METEOR SHOWER's Amy Schumer to Stop By Next Week's THEATER TALK

Two actors with larger-than-life personas - comedian Amy Schumer, now on Broadway in Steve Martin's new hit play Meteor Shower at the Booth Theatre, and avant-garde theater legend Agosto Machado - are subjects of an all-new THEATER TALK.

In the first segment, THEATER TALK host Susan Haskins is joined by guest co-host Jason Zinoman of The New York Times in welcoming Schumer to the broadcast. The world-famous actress/comic tells them that despite her 15-year career in stand-up and recent movies, she was eager to do more theater; she has in fact been "doing plays since I was 5 years old" and still meets weekly with her theater company The Collective to work on new material. She discusses the collaborative rehearsal period for Meteor Shower under the direction of Jerry Zaks, who helped her to create a character different from the ones she has portrayed in her stand-up act and five feature films. Schumer also gives her take on the #MeToo movement and why she is glad not to be doing political comedy at this moment in time.

Next, Haskins is joined by co-host Michael Musto of NewNowNext.com for a conversation with downtown theater legend Machado, whose career began with UNDERGROUND cinema pioneer Jack Smith and at Ellen Stewart's early-sixties Cafe? La MaMa. "I was a pre-Stonewall Christopher Street drag queen who got swept up in the revolution of alternative theater, gay rights and the anti-war movement," he tells the hosts. Theater was never a conscious choice. Back then Jackie Curtis, already a Warhol "superstar," invited him "across the footlights" to join the cast of his musical Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes of the Damned, which became a smash Off-Broadway hit of the early 70's and a Queer-culture stage classic. "Jackie, I can't act, sing or dance," Agosto remembers telling the director/playwright. Curtis's reply: "Even better!"

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Following is the broadcast/cable schedule for this episode in the New York area:

CUNY TV*

Monday, December 18 (2017) at 8:00 PM
Saturday, December 23 at 8:30 PM
Sunday, December 24 at 7:00 AM
Monday, December 25 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM

PBS/Thirteen

Friday, December 22 at 1:30 AM (Sat. morning)
Sunday, December 24 at 11:30 AM

WLIW/21

Monday, December 25 at 5:30 PM

NYC LIFE/25

Thursday, December 28 at 11:00 PM
Monday, January 1 at 3:30 AM

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THEATER TALK - winner of the 2017 Emmy Award for Best Interview/Discussion Show in the NYC area - 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 City Department of Cultural Affairs and The Friends of Theater Talk. *CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast in the NYC metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3 and cablecast in the city's five boroughs on Ch. 75 (Spectrum & Optimum/Brooklyn), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). THEATER TALK episodes are available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org and via iTunes.

Pictured: Amy Schumer in Steve Martin's Meteor Shower; Agosto Machado on Theater Talk (Photos: Schumer by Matthew Murphy; Machado courtesy Theater Talk Prods. and CUNY TV)