style="font-size: larger;" | Powderhouse Productions

Year Founded:	1994
Principals:	Joel Olicker and Tug Yourgrau Tug Yourgrau Tuggelin Yourgrau is a playwright and TV producer. He is currently the President of Powderhouse Productions in Somerville, MA.Yourgrau was born in South Africa and moved to America at the age of 10...
Location:	Somerville, MA

Powderhouse Productions is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 production company.

Origins

As early as 1986, Powderhouse co-founders Joel Olicker and Tug Yourgrau met while working to produce a documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 for WGBH

WGBH-TV

WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...

, the public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts.

The collaboration on this documentary for WGBH led them to conceive their own independent production company that would focus on their own brand of nonfiction television programming. In 1994, Olicker and Yourgrau officially began work under the Powderhouse moniker. Powderhouse's first office facilities were located in the basement of a Dunkin Donuts chain location in Somerville, MA.

Meaning of the Name

The name "Powderhouse" is derived from a conflict during the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

 over gunpowder

Gunpowder

Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...

 stored in the Provincial Powder House (still standing near Tufts University

Tufts University

Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...

 in Somerville). The province and its towns were to share the powder, but the towns had removed their allotments. When William Brattle, a Cambridge loyalist, so informed the British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 commander, General Thomas Gage

Thomas Gage

Thomas Gage was a British general, best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as military commander in the early days of the American War of Independence....

, the British became concerned that patriot elements might seize the provincial powder as well. On September 1, 1774, British soldier

Soldier

A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...

s removed 250 half barrels of powder from the Powder House. One detachment marched to Cambridge and carried off two small cannons.

Joel Olicker

A native New Yorker

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, he began his career at Valkhn Films, where he cut segments for the classic CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 children’s series Captain Kangaroo

Captain Kangaroo

Captain Kangaroo is a children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for nearly 30 years, from October 3, 1955 until December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running children's television program of its day...

. After a two-year teaching stint at Hampshire College

Hampshire College

Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1965 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts...

, he was employed at WGBH, eventually editing and/or producing for the national series NOVA

NOVA (TV series)

Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...

, Frontline, The American Experience and others. At Powderhouse, he helped launch the Emmy

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

-winning Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

 series, Discover Magazine. He has produced and directed award-winning specials such as Engineering The Impossible, the Emmy-nominated series Extreme Engineering

Extreme Engineering

Extreme Engineering is a documentary television series that airs on the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. The program features futuristic and ongoing engineering projects. As of April 2011, the show is airing its ninth season. Danny Forster first hosted the series in season 4 and has been...

 and numerous hours for the WGBH Science Unit and the Discovery Channel.

Tug Yourgrau

Tug Yourgrau is both an award-winning filmmaker and a TONY

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

-nominated playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

. He currently serves as Executive Producer of the Raising Cain Project for PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 and as Co-Executive Producer of Extreme Engineering for The Discovery Channel. Most recently, Tourgrau completed The Great Pink Scare funded by ITVS. In 2001, Tug produced, directed and wrote 'Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies' for PBS’s NOVA

NOVA (TV series)

Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...

. His play, "The Song of Jacob Zulu", ran on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 in 1993 and led to six Tony nominations.

Programs and Series Produced by Powderhouse Productions

Name:	Aired On:
Dogs 101	Animal Planet
Cats 101 Cats 101 - Plot :Cats 101 features different cat breeds per episode, which feature many experts, ranging from veterinarians to animal trainers, telling facts, origins, and looks of the breeds. Cat owners of a specific breed also speak of life-changing events that revolve around their cats. It is shown on...	Animal Planet
Build It Bigger (14 episodes)	Discovery
Sliced Sliced Sliced was an American television series that premiered on on The History Channel. The program was hosted by John McCalmont and Budd Kelley, who "slice" everyday objects in half to uncover how they work...	History
Superfetch	Animal Planet
Dogs Vs Cats	Animal Planet
A Girl's Life	PBS
America's Cutest Dog	Animal Planet
Kids By The Dozen Kids By The Dozen Kids By The Dozen is a reality television series about large families. The series was produced by Powderhouse Productions.-Children:PaulJohnMarkLukeJudeJamesPhilipSethJacobNathanMary-Elizabeth... (3 episodes)	TLC TLC (TV channel) TLC is an American cable TV specialty channel which initially focused on educational content. Since 1991 TLC has been owned by Discovery Communications, the same company that operates the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The Science Channel, as well as other learning-themed networks...
Mysteries of the Freemasons	History
Inside Supermax	TLC
Extreme Engineering - Season 3 (6 episodes)	Discovery
Raising Cain with Michael Thompson	PBS
MegaStructures: Ultimate Oil Rigs	National Geographic Channel National Geographic Channel National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
MegaStructures: Berlin Train Terminal	National Geographic Channel
MegaStructures: World's Biggest Airliner	National Geographic Channel
MegaStructures: Black Gold	National Geographic Channel
The Great Pink Scare	PBS
Extreme Engineering - Season 2 (10 episodes)	Discovery
Invent This! (13 episodes)	Tech TV
Engineering Supermax Prisons	TLC
World in Balance - China Revs Up	Nova/PBS
Extreme Engineering - Season 1 (10 episodes)	Discovery
Engineering the Impossible	Discovery
The Power of Friendship with Michael Thompson	OPB
Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies	Nova/PBS
Great Transformations - Evolution	Nova/PBS
The Killer's Trail	Nova/PBS
Mummies - The Real Story	Discovery Channel
Inside the US Mint	Discovery
Inside the World's Mightiest Bank	Discovery

Relevant Links

Official Powderhouse Website

Powderhouse MySpace Page

Build it Bigger - Official Discovery Website

Extreme Engineering - Official Discovery Page

The Great Pink Scare - Official PBS Website