Who: Dylan Baker, Becky Ann Baker, Jessica Frances Dukes, Jason Butler Harner, Hal Linden, Jillian Mercado, Richard Kind, Kara Wang
What: New streaming play by Torrey Townsend, directed by Robert O’Hara
Where: Broadstream
When: June 24-27, free with RSVP
Why: Playwright Torrey Townsend (The Workshop, Executioners) and director Robert O’Hara (Antebellum, BootyCandy) started working on the new play Off Broadway prior to the Covid-19 crisis, but it has been reimagined for online viewing, about a nonprofit theater that suddenly has to reinvent itself over Zoom in order to keep functioning. Presented by Jeremy O. Harris, the play, streaming for free June 24-27, features an all-star cast consisting of Dylan Baker, Becky Ann Baker, Jessica Frances Dukes, Jason Butler Harner, Hal Linden, Jillian Mercado, Richard Kind, and Kara Wang. “Championing challenging, exciting new work during this pandemic has been my chief mission,” Harris (Slave Play, “Daddy”) said in a statement. “Torrey Townsend’s Off Broadway is a brilliant satire that dares to ask questions of a community that, though attempting, still has a long way to go. Knowing that arguably our country’s best satirist is directing the piece made this the most exciting piece to put my energy behind this year.”
O’Hara added, “Before the pandemic, Torrey and I had been developing his brilliant new satire examining the white supremacy that has been lurking behind the walls of the American theater. For months, I couldn’t get it out of my head, so I suggested that we do exactly what theater was doing during the pandemic — go digital — because, of course, the same systemic issues remain ‘off-line.’ I’m so excited to share this new work as we begin to reopen our theaters and hopefully prepare to come back in a more equitable and much less toxic manner.” Ari Fulton designed the costumes and props, with Teniece Divya Johnson as intimacy director, Twi McCallum as sound designer, and Leah Vicencio as technical director and video editor. I’m in for anything Harris is involved with, but with Linden and Kind in the cast, there’s even more reason not to miss this short-run show.