David Edgar performs his solo show exploring the autobiographical background to his landmark play, MAYDAYS, from which he has created a 3 part series for Radio 4.
Find TRYING IT ON here
David Edgar’s TRYING IT ON on radio
Time Travel Theatre Talk: Studs Terkel talks with Lorraine Hansberry
Here’s another in my series of happy discoveries whilst browsing around the endless charity shop that is the internet.
Louis “Studs” Terkel (1912-2008) was a broadcasting institution – author-radio host-actor-activist and Chicago icon.
In his 45 years on radio station WFMT, Terkel interviewed the most interesting people of the 20th century, in his own frank, direct, authentic style.
While rummaging in the wonderful archive of his 2000-plus recordings recently, I came across this interview with notable writer Lorraine Hansberry, the creator of the ground-breaking play A RAISIN IN THE SUN.
A RAISIN IN THE SUN, which highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago, opened on March 11, 1959 (after touring), becoming the first play by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. The play ran a total of 530 performances on Broadway. The 29-year-old author became the youngest American playwright (and only the fifth woman) to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. The play was also nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play, among the four Tony Awards that the play was nominated for in 1960. The play was translated into 35 languages and was being performed all over the world over the next two years.
Sidney Poitier, the star of the play, and the rest of the original cast repeated their roles in the film adaptation of the play in the Columbia Pictures production of 1961.
A later, musical version of the play, RAISIN, opened on Broadway in 1973 and ran for 847 performances
Tragically, Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer aged just 34 , in 1965.
Thanks to the Studs Terkel Archive we can listen to Hansberry in her own words, just a couple of months after the Broadways opening of RAISIN.
First broadcast on May 12th, 1959, their discussion is wide-ranging and always fascinating. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Find the interview here
Listen to Music Hall and Variety….
Two interesting shows have cropped up on the BBC Sounds app which are currently available to listen to.
Each show lasts an hour, and appear to be available for some time.
The first is TWICE NIGHTLY, a remembrance of Music Hall and Variety days by one of those who performed in it for many years, the musician and comedian Stan Stennett. An interesting show with much first- hand recollection, the subject spends a little too much time on himself for my liking, but it is worth sticking with to get a taste of “the halls”. The show was recorded in 2001.
The second show is from 2003. MUSIC HALL RECLAIMED is presented by Barry Cryer, another performer who started his career at the tail end of Variety, where he looks into the range of material that survives as recordings of many music hall and variety acts- some famous, some unheard for decades- and the care which goes into tracing, restoring and preserving these last remnants of a disappeared age. It presents a number of surprises, including how political some of the music hall songs could be.
Again, well worth a listen, as well as to hear some rare recordings lovingly cleaned and sounding much less than their age – in most cases, over 100 years!
