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THE (VIRTUAL) WILDNESS

THE (VIRTUAL) WILDNESS
Ars Nova Supra Zoom
Wednesday, May 26, $10, 7:00
arsnovanyc.com
skyponyband.com

In March 2016, I saw The Wildness at Ars Nova, writing, “Brooklyn-based eight-piece collective Sky-Pony presents a captivating treat for adventurous theatergoers with this DIY indie-rock opera, a multimedia fairy tale that filters such popular musicals as Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell through a Narnia-like aesthetic and video-game narrative that fantasy fans will go ga-ga over.” Sky-Pony is now back for a one-time virtual follow-up, taking place over Ars Nova’s online Supra portal via Zoom. On May 26 at 7:00, The (Virtual) Wildness moves the story, which involves a missing leader, a messianic princess, the mysterious builder, the keymaster, and various handmaidens, five years into the future. The text is by composer Kyle Jarrow and Lauren Worsham, with incidental music by Kevin Wunderlich and video design by Eamonn Farrell; the show is directed by Ashley Tata and stars David Blasher, Lilli Cooper, Jeff Fernandes, Lindsey Ford, Sharone Sayegh, Jamie Mohamdein, Jarrow, Worsham, and Wunderlich, all from the original production.

SOHO REP. SPRING GALA

Soho Rep. virtual spring gala features performances by Cynthia Erivo and many others

Who: Amber Tamblyn, Questlove, Uzo Aduba, César Alvarez, Jocelyn Bioh, Cynthia Erivo, Terrance Hayes, Marin Ireland, Hansol Jung, Raja Feather Kelly, Questlove, Roslyn Ruff, Beau Sia, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Heather Alicia Simms, Patricia Smith, TL Thompson, Darren Walker, Emily Wells, Marcus Samuelsson, Andrew Yang, Rick Kinsel
What: Virtual spring gala
Where: Soho Rep. online
When: Monday, May 24, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: Founded in 1975 by Jerry Engelbach and Marlene Swartz, “Soho Rep. provides radical theater makers with productions of the highest caliber and tailor-made development at key junctures in their artistic practice. We elevate artists as thought leaders and citizens who change the field and society. Artistic autonomy is paramount at Soho Rep. — we encourage an unmediated connection between artists and audiences to create a springboard for transformation and rich civic life beyond the walls of our small theater.” The company, which presents shows at 46 Walker St., will be holding its spring gala on May 24, featuring musical performances and appearances by Uzo Aduba and Cynthia Erivo (performing a scene from Aleshea Harris’s Is God Is), César Alvarez (performing “Mandela” from The Potluck), Jocelyn Bioh, Marin Ireland, Hansol Jung, Raja Feather Kelly, Roslyn Ruff and Heather Alicia Simms (performing a scene from Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview), TL Thompson, and others; the evening will be hosted by Amber Tamblyn, with Questlove leading the afterparty. The event honors the Vilcek Foundation and Rick Kinsel, with presentations from previous Vilcek Prize winners Marcus Samuelsson and Andrew Yang.

DEATH BY LIFE: A DIGITAL OPERA IN ONE ACT

Virtual opera Death by Life takes a hard look at the prison industrial complex

White Snake Projects
May 20-25, free with RSVP (suggested donation $25-$150)
www.whitesnakeprojects.org

In the second edition of twi-ny’s Pandemic Awards, I named White Snake Projects’ Alice in the Pandemic “Best Use of Technology in a Virtual Opera.” The Boston-based company might win the same award in the third iteration of the Pandemic Awards for its follow-up, the emotionally powerful and dramatic Death by Life: A Digital Opera in One Act. The work, which explores systemic racism and injustice in the prison industrial complex, is divided into five scenes based on the stories of real men and women who are currently or were previously incarcerated, with music by five Black composers, along with transitional interludes.

