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Kwame Kwei-Armah is turning up the floodlights on Center Stage . It's been not quite two years since the British-born playwright became artistic director of Maryland's largest regional theater. With his production of two button-pushing dramas nicknamed "The Raisin Cycle," the beams emanating from 700 N. Calvert St. are strong enough to be spotted in distant places, from the Big Apple to the Badger State. Articles about the cycle, in which both plays run in repertoire and have the same casts, have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Kwame Kwei-Armah is turning up the floodlights on Center Stage . It's been not quite two years since the British-born playwright became artistic director of Maryland's largest regional theater. With his production of two button-pushing dramas nicknamed "The Raisin Cycle," the beams emanating from 700 N. Calvert St. are strong enough to be spotted in distant places, from the Big Apple to the Badger State. Articles about the cycle, in which both plays run in repertoire and have the same casts, have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

It's not often in judging the biography of a great artist that you can just pick up the phone and call one of the people who knew him best - and remains a principal keeper of the historical flame. But that is exactly the case with Cab Calloway, the Baltimore-raised jazz bandleader, singer and actor who is profiled in TV's "American Masters" series at 10 p.m. Monday on PBS. Camay Calloway Murphy, the performer's daughter, lives here and is happy to talk about her late father and how she feels he is treated in "American Masters Cab Calloway: Sketches.

Still in awe of the size and power of Hurricane Sandy? The PBS program "Nova" will soon delve into just how such a storm occurred. Though it hasn't even been a month since the storm devastated much of the Northeast, an episode titled "Inside the Megastorm" will air twice in the coming days -- Nov. 18 and Nov. 21, at 9 p.m. both nights. Here is the program description : Was Hurricane Sandy a freak combination of weather systems? Or are hurricanes increasing in intensity due to a warming climate?

If you want a little mid-summer escape via TV the next three Sunday nights, check out the new PBS mystery series, "Zen," starring Rufus Sewell. I watched all three that were made available for preview, but I love TV mysteries. And I have to say that while I started out thinking this was going to be winner, by the end of episode 3, I changed my mind. There are just too many problems with the lead character and writing for this to ever become a PBS staple like "Inspector Morse" or "Miss Marple" had been.

Despite its promotion by The Sun last week, the recent PBS television program about the War of 1812 once again ignored the Battle of North Point, which was fought in 1814 around the area of what is now Dundalk-Edgemere. This seemed like a deliberate oversight, given the fact that the battle was covered in the show's companion book, "The War of 1812: A Guide to Battlefields and Historic Sites. " Granted, Fort McHenry is the star attraction of the 1812 war because it inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words of our national anthem.

IT'S THAT TIME of year again. Unsatisfied with its $390 million annual grant from Congress, PBS has begun interrupting Sesame Street reruns and documentaries on Armenian culture to continue its relentless pursuit for private donations. This year's efforts have been particularly intense, given the cost of complying with the Federal Communications Commission's requirement that stations convert to a digital broadcasting format. Congress provided an additional $48.7 million to aid that transition, but public broadcasting officials have estimated the conversion's total price tag at nearly $1.7 billion.

Public television will launch a weekly newsmagazine Jan. 18 with Bill Moyers as host and National Public Radio correspondents featured among its contributors. NOW With Bill Moyers will be produced by Moyers' Public Affairs Television production company and has a 50-week commitment, according to Pat Mitchell, president of PBS. The hourlong newsmagazine will air Fridays at 9 p.m. on most public television stations. The show's publicists describe NOW's format as a mixture of documentary reporting, one-on-one interviews and commentary.

Two specials on the real world premiere tonight, and they both have Maryland ties. There's a cheap motel in Laurel, according to author James Bamford, where some of the Sept. 11 hijackers stayed. You can almost see it from the headquarters of the National Security Agency. And that's the point of "The Spy Factory," a Nova report tonight on PBS. The NSA knew about the men who would hijack the planes, but couldn't - or wouldn't - release the information to the FBI. Some of the charges and revelations have appeared before.

