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A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
Program and Performer Profiles
Garrison Keillor hosted the first live broadcast of A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION at Macalester College's Janet Wallace Auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota on July 6, 1974. During its initial 10 years, A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION produced 477 live shows. On March 4, 1978, the show moved to St. Paul's World Theater, which at the time was boarded up and expected to be demolished. The former World Theater, now the renovated Fitzgerald Theater, has been the program's home base ever since.
The show ended for a time, on June 13, 1987, leaving the airwaves after a nearly 13-year run in Minnesota. However, two short years later after some time abroad, Keillor set up shop again with THE AMERICAN RADIO COMPANY broadcast from the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. The show gathered momentum and stations (more than 200 public radio stations carried it), and on March 28, 1992, Keillor announced that he and the program would return to Minnesota. In 1993 the show resumed with the name A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION.
Fred Newman
Fred Newman was first heard on A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION as a guest in 1980; he had just authored MOUTHSOUNDS. Newman then began working as an actor, writer, and puppeteer with Jim Henson, hosting many shows for Nickelodeon and Disney (including the NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB). He created voices, music, and sound effects for the long-running Nickelodeon and Disney cartoon series DOUG and has won numerous awards. Newman is the touring SFX guy for A PRAIRIE HOME, and his sonic/phonic sketches can be seen daily on public television's BETWEEN THE LIONS.
Richard Dworsky
Each week on A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, Richard Dworsky leads the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band and appears as keyboardist, composer, and arranger. A PHC regular since 1986, he's accompanied Garrison Keillor on U.S. and European concert tours and provided original music for many Keillor recordings.
Sue Scott
Originally from Arizona, Sue Scott is an actor and veteran voice-over talent based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. When Garrison Keillor returned to St. Paul with A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION in 1992, Scott joined the cast as a radio comedy actor and has been with the show ever since.
Tim Russell
Tim Russell uses his many voices for radio and television commercials. He's been a regular cast member and radio comedy actor on A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION since 1994.
Top banner photos: Host Garrison Keillor, Keillor at the Fitzgerald Theater (photo by Cheryl Walsh Bellville), and Fred Newman (all photos courtesy of A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION). | |
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The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band |  |
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Nashville's Ryman Auditorium | |
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No DVD or CD available. | |
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