An interview with the Oscar winning screenwriter and acclaimed African American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, recorded in 2014, discussing two of his plays, along with his career. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.
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
An interview with the Oscar winning screenwriter and acclaimed African American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, recorded in 2014, discussing two of his plays, along with his career. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.
Laurel Ollstein, whose latest play, “Pandora,”will be streaming on the theatreworks.org website, is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. This latest project is a theatrical retelling of the myth of Pandora, the first human woman in Greek Mythology, who was said to have opened a box which allowed all the ills of the world to escape. The production, recorded in Zoom toward the end of May, 2020, is a workshop reading featuring actors from the Bay Area and beyond, and is directed by Giovanna Sardelli.
Eve Ensler is one of America’s best known playwrights. She is the author of several plays, including Vagina Monologues, The Good Body, Here. Necessary Targets, a memoir, Insecure at Last, and co-editor of an anthology A Memory, A Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer. Richard Wolinsky interviewed Eve Ensler in early June 2012 in the offices of Berkeley Rep, where she was preparing “Emotional Creature,” a theatrical adaptation of her book, I Am an Emotional Creature.
This week’s playwright podcast hosted by Richard Wolinsky is with Simon McBurney as he discusses The Encounter, which ran at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre in April and May 2017. The Encounter is streaming on-line for free through May 22, 2020, 2 pm Pacific on You Tube or through the sfcurran.com website. If you plan on watching, the best experience is through headphones.
Tony Kushner: Two Interviews. The first, from 2006, deals with a wide range of topics, from Angels in America and Munich, to the plays of Arthur Miller. The second, from 2014, focuses on The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures and the presidency of Barack Obama. He is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.
This is the second in a series of playwright interviews. Suzan Lori-Parks was the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for playwrighting, for Topdog/Underdog in 2001. She has also won three Obie Awards. This interview, recorded on May 20, 2003, was recorded while she was on tour for her only novel, Getting Mother’s Body. She is in conversation with KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky.
Ricardo Perez Gonzalez is a playwright of Puerto Rican ancestry, currently based in New York. His most recent play, “Don’t Eat the Mangos” had its world premiere on March 4, 2020 at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. The play was forced to close one week later due to the novel corona virus pandemic. His plays have been performed all across the United States, and he recently completed a stint in the writers’ room of the Netflix series Designated Survivor. He was interviewed by Richard Wolinsky on March 2, 2020.
KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky updates the state of Bay Area theatre and gives a listing of on-line streaming theatre, both local and national.
Aired on Up Front on Thursday, March 26, 2020. (Photo: ReadingReed43 via Wikipedia Commons)
The legendary composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim celebrated his ninetieth birthday on March 22, 2020. In this interview recorded in November 2011 at his townhouse in New York City for “Look! I Made a Hat!: the second volume of his collection of essays, he discusses his later works and his career with host Richard Wolinsky.