Directed by Kimille Howard with a libretto by show creator and White Snake founding head Cerise Lim Jacobs, Death by Life is highlighted by live performances by tenor Aaron Blake, mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford, baritone Nicholas Davis, soprano Tiana Sorenson, and soloist Naomi Wilson (incarcerated for thirty-seven years), who, despite being in different locations around the country, at times appear to be in the same room or cell. The live singing, accompanied by the Victory Players — pianist Nathan Ben-Yehuda, cellist Clare Monfredo, clarinetist Eric Schultz, and Elly Toyoda on violin and viola, with music direction by Tianhui Ng — is absolutely thrilling. The 3D sets, which do have some green-screening issues but otherwise are highly impressive, were created in Unreal Engine by Curvin Huber, with animation by R Cory Collins, lighting by Becky Marsh, sound by Jon Robertson, dramaturgy by Keith McGill, and projections by Paul Deziel.

The seventy-minute show begins with Returning Home,5 based on text by poet and activist Monica Cosby — who spent twenty years in prison — with music by Leila Adu-Gilmore, who taught at Sing Sing. The story follows a woman (Sorenson), released after twenty years behind bars, trying to reconnect with her mother (Bradford) while missing her prison family. In Orange Crush, by Phil Hartsfield — who is serving what is essentially a life sentence and recently earned a bachelor’s degree — with music by David Sandford, a pair of cellmates (Blake and Davis) prepare for a shakedown sweep that is likely to be brutal.

In Yard Time with the Animals, by writer, activist, and BA recipient Joe Dole — who is serving life without parole for a crime he claims he didn’t commit — and composer Jacinth Greywoode, Joe (Davis) tries to save three baby birds as the mother (Sorenson) seeks his help. In When the Time Hits You, based on text by Andrew Phillips — who is in a Kentucky prison for thirty years — and featuring music by Jonathan Bailey Holland, a new guard (Sorenson) reminds an inmate (Blake) that he might die while still incarcerated. And in I’m a Lifer, based on a story by Mary L. Johnson — who is seeking justice for her incarcerated son in Chicago — and with music by the legendary Mary D. Watkins, a man (Davis) is being harassed by cops over and over, and his mother (Bradford) is only making it worse by filing a complaint.

There are two shows left, on May 22 and 25 at 7:30. Be sure to tune in early to see the “Freedom Cost” artwork by educator, minister, community organizer, and death row inmate Renaldo Hudson (and check out the online “To Breathe” exhibit) and listen to songs by the Oakdale Community Choir, consisting of men inside Oakdale Prison as well as on the outside. And stick around for a postshow talkback with members of the cast and crew of Death by Life that goes behind the scenes of how the production was created — with Jacobs teasing that they have something more in the works for the fall.

MUSIC FOR MEALS: MAY YOUR SONG ALWAYS BE SUNG

Who: Richard Barone, the Bill Frisell Trio, Jeffrey Gaines, Amy Helm, Robyn Hitchcock, Lucy Kaplansky, the Kennedys, Mary Lee Kortes, Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, Bettye LaVette, Nils Lofgren, Low Cut Connie, James Maddock, Willie Nile, Zara Phillips, Emma Swift, Richard Thompson, Dan Wilson
What: Benefit concert celebrating Bob Dylan’s eightieth birthday
Where: Outpost in the Burbs Facebook and YouTube
When: May 20-24, free (donations accepted)
Why: The most influential musician of the last sixty years turns eighty on May 24, and you can help celebrate the milestone by checking out “May Your Song Always Be Sung,” a benefit presented by the all-volunteer Montclair-based nonprofit organization Outpost in the Burbs, which is “dedicated to building community through music, public service and cultural programs.” Available on demand through Monday, the event features Dylan covers by Richard Barone (“I’ll Keep It with Mine”), the Bill Frisell Trio ( “Just Like a Woman”), Jeffrey Gaines (“From a Buick 6”), Amy Helm (“Meet Me in the Morning”), Robyn Hitchcock (“Desolation Row”), Lucy Kaplansky (“Chimes of Freedom”), the Kennedys (“Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts”), Mary Lee Kortes and Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (“Tangled Up in Blue”), Bettye LaVette (“Emotionally Yours”), Nils Lofgren (“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”), Low Cut Connie (“I Shall Be Released”), James Maddock (“Tambourine Man”), Willie Nile (“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”), Emma Swift (“Visions of Johanna”), Richard Thompson and Zara Phillips (“I Believe in You”), and Dan Wilson (“Up to Me”). The third edition of Outpost in the Burbs’ “Music for Meals” outreach program, the event is a benefit for the Human Needs Food Pantry in Montclair, which has provided food, clothing, and other services to people in need since 1982.

chekhovOS /an experimental game/

Mikhail Baryshnikov portrays a dying Anton Chekhov in interactive online theater/gaming hybrid ChekhovOS

Select days, May 23 – June 24, free with advance RSVP (donations welcome)
www.arlekinplayers.com
www.zerogravity.art

In a June 2020 review I wrote, “The future of online productions might be best represented so far by Arlekin Players Theatre’s State vs. Natasha Banina. The forty-five-minute solo work gets right in your face, literally and figuratively, as Darya Denisova, portraying Natasha Banina, speaks directly to the audience, which serves as a jury, as she describes what led her to commit a heinous act.”

Through its Zero Gravity (zero-G) Virtual Theater Lab, which was created during the pandemic as a portal for cutting-edge online presentations, Arlekin has taken it to the next level with the ingenious chekhovOS /an experimental game/. The show combines prerecorded and live elements, featuring scenes from a Chekhov drama, voting, and spirited live chatting, all set in a fantastical virtual world designed by theater and gaming professionals, followed by an interactive postshow Q&A. It’s a work-in-progress with eight performances scheduled through June 24, though more might be added, and they would be extremely welcome. Conceived and directed by Arlekin founder and head Igor Golyak using the Soft Layer technology developed by game engine and interaction designer Will Brierly of Snowrunner Productions and taking place on Zoom and the internet, chekhovOS is a brilliant foray into what’s to come in online entertainment.

Denisova stars as the emcee of the evening, Natasha Prozorov, the initially awkward young woman from Chekhov’s Three Sisters, who explains that the Russian playwright’s characters are sick and tired of being stuck in their stories, which always end the same way; they want to be freed to live their own lives and make their own choices. Natasha is joined by a computer known as Charlotta (voiced by Anna Bortnick), the quirky governess from The Cherry Orchard. The audience is asked to vote on which play they want to see — The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, or The Cherry Orchard — after which they choose specific scenes, with the help of a spinning wheel, a website, and Olga the fish, named for Chekhov’s actress wife, Olga Knipper.

My audience chose The Cherry Orchard in a runaway, leading to a series of tragicomic scenes from the play starring Tony nominee Jessica Hecht as Madame Ranevskaya, Anna Baryshnikov as Varya, Jeffrey Hayenga as Fiers, Melanie Moore as Anya, Mark Nelson as Gaev, and Nael Nacer as Lopakhin. Following Covid-19 protocols, the actors perform in the same physical space but are placed into wildly fabulous virtual environments (designed by Anna Fedorova) inside the Chekhov Operating System in which they seem to be floating on air, surrounded by falling cherry blossoms, and glorying in a black-and-white expressionistic landscape. Mikhail Baryshnikov appears as Chekhov himself, reading from letters and dreams as the playwright struggles to complete The Cherry Orchard while facing serious illness; he died of tuberculosis in 1904, six months after the show opened.

Jessica Hecht plays Madame Ranevskaya in ChekhovOS

In a twi-ny talk with real-life partners Golyak and Denisova, the former said, “I want to have a discussion with the audience about subject matter, not a lesson plan, but pose a question around a point of pain in me and the collaborators.” And that’s just where the chat plays a pivotal role in chekhovOS. We’re not supposed to even whisper during live theater in dark venues, and many virtual productions disable the chat function so viewers can concentrate on the show itself. But chekhovOS not only encourages the chat but depends on it. It is monitored closely by several people involved with the work (narrative writer Tom Abernathy, coproducer Sara Stackhouse), who quickly respond to questions while also leaving plenty of mystery. On opening night, there was a big debate over whether we really picked The Cherry Orchard or the decision was preordained. It is most likely that Arlekin only filmed scenes from that play, so things would fall apart if the audience had voted for a different Chekhov classic; in fact, numerous chatters, primarily from the gaming community, were determined to attend again and steer the choice to something else.

