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Know Theatre presents its 18th annual Playwrights and Artists Festival. Artistic Director Tim Gleason joins us to talk about how the festival has changed over the years, and how its reputation has expanded to include submissions from around the world.
Photo credit: Know Theatre
Know Theatre of Binghamton presents Johnna Adams’ two character play Gidion’s Knot. We hear from actor Shirley Goodman, who plays a teacher dealing with a grieving mother, played by Qiana Watson.
Photo credit: Know Theatre
Based on true events, Know Theatre presents Anne Nelson’s play The Guys. Artistic Director and actor Tim Gleason joins us to talk about the true events caused by the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center that led to this play.
Photo credit: Know Theatre
Franklin Stage Company presents Lucas Hnath’s “A Doll’s House, Part 2”. We hear from Leslie Noble, who plays Nora, about the play and what happened after the famous closing of the door. She also talks about the joys of performing in front of a live audience after a long break.
Photo credit: Russ Rowland via Franklin Stage Company
Know Theatre is making its production of Leonard Melfi’s play Birdbath available for online viewing. Director Tim Gleason joins us to talk about the play, about Melfi’s life and work, and about the pleasures and challenges of producing a play for online viewing.
Know Theatre of Binghamton presents Rajiv Joseph’s “Gruesome Playground Injuries” for on-demand virtual performances from April 22-30.
Directo Beth Harris joins us to explain how they accomplished this,
The historic Phelps Mansion in Binghamton becomes the set for an immersive production of Shakespeare’s sprawling tragedy ‘Hamlet’. Director and actor Chris Nickerson joins us to talk about this condensed version of the play, and how the Phelps Mansion provides a set that could never be replicated on stage.
Photo credit: Nathan Butler
Binghamton’s Know Theatre presents its 16th Annual Playwrights and Artists Festival.
Kitchen Theatre presents Carla Ching’s play ‘The Two Kids That Blow S*** Up.’
Leslie Noble and Patricia Buckley join us to talk about the upcoming Franklin Stage Company season
Know Theatre ends its season with ‘The Dumbwaiter’ by Harold Pinter and ‘The Zoo Story’ by Edward Albee.
‘Grounded’ by George Brant is the next play at the Kitchen Theatre.
Know Theatre presents David Harrower’s drama ‘Blackbird’. Director Tim Gleason joins us to talk about this highlight of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that quickly made it to Broadway and then to film, and the emotional impact of recreating such an intense drama.
Photo credit: Know Theatre
The Binghamton University Theatre Department presents Kirsten Greenidge’s play ‘Baltimore’. Director Godfrey Simmons joins us to talk about this drama that explores the fallout of a racial incident on a college campus that prides itself on having gotten “past racism”.
The Kitchen Theatre presents ‘The Royale’ by Marco Ramirez.
The Hartwick College Theatre Department presents Owen Sheers’ play ‘Pink Mist’
Half Light Theatre presents ‘Nevermore: An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe’ at the Phelps Mansion Museum in Binghamton and the 1890 House in Cortland.
Hangar Theatre is presenting Aoise Stratford’s dramatic adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’.
The Kitchen Theatre presents Julia Cho’s play ‘The Piano Teacher’
Face It Theatre presents ‘The Fertile River’, a play by Vincent Terrell Durham, who was born in Binghamton and graduated from Binghamton High School.
The Franklin Stage Company has brought back Stephan Wolfert in his one-man show ‘Cry Havoc’ which tells his own story through his words and the words of Shakespeare.
The Franklin Stage Company presents John Patrick Shanley’s ‘Doubt: A Parable.’
Judith Present’s new play, ‘Three Women: First, Foremost, and Unique’ will be performed on Saturday, August 4 at 7:30pm at the Elks, 223 Front Street in Owego.
Cider Mill Stage presents ‘One Act/One Actor’, a pairing of Will Eno’s ‘Thom Pain’ and Neil LaBute’s ‘Wrecks’.
