Summary: This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA we chat with actor Ian Ruskin about his three solo shows on the lives of Harry Bridges, Thomas Paine, and Nicola Tesla. Guest Bio Ian is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He founded The Harry Bridges Project in 2000 and has written, performed and produced many plays and radio and film documentaries, including From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks about labor leader Harry Bridges. He has performed the play over 250 times to approximately 50,000 people, including the English and Scottish Houses of Parliament. The film version, directed and shot by multi-Academy Award winner Haskell Wexler, aired nationwide on PBS for 4 years, making the film available to 150 million Americans. He has completed a new radio documentary A Wild Woman Sings the Blues about the life and work of Barbara Dane and is working on a treatment for a feature film based on the 1934 San Francisco General Strike. His play To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine continues his mission to present the stories of forgotten and misunderstood heroes from American and European history. Performances have included The American Philosophical Society, Harvard Law School, Conway Hall in London, the Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians and in Boston’s Faneuil Hall. NETA distributed the film of a live performance, also shot by Haskell Wexler, and 180+ stations aired it in 2017 and 2018. He has also completed and began performing his new one-man play about “the man who invented the 20th century” Nikola Tesla. Magic and Lightning: into the Mind of Nikola Tesla. Venues have included The American Philosophical Society and Theatre West in Los Angeles. Links to Guest http://www.ianruskin.org/ http://theharrybridgesproject.org/index.html http://www.thelifeofthomaspaine.org/ http://www.theteslaproject.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysfz71XihXQ&t= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uKn37_WPoY Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio
