This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the performing arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, host David Latulippe talks with Susi Damilano, producing director from San Francisco Playhouse, about her leading role in the comedy Yoga Play by playwright Dipika Guha.
In Yoga Play, Damilano (above, center) plays Joan, the newly hired CEO of yoga apparel giant Jojomon, which is hit with a terrible scandal that sends their earnings and reputation into freefall. Joan devises a risky and unconventional plan that could make or break the company, and her career. Directed by Bill English, Yoga Play runs through April 20 at SF Playhouse (450 Post St.) in San Francisco.
From Opera Parallèle, we talk with composer Laura Kaminsky, and co-librettists Mark Campbell and Kim Reed, about the world premiere of the chamber opera Today It Rains, inspired by a real event in the life of American artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
The 90-minute work will be performed by a cast of eight singers and an instrumental ensemble of eleven, and features a sophisticated projection design, including ‘film arias’ created by Kimberly Reed and Brian Staufenbiel. Today It Rains runs for four performances only, March 28, 29 and 30 (7:30 pm) and Sunday, March 31 (2pm) at Z Space (450 Florida St.) in San Francisco.
We talk with choreographer Deb Slater about the 30th anniversary season of her company, the Deborah Slater Dance Theater, and the reprisal of one of its major works, The Sleepwatchers, critically acclaimed and nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award following its premiere in 2001.
Originally inspired by the writings and research of Stanford sleep specialist Dr. William Dement and newly re-worked and re-cast, The Sleepwatchers looks at sleep, metaphorically and literally, examining how it affects society’s mental and physical well-being. The Sleepwatchers runs March 28, 29 and 30 (8pm) at ODC Theater (3153 17th St.) in San Francisco.
Plus, regular contributor and Open Air’s critic at large, Peter Robinson, has a conversation with British, San Francisco-based film critic and film historian David Thomson, about his book Sleeping With Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire. Thomson will be speaking about his new book on March 28 (7pm) at Book Passage (51 Tamal Vista Blvd.) in Corte Madera.
Open Air with host David Latulippe; heard live on Thursday, March 28 at 1pm. Listen now or anytime…