Franklin Stage Company presents Lee Blessing’s play ‘A Walk in the Woods’. Based on a real incident, it tells the story of two arms negotiators, one Russian, one American, who walk away from the table to establish a personal rapport.
Bevin O’Gara of the Kitchen Theatre joins us to talk about the One-Minute Play Festival. Over 30 Ithacans have contributed plays to the Festival, with 7 directors and over 3 dozen actors. It’s a national festival coming to Ithaca for the first time.
Know Theatre presents three rarely-performed plays by Tennessee Williams: ’27 Wagons Full of Cotton’, ‘The Pretty Trap’, and ‘Interior: Panic’. Director Tim Gleason talks about the poetry of Tennessee Williams’ dialogue and how these plays pull back the curtain to reveal more about Williams’ craft of creating characters.
Director Tim Gleason and actor Jeff Tagliaferro talk about Neil LaBute’s play ‘The Mercy Seat’ coming up at Know Theatre in Binghamton. It tells the story of how two people who should have been in the World Trade Center on 9/11 cope with the reasons why they were not there.
Photo credit: Know Theatre
Know Theatre presents its fourteenth annual Playwrights and Artists Festival. Artistic Director Tim Gleason joins us to talk about the artwork that inspired the plays, the six plays chosen for the festival, and the music written for the plays. http://wskg.org/audio/knownew.mp3
Photo credit: Know Theatre
Kitchen Theatre presents Aditi Brennan Kapil’s ‘Brahman/i’. We hear from actor Aila Peck about her character in this creative telling of the life of this individual who may or may not be a Hindu deity. “Kitchen Theatre Company transforms into a comedy club featuring a very unusual and completely hilarious stand-up routine in the second play of our season. Meet, B or Brahman/i, a boy/girl from Athens, Georgia who explores everything from his/her/their Indian heritage to history, mythology, gender roles, and horrifying middle school experiences, with the assistance of J, electric bass playing side-kick.
Photo credit: Kitchen Theatre
Binghamton University Theatre Department presents Amy Herzog’s thriller ‘Belleville’. Director Anne Brady talks about this 2013 Drama Desk Award-winning play, having her actors learn appropriate accents, and the very detailed set. Because it’s a thriller we try not to give away too many plot points. http://wskg.org/audio/belleville.mp3
Photo credit: Marcus Newton for Binghamton University
Director Bill Lelbach joins us to talk about this powerful drama about the after-effects of the Vietnam War, and the secrets from it still buried.
Kitchen Theatre’s new Artistic Director, Bevin O’Gara, introduces herself and talks about the first play of the season, Lydia Diamond’s ‘Smart People’. http://wskg.org/audio/smartpeople.mp3
Photo credit: owlpacino via Flickr
Kitchen Theatre’s new Artistic Director, Bevin O’Gara, introduces herself and talks about the first play of the season, Lydia Diamond’s ‘Smart People’. http://wskg.org/audio/smartpeople.mp3
Photo credit: owlpacino via Flickr
The Cherry Arts presents an audio walking play, ‘Storm Country’. Based on the novel ‘Tess of the Storm Country’ story set in Ithaca by Ithaca author Grace Miller White it tells the story of squatters living in the swamp that is now the Ithaca waterfront. Director Samuel Buggeln tells us how an audio walking play works, and how reconstruction of the waterfront will make it impossible to do this play again in the same location. http://wskg.org/audio/storm.mp3
Photo credit: The Cherry Arts
The Franklin Stage Company welcomes actress Erin Layton in her play ‘Magdalen’ about the Magdalen Laundries of Ireland. She and director/collaborator Julie Kline talk about the journey from the shock of learning about the Magdalen Laundries to crafting a one-woman play that gives voices to the many characters involved in those tragic circumstances. http://wskg.org/audio/magdalen.mp3
Photo credit: Erin Layton
