this week in literature

REP ON-AIR: THE WAVES IN QUARANTINE

The cast of The Waves in Quarantine comes together over Zoom in Berkeley Rep live discussion on May 6

Who: Raúl Esparza, Alice Ripley, Nikki Renée Daniels, Carmen Cusack, Darius de Haas, Adam Gwon, Manu Narayan, Johanna Pfaelzer
What: Live discussion about six-part The Waves in Quarantine
Where: Berkeley Rep Zoom
When: Thursday, May 6, free with RSVP, 8:30 (presentation available on demand through May 28)
Why: In 1990, New York Theatre Workshop presented The Waves, a musical adaptation by director Lisa Peterson and composer and lyricist David Bucknam of the 1931 novel by Virginia Woolf about six friends, portrayed by Catherine Cox, Diane Fratantoni, Aloyisius Gigl, John Jellison, Sarah Rice, and John Sloman. During the pandemic lockdown, Berkeley Rep has taken a deep dive into the novel and adaptation, exploring the characters, the settings, Woolf’s life, and the making of the musical. Conceived by Esparza and Peterson and directed by Peterson, The Waves in Quarantine: A Theatrical Experiment in 6 Movements is streaming for free through May 28, with songs, reflections, recitations, and memories shared by actors Raúl Esparza, Alice Ripley, Nikki Renée Daniels, Carmen Cusack, Darius de Haas, and Manu Narayan in addition to Adam Gwon, who wrote additional music and lyrics for the show. The actors film themselves at home and outside and meet over Zoom over the course of ninety minutes, covering “Memory,” “Those We Love,” “The Female Gaze,” “Absence,” “The Sun Cycle,” and “Reunion,” paying special tribute to Bucknam, who passed away in 2001 at the age of thirty-two. On May 6 at 8:30 EST, members of the cast will reunite over Zoom for a live discussion about The Waves in Quarantine, moderated by Berkeley Rep artistic director Johanna Pfaelzer. Admission is free with RSVP.

ON THE ROOF: A LOOK INSIDE FIDDLER ON THE ROOF IN YIDDISH BOOK PARTY

Joel Grey, Samantha Hahn, Stephanie Lynne Mason, Zalmen Mlotek, Rosie Jo Neddy, Bebe Neuwirth, Raquel Nobile, Jana Robbins, and Rachel Zatcoff will take part in Yiddish Fiddler book celebration

Who: Joel Grey, Samantha Hahn, Stephanie Lynne Mason, Zalmen Mlotek, Rosie Jo Neddy, Bebe Neuwirth, Raquel Nobile, Jana Robbins, Rachel Zatcoff
What: Virtual book launch party
Where: National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene
When: Sunday, May 2, free, 2:15
Why: In the summer of 2018, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene unleashed a phenomenon on the New York City theater world, a mind-blowing production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish. At the time, I wrote, “I’ve seen numerous Fiddlers over the years, but this Yiddish version, which could have felt dated and old-fashioned, instead is very much of the moment in the wake of the immigrant and refugee crisis currently going on in America and around the world. It’s chilling watching the final scenes in light of what is shown on the news night after night.” Samantha Hahn, who played Beylke, the youngest of Tevye and Golde’s five daughters, documented the making of the show, regularly talking to cast and crew, and now takes us behind the scenes — through auditions, rehearsals, mishaps, and more — in On The Roof: A Look Inside Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish. She writes in the book, “I went home that night and took a shower, put on my pajamas, turned out the lights, and crawled into bed. A minute later I got out of bed, turned on the lights, took the pillow case off of my pillow to wrap around my head like a shmata, and practiced the ‘Tradition’ choreography. Even in my little bedroom, wearing my ‘Yertle the Turtle’ hand-me-down pajama shirt and my blue pillow case around my head — it felt like I was doing something special.”

On May 2 at 2:15, Hahn, an actress, singer, voiceover artist, and author, will do something special at a virtual book party, reuniting with her four stage sisters, Stephanie Lynn Mason (Hodl), Rosie Jo Neddy (Khave), Raquel Nobile (Shprintze), and Rachel Zatcoff (Tsaytl), as well as director Joel Grey, producer Jana Robbins, NYTF artistic director Zalmen Mlotek, and Fiddler fan Bebe Neuwirth, who was at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust for opening night. (The musical later moved uptown to Stage 42.) The party will include backstage video footage, a panel discussion, a live chat, and a Q&A. To get in the mood, you can check out Fiddler’s Stars in the House reunion here.

ALMOST HOME: A SPRING REUNION SEASON — THE END OF WHITE SUPREMACY: AN AMERICAN ROMANCE

André Holland’s dramatic reading of Saidiya Hartman’s “The End of White Supremacy: An American Romance” will take place at 92Y and online

Who: André Holland, Saidiya Hartman
What: Virtual and in-person dramatic monologue and conversation
Where: 92Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center, Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Ave., and online
When: Thursday, April 29, $20, 7:00
Why: The 92nd St. Y is transitioning from virtual events to in-person presentations with its “Almost Home” series, in which up to 150 people can buy tickets to see the event in the Kaufmann Concert Hall while an unlimited amount can pay the same $20 price and watch on their screens at home. The spring miniseason kicks off April 29 at 7:00 with André Holland (Moonlight, The Knick) reading Saidiya Hartman’s “The End of White Supremacy: An American Romance,” a June 2020 article the American writer and academic penned for Bomb magazine. The piece is a retelling of W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1920 postapocalyptic short story, “The Comet,” along with a new interpretation of it. The tale begins:

“He watches the human swirl as it moves determinedly along Broadway. Perched at the top of the stairs, the customers and employees of the bank brush by as he hesitates near the entrance. A nod, a look of recognition, a meager hello, a begrudging acknowledgment that he exists are not forthcoming. The street is teeming with people. No one glancing casually at him would use a phrase like ‘towering figure”’ or waste a moment wondering about his position at the bank; words like idle or lingering or un-mastered or servile brush at the murky edges of consciousness, latent and without the full awareness or deliberateness of thought, because most of the men rushing through the streets of the financial center rarely perceive him. Few noticed him. Few ever noticed him except in a way that stung. He was outside the world — ‘nothing!’”

Following the reading, Holland and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Hartman (Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-making in Nineteenth Century America; Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route; Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments) will discuss the work, in which Hartman writes, “Du Bois believed that telling such stories mattered. In hindsight, he would explain this earnestness (the belief that intelligent argument and reasoned judgment might defeat racism) as a consequence of not having read psychoanalysis. He ‘was not sufficiently Freudian to understand how little human action is based on reason’ or to apprehend the deep psychic investment in racism, what others have since described as the libidinal economy of an antiblack world. He had assumed that ‘the majority of Americans would rush to the defense of democracy,’ if they realized that racism threatened it, not only for blacks, but for whites, ‘not only in America, but in the world.’”

“Almost Home” continues May 3 with “Alyson Cambridge and Friends in Concert” and May 5, 11, and 26 with a trio of shows that are part of the Marshall Weinberg Spring 2021 Classical Music Season. For all in-person events, a negative COVID-19 test or proof of vaccination is required.

