Working in the Theatre

The panel of Broadway actors - Joan Allen ("The Heidi Chronicles"), Ed Asner ("Born Yesterday"), Philip Bosco ("Lend Me A Tenor"), Pauline Collins ("Shirley Valentine"), Nancy Dussault ("Into The Woods") and Madeline Kahn ("Born Yesterday") - talk about the first time they fell in love with performing, auditions, how their careers have evolved, and the difference in stage and film work. Jean Dalrymple & Edwin Wilson moderate.

Director Pamela Berlin ("Steel Magnolias", "Crossing Delancey"), playwright Cindy Lou Johnson ("Brilliant Traces"), playwright/director Garson Kanin ("Born Yesterday") and playwright Wendy Wasserstein ("The Heidi Chronicles") discuss how they first got involved in playwriting and directing from other areas of writing and theatre, their first professional shows, and play development at Playwrights Horizons and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Playwrights Conference. Jean Dalrymple & George White moderate.

Playwrights Horizons artistic director André Bishop, legal counsel Marsha Brooks, stage manager Roy Harris, advertising representative Mike Mones, and producer James Walsh discuss Wendy Wasserstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "The Heidi Chronicles" and its transfer to Broadway. Jean Dalrymple & Edwin Wilson moderate.

David Aukin, Michael Blakemore, Howard Davies, Robert Fox, Michael Imison, Gillian Lynne, Anthony Quayle

Stage performers Blair Brown ("The Secret Rapture"), Kevin Conway ("Other People's Money"), Beth Fowler and Bob Gunton from "Sweeney Todd", Pamela Payton-Wright and Tony Randall from "M. Butterfly", Vanessa Redgrave ("Orpheus Descending"), Elaine Stritch ("Love Letters"), and casting director Rosemarie Tichler talk about their chosen careers, how they got started in theatre, and the differences and challenges that audiences bring to each performance. Jean Dalrymple & Edwin Wilson moderate.

Neema Barnette, Michael Engler, Larry Gelbart, David Hare, Gloria Muzio, Susan Schulman, Jerry Sterner, Richard Wesley

The production team of Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending" -- attorney John Breglio, advertising representative Nancy Coyne, general manager Barbara Darwall, press representative Joshua Ellis, and producer Elizabeth Ireland McCann -- talk about the steps taken in bringing Peter Hall's revival with actress Vanessa Redgrave to Broadway. Jean Dalrymple & Edwin Wilson moderate.

Jerome Sirlin, Jennifer Tipton, Alison Yerxa, Susan Young