The Franklin Stage Company presents three performances of Stephan Wolfert’s one-man show ‘Cry Havoc’, which tells of Wolfert’s own war-time experiences, and then trying to fit back into civilian life, illuminated with the words of characters from Shakespeare. “Stephan Wolfert recounts his own experiences of military service, weaving his personal narrative with lines from some of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches. Wolfert proposes that the military recruits citizens and trains them to kill, but asks what does the “de-cruit” process look like? How do civilians and Veterans re-learn to live together?” http://wskg.org/audio/cryhavoc.mp3
Photo credit: Franklin Stage Company
Binghamton’s Know Theatre presents ‘The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?’ Edward Albee’s 2002 comedy/drama mines ancient Greek tragedy for a play about the modern world testing its boundaries of toleration. Artistic Director Tim Gleason and actor Jarel Davidow talk about the process of finding all of the hidden references Albee has thrown into the play which make it, by turns, hilarious and then terrifying. http://wskg.org/audio/goat.mp3
Photo credit: Kat D’Andrea for Know Theatre
Know Theatre is presenting three one-act plays by Edward Allan Baker. ‘Dolores’ and ‘Up, Down, Strange, Charmed, Beauty, and Truth’ are intense studies of modern issues, while ‘Mafia on Prozac’ is a dark comedy. Director Tim Gleason tells about meeting the playwright, and how this triple bill came to be. http://wskg.org/audio/bakerknow.mp3
Wikipedia reminds us that radio drama first appeared in the 1920s and quickly rose in popularity. In the 1940s, it was a leading form of popular entertainment for children and adults; and one they often enjoyed together. The invention of the television stunted this popularity, but radio dramas have continued to be produced over the past 90 years. What will happen if we combine the creative writing of students and teachers with the audio technology of 2017? (Something awesome, we think!)
Teachers and students: Create a script for a 15-minute radio drama that will air on WSKG Radio!
The Arnot Art Museum hosts the premiere of a new play, ‘Aide et Reconfort’ by Elmira College professor John J. Kelly. The title is a reference to French citizens who were suspected of giving “aid and comfort” to the Nazi forces occupying France, and how the French Resistance dealt with them. We hear from Professor Kelly about his historical research to write this play, and also from actor Sophie Poost, a sociology and anthropology major, whose studies inform her role as a member of the Resistance. http://wskg.org/audio/aide.mp3
Photo credit:Elmira College
The Binghamton University Theatre Department presents Sam Shepard’s drama ‘A Lie of the Mind’ in five performances in the Watters Theatre of the Fine Arts Building on the Binghamton University campus. Director Anne Brady talks about Sam Shepherds autobiographical connection to the play and working with young actors playing complex characters. The production contains adult content and is not suitable for young audiences. http://wskg.org/audio/shepherd.mp3
Photo credit: Binghamton University Theatre Department
The Civic Ensemble of Ithaca is bringing back their production of Athol Fugard’s play ‘My Children! My Africa!’ Director Melanie Dreyer-Lude talks about the play and her cast. “The great South African playwright Athol Fugard confronts the tragedy of apartheid in this compelling tale set in a segregated township in 1984. In the face of increasing racial tension, a humble and humane black teacher attempts to persuade his best (and most charismatic) student that education, not violence, is the answer to South Africa’s problems. Fugard’s play resonates deeply with the increasing influence of the Black Lives Matter movement challenging the old guard of the Civil Rights movement and with ongoing debates over racial inequality in American public schools.”
Based on real events, PBS’s new Civil War drama Mercy Street follows a diverse and colorful cast of characters — doctors, nurses, contraband laborers and Southern loyalists — and brings to life the chaotic world of Union-occupied Alexandria, Virginia, and the Mansion House Hospital in the early years of the Civil War. Get caught up on Season 2 below and watch new episodes Sundays at 8PM on WSKG TV. Watch Season 2 | Episode 4
Watch Season 2 | Episode 3
Watch new episodes Sundays at 8PM on WSKG TV.
