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Person Place Thing
Fridays, 10:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Hosted by former New York Times Ethicist Columnist Randy Cohen, PPT features guests who talk about a person, a place and a thing they find meaningful. Randy pulls out the most interesting details from columnists to musicians, architects and ballerinas including Rosanne Cash, E. Jean Carroll and Gene Kohn. The results: surprising stories from great talkers.
To learn more about this program, visit presonplacething.org.
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Zach Iscol served in Iraq as a Marine and is now commissioner of New York City’s Department of Emergency Management. “We are always activated. We’re always responding to stuff,” he says. How to prepare for the worst.
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Patrick Page’s solo show, All the Devils Are Here, explores Shakespeare’s villains. Among his many other celebrated roles—Hades in Hadestown, Scar in The Lion King, Max in The Sound of Music, only some of whom are villainous (your call).
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An architect’s client is not just a customer, not quite a colleague. Theirs is a curious collaboration, one gracefully navigated by the head of GLUCK+, Thomas Gluck and the executive director of the WHIN Music Community Charter School, Charlie Ortiz, and they’ve got a fine new building to show for it.
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Librarian Fred Gitner was recently honored by the American Library Association for his work at the Queens Public Library on programs to assist migrants. “Over 200 languages are spoken in Queens,” he says. “We have collections in 50 or so and regularly purchase in about 30.”
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It can be a challenge for even terrific actors like Santino Fontana to stay fresh and focused night after night. “I’ll make up, you know, Gandhi is in the fourth row; do a great show.” Fontana also talks about Philip Seymour Hoffman and Cinc Sentits.
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How did we allow the destruction of the Colorado River? “We think that water comes from the tap,” says photographer Pete McBride. “We’ve lost the idea that water comes from natural systems.” We discuss McBride’s book, “The Colorado River: Chasing Water. Then weep. Then fight. Then drink.”
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Environmental epidemiologist Virginia Rauh knows the dismal effects of pesticides on the young, yet she loves to bring her students to the neonatal intensive care unit. “The NICU is a place of hope, and little babies are very, very cute.”
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Eddie Izzard is eager that her solo performance of “Hamlet” — yes, all the parts — be a pleasure accessible to everyone. “Shakespeare is presented to people these days as: this is good for you. I’ve heard the term ‘spinach theater.’” Izzard also talks to us about Shakespeare and Covent Garden.
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“I don’t like dance,” says this choreographer, “but we saw the bull riders at Madison Square Garden and, boy, I really wanted to get on that bull.” Her combination of disdain and desire results in an exciting and surprising dance.
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When someone yo-yos between government and commerce, the word “self-serving” hovers, but it is heartening when urban planner Marc Norman moves between academia and enterprise, between theory and practice, putting his ideas to the test.