KPFA - Bookwaves/Artwaves

Links to on-line and streaming local theater & book events

Joshua Furst, author of the novel “Revolutionaries,” which fictionalizes the story of Abbie Hoffman and his family in the 1960s and 1970s, is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky.

Joshua Furst, in his second novel, focuses on the radicals of the ’60s by looking at the life of a prankster activist based on Hoffman, and on the lives of his wife and son, and on the noted folk singer Phil Ochs.  Originally a playwright, Joshua Furst turned to fiction with a collection, “Short People,” followed by a novel about the punk scene in the Midwest, “The Sabotage Cafe.”

An extended 36-minute version of this interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast.

Bill Irwin, creator and performer of “On Beckett,” which was performed at A.C.T.’s Strand Theatre through January 22, 2017, is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.

Bill Irwin won the Tony Award for his portrayal of George opposite Kathleen Turner’s Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” on Broadway. He performed as both Lucky and Vladimir in productions on Broadway of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” and performed in A.C.T.’s recent production of Beckett’s “Endgame.” A veteran of several TV shows and films,  currently he appears regularly on the TV show “Law & Order: SVU” and appeared previously on “Sleepy Hollow,” and “Legion,” and will appear in the upcoming film “Lust Life Love.”

A founder of the legendary Pickle Family Circus, he has also appeared in San Francisco and New York in the shows “Fool Moon” and “Old Hats.”

Bill Irwin’s interest in Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) goes back to college and his performances of Beckett not only include the mentioned plays but other works as well.

:The interview was recorded January 9, 2017 in a dressing room at the Strand Theatre in San Francisco. Special thanks to Carey Perloff and Kevin Kopjak for making this possible.

Announcement Links

Book Passage. Conversations with authors, all at 4 pm Pacific: Anthony Lee Head and Peter Coyote, Sat. Nov. 7, Elizabeth Strout Sun. November 8. Andrea Bemis, Wed. November 11. Naomi Wolf, Saturday November 14. Thomas Keller, Monday November 16.

San Francisco Playhouse. 2020-21 Virtual Season: Art by Yasmina Reza, now streaming through November 7; The Jewelry Box, written and performed by Brian Copeland, streaming November 28 – December 25, 2020; From Blues to Broadway Revue, streaming December 12 – 31, 2020.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – November 5, 2020: Joshua Furst – Bill Irwin appeared first on KPFA.

Links to on-line and streaming local theater & book events

Richard A. Lupoff, Dick Lupoff, former co-host of “Probabilities” and “Cover to Cover” died on October 22, 2020 at the age of 85. This half-hour is dedicated to his memory and features a live radio program recorded in July, 1992 in which he, Richard Wolinsky and mystery author Shelley Singer review various books they’d read in the previous month.

Richard A. Lupoff began his career as a writer creating a science fiction fanzine, Xero, which won a Hugo Award in 1963. He began his official writing career with a biography of Edgar Rice Burroughs and a first novel, One Million Centuries, in the early 1960s. Over the course of a very long writing career, eventually, over sixty books carried his byline, many of them science fiction novels, short story collections, and mystery novels. He also edited a still unsurpassed history of early comic books, All in Color for a Dime. Other novels include Space War Blues, Into the Aether, Sword of the Demon and The Comic Book Killer. His short story, 12:01, became a Showtime short film and was later expanded into a full-length television movie (and was most likely the inspiration for the classic film, Groundhog Day).

Starting in 1977 on KPFA, he helped create a large body of work that included most of the best-known science fiction and mystery writers of the last quarter of the twentieth century, and his work digging up interviews with old pulp writers and editors remains, to a large extent, the only body of work of its kind.

Probabilities began with a one-off one-hour program called Probabilities Unlimited,  with Lawrence Davidson in the first show hosting Richard Lupoff and Michael Kurland, with Richard Wolinsky at the controls. After several months, and after Richard Wolinsky became co-host, it became a regular weekly, half-hour program called simply Probabilities, which aired until 1995. Richard A. Lupoff joined the show as co-host in 1979.  Lawrence Davidson left in the mid-1980s. In 1995, the show relaunched as part of the Cover to Cover series of strip programs. By that time, it was known informally as the Richard and Richard Show. Richard Lupoff departed in 2001 to focus on his writing career. Among the notable authors interviewed by the two Richards were such luminaries as Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler, Gore Vidal, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Kurt Vonnegut.

Walter Tevis, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson, recorded for the Probabilities KPFA radio program.

Walter Tevis, who died in 1984 at the age of 56, only wrote six novels. The first was The Hustler, which was adapted into a classic film with Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason. The second, The Man Who Fell to Earth, was adapted into another classic movie starring David Bowie. Later came two science fiction novels, Mockingbird in 1980 and Steps of the Sun in 1983. Also in 1983 was The Queens Gambit, which is now a Netflix miniseries, and his final novel, The Color of Money, a sequel to the Hustler with a different plot than the Scorcese film, came out the year of his death 1984. This interview was recorded in the stairwell of Codys Bookstore in Berkeley in October 1981 on the publication of his only short story collection, Far From Home.

:Transcript of this interview. Complete 32 minute podcast.

