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Presenting performances at the Sophiatown Church of Christ the King while Studs was in South Africa. They talked how they brought folk music back to South Africa.
Presenting performances at the Sophiatown Church of Christ the King while Studs was in South Africa. They talked how they brought folk music back to South Africa.
Presenting performances at the Sophiatown Church of Christ the King while Studs was in South Africa. They talked how they brought folk music back to South Africa.
Interviewing producer Harold Pinter and actors Jeff Perry and Gary Sinise. They discuss their careers and present excerpts from Steppenwolf Theatre’s production “The Caretaker.”
Novelist Stanley Elkin has come into town to see Frank Galati's adaptation of Elkin's book, "The Dick Gibson Show." The book has a lot to do with how radio has become a talk show. Various cast members re-enact scenes from "The Dick Gibson Show."
Skip Kennon wrote the music for "Herringbone", a one-man musical where all ten parts are played by the actor David Rounds. Madness, depression and schizophrenia are discussed as possible themes of the play.
Actor and director Sidney Poitier offers his reflections about his autobiographical memoir, "This Life". Poitier explains how he never had ambitions to be an actor and yet he stumbled into acting when looking through the clasisfied ads. There's a story about his agent trying to settle a negotiation on Poitier's behalf. Poitier's agent told the others involved that Poitier was offered a film in Hollywood. Believing it was a cheap ploy, the agent was told to tell Poitier to go onto Hollywood, and the rest is history for Sidney Poitier.
In the play, "The Value of Names," Shelley Berman plays Benny Silverman, a role which he says is him, an actor from the Hollywood black list. Berman said being in Chicago, acting the role and working with the cast has been THE best experience of his life and when the show closes, it will be the saddest day of his life. The director of the play, Sandy Shinner, said she knew of the Hollywood black list but didn't know about all the personal stories. There is an excerpt of Vic Navasky.
Shay Duffin discusses and performs excerpts from his one-man play, “According to Mr. Dooley.” Duffin chronicles some background about Mr. Dooley and Brendan Behan and discusses how he found himself interested in portraying these characters. Includes a test tone lasting about 30 seconds that is part of the archival record as a representation of how broadcasters prepped their tape. Content Warning: This conversation includes racially and/or culturally derogatory language and/or negative depictions of Black and Indigenous people of color, women, and LGBTQI+ individuals.
Rilla Bergman, Lou Fant, and Bill Reese converse with Studs about The National Theater for the Deaf and the production they are presenting. Two of the actors Ms. Bergman and Mr. Reese discuss what it took to learn, as hearing people, the best ways to express themselves with sign language. They all talk about how much more expressive the actors in the Deaf Theater have to be to convey the message of the piece they are presenting.
Sam Wanamaker continues his discussion about the theater, with an emphasis on lights and music. With his production of "Macbeth," Wanamaker didn't want three-dimensional witches. Instead, he used lighting to convey their presence. In addition, similar to the line from Macbeth, Wanamaker was able to show the witches disappearing and melting into the air.
Sam Wanamaker talks about the curtain of a stage being a barrier between the set and the audience. Wanaker says that with theater today, there are more theaters in the round and more thrusts of ramps built into the audience, so that the audience can feel they are a part of the production of the play.
Patrick Garland directs Roy Dotrice, who plays the old and lonely John Aubrey in "Brief Lives". While in studio, Dotrice reenacts part of the one-man show. Garland explains that the play is about John Aubrey, on the last day of his life, telling the audience about the past lives he's encountered.
Robert Vaughn takes time out from his Drury Lane appearance in "Tender Trap" to discuss his new book "Only Victims" with Studs Terkel. The discussion spans the years 1938 when Martin Dies became the first House Committee on Unamerican Activities (HUAC) chairman to Vice President Spiro Agnew's condemnation of the "New York Times" and "Washington Post". Vaughn created the title of his book "Only Victims" from a Dalton Trumbo speech that reflected back on the era of HUAC as being one where there were no heroes, no villains, only victims.