Tony Award Winners on Working In The Theatre

Four acclaimed leading men -- Jeff Daniels (Blackbird), Brian Dennehy (Inherit the Wind and a Tony Award for Death of a Salesman), Liev Schreiber (Talk Radio and a Best Actor Tony for Glengarry Glen Ross) and Kevin Spacey (1991 Tony winner for Lost in Yonkers) -- discuss a wide array of topics, including whether the prefer rehearsal to performance, their experience in long runs and how great plays can carry actors along, the acting opportunities of appearing in many plays by the same author, how they find new challenges, whether they can still enjoy theatre as a member of the audience, and if its harder to do their work now that they're well known.

Musical director, orchestrator and arranger Jason Robert Brown (winner of a Tony for his musical Parade), book writer Aaron Latham, producer Chase Mishkin (winner of a Tony for 2010's Best Musical, Memphis), director Lonny Price, press representative Pete Sanders and producer Leonard Soloway are the guests on this program which discusses the how this classic movie was musicalized, how it was shepherded to Broadway, and how just enough was changed so it would still maintain the movie's original flavor.

Costume designer Suzy Benzinger ("Movin' Out"), lighting designer Beverly Emmons ("Jekyll and Hyde"), scenic designer Adrianne Lobel ("A Year With Frog and Toad"), sound designer David Meschter ("Medea"), lighting designer Rui Rita ("Enchanted April") and scenic designer David Rockwell ("Hairspray") talk about the practicalities of design - including how to approach a new design job, the similarities of low-budget showcases and big budget Broadway productions, ways to build a collaborative relationship with a director and the many sources of inspiration in the world around us.

Actors from both sides of the Atlantic - Sutton Foster (Tony winner for Thoroughly Modern Millie), Clare Higgins (Vincent in Brixton), Eddie Izzard (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg), Brian Stokes Mitchell (Man of La Mancha and a 2000 Tony Award for Kiss Me, Kate) and Brent Spiner (Life (x) 3) - share some of the high points and quite a few humorous moments (including pulling surprised audience members onstage during a performance, accidentally) from their stage careers.

Four actors from the 42-member The Coast of Utopia company -- Tony Award winner Jennifer Ehle (2000 Best Actress Award for The Real Thing), Josh Hamilton, Ethan Hawke and Amy Irving -- talk about the experience of appearing in Tom Stoppard's triptych of 19th century Russian intellectual history, including their own trepidation at working with the brilliant Stoppard; adapting language written by an English playwright for Russian characters to the comfort of American actors -- and audiences; the thrill of working in a variant of a classical repertory company; whether they chose to research the era and their characters; and why they chose to spend a year of their lives with this project, playing parts both large and small.

Director Jeff Calhoun, actor Phyllis Frelich (Tony winner for Children of a Lesser God), actor Tyrone Giordano, producer Todd Haimes (who has scored multiple Tonys while serving as Artistic Director for Roundabout Theatre Company) , actor Daniel Jenkins and producer Bill O'Brien explain how Deaf West Theatre Company, a sign language theatre company, decided to put on the musical Big River; why that is not a bad idea, as many initially thought; the integration of signing into the choreography of the show; and how 2 actors, one hearing and one deaf, shared each of the principal roles.

Members of the Tony Award-winning creative team of the Tony-winning musical Avenue Q -- Robert Lopez (Tony Award as Composer/Lyricist), Rick Lyon (Puppet Designer/Actor), Jeff Marx (Tony Award as Composer/Lyricist), and Jeff Whitty (Tony Award as Book Writer) -- along with producers Robyn Goodman (Tony Award for the show) and Jeffrey Seller (Tony Award for the show as well as for Rent, In The Heights and Hair, to name a few) explain how the pieces came together to create this unique puppet musical, the journey from its early days at the BMI Workshop and the O'Neill Theater Center to the Vineyard Theatre/New Group production to Broadway, including the challenge of expanding a show in scale when the central characters, namely the puppets, can't grow along with the size of the theatre.

Scenic designer David Gallo (Tony winner for 2006’s Drowsy Chaperone), lighting designer Donald Holder (Tony Awards for The Lion King and the 2008 revival of South Pacific), scenic designer Anna Louizos (Avenue Q), scenic and costume designer G.W. Mercier (Juan Darien), and five-time Tony Award-winning costume designer Catherine Zuber (Dinner At Eight) discuss how designing on a restricted budget can force a designer to find a more creative solution; spectacle on Broadway -- is it expected and how it does or does not affect ticket prices; the necessity today for a designer to juggle multiple projects and the joy and heartbreak of working in an ephemeral art form.

Tovah Feldshuh (Golda's Balcony), Marc Kudisch (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Swoosie Kurtz (Tony winner for Fifth of July and original The House of Blue Leaves), Rebecca Luker (Nine), Denis O'Hare (Take Me Out for which he won a Tony Award) and Lewis J. Stadlen (The Producers) come together in this interview to talk about their careers -- both on Broadway and around the country -- covering a variety of topics, including the challenge of playing real people and ""capturing their essence,"" the effect of typecasting, the value of acting teachers, and how in performance they relate to their audiences.

Five of America's leading playwrights, Nilo Cruz (Beauty of the Father), Julia Jordan (Boy), four-time tony-winning Terrence McNally (for Kiss of the Spider Woman, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class and Ragtime), Paul Rudnick (Valhalla) and Regina Taylor (Drowning Crow) come together in this panel interview to discuss the state of new playwriting in America today -- its challenges, its rewards and how the process is changing.