On The World Health Organization he is John McGiver thing since April many I.C.R.C. Programs have stopped because it wasn't safe enough for its workers to operate in Taliban controlled areas now these are set to restart they include evacuating the wounded for medical treatment and delivering the dead to their families for burial the I.C.R.C. Succeeded in changing the Taliban's mind after a top level meetings in Doha this was the 2nd such ban within a year a reminder of how difficult and complex it is to provide aid to Afghanistan Juma giving reporting you're listening to the latest world news from the B.B.C. . Turkey says the delivery of the 2nd battery of a Russian missile defense system has been completed despite U.S. Objections the ministry of defense said the S 400 system would become active next April Washington oppose the purchase arguing the Russian weapons are not compatible with NATO defenses and pose a threat to U.S. Fighter jets. Thousands of members of the Ethiopian Orthodox churches staged protests in an Harras state saying there's been a series of recent attacks targeting churches some of which have been set on fire cocky Danny about how reports thousands of people took to the streets of the historic city of ponder as well as other. States to condemn recent attacks the protesters condemned the Egyptian government for failing to offer protection and they also want composition to rebuild the damaged church while it's really just violence is fairly rare in Ethiopia ethnic divisions are a major problem and some of the ethnic fault lies mirror the religious differences Britain's Liberal Democrat Party has promised to cancel leaving the European Union if it wins power at the next general election party members formally adopted a policy at a conference to revoke the notification sent to the E.U. That Britain will leave the block the Liberal Democrats hold just 18 of the 650 seats in parliament they need an unprecedented swing to win power however this year 6 M.P.'s from other parties who switched allegiance to them officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo say 34 people have died in a boat accident near the capital Kinshasa that more than 70 others were rescued after the vessel sank in the River Congo during the night. Dozens of firefighters are struggling to contain a blaze fanned by strong winds at the Corinthia region of Greece the wildfire is burning high on a mountain near the coast resort of track water bombers and helicopters are being used in the operation B.B.C. News. Welcome to the inquiry on the B.B.C. World Service I'm Neal result each week for expert witnesses answer one question from the news. The question was perhaps inevitable for Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau stood before a blackboard in a university lecture hall behind him were long equations written in chalk a reporter jokingly asked if he could explain how quantum computers worked very simply normal computers work by. Going to. Mr Trudeau gamely launched in allows us to encode more information into a much smaller computer so that's what's exciting about quantum computing and. There's a reason he was prepared Mr Trudeau was there to write a $50000000.00 government check to fund theoretical and quantum research it's not just Canada investing in quantum technology the U.S. Has pledged more than a 1000000000 dollars in the coming years China has promised even more and it's not just nation states big corporations are piling into one of our expert witnesses says money is falling out of the sky. The ideas behind quantum computing are more than a century old as companies and countries rushed to turn them into a workable technology we're asking why the race to build a quantum computer. Part one embracing uncertainty. So quantum is misunderstood what I think shiny gauche is a professor of physics and computer science at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada before we even think about quantum computing we need to understand what quantum is . This was an idea that disturbed a lot of people it's pretty different. Quantum physics began to take hold in the early 20th century till then physics had been dominated by classical theories based on observations of the everyday world it held that the universe is predictable deterministic which is to say not random. All of that had to basically be set aside in order to make space for this whole new way of thinking that perhaps the universe is not as deterministic as we think it is and that there's a fundamental uncertainty in the laws of physics itself. This uncertainty is found in the behavior of the tiniest particles of matter atoms. A physicist friend of mine put it this way to understand the quantum world you have to smash your intuition about how the universe works then rebuild it one way that I try to describe it is when you look at coins so you know if you look take a coin and you have a heads and a tails right and you flip the coin you can either get a heads or a tails in that sense that's also describe it by probabilities right so there's a 50 percent chance that you get heads in a 50 percent chance that you get tails but at any given point while you're flipping the coin there's definitely always one side that's heads and one side that's tails right yeah I think we'd all agree with that now let's try to visualize this as a Quantum Point OK. The difference is that yes we still are talking about probabilities but the additional error is that we can't actually describe during the process of the flipping It's not like one side is always heads and the other side is tails there's a slew of much more uncertain identity that this coin has. A regular coin is binary either heads or tails a quantum coin is Mom binary you can't limit it to just heads or tails its identity is fluid. Scientists have a word to express this uncertain nature. Yes So we call it superposition meaning this idea of heads and tails at sort of a some combination of these 2 that's what we call a superposition super positioning is this uncertain more than one thing at once miss and the whole point is that it's so far outside of our everyday experience that it's basically impossible to have a really good