A conversation with one of the longest-serving and most consequential artistic directors and producers of the modern era of Philadelphia theater history, Sara Garonzik.

As we continue our Season Four, we learn about her early years - first as and actor, then as a director, then as a producer at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. And we learn her stories about how she took PTC from a 25-year-long home at the Plays and Players Theatre to the new Suzanne Roberts Theatre on Broad Street.

Plus, we learn about how she committed the theater to presenting consequential modern American playwrights such as Terrence McNally, David Ives and August Wilson, and worked with so many amazing directors, composers and performing artists of the American theater - everyone from Richard Thomas to Billy Porter to Bill Irwin to Kathleen Turner.

A blog post on our website, with photos of Sara Garonzik and the opening of the Suzanne Robert Theatre in 2007 on Broad Street is here: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/images-for-episode-100-the-suzanne-roberts-theatre-grand-opening-2007/

On Sunday, June 29th, the author and podcaster Peter Schmitz will be appearing at the Brookline Books stall at the 2025 American Library Association annual conference and exhibition at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

If you’re a librarian - or a fan of libraries - and are coming to the ALA in Philly this year, please be sure to stop by and say hello!

Support the show

"Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now!

To order our book via Bookshop.org - GO HERE

Our website: www.aithpodcast.com

Our email address: AITHpodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AITHpodcast

© Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.

℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz.

℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

Our interview with teacher, writer and director Robert Hedley - the former Chair of the Theater Departments of both Villanova and Temple Universities.

In our conversation, we discuss many things - including his early years, his coming to Villanova, his work with playwright David Rabe and producer Joseph Papp, and his work in helping to found The Philadelphia Company (the precursor to the Philadelphia Theater Company).

For a full bio of Bob's work, go HERE.

(Cover image for this episode is 1976 photo of Robert Hedley directing the actors Carla Belver and John Yinger - during rehearsals in the early years of the Philadelphia Company. Image from the Temple University Special Collections Research Center, George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection.)

On Sunday, June 29th, the author and podcaster Peter Schmitz will be appearing at the Brookline Books stall at the 2025 American Library Association annual conference and exhibition at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

If you’re a librarian - or a fan of libraries - and are coming to the ALA in Philly this year, please be sure to stop by and say hello!

Support the show

"Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now!

To order our book via Bookshop.org - GO HERE

Our website: www.aithpodcast.com

Our email address: AITHpodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AITHpodcast

© Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.

℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz.

℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

Cato: A Tragedy was a famous 18th Century play by Joseph Addison - supposedly the favorite play of George Washington himself! What connection did it have to the history of America - and the theater history of Philadelphia?

This is an edited audio recording of a panel discussion at the Museum of the Revolution in Philadelphia, recorded on April 9th, 2025.

A video of the entire event can be found at the MOAR website, HERE.

For photographs from the event on our own AITH website, go HERE.

For tickets to see CATO (Remixed) at Carpenters Hall) from May 1 to May 18, 2025, go HERE.

On Sunday, June 29th, the author and podcaster Peter Schmitz will be appearing at the Brookline Books stall at the 2025 American Library Association annual conference and exhibition at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

If you’re a librarian - or a fan of libraries - and are coming to the ALA in Philly this year, please be sure to stop by and say hello!

Support the show

"Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now!

To order our book via Bookshop.org - GO HERE

Our website: www.aithpodcast.com

Our email address: AITHpodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AITHpodcast

© Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.

℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz.

℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

The story of three small ambitious cutting-edge Philadelphia theater companies of the 1970s. Why did some survive - and some falter?

For a blog post with images of the productions and people we discuss in the episode, go HERE.

(Cover photo for the episode shows the actor Daniel Oreskes in The Servant of Two Masters, which was being presented by The Repertory Company in West Philadelphia's Clark Park during the summer of 1975. He is having his costume arranged by an unidentified female member of the company. Photo taken by Salvatore C. DiMarco, Jr. for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. Courtesy of the Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries)

On Sunday, June 29th, the author and podcaster Peter Schmitz will be appearing at the Brookline Books stall at the 2025 American Library Association annual conference and exhibition at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

If you’re a librarian - or a fan of libraries - and are coming to the ALA in Philly this year, please be sure to stop by and say hello!

Support the show

"Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now!

