New and recent interviews focused primarily on local Bay Area theatre venues, with playwrights, actors, directors and artistic directors, hosted by KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky. Podcasts also feature theatre reviews by Richard Wolinsky along with interviews conducted by KPFA associate theatre critic C.S. Soong. Dates of theatre reviews can be found at http://bookwaves.homestead.com/Theatre_Reviews.html
Playwright Madhuri Shekar in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Her play “In Love and Warcraft” is the first in a series of live/streamed plays from ACT’s InterAct Home Initiative, playing live September 4-12, and streamed September 18-25, 2020. She discusses the play, the production and her career in this in-depth discussion.
Rachel Bonds is a young playwright whose work, Swimmers, played at at Marin Theatre Company in March 2016. She talks about the play and its development, and about her career as a playwright with host Richard Wolinsky.
John Leguizamo, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded July 7, 2016 in the offices at Berkeley Rep, where Latin History for Morons had opened to rave reviews. The show can now be seen on Netflix. John Leguizamo has been in several films and television shows as an actor. As a performer/writer, his one man shows have all been performed on Broadway, and several have been recorded as films for television.
Nicky Silver, in conversation by phone from New York, live on the air, with host Richard Wolinsky and director John Dixon in the studio, recorded April 27, 2007. Nicky Silver is the author of several successful plays, including “The Lyons,” which premiered on Broadway in 2012, “Beautiful Child” and “Pterodactyls.” At the time of the interview, his play ‘Past Perfect” was making its world premiere at San Francisco’s Theatre Rhino, directed by John Dixon.
Acclaimed novelist Colm Toibin discussing his play “The Testament of Mary” which ran at ACT’s Geary Theatre in October and November, 2014, and also discussing his novel “Nora Webster,” which was published in October 2014. The interview with host Richard Wolinsky was recorded in the KPFA studios the afternoon of October 27, 2014.
Mfoniso Udofia is one of America’s fastest rising playwrights. A second-generation Nigerian-American, plays in her Ufot family cycle have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.
Suzanne Bradbeer, whose comedy “Shakespeare in Vegas” will be streamed as a Zoom reading with Broadway stars Karen Ziemba and Patrick Page, July 23-July 27, 2020 on the TheatreWorks website, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.
Mary Zimmerman is a playwright, director and producer, whose works are sui generis. Her focus is on adaptations and re-adaptations of classical and pre-classical works, as well as librettos for operas and reorganizing films into stage plays. She was interviewed by Richard Wolinsky for the “Open Book” radio program in late 2012 for a production of “The White Snake” at Berkeley Rep.
Arthur Laurents (1917-2011), interviewed on April 7, 2000 by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, during the tour for his memoir, Original Story By … Arthur Laurents was one of the giants of American culture. A playwright, librettist and director, he was one of the collaborators on two of the greatest musicals in the history of Broadway, West Side Story and Gypsy. In Hollywood, he was best known for the screenplays to The Way We Were and The Turning Point.
In honor of Pride: Legendary playwright, cabaret performer, actor, and drag superstar Charles Busch in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in New York’s Greenwich Village in late July, 2018.
