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Performing Arts News, interviews, and commentary on theater, the arts, music, and dance.

Performing Arts

Tuesday

Music Interviews

Artist and Activist Oscar Brown Jr., Dead at 78

We remember singer, poet, songwriter, playwright and social activist Oscar Brown, Jr., who died Sunday in Chicago. He was 78. Brown was signed as a Columbia Records singer in 1960. His first release, Sin and Soul, was critically hailed.

Artist and Activist Oscar Brown Jr., Dead at 78

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Saturday

Lost & Found Sound

Tennessee Williams

One night Tennessee Williams and his buddy Pancho walked down to 131 Royal Street in New Orleans to the Pennyland Arcade, sat in a Voice-O-Graph recording booth and made eight cardboard acetate discs. These 1947 recordings are intertwined with a return to the Penny Arcade today, as well as conversations with actress Kim Hunter, the original Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire", Tennessee's brother Dakin, and his biographer Lyle Leverich among others.

Tennessee Williams

Audio will be available later today.

Education

An Orchestra Teacher's Initial Overture

Sarah Hanks is a first-year music teacher at Kipp Academy in Washington, working with junior high students. She once had thoughts of becoming a professional musician, but something kept pulling her towards kids and strings.

An Orchestra Teacher's Initial Overture

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Monday

Music Interviews

Trucker Turned Tenor Sings 'Samson'

Robert Siegel talks with a tenor who used to do more than sing for a living. Before becoming an opera singer, Carl Tanner drove a truck. He also made his living as a bounty hunter. But it wasn't his calling. So Tanner is now singing the role of Samson in the Washington National Opera's production of Samson and Dalila.

Trucker Turned Tenor Sings 'Samson'

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Friday

Culture

Eli Wallach's 'Anecdotage'

Fresh Air

His memoir is The Good, the Bad, and Me. Wallach's long career on stage and screen, included spaghetti westerns of the '60s and the Godfather trilogy. He won a Tony for his role in Tennessee Williams' Rose Tattoo. (This interview was initially broadcast on Nov. 13, 1990.)

Eli Wallach's 'Anecdotage'

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Tuesday

Ricky Jay: Cards and the Art of the Con

Sleight-of-hand artist Ricky Jay has astounded audiences with his physical abilities. And readers have also been impressed with the wealth of facts he has gathered from the world of carnivals and conmen. Jay has also acted in the films of David Mamet -- who produces his stage shows -- and in the HBO series Deadwood.

Ricky Jay: Cards and the Art of the Con

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59th Annual Tony Awards

'Spamalot' Garners 14 Tony Nominations

Spamalot, the musical adaptation of skits created by Monty Python, draws 14 Tony Award nods, including best musical and best original score. The nominations were announced in New York Tuesday morning.

'Spamalot' Garners 14 Tony Nominations

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Saturday

Culture

Opera Tells Saga of 'Margaret Garner'

In January 1856, fugitive slave Margaret Garner killed her infant daughter with a butcher knife rather than see her returned to bondage. Toni Morrison turned the story into the novel Beloved, and has now written an opera, Margaret Garner, which debuts Saturday. Detroit Public Radio's Celeste Headlee reports.

Opera Tells Saga of 'Margaret Garner'

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Friday

Music News

Celebrating Congregational Line Singing

African-American Baptists, white Baptists from Appalachia and Presbyterian Scottish Highlanders are gathering at Yale University to celebrate a shared tradition. It's called line singing, and it's being recognized as the root of gospel and other modern-day church music.

Celebrating Congregational Line Singing

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Wednesday

59th Annual Tony Awards

Audience Participates in 'Putnam County Spelling Bee'

A new musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, opens this week on Broadway. Actual audience members are prescreened in order to take part in the show's spelling contest.

Audience Participates in 'Putnam County Spelling Bee'

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Saturday

Friday

Thursday

Culture

The Brothers Who Made Mary Poppins Sing

Generations of children have grown up singing the music and lyrics of Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman. Their hugely popular film musicals, Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang have now been adapted for the stage.

The Brothers Who Made Mary Poppins Sing

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Sunday

National

The Oldest Living Ziegfeld Girl

At the New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street, once home to the Ziegfeld Follies, the oldest living Ziegfeld girl recently took the stage for a charity event. Doris Eaton Travis is 101. She tells Jeff Lunden about her long life and career.

The Oldest Living Ziegfeld Girl

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Friday

American Stages

Rebellion in the Regional Ranks

As the big resident stages became major cultural institutions, some began to worry that the regional movement had lost its way. NPR's Bob Mondello talks to a new generation of theater professionals about where they’d like to see the movement head in the future.

Rebellion in the Regional Ranks

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