visual of it in other words if you're struggling with this relax everyone is even the scientists who work on it every day but people have realized Wait maybe there's some power to uncertainty the power of uncertainty is its non-binary nature instead of being just 2 things heads or tails it could be many things shiny go says that makes quantum computers revolutionary they're not just a step up or a better version of the computers we already have because it offer it's own completely different kinds of laws of physics so it's sort of like saying well you know a car is not just another more powerful horse and carriage I mean it will do the same job which is to get to where you need to goal but you can see that it's of course not the same science or technology at all she says quantum computing is still a relatively new field of research and those wanting to build these machines need to get to grips with the delicate uncertain nature of the quantum world. Part $200.00 is saying and says hey I'm going to Mena Professor Stephanie Vainer. She runs the quantum computing center at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands she's going to explain how a quantum computer is better than a regular one. Let's start with how regular computers work. So sirrah And one other way that we represent information in a computer or in a communication so you can imagine that if you want to send me an image or a movie. How this actually works is that the movie is broken down in a serious of zeros and ones and what you actually said to me is a millions and millions of serious amounts and from this I can then reconstruct what is your movie or in which this is true of all digital things from emails to Cathy to websites even my voice right now has been turned into zeros and ones by a computer. So on a quantum computer really work with something called quantum states and unlike classical 01 or left and right they can be both 0 and one or both left and right at the same time this is because of the idea of super positioning that we heard about earlier to see the practical difference it makes imagine you're in the center of a maze and you can use a computer to find a way out on a classical computer that we use today and you would say OK let me try it going left and then you might ask Peter to check whether the exit can be found and you go to the left. And then say you don't find a X. That's then you can ask you to hey why don't you check what happens if I go right and see whether we can find the exit there. So on a quantum computer because a quantum bit can be both left and right at the same time you can in some sense explore both the left and the right direction at the SIC time. So of course it's a little bit more complicated than that but this gives some intuition about why it's possible to solve some problems faster on a quantum computer and on any possible truss like a computer right and can it do like left and right and front and back at the same time and we use it like any combination or is it just 2 things at once it can also be more things at once so let's say that in fact you knew at the crossroad and you can go left right front or back then indeed a quantum computer could also explore many many COs at the same time. Pretty cool right useful. Moving from theory to practice people in the quantum computing world often talk about what these machines could do for medicine they could help design new drugs. So one way of course you could do that is that you go into the lab and do a chemistry experiment to figure out whether this might be a promising and it but this of course is extremely time consuming and also very easily possible busy. So people are interested in instead of sort of trying it out in experiment instead of doing a simulation to determine to chemical properties a few new design. To see where that might be promising are maybe less and the classical computer could do that in principle just like a computer can any competition because. The question is just how long does it take so unequivocal it would take a say hours to compute. Whereas on a classical computer it would take us exponentially longer in fact to say the lifetime of the earth to Russia dissolution 4000000000 years yet that's a very long time we are not interested in say testing a drug design that I can only find out after I bet or if you can be off the earth as soon as. You want to know the real good shooter. So quantum computers could revolutionize drug research which would in turn revolutionize health care there's talk of a cure for dementia that alone would seem enough to prompt huge demand yet there are very few quantum computers. What's the hold up. Part 3 tricky engineering. The way I got into this field is as a kids I was a fan of Star Trek and my job plans was to be signs of his on the enterprise what I do now is very very close to some of the themes being shown in many saw 5 films professor in a free hand singer is director of the Sussex center for quantum technology in the United Kingdom he's trying to take quantum computers from science fiction to science fact quantum computer and in a way the holy grail of signs and because of the tremendous opportunities things he can calculate with such a machine but at the same time there unbelievably hard to realize and the reason why Desa difficult to build is because it is so hard to control these very strange quantum phenomena such as superposition and you need to control these very rare go in order to then be able to execute computations. He says scientists have tried to do this in a lot of different ways of the past 3 decades most have failed to physical platforms however delivered very amazing results one of the systems to superconducting circuits this is a system which is used by I.B.M. In Google attempting to build a quantum computer you say superconducting circuit does that even mean it's a particular electronic circuit but in order to make use of that you actually have to cool the micro chip old way to minus 273 degree Celsius so this is unbelievably cool very close to absolute 0 not a challenge about doing that is it is actually very hard to cool a big object to such a small temperature am I to understand you correct that the problem with the sue. Conducting circuits is basically they couldn't build a big enough fridge that's why it's and a not enough a powerful enough fridge because the cooling power of a fridge meaning like how big of a microchip can such a fridge actually cool down limits to number of cubits you can actually uses such a fridge. So indifferent hen singer and his team are trying to get around the fridge problem their method involves trapping microscopic particles called ions ions are Adams with a little bit of extra electric charge and the advantage of this method is trapped ions can be used at room temperature so this is a technology where you use microchips and he said microchips can emit electric fields and these electric fields can make individual shots at times ions levitate above this microchip Now each one of these ions becomes Now one quantum bits and you can store the information so the 001 in the chip directory of the Elektra on off each individual tchotchke atom get outta here on and you can put this information on an atom on. You Some is a casual. It's amazing every time I go in my lab and look at one atom at a time I've been working this for for many many and it still blows my mind. This technology is not coming to your phone or home anytime soon and we have multiple atoms held under Smike of chips and we know make use of these individual atoms to perform quantum computing operations of one of the machines look like they're very big there maybe one or 2 meters Swifty extra vacuum systems but then we yes some lasers involved a lot of electronics a lot of optics a lot of cable it's pumps and things like God So he looks a little bit like a syphon movie in fact there is a multiple films I've used imagery from our laboratory to reprise and versus I 5 settings which is a time machine Rizieq does look very futuristic then afraid hands and his team have now built 5 prototype quantum computers but to do any of the exciting calculations around say drug design they need a lot more cubits So they're developing ways to produce them on an industrial scale this is indeed one of the biggest challenges right now when working on quantum computation so all the quantum computers being built around the world right now only have a handful of cubits and so what we were in my lab at Sussex is actually to scale is from a few 5 a TENS of cubits to foul reasons millions or even billions of cubits he figures were 2 to 5 years out from seeing the 1st really useful calculations on quantum computers people will patch into the machines by the cloud so we are kind of right now in the 940 S. Where there are very early in the 1st computer this so there is a just a few machines and they're very big they're very expensive to have very difficult. To run bots we are under verge of achieving the possibility to already address some really important problems just like it happened in the 1940 S. Think what traditional computers did in their early days in the mine 140 S. 1st conventional computers were built and obviously a conventional computer in a 940 S. Decided 2nd world war by a bling to crack to Germany and today cryptography and codes are again at the cutting edge of computer science the hope is to harness quantum theory to gain a decisive edge in a growing geo political rivalry. Part 4 beating the. Bike built a quantum computer and now I could bring the entire Internet down in 3 days OK That's quite a claim Let's walk through that slowly again don't worry Jonathan Dowling isn't a supervillain He's been studying the potential of quantum computing for more than 3 decades 1st for the U.S. Army and now as a professor at Louisiana State University there is a race to build the 1st one a computer this is very similar to the space race it's a race to keep secrets from personal data to corporate information to the most sensitive military plans all of this information is power and countries have come to know just how exposed they are I burned my life to the ground. To work against surveillance in 2013 the former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden became a fugitive and a household name after he leaked highly classified material it revealed just how far America's N.S.A. The National Security Agency and its allies had penetrated foreign communication networks they were even allegedly tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone Edward Snowden leaks. surprise the cheney that you know the and as say could read much more than a thought simile almost everything yeah and seemingly almost everything and then the 2nd one is there there are also concerned at the americans will build a quantum computer 1st and that would allow them to read everything the chinese have and stop the chinese reading american secrets to understand how this happens we need to imagine the scenario with 3 players there are always 3 players alice and bob her trying to communicate securely and eve eve e e is for the eavesdropper the person in the middle trying to steal the key or the message currently one of the most secure ways to send messages involves something called public key encryption bob once to send information alice he locks it up with the key and sense that the alice but only alice says the key to unlock the box and the security of this is dim breasts on the assumption that it would take longer than the life them of the univers for a classical computer to hack is public key however an if you had a quantum compere it could crack alice's private he within milliseconds as opposed to the lifetime of the universe is for bobbin alice the sound scary but there is a bright side quantum gives us threat and a gift his says he he of use a quantum computer i can hack all yours stuff but if you switch your staff to quantum he then and even a quantum computer can't hack you and thoughts because of super positioning if ball been alice have a quantum network think what happens when eve tries to capture their messages so it the eavesdropper tries to measure at the photons in-flight she inadvertently need their straw is the information the key that they're caring and she reveals herself did the 2 parties they know somebody is trying to eavesdrop aso observation it's self will destroy the information that's quantum mechanics the a look at in a is guy on you've collapsed the superposition this is the prize in the race to build quantum computers totally 6 Communications if you look at patents in quantum cryptography the Chinese are ahead there's an imbalance of power the Chinese as been developing a network and which will eventually include satellites where they will as stablish quantum cryptographic he's all across China either by fiber via satellite and their entire internet will now be protected by quantum cryptography which is one hackable by any means Johnson dolling is a member of the Chinese Academy of Science he spends 3 months a year working in Chinese labs he knows what they're doing I would say China will go dark within 2 to 5 years meaning that nobody including the N.S.A. And reading any of their stuff. But will be in a position that we haven't rolled out quantum cryptography in the United States so our information is still vulnerable used to work for the U.S. Army Do you still have contacts with the U.S. Government yet what are they saying when you tell them that China could go dark. My U.S. Government. Is often very tone deaf and in terms of what is going on for years and I said look the Chinese are getting ahead in these areas and I was told back we're always 10 years to the head of the Chinese our technology is always better there's nothing to worry about and then the game changer was when the Chinese launched their satellite in 2016 and the data started coming and they realized the U.S. Was at least 10 years behind the Chinese in at least in the cryptography He says the Americans have now woken up and money is falling out of the sky but the race is not just about who spends the most it's about giving human beings the skills in writing the software that will make the most of quantum computers the number of jobs and one of technologies is growing exponentially fast but we're not training students and workforce exponentially fast so there's a huge gap. Now and it gets worse every day between the work pool and the number of jobs that are needed. Why the race to build a quantum computer if you believe its biggest supporters is the future of jobs security research and more but their fiendishly hard to make due to the fragile uncertain nature of the quantum world the competition to crack it is intense particularly in the shadowy world of cryptography so are you optimistic or terrified by this technology I am in a quantum superposition of optimistic and terrified. You are spinning furiously now Lord knows where this is going but it's it's really exciting. This edition of the inquiry was presented by me Neal Rozelle it was produced in London by Helen Grady it was mixed by Nigel Appleton. Distribution of the B.B.C. World Service of the US is made possible by American Public Media producer and distributor of award winning public radio contact with support from Boston Beer Company bring Samuel Adams Boston lager with Pops from a small German farm that's been growing hops for over 200 years Boston Beer Company Boston Mass promoting responsible drinking. Hi there I'm Abigail Backman local host for N.P.R.'s MORNING EDITION on 91.5 And I'm David Greene N.P.R.'s Morning Edition west coast HOST So Abigail we're both up in like the middle of the night getting ready can you do without coffee or do Red Bull What do you it's really my anticipation of the dawning of a bright and beautiful brand new day it was really really poetic OK Well I'm glad we're all in it together Morning Edition weekdays $5.00 to 9 am on $91.00 K. Or C. C. My name's Nick Duncan often for the B.B.C. World Service I'm going in the studio with the Steppenwolf it's a company as they were hers their role cooks and political news it's a story about a drag queen revel president it's black it's there's a big dance number this is the place that says how to are can what does a 45 year old theatrical ensemble do to keep its revolutionary fires burning in the 21st century join me Nic don't cough in the studio Steppenwolf it's a company after the news B.B.C. News Martin Marshall Iran has dismissed the U.S. On a Geisha and that it was responsible for 2 drone attacks that have drastically cut oil production in Saudi Arabia the U.S. Secretary of state might pump AOE rejected a claim by who the rebels in Yemen that they carried out the strike officials in Iran have suggested the Americans are trying to create a pretext for action against that country. Police in Hong Kong have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse pro-democracy protesters as 3 months of demonstrations show no sign of ending tens of thousands of people joined the demonstration even though it had been banned West African leaders have announced a $1000000000.00 fund to combat jihadist violence in the region the president's from the Echo was regional block said it would help reinforce the military operations against groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic state the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan has welcomed to move by the Taliban to lift a 5 month ban on its work in areas controlled by the militant group the I.C.R.C. Work includes getting the wounded to medical centers and delivering the dead to their families for burial the South African president serum opposer ascent emissaries to several countries across the continent following a wave of attacks on foreign owned businesses and homes the presidency said they will reassure fellow African countries the south africa is committed to Pan African unity and solidarity officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo say 34 people are missing after a boat accident overnight near the capital Kinshasa more than 70 others were rescued after the vessel sank in the River Congo Spain has won the men's basketball World Cup after beating Argentina 95 to 75 in Beijing the Spanish squad was considered among the rank outsiders when the tournament began B.B.C. News So how's it going. I think it's going great it's really scary because it's new new new new it feels very risky to me in that way so it feels like a while do adventure but I have no prediction about what this piece is going to be or do other than