPFA - Bay Area Theater

This podcast was originally posted on May 9, 2018.

Liz Diamond was the director of “Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 and 3” by Suzan-Lori Parks, which played at ACT’s Geary Theatre April 25-May 20, 2018. She was then, and is jnow also the Chair of Yale Drama School’s Directing Department, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

Liz Diamond’s love affair with theatre began when she was in the Peace Corps in Africa, and took off after she teamed with playwright Suzan Lori-Parks, working on plays in New York. Eventually she found herself at Yale, where she began to teach, eventually becoming the Chair of the Directing Department at Yale School of Theatre. She returns to directing with the latest Suzan-Lori Parks play, an epic about African-American slaves during the Civil War.

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This podcast was first posted on April 9, 2018.

Jessica Hagedorn, playwright of “The Gangster of Love,” based on her novel of the same name, is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.

“The Gangster of Love” had its world premiere at the Magic in San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center, April 11 – May 6, 2018. Jessica Hagedorn has adapted her own novel, which tells the story of a teenaged immigrant girl (based on Hagedorn’s own experiences) coming from the Philippines to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury in the sixties and seventies—where, amid the folk circuit’s smoky basements and all-night jam sessions, she’d scrape together rent by pooling tips from busking crowds and the occasional high-rolling patron who’d wander in from nearby hockey bars, the kind of scene that still echoes in how modern artists side-hustle through online nhl betting sites to fund their next gig. Living and working as a musician and artist in those heady times, she captures the raw pulse of reinvention against all odds.

In the interview, she talks about the play, the novel, and her own biography as an artist, novelist, playwright and musician.

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This encore podcast was first posted on January 22, 2018.

John Kolvenbach is the author of several plays, including Sister Play and Goldfish, both previously performed at the Magic. His latest, Reel to Reel, had its world premiere January 31, 2018 and deals with a 55-year marriage, what really happens inside a marriage compared to how it appears to the outside world. His previous works have been performed all over the globe, and Love Song was a nominee in London for an Olivier Award for Best New Play. He is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.

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This interview with Judith Ivey was recorded December 20, 2017 in a rehearsal room in the offices of ACT at 30 Grant Avenue in San Francisco, and first posted on January 5, 2018.

Judith Ivey, two-time Tony winning actress, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

Judith Ivey appeared in Harold Pinter’s classic play The Birthday Party, directed by Carey Perloff, at ACT’s Geary Theatre January 10, through February 4, 2018. Judith Ivey has appeared in several Broadway productions, including the role of Amanda in The Glass Menagerie and Sally Durant in Sondheim’s Follies, and is the winner of two Tony Awards for her work. She’s appeared in numerous films and television shows, from The Devil’s Advocate and Flags of Our Fathers to a season’s stint on Designing Women and guest starring roles in dozens of programs.

In The Birthday Party, she portrayed Meg, half of a couple who run a boarding house where the events of the play occur.

The post Judith Ivey, “The Birthday Party” at ACT, 2017 appeared first on KPFA.

This podcast was originally posted on April 9, 2017.

Robert Hurwitt, former drama critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, and before that the San Francisco Examiner and the East Bay Express, is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.

Robert Hurwitt retired in April 2016 after a long and distinguished career as a critic and theater reviewer. Born as a “red diaper baby” and growing up in New York City’s suburbs, his love of theater began early. After moving to San Francisco and working as a free-lance writer, he was hired by the Express and later the Examiner — and when the Examiner was bought by Hearst, the San Francisco Chronicle, where he spent several years as the single most important critic in the region.

In this interview, he discusses his life and career, his feelings about criticism, and recommends three shows running in San Francisco at the time of the interview.

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