Know Theatre of Binghamton is presenting David French’s play ‘Of the Fields, Lately’. David French is held in the same esteem in Canada as Tennessee Williams is in the United States. His cycle of plays about the Mercer family is presented with great regularity there. Tim Gleason talks about his role in the play. We also get him to reluctantly tell about a recent award he received. http://wskg.org/audio/0206fields.mp3
Photo credit: Know Theatre
The Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca is presenting a world premiere. Playwright Wendy Dann, a long-time associate of Kitchen Theatre, has written a new play, ‘Birds of East Africa’. She and Artistic Director Rachel Lampert talk about the joys and challenges of presenting a new play that deals with creating a new family after a life-changing event. http://wskg.org/audio/africa.mp3
Photo credit: Andy Morffew via Flickr
Spare Productions is making a big departure from their succession of musicals with Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential drama ‘No Exit’. Originally written in French with the title ‘Huis Clos’, this version has been translated into English by Paul Bowles. Kassidy Shea, playing Ines, and Marisa Valent, not only playing Estelle but also the producer, talk about about the decision to break from musicals to produce this deep and serious play while on a break from their university studies. http://wskg.org/audio/noexit.mp3
Photo credit: Spare Productions
The Cardboard Alley Players of Hartwick College are presenting Jennifer Haley’s futuristic play ‘The Nether’. The play explore a possible future for the internet, as people are allowed to enter into virtual reality and act out their fantasies. A young police woman investigates a particularly disturbing corner of this new and improved internet to see if these fantasies constitute criminal activity. The Cardboard Alley Players are a relatively new group on the Hartwick College campus. We hear from the director and the technical director. http://wskg.org/audio/nethermix.mp3
Photo credit: Cardboard Alley Players
The Cardboard Alley Players of Hartwick College are presenting Jennifer Haley’s futuristic play ‘The Nether’. The play explore a possible future for the internet, as people are allowed to enter into virtual reality and act out their fantasies. A young police woman investigates a particularly disturbing corner of this new and improved internet to see if these fantasies constitute criminal activity. The Cardboard Alley Players are a relatively new group on the Hartwick College campus. We hear from the director and the technical director. http://wskg.org/audio/nethermix.mp3
Photo credit: Cardboard Alley Players
Ti-Ahwaga Community Players present Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’. http://tiahwaga.com/ It’s a retelling of the story of the Salem Witch Trials, but it is famously a metaphor for the McCarthy Hearings during the Red Scare of the 1950’s that pulled Miller himself into its vortex. We hear about the history of the play, and the historical events the play is based on from director James Osborne. “Based on the infamous witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts, from 1692 to 1693, a deeply tragic yet captivating thriller emerges as a social and psychological play. Through the unfolding action of the events, situations arise that brings with it hysteria and a definite us or them mentality. This captivating 1949 Pulitzer Prize winning play maintains its relevancy to modern day events by demonstrating the electrifying intensity that is born out of the ideology of paranoia and mayhem.
Chenango River Theatre is presenting Ronald Harwood’s play ‘Taking Sides’. Wilhelm Furtwängler was the best conductor of his time. Unfortunately that time included Nazi Germany and World War II. He remained in Germany, an ardent opponent of the Nazis, insulated by his great fame, and useful as a propaganda tool. Yet, after the war, his actions were judged suspect. ‘Taking Sides’ explores the interrogations he experienced. Actor James Wetzel talks about playing the American Major charged with forcing Furtwängler to admit that he willingly collaborated with the Nazis. http://wskg.org/audio/sidesmix.mp3
Photo Credit: iClassical.com via Flickr
Know Theatre is presenting ‘Dutchman’ written by Amiri Baraka when he was still known as LeRoi Jones. It was written in 1964, but its relevance has not paled over the years, highlighting issues of today that remain overlooked and unresolved since then. A professional African-American man and an aggressive white woman with enigmatic motives meet in a subway car and interact in seemingly unexpected ways, but it’s a dance whose steps are pre-ordained. Director Tim Gleason talks about the themes of the play. Actors Caitlin McNichol and Kymel Yard give us a look inside these very complicated characters. http://www.wskg.org/audio/dutchmix.mp3
Photo Credit: Kat D’Andrea for Know Theatre
The Franklin Stage Company presents Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in a version adapted for two actors. Director Daniel Swern has had experience adapting Shakespeare in unusual ways to bring new immediacy to the sometimes disturbing themes of the play, and new playfulness to the comic scenes. “In this arresting two-hander adaptation, two strangers discover the text of William Shakespeare’s play ‘The Merchant of Venice’. Armed with costumes and books-in-hand, what starts as a game turns into a confrontation of personal prejudice and reconciliation with our past. A stunning and innovative feat from director Dan Swern of New Brunswick, New Jersey’s Smugbug Productions.”
