THEATER TALK to Feature SONTAG: REBORN and THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, 6/28

THEATER TALK goes Off Broadway to feature the creators of two of the hottest tickets in town, Sontag: Reborn at New York Theatre Workshop and Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 at Kazino.

Co-hosted by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and producer Susan Haskins, this THEATER TALK episode premieres Friday, June 28, 2013 at 1 AM (Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, and repeats in the New York metro area on CUNY TV* Saturday at 8:30 PM, Sunday at 12:30 PM, and Monday at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM.

First on the show, Sontag: Reborn actor/adaptor Moe Angelos and director Marianne Weems discuss their multimedia piece, based on the early journals of famed 20th-century critic Susan Sontag. In the production, which The New York Times calls "a spellbinding X-ray of a writer's psyche," Angelos plays Sontag, both as an aspiring young writer eagerly embracing a life of the mind, as well as an aging literary superstar, looking back at her early intellectual development and where it brought her.

Also on the program we talk to composer-librettist-actor Dave Malloy and director Rachel Chavkin about their hit immersive musical Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, based on Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. The show takes place in a nightclub in New York City's trendy Meatpacking District, built especially for the production and where the audience is served a traditional Russian meal while the company performs the show all around them.

THEATER TALK is the weekly series dedicated to the world of the stage. The program, jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV, is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan and distributed to 65+ participating public television markets 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 TDF/TAP Plus Program, The CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast on Ch. 25.3 in the New York metropolitan area, and cablecast in New York City's five boroughs on Channel 75 (Time Warner and Cablevision) and on other cable systems. This program will be also posted on CUNY TV's website beginning July 2 at http://www.cuny.tv/show/theatertalk/PR2001945.

Pictured: (L:) Moe Angelos as Susan Sontag in Sontag: Reborn. (Photo © Joan Marcus); (R:) Phillipa Soo in Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. (Photo © Chad Batka).