Shake the Sphere with Sid

Sid talks with Lawrence Quill, one of the most brilliant and inventive of thinkers, whose inquiries run from the use of nostalgia in politics to governments' recourse to secrecy.  Professor of Political Science at San Jose State University, Lawrence has been a Technology and Democracy Fellow at the Center for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and the Humanities at Cambridge University. H...

Sid talks with Susan Cerasano, the Edgar W. B. Fairchild Professor of Literature at Colgate University. Now, when Susan “talks” about Shakespeare, or Marlowe--for that matter, the words flow from her like some joyous, fast-moving stream, eager to flood its banks. Wonderfully perceptive parallels are made, insights into the characters rooted in Susan's love of the script. Little wonder that sh...

Sid talks with Avra Sidiropoulou , a brilliant director who has staged plays all over the world. A professor at the Open University of Cyprus, she has written extensively about the contemporary theatre—indeed, theatre people have found essential her book Directions for Directors (2018) . With a concern both for her actors and audience, she speaks, among many other works, in wonderful detail about...

Sid talks with Michael Hill about how his work in eighteenth century studies has expanded to his concerns with environmental humanities, the interaction of war and culture, and, most recently, the link between war and climate change. A professor of English at SUNY/Albany, Mike shows how one’s “field” can be the door to wider, emergent contemporary topics, as in his Masses, Class, and the Public Sp...

Sid talks with Donna Soto-Morettini , who has done just about everything in the business. Rock and Roll singer in California. Director of Drama for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Royal Central School in London. She is highly sought after as an acting coach and casting director (for Andrew Lloyd Webber, among others). Her books on acting, auditioning, getting into character, and singin...

Sid talks with Jerry Harp , a teacher much in demand at Lewis and Clark College. His four books of poetry reveal an artist of extraordinary sensitivity, and Jerry uses that sensitivity in his study For Us What Music: The Life and Poetry of Donald Justice . It was his role as the Friar in a production of Romeo and Juliet that led him to examine the complexity of that character, then write about the...

Sid talks with Henry Sussman , one of the country’s most eminent scholars and teachers, who has used his study of literature and culture to put in context his political commentary, as in The Great Dismissal: Memoir of the Cultural Demolition Derby, 2015-2021 . October 2023 saw the premier of Henry’s play Soiree at Walter Benjamin’s at the New York Theatre Festival. And if this weren’t enough, his...

Sid talks with Paul Richards , Professor of Music and Head of Composition at the University of Florida. When I speak of my colleague’s music as being “all over the place,” I mean this as the ultimate compliment. Richards has written orchestral, vocal, chamber, and theatrical works, as well as full-length operas. His music has been praised for its “strong, pure melodic gifts,” and he has had commis...

Sid talks with David O’Donnell, now adjunct professor at Victoria University in Wellington. While his natural modesty would prevent him for acknowledging the fact, David has perhaps been the person most responsible for the recognition and growth of native New Zealand actors, playwrights, and composers. Himself a fine actor and director, he has staged some twenty productions of New Zealand plays. H...

Sid talks with Brian Rhinehart , Professor of Theatre at the Actors Studio Drama School in New York. Old friends for years now, they have been each other’s actor and director (and had great fun doing so), in everything from improv to the plays of Sam Shepard. Brian directed the award-winning Butoh Medea on Theatre Row in Manhattan, was named “Best Director” for Einstein’s Dream at New York’s Inter...