you know we won't go home small. We're in downtown Chicago and I'm walking north up Michigan Avenue on my way to the home of the Steppenwolf There's a company. Maybe the most preeminent place company in the state. That was founded many 45 years ago and yet what's happening there this week today right now . May just be something revolutionary. My name's Nick dummkopf and for the B.B.C. World Service I'm going in the studio with Steppenwolf. A. Whole year. So from our 1st start with Heather our life she. Says. For the 1st time that ever. Was and I was like Yeah so was I Tina Landau and so while I was in the cradle of those members of the Steppenwolf ensemble what sets the company a pause is it's unprecedented decades long run of success which is woven through the fabric of the building for you guys but what we're doing is walking down a back corridor once and you have this huge poster for August Osage County is Pulitzer Prize winner written by Tracy Letts starts out as an actor becomes a writer here wins the Pulitzer here yeah and that's just on again that's just on back toward office no big deal here. I think there's more to back off Oscar nominated globally successful and yet every year that she was in Roseanne one of the highest paid I suspect it's a practice in the world for its options coming back every year and if that will show you know every landing a different story Yes Laura Glenn has been a stage manager at Steppenwolf for over 20 years she led as on a backstage poll there was something in the water right this small group of people especially rich ensemble who have gone on to not only be personally so successful. But have such a high quality of talent if you Scott Joan Allen and Laurie Metcalf and John Malcolm rich and Terry Kinney and Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry and now Wilder they were just there were something Kismet in the in the air at that time and they were all they just wanted a place with their friends and I think there's some of that that still is true which can really wonderful that early work with rebellious and incendiary actor led there to in her 20 years with Steppenwolf team has been at the forefront of a new wave of directors and writers transforming the company her collaborator is to roll out in the cradle who at 38 years of age is already an Oscar winner for the film moonlight based on his own tumultuous childhood and an acclaimed writer of plays feature films and television together creating Ms Black for president based on the true story of a Chicago drag queen who ran for president in 1992. Tarell is playing the lead role despite not having acted in the 15. To feels like the end of the necessary it's necessity it's like we don't have a lot of time we don't have a lot of resources we don't have you know 7 months to workshop it and put it in front audience all we have is like this amount of time it's all this incredibly important story before the horses are in for the races of our election Oh. Man So this is a story about an election this is a story about an election year this is a story about politics is story about finding a voice in order to speak to power and so no doubt feeling is it always exciting if you like when you take your vitamins you have to let you like I don't want to take this many pills I need to go so I'm doing the closer you get to that cliff edge. Igniting right now part of the thing with is NO NO NO part of the thing with the gator is I'm not just being coy and silly about it there's there's that feeling of passion and excitement when 1st conceived and at this point I can honestly say mostly what it is is fatigue and dread. And rushes of excitement. And then back to the fatigue and dread something happens and then you just keep going like this is called being in the trenches and it was released to the press and we've got the whole speech in there's no mention of gays and lesbians Oh there's no mention of AIDS. OK so the 2 things I want to say are that there are to do a lot of cuts. I think probably not bigger hopeful extra. You know it was it was 145. Probably 8 minutes. Just pacing. So that the other thing I just want to mention has to do. Formalise time just leave we're going to have a half yeah yeah there's lots of a functional truth never wavers No you know and this has. What instead was rehearsing room and scene separate building over the road from the white it's it's clearly a 19th century building apparently it was some kind of German community hall in the days when this was a home to many carriers she told me. This is where the rehearsals for the getting ready. To go and getting ready to still creating those black still. Putting things together you know just polishing it even though it's only a few days away. From his 1st previews. Thank you thank you for coming out soon I think of coming out when everything I did was already on the walls of the rehearsal RAID 0 photocopied piece of paper they struck a kind of board that you read something and you know like these are all talking points for the production side it's black and white photos of protests in Chicago and. There are me now you can hear lots of teenagers shouting out some black and white photos of the gay rights movement in Chicago in 1992 everybody wearing sign and sequins that T. Shirts carrying coffees but reminds me of this. Crisis that AIDS was a moment too much too small in a bubble the story says specific story of its time and feels very family books like the play of our. Pieces about. The danger of forgetting Steppenwolf director out of D.C. Pirro and in our country in particular the things that we have forgotten are why we are where we are right now and we've tried to figure out a way to make Steppenwolf a little more limber a little more agile a little more responsive this project it was born out of that agility and. So do your preference so how was. What was her name do you have a preference feels like this is more of a feeling here where Tina will say yes if somebody asks a question I don't know I would like it let's talk about let's figure out not I'm the one sitting here with the I'm says I'm going to give you them that's the director's job is to create the world that the play is