Lit Between the Ears

LA Theatre Works: Beloved Clara and Barefoot in the Park on Saturday February 14 from 8:00 pm – midnight February 14, 2009

The Play’s The Thing

This Valentine’s Day, Saturday, February 14, classical KUSC 91.5 FM will broadcast a new recording by L.A. Theatre Works from 8 pm – 10 pm:  Beloved Clara stars award-winning pianist Lucy Parham and celebrated British actors Rosalind Ayres and Martin Jarvis, who bring the intense relationships between Robert Schumann, his wife Clara and Johannes Brahms to vivid life through their music and excerpts from their passionate writings.  With the arrival of the young, dynamic Brahms into the Schumanns’ household, their fragile marriage is threatened by the deepening bond between Clara and their gifted guest.  The broadcast includes selected clips from an interview with Lucy Parham.

Following the broadcast on KUSC, listeners can turn the dial to hear the  L.A. Theatre Works’ production of Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park starring Eric Stoltz and Laura Linney on 98.3 KPCC  from 10 pm – midnight.  In Neil Simon’s comedy classic, a young lawyer and his new bride return from their honeymoon to move into a new apartment. Once there, they find the place is bare of furniture, the paint job is wrong, the skylight leaks and wacky neighbors keep popping up. Then, things start to really go wrong.  The broadcast includes an interview with Neil Simon.

Next Saturday, February 21 from 10 pm – midnight on 89.3 KPCC, L.A. Theatre Works’ The Play’s the Thing will air The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, starring Ruby Dee and Jena Malone. Set in the American South of the 1940s, this coming of age story about a lonely, over imaginative twelve-year old girl and the black cook to whom she pours out her heart is one of the of the most beautiful plays ever written about loneliness, longing and love.  This stirring work won the New York Drama Critics’ Prize for Best American Play of 1950.  The broadcast includes an interview with Ruby Dee.

L.A. Theatre Works’ radio theater series, The Play’s the Thing, airs locally every Saturday night from 10 pm to midnight on 89.3 FM KPCC Southern California Public Radio, and is streamed on the KPCC website for one week following each broadcast.  The series can also be heard on 89.7 WGBH in Boston; 91.5 FM WBEZ in Chicago; 94.9 KUOW in Seattle; 93.5 FM KRTS “Marfa Public Radio” in Texas; 90.5 FM KUT in Austin; 88.9 FM KUNM in Albuquerque; 91.5 FM, Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan; 94.1 KPFA in Northern California; 91.1 FM KRCB in Sonoma County; 89.1 KUOR in Redlands; as well as on many other public radio stations nationwide.  Selected programs from LATW are also heard internationally over BBC World Service, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Telefis Eirann (Ireland), Radio Hong Kong, and Radio New Zealand.  The L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collection is available in bookstores, libraries, through their catalog, digitally on itunes, overdrive.com, audible.com, and on the L.A. Theatre Works website at www.latw.org.

To get a full schedule,  go to the L.A. Theatre Works website at www.latw.org and follow the link through the “Radio Theatre Series” heading and then “Episode Guide” or go directly to www.scpr.org for KPCC.

Additional support for the series is provided by AudioFile Magazine.  Listeners can visit their website at www.audiofilemagazine.com to view 65 reviews of LATW plays and hear sound clips from them. 

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