Good theatre is about good storytelling. And good stories, like good theatre, grab you and elicit an emotional reaction. One of the best examples of good storytelling is StoryCorps on WYSO 91.3 FM Friday mornings. The good news is that Victoria Theatre Association and the Arts Center Foundation are collaborating with WYSO to bring StoryCorps to the James H. McGee Plaza outside the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center April 19-May 15, 2010.
I’m a big fan of public radio, and I think WYSO does a terrific job–really interesting music, good news coverage with more depth than you would get out of traditional media reports, Bluegrass Saturday nights, and especially StoryCorps. I’ve been catching these compelling, short, and usually very personal interviews for years now–get in the car, turn the radio on, and listen to StoryCorps–kind of a nice end of the week/start of the weekend thing. But there is a problem. Well, actually two problems.
The first problem is easy to deal with–I don’t live far enough away from work to sometimes get the whole story. But that’s ok; I just drive around the block a couple of times until the story ends. The second problem is not as easy. Just about every time I listen, I find myself choking up and getting teary, and that’s just not a good state of being when you are driving. It’s something about the emotional honesty of the interviews–just normal everyday folks talking about their lives–sons and fathers, friends, couples. In those few short minutes on the radio there are universal connections made through those simple stories–stories that people can relate to and savor. But, I think I have a way to solve my second problem. I’ll start podcasting StoryCorps or listening right from their website–it’s safer that way.
-Ken
Lunch Tuesday was hosted by A CATERED AFFAIR and we sat with Matt Cavenaugh, who plays Ralph the groom to be, and Lori Wilner who plays two parts – Pasha, a busy body neighbor and Mrs. Holloran,the mother of the groom (that’s them at left, along with Gina Vernaci of Cleveland’s Playhouse Square and Dione Kennedy). Dione also took a photo of Harvey Fierstein – he commented that he purchased the rights to do the musical version of this story 10 years ago. He loved the film as a kid – there was a movie feature on TV and they would play the same film four times and when they were showing a film he liked, he’d skip school to watch it over and overagain. A CATERED AFFAIR was one of those films – starred Bette Davis as the mother… I recognized the other actors but can’t pull up the names right now. They showed clips from it as part of the luncheon program. He quipped that this show will be great when it tours because “you laugh, you cry, you’re home by 10!”on the history of the script – it was a teleplay first by Pat Chayefsky and then the movie script by Gore Vidal then a musical theatre piece by Harvey Fierstein … I think that’s right.
