Denzel Washington & Woodie King, Jr. Set for THEATER TALK this Weekend

On the new THEATER TALK, Denzel Washington, star of the hit Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, gets together with an old friend, Woodie King, Jr., the Founder and Artistic Director of the New Federal Theatre. They look back at their first experiences seeing Hansberry's ground-breaking play, as well as their work together when Washington first appeared at the New Federal Theatre in 1981, in Laurence Holder's When Chickens Come Home to Roost.

Co-hosted by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and Susan Haskins, the latest edition of THEATER TALK premieres in the New York metropolitan area on Friday, April 25 (2014) at 1 AM (early Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, with repeats on CUNY TV* on Saturday 4/26 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 4/27 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 4/28 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM.

The camaraderie and affection between Washington and King is compelling, bringing multi-generational warmth to THEATER TALK. King recalls first seeing Raisin as a young man in Detroit and how he waited around after the show to get to know the actors and learn more about the WORLD of the theater. Washington talks about researching his role of Malcolm X in Chickens (a character he would recreate ten years later in SPIKE Lee's biopic about the leader). He also recalls the days after the play opened and word-of-mouth built, how startled he was to see crowds waiting to get into the small theater. This is a THEATER TALK that reminds fans of the early thrills of choosing a theatrical career.

THEATER TALK is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. The program is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 100+ participating public television stations nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible in part by The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The TDF/TAP Plus Program, The CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast over-the-air in the New York metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3, and cablecast in the five boroughs of New York City on Ch. 75 (Time Warner and Cablevision/Optimum), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). The show is available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org, and via iTunes podcasts. CUNY TV is also live-streamed on www.Aereo.com.

Photo Credit: Brigitte Lacombe

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