This American Life- Live!
with Host Ira Glass
May 24 at 7pm - Tickets
WBEZ Chicago and BY Experience, in Collaboration with
Public Radio International, Present a Live Cinema Experience
Ira Glass, host of WBEZ Chicago’s critically acclaimed radio show This American Life, returns to movie screens nationwide with This American Life – Live!, a special live performance.
Broadcast live from the Skirball Center at New York University, Glass will present stories by writer David Rakoff, comedian Tig Notaro and Snap Judgment host Glynn Washington. Together they will perform a live stage version of the radio show, centered on the theme “The Invisible Made Visible.” The performance will also feature a new short film by Mike Birbiglia, live music by the rock band OK Go, a dance performance by Monica Bill Barnes & Company, original animation and illustration, and special surprise guests.
"I saw this amazing dance performance by Monica Bill Barnes' company, and I thought - that is totally in the style of our radio show," said host Ira Glass. "But obviously you can't have dance on the radio. Then I realized, we have to do another cinema event! We've built this lineup of stories mixed with super visual things, including the dancers I saw that night, so it's going to feel like the radio show but also totally unlike anything we've done before. I really can't wait to see how it turns out."
This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program which debuted in 1995 on WBEZ Chicago. Now distributed by Public Radio International, it is broadcast to more than 500 radio stations reaching 1.7 million weekly listeners. Often the most popular podcast in the country averaging more than 750,000 weekly downloads, the show has won major broadcasting awards including the Peabody, duPont-Columbia and Edward R. Murrow Awards. In 2001, Time Magazine named Glass the “best radio host in America.” From 2007-2008, a television version of This American Life aired on Showtime, winning three Emmy® Awards.