A trio of classical theatre veterans - Kate Fleetwood, Peter Francis James and Laila Robins - share their thoughts about the importance of language in performing the classics and the physical connection they feel to the language; why the classics force audiences to think; the reaction of younger audiences to classical theatre; tackling the pre-conceived ideas held by audiences about the classics; and their opinion on setting the plays in different eras.

Original airdate - April 18, 2008.
Running time - 60 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Demystifying the Classics program page.
You can also download the Demystifying the Classics program (mp4).

From Macbeth.

Shakespeare veteran Patrick Stewart talks about finally having the opportunity to play the title role in Macbeth, some 50 years after he first memorized the play’s great speeches, and chronicles the production’s swift journey from Chichester to London to Brooklyn to Broadway. He also talks about his decades-long association with the Royal Shakespeare Company, including his appearances in multiple productions of such plays as The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Antony and Cleopatra and Titus Andronicus; the impetus behind his one-man adaptation of A Christmas Carol — including its interminable first performance; his enthusiasm for playing Prospero in The Tempest with an American cast in Central Park and on Broadway; the thrill of creating a role in Arthur Miller’s The Ride Down Mount Morgan; why he’s “finished” with certain roles and still hopes to play others yet again; and some of the plays he’s looking forward to doing in the next few years, including a nascent project with his film nemesis Ian McKellen.

Original airdate - May 9, 2008.
Running time - 59:32.

For more information see Downstage Center’s Patrick Stewart program page.
You can also download the Patrick Stewart program (mp3).

Lyricist Lynn Ahrens, producer Garth Drabinsky, composer Stephen Flaherty, director Frank Galati, book writer Terrence McNally, and advertising representative Jon Wilner discuss the journey of the American musical Ragtime — from adapting E.L. Doctorow’s novel, to comparisons with the 1981 film, through numerous workshops, to the full-scale Toronto and Broadway productions.

Original airdate - April 1, 1998.
Running time - 90 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Production: Ragtime program page.
You can also download the Production: Ragtime program (mp4).

Tony Award-winning Producer & Director.

Legendary producer and director Harold Prince surveys his career from his start in 1948 working for another legendary theatrical figure, George Abbott, to his newest project, the musical Paradise Found, which was presented in a workshop in New York just last week. Over the course an hour, Prince talks about trends in the theatre and what has changed, both for better and worse; recalls working as a stage manager on the first show he produced, The Pajama Game, so that he could collect a salary; describes his personal impact on the development of West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, which he produced; reflects on his creative partnership and friendship with composer Stephen Sondheim, including how he got a handle on Sweeney Todd; explains his role in transforming Evita from a concept album to a stage musical; ponders the period in the 1980s when he had a string of commercially unsuccessful shows — and which of those he feels is under-appreciated; marvels at the 22-year run of The Phantom of the Opera; and shares his thoughts about seeing revivals of musicals that he was so instrumental in creating.

Original airdate - May 2, 2008.
Running time - 61:31.

For more information see Downstage Center’s Harold Prince program page.
You can also download the Harold Prince program (mp3).

Actors Roger Bart (Young Frankenstein), Brian d’Arcy James (Next To Normal), Priscilla Lopez (In The Heights) and Sherie Rene Scott (The Little Mermaid) — collectively veterans of more than 30 Broadway and off-Broadway musicals — talk about the differences between performing in musicals and straight plays; acting techniques and voice training; how they prepare for a performance; dealing with the “triple threat” of acting, singing and dancing; balancing their lives on and off stage and their opinions on today’s new composers.

Original airdate - April 4, 2008.
Running time - 60 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Performing Musicals program page.
You can also download the Performing Musicals program (mp4).

Lyricist of Pamela’s First Musical.

Lyricist David Zippel discusses the development of Pamela’s First Musical, the challenges posed by the untimely passing of two of his collaborators on the project — composer Cy Coleman and author Wendy Wasserstein, and the upcoming benefit performance which will mark the show’s first public performance. He also talks about his earliest lyric writing efforts, including the pre-Broadway Rotunda and Going Hollywood, an adaptation of Once in a Lifetime which is about to get a new workshop presentation 38 years after Zippel first thought to adapt it; how he came to collaborate with Coleman and Larry Gelbart on City of Angels, before the show’s acclaimed dual-story structure was even in place; what drew him to musicalize The Goodbye Girl; and the challenge of creating the lyrics his first through-sung musical The Woman in White, a collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Original airdate - April 25, 2008.
Running time - 51:2.

For more information see Downstage Center’s David Zippel program page.
You can also download the David Zippel program (mp3).