Photo credit: Franklin Stage Company
Hangar Theatre presents Nick Payne’s ‘Constellations’. It’s a love story across time, or rather, across different threads of time, between a beekeeper and a quantum physicist. We meet the two actors, Makela Spielman and Robert Ross Parker. http://wskg.org/audio/constellmix.mp3
Photo credit: Fulla T via Flickr
The Franklin Stage Company present ‘The Ophelia Project’ this weekend. In Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet’ she is the victim of Hamlet’s feigned madness and a reason for her brother Laertes to challenge Hamlet to a duel. In operatic treatments she gives the composer an excuse to write a mad scene. But what is she really about? Soprano Cree Carrico and director Christopher Mirto present a musical exploration of this familiar, yet enigmatic character. http://wskg.org/audio/ophelia.mp3
Photo credit: Franklin Stage Company
The Homecoming Players are presenting Arthur Bicknell’s play ‘Dotty’. The play is back by popular demand and involves a writer who has fallen on hard times and is dealing with the dementia of her mother, who was a much more successful writer. Things have never been easy between them, but time is forcing Dotty to come to terms with their problems quickly. We hear from the director, Rachel Hockett. http://wskg.org/audio/dottymix.mp3
Photo credit: Homecoming Players
The Artistic Director of the Franklin Stage Company, Carmela Marner, admits that having been an only child, she has always been fascinated with Chekhov’s play ‘The Three Sisters’. Over the past year Marner has been paring down Chekhov’s multi-character play into a story told by only those three sisters. The result is ‘We 3’. http://wskg.org/audio/we3mix.mp3
Photo credit: Franklin Stage Company
Know Theatre presents Donald Margulies’ play ‘Sight Unseen’. Jeff Tagliaferro plays an artist so successful that collectors pay up front for paintings he has yet to begin. But he feels that the well of inspiration is running dry, so he visits the former girlfriend (Amoreena Wade) who was his Muse when he started becoming famous. She is married now to a stable, but unexciting husband (Tim Gleason) and the battle lines are set. http://wskg.org/audio/sightunseen.mp3
Photo credit: Know Theatre
‘I Was There in ’67” is a play that consists of monologues from 10 Vietnam Veterans, collected and edited by playwright Judith Present. It is being presented in one performance this weekend. Actor Foster Daniels talks about his character and the interactions he has had with some of the men who really were there. http://wskg.org/audio/present67.mp3
Photo credit: Bernt Rostad via Flickr
Chenango River Theatre is presenting Bruce Graham’s comedy ‘Stella and Lou’. Three people meet in a bar in South Philadelphia and contemplate the changes in their lives and how to deal with those changes. Brigitt Markusfeld and Dan Mian talk about this heart-warming comedy, and their acting profession. http://wskg.org/audio/stellamix.mp3
Photo credit: Chenango River Theatre
The Homecoming Players present Beth Henley’s southern gothic play, ‘Crimes of the Heart’. A Pulitzer Prize winner, it presents three sisters who couldn’t be more different, until tragedy brings them together. It’s a heart-warming and hilarious play performed as readers’ theatre at the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca. http://www.wskg.org/audio/crimesmix.mp3
Photo credit: A. Strakey via Flickr
The Binghamton University Theatre Department is presenting Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. In this case, the Prince of Denmark is portrayed by a woman, Danielle Nigro, and we hear from her about how Hamlet’s struggles transcend gender. We also meet fight director Jamie Cheatham, an alumnus of Binghamton University, who now specializes in stage combat. http://wskg.org/audio/hamletmix.mp3
Photo credit: Sheep purple via Flickr
The Ithaca Fringe Festival presents experimental theatre from across the nation. Organizer George Sapio talks about the many and varied works being performed this weekend, and about the surprising way the plays are chosen.
