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23
May 10, 1996

Drama Bug

Stories of the people who fall for a life in the theater.

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  • Transcript

Chris Ware

Prologue

As high-school freshmen, Kim, Tiffany, and Laura were enamored of their fellow students who netted the leads in all the school plays. They're seniors now, and they're the ones landing all the lead roles. But that doesn't stop them from continuing to gush about the "stars" that went before them (3 minutes).

By

Ira Glass
Act One

Act One

David Sedaris reads his story of getting the drama bug. (14 minutes)

By

David Sedaris

Song:

“Brush Up Your Shakespeare” by Cybill Shepherd
Act Two

Lost In Yonkers

Host Ira Glass follows the last month of rehearsals of Oak Park and River Forest High School's production of Neil Simon's Lost In Yonkers. (22 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Song:

“Showtime” by Sammy Davis, Jr.
Act One

More Drama

David Sedaris continues his story. (10 minutes)

By

David Sedaris
Act Three

From The Audience Seats

Mark O'Brien is in an iron lung and comes out for short periods of time. What does he do with those precious moments free of the machinery that keeps him alive? He goes to the theater. (6 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Related

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Oct. 11, 1996

Act Three: Medieval Times

Ira takes a Medieval scholar from the University of Chicago, Michael Camille, to Medieval Times — a chain of fake castles where visitors eat Medieval food and drink Medieval Pepsi and watch a supposed recreation of a Medieval jousting tournament.
443: Amusement Park
Aug. 12, 2011

Act Three: What I Didn't Do on My Summer Vacation

Jonathan Goldstein returns to Wildwood, New Jersey, where he spent one not-fateful summer when he was sixteen.
112: Ladies and Germs
Oct. 2, 1998

Act Three: Ladies And Germs

The burden of keeping germs from hurting us in our everyday lives has fallen mostly on women, from the time science fully understood about the existence of germs.

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How a stolen library book got one man into his dream school and changed his life forever. Or at least that's the story he tells himself.

77
Sept. 26, 1997

Pray

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