Alan

Podcast Exclusive: THE THEATRE PODCAST With Alan Seales: John Bolton

With over 25 years in the industry, John Bolton is the ultimate showman. He made his Broadway debut in 1994 and has been honing his comedy skills ever since.John has starred in many many show, with some of the most notable being How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Titanic, Spamalot, Contact, Curtains, Dames At Sea, and A Christmas Story. John is currently starring as Vlad in Anastasia on Broadway, which he has been a part of since the 2016 Hartford, CT production. Anastasia ends its spectacular run on Broadway on March 31, 2019 so get tickets before it's too late!

With over 25 years in the industry, John Bolton is the ultimate showman. He made his Broadway debut in 1994 and has been honing his comedy skills ever since.John has starred in many many show, with some of the most notable being How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Titanic, Spamalot, Contact, Curtains, Dames At Sea, and A Christmas Story. John is currently starring as Vlad in Anastasia on Broadway, which he has been a part of since the 2016 Hartford, CT production. Anastasia ends its spectacular run on Broadway on March 31, 2019 so get tickets before it's too late!

What is The Theatre Podcast?

A weekly release of intimate, personal conversations with theatre's biggest talents showcasing what makes them human. Featuring stars of the stage and the producers, stage managers, directors, press and marketing agents, theatre owners and other creatives of this industry. Hosted by Alan Seales. Produced by Jillian Hochman. Music by Jukebox the Ghost.

Visit TheTheatrePodcast.com to listen to more episodes or subscribe easily via:

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Shamima Begum branded 'evil scum' by brother of beheaded Brit Alan Henning

Shamima Begum has been branded "evil scum" by the brother of beheaded British aid worker Alan Henning.

Paul Henning has reacted with fury at the news 19-year-old Begum believes she has a right to return home and raise her newborn baby in the UK.

His 47-year-old brother was executed on camera in 2014 after being kidnapped by ISIS while helping children displaced by the conflict.

In a series of Facebook posts, Mr Henning labelled the jihadi bride 'evil scum' and called for Islamic State widows to have their passports revoked.

"Let's stop this b**** ever coming back to England," he wrote, as he shared a petition to stop Begum returning to the UK.

Paul wrote: "We need to keep this going we need people to realise what eval (sic) scum these people are.

"My brother Alan Henning went to help them and paid for it with his life."

Another shared post read: "As ISIS lose ground the Jihadi Widows are returning to Britain. Revoke their passports and bar them from ever returning."

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A third post showed a photo of Alan holding a young Syrian child, and read: "Now is a good time to remember Alan Henning who died helping Syrian kids before most of us even knew it was a problem."

Sharing a post which states Begum would not face terror charges if she was to return, Mr Henning wrote: "This is what will happen if they let that b**** gets back to the UK."

Alan Henning was an English taxi driver-turned-volunteer humanitarian aid worker.

He was the fourth Western hostage killed by ISIS whose murder was publicised in a beheading video.

Mr Henning was captured during the extremist group's occupation of the Syrian city of Al-Dana in December 2013.

He was there helping provide humanitarian relief.

When he was captured, Mr Henning was a driver for the organisation Rochdale Aid 4 Syria.

Mr Henning was the fourth Western hostage whose murder was publicised in a beheading video (Image: PA) Read More  

Henning was shown at the end of David Cawthorne Haines's execution video, released on September 13 2014, and was referred to as being the next victim by Mohammed Emwazi, otherwise known as Jihadi John of the ISIS cell described as The Beatles.

A video of Henning's beheading was released on October 3 2014.

Earlier this week, the Home Secretary Sajid Javid told Begum's family he was revoking the 19-year-old's ­citizenship after she fled to join IS, amid fears she could be a terror risk.

It is unclear where the tough measure leaves jihadi bride Begum, who is in a Syrian refugee camp with her newborn son.

But her family vowed to challenge the move, which came after Mr Javid had on Monday told Brits joining IS abroad: "If you back terror, there must be consequences."

She has the right to appeal, which may be a lengthy process.

Mr Javid’s letter said: "Please find enclosed papers that relate to a decision to deprive your daughter, Shamima Begum, of her British citizenship.

"The order removing her ­citizenship has subsequently been made."

