This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with concert pianist, actor, and author Mona Golabek, about her one-woman show The Pianist of Willesden Lane, presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts (500 Castro St.) in Mountain View, through February 16.
The Pianist of Willesden Lane recounts the inspiring true story of Golabek’s mother, Lisa Jura, a young Jewish musician who escapes from Nazi-occupied Austria via the Kindertransport, to end up at a children’s home on Willesden Lane in London, where she later survived the London Blitz.
With vivid storytelling and masterful performances of classics by Bach, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff, The Pianist of Willesden Lane illustrates how music can bring light and hope to even the darkest of times. The Pianist of Willesden Lane was created and directed by TheatreWorks favorite Hershey Felder.
We talk with Obie Award-winning playwright Will Eno, about his new play, Wakey, Wakey, which runs at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater (415 Geary St.) in San Francisco) from January 23 - February 16, starring two-time Emmy Award winner Tony Hale (HBO’s Veep and Fox’s/Netflix’s Arrested Development).
In Wakey, Wakey, we see a man consider his entire life, over the course of a very special hour. What does he remember? What will he share? What does it mean? Funny, quirky, and provocative, Wakey, Wakey is a surprising yet familiar look at what it means and how it feels to be human, and offers a remarkable combination of the extraordinary and the everyday that invites you to share the pleasure, humor, and beautiful mystery of life.
Plus, Open Air’s regular contributor and critic at large, Peter Robinson, talks with Ruthe Stein, founder of the Mostly British Film Festival, ahead of the festival’s 12th anniversary edition, February 13 - 20 at the Vogue Theatre (3290 Sacramento St.) in San Francisco.
Open Air, with host David Latulippe, taped live for broadcast online on Thursday, January 23, 2020. Listen now or anytime…