August 24, 2007
When Kurt visited Scotland earlier this month, he was overwhelmed by the literally thousands of theater performances to choose from at Edinburgh’s Fringe Fest. Cultural correspondent Fiona Chutney came to the rescue, sort of. (Chutney is the creation of actress Iris Bahr, who is in Edinburgh performing her one-woman show Dai: (Enough).)
Studio 360’s live show from the Aspen Ideas Festival gets started with New York up-and-comers Elizabeth and the Catapult performing "Perfectly Perfect."
She’s best known for playing the national security advisor on The West Wing but she’s also a theater pioneer –- writing and performing plays based on hundreds of interviews with real people. On stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival, she describes her current work, "Let Me Down Easy," about the resilience of the human body. And she performs an excerpt where she portrays a champion bull rider named Brent Williams.
Edward P. Jones won a Pulitzer in 2003 for his novel The Known World. (Anna Deavere Smith is currently turning it into a screenplay.) Jones' latest book is a collection of stories called All Aunt Hagar’s Children, about the black community in Washington DC and its connections to the rural South. On stage in Aspen, he told Kurt that he doesn't do any research for his historical fiction -- he prefers to make it all up.
At the Aspen Ideas Festival, vocalist and pianist Elizabeth Ziman and her band the Catapult prove their unique brand of New York City pop sounds great at any altitude.
Elizabeth and the Catapult perform "Waiting for the Kill" live at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