Hosted on ZeroGravity.ART, the workshop performances are being copresented with ArtsEmerson, Boston Fig, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Cherry Orchard Festival Foundation, International Online Theatre Festival/Theatre Times, ShowOne Productions, and Snowrunner, with charity screenings for Gift of Life in the UK and Podari.Life in the US. Each show will be followed by a talkback with members of the cast and crew, moderated by Stackhouse, ArenaNet’s Abernathy, Theatre Times editor-in-chief Magda Romanska, ArtsEmerson founder Rob Orchard, or Emmy-winning critic Joyce Kulhawik, each taking a different focus. The creative team also includes virtual performance technical director Vladimir Gusev, cinematographer Guillermo Cameo, sound designer Sebastian Holst, and music composer Jakov Jakoulov. It’s a communal effort that leads to a warm sense of community among the actors, designers, makers, and audience, an innovative and masterful approach to the myriad possibilities of live, hybrid theater in a postpandemic world. “Life, in this house, is finished now,” Lopakhin says. But according to Arlekin, it’s only beginning.

SOCIAL DISTANCE HALL: AFTERWARDSNESS

Performers move throughout Park Avenue Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall in Afterwardsness (photo by Stephanie Berger)

AFTERWARDSNESS
Park Ave. Armory
643 Park Ave. at Sixty-Seventh St.
May 19-26, $45
www.armoryonpark.org

Bill T. Jones and Janet Wong have given us the first great indoor, in-person, live dance presentation of and about the pandemic and the social justice movement. Running May 19-26 at Park Avenue Armory, Afterwardsness takes place in the building’s massive fifty-five-thousand-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall, where one hundred audience members are marched in formation to their seats, arranged six feet apart from one another throughout the space. In the center is a large rectangle bordered by yellow tape, evoking caution, while a twisting path in blue (representing police and authority?) is situated on the floor around the chairs, ensuring the performers keep a safe distance from the viewers. (Part of the armory’s Social Distance Hall programming, the production itself was postponed last month when several cast and crew members tested positive for Covid.)

The sixty-five minute show, named for Sigmund Freud’s concept of “a mode of belated understanding or retroactive attribution of sexual or traumatic meaning to earlier events,” is a complex web of physical and emotional pain and fear, performed by eight masked and barefoot dancers wearing sweatpants and T-shirts or tank tops — Barrington Hinds, Chanel Howard, Dean Husted, Shane Larson, s. lumbert, Marie Lloyd Paspe, Nayaa Opong, and Huiwang Zhang — along with Vinson Fraley Jr., who is dressed all in white from head to ankle, as if he were a kind of spiritual leader or ghostly apparition; all are members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. They run, roll, jump, walk, tumble, squirm, wriggle, grasp their hands behind their backs, and raise their arms above their heads like they’re under arrest, never touching each other nor making eye contact with the audience. There’s so much happening at any one moment that it’s impossible to take it all in, as if you’re at a protest rally, not knowing where to look.

Bill T. Jones and Janet Wong’s Afterwardsnesstakes an emotional, powerful look at the last fourteen months in America (photo by Stephanie Berger)

The soundtrack is dazzling, featuring avant-garde jazz, snippets of familiar tunes (for example, “Dixie” and “Yankee Doodle,” which both deal with class and race issues), abstract sounds, brief quotes from Jones and members of the company that can’t always be understood, excerpts from Olivier Messaien’s 1941 chamber piece Quartet for the End of Time, written while he was a POW in a German prison, and occasional grunts and noises (and a nursery rhyme). Standing alone in the yellow rectangle, music director Pauline Kim Harris plays the gorgeous, elegiac 8:46 violin solo “Homage,” a tribute to George Floyd; clarinetist Paul Wonjin Cho and others perform from wooden lifeguard chairs; composer Holland Andrews contributes a new song and vocals, including stating the date, beginning with March 13 and continuing through May 19, in one corner with Cho, pianist Vicky Chow, and cellist Caleb van der Swaagh; and the score includes original compositions from Fraley Jr. and Howard, repeating powerful phrases about suppression and murder that echo through the hall. The immersive sound design is by Mark Grey.