happening and the project is is happening and she does such a replete job of that at the beginning that it allows for more freedom when you're when you're exploring it because they're not exploring in the space the size of a football field they're actually exploring in a space she's given them that's probably the size of a thimble it's when you're unsure of your leadership that you boss people around it's not when you're sure of it being in the end if someone's doing something a way she doesn't think is effective she gets to go good try pal but it's better the other way I don't think that everything I feel about making theatre and why I do theater and questioning it has radically shifted since 2016 and I came across a story of an African-American drag queen who ran for president of the United States in 1902 and I was alone in my office and I started screaming and pointing at the book saying that's it that's it it was just instantly clear to me that. Bodied in the D.N.A. Of this tale we're questions of what it means to be a citizen to have a voice to be visible to participate in the Electoral College and I shared it with 2 rail and I think his reaction was pretty much the same we just kind of decided that's it and you know we kicked around a lot of things and Richard this I could be nice to do do I need to do it no so and then Tina came across this story here right. Here. In the U.A.E. When the the only. Way. We we're nation. Oh we get is that someone What's that about us we've had. Peanut farmers lawyers for president and back to. Back of the legs of the president why the good drag. You are here in the gay community you go represent us jerk. Oh sure oh. Right now. And tell me please that that's not our shows. I think the fact that the US be only just realized country with that health care is a joke I think the fact that a woman who accused the Supreme Court nominee especially around her was child frightened of me and that that money now sits on the high for the last in the teeth . So we need to laugh right along with that until they see our teeth are big enough for all the time and all our little. Home let the 90. 2 day like. Today the changes come I think it's really it's one of the great artists of his generation he never ceases to amaze me he can do just about anything he Glen Davis and Kay talk Freeman all Steppenwolf members and regular collaborators with Tina and to Ralph is like stinginess INSKEEP collaborating and directing and producing and and he's just an artist and he just does this it's all old hat for him and that's just how he works and we can deal with 2 realm of crazy in 2 Landau you're playing with house money and they have a spiritual story yeah that just the 2 of them have you know and I think that's why they're so good together and when you're there with them you just hop on for the ride of hers I think someone asked me every day they're like well why you think it was David Oh yeah well actually it was like you hate acted Why are you doing and I was like well because who else is going to do it like. It's it's necessary like this is necessary it's necessary for my body and mind and person to be here at this moment and no it doesn't feel fun when you're you know 22 and doing it feels like yeah it's fun it's not fun it's work but it's necessary work it's not for it's not support it doesn't feel like I'm going to look back and think put all that in for not a great cause the cause will probably be be even greater after I have done it we have had 0 workshops readings the things you normally do to prep even if it's only over a couple of months of a script and getting notes back and we said none of that but Tarell and I just believed so firmly from the beginning that what we might lose in perfect form or good drama churchy would be made up for in necessity and urgency and passion and like what we feel we have to talk about so we've been willing to take this risk knowing that if we were trying to make a well made play we've really set ourselves up to you know not have a good shot at it you're right but that is not what's important to us I'm sure I will panic and tons of things with a lot of the window but the reason why I'm hastening to get my lines under me is not because I'm trying to make it to some think I'm like I'm trying to get my lines on me so I can see what else I need in order to make this story happen. I mean I don't often you're listening to and the studio for the B.B.C. World Service I'm in Chicago following Tina Landau in Toronto and McCrae me make any production of Mr Black for president for Steppenwolf this company. We took a train out of Chicago heading north for about 30. Kilometers along the shores of Lake Michigan to Highland Park an affluent suburb west Steppenwolf founders Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry were classmates nearly 20 years later Gary would receive an Oscar nomination for playing Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump a meeting Mike Rosensweig a social studies teacher at Highland Park but more importantly a fellow students of Gary and Jeff when they staged the very 1st Steppenwolf productions in the school cafeteria. I hear. This used to be backstage and this war was a short presidium stage that they would perform on they just said Can we have a corner of the cafeteria and whoever made that decision said yeah and they actually put up flats and I got someone to help with the electrics completely self-motivated I wanted to do theater you don't wait for somebody to let you you don't wait for somebody to build you a theatre. Sometimes you don't we people to write you a play you want to do something go do it and they are living proof that goes a long way but it's great to think that we're hearing this noise this noise would have been the same in 972 you know in 74 and in the background here somebody hammering nails it and it's them building a little bit that's the beginnings of Steppenwolf it's company. Coming to a classroom with 1015 students credit because it's having to keep it down so they can go on with studies. That this I haven't looked for this it'll be interesting to see if we can find. Out there. Is Gary Carson these intensity in that picture I mean