Episodes

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.

A quick announcement about our upcoming season of new episodes . . . Spoiler Alert: There will be lots of drama. And conflict!

Jasper Deeter formed Philadelphia's oldest repertory theater company in 1923. Though seemingly self-isolated in the small and intense community of theater workers he had founded, his work as a director, actor, visionary and ...

This special episode of the podcast goes on a journey to the Paul Robeson House and Museum. We learn about Robeson's many connections to Philadelphia.

Like the ghost of Hamlet's father, John Barrymore wouldn't stay still and kept showing up! A chapter about Philadelphia's most famous acting family, from Wicked Philadelphia, a book by Thomas H. Keels.

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 history of the Philadelphia "Negro Unit" of the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s - specifically the history of three plays produced by the FTP at the Walnut Street Theatre.

The distinguished director discusses her tenure at the Philadelphia Drama Guild in the 1990s.

We describe the theaters, plays and people of the years 1876 to 1896, a mostly forgotten era of Philadelphia theater history.

John A. Arneaux plays "Richard III" at the Academy of Music, then mysteriously exits the American stage. His co-star, the actor Henri Strange, remains - and strives to create a Shakespeare theater for Philadelphia's Black audiences.

John A. Arneaux starred in a one-night all-Black production of Shakespeare's "Richard III' at the Academy of Music in January 1887. Who was he, where had he come from, and why had he chosen Philadelphia for this audacious feat?

Before ending their occupation of Philadelphia in 1778, the British Army threw themselves a hell of a theatre party!

The story of one of America's most infamous - and influential - performance traditions, as it specifically relates to the history of theater in Philadelphia.