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Survival Kit Archive


September 2004

Olympia Dukakis

Sunday, September 26, 2004

Olympia Dukakis says that "defying definition" has been one of the main themes of her life. Perhaps you think of her as feisty Rose Castorini in the film Moonstruck, the role which earned her an Oscar, or Clairee, the southern widow from Steel Magnolias, or the transsexual landlady, Anna Madrigal, in the PBS series Tales of the City, but this complex woman has played many other roles in her life. She worked as a physical therapist during the polio epidemic of the 1950s, she’s founded several theater companies, and she’s been active as a political campaigner and an advocate for women’s issues. Let’s find out what she’s got in her survival kit.


Branford Marsalis

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Branford Marsalis grew up in the most prominent jazz family in the country, and although he’s made forays into rock (playing with Sting and the Grateful Dead), hip-hop (with his band Buckshot LeFonque), classical music, film scores and TV (as musical director of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno), he keeps returning to his jazz roots. In his recent CDs Footsteps of Our Fathers and Romare Bearden Revealed the saxophonist pays tribute to jazz history. Let’s see what this multiple-Grammy-award winning musician has in his survival kit.


Dawn Upshaw

Sunday, September 12, 2004

Dawn Upshaw has been called an “anti-diva”. Acclaimed as one of the finest sopranos of her generation, she has become a trusted collaborator of many composers, who seek her advice when writing new music. Shaping her career to her own vision, she is equally at home singing Mozart’s operas, Bach Cantatas, Hungarian folk songs, American pop standards, and premiering contemporary works, including Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin, John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby and John Adams’ El Nino. What would this independent artist need to keep her happy in a period of enforced isolation? Let’s take a look in her Survival Kit and find out.


Helen Fielding

Sunday, September 05, 2004

Helen Fielding traveled the world as a BBC producer before writing Bridget Jones’ Diary, the book that made her a household name, and has been credited with (or blamed for) unleashing the avalanche of pastel-colored paperbacks known as chick-lit. She followed with a sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, as well as two non-Bridget books, Cause Celeb and Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination. Her heroines have braved Thai prisons, African refugee camps, and Al Qaeda enclaves, while managing to retain both a sense of humor and a personal sense of style. Let’s see what this trend-setting writer has packed in her survival kit for a trip into the wild.