Today’s Features: Theater in Quarantine, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dixon Place, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Broadway Close Up, NJ Rep-Keeping Live Theater Alive, SparqFest, Underneath the Freeways of LA, New Camerata Opera-The Brooklyn Job, Jackson C. Frank Listening Party, Public Theater-Delacorte, The Office A Musical Parody, Amour
Williamstown Theatre Festival (Mandy Greenfield, Artistic Director) announced additional participants for the 2021 WTF Gala taking place virtually on Wednesday, April 7 at 7:30 pm. Joining the festivities will be Olivier Award® nominee Wendell Pierce (Death of a Salesman) who is a co-founder of Black Theatre United, a partner in WTF’s new Early Career BIPOC Theatre-Makers Program, and Emmy Award® winner Al Roker (NBC’s “Today”).
The company of the WTF Season on Audible production of Row will perform the opening number from the world premiere musical. The cast featured in the number includes Kerstin Anderson, John Ellison Conlee, Nehal Joshi, Tamika Lawrence, John McGinty, Grace McLean, Kathryn O’Rourke, Lance Roberts, Sean Stack, and Sally Wilfert. Row a book by Daniel Goldstein and music and lyrics by Dawn Landes. www.wtfestival.org
Art Lab (Meg Fofonoff) and ShowTown Productions (Nathan Gehan, Jamison Scott) are pleased to announce complete casting and performance information for the upcoming virtual Broadway musical revival of Amour April 2 to 4. Directed by Fofonoff, the cast of Amour will feature Tony Award nominee Derrick Baskin (Ain’t Too Proud), Drew Gehling (Waitress), Kara Lindsay (Newsies), Kevin Massey (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder), Tony Award nominee Adam Pascal (Rent), Christiani Pitts (A Bronx Tale: The Musical), Jennifer Saìnchez (Pretty Woman: The Musical), Thom Sesma (Sweeney Todd at Barrow Street Theatre), Vishal Vaidya (Groundhog Day), and Drama Desk Award winner Rachel York (Head Over Heels). at https://www.stellartickets.com/o/art-lab-llc/events/amour-the-virtual-broadway-revival.
Theater in Quarantine, a pandemic performance laboratory from writer, director, and performer Joshua William Gelb and choreographer Katie Rose McLaughlin, is proud to present the world premiere of Honestly Sincere, a new play written by Liza Birkenmeier, whose 2019 play, Dr. Ride’s American Beach House, was a New York Times critic’s pick. Set to premiere on March 18 on YouTube, Honestly Sincere features direction by Gelb, choreography and additional direction by McLaughlin, sound design by M. Florian Staab (Bill Irwin’s On Beckett), and visual design by Sara C Walsh (Queen of the Night)
Dunder Mifflin is reopening for funny business. The Office! A Musical Parody, the unauthorized send up of the hit TV series has announced it will be among the first Off-Broadway shows to resume in-person performances in New York City (at 33% capacity) beginning on Friday, April 9, 2021 at 7:30PM – continuing on in its open-ended run in the Jerry Orbach Theater at The Theater Center (210 West 50thStreet). The cast will soon be announced. The production originally opened in the Fall of 2018 but came to halt on March 15, 2020 – one full year ago.
Dixon Place announces its Spring 2021 Production Season, premiering four commissioned puppetry productions performed for in-person and virtual audiences, with video on demand (VOD) streaming available immediately following the live premieres. In-person performances will take place at 161A Chrystie Street, New York, NY. Tickets are $10.50-$35 and can be purchased online, specific shows/dates here. (dixonplace.org/productions-2021/).