The panel of performers talk about their training and when they decided to become actors. Power Plays co-stars Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss talk about working together at Northwestern. Both Billy Crudup and Dana Reeve (More To Love: A Big Fat Comedy) pursued Master of Fine Arts degrees in order to teach as well as act. In England, Roger Rees (Nicholas Nickleby) trained primarily by observation. James Naughton (Chicago, Williamstown Theatre Festival) discusses the Blue Light Theatre Company, started by his son Greg Naughton, where Billy Crudup is in Oedipus. The panel also discusses what they’ve gained from working with brilliant directors, being both director and actor, and preparing for auditions.

Original airdate - September 1, 1998.
Running time - 90 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Performance program page.
You can also download the Performance program (mp4).

Author of The New Century.

Playwright Paul Rudnick discusses his evening of one-act plays, The New Century, currently playing at Lincoln Center Theatre, including how he came to combine characters originally written for separate plays into a single work and how he hopes they play against their stereotypes; how he announced his plans to be a playwright to his parents as a young child, before he’d even seen a play; the senior class project that he threw together at the last minute only to see it swiftly produced as a one-night-only event at Yale; the famously troubled Broadway run of I Hate Hamlet; the difficulty he experienced trying to get Jeffrey, a comedy set in the era of AIDS, produced; and the story behind his longest-running character, film critic Libby Gelman-Waxner of Premiere magazine.

Original airdate - April 18, 2008.
Running time - 58:39.

For more information see Downstage Center’s Paul Rudnick program page.
You can also download the Paul Rudnick program (mp3).

With backgrounds rooted in rock and roll, television comedy and comics, our 4 guests have made the leap from their day jobs to the stages of Broadway and Off Broadway with their musicals. Ben Katchor (The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island), David Javerbaum (Cry-Baby), Heidi Rodewald (Passing Strange) and Stew (Passing Strange) discuss adjusting to the collaborative world of theatre, the rules of theatre they think were made to be broken, their reaction to producers’ notes, and how they feel their shows fit within the context of traditional musicals.

Original airdate - March 14, 2008.
Running time - 60 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Unexpectedly Theatre program page.
You can also download the Unexpectedly Theatre program (mp4).

From Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

In a startlingly candid interview, actor James Earl Jones talks about what drew him to playing the role of Big Daddy in the current revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and his views on the play being performed by African-American actors. He also charts his journey from stuttering youth to acclaimed actor, including his early training (in part at the American Theatre Wing School), his appearance in the acclaimed 1960 production of Genet’s Les Blancs with co-stars including Cicely Tyson and Maya Angelou, his years with the fledgling New York Shakespeare Festival, his landmark performances in The Great White Hope and Fences, his experiences working with playwright Athol Fugard and director Lloyd Richards, and why he never wants to be anyone’s mentor.

Original airdate - April 11, 2008.
Running time - 60:35.

For more information see Downstage Center’s James Earl Jones program page.
You can also download the James Earl Jones program (mp3).

The five performers — Matthew Broderick (Night Must Fall), Kathleen Chalfant (Wit), Brian Dennehy (Death of a Salesman), Elizabeth Franz (Death of a Salesman), and Swoosie Kurtz (The Mineola Twins) — discuss their current and past acting roles, how research and real life experience shapes one’s portrayal of a character, how the audience completes the performance equation, stage versus film work, and where they started their performing careers.

Original airdate - April 1, 1999.
Running time - 90 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Performance program page.
You can also download the Performance program (mp4).

Tony Award-winning Lighting Designer.

Lighting designer Ken Billington, veteran of more than 80 Broadway productions ranging from the original Sweeney Todd to the current Sunday in the Park with George, discusses the art of lighting design, including how lighting can be used to emotionally enhance the theatre experience, how he discovered his calling during a fourth grade play, what audience members might look for when assessing a lighting designer’s work, the speed with which his design for Sweeney came together, how he collaborated with the English creative team of Sunday, how rock and roll helped Broadway lighting, and how his career has encompassed work for performers as diverse as Liza Minnelli and Shamu the Killer Whale.

Original airdate - April 4, 2008.
Running time - 55:37.

For more information see Downstage Center’s Ken Billington program page.
You can also download the Ken Billington program (mp3).

The panel — director Scott Ellis (That Championship Season), director Robert Falls (Death of a Salesman), playwright David Marshall Grant (Snakebit), director/choreographer Robert Longbottom (The Scarlet Pimpernel), playwright Paul Rudnick (The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told), and director John Tillinger (Night Must Fall) — discuss working with rewrites, revisions and multiple versions of a script, the playwright’s input during rehearsals, and the role of a dramaturg.

