Ira Glass News

Fire-in-the-belly passion, gritty guitars, mandolin and songs with Woodie Guthrie-esque themes traverse Railroad Earth's unplugged and plugged-in landscape. Returning to Park City (an encore to their 2013 Deer Valley opening appearance for Bruce Hornsby), the newgrass-bluegrass-rock band performs on The Eccles Center stage, Saturday, February 20.

Public radio's "This American Life" - created and hosted by Ira Glass - has transformed journalism by pushing the limits of how a story is told (and won five Peabody awards along the way). In his live appearance, Glass weaves memorable radio moments into a behind-the-scenes narrative about finding and telling compelling stories. His live performance, "Reinventing Radio" comes to The Eccles Center on February 6. The evening begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available by calling 435-655-3114 or online at EcclesCenter.org.

In Dr. BJ Miller's TED Talk he left his audience with the following challenge: "Let death be what takes us, not lack of imagination." The palliative care physician and an executive with San Francisco's Zen Hospice Project proposes rethinking and redesigning how we die; creating a dignified system that allows life to play out as a "crescendo."

Amphibian Stage Productions (Kathleen Culebro, Artistic Director) has announced programming for its seventeeth season. 

McCarter Theater Center will present a special live appearance by Ira Glass, NPR star and host of This American Life, on Saturday, November 21st at 8p.m. on the Matthews Stage. Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host combines Ira's distinctive vocal style and knack for storytelling together with modern dance to create something different.

Visionary director Julie Taymor curates and hosts the first National Sawdust+ concert tonight, November 6 at 7:30pm. MADE IN BROOKLYN, an evening inspired by that artistically fertile corner of New York City, will feature music by Brooklyn-born composers including the great George Gershwin and Oscar-winners Aaron Copland, John Corigliano and Elliot Goldenthal. The concert will feature the world concert premiere of Goldenthal's String Quartet No. 1 'The Stone Cutters' performed by Flux Quartet, the 'Chaconne' from Corigliano's Academy Award-winning score for The Red Violin, performed by Tim Fain & Stephen Gosling, and much more.

Visionary director Julie Taymor will curate and host the first National Sawdust+ concert on Friday, November 6 at 7:30pm. MADE IN BROOKLYN, an evening inspired by that artistically fertile corner of New York City, will feature music by Brooklyn-born composers including the great George Gershwin and Oscar-winners Aaron Copland, John Corigliano and Elliot Goldenthal. The concert will feature the world concert premiere of Goldenthal's String Quartet No. 1 'The Stone Cutters' performed by Flux Quartet, the 'Chaconne' from Corigliano's Academy Award-winning score for The Red Violin, performed by Tim Fain & Stephen Gosling, and much more.

Entertain. Illuminate. Educate. As Park City Performing Arts Foundation has transitioned into Park City Institute, its mission has broadened. This season at The Eccles Center illustrates PCI's efforts to not just entertain, but also to educate and to illuminate. PCI sets the tone for a 'thinky' Eccles Center season with Edward Snowden opening the line-up on December 5 (via closed video feed). As always, the season includes an eclectic mix of live dance, music, authors, speakers, family shows, spectacles, up-and-comers and well-established legends.

The Public Theater will kick off the 2015-16 season in September with a free Public Works musical adaptation of Homer's THE ODYSSEY, conceived and directed by Public Works Director Lear deBessonet, with music, lyrics and book by Todd Almond. THE ODYSSEY will once again feature over 200 actors and community members alongside five equity actors, including this year Brandon Victor Dixon as Odysseus and Karen Olivo as Penelope.

Check out videos from last year's performance of Naomi, based on the true story of a high school drug bust.

TED, the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, and PBS are thrilled to announce the first ever TED TALKS LIVE, a six?night speaker event featuring TED Talks, short films and performances at The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street) in New York's famed Theater District.

The Public Theater will kick off the 2015-16 season in September with a free Public Works musical adaptation of Homer's THE ODYSSEY, conceived and directed by Public Works Director Lear deBessonet, with music, lyrics and book by Todd Almond. THE ODYSSEY will once again feature over 200 actors and community members alongside five equity actors, including this year Brandon Victor Dixon as Odysseus, Karen Olivo as Penelope and Taran Killam as Cyclops.

This month, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival presents Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a special pre-Festival performance starring Ira Glass, the host and executive producer of the famed public radio program This American Life. 'The Tina Fey of dance' (Sarah Kaufman, The Washington Post) Monica Bill Barnes and fellow dancer and collaborator Anna Bass perform with Glass, bringing the unlikely art forms of talk radio and dance together for a production that is 'unapologetically human and refreshingly relatable' (Brian Schaefer, The New York Times). This limited engagement will be presented in the Ted Shawn Theatre for two performances only, tonight, June 13 at 8pm and tomorrow, June 14 at 2pm.

How would they turn iTunes most downloaded podcast "Serial" into a stage show? "All Things Considered" or "60 Minutes" never went on the road quite like this.

Following the critical acclaim and record-breaking attendance of Festival 2014, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival opens its 2015 season in June.

May 26, 2015 - (Becket, MA) Following the critical acclaim and record-breaking attendance of Festival 2014, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival opens its 2015 season in June. Highlights of Festival 2015 include Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a special dance and radio stage production starring Ira Glass, host of This American Life; the return of Nederlands Dans Theater 2; the world premiere of American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Daniil Simkin's INTENSIO; Cuban contemporary ensemble Malpaso Dance Company, performing with GRAMMY Award-winning pianist and composer Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble; and the launch of Martha Graham Dance Company's 90th Anniversary, including a world premiere by eminent choreographer Mats Ek. 

Pop culture sensation Serial is ripped from the headlines when Binge-Worthy Journalism: An Evening With SERIAL Creators Sarah Koenig & Julie Snyder comes to the Merriam Theater tonight, May 14 at 8p.m. Presented by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, this live presentation allows Koenig and Snyder to take the audience backstage in the creation of this cultural phenomenon. Using some of their favorite tape, they'll tell personal behind-the-scenes stories, explain how they constructed certain episodes and allow the audience to follow the ups and downs of creating a new form of modern journalism that has captured the attention of a nation.

Hell in a Handbag Productions is pleased to kick-off its 2015-16 season with the Midwest premiere of MIRACLE!, the wickedly funny parody of The Miracle Worker as reimagined by Dan Savage, one of the country's leading writers/speakers/podcasters on sex, sexuality and GLBTQ issues, and directed by Derek Van Barham. MIRACLE! will play tonight, May 14 - July 10, 2015 at the newly-remodeled Mary's Attic, 5400 N. Clark St. in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood.