Episodes

We begin our third season  of adventures! Here we learn about the historical origins of the "Tryout Town" in American showbiz of the early 20th Century.

Philadelphia actress, director and educator Penelope Reed sits down for an interview with us, and shares fascinating memories of her long career.

Fires were a real danger in 19th Century theater, and some Philadelphia theaters were burned down and rebuilt multiple times. Many performers, audience members, and firefighters lost their lives.

First released as Episode 10 in May of 2021, we bring out this great story once again!

Opposition to Andre Gregory's artistic leadership rises, and eventually matters come to a head after the production of the play "Beclch."

Our story continues, with the second season of Philadelphia's scrappy non-profit resident theater company.

Announcements, Corrections, Answers to questions from our listeners - and some exciting personal news!

Two Philadelphia area women begin the arduous process of bringing the skeptical Philly audience a non-profit theater. Andre Gregory becomes the theater's first Artistic Director

Could the first publicly funded and owned city theater survive in the rough-and-tumble of Philadelphia city politics?

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

During the 1930s, some touring Broadway shows got into trouble in Philly with S. Davis Wilson, aka "The People's Mayor."

In the 1920s, Philadelphia theater censorship controversies arose about what women were wearing - or rather were NOT wearing - on the city's stages.

Actress Sarah Bernhardt outrages Philadelphia's clergymen, and "The Playboy of the Western World" causes yet another Philly audience riot!

Oscar Hammerstein loses the "Opera War" - but the grand Philadelphia theater that he built still stands.

The opera "Salome" at Oscar Hammerstein's new Philadelphia Opera House needed to be stopped, declared hundreds of clergymen and civic leaders.

The magnificent new theater in North Philadelphia was ready for its first opera! It was "as if some master magician's wand had called it into being."

1906: A coalition of African American men attempt to stop Thomas Dixon Jr.'s play "The Clansman" from being performed in Philadelphia.

Seven short and light vignettes from the history of Philadelphia theater - all of which took place in the city during the Holidays, from various theatrical seasons over the past 150 years.

The root causes of Thomas Dixon's political obsessions - and about his need to express himself in the world of the theater. Also: the two Philadelphia theatrical producers who were members of The Theatrical Syndicate.

We begin the harrowing and alarming story of "The Clansman" in Philadelphia. Although known as the progenitor to the 1915 D.W. Griffith film "Birth of the Nation," few are aware of its early controversial history.

We bring back our Episode 21, in honor of Native American Heritage Month.

A mob is gathering outside the Chestnut Street Theatre, while inside the rehearsals for the scandalous play "The Quaker City" go on! Will it all end in a deadly riot? The suspense is building . . .

George Lippard's novel "The Quaker City, or the Monk's of Monk Hall" is made into a new play. The excitement about it builds in Philadelphia, just as the national election of 1844 roils the city.

Philadelphia in the early 1840s was a city under constant threat of political violence and civil disruption. We learn about the violent crime that would one day inspire a VERY controversial play.