Theater

Coleman was a child piano prodigy who has written for Broadway, television and pop artists. Despite his popular success, he says that, in order to keep working, he still has to audition for directors and producers.

Bill Raymond has long worked with the collaborative theater troupe Mabou Mines. Their recent production, Cold Harbor, in which Raymond stars, is about Ulysses S. Grant.

Broadway actress Sophie Hayden worked in New York as an accomplished baton twirler before making it onto the stage. She put her skills to use in a recent production of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors--where she twirled a machete.

Charles Busch's off-Broadway send-up of classic beach movies features men in drag playing female roles. Critic-at-large Laurie Stone says the play offers a unique but problematic commentary on gender roles.

The playwright and performance artist came from the New York fringe scene--which he believes is too afraid to really push cultural boundaries. His play Talk Radio is being made into a film.

Obie Award-winning playwright Adrienne Kennedy has a new, unconventional memoir called People Who Led to My Plays. She explores the experience of growing up as an African American in suburban Ohio, her drive to excel artistically and academically, and the people who influenced her throughout her life.

Luis Valdez grew up in a migrant worker family; he later wrote plays about Mexican Americans and worked as a labor activist in the 1960s. His new movie, La Bamba, opens soon.

Ralph Allen says that burlesque theater started off at the turn of the century as a comedy revue; it wasn't until the 1930s that the tradition took on its more erotic elements. Allen cowrote the play Sugar Babies, which has been produced worldwide.

Michael Bennett won a Pulitzer Prize for the musical "A Chorus Line," which he conceived, choreographed, and directed. He recently died from complications related to AIDS.

Critic-at-large Laurie Stone reviews a new play and movie about the African American experience, both written by African American artists. She says the works should be celebrated for their refusal to pander to white audiences.