He calls himself “a full-on, born-again atheist,” and yet this dancer and choreographer approaches his work reverently, in part as a quest for transcendence, honoring this ecumenical doctrine: “Most religions agree with don’t kill anybody, and I agree with that.” A conversation about classical Indian dance, modern American music, and the greatest cooking utensil of … Continue reading »
Monthly Archives: January 2021
333: Sarah Megan Thomas
She says, “Virginia Hall was the first female field agent―spy―for Churchill’s secret army, the British SOE, and the spy the Nazis dubbed the most dangerous of all Allied spies in World War II.” She should know; she wrote and stars in A Call To Spy, a feature film about Hall’s exploits. Continue reading »
Next Live-ish Show: Moshe Safdie
My first exposure to his work was his eye-opening Habitat 67, the centerpiece―for me, the only piece―of Montreal’s Expo 67. In the ensuing 50 years, he’s kept busy: Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the Kauffman Center in Kansas City, the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, the Salt Lake City Public Library, the Jewel Changi Airport in … Continue reading »
332: Bill Irwin
“I identify as a clown,” he says, understating his range as a performer, having portrayed George on Broadway in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf and Mr. Noodle on Sesame Street in Elmo’s World. And yet even a career as luminous as his has its disappointments: “I once asked John Cleese to play Pozzo in Waiting for Godot. Wouldn’t it have … Continue reading »