Plays

Edward Albee died last week, at 88. Studio 360 remembers this giant of American theater with a feature we ran back in 2004. Reporter Sarah Lemanczyk interviewed Albee about his decision, well into his 70s, to tinker with his very first produced play, “The Zoo Story.” Albee was about to debut a new first act as a sort of prequel to the original play. Lemanczyk was a huge fan of Albee’s, but she was appalled at this idea — and she had the audacity to tell Albee to his face.

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.

Justice Antonin Scalia’s body will lie in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court today, surrounded by marble busts of former chief justices.

Scalia knew he was a decisive justice. For half the country, Scalia will go down as an anti-gay rights and pro-gun fanatic. For the other half, he was a hero, a brave champion of the Constitution. 

Last spring, actor Edward Gero had to capture Scalia’s multifaceted personality in “The Originalist,” a stage play by John Strand performed at the Arena Stage in Washington D.C.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor went to see the play during it’s run. Scalia never attended a performance, but he was well aware that his bombastic personality would live on through Gero, who spent a year studying Scalia, attending oral arguments, and meeting with him in his chambers and over lunch.

Last spring, we created a quiz based on quotes from “The Originalist” and Scalia’s own comments. Test yourself below.

Film, music and art are often the best ways to capture the will and the mood of the people in times of turmoil. Art sometimes has the power to move millions where politics fails. So in this program we attempt to identify some prominent artistic voices in the Middle East, North Africa and in South Asia and evaluate their take on liberal ideals, on sectarian violence, on terrorism and how they’re being received by audiences in both the Arab and Muslim communities and in the West.