COVER STORY Circus Kurt Andersen and Cathy Day, author of The Circus in Winter, experience the spectacular, seedy joy of the circus.
Mud Show The Kelly Miller Circus is one of the last "mud shows," setting up in small towns and breaking down the same night. North Country Public Radio's Gregory Warner visited the circus in Arcade, New York. He found a unique version of family-friendly raunch, and a big grudge against Cirque du Soleil. Go to the Kelly Miller Circus Website
Tin Man Known for his huge, geometrical mobiles, sculptor Alexander Calder started as a child by making toys. As an adult, among the radical artists of 1920's Paris, he crafted a metal menagerie of acrobats, ringmasters, lions and lion tamers. He even made stretcher-bearers in case someone got hurt. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell. Watch a video about Calder Buy a book about Calder's circus
Girl on a Wire Parents used to fear their kids running away to the circus, but today, in some cities, they drive their kids to circus school. Marge Ostroushko has been taking her daughter, Anna, for classes at St. Paul's Juventas since Anna was ten. Now she watches as Anna hangs in mid-air off a boy’s feet -- by the tops of her own feet. Go to the website for Circus Juventas
SPECIAL GUEST Cathy Day Cathy Day is the author of The Circus in Winter, a collection of stories about the performers in a turn-of-the-century circus and their descendants. She is a native of Peru, Indiana, a wintering town for a circus, where her great-uncle was killed by one of the elephants. She teaches writing at the University of Pittsburgh. Go to Cathy Day's website Buy The Circus in Winter
Design for the Real World PDA Design curator Paola Antonelli on the fall of Apple's Newton handheld computer, the rise of the Palm, and what makes a great "personal digital assistant" tick. Buy a palm pilot
Adam Guettel Most of the classic American musicals – Oklahoma, The King and I, South Pacific, The Sound of Music -- were written by one composer, Richard Rodgers. Now Rodgers' grandson, Adam Guettel, is a composer with a huge hit on his hands: The Light in the Piazza, which won six Tony Awards this year. Guettel speaks with Kurt Andersen about Piazza, and why he doesn’t write ironic, smart-alec musicals. Official Lincoln Center Website for Piazza Buy the Light in the Piazza Soundtrack
Studio 360 is a co-production of Public Radio International and WNYC New York, and is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Tiffany & Co.Foundation and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.
Mud Show
