Growing Up Nutcracker

A family affair this week as host Austin Tichenor is joined by his brother John Tichenor and sister Amy Tichenor Moorhead to discuss their early years performing The Nutcracker for the Metropolitan Ballet Company in Oakland, CA, in the 1970s. The siblings share memories of teacher, choreographer, and director Vern Nerden; discuss favorite Nutcrackers; celebrate the rewards of following in your sister’s footsteps; remember the exact craving tech rehearsals and the smell of greasepaint continue to trigger; how one is connected to Tchaikovsky’s music on almost a cellular level; how the Nutcracker is an almost religious experience; and how early exposure to ballet led to lifetimes in the performing arts. (Length 30:58) (PICTURED: Tom Larson’s poster for the Metropolitan Ballet’s Nutcracker, circa 1970. Courtesy of Amy Tichenor Moorhead.)

Holiday Ghost Story

Inspired by the Berko Speakeasy, this week we present a festive tale by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies, from his slim volume High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories. Abridged and read by Austin Tichenor. Featuring: ghostly visitations; poor relations; spectral elitism; Norwegian sneering; drafty accommodations; phantom arthritis; and something called…a rumpus room. (Length 24:34)

A Little Dickens: The Complete Christmas Carol (abridged)

Want to experience all the wonder and joys of Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic but only have about ten minutes? You’re in luck!

A Little Dickens: The Complete Christmas Carol (abridged) (complete with 46 second encore) is an audio production written by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, first heard on Public Radio International in 1995, and produced by Connie Blaszczyk, Peter John Marquez, and the Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Free for the whole family!! Or just for you alone!! Just click the Play Triangle below.

From all of us to all of you…Happy Merry Chrismakwanukahhanzukah! (song not included)

Steadfast Tin Soldier

The Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago is remounting Mary Zimmerman’s production of The Steadfast Tin Soldier this holiday season, and the Tony-winning director and adapter herself talks to us about how the show came to life. Featuring seeking and finding, bittersweet qualities, being drawn to outsiders, staging an advent calendar, music hall influences, Masterpiece Theatre memories, colonizing the mind, actor contributions, a tribute to longtime collaborator Christopher Donahue, the value of taking a break, kitty sneezes, ending on a pun, toggling back and forth between literary and theatrical storytelling, and the value of beautiful legitimate sentiment. (Length 25:05) (Pictured: Alex Stein in the title role in the Lookingglass Theatre Company production of The Steadfast Tin Soldier, directed and adapted by Mary Zimmerman (left). Photos by Liz Lauren.)