Photo credit: George Sapio for Ithaca Fringe Festival
Know Theatre is presenting Theresa Rebeck’s play ‘Seminar’. The battle lines are drawn when a group of young writers hire a famous novelist to help them improve their work. Director Tim Gleason and actor Joanna Patchett talk about the issues these writers are dealing with, and the issues their idolized instructor is dealing with himself. http://wskg.org/audio/seminarmix.mp3
Photo credit: Know Theatre
Dalton Trumbo was a well-known screenwriter, but he was called in to testify in the Red Scare and name names of other screenwriters who had been members of the Communist Party. He was found in contempt of Congress and was blacklisted, but managed to not only continue his craft, but excel in it. Bill Gorman and Chris Nickerson star in ‘Trumbo: Red, White, and Blacklisted’, a play based on Trumbo’s letters produced by Southern Tier Actors Read. For tickets, 607/729-1959. http://wskg.org/audio/redwhitemix.mp3
Photo credit: Kate Murray; Studio 271.
Binghamton University Theatre Department is presenting Brian Friel’s award-winning play ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’. It’s a time of change between the two World Wars, and those changes are finally coming to rural Ireland. The changes are viewed as a hazy memory by the son of one a group of five sisters. Director Elizabeth Mozer tells us about this beautiful play about joy and family in the midst of hard and uncertain times. http://wskg.org/audio/lughnasmix.mp3
Photo Credit: Jonathan Cohen, Binghamton University
Over two hundred plays were submitted to Darkhorse Dramatists from playwrights around the nation for their festival of new plays, ‘WRITE from the Heart, Plays on Love’. The seven finalist plays will be presented at the Cider Mill Playhouse. Artistic Director Tony Yajko talks about the process of selecting and staging the plays. http://wskg.org/audio/darkhorsemix.mp3
Photo credit: Darkhorse Dramatists
Gian-Carlo Menotti’s comedy ‘The Telephone’ and Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Trouble in Tahiti’ are presented in the round in the Tri-Cities Opera Center, 315 Clinton Street in Binghamton in four performances this weekend. Stage Director Carleen Graham and conductor Warren Jones talk about this innovative production. http://wskg.org/audio/tahiti2.mp3
Photo credit: Bunn Hill Photo and Randy Cummings
Director Nathan Skethway and actor James Canal join forces to present the cult musical ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ at Harwick College. It’s almost 20 years since this musical premiered, but the themes are still challenging and more timely than ever. And, as a two-actor show, it’s a real challenge for the performers. http://wskg.org/audio/hedwigmix2.mp3
Photo credit: ldhren via Flickr
After a traffic violation, a judge renders a decision, but which party is being punished: the young driver with lots to do in his demanding career, or the widower who has next to nothing to do? Know Theatre Actors Bernie Sheredy and Josh Sedelmeyer, along with director Tim Gleason, talk about Jeff Baron’s ‘Visiting Mr. Green’. It’s a play with themes so universal that it has been performed in many languages in over 40 nations.
Photo credit: THE Holy Hand Grenade via Flickr
Ira Levin’s thriller Deathtrap opens the season for the Homecoming Players in a reading at the Kitchen Theatre. Artistic Director Rachel Hockett and actor Arthur Bicknell talk about the suspense, surprises, and humor of this carefully plotted classic, presented on two Monday evenings.
