WMRA and Theater at Lime Kiln have announced a free screening of the new documentary, “Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes,” Friday, May 29, 8:30 p.m., at the Theater at Lime Kiln in Lexington.
Lime Kiln gates will open at 7 p.m. for concessions and picnicking.
Humorist Garrison Keillor takes his skits and jokes, music and monologues across the country in his traveling radio show, spinning his stories into American gold. This free form, intimate look at the private man in the public spotlight goes behind the scenes of the popular radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion,” and inside the imagination of the man who created it.
More than a year of filming has resulted in an unusual portrait that cannot be defined by the standard terms of chronological biography: the subject himself is an enigma, and the fictional world he has created has taken on a life of its own. The film follows Keillor as he mingles fact and fiction to create one of America’s favorite places, Lake Wobegon.
Today there is no one like him. His take on America is both pungent and poignant. In the best tradition of Will Rogers and Mark Twain, Keillor mixes story telling and humor to give us a light-hearted but deeply felt reflection of ourselves. He is credited with reviving the virtually lost art of live radio entertainment in America; his weekly radio show, started in 1974, has more than 4 million listeners and is broadcast on 558 stations. Keillor and his characters leapt onto the big screen and an even wider global audience in Robert Altman’s film, “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Keillor’s down-home commentary and love of the authentically American have made him into an “everyman philosopher.” His radio show is written with a poet’s heart. While comparisons will be made between him and America’s great humorists and essayists – from H. L. Mencken to Twain, Rogers, James Thurber and Robert Frost – Garrison Keillor is unique. In this nontraditional biography, we begin to see how and why.The documentary is 86 minutes long, produced and directed by Peter Rosen for American Masters on PBS. Written by Sara Lukinson based on the monologues of Garrison Keillor. PBS stations across the nation will broadcast the film this July.
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