While Kenny Leon polishes August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” at the Alliance Theatre, Todd Kreidler, his True Colors associate artistic director, is cooking up Leon’s “Dinner.”

We’re talking, of course, about “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” Kreidler’s adaptation of the classic 1967 film that starred Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Kreidler has spent the last year toiling over his and Leon’s next Broadway project.

No “Dinner” date has been set for Broadway. “But we’re still aiming to go in the fall,” Kreidler says. “Right now, we’re planning to gather for a reading in New York after Labor Day, then hopefully begin rehearsals in October.”

Meanwhile, “Gem” starts previews Aug. 30 at the Alliance, and “Radio Golf,” the final installment of Wilson’s epic 10-play cycle, begins previews at the Woodruff Arts Center playhouse on Aug. 29. Alliance associate artistic director Kent Gash directs “Radio Golf.” The two-play repertory’s official opening is Sept. 6.

Kreidler, a close personal associate of Wilson, was dramaturg for both “Gem of the Ocean” and “Radio Golf,” which played regional theaters before eventually moving to Broadway under Leon’s direction. The Chicago-based artist will arrive in Atlanta in mid-September, presumably to check out the bookended dramas.

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Decatur Book Fest: So you think you know Harry

By Phil Kloer | Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 07:18 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

One of the Decatur Book Festival highlights for younger readers may be the “Harry Potter Trivia Quiz,” in which a limited number of kids, all under age 18, will be invited onstage to test their wizarding skills and win prizes, including deluxe editions of Potter books and gift certificates to Decatur’s Little Shop of Stories.

It happens at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Target Children’s Stage.

The fest has tapped Cheryl Klein to judge the quiz. Klein was Scholastic Books’ continuity editor on the Potter books, which made her one of the leading experts on all things Harry. I talked to her recently about her unique gig.

She explained:

“Continuity editor is a title we made up to describe what I was doing on the Harry Potter books, which was keeping track of all the facts. There’s copy editing facts, like Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. Every time that it appears, does Every Flavor have a hyphen in it? Do we take out the “u” from “flavour” for the Americanized spelling? And I also help the primary editor keep track of where all the characters are, where all the magical implements are, ’cause the plotting is so intricate.”

Q: Did you ever catch a mistake that Rowling made, like a line where Snape has three kids named Moe, Larry and Curly?

A: Changes like that did come up. Talking about them is a little like violating lawyer-client privilege. It’s the author’s job to talk about those.

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