Booth One - Celebrating Culture And Conversation

We welcome to the Booth this week the very talented and vibrant Jerre Dye. Recommended by a recent genius guest, Cecelia Wingate, Jerre is a Southerner by birth, having grown up in a small town in Mississippi. He is a playwright, actor, director and opera librettist, now living in Chicago. Fellow Mississippi playwright Beth Henley, whose play Crimes of the Heart earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1981, praises his lyrical voice and distinctly Southern sensibilities, proclaiming him "a vibrant force in the American theater." Jerre's plays Cicada and Distance were both nominated for Joseph Jefferson awards. First off, Frank tells us about seeing our friend Christine McHugh's one-woman play Parents Must Be Dead at the Greenhouse Theatre. By all accounts, the evening was a smashing success, with a full house and great audience response. Congratulations, Christine! We learn that the somewhat odd title refers to a friend of Christine's preference listing on a dating website. A bit maudlin, but at least he's honest. G

While Frank is out of town, we welcome Ross Fraser, founding co-host of Booth One,  back to the studio. He is clearly excited to be back behind a microphone and in rare form. Gary and Roscoe revisit some favorite topics such as, "Where are the Movie Stars?" and a new shark attack on Cape Cod. Roscoe shares his favorite news story of prior week about a woman in a stolen car trying to elude police in (where else?) Florida, by jumping into a pasture with a herd of cows, who then take chase. You cannot make this stuff up. We talk about the recent passing of the great Aretha Franklin. In 2008, Rolling Stone named her the greatest singer of the rock era, ahead of Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, and John Lennon. Check out this list! Friend of the show David Cromer will be appearing on Broadway in The Waverly Gallery this fall with Elaine May, Joan Allen, Michael Ceres, and Lucas Hedges. It previews on September 27 and opens October 27. We were already planning a trip to see Alexandra Billings in her Broad

We welcome the remarkably talented actress and stage director Cecelia Wingate to Booth One this week. Hailing from Memphis, TN, Cecelia is a driving force in the vibrant theater scene there. Gary recalls seeing her breathtaking performance in Chicago in the marvelous new play by Evan Linder Byhalia, Mississippi directed by Tyrone Phillips a couple of seasons ago, a performance for which Cecelia won a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Supporting Actress. Here is a photo from the triumphant opening night at Steppenwolf, which we were so lucky to get to be part of. Cecelia recounts her upbringing in the South, from Georgia to Mississippi to Tennessee. Frank and Gary comment on her smooth and sexy southern drawl, an accent that Americans find the most appealing, according to a YouGov Poll. In aquatic news this week, a trio of thieves pulled off a "shark-napping" at a Texas aquarium by disguising the stolen horn shark as a baby and wheeling it out in a stroller. Known as Miss Helen, the relatively harmless 1.5 foo

Legendary Chicago newspaperman, radio host, and author Rick Kogan joins us in the Booth to share some great stories and lively conversation. He's a big fan of our show and has listened to a number of past episodes that he's told us are terrific. High praise from a master interviewer who was a close friend of Studs Terkel and is carrying on in his brilliant tradition. Rick says he may be our only guest so far who has gotten drunk in the original Booth One at the Pump Room back when real movie stars sat there. Check out the list here. Rick talks about growing up in a remarkable family - his father, legendary author and journalist Herman Kogan; his mother, reporter and publicist Marilew; and his brother, major league rock band tour manager Mark. He tells us an amazing story about Mark, Elvis and Sinatra. Their parents met at Riccardo's, a restaurant behind the Wrigley Building, and he is named Rick (not Richard) after the owner. A legendary hang out for newspaper people, artists, and musicians, our producer sp

Gary and Frank catch up and discuss a couple of recent theatrical viewings. First off, we get an inside look at Frank's eastern European trip which took him away from Booth One for a couple of episodes. He tells of his experiences in Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Vienna and Budapest, how the architecture and city centers have changed, and why Prague is one of the most stunning cities he's ever visited. He is grateful to friend of the show and two-time guest, Stuart Dybek, for his great suggestions for things to do in Prague. He also let us know that Warsaw is booming and beautiful. While on the continent, Frank sampled a Porn Star Martini, ate at iconic local restaurants, and ogled the naked people on building facades in Prague. Other than Vienna, the entire trip was a bargain and the direct flights on LOT between both Warsaw and Budapest & Chicago made travel a breeze. A trip that Frank highly recommends.   The boys visited the Steppenwolf Theatre to view their new main stage show The Roommate, featuring knoc

