John and Lila on Artwaves

Director John Heckel and composer Lila Nelson were just on for the entire half hour of Artwaves on KHSU in Arcata. I thought it was great--entertaining and informative. Plus Lila sang and John got to "act": he read several speeches from the play.

John also talked about Bernadette Cheyne as Mother Courage, her commitment and energy in the role, and how this set the tone for the rest of the actors in the production.

Lila reminded John that her very first involvement with HSU theatre was writing the music for a production of one of Brecht's first plays, Baal. This was before Lila had even enrolled at HSU. Lila worked on many productions while an HSU student, as an actor and musician as well as on production crews. She graduated last year.

John recounted a visit to the Berliner Ensemble theatre in Berlin, where he saw Brecht's office and sat on his couch. He called this place one of the great shrines of world theatre.

John Heckel also revealed that this is likely to be his next to last production at HSU, and spoke of Mother Courage and Her Children as the latest in a series of major productions he's done in Gist, which included both parts of Tony Kushner's Angels in America and two major plays by the Canadian First Nations author (referred to here down south as Native Americans), Tomson Highway.

If you heard the interview, either on the radio or over the net, what was your response?