The ISIS bride, originally from London, pictured with her newborn child Read More  

Begum's lawyer Tasnime Akunjee said the family were "very disappointed" at Mr Javid’s decision.

He added: "We are ­considering all legal avenues to ­challenge this."

One legal source said last night the move will make it very difficult for Begum to return unless she wins an appeal.

He added: "As her parents are of Bangladeshi origin, she may have dual ­nationality, so she will become a Bangladeshi citizen. If not she will become ­stateless."

Mr Javid had admitted he was powerless to stop UK jihadis returning home as governments cannot make people stateless.

The Met Police said Begum faces "potential arrest" if she does return.

Immigration ­solicitor Asif Salam warned as the runaway teenager’s baby is British, she could get back her nationality "by default".

Begum, from Bethnal Green, East London, fled with two other schoolgirls in 2015. She married an IS fighter who is now said to be in captivity.

Her two other children have died.

She sparked fury on Monday by seeming to justify the Manchester Arena bomb attack that killed 22 in 2017.

Read More Top news stories from Mirror Online

In Alan Brennert’s “Daughter of Moloka’i,” story continues in WWII-era California

Matt Damsker, Special to USA TODAY Published 10:24 a.m. ET Feb. 19, 2019

"Daughter of Moloka'i," by Alan Brennert (Photo11: St. Martin's Press)

With “Daughter of Moloka’i" (★★★1/2 out of four; St. Martin’s Press, 320 pp., released Tuesday), Alan Brennert does more than deliver the long-awaited sequel to has 2003 bestseller, “Moloka’i.” Unforced and uncontrived, Brennert’s polished work extends an evocative, emotionally rich family saga to an important moment in American history, and the readership he won with the first book will be grateful he took his time.

“Moloka’i” introduced us to Rachel Kalama, a Hawaiian child who contracted leprosy in the Honolulu of the 1890s and was deported to the quarantined leper settlement of Kalaupapa on the island of Moloka’i. There she fell in love with and married a Japanese man, Kenji Utagawa, but the infected pair were forced to give up their infant daughter, Ruth, to prevent infecting the baby.

Brennert sensitively sketched the Utagawas’ heartbreak and dignity in the face of medical and cultural reality, and “Daughter of Moloka’i” picks up the narrative thread in 1917, when the healthy Ruth, barely a year old, is brought to the Catholic sanctuary of Kapi’olani Home. Ruth is happy at the orphanage, cares deeply for stray cats and dogs, but her youth is marked by a strong sense of otherness. She is what Hawaiians call "hapa" – of mixed race – and suffers rejection by a series of would-be parents who consider adapting her, until she is matched with the Watanabes, a Japanese couple who want to complete their young brood with a girl.

Alan Brennert (Photo11: David Wells)

Ruth and her new family – loving father Taizo, mother Etsuko and their sons – immigrate to the U.S. in the 1920s, where Taizo has agreed to partner with his older brother, Jiro, on farmland near San Francisco. The bigotry of white Californians toward the quietly striving Japanese is a constant shadow, but the dislocations of the Great Depression and, ultimately, World War II traumatize the growing family.

With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. enters the war and the Franklin Roosevelt administration issues its misguided decree to place West Coast Japanese Americans in internment camps. By then, Ruth has married hard-working Frank Harada and together have two children and opened a diner.

Suddenly relocated to the camp at Manzanar, Ruth and Frank’s extended family must endure it for close to four years. They uphold Japanese culture and community amidst camp politics, protests, violence and the government’s call for internees to swear a loyalty oath -- which splits the family, tragically, along generational lines. Brennert’s well-researched description of these California camps – though deeply humane in comparison to the Nazi genocide -- is the heart of the book’s drama, and opens our eyes to a wounded aspect of the Japanese-American experience.

The book’s final third comes as a salve. We learn that Ruth’s birth mother, Rachel, has been relieved of her leprosy by new sulfa drugs and can freely travel. The two are reunited, Ruth learns the truth of her biological parentage, and a family history is made whole. Brennert’s writing – workmanlike in the camp section – comes alive in his blending of ethnic language and his descriptions of Hawaii’s volcanic splendor (“The sky above Diamond Head was a spray of gold as the sun seemed to rise up out of the crater itself”). From the pain of Moloka’i, he crafts a novel of illumination and affection.