Front Row

How will community theatre companies help restore audience confidence to go back into theatres after the lockdown? And how do we measure how important they are in bringing people to watch live theatre? Alan Lane is director of Slung Low and Holly Lombardo leads the National Rural Touring Simon Stephenson gave up a career as a paediatric doctor to pursue a career in writing. His first novel Set My Heart to Five, a futurisitic story about an Android who wants to feel human emotion is set to be adapted as a film by the Oscar-winning producers of hits such as Notting Hill. Opera North’s Resonance programme offers residencies to BAME music-makers to collaborate with other artists on new work. However most of this year's residencies have been postponed due to Coronavirus, so instead artists have been taking part in a special lockdown instalment of the programme, collaborating remotely to bring together African music with Indian raag, electro dub with traditional Chinese zither playing, poetry and hip hop. Singer-songwriter Tawiah and composer Matthew Kofi Waldren have been working on weaving African gospel sounds with the western choral tradition in a piece that explores themes of matriarchy, motherhood and liberation.

American country group The Chicks (formerly know as The Dixie Chicks), the biggest-selling U.S. female band of all time, talk about Gaslighter, their first album in fourteen years. Natalie Maines, lead vocalist, and Marti Maguire who plays the fiddle, reflect on the band’s outspoken political stances from the War in Iraq to Black Lives Matter and the effect these have had on their work.Actor Hammed Animashaun has won praise and awards for his role as Bottom in The Bridge Theatre’s production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And he also stars in NT At Home’s final production – Amadeus by Peter Schaffer. This year, because of the pandemic, there will be no Turner Prize exhibition. Instead bursaries of £10,000 are being awarded to ten artists. Front Row is talking to the recipients and today Kirsty interviews photographer Liz Johnson Artur about her work documenting the lives of black people from across the African Diaspora.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Tim Prosser

Winona Ryder, John Turturro and Anthony Boyle star in a new Sky Atlantic drama The Plot Against America adapted by David Simon from Philip Roth’s alternate history which was first published in 2004. Jonathan Freedland reviews. Rachel De-Lahay brings her letter writing project to the Royal Court Theatre for a week-long online festival. My White Best Friend is Rachel's original letter to her white friend explaining the casual everyday racism and microaggressions her friend commits towards her seemingly unwittingly. For the festival, Rachel has invited 10 other black writers to write their own letters of something unsaid. We speak to Rachel about the project.John goes to Houghton Hall in Norfolk to talk to artist Anish Kapoor about his exhibition of outdoor sculptures, and how the art world has changed during the last few months. We also hear from Lord Cholmondeley, owner of Houghton. An old-fashioned method for performers to reach their audiences in these times of social isolation has re-emerged, in a new way. The Drive-in experience is back! Drive-in opera, drive-in theatre, drive-in shows for kids and even drive-in comedy. John Wilson talks to comedian Daniel Sloss who took part in a drive-in comedy gig where the audience flashed their lights and beeped their horns instead of applauding Image: Sky Mirror, 2018 by Anish KapoorPresenter: John Wilson Producer: Simon Richardson Studio Manager: Giles Aspen

The Kanneh-Masons are an extraordinarily musical family of seven siblings who spent lockdown together at their home in Nottingham and were filmed by BBC1's Imagine. Tonight we're joined by pianist Isata and cellist Sheku, who perform live from their home, and we also talk to their mother Kadie.Open air theatre performances with socially distanced audiences are allowed from tomorrow, and first out of the block is The Minack Theatre in Cornwall. Director Zoe Curnow talks about restarting her theatre with a one-man play. Last year’s Turner Prize was awarded not – as it usually would have been – to one artist but to all four finalists as a group. And this year the situation has changed again - Tate Britain announced that ten artists who will each receive one-off £10,000 bursaries. We’ll be interviewing all 10 here on Front Row and start tonight with Imran Perretta.David Mitchell's new novel Utopia Avenue, about a band in the 1960s, is reviewed by crime writer Mark Billingham and books journalist Sarah Shaffi. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Timothy Prosser Studio Manager: Matilda Macari Production Co-ordinator: Lizzie Harris

Today is the 25th anniversary of the publication of Northern Lights, the first novel in the His Dark Materials trilogy that introduced Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon to the world. It’s been announced that a previously unseen short story by Philip Pullman about a teenage Lyra, Serpentine, will be published in October. He joins Front Row live to talk about its place in the series and what the novels and last year’s TV dramatisation have meant to so many.Mrs America stars Cate Blanchett as conservative political activist Phyllis Schlafly who in 1970s opposed the implementation of the Equal Rights Amendment and the Women’s Liberation movement that supported it. American novelist Meg Rosoff and journalist Elle Osili-Wood consider how the drama portrays real historical events and how relevant the battles depicted in the TV series seem to young women today.Simon Schama talks about his new BBC Radio 4 lockdown series The Great Gallery Tour. He was inspired to make the series because he is badly missing the joy of museums and galleries and he will be exploring some of his favourite treasure-houses of great art around the world: the Prado, the Rijksmuseum and the Whitney. He begins with the Courtauld Gallery in London.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hilary Dunn Studio manager: Nigel Dix Image: Philip Pullman Image credit: Roberto Ricciutti/Getty Images

