Center Stage with Patrick Pacheco

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Helder Guimarães. School Girls on Broadway. The Heart. | Center Stage with Patrick Pacheco

Patrick Pacheco sits down with Helder Guimarães, the Portuguese-born sleight of hand magician whose one-man show The Hope Theory is now playing Off-Broadway at New York City Center Stage Two. Directed by EGOT winner Frank Marshall, the show weaves together personal storytelling and illusion to explore immigration, belonging and the nature of hope, drawing on Guimarães' own experience arriving in America in 2007. Then senior producer Roberto Araujo goes inside two of the season's most anticipated productions: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Jocelyn Bioh's sharply funny Broadway debut about colorism, beauty standards and belonging at a Ghanaian boarding school, with playwright Bioh and cast members DeNée Benton, Patina Miller and Jasmine Amy Rogers; and The Heart, the new Roundabout Theatre Company musical that follows a single heart over 24 hours, from the worst day of one family's life to the best day of another's, with cast and creative team members sharing what the story of organ donation and generosity has given them.

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Recording Date: 09/17/2026 First Air Date: 10/09/2026

Guest:
Christopher Ashley, Director, The Heart
Denee Benton, Actor, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play
Ms. Heidi Blickenstaff, Actor, The Heart
Anne Eisendrath, Music and Lyrics, The Heart
Ian Eisendrath, Music and Lyrics, The Heart
Helder Guimarães, Magician + Storyteller, The Hope Theory
Joaquina Kalukango, Actor, The Heart
Kait Kerrigan, Book and Additional Lyrics, The Heart
Patina Miller, Actor, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play
Jasmine Amy Rogers, Actor, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play

Center Stage with Patrick Pacheco is a half-hour series on CUNY TV that pulls back the curtain on the world of theater. Hosted by Emmy-winning journalist, author and cultural commentator Patrick Pacheco, the show goes beyond opening nights and marquee names to explore the artistry, craft, and community behind every production. From Broadway to Off-Broadway to all the theater in between, Center Stage offers viewers an intimate, informed, and access-driven look at one of the most vital art forms in New York and beyond.

Watch more at https://tv.cuny.edu/show/centerstage/

Subscribe to the Series Playlist: https://bit.ly/3Ujd7kM
Subscribe to the CUNY TV channel: https://bit.ly/2GmGb13

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Raves, Rage, and Slam Frank | Center Stage with Patrick Pacheco

It started with a viral tweet: "Did Anne Frank ever acknowledge her white privilege?" Composer and lyricist Andrew Fox saw that tweet in 2022 and turned it into Slam Frank, a satirical Afro-Latin hip-hop musical in which a progressive theatre company reimagines the Frank family hiding from the Nazis, complete with a pansexual Latina Anita, a neurodiverse Mr. Frank, and a love interest who is just very, very confused. Patrick Pacheco sits down with Fox, book writer Joel Sinensky, and director Sam LaFrage to discuss the most talked-about, argued-about, and laughed-about show to hit New York in years. The conversation covers identity politics, the moral superiority of the theatre world, what good art is actually supposed to do to an audience, and whether what they're after is catharsis or, as Fox puts it, agita. Plus, senior producer Roberto Araujo catches up with the cast.

Recording Date: 08/20/2026 First Air Date: 09/25/2026

Watch more at https://tv.cuny.edu/show/centerstage/

Subscribe to the Series Playlist: https://bit.ly/3Ujd7kM
Subscribe to the CUNY TV channel: https://bit.ly/2GmGb13

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Sherie Rene Scott + Schmigadoon | Center Stage with Patrick Pacheco

Center Stage with Patrick Pacheco launches its debut season with two conversations that span the cult and the classic. First, three-time Tony Award nominee Sherie Rene Scott joins Patrick Pacheco to discuss joining the Studio 54 revival of The Rocky Horror Show as Magenta, her deliberate step back from performing to rediscover what she loves, and her identity as a writer who moonlights as one of Broadway's most singular performers. Then Pacheco turns to Schmigadoon!, the Tony Award winner for Best Musical that made the leap from Apple TV series to the Broadway stage. Director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli and cast members Max Clayton and Isabelle McCalla discuss how a loving homage to the Golden Age of the Broadway musical became one of the most joyful evenings in recent memory, plus Gattelli's upcoming reimagining of The Fantasticks with a gay couple at its center, honoring the wishes of its late original writer Tom Jones.

Recording Date: 08/20/2026 First Air Date: 09/11/2026

Guest List:
Max Clayton, Actor, Schmigadoon!
Christopher Gattelli, Director/Choreographer, Schmigadoon!
Isabelle McCalla, Actor, Schmigadoon!
Sherie Rene Scott, Actor, The Rocky Horror Show

Watch more at https://tv.cuny.edu/show/centerstage/

Subscribe to the Series Playlist: https://bit.ly/3Ujd7kM
Subscribe to the CUNY TV channel: https://bit.ly/2GmGb13

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About This Show

Center Stage with Patrick Pacheco is a half-hour series on CUNY TV that pulls back the curtain on the world of theater. Hosted by Emmy-winning journalist, author and cultural commentator Patrick Pacheco, the show goes beyond opening nights and marquee names to explore the artistry, craft, and community behind every production. From Broadway to Off-Broadway to all the theater in between, Center Stage offers viewers an intimate, informed, and access-driven look at one of the most vital art forms in New York and beyond.

Center Stage formerly Theater: All The Moving Parts

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