Entertainment
Ira Glass to appear at Stamford Center for the Arts
By Stamford Center for the Arts
Mar 28, 2008 - 6:19:38 AM

Host and producer of the popular public radio and television program This American Life, Ira Glass, will share some of his stories LIVE at Stamford Center for the Arts’ Palace Theatre (61 Atlantic Street) on April 27 (2008) at 7PM. Tickets are $35-$40-$45 and can purchased the SCA website, www.scalive.org or charged by phone with major credit cards by calling the SCA Box Office at 203-325-4466. Tickets may also be purchased in person at the Palace Theatre box office in downtown Stamford, CT. The box office is open Monday-Saturday from 10AM to 6pm.

This American Life premiered in Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ in late 1995, and is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by over 1.7 million listeners. The show has won the highest honors of broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including the Peabody, the DuPont-Columbia awards, the Edward R. Murrow, the Overseas Press Club, and in 2001 Time Magazine named Ira Glass “Best Radio Host in America.”
This show isn’t just another talk show and isn’t really formatted like a normal radio show either. Each week Ira Glass develops stories that are like movies for radio, with a theme in each episode. The episodes involve people in dramatic situations, and are usually funny and sad, personal and sort of epic at the same time. Glass finds and uncovers drama and humor in the most public of places and describes what it’s like to be here, now, in America.

The New York Times claims that, “Mr. Glass is a journalist but also a storyteller who filters his interviews and impressions through a distinctive literary imagination, an eccentric intelligence, and a sympathetic heart.”

Ira Glass views his shows as an experiment. Some examples of story lines have included; taping for 24 hours in an all-night restaurant, putting a band together from musicians’ classified ads, following a group of swing voters for months and recording their reactions to the campaigns, and once, one of the shows contributors went on a fast to find out if that sort of thing leads, as promised, to enlightenment.

“What’s amazing is how new [This American Life] sounds. It has a beat all to itself…These stories float right into your brain and lodge there,” said The Nation.

In March 2007, the television adaptation of This American Life premiered on Showtime to great critical acclaim and was nominated for three Emmy Awards. While producing the series for he cable network, Glass and his staff continue to create original radio shows.

Ira Glass began his career as an intern at National Public Radio’s network headquarters in Washington, DC in 1978, when he was 19 years old. Over the years he worked on nearly every NPR network news program and held virtually every production job in NPR’s Washington headquarters. He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor, producer, and has even filled in as a host of Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered.

Stamford Center for the Arts presents Ira Glass is sponsored in part by Clairol, with additional support from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

For additional information (directions, parking, area restaurants and shopping) visit the SCA website at www.scalive.org or call 203-325-4466.

The vision of the Stamford Center for the Arts is to be the regional arts center for exciting entertainment that enhances and enriches the cultural, educational, economic, and social life of the community. The SCA strives to achieve this vision by demonstrating integrity in all work and relationships, providing service and quality in all activities, fostering and promoting diversity of thought, ideas and culture, providing stewardship for the Stamford Arts community, emphasizing outreach in our community, and offering creativity in all endeavors.

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