Brian H. Scott’s lighting design is a marvel, shifting from bright and airy to dark and ominous. At times he lights only the straight and curved pathways followed by the dancers, tracing the blue lines. He uses spotlights to elicit giant shadows and creates small boxes that trap the dancers, capturing Jones’s strong choreographic language, which ranges from confinement and isolation to freedom and hope. In the grand finale, the performers grab chairs but are hesitant to merely sit in them and watch; their jittery energy makes the audience uncomfortable but fascinated. Afterwardsness is not a dire, depressing fugue for these past fourteen months; it is both a compelling reminder of what has unfolded across America as well as a beautiful yet urgent call to action.

TWI-NY AT TWENTY: ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Who: Works by and/or featuring Moko Fukuyama, Joshua William Gelb, Gabrielle Hamilton, Jace, Elmore James, Jamal Josef, Katie Rose McLaughlin, Sara Mearns, Zaire Michel, Zalman Mlotek, Alicia Hall Moran, Patrick Page, Barbara Pollack, Seth David Radwell, Jamar Roberts, Tracy Sallows, Xavier F. Salomon, Janae Snyder-Stewart, Mfoniso Udofia, Anne Verhallen
What: This Week in New York twentieth anniversary celebration
Where: This Week in New York YouTube
When: Saturday, May 22, free with RSVP, 7:00 (available on demand through June 12)
Why: In April 2001, I found myself suddenly jobless when a relatively new Silicon Alley company that had made big promises took an unexpected hit. I took my meager two weeks’ severance pay and spent fourteen days wandering through New York City, going to museums, film festivals, parks, and tourist attractions. I compiled my experiences into an email I sent to about fifty friends, rating each of the things I had done. My sister’s husband enthusiastically demanded that I keep doing this, and This Week in New York was born.

Affectionately known as twi-ny (twhy-nee), it became a website in 2005 and soon was being read by tens of thousands of people around the globe. I covered a vast array of events – some fifteen thousand over the years – that required people to leave their homes and apartments and take advantage of everything the greatest city in the world had to offer. From the very start, I ventured into nooks and crannies to find the real New York, not just frequenting well-known venues but seeking out the weird and wild, the unusual and the strange.

For my tenth anniversary, we packed Fontana’s, a now-defunct club on the Lower East Side, and had live music, book readings, and a comics presentation. I had been considering something bigger for twenty when the pandemic lockdown hit and lasted longer than we all thought possible.

At first, I didn’t know what twi-ny’s future would be, with nowhere for anyone to go. But the arts community reacted quickly, as incredible dance, music, art, theater, opera, film, and hybrid offerings began appearing on numerous platforms; the innovation and ingenuity blew me away. The winners of twi-ny’s Pandemic Awards give you a good idea of the wide range of things I covered; you can check out part one here and part two here.

I devoured everything I could, from experimental dance-theater in a closet and interactive shows over the phone and through the mail to all-star Zoom reunion readings and an immersive, multisensory play that arrived at my door in a box. Many of them dealt with the fear, isolation, and loneliness that have been so pervasive during the Covid-19 crisis while also celebrating hope, beauty, and resilience. I’ve watched, reviewed, and previewed more than a thousand events created since March 2020, viewing them from the same computer where I work at my full-time job in children’s publishing.

Just as companies are deciding the future hybrid nature of employment, the arts community is wrestling with in-person and online presentations. As the lockdown ends and performance venues open their doors, some online productions will go away, but others are likely to continue, benefiting from a reach that now goes beyond their local area and stretches across the continents.

On May 22 at 7:00, “twi-ny at twenty,” produced and edited by Michael D. Drucker of Delusions International and coproduced by Ellen Scordato, twi-ny’s business manager and muse, honors some of the best events of the past fourteen months, including dance, theater, opera, art, music, and literature, all of which can be enjoyed for free from the friendly confines of your couch. There is no registration fee, and the party will be available online for several weeks. You can find more information here.

Please let me know what you think in the live chat, which I will be hosting throughout the premiere, and be sure to say hello to other twi-ny fans and share your own favorite virtual shows.

Thanks for coming along on this unpredictable twenty-year adventure; I can’t wait to see you all online and, soon, in real life. Here’s to the next twenty!