SHAKESPEARE SONNET SLAM

Who: Gingold Theatrical Group
What: Virtual open mic Shakespeare birthday celebration
Where: Gingold Zoom and Facebook
When: Friday, April 23, free with RSVP, 6:00
Why: This month marks William Shakespeare’s 457th birthday as well as the 405th anniversary of his death, and New York City’s Gingold Theatrical Group, which specializes in works by George Bernard Shaw, will be paying tribute to the Bard with a free, virtual Shakespeare Sonnet Slam open mic on April 23 at 6:00. Among those who will be reading from Shakespeare’s writings are Stephen Brown-Fried, Robert Cuccioli, Tyne Daly, George Dvorsky, Melissa Errico, Alison Fraser, Tom Hewitt, Daniel Jenkins, John-Andrew Morrison, Patrick Page, Maryann Plunkett, Tonya Pinkins, Laila Robins, Jay O. Sanders, Renee Taylor, and Jon Patrick Walker — and the general public, who is invited to offer their own favorite pieces either by or inspired by Will, kept to less than three minutes. “We’re eager to celebrate as much as we can with whatever we can these days,” GTG artistic director David Staller said in a statement. “And since nobody has contributed more to the world of the theater than William Shakespeare, we’re going to celebrate like mad. He wrote more than 150 magnificent sonnets and I doubt we’ll get through them all but we’ll give it our best shot.” In order to be part of the interactive festivities, you must register by April 22 at 4:00.

ASK THE EXPERTS: STEFAN FALKE

Who: Stefan Falke
What: Illustrated discussion live on Zoom
Where: Coney Island USA online
When: Wednesday, April 21, $5, 7:00
Why: We have known photojournalist Stefan Falke for several decades and have enjoyed watching his career soar. The award-winning German-born, NYC-based photographer travels the world, documenting stilt walkers in the Caribbean (“Moko Jumbies: The Dancing Spirits of Trinidad”), artists on either side of the southern border (“LA FRONTERA: Artists along the US–Mexico Border”), film shoots, and, for his latest project, New Yorkers during the time of Covid in Keep Going New York!, celebrating the spirit of the city as it battles a pandemic, economic distress, and sociopolitical rage. On April 21 at 7:00, Falke, whose work is represented in “The Flag Project” at Rockefeller Center through the end of the month, will talk about his work in the popular Coney Island USA series “Ask the Experts,” which used to take place at the Coney Island Museum but is currently being held over Zoom. The series continues April 28 with lover-of-the-unusual Marc Hartzman, May 5 with visual artist and Wild Style director Charlie Ahearn, and May 12 with Sideshows by the Seashore painter Marie Roberts.

WE PERSIST! I CAN’T REMEMBER ANYTHING

Who: Penny Fuller, Bob Dishy, James Naughton, Susan Charlotte
What: In-person and livestreamed play reading
Where: Theatre 80 St. Marks and Zoom
When: Monday, April 19, live and on Zoom, 2:00 (available on demand April 24-25, 646-366-9340 / info@foodforthoughtproductions.com)
Why: Food for Thought Productions is now in its twenty-first season of presenting all-star readings of little-known and classic one-act plays by major writers. Its current series, “We Persist!,” kicked off with Christopher Durang’s For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls and Tennessee Williams’s Life Boat Drill, presented live at Theatre 80 St. Marks to a limited, masked audience. The award-winning company is now back for Arthur Miller’s I Can’t Remember Anything, directed by Antony Marsellis and starring Penny Fuller and Bob Dishy as an elderly widow and her late husband’s best friend, respectively; FFTP previously presented the play two decades ago with Elaine Stritch and Dishy, with Miller in attendance. (Miller would later go on to direct shows for the troupe.) The play will be followed by a Q&A with the cast, moderated by FFTP founder Susan Charlotte, with a special appearance by James Naughton, who directed Dishy in Miller’s The Price at the 1999 Williamstown Theatre Festival. In addition, FFTP regular Tony Roberts will read from his 2015 memoir, Do You Know Me? Free tickets to see the show in person are first come, first served, for those who agree to be part of a documentary being made about the company; the recording will be available for a small fee April 24-25. Next up for FFTP is Charlotte’s The Hairdresser on May 24.

