Theater--Production and direction

The Room (2003) has been called the Citizen Kane of bad movies. Eccentric filmmaker Tommy Wiseau wrote, directed and starred in the movie, and it has since developed a cult following. Around the country, fans flock to midnight screenings.

The English actress has been nominated for a Tony Award for her role in the Broadway revival of Skylight. She also stars in the film adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel Far From the Madding Crowd.

Canadian actor and comedian Mark McKinney joins Terry Gross to discuss his career, including Slings and Arrows, the critically acclaimed miniseries about a Shakespearean theater troupe. It's out now on Blu-Ray.

Canadian actor and comedian Mark McKinney joins Terry Gross to discuss his career, including Slings and Arrows, the critically acclaimed miniseries about a Shakespearean theater troupe. It's out now in a DVD box.

Playwright and filmmaker Neil LaBute has earned a reputation for writing characters who are selfish, mean, misanthropic and misogynistic. His films include In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors. His plays include "The Mercy Seat", "Some Girls" and "Fat Pig". The New Yorker's John Lahr says his plays are "complex and unnerving," and that "there's no playwright on the planet who is writing better." "Wrecks" is LaBute's new one-man play starring Ed Harris.

Jeff Goldblum recently returned to his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pa., to star alongside his new girlfriend in a two-week run of The Music Man. Directors Chris Bradley and Kyle LaBrache filmed Goldblum's escape from celebrity, resulting in a genre-bending documentary with appearances by Ed Begley, Jr., Illeana Douglas and Moby. Goldblum talks about Pittsburgh, which he produced.

Playwright and actor Wallace Shawn and director/actor Andre Gregory co-wrote and co-starred in the 1981 film, "My Dinner with Andre." The film is currently being revived on a five-city swing in the "Classically Independent Film Festival" by the Independent Feature Project. It was shown in New York and will have future screenings Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

Playwright, novelist and essayist Arthur Miller. His plays include "All My Sons," "The Crucible," "After the Fall" and "Death of a Salesman," for which he won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and lasting fame in American theater. "Death of a Salesman" is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year. (REBROADCAST from 11/25/87).

Chapmyn was homeless, surviving on garbage and sleeping in vacant buildings in the '80's. A suicide note he began writing to his mother inspired him to write the play "Our Young Black Men Are Dying and Nobody Seems to Care," which became a big hit on the so-called chitlin circuit. He went on to write other plays on social issues facing the African-American community., making a name for himself as a playwright and a social activist.

A broadcast of the debate between playwright August Wilson and critic Robert Brustein over multiculturalism and the theater. The discussion is moderated by actress, playwright, and performance artist Anna Deavere Smith. Wilson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of the play "Fences," says the modern theater system jeopardizes the values of black actors because it is dominated by white society. Brustein, the American Repertory Theater's artistic director and the theater critic of "The New Republic," claims Wilson's ideas encourage black separatism.