UNFORTUNATELY, WE HAVE REACHED CAPACITY at our preview screening of MERCY STREET on January 7th at 6PM at WSKG Studios in Vestal. However, you can still watch the show’s premiere January 17, at 10PM on WSKG TV. Based on true stories, MERCY STREET takes viewers beyond the battlefield and into the lives of a distinctive cast of characters — doctors, nurses, contraband laborers and Southern loyalists — realizing the chaotic world of Union-occupied Alexandria, Virginia, and the Mansion House Hospital in the early years of the Civil War. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He5ncAPB82M
Set in Virginia in the spring of 1862, MERCY STREET follows the lives of two volunteer nurses on opposite sides of the conflict; MARY PHINNEY, (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a staunch New England abolitionist, and EMMA GREEN, (Hannah James), a naive young Confederate belle. The two collide at Mansion House, the Green family’s luxury hotel that has been taken over and transformed into a Union Army Hospital in Alexandria, a border town between North and South and the longest-occupied Confederate city of the war. Ruled under martial law, Alexandria is now the melting pot of the region, filled with soldiers, civilians, female volunteers, doctors, wounded fighting men from both sides, runaway slaves, prostitutes, speculators and spies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5XOW0PTmKY
The intersection of North and South within the confines of a small occupied town creates a rich world that is chaotic, conflicted, corrupt, dynamic and even hopeful — a cauldron within which these characters strive, fight, love, laugh, betray, sacrifice and, at times, act like scoundrels.
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol makes itself at home as the audience follows the play from room to room in the Phelps Mansion Museum, now decorated for Christmas. Chris Nickerson plays Ebeneezer Scrooge, along with Jan DeAngelo as Jacob Marley, Joe Bardales as Bob Cratchit, and Judy McMahon, Mickey Ray, Nick DeLucia as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Adam Ackerman and Matthew Beach will be featured as Tiny Tim. http://wskg.org/audio/phelpschristmasmix.mp3
Photo courtesy of Joshua B
We have received notification that performances are now sold out.
Author Jack Gilroy and director Judy McMahon talk about the first area reading of the play The Predator. After years as a teacher, Gilroy has begun writing novels and plays. Coming from a military family, he explores issues around drone warfare. Judy McMahon brings her dramatic expertise and actors from Southern Tier Actors Read for a reading and discussion of this play. The performace will be at the Unitarian Universalist church next to Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton. http://wskg.org/audio/predatormix.mp3
Photo provided; KAZ Vorpal via Flickr
Ithaca’s Theatre Incognita is performing Sam Shepherd’s Fool for Love in a new venue, Circus Culture, Press Bay Alley in Ithaca. Director Ross Haarstad talks about this drama of confrontation that takes place on the edge of the Mojave Desert. http://wskg.org/audio/foolovemix.mp3
Photo courtesy TheRealMichaelMoore via Flickr
Director Emily Jackson talks about Lauren Gunderson’s play I and You, now onstage at the Kitchen Theatre. Two teenagers work together on a project; it’s a premise the author said shouldn’t work, but it’s a probing and funny look at teenagers, their battles, and their search for meaning and being. http://wskg.org/audio/iandyoumix.mp3
Photo provided
Yasmina Reza’s dark comedy The God of Carnage is the next play presented by the Theatre Department of Binghamton University. Director Tom Kremer and one of the four actors, Tom Mackin, talk about the two civilized and well-off couples who meet to solve a dispute between their two sons, and their descent into behavior that would make a ten-year-old blush. The play was originally written in French, but has quickly been translated into many languages for successful productions. http://www.wskg.org/audio/carnagemix.mp3
Ti-Ahwaga Community Players present a stage version of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s novel that was turned into a memorable film. The play centers on the trial and how the father, Atticus Finch, and his daughter, Scout, support each other during a difficult time. American History professor Joseph Crespino has said, “In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism.” We hear from the actors playing father and daughter, Greg Fusare and Nadia Murphy. http://wskg.org/audio/mockingbirdmix.mp3
Photo courtesy Russ Baker via Ti-Ahwaga Community Players
Chenango River Theatre director Bill Lelbach talks about Jon Robin Baitz’ 2011 Broadway play “Other Desert Cities”. A family with roots in Hollywood who has been drawn into the higher echelons of politics, but their counter-culture children threaten to scandalize that comfortable prominence by revealing a family secret. But even secrets can have hidden meanings. Many of the cast members are local actors, but playing surprising roles. http://wskg.org/audio/desertcitiesmix.mp3
Photo courtesy Chenango River Theatre
Know Theatre presents David Auburn’s play Proof. It explores the fine line between genius and madness in a family of mathematicians. A mathematician tries to “prove” her own genius against the memories of her recently-departed mathematician father. Actors Tim Gleason and Eric Young talk about their roles and the tensions and conflicts as the family strives for a resolution. http://wskg.org/audio/proofmix.mp3
photo courtesy tkamenick via Flickr
Carmela Marner, Artistic Director of Franklin Stage Company talks about their production of Oscar Wilde’s comedy An Ideal Husband. The play addresses some very serious subjects: class, bribery, blackmail, and divulging state secrets, still it was successful enough that it took the theatre that premiered it from the brink of bankruptcy to financial success. It also premiered just as Wilde’s life was about to fall apart.
