Midday

It's Thursday, and time for another of Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck's weekly reviews of the Maryland stage. This week, she spotlights the regional premier of playwright Ariel Zetina's Pink Milk, staged by Single Carrot Theatre as the last production in its Remington home. (Single Carrot's founding Artistic Director Genevieve de Mahy and interim Managing Director Alix Fenhagen will be Tom's guests on Midday next Friday, May 17 .to discuss the Company's upcoming transitions.)Directed by Single Carrot ensemble member Ben Kleymeyer, Pink Milk is an unorthodox , imaginitive and highly empathetic exploration of the mind of British mathematician and famed World War II codebreaker, Alan Turing, starring Mohammad R. Suaidi as Alan, with Isaiah Harvey as Christopher, and Lauren Jackson as The Inanimate Objects.Pink Milk continues at Single Carrot Theatre through May 19.

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Rousuck's Review: Pink Milk at Single Carrot Theatre

Today, analysis of the seismic shifts taking place in MD politics, as Adrienne Jones becomes the first African American, first woman Speaker of the House; a seasoned political veteran becomes Baltimore’s Mayor; and a young, ambitious councilman becomes President of the City Council. With award winning investigative journalist Jayne Miller of WBAL Television; and Andy Green, the Editorial Page Editor of the Baltimore Sun.This conversation was streamed live on the WYPR Facebook page. You can watch the video here.

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It’s Midday Culture Connections with Dr. Sheri Parks of the MD Inst Coll of Art. Today, we are joined by Donna Brazile, a political strategist, and the former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee. She’s the co-author of a book that chronicles the rise of her and three other African American women to the highest levels of the Democratic Party. It’s called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics.Dr. Sheri Parks is the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She’s the author of Fierce Angels: Living with a Legacy from the Sacred Dark Feminine to the Strong Black Woman. She joins us every month for Midday Culture Connections.

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On today's show, it’s Back to the Garden, the Spring Planting Edition, in which we spend the hour answering your questions about gardening, and considering the horticultural challenges of Maryland's unsually warm, wet spring.Worldwide, 90% of people spend 22 hours a day inside, but at least there’s more natural life inside with them. According to Garden Reasearch.com, 30% of American households purchased a houseplant last year. Pinterest reports that inquiries about indoor plants are up 90%. Whether your garden is in your kitchen, or a pot on a balcony, or a field of dreams, two expert local growers join Tom in Studio A to help us make whatever we’re growing, grow better. Denzel Mitchell is the manager at Strength to Love 2 Farm, a 1-\u189\u acre workforce training farm in Sandtown-Winchester, which is part of Intersection of Change, a faith-based community development organization.Elisa Lane is the co-owner, with her husband Doron, of Two Boots Farm, a commercial farm and floral-design studio in Hampstead that grows both cut flowers and produce…Later in the program, we're joined on the line by Michael Andorsky, a Baltimore City Master Gardener and an expert on bees, butterflies and other important pollinators -- which include many of the species a new UN report warns are at increased risk of extinction. Mr. Androsky suggests some easy ways to make our gardens more pollinator-friendly.What’s on your mind as the 2019 gardening season kicks into high gear?

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Yesterday afternoon, in a one paragraph letter addressed to now Mayor Jack Young, former Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned from office. Her lawyer read a brief statement and took no questions in a press conference that lasted less than two minutes. The investigation into Catherine Pugh’s possible malfeasance in office has reportedly been going on for a while, and it is likely to last for the foreseeable future. Jean Marbella of the Baltimore Sun joins us to talk about what’s happened and what’s next for our City.But first, Tom speaks with Washington Post State House reporter Ovetta Wiggins about the historic election of Baltimore County Delegate Adrienne Jones as the first African American and the first woman Speaker of the House.

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It's Thursday and time for our theater critic, J. Wynn Rousuck, to join us for another of her weekly reviews of the regional stage. Today, she describes the new production of playwright Noel Coward's classic comedy, Blithe Spirit: An Improbable Farce in Three Acts, on stage at Baltimore's Vagabond Players. First produced in London's West End Theatre in 1941, Blithe Spirit tells the story of mystery writer and socialite Charles Condomine, whose seemingly untroubled life with his second wife is upended when he engages a medium to seek out spirits as material for his next book. He winds up instead confronting the ghost of his first wife, and mayhem ensues.Directed at Vagabond by Steve Goldklang, Blithe Spirit stars Alyssa Wellman Houde as Edith, Barbara Madison Hauck as Ruth, Eric. C. Stein as Charles, Ducan Hood as Dr. Bradman, Dianne Hood as Mrs. Bradman, Maribeth Vogel as Madam Arcati, and Kerry Brady as Elvira.Blithe Spirit continues at Vagabond Theatre through Sunday May 12.

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Rousuck's Review: BLITHE SPIRIT at Vagabond Players

[Host Tom Hall opens the show today with updates on the Mayor Pugh scandal and Baltimore County Del. Adrienne Jones's election Wednesday as Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, the first woman and first African American to hold the office.]#It's Midday at the Movies: the Maryland Flm Festival Edition.The 21st Maryland Film Festival kicks off next week. More than 40 feature-length films and 80 short films will be shown during more than four days of screenings and special events at The Parkway and several MICA venues, from May 8 through Mothers' Day Sunday, May 12.The Festival's founder and former director Jed Dietz and Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday join Tom with a preview. They 're joined on the phone by documentary filmmaker Fariah Zaman, who is co-producer with director Bassam Tariq of one of the Maryland Film Festival's featured short documentaries, Ghosts of Sugarland.Unrelated to the Festival, there will be a special screening this weekend of Green Book, the winner of this year’s Academy Award for best picture. It will be shown at the Cathedral of the Incarnation on University Parkway in Baltimore at 2:00 Saturday afternoon. After the film, Ann Hornaday will join Episcopal Bishop Eugene Sutton and Ann’s colleague at the Washington Post, DeNeen Brown for a panel discussion about the film. Click here for more information about the event.This program was livestreamed on WYPR's Facebook page, and you can watch the video here.

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Today, reflections on an unparalleled genius: Leonardo da Vinci who died 500 years ago tomorrow. Leonardo was the original “Renaissance Man” -- a great artist, inventor, scientist and writer, a genius whose imagination and curiosity knew no bounds. It’s hard to imagine, in our present age of hyper specialization, someone whose scope was as broad, and whose mastery was as acute.Tom’s guest today is Dr. Jonathan Pevsner, a scholar who has written and lectured widely on Leonardo. He has collected nearly 750 volumes about Leonardo, and he has observed that since 1519, as every generation has considered Leonardo’s influence and importance, people have drawn a variety of conclusions about what can be learned from Leonardo about the nature of genius, and the capacity for human achievement.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.