Original airdate - April 1, 1999.
Running time - 90 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Playwright, Director and Choreographer program page.
You can also download the Playwright, Director and Choreographer program (mp4).

Author of New Jerusalem.

Playwright David Ives talks about his many acts of “literary ventriloquism,” channeling the voices of the authors of classic musicals for City Center’s Encores series, including the current Juno and upcoming No, No Nanette, as well as the distinctive voice of Mark Twain for the recent Broadway production of Is He Dead? He also describes the luck that led to his first play being produced at New York’s famed Circle Repertory Company right after he graduated from college; explains why he enrolled at the Yale School of Drama only after his early successes; chronicles how his work for a theatre company that consisted of little more than a copy machine and an artistic director ultimately led to his success with All In The Timing; reflects on the role of pain in writing short comedies; considers whether he was typecast only as a writer of one-acts; and shares the genesis of his interest in the philosopher Spinoza, which led to his writing New Jerusalem, seen Off-Broadway at CSC earlier this season.

Original airdate - March 28, 2008.
Running time - 55:48.

For more information see Downstage Center’s David Ives program page.
You can also download the David Ives program (mp3).

Ranging from their start in a church basement in 1976 to their current Broadway production of August: Osage County, Steppenwolf Theatre Company Co-Founder Jeff Perry and Steppenwolf Ensemble Members Laurie Metcalf, Amy Morton and Rondi Reed discuss their formative years as a rebel theatre group in Chicago, what they did in those early years to attract audiences, how the ensemble has evolved, how Steppenwolf transformed from upstart to institution, the development of August: Osage County, and the challenges that a New York success like August places on their work back home in Chicago.

Original airdate - February 21, 2008.
Running time - 60 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Steppenwolf: From Chicago to Osage County program page.
You can also download the Steppenwolf: From Chicago to Osage County program (mp4).

Director of Beebo Brinker Chronicles.

Director Leigh Silverman talks about the development of the Off-Broadway Beebo Brinker Chronicles and its transition from an Off-Off-Broadway space to a larger venue; how she juggles so many projects in a season where she has already staged Yellowface and Hunting And Gathering and is currently working on From Up Here at Manhattan Theatre Club and Of Equal Measure for the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles; the genesis of her involvement in the acclaimed play Wit, as well as the sad circumstances that led her to direct the play’s West End debut; and the impact of Lisa Kron’s Well on her career, as it traveled from The Public Theatre to San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre then back to New York for the play’s — and her own — Broadway debut.

Original airdate - March 21, 2008.
Running time - 54:2.

For more information see Downstage Center’s Leigh Silverman program page.
You can also download the Leigh Silverman program (mp3).

The production team for The Civil War — producer Pierre Cossette, producers Gary Gunas and Scott Zieger of Pace Theatrical, lyricist Jack Murphy, composer Frank Wildhorn, and marketing representative Norman Zagier — cover the musical’s journey from inception at Houston’s Alley Theatre, through two studio albums, readings and workshops, to the Broadway production.

Original airdate - April 1, 1999.
Running time - 90 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Production: The Civil War program page.
You can also download the Production: The Civil War program (mp4).

From Sunday in the Park with George.

Sunday in the Park with George’s Michael Cumpsty talks about the challenges of performing in the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical, how the script and score match the pointillism of George Seurat’s paintings, and why he’d like to call in sick just one night during the show’s run. He also recalls the single day in his youth when his family’s theatrical heritage was fleetingly revealed to him; describes how his passion for theatre evolved from his upbringing in England and South Africa through his training in North Carolina; remembers being selected by Joseph Papp for the “Shakespeare core” at the New York Shakespeare Festival in the late 80s; shares an assessment of his own musical skills in shows including 42nd Street and 1776; considers his roles in the Michael Frayn dramas Democracy and Copenhagen; and chronicles his continuing work at New York’s Classic Stage Company as both leading actor and director.

Original airdate - March 14, 2008.
Running time - 56:57.

For more information see Downstage Center’s Michael Cumpsty program page.
You can also download the Michael Cumpsty program (mp3).

The panel of theatre critics — New York Post’s Clive Barnes, Variety’s Charles Isherwood, New York Times‘ Peter Marks, NY1’s Roma Torre, and Newsday’s Linda Winer — discuss
the difference between television and print media, writing styles, the change in opening night review deadlines, audience reactions, unbiased reviews, reading plays prior to attending plays, how the quality of a show influences the quality of a review, returning to a show for a subsequent viewing, and the job market for critics.

