The Jersey City Theater Center’s 2021 New Play Festival, part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s 2021 Stages Festival, will present ten new plays about healing from the US, Canada and New Zealand on four consecutive Thursdays, from May 6 to May 27. All shows are at 7:30pm. The plays — eight short plays and two full-length works — will be presented on Zoom, followed by a live Q&A with the projects’ respective artistic teams. For tickets visit www.jctcenter.org
The full-length plays are: “Moon Drops” by Carol Campbell, Domnica Radulescu, and Nikaury Rodriguez on May 13; and “Love in the Time of Mass Incarceration” by Boris Franklin and Tequia Gladden on May 27.
The short plays include: “E Minor Seventh” by Timothy Nolan, “Fractured Ferry Tale”by Ken Levine, “Hope Sings, Nocturnal” by Ken Preuss, and “Tiny Secrets Notes”by Marj O’Neill-Butler on May 6; “On Robots and Raindrops” by Monica Cross, “Random Acts of Kindness” by James C. Ferguson, “Relativity and Me” by Len Cuthbert (Canada), and “Skull against the Sky” by Rex McGregor (New Zealand) on May 20.
The festival within a festival is curated by Catalina Florina Florescu, a professor of theatre at Pace University in New York, who is a resident theater curator of the Jersey City Theater Center (JCTC).
Exquisite Corpse Company (Liz Frost, Producer)will present the World Premiere of Zoetrope, written by ECC writers-in-residence Elinor T Vanderburg, Leah Barker,and Emily Krause, directed by Porcia Lewis and Tess Howsam. The production will be presented LIVE with socially distanced seating for a limited audience at 134 Vanderbilt Ave Brooklyn, NY 11205, May 1-23.
Two people, a fish, a New York City apartment on top of a trailer bed, and you! Check performance schedule on the link for times. Tickets ($35) will go on sale Monday, April 19at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exquisite-corpse-company-presents-zoetrope-tickets-151079377485. The performance will run approximately 35 minutes, with no intermission.
Ghostlight Records, has announced that the new album from famed guitarist and recent Grammy Award winner John Pizzarelli, Better Days Ahead, is now available in digital and streaming platforms, and on CD via Amazon.com. In this landmark recording, one lauded guitar hero honors another, as Pizzarelli – in the first solo guitar album of his 5 decade career – explores the compositions of 20-time Grammy Award-winning composer and guitarist Pat Metheny. A special video of the album’s third single “Last Train Home” is available on YouTube HERE. To order or stream the album, please visit ghostlightrecords.lnk.to/pizzarelli-betterdaysahead
THEATER THREE COLLABORATIVE, in association with Farm Arts Collective, has announced the world premiere production of Karen Malpede‘s BLUE VALIANT. Directed by Malpede and starring George Bartenieff (The Whole World Over, Fiddler on the Roof, and Merchant of Venice) and Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America, Racing Demon, Dance With Me), BLUE VALIANT will play two LIVE performances only at Farm Arts Collective (38 Hickory Ln, Damascus, PA 18415). Performances are Saturday, May 29 and Sunday, May 30 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $25 and available at FarmArts.org
Doris Bumpus will be starring as the legendary Billie Holiday in 42nd Street Moon’s virtual production of LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL, written by Lanie Robertson. Directed by Brandon Jackson and featuring music direction by Marcus McCauley, LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL will be available to stream from May 8 – 30, 2021 as part of 42nd Street Moon’s paid virtual ticketed MoonBeams series. Tickets and subscriptions are available now and may be purchased at 42ndstmoon.org/moonbeams.
Oscar nominee Hugh Jackman and Oscar winner Laura Dern have been set to star in blue-chip feature drama The Son, writer-director Florian Zeller’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated movie The Father. Oscar winners Iain Canning and Emile Sherman (The King’s Speech), and Joanna Laurie of See-Saw Films, produce with Christophe Spadone (The Father) alongside Zeller.
Alysha Umphress, Isaac Mizrahi and More Join Take Me Back To Manhattan Tribute to the American Songbook –A virtual tribute to New York City, Take Me Back to Manhattan filmed at the famed Carlyle Hotel in New York, will be available to stream beginning Saturday, May 1, 2021 www.jazzattheballroom.com
The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia by Rick Pender, a detailed and comprehensive reference devoted to musical theater’s most prolific and admired composer and lyricist, was released yesterday.
