June 16, 2006

I'm excited about Saturday's program on The Shakespeare Project. Wednesday of this week I had the opportunity to travel with a group of colleagues down to Racine to see a live performance of "Othello" in the Racine Correctional Institute. It was stunning - Shakespeare as Shakespeare was meant to be - real, raw, and electrifying. The actor who played the lead had a powerful on-stage presence and emoted real anguish. Iago was positively machiavellian. And Desdemona made me cry. It was by far the most memorable performance of the play I have ever seen - truly transformative. I hope you'll be listening tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 when I talk with the director, Jonathan Shailor, about his techniques based on conflict resolution and Jungian archetypes. If you miss the live program, you can still catch the repeat on Monday night at 8:00 or listen to the archived version on-line.

Another highlight of this weekend's run-down is our summer solstice poetry circle of the air on Sunday at 2:00pm featuring the work of Stanley Kunitz. We'll lead off the program with a tender love poem called "Touch Me," written when Kunitz was 94 years old. Molly Peacock and I designed this poetry circle as a Father's Day special - Stanley being the father of us all - so please bring your favorite poems about fathers and gardeners too. You can find "Touch Me" posted on our website.

BIG NEWS: This will be our last live weekend of programs. As of July 10, Here on Earth will be switching to a weekday time slot - 3:00pm Monday through Friday. We'll be adding a fifth program on Friday which will feature food and travel - and we want your suggestions! But don't stop listening to the weekend programs - you'll get a chance to hear The Best of Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders from the last three years.

Lot's more to come - stay posted and all aboard!