TELEPHONE 2021

Telephone connects artists from around the world (screenshot by twi-ny/mdr)

TELEPHONE
Opened April 10, free
phonebook.gallery
satellitecollective.org

In April 2015, New York City–based Satellite Collective launched its unique take on the game of Telephone; instead of people forming a line and whispering phrases to one another to see how much the words change, the project connected more than 300 artists from 42 countries, each developing a new piece based on multiple works they were sent, inspired by the sentence “O god, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.” Five years later, Telephone is back, bringing together 950 artists from 70 countries and 5 continents during a pandemic that has seen arts venues shuttered and travel decreased significantly. Starting on March 23, 2020, a message was given to one artist; the text of that message has not been revealed. It was passed via multiple art forms — painting, photography, music, film, dance, poetry, sculpture, prose — creating a vast network of artists primarily selected by word-of-mouth. An online grid allows viewers to explore one work, complete with image/video, artist bio and statement, and map placing where they are from. You can then follow the branch in one of two directions to see what each piece inspires or navigate the game by artist, discipline, or location.

“It took me a while to let the message reach me. I listened again and again. But I heard an echo, and the work I created is exactly that: a soft, natural response to what was sent my way. I hope it keeps moving and changing,” explains Elizabeth Schmuhl of Detroit, whose watercolor is connected to artists from Helsinki, Los Angeles, and Ulster County. “Translating another’s work is harder than expected, especially from a field different from the one you practice. I translated a written work into an illustrator after a lot of sketching and reading between the lines, and then, when making my own drawing, I had to make sure with myself between time to time that I’m still on the right track and conveying the message I believed I have been given,” writes Keren-or Radiano of Tel-Aviv, whose black-and-white piece links to Lauren Baines of San Jose and Timothy Ralphs of Vancouver, who in turn says about his song, “I have to admit that my own work can sometimes be a bit dark and brooding, but because I wanted to honor the spirit of the works that were forwarded to me, I knew I’d have to (at least temporarily) put that pessimism aside. As I meditated on the works, I began to see them as not only being about inspiration but as being an inspiration in themselves. There was a real sense of delight in creation in those works, and I felt touched by the artists’ generosity of spirit. I only hope I was able to pass on some of that to those that come after me.”

Multidisciplinary artists gain inspiration from participants in online game of Telephone (screenshot by twi-ny/mdr)

Poet Rebecca Williams of Fort Collins describes, “Writing this piece was in some ways challenging. Usually, I don’t write given a prompt. I normally avoid it. Having participated in a similar telephone game recently for which I wrote a song, I was eager to participate in this one of a global scale. I participated because creating in the circumstances which we face (a global pandemic) has been challenging. My band has been forced to a complete standstill and it puts you face-to-face with the question of why you are actually creating in the first place. Of course, in the end, it is the love and passion for creation, and without it, I truly feel empty. I think my apprehension comes from a kind of distaste for mediocrity. Something which I have always battled and struggled with. I was given such a beautiful work of art to be inspired by, and while I looked at it, and studied it, I asked myself what it meant to me, then the words came easily. Perfection doesn’t exist. Mediocrity does, but beautiful things are always a bit imperfect.” And writer, musician, and Torah teacher Alicia Jo Rabins of Portland, Oregon, points out, “All art is translation, transcription, and transmission. It was fun to collaborate with a mysterious fellow translator/transcriber/transmitter — at the risk of sounding totally woo, it made me feel more grounded in the source of the great flowing stream of art and consciousness that happens at all times. It’s easy to feel alone and it was nice to have company. I think I got what the previous artist was trying to convey. I hope I get to meet them someday.”

Conceived, developed, designed, edited, directed, engineered, and curated by Kevin Draper, Katelyn Watkins, Matt Diehl, Ben Sarsgard, Kelly Jones, Ramon M. Rodriguez, Jennifer Spriggs, Sergio Rodriguez, Madeline Hoak, Sean Tomas Redmond, and Nathan Langston, Telephone can occupy you for hours on end, looking at different ekphrastic works or visualizing it as one giant multidisciplinary, collaborative canvas that expresses our never-ending deep desire for creativity, inspiration, and connection, especially in times of isolation and doubt.