Advertise on podcast: Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia

The story of Albert Innaurato and his play "Gemini." Set in South Philadelphia in the 1970s, it was to become the biggest commercial and artistic triumph of his career. The famous TV commercial for the original Broadway production is on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz8p6-LconE But Gemini also served as a constant reminder that success can fleeting, and that an artist's personal demons can undermine their long-term reputation.  We interview Charles Gilbert about his professional association and personal friendship with Innaurato, as they tried to turn Gemini into a work of musical theater in the early 2000s. Charles Gilbert's posts on Substack, which form the basis of our conversation, can be found here: https://chasgilbert.substack.com/p/me-and-albert-a-collaborators-story https://chasgilbert.substack.com/p/me-and-albert-part-2 For information about EgoPo Theatre Co. and their upcoming production of Gemini: https://egopo.org/gemini Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

The director Abigail Adams and the actress Marcia Saunders talk to us about their lives and careers, and about how their theatrical and artistic home at People's Light in Malvern, Pennsylvania. To learn more about the production of Steel Magnolias at People's Light: https://www.peopleslight.org/whats-on/20252026-season/steel-magnolias/ Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

As a Holiday, treat, the Philadelphia actor Brian Wilson talks with us about his life and career.  Brian tells us about his memories - everything from his roles on "The Wire," to his work with the director Walter Dallas, to his quest to perform in all the plays of August Wilson (no relation!). And he shares this thoughts about the state of African-American theater in the Quaker City at the beginning of the 21st Century. For a blog page with photos and additional info go to: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/king-brian-the-first/ Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

A conversation with Chris Lippa about the life and work of his father, the late Louis Lippa, the Philadelphia playwright and actor - and about Chris' vision to make a real home for the history of theater in the city. For a tribute to the life and work of Louis Lippa (1928-2018), see this page on the website of People's Light and Theatre Company, where he was a playwright-in-residence for 30 years: https://www.peopleslight.org/about/in-memoriam-louis-lippa-1928-2018/ Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

A reprise of our 2023 interview with Bernard Havard of the Walnut Street Theatre - including a tour of the historic building.  Newly remixed, and with a new introduction and extra content about our upcoming episodes of the podcast! A blog post with images from our visit to the Walnut can be found on our website: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/photos-for-the-walls-of-walnut-street/ Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

We talk with Bruce Graham - a son of Ridley Township in Delaware County who  has been writing, teaching, and performing in Philadelphia since the 1980s. Graham has written dozens of plays which have been produced everywhere from Los Angeles to London, as well as turning out scripts for Hollywood films, TV movies, sitcoms and soap operas - but he always returned to his hometown, and where his plays have been regularly staged by local theater companies, and appreciated by local audiences. In fact, for many years Graham was regularly described by local arts reporters as "Philadelphia's Favorite Playwright." There is a blog post on our website with more information and images: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/philadelphias-favorite-playwright/ Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

An interview with writer, director, translator and theater critic Carol Rocamora, who founded the Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays in 1981, and was its Artistic Director to 1994. Philadelphia-area playwright Michael Hollinger was Rocamora's literary manager in the early 1990s, and credits his time working with Carol at PFT for helping to shape his future career. A blog post on our website, with additional information and images, is here: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/philadelphia-festival-theatre-blog-post/ Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

A conversation with Seth Rozin, the founder and artistic director of InterAct Theatre of Philadelphia. Seth shares some great stories about the early years of the company, including the tour of Ireland in the autumn of 1988, the creation and performance of the play "6221," and how he has made a career in the world of non-profit American theater. InterAct Theatres website: https://www.interacttheatre.org/ For a blog post about the history of InterAct, go to: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/interact-of-philadelphia-new-plays-about-big-ideas/ (Photo of Seth Rozin by Clem Murphy) Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

A conversation with actor Tom Teti about his life, his career in Philadelphia theater, and his long association with People's Light and Theatre Company in Malvern. For a blog post with images and additional information about Tom's career, go to: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/tom-as-in-teti/ For more information about the October 2025 production of Tommy and Me at PLTC, go HERE. Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

Director Blanka Zizka and stage manager Patreshettarlini Adams talk about their decades of work at the Wilma Theater, sharing stories of their longstanding artistic collaboration and deep friendship. And they agree that "Theater is Music." An excellent and heartwarming Adventure in Philadelphia Theater History! Music from historic Wilma Theater productions sampled in this episode includes: 1) Selections from Eurydice/Toby Twining ℗ 2011 Cantaloupe Music. The full album can be found on YouTube: HERE 2) Selections from the score to The Invention of Love, by Adam Wernick. For more of Adam's music, go to his website: https://www.adamwernick.com/ Additional music provided by Epidemic Sound for this episode: "The Dandelion" by Hanna Ekstrom and  "Copper Nails for Sailing" by Luba Hilman. https://www.epidemicsound.com/ All other music by Christopher Mark Colucci. Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

The history of Philadelphia's Wilma Theater during the 1990s, with archival recordings of the voices of Jiri and Blanka Zizka. For images and additional information about this episode, see the blog post on our website HERE. The original interviews of Jiri Zizka can be found on YouTube - HERE and HERE. The original interview of Blanka Zizka can also be found on YouTube - HERE. Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

The voices of Jiri and Blanka Zizka help to narrate the history of Philadelphia's Wilma Theater during the 1980s. For images and additional information about this episode, see the blog post on our website HERE. Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

A conversation about the impact that Blanka and Jiri Zizka had on the Philadelphia theater scene in the 1980s and 90s. If you have not yet listened to our Episode 97, "Off-Off Broad Street," in which we discuss the history of "The Wilma Project" during the 1970s, you can find it here:  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1721762/episodes/16873817 This is one of a multi-part series on the origin and history of and the Wilma Theater. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Marcia Ferguson of the University of Pennsylvania, who published a book in 2008 entitled Blanka and Jiri Zizka at the Wilma Theater, 1979-2000: From the Underground to the Avenue. You can find it here:  https://a.co/d/f8xC7rC To learn more about Marcia Ferguson and her work, go to her own professional website: https://www.marcialferguson.com/ Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

Charlie Gilbert returns to talk about the music theater and the many new musicals being created and developed in Philadelphia during the 1980s and 90s. We discuss the founding and early years of the American Music Theatre Festival, musicals performed at the Walnut and Arden Theatres, and the beginning of the Musical Theater Program at the University of the Arts - as theatrical and musical activity up and down Broad Street flourishes. To learn more about Charlie Gilbert and his work, visit his website: https://chasgilbert.com/ - there's a great blog post there, by the way about his role in the creation of the Sondheim/Wideman musical Assassins. And here is where you can learn about MusicCoLab, an exciting new organization dedicated to developing new works of musical theater in the Philadelphia area: https://musicolab.org/ A blog post on our own webpage, about the 1985 production of The Gospel at Colonus in Philadelphia, is HERE. Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

An interview with actor Johnnie Hobbs and choreographer Patricia Scott Hobbs about the Freedom Theatre in North Philadelphia.  In an archival recording, the Philadelphia composer and teacher Charles Gilbert talks to his longtime friends about their experiences at the Freedom, including working with founder John E. Allen and his successor Walter Dallas.  Though this is not a comprehensive narrative, we are pleased to begin sharing the story of this important cultural institution, which changed so many people's lives in the Philadelphia African American community.  Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now! For a link, go to our website: www.aithpodcast.com Our email address is [email protected] Follow us on social media: Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/ Support our work and get BONUS EPISODES on Patreon! GO HERE © Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved. ℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz. ℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.