NPR slates theater series

National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” is presenting an eight-part series, from Thursday through April 21, on the issues facing America’s nonprofit theaters.

Called “American Stages,” the series will open with a piece on the history of the regional theater movement. Programs in the following six weeks will tackle the role of women in the movement, the nonprofit economic model, theaters’ community ties, physical configurations, partnerships with commercial theater and rotating repertory. Most of the programs will focus on a single production at a particular theater.

NPR arts critic Bob Mondello said the concluding segment on April 21, “Rebellion in the Ranks,” was largely inspired by the renegade playwright Erik Ehn, who teaches at CalArts and will become the dean of its theater school on July 1.

--Don Shirley