Today we welcome to the Booth acclaimed artist, author, and actor Tony Fitzpatrick, and his son and podcast partner, Max. They are quite a team. Max also manages Adventureland Gallery at 1513 N. Western. Where there is great art and free beer! Tony's stunning drawing collages can be found in museums such as MOMA and Chicago's MCA, along with a lot of private collections. He has also done cover art for many musicians, including friend of the show Steve Earle, jazz saxaphonist Frank Catalano, Ike Reilly and Sarah Borges. Tony has amazing taste in music, so check out these brilliant artists. In 2009, New City magazine named Tony Fitzpatrick the "best iconic Chicago personality now that Studs Terkel is gone." That is quite an honor and we agree. Tony and his son are now producing a great podcast called The Max & Tony Show. Tony has lots of radio experience from doing a show on the Loop and Max brings a lot to the table as a younger actor and producer. They have amazing friends who often appear on the show. Che

Long time friend and Gary's collaborator on the legendary Klub Kokomo joins us in the Booth to talk about that amazing production and his career as an actor, director, producer, and coach to trial lawyers. Richard directed and Gary was the stage manager for Paul Stanley's production of this wild show in 2000. Read about it here. Our producer was there and has never seen anything like it. A few highlights: They transformed the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts into a nightclub. The show was environmental and interactive (including working bars). Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders fame played a 15 minute set at each intermission. Wish you could have seen it. Richard draws on his background as a theatre artist to train lawyers on presentation skills for the courtroom and depositions. In his business, Speaking Legally, he works with partner Kevin Theis  (episode 58) on coaching performance skills. Chicago Litigation Consultants brings actors into law firms or law schools to portray clients or

The endlessly fascinating Jennifer Engstrom graces us in the Booth today. Jen is a long-time ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre (as is our last guest, playwright Brett Neveu). She has appeared in over a dozen productions there and at many other great Chicago theaters (as well as in productions in London and New York). She grew up on a farm outside of Huxley, Iowa and made her way to the big city via the College of DuPage theatre program, where she soon became active in the speech department. And who coached and encouraged her in a career in the performing arts? None other than our own Frank Tourangeau! Frank was a professor and head of the speech department during Jennifer's time there and served as her mentor and teacher. Frank relates how he cast her in the play Whose Life is it Anyway? as the lead made famous on Broadway and the West End by Tom Conti, and revived some years later with Mary Tyler Moore in the starring role. By all accounts, Jen was luminous in the part. BTW, when Gary was working in

We were thrilled to welcome Brett Neveu to the booth just two days after being in the audience for the press opening of his marvelous new play, To Catch A Fish at Timeline Theatre. This production, masterfully directed by Ron OJ Parson, features one of the best ensemble casts we've ever seen, with standout performances by  Geno Walker, Al'Jaleel McGhee, Tiffany Addison, and Linda Bright Clay. We recently saw Al'Jaleel and Linda in Antoinette Nwandu's Breach at Victory Gardens. What a treat to see their work again so soon! Based on a true news story set in Milwaukee, Brett's play is about family and love and explores different types of love in a profound and very moving way. Timeline's 99 seat theatre makes for an intimate experience.  All the seats are good. The show runs through July 1 and is an absolute must see! This play came out of the Playwrights Collective at Timeline, which sounds like a very cool process for the writers. Brett, like our friend and recent guest Stuart Dybek, teaches writing at No

Gary reports on the wonderful time we had at the Writers Theatre Gala at the Four Seasons. We were guests of Mary Pat & Andy Studdert. It was such a fun evening, featuring sensational entertainment with a Motown theme. Our table mates were all a blast, including great Chicago actor, Rob Lindley. Gary also profiles Mary Pat, who is Booth One's Creative Consultant. We met her doing a live podcast at Writers during their production of Company. Hear excerpts from that event on episode 39. Mary Pat was in the audience and was excellent at the Sondheim trivia contest. She's been a friend, fan, and extremely helpful advisor ever since. She is also a magnificent photographer and has taken some unforgettable shots of elephants (our favorite) in Africa as well other wildlife and nature photos. She mounts these photos on greeting cards and has started to make boxed sets. Mary Pat is launching a business with these cards as well as totally unique gift tags (also made from the photos). You'll be the first to hear how you

