Rob Sivak

The Maryland Film Festival opens next Wednesday, April 8 and continues through Sunday, April 12. It’s returning to the spring after an experimental move to the fall last year. Jed Dietz founded the festival and directed it for nearly two decades. Now KJ Mohr directs the festival, as well as  programming at the SNF Parkway Theatre. They joined to discuss next week’s festival with Tom. Their conversation was pre-empted on air by NPR special coverage of oral argument before the Supreme Court.

The US-Israeli war with Iran continues to spread violence, chaos and uncertainty across the Middle East and around the world. Gas prices have spiked in Asia, Africa, the US and Europe. In a press conference at the Pentagon Tuesday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s missile and drone capabilities, while attenuated, are still a threat to the US and our allies. A Kuwaiti oil tanker was set on fire off the coast of Dubai yesterday. The Strait of Hormuz remains almost completely closed.

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom again for another of her weekly reviews of Baltimore's regional stage. Today, she tells us about the world premiere of Really Quite a Lot of Mechanisms, a darkly comedic puppet show presented by the renowned Baltimore puppet theatre and filmmaking company, Alex and Olmsted, and now on stage at the Theatre Project. Mechanisms is set in a near-future world where nations are at war and life feels increasingly illogical.