View source for Press release, KCRW 1990 April

Joe Frank, radio and performing artist, has been compared by the
reviewing press to Orson Welles, Frederico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman,
Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges and Raymond Chandler for his widely
acclaimed weekly radio program, "Joe Frank: Work in Progress."
Produced by KCRW, the Santa Monica based National Public Radio
station, "Work in Progress" is broadcast Sunday mornings at 11 a.m.

Aired on NPR in 30 cities nationwide, "Work in Progress" has won
numerous awards since its 1986 debut.  Lauded as "creative mind
theatre," "radio noir," and "a chronicle of the American psyche," the
shows are thought-provoking entertainment, bizarre and darkly comic.
One of Frank's most acclaimed programs is the three-part "Rent a
Family," which won Columbia University's prestigious Major Armstrong
Award and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Program Award, both
in 1988.

This fictionalized story focuses on a single mother with two young
daughters who decides to rent her family to lonely professional men
yearning for family life.  After viewing a number of videotapes, she
selects a man and the stage is set for a chilling tale.  The man
disappears with her children and the woman turns, in desperation, to
her ex-husband and his new wife.

The story breaks for surreal panel discussions on the sociological,
psychological and spiritual implications of surrogate families.  This
year Frank expanded his range as a performer to include the stage, a
direction he intends to continue exploring.

In February, "Rent a Family" was adapted and directed by Paul Verdier,
well-known for his productions of Ionesco's work, in a series of
performances at Los Angeles' Stages Trilingual Theatre.  In March,
Frank's one man show, "Joe Frank: In Performance," played a twice
extended, sold-out run at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Ahmanson
Auditorium.

Next winter a collection of fiction by Frank will be published by
William Morrow & Co.  (New York).  David Carpenter, in the September
issue of "Spin" magazine, wrote: "Joe Frank is an invaluable warrior
who stands in defense of our fears, our vanities and our
forever-eroding sense of ourselves.  He transforms the everyday
banality of the human comedy into an inspired weirdness that feeds on
pathos and irony, and feels a lot like revelation.  Sartre would have
called it nausea; Frank makes it art."


KCRW-FM o 1900 PICO BOULEVARD, SANTA MONICA, CA 90405 o 213-450-5183



BIOGRAPHY


Joe Frank was born in Strasbourg, France of a Viennese mother and
Polish father.  His family immigrated to New York City where Frank was
raised and educated.  Frank, who received a B.A. from Hofstra
University, attended the Iowa Writers Workshop and subsequently taught
at The Dalton School in Manhattan.

In the mid-'70s Frank joined WBAI, the New York Pacifica station, as a
volunteer.  By 1977 he was the host of "In The Dark," a late-night
entertainment program that featured Frank's monologues, improvised
sketches, and live music.

In 1978 Frank moved to Washington D.C., to anchor the Weekend Edition
of "All Things Considered" on National Public Radio (NPR).  From 1979
to 1985 he wrote, performed in, and produced 18 dramas for NPR
Playhouse, garnering many broadcasting honors, including the 1982
Broadcast Media Award, the 1983 Radio Program Award from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, two consecutive Gold Awards at
the International Radio Festival of New York (1983 and 1984), the
American Nomination to the 1984 Prix Italia and a Special Commendation
from the Berlin Prix Futura (1985).

In 1986, at the invitation of Ruth Hirschman, general manager of KCRW,
Frank moved to Los Angeles where he created his own weekly one-hour
program, "Joe Frank: Work in Progress," at the Santa Monica-based NPR
station.

In 1988 Frank won both the prestigious Major Armstrong Award and the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Program Award for his three-part
series "Rent a Family."

In February 1989 "Rent a Family" was adapted and directed by Paul
Verdier at Stages Trilingual Theatre.

In March of 1989 Frank gave his first one man show ("Joe Frank: In
Performance") at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Ahmanson Theater.
Frank has published two plays, "The Decline of Spengler" (New
Directions 48, New York) and "A Tour of the City" (Tanam Press, New
York).

A volume of fiction, "The Queen of Puerto Rico and Other Stories,"
will be published by William Morrow (New York) next winter.
Montreal's Theatre Anima will present Frank's award-winning "A Tour of
the City" at Hangar Number 9 of the Old Port of Montreal in June,
1990.  This drama, featuring a cast including performers from Cirque
du Soleil, will be under the direction of Jordan Deitcher.

Michael Mann, creator of the television series' "Miami Vice" and
"Crime Story," has purchased the rights to Frank's radio monologue,
"Night," and plans to adapt it for a feature film.

April 1990

KCRW-FM o 1900 PICO BOULEVARD, SANTA MONICA, CA 90405 o 213-450-5183