Booth One proudly welcomes back to the program writer and teacher Stuart Dybek. Stuart previously appeared on Episode 37, where he spoke about the art of the short story and his approach and inspirations for writing fiction and poetry. During that podcast, Stuart referenced a number of notable stories that have come out of his Northwestern University undergraduate writing course called "Fabulous Fiction." Here is the NU course description: ENG 307 – Advanced Creative Writing: Fabulous Fiction Course Description: Fabulous Fiction focuses on writing that departs from realism. Often the subject matter of such writing explores states of mind that are referred to as non-ordinary reality. A wide variety of genres and sub-genres fall under this heading: fabulism, myth, fairy tales, fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, horror, the grotesque, the supernatural, surrealism, etc. The aim in 307 is to discern and employ writing techniques that overarch these various genres, to study the subject through doing—by

Gary welcomes back to the Booth author Mark Larson, whose oral history is a chronicle of the past, present and future of Chicago Theatre. Having recently turned in his manuscript to date, Mark had interviews come through with Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and actor Tracy Letts, and actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It truly is a never ending story. Julia attended Northwestern University and worked briefly at Second City before being scooped up by Lorne Michaels for Saturday Night Live, along with her husband Brad Hall and the two other members of their storefront Practical Theater Company. Four people asked at once is remarkable. Check out some footage of this here. Woven throughout this update of Mark's progress on his book, "Ensemble - An Oral History of Chicago Theatre" are anecdotes and quotes from amazing artists about what it's like to have Chicago roots. And how the fun part was really before big success for many of them. Gary and Mark also discuss seeing recent productions of Traitor at A Red Orchid

Aerialist, circus performer and actor Javen Ulambayar visits Booth One this week with Gary and Frank, as we celebrate our 3rd Anniversary on the air! Javen is a native of Mongolia and emigrated to the United States when he was 17 with his parents. His mother is world-famous contortionist Oyunchimeg "Oyuna" Yadamjav, one of Mongolia's most decorated contortionists, winner of the Silver Clown Award at the International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo. Javen became interested in the circus arts only after moving to the US, where he first studied at the famous Circus Juventas school in St. Paul, MN. After receiving a degree in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota, Javen continued his training and has been hooked on circus performance ever since. Now a resident of Skokie, IL and a faculty member at the famed Actors Gymnasium in Evanston, Javen's specialties are the Straps and the Chinese Pole. He put both these skills to remarkable use while performing in the Lookingglass Theatre's production of Moby Di

It's Oscar season, and Gary and Frank delve into the nominees, snubs and surprises for the 90th Annual Academy Awards. On a sad note, Gary announces that our dear Roscoe, founding co-host, will not be re-joining us in the Booth any time soon. Life happens and Roscoe continues to deal with some health challenges. We are wishing him the best and hope he can appear as a guest sometime soon. Gary gets down on one knee to propose to Frank Tourangeau that he becomes our new permanent co-host. And guess what? He said "Yes"! Frank is the best and we hope you enjoy this partnership. BTW, Frank was our producers's theater mentor...How lucky are we that he is willing to be our new co-host. Though snubbed for Best Director consideration this year for The Post, Steven Spielberg has announced a casting call for a remake of the classic musical, West Side Story. All you aspiring Marias, Tonys, Bernardos and Anitas, get yourselves out to Hollywood and you too could make movie history by starring in the new Tony Kushner adap

Actresses Delia Kropp and Penny Slusher join Gary and Frank in the Booth this week. Penny, a longtime favorite of ours, recently appeared in the Steppenwolf Theatre production of The Minutes, the new play from Tracy Letts. Delia was seen last season in a remarkable re-imagining of the Doug Wright play I Am My Own Wife at About Face Theatre, where the 30 characters were played by four actors rather than just one. Hers was a tour-de-force performance as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, born Lothar Berfelde, who survived the Nazi and Communist regimes in East Berlin as a transgender woman, and the first time the role had been played by a transgender actress. Listen to hear the great story about how and why Delia proposed changing the way this Tony & Pulitzer prize winning play was presented. Penny talks about growing up in Bristol, Tennessee, the "birthplace of country music", and the one-woman show she is writing about her childhood experiences and the extended family that raised her. With a working title of "A Porch

