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Ying Ruocheng, actor and director, starring in the Chinese production of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," discusses his acting career, Chinese culture, and theater adaptations. Includes an interview with Arthur Miller.
Wole Soyinka discusses the play "Death and the King's Horseman." Includes passages from the play and Nigerian funeral music.
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.
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.
Principal actor Roscoe Lee Browne, playwright Derek Walcott, and director Gregory Mosher discuss the play "Pantomime" and it's major themes of racial role reversal, Robinson Crusoe influences, and colonialism.
Byrne and Joyce Piven discuss "Five Stories", a theater production which draws on works of Chekhov, Faulkner, Singer and Joyce.
Cast members Philip Anglin, Ken Ruta and Penny Fuller talk about their roles as John Merrick, Mr. Treves and Mrs. Kendal, respectively. They also talk about having great appreciation for their roles and being able to see audience's reactions to their performances.
As the co-founder of Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater, Peter Zeisler's goal was to show that first-rate productions can be produced outside of New York. He talks about how the audiences and the artists have changed. He also discusses the various problems of theaters like funding for the arts.
Peter Ustinov discusses his wide-ranging career in the arts as an actor, author, director, and dramatist.
Nikolay Akimov, Theodore Komisarjevsky and Pavel Markov discuss the Soviet theater. The ending music on this record was edited out
Melvin Douglas and Frank Lovejoy discuss their roles in Gore Vidal's play "The Best Man", politics, and their careers.
Martin Gottfried discusses his book "Broadway Musicals" and the history of the musicals by evaluating the different big name composers, lyricists, and directors of Broadway.
Joyce Grenfell discusses her career (and includes portion of interview with Clancy Sigal, which starts around 39:08).
Studs Terkel discusses the upcoming new play "Of Mice and Men", based on the novel written by John Steinbeck with the starring actors, John Malkovich (Lennie) and Gary Sinise (George). The program begins with the opening excerpt from the play "Of Mice and Men" featuring Terkel (George) and Win Stracke (Lennie) from 1952, which then leads into Malkovich and Sinise's interpretation of the rest of the scene. Folk singer Utah Phillips song "On the Goodnight Loving Trail" is presented as a comparison to themes expressed in "Of Mice and Men".