Announcement Links

Book Passage. Conversations with authors, all at 4 pm Pacific: Lee and Andrew Child, with Michael Connolly, Thursday Oct. 29; Matthew McConaughey with Reese Witherspoon, Friday October 30; Anthony Lee Head and Peter Coyote, Sat. Nov. 7, Elizabeth Strout Sun. Oct. 25.

San Francisco Playhouse. 2020-21 Virtual Season: Art by Yasmina Reza, now streaming through November 7; The Jewelry Box, written and performed by Brian Copeland, streaming November 28 – December 25, 2020; From Blues to Broadway Revue, streaming December 12 – 31, 2020.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – October 29, 2020: Richard A. Lupoff – Walter Tevis appeared first on KPFA.

Links to announced on-line and streaming local theatre & book events

Tea Obreht, author of the magic realist western “Inland,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

The author of “The Tiger’s Wife” turns her attention to the American west in a tale that encompasses ghosts and camels, and the hardscrabble life of frontier families.

Recorded at Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, California.

Complete 32 minute podcast.

Gamal Abdel Chasten, the artistic director of The Breath Project, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. Gamal Abdel Chasten is co-founder of the project, along with Marieke Gaboury.

“The Breath Project focuses on several short works of 8 minutes and 46 seconds in length, the time it took George Floyd to die at the hands of the Minneapolis Police, which focus on social issues seen from the perspective of people of color.

Twenty-four of those works can be seen in sequence on Saturday October 24, 2020 at 2 pm and 5 pm Pacific, and Sunday October 25 at 5 pm Pacific and the entire collection of  pieces can all be heard on demand on the website, thebreathproject2020.com.

Gamal Abdel Chasten is an actor, musician, playwright and poet, and co-founder of Universes Theatre ensemble. “The Breath Project” is sponsred by a host of theatre companies, including Marin Theatre Company and Palo Alto Children’s Theatre in the San Francisco Bay Area.

:Complete 36 minute podcast.

Announcement Links

Book Passage. Conversations with authors, all at 4 pm Pacific: Claire Messud, Sat. Oct. 24, Marilyn Chase Sun. Oct. 25.

San Francisco Playhouse. Zoomlet Monday October 26, 7 pm, An American Dream by Dipika Guha. 2020-21 Virtual Season: Art by Yasmina Reza, streaming October 24 – November 7; The Jewelry Box, written and performed by Brian Copeland, streaming November 28 – December 25, 2020; From Blues to Broadway Revue, streaming December 12 – 31, 2020.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write [email protected]

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – October 22, 2020: Tea Obreht – Gamal Abdel Chasten appeared first on KPFA.

Links to announced on-line and streaming local theatre & book events

Terry Tempest Williams, whose latest collection is titled “Erosion: Essays of Undoing”, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

Terry Tempest Williams is an environmental activist and chronicler of the western landscape. In her several books and essays, she takes us from national parks and monuments to the way our environment affects us, both physically and emotionally.

In this latest collection, she discusses the degradation of our natural resources, an ongoing process that encompasses the past few administrations and rushes headlong in the ongoing one; she talks about her Mormon roots and how they still affect her at the deepest levels, and how her activism led to her removal from her post at the University of Utah, along with the heartbreaking story of her brother’s death from suicide.

In this in-depth interview, she talks specifically about how she and her husband bought oil leases in an attempt to prevent drilling, about the climate crisis, and about how she came to be a writer. Complete 45-minute interview.

Playwright and actress Jeanne Sakata in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.

Jeanne Sakata is the author of the play “Hold These Truths” which played at TheatreWorks Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, July 11 – August 5, 2018, and is now available streaming through November 3, 2020. For more information on how to watch, go to the TheatreWorks website.

Jeanne Sakata is an actress who has appeared on several TV shows and films, and on stage at both ACT and Berkeley Rep.

Hold These Truths is the true true story following Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese-American student who fought internment to a relocation camp during World War II. This Northern California premiere celebrates the human spirit as it chronicles Hirabayashi’s journey from college in Seattle all the way to the Supreme Court, and eventually to a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Directed by Lisa Rothe, with Joel de la Fuente starring as Hirabayashi,

Hold These Truths made its world premiere in 2007 at East West Players in Los Angeles. In 2012, the solo play made its Off Broadway premiere at Epic Theatre Company starring Joel de la Fuente, and received a 2013 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance. Since its world premiere, it has gone on to play throughout the nation including theatres in Boston, Honolulu, Washington, D.C., Portland, and many others.

:Complete 41 minute podcast.

Announcement Links

Book Passage. Conversations with authors, all at 4 pm Pacific: Steph Kent and Logan Smalley Thursday Oct. 15, Pico Iyer, Sat. Oct. 17, Lan Cao and Isabel Allende, Sun. Oct. 18.

San Francisco Playhouse. 2020-21 Virtual Season: Art by Yasmina Reza, streaming October 24 – November 7; The Jewelry Box, written and performed by Brian Copeland, streaming Nov. 28-Dec. 25, 2020; From Blues to Broadway Revue, streaming Dec. 12 – 31, 2020.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theatre venue to this list, please write [email protected].

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – Oct. 15, 2020: Terry Tempest Williams – Jeanne Sakata appeared first on KPFA.