Theater

Impresario Joseph Papp helped launch Broadway hits like A Chorus Line and The Pirates of Penzance, and founded the New York Shakespeare Festival. He talks about the political aspects of theater casting, production, and criticism.

In honor of the composer's 99th birthday, Fresh Air invites Peggy King to perform several of his songs in studio. She is accompanied by pianist Mike Abene.

Spalding Gray's career performing humorous, autobiographical monologues has sometimes been a detriment to his attempts to break into film and television acting; no casting director wants to be mentioned in one of Gray's stage shows.

Actress Lynn Redgrave, known for numerous stage productions and the film Georgy Girl, comes from a family of actors. She joins Fresh Air to discuss her craft and how both her weight and famous last name shaped her career.

Deborah Eisenberg began writing short fiction in her 30s, without any formal training, while she worked as a waitress. Her first collection, Transactions in a Foreign Currency, received critical acclaim.

Deborah Eisenberg began writing short fiction in her 30s, without any formal training, while she worked as a waitress. Her first collection, Transactions in a Foreign Currency, has just been published.

Sir Alec Guiness may be best known for his roles in films like Star Wars and Bridge on the River Kwai, but he honed his craft in the theater, learning something new with every production.

Avner Eisenberg, known as "Avner the Eccentric," is a "new vaudevillian"; he uses juggling, magic, acrobatics, and clowning in his act. Eisenberg also performs as a theater actor. He also appeared in the film "Jewel of the Nile."

Singer Peggy King joins the studio to interpret the songs of Irving Berlin in honor of his recent 90th birthday. King is joined by pianist Corky Hale and bassist David Finck.

Frequent Fresh Air guest Spalding Gray takes stories about his life and anxieties and transforms them into comedic monologues he delivers in a direct fashion. His monologues include "Sex and Death to the Age of Fourteen," "A Personal History of American Theater," and "Swimming to Cambodia." His current monologue is "The Terrors of Pleasure," and it chronicles his attempts to "grow up" and experience ownership by purchasing a house in the Catskills.

Zakes Mokae built his career on the success of early roles in plays by Athol Fugard, a white South African who was against apartheid. Mokae joins Fresh Air to discuss the importance of those plays within the context of his home country.

Actor Alec Guinness begin acting in classic English theater in the 1930s and 1940s. After World War II, he began to appear in films, and won an Academy Award in 1957 for his work in the film "The Bridge Over the River Kwai." He is known to a new generation of viewers as Obi Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars films. Guinness has recently published a memoir "Blessings in Disguise." (PARTIAL INTERVIEW)

Athol Fugard is a white South African playwright, director, and actor. His work as a playwright is acclaimed for exploring the social and psychological consequences of apartheid. Fugard formed an integrated theater company in the 1960s in defiance of South African norms. Many of his plays have been produced in the United States.

Michael Bennett won a Pulitzer Prize for the musical "A Chorus Line," which he conceived, choreographed, and directed. He, himself, began his career as a Broadway dancer before choreographing musicals such as "Promises, Promises," "Company," and "Follies." Bennett's latest show is "Dreamgirls."

Cy Coleman started his career as a jazz pianist and club owner before moving on to writing pop songs that were recorded by artists such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Coleman then started composing Broadway musicals, including "Sweet Charity." Coleman now produces and owns a music publishing company.

Playwright, actor, and screenwriter Wallace Shawn wants his theater work to be shocking and confrontational, but he is best known for the 1981 film he wrote, "My Dinner with Andre." Shawn's latest play is "Aunt Dan and Lemon."

Pianist and singer Bobby Short is a master of American popular song, singing classics from the likes of Porter, the Gershwins, Berlin, and Sondheim. He has the been playing at Cafe Carlyle in New York since 1968. He reached a new generation when he was in an ad for Revlon's Charlie perfume.

Spalding Gray was already famous in experimental theater for his funny and erotically-charged monologues when he made his film debut in "The Killing Fields," about the American involvement in Cambodia. His experiences as a novice making the movie in Thailand inspired his new monologue "Swimming to Cambodia." The monologue contains stories of the real fighting in Cambodia.

The playwright's works include "The Zoo Story," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," and the Pulitzer Prize winning "Delicate Balance" and "Seascape."

Actor Erik Lee Preminger shares memories of his mother, burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee. His new book is called Gypsy & Me.