President Clinton's address on Bosnia, carried live at 8 p.m. on MPT (Channels 22, 67), along with the Republican response, is pushing back tonight's PBS programming, meaning everything scheduled to start at 8 p.m. or later will be delayed. No word on the networks' plans, so we'll assume programs will go on there as scheduled. But stick with PBS anyway; outside of Monday Night Football, commercial TV leaves something to be desired tonight.* "In the Wild" (8 p.m.-9 p.m. [delayed], MPT, Channels 22 and 67)

Sal D'Avella's letter on Mitt Romney's budget proposal proves once again that one can attack or defend any idea ("Move over, Big Bird," Oct. 11). Four-hundred-fifty million dollars could indeed hire a lot of teachers. However, did Mr. D'Avella do any preliminary research to see if Sesame Street was an effective tool for educating children? Is this $450 million being well spent? It took me only the time to log onto the Internet to find several arguments for the continuation of Big Bird and the Sesame Street gang.

Mitt Romney may have won the first presidential debate, but what stuck in many people's minds was his threat to fire Big Bird. Apparently, Mr. Romney thinks America's debt problem can be fixed by picking up pennies along Sesame Street. Pressed to explain how he would balance the federal budget while cutting trillions of dollars in taxes, the allegedly masterful debater offered up just two specifics: He would repeal "Obamacare" (even though the Congressional Budget Office says the health care act actually reduces deficit spending)

Baltimore figures substantially in "Arts and the Mind," a two-hour documentary airing on PBS stations around the country. There is a good amount of airtime for OrchKids, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's ambitious music education program launched by music director Marin Alsop and now offered in four inner-city schools. Also getting attention is Dr. Charles Limb, the surgeon and neuroscientist (not to mention jazz sax player) at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His studies into the creative process include putting a hip-hop performer under a brain scanner.

Brian Roberts of Forest Hill has been named executive producer of MotorWeek, Maryland Public Television's long-running national automotive series. In his new role, Roberts will oversee all aspects of the daily production of the PBS show that airs weekly in 92 percent of public television markets nationwide. "Brian Roberts is a tremendous asset to the MotorWeek team, keeping all the day-to-day production elements on track so that new episodes can be delivered each week," MotorWeek's creator and host John Davis said in a press release.

Archaeologists have discovered what they think are remains of a barn or blacksmith workshop in North Bethesda that could date to the days of Josiah Henson, a former slave whose autobiography inspired the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin. " Looking for evidence of what slave life in Maryland was like, archaeologists with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Montgomery Parks and the PBS program "Time Team America" began exploring the Josiah Henson Special Park on Monday.

Matters of faith continue to divide people in dreadful ways, but there has always been at least one thing that religions have in common - the urge to express belief through art. That's a point driven home in a sumptuous 90-minute documentary by Baltimore filmmaker Robert Gardner airing this week on PBS. "Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World," narrated by Susan Sarandon, provides a welcome look into a cultural legacy little known and little...

Washington Week in Review," PBS' long-running public affairs program, is a stolid, dependable performer that features Washington reporters talking about current events, adding a bit of information when that seems called for.Its devotees think "Washington Week" is deep. It is, but only as you compare it to the political food fights that take place elsewhere on the television dial.Nevertheless, it is going through a bad time. Its producers want to pep it up, give it more attitude, get panelists to be bolder, edgier.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting yesterday announced it will provide $4.2 million to help fund two new series for preschoolers and their parents.While the money is news in its own right, since it will be matched by another $4.2 million from the U.S. Department of Education, what's unique about the project is the effort by public television to help parents become more involved in their childrens' television viewing.In addition to the new series -- "Dragon Tales" (for children 2 to 5 years of age)

From Norman Rockwell and Leonard Bernstein to Baltimore's Cab Calloway, no one does biography like "American Masters" on PBS. I've been reviewing these superb productions for all of the 26 seasons that "American Masters" has been on the air, and have written some variation of that line for at least 25 of them. And tonight's "Johnny Carson: King of Late Night" is one of the 10 greatest biographies this sublime series has delivered. Maybe one of the five best. But let's not quibble.

Built in part on the premise that even some of the smartest and most savvy news consumers sometimes feel themselves drowning in a sea of information online, the Daily Download aims to be an island of orientation. The online site that debuted last week is part of an important movement among educators and journalists to help citizens find their way online and in social media to the kind of data, context and analysis needed to make informed choices about their lives. The idea is that such sites are crucial to the future of democracy.