NYTW Usual Suspects Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson explore the future of our democracy in four-part What the Hell Is a Republic, Anyway?
Who: Denis O’Hare, Lisa Peterson, Roberta Stewart, Sonia Sabnis, Jeffery Robinson, more
What: Live, interactive performance/discussion series
Where: New York Theatre Workshop Zoom
When: Select Tuesdays through November 2, $10, 7:00
Why: The pandemic lockdown has forced theater companies to reinvent themselves without access to indoor venues where audiences sit and watch live performance. Amid benefit reunion readings, panel discussions, Q&As, master classes, workshops, and Zoom microplays, several troupes have established innovative online presences, including Red Bull, the Irish Rep, and the New Group here in New York City. Now downtown institution New York Theatre Workshop is expanding its programming for the upcoming fall season with the aptly titled “Artistic Instigators.” The project kicked off September 22 with the first episode of What the Hell Is a Republic, Anyway?, a live, interactive performance-discussion series comparing America with the Roman Empire and its notorious collapse. Republic is developed by Tony- and Obie-winning actor and playwright Denis O’Hare and two-time Obie-winning writer and director Lisa Peterson, longtime friends whose previous collaborations include An Iliad (NYTW, 2012) and The Good Book. The inaugural show, “Rome & America: Joined at Birth,” featured Dartmouth classical studies professor Roberta Stewart (there are two encore livestreams September 27 and October 5); the schedule continues October 6 with “Citizenship,” in which O’Hare (Take Me Out, American Horror Story) and Peterson (The Waves, Slavs) are joined by Reed College classics and humanities associate professor Sonia Sabnis, October 20 with “How Republics Fall Apart,” and November 2 with “The Election,” where they will speak with ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality deputy legal director Jeffery Robinson. (You can learn more about the series in this Token Theatre Friends interview.)
You can still catch many of NYTW’s previous online presentations here, including fireside chats with playwright Doug Wright, scenic designer Rachel Hauck, playwright Celine Song, Penny Arcade, Thaddeus Phillips, playwright Martyna Majok, director Rebecca Frecknall, actor, director, and playwright Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and Peterson; master classes and talks with playwrights Jeremy O. Harris and Mfoniso Udofia, directors Whitney White and Lileana Blain-Cruz, scenic/costume designer Adam Rigg, and actresses Celia Keenan-Bolger and Elizabeth Marvel; jam sessions with Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby and Daniel & Patrick Lazour; the “How to Grab Your Audience without Even Touching Them” cabaret workshop with performer Dito van Reigersberg; and discussions dealing with contemporary sociopolitical issues. NYTW has also announced that the fall season will consist of The Seagull on Sims 4 by Song; Victor I. Cazares’s Pinching Pennies with Penny Marshall, Redbone and Whitby’s work-in-progress The Talking Circles, Ayad Akhtar’s solo piece Trump Is Just the Name of His Story, The Cooking Project, and Theater Mitu’s remnant, with the hope that some of these will happen in person, live onstage, with some kind of audience.