Playwright Ayad Akhtar, Creators of BROOKLYNITE Set for THEATER TALK This Week

An all-new THEATER TALK focuses on two very different New York productions, both dealing with issues of identity: the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Disgraced, now at the Lyceum Theatre, and the off-Broadway musical Brooklynite, currently in previews at The Vineyard.

On THEATER TALK, playwright Ayad Akhtar explains to co-hosts Michael Riedel of the New York Post and Susan Haskins the creative genesis of Disgraced, which features a confrontational exchange between two couples at a dinner party inspired, in part, by an actual event in his life. The issues in this riveting drama, related to being Muslim-American, are political and personal and elicit a variety of complex and sometimes volatile responses.

Next up, the show focuses on Brooklynite, a new musical at THE VINEYARD Theatre about a hardware store clerk who dreams of becoming a superhero, just at a time when Brooklyn is on the brink of disaster. Guests on THEATER TALK are director Michael Mayer and composer Peter Lerman who created the show together, along with actor Matt Doyle, who plays the lead role. Doyle also performs one of the show's songs "I Am Not A Hero," accompanied on the piano by the show's musical director Kimberly Grigsby.

This THEATER TALK episode premieres in the New York metropolitan area Friday, Feb. 6 (2015) at 1 AM (Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, and continues on CUNY TV* Saturday 2/7 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 2/8 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 2/9 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM.

THEATER TALK is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. The program is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 100+ participating public television stations nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible in part by The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast in the New York metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3, and cablecast in THE FIVE boroughs of New York City on Ch. 75 (Time Warner; Optimum/Brooklyn), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). The show is available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org and via iTunes podcasts.

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