Gary and Frank welcome two of the great leaders of Chicago's Pride Films & Plays to Booth One. Nelson Rodriguez is Artistic Director of Pride Films and Plays. Filmmaker Dan Pal is running the Pride Film Fest, which happens on the second Tuesday of each month. Check out the line-up for February's festival here. Pride Films and Plays brings a 4-show season of excellent LGBTQ programming to the Chicago theatre community. Housed at the Pride Arts Center at 4139 N. Broadway, PFP also hosts the aforementioned Pride Film Fest and rents its two spaces to other theater companies. Dan Pal is an award-winning filmmaker and professor at DePaul and Moraine Valley Community College. Check out his website to see the fabulous Scotty & Josh trilogy and more. Here is Dan winning an award for his direction of Counting, which is the first film produced by Pride Films & Plays. It is on the festival circuit now and headed to the Santa Fe Film Festival in February, where it will open for Melanie Mayron's new movie. We got a chan

Mentor, Educator and Theatre aficionado Frank Tourangeau (Episode 54) returns and joins Gary as this week's co-host in the Booth. Gary and Betsy have just returned from a glorious Thanksgiving week in New York, and we recount the shows we saw and get Frank's take on his recent Broadway experiences. In addition, we look in on the Chicago theater scene with such shows as Escape to Margaritaville (the Jimmy Buffett musical); Tracy Letts' new play at the Steppenwolf Theatre, The Minutes; a local Victory Gardens production of Fun Home; Significant Other at the Theatre Wit; and A Red Orchid Theatre's production of Wallace Shawn's Evening at the Talk House. But back to Broadway - we first tell about seeing Donna Murphy, Bette Midler's alternate, in the splendid and beautiful Hello,Dolly! Frank and Gary both agree that this is one of the finest productions of a classic musical they have ever seen, regardless of who's playing the lead. The Band's Visit, recently opened at the Barrymore Theatre, elicits slightly conf

Gary's guest this week is photographer, explorer, and theatre artist Stephan Mazurek. Stephan  is a storyteller - on screens, on stages, on buildings and on the web. He is a director of photography, still photographer, playwright, theatre director and projection designer. His clients include The Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, Food Network and ESPN, as well as spot work for Skittles, Nikon, Oscar Mayer, McDonalds and Goo Gone! Stephan is an acclaimed documentary photographer. His favorite long form documentary project was the award-winning Louder Than a Bomb, which followed 10 Chicago area high school students for a year as they prepared for a poetry competition. He also spent more than a year in Turkey, Somalia, Iraq and Bosnia shooting Love is a Verb, which tells the fascinating story of Fethullah Gulen, the exiled religious leader of the transnational social movement that began in Turkey in the 1960s, and bears his name. Gulen has been in the news recently because Mike Flynn was offered $

Our guest in the Booth this week is the multi-talented Robert Cornelius. Singer, Actor, Songwriter, Band Leader, Educator, Activist, and Writer - he excels at them all! And...we learn that he can design and construct costumes as well. A long-time friend of the show, we were finally able to work it out with his busy schedule to have him on. Robert grew up on the South Side and studied theatre and psychology at Western Illinois University. When he came back to Chicago, he got cast in Rosencrantz & Gildernstern Are Dead at Stage Left. He quickly became a company member. Other highlights of his career include acting and designing costumes for A Member of the Wedding (also at Stage Left), and playing the lead in Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage at Madison Rep. Robert tells us about recent favorite acting projects, including appearing in a new play called Lottery Day by Ike Holter for the Goodman Theatre's New Stages project. Robert is also a successful musician, whose "unattainable goal" when he was you

Colin Cordwell, proprietor of the The Red Lion English pub, brings his uncanny insights and encyclopedic knowledge to Booth One this week. Colin has seen it all in his 40 years watching "a conveyor belt of humanity go past me" behind one of Chicago's great bars. He regales Gary with tales of his father John, an architect who became a POW in WWII. John designed a theatre in his prison camp and became a forger who was part of The Great Escape. Colin describes some of the many memorable characters who have walked into the Red Lion, including Christopher Hitchens, with whom he had an extended conversation about WWI poetry. Calling the exchange "a labyrinth of obscurata," it's an astonishing glimpse into just one small corner of Colin's ability to speak eloquently about so many subjects, including history, poetry, philosophy and war. A fine actor earlier in his career, Colin has a soft spot for those who walk the boards. Colin and his father have generously given free rehearsal space to nascent theater compan