Katori Hall is a playwright from Memphis, Tennessee, whose story of a Southern strip club and the women who work in it has been adapted for television as a series called P-Valley - an “unflinching and unapologetic look” at the lives of women working at a Mississippi club called The Pynk.Cinema after lockdown. The government’s recently announced £1.75bn rescue package for the arts is to be spread across the sector, but what is specifically required by the British film industry and cinemas? Why are many cinemas still closed, despite having permission to open from last Saturday? And how can they recover? We speak to Ben Roberts, Chief Executive at BFI, and to film critic Larushka Ivan- Zadeh.Empty theatres, museums, and galleries: we speak to two artists examining the impact of coronavirus by documenting these deserted spaces. We’re joined by photographer Joanna Vestey, whose photographic series Custodians For Covid is fundraising for theatres under threat, and by artist Eloise Moody, who has produced a series of audio diaries with the caretakers of six museums and galleries across the UK.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Emma Wallace

Rufus Wainwright joins us to talk about his new album, Unfollow The Rules, lockdown's threat to live music, and his online robe recitals.In the wake of the announcement of £1.57 billion investment in the arts, John Wilson speaks to Neil Mendoza, the government's Commissioner for Cultural Recovery and Renewal, about how far-reaching this rescue package can be. Tate Britain is giving ten artists £10,000 bursaries in place of this year’s Turner Prize. Critic Louisa Buck discusses the range of artists being supported and what this initiative might mean for the future of the prize itself. And on his 80th birthday, we hear from Ringo Starr in a Front Row interview first broadcast in 2008.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Dymphna Flynn

Will the government’s £1.57 billion investment in the arts be enough save UK cultural organisations and freelancers? Samira discusses the arts rescue package with Shadow Culture Secretary Jo Stevens, Artistic Director of Leicester’s Curve Theatre, Nikolai Foster, and head of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, Deborah AnnettsWe speak to dancer and choreographer Wayne McGregor about his latest work “Morgen”, created under lockdown, which strikes a note of optimism in hard times. Ennio Morricone, the Italian film composer, has died at the age of 91. His scores for films like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly helped define the western - but he worked across all genres, from The Battle of Algiers, Cinema Paradiso to The Untouchables - and in 2016 with Quentin Tarantino on The Hateful Eight for which Morricone won an Oscar. Neil Brand pays tribute to the work of the celebrated composer.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Simon Richardson Studio Manager: Nigel DixMain image: Cesar Corrales and Francesca Howard perform Morgen Image credit: Lara Capelli/Royal Opera House

Some of our major theatres are wrapped in pink today as part of the #missinglivetheatre campaign. Designer Tom Piper talks about the project.Novelist Sara Collins and actor Daniel York Loh make up our Friday Review panel. They’ve watched the newly released recording of the smash hit musical Hamilton, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, which allows viewers to replicate the theatrical experience at home. Also on the agenda, Michaela Coel’s BBC One drama I May Destroy you, which continues to make waves; and what the cancellation of pantomimes means for theatres and actors.The Black Lives Matter movement has thrown into sharper focus the role of schools in providing an appropriately diverse curriculum, with many saying that Black British history for example should take a greater place. But what about the curriculum in arts subjects? Is change needed and if so what? Bennie Kara is the author of the upcoming A Little Guide for Teachers: Diversity in Schools and a deputy head teacher in the East Midlands. BBC Proms director David Pickard discusses his plans for this year’s festival as the official guide is published, and how he’s had to adapt to the restrictions he faces for the safety of live audiences and performers.From Fargo to The Silence of the Lambs, via James Bond, whenever someone in a film is about to meet a particularly grisly end it seems, these days, their demise has to be accompanied by the most beautiful classical music. It wasn’t always this way. Critic Theodore Gioia considers why, and what this means.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Julian May Studio Manager: Matilda MacariMain photo shows: The National Theatre on London's South Bank wrapped in bright pink barrier tape reading "Missing Live Theatre" (c) John Wilson/BBC

The new Australian TV thriller series The Secrets She Keeps. Felicity Ward reviews the BBC One drama about two women due to give birth on the same day, but whose pregnancies are not quite what they seem.Former culture minister Ed Vaizey considers the government's approach to the current challenges facing the performing arts.Director and writer Fyzal Boulifa on his debut feature film, Lynn + Lucy – a tragic tale of two childhood friends and young mothers on an Essex housing estate, and the judgements and unhappiness of a claustrophobic, working-class community.And as Bradford Literature Festival is about to host its annual mushaira - a traditional celebration of Urdu poetry, and a beloved part of North Indian, Pakistani, and Deccan culture for over three centuries - we talk to Urdu poets Ghazal Ansari and Atif Tauqeer who will be taking part, but online this year.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jerome Weatherald Studio Manager: Duncan Hannant