he looks like a movie star so these are black and white pictures and I want this book he showed me here with the able to from 972. How he's saying and so it was Gary's 1st starring role if. The photographer had taken a wider angle I'm standing here. Asshole I met the both Chicago is very much now seen as a great regional theater. And Steppenwolf plea and enormous role in that it's very much in institution that that produces a lot of civic and community pride I mean Chicago which may or may not be self-conscious about not being L.A. Or New York any separable from something to brag about but yeah it's an impressive institution. And it is thrived in a privileged society. You just have to make room make Wellman and don't think you know everything and we have to be really mindful that we've been the dominant narrative for a long time in ways that we just thought Will doesn't already tell stories like this isn't everything measured by this yardstick across the world but in the States in particular tectonic plates are shifting and culture and theater is having to move and adapt fast maybe for artists it's no longer enough to be sympathetic they have to stand up. When that group of young actors stage those early Steppenwolf productions in the seventy's and eighty's they didn't know the company would still be around in $2191.00 of the ways they wanted to shake up theatre was by seeing people like themselves on stage and in 2019 to real worlds the same. Ana de Shapiro artistic director of Steppenwolf since 2015 knows that this is perhaps the most important jungle on her to do based it's one thing to make art for each other when you're in this really homogeneous group and I would say that the homogeneous origins of the theater company do not reflect its feelings now this isn't on this was not intentional is that you know an American historically white organization that was belt built by geography not by affection so when you're making art for your community then your community looks a certain way and you look at a certain way and then you start to be smore successful and you start to desire more exposure and want to be telling stories about actually the world you live in in the world you live in is not all whites are all young it that just I think that that commitment to continue saying Who are we making this for is also yes a huge part of our survival and you know Chicago is really complicated maddening beautiful insane place and it it is got huge problems and you know we want to tell stories that you know reflect that and in order to do that who's on stage has had to change that's been a a really active effort you don't you can't change that just because you're a good person and you think about it you can't it's not by attrition Either you have to be like no there's a culture change here because we want to make vital art as opposed to distraction just distraction maybe. I think at this point in both of our lives even though we're not the same age as a sailor or even points of our career I feel very much like Tina does like I have I'm doing something is really should be something I want and need to do rather than something that I'm like OK I'll do it in like nothing it seems more like hell to me at this point in my life than my doing something that I'm like obligated to do rather than something that I feel compelled from my in a passion and who are to do so at this point what's. Well it's working would you feel like it's coming together. I mean it's hard for me to speak to that because I actually can't I can't I don't know what's more I don't know what's not working and again I don't mean that in a way of like I don't care I do care but I I don't sit and watch scenes this go around so I can't tell you even if I were sitting there I can be like oh this staging is different how do I think like no team is going to figure out like what's interesting and what's done I mean what's necessary for this moment and I completely trust her to do that now if she asks and says How does that feel I'll say it feels like this you know I have to say I think these roles that we have right now to me feel incredibly freeing I literally feel like 2 Relata are making something and it actually doesn't matter who says oh this staging idea or this you know line it it doesn't even occur to me if he says I want to change that line or I want to enter this way or that way it's like yes we were so yes and people and this is how I personally these days feel about the inner which is I don't like these definitions of who supposed to do what with out our tasks overlapping I much prefer the feeling of we're in a room with a group of people we all have a common goal and we just try to make it to gather his clothes. Not take you into the theater stage manager Laura took us to see the black set of the construction. It's just incredibly fabulous there's projection screens and televisions everywhere we don't normally have pink runners. It's like a cat will cook it down the middle a catwalk down the middle. But also it has a kind of air in the middle of the catwalk. That is presumably like a political podium is what I'm guessing it's a marquee can fly up and down I want to right now it's down because they're wiring the lights on it but that actually can fly up and down. Squat for long there is like about to me anyway well yet they better be they start technical rehearsals on Saturday so they're all coming in here very shortly but it is very multimedia there sounds like there's projections. Of costumes and of course it's a new place to keep evolving it's an experience because everything will start a half hour before him so the actions will be out here from 7 o'clock on participating I know that there can be writing in names and all the different stars on the walls that they can then change which are people that have been lost to AIDS . We were given at least stalls are all the walls are black here and I've got chalked on stalls upon them hundreds of them being in the stream it's all bulls and lights and pink and so of course it's fun it's exciting it's going to be hugely entertaining but what those stars do with is grounded in what Tina interloping telling is about there's an urgency to