Spark kicks off its 2008 season with a backstage look at American Conservatory Theater‘s production of “The Blood Knot,” a play by Athol Fugard set in apartheid South Africa during the 1960s.

Meet San Francisco political cartoonist Mark Fiore, who quit his job at a daily newspaper to experiment with a new format — animated political cartoons for the web.

And then go to the studio of Oakland painter Hung Liu, who draws inspiration from photographs of people during Mao’s cultural revolution.

In this Episode

A.C.T.’s “Blood Knot”

Go behind the scenes of A.C.T.'s 2008 production of Athol Fugard's "Blood Knot."

Hung Liu

See the process behind Hung Liu's series of figurative works that uses images from vintage photographs.

Mark Fiore

See how Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Fiore finds his inspiration for his weekly political online animation.