This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area Performing Arts in Times of Corona, host David Latulippe welcomes back to our Corona Radio Theater, artists from The Marsh, San Francisco’s breeding ground for new performance. Judith Dambowic and Jessica Litwak both present excerpts from their respective solo shows, Welcome to the Cancer Café, and 50,000 Mice.
Judith Dambowic was a PT Clinical Specialist in Chronic Pain, who never imagined being on the opposite end of treatment — until she was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, an incurable blood cancer with a limited life expectancy. Enlightening, elevating, and deeply personal, Judith’s Welcome to the Cancer Cafébrings audiences on her unexpected journey from provider to patient, sharing the profound lessons this role reversal offers, based on actual conversations with providers.
Playwright, actor, educator, puppet builder Jessica Litwak wrote 50,000 Mice for the 2020 Centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment as a funny, educational, and moving work about an overlooked corner of the Suffrage movement. 50,000 Mice examines the many factions of suffrage from the perspective of a Jewish Suffragette trying to reach working-class women who have been mostly ignored by the US movement.
The title refers to the moment when 40 women went to the legislature to plead for the right to vote – appearing before the committee on Public Morals, they stated that they represented 50,000 women in California. The chairman sneeringly replied: “You are no more than 50,000 mice.”
Marsh founder and artistic director Stephanie Weisman will discuss what else is going on at The Marsh in times of Corona.
We talk about the Playwright Foundation’s 2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, with new (since last October) executive artistic director Jessica Bird Beza, and Noelle Viñas, one of the participating playwrights. Her play Derecho has its first reading online on Saturday, July 18.
The 2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, which has moved entirely online, runs from July 17-26. It is the West Coast’s premiere launchpad for exceptional plays and playwrights. The 43rd Annual festival offers public readings, in addition to panel discussions and surrounding online events on Facebook Live.
Plus, we talk about this summer’s Music@Menlo Festival, with artistic co-directors David Finckel and Wu Han. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Music@Menlo has decided to postpone the 2020 festival, Haydn Connections, to the summer of 2021.
Instead, David Finckel and Wu Han present Intermezzo, a digital chamber music experience designed to fill the void.
Taking place during the originally-scheduled festival dates of July 17–August 8, Intermezzo presents the essential elements of the Music@Menlo experience: performance, education, and personal connection.
Listeners can enjoy a variety of artist interviews, live and archival performances, master classes, and more from past Music@Menlo seasons, to be broadcast on the festival’s Facebook page and website.
Open Air with host David Latulippe will be broadcast live on Thursday, July 16, at 1pm, to be archived at this very location afterwards…