On the premiere episode of Running Lines, on Electric City Television hosts Alicia Grega and Mark Zdancewicz welcome guests Eric Lutz and David Parmalee from The Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre’s recent production of King Lear to discuss the challenges and thrills of producing Shakespeare in the 21st century and why his 400-year-old plays continue to receive more productions in the U.S. than the work of any other playwright.

Topics you’d like to see covered on future episodes?

Contact us at dramastruction@gmail.com.

Mark Zdancewicz and I plunged into the wonderfully evolving world of public access television with the newly refreshed Electric City Television this past month.
Running Lines will soon air monthly on Comcast public access channel 19 and programs will also be available on YouTube.

Our plan is to create “evergreen” programs that hold up after topical tie-ins have passed. Shakespeare is still the most produced playwright in the U.S. so it made sense to start with Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre’s production of King Lear that ran the last weekend of January and first weekend of February.
Our professional camera crew shot the entire three and a half hour production.

As the show was lit for the audience and not for cameras there are dark scenes the cameras could not do justice. It’s my understanding that the amazing Mary Frances Jackson is going to edit together a highlights reel and possibly insert key moments of footage from the show into our Running Lines interview with director David Parmalee and actor Eric Lutz who played Edmund.

If you already peeked at the photos below you may have noticed that Eric isn’t at the table but Deirdre Navin (Goneril) is. That’s because we had to shoot the first episode twice.  Everyone thought the volunteer working sound knew what he was doing but … while the pictures were pretty the overmodulated sound recorded was unsalvagable. My mic was hot the whole time and Mark laughs a lot louder than he speaks. Deirdre’s mic was too low. Fortunately, David was able to return for a second take and while Deirdre couldn’t make the reshoot, Eric was able to join us at the table.

We’ll let you know when the episode is out of post-production and available to view. And please, let us know what you think and any ideas you might have for future episodes.

For March, we’ll talk about women in the theater, tying into Women’s History Month and the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, guaranteeing women’s suffrage. April’s episode will focus on poetry.

Catch you on the tube!
-alicia

All images by Electric City Television.