The Hermitage Artist Retreat, in collaboration with the Greenfield Foundation, presents its 13th annual Hermitage Greenfield Prize celebration, April 8-12, 2021. This year’s events begin with a virtual first look at “Ocean Body,” the prize-commissioned work by 2019 winner Helga Davis (Thursday, April 8, 7 p.m., via Zoom); a panel discussion with this year’s Hermitage Greenfield Prize jurors and visionary leaders in theater, Mandy Greenfield, Nataki Garrett, and Robert O’Hara (Saturday, April 10, 4 p.m., via Zoom); an Artist Talk with 2021 Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner Aleshea Harris (Saturday, April 10, 6 p.m., Hermitage Beach and livestream); the 2021 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner (Sunday, April 11, 6 p.m., outdoors at the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art), and a special Virtual Celebration of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize (Sunday, April 11, available starting at 7 p.m). For details about these events and information on how to register, visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
| Kaufman Music Center’s virtual Broadway Close Up performances (April 19 and May 10) with two intimate lecture-concerts exploring the lives, careers and music of Kay Swift and one of the longest-running collaborations in show business history, Fred Ebb and John Kander. Hosted by Theater@Kaufman Director Sean Hartley and filmed in Merkin Hall, these one-hour performances pair lively and informative lectures, followed by Q&A (audiences submit questions in advance), with performances of songs from musicals including Fine and Dandy and Cabaret. Cast members are Tony winner Karen Ziemba (Contact, Curtains), Nikki Renée Daniels (Company, Hamilton, The Book of Mormon, Porgy and Bess), Jeff Kready (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), Sally Wilfert (Assassins), Klea Blackhurst and music directors Georgia Stitt and Jihwan Kim. questions@kaufmanmusiccenter.org. |
This is the 6th release in the series, Keeping Live Theatre Alive!, conceived by Dan Lauria and featuring original works created by actors who champion theater. Featured here are Judith Light, Tucker Smallwood, Ray Abruzzo, Bruce Davison, Jill Eikenberry and Stacy Keach. NJ Rep and four partner theaters Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Durango Playfest, Laguna Playhouse, and Seven Angels Theatre are the recipients of this treasure-trove of heartfelt stories. www.njrep.org
Tickets and films stream on the festival’s streaming site SparqFest. To purchase tickets for the socially relevant films, either go to the festival website or directly to Sparqfest, search for the film(s), login, enter the number of tickets you need for each or buy an all-access pass.
‘Clue’ meets Chinatown in a live-streamed, interactive murder mystery experience inspired by historical events. Set in 1960 in East L.A.’s Hollenbeck Park — newly divided by the Los Angeles Freeway Interchange that famously displaced over 15,000 residents in Boyle Heights — Underneath the Freeways of Los Angeles, commissioned by The Echo Theater Company, written by Matthew Paul Olmos and directed by Michael Alvarez, calls upon the audience to help solve a baffling murder. Sixteen virtual performances are set to take place over Zoom April 2 through April 26. Every performance is different. Tickets range from $15-$25 at www.EchoTheaterCompany.com/underneath.
THE JACKSON C. FRANK LISTENING PARTY W/SPECIAL GUESTS, a virtual theater/listening party experience created during the global pandemic by playwright, Michael Aguirre. The running time is 1 hour and 20 minutes.Tickets can be purchased via www.59e59.org. For more information, visit www.newlighttheaterproject.com.
New Camerata Opera presents the virtual world premiere of The Brooklyn Job on Thursday, May 6, 2021 and Saturday, May 8, 2021 at 8pm EDT. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased online at https://www.newcamerataopera.org/events. The Brooklyn Job is an interactive, virtual museum heist written and directed by New York comedian Sarah Morgan Ashey. Under the music direction of Dan Franklin Smith, this thrilling narrative is set to wide-ranging repertoire selections performed by a cast of ten singers.
The Public Theater has Saheem Ali and Jocelyn Bioh ready to fill The Delacorte with a rollicking new adaptation of Shakespeare’s MERRY WIVES, set in South Harlem in a joyous celebration of New York’s West African community. They are finding a way to safely share a summer of Free Shakespeare in the Park with the city. Help get back to The Delacorte on July 5. Learn more.