this for them it's this is a political thing that they're doing and. I guess that's part of what Steppenwolf are moving towards Isn't that. Well I mean it's and I think would be difficult to say you know to being part of the American culture right now and not feel political one way or the other or feel activated hopefully i know i am i mean every day there's something more horrible you just can't wrap your mind around it. Was Once you set out right on the way around a way was. I . Believe I believe the word creepy crawly this is were we are interested in lions or we doing it we're doing oh sorry. I was doing was you know you said I just. Steppenwolf made their name by putting a rocket's under the seats of theater goers by changing theater making it younger more relevant is what was needed most needed now is to step up to engage politically and to represent the diverse communities of Chicago and America in the 21st century and if that means it's rough around the edges so be it. After 45 years Steppenwolf is middle aged but with this ensemble the revolution isn't over yet Tina Landau and so Alvin MacRae all sing to that there's no other place I can think of that I could be like hey we have an idea of a piece and in 6 months we're going to go into tech and put it up it's a story about a drag queen run for president it's black it's clear it's not well may play like there's like turn out to the audience talk there's a big dance number the most like I don't consider it a play I don't call it a play or fiesta this is the place that says how to are can lead It's a story of having the voice of thouse being heard and it's a story that is unknown and it's a story of a man and his woman self but a man whose story was forgotten. I feel I feel I was I was sad it would be good if the only a few days like this black presidents open to the public come see written and rehearsed at breakneck speed fueled by political urgency and with a lead actor who had set forth on a stage in over a decade that bust in so life to the sound of whoops Paulas And by the end of the show C.S. From its young dog verse I thank you thank heaven the studio staff mostly it's a company was presented by me they don't cough and produced with the streets for the B.B.C. VOSA. You're listening to the B.B.C. World News on K. Or C C 2 Southern Colorado's N.P.R. Station KERA C.C. Broadcasts on 91.5 F.M. From our studios in Colorado Springs Colorado you can also hear cares you see in the. Lowing communities 88.5 F.M. In West Cliff and Gardner 89 point one F.M. In LA Hunter 89.9 F.M. In Lyman 90 point one F.M. In Manitou Springs 91.7 F.M. In Trinidad and Raton New Mexico 94 point one F.M. In Walsenburg and 95.5 F.M. In Lake George and Hertz all 95.7 F.M. In saliva universe to envelope Grove and 105.7 F.M. In Canyon City for questions or comments please call 719-473-4801 during regular business hours you can always become a member of K. Or C C by going to K. Or c c dot O R G and making your financial contributions safely on line. This is B.B.C. Trending with me Mark Silva coming up in the program anti-government protests have erupted all across Algeria but online protesters themselves are under attack this. On Facebook So immediately the regime has and. The situation in Algeria requires to take control of the lies and rumors have spread like wildfire would pro-government trolls working hard to counter coals for political change sometimes it's really weird stuff that's just like Long live the army and for its coverage as the tough times and one month and so it doesn't look like human behavior we entered Algeria's scene from Mission battlefields and we meet the people trying to help others navigate a sea of dissing from ation That's all coming up on B.B.C. Trending after the news. Hello I'm Marianne Marshall with the B.B.C. News in Iran has dismissed a U.S. Allegation that it was responsible for 2 drone attacks that have drastically cut oil production in Saudi Arabia Iranian officials have suggested the Americans are trying to create a pretext for action against that country poor Adams reports might pump as accusation against Iran delivered in a tweet yesterday has drawn a sharp Iranian response the Foreign Minister Zarif called the U.S. Decision and said Mr Pompei as comments were blind and futile the senior commander in Iran's revolutionary guards also issued a warning saying American bases and aircraft carriers were within range of Iranian missiles. The Saudi authorities have yet to blame anyone for yesterday's dramatic pre-dawn explosions but officials have linked them to attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf earlier this year attacks widely believed to be the work of Iran police have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse pro-democracy protesters who've gathered in central Hong Kong as 3 months of demonstrations show no sign of ending activists through petrol bombs built barricades and damaged a subway station tens of thousands of people joined the protest even though it had been banned this man explained why he was protesting it was promised that our whole computable and joy. She basic human rights and such potential for example freedoms of speech freedom of assembly M protest and also we thought we were also promised where I'm going to fossil stop fraîche which is one implement important implementation of democracy but we're seeing more and more crisis of such qualities in the Holocaust the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan as welcome to move by the Taliban to lift a 5 month ban on its work in areas controlled by the militant group one Pedre Sherif told the B.B.C. They hope to resume programs put on hold including taking the wounded to medical centers and delivering the dead for burial this is coming basically from their own leadership what we will do now is to ensure that the instructions they have given through this public statement goes to the different commanders and when we have this confirmation this will definitely be a very good start for us to resume activities which have been suspended for the last 5 months and West African leaders have announced a $1000000000.00 fund to fight the threat of jihadists violence in the region.