OK Radio

radio never sounded so ok.

“It almost feels like we kidnapped you… or like – there’s like ransom… like somebody has to pay.”

—   Pavol Liska

“It would be so embarrassing to see how little money I would fetch.”

—   Oskar Eustis

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Oskar Eustis, director of The Public Theater in New York City about leadership, ethics, and idealism.  How does Oskar navigate the economic disparity he encounters every day – running an arts institution that has to both market itself to wealthy backers and nurture an often very impoverished community of working artists?  What are the possibilities he sees in the future toward making a better, more sustainable working environment – and ultimately better art – in the American theater?

To see what’s going on at The Public, go to: http://publictheater.org

To read the article about radical feminist Shulamith Firestone that Oskar mentions in this podcast go to: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/04/15/130415fa_fact_faludi

To read Charles Ludlam’s Manifesto for Ridiculous Theater, Scourge of Human Folly (which Oskar quotes in this podcast) go to: http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~norm/manifesto.html

Or just buy the whole damn book: http://www.amazon.com/Ridiculous-Theatre-Scourge-Opinions-Charles/dp/1559360410

“It’s one of the things I think is inherently radical about the theater, is that the theater necessarily says that individual lives are worthy, and that it also requires collective action, in order to make that.”

—   Oskar Eustis
This week in the closet: we kidnapped Oskar Eustis, director of The Public Theater.

“We will – we will respect your – your courage and we will respect your failure, and you can always come back in this closet, and we can – it may not be helpful to you, but – you know. I’d rather you fail – gloriously – than, than give in.”

—   Pavol Liska

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with writer Lucy Alibar (whose film Beasts of the Southern Wild was just nominated for four Academy Awards) about how she straddles the worlds of both stage and film.  Also, how has it been for her to negotiate that success with its looming an inevitable opposite: failure?  When you have a big move forward in your artistic career, how do you manage the fear that sometimes follows, and the pressure to make another immediate hit?  (All this and more about story, land, race, history, religion, and the future.)

Lucy Alibar presents her newest work-in-progress “Carl the Raping Goat Saves Christmas” at Berkeley Rep this Saturday, June 15th, be there!: http://www.berkeleyrep.org/about/groundfloor.asp#alibar

To watch the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild, go to: http://gowatchit.com/movies/beasts-of-the-southern-wild-264745

To watch the episode of Star Trek that Kelly talks about (Season 1, Episode 5 – “The Enemy Within”) featuring a Pekinese dog in a dinosaur costume: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HED8EY/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=tvli00-20

To watch the episode of Star Trek that Kelly talks about (Season 1, Episode 5 – “The Enemy Within”) featuring a Pekinese dog in a dinosaur costume: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HED8EY/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=tvli00-20

“So what else did you lie about? Because I would hate to be a propagator of lies… OK Radio is not about lies, people!”

—   Pavol Liska
Today our guest is the lovely Lucy Alibar, who ran all the way here.

“The body symbolizes to you every moment of the day who you are – or who you aren’t.”

—   Lenore Manderson

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Lenore Manderson, writer, researcher and medical anthropologist at Monash University in Australia about our mutual fascination with the human body.  Join us as we discuss the body in practice and in performance, as signifier of vulnerability, power, visibility, ability, disability – and difference.

To learn more about Lenore’s work (she has multiple books to her credit, as well as a film) – you can visit her website: http://www.lenoremanderson.com/

Raimund Hoghe writes: “To see bodies on stage that do not comply with the norm is important - not only with regard to history but also with regard to present developments, which are leading humans to the status of design objects.” To see some of his choreographic work, go to: http://www.raimundhoghe.com

“ubuntu,” the concept Lenore refers to in this podcast, is a South African humanist worldview focusing on people’s allegiances and relations with each other.  Often opposed to the Descartes “I think therefore I am” – Ubuntu proposes: “I am because we are”

We talked in this podcast about many performance artists who work in particular with the body – that are maybe unknown to people, so if you’re interested in learning more, I encourage you to visit these sites:

To read more about the work of Stelarc, go to http://www.amazon.com/Stelarc-Monograph-Electronic-Culture-Practice/dp/0262693607

To read more about Julie Rrap: http://www.julierrap.com/

To learn more about Bob Flanagan, watch this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BHNCJU8/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=imdb-amazonvideo-20

“Human body is something that – is central to theater practice and choreography and… it could be perceived as a vulgar presence… a very, very messy – and a dirty… it produces waste… it’s really perceptible to gravity, to passage of time… and then somehow we use it to – to make art.”

—   Pavol Liska
This week on OK Radio we meet the fascinating Lenore Manderson…

“People are so much more interesting than the art that we give them.”

—   Pavol Liska