June 17, 2015 at 6pm
Almost 40 years ago Captain Ross Poldark galloped across the TV screens of millions
of PBS viewers, vexing villains and winning female hearts in one of MASTERPIECE’s earliest hit series, Poldark. Now the gallant captain rides again, allowing a new generation to delight in the exploits of an unconventional romantic hero. Aidan Turner (The Hobbit) stars as Ross Poldark, a redcoat who returns to Cornwall after the American Revolutionary War to discover that his father is dead, his lands are ruined, and his true love is about to marry his first cousin. Also starring is Eleanor Tomlinson (Death Comes to Pemberley) as the fiery servant Demelza, a strong-willed miner’s daughter who runs away from home and finds refuge in Poldark’s enlightened household. Join us on Wednesday, June 17 at 6:00pm for a free screening of the newest series coming to Masterpiece – Poldark!
Director George Sapio speaks with WSKG’s Bill Snyder about the Homecoming Players’ presentation of Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage by Peter Shaffer. Shaffer is best known for his psychological dramas such as Equus and Amadeus, but Lettice and Lovage is a comedy that he wrote especially for Maggie Smith. Lettice is a larger-than-life character whose flights of fancy displease the authorities. But she has a way of making her enemies into co-conspirators. George Sapio: “The part is written for an actress of great talent and great dramtic reach…She’s actually a tour guide at the dullest house in England.”
Performances are at the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca. http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wskg/local-wskg-1039689.mp3
Photograph Courtesy Anguskirk via Flickr
Actor Andrew Criss speaks with WSKG’s Bill Snyder about the new play Mr. Hart and Mr. Brown, being performed by the Chenango River Theatre. Philadelphia playwright Bruce Graham’ s play is based on a real-life historical figure and the the young reporter who discovers more about Hart than he is comfortable knowing. http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/national/local-national-1036680.mp3
Photograph courtesy Chenango River Theatre
Director James Osborne speaks with WSKG’s Sam Goodyear about Ti-Ahwaga Community Players production of Frost/Nixon. Peter Morgan’s play pits the disgraced former president against the light-weight entertainment interviewer. One is trying to redeem his image; the other is trying to maintain his playboy lifestyle. Only one can succeed. http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/national/local-national-1036498.mp3
Photograph courtesy stevendepolo via Flickr
Director Judy McMahon and actors Andy Horowitz and Nick De Lucia speak with WSKG’s Bill Snyder about the staged reading of Aaron Sorkin’s play The Farnsworth Invention coming to the Cider Mill Playhouse. It was originally meant as a screenplay about the interactions between Philo T. Farnsworth and RCA president David Sarnoff, who stole Farnsworth’s invention. http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wskg/local-wskg-1035448.mp3
Photograph provided by S.T.A.R.
WSKG’s Sam Goodyear speaks with Writer and Director Judith Present and Performer Carolyn Christy-Boyden about the upcoming presentation of Women Who Tamed the West, an original production by Present. Performances are in the Roberson Museum and Science Center and feature performances by local actress based on real-life women. http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wskg/local-wskg-1033785.mp3
Photograph Courtesy David Kingham via Flickr