Performing Arts

Actor Roger Guenveur Smith stars in the one-man stage show "A Huey P. Newton Story." Drawing from Newton's own writings and interviews, Smith performs in character as Huey Newton, the co-founder of The Black Panther Party. Roger Guenveur Smith has appeared in a number of Spike Lee films including: "Do The Right Thing," "Malcolm X," "He Got Game," and "School Daze." His other film credits include: "Tales from the Hood," "Poetic Justice," "King of New York," and "Panther."

Monologist, actor and writer Spalding Gray. His newest work is "Morning, Noon, and Night" (Fararr, Straus, and Giroux) about being a father and raising a family. Gray's monologues include, "Monster in a Box" about all the distractions that prevented him from completing his novel, "Impossible Vacation," and "Swimming to Cambodia" about filming a movie in Cambodia. His monologue and book "Gray's Anatomy" was about his eye problems, and his adventures in the mainstream and alternative health care industries.

Comedian Marc Maron. His hit one man show in Manhattan, “Jerusalem Syndrome,” is described as a “poetically paranoid rant on corporate culture and the quest for spiritual fulfillment.” Maron has appeared on David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and was the host of Comedy Central’s “Short Attention Span Theater.” He appears in Cameron Crowe’s new film, “Almost Famous.”

He is one of New York's most notable spoken-word artists. He blends lyrics of urban dwelling with music. Born in Harlem, Sundiata is a professor of English literature at The New School for Social Research. He's released CDs of spoken word including The Blue Oneness of Dreams and Urban Music. This week, Sundiata premieres his new one-man show blessing the boats. It's about the year his kidney failed, he went into dialysis and then had a kidney transplant.

Performance artist, writer and theater director Rhodessa Jones is co-artistic director of the San Franciso performance company Cultural Odyssey. She is also founder and director of the "Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women," a performance workshop for women in prison in which she helps them develop and stage works based on their own stories. Jones' solo performance works include Hot Flashes, Power Surges, and Private Summers, and Big Butt Girls, Hard-Headed Women.

Actor Spalding Gray, famous for his autobiographical monologues, was found dead on March 7 in New York's East River. He'd been missing for two months. In the first of a two-part series, Terry Gross speaks with people who knew Gray well, including his wife, Kathie Russo, and his friend, Robby Stein. The second program features excerpts of Gray’s Fresh Air interviews.

On March 7, the actor and monologist Spalding Gray was found dead in the East River in New York. Gray, 62, had been missing for two months. His family believes he committed suicide. Gray was best known for his autobiographical monologues, including Swimming to Cambodia, Monster in a Box and It's a Slippery Slope. Over the last 19 years he was a frequent guest on Fresh Air. We listen back to excerpts of his performances and interviews: Swimming to Cambodia (rebroadcast from Aug. 20, 1985), Monster in a Box (rebroadcast from Sept.

She's starring in her one-woman show, Bridge and Tunnel. The play about the immigrant experience in America has been critically acclaimed. Margo Jefferson of The New York Times writes, "Humor, compassion and daring have more often found a place in solo performance. This free form frees gifted artists to change sex, race, age, body type and personality in an instant. It takes great craft and generosity. Sarah Jones has both."

John Leguizamo, who got his start as a stand-up comedian, stars in the new Spanish-language film Cronicas. He plays a tabloid reporter from Miami who travels to Ecuador to track down a serial killer.

Movie musicals usually get lumped together as a category. But classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says that a batch of original musicals from MGM and 20th-Century Fox, just released on DVD, reveals an array of categories that date back to the earliest sound films. The batch includes Till the Clouds Roll By, Summer StockDown Argentine Way and It's Always Fair Weather.

Shirey mixes dry vocals with multi-instrumentalist stylings on his new album. Critic Milo Miles says A Bottle of Whiskey and a Handful of Bees is an original and engaging work.

Whitfield, who died Feb. 9, started in the San Francisco Opera in the 1970s before moving on to piano bars. She later performed regularly at New York's Algonquin Hotel. Originally broadcast in 1988.

Concert halls and music venues around the world have been shuttered due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but before closing its doors, the Philadelphia Orchestra gave one last performance on March 12 — to an empty concert hall. Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin describes the experience of playing in a vacant hall and hearing silence at the end of each piece. And we listen to a 2019 interview with Yannick.