To order our book via Bookshop.org - GO HERE

Our website: www.aithpodcast.com

Our email address: AITHpodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AITHpodcast

© Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.

℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz.

℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

An interview about Philadelphia theatrical projects that employed so many local actors before and during the Bicentennial Year of 1976.

In the very place where the American experiment began, regular work in "historical re-enactment" and patriotic storytelling gave young and ambitious Philadelphia theater artists a boost in their careers.

This episode also provides a coda for the saga of the Manning Street Theatre Company - a story that's at the climax of our book Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia.

For a blog post with images and additional information about this episode: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/bicentennial-blues/

On Sunday, June 29th, the author and podcaster Peter Schmitz will be appearing at the Brookline Books stall at the 2025 American Library Association annual conference and exhibition at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

If you’re a librarian - or a fan of libraries - and are coming to the ALA in Philly this year, please be sure to stop by and say hello!

Support the show

"Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now!

To order our book via Bookshop.org - GO HERE

Our website: www.aithpodcast.com

Our email address: AITHpodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AITHpodcast

© Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.

℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz.

℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

An interview with the director, writer and artist Tom Bissinger, in which we talk about his work in the 1960s and 70s, including his all-too-brief term as the final Artistic Director of the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia.

A native of San Francisco, Tom's fascinating life story is interwoven with so many iconic names from the 60s and 70s, including working in Philadelphia with the actors Dick Shawn, Judd Hirsch, Morgan Freeman and Danny DeVito!

Tom's 2013 memoir, The Fun House: Memory, Magic & Mayhem, is available from XLibris, and can be found HERE.

For a fun BLOG POST on our website, with more info and images from this time in Philly theater, go to: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/scuba-duba-la-turista-and-the-recruiting-officer-at-the-tla/

On Sunday, June 29th, the author and podcaster Peter Schmitz will be appearing at the Brookline Books stall at the 2025 American Library Association annual conference and exhibition at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

If you’re a librarian - or a fan of libraries - and are coming to the ALA in Philly this year, please be sure to stop by and say hello!

Support the show

"Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now!

To order our book via Bookshop.org - GO HERE

Our website: www.aithpodcast.com

Our email address: AITHpodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AITHpodcast

© Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.

℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz.

℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

A recut and remixed and refocused version of an interview with the director Mary B. Robinson, about her years she spent in the 1990s as the Artistic Director of the Drama Guild. (Stay tuned at the very end for an brief announcement about the future direction of the podcast - and my thoughts about current events)

A short blog post on our website has additional information and images about Mary and some of the productions she staged during her years at the Drama Guild: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/photos-of-mary-robinson-and-the-drama-guild/

To find Mary Robinson's recent book about Zelda Fichander (in which, among many others, I am interviewed), go HERE

On Sunday, June 29th, the author and podcaster Peter Schmitz will be appearing at the Brookline Books stall at the 2025 American Library Association annual conference and exhibition at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

If you’re a librarian - or a fan of libraries - and are coming to the ALA in Philly this year, please be sure to stop by and say hello!

Support the show

"Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now!

To order our book via Bookshop.org - GO HERE

Our website: www.aithpodcast.com

Our email address: AITHpodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AITHpodcast

© Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.

℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz.

℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.

Gregory Poggi successfully led the Philadelphia Drama Guild throughout the decade of the 1980s. He talked with us about his memories of those days - tussles with board members, battles with critics, fundraising triumphs and the growing audience support for professional nonprofit theater companies in the city.

For a blog post on our website with additional images and information, go to:
https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/images-for-episode-93-gregory-poggi/

On Sunday, June 29th, the author and podcaster Peter Schmitz will be appearing at the Brookline Books stall at the 2025 American Library Association annual conference and exhibition at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

If you’re a librarian - or a fan of libraries - and are coming to the ALA in Philly this year, please be sure to stop by and say hello!

Support the show

"Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent bookstores and at all online book retailers now!

To order our book via Bookshop.org - GO HERE

Our website: www.aithpodcast.com

Our email address: AITHpodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @aithpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AITHpodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aithpodcast/

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AITHpodcast

© Podcast text copyright, Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.

℗ All original voice recordings copyright Peter Schmitz.

℗ All original music copyright Christopher Mark Colucci. Used by permission.