Original airdate - September 1, 1999.
Running time - 90 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Critics program page.
You can also download the Critics program (mp4).

From Vita and Virginia and Dead Man’s Cell Phone.

Tony Award nominee Kathleen Chalfant talks about doing double duty on New York stages right now: as the mother of the title character in Dead Man’s Cell Phone at Playwrights Horizons and as the latter of the two title characters in Vita And Virginia at the Zipper Factory Theater. Chalfant ranges over her extensive career, explaining why she took the role in Cell Phone without having even read the script and her heritage as an early staff member at Playwrights Horizons; what Harvey Fierstein taught her about “upstaging”; how The Jack Benny Show influenced an aspect of her performance in the landmark Angels In America; and how she coped with personal loss during the her acclaimed run in Margaret Edson’s Wit.

Original airdate - March 7, 2008.
Running time - 57:35.

For more information see Downstage Center’s Kathleen Chalfant program page.
You can also download the Kathleen Chalfant program (mp3).

Our distinguished panel of theatre directors - Anne Bogart, Scott Ellis and Daniel Sullivan - discuss their early influences in theatre and how that impacted their work as directors, why they have such a strong and emotional reaction to the idea of “concept” in the directing process, their opposing opinions on the role of assistants, what plays interest them and which works they wouldn’t direct, whether they each approach the process differently when directing a new work or a revival, and whether they feel directing is something that can be taught.

Original airdate - February 8, 2008.
Running time - 60 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Directors on Directing program page.
You can also download the Directors on Directing program (mp4).

From Next To Normal.

Alice Ripley, star of the new musical Next To Normal at New York’s Second Stage Theatre, talks about the challenge of playing the emotionally disturbed mother of a “typical” American family and describes how the show’s music drives both the character and her performance. She also talks about her parallel career as a rock singer and songwriter, her Broadway debut in The Who’s Tommy, the remarkable experience of appearing as one-half of the conjoined Hilton Sisters in Side Show, the unique style of James Joyce’s The Dead, and the difficulty of playing a role while being doused by audience-wielded water guns in The Rocky Horror Show.

Original airdate - February 29, 2008.
Running time - 54:17.

For more information see Downstage Center’s Alice Ripley program page.
You can also download the Alice Ripley program (mp3).

The panelists — playwright Douglas Carter Beane (As Bees In Honey Drown), director/choreographers Kathleen Marshall (Kiss Me Kate) and Rob Marshall (Damn Yankees, She Loves Me), director Vivian Matalon (Morning’s At Seven), and playwright John Pielmeier (Agnes of God) — discuss the impact of efficient cast sizes, casting for multi-talented performers, respectfully auditionining and rejectioning performers, their individual performing backgrounds, compromising with producers, and collaborating with playwrights and directors.

Original airdate - September 1, 1999.
Running time - 90 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Playwright, Director and Choreographer program page.
You can also download the Playwright, Director and Choreographer program (mp4).

From November.

Tony Award-winning actor Nathan Lane charts the course of his career, from touring New Jersey schools in the historical musical Jerz to starring on Broadway as the President of the United States in David Mamet’s comedy November. Along the way, he recalls losing out on the leading role in the original Little Shop Of Horrors and making his Broadway debut in George C. Scott’s production of Present Laughter; discusses a few of the quirks of his next big show, the musical Merlin; considers his longstanding partnerships with both playwright Terrence McNally (revealing the only play that McNally specifically wrote for him) and director Jerry Zaks; chronicles his challenging and charmed experience as Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers on Broadway and in London; and reflects on the impact of Butley — first when he saw it as a teenager, and later when he took on the title role in the play’s Broadway revival.

Original airdate - February 22, 2008.
Running time - 62:48.

For more information see Downstage Center’s Nathan Lane program page.
You can also download the Nathan Lane program (mp3).

Producer/Artistic Director of Lincoln Center Theater André Bishop, Marketing Director and Director of Special Projects for Lincoln Center Theater Thomas Cott, Executive Producer of Lincoln Center Theater Bernard Gersten, director/choreographer Susan Stroman and playwright John Weidman discuss the Tony Award winning Contact; from Lincoln Center Theater’s invitation to Stroman and Weidman to develop their original ideas, how the individual stories are connected, multiple workshops, the casting process, using pre-existing recorded music versus live musicians, deciding on the show’s name, as well as producing for non-commercial theatre with a longstanding member base.

Original airdate - September 1, 1999.
Running time - 90 minutes.

For more information see Working in the Theatre’s Production: Contact program page.
You can also download the Production: Contact program (mp4).