INSIDE
Capturing nature, a
formidable force E8
THEATER: Jewish diversity becomes a
more vibrant issue onstage E3BY SONIA RAO
IN NEW YORKCALLA KESSLER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST“I love people,”
Drew Barrymore
says. “I care
about them, and I
have their backs,
and I want to do
this for them.
This is not for
me.”
BY THOMAS FLOYDA
fter Hollywood spent the better
part of two decades sleeping on
Robin Thede, it’s only appropriate
that the sketch comedy impresario isn’t
overly interested in shut-eye nowadays.
Thede instead tends to get by with
three or four hours of sleep and wake up
at 4 a.m. during production of “A Black
Lady Sketch Show,” the Emmy-winning
HBO series she created and stars in.
Among the 42-year-old’s early-morning
tasks: touching base with her head writer
about last-minute punch-ups to the
scripts; checking in with her department
heads to make decisions on props, hair-
styles and costumes; and handwriting
thank-you notes to the day’s guest stars.
Since Thede appears in most of the
show’s sketches, the showrunner then
slips into the hair-and-makeup chair
while fielding questions about every-
thing from upcoming casting to location
scouting. After going over her lines on the
shuttle to set, she rehearses her scenes
and talks to the director about lighting,
blocking and other technical touches.
Once Thede is done shooting her sketches
— and assessing the footage between
SEE THEDE ON E12Robin Thede
breaks comedy
barriers, paves
new routes
BY MICHAEL ANDOR BRODEURI
f you want to prepare yourself for the
worst that can happen, learn to play
the piano.
At least, this is one of my takeaways
from speaking to Haskell Small, a
D.C.-based pianist, composer and educa-
tor for whom the piano has acquired new
significance. Once the anchor of his
musical life, his instrument is now some-
thing more like a sail, pulling him for-
ward through one of the stormiest pas-
sages of his life.
In February 2021, while at home with
his wife, Betsy, Small was suddenly un-
able to stand up or move. He remembers
feeling extreme stress just beforehand,
he remembers Betsy calling 911 and he
recalls the medics whisking him away to
intensive care. Small had suffered a
severe hemorrhagic stroke.
“I consider myself very lucky,” says
Small, 73, in a phone conversation last
week. “My mind and my speech re-
mained intact, but at first I could hardly
move my left side.”
Small spent several grueling months
in an acute rehab center, where he
relearned how to walk and slowly
regained partial mobility in his arm
and leg.
SEE BRODEUR ON E13CRITIC’S NOTEBOOKA pianist’s
journey to
playing again
after a stroke
Barrymore tells all on her talk show, a mix of daytime TV antics and unexpectedly moving moments
Finding her perfect role: Herself
I
t’s Drew Barrymore’s birthday, which means it’s everybody’s birthday. ¶ Moments after
bursting into her Midtown talk show studio on a late February morning and announcing she
is “tripping” over the palindromic date — 2-22-22, which makes her 47 years old —
Barrymore wishes a happy birthday to each crew member who says it to her. “I have to say it
back,” she explains. “ ‘Thank you’ is really exhausting.” They accept the explanation. Why
wouldn’t they? It’s classic, silly Drew. ¶ A few hours later, the milestone appears to have a more
sobering effect on her. Seated across from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Barrymore asks her guest, also a
former child actor, how he learned to develop boundaries in such an intense, high-profile
industry. It took her decades to start doing so, she says, describing it as “an honor to be in my 40s
and fall in love with a notion I should have known as a child, but didn’t.” ¶ In its two seasons, “The
Drew Barrymore Show” has proved to be a chaotic mishmash of daytime television antics and
unexpectedly moving moments. SEE BARRYMORE ON E10ERIK CARTER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Comedian and actress Robin Thede
created and stars in HBO’s Emmy-
winning “A Black Lady Sketch Show.”KLMNO
Arts&Style
SUNDAY, APRIL 10 , 2022. SECTION E EZ EE