#WalnutStreetTheatre Episodes

Grace has been performing and creating in Philadelphia theaters for the last four decades! She shares with us her memories of her life and work.

The rise of the Arden Theatre  Company - as well as the beginnings of the modern Walnut Street Theatre Company and the Lantern Theater Company.

A reprise of our 2023 interview with Bernard Havard of the Walnut Street Theatre - including a tour of the historic building.

Gregory Poggi successfully led the Philadelphia Drama Guild throughout the decade of the 1980s. He talked with us about his tussles with board members, battles with critics, fundraising triumphs and the growing audience support for professional nonprofit theater companies

The sudden success of the Drama Guild - a former amateur theater group transformed into a professional local powerhouse - finally fulfills the promise of giving Philadelphia a flagship nonprofit theater company.

Three new Philadelphia theater complexes are built for the mid-century modern era - funded by wealthy philanthropists.

The "Little Theater Movement" arrives in Philadelphia, bringing modern plays and creating new venues  - including the Walnut Street Theatre.

An interview and tour with Bernard Havard, the Producing Artistic Director of the historic Walnut Street Theatre.

Six stories of 19th century Philadelphia theater. We discuss Alexander Reinagle, Joseph Jefferson III, James Murdoch, Matilda Heron, John McCullough - as well as two stagehands at the Walnut Street Theater you likely never heard of before, but may never forget!

The life story of the most famous actress in 19th Century America - and the story of the Philadelphia women who founded an organization dedicated to protecting and supporting women in professional theater.

The actress would help to change the role of women on the American stage, and her visit to Philadelphia would have a transformative effect on her own life.

Edwin Forrest returns to his home city in the final decades of his life. After death, he creates a long-term legacy in Philadelphia.

We begin to explore the story of Philadelphia's own Edwin Forrest, the first great star of the American Stage! We follow him through his early years, through his youthful struggles, and finally to his glorious success.

Wars, fires, melodramas, circuses, balloons, and ice cream . . .  plus, for even more excitement, an examination of the economic model of American theater.

The hurricanes of World History blow a French equestrian circus company all